Low Salivary Testosterone Level Is Associated With Efficient Attention Holding by Self Face in Women

Capacity to recognize one\u27s own face (hereinafter referred to as self face) is a fundamental component of various domains of social cognition such as empathy in humans. Previous research has demonstrated that a high level of androgen suppresses empathic behavior and social brain function. Taking these into consideration, we hypothesized that people with high androgen level show reduced response to self face. The present study examined this hypothesis by investigating the association between attentiveness towards self face, as assessed by a psychophysiological experiment, and salivary testosterone concentration. The attentional responses to self face was measured by a modified Go/NoGo task. In this task, self face or unfamiliar other’s face was presented simultaneously with Go or NoGo signal. In go trials, participants had to divert their attention from the face to a peripheral target. The reaction time (RT) for peripheral target detection in each condition was measured. In addition to behavioral data, saliva samples were collected to assay salivary testosterone concentration. The index of potency of self face to hold viewer\u27s attention that was computed based on RT data was regressed against salivary testosterone concentration in men and women separately. The analyses revealed that self face holds visuospatial attention more effectively in women with low than high salivary testosterone level, but no such trend was observed in men. This pattern of results indicates that low testosterone level is associated with a pronounced response to self face as we hypothesized and raises the possibility that multiple aspects of self-face processing are under the influence of endocrinological function

Review Article Clockworks in the Central and Peripheral Organs: from Clock-related Genes to the Physiological and Pathological Rhythms

Daily rhythms such as sleep-wake, feeding, and the core body temperature, persist with a period of approximately 24 hr even in the absence of environmental time cues, suggesting the existence of an endogenous time-keeping system, the circadian clock. In mammals, the circadian clock is located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN). Recently, a number of studies have revealed that circadian oscillations in the SCN are driven by the intracellular transcriptional and post-translational negative feedback loop formed by several clock-related genes such as Period (Per) and clock genes. Surprisingly, this feedback loop was found in many peripheral organs, indicating that the physiological and pathological rhythms in the peripheral organs were generated by the local clock in the peripheral organs, which synchronize to the central clock in the SCN. In addition several humoral factors seem to medi- aa, ate communication between the central and peripheral clocks. Furthermore, the transcription of some genes encoding the disease risk factors were found to be directly regulated by the clock genes, suggesting the possible involvement of clock genes in the onset of some diseases. In this article, we review the current view on the molecular mechanism underlying circadian oscillations in the central clock within the SCN and the local clock in the peripheral and discuss the relationship between clock genes, and physiological and pathological rhythm

Oscillation dynamics underlie functional switching of NF-κB for B-cell activation.

Transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) shows cooperative switch-like activation followed by prolonged oscillatory nuclear translocation in response to extracellular stimuli. These dynamics are important for activation of the NF-κB transcriptional machinery, however, NF-κB activity regulated by coordinated actions of these dynamics has not been elucidated at the system level. Using a variety of B cells with artificially rewired NF-κB signaling networks, we show that oscillations and switch-like activation of NF-κB can be dissected and that, under some conditions, these two behaviors are separated upon antigen receptor activation. Comprehensive quantitative experiments and mathematical analysis showed that the functional role of switch activation in the NF-κB system is to overcome transient IKK (IκB kinase) activity to amplify nuclear translocation of NF-κB, thereby inducing the prolonged NF-κB oscillatory behavior necessary for target gene expression and B-cell activation

Position Heaps for Parameterized Strings

We propose a new indexing structure for parameterized strings, called parameterized position heap. Parameterized position heap is applicable for parameterized pattern matching problem, where the pattern matches a substring of the text if there exists a bijective mapping from the symbols of the pattern to the symbols of the substring. We propose an online construction algorithm of parameterized position heap of a text and show that our algorithm runs in linear time with respect to the text size. We also show that by using parameterized position heap, we can find all occurrences of a pattern in the text in linear time with respect to the product of the pattern size and the alphabet size

NIRS as a tool for assaying emotional function in the prefrontal cortex

Despite having relatively poor spatial and temporal resolution, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has several methodological advantages compared with other non-invasive measurements of neural activation. For instance, the unique characteristics of NIRS give it potential as a tool for investigating the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in emotion processing. However, there are several obstacles in the application of NIRS to emotion research. In this mini-review, we discuss the findings of studies that used NIRS to assess the effects of PFC activation on emotion. Specifically, we address the methodological challenges of NIRS measurement with respect to the field of emotion research, and consider potential strategies for mitigating these problems. In addition, we show that two fields of research, investigating (i) biological predisposition influencing PFC responses to emotional stimuli and (ii) neural mechanisms underlying the bi-directional interaction between emotion and action, have much to gain from the use of NIRS. With the present article, we aim to lay the foundation for the application of NIRS to the above-mentioned fields of emotion research

Possible neural correlate of young child attachment to mother in 4 to 5 year olds

Attachment between mothers and infants is the most primitive and primary form of human social relationship. Recently, it hasbeen reported that the anterior prefrontal cortex (APFC) of infants younger than 3 years old may play an important function informing attachments to their mothers. However, little is known about how the neural correlates of attachment develop after 3years of age. Bowlby argued that there is a critical period, between birth and 2.5 years (0?30 months), for attachments to formand if it does not form in this time then it is not possible to develop thereafter. The current study investigated the role of the APFCin the attachment of 5 year olds to their mothers. Subjects included 18 young children (5.0 ± 0.4 years), whose mothers’ smileswere video recorded. By means of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we measured APFC activation in the children while viewingtheir mother smiling, and compared the activation with that resulting from an unfamiliar mother smiling. We found significantincreases in right APFC activation in these 5 year olds in response to their mother’s smile. Furthermore, the APFC response tomothers’ smiles did not change as a function of age between 4 and 5 years old. These results suggest that the right APFC is stillinvolved in young childrens’ attachment to their mothers until at least 5 years of age

Atmospheric resuspension of insoluble radioactive cesium-bearing particles found in the difficult-to-return area in Fukushima

The deposition of insoluble radiocesium-bearing microparticles (CsMPs), which were released from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1NPP) accident in March 2011, has resulted in the widespread contamination of eastern Japan. Obviously, these deposited insoluble CsMPs may become the secondary contamination sources by atmospheric migration or other environmental transferring process; however, the understanding of the transport mechanism remains non-elucidation, and the relevant evidence has not been directly provided. This study, for the first time, provides the direct evidence for the resuspension of these insoluble CsMPs to the atmosphere from (1) proximity of ¹³⁷Cs radioactivity and resemblance of the morphology and the elemental compositions of CsMPs in the samples of soil and aerosol derived from the same sampling site, (2) the special characteristics of the resuspended CsMPs of which the ratios of Na/Si, K/Si and/or Cs/Si were smaller than those from the initially released CsMPs collected at either long distance or near F1NPP, which can be ascribed to the slowly natural corrosion of CsMPs by the loss of the small amount of soluble contents in CsMPs, and (3) high CsMPs concentration of 10 granules/g in the surface soil of our sampling site and high resuspension frequency of CsMPs in spring when predominant suspended particles were soil dust. Specifically, 15 single CsMPs were successfully isolated from the aerosol filters collected by unmanned high-volume air samplers at a severely polluted area in Fukushima Prefecture, about 25 km away from F1NPP, from January 2015 to September 2019. The mean diameter of these CsMPs was 1.8 ± 0.5 μm, and the average ¹³⁷Cs radioactivity was 0.35 ± 0.23 Bq/granule. The contribution rate of the resuspended CsMPs to the atmospheric radiocesium was estimated from the ratio of ¹³⁷Cs radioactivity of a single CsMP to that of the aerosol filter to be of 23.9 ± 15.3%. There has been no considerable decreasing trend in the annual CsMP resuspension frequency

Comparison of six antibody assays and two combination assays for COVID-19

[Introduction] In this work, six SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody assays were evaluated, namely, two pan-immunoglobulin (pan-Ig) assays [Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 (named "Elecsys" in this study) and the PerkinElmer SuperFlex™ Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Ab Assay (SuperFlex_Ab)], two IgM assays [SuperFlex™ Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgM Assay (SuperFlex_IgM) and YHLO iFlash-SARS-CoV-2 IgM (iFlash_IgM)], and two IgG assays [SuperFlex™ Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay (SuperFlex_IgG) and iFlash-SARS-CoV-2 IgG (iFlash_IgG)]. Combination assays of SuperFlex™ (SuperFlex_any) and iFlash (iFlash_any) were also evaluated. [Methods] A total of 438 residual serum samples from 54 COVID-19 patients in the COVID-19 group and 100 samples from individuals without evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the negative control group were evaluated. [Results] In the early stage of COVID-19 infection, within 14 days of symptom onset, the seropositive rate was lower than that of the late stage 15 days after onset (65.4% vs 99.6%). In the total period, the pan-Ig and IgG assays had higher sensitivity (90.8–95.3%) than the IgM assays (36.5–40.7%). SuperFlex_Ab and SuperFlex_any had higher sensitivity than Elecsys and SuperFlex_IgG (p < 0.05). The specificity of all the assays was 100%, except for SuperFlex_IgM (99.0%). The concordance rate between each assay was higher (96.4–100%) in the late stage than in the early stage (77.4–98.1%). [Conclusion] For the purpose of COVID-19 diagnosis, antibody testing should be performed 15 days after onset. For the purpose of epidemiological surveillance, highly sensitive assays should be used as much as possible, such as SuperFlex_Ab, iFlash_IgG and their combination. IgM assays were not suitable for these purposes