Moral perfectionism and moral values, virtues, and judgments: A preliminary investigation

Moral perfectionism has a long tradition in philosophical inquiry, but so far has been ignored in psychological research. This article presents a first psychological investigation of moral perfectionism exploring its relationships with moral values, virtues, and judgments. In three studies, 539 university students responded to items of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) adapted to measure personal moral standards (PMS) and concern over moral mistakes (CMM) and completed measures of moral values, virtues, and forgiveness, gratitude, and wrong behavior judgments. When partial correlations were computed controlling for the overlap between PMS and CMM, PMS showed positive correlations with moral values, virtues, reciprocal helping, forgiveness, and condemnation of wrong behaviors. In contrast, CMM showed a positive correlation only with indebtedness and a negative correlation with self-reliance. The present findings, while preliminary, suggest that moral perfectionism is a personality characteristic that may help explain individual differences in moral values, virtues, and judgments

Raw Garlic Consumption and Risk of Liver Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Eastern China.

Although the major risk factors for liver cancer have been established, preventive factors for liver cancer have not been fully explored. We evaluated the association between raw garlic consumption and liver cancer in a large population-based case-control study in Eastern China. The study was conducted in Jiangsu, China, from 2003 to 2010. A total of 2011 incident liver cancer cases and 7933 randomly selected population-controls were interviewed. Epidemiological data including raw garlic intake and other exposures were collected, and serum markers of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were assayed. Overall, eating raw garlic twice or more per week was inversely associated with liver cancer, with an adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 0.77 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.62-0.96) compared to those ingesting no raw garlic or less than twice per week. In stratified analyses, high intake of raw garlic was inversely associated with liver cancer among Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) negative individuals, frequent alcohol drinkers, those having history of eating mold-contaminated food or drinking raw water, and those without family history of liver cancer. Marginal interactions on an additive scale were observed between low raw garlic intake and HBsAg positivity (attributable proportion due to interaction (AP) = 0.31, 95% CI: -0.01-0.62) and heavy alcohol drinking (AP = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.00-0.57). Raw garlic consumption is inversely associated with liver cancer. Such an association shed some light on the potential etiologic role of garlic intake on liver cancer, which in turn might provide a possible dietary intervention to reduce liver cancer in Chinese population

Dietary Intake of Fatty Acids, Total Cholesterol, and Stomach Cancer in a Chinese Population.

To investigate the associations between dietary fatty acids and cholesterol consumption and stomach cancer (SC), we analyzed data from a population-based case-control study with a total of 1900 SC cases and 6532 controls. Dietary data and other risk or protective factors were collected by face-to-face interviews in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2003 to 2010. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using multiple unconditional logistic regression models and an energy-adjusted method. The joint associations between dietary factors and known risk factors on SC were examined. We observed positive associations between dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and total cholesterol and the development of SC, comparing the highest versus lowest quarters. Increased intakes of dietary SFAs (p-trend = 0.005; aOR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01-1.22 with a 7 g/day increase as a continuous variable) and total cholesterol (p-trend < 0.001; aOR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.06-1.22 with a 250 mg/day increase as a continuous variable) were monotonically associated with elevated odds of developing SC. Our results indicate that dietary SFAs, MUFAs, and total cholesterol are associated with stomach cancer, which might provide a potential dietary intervention for stomach cancer prevention

Functional Analysis of MAX2 in Phototropins-Mediated Cotyledon Flattening in Arabidopsis

Phototropins (phot1 and phot2) are blue-light receptors that control cotyledon flattening and positioning under strong light; however, their functional redundancy restricts our understanding of the specific roles of phot2. To identify the factors responsible for phot2-dependent cotyledon flattening and growth, we screened for light-insensitive mutants among mutagenized phot1 mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana. The double mutant phot1lea1 (leaf expansion associated 1), which is defective in cotyledon flattening and positioning but not the phototropic response was selected. This mutant phenotype could be alleviated by constitutively expressing MORE AXILLARY GROWTH 2 (MAX2), indicating that LEA1 was allelic to MAX2. The max2 mutants (max2-2 and max2-3) are defective in cotyledon flattening, which is similar to that of the phot1 phot2 mutants. Moreover, the amounts of MAX2 transcripts are inhibited in leaves of phot1 mutant. However, the additional disruption of PHOT1 gene in max2-2 or max2-3 did not affect their phenotype, including MAX2-mediated inhibition of hypocotyl elongation. By contrast, phototropins-mediated hypocotyl phototropism was not regulated by MAX2. Together, these results suggest that cotyledon flattening was mediated by both phototropins and MAX2 signaling, but the relationship between two pathways need further study

Spin Fluctuations, Interband Coupling, and Unconventional Pairing in Iron-based Superconductors

Based on an effective two-band model and using the fluctuation-exchange (FLEX) approach, we explore spin fluctuations and unconventional superconducting pairing in Fe-based layer superconductors. It is elaborated that one type of interband antiferromagnetic (AF) spin fluctuation stems from the interband Coulomb repulsion, while the other type of intraband AF spin fluctuation originates from the intraband Coulomb repulsion. Due to the Fermi-surface topology, a spin-singlet extended s-wave superconducting state is more favorable than the nodal $d_{XY}$-wave state if the interband AF spin fluctuation is more significant than the intraband one, otherwise vice versa. It is also revealed that the effective interband coupling plays an important role in the intraband pairings, which is a distinct feature of the present two-band system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in New Journal of Physics focus issue on iron-based superconductor

A feedback regulatory loop between methyltransferase PRMT1 and orphan receptor TR3

PRMT1, an arginine methyltransferase, plays an important role in numerous cellular processes. In this study, we demonstrate a feedback regulatory loop between PRMT1 and the orphan receptor TR3. Unlike another orphan receptor HNF4, TR3 is not methylated by PRMT1 although they physically interact with each other. By delaying the TR3 protein degradation, PRMT1 binding leads to the elevation of TR3 cellular protein level, thereby enhances the DNA binding and transactivation activity of TR3 in a non-methyltransferase manner. Another coactivator SRC-2 acts synergistically with PRMT1 to regulate TR3 functions. In turn, TR3 binding to the catalytic domain of PRMT1 causes an inhibition of the PRMT1 methyltransferase activity. This repression results in the functional changes in some of PRMT1 substrates, including STAT3 and Sam68. The negative regulation of PRMT1 by TR3 was further confirmed in both TR3-knockdown cells and TR3-knockout mice with the use of an agonist for TR3. Taken together, our study not only identifies a regulatory role of PRMT1, independent on methyltransferase activity, in TR3 transactivation, but also characterizes a novel function of TR3 in the repression of PRMT1 methyltransferase activity

Pairing symmetry and properties of iron-based high temperature superconductors

Pairing symmetry is important to indentify the pairing mechanism. The analysis becomes particularly timely and important for the newly discovered iron-based multi-orbital superconductors. From group theory point of view we classified all pairing matrices (in the orbital space) that carry irreducible representations of the system. The quasiparticle gap falls into three categories: full, nodal and gapless. The nodal-gap states show conventional Volovik effect even for on-site pairing. The gapless states are odd in orbital space, have a negative superfluid density and are therefore unstable. In connection to experiments we proposed possible pairing states and implications for the pairing mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, polished versio