This article examines the democratic potential of online communities by investigating the influence of network heterogeneity on social tolerance in an online gaming environment. Online game ...communities are potential sources of bridging social capital because they tend to be relatively heterogeneous. Causal analyses are conducted using structural equation modeling with survey data collected in a three‐wave panel of online game players in Japan. Results show that the heterogeneous composition of online community causally enhances social tolerance toward community members within the online gaming setting. Furthermore, results show that enhanced social tolerance toward online community members is generalized to offline settings. This causal process suggests that online communities provide access to bridging social capital by gathering heterogeneous populations around shared contexts.
Un rapprochement du capital social dans les communautés en ligne : hétérogénéité et tolérance sociale chez les joueurs en ligne au Japon
Tetsuro Kobayashi
Cet article examine le potentiel démocratique des communautés en ligne en étudiant l’influence de l’hétérogénéité des réseaux sur la tolérance sociale dans un environnement de jeu en ligne. Les communautés de jeu en ligne sont des sources potentielles de rapprochement du capital social, parce qu’elles ont tendance àêtre relativement hétérogènes. Des analyses causales sont menées à l’aide de modélisation par équation structurelle avec des données recueillies dans une enquête par panel à trois vagues auprès de joueurs en ligne au Japon. Les résultats montrent que la composition hétérogène de la communauté en ligne augmente de façon causale la tolérance sociale envers les membres de la communauté dans le contexte de jeu en ligne. De plus, les résultats montrent que l’augmentation de la tolérance sociale envers les membres de la communauté en ligne est généralisée à des contextes hors‐ligne. Ce processus causal suggère que les communautés en ligne offrent des possibilités de rapprochement du capital social en réunissant des populations hétérogènes dans des contextes partagés.
Die Überbrückung von sozialem Kapital in Online‐Gemeinschaften: Heterogenität und soziale Toleranz von Online‐Spielern in Japan
Tetsuro Kobayashi
Dieser Artikel untersucht das demokratische Potential von Online‐Gemeinschaften mittels der Betrachtung des Einflusses von Netzwerkheterogenität auf die soziale Toleranz in Online‐Spiele‐Umgebungen. Online‐Spiele‐Gemeinschaften sind aufgrund ihrer Heterogenität potentielle Quellen der Überbrückung von sozialem Kapital. Umfragedaten aus einem dreiwelligen Panel von Online‐Spielern in Japan dienten als Datenbasis für die Berechnung von Kausalanalysen mittels Strukturgleichungsmodellen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen einen kausalen Zusammenhang dahingehend, dass eine heterogene Zusammensetzung von Online‐Gemeinschaften die soziale Toleranz gegenüber Mitgliedern der Gemeinschaft innerhalb der Online‐Spiele Umgebung fördert. Außerdem zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass eine erweiterte soziale Toleranz gegenüber Mitgliedern der Online‐Gemeinschaft auch auf Offline‐Umgebungen zu generalisieren ist. Dieser Kausalprozess deutet darauf hin, dass Online‐Gemeinschaften Zugang zur Überbrückung von sozialem Kapital bieten, indem sich heterogene Populationen um einen geteilten Kontext sammeln.
Conectando el Capital Social de las Comunidades Online: La Heterogeneidad y la Tolerancia Social de los Jugadores de Juegos Online en Japón
Tetsuro Kobayashi
Information and Society Research Division, National Institute of Informatics, Chiyoda‐ku, Tokyo
Resumen
Este artículo examina el potencial democrático de las comunidades online mediante la investigación de la influencia de la heterogeneidad de la red sobre la tolerancia social de un ambiente de juego online. Las comunidades de juego online son fuentes potenciales de conexión del capital social porque tienden a ser relativamente heterogéneas. Análisis causales fueron conducidos usando el modelo de ecuación estructural de los datos de una encuesta de jugadores online en Japón colectada en 3 partes. Los resultados muestran que la composición heterogénea de la comunidad online aumenta causalmente la tolerancia social hacia los miembros de la comunidad dentro del escenario del juego online. Más aún, los resultados demuestran que el aumento de la tolerancia social hacia los miembros de la comunidad online es generalizable para los escenarios offline. Este proceso causal sugiere que las comunidades online proveen de acceso a la conexión del capital social mediante la reunión de poblaciones heterogéneas alrededor de los contextos compartidos.
Background: A measles outbreak involving 60 cases occurred in Yamagata, Japan in 2017. Using two different mathematical models for different datasets, we aimed to estimate measles transmissibility ...over time and explore any heterogeneous transmission patterns.Methods: The first model relied on the temporal distribution for date of illness onset for cases, and a generation-dependent model was applied to the data. Another model focused on the transmission network. Using the illness-onset date along with the serial interval and geographical location of exposure, we reconstructed a transmission network with 19 unknown links. We then compared the number of secondary transmissions with and without clinical symptoms or laboratory findings.Results: Using a generation-dependent model (assuming three generations other than the index case), the reproduction number (R) over generations 0, 1, and 2 were 25.3, 1.3, and <0.1, respectively, explicitly yielding the transmissibility over each generation. The network data enabled us to demonstrate that both the mean and the variance for the number of secondary transmissions per primary case declined over time. Comparing primary cases with and without secondary transmission, high viral shedding was the only significant determinant (P < 0.01).Conclusions: The R declined abruptly over subsequent generations. Use of network data revealed the distribution of the number of secondary transmissions per primary case and also allowed us to identify possible secondary transmission risk factors. High viral shedding from the throat mucosa was identified as a potential predictor of secondary transmission.
The skin interfaces with the external environment and is home to a myriad of immune cells that patrol the barrier to ward off harmful agents and aid in tissue repair. The formation of the cutaneous ...immune arsenal begins before birth and evolves throughout our lifetime, incorporating exogenous cues from microbes and inflammatory encounters, to achieve optimal fitness and function. Here, we discuss the context-specific signals that drive productive immune responses in the skin epithelium, highlighting key modulators of these reactions, including hair follicles, neurons, and commensal microbes. We thus also discuss the causal and mechanistic underpinning of inflammatory skin diseases that have been revealed in recent years. Finally, we discuss the non-canonical functions of cutaneous immune cells including their burgeoning role in epithelial regeneration and repair. The rapidly growing field of cutaneous immunity is revealing immune mechanisms and functions that can be harnessed to boost skin health and treat disease.
Kobayashi, Naik, and Nagao discuss recent findings on skin immunity that highlight that the skin immune system is maintained through intricate crosstalk between the parenchyma, immune cells, and microbiota, all of which are crucial components for boosting healthy skin function and driving pathology in disease.
(a) Temperature dependence of lithium ion conductivity of Li7−XLa3(Zr2−X, NbX)O12 (X=0–2) samples. (b) Lithium ion conductivity at 25̊C and activation energy as a function of Nb content. The solid ...lines are provided as visual guides.
Lithium garnet-type oxides Li7−XLa3(Zr2−X, NbX)O12 (X=0–2) were synthesized by a solid-state reaction, and their lithium ion conductivity was measured using an AC impedance method at temperatures ranging from 25 to 150°C in air. The lithium ion conductivity increased with increasing Nb content, and reached a maximum of ∼0.8mScm−1 at 25°C. By contrast, the activation energy reached a minimum of ∼30kJmol−1 at the same point with X=0.25. The potential window was examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), which showed lithium deposition and dissolution peaks around 0V vs. Li+/Li, but showed no evidence of other reactions up to 9V vs. Li+/Li.
Are there significant domestic political costs for leaders who disengage from long-standing alliances, costs that discourage such disengagement? Leaders of major powers occasionally look for ways to ...disengage in non-crisis situations from some long-term commitments to other countries following the legal procedures laid out in the alliance treaty or commitment. However, leaders interested in disengagement from alliances sometimes fear that they will pay domestic disengagement costs, for example, a decline in domestic public support, if they try to withdraw from alliances in that manner in practice. To examine if such fears are justified, we conducted two survey experiments among representative samples of the US public investigating the effects of a presidential decision to end an alliance commitment through the legally prescribed means. We find that disengagement costs exist in general and that some characteristics of the country in question can increase their size and make them more long-lasting. For example, withdrawal from alliances with countries perceived as similar on some key criteria to the United States and as loyal allies, or widespread opposition by experts to this withdrawal, will all increase the size of the disengagement costs and make them more long-lasting. Leaving an existing alliance in peacetime will frequently be a politically losing proposition for American leaders in many plausible situations—one possible reason for the endurance of some US alliances.
Abstract
Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), discovered in 2010, have been recognized as immune cells with unique functions and their involvement in various diseases has been clarified. Before ...2010, the antigen-specific response was a primary focus of immunology research, and immune responses were considered almost equivalent to biological responses to foreign antigens. However, with the emergence of ILC2s, the importance of ‘antigen-independent responses’ was confirmed, and this concept has permeated basic and clinical research as well as drug development. When ILC2s were discovered, their function in the acute phase of diseases garnered attention because of their rapid and potent type 2 immune response. However, several studies have revealed that the main role of ILC2s is more closely related to the chronicity of diseases, such as allergy and fibrosis, than to the induction of diseases. In this review, we discuss how ILC2 research has affected the concept of ‘Taishitsu’, a Japanese term describing the overall nature of an individual as determined by the interaction of genetic and acquired predisposition.
Since the discovery of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), their developmental pathways, mechanisms of activation and regulation, and immunological roles in the steady state and in disease have ...been reported in various organs. ILC2s, which produce large amounts of IL-5 and IL-13 in response to tissue-derived factors and are essential in inducing and promoting allergic inflammation, have also been found to play multifaceted roles in maintaining tissue homeostasis. While T cells respond to foreign antigens, the activation of ILC2s is regulated by various tissue-derived factors, including cytokines, lipids, hormones, and neurotransmitters, and ILC2s show different phenotypes depending on the tissue in which they are present. In this review, we discuss tissue-specific characteristics of ILC2s in the skin. ILC2s, as defined in the lungs, intestinal tract, and adipose tissue, cannot be directly applied to cutaneous ILC biology, because skin ILC2s exhibit different aspects in the expression patterns of cell surface markers, the response to tissue-derived cytokines and the functions in both steady-state and inflammation. The skin contains ILCs with features of both ILC2s and ILC3s, and the plasticity between ILCs complicates their characters. Furthermore, the epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissues contain ILCs with different characteristics; their localization has expanded our understanding of ILC function. Single-cell RNA-seq technology has further elucidated the role of ILCs in human skin and disease pathogenesis. Overall, this review discusses the phenotypical and functional heterogeneity of skin ILCs reported in recent years and highlights future directions within the field of ILC biology.
Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome/drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DiHS/DRESS) is a potentially fatal multiorgan inflammatory disease associated with herpesvirus ...reactivation and subsequent onset of autoimmune diseases
. Pathophysiology remains elusive and therapeutic options are limited. Cases refractory to corticosteroid therapy pose a clinical challenge
and approximately 30% of patients with DiHS/DRESS develop complications, including infections and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases
. Progress in single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) provides an opportunity to dissect human disease pathophysiology at unprecedented resolutions
, particularly in diseases lacking animal models, such as DiHS/DRESS. We performed scRNA-seq on skin and blood from a patient with refractory DiHS/DRESS, identifying the JAK-STAT signaling pathway as a potential target. We further showed that central memory CD4
T cells were enriched with DNA from human herpesvirus 6b. Intervention via tofacitinib enabled disease control and tapering of other immunosuppressive agents. Tofacitinib, as well as antiviral agents, suppressed culprit-induced T cell proliferation in vitro, further supporting the roles of the JAK-STAT pathway and herpesviruses in mediating the adverse drug reaction. Thus, scRNA-seq analyses guided successful therapeutic intervention in the patient with refractory DiHS/DRESS. scRNA-seq may improve our understanding of complicated human disease pathophysiology and provide an alternative approach in personalized medicine.
The geographic spread of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections from the epicenter of Wuhan, China, has provided an opportunity to study the natural history of the recently emerged virus. Using ...publicly available event-date data from the ongoing epidemic, the present study investigated the incubation period and other time intervals that govern the epidemiological dynamics of COVID-19 infections. Our results show that the incubation period falls within the range of 2-14 days with 95% confidence and has a mean of around 5 days when approximated using the best-fit lognormal distribution. The mean time from illness onset to hospital admission (for treatment and/or isolation) was estimated at 3-4 days without truncation and at 5-9 days when right truncated. Based on the 95th percentile estimate of the incubation period, we recommend that the length of quarantine should be at least 14 days. The median time delay of 13 days from illness onset to death (17 days with right truncation) should be considered when estimating the COVID-19 case fatality risk.
PDF
