The socio-religious beliefs and nature of the contemporary Vampire Subculture

The contemporary Vampire Subculture can be defined as a multi-faceted, socio-religious movement with its own distinct collective community and network of participants who share a similar belief system and customary lifestyle that reflect their concept of the vampire. The Vampire Subculture consists of individuals who profess to be 'real vampires', vampire communities of like-minded persons, 'blood-donors' who willingly allow vampires to partake of them, occult-based and mystical-orientated groups that appeal to their spirituality, the blood fetishists, and the live-action vampire role-players. In response, a Christian counter-movement of self-proclaimed 'vampire-slayers' has emerged that actively opposes the vampire subculture and its beliefs and practices. The socio-religious nature of the Vampire Subculture can be best described as a Segmented, Polycentric and Integrated Network of participants.

Identity, difference, and the dilemmas of inter-Korean relations: Insights from northern defectors and the German precedent

Questions of identity have become increasingly central to the study of foreign policy and security, particularly in constructivist debates. But very few of the resulting insights have been applied to the Korean situation, where discussions about security and inter-Korean relations remain dominated by strategic and geopolitical issues. The main task of this article is to address this shortcoming by examining the experience of North Korean defectors in South Korea and the precedent of German unification. Both of these domains of inquiry reveal that identity differences between North and South persist far beyond the ideological and political structures that created them in the first place. Born out of death, fear, and longing for revenge, these identity patterns lie at the heart of Korea's security dilemmas. Unless taken seriously by scholars and decision makers, the respective tensions between identity and difference will continue to cause major political problems. (Key words: Inter-Korean relations, North Korean defectors, German unification)

Active site mutations and substrate inhibition in human sulfotransferase 1A1 and 1A3

Human SULT1A1 is primarily responsible for sulfonation of xenobiotics, including the activation of promutagens, and it has been implicated in several forms of cancer. Human SULT1A3 has been shown to be the major sulfotransferase that sulfonates dopamine. These two enzymes shares 93% amino acid sequence identity and have distinct but overlapping substrate preferences. The resolution of the crystal structures of these two enzymes has enabled us to elucidate the mechanisms controlling their substrate preferences and inhibition. The presence of two p-nitrophenol (pNP) molecules in the crystal structure of SULT1A1 was postulated to explain cooperativity at low and inhibition at high substrate concentrations, respectively. In SULT1A1, substrate inhibition occurs with pNP as the substrate but not with dopamine. For SULT1A3, substrate inhibition is found for dopamine but not with pNP. We investigated how substrate inhibition occurs in these two enzymes using molecular modeling, site-directed mutagenesis, and kinetic analysis. The results show that residue Phe-247 of SULT1A1, which interacts with both p-nitrophenol molecules in the active site, is important for substrate inhibition. Mutation of phenylalanine to leucine at this position in SULT1A1 results in substrate inhibition by dopamine. We also propose, based on modeling and kinetic studies, that substrate inhibition by dopamine in SULT1A3 is caused by binding of two dopamine molecules in the active site. © 2004 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Research in leadership, self, and identity: A sample of the present and a glimpse of the future

Researchers in leadership effectiveness are paying increasing attention to the role of follower self-concept and identity as a mediator and moderator of the effectiveness of leadership. In this introductory article, we provide a short outline of this rapidly growing field of research, briefly introduce the articles presented in this special issue on leadership, self, and identity, and highlight key themes for future research that we feel emerge from these studies. These themes include greater attention to the dynamic interplay between leaders and followers, the incorporation of theories of fairness, and the role of leader self-concept. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Similarity in recognition processes used for bodies and faces: Bodies show caricature effects

Because faces and bodies share some abstract perceptual features, we hypothesised that similar recognition processes might be used for both. We investigated whether similar caricature effects to those found in facial identity and expression recognition could be found in the recognition of individual bodies and socially meaningful body positions. Participants were trained to name four body positions (anger, fear, disgust, sadness) and four individuals (in a neutral position). We then tested their recognition of extremely caricatured, moderately caricatured, anticaricatured, and undistorted images of each stimulus. Consistent with caricature effects found in face recognition, moderately caricatured representations of individuals' bodies were recognised more accurately than undistorted and extremely caricatured representations. No significant difference was found between participants' recognition of extremely caricatured, moderately caricatured, or undistorted body position line-drawings. AU anti-caricatured representations were named significandy less accurately than the veridical stimuli. Similar mental representations may be used for both bodies and faces.