Interesting study suggesting (as predicted by self-determination theory) that a lack of balance between personal and relationship goals produces lower life satisfaction - and, happily, motivates attempts to correct this imbalance.

The authors present a model of eudaimonia (a meaning-based understanding of well-being) that is based in self-determination theory. They focus specifically on four areas: (1) pursuing intrinsic goals and values for their own sake, including personal growth, relationships, community, and health, rather than extrinsic goals and values, such as wealth, fame, image, and power; (2) behaving in autonomous, volitional, or consensual ways, rather than heteronomous or controlled ways; (3) being mindful and acting with a sense of awareness; and (4) behaving in ways that satisfy basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. It is suggested that the first three of these aspects of eudaimonic living have their positive effects of psychological and physical wellness because they facilitate satisfaction of these basic, universal psychological needs.

An important overview of the key field of self-determination theory (SDT). The full text PDF is available at the SDT website www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT

Cellular competence is an essential but poorly understood aspect of development. Is competence a general property that affects multiple signaling pathways (e.g., chromatin state), or is competence specific for each signaling pathway (e.g., availability of cofactors)? Here we find that Drosophila neuroblast 7-1 (NB7-1) has a single early window of competence to respond to four different temporal identity genes (Hunchback, Kruppel, Pdm, and Castor); that each of these factors specifies distinct motor neuron identities within this competence window but not outside it; and that progressive restriction to respond to Hunchback and Kruppel occurs within this window. Our work raises the possibility that multiple competence windows may allow the same factors to generate different cell types within the same lineage. 10.1101/gad.1382206

Drosophila imaginal disc cells can switch fates by transdetermining from one determined state to another. We analyzed the expression profiles of cells induced by ectopic Wingless expression to transdetermine from leg to wing by dissecting transdetermined cells and hybridizing probes generated by linear RNA amplification to DNA microarrays. Changes in expression levels implicated a number of genes: lamina ancestor, CG12534 (a gene orthologous to mouse augmenter of liver regeneration), Notch pathway members, and the Polycomb and trithorax groups of chromatin regulators. Functional tests revealed that transdetermination was significantly affected in mutants for lama and seven different PcG and trxG genes. These results validate our methods for expression profiling as a way to analyze developmental programs, and show that modifications to chromatin structure are key to changes in cell fate. Our findings are likely to be relevant to the mechanisms that lead to disease when homologs of Wingless are expressed at abnormal levels and to the manifestation of pluripotency of stem cells. 10.1242/dev.01927