It’s GIrls’ Day! What sketch maps show about girls’ spatial knowledge

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.This paper describes the analysis of sketch maps from girls who participated in the Girls’ Day annual event in Germany. The event caters to girls from Grades 7 – 10 as an opportunity to experience various jobs that might interest them in the future, typically within the STEM-disciplines. One of the performed activities was asking the girls who participated to draw a sketch map of an area they are familiar with. We are interested in finding out how girls externalize the environment they were told to draw. The activity also helps us understand how they organize their environmental knowledge through sketch maps. This descriptive work deviates from gender comparison of map-making by focusing only on girls. This paper allows us to understand differences of girls’ cognitive abilities based on what they have drawn on the map. The results showed that girls draw map ranging from egocentric pictorial representation with few details to survey structured map. More than 40% of the girls have included landmarks and streets outside the region of interest showing a more global view of the area. Landmarks frequently drawn showed visual, structural and cognitive characteristics. This study contributes to research related to better understanding of the cognitive abilities of young adults, particularly girls

Oligosaccharyltransferase is highly specific for the hydroxy amino acid in Asn-Xaa-Thr/Ser

AbstractPig liver oligosaccharyltransferase (OST), which is involved in the en bloc transfer of the Dol-PP-linked GlcNAc2-Man9-Glc3 precursor on to asparagine residues in the Asn-Xaa-Thr/Ser sequence, is highly stereospecific for the conformation of the 3-carbon atom in the hydroxy amino acid. Moreover, substitution of the hydroxy group by either SH as in cysteine, or NH2 as in β,γ-diamino-butanoic acid as reported previously [Bause, E. et al., Biochem. J. 312 (1995) 979–985], followed by the determination of the pH optimum for enzymatic activity, indicates that neither a negative nor a positive charge in the hydroxy amino acid position is tolerated by the enzyme. Binding of the threonine β-methyl group by OST is also specific, with serine, L-threo-β-hydroxynorvaline and L-β-hydroxynorleucine containing tripeptides all bound much less efficiently than the threonine peptide itself. The data are interpreted in terms of a highly stereospecific hydrophobic binding pocket for the threonine CH3-CH(OH) group

Tunable light and drug induced depletion of target proteins

Biological processes in development and disease are controlled by the abundance, localization and modification of cellular proteins. We have developed versatile tools based on recombinant E3 ubiquitin ligases that are controlled by light or drug induced heterodimerization for nanobody or DARPin targeted depletion of endogenous proteins in cells and organisms. We use this rapid, tunable and reversible protein depletion for functional studies of essential proteins like PCNA in DNA repair and to investigate the role of CED-3 in apoptosis during Caenorhabditis elegans development. These independent tools can be combined for spatial and temporal depletion of different sets of proteins, can help to distinguish immediate cellular responses from long-term adaptation effects and can facilitate the exploration of complex networks

MOTIVATING ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AND OPEN DATA ACQUISITION ON OPENSENSEMAP WITH OPEN BADGES

Citizen science projects making the public part of scientific research are a growing trend and often have a strong geospatial focus with mapping and observation activities on biodiversity or environmental topics. To keep participants engaged, gamification is often used, adding elements of competition and rewards. Digital badges are a common gamification component that can increase participant motivation. Open Badges, an open standard for digital micro-credentials, can be used in citizen science projects to incentivize participants and showcase their achievements. They can also be adapted to open education, where learners can build a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate their achievements and credentials. Open Badges can enhance the learning experience and increase motivation, leading to improved educational outcomes. The use of Open Badges in citizen science and open education aligns with the spirit of collaboration and transparency in science and technology. In this paper we propose a solution linking the openSenseMap, as an open environmental citizen science platform, to myBadges, an Open Badges infrastructure, to allow an automatic issuing of badges for achievements made. A short study reveals first impressions of the proposed solution, its motivational aspects to contribute and improve open data on the platform, and the potential for future work

The exchange activities of [Fe] hydrogenase (iron–sulfur-cluster-free hydrogenase) from methanogenic archaea in comparison with the exchange activities of [FeFe] and [NiFe] hydrogenases

[Fe] hydrogenase (iron–sulfur-cluster-free hydrogenase) catalyzes the reversible reduction of methenyltetrahydromethanopterin (methenyl-H4MPT+) with H2 to methylene-H4MPT, a reaction involved in methanogenesis from H2 and CO2 in many methanogenic archaea. The enzyme harbors an iron-containing cofactor, in which a low-spin iron is complexed by a pyridone, two CO and a cysteine sulfur. [Fe] hydrogenase is thus similar to [NiFe] and [FeFe] hydrogenases, in which a low-spin iron carbonyl complex, albeit in a dinuclear metal center, is also involved in H2 activation. Like the [NiFe] and [FeFe] hydrogenases, [Fe] hydrogenase catalyzes an active exchange of H2 with protons of water; however, this activity is dependent on the presence of the hydride-accepting methenyl-H4MPT+. In its absence the exchange activity is only 0.01% of that in its presence. The residual activity has been attributed to the presence of traces of methenyl-H4MPT+ in the enzyme preparations, but it could also reflect a weak binding of H2 to the iron in the absence of methenyl-H4MPT+. To test this we reinvestigated the exchange activity with [Fe] hydrogenase reconstituted from apoprotein heterologously produced in Escherichia coli and highly purified iron-containing cofactor and found that in the absence of added methenyl-H4MPT+ the exchange activity was below the detection limit of the tritium method employed (0.1 nmol min−1 mg−1). The finding reiterates that for H2 activation by [Fe] hydrogenase the presence of the hydride-accepting methenyl-H4MPT+ is essentially required. This differentiates [Fe] hydrogenase from [FeFe] and [NiFe] hydrogenases, which actively catalyze H2/H2O exchange in the absence of exogenous electron acceptors

Comprehensive Fragment Screening of the SARS-CoV-2 Proteome Explores Novel Chemical Space for Drug Development

12 pags., 4 figs., 3 tabs.SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV2) and its variants of concern pose serious challenges to the public health. The variants increased challenges to vaccines, thus necessitating for development of new intervention strategies including anti-virals. Within the international Covid19-NMR consortium, we have identified binders targeting the RNA genome of SCoV2. We established protocols for the production and NMR characterization of more than 80 % of all SCoV2 proteins. Here, we performed an NMR screening using a fragment library for binding to 25 SCoV2 proteins and identified hits also against previously unexplored SCoV2 proteins. Computational mapping was used to predict binding sites and identify functional moieties (chemotypes) of the ligands occupying these pockets. Striking consensus was observed between NMR-detected binding sites of the main protease and the computational procedure. Our investigation provides novel structural and chemical space for structure-based drug design against the SCoV2 proteome.Work at BMRZ is supported by the state of Hesse. Work in Covid19-NMR was supported by the Goethe Corona Funds, by the IWBEFRE-program 20007375 of state of Hesse, the DFG through CRC902: “Molecular Principles of RNA-based regulation.” and through infrastructure funds (project numbers: 277478796, 277479031, 392682309, 452632086, 70653611) and by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program iNEXT-discovery under grant agreement No 871037. BY-COVID receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number 101046203. “INSPIRED” (MIS 5002550) project, implemented under the Action “Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure,” funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014–2020) and co-financed by Greece and the EU (European Regional Development Fund) and the FP7 REGPOT CT-2011-285950—“SEE-DRUG” project (purchase of UPAT’s 700 MHz NMR equipment). The support of the CERM/CIRMMP center of Instruct-ERIC is gratefully acknowledged. This work has been funded in part by a grant of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (FISR2020IP_02112, ID-COVID) and by Fondazione CR Firenze. A.S. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB902/B16, SCHL2062/2-1] and the Johanna Quandt Young Academy at Goethe [2019/AS01]. M.H. and C.F. thank SFB902 and the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft for the Scholarship. L.L. work was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR, NMR-SCoV2-ORF8), the Fondation de la Recherche Médicale (FRM, NMR-SCoV2-ORF8), FINOVI and the IR-RMN-THC Fr3050 CNRS. Work at UConn Health was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (R01 GM135592 to B.H., P41 GM111135 and R01 GM123249 to J.C.H.) and the US National Science Foundation (DBI 2030601 to J.C.H.). Latvian Council of Science Grant No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0014. National Science Foundation EAGER MCB-2031269. This work was supported by the grant Krebsliga KFS-4903-08-2019 and SNF-311030_192646 to J.O. P.G. (ITMP) The EOSC Future project is co-funded by the European Union Horizon Programme call INFRAEOSC-03-2020—Grant Agreement Number 101017536. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEALPeer reviewe

Photoinduced electron transfer reactions of phthalimides

The influence of deactivation processes (like hydrogen bonding) on the photodecarboxylation of w-phthalimido potassium carboxylates was studied using a series of N-phthaloyl dipeptides. Furthermore, the decarboxylative addition of unfunctionalized carboxylates and heteroatom-functionalized carboxylates to phthalimides was developed as a highly chemoselective radical addition reaction