Towards user-adapted training paradigms: physiological responses to physical threat during cognitive task performance

Feedback of physiological responses have a great potential to support virtual training paradigms aimed to increase cognitive task performance under stressful threatening conditions. In the current study, we examined the sensitivity of a range of physiological indicators derived from electrodermal activity (EDA), blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) to measure stress as induced by the threat of an electric shock (ES). In contrast to previous work that studied physiological stress responses compared to a rest condition, we compared conditions with high cognitive load combined with stress caused by threat of an ES, to conditions with high cognitive load without such stress. Twenty-five participants performed a cognitively demanding task in an experimental setup. At certain 10 s time intervals, indicated by a continuous tone, participants were either asked to do their best and increase cognitive task performance (non-threat condition), or they were told that they could receive an ES during this interval if cognitive task performance was not high enough (threat condition). Physiological measures, task performance and self-reported measures of stress and workload were analysed. Task performance and self-reported measures of stress and workload were roughly the same in both conditions. Especially EDA measures were affected by the threat of an ES. Threat and non-threat conditions could be distinguished with an across-participant classifier using EDA and BP features with an accuracy of 70%. These results suggest that EDA and BP can be used to evaluate stress coping training paradigms or to individually adapt the stress levels in virtual training environments.Stress-related psychiatric disorders across the life spa

Two-dimensional NMR lineshape analysis

NMR titration experiments are a rich source of structural, mechanistic, thermodynamic and kinetic information on biomolecular interactions, which can be extracted through the quantitative analysis of resonance lineshapes. However, applications of such analyses are frequently limited by peak overlap inherent to complex biomolecular systems. Moreover, systematic errors may arise due to the analysis of two-dimensional data using theoretical frameworks developed for one-dimensional experiments. Here we introduce a more accurate and convenient method for the analysis of such data, based on the direct quantum mechanical simulation and fitting of entire two-dimensional experiments, which we implement in a new software tool, TITAN (TITration ANalysis). We expect the approach, which we demonstrate for a variety of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions, to be particularly useful in providing information on multi-step or multi-component interactions

13 C-, 15 N- and 31 P-NMR studies of oxidized and reduced low molecular mass thioredoxin reductase and some mutant proteins

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65853/1/j.1432-1033.2004.04043.x.pd

Gender Codes of Shame and Guilt: Correlations and Consequences on the Part of Nazi Perpetrators and Their Descendants

Scham- und Schuldbekundungen spielen in den aktuellen erinnerungspolitischen Diskursen über NS-Verbrechen eine zentrale Rolle und repräsentieren zudem ein umfangreiches öffentliches Deutungsreservoir deutscher Schuld (vgl. S. 9). Zur Ausdifferenzierung dieses Interpretationspools widmet sich der Sammelband Scham und Schuld. Geschlechter(sub)texte der Shoah – herausgegeben von Maja Figge, Konstanze Hanitzsch und Nadine Teuber – der Frage nach der "intergenerationellen Weitergabe von Scham und Schuld" sowie der "Bedeutung dieser Emotion in der erinnerungskulturellen und -politischen Auseinandersetzung" (S.9) mit den NS-Verbrechen. Dafür befassen sich die 14 Beiträge interdisziplinär vor allem mit den Subtexten der Scham- und Schuldbekundungen. Trotz der Perspektivenvielfalt wird die Prämisse belegt, dass eine spezifische geschlechtliche Codierung von Scham und Schuld auf Seiten der Täter/-innen und ihrer Nachkommen eine "Entlastung, Tabusierung oder Mystifizierung der Shoah" (S. 10) bewirken kann.Avowals of shame and guilt play a major role in contemporary discourses of remembrances of national socialist crimes. Furthermore, they represent an extensive interpretation pool of German guilt (cf. p. 9). For the differentiation of this pool, the interdisciplinary anthology Scham und Schuld. Geschlechter(sub)texte der Shoah (Shame and Guilt. Gender (Sub)Texts of the Shoah) published by Maja Figge, Konstanze Hanitzsch, and Nadine Teuber discusses whether shame and guilt have been disseminated to the second and third generations of NS perpetrators, as well as the significance of these emotions in the remembrance of and political debate about national socialist crimes (cf. p. 9). Therefore, it is the subtexts of avowals of shame and guilt that dominate in all 14 articles. Despite the diversity of perspectives the premise is proved that a specific gender codification of shame and guilt provokes a discharge, a cover up, and a mystification of the Shoah (cf. p. 10)