Students using digital technologies to produce screencasts that support learning in mathematics

This paper reports on research of student produced screencasts to support learning. Participants in a Mathematics for Teachers course were asked to create and peer critique screencasts to explain concepts (year 4 to 9 level). They were also asked about their experience with screencasting and its impact on their own teaching and learning. This paper will discuss preliminary results of a pre-survey and highlight features of initial screencasts and their critiques. The paper concludes with an outline of future directions

Wissenskluefte. Von (Null) Mengen und (Un) Summen - Leerstand und Fülle in der Informationsgesellschaft

The article is based on a presentation on the occasion of a public lecture at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences within a series of lecture dealing with the theme “emptiness and abundance” in day-to-day live in the state of Brandenburg . In this text empty stacks in university libraries are confronted with the prosperity of the so called information society. We never had more scientific publications than today and information resources as well as information technology never was so widespread than now. Nevertheless recent studies not only prove the existence of a digital divide between Eastern and Western Germany but also show the increased need for information literacy amongst students and professors throughout the whole country. But neither national information policy nor local strategies from university libraries remedy to the problem of the divide between information abundance and increasing lack of information literacy. It is shown that most students and academics learn in an autodidactic way by trial and error. The article therefore argues for national licences for qualitative information resources instead of scarce individual user training

"Data Librarianship" – Rollen, Aufgaben, Kompetenzen

Die fortschreitende Digitalisierung der Wissenschaft führt zu einem rasant ansteigenden Aufkommen an digitalen Forschungsdaten. Wissenschaftspolitisch gewinnt die Forderung nach einem verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit diesen Daten an Bedeutung. Im Rahmen von E-Science und Cyberinfrastructure werden Konzepte des Managements von Forschungsdaten diskutiert und angewendet. Die vielfältigen und häufig disziplinspezifischen Herausforderungen beim Umgang mit wissenschaftlichen Daten fordern eine engere Kooperation zwischen Wissenschaft und infrastrukturellen Serviceeinrichtungen. Bibliotheken bietet sich die Chance, die Entwicklung organisatorischer und technischer Lösungen des Forschungsdatenmanagements aktiv zu gestalten und eine tragende Rolle in diesem Feld zu übernehmen. Hierzu werden von Bibliothekaren zunehmend kommunikative und Schnittstellen-Kompetenzen gefordert.

Distances and classification of amino acids for different protein secondary structures

Window profiles of amino acids in protein sequences are taken as a description of the amino acid environment. The relative entropy or Kullback-Leibler distance derived from profiles is used as a measure of dissimilarity for comparison of amino acids and secondary structure conformations. Distance matrices of amino acid pairs at different conformations are obtained, which display a non-negligible dependence of amino acid similarity on conformations. Based on the conformation specific distances clustering analysis for amino acids is conducted.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure

PRED-CLASS: cascading neural networks for generalized protein classification and genome-wide applications

A cascading system of hierarchical, artificial neural networks (named PRED-CLASS) is presented for the generalized classification of proteins into four distinct classes-transmembrane, fibrous, globular, and mixed-from information solely encoded in their amino acid sequences. The architecture of the individual component networks is kept very simple, reducing the number of free parameters (network synaptic weights) for faster training, improved generalization, and the avoidance of data overfitting. Capturing information from as few as 50 protein sequences spread among the four target classes (6 transmembrane, 10 fibrous, 13 globular, and 17 mixed), PRED-CLASS was able to obtain 371 correct predictions out of a set of 387 proteins (success rate approximately 96%) unambiguously assigned into one of the target classes. The application of PRED-CLASS to several test sets and complete proteomes of several organisms demonstrates that such a method could serve as a valuable tool in the annotation of genomic open reading frames with no functional assignment or as a preliminary step in fold recognition and ab initio structure prediction methods. Detailed results obtained for various data sets and completed genomes, along with a web sever running the PRED-CLASS algorithm, can be accessed over the World Wide Web at http://o2.biol.uoa.gr/PRED-CLAS

Are structural biases at protein termini a signature of vectorial folding?

Experimental investigations of the biosynthesis of a number of proteins have pointed out that part of the native structure can be acquired already during translation. We carried out a comprehensive statistical analysis of some average structural properties of proteins that have been put forward as possible signatures of this progressive buildup process. Contrary to a widespread belief, it is found that there is no major propensity of the amino acids to form contacts with residues that are closer to the N terminus. Moreover, it is found that the C terminus is significantly more compact and locally-organized than the N one. Also this bias, though, is unlikely to be related to vectorial effects, since it correlates with subtle differences in the primary sequence. These findings indicate that even if proteins aquire their structure vectorially no signature of this seems to be detectable in their average structural properties.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Autonomic reactions and peri-interventional alterations in body weight as potential supplementary outcome parameters for thromboembolic stroke in rats

BACKGROUND: Since several neuroprotectives failed to reproduce promising preclinical results under clinical conditions, efforts emerged to implement clinically relevant endpoints in animal stroke studies. Thereby, insufficient attention was given on autonomic reactions due to experimental stroke, although clinical trials reported on high functional and prognostic impact. This study focused on autonomic consequences and body weight changes in a translational relevant stroke model and investigated interrelations to different outcome measurements. METHODS: Forty-eight rats underwent thromboembolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) while recording heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). After assessing early functional impairment (Menzies score), animals were assigned to control procedure or potentially neuroprotective treatment with normobaric (NBO) or hyperbaric oxygen (HBO). Four or 24 hours after ischemia onset, functional impairment was re-assessed and FITC-albumin administered intravenously obtaining leakage-related blood–brain barrier (BBB) impairment. Body weight was documented prior to MCAO and 4 or 24 hours after ischemia onset. RESULTS: During MCAO, HR was found to increase significantly while MAP decreased. The amount of changes in HR was positively correlated with early functional impairment (P = 0.001): Severely affected animals provided an increase of 15.2 compared to 0.8 beats/minute in rats with low impairment (P = 0.048). Regarding body weight, a decrease of 9.4% within 24 hours after MCAO occurred, but treatment-specific alterations showed no significant correlations with respective functional or BBB impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Future studies should routinely include autonomic parameters to allow inter-group comparisons and better understanding of autonomic reactions due to experimental stroke. Prospectively, autonomic consequences might represent a useful outcome parameter enhancing the methodological spectrum of preclinical stroke studies