Estimating affinities of calcium ions to proteins

Ca2+-ions have a range of affinities to different proteins, depending on the various functions of these proteins. This makes the determination of Ca2+-protein affinities an interesting subject for functional studies. We have investigated the performance of two methods – Fold-X and AutoDock vina – in the prediction of Ca2+-protein affinities. Both methods, although based on different energy functions, showed virtually the same correlation with experimental affinities. Guided by insight from experiment, we further derived a simple linear model based on the solvent accessible surface of Ca2+ that had practically the same performance in terms of absolute errors as the more complex docking methods

Localization of beta power decrease as measure for lateralization in pre-surgical language mapping with magnetoencephalography, compared with functional magnetic resonance imaging and validated by Wada test

Objective: Atypical patterns of language lateralization due to early reorganizational processes constitute a challenge in the pre-surgical evaluation of patients with pharmaco-resistant epilepsy. There is no consensus on an optimal analysis method used for the identification of language dominance in MEG. This study examines the concordance between MEG source localization of beta power desynchronization and fMRI with regard to lateralization and localization of expressive and receptive language areas using a visual verb generation task. Methods: Twenty-five patients with pharmaco-resistant epilepsy, including six patients with atypical language lateralization, and ten right-handed controls obtained MEG and fMRI language assessment. Fourteen patients additionally underwent the Wada test. We analyzed MEG beta power desynchronization in sensor (controls) and source space (patients and controls). Beta power decrease between 13 and 35 Hz was localized applying Dynamic Imaging of Coherent Sources Beamformer technique. Statistical inferences were grounded on cluster-based permutation testing for single subjects. Results: Event-related desynchronization of beta power in MEG was seen within the language-dominant frontal and temporal lobe and within the premotor cortex. Our analysis pipeline consistently yielded left language dominance with high laterality indices in controls. Language lateralization in MEG and Wada test agreed in all 14 patients for inferior frontal, temporal and parietal language areas (Cohen’s Kappa = 1, p < 0.001). fMRI agreed with Wada test in 12 out of 14 cases (85.7%) for Broca’s area (Cohen’s Kappa = 0.71, p = 0.024), while the agreement for temporal and temporo-parietal language areas were non-significant. Concordance between MEG and fMRI laterality indices was highest within the inferior frontal gyrus, with an agreement in 19/24 cases (79.2%), and non-significant for Wernicke’s area. Spatial agreement between fMRI and MEG varied considerably between subjects and brain regions with the lowest Euclidean distances within the inferior frontal region of interest. Conclusion: Localizing the desynchronization of MEG beta power using a verb generation task is a promising tool for the identification of language dominance in the pre-surgical evaluation of epilepsy patients. The overall agreement between MEG and fMRI was lower than expected and might be attributed to differences within the baseline condition. A larger sample size and an adjustment of the experimental designs are needed to draw further conclusions

Towards an Intrinsic Doppler Correction for X-ray Spectroscopy of Stored Ions at CRYRING@ESR

We report on a new experimental approach for the Doppler correction of X-rays emitted by heavy ions, using novel metallic magnetic calorimeter detectors which uniquely combine a high spectral resolution with a broad bandwidth acceptance. The measurement was carried out at the electron cooler of CRYRING@ESR at GSI, Darmstadt, Germany. The X-ray emission associated with the radiative recombination of cooler electrons and stored hydrogen-like uranium ions was investigated using two novel microcalorimeter detectors positioned under 0∘ and 180∘ with respect to the ion beam axis. This new experimental setup allowed the investigation of the region of the N, M → L transitions in helium-like uranium with a spectral resolution unmatched by previous studies using conventional semiconductor X-ray detectors. When assuming that the rest-frame energy of at least a few of the recorded transitions is well-known from theory or experiments, a precise measurement of the Doppler shifted line positions in the laboratory system can be used to determine the ion beam velocity using only spectral information. The spectral resolution achievable with microcalorimeter detectors should, for the first time, allow intrinsic Doppler correction to be performed for the precision X-ray spectroscopy of stored heavy ions. A comparison with data from a previous experiment at the ESR electron cooler, as well as the conventional method of conducting Doppler correction using electron cooler parameters, will be discussed

Die unterschiedlichen Konzepte von Freiheit in Schwedisch-Pommern. Forschungsansätze zur Entstehung, Rezeption und Verbreitung der Schwedischen Freiheit im südlichen Ostseeraum der Frühen Neuzeit

Główny naukowy akcent artykułu odnosi się do idei oświecenia w obszarze południowego Bałtyku w XVIII stuleciu. Królestwo Szwecji poprzez swój polityczny, gospodarczy i intelektualny wpływ konsekwentnie narzucało na Pomorzu Szwedzkim w okresie rodzenia się dążeń wolnościowych (niezależnościowych) swoją interpretację granic. Musimy być jednak świadomi istnienia wówczas na północnym obszarze Cesarstwa Rzymskiego Narodu Niemieckiego dwóch zróżnicowanych koncepcji wolności (niezależności) – jedna z nich była zakorzeniona w tradycji niemieckiej, druga zaś w szwedzkiej mentalności. W projekcie badawczym przedstawionym w artykule postawiono pytanie o różne treści tych dwóch niemal tożsamych pojęć zarówno na obszarze południowego Bałtyku, jak i na Pomorzu Szwedzkim. W ten sposób uwidoczniły się bezpośrednie i pośrednie wartości tego pojęcia i rola, jaką Pomorze Szwedzkie odgrywało na styku mentalności szwedzkiej ze środkowoeuropejską w okresie oświecenia

Neuronal Correlates of Product Feature Attractiveness

Decision-making is the process of selecting a logical choice from among the available options and happens as a complex process in the human brain. It is based on information processing and cost-analysis; it involves psychological factors, specifically, emotions. In addition to cost factors personal preferences have significant influence on decision making. For marketing purposes, it is interesting to know how these emotions are related to product acquisition decision and how to improve these products according to the user's preferences. For our proof-of-concept study, we use magneto- and electro-encephalography (MEG, EEG) to evaluate the very early reactions in the brain related to the emotions. Recordings from these methods are comprehensive sources of information to investigate neural processes of the human brain with good spatial- and excellent temporal resolution. Those characteristics make these methods suitable to examine the neurologic process that gives origin to human behavior and specifically, decision making. Literature describes some neuronal correlates for individual preferences, like asymmetrical distribution of frequency specific activity in frontal and prefrontal areas, which are associated with emotional processing. Such correlates could be used to objectively evaluate the pleasantness of product appearance and branding (i.e., logo), thus avoiding subjective bias. This study evaluates the effects of different product features on brain activity and whether these methods could potentially be used for marketing and product design. We analyzed the influence of color and fit of sports shirts, as well as a brand logo on the brain activity, specifically in frontal asymmetric activation. Measurements were performed using MEG and EEG with 10 healthy subjects. Images of t-shirts with different characteristics were presented on a screen. We recorded the subjective evaluation by asking for a positive, negative or neutral rating. The results showed significantly different responses between positively and negatively rated shirts. While the influence of the presence of a logo was present in behavioral data, but not in the neurocognitive data, the influence of shirt fit and color could be reconstructed in both data sets. This method may enable evaluation of subjective product preference