Interview with Caspar Bowden: Tracing the (Mis)steps to the PRISM Revelation

Is the PRISM revelation as surprising as the news coverage makes it seem? Independent privacy researcher and advocate Caspar Bowden previously predicted of PRISM-like surveillance systems in a 2012 Report to the European Parliament. Here, in an interview with LSE’s Alexandra Kulikova, the former Microsoft Chief Privacy Adviser reflects on how the mishandling of privacy by governments and media has disrupted public engagement with the privacy debate

Effects of Context Shift on Tolerance to Alcohol and Peak-Interval Behavior in Rats

The current study examined whether a within-session context change has an effect on tolerance to alcohol, assessed through examining an animal’s internal clock. A peak-interval task was used to demonstrate the accuracy and precision with which animals time their responses. The subjects trained in an alcohol-related context were predicted to show tolerance to alcohol in the same context as indicated by a stable response curve on a peak-interval task. However, the response curve was predicted to shift to the left, indicating an increased number of premature responses for the subjects when moved to a different environment. The results indicated that the animals that received alcohol overestimated time in a novel environment compared to those receiving alcohol in the familiar context (and to control groups that received water). However, the amount of alcohol consumed was not associated with an increase in the number of premature responses, and, contrary to the original prediction, gender was found to have no effect on the amount of alcohol that the subjects drank. The limitations of the study and the directions for future research were also addressed

Front Page Leveson: Papers lead with freedom the day after the Report

The Report of the Leveson Inquiry contained severe criticism of press behaviour as well as proposals for a new self-regulatory mechanism. The next day, the country’s newspapers faced the prospect of reporting the criticism of their own industry and proposals key to their future business. The LSE Media Policy Project has examined how the national newspapers covered and reacted to the story. We have examined headlines, news stories and pictures in national newspapers. In this first preview we outline some of our findings on the front pages

Structural basis for the interaction of a human small heat shock protein with the 14-3-3 universal signaling regulator

By interacting with hundreds of protein partners, 14-3-3 proteins coordinate vital cellular processes. Phosphorylation of the small heat shock protein, HSPB6, within its intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain activates its interaction with 14-3-3, ultimately triggering smooth muscle relaxation. After analyzing the binding of an HSPB6-derived phosphopeptide to 14-3-3 using isothermal calorimetry and X-ray crystallography, we have determined the crystal structure of the complete assembly consisting of the 14-3-3 dimer and full-length HSPB6 dimer and further characterized this complex in solution using fluorescence spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and limited proteolysis. We show that selected intrinsically disordered regions of HSPB6 are transformed into well-defined conformations upon the interaction, whereby an unexpectedly asymmetric structure is formed. This structure provides the first atomic resolution snapshot of a human small HSP in functional state, explains how 14-3-3 proteins sequester their regulatory partners, and can inform the design of small-molecule interaction modifiers to be used as myorelaxants

Forget How We Got Here? Newspaper Coverage of the Royal Charter Deal

When Leveson published his Report at the end of November our research showed that the press presented the story as one mainly about freedom of the press and the struggle by hacking victims for vindication and protection in the future. Slightly less prominent but also present was a narrative of the politico-media complex or ties between big media and politicians. Our latest study of newspaper coverage before and after the Royal Charter agreement for implementing Leveson’s recommendations showed that the struggle of the victims of press wrongdoings has all but disappeared from the story

A general framework to characterize inhibitors of calmodulin: Use of calmodulin inhibitors to study the interaction between calmodulin and its calmodulin binding domains

AbstractThe prominent role of Ca2+ in cell physiology is mediated by a whole set of proteins involved in Ca2+-signal generation, deciphering and arrest. Among these intracellular proteins, calmodulin (CaM) known as a prototypical calcium sensor, serves as a ubiquitous carrier of the intracellular calcium signal in all eukaryotic cell types. CaM is assumed to be involved in many diseases including Parkinson, Alzheimer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Defects in some of many reaction partners of CaM might be responsible for disease symptoms. Several classes of drugs bind to CaM with unwanted side effects rather than specific therapeutic use. Thus, it may be more promising to concentrate at searching for pharmacological interferences with the CaM target proteins, in order to find tools for dissecting and investigating CaM-regulatory and modulatory functions in cells.In the present study, we have established a screening assay based on fluorescence polarization (FP) to identify a diverse set of small molecules that disrupt the regulatory function of CaM. The FP-based CaM assay consists in the competition of two fluorescent probes and a library of chemical compounds for binding to CaM.Screening of about 5300 compounds (Strasbourg Academic Library) by displacement of the probe yielded 39 compounds in a first step, from which 6 were selected. Those 6 compounds were characterized by means of calorimetry studies and by competitive displacement of two fluorescent probes interacting with CaM. Moreover, those small molecules were tested for their capability to displace 8 different CaM binding domains from CaM. Our results show that these CaM/small molecules interactions are not functionally equivalent.The strategy that has been set up for CaM is a general model for the development and validation of other CaM interactors, to decipher their mode of action, or rationally design more specific CaM antagonists. Moreover, this strategy may be used for other protein binding assays intended to screen for molecules with preferred binding activity. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: 12th European Symposium on Calcium

The Day After Leveson: Newspapers covered more than just their own defence

One might expect that those newspapers most criticised in the Leveson Inquiry’s Report for wrongdoings and illegal behaviour would try to gloss over the anguish of the victims of this behaviour and focus on the defence of their freedom. Although, as has been pointed out, they all have “skin in the game”, this seems not entirely to have coloured their coverage. Careful coding of news stories on Leveson in the internal pages of national newspapers showed that they were relatively balanced in terms of how they framed the story, with some exceptions