Attractive spheres of students’ self-realization as practices for supporting their psychological well-being in university education

The study is aimed at finding the varieties of appealing spheres for realization of students’ potential in higher school. The authors substantiate and develop the concept of attractors for students’ self-realization, which designate the appealing spheres and forms of manifestation of students’ personal efforts and capacities in higher education. The methods of conceptual-applied reconstruction and psychological surveys are used to determine the attractive space for students’ self-development. The study identifies a group of potentially attractive spheres (learning-cognitive, research, sports-wellness, volunteer, artistic-creative, innovative-entrepreneurial, information-media, social-civic, sphere of cross-cultural communication). The study presents the results of diagnosing the subjective significance of these spheres for students of different specialties and different levels of self-realization in education. The conclusion is made about the tendency of influence of students’ involvement in attractive spheres on the success of their self-realization in educational environment. The prospects of applying and operating the category of attractors as socio-cultural predictors of successful self-realization and psychological well-being of students in the process of University training are shown

Mutations in fd phage major coat protein modulate affinity of the displayed peptide

Multibillion-clone libraries of phages displaying guest peptides fused to the major coat protein pVIII (landscape libraries) are a rich source of probes for proteinaceous and non-proteinaceous targets. As opposed to the pIII-type fusion phages, which display peptides as independent structural domains, the guest peptides in the pVIII-fusion phages can be structurally and functionally influenced by contiguous subunits. To decipher the impact of the locale of a guest peptide on its affinity characteristics, we constructed a library of phages carrying β-galactosidase-binding peptide ADTFAKSMQ at the N-terminus of the pVIII protein surrounded by random amino acids. It was found that mutagenesis of amino acids 12–19 (domain C) has polar effects on target binding affinity of the displayed peptide. The phages with highest affinity are characterized by: (i) a net electrostatic charge around −1 of domain C of the mutated phages at pH 7.0; (ii) a lower radius of cylinder coaxial to α-helix formed by domain C; (iii) a lower higher occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of domain C leading to a decreased formation of hydrogen bonds and (iv) positively charged surface and torsion energy of domain C, which may require a conformational transition of N-terminal peptide ADTFAKSMQ for its binding with β-galactosidase. Influence of the guest peptide on the diversity of mutations in the neighboring landscape area was also observed