Nutrition Tea Club : engaging students in reading scientific papers

Many students do not engage with reading the scientific literature, which is a core skill in undergraduate students. The learning environment has an important impact upon learning. It was postulated that taking reading out of the formal learning environment might impact upon students’ willingness to engage with the literature, and confidence in doing so. A staff-student research partnership initiative funded by Kingston University allowed this hypothesis to be tested. Three Tea Club sessions, informal drop-in reading sessions were offered in a student-owned space within the Students’ Union. Refreshments were supplied, aiming for a ‘coffee house’ feel. Although the numbers of students who engaged with the Tea Club were small, evaluations were positive. In particular students valued the opportunity for peer learning. However the chosen environment was too noisy. Future sessions will be offered within a different, less noisy environment with facilities for refreshments, and will be offered throughout the academic year to facilitate student engagement.Keywords: Learning environment, peer support, extracurricular, scientific readin

Optical Measurement Center Status

Beginning in 2005, an optical measurement center (OMC) was created to measure the photometric signatures of debris pieces. Initially, the OMC was equipped with a 300 W xenon arc lamp, a SBIG 512 x 512 ST8X MEI CCD camera with standard Johnson filters, and a Lynx 6 robotic arm with five degrees of freedom. As research progressed, modifications were made to the equipment. A customized rotary table was built to overcome the robot s limitation of 180 degree wrist rotation and provide complete 360 degree rotation with little human interaction. This change allowed an initial phase angle (source-object-camera angle) of roughly 5 degrees to be adjusted to 7, 10, 15, 18, 20, 25, or 28 degrees. Additionally, the Johnson R and I CCD filters were replaced with the standard astronomical filters suite (Bessell R,I). In an effort to reduce object saturation, the two generic aperture stops were replaced with neutral density filters. Initially data were taken with aluminum debris pieces from the European Space Operations Centre ESOC2 ground test and more recently with samples from a thermal multi-layered insulation (MLI) commonly used on rocket bodies and satellites. The ESOC2 data provided light curve analysis for one type of material but many different shapes, including flat, bent, curled, folded, and torn. The MLI samples are roughly the same size and shape, but have different surfaces that give rise to interesting photometric light curves. In addition, filter photometry was conducted on the MLI pieces, a process that also will be used on the ESOC2 samples. While obtaining light curve data an anomalous drop in intensity was observed when the table revolved through the second 180 degree rotation. Investigation revealed that the robot s wrist rotation is not reliable past 80 degrees, thus the object may be at slightly different angles at the 180 degree transition. To limit this effect, the initial rotation position begins with the object s minimal surface area facing the camera

Biosynthesis of UDP-N-acetyl-L-fucosamine, a precursor to the biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide in Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O11.

Abstract UDP-N-acetyl-l-fucosamine is a precursor to l-fucosamine in the lipopolysaccharide of Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O11 and the capsule of Staphylococcus aureus type 5. We have demonstrated previously the involvement of three enzymes, WbjB, WbjC, and WbjD, in the biosynthesis of UDP-2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxy-l-galactose or UDP-N-acetyl-l-fucosamine (UDP-l-FucNAc). An intermediate compound from the coupled-reaction of WbjB-WbjC with the initial substrate UDP-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-α-d-glucose or UDP-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) was purified, and the structure was determined by NMR spectroscopy to be UDP-2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxy-l-talose (UDP-l-PneNAc). WbjD could then convert this intermediate into a new product with the same mass, consistent with a C-2 epimerization reaction. Those results led us to propose a pathway for the biosynthesis of UDP-l-FucNAc; however, the exact enzymatic activity of each of these proteins has not been defined. Here, we describe a fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC)-based anion-exchange procedure, which allowed the separation and purification of the products of C-2 epimerization due to WbjD. Also, the application of a cryogenically cooled probe in NMR spectrometry offers the greatest sensitivity for determining the structures of minute quantities of materials, allowing the identification of the final product of the pathway. Our results showed that WbjB is bifunctional, catalyzing firstly C-4, C-6 dehydration and secondly C-5 epimerization in the reaction with the substrate UDP-d-GlcNAc, producing two intermediates. WbjC is also bifunctional, catalyzing C-3 epimerization of the second intermediate followed by reduction at C-4. The FPLC-based procedure provided good resolution of the final product of WbjD reaction from its epimer/substrate UDP-l-PneNAc, and the use of the cryogenically cooled probe in NMR revealed unequivocally that the final product is UDP-l-FucNAc

Direct expression of active spinach glycolate oxidase in Escherichia coli

Spinach glycolate oxidase (GAO) was expressed in Escherichia coli using the T7 RNA polymerase promotor. The enzyme accounts for approx. 1% of the soluble protein fraction and is expressed as a soluble and active enzyme. Comparison with GAO expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Macheroux, P., Massey, V., Thiele, D.J. and Volokita, M. (1991) Biochemistry 30, 4612-4619) showed that the GAO expressed in E. coli has identical physico-chemical features to the wild-type enzyme, but is expressed at a level approx. 15-fold higher than in the yeast system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29898/1/0000255.pd

Ten Simple Rules for Digital Data Storage

Data is the central currency of science, but the nature of scientific data has changed dramatically with the rapid pace of technology. This change has led to the development of a wide variety of data formats, dataset sizes, data complexity, data use cases, and data sharing practices. Improvements in high throughput DNA sequencing, sustained institutional support for large sensor networks, and sky surveys with large-format digital cameras have created massive quantities of data. At the same time, the combination of increasingly diverse research teams and data aggregation in portals (e.g. for biodiversity data, GBIF or iDigBio) necessitates increased coordination among data collectors and institutions. As a consequence, “data” can now mean anything from petabytes of information stored in professionally-maintained databases, through spreadsheets on a single computer, to hand-written tables in lab notebooks on shelves. All remain important, but data curation practices must continue to keep pace with the changes brought about by new forms and practices of data collection and storage.</jats:p