Assessment of Biosignals for Managing a Virtual Keyboard

In this paper we propose an assessment of biosignals for handling an application based on virtual keyboard and automatic scanning. The aim of this work is to measure the effect of using such application, through different interfaces based on electromyography and electrooculography, on cardiac and electrodermal activities. Five people without disabilities have been tested. Each subject wrote twice the same text using an electromyography interface in first test and electrooculography in the second one. Each test was divided into four parts: instruction, initial relax, writing and final relax. The results of the tests show important differences in the electrocardiogram and electrodermal activity among the parts of tests.Junta de Andalucía p08-TIC-363

Decentralization in the Netherlands: from blueprints to tailor-made services?

The politics and administration of institutional chang

Pyocin S5 import into Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveals a generic mode of bacteriocin transport

Pyocin S5 (PyoS5) is a potent protein bacteriocin that eradicates the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in animal infection models, but its import mechanism is poorly understood. Here, using crystallography, biophysical and biochemical analyses, and live-cell imaging, we define the entry process of PyoS5 and reveal links to the transport mechanisms of other bacteriocins. In addition to its C-terminal pore-forming domain, elongated PyoS5 comprises two novel tandemly repeated kinked 3-helix bundle domains that structure-based alignments identify as key import domains in other pyocins. The central domain binds the lipid-bound common polysaccharide antigen, allowing the pyocin to accumulate on the cell surface. The N-terminal domain binds the ferric pyochelin transporter FptA while its associated disordered region binds the inner membrane protein TonB1, which together drive import of the bacteriocin across the outer membrane. Finally, we identify the minimal requirements for sensitizing Escherichia coli toward PyoS5, as well as other pyocins, and suggest that a generic pathway likely underpins the import of all TonB-dependent bacteriocins across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria

Interactions of the periplasmic binding protein CeuE with Fe(III) n-LICAM(4-) siderophore analogues of varied linker length

Bacteria use siderophores to mediate the transport of essential Fe(III) into the cell. In Campylobacter jejuni the periplasmic binding protein CeuE, an integral part of the Fe(III) transport system, has adapted to bind tetradentate siderophores using a His and a Tyr side chain to complete the Fe(III) coordination. A series of tetradentate siderophore mimics was synthesized in which the length of the linker between the two iron-binding catecholamide units was increased from four carbon atoms (4-LICAM(4-)) to five, six and eight (5-, 6-, 8-LICAM(4-), respectively). Co-crystal structures with CeuE showed that the inter-planar angles between the iron-binding catecholamide units in the 5-, 6- and 8-LICAM(4-) structures are very similar (111°, 110° and 110°) and allow for an optimum fit into the binding pocket of CeuE, the inter-planar angle in the structure of 4-LICAM(4-) is significantly smaller (97°) due to restrictions imposed by the shorter linker. Accordingly, the protein-binding affinity was found to be slightly higher for 5- compared to 4-LICAM(4-) but decreases for 6- and 8-LICAM(4-). The optimum linker length of five matches that present in natural siderophores such as enterobactin and azotochelin. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to investigate the relative importance of the Fe(III)-coordinating residues H227 and Y288

Search for time-dependent B0s - B0s-bar oscillations using a vertex charge dipole technique

We report a search for B0s - B0s-bar oscillations using a sample of 400,000 hadronic Z0 decays collected by the SLD experiment. The analysis takes advantage of the electron beam polarization as well as information from the hemisphere opposite that of the reconstructed B decay to tag the B production flavor. The excellent resolution provided by the pixel CCD vertex detector is exploited to cleanly reconstruct both B and cascade D decay vertices, and tag the B decay flavor from the charge difference between them. We exclude the following values of the B0s - B0s-bar oscillation frequency: Delta m_s < 4.9 ps-1 and 7.9 < Delta m_s < 10.3 ps-1 at the 95% confidence level.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, replaced by version accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.D; results differ slightly from first versio