Solar-pumped laser Final report

Solar pumped modulated laser to generate coherent radiation at optical wavelengths for long range, real time television data transmissio

Transformational, inclusive and multicultural or empty rhetoric? Perceptions and experiences of international academic staff

Using a bi-dimensional, fourfold model as a thinking tool to contemplate acculturation strategies we analyse the intercultural experience of international academic staff (IAS) in the United Kingdom higher education. The literature suggests that IAS feel undervalued as a professional group and that institutions do not capitalise on their diverse contributions. We position IAS within the strategic sphere of ethnocultural groups and the institution within the larger society. In a single case study, we analyse IAS acculturation strategies and their perceptions of how their institution accepts diversity. Findings show that IAS are willing to integrate, but do not aim to remove all traces of their own culture and values, adopting integration strategies. Their perceptions are that the larger society does not seek to segregate IAS; however, it does not provide the conditions for IAS to flourish in professional practice, especially at the early stage of transition

Boundary spanning as identity work in university business engagement roles

The study explores how boundary-spanning is carried out to further community engagement in 15 universities of differing sizes/ages across the United Kingdom. Fifteen interviewees participated in a series of four semi-structured interviews, aged between 35–50 and with a first degree (with almost half with an MSc). One third were women. All managed their own teams and felt these were their base in negotiating difficult internal territory.. Here, boundary spanning is found to be synonymous with identity work, carried out to enable individuals to adapt to different internal and external conditions and requirements through processes of interaction and learning. It also suggests the strategic construction of identities to address perceived threats and insecurities - and the impacts of change, dominant organisational discourse and senior management on this process. Their job titles were not useful as identity badges to signal meaning, due to these being outside ‘what universities are for’

Specialized dynamical properties of promiscuous residues revealed by simulated conformational ensembles

The ability to interact with different partners is one of the most important features in proteins. Proteins that bind a large number of partners (hubs) have been often associated with intrinsic disorder. However, many examples exist of hubs with an ordered structure, and evidence of a general mechanism promoting promiscuity in ordered proteins is still elusive. An intriguing hypothesis is that promiscuous binding sites have specific dynamical properties, distinct from the rest of the interface and pre-existing in the protein isolated state. Here, we present the first comprehensive study of the intrinsic dynamics of promiscuous residues in a large protein data set. Different computational methods, from coarse-grained elastic models to geometry-based sampling methods and to full-atom Molecular Dynamics simulations, were used to generate conformational ensembles for the isolated proteins. The flexibility and dynamic correlations of interface residues with a different degree of binding promiscuity were calculated and compared considering side chain and backbone motions, the latter both on a local and on a global scale. The study revealed that (a) promiscuous residues tend to be more flexible than nonpromiscuous ones, (b) this additional flexibility has a higher degree of organization, and (c) evolutionary conservation and binding promiscuity have opposite effects on intrinsic dynamics. Findings on simulated ensembles were also validated on ensembles of experimental structures extracted from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Additionally, the low occurrence of single nucleotide polymorphisms observed for promiscuous residues indicated a tendency to preserve binding diversity at these positions. A case study on two ubiquitin-like proteins exemplifies how binding promiscuity in evolutionary related proteins can be modulated by the fine-tuning of the interface dynamics. The interplay between promiscuity and flexibility highlighted here can inspire new directions in protein-protein interaction prediction and design methods. © 2013 American Chemical Society

Mass Media Influence Spreading in Social Networks with Community Structure

We study an extension of Axelrod's model for social influence, in which cultural drift is represented as random perturbations, while mass media are introduced by means of an external field. In this scenario, we investigate how the modular structure of social networks affects the propagation of mass media messages across the society. The community structure of social networks is represented by coupled random networks, in which two random graphs are connected by intercommunity links. Considering inhomogeneous mass media fields, we study the conditions for successful message spreading and find a novel phase diagram in the multidimensional parameter space. These findings show that social modularity effects are of paramount importance in order to design successful, cost-effective advertising campaigns.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures. To appear in JSTA

A GWAS in Latin Americans highlights the convergent evolution of lighter skin pigmentation in Eurasia

We report a genome-wide association scan in >6,000 Latin Americans for pigmentation of skin and eyes. We found eighteen signals of association at twelve genomic regions. These include one novel locus for skin pigmentation (in 10q26) and three novel loci for eye pigmentation (in 1q32, 20q13 and 22q12). We demonstrate the presence of multiple independent signals of association in the 11q14 and 15q13 regions (comprising the GRM5/TYR and HERC2/OCA2 genes, respectively) and several epistatic interactions among independently associated alleles. Strongest association with skin pigmentation at 19p13 was observed for an Y182H missense variant (common only in East Asians and Native Americans) in MFSD12, a gene recently associated with skin pigmentation in Africans. We show that the frequency of the derived allele at Y182H is significantly correlated with lower solar radiation intensity in East Asia and infer that MFSD12 was under selection in East Asians, probably after their split from Europeans

A high‐resolution view of the coordination environment in a paramagnetic metalloprotein from its magnetic properties

Metalloproteins constitute a significant fraction of the proteome of all organisms and their characterization is critical for both basic sciences and biomedical applications. A large portion of metalloproteins bind paramagnetic metal ions, and paramagnetic NMR spectroscopy has been widely used in their structural characterization. However, the signals of nuclei in the immediate vicinity of the metal center are often broadened beyond detection. In this work, we show that it is possible to determine the coordination environment of the paramagnetic metal in the protein at a resolution inaccessible to other techniques. Taking the structure of a diamagnetic analogue as a starting point, a geometry optimization is carried out by fitting the pseudocontact shifts obtained from first principles quantum chemical calculations to the experimental ones