CopY-like copper inducible repressors are putative 'winged helix' proteins

CopY of Enterococcus hirae is a well characterized copper-responsive repressor involved in copper homeostasis. In the absence of copper, it binds to the promoter. In high copper, the CopZ copper chaperone donates copper to CopY, thereby releasing it from the promoter and allowing transcription of the downstream copper homeostatic genes of the cop operon. We here show that the CopY-like repressors from E. hirae, Lactococcus lactis, and Streptococcus mutans have similar affinities not only for their native promoters, but also for heterologous cop promoters. CopZ of L. lactis accelerated the release of CopY from the promoter, suggesting that CopZ of L. lactis acts as copper chaperone, similar to CopZ in E. hirae. The consensus binding motif of the CopY-like repressors was shown to be TACAxxTGTA. The same binding motif is present in promoters controlled by BlaI of Bacillus licheniformis, MecI of Staphylococcus aureus and related repressors. BlaI and MecI have known structures and belong to the family of 'winged helix' proteins. In the N- terminal domain, they share significant sequence similarity with CopY of E. hirae. Moreover, they bind to the same TACAxxTGTA motif. NMR analysis of the N-terminal DNA binding domain of CopY of L. lactis showed that it contained the same alpha-helical content like the same regions of BlaI and MecI. These findings suggest that the DNA binding domains of CopY-like repressors are also of the 'winged helix' type.

The STEREO/PLASTIC response to solar wind ions (Flight measurements and models)

The Plasma and Supra-Thermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) instrument is one of four experiment packages on board of the two identical STEREO spacecraft A and B, which were successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on 26 October 2006. During the two years of the nominal STEREO mission, PLASTIC is providing us with the plasma characteristics of protons, alpha particles, and heavy ions. PLASTIC will also provide key diagnostic measurements in the form of the mass and charge state composition of heavy ions. Three measurements (E/qk, time of flight, ESSD) from the pulse height raw data are used to characterize the solar wind ions from the solar wind sector, and part of the suprathermal particles from the wide-angle partition with respect to mass, atomic number and charge state. In this paper, we present a new method for flight data analysis based on simulations of the PLASTIC response to solar wind ions. We present the response of the entrance system / energy analyzer in an analytical form. Based on stopping power theory, we use an analytical expression for the energy loss of the ions when they pass through a thin carbon foil. This allows us to model analytically the response of the time of flight mass spectrometer to solar wind ions. Thus we present a new version of the analytical response of the solid state detectors to solar wind ions. Various important parameters needed for our models were derived, based on calibration data and on the first flight measurements obtained from STEREO-A. We used information from each measured event that is registered in full resolution in the Pulse Height Analysis words and we derived a new algorithm for the analysis of both existing and future data sets of a similar nature which was tested and works well. This algorithm allows us to obtain, for each measured event, the mass, atomic number and charge state in the correct physical units. Finally, an important criterion was developed for filtering our Fe raw flight data set from the pulse height data without discriminating charge states.

Simulation der Logistik auf Erdbaustellen

Die Planung von Erdbaumaßnahmen stellt eine komplexe Aufgabe dar. Der Einsatz unterschiedlicher Maschinenkonfigurationen sowie alternativer Szenarien im Baustellenlayout (z.B. bezüglich der Transportrouten oder Zwischenlager) ist durchgängig zu prüfen und auszulegen. Falsche Entscheidungen können zu Verzögerungen oder einer unwirtschaftlichen Lösung führen und somit Projektdauer und -kosten beeinträchtigen. In der Praxis beruht dieser Planungsprozess auf dem Erfahrungswissen der Verantwortlichen, Tools zur Entscheidungsunterstützung in der Einsatzplanung von Aushub- und Transportgeräten werden entgegen der zentralen Bedeutung aber bislang nicht genutzt. Deshalb wurde im Rahmen des Forschungsverbundes „ForBAU – Virtuelle Baustelle“1 ein Lösungsweg erarbeitet, mit dem die Planung der Baustellenabläufe im Erdbau durch die Anwendung der ereignisorientierten Ablaufsimulation unterstützt werden kann. Hierzu wurden die Verfahren der Leistungsberechnung von Erdbaugeräten um statistische Komponenten ergänzt, für eine Anwendung in der Simulation adaptiert und in eine Bausteinbibliothek implementiert. Die Ermittlung der Transportzeiten basiert in der vorgestellten Lösung auf einem eigens entwickelten Algorithmus zur kinematischen Simulation der Fahrzeiten, welcher die Beschleunigungs- und Bremsvorgänge eines Fahrzeugs auf der Wegstrecke unter Berücksichtigung der Beladung nachbildet. Dipl.-Ing. Johannes Wimmer, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wi.-Ing. Willibald A. Günthner

The Effect of the Japan 2011 Disaster on Nuclear and Alternative Energy Stocks Worldwide: An Event Study

This event study investigates the impact of the Japanese nuclear disaster in Fukushima-Daiichi on the daily stock prices of French, German, Japanese, and U.S. nuclear utility and alternative energy firms. Hypotheses regarding the (cumulative) abnormal returns based on a three-factor model are analyzed through joint tests by multivariate regression models and bootstrapping. Our results show significant abnormal returns for Japanese nuclear utility firms during the one-week event window and the subsequent four-week post-event window. Furthermore, while French and German nuclear utility and alternative energy stocks exhibit significant abnormal returns during the event window, we cannot confirm abnormal returns for U.S. stocks.