STD‐NMR‐Based Protein Engineering of the Unique Arylpropionate‐Racemase AMDase G74C

Structure‐guided protein engineering achieved a variant of the unique racemase AMDase G74C, with 40‐fold increased activity in the racemisation of several arylaliphatic carboxylic acids. Substrate binding during catalysis was investigated by saturation‐transfer‐difference NMR (STD‐NMR) spectroscopy. All atoms of the substrate showed interactions with the enzyme. STD‐NMR measurements revealed distinct nuclear Overhauser effects in experiments with and without molecular conversion. The spectroscopic analysis led to the identification of several amino acid residues whose substitutions increased the activity of G74C. Single amino acid exchanges increased the activity moderately; structure‐guided saturation mutagenesis yielded a quadruple mutant with a 40 times higher reaction rate. This study presents STD‐NMR as versatile tool for the analysis of enzyme–substrate interactions in catalytically competent systems and for the guidance of protein engineering.     

Mining Navigation Patterns Using a Sequence Alignment Method

In this article, a new method is illustrated for mining navigation patterns on a web site. Instead of clustering patterns by means of a Euclidean distance measure, in this approach users are partitioned into clusters using a non-Euclidean distance measure called the Sequence Alignment Method (SAM). This method partitions navigation patterns according to the order in which web pages are requested and handles the problem of clustering sequences of different lengths. The performance of the algorithm is compared with the results of a method based on Euclidean distance measures. SAM is validated by means of user-traffic data of two different web sites. Empirical results show that SAM identifies sequences with similar behavioral patterns not only with regard to content, but also considering the order of pages visited in a sequence.     

Iconic Religion in Urban Space

Abstract

In order to understand current dynamics of religious diversity, a focus on the tangible presence of religion and the co-existence of new and longstanding religious buildings, sites and artifacts in urban spaces is a fruitful starting point. Launching the notion of iconic religion, this introduction seeks to contribute to developing a scholarly framework for the nexus of religion and the city from a spatial, material, aesthetic and semiotic angle. Situated in the interface between matter and religious meaning, religious icons are not simply carriers of meaning, but make it present.