Austrian Science Research Articles

Austrian exceptionalism? insights from a huge department in a small country

Whereas political science has a long history in the higher-education provision of many countries, it was only in the early 1970s that it became a feature of the provision in Austria. Not only is Austria a latecomer to the political science profession, but it is also home to a rather small political science community with there only being three universities which have established political science departments: Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna. Today two university political science departments have mainstreamed gender into their curriculum, with this being the result of the success of feminist entrepreneurs in these departments. The provision at the University of Vienna is typified by one where professors, associates and external lecturers contribute to the curriculum in gender political science. This state of affairs is, however, far from secure as the Bologna process, the transformation toward an entrepreneurial university as well as budget cuts challenge these institutionalizations. This article seeks to explain this mixed picture through an analysis of the recent state of the art of teaching and gender research in Austrian political science before proceeding to point out the favorable factors which fostered the establishment of gender studies in Political Science. Finally, the article builds on the recent challenging conditions which jeopardizes gender studies within the discipline.

Diffusion Analysis of Lymphocyte Specific Kinase Reveals Immobilisation Hot Spots in Live T-Cell Plasma Membranes

T-Lymphocytes initiate an adaptive immune response after specific binding of the T-cell receptor (TCR) to an antigenic peptide bound to the major histocompatibility complex (peptide-MHC) on an antigen presenting cell. Key events upon TCR-pMHC binding involve the phosphorylation of intracellular tyrosine residues of the TCR and recruitment of adapter molecules, which results in downstream signalling. Initial TCR phosphorylation is primarily carried out by the membrane associated protein lymphocyte specific kinase (Lck) making it a central molecule for T-cell signalling. Recent work on Lck, using superresolution microscopy techniques, has shown the organisation of Lck in nanoclusters in fixed as well as in live cells [1]. However, neither the structural mechanism nor the functional role of this non-random Lck distribution in the plasma membrane are well understood. Possible explanations for Lck clustering may be local lipid heterogeneities as well as interactions with other plasma membrane proteins or the cortical actin cytoskeleton. In order to acquire a better understanding of Lck dynamics in live cells, we carried out superresolution experiments on Lck-mEOS3.2, stably expressed in JCaM 1.6 cells. We used single molecule tracking to elucidate the diffusional behaviour of Lck. Based on the reported existence of nanoclusters, we implemented a simple and practical method to separately analyse Lck diffusion inside and outside these structures. Surprisingly, only Lck-molecules inside clusters were immobilised, whereas molecules outside of clusters exhibited pure Brownian motion. We further found that disruption of the actin cytoskeleton did not influence Lck immobilisations. [1] Rossy, J., et al., Conformational states of the kinase Lck regulate clustering in early T cell signalling. Nature immunology 14, 82-89 (2013). This work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund/FWF project P26337-B21 and P27941-B28.

Lck is Randomly Distributed on the T Cell Plasma Membrane

The spatial organization of signaling components on the T cell plasma membrane is generally believed to regulate T cell function. During activation, local immobilization in so-called microclusters and subsequent rearrangement of key components of the T cell signaling machinery results in down-stream signaling and T cell activation1. Using super-resolution microscopy, a number of reports have proposed the existence of nanoscopic clusters of T cell signaling components2-4, suggesting that local enrichment of signaling molecules is an underlying regulatory mechanism of T cell signaling. Here, we investigate more in detail the nanoscopic organization of Lck in Jurkat T cells. Contrary to a previous report that described Lck nano-clusters using PALM, we find both in PALM and dStorm experiments that Lck is homogeneously distributed on the T cell plasma membrane. We develop a new approach to analyze apparent nano-clustering in PALM and dStorm data of fixed cell samples. By titrating the labeling density, we calculate cluster sizes and localization densities in clusters to distinguish random from clustered spatial distributions of molecules. Moreover, we also use two-color labeling in combination with nearest neighbor distance analysis to characterize the spatial distribution of molecules. Our data suggest that Lck activity and hence T cell activation cannot depend on the formation of nanoscopic clusters. Rather, our data support the view that Lck is randomly distributed on the T cell plasma membrane and is specifically recruited to signaling hotspots during T cell activation. Funding: Austrian Science Fund/FWF P 27941-B28 1. Dustin M.L. (2014) Cancer Immunol Res 2. Owen D.M. et al (2012) Nat Commun 3. Rossy J. et al (2013) Nat Immunol 4. Lillemeier B.F.F. et al (2010) Nat Immunol

The Global Publishing Trajectory of a European Political Science Community: Indices, Trends, and Implications

This article estimates the global publishing activities of a European political science community (Austria). We first provide OCLC Worldcat figures (“libcitation figures”) on the global library outreach of this community (best placed books, and the number of works present at 300 and 100 global libraries). We also analyse their results for three important Western scientific “subcultures” (France, Japan and Sweden), and try to find the determinants of the global library presence indicators. Journal publishing is the key to understanding global and regional libcitation success rates. We also extend our analysis to look into the presence of the analysed scientific community in the libraries of international bureaucracies and Western security establishments. For more than 70 senior researchers, we also developed an index of global publishing market presence, based on 15 subcomponents. The article arrives at a very positive assessment of the globalized trajectory of Austrian political science during the last decade.

Transport of Small Molecules across the Bacterial Translocation Channel SecYEG

Many proteins are translocated across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane or the bacterial plasma membrane through a conserved channel, formed by a heterotrimeric protein complex (called the Sec61p complex in eukaryotes and the SecYEG complex in bacteria and archaea). Cotranslational or postranslational translocation requires ribosome or SecA binding, respectively. The resting channel is impermeable to ions and water (Saparov et al., 2007). Here we have tested whether the channel remains a barrier to small molecules after a conformational transition occurred due to ligand binding. Therefore, we reconstituted the purified and fluorescently labeled translocation channel SecYEG into planar lipid bilayers. Positioning of the membrane on top of a laser scanning microscope with single molecule sensitivity allowed monitoring the reconstitution efficiency. Both the motor molecule SecA and ribosomes induced ion channel activity. The probability of the channel opening was derived from the number of open channels and the total number of reconstituted channels.Acknowledgments: The project was funded by the Austrian Science Fund.ReferenceS. M. Saparov, Karl Erlandson, Kurt Cannon, Julia Schaletzky, Sol Schulman, Tom A. Rapoport, and P. Pohl. Determining the Conductance of the SecY Protein Translocation Channel for Small Molecules. Mol.Cell 26 (4):501-509, 2007.

Austrian political science: the state of the art

Austrian political science: the state of the art

Marienthal and After

The article traces the contributions of Austrian social science in the inter-war period, comparing it briefly with the time after 1945. It shows how the response to local development was nevertheless closely linked to global ones and how the shift from politically relevant research to policy relevance occurred.

Austrian Science

THE monthly parts of the Sitzungsberithte of the Vienna Academy of Sciences which appeared last year show that there is no falling off in the research work carried out at the Austrian universities in the fields of mathematics and natural philosophy. Prof. Lecher, of Prague, has verified Ohm's law by showing that there is no difference in the resistance of a silver or platinum wire when a small or a large electric current passes through it, provided its temperature is the same in both, cases. Assuming that the current is carried by one type of: free electron, he deduces a velocity of propagation of electricity in ordinary cases of the order of a. few centimetres per second.