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References to the divine have been frequent in the history of Christian art. As examples, this article surveys the symbolism of light and gold, the rhetoric of gesture, and the theatricality of the pictorial space. Sacred art is closely linked to biblical, liturgical and theological texts which are full of metaphorical expressions of transcendent realities. Since artists, patrons and viewers considered these texts authoritative, they must be consulted to interpret artworks correctly. This study argues that Catholic theology and the magisterium have constantly called for references to the divine. As a theoretical framework, this image theology helps to interpret the art-historical data with new questions that tourists and communicators today usually do not ask. This is because Christian art mediates the meaning of divine revelation, which is not self-explanatory. It needs to be decoded with a method interested in both images and texts. Erwin Panofsky has presented such a method. His 'iconology' consists of three steps for describing, analyzing and interpreting images. This article claims that the interpretation of Christian art is a prime example of the ongoing applicability of Panofsky's method as a tool for decoding iconography in pastoral, academic and social media communications, and examines a selection of best practices in such communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most commonly used measurement technique in room acoustics employs a single omnidirectional microphone for recording the room impulse response and further derivation of such acoustical parameters as T30, EDT, C50 or C80. Instead, ambisonic technology makes it possible to measure a spatial room impulse response. Ambisonics decomposes the signal from the spherical microphone array into spherical harmonics to shape the directivity. Ambisonics lets to go beyond basic acoustical parameters and allows to determine spatial features of a sound field at the measurement point. This study presents the comparison of fundamental acoustic parameters measured in the recording studio by an actual omnidirectional microphone and virtual omnidirectional microphones derieved from ambisonic microphones of the first and third order. The results show the usefulness of ambisonic technology in terms of assessing basic room parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The individual Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) typically show large left-right ear differences. This work evaluates HRTF left-right differences by means of the rms measure called the Root Mean Square Difference (RMSD). The RMSD was calculated for HRTFs measured with the participation of a group of 15 subjects in our laboratory, for the HRTFs taken from the LISTEN database and for the acoustic manikin. The results showed that the RMSD varies in relation to the frequency and as expected is small for more symmetrical HRTFs at low frequencies (0.3÷1 kHz). For higher frequency bands (1÷5 kHz and above 5 kHz), the left-right differences are higher as an effect of the complex filtering caused by anatomical shape of the head and the pinnae. Results obtained for the subjects and for data taken from the LISTEN database were similar, whereas different for the acoustic manikin. This means that measurements with the use of the manikin cannot be considered as perfect average representation of the results obtained for people. The method and results of this study may be useful in assessing the symmetry of the HRTFs, and further analysis and improvement of how to considered the HRTFs individualization and personalization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rossmann fold enzymes are involved in essential biochemical pathways such as nucleotide and amino acid metabolism. Their functioning relies on interaction with cofactors, small nucleoside-based compounds specifically recognized by a conserved βαβ motif shared by all Rossmann fold proteins. While Rossmann methyltransferases recognize only a single cofactor type, the S-adenosylmethionine, the oxidoreductases, depending on the family, bind nicotinamide (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) or flavin-based (flavin adenine dinucleotide) cofactors. In this study, we showed that despite its short length, the βαβ motif unambiguously defines the specificity towards the cofactor. Following this observation, we trained two complementary deep learning models for the prediction of the cofactor specificity based on the sequence and structural features of the βαβ motif. A benchmark on two independent test sets, one containing βαβ motifs bearing no resemblance to those of the training set, and the other comprising 38 experimentally confirmed cases of rational design of the cofactor specificity, revealed the nearly perfect performance of the two methods. The Rossmann-toolbox protocols can be accessed via the webserver at https://lbs.cent.uw.edu.pl/rossmann-toolbox and are available as a Python package at https://github.com/labstructbioinf/rossmann-toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joachim Stegmann the eider (1595-1633), Brandenburg born theologian of the Polish Brethren, was also a mathematician. In this area of his activity, he published a textbook for the Unitarian school in Raków, Institutionum Mathematicarum Libri Duo (Two Books of Mathematical Sciences, Raków 1630), and two works describing multifunctional surveying devices: Circinus Quadrantarius (Quadrant Compass, Berlin 1624) and Radius Mathematicus (Mathematical Walking Stick, Berlin 1626). This paper deals with Stegmann's Radius Mathematicus, which is a description, or rather a manual, of a walking stick of hexagonal section. Each of its sides was engraved with scales of various surveying devices. There were a cylinder sundial, a scale of quadrant for determining the altitude of Sun, a cross staff, a scala altimetra for determining the height of an object basing on the length of its shadow, a caliber gauge for determining the weight of cannonballs, a length of an ell and a gauging rod for surveying barrels. Some surveys had to be conducted with a separate gnomon. The stick was probably about 130 cm long and the gnomon was about 30 cm long. The paper is followed by a reproduction of Radius Mathematicus from the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences (cal! number Sa 1 8° adl. 11) and its Polish translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces that scientist Zbigniew Tucholski has received IM. Jan Jędrzejewicz award.