Berufseinstieg nach dem Studium: Ein Erfahrungsbericht

In diesem Erfahrungsbericht stellt eine Alumna der Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Hamburg ihren Einstieg in das Berufsleben nach dem Studium dar. Sie berichtet über den Bewerbungsprozess, die damit einhergehenden Gedanken und Einflussfaktoren. Zudem schildert sie ihre Eindrücke und Erlebnisse der ersten Monate im neuen Beruf und welche Herausforderungen ihr dabei begegneten

Auswirkungen von körperlichem Training im Alter auf das Volumen des Hippocampus und des Corpus callosum

Aufgrund der immer älter werdenden Bevölkerung und dem damit verbundenen demographischen Wandel ist gesundes Altern mit einer gut erhaltenen kognitiven Funktion immer wichtiger. Zahlreiche Studien an Tieren konnten bis zum heutigen Datum bereits zeigen, dass körperliches Training den normalen Abbau an Hirnsubstanz verlangsamen bis sogar zum Teil umkehren kann. Dabei stehen vor allem die Hirnstrukturen im Augenmerk, die für die kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit notwendig sind, wie dem Hippocampus und dem Corpus callosum. Nach den vielversprechenden Ergebnissen aus diesen Tierstudien wird aktuell noch die Wirkung von körperlichem Training auf das menschliche Gehirn und auf die kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit untersucht. Bis jetzt konnten Studien bereits zeigen, dass körperliches Training zu einer Volumenzunahme des Hippocampus und auch des Corpus callosum führt. Eine Verbesserung der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit konnte ebenfalls schon in zahlreichen Studien belegt werden. Im Rahmen der prospektiven, kontrollierten, randomisierten, Beobachter-verblindeten Studie HIRNaktivität nahmen 63 gesunde Teilnehmer im Alter zwischen 60 und 81 Jahren an einem körperlichen Training in einer Intensität von dreimal einer Stunde pro Woche über drei Monate teil. Diese wurden klinisch und kernspintomographisch verlaufsuntersucht. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden volumetrische Analysen des Hippocampus und des Corpus callosum erstellt und mit den klinischen Daten korreliert. Es zeigt sich konform zu den bereits existierenden Daten, dass körperliches Training zu einer signifikanten Volumenzunahme des linken Hippocampus führt. Für den rechten Hippocampus konnte nur eine nicht signifikante Volumenzunahme bzw. ein verlangsamter Abbau gezeigt werden. Wiederum eine signifikante Volumenzunahme konnte für das Corpus callosum belegt werden. Diese Arbeit verdeutlicht, wie wichtig körperliche Aktivität auch im Alter ist, um den natürlichen Abbau an Hirnvolumen mit den dadurch verbundenen kognitiven Einbußen zu verlangsamen bzw. umzukehren und somit im Alter die Autonomie zu erhalten

People do not always know best: Preschoolers’ trust in social robots versus humans

The main goal of my thesis was to investigate how 3- and 5-year-old children learn from robots versus humans using a selective trust paradigm. Children’s conceptualization of robots was also investigated. By using robots, which lack many of the social characteristics human informants possess by default, these studies sought to test young children’s reliance on epistemic characteristics conservatively. In Study 1, a competent humanoid robot, Nao, and an incompetent human, Ina, were presented to children. Both informants labelled familiar objects, like a ball, with Nao labelling them correctly and Ina labelling them incorrectly. Next, both informants labelled novel items with nonsense labels. Children were then asked what the novel item was called. Children were also asked what should go inside robots, something biological or something mechanical. Study 2 followed the same paradigm as Study 1, with the only change being the robot used, now the non-humanoid Cozmo. Eliminating the human-like appearance of the robot made for an even more conservative test than in Study 1. Both studies 1 and 2 found that 3-year-old children learned novel words equally from the robot and the human, regardless of the robot’s morphology. The 3-year-old children were also confused about both robot’s internal properties, attributing mechanical and biological insides to the robots equally. In contrast, the 5-year-olds in both studies preferred to learn from the accurate robot over the inaccurate human. The 5-year-olds also learned from both robots despite understanding that the robot is different from themselves; they attributed mechanical insides to both Nao and Cozmo over biological insides. Study 3 further investigated 3-year-olds ambivalence regarding their trust judgements, that is, who they choose to learn from. Instead of word learning, the robot demonstrated competence through pointing. The robot would accurately point at a toy inside a transparent box, and the human would point at an empty box. Next, both informants pointed at opaque boxes and the child was asked where the toy was located. Neither informant demonstrated the ability to speak, as speech is a salient social characteristic. 3-year-olds were still at chance, equally endorsing the robot and the human’s pointing. This suggests that goal-directedness and autonomous movement may be the most important characteristics used to signal agency for young children. The 3-year-olds were also still unsure about the robot’s biology, whereas they correctly identified the human as biological. This suggests that robots are confusing for children due to their dual nature as animate and yet not alive. This thesis shows that by the age of 5, children are willing and able to learn from a robot. These studies further add to the selective trust literature and have implications for educational settings

High structural diversity of aeruginosins in bloom-forming cyanobacteria of the genus Planktothrix as a consequence of multiple recombination events.

Many compounds produced by cyanobacteria act as serine protease inhibitors, such as the tetrapeptides aeruginosins (Aer), which are found widely distributed. The structural diversity of Aer is intriguingly high. However, the genetic basis of this remains elusive. In this study, we explored the genetic basis of Aer synthesis among the filamentous cyanobacteria Planktothrix spp. In total, 124 strains, isolated from diverse freshwater waterbodies, have been compared regarding variability within Aer biosynthesis genes and the consequences for structural diversity. The high structural variability could be explained by various recombination processes affecting Aer synthesis, above all, the acquisition of accessory enzymes involved in post synthesis modification of the Aer peptide (e.g., halogenases, glycosyltransferases, sulfotransferases) as well as a large-range recombination of Aer biosynthesis genes, probably transferred from the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis. The Aer structural composition differed between evolutionary Planktothrix lineages, adapted to either shallow or deep waterbodies of the temperate climatic zone. Thus, for the first time among bloom-forming cyanobacteria, chemical diversification of a peptide family related to eco-evolutionary diversification has been described. It is concluded that various Aer peptides resulting from the recombination event act in chemical defense, possibly as a replacement for microcystins

Emotional and social repercussions of stroke on patient-family caregiver dyads: Analysis of diverging attitudes and profiles of the differing dyads

For patients, the social and emotional repercussions of stroke include shame, personality changes, and upheavals experienced by the couple (i.e. patient and main family caregiver). These impacts on the couple ‘patient/family caregiver’ are scarcely documented. Focusing on the perceptions of the patients and the family caregivers living at home, two years after a stroke occurrence, the aims of the study were to analyse the concordance of attitudes towards the emotional and social repercussions of stroke and to determine the profiles of the differing dyads. Two researchers conducted separate face-to-face structured interviews with stroke survivors and their family caregivers. Eleven items, identified through a content analysis of interviews and after a qualitative process of generating questionnaire items, assessed the commonly experienced impact of stroke on the family, the social repercussions of stroke, and its emotional effects on the stroke survivors. The kappa concordance coefficient was used to determine the response convergence between patients and family caregivers. Four items, selected by a panel of experts, were included in logistic regressions (i.e., demographic characteristics and patients’ impaired functions) to identify the differing dyadic profiles. Family caregivers’ and patients’ attitudes towards the social repercussions of stroke were similar. Patients with motor deficiencies tended to underestimate the upheaval brought to their couple by stroke, whereas caregivers of language-impaired patients tended to underestimate their feelings of shame and demeaning. Communication disturbances, but also residual physical disabilities in stroke survivors, may affect the understanding of each other’s attitudes within dyads. In order to avoid dysfunctional relationships between family caregivers and patients, healthcare professionals need to pay special attention to this issue, especially in cases of aphasia and motor deficiencies

A Tobacco Homolog of DCN1 is Involved in Cellular Reprogramming and in Developmental Transitions

Plant proteomes show remarkable plasticity in reaction to environmental challenges and during developmental transitions. Some of this adaptability comes from ubiquitin-mediated protein destruction regulated by cullin-RING E3 ubiquitin ligases (CRLs). CRLs are activated through modification of the cullin subunit with the ubiquitin-like protein RUB/NEDD8 by an E3 ligase called defective in cullin neddylation 1 (DCN1). Here we show that tobacco DCN1 binds ubiquitin and RUB/NEDD8, and associates with cullin. When knocked down by RNAi, tobacco pollen formation stopped and zygotic embryogenesis was blocked around the globular stage. Additionally, we found that RNAi of DCN1 inhibited the stress-triggered reprogramming of cultured microspores from their intrinsic gametophytic mode of development to an embryogenic state. This stress-induced developmental switch is a known feature in many important crops and leads ultimately to the formation of haploid embryos and plants. Compensating the RNAi effect by re-transformation with a promoter-silencing construct restored pollen development and zygotic embryogenesis, as well as the ability for stress-induced formation of embryogenic microspores. Overexpression of DCN1, however, accelerated pollen tube growth and increased the potential for microspore reprogramming. These results demonstrate that the biochemical function of DCN1 is conserved in plants and that its activity is specifically required for transitions during pollen development and embryogenesis, and for pollen tube tip growth

Lactate-Induced Glucose Output Is Unchanged by Metformin at a Therapeutic Concentration - A Mass Spectrometry Imaging Study of the Perfused Rat Liver

Metformin is the first line drug for type 2 diabetes but its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we have studied the acute effect of a therapeutically relevant intrahepatic concentration of metformin on glucose production from lactate. We selected the perfused rat liver as experimental system since it enables the complete control of drug dosage. We used MALDI (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) mass spectrometry imaging to estimate the concentration of metformin in the livers and we measured the concentration of glucose in the effluent medium under basal conditions and following lactate addition. MALDI mass spectra of thin-sections of freeze-clamped rat liver perfused with metformin showed a peak at 130.16 m/z which was unambiguously assigned to metformin. The mass spectrometric detection limit was at a tissue concentration of about 250 nM, and uptake of metformin from the perfusion medium to the liver occurred with a K-m of 0.44 mM. Metformin was evenly distributed in the liver irrespective of its concentration in the perfusion medium and the duration of a perfusion. At a parenchymal concentration of 30 mu M, metformin did not induce any significant suppression of the basal or lactate-induced glucose release from the liver. These results show that matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging can be applied to estimate the tissue concentration and distribution of metformin in a therapeutically relevant micromolar concentration range. Our findings challenge the view that metformin causes an inhibition of glucose release from the liver by an acute inhibition of mitochondrial glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.5.3).Peer reviewe