The transformative role of universities in regional innovations systems: lessons from university engagement in cross-border regions

Universities play many important roles in the knowledge-based economy, providing innovation support services directly, but also changing the way that innovation is organised in their regions, and building new economic development pathways. Their roles can be particularly important in less successful regions that lack a critical mass of other knowledge actors who have the skills to organise regional innovation structures and processes. This working paper seeks to explore the roles that universities can play in one very specific type of peripheral region namely cross-border regions, where national borders hinder interactions, network-formation and institutionalisation between innovation actors that might geographically be proximate. Our research question is: what roles do universities play in cross-border regions and how can we understand these roles through a conceptual typology? We propose a conceptual typology for how universities may build up elements of university innovation activities in cross-border regions using their teaching, research, management and administrative processes. We explore this in six border regions: Bothnian Arc, Hedmark - Dalarna, Helsinki – Tallinn, Ireland – Northern Ireland, TTR-ELAt and Öresund to reflect more widely on universities’ wider roles in building up regional innovation system

Burgerkennis als hulpbron voor stedelijke ontwikkeling

Om een duurzame samenleving te waarborgen hebben beleidsmakers de participatie van burgers hard nodig – niet om enkel in te stemmen met voorgekookte oplossingen, maar ook om alternatieve wegen te exploreren. Zoals bij de omstreden afvalwaterinjecties in Noordoost-Twente

Abschlussbericht VRmed - Virtual Reality in der medizinischen Lehre: Ein Projekt der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig, Referat Lehre, Bereich Medien

The advance of digitization influences medical sciences in various areas, increasingly including medical education. Therefore the Teaching Department of the Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig constantly considers new technical developments and their possibilities for use in medical teaching. The focus is on the fact that teaching should be supplemented and explicitly not replaced by digital media. Virtual reality (hereinafter referred to as 'VR') represents a technology that can be expected to offer promising potential. In order to determine to what extent VR represents an added value for the study of human medicine and which hardware and software is suitable, the project VRmed – Virtual Reality in Medical Teaching was initiated in the Media section of the Teaching Department of the MF. This was funded as part of the Digital Fellowship Program by the University Didactic Center Saxony and the Working Group E-Learning of the LRK Saxony. The present report represents the final report of the project, which was created on its own initiative. In order to investigate the question of implementation possibilities for medical studies, four VR glasses (three different models) and four VR applications were purchased. Two simulation applications and two anatomy applications were selected as applications. The former are i:medtasim and StepVR applications. In addition, the anatomy applications 3D Organon VR Anatomy and Medicalholodeck were purchased. The initially extensive multi-stage evaluation with lecturers and students could not be implemented in 2020/2021 due to the pandemic-related restrictions and was therefore only applied in limited extent. Thus, hardware and software were evaluated qualitatively and in depth in the context of three presentation events by lecturers and media didactics. In particular, the simulation applications are considered to be helpful and useful extensions for teaching. The anatomy application 3D Organon VR Anatomy could also be used profitably in medical studies, especially in the early semesters. With regard to i:medtasim, there are initial considerations to include this in the curriculum as part of a medical elective. Another perspective is the establishment of a VR lab in which students and lecturers can freely use the technology. It should also be noted that VR is associated with many technical challenges and both the setup and the first use require expertise. In addition, the purchase is cost-intensive and hardware and software develop very quickly. Nevertheless, the potentials and the added value predominate. VR can be used to meet a wide range of learning types, practice scenarios bridge the gap between theory and practice, and students and lecturers can connect to technical developments.:1. Einleitung 2. Theoretische Hinführung 3. VR an Medizinischen Fakultäten und Universitäten außerhalb des Standorts Leipzig 4. Projektbeschreibung VRmed – Virtual Reality in der medizinischen Lehre Leipzig 5. VR Hardware und Software für den medizinischen Einsatz 6. Evaluation 7. Fazit und Ausblick 8. Literaturverzeichnis 9. Online-Quellen Anhang A) Projektstrukturplan B) Zeitplan C) Poster D) EvaluationsprotokolleDas Voranschreiten der Digitalisierung beeinflusst die Medizin in verschiedenen Bereichen, weshalb deren Relevanz auch im Medizinstudium zunimmt. Daher werden im Referat Lehre der Medizinischen Fakultät der Universität Leipzig stetig neue technische Entwicklungen und deren Möglichkeiten für den Einsatz in der medizinischen Lehre betrachtet. Im Fokus steht, dass die Lehre ergänzt und explizit nicht durch digitale Medien ersetzt werden soll. Virtual Reality (im Folgenden „VR“) stellt dabei eine Technologie dar, die in der ersten Auseinandersetzung vielversprechende Potentiale erwarten lässt. Um festzustellen, inwiefern VR einen Mehrwert für das Humanmedizinstudium darstellt und welche Hard- und Software dabei in Frage kommt, wurde im Bereich Medien des Referats Lehre der MF das Projekt VRmed – Virtual Reality in der medizinischen Lehre initiiert. Dies wurde im Rahmen des Digital Fellowship-Programms vom Hochschuldidaktischen Zentrum Sachsen und dem Arbeitskreis E-Learning der LRK Sachsen gefördert. Der hier vorliegende Bericht stellt den Abschlussbericht des Projektes dar, welcher aus Eigenantrieb erstellt wurde. Um der Frage nach Implementierungsmöglichkeiten für das Medizinstudium nachzugehen, wurden vier VR-Brillen (drei verschiedene Modelle) und vier VR-Anwendungen angeschafft. Als Anwendungen wurden zwei Simulationsanwendungen und zwei Anatomieanwendungen ausgewählt. Bei ersterem handelt es sich um die Anwendungen i:medtasim und StepVR. Zudem wurden die Anatomieanwendungen 3D Organon VR Anatomy und Medicalholodeck eingekauft. Die zunächst umfangreich angelegte mehrstufige Evaluation mit Dozierenden und Studierenden konnte aufgrund der pandemiebedingten Einschränkungen in den Jahren 2020/2021 nicht umgesetzt werden und wurde eingegrenzt. Somit wurde Hard- und Software im Rahmen von drei Präsentationsveranstaltungen von Dozierenden und Mediendidaktiker:innen qualitativ und tiefgehend evaluiert. Insbesondere die Simulationsanwendungen werden als hilfreiche und sinnvolle Erweiterungen für die Lehre eingeschätzt. Auch die Anatomieanwendung 3D Organon VR Anatomy könnte im Medizinstudium, insbesondere in die frühen Semester, gewinnbringend eingesetzt werden. Bezüglich i:medtasim existieren erste Überlegungen, dies im Rahmen eines humanmedizinischen Wahlfachs in das Curriculum einzubinden. Eine weitere Perspektive ist die Etablierung eines VR-Labs, in dem Studierende und Dozierende die Technik frei nutzen können. Es bleibt auch festzuhalten, dass VR mit vielen technischen Herausforderungen verbunden ist und sowohl das Einrichten als auch die erste Nutzung Expertise bedürfen. Zudem ist die Anschaffung kostenintensiv und Hard- und Software entwickeln sich sehr schnell. Dennoch überwiegen die Potentiale und der Mehrwert. Durch VR kann vielfältigen Lerntypen begegnet werden, durch Übungsszenarien wird eine Brücke zwischen Theorie und Praxis geschlagen und Studierende wie auch Dozierende können an technische Entwicklungen anschließen.:1. Einleitung 2. Theoretische Hinführung 3. VR an Medizinischen Fakultäten und Universitäten außerhalb des Standorts Leipzig 4. Projektbeschreibung VRmed – Virtual Reality in der medizinischen Lehre Leipzig 5. VR Hardware und Software für den medizinischen Einsatz 6. Evaluation 7. Fazit und Ausblick 8. Literaturverzeichnis 9. Online-Quellen Anhang A) Projektstrukturplan B) Zeitplan C) Poster D) Evaluationsprotokoll

Science spaces as 'ethnoscapes’: Identity, perception and the production of locality

Science and technology spaces around the world are, simultaneously, major physical, technological and symbolic forms, key elements of economic strategy, and sites of international labour movements and knowledge transfer. They are thus the product of multiple imaginations, with multiple, potentially divergent, objectives. In this paper, we compare three international science spaces as ‘ethnoscapes’, emphasising the distinctive perceptions, cultures and identities amongst international science and technology migrants and visitors at these sites. This, we contend, sharpens a sense of the ‘international-ness’ of science spaces in various dimensions, given the particular experiences of scientific migrants and visitors moving into different nations, locations and facilities, their roles in constructing international communities, and their navigation of alternative spaces. It also offers insight into the production of contextual (rather than spatial or physical) localities, as international scientists and technologists experience and constitute larger formations, building on their perceptions of varied and interacting science ’scapes

Altered increase in STAT1 expression and phosphorylation in severe COVID‐19

The interferon pathway, a key antiviral defense mechanism, is being considered as a therapeutic target in COVID-19. Both, substitution of interferon and JAK/STAT inhibition to limit cytokine storms have been proposed. However, little is known about possible abnormalities in STAT signaling in immune cells during SARS-CoV-2 infection. We investigated downstream targets of interferon signaling, including STAT1, STAT2, pSTAT1 and 2, and IRF1, 7 and 9 by flow cytometry in 30 patients with COVID-19, 17 with mild, and 13 with severe infection. We report upregulation of STAT1 and IRF9 in mild and severe COVID-19 cases, which correlated with the IFN-signature assessed by Siglec-1 (CD169) expression on peripheral monocytes. Interestingly, Siglec-1 and STAT1 in CD14+ monocytes and plasmablasts showed lower expression among severe cases compared to mild cases. Contrary to the baseline STAT1 expression, the phosphorylation of STAT1 was enhanced in severe COVID-19 cases, indicating a dysbalanced JAK/STAT signaling that fails to induce transcription of interferon stimulated response elements (ISRE). This abnormality persisted after IFN-alpha and IFN-gamma stimulation of PBMCs from patients with severe COVID-19. Data suggest impaired STAT1 transcriptional upregulation among severely infected patients may represent a potential predictive biomarker and would allow stratification of patients for certain interferon-pathway targeted treatments

Genetics of osteopontin in patients with chronic kidney disease: The German chronic kidney disease study

Osteopontin (OPN), encoded by SPP1, is a phosphorylated glycoprotein predominantly synthesized in kidney tissue. Increased OPN mRNA and protein expression correlates with proteinuria, reduced creatinine clearance, and kidney fibrosis in animal models of kidney disease. But its genetic underpinnings are incompletely understood. We therefore conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of OPN in a European chronic kidney disease (CKD) population. Using data from participants of the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study (N = 4,897), a GWAS (minor allele frequency [MAF]>= 1%) and aggregated variant testing (AVT, MAFAuthor summaryOsteopontin (OPN) is involved in many (patho)physiological processes of the human body. Among others, it is known to be associated with adverse kidney outcomes. Since its genetic underpinnings are incompletely understood, we conducted a genome-wide association study of OPN in a European chronic kidney disease (CKD) population (N = 4,897). Of the three detected signals, two could be replicated within a population-based study of Finns. One locus is located upstream of SPP1 which encodes the OPN protein and is related to OPN production. This gene was also disclosed by an analysis of rare variants, all presumably effecting the gene product. Another locus maps into KLKB1 encoding prekallikrein (PK) that after processing to kallikrein (KAL) is implicated in blood pressure control and inflammation among others. Overall, our results highlight the multi-functional role of OPN and its possible pathological role in CKD. Further studies are needed to elucidate the complex role of OPN in humans.</p