Designing Digital Self-Assessment and Feedback Tools as Mentoring Interventions in Higher Education

Higher education in Germany traditionally follows a one-size-fits-all paradigm. The ignorance of diverse students’ needs jeopardizes high-quality and equal educational opportunities for all. Digital technologies can provide economical solutions to individualize teaching and learning, even in large university classes. However, their design has to incorporate pedagogical theories, specific contextual requirements, and users’ needs (Laurillard, 2008). In this project contribution, we want to demonstrate our approach to this challenge. We briefly describe how we connected the pedagogical concept of mentoring to theories of self-regulated learning and used this as a framework for developing formative assessment and automated feedback tools as digital mentoring interventions. The mentoring nterventions aim at facilitating self-regulated learning, especially self-monitoring and strategy-adaption. We present three different implementations in structured and illstructured domains and the key results of a qualitative evaluation survey. [Aus: Introduction

Interleukin-1β Interferes with Epidermal Homeostasis through Induction of Insulin Resistance: Implications for Psoriasis Pathogenesis

Response pathways of the metabolic and the immune system have been evolutionary conserved, resulting in a high degree of integrated regulation. Insulin is a central player in the metabolic system and potentially also in the homeostasis of the skin. Psoriasis is a frequent and often severe autoimmune skin disease, clinically characterized by altered epidermal homeostasis, of which the molecular pathomechanisms are only little understood. In this study, we have examined a potential role for insulin signaling in the pathogenesis of this disease. We show that IL-1β is present in high quantities in tissue fluid collected via microdialysis from patients with psoriasis; these levels are reduced under successful anti-psoriatic therapy. Our results suggest that IL-1β contributes to the disease by dual effects. First, it induces insulin resistance through p38MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase), which blocks insulin-dependent differentiation of keratinocytes, and at the same time IL-1β drives proliferation of keratinocytes, both being hallmarks of psoriasis. Taken together, our findings point toward insulin resistance as a contributing mechanism to the development of psoriasis; this not only drives cardiovascular comorbidities, but also its cutaneous phenotype. Key cytokines inducing insulin resistance in keratinocytes and kinases mediating their effects may represent attractive targets for novel anti-psoriatic therapies

PAX2 Regulates ADAM10 Expression and Mediates Anchorage-Independent Cell Growth of Melanoma Cells

PAX transcription factors play an important role during development and carcinogenesis. In this study, we investigated PAX2 protein levels in melanocytes and melanoma cells by Western Blot and immunofluorescence analysis and characterized the role of PAX2 in the pathogenesis of melanoma. In vitro we found weak PAX2 protein expression in keratinocytes and melanocytes. Compared to melanocytes increased PAX2 protein levels were detectable in melanoma cell lines. Interestingly, in tissue sections of melanoma patients nuclear PAX2 expression strongly correlated with nuclear atypia and the degree of prominent nucleoli, indicating an association of PAX2 with a more atypical cellular phenotype. In addition, with chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, PAX2 overexpression and PAX2 siRNA we present compelling evidence that PAX2 can regulate ADAM10 expression, a metalloproteinase known to play important roles in melanoma metastasis. In human tissue samples we found co-expression of PAX2 and ADAM10 in melanocytes of benign nevi and in melanoma cells of patients with malignant melanoma. Importantly, the downregulation of PAX2 by specific siRNA inhibited the anchorage independent cell growth and decreased the migratory and invasive capacity of melanoma cells. Furthermore, the downregulation of PAX2 abrogated the chemoresistance of melanoma cells against cisplatin, indicating that PAX2 expression mediates cell survival and plays important roles during melanoma progression

Forensic Dental Age Estimation: Development of New Algorithm Based on the Minimal Necessary Databases

Objectives Dental age determination relies on the presence of wisdom teeth, which can be assigned to specific age ranges according to their stage of development. The purpose of this study is to highlight the applicability of the Demirjian staging of layman compared to expert, as well as the inclusion of all four wisdom teeth in the overall assessment, in order to emphasize and critically highlight a precise age estimation in clinical practice, especially in the case of agenesis or the presence of less than all four wisdom teeth. Material and Methods: In this study, dental age determination is performed and compared by a trained layperson and an expert using 385 orthopantomograms. The radiographs of known chronological age from male patients in the age range of 11–22 years were acquired from the University Medical Center Mainz. All four wisdom teeth were radiologically viewed if present. Demirjian staging with stages A–H was applied, and regression analysis was performed. Results: The relationship between mineralization of wisdom teeth (18, 28, 38 and 48) and age was linear for all teeth (p < 0.01), except for tooth 18 (p = 0.02). Comparing the prediction of the four teeth individually revealed that the lower teeth gave better predictions than the upper ones (R2 ≥ 0.50 vs. R2 < 0.50). Conclusions: For clinical use, the mandibular wisdom teeth should be preferred when performing dental age estimation using the Demirjian staging method. As a result of the present analysis, two ways of determining dental age by wisdom teeth can be suggested. One is to take only tooth 38, with the formula: age = 3.3 + 0.73 × mineralization of tooth_38. The second recommendation would be to take tooth_48. If both are unavailable, the formula would be age = −0.5 + 0.94 × mineralization tooth_28. Utilizing tooth 18 would not lead to more precise results

Mammalian target of rapamycin and its downstream signalling components are activated in psoriatic skin

BACKGROUND: Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling integrates signals leading to cellular growth, proliferation and differentiation. Disturbance of this tightly regulated interplay leads to malignancies, as reflected by altered mTOR signalling in epidermal tumours. As psoriatic keratinocytes also show features of perturbed cell growth and differentiation, the question arises as to whether mTOR signalling also plays a role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the activation status of mTOR signalling components in psoriasis. METHODS: Biopsies from lesional and nonlesional skin of patients with psoriasis (n = 10), as well as samples from healthy donors (n = 3), were analysed by immunohistochemistry and Western blot, utilizing antibodies detecting phosphorylated mTOR, phospho-S6 kinase and phospho-S6 ribosomal protein. RESULTS: We found mTOR and its downstream signalling molecule, the ribosomal protein S6, to be activated in lesional psoriatic skin. While mTOR is activated throughout the whole epidermis, with particularly strong activation in the basal layer, S6 is active in suprabasal layers of differentiating keratinocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether these results suggest a role for mTOR signalling in the epidermal changes leading to the psoriatic phenotype. mTOR inhibition might be a mode of action to explore in developing innovative antipsoriatic drugs

Designing Digital Self-Assessment and Feedback Tools as Mentoring Interventions in Higher Education

Higher education in Germany traditionally follows a one-size-fits-all paradigm. The ignorance of diverse students’ needs jeopardizes high-quality and equal educational opportunities for all. Digital technologies can provide economical solutions to individualize teaching and learning, even in large university classes. However, their design has to incorporate pedagogical theories, specific contextual requirements, and users’ needs (Laurillard, 2008). In this project contribution, we want to demonstrate our approach to this challenge. We briefly describe how we connected the pedagogical concept of mentoring to theories of self-regulated learning and used this as a framework for developing formative assessment and automated feedback tools as digital mentoring interventions. The mentoring nterventions aim at facilitating self-regulated learning, especially self-monitoring and strategy-adaption. We present three different implementations in structured and illstructured domains and the key results of a qualitative evaluation survey. [Aus: Introduction

Endogenous mu-opioid peptides modulate immune response towards malignant melanoma

Opioids exert major effects not only in the central nervous system but also in immune responses. We investigated the effects of mu-opioid peptides, secreted by tumor cells, on anti-tumor immune responses. For this purpose, tumor growth was studied in wild-type and mu-opioid receptor-deficient (MOR-/-) mice injected with B16 melanoma cells. The ability of these cells to produce opioids was studied by Western blots in vitro. Finally, biopsy material from human melanomas was investigated by immunohistochemistry for ss endorphin expression. Injection of B16 melanoma cells, producing endogenous ss endorphin, in the flank of MOR-/- mice revealed a profound reduction in tumor growth, paralleled by a significantly higher infiltration of immune cells into the tumors, when compared to tumor growth after injection of B16 melanoma cells into wild-type mice. Opioids present in B16 cell supernatant significantly reduced the proliferation of normal but not MOR-/- leucocytes. Immunohistochemical analyses of biopsies from human melanoma tissues showed a positive correlation between expression of ss endorphin and tumor progression. Our data provide evidence that mu-opioid peptides may play a major role in cancer progression by modulating immune response. This finding may have implications for the future optimization of immunointerventions for cancer

Designing Digital Self-Assessment and Feedback Tools as Mentoring Interventions in Higher Education

Higher education in Germany traditionally follows a one-size-fits-all paradigm. The ignorance of diverse students’ needs jeopardizes high-quality and equal educational opportunities for all. Digital technologies can provide economical solutions to individualize teaching and learning, even in large university classes. However, their design has to incorporate pedagogical theories, specific contextual requirements, and users’ needs (Laurillard, 2008). In this project contribution, we want to demonstrate our approach to this challenge. We briefly describe how we connected the pedagogical concept of mentoring to theories of self-regulated learning and used this as a framework for developing formative assessment and automated feedback tools as digital mentoring interventions. The mentoring nterventions aim at facilitating self-regulated learning, especially self-monitoring and strategy-adaption. We present three different implementations in structured and illstructured domains and the key results of a qualitative evaluation survey. [Aus: Introduction

Forensic Age Estimation: A Multifactorial Approach in a Retrospective Population Study

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of forensic age estimation in a German population by combining clavicle and wisdom teeth assessments based on cone beam computed tomography (CT) data. The study aimed to determine the reliability of this approach in predicting biological age. Material and Methods: A total of 161 CT data sets from 120 males and 41 females with known exact ages were evaluated by three raters. The clavicle was assessed according to stages 1–5 (including substages 2a–c and 3a–c), and the Demirjian stage’s classification method was used for the wisdom teeth. Inter-class correlation (ICC) was calculated to assess the agreement among the three raters. Additionally, ordinary least square regressions were performed to predict chronological age using the clavicle or one of the four teeth. Finally, age prediction models using multiple indicators were developed. Results: The ICCs ranged from 0.82 for the clavicle to 0.86 and 0.88 for the wisdom teeth. Linear estimation tended to overestimate chronological age, especially in subjects over 18 years old. The clavicle showed the strongest overestimation. Combining age estimation from the clavicle with the upper and lower wisdom teeth improved the predictive power, resulting in a 14% and 15% increase in R² for the upper and lower wisdom teeth, respectively. Adding more than one tooth to the prediction did not improve the predictive power (all ΔR² Conclusions: Age estimation using CT can be significantly improved by combining information from the analysis of wisdom teeth with age estimation based on the clavicle