Mehrwert des Chateinsatzes beim studienvorbereitenden Online-Deutschlernen

In diesem Beitrag geht es um den Chatmehrwert und dessen Erzielung beim studienvorbereitenden OnlineDeutschlernen. Sowohl quantitativ als auch qualitativ werden Chatprotokolle und Ergebnisse der Fragebögen mit Lernenden und Tutoren¹ der Deutsch-Uni Online (DUO)² ausgewertet. Das Analysieren der Chatprotokolle mithilfe des Programms ChatLine³ stellt neue Möglichkeiten für die Chatuntersuchung dar. Aus dieser Studie ergibt sich einerseits, dass die Intensivierung der Interaktion unter den Chatteilnehmern den grundlegenden Chatmehrwert darstellt, was zur Verbesserung der sprachlichen Fertigkeiten, zum kollaborativen Lernen und zur Entwicklung der interkulturellen Kompetenz der Lernenden führen kann. Andererseits bilden die technischen, organisatorischen und didaktischen Rahmenbedingungen die nötige Basis für die Interaktionsintensivierung in Lernchats

Case report: Dissociative neurological symptom disorder with gait disturbance: taking after the father?

Dissociative neurological symptoms disorder (DNSD), or conversion disorder, frequently manifests with unexplained neurological symptoms, necessitating referral to psychiatry following preliminary diagnosis in neurology. We present a case of an adolescent female patient with gait disturbance as the predominant clinical presentation, and delve into the diagnosis and interdisciplinary intervention process. Given neuroimaging deviations detected and familial similar presentations, the organic etiology was confirmed. However, the aberrant gait remained unexplained ultimately prompting psychiatric consultation resulting in the diagnosis of DNSD. Interventions consisting of health education, suggestive therapy, and physiotherapy notably improved gait disturbance. However, at follow-up, the patient presented with a depressive episode. It was deduced that undiagnosed psychosocial factors, notably familial dynamics, likely contributed to this decline. Eventually, transformed relation patterns among family members as well as antidepressant treatment were instrumental in attaining symptom remission

DAGC: Data-Volume-Aware Adaptive Sparsification Gradient Compression for Distributed Machine Learning in Mobile Computing

Distributed machine learning (DML) in mobile environments faces significant communication bottlenecks. Gradient compression has emerged as an effective solution to this issue, offering substantial benefits in environments with limited bandwidth and metered data. Yet, they encounter severe performance drop in non-IID environments due to a one-size-fits-all compression approach, which does not account for the varying data volumes across workers. Assigning varying compression ratios to workers with distinct data distributions and volumes is thus a promising solution. This study introduces an analysis of distributed SGD with non-uniform compression, which reveals that the convergence rate (indicative of the iterations needed to achieve a certain accuracy) is influenced by compression ratios applied to workers with differing volumes. Accordingly, we frame relative compression ratio assignment as an $n$-variables chi-square nonlinear optimization problem, constrained by a fixed and limited communication budget. We propose DAGC-R, which assigns the worker handling larger data volumes the conservative compression. Recognizing the computational limitations of mobile devices, we DAGC-A, which are computationally less demanding and enhances the robustness of the absolute gradient compressor in non-IID scenarios. Our experiments confirm that both the DAGC-A and DAGC-R can achieve better performance when dealing with highly imbalanced data volume distribution and restricted communication

Molecular impact of bone morphogenetic protein 7, on lung cancer cells and its clinical significance

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7), in human pulmonary cancer tissues/cells and to evaluate the cellular impact of bone morphogenetic proteins on pulmonary cancer cells. BMP7 expression was determined in human lung cancer cell lines. The invasiveness and growth of cells transfected with BMP7, in vitro, were evaluated using the in vitro invasion assay and in vitro tumour models. Cellular migration was analysed using wounding assays. BMP7-positive tumours correlated with the absence of bone metastasis (P=0.040). In this analysis, we identified that 4 of 4 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) tissue specimens had no BMP7 expression, which illustrated that BMP7 may have no role in SCLC. BMP7 expression was not correlated with the overall survival time in lung cancer patients. Downregulation of BMP7 expression significantly inhibited the invasiveness of SPC-A1 cells (P0.5 respectively). In conclusion, we have demonstrated that BMP7 has an important role in controlling lung cancer cell motility and invasiveness, without affecting the growth process, cell proliferation and cell apoptosis. A higher BMP7 expression may be an indicator for bone metastasis. The therapeutic role of BMP7 warrants further investigation

Operator radiation dose during trans-hepatic arterial chemoembolization: different patients’ positions via transradial or transfemoral access

PURPOSEThis study aimed to compare the radiation dose received by the operator among different patients’ positions via transradial access (TRA) or transfemoral access (TFA) during transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODSA total of 120 patients with HCC undergoing TACE for the first time between January and November 2019 were randomized into 4 groups with 30 patients in each group. In group A, patients were placed in the foot-first position with the left upper arm abducted, and TACE was performed via the left radial artery. In group B, patients were placed in the conventional headfirst position with the left hand placed at the left groin, and TACE was performed via the left radial artery. In group C, patients were placed in the conventional head-first position, and TACE was performed via the right radial artery. In group D, patients were placed in the conventional head-first position, and TACE was performed via the right femoral artery. Before each procedure, thermoluminescent dosimeters were taped at 7 different body parts of the operator and the radiation dose was measured and collected after the procedure. The normalized radiation dose was also calculated. Procedural parameters included radiation dose, fluoroscopy time (FT), dose–area product (DAP), and air kerma (AK) were recorded. Patients’ demographics, tumor baseline characteristics, radiation dose, and procedural parameters were compared between groups.RESULTSNo significant differences were found in patients’ demographics, tumor baseline characteristics, as well as in total FT, DAP, and AK. However, significant differences were found in the total radiation dose received by the operator and the doses on the pelvic cavity and the right wrist (P < .05). In group C, the radiation doses received on the pelvic cavity, the right wrist, and the total radiation doses were relatively higher. Significant differences were also found in the normalized radiation doses received by the operator on the thyroid, chest, left wrist, right wrist, and pelvic cavity, and the total normalized doses (all P < .05). Similarly, the radiation doses received by the operator at the aforementioned parts in group C were higher, while those in group A were lower.CONCLUSIONNo statistically significant differences were observed in the FT, DAP, and AK in TACE via TRA when patients were placed in different positions. However, TACE via the left TRA, with patients in the feet-first position, reduced the radiation dose received by the operator, thereby reducing the radiation risk

Microbial Communities in the Lungs of Bats in China

Bats are the hosts of multiple pathogens, but the microbial composition of their lung tissues remains unknown. Our study investigated the species compositions and genera of important respiratory tract pathogenic bacteria in bat lung tissue. A microbiota study was conducted in Hebei, Henan and Guizhou provinces in China. Lung tissues were collected from 104 healthy bats. The lung tissue was subjected to 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene sequencing. We obtained 7,708,734 high-quality bacterial sequences from 104 healthy bats. Overall, the annotations indicated 55 phyla, 73 classes, 164 orders, 322 families and 953 genera. The lung microbiota was highly polymorphic and variable among bats from Hebei, Henan and Guizhou. The genetic characteristics of the main recognized respiratory pathogens in the samples were analyzed. The findings indicate that the lungs of bats carry numerous bacteria with pathogenic importance. Pathogens disseminate through the respiratory tract in bats and are widely distributed among bats. Because bats prefer to inhabit areas placing them in close contact with humans, such as eaves and old buildings, further investigations are warranted to identify bat microbiota and their potential effects on humans

Macrophages as a Target for Treating Diabetic Foot Ulcers

In all stages of wound healing, macrophages play a pivotal role by coordinating the repair steps in a timely and accurate fashion. The successful completion of wound healing requires proper spatiotemporal presence and function of macrophages. Diabetes significantly alters the proliferation, polarization and functionality of macrophages, leading to a suboptimal but prolonged pro-inflammatory M1-like phenotype in wound macrophages and a failure of their late transition to a reparative M2-like phenotype. This defect in macrophage phenotype and the proper transition results in delayed or even failure of wound healing. Specifically in the diabetic foot ulcer (DFUs), this macrophage dysfunction results in chronic infection and potentially amputation. The abnormal macrophage phenotype in diabetes is not fully understood but is believed to mainly result from epigenetic changes in macrophages and altered interactions between macrophages and other cell types, such as fibroblasts, endothelial cells, neutrophils and T-cells. Recent research on DFUs has focused on developing strategies to improve diabetic wound repair through modulation of macrophage polarization. Treatment of DFUs will greatly benefit from a multi-modal therapy that includes controlling high blood glucose, topical support, prevention of secondary infection, resolution of sustained inflammation and application of cellular therapies targeting macrophages