Untersuchung zur Wirksamkeit von Gruppenreflexionen auf das Wissenschaftsverständnis im Schülerlabor Backstage Science

To have an appropriate understanding of the nature of sciences and of their processes (Nature of Science (NOS), Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI)) affords citizens the opportunity to cultivate well-funded views on science. This is fundamental to enable informed participation. The development of concepts of NOS/I (CON) proceeds implicitly. Explicating the underlying connotations via reflective actions facilitates the CON development. Visitors of the BaSci outreach lab investigate scientific issues in mediated groups. For the reflection, a Reflective Reviewing Cafe (RC) is conducted. At three tables the students can reflect and interrelate the reasons of their actions. To determine the efficacy of the RC, 16 secondary level classes visit the BaSci lab. The CONs are determined with Pre-Post surveys and the RC dialogues. The results of the surveys reveal a positive effect of the RCs on several CON aspects if the lab was visited more than once. Also the RC dialogues show an increase in appropriate CON expressions. The discursivity of the RC seems to be a cause for the positive effect observed. Future research can enable the identification of additional mechanisms

Redirecting T Cells to Ewing's Sarcoma Family of Tumors by a Chimeric NKG2D Receptor Expressed by Lentiviral Transduction or mRNA Transfection

We explored the possibility to target Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) by redirecting T cells. To this aim, we considered NKG2D-ligands (NKG2D-Ls) as possible target antigens. Detailed analysis of the expression of MICA, MICB, ULBP-1, -2, and -3 in fourteen ESFT cell lines revealed consistent expression of at least one NKG2D-L. Thus, for redirecting T cells, we fused a CD3ζ/CD28-derived signaling domain to the ectodomain of NKG2D, however, opposite transmembrane orientation of this signaling domain and NKG2D required inverse orientation fusion of either of them. We hypothesized that the particularly located C-terminus of the NKG2D ectodomain should allow reengineering of the membrane anchoring from a native N-terminal to an artificial C-terminal linkage. Indeed, the resulting chimeric NKG2D receptor (chNKG2D) was functional and efficiently mediated ESFT cell death triggered by activated T cells. Notably, ESFT cells with even low NKG2D-L expression were killed by CD8pos and also CD4pos cells. Both, mRNA transfection and lentiviral transduction resulted in high level surface expression of chNKG2D. However, upon target-cell recognition receptor surface levels were maintained by tranfected RNA only during the first couple of hours after transfection. Later, target-cell contact resulted in strong and irreversible receptor down-modulation, whereas lentivirally mediated expression of chNKG2D remained constant under these conditions. Together, our study defines NKG2D-Ls as targets for a CAR-mediated T cell based immunotherapy of ESFT. A comparison of two different methods of gene transfer reveals strong differences in the susceptibility to ligand-induced receptor down-modulation with possible implications for the applicability of RNA transfection

A study of the effect of group reflective reviewing activities on the understanding of the nature of science and of scientific inquiry in the outreach lab Backstage Science

To have an appropriate understanding of the nature of sciences and of their processes (Nature of Science (NOS), Nature of Scientific Inquiry (NOSI)) affords citizens the opportunity to cultivate well-funded views on science. This is fundamental to enable informed participation. The development of concepts of NOS/I (CON) proceeds implicitly. Explicating the underlying connotations via reflective actions facilitates the CON development. Visitors of the BaSci outreach lab investigate scientific issues in mediated groups. For the reflection, a Reflective Reviewing Cafe (RC) is conducted. At three tables the students can reflect and interrelate the reasons of their actions. To determine the efficacy of the RC, 16 secondary level classes visit the BaSci lab. The CONs are determined with Pre-Post surveys and the RC dialogues. The results of the surveys reveal a positive effect of the RCs on several CON aspects if the lab was visited more than once. Also the RC dialogues show an increase in appropriate CON expressions. The discursivity of the RC seems to be a cause for the positive effect observed. Future research can enable the identification of additional mechanisms

Primäre und sekundäre autokrine Wirkung von IL-27 auf neonatale dendritische Zellen

Neugeborene begegnen nach der Geburt einer Vielzahl von Mikroorganismen, wie Bakterien und Pilzen, wodurch nach und nach eine Besiedelung ihrer Haut und Schleimhäute stattfindet. In diesem Kontext muss jedoch verhindert werden, dass es zu schädliche Überreaktionen gegen die neuen Antigenen kommt. Die in der Kindheit erhöhte Infektionsanfälligkeit stellt somit eine essentielle Adaptation des neonatalen Immunsystems an die Herausforderungen der ersten Lebensphase dar. Dennoch wird das neonatale Immunsystem häufig als unreif bezeichnet, da insbesondere Th1-Antworten weniger stark ausfallen, als bei Erwachsenen. Während bekanntermaßen bei neonatalen DCs ein Defekt in der Produktion von IL-12 vorliegt, wird das ebenfalls als Th1-Zytokin geltende IL-27 von neonatalen DCs verstärkt gebildet, und dies bereits im unstimulierten Zustand der Zellen. rnDas Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Untersuchung des Einflusses von IL-27 auf die Kapazität der DCs, angeborene und adaptive Immunantworten zu modulieren. Da DCs den Rezeptor für IL-27 auch auf ihrer eigenen Oberfläche tragen, lag der Schwerpunkt der Untersuchungen auf den primären und sekundären autokrinen Wirkungen des IL-27. Hierbei wurde beobachtet, dass im Vergleich zu adulten DCs bei neonatalen DCs stärkere durch IL-27 ausgelöste autokrine Effekte auftraten. Die primäre autokrine Wirkung zeigte sich darin, dass IL-27 seine eigene Produktion, sowohl auf der Transkriptions- als auch auf der Proteinebene, anregte. Auf Proteinebene fielen diese Effekte bei Neonaten stärker aus, als bei Adulten.rnDarüber hinaus konnten, insbesondere bei neonatalen DCs, sekundäre autokrine Effekte von IL-27 bezüglich der Expression proinflammatorischer Zytokine, Chemokine, kostimulatorischer Moleküle und antiviraler Gene nachgewiesen werden. rnNeonatale DCs sind demnach nicht nur dazu in der Lage, größere Mengen an IL-27 zu bilden, sie können auch in vielfältiger Weise auf das Zytokin reagieren, was eine zentrale Rolle von IL-27 im Immungeschehen Neugeborener verdeutlicht. rnAfter birth, newborns encounter a multitude of microorganisms, e.g. bacteria and fungi, colonizing skin and mucous membranes. In this context, deleterious responses to new antigens must be avoided. Thus, the increased susceptibility to infections in childhood represents an essential adaptation of the neonatal immune system to the challenges of this first period of life. Yet, the neonatal immune system is often regarded as immature, since especially Th1-responses are weaker than in adults. While neonatal DCs are known to display a defect in the production of IL-12, there is an enhanced production of the Th1 Cytokine IL-27 in neonatal DCs, even in unstimulated cells.rnThe aim of this thesis was to assess the influence of IL-27 on the capacity of DCs to modulate innate and adaptive immune responses. As DCs show surface expression of the IL-27 receptor, the focus was set on potential primary and secondary autocrine effects of IL-27. In neonatal DCs, autocrine effects of IL-27 turned out to be more evident than in adult DCs. IL-27 induced its own production in a primary autocrine manner, on the transcriptional as well as on the protein level. On protein level, this effect was more solid in neonates than in adults. Furthermore, especially in neonatal DCs IL-27 revealed secondary autocrine effects concerning the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, costimulatory molecules and antiviral genes.rnTherefore, neonatal DCs are not only capable of producing large amounts of IL-27, they also show versatile responses to this cytokine, which underlines the central role of IL-27 in the immune system of the newborn.r

Additional file 3: of Dendritic cells change IL-27 production pattern during childhood

Figure S3. Age-related cell frequency

Additional file 4: of Dendritic cells change IL-27 production pattern during childhood

Figure S4. Age related frequencies of IL-27-positive mDCs (top row) and pDCs (lower row)

Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure (CLSINFRA): a H2020 Research Infrastructure Project that aids to connect researchers, data, and methods

The aim of this poster is to provide an overview of the principal objectives of the newly started H2020 Computational Literary Studies (CLS) project- https://www.clsinfra.io. CLS is a infrastructure project works to develop and bring together resources of high-quality data, tools and knowledge to aid new approaches to studying literature in the digital age. Conducting computational literary studies has a number of challenges and opportunities from multilingual and bringing together distributing information. At present, the landscape of literary data is diverse and fragmented. Even though many resources are currently available in digital libraries, archives, repositories, websites or catalogues, a lack of standardisation hinders how they are constructed, accessed and the extent to which they are reusable (Ciotti 2014). CLS project aims to federate these resources, with the tools needed to interrogate them, and with a widened base of users, in the spirit of the FAIR and CARE principles (Wilkinson et al. 2016). The resulting improvements will benefit researchers by bridging gaps between greater- and lesser- resourced communities in computational literary studies and beyond, ultimately offering opportunities to create new research and insight into our shared and varied European cultural heritage. Rather than building entirely new resources for literary studies, the project is committed to exploiting and connecting the already-existing efforts and initiatives, in order to acknowledge and utilize the immense human labour that has already been undertaken. Therefore, the project builds on recently- compiled high-quality literary corpora, such as DraCor and ELTeC (Fischer et al. 2019, Burnard et al. 2021, Schöch et al. in press), integrates existing tools for text analysis, e.g. TXM, stylo, multilingual NLP pipelines (Heiden 2010, Eder et al. 2016), and takes advantage of deep integration with two other infrastructural projects, namely the CLARIN and DARIAH ERICs. Consequently, the project aims at building a coherent ecosystem to foster the technical and intellectual findability and accessibility of relevant data. The ecosystem consists of (1) resources, i.e. text collections for drama, poetry and prose in several languages, (2) tools, (3) methodological and theoretical considerations, (4) a network of CLS scholars based at different European institutions, (5) a system of short-term research stays for both early career researchers and seasoned scholars, (6) a repository for training materials, as well as (7) an efficient dissemination strategy. This is achieved through a collaboration between participating institutions: Institute of Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland; University of Potsdam, Germany; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria; National University of Distance Education, Spain; École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France; Humboldt University of Berlin, German; Charles University, Czech Republic; Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities, France; Ghent Centre for Digital Humanities, Ghent University, Belgium; Belgrade Centre for Digital Humanities, Serbia; Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), Netherlands; Trier Center for Digital Humanities, Trier University, Germany; Moore Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland

CLS Infra Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure

Computational Literary Studies Infrastructure, funded by the Horizon2020 grant scheme, is a four-year, pan-European project that aims to unify the diverse landscape of computational text analysis, in terms of available texts, tools, methods, practices and so forth, within its growing international user community. The project started out in February 2021, meaning that it has been underway for just over a year. In our poster we discuss the various deliverables and activities that have come out of the CLS INFRA project in its first quarter to give an idea of its impact in practice

Reproducibility of fluorescent expression from engineered biological constructs in E. coli

We present results of the first large-scale interlaboratory study carried out in synthetic biology, as part of the 2014 and 2015 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competitions. Participants at 88 institutions around the world measured fluorescence from three engineered constitutive constructs in E. coli. Few participants were able to measure absolute fluorescence, so data was analyzed in terms of ratios. Precision was strongly related to fluorescent strength, ranging from 1.54-fold standard deviation for the ratio between strong promoters to 5.75-fold for the ratio between the strongest and weakest promoter, and while host strain did not affect expression ratios, choice of instrument did. This result shows that high quantitative precision and reproducibility of results is possible, while at the same time indicating areas needing improved laboratory practices.Peer reviewe