Autonomes und interkulturelles Lernen im Fremdsprachenunterricht – unvereinbar oder untrennbar?

In der in den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten erheblich intensivierten Diskussion zur Lernendenautonomie ist autonomes Lernen im interkulturellen Bereich eher ein Randthema. Dieser Beitrag stellt die Frage der Vereinbarkeit von interkulturellem und autonomem Lernen und präsentiert zunächst zwei Zugänge, die zu gegensätzlichen Ergebnissen kommen. Die These von der Vereinbarkeit, ja Untrennbarkeit, der beiden Lernbereiche scheint jedoch überzeugender und weiter verbreitet. Angesichts der Breite der Autonomiediskussion wird in der Folge der Fokus auf Lernendenzentrierung als wichtiges Element von Autonomie gelegt und untersucht, welche Grundlagen es für eine lerndendenzentrierte Unterrichtskonzeption gibt und welche Vorteile sie hat. Bei den Überlegungen zur Anwendung lernendenzentrierter Konzepte im Bereich der interkulturellen Kompetenz wird der Schwerpunkt auf den Kompetenzbereich der Einstellungen gelegt und an einigen Beispielen illustriert, wie autonomes und interkulturelles Lernen in projektförmigen Lernaufgaben verschränkt werden können.The discussion on learner autonomy has intensified considerably in the last two decades, but autonomous learning in the intercultural field has remained a fairly marginal topic. This paper examines  the compatibility of intercultural and autonomous learning and starts by presenting two approaches that come to contradicting conclusions. The hypothesis that both learning fields are compatible, or indeed inseparable, appears better founded and more popular, however. Considering the broad scope of the discussion, the paper continues by focussing on learner-centredness as an important element of autonomy. The rationale for and advantages of learner-centred concepts of teaching and learning are discussed. In reflecting on the application of learner-centred concepts in the field of intercultural competence the emphasis is laid on attitudes as an area of competence. Some examples show how autonomous and intercultural learning can be interlaced in project-type learning tasks

Ex Vivo Exposure of Human Melanoma Tissue to Cold Physical Plasma Elicits Apoptosis and Modulates Inflammation

Cutaneous melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer with a not-sufficient clinical outcome. High tumor mutation rates often hamper a remedial treatment, creating the need for palliative care in many patients. To reduce pain and burden, local palliation often includes cryo-ablation, immunotherapy via injection of IL2, or electrochemotherapy. Yet, a fraction of patients and lesions do not respond to those therapies. To reach even these resistances in a redox-mediated way, we treated skin biopsies from human melanoma ex vivo with cold physical plasma (kINPen MED plasma jet). This partially ionized gas generates a potent mixture of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Physical plasmas have been shown to be potent antitumor agents in preclinical melanoma and clinical head and neck cancer research. The innovation of this technology lies in its ease-of-use without anesthesia, as the “cold” plasma temperature of the kINPen MED does not exceed 37 °C. In metastatic melanoma skin biopsies from six patients, we identified a marked increase of apoptosis with plasma treatment ex vivo. This had an impact on the chemokine/cytokine profile of the cultured biopsies, e.g., three of six patient-derived biopsy supernatants showed an apparent decrease in VEGF compared to non-plasma treated specimens. Moreover, the baseline release levels of 24 chemokines/cytokines investigated may serve as a useful tool for future research on melanoma skin biopsy treatments. Our findings suggest a clinically useful role of cold physical plasma therapy in palliation of cutaneous melanoma lesions, possibly in a combinatory setting with other immune therapies

Нелінійна динаміка — 2013

The book of Proceedings includes extended abstracts of presentations on the Fourth International conference on nonlinear dynamics

Combining Biocompatible and Biodegradable Scaffolds and Cold Atmospheric Plasma for Chronic Wound Regeneration

Skin regeneration is a quite complex process. Epidermal differentiation alone takes about 30 days and is highly regulated. Wounds, especially chronic wounds, affect 2% to 3% of the elderly population and comprise a heterogeneous group of diseases. The prevailing reasons to develop skin wounds include venous and/or arterial circulatory disorders, diabetes, or constant pressure to the skin (decubitus). The hallmarks of modern wound treatment include debridement of dead tissue, disinfection, wound dressings that keep the wound moist but still allow air exchange, and compression bandages. Despite all these efforts there is still a huge treatment resistance and wounds will not heal. This calls for new and more efficient treatment options in combination with novel biocompatible skin scaffolds. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) is such an innovative addition to the treatment armamentarium. In one CAP application, antimicrobial effects, wound acidification, enhanced microcirculations and cell stimulation can be achieved. It is evident that CAP treatment, in combination with novel bioengineered, biocompatible and biodegradable electrospun scaffolds, has the potential of fostering wound healing by promoting remodeling and epithelialization along such temporarily applied skin replacement scaffolds

Whole genome sequence and manual annotation of Clostridium autoethanogenum, an industrially relevant bacterium

Clostridium autoethanogenum is an acetogenic bacterium capable of producing high value commodity chemicals and biofuels from the C1 gases present in synthesis gas. This common industrial waste gas can act as the sole energy and carbon source for the bacterium that converts the low value gaseous components into cellular building blocks and industrially relevant products via the action of the reductive acetyl-CoA (Wood-Ljungdahl) pathway. Current research efforts are focused on the enhancement and extension of product formation in this organism via synthetic biology approaches. However, crucial to metabolic modelling and directed pathway engineering is a reliable and comprehensively annotated genome sequence