Thermal expansion and the glass transition

Melting is well understood in terms of the Lindemann criterion, which essentially states that crystalline materials melt when the thermal vibrations of their atoms become so vigorous that they shake themselves free of the binding forces. This picture does not necessarily have to hold for glasses, where the nature of the solid–liquid cross-over is highly debated. The Lindemann criterion implies that the thermal expansion coefficients of crystals are inversely proportional to their melting temperatures. Here we find that, in contrast, the thermal expansion coefficient of glasses decreases more strongly with increasing glass temperature, which marks the liquid–solid cross-over in this material class. However, this proportionality returns when the thermal expansion coefficient is scaled by the fragility, a measure of particle cooperativity. Therefore, for a glass to become liquid, it is not sufficient to simply overcome the interparticle binding energies. Instead, more energy must be invested to break up the typical cooperative particle network that is common to glassy materials. The thermal expansion coefficient of the liquid phase reveals similar anomalous behaviour and is universally enhanced by a constant factor of approximately 3. These universalities allow the estimation of glass temperatures from thermal expansion and vice versa

microRNA Expression Profile of Purified Alveolar Epithelial Type II Cells

Alveolar type II (ATII) cells are essential for the maintenance of the alveolar homeostasis. However, knowledge of the expression of the miRNAs and miRNA-regulated networks which control homeostasis and coordinate diverse functions of murine ATII cells is limited. Therefore, we asked how miRNAs expressed in ATII cells might contribute to the regulation of signaling pathways. We purified "untouched by antibodies" ATII cells using a flow cytometric sorting method with a highly autofluorescent population of lung cells. TaqMan® miRNA low-density arrays were performed on sorted cells and intersected with miRNA profiles of ATII cells isolated according to a previously published protocol. Of 293 miRNAs expressed in both ATII preparations, 111 showed equal abundances. The target mRNAs of bona fide ATII miRNAs were used for pathway enrichment analysis. This analysis identified nine signaling pathways with known functions in fibrosis and/or epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In particular, a subset of 19 miRNAs was found to target 21 components of the TGF-β signaling pathway. Three of these miRNAs (miR-16-5p, -17-5p and -30c-5p) were down-modulated by TGF-β1 stimulation in human A549 cells, and concomitant up-regulation of associated mRNA targets (BMPR2, JUN, RUNX2) was observed. These results suggest an important role for miRNAs in maintaining the homeostasis of the TGF-β signaling pathway in ATII cells under physiological conditions

Der Zertifikatskurs Forschungsdatenmanagement in NRW: Eine modular aufgebaute Weiterqualifikation für das professionelle Datenmanagement

Die Digitalisierung hat das Potential, in allen Forschungsfeldern die Qualität und Effizienz und damit auch den gesellschaftlichen Mehrwert signifikant zu erhöhen. Um diese Prozesse zu ermöglichen und zu gestalten, braucht es geschultes Personal zur Unterstützung der Forschenden. Für die konsequente Umsetzung von Open-Science und der FAIR-Prinzipien an Forschungseinrichtungen, Hochschulen und Initiativen wie der Nationale Forschungsdateninfrastruktur (NFDI) oder der European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ist ein professionelles Forschungsdatenmanagement ein Kernelement, welches neben technischer Infrastruktur eben auch Personen mit einem breiten Spektrum an Expertisen – von Metadatenstandards bis zu domänenspezifischen Konventionen – beinhaltet. Aufgrund der Nachfrage in der gesamten Forschungsgemeinschaft sind solche Expert*innen an der Schnittstelle zwischen Forschung und Infrastruktur aktuell in unzureichender Zahl verfügbar. Um gezielt Personen für diese Rollen umfassend und berufsbegleitend fortzubilden, wurde der Zertifikatskurs „Forschungsdatenmanagement“ von der Technischen Hochschule Köln, ZBIW – Zentrum für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaftliche Weiterbildung, ZB MED – Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften (ZB MED) und der nordrhein-westfälischen Landesinitiative für Forschungsdatenmanagement – fdm.nrw als Weiterbildungsangebot konzipiert. Der erste Durchlauf wurde im Sommer 2021 gestartet und wird im Sommer 2022 enden. In diesem Artikel werden die Zielsetzungen, das Design und die Zukunft des Zertifikatskurses im Detail beleuchtet.The digitalisation has the potential to significantly increase the quality and efficiency in all fields of research and thus its value to society. Trained staff to support researchers is needed to enable and shape these processes. The key to a consistent implementation of open science and FAIR principles at research institutions, universities and initiatives such as the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) or the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is professional research data management, which entails not only technical infrastructure but also staff with a wide range of expertise – from metadata standards to domain-specific conventions. Due to the demand across the research community, such experts working at the intersection of research and infrastructure are currently available in insufficient numbers. In order to train people specifically for these roles, the Certificate Course in Research Data Management was developed by TH Köln (University of Applied Sciences), the ZBIW – Zentrum für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaftliche Weiterbildung, ZB MED – Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften and fdm.nrw – Landesinitiative für Forschungsdatenmanagement NRW. The first run of this programme was launched in summer 2021 and will end in summer 2022. This article will look in detail at the objectives, design and future of the certificate course

Computational protein design of ligand binding and catalysis

The vision of custom-made proteins by computation appears closer than ever. Computational methods have advanced rapidly in recent years and proteins have been designed to catalyze new reactions. A number of second-generation enzyme designs analyzed possible bottlenecks and started tackling emergent problems. Detailed experimental analysis combined with structure determination and molecular dynamics simulations as well as design optimization with directed evolution techniques have led to important insights. While ligand recognition seems to be particularly problematic, new approaches focus on this design aspect and promising improvements have been made

Qualified support through data stewardship: Institutional requirements driven approach through data steward profiles

<p>Qualified support through data stewardship - a new approach to data steward profiles from Germany</p><p>The concept of data stewardship as a support for researchers, but also as a field of research itself, is becoming increasingly important due to the overall growth in digital data volumes. Qualified employees are needed in (inter-)national data-infrastructure initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) as well as the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in the German context as a national example. Also the requirements of research funders often prescribe professional data management. The demand for qualified personnel is high and will probably continue to grow.</p><p>Although the term "data steward" is frequently and widely used, the tasks, roles or institutional embedding of data stewards remain ambiguous and are still not clearly defined.  In other European countries, studies e.g. in the Netherlands and Denmark have already identified somewhat congruent profiles of data stewards.  </p><p>The poster presents results from a research project dealing with the German academic landscape with regard to Data Stewardship. On the one hand, the situation and needs analysis was carried out based on the relevant literature and job advertisements as well as qualitative interviews. Furthermore, the poster shows the results of focus group discussions held with different stakeholders to derive recommendations for action.</p><p>The central finding the poster presents is that there is no universal way to implement data stewardship. Instead, the implementation of data stewardship is highly depending on the local conditions. The poster proposes a change of perspective, describing different models of data stewardship based on the capacities and needs of the institution. Specific teams of data stewards can be assembled in a modular system. Five data steward profiles are available for building data steward teams, based on six dimensions: (i) the size of the research institution, (ii) the institutional location, (iii) basic knowledge of research data management, (iv) the need for specialised knowledge, (v) the breadth of the range of tasks, and (vi) the need for  service orientation as opposed to scientific, research activities.  </p><p>Based on different combinations of these criteria five profiles of data stewards are described, such as the data steward as a generalist at a service point in a small research institute with a broad range of tasks. As a counterpart to this, the scientific working data steward in a collaborative project with specific expertise who works closely with the researchers on a research question has emerged.</p><p>Besides the proposal of a modular system of data steward profiles the poster claims a need for further research on the quantitative demand for the specific profiles. Based on this, suitable training capacities can be build aligned with the specific demand for data management experts.</p><p> </p&gt

DataStew: Recommendations for Supporting Research through Data Stewardship in Academic Research Institutions

<p>A presentation about the results of the DataStew project, which analysed the status quo of data stewardship in Germany. The analysis had two main objectives: 1) to determine the current state of knowledge among the various stakeholders, and 2) to derive guidelines for policy and practice.</p&gt