Blended Learning – frem mod en ny normal på ungdomsuddannelserne

The concern of this article is a change in the prerequisites to implement blended learning in Danish youth education. The empirical research focuses on attitudes and experiences among teachers who employed a mix of theories and methods as well as digital technologies to enhance student learning outcome during the first period of the Covid-19 lockdown. The article presents analysed results of a survey on 55 institutions. The conclusion is that 6 out of 10 teachers have become digital innovative. In an extraordinary situation, they have been capable of exploiting technological opportunities and gained experience with new ways to guide students and practice differentiated teaching together with alternatives to directed, teacher centered teaching. The teachers anticipate to transfer their newly gained experience to their future tuition when lockdown limitations are a thing of the past. This points to blended learning as a new normal with digital innovative teachers as visionary trendsetters in every school. When school managers provide the right conditions for experimentation and sharing of knowledge, they also enable the visions of digital innovative teachers to unfold in the schools.Artiklen fokuserer på, hvordan corona-nedlukning af den fysiske undervisning på ungdomsuddannelserne har ændret forudsætningerne for at implementere blended learning fremover. Disse ændrede forudsætninger forstås som en udvikling af holdninger og erfaringer hos lærere, og udviklingen er sket i kraft af, at omstændighederne har tvunget lærerne til at afprøve kombinationer af læringsteori, metoder og teknologi for at gennemføre fjernundervisning. I artiklen præsenteres resultater af en analyse af data fra en rundspørge på i alt 55 skoler. Konklusionen er, at 6 ud af 10 lærere er blevet digitalt innovative. De har været i stand til at udnytte digitale muligheder i en ekstraordinær situation og gjort sig erfaringer med nye måder at vejlede og differentiere på i undervisningen samt med alternativer til lærerstyret, formidlingsbaseret undervisning, som de forventer at overføre til en normal situation. Vi peger på blended learning som en ny normaltilstand, hvor digitalt innovative lærere, som nu findes på alle skoler, eksperimenterer med egen praksis, deler viden med kolleger og tager aktiv del i implementering af nye måder at undervise med it på. 

Biotin starvation causes mitochondrial protein hyperacetylation and partial rescue by the SIRT3-like deacetylase Hst4p

The essential vitamin biotin is a covalent and tenaciously attached prosthetic group in several carboxylases that play important roles in the regulation of energy metabolism. Here we describe increased acetyl-CoA levels and mitochondrial hyperacetylation as downstream metabolic effects of biotin deficiency. Upregulated mitochondrial acetylation sites correlate with the cellular deficiency of the Hst4p deacetylase, and a biotin-starvation-induced accumulation of Hst4p in mitochondria supports a role for Hst4p in lowering mitochondrial acetylation. We show that biotin starvation and knockout of Hst4p cause alterations in cellular respiration and an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS). These results suggest that Hst4p plays a pivotal role in biotin metabolism and cellular energy homeostasis, and supports that Hst4p is a functional yeast homologue of the sirtuin deacetylase SIRT3. With biotin deficiency being involved in various metabolic disorders, this study provides valuable insight into the metabolic effects biotin exerts on eukaryotic cells

A systematic approach for evaluating the role of surface-exposed loops in trypsin-like serine proteases applied to the 170 loop in coagulation factor VIIa

Proteases play a major role in many vital physiological processes. Trypsin-like serine proteases (TLPs), in particular, are paramount in proteolytic cascade systems such as blood coagulation and complement activation. The structural topology of TLPs is highly conserved, with the trypsin fold comprising two β-barrels connected by a number of variable surface-exposed loops that provide a surprising capacity for functional diversity and substrate specificity. To expand our understanding of the roles these loops play in substrate and co-factor interactions, we employ a systematic methodology akin to the natural truncations and insertions observed through evolution of TLPs. The approach explores a larger deletion space than classical random or directed mutagenesis. Using FVIIa as a model system, deletions of 1–7 amino acids through the surface exposed 170 loop, a vital allosteric regulator, was introduced. All variants were extensively evaluated by established functional assays and computational loop modelling with Rosetta. The approach revealed detailed structural and functional insights recapitulation and expanding on the main findings in relation to 170 loop functions elucidated over several decades using more cumbersome crystallization and single deletion/mutation methodologies. The larger deletion space was key in capturing the most active variant, which unexpectedly had a six-amino acid truncation. This variant would have remained undiscovered if only 2–3 deletions were considered, supporting the usefulness of the methodology in general protease engineering approaches. Our findings shed further light on the complex role that surface-exposed loops play in TLP function and supports the important role of loop length in the regulation and fine-tunning of enzymatic function throughout evolution