Teaching open and reproducible scholarship: a critical review of the evidence base for current pedagogical methods and their outcomes.

YesIn recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate research training. Specifically, a critical overview of the literature which investigates how integrating open and reproducible science may influence student outcomes is needed. In this paper, we provide the first critical review of literature surrounding the integration of open and reproducible scholarship into teaching and learning and its associated outcomes in students. Our review highlighted how embedding open and reproducible scholarship appears to be associated with (i) students' scientific literacies (i.e. students' understanding of open research, consumption of science and the development of transferable skills); (ii) student engagement (i.e. motivation and engagement with learning, collaboration and engagement in open research) and (iii) students' attitudes towards science (i.e. trust in science and confidence in research findings). However, our review also identified a need for more robust and rigorous methods within pedagogical research, including more interventional and experimental evaluations of teaching practice. We discuss implications for teaching and learning scholarship.UKRI/ESRC rapid call grant, ealth Research Board Applying Researchinto Policy and Practice Fellowship, John Templeton Foundation (grant ID: 62631), Northern Ireland Department for the Economy Research Studentshi

Regulation of melanin biosynthesis in the human epidermis by tetrahydrobiopterin.

The participation of (6R) 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin (6-BH4) in regulating the tyrosine supply for melanin biosynthesis was investigated by the examination of human keratinocytes, melanocytes, and epidermal suction blisters from normal human skin and from patients with the depigmentation disorder vitiligo. Cells, as well as total epidermis, contained high phenylalanine hydroxylase activities and also displayed the capacity to synthesize and recycle 6-BH4, the essential cofactor for this enzyme in vitiligo, 4a-hydroxy-BH4 dehydratase activity was extremely low or absent, yielding an accumulation of the nonenzymatic by-product 7-tetrahydrobiopterin (7-BH4) at concentrations up to 8 x 10-6 M in the epidermis. This by- product is a potent competitive inhibitor in the phenylalanine hydroxylase reaction with an inhibition constant of 10-6 M. Thus, 6-BH4 seems to control melanin biosynthesis in the human epidermis, whereas 7-BH4 may initiate depigmentation in patients with vitiligo