Flourishing or floundering? : Factors contributing to CLIL Primary Teachers' Wellbeing in Austria

CLIL approaches to teaching are part of the general increase in plurilingual approaches to education. Recent work on CLIL in primary education has shown how demanding this can be for teachers. To better understand the nature of these challenges and their potential impact on teacher wellbeing, this study investigated the situation of CLIL primary teachers in Austria. Data were collected via in-depth interviews and coded in an inductive manner using QCAmap software. The analysis of the data revealed that despite considerable individual variation in terms of how CLIL was put into practice, all the wellbeing of all of the teachers' in this study appeared to be threatened by a lack of teaching material, negative public perceptions of teachers generally, low societal appreciation of primary teachers specifically, and language-related challenges in teaching CLIL. In contrast, the teachers' relationships with their students and their conviction in the CLIL approach seemed to contribute positively to their sense of wellbeing in their professional roles. We conclude with some considerations for practice to ensure all primary CLIL teachers flourish in their professional roles.Els enfocaments AICLE formen part de l'increment generalitzat dels enfocaments plurilingües en educació. Treballs recents sobre l'educació primària han revelat com d'exigent pot arribar a ser l'AICLE per al professorat que l'imparteix. Amb la finalitat de millorar la nostra comprensió d'aquests reptes i del seu impacte potencial en el benestar del professorat, el present estudi investiga la situació de mestres AICLE a Àustria. Les dades obtingudes per mitjà d'entrevistes en profunditat van ser codificades mitjançant el programari QCAmap, seguint un procediment inductiu. L'anàlisi va revelar que malgrat les considerables variacions individuals en la forma en la qual l'AICLE s'impartia, el benestar global de totes les mestres participants en l'estudi semblava amenaçat per l'escassetat de material didàctic, les percepcions negatives d'altres docents en general, i específicament, la baixa estima mostrada cap als mestres de primària per la societat, així com els reptes lingüístics que la docència AICLE comporta. Per contra, la relació de les mestres amb els seus alumnes, i la seva confiança en l'enfocament AICLE semblen contribuir positivament a una sensació de benestar com a docents. Es conclou amb un conjunt de consideracions pràctiques amb la finalitat d'assegurar que tots els docents AICLE de primària avancin en la seva labor com a docents.Los enfoques AICLE forman parte del incremento generalizado de los enfoques plurilingües en educación. Trabajos recientes sobre la educación primaria han revelado cómo de exigente puede llegar a ser el AICLE para el profesorado que lo imparte. Con la finalidad de mejorar nuestra comprensión de estos retos y de su impacto potencial en el bienestar del profesorado, el presente estudio investiga la situación de maestras AICLE en Austria. Los datos obtenidos por medio de entrevistes en profundidad fueron codificados mediante el software QCAmap, siguiendo un procedimiento inductivo. El análisis reveló que a pesar de las considerables variaciones individuales en la forma en la que el AICLE se impartía, el bienestar global de todas las maestras participantes en el estudio parecía amenazado por la escasez de material didáctico, las percepciones negativas de otros profesores en general, y específicamente, la baja estima mostrada hacia los maestros de primaria por la sociedad, así como los retos lingüísticos que la docencia AICLE conlleva. Por el contrario, la relación de las maestras con sus alumnos, y su confianza en el enfoque AICLE parecen contribuir positivamente a una sensación de bienestar como docentes. Se concluye con un conjunto de consideraciones prácticas con la finalidad de asegurar que todos los docentes AICLE de primaria salen adelante en su labor como docentes

Take It to the Curb: Scalable Communication Between Autonomous Cars and Vulnerable Road Users Through Curbstone Displays

Automated driving will require new approaches to the communication between vehicles and vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, e.g., through external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs). However, the majority of eHMI concepts are neither scalable (i.e., take into account complex traffic scenarios with multiple vehicles and VRUs), nor do they optimize traffic flow. Speculating on the upgrade of traffic infrastructure in the automated city, we propose Smart Curbs, a scalable communication concept integrated into the curbstone. Using a combination of immersive and non-immersive prototypes, we evaluated the suitability of our concept for complex urban environments in a user study (N = 18). Comparing the approach to a projection-based eHMI, our findings reveal that Smart Curbs are safer to use, as our participants spent less time on the road when crossing. Based on our findings, we discuss the potential of Smart Curbs to mitigate the scalability problem in AV-pedestrian communication and simultaneously enhance traffic flow

Grayscale-to-Color: Scalable Fabrication of Custom Multispectral Filter Arrays.

Snapshot multispectral image (MSI) sensors have been proposed as a key enabler for a plethora of multispectral imaging applications, from diagnostic medical imaging to remote sensing. With each application requiring a different set, and number, of spectral bands, the absence of a scalable, cost-effective manufacturing solution for custom multispectral filter arrays (MSFAs) has prevented widespread MSI adoption. Despite recent nanophotonic-based efforts, such as plasmonic or high-index metasurface arrays, large-area MSFA manufacturing still consists of many-layer dielectric (Fabry-Perot) stacks, requiring separate complex lithography steps for each spectral band and multiple material compositions for each. It is an expensive, cumbersome, and inflexible undertaking, but yields optimal optical performance. Here, we demonstrate a manufacturing process that enables cost-effective wafer-level fabrication of custom MSFAs in a single lithographic step, maintaining high efficiencies (∼75%) and narrow line widths (∼25 nm) across the visible to near-infrared. By merging grayscale (analog) lithography with metal-insulator-metal (MIM) Fabry-Perot cavities, whereby exposure dose controls cavity thickness, we demonstrate simplified fabrication of MSFAs up to N-wavelength bands. The concept is first proven using low-volume electron beam lithography, followed by the demonstration of large-volume UV mask-based photolithography with MSFAs produced at the wafer level. Our framework provides an attractive alternative to conventional MSFA manufacture and metasurface-based spectral filters by reducing both fabrication complexity and cost of these intricate optical devices, while increasing customizability

TSLP is a direct trigger for T cell migration in filaggrin-deficient skin equivalents

Mutations in the gene encoding for filaggrin (FLG) are major predisposing factors for atopic dermatitis (AD). Besides genetic predisposition, immunological dysregulations considerably contribute to its pathophysiology. For example, thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is highly expressed in lesional atopic skin and significantly contributes to the pathogenesis of AD by activating dendritic cells that then initiate downstream effects on, for example, T cells. However, little is known about the direct interplay between TSLP, filaggrin-deficient skin and other immune cells such as T lymphocytes. In the present study, FLG knockdown skin equivalents, characterised by intrinsically high TSLP levels, were exposed to activated CD4+ T cells. T cell exposure resulted in an inflammatory phenotype of the skin equivalents. Furthermore, a distinct shift from a Th1/Th17 to a Th2/Th22 profile was observed following exposure of T cells to filaggrin-deficient skin equivalents. Interestingly, TSLP directly stimulated T cell migration exclusively in filaggrin-deficient skin equivalents even in the absence of dendritic cells, indicating a hitherto unknown role of TSLP in the pathogenesis of AD

Decision-making flexibility in New Caledonian crows, young children and adult humans in a multi-dimensional tool-use task.

The ability to make profitable decisions in natural foraging contexts may be influenced by an additional requirement of tool-use, due to increased levels of relational complexity and additional work-effort imposed by tool-use, compared with simply choosing between an immediate and delayed food item. We examined the flexibility for making the most profitable decisions in a multi-dimensional tool-use task, involving different apparatuses, tools and rewards of varying quality, in 3-5-year-old children, adult humans and tool-making New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides). We also compared our results to previous studies on habitually tool-making orangutans (Pongo abelii) and non-tool-making Goffin's cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana). Adult humans, cockatoos and crows, but not children and orangutans, did not select a tool when it was not necessary, which was the more profitable choice in this situation. Adult humans, orangutans and cockatoos, but not crows and children, were able to refrain from selecting non-functional tools. By contrast, the birds, but not the primates tested, struggled to attend to multiple variables-where two apparatuses, two tools and two reward qualities were presented simultaneously-without extended experience. These findings indicate: (1) in a similar manner to humans and orangutans, New Caledonian crows and Goffin's cockatoos can flexibly make profitable decisions in some decision-making tool-use tasks, though the birds may struggle when tasks become more complex; (2) children and orangutans may have a bias to use tools in situations where adults and other tool-making species do not

Competencies of Data Stewards at Austrian Universities

Im April 2021 trafen sich die Projektmitarbeiter*innen von „FAIR Data Austria“ zu einem gemeinsamen Workshop, um die Kompetenzen der Data Stewards zu identifizieren und sie den drei Data Steward Modellen zuzuordnen. Diese Modelle wurden in einem vorangegangenen Workshop im Oktober 2020, im Hinblick auf den österreichischen Kontext, erarbeitet und bereits die Aufgaben und Profile der Data Stewards definiert. Im Vorfeld bereits erhobene Kompetenzen wurden von den Workshopteilnehmer*innen um neue Kompetenzen erweitert und/oder neue Aspekte hinzugefügt bzw. konkretisiert. In Gruppenarbeiten wurden die einzelnen Modelle mit den für sie passenden Kompetenzen aus dem Kompetenz-Pool gefüllt und im Plenum diskutiert. Die Data Stewards der TU Graz gaben Einblicke in ihre bisherige Arbeit und erklärten welche Kompetenzen ihrer Ansicht nach gebraucht bzw. gefordert werden. Mit den erarbeiteten Informationen sollen nun in einem nächsten Schritt geeignete Trainingsmodule erstellt werden, die maßgeschneidert auf die einzelnen Modelle angewendet werden können. Am Ende des Projekts soll ein Self-Assessment-Toolkit entstehen, welches alle Aspekte der Data Stewardship berücksichtigt und damit den Forschungseinrichtungen eine Orientierungshilfe gibt, welches Modell für sie am geeignetsten ist.In April 2021, the project members of „FAIR Data Austria“ met for a joint workshop to identify the competencies of data stewards and map them to predefined data steward models. These models and corresponding data steward profiles and tasks were developed in a previous workshop in October 2020 for the Austrian context. The workshop participants expanded competencies identified in advance to include new competencies, and/or new aspects were added or specified. In breakout sessions, the individual models were filled with the appropriate competencies from the competence pool and discussed in the plenary. Data stewards of TU Graz gave insights into their current work and explained which competencies, in their opinion, are needed. In the next step, suitable training modules will be established from the collected information tailored to the individual models. At the end of the project, a self-assessment toolkit will be developed that considers all aspects of data stewardship and provides guidance to research institutions on which model is most suitable for them

In search of animal normativity : a framework for studying social norms in non-human animals

Funding: K. A. and E. W. were supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation through the Diverse Intelligence initiative. K. A. was supported by SSHRC 435-2022-0749. S. F. B. was supported by NSF 2127375, NSF SES 1919305, and TWCF0471. T. G. was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation PCEFP1_186832. C. H. was supported by European Union's 8th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 802719. L. M. H. was supported by NIH U42 OD013117-15A. C. K. was supported by TWCF-20647 and the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program. L. V. L. was supported by the Max Planck Society. J. T. was supported by NIH R21 MH129902 and NIH R01 AG071173.Social norms – rules governing which behaviours are deemed appropriate or inappropriate within a given community – are typically taken to be uniquely human. Recently, this position has been challenged by a number of philosophers, cognitive scientists, and ethologists, who have suggested that social norms may also be found in certain non-human animal communities. Such claims have elicited considerable scepticism from norm cognition researchers, who doubt that any non-human animals possess the psychological capacities necessary for normative cognition. However, there is little agreement among these researchers about what these psychological prerequisites are. This makes empirical study of animal social norms difficult, since it is not clear what we are looking for and thus what should count as behavioural evidence for the presence (or absence) of social norms in animals. To break this impasse, we offer an approach that moves beyond contested psychological criteria for social norms. This approach is inspired by the animal culture research program, which has made a similar shift away from heavily psychological definitions of ‘culture’ to become organised around a cluster of more empirically tractable concepts of culture. Here, we propose an analogous set of constructs built around the core notion of a normative regularity, which we define as a socially maintained pattern of behavioural conformity within a community. We suggest methods for studying potential normative regularities in wild and captive primates. We also discuss the broader scientific and philosophical implications of this research program with respect to questions of human uniqueness, animal welfare and conservation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A fungal ascorbate oxidase with unexpected laccase activity

Ascorbate oxidases are an enzyme group that has not been explored to a large extent. So far, mainly ascorbate oxidases from plants and only a few from fungi have been described. Although ascorbate oxidases belong to the well-studied enzyme family of multi-copper oxidases, their function is still unclear. In this study, Af_AO1, an enzyme from the fungus Aspergillus flavus, was characterized. Sequence analyses and copper content determination demonstrated Af_AO1 to belong to the multi-copper oxidase family. Biochemical characterization and 3D-modeling revealed a similarity to ascorbate oxidases, but also to laccases. Af_AO1 had a 10-fold higher affinity to ascorbic acid (KM = 0.16 ± 0.03 mM) than to ABTS (KM = 1.89 ± 0.12 mM). Furthermore, the best fitting 3D-model was based on the ascorbate oxidase from Cucurbita pepo var. melopepo. The laccase-like activity of Af_AO1 on ABTS (Vmax = 11.56 ± 0.15 µM/min/mg) was, however, not negligible. On the other hand, other typical laccase substrates, such as syringaldezine and guaiacol, were not oxidized by Af_AO1. According to the biochemical and structural characterization, Af_AO1 was classified as ascorbate oxidase with unusual, laccase-like activityPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version