Modellierung des fachlichen und fachdidaktischen Wissens von Lehrkräften im Rechnungswesen – Überlegungen zur Konstruktion eines Testinstruments

Die Kompetenzmessung im Hochschulbereich stellt bislang ein weitgehend vernachlässigtes Forschungsgebiet des Bildungssektors dar. Eine umfassende Analyse des internationalen Forschungsstandes im Bereich der Modellierung und Erfassung von Kompetenzen zeigt insbesondere für Europa ein Forschungsdefizit im Hochschulsektor auf. Daher wurde 2010 vom BMBF das Forschungsprogramm „Kompetenzmodellierung und Kompetenzerfassung im Hochschulsektor” (KoKoHs) initiiert, welches die Ziele verfolgt, die Leistungsfähigkeit des tertiären Bildungssystems in Deutschland zu erhalten und Grundlagen für eine Evaluation der Kompetenzentwicklung sowie des Kompetenzerwerbs an Hochschulen zu schaffen. [...] Da bislang kein standardisiertes Testinstrument existiert, welches sowohl das fachliche als auch das fachdidaktische Wissen von Lehrkräften im Rechnungswesen erfasst, wird im KoMeWP [Kompetenzmessung im wirtschaftspädagogischen Studium]-Projekt ein Paper-Pencil-Test konstruiert. Im Rahmen des vorliegenden Beitrags werden die Vorarbeiten zur Konstruktion des Testinstruments beschrieben und richtungsweisende Entscheidungen begründet. In einem ersten Schritt stellt sich die Frage, wie das professionelle Wissen theoretisch zu konzeptionieren ist (Kapitel 2). Außerdem gilt es zu klären, welche Rechnungsweseninhalte in den Testitems Beachtung finden sollen. Erforderlich ist in dieser Hinsicht eine Analyse des Inhaltsbereichs des (externen) Rechnungswesens (Kapitel 3). Abschließend werden die Vorarbeiten in einem Rahmenmodell für die Itemkonstruktion zusammengeführt (Kapitel 4). (DIPF/Orig.

Acetate Activation in Methanosaeta thermophila

The thermophilic methanogen Methanosaeta thermophila uses acetate as sole substrate for methanogenesis. It was proposed that the acetate activation reaction that is needed to feed acetate into the methanogenic pathway requires the hydrolysis of two ATP, whereas the acetate activation reaction in Methanosarcina sp. is known to require only one ATP. As these organisms live at the thermodynamic limit that sustains life, the acetate activation reaction in Mt. thermophila seems too costly and was thus reevaluated. It was found that of the putative acetate activation enzymes one gene encoding an AMP-forming acetyl-CoA synthetase was highly expressed. The corresponding enzyme was purified and characterized in detail. It catalyzed the ATP-dependent formation of acetyl-CoA, AMP, and pyrophosphate (PPi) and was only moderately inhibited by PPi. The breakdown of PPi was performed by a soluble pyrophosphatase. This enzyme was also purified and characterized. The pyrophosphatase hydrolyzed the major part of PPi (KM=0.27±0.05 mM) that was produced in the acetate activation reaction. Activity was not inhibited by nucleotides or PPi. However, it cannot be excluded that other PPi-dependent enzymes take advantage of the remaining PPi and contribute to the energy balance of the cell

Prevention and Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder in Adolescents: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial of the Online Guided Self-Help Intervention SOPHIE.

BACKGROUND Social anxiety symptoms are highly prevalent among adolescents and are associated with poor quality of life and low psychosocial functioning. If untreated, social anxiety often persists into adulthood and increases the risk for comorbid disorders. Therefore, early interventions for social anxiety to prevent negative long-term consequences are critical. However, adolescents rarely seek help and often avoid face-to-face psychotherapeutic interventions due to the perceived lack of autonomy and anonymity. Thus, online interventions represent a promising opportunity to reach adolescents who have social anxiety but do not seek help yet. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the efficacy, moderators, and mediators of an online intervention developed to reduce social anxiety in adolescents. METHODS A total of 222 adolescents aged 11-17 years with subclinical social anxiety (N=166) or with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (N=56) are randomly assigned to the online intervention or a care-as-usual control group. The 8-week guided online intervention is based on the Cognitive Model of Social Phobia and evidence-based online interventions for social anxiety adapted to the specific needs of adolescents. The care-as-usual group will be given access to the online intervention after the follow-up assessment. Participants are assessed at baseline, at 4 and 8 weeks post intervention, and at 3-month follow-up assessment on the primary outcome, that is, social anxiety, on secondary outcomes (eg, level of functioning, fear and avoidance, general anxiety, depression, quality of life, self-esteem, and negative effects of the intervention), on potential moderators (eg, therapy motivation, therapy expectancy, and satisfaction with the intervention), and potential mediators (eg, therapeutic alliance and adherence to the intervention). Data will be analyzed based on an intention-to-treat approach and both groups (intervention and care-as-usual) will be compared at each assessment time point. Furthermore, potential mechanisms of change and generalization of intervention effects on daily life are assessed using an ecological momentary assessment procedure that includes items on maintaining mechanisms of social anxiety, social context, and affect. Participants are prompted 3 times a day during the first 8 weeks of the study and again for 2 weeks following the follow-up assessment. RESULTS Recruitment is ongoing; initial results are expected in 2024. CONCLUSIONS Results are discussed considering the potential of online interventions as a low-threshold prevention and treatment option for adolescents with social anxiety and in light of current advances in dynamic modeling of change processes and mechanisms in early intervention and psychotherapy in adolescents. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04782102; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04782102. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/44346

Preferred Gamification Elements in a Health Behavior Change Support System for Stress Management

Stress is a serious hazard to individuals. Health behavior change support systems (HBCSSs) may support individuals to modify their behaviors toward a healthy lifestyle. Previous studies have shown that HBCSSs for stress management can improve individual coping behavior but their success depends on the users’ adoption and long-term use. Gamification elements (GEs) can contribute to continuous use by motivating their users, enabling sustained healthy stress coping behavior. With a mixed-methods approach, we identified suitable GEs through six interviews with users of a mobile coping assistant prototype. Based on those insights, we designed GE mockups and surveyed 204 participants using the best-worst-scaling method to examine the users’ preferences. The results demonstrate that users mostly prefer feedback elements, such as scoreboards and progress bars in HBCSSs for stress management. Social interaction GEs score worst. Our interviews indicate that this could be due to privacy reasons

Towards Designing a Mobile Stress Coping Assistant

Stress is a major public health concern and a severe threat to everyone. Facilitated by their powerful sensing capabilities, mobile devices may assist individuals in coping with stress. Building on existing studies and mobile apps supporting stress coping, we propose the design of a mobile coping assistant that uses multimodal sensor data to reduce its user’s stress. Based on sensor data, a mobile coping assistant (1) warns the user about elevated stress, (2) delivers a fundamental understanding of why they are currently stressed, (3) recommends targeted coping strategies to encourage and train effective coping behavior, and (4) executes automated actions to reduce stress exposure. The presented design comprises an architecture, good practices for designing the architectural components, and an algorithm for selecting adequate coping actions and recommendations. A prototypical instantiation indicates opportunities and challenges. Future research should evaluate the short- and long-term effectiveness of mobile coping assistants in the field

Prolonging somatic cell proliferation through constitutive hox gene expression in C. elegans

hox genes encode a conserved family of homeodomain transcription factors that are essential to determine the identity of body segments during embryogenesis and maintain adult somatic stem cells competent to regenerate organs. In contrast to higher organisms, somatic cells in C. elegans irreversibly exit the cell cycle after completing their cell lineage and the adult soma cannot regenerate. Here, we show that hox gene expression levels in C. elegans determine the temporal competence of somatic cells to proliferate. Down-regulation of the central hox gene lin-39 in dividing vulval cells results in their premature cell cycle exit, whereas constitutive lin-39 expression causes precocious Pn.p cell and sex myoblast divisions and prolongs the proliferative phase of the vulval cells past their normal point of arrest. Furthermore, ectopic expression of hox genes in the quiescent anchor cell re-activates the cell cycle and induces proliferation until young adulthood. Thus, constitutive expression of a single hox transcription factor is sufficient to prolong somatic cell proliferation beyond the restriction imposed by the cell lineage. The down-regulation of hox gene expression in most somatic cells at the end of larval development may be one cause for the absence of cell proliferation in adult C. elegans

Small‐scale heterogeneity shapes grassland diversity in low‐to‐intermediate resource environments

Questions Soil resource heterogeneity influences the outcome of plant–plant interactions and, consequently, species co-existence and diversity patterns. The magnitude and direction of heterogeneity effects vary widely, and the processes underlying such variations are not fully understood. In this study, we explored how and under what resource conditions small-scale heterogeneity modulates grassland plant diversity. Location Oderhänge Mallnow, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany. Methods We expanded the individual-based plant community model (IBC-grass) to incorporate dynamic below-ground resource maps, simulating spatial heterogeneity of resource availability. Empirical centimeter-scale data of soil C/N ratio were integrated into the model, accounting for both configurational and compositional heterogeneity. We then analyzed the interplay between small-scale heterogeneity and resource availability on the interaction and co-existence of plant species and overall diversity. Results Our results showed significant differences between the low- and high-resource scenarios, with both configurational and compositional heterogeneity having a positive effect on species richness and Simpson's diversity, but only under low-resource conditions. As compositional heterogeneity in the fine-scale C/N ratio increased, we observed a positive shift in Simpson's diversity and species richness, with the highest effects at the highest level of variability tested. We observed little to no effect in nutrient-rich scenarios, and a shift to negative effects at the intermediate resource level. The study demonstrates that site-specific resource levels underpin how fine-scale heterogeneity influences plant diversity and species co-existence, and partly explains the divergent effects recorded in different empirical studies. Conclusions This study provides mechanistic insights into the complex relationship between resource heterogeneity and diversity patterns. It highlights the context-dependent effects of small-scale heterogeneity, which can be positive under low-resource, neutral under high-resource, and negative under intermediate-resource conditions. These findings provide a foundation for future investigations into small-scale heterogeneity–diversity relationships, contributing to a deeper understanding of the processes that promote species co-existence in plant communities

Investigating emotion regulation and social information processing as mechanisms linking adverse childhood experiences with psychosocial functioning in young swiss adults: the FACE epidemiological accelerated cohort study.

BACKGROUND Adverse childhood experiences increase the risk for psychological disorders and lower psychosocial functioning across the lifespan. However, less is known about the processes through which ACE are linked to multiple negative outcomes. The aim of the FACE epidemiological study is to investigate emotion regulation (emotional reactivity, perseverative thinking and self-efficacy for managing emotions) and social information processing (rejection sensitivity, interpretation biases and social understanding) as potential mechanisms linking adverse childhood experiences and psychosocial functioning in a large population sample of young adults. It is embedded in a larger project that also includes an ecological momentary assessment of emotion regulation and social information processing and informs the development and evaluation of an online self-help intervention for young adults with a history of ACE. METHODS The study plans to recruit 5000 young adults aged 18 to 21 from the German-speaking Swiss population. Addresses are provided by Swiss Federal Statistical Office and participants are invited by mail to complete a self-report online survey. If the targeted sample size will not be reached, a second additional sample will be recruited via educational facilities such as universities or teacher training colleges or military training schools. Three follow-ups are planned after 1 year, 2 years and 3 years, resulting in ages 18-24 being covered. The main exposure variable is self-reported adverse childhood experiences before the age of 18, measured at the baseline. Primary outcomes are psychosocial functioning across the study period. Secondary outcomes are social information processing, emotion regulation and health care service use. Statistical analyses include a range of latent variable models to identify patterns of adverse childhood experiences and patterns and trajectories of psychosocial adaptation. DISCUSSION The results will contribute to the understanding of the underlying mechanisms that link ACE with psychosocial functioning which is crucial for an improved insight into risk and resilience processes and for tailoring interventions. Furthermore, the identification of factors that facilitate or hinder service use among young adults with ACE informs healthcare policies and the provision of appropriate healthcare services. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT05122988. The study was reviewed and authorized by the ethical committee of Northwestern and Central Switzerland (BASEC number 2021-01204)

Maternal immune activation transgenerationally modulates maternal care and offspring depression-like behavior

AbstractGestational infection is increasingly being recognized for its involvement as causative mechanism in severe developmental brain abnormalities and its contribution to the pathogenesis of psychopathologies later in life. First observations in the widely accepted maternal immune activation (MIA) model based upon the systemic administration of the viral mimetic Polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) have recently suggested a transmission of behavioral and transcriptional traits across generations. Although maternal care behavior (MCB) is known as essential mediator of the transgenerational effects of environmental challenges on offspring brain function and behavior, the possible propagation of alterations of MCB resulting from MIA to following generations has not yet been examined. Here we show that poly(I:C) stimulation at embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) leads to aberrant MCB and that this effect is transmitted to the female F1 offspring. The transgenerational effects on MCB are paralleled by enhanced depression-like behavior in the second generation F2 offspring with contributions of both maternal and paternal heritages. Examination of offspring hippocampal expression of genes known as targets of MCB and relevant for ensuing non-genetic transmission of altered brain function and behavior revealed transgenerationally conserved and modified expressional patterns in the F1 and F2 generation.Collectively these data firstly demonstrate the transgenerational transmission of the impact of gestational immune activation on the reproductive care behavior of the mother. Behavioral and molecular characteristics of first and second generation offspring suggest transgenerationally imprinted consequences of gestational infection on psychopathological traits related to mood disorders which remain to be examined in future cross-fostering experiments

Methane-Dependent Extracellular Electron Transfer at the Bioanode by the Anaerobic Archaeal Methanotroph “Candidatus Methanoperedens”

Anaerobic methanotrophic (ANME) archaea have recently been reported to be capable of using insoluble extracellular electron acceptors via extracellular electron transfer (EET). In this study, we investigated EET by a microbial community dominated by “Candidatus Methanoperedens” archaea at the anode of a bioelectrochemical system (BES) poised at 0 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode (SHE), in this way measuring current as a direct proxy of EET by this community. After inoculation of the BES, the maximum current density was 274 mA m(–2) (stable current up to 39 mA m(–2)). Concomitant conversion of (13)CH(4) into (13)CO(2) demonstrated that current production was methane-dependent, with 38% of the current attributed directly to methane supply. Based on the current production and methane uptake in a closed system, the Coulombic efficiency was about 17%. Polarization curves demonstrated that the current was limited by microbial activity at potentials above 0 V. The metatranscriptome of the inoculum was mined for the expression of c-type cytochromes potentially used for EET, which led to the identification of several multiheme c-type cytochrome-encoding genes among the most abundant transcripts in “Ca. Methanoperedens.” Our study provides strong indications of EET in ANME archaea and describes a system in which ANME-mediated EET can be investigated under laboratory conditions, which provides new research opportunities for mechanistic studies and possibly the generation of axenic ANME cultures