The gardener’s house in 19th century German architectural and landscape traditions

This article is devoted to the topic of garden houses, characteristic of buildings in garden architecture in many epochs. In the 19th century, owing to the creator of German culture, they assumed a characteristic form, becoming part of the design trends of that time. The main considerations will include their characteristics, the importance and value in creating 19th-century cultural landscapes against the conditions connected with the gardener’s occupation

The gardener’s house – the form, the value, the state of behaviour (on the example of buildings from the area of the former rejencja opolska)

The article covers issues relating to the19th-century buildings which accompanied the park complex, called the gardener’s house. They presented the most important contemporary trends in the formation of residential-park complexes, as well as examples of preserved objects in the former rejencja opolska. It also presents the form, present values, and opportunities for adapting them

Effekte von Nanosekunden gepulsten elektrischen Feldern auf Zellen im Monolayer

Nanosekunden gepulste elektrische Felder führen in Monolayern aus Rattenleberepithelzellen zu einer vorübergehenden Zeit- und Feldstärke-abhängigen Inhibierung der Zell-Zell-Kommunikation. Weiterhin konnte eine Aktivierung von Erk1/2 und ein verändertes Phosphorylierungsmuster von Connexin 43 nachgewiesen werden. AFM-Messungen zeigten zudem sowohl eine Umstrukturierung des Aktin-Zytoskeletts als auch ein Absinken der Elastizitätsmoduln der behandelten Zellen, was ein Charakteristikum von Krebszellen ist. Jedoch konnten keine tumorigenen Eigenschaften nachgewiesen werden

Uncertainty Quantification and Sensitivity Analysis for the Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy of Changes to Intercellular Junctions Induced by Cold Atmospheric Plasma

The influence of pertinent parameters of a Cole-Cole model in the impedimetric assessment of cell-monolayers was investigated with respect to the significance of their individual contribution. The analysis enables conclusions on characteristics, such as intercellular junctions. Especially cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has been proven to influence intercellular junctions which may become a key factor in CAP-related biological effects. Therefore, the response of rat liver epithelial cells (WB-F344) and their malignant counterpart (WB-ras) was studied by electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Cell monolayers before and after CAP treatment were analyzed. An uncertainty quantification (UQ) of Cole parameters revealed the frequency cut-off point between low and high frequency resistances. A sensitivity analysis (SA) showed that the Cole parameters, R0 and α were the most sensitive, while Rinf and τ were the least sensitive. The temporal development of major Cole parameters indicates that CAP induced reversible changes in intercellular junctions, but not significant changes in membrane permeability. Sustained changes of τ suggested that long-lived ROS, such as H2O2, might play an important role. The proposed analysis confirms that an inherent advantage of EIS is the real time observation for CAP-induced changes on intercellular junctions, with a label-free and in situ method manner

Educational Automatic Question Generation Improves Reading Comprehension in Non-native Speakers: A Learner-Centric Case Study

Background: Asking learners manually authored questions about their readings improves their text comprehension. Yet, not all reading materials comprise sufficiently many questions and many informal reading materials do not contain any. Therefore, automatic question generation has great potential in education as it may alleviate the lack of questions. However, currently, there is insufficient evidence on whether or not those automatically generated questions are beneficial for learners' understanding in reading comprehension scenarios. Objectives: We investigate the positive and negative effects of automatically generated short-answer questions on learning outcomes in a reading comprehension scenario. Methods: A learner-centric, in between-groups, quasi-experimental reading comprehension case study with 48 college students is conducted. We test two hypotheses concerning positive and negative effects on learning outcomes during the text comprehension of science texts and descriptively explore how the generated questions influenced learners. Results: The results show a positive effect of the generated questions on the participants learning outcomes. However, we cannot entirely exclude question-induced adverse side effects on learning of non-questioned information. Interestingly, questions identified as computer-generated by learners nevertheless seemed to benefit their understanding. Take Away: Automatic question generation positively impacts reading comprehension in the given scenario. In the reported case study, even questions recognized as computer-generated supported reading comprehension

Non-thermal plasma activates human keratinocytes by stimulation of antioxidant and phase II pathways

Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma provides a novel therapeutic opportunity to control redox-based processes, e.g. wound healing, cancer, and inflammatory diseases. By spatial and time-resolved delivery of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, it allows stimulation or inhibition of cellular processes in biological systems. Our data show that both gene and protein expression is highly affected by non-thermal plasma. Nuclear factor erythroid-related factor 2 (NRF2) and phase II enzyme pathway components were found to act as key controllers orchestrating the cellular response in keratinocytes. Additionally, glutathione metabolism, which is a marker for NRF2-related signaling events, was affected. Among the most robustly increased genes and proteins, heme oxygenase 1, NADPH-quinone oxidoreductase 1, and growth factors were found. The roles of NRF2 targets, investigated by siRNA silencing, revealed that NRF2 acts as an important switch for sensing oxidative stress events. Moreover, the influence of non-thermal plasma on the NRF2 pathway prepares cells against exogenic noxae and increases their resilience against oxidative species. Via paracrine mechanisms, distant cells benefit from cell-cell communication. The finding that non-thermal plasma triggers hormesis-like processes in keratinocytes facilitates the understanding of plasma-tissue interaction and its clinical application