A Qualitative Comparison of General Chemistry and Advanced Placement Chemistry Students’ Misconceptions Regarding Solution Chemistry

There has been much research on student misconceptions regarding the particulate nature of matter and its relation to solution chemistry (e.g. Adadan & Savasci, 2012; Calik & Ayas, 2005; Calik, Ayas, & Coll, 2009; Pinarbasi & Canpolat, 2003; K. J. Smith & Metz, 1996). However, there is a lack of information regarding student misconceptions in areas of solution chemistry such as factors affecting solubility, polarity & molecular interactions and colligative properties. This research compared the misconceptions in solution chemistry held by students who are approaching the end of an Advanced Placement (AP) chemistry course in the high school setting with students enrolled in a general chemistry course at the collegiate level. This is significant as the College Board, assumes students in the AP chemistry course have been exposed to same chemistry content as students in a first-year, collegiate, general chemistry course. A qualitative approach was used to allow students to express their personal understanding. In line with the constructivist framework, each student has their own experience and interpretation of the scientific concepts introduced within a unit. In order to capture each student’s unique perspective, open-ended questionnaires and interviews were the main sources of evaluative data. The study included three distinct phases – pre-assessment, post-assessment, and semi-structured interviews. Preliminary results of this study will be discussed, specifically regarding high school student participants

UV-observations with a Brewer spectrophotometer at Hohenpeissenberg

Regular spectral UV-B measurements with a Brewer spectrophotometer have been performed at Hohenpeissenberg since 1990. Intercomparison of the Brewer instrument with other UV-B monitoring devices have shown agreement to within plus or minus 10 percent. Comparisons of UV-B spectra measured on fair weather days reveal the well known increasing influence of ozone on UV-B irradiance with decreasing wavelengths. The integral amplification factor the erythemal irradiance reaches values up to 2.8, which can be diminished by increasing turbidity. The influence of cirrus cloud on the UV-B is also shown

On long-term ozone trends at Hohenpeissenberg

More than 2000 ozone soundings and a large number of Dobson observations have been performed since 1967 in a unique procedure. The achieved very homogeneous data sets were used to evaluate significant long-term trends both in the troposphere and the stratosphere. The trend amounts to about plus 2 percent per year in the troposphere and to about minus 0.5 percent per year in the stratosphere. Extremely low ozone records obtained during winter 1991/92 are discussed in the light of the long term series. The winter mean of the ozone column is the lowest one of the series. The ozone deficit occurred mainly in the lower stratosphere. One cause may be the Pinatubo cloud. Even compared with the extreme winter mean following the El Chichon eruption the ozone content was lower. Additionally ozone was reduced by dynamical effects due to unusual weather situations

A qualitative comparison of general chemistry and advanced placement chemistry students\u27 misconceptions regarding solution chemistry

This study focused on identifying misconceptions which high school AP and collegiate general chemistry students hold with regards to solution chemistry topics and comparing the misconceptions held by each student group. Previous research has found that misconceptions can greatly impact students’ understanding of material and have a negative impact on student learning. However, not all solution chemistry topics had been explored in previous research. In addition, it has been suggested that collegiate students have reached a higher level of cognitive development as they are older and more advanced in their studies. If this is the case, one could assume that the collegiate students would better able to comprehend complex chemistry topics and, therefore, hold onto fewer misconceptions over the course of classroom instruction. AP Chemistry students from three different high schools (n = 20) and collegiate general chemistry students from one university (n = 4) participated in this qualitative study. Students were asked to complete an open-ended, researcher-developed Solution Chemistry Questionnaire (SCQ) both before and after instruction. The questions were based around solution chemistry topics that were introduced and discussed during classroom instruction at both the AP and collegiate level. Students were then selected through the process of maximum variation sampling, based upon their pre- and post-assessment responses. The selected students participated in a one-on-one semi-structured interview involving the same topics that were present in the SCQ. Misconceptions identified within all three phases of the study were used to determine trends and determine the overall results of the study. The five main categories which misconceptions were coded to include: structure of molecules, polar v. non-polar substances, types of solutions, colligative properties, and types of salts. The results of this study support the idea that collegiate chemistry students are more advanced in terms of their cognitive development, specifically with regards to complex chemistry concepts. Collegiate students displayed a more complex understanding of solution chemistry topics, even though misconceptions were identified within both populations. AP Chemistry students displayed a wider range of misconceptions, while the misconceptions of students at the collegiate level were more uniform and based around more complex chemistry concepts

CRUSE®-An innovative mobile application for patient monitoring and management in chronic spontaneous urticaria

Background: Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is unpredictable and can severely impair patients' quality of life. Patients with CSU need a convenient, user-friendly platform to complete patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) on their mobile devices. CRUSE®, the Chronic Urticaria Self Evaluation app, aims to address this unmet need. Methods: CRUSE® was developed by an international steering committee of urticaria specialists. Priorities for the app based on recent findings in CSU were defined to allow patients to track and record their symptoms and medication use over time and send photographs. The CRUSE® app collects patient data such as age, sex, disease onset, triggers, medication, and CSU characteristics that can be sent securely to physicians, providing real-time insights. Additionally, CRUSE® contains PROMs to assess disease activity and control, which are individualised to patient profiles and clinical manifestations. Results: CRUSE® was launched in Germany in March 2022 and is now available for free in 17 countries. It is adapted to the local language and displays a country-specific list of available urticaria medications. English and Ukrainian versions are available worldwide. From July 2022 to June 2023, 25,710 observations were documented by 2540 users; 72.7% were females, with a mean age of 39.6 years. At baseline, 93.7% and 51.3% of users had wheals and angioedema, respectively. Second-generation antihistamines were used in 74.0% of days. Conclusions: The initial data from CRUSE® show the wide use and utility of effectively tracking patients' disease activity and control, paving the way for personalised CSU management

Treatment of primary cutaneous lymphoma - from the establishment of therapies in the context of basic research to clinical trials

Primär kutane Lymphome sind eine Gruppe seltener, klinisch und prognostisch sehr heterogener Hauterkrankungen. Daher existiert für die Behandlung ein großes Repertoire systemischer wie topischer Therapiemodalitäten. Viele der Behandlungsmöglichkeiten sind hierbei der Therapie nodaler Lymphome oder chronisch inflammatorischer Dermatosen entlehnt. Da bisher keine kurativen Therapieansätze existieren und viele etablierte Behandlungen v.a. bei aggressiven Lymphomen nur bedingt wirken, existiert ein kontinuierlicher Bedarf an der Evaluation neuer Therapiemodalitäten sowohl durch Grundlagenforschung als auch durch klinische Prüfung. Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Therapieforschung ausgehend von der Untersuchung neuer Ansatzpunkte und Substanzen in vitro bis hin zur klinischen Evaluation der Wirksamkeit sowohl vorhandener als auch neuer Therapien für Patienten mit primär kutanen Lymphomen. Als potentielles Therapeutikum zur Therapie kutaner T-Zell-Lymphome (CTCL) wurde Arsentrioxid in vitro an Zelllinien untersucht und wir konnten zeigen, dass es bei kutanen Lymphomzellen Apoptose induziert, eine Kombination mit Retinoiden, einem Standardtherapeutikum bei CTCL aber nicht synergistisch wirkte. Dennoch scheint die Kombination mit potentiellen anderen Partnern für weitere Studien sinnvoll. Neben antineoplastischen Effekten, ist auch die Linderung von Krankheitssymptomen wie Juckreiz von Interesse. Wir untersuchten an Zelllinien sowie Blutzellen von Patienten und Probanden die Rolle des IL-31 Signalweges bei Mycosis fungoides (MF) und Sézary Syndrom. IL-31 spielt bei mit Juckreiz einhergehenden entzündlichen Dermatosen wie der atopischen Dermatitis (AD) eine wesentliche pathogenetische Rolle und wurde aktuell bereits in klinischen Studien als Therapieziel erforscht. Die Untersuchungen sowohl des Serumspiegels von IL-31 als auch der Rezeptorexpression auf Tumorzellen zeigten, dass zumindest im Blut der Signalweg keine ausgeprägte Rolle zu spielen scheint und auch nicht mit der Ausprägung des Juckreizes korreliert. Die Rezeptorexpression ist allerdings mit IL-2 stimulierbar. Da andere Arbeiten zeigen konnten, dass IL-2 in läsionaler Haut von Lymphompatienten erhöht ist, ist dies ein Hinweis darauf, dass in Analogie zur AD IL-31 im Hautkompartiment eine prominente Rolle spielen könnte. Neben der Grundlagenforschung zur Identifizierung neuer Therapieoptionen sind prospektive klinische Studien zur Beurteilung der Wirksamkeit von Therapien vonnöten. Wegen der Seltenheit der kutanen Lymphome sind für nicht wenige Therapieverfahren keine oder ausschließlich retrospektive Studien vorhanden. Da auch für die Creme-PUVA bei MF mit limitiertem Hautbefall prospektive Studien bisher nicht vorlagen, führten wir für eine solche erstmals durch. Wir konnten ein Gesamtansprechen von 70% ohne wesentliche unerwünschte Wirkungen verzeichnen. Die Creme-PUVA ist insbesondere deshalb eine sinnvolle Therapiemaßnahme bei limitierter MF, weil Bade- oder systemische PUVA durch die deutlich größere bestrahlte Körperoberfläche mit einem erhöhten Risiko für die spätere Entwicklung UV- induzierten Hautkrebses einhergehen. Für die Behandlung von indolenten kutanen B-Zell-Lymphomen konnten wir zeigen, dass systemisch verabreichtes niedrigdosiertes Interferon-alpha ein gutes Ansprechen und niedriges Risikoprofil aufweist. Aufgrund der hohen Rezidivrate, die durch keine bisher beschriebene Therapie beeinflusst wird, scheint die wenig toxische systemische Interferontherapie für häufig notwendige Rezidiv- und ggf. auch Erhaltungstherapie gut geeignet. Viele der eingesetzten immunmodulatorischen Behandlungen bei CTCL benötigen oftmals Wochen bis Monate, bis eine klinische Besserung des Hautbefunds eintritt. Daher ist auch das Identifizieren von Verlaufsmarkern, welche das Ansprechen der Therapie anzeigen, sinnvoll. Die Rate an CD26-defizienten T-Helferzellen im Blut ist in anderen Studien als prädiktiver Marker postuliert worden. Wir konnten diesen Zusammenhang in der detaillierten Analyse einer Kohorte von Patienten mit erythrodermischen T -Zell-Lymphomen jedoch nicht bestätigen. Dies galt auch für andere Serumparameter wie die Laktatdehydrogenase. Die Therapiebewertung sollte sich daher stets weiter am klinischen Untersuchungsbefund orientieren. So zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit, dass beginnend mit der Grundlagenforschung über prospektive wie retrospektive Therapiestudien die Etablierung und Evaluierung von Behandlungsmöglichkeiten bei primär kutanen Lymphomen ein umfangreiches Feld darstellen. Vor allem für die Zukunft besteht daher ein weiterer hoher Bedarf an Forschung, v.a. für möglichst nebenwirkungsarme Dauer- bzw. Wiederholungstherapien.Primary cutaneous lymphomas represent a clinically and prognostically very heterogeneous group of rare dermatological diseases. Therefore, an extensive repertoire of topical and systemic therapies exists. Many of these treatment regimens are derived from the therapy of nodal lymphomas or inflammatory skin diseases. As no curative treatments have yet been established and as in advanced disease stages even combination therapies only yield limited responses a continuous need for evaluating new therapeutic modalities exists both in the field of basic as well as clinical research. Thus the following work deals with therapeutic research, ranging from investigating novel strategies and agents in vitro to clinical trials evaluating existing or novel therapies. We conducted research on arsenic trioxide as a potential agent for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) on the basis of cell lines and could show that it causes apoptosis in tumor cells. A combination with retinoids though, which are a standard treatment option in CTCL, did not prove synergistic. Nevertheless, the combination with other substances in future studies seems promising. Besides therapies with direct antineoplastic effects, also strategies for alleviating symptoms of CTCL like pruritus are of interest. We therefore investigated the IL-31 signal transduction pathway in cell lines and blood cells from patients with Mycosis fungoides (MF) and Sézary syndrome. IL-31 is known to play an important pathogenetic role in pruritic inflammatory skin conditions like atopic dermatitis (AD) and has already been used as a target in clinical trials with AD patients. Our study showed that serum abundance and expression of IL-31 and its receptor on tumor cells at least in the blood compartment did not suggest that it would play a pronounced role for pathogenesis or pruritogenesis. Incubation with IL-2 though proved capable of stimulating receptor expression. As earlier studies had shown that IL-2 is elevated in lesional skin of CTCL patients, this hints at a more prominent role of IL-31 in the skin compartment. This would be in analogy to AD patients, where this correlation has already been characterized. Besides basic research for identifying new treatment options prospective clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of treatment modalities are needed. Due to the rarity of cutaneous lymphomas prospective trials are scarce, and published data is mostly derived from retrospective studies. This also applies to cream-PUVA-therapy of MF patients with limited disease. We therefore conducted a prospective trial evaluating this treatment option. The overall response rate proved to be 70% without severe side effects. This led to the conclusion that cream-PUVA is a valuable treatment option, especially when considering that systemic or bath-PUVA have a greater risk of inducing UV- related carcinoma due to the more extensive illumination of the integument. Addressing indolent cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCL) we could show in a retrospective study that interferon-alfa when administered systemically features a good response rate and causes only mild side effects. Because of the high relapse rate of indolent CBCL and the good tolerability of interferon-alfa it could also prove valuable for relapse- as well as maintenance-treatment. Most of the immunomodulatory therapies used for CTCL patients take weeks until months before leading to an improvement of the clinical status. Identifying markers capable of predicting response to or failure of therapies is therefore of interest. The rate of CD-26 deficient T-cells in the peripheral blood has been described as possessing these properties. In a detailed analysis of a cohort of patients with erythrodermic CTCL our group could not confirm these prior data. This also applied for other serum markers like D-lactate dehydrogenase. We concluded that the evaluation of the clinical status so far represents the best means of monitoring treatment efficacy. In conclusion our different studies underline that ranging from basic research to clinical trials of cutaneous lymphoma a continuous need for conducting further research exists, especially addressing the topic of maintenance therapies and strategies for relapsing disease

How Rich's Sunflower and Her Family Bind a Nation

As Flower, As Edible Root nourishing Natives and wanderers, and as witness to the nation's work force and wars,Helianthus tuberosusrepeatedly drew itself to the attention of Adrienne Rich as she drove across the country:Late summers, early autumns, you can see something that bindsthe map of this country together: the girasol, orange gold-petalledwith her black eye, laces the roadsides from Vermont to California runs the edges of orchards, chain-link fencesmilo fields and malls, schoolyards and reservationstruckstops and quarries, grazing ranges, graveyardsof veterans, graveyards of cars hulked and sunk, her tubers the jerusalem artichokethat has fed the Indians, fed the hobos, could feed us all.Is there anything in the soil, cross-country, that makes for a plant so generous? (11)Here in part IV of her impressive long poem “An Atlas of the Difficult World” (1991) Rich does not use the botanist's Latin, and she gives no further details about girasol (Jerusalem artichoke), a member of the sunflower family, all of whose varieties are native to the Americas. She (the plant) thrives everywhere, in places both mainstream and marginal, and being thus omnipresent she can feed people in all walks of life.</jats:p