Bridging the gap between school and out-of-school science: A Making pedagogical approach

Making provides a beneficial learning environment that requires skills and knowledge from the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to design and construct a product or an artefact. In this paper the maker approach reflects on the pedagogical potential of learning through the design and deployment of an automated system that monitors and records environmental parameters in lakes and rivers. IoT technologies are used to connect schools with natural ecosystems, providing the opportunity to students to be actively involved in designing and developing technology artefacts to experiment with, and further, in the formulation of research questions, and in the processing and interpretation of research results and measurements. The study contributes to the research literature on bridging the gap between the school and out-of-school science

Deliberative multiattribute valuation of ecosystem services across a range of regional land-use, socioeconomic, and climate scenarios for the upper Merrimack River watershed, New Hampshire, USA

We evaluate the relative desirability of alternative futures for the upper Merrimack River watershed in New Hampshire, USA based on the value of ecosystem services at the end of the 21st century as gauged by its present-day inhabitants. This evaluation is accomplished by integrating land-use and socioeconomic scenarios, downscaled climate projections, biogeophysical simulation models, and the results of a citizen-stakeholder deliberative multicriteria evaluation. We find that although there are some trade-offs between alternative plausible futures, for the most part, it can be expected that future inhabitants of the watershed will be most satisfied if land-use planning in the intervening years prioritizes water supply and flood protection as well as maintenance of existing farmland and forest cover. With respect to climate change, it is expected that future watershed inhabitants will be more negatively affected by the projected loss of snow cover than the anticipated increase in hot summer days. More important than the specific results for the upper Merrimack River watershed, this integrative assessment demonstrates the complex yet ultimately informative potential to link stakeholder engagement with scenario generation, ecosystem models, and multiattribute evaluation for informing regional-scale planning and decision making

Europeanization and the soft law process of EU corporate governance: how has the 2003 action plan impacted on national corporate governance codes?

This study explores Europeanization, the interrelationship between domestic and EU-level policy activity. Specifically, it asks how domestic policy is affected by EU-level (soft-law) policy processes. This contrasts with the hard-law focus of most Europeanization research. Our empirical analysis seeks to determine the extent to which the European Commission's 2003 plan to enhance corporate governance delivered on its aim of 'co-ordinating corporate governance efforts of member states'. This study thus differs from most others on convergence in corporate governance regimes, which look for evidence of convergence perse, rather than convergence towards a specified set of principles. Applying content analysis and econometric tests to 95 corporate governance codes issued between 1992 and mid-2010, we find that the Action Plan has influenced member states' corporate governance policies. However, the degree of national policy alignment to the Action Plan's priorities depends on when the corporate governance code was issued, here, and by whom

Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis in primary Sj\uf6gren's Syndrome: Clinical presentation, association with lymphoma and comparison with Hepatitis C-related disease

Objective: To describe the clinical spectrum of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV) in primary Sj\uf6gren's syndrome (pSS), investigate its relation to lymphoma and identify the differences with hepatitis C virus (HCV) related CV. Methods: From a multicentre study population of consecutive pSS patients, those who had been evaluated for cryoglobulins and fulfilled the 2011 classification criteria for CV were identified retrospectively. pSS-CV patients were matched with pSS patients without cryoglobulins (1:2) and HCV-CV patients (1:1). Clinical, laboratory and outcome features were analyzed. A data driven logistic regression model was applied for pSS-CV patients and their pSS cryoglobulin negative controls to identify independent features associated with lymphoma. Results: 1083 pSS patients were tested for cryoglobulins. 115 (10.6%) had cryoglobulinemia and 71 (6.5%) fulfilled the classification criteria for CV. pSS-CV patients had higher frequency of extraglandular manifestations and lymphoma (OR=9.87, 95% CI: 4.7\u201320.9) compared to pSS patients without cryoglobulins. Purpura was the commonest vasculitic manifestation (90%), presenting at disease onset in 39% of patients. One third of pSS-CV patients developed B-cell lymphoma within the first 5 years of CV course, with cryoglobulinemia being the strongest independent lymphoma associated feature. Compared to HCV-CV patients, pSS-CV individuals displayed more frequently lymphadenopathy, type II IgMk cryoglobulins and lymphoma (OR = 6.12, 95% CI: 2.7\u201314.4) and less frequently C4 hypocomplementemia and peripheral neuropathy. Conclusion: pSS-CV has a severe clinical course, overshadowing the typical clinical manifestations of pSS and higher risk for early lymphoma development compared to HCV related CV. Though infrequent, pSS-CV constitutes a distinct severe clinical phenotype of pSS

GPR55 signalling promotes proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells and tumour growth in mice, and its inhibition increases effects of gemcitabine

Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund and Avner Pancreatic Cancer Foundation (grants to MF)

Experimente zur lichtinduzierten Ca2+^{2+}-Freisetzung aus Diskmembranen von Rinderretinen

Light causes a transient permeability increase for Ca$^{2+}$ in bovine rod outer segment disc vesicles. The calcium release from these vesicles can be measured spectrophotometrically at 652 nm using the metallochromic indicator Arsenazo III. The stoichiometry of the release is dependent on the ionic strength of the surrounding medium amounting to 1.0 Ca$^{2+}$ and 1.88 Ca$^{2+}$ per bleached rhodopsin in isotonic buffer and hypertonic buffer respectively. The half time ($\tau_{1/2}$) of this release is 300 sec. Several enzymes of ROS are under physiological conditions peripherally bound on the disc membranes and can be extracted as following (Kühn, 1981): 1. In the dark, after incubation in low ionic strength whereby phosphodiesterase (95 kD), GTP-binding protein (37 kD + 35 kD + 6 kD) rhodopsin kinase (68 kD), 48 kD-protein and other intrinsic proteins are soluble (dark extract). 2. Pretreatment in the dark with moderate ionic strength buffer, followed by bleaching in low ionic strength, whereby mainly phosphodiesterase can be extracted (95 kD) (light extract). Dark and light extract are added to calcium loaded disc vesicles and the calcium release was measured after bleaching

Simple calibration techniques for non-metric cameras

Architectural documentation is carried out mostly with (analogue or digital) non-metric cameras or video-cameras. Unknown internal geometry is a main problem in this context, particularly for wide-angle lenses with their considerable amount of distortion. Self-calibrating bundle adjustment or 3D test-field calibration may provide straightforward answers to this problem, yet on occasions such steps can prove too complicated or costly for ordinary users. Hence, this paper discusses the use of simple pre-calibration approaches. Practical examples with wide-angle lenses are first given to illustrate that, in general, use of “nominal ” values for the camera constant and the principal point causes no significant problem in most cases of low or moderate accuracy requirements. These same examples, however, reveal the marked effects of radial distortion. This is a main problem which needs to be controlled, even in the simple and most popular among users method of rectification (for which knowledge of the primary interior orientation parameters is irrelevant). Here, simple approaches for determining radial distortion are presented and assessed, ranging from the use of linear features on manmade objects to rectification of regular grids and its various alternatives. On the other hand, the easiest approach for full camera calibration is probably by the common adjustment of images of targeted 2D objects taken under different viewing angles. In the results given the described methods for determining radial distortion have also been evaluated. In conclusion, both the merits and limitations of the discussed simple calibration techniques are outlined but also a gross distinction between analogue and digital camera is made.

Effect of Temperature and Sucrose on In Vitro Seed Germination and Bulblet Production of Pancratium maritimum L.

Sea daffodil is a perennial medicinal plant with several beneficial health properties that is enlisted as an endangered and protected species. For the exploitation and conservation of such valuable species, sustainable propagation is a key factor. For this purpose, the establishment of in vitro cultures using botanical seeds is an effective way to produce a large number of microplants which can be used as propagating material and/or bulblets with further uses for the isolation–production of biocactive substances. In this work, we performed two separate experiments where we studied (a) the effect of temperature (10 °C, 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C) on seed germination in vitro and (b) the effect of temperature (10 °C, 20 °C, and 30 °C) and sucrose concentration (40 and 80 g/L) in growth medium on microplant development and the production of bulblets. Seed germination rates were high (over 70%) at a wide range of temperatures (15–30 °C), although the fastest and the most uniform germination was observed at 20–25 °C. Regarding the effect of temperature on microplant development and bulblet production, low temperatures (10 °C) had a negative effect on the number of leaves, bulb diameter, and fresh weight (F.W.) and dry weight (D.W.) of leaves, roots, and bulblets. The best growth of microplants (number of leaves, F.W. and D.W. of leaves, roots) and bulblet production (diameter, F.W., and D.W.) were observed in culture media with sucrose concentration 40 g/L and temperature of 30 °C. In culture medium with a sucrose concentration of 80 g/L the production of bulbs (diameter, F.W., and D.W.) was not inferior to culture media with a sucrose concentration of 40 g/L, although microplants had less root growth. It is concluded that the best treatment for the production of well-rooted microplants with large bulblets that could be used as propagating material or for the production of bulblets as a source for twin scales explants or pharmaceutical substances was the culture at 30 °C in culture medium with sucrose concentration 40 g/L. On the other hand, culture medium with a sucrose concentration of 80 g/L at 30 °C or 20 °C could be also used for the production of bulblets. © 2022 by the authors