Profilentwicklung an Mannheimer Schulen : Eine qualitative Untersuchung an Hauptschulen und Gymnasien

Im Zuge der Diskussion um die Bildungsqualität von Schulen wird, verbunden mit der Forderung nach mehr Schulautonomie, häufig die Entwicklung von schulspezifischen Profilen gefordert. Im Rahmen einer qualitativen Untersuchung wurden insgesamt zehn Schulleitungen von Mannheimer Hauptschulen und Gymnasien zur ihrer Rezeption der Profilierungsforderung befragt. Es zeigen sich Unterschiede in der angenommenen Wirkrichtung von Schulprofilen und hinsichtlich des inhaltlich-formalen Verständnisses. Die Zweckbestimmung von schulischer Profilentwicklung bleibt aus Sicht der Schulleitungen dagegen diffus. Paradox mutet an, dass die Schulen einerseits zwar Wettbewerb begrüßen, sich aber andererseits keine Konkurrenz machen wollen. Weiterhin wird deutlich, dass die Schulen auf die von außen herangetragene Forderung nach Profilentwicklung eher mit Passivität reagieren, denn eigentlich "haben wir doch schon ein Profil"

Techniken und Werkzeuge zur Unterstützung der Erinnerungsarbeit bei der computergestützten Erhebung retrospektiver Längsschnittdaten

'Erhebungen von retrospektiven Lebensverlaufsangaben zeigen, dass Befragte mehr oder weniger große Schwierigkeiten beim Erinnern und Datieren von Ereignissen und Episoden aus ihrem Leben haben. In früheren Lebensverlaufsbefragungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Bildungsforschung (German Life History Study) wurden die Angaben der Befragten deshalb nach Ende des Interviews einer sorgfältigen und arbeitsintensiven Edition unterzogen. Um den Editionsaufwand deutlich zu verringern und gleichzeitig die Qualität der Angaben der Befragten schon während der Erhebung zu verbessern, haben die Verfasser sich zunächst mit der Frage beschäftigt, wie autobiographisches Erinnern und Datieren aus gedächtnispsychologischer Sicht funktioniert. Die sich daraus ergebenden Konsequenzen haben die Verfasser bei der Neuentwicklung eines Instrumentes zur Erhebung retrospektiver Lebensverlaufsangaben in computergestützten, telefonischen Längsschnittbefragungen ('True Tales') umgesetzt. Dieses Instrument enthält verschiedene Techniken und Werkzeuge, mit denen die Interviewer die Erinnerungsarbeit der Befragten wesentlich intensiver und effektiver unterstützen können als bisher möglich.' (Autorenreferat)'Surveys of retrospective life history data show that respondents face various degrees of difficulty when recalling and dating autobiographical events and episodes. The data of previous life course interviews conducted by the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development (German Life History Study) were therefore edited through time- and labor-intensive processes. In order to reduce these immense efforts during editing and to improve data quality while conducting the interviews, the authors investigated how autobiographical recalling and dating works from the cognitive psychological point of view. The authors then put their findings into practice developing an instrument called 'True Tales'. This instrument allows the collection of retrospective life course data in computer-aided telephone interviews. Different techniques and tools are applied so that interviewers can support respondents' memory processes more intensively and effectively than previously possible.' (author's abstract)

Qualität des Hochschulstudiums: Messkonzepte und Datenquellen im Vergleich

Merkmale der akademischen Studienqualität werden für verschiedene Zwecke empirisch erhoben. Oft werden individuelle Bewertungen aus Befragungen aggregiert und als Merkmale zur Charakterisierung von Studiengängen oder anderen institutionellen Einheiten bis hin zu ganzen Hochschulen verwendet. Dieser Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, ob, wie und mit welchen Konsequenzen solche Aggregationen vorgenommen werden können und inwieweit aggregierte Informationen aus anderen Datenquellen die vorhandenen Befragungsdaten ergänzen können. Hierzu werden Bewertungen von zwei zentralen Aspekten der Studienqualität - Qualität der Betreuung und Studienorganisation - sowie die Studienzufriedenheit aus einer Absolvent*innenstudie (BAP) und einem Hochschulranking (CHE) über die- selben Organisationseinheiten einander gegenübergestellt. Zusätzlich werden Informationen aus der amtlichen Hochschulstatistik einbezogen. Analysiert werden die Objektivität individueller Angaben, die Variation der Bewertungen innerhalb institutioneller Kontexte und zwischen ihnen, die direkte Übereinstimmung zwischen unterschiedlichen Datenquellen sowie die Konsistenz von weiteren Ergebnissen, welche auf diesen beruhen. Die Analysen zeigen u.a., dass Individualangaben trotz beträchtlicher Variation verlässliche Mittelwertschätzungen erlauben und die verfügbare Varianz von Kontextmerkmalen stark vom Aggregationsniveau abhängt. Das Ausmaß der Übereinstimmung zwischen Datenquellen wird dabei maßgeblich vom jeweiligen Datentyp bestimmt. Daraus folgende Implikationen für die gängige Praxis des Umgangs mit derartigen Daten werden diskutiert

Investigation on the acquisition of scientific competences during medical studies and the medical doctoral thesis

Background: Not only the amount of research related contents in German medical studies are objects of criticism, but also the medical doctoral thesis. However, the question which research competences are truly acquired within medical school and the doctoral phase is empirically open, and is thus pursued in the following research study. Methods: We used data from the Bavarian Medical Graduate Panel Survey (MediBAP) (N=455), where respondents assessed their own research competences. To consolidate the data, we analysed qualitative interviews with doctoral medical graduates and students from the E-Prom study (N=14). Results: The quantitative analyses show that medical graduates evaluate the medical curriculum's research contents and their acquired competences as rather low. Doctoral graduates rate their competence of pursuing research independently higher than medical graduates who have not finished their doctorate. The qualitative analyses are in line with these results, as they point to the predominant development of competences during the doctoral phase. Despite this clearly positive trend, the majority of the respondents don't feel confident enough to undertake research independently also after attaining their doctoral degree. Conclusion: The results of this study emphasize the need for a more systematic and targeted mediation and review of research competences within the regular medical curriculum

Primary ChAdOx1 vaccination does not reactivate pre-existing, cross-reactive immunity

Currently available COVID-19 vaccines include inactivated virus, live attenuated virus, mRNA-based, viral vectored and adjuvanted protein-subunit-based vaccines. All of them contain the spike glycoprotein as the main immunogen and result in reduced disease severity upon SARS-CoV-2 infection. While we and others have shown that mRNA-based vaccination reactivates pre-existing, cross-reactive immunity, the effect of vector vaccines in this regard is unknown. Here, we studied cellular and humoral responses in heterologous adenovirus-vector-based ChAdOx1 nCOV-19 (AZ; Vaxzeria, AstraZeneca) and mRNA-based BNT162b2 (BNT; Comirnaty, BioNTech/Pfizer) vaccination and compared it to a homologous BNT vaccination regimen. AZ primary vaccination did not lead to measurable reactivation of cross-reactive cellular and humoral immunity compared to BNT primary vaccination. Moreover, humoral immunity induced by primary vaccination with AZ displayed differences in linear spike peptide epitope coverage and a lack of anti-S2 IgG antibodies. Contrary to primary AZ vaccination, secondary vaccination with BNT reactivated pre-existing, cross-reactive immunity, comparable to homologous primary and secondary mRNA vaccination. While induced anti-S1 IgG antibody titers were higher after heterologous vaccination, induced CD4(+) T cell responses were highest in homologous vaccinated. However, the overall TCR repertoire breadth was comparable between heterologous AZ-BNT-vaccinated and homologous BNT-BNT-vaccinated individuals, matching TCR repertoire breadths after SARS-CoV-2 infection, too. The reasons why AZ and BNT primary vaccination elicits different immune response patterns to essentially the same antigen, and the associated benefits and risks, need further investigation to inform vaccine and vaccination schedule development

Proposed Mobility Assessments with Simultaneous Full-Body Inertial Measurement Units and Optical Motion Capture in Healthy Adults and Neurological Patients for Future Validation Studies: Study Protocol

Healthy adults and neurological patients show unique mobility patterns over the course of their lifespan and disease. Quantifying these mobility patterns could support diagnosing, tracking disease progression and measuring response to treatment. This quantification can be done with wearable technology, such as inertial measurement units (IMUs). Before IMUs can be used to quantify mobility, algorithms need to be developed and validated with age and disease-specific datasets. This study proposes a protocol for a dataset that can be used to develop and validate IMU-based mobility algorithms for healthy adults (18–60 years), healthy older adults (>60 years), and patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, a symptomatic stroke and chronic low back pain. All participants will be measured simultaneously with IMUs and a 3D optical motion capture system while performing standardized mobility tasks and non-standardized activities of daily living. Specific clinical scales and questionnaires will be collected. This study aims at building the largest dataset for the development and validation of IMU-based mobility algorithms for healthy adults and neurological patients. It is anticipated to provide this dataset for further research use and collaboration, with the ultimate goal to bring IMU-based mobility algorithms as quickly as possible into clinical trials and clinical routine

The Extended Cleavage Specificity of Human Thrombin

Thrombin is one of the most extensively studied of all proteases. Its central role in the coagulation cascade as well as several other areas has been thoroughly documented. Despite this, its consensus cleavage site has never been determined in detail. Here we have determined its extended substrate recognition profile using phage-display technology. The consensus recognition sequence was identified as, P2-Pro, P1-Arg, P1′-Ser/Ala/Gly/Thr, P2′-not acidic and P3′-Arg. Our analysis also identifies an important role for a P3′-arginine in thrombin substrates lacking a P2-proline. In order to study kinetics of this cooperative or additive effect we developed a system for insertion of various pre-selected cleavable sequences in a linker region between two thioredoxin molecules. Using this system we show that mutations of P2-Pro and P3′-Arg lead to an approximate 20-fold and 14-fold reduction, respectively in the rate of cleavage. Mutating both Pro and Arg results in a drop in cleavage of 200–400 times, which highlights the importance of these two positions for maximal substrate cleavage. Interestingly, no natural substrates display the obtained consensus sequence but represent sequences that show only 1–30% of the optimal cleavage rate for thrombin. This clearly indicates that maximal cleavage, excluding the help of exosite interactions, is not always desired, which may instead cause problems with dysregulated coagulation. It is likely exosite cooperativity has a central role in determining the specificity and rate of cleavage of many of these in vivo substrates. Major effects on cleavage efficiency were also observed for residues as far away as 4 amino acids from the cleavage site. Insertion of an aspartic acid in position P4 resulted in a drop in cleavage by a factor of almost 20 times

Collecting event history data about work careers retrospectively : Mistakes that occur and ways to prevent them

Author's comment: Ebenfalls erschienen als: Arbeitspapier des Projekts Kognition und Kommunikation bei der Längsschnittdatenerhebung ;