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International sport governing bodies as agents of diffusion—The case of World Athletics
No full textThe current paper conceptualizes international sport governing bodies (ISGBs) as "agents of diffusion," whose key strategic interest is in the broadest participation in their sports. Our research examines the impact of a specific diffusion strategy, adopted by World Athletics in 2008, which was essentially the decentralization of decision-making power to license athletics events, and which aimed to increase the sports' visibility and accessibility, especially in previously underdeveloped markets like Africa. We evaluate these efforts' impact by analyzing data from the season's bests lists of World Athletics from 2001 to 2019. Therefore, we employ multilevel regressions. The results are complex but instructive. We find that the efforts were of limited success especially in target regions. Still, the strategy inspired more countries to invest in both hosting new events and sending athletes to new disciplines. However, our results cast some doubt about the sustainability of these efforts. The need for a better conceptualization of relevant domestic factors becomes evident. Furthermore, we find that diffusion strategies, which do not offer material incentives, are of limited efficacy
Investigating the roles of age, sex, depression, and anxiety for valence and arousal ratings of words: a population‑based study
No full textBackground: The perception of the affective quality of stimuli with regard to valence and arousal has mostly been studied in laboratory experiments. Population-based research may complement such studies by accessing larger, older, better balanced, and more heterogeneous samples. Several characteristics, among them age, sex, depression, or anxiety, were found to be associated with affective quality perception. Here, we intended to transfer valence and arousal rating methods from experimental to population-based research. Our aim was to assess the feasibility of obtaining and determining the structure of valence and arousal ratings in the setting of the large observational BiDirect Study. Moreover, we explored the roles of age, sex, depression, and anxiety for valence and arousal ratings of words. Methods: 704 participants provided valence and arousal ratings for 12 written nouns pre-categorized as unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant. Predictors of valence and arousal ratings (i.e. age, sex, depression, and anxiety) were analyzed for six outcomes that emerge by combining two affective dimensions with three words categories. Data were modeled with multiple linear regression. Relative predictor importance was quantified by model-explained variance decomposition. Results: Overall, average population-based ratings replicated those found in laboratory settings. The model did not reach statistical significance in the valence dimension. In the arousal dimension, the model explained 5.4% (unpleasant), 4.6% (neutral), and 3.5% (pleasant) of the variance. (Trend) effects of sex on arousal ratings were found in all word categories (unpleasant: increased arousal in women; neutral, pleasant: decreased arousal in women). Effects of age and anxiety (increased arousal) were restricted to the neutral words. Conclusions: We report results of valence and arousal ratings of words in the setting of a large, observational, population-based study. Method transfer yielded acceptable data quality. The analyses demonstrated small effects of the selected predictors in the arousal dimension
Vector redesign and in-droplet cell-growth improves enrichment and recovery in live Escherichia coli
No full textDirected evolution (DE) is a widely used method for improving the function of biomolecules via multiple rounds of mutation and selection. Microfluidic droplets have emerged as an important means to screen the large libraries needed for DE, but this approach was so far partially limited by the need to lyse cells, recover DNA, and retransform into cells for the next round, necessitating the use of a high-copy number plasmid or oversampling. The recently developed live cell recovery avoids some of these limitations by directly regrowing selected cells after sorting. However, repeated sorting cycles used to further enrich the most active variants ultimately resulted in unfavourable recovery of empty plasmid vector-containing cells over those expressing the protein of interest. In this study, we found that engineering of the original expression vector solved the problem of false positives (i.e. plasmids lacking an insert) cells containing empty vectors. Five approaches to measure activity of cell-displayed enzymes in microdroplets were compared. By comparing various cell treatment methods prior to droplet sorting two things were found. Substrate encapsulation from the start, that is prior to expression of enzyme, showed no disadvantage to post-induction substrate addition by pico-injection with respect to recovery of true positive variants. Furthermore in-droplet cell growth prior to induction of enzyme production improves the total amount of cells retrieved (recovery) and proportion of true positive variants (enrichment) after droplet sorting
How do pre-service teachers rate their professional digital competence?:An intervention study for the promotion of professional digital competence with a focus on computational thinking in the field of educational robotics
No full textDiese quantitative Studie untersucht den Stand professioneller digitaler Kompetenz (angehender) Lehrkräfte sowie universitäre Möglichkeiten zur Initiierung eines Kompetenzausbaus. Ein Fokus liegt auf dem Computational Thinking, denn Lehrkräften wird die Aufgabe zuteil, Schüler*innen digitale Kompetenz zu vermitteln, um sie auf zukünftige Entwicklungen der Digitalisierung sowie auf daraus resultierende Auswirkungen auf das Lernen, das Lehren und das Leben vorzubereiten. Im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts »Lernroboter im Unterricht« wird ein Interventionsseminar konzipiert, welches anhand der Bildungsrobotik Ansätze zum Lernen mit, über und durch Algorithmen bietet, technologische Phänomene nachvollziehbar macht und die professionelle digitale Kompetenz bei Studierenden steigert. Ziel ist es, Implikationen für die Lehrkraftbildung zu generieren und unter Einbezug spezifischer Lehrstrategien die Potenziale der Bildungsrobotik für die Kompetenzvermittlung (nicht nur) an Hochschulen zugänglich zu machen.This quantitative study investigates the state of professional digital competence of (pre-service) teachers as well as university possibilities for initiating an expansion of competence. Main focus is on computational thinking, as teachers are tasked with teaching digital competence to students in order to prepare them for future developments in digitization and the resulting impact on learning, teaching, and life. As part of the research project »Learning Robots in Education« an intervention seminar is designed, which offers approaches to learning with, about and through algorithms on the basis of educational robotics, makes technological phenomena comprehensible and increases professional digital competence among students. The aim is to generate implications for teacher training and to make the potentials of educational robotics accessible for the teaching of competencies (not only) at universities by including specific teaching strategies
Zehn Jahre König Willem-Alexander – König für alle oder „Not my King“?:Die Rolle und das Bild des niederländischen Königs im 21. Jahrhundert
No full textZehn Jahre ist es her, dass König Willem-Alexander das auf den ersten Blick altmodische Amt des Königs in einer modernen Gesellschaft angetreten ist und sich dabei mit dem klassischen Dilemma der Monarchie, der Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Tradition und Modere, Nähe und Distanz auseinandersetzen muss. In diesem Beitrag wird diese von Paradoxen geprägte Rolle des Königs im 21. Jahrhundert skizziert, das Bild des Königs am Tag der Inthronisierung qualitativ analysiert und mit dem Bild verglichen, das sich aus den jährlich vom Marktforschungsunternehmen Ipsos durchgeführten Meinungsumfragen zum Königstag ergibt. Zudem wird der Podcast Door de Ogen van de Koning, der zum Anlass des zehnjährigen Amtsjubiläums von König Willem-Alexander produziert wurde, herangezogen. So kann eine erste Aussage darüber getroffen werden, ob sich das Bild von König Willem-Alexander, das dem Volk am 30. April 2013 präsentiert wurde, in den letzten zehn Jahren bestätigt oder verändert hat
Development of Novel Isoindolone-Based Compounds against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense
No full textThis study identified the isoindolone ring as a scaffold for novel agents against 'Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense' and explored the structure-activity relationships of various aromatic ring substitutions. The compounds were evaluated in an integrated in vitro screen. Eight compounds exhibited selective activity against 'T. b. rhodesiense' (IC50<2.2 μm) with no detectable side activity against 'T. cruzi' and 'Leishmania infantum'. Compound 20 showed low nanomolar potency against 'T. b. rhodesiense' (IC50=40 nm) and no toxicity against MRC-5 and PMM cell lines and may be regarded as a new lead template for agents against 'T. b. rhodesiense'. The isoindolone-based compounds have the potential to progress into lead optimization in view of their highly selective in vitro potency, absence of cytotoxicity and acceptable metabolic stability. However, the solubility of the compounds represents a limiting factor that should be addressed to improve the physicochemical properties that are required to proceed further in the development of in vivo-active derivatives
Double Trouble. Distinctive Nature and Future Prospects of Religious Voluntary Associations:Vincentian Voluntary Groups in Italy: An Organizational Case Study in the Historical Neo-Institutional Perspective
No full textVincentian volunteers are lay Catholics who engage with the most disadvantaged as an act of free will without compensation. The study reveals the double nature of Vincentian volunteering. It is a religious movement where volunteers act in the charism of fraternal love and a non-profit non-governmental third sector entity subsidiary to public policy with the mission of general interest.
It is a most typical case of modern value-driven membership-based organized volunteering, taken in a moment of acute crisis. The book explains how voluntary action and associational life form a dynamic value system that harnesses individual contributions in producing public good. It argues that prospects of organized religious volunteering depend on the adaptive capacity of the associational infrastructure to provide venues receptive to the individual quest for existential meaning. In this lies its specific nature as an actor of the transformational change in society.Vinzentinische Ehrenamtliche sind katholische Laien, die sich aus freien Stücken und ohne Entgelt für die am meisten Benachteiligten engagieren. Diese Studie zeigt den doppelten Charakter der vinzentinischen Freiwilligenarbeit auf. Es handelt sich um eine religiöse Bewegung, an denen Freiwilligen im Charisma der brüderlichen Liebe und einer gemeinnützigen nichtstaatlichen Einrichtung des dritten Sektors, die der öffentlichen Politik untergeordnet ist und einen Auftrag von allgemeinem Interesse hat.
Es handelt sich um ein typisches Beispiel für eine moderne, werteorientierte, mitgliedschaftlich organisierte Freiwilligenarbeit, die in einer akuten Krise liegt. Dieses Buch erklärt, wie freiwilliges Handeln und Vereinsleben, ein dynamisches Wertesystem, das individuelle Beiträge zur Gemeinwohlproduktion nutzt, bilden. Es bekräftigt, dass die Aussichten der organisierten religiösen Freiwilligenarbeit von der Anpassungsfähigkeit der Vereinsinfrastruktur abhängen, die für die individuelle Suche nach existenzieller Bedeutung empfänglich ist. Darin liegt ihr spezifischer Charakter als Akteur des gesellschaftlichen Wandels
ELaPro, a LOINC-mapped core dataset for top laboratory procedures of eligibility screening for clinical trials
No full textBackground: Screening for eligible patients continues to pose a great challenge for many clinical trials. This has led to a rapidly growing interest in standardizing computable representations of eligibility criteria (EC) in order to develop tools that leverage data from electronic health record (EHR) systems. Although laboratory procedures (LP) represent a common entity of EC that is readily available and retrievable from EHR systems, there is a lack of interoperable data models for this entity of EC. A public, specialized data model that utilizes international, widely-adopted terminology for LP, e.g. Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®), is much needed to support automated screening tools. Objective: The aim of this study is to establish a core dataset for LP most frequently requested to recruit patients for clinical trials using LOINC terminology. Employing such a core dataset could enhance the interface between study feasibility platforms and EHR systems and significantly improve automatic patient recruitment. Methods: We used a semi-automated approach to analyze 10,516 screening forms from the Medical Data Models (MDM) portal’s data repository that are pre-annotated with Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). An automated semantic analysis based on concept frequency is followed by an extensive manual expert review performed by physicians to analyze complex recruitment-relevant concepts not amenable to automatic approach. Results: Based on analysis of 138,225 EC from 10,516 screening forms, 55 laboratory procedures represented 77.87% of all UMLS laboratory concept occurrences identified in the selected EC forms. We identified 26,413 unique UMLS concepts from 118 UMLS semantic types and covered the vast majority of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) disease domains. Conclusions: Only a small set of common LP covers the majority of laboratory concepts in screening EC forms which supports the feasibility of establishing a focused core dataset for LP. We present ELaPro, a novel, LOINC-mapped, core dataset for the most frequent 55 LP requested in screening for clinical trials. ELaPro is available in multiple machine-readable data formats like CSV, ODM and HL7 FHIR. The extensive manual curation of this large number of free-text EC as well as the combining of UMLS and LOINC terminologies distinguishes this specialized dataset from previous relevant datasets in the literature
Embolization for Type Ia Endoleak after EVAR for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: A Systematic Review of the Literature
No full text(1) Successful endovascular repair for abdominal aortic aneurysms is based on the complete exclusion of the aneurysm sac from the systemic circulation. Type Ia endoleak (ELIA) is defined as the persistent perfusion of the aneurysm sac due to incomplete proximal sealing between aorta and endograft, with a consequent risk of rupture and death. Endoleak embolization has been sporadically reported as a viable treatment for ELIA. (2) A systematic literature search in PubMed of all publications in English about ELIA embolization was performed until February 2022. Research methods and reporting were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Data regarding patient numbers, technical success (endoleak absence at control angiography), reinterventions, clinical and imaging follow-up, and outcomes were collected and examined by two independent authors. (3) Twenty-one papers (12 original articles, 9 case reports) reported on 126 patients (age range 58–96 years) undergoing ELIA embolization 0–139 months after the index procedure. Indication for embolization was most often founded on unfavorable anatomy and patient comorbidities. Embolic agents used include liquid embolic agents, coils, plugs and combinations thereof. Technical success in this highly selected cohort ranged from 67–100%; the postprocedural complication rate within 30 days was 0–24%. ELIA recurrence was reported as 0–42.8%, with a secondary ELIA-embolization-intervention success rate of 50–100%. At a follow-up at 0–68 months, freedom from sac enlargement amounted to 76–100%, freedom from ELIA to 66.7–100%. (4) Specific literature about ELIA embolization is scant. ELIA embolization is a valuable bailout strategy for no-option patients; the immediate technical success rate is high and midterm and long-term outcomes are acceptable