This review provides a detailed overview of the rapidly advancing field of biofabrication, particularly with regards to the use of photo-cross-linking (i.e., light-based) techniques. The major ...emphasis of this review is on the fundamentals of photo-cross-linking and key criteria identified for the successful design and implementation of photo-cross-linked bioinks and bioresins in extrusion-based and lithography-based bioprinting. The general mechanisms associated with photo-cross-linking (e.g., free-radical chain polymerization, thiol–ene, photomediated redox) of natural and synthetic materials are described to inform bioink and bioresin design, which includes the selection of polymers, functional group modifications, photoinitiators, and light sources that enable facile and cytocompatible photo-cross-linking. Depending on material selection and the bioprinting technique of interest, we describe the specific bioink or bioresin properties and criteria that must be achieved to ensure optimal printability and utility. Finally, examples of current state-of-the-art applications of light-based bioprinting for in vitro tissue models, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine are provided to further motivate future opportunities within the bioprinting landscape that are facilitated with light.
In Sweden, adequate digital competence has been put in the spotlight due to the Swedish 2017 national strategy for the digitalisation of the K-12 school system. Based on both policy and practice, the ...aim is to explore teachers' enacted digital competence in three upper secondary schools in Sweden and thereby provide an empirical account of what the notion 'adequate' means in practice. The data consists of interviews with teachers and classroom observations. At an aggregated analytical level, the results are presented as four narrative sub-case descriptions. It is concluded that teachers' adequate digital competence is flexible in meaning, determined by local contextual conditions and enacted in activities and decisions that are based on the teachers' own value frameworks. The understanding of 'adequate' in this study does not appear to be clarified in the formulations used in the national strategy.
PurposeThe digitalization of society results in challenges and opportunities for learning and education. This paper describes exemplary transformations from current to future practices. It ...illustrates multi-dimensional aspects of learning which complement and transcend current frameworks of learning focused on schools. While digital technologies are necessary for these transformations, they are not sufficient. The paper briefly illustrates the applicability of the conceptual framework to the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes that design opportunities and design trade-offs in relation to digital technologies and learning should be explored by envisioning the cultural transformation that are desirable for making learning a part of life.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the work conducted at the symposium “Rethinking and Reinventing Learning, Education, and Collaboration in the Digital Age—From Creating Technologies to Transforming Cultures” that took place in Engeltofta outside of Gävle, Sweden in September 2019. The symposium invited scholars in collaborative analysis of design opportunities and design trade-offs in relation to digital technologies and learning and explored design strategies for systematically and proactively increasing digital technology's contributions to learning and collaborating. The paper first provides a condensed introduction of a conceptual framework summarizing current practices, their problems and promising alternatives. Multi-dimensional aspects of learning and lifelong learning will be briefly described as promising future alternatives to school learning. Examples of transformative practices are supporting the major argument of the paper that creating new technologies is an important prerequisite to address the fundamental challenge of transforming cultures. The unanticipated but fundamental event of the occurrence of COVID-19 will be briefly described to provide further evidence for the need and the applicability of our conceptual framework for rethinking and reinventing learning, education and collaboration in the digital age.FindingsThe paper provides a condensed introduction of a conceptual framework summarizing current practices, their problems and promising alternatives. The framework includes multi-dimensional aspects of learning and lifelong learning as a promising future alternative to a focus on school learning.Originality/valueThis paper describes exemplary transformations from current to future practices. It illustrates multi-dimensional aspects of learning which complement and transcend current frameworks of learning focused on schools.
Most plant-origin fiber sources used in pig production contains a mixture of soluble and insoluble non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). The knowledge about effects of these sources of NSP on the gut ...microbiota and its fermentation products is still scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of feeding diets with native sources of NSP on the ileal and fecal microbial composition and the dietary impact on the concentration of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and lactic acid. The experiment comprised four diets and four periods in a change-over design with seven post valve t-cecum cannulated growing pigs. The four diets were balanced to be similar in NSP content and included one of four fiber sources, two diets were rich in pectins, through inclusion of chicory forage (CFO) and sugar beet pulp, and two were rich in arabinoxylan, through inclusion of wheat bran (WB) and grass meal. The gut microbial composition was assessed with terminal restriction fragment (TRF) length polymorphism and the abundance of Lactobacillus spp., Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides–Prevotella–Porphyromonas and the β-xylosidase gene, xynB, were assessed with quantitative PCR. The gut microbiota did not cluster based on NSP structure (arabinoxylan or pectin) rather, the effect was to a high degree ingredient specific. In pigs fed diet CFO, three TRFs related to Prevotellaceae together consisted of more than 25% of the fecal microbiota, which is about 3 to 23 times higher (P<0.05) than in pigs fed the other diets. Whereas pigs fed diet WB had about 2 to 22 times higher abundance (P<0.05) of Megasphaera elsdenii in feces and about six times higher abundance (P<0.05) of Lactobacillus reuteri in ileal digesta than pigs fed the other diets. The total amount of digested NSP (r=0.57; P=0.002), xylose (r=0.53; P=0.004) and dietary fiber (r=0.60; P=0.001) in ileal digesta were positively correlated with an increased abundance of Bacteroides–Prevotella–Porphyromonas. The effect on SCFA was correlated to specific neutral sugars where xylose increased the ileal butyric acid proportion, whereas arabinose increased the fecal butyric acid proportion. Moreover, chicory pectin increased the acetic acid proportion in both ileal digesta and feces.
Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) assays conducted on plasma are rapidly developing a strong evidence base for use in patients with cancer. The European Society for Medical Oncology convened an expert ...working group to review the analytical and clinical validity and utility of ctDNA assays. For patients with advanced cancer, validated and adequately sensitive ctDNA assays have utility in identifying actionable mutations to direct targeted therapy, and may be used in routine clinical practice, provided the limitations of the assays are taken into account. Tissue-based testing remains the preferred test for many cancer patients, due to limitations of ctDNA assays detecting fusion events and copy number changes, although ctDNA assays may be routinely used when faster results will be clinically important, or when tissue biopsies are not possible or inappropriate. Reflex tumour testing should be considered following a non-informative ctDNA result, due to false-negative results with ctDNA testing. In patients treated for early-stage cancers, detection of molecular residual disease or molecular relapse, has high evidence of clinical validity in anticipating future relapse in many cancers. Molecular residual disease/molecular relapse detection cannot be recommended in routine clinical practice, as currently there is no evidence for clinical utility in directing treatment. Additional potential applications of ctDNA assays, under research development and not recommended for routine practice, include identifying patients not responding to therapy with early dynamic changes in ctDNA levels, monitoring therapy for the development of resistance mutations before clinical progression, and in screening asymptomatic people for cancer. Recommendations for reporting of results, future development of ctDNA assays and future clinical research are made.
•Current animal food production has negative impact on the environment and climate.•This negative impact can be reduced by different measures as exemplified below.•Improve feed evaluation and ...efficiency of utilising dietary nutrients and energy.•Implement more extensive use of free amino acids in feed formulation.•Use novel feedstuffs, and implement more diversified diets and production systems.
With more efficient utilisation of dietary nutrients and energy, diversified production systems, modifications of diet composition with respect to feedstuffs included and the use of free amino acids, the negative impact of animal food production on the environment and climate can be reduced. Accurate requirements for nutrients and energy for animals with differing physiological needs, and the use of robust and accurate feed evaluation systems are key for more efficient feed utilisation. Data on CP and amino acid requirements in pigs and poultry indicate that it should be possible to implement indispensable amino acid-balanced diets with low- or reduced-protein content without any reduction in animal performance. Potential feed resources, not competing with human food security, can be derived from the traditional food- and agroindustry, such as various waste streams and co-products of different origins. In addition, novel feedstuffs emerging from aquaculture, biotechnology and innovative new technologies may have potential to provide the lack of indispensable amino acids in organic animal food production. High fibre content is a nutritional limitation of using waste streams and co-products as feed for monogastric animals as it is associated with decreased nutrient digestibility and reduced dietary energy values. However, minimum levels of dietary fibre are needed to maintain the normal physiological function of the gastro-intestinal tract. Moreover, there may be positive effects of fibre in the diet such as improved gut health, increased satiety, and an overall improvement of behaviour and well-being.
PurposeThe main argument behind this paper is learning in the digital age should not be restricted to creating digital infrastructures for supporting current forms of learning nor taking schools in ...their current form as God-given, natural entities, but changing current forms of education by developing new frameworks and socio-technical environments for making learning an integral part of life. The authors provide a framework for this argumentation as well as a call-to-action for research on the co-evolution of learning, media, and learning organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper theoretically and argumentatively explores the core assumption that the digitalization of society results in challenges and opportunities for learning and education based on fundamental transformations (Collins and Halverson, 2009; Fischer et al., 2020).FindingsThe digital age greatly enhances the opportunities and supports the necessity for “making learning a part of life”. But while the growth of technology is certain, the inevitability of any particular future is not. The impact of schooling goes beyond that new information about computers, the Internet, and social media are integrated into the schools of today. The transformation of schools needs to be informed by an understanding of the impact of mindset formation that will determine people's approach to learning for the rest of their lives. The authors’ framework is focused on moving “beyond gift-wrapping” by not only fixing and existing systems but to change them and not only reforming but transforming them.Originality/valueIt is the authors’ hope that this article will be of interest to many stakeholders (including learners, teachers, curriculum designers, technology experts, parents, and politicians) and provide a foundation for an ongoing debate and informed actions for “Making Learning a Part of Life” in the digital age.
ABSTRACT We present sub-millimeter spectra of HCN isotopologues on Titan, derived from publicly available ALMA flux calibration observations of Titan taken in early 2014. We report the detection of a ...new HCN isotopologue on Titan, H13C15N, and confirm an earlier report of detection of DCN. We model high signal-to-noise observations of HCN, H13CN, HC15N, DCN, and H13C15N to derive abundances and infer the following isotopic ratios: 12C/13C = 89.8 2.8, 14N/15N = 72.3 2.2, D/H = (2.5 0.2) × 10−4, and HCN/H13C15N = 5800 270 (1 errors). The carbon and nitrogen ratios are consistent with and improve on the precision of previous results, confirming a factor of ∼2.3 elevation in 14N/15N in HCN compared to N2 and a lack of fractionation in 12C/13C from the protosolar value. This is the first published measurement of D/H in a nitrile species on Titan, and we find evidence for a factor of ∼2 deuterium enrichment in hydrogen cyanide compared to methane. The isotopic ratios we derive may be used as constraints for future models to better understand the fractionation processes occurring in Titan's atmosphere.
The digitalisation of educational contexts has changed the practice of teaching and learning. In this, teachers have a key role in enacting digital technologies for this purpose and have different ...opportunities to do so. This article explores how digitalisation can affect teachers by focusing on: (a) how teachers manage to capitalise on digitalisation; and (b) how digitalisation can affect and reconstruct their self-understanding. Two teacher colleagues of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the same teaching team are interviewed and observed. Drawing on the interplay between self-image, self-esteem, job motivation, and task perception, it is shown how the teachers' self-understanding is played out and changes due to the call for digitalisation. Whereas one of the teachers has been able to capitalise on digitalisation in a way that has been beneficial both professionally and personally, the other has felt pressurised by it. A conclusion is that a limited or extended use of digital technologies should not be taken as an indicator of teaching quality.
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