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Didaktische Utopien und technologischer Wandel, eine Einführung : Visionen für den Fremdsprachenunterricht der Zukunft
(2026) GiF:on - Giessener Fremdsprachendidaktik:online; 19
Seit Thomas Mores Utopia steht der Begriff für idealisierte Gegenentwürfe zur bestehenden Wirklichkeit. Übertragen auf die Fremdsprachendidaktik bezeichnet er Visionen optimaler Lernbedingungen – maximale Individualisierung, uneingeschränkte Zugänglichkeit und technologische Effizienz. Doch jede Utopie bewegt sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen Fortschritt und Kritik. Dieser Sammelband widmet sich den „didaktischen Utopien“ des Fremdsprachenlehrens und -lernens im Zeitalter von Digitalisierung und Künstlicher Intelligenz. In neun wissenschaftlichen Essays entwerfen die Autor*innen Zukunftsszenarien, reflektieren Potenziale und Risiken neuer Technologien und fragen nach deren Auswirkungen auf Unterricht, Lernprozesse und gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen. Dabei werden immersive Lernwelten, KI-gestütztes Schreiben, korpusbasierte Sprachassistenz, virtuelle Austausche oder affektives Computing ebenso diskutiert wie normative Fragen nach Bildung, Resonanz und menschlicher Dimension. Der Band versteht Utopien nicht als statische Ideale, sondern als dynamische Denkfiguren, die Innovation anstoßen und zugleich zur kritischen Reflexion herausfordern. Er richtet sich an Wissenschaftler*innen, Lehrkräfte und Studierende, die die Zukunft des Fremdsprachenunterrichts aktiv mitgestalten möchten – zwischen technologischer Transformation, pädagogischer Verantwortung und gesellschaftlicher Vision.
Respiratory Adaptations of Immune Cells: Metabolic Links Between Exercise, Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Immunity
(2026) Gebhardt, Kristina
Background: This dissertation investigates how acute exercise, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), metabolic risk factors, inflammation, and aging influence mitochondrial respiration (MR) in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and CD4+ T cells. The aim was to examine whether MR reflects adaptive immunometabolic responses across different contexts. Methods: To examine modulators of MR in immune cells, three complementary studies were conducted. The first study investigated acute exercise-induced immunometabolic responses in healthy young adults (n = 15). After VO2max testing, participants performed two randomized treadmill sessions, consisting of 45-minutes of downhill running (12% decline) and level running (1% incline) at 70% of VO2max. Blood samples were collected before, immediately after, 3 hours after, and 24 hours after exercise. Freshly isolated CD4+ T cells were incubated in autologous serum obtained before and three hours after each exercise. MR was assessed by measuring oxygen consumption using high-resolution respirometry (HRR) with Oroboros O2k Oxygraph, complemented by transcriptomic, metabolomic, cytokine, and immune cell subset analyses. The second study examined MR of PBMCs in healthy older adults (n = 16, >55 years) under resting conditions. Following fasting blood sampling and CRF assessment via VO2max testing, PBMC MR was measured using HRR with Oroboros O2k Oxygraph. Associations with immune cell subsets, cytokines, metabolic markers, and lifestyle-related factors were analyzed. The third study comprised a narrative review of 20 studies employing HRR (Oroboros O2k Oxygraph or Seahorse XF Analyzer) to assess MR in PBMCs and their subtypes, as well as in platelets and neutrophils. The review examined the effects of acute exercise, training, and CRF across healthy and diseased populations to frame the current knowledge about MR in the field of exercise immunology. Results: The MR of PBMCs and CD4+ T cells is modulated through different factors. Acute endurance exercise induced a transient systemic inflammatory response but resulted in minor changes in MR of CD4+ T cells. In contrast, higher CRF was associated with enhanced maximal MR, accompanied by increased expression of genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation and a metabolite profile indicative of improved metabolic efficiency. In healthy older adults, higher basal MR was associated with lower pro-inflammatory cytokine levels such as TNF-α and IL-17. Higher maximal MR was linked to greater proportions of CD4+, CD8+, and naïve CD4+ T cells, and was further associated with STAT3, VEGF, and ICAM-1. The narrative review supported these findings, demonstrating that higher CRF and long-term training are frequently associated with improved MR in immune cells, whereas chronic diseases and systemic inflammation are characterized by impaired mitochondrial respiratory function. Conclusion: Collectively, this dissertation demonstrates that MR of immune cells represents a long-term marker of immunometabolic adaptation. MR of immune cells, particularly PBMCs and CD4+ T cells, appears to be modulated by multiple factors, including exercise, CRF, metabolic risk, inflammatory status, immune cell composition, and diseases. These findings place immune cell MR at the intersection of fitness, metabolic health, and inflammation. Future longitudinal studies should investigate whether long-term exercise interventions can enhance MR and thereby improve immunometabolic resilience, to examine causal relationships.
Validation of analog sensor measurements in hydrometeorological participatory monitoring in various tropical countries
(2026) Mitze, Fabian; Jacobs, Suzanne Robin; Breuer, Lutz; Zeballos, Jazmin Campos; Codalli, Fabia; Shagega, Frank Paul; Weeser, Björn
As remote tropical mountain regions often lack open data and traditional methods of collecting hydrometeorological data are not always feasible, this study validates an alternative participatory monitoring approach for collecting hydrometeorological data in mountainous regions in Ecuador, Honduras and Tanzania. Volunteers used analog low-cost sensors to measure air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall and water level. The measurements were validated with photos taken alongside the measurements. Data from selected stations were additionally validated against automatic sensor data using different metrics, such as the mean absolute error (MAE). In addition, errors made by frequent and non-frequent participants were compared, assessing the performance of these two target groups. In the period between May 2023 and May 2025 a total of 2,982 observations were received, whereby the majority were submitted by frequent participants (84.4%). A comparison between frequent and non-frequent users showed that the former measured with higher accuracy. The comparison with automatic sensor data showed a correlation for all parameters ranging from 0.42 to 0.96. The best results in terms of accuracy were achieved for air temperature (MAE: 0.74 °C–1.65 °C) and water level (MAE: 0.04–0.08 m). On the other hand, a high deviation was found for relative humidity (MAE: 16.76%–31.69%). This deviation was corrected by applying linear regression, resulting in moderate deviation (MAE: 5.45%–9.50%). Rainfall had a MAE ranging from 2.55 to 3.10 mm. This was mainly attributed to the low measurement frequency and the limited capacity of the rain gauges. Overall, the study showed ambivalent results, where analog thermometers and water level gauges can be considered the most promising alternatives to automatic sensor measurements. However, the hygrometers only provided moderate measurement quality, while the rain gauges used were too small to cover all rainfall in the periods analyzed.
A bioinformatics and wet-lab-based pipeline identifies CLDN10 and GJB2 as epigenetically silenced tumor suppressor genes in cutaneous melanoma
(2026) Arroyo Villora, Sarah; Baumann, Veit Xaver; Zhao, Yufen; Philipp, Niklas; Dammann, Reinhard H.; Sigges, Cornelia; Richter, Antje Maria
Studying epigenetic changes in cancer development can reveal the role of tumor suppressor genes and their regulation by DNA methylation. CpG islands, found in promoter regions, are of particular interest, as their hypermethylation can silence tumor suppressor gene expression. Here, we present a practical analysis pipeline for wet-lab biologists with the aim of identify novel epigenetically regulated tumor suppressors using freely available online tools. Bioinformatic platforms such as the R2 Genomics Analysis and Visualization Platform enable analysis of genomic organization, CpG islands, and regulatory elements. Differential methylation and gene expression analyses are based on datasets including TCGA, using tools such as MethSurv, TCGA Wanderer, and GEPIA2 to correlate DNA methylation with gene expression. This bioinformatic step is the basis for the tumor suppressor verification in the wet-lab. Using this pipeline, we identified CLDN10 and GJB2 as potential tumor suppressors in melanoma. Experimentally, our approach includes DNA methylation analysis based on DNA bisulfite conversion, combined bisulfite restriction analysis (CoBRA), pyrosequencing for specific CpG methylation quantification, and RT-PCR for RNA expression quantification. We verify these results in primary tumors, metastases, and cell line models. This approach supports efficient identification of novel epigenetically regulated tumor suppressors, providing practical research guidelines.
Changes in renal venous flow and liberation from renal replacement therapy in patients with acute heart failure
(2025) Husain-Syed, Faeq; Vaughan, Lisa; Bauer, Pascal; Tello, Khodr; Richter, Manuel J.; Gall, Henning; De la Espriella, Rafael; Cobo Marcos, Marta; Núñez, Julio; Rangaswami, Janani; Romero-González, Gregorio; Yücel, Gökhan; Yazdani, Babak; Rosner, Mitchell H.; Ronco, Claudio; Assmus, Birgit; Grimminger, Friedrich; Ghofrani, Hossein Ardeschir; Seeger, Werner; Birk, Horst-Walter; Kashani, Kianoush B.
Introduction: In acute heart failure (AHF), the factors associated with successful renal replacement therapy (RRT) discontinuation are largely undefined. We hypothesized that improvements in Doppler-derived renal venous flow (RVF) waveforms may serve as indicators of recovering cardiorenal function associated with successful liberation from RRT. Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis of a prospective cohort study involving inpatients with AHF undergoing serial renal Doppler evaluations. Patients who received acute RRT were retained for analysis, with Doppler assessments conducted both before RRT initiation and after discontinuation. Successful RRT discontinuation was defined as RRT cessation without relapse for at least 14 days. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between changes in RVF markers – including intra-renal venous flow (IRVF) and the renal venous stasis index (RVSI) – and RRT discontinuation, along with echocardiographic and clinical data from pre- to post-RRT Doppler measurements. Results: Overall, 10/53 (19%) patients successfully discontinued RRT. Increases in the severity of IRVF patterns and RVSI were negatively associated with RRT discontinuation (IRVF per 1-pattern increase in severity: OR 0.01, 95% CI, <0.001–0.11; p < 0.001; RVSI per 0.1-unit increase: OR 0.11, 95% CI, 0.03–0.48; p < 0.001). Additionally, improvements in right ventricular function markers, such as the TAPSE/sPAP ratio (per 0.1 mm/mm Hg increase: OR 1.83, 95% CI, 1.03–3.32; p = 0.049), were associated with higher odds of RRT discontinuation. Conclusions: In AHF patients requiring acute RRT, improvements in RVF were associated with successful RRT discontinuation. Serial RVF assessment may offer a noninvasive means of capturing dynamic changes in cardiorenal syndrome physiology and renal recovery. Larger studies with more frequent and appropriately timed Doppler assessments are needed to determine whether RVF monitoring may guide RRT management in AHF.