Entrepreneurship Education Challenges for Green Transformation

Associated with global climate agreements and the European Union’s focus on climate-neutral goals by 2050, the development of Green Transformation competencies in society has become topical. This viewpoint paper proposes a conceptual model for applying Entrepreneurship Education (EE) to designing an integrated transdisciplinary, Green Transformation Competence framework. In line with this, EE is seen as a tool for developing an active, informed, responsible, yet sustainable, living ecosystem-oriented and green orientation of citizens in the education system. Nevertheless, this viewpoint recognises several challenges for further research.

Preservice Mathematics Teachers' Representation Transformation Competence Levels in the Process of Solving Limit Problems

In this study, representations used by preservice mathematics teachers in the process of solving limit problems were determined, the inter-representation transformation competence levels were investigated and the relationship between them was examined. In this context, “Limit Representation Transformation Test” with a reliability of .908 was administered to 50 preservice teachers attending to a state university in the Central of Turkey. Preservice teachers had most difficulty in solving problems that had verbal representation inputs, especially they achieved low performances in transformation from verbal to numerical representation. Although, in general, they achieved the highest performance in the problem that had numerical representation input, they also achieved very high performances in the problems that had graphical and algebraic representation inputs. Specifically, they performed very well in the problems that required transformation from an algebraic representation to a verbal representation. Moreover, significant positive correlations were found among preservice teachers’ representation transformation competence levels.

Simultaneous Single-Cell Genome and Transcriptome Sequencing of Termite Hindgut Protists Reveals Metabolic and Evolutionary Traits of Their Endosymbionts

Different protist species which colonize the hindguts of wood feeding Reticulitermes termites are associated with endosymbiotic bacteria belonging to the genus Endomicrobium. In this study, we focused on the endosymbionts of three protist species from Reticulitermes flavipes, which included Pyrsonympha vertens, Trichonympha agilis, and Dinenympha species II. Since these protist hosts represented members of difference taxa which colonize different niches within the hindguts of their termite hosts, we investigated if these differences translated to differential gene content and expression in their endosymbionts. Following assembly and comparative genome and transcriptome analyses, we discovered that these endosymbionts differed with respect to possible niche specific traits such carbon metabolism. Our analyses supported that genes related to carbon metabolism were acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from donor taxa which are present in termite's hindgut community. In addition, our analyses supported that these endosymbionts have retained and expressed several genes related to natural transformation (competence) and recombination. Taken together, the presence of genes acquired by HGT and a putative competence pathway supported that these endosymbionts are not cut-off from gene flow and that competence may be a mechanism by which members of the Endomicrobium can acquire new traits.

The Role of Global Platforms in Advancing Digital Transformation: Competence and Innovation Aspects

In the last decade, the foundations of the digital economy have been formed with Internet platforms becoming its largest and most important segment. According to the authors, one of the key problems associated with the development of the digital economy and of Internet platforms is the diffusion of existing and generation of the new competencies. This is important both for platform users and partner companies. The article analyzes the role of platforms in this process and highlights the main channels for competence diffusion. Firstly, individual and, secondly, institutional dimensions of these processes are defined. In the first case, the authors elaborate on the ways of developing user competencies - both basic and specialized. In the second case, the article focuses on the distribution of organizational and institutional competencies, and best practices among partner companies and participants in corporate ecosystems of platforms. For the partners the primary conditions for acquiring new competencies depend, firstly, on a system of organizational and economic requirements of the platforms. Secondly — on specific digital interfaces. Growth and improvement of services, technology, dynamics and principles of platform market organization provide formation and diffusion of more complex economic and technical competences of digital economy. It is shown that a new powerful source of development and transfer of promising technological and economic competences within the extended platform ecosystems is also being formed. The scope of operations of modern digital platforms, their composition, engagement of all key groups of actors in the innovation processes (including consumers) create unique opportunities for further development of this area.

Transfer of the pedagogical transformation competence across chemistry topics

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) observed in one topic is commonly understood not to be transferable to another topic. This study asked, what can then be transferred in the context of learning and acquiring PCK? The study firstly posits the existence of a generic pedagogical competence that is developed in pre-service teachers to pedagogically transform content knowledge, thereby developing their PCK exclusively in the topic, distinguished from general PCK as Topic Specific PCK (TSPCK). It then investigated the transferability of the competence learnt through an intervention on particulate nature of matter for the development of TSPCK in a subsequent, much harder topic chemical equilibrium. The location of the study was in a chemistry methodology class with 36 pre-service teachers. Mixed methods were employed in the research design. The intervention focused on developing the competence to transform concepts in the topic of particulate nature of matter. The primary data comprised a set of completed pre- and post-TSPCK tests in both topics, measuring the extent of the shifts in the quality of the construct. Additional qualitative data in the topic of the intervention was collected from class activities and Content Representations (CoRes) during the intervention, while a vignette was used in the second topic. The findings show the success of the intervention in enabling pedagogical transformation of the content knowledge in both topics, thus demonstrating a successful transfer of the learnt competence. Implications for the development of PCK in core topics in a discipline through transfer of the pedagogical transformation competence are provided.

New Antibody Weapons against an Old Foe

ABSTRACT Antibodies have been used in a diagnostic capacity for many diseases and for identifying serotypes within single species of pathogens, notably between the multiple capsular polysaccharide serotypes ofStreptococcus pneumoniae. For many years, the functions of antibodies in infection were thought to be limited to the opsonization of microorganisms followed by phagocytosis and to the fixing of complement. The thought that antibodies could have other functions has emerged only recently. The study by Yano and coworkers from the laboratory of Liise-anne Pirofski published inmBio[M. Yano, S. Gohil, J. R. Coleman, C. Manix, and L.-A. Pirofski, mBio 2(5):e00176-11, 2011] identifies one mechanism whereby nonopsonic antibodies enhance the transformation competence of twoS. pneumoniaeserotypes, which leads to an increase in genetic exchange and bacterial variability with a resulting population reduction through fratricide. These new and revealing antibody functions will add another chapter to the burgeoning story of the diversity and versatility of the immune response to bacteria.