Die Gesellschaften Europas

Ausgehend von einer Kritik am utopischen Gesellschaftsbegriff von Ulrich Becks kosmopolitischem Europa werden mit Stein Rokkans und Norbert Elias’ Gesellschaftstheorien zwei vernachlässigte Ansätze aufgegriffen, die der Soziologie der europäischen Gesellschaft ein tragfähigeres, historisch fundiertes und auf gesamtgesellschaftliche Transformationsprozesse verweisendes Theoriefundament zu geben vermögen. In den Fokus geraten, neben  Kontingenzen und Widersprüchen, strukturelle Macht- und Konfliktkonstellationen, prekäre Integrationsdynamiken, Ambivalenzen der demokratischen Repräsentation sowie der Eigensinn und die Eigendynamik von souveränen Kollektive

Hinter dem Schleier wissenschaftlicher Objektivität: Rezension zu "Die Herrschaft der Inzidenzen und Evidenzen: Regieren in den Fallstricken des Szientismus" von Richard Münch

Richard Münch: Die Herrschaft der Inzidenzen und Evidenzen: Regieren in den Fallstricken des Szientismus. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag 2022. 978-3-593-51603-

›Drittes Reich‹ und Soziologie

Der Beitrag nimmt Stellung zu der Argumentation von Michaela Christ (Soziologie, Heft 4, 2011, S. 407–431), wonach der Soziologie die Deutung und Erklärung von extremen Formen staatlicher und parastaatlicher Gewalt, wie etwa der Massenmord an den Juden, aus systematischen Gründen schwer falle. Bach führt dagegen aus, dass die Soziologie in der Lage ist, auch faschistische Gewalt und Gewaltverhältnisse zum Gegenstand ihrer Analyse zu erheben. The contribution reacts on the argument unfolded by Michaela Christ (Soziologie, no 4, 2011, pp. 407–431) that sociology is hardly able to explain extreme forms of state or para-state violence. Rather, the author argues, that the field of sociology is able to analyse fascist violence and relationships of power

E-Mail-Debatte: Zukunft der Promotion

Der Bologna-Prozess  und die Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes und der Länder haben Auswirkungen auf die strukturellen Bedingungen des Promovierens. Nina Baur, Richard Münch und Maurizio Bach diskutieren aus je unterschiedlicher Perspektive die Zukunft der Promotion und tauschen sich über die Implikationen dieser Entwicklungen für die Reproduktion der Soziologie als Fachdisziplin aus. The Bologna Process and the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government and the state governments will have considerable impact on the structural conditions of doing a PhD in Germany. From different points of view Nina Baur, Richard Münch and Maurizio Bach discuss the future of earning a doctorate as well as the implications that these developments may have for sociology as a scientific field

Mediterranean diet pyramid today. Science and cultural updates

Objective: To present the Mediterranean diet (MD) pyramid: a lifestyle for today. Design: A new graphic representation has been conceived as a simplified main frame to be adapted to the different nutritional and socio-economic contexts of the Mediterranean region. This review gathers updated recommendations considering the lifestyle, dietary, sociocultural, environmental and health challenges that the current Mediterranean populations are facing. Setting and Subjects: Mediterranean region and its populations. Results: Many innovations have arisen since previous graphical representations of the MD. First, the concept of composition of the ‘main meals’ is introduced to reinforce the plant-based core of the dietary pattern. Second, frugality and moderation is emphasised because of the major public health challenge of obesity. Third, qualitative cultural and lifestyle elements are taken into account, such as conviviality, culinary activities, physical activity and adequate rest, along with proportion and frequency recommendations of food consumption. These innovations are made without omitting other items associated with the production, selection, processing and consumption of foods, such as seasonality, biodiversity, and traditional, local and eco-friendly products. Conclusions: Adopting a healthy lifestyle and preserving cultural elements should be considered in order to acquire all the benefits from the MD and preserve this cultural heritage. Considering the acknowledgment of the MD as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2010), and taking into account its contribution to health and general well-being, we hope to contribute to a much better adherence to this healthy dietary pattern and its way of life with this new graphic representation.peer-reviewe

Association of Genetic Markers with CSF Oligoclonal Bands in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Objective:to explore the association between genetic markers and Oligoclonal Bands (OCB) in the Cerebro Spinal Fluid (CSF) of Italian Multiple Sclerosis patients.Methods:We genotyped 1115 Italian patients for HLA-DRB1*15 and HLA-A*02. In a subset of 925 patients we tested association with 52 non-HLA SNPs associated with MS susceptibility and we calculated a weighted Genetic Risk Score. Finally, we performed a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) with OCB status on a subset of 562 patients. The best associated SNPs of the Italian GWAS were replicated in silico in Scandinavian and Belgian populations, and meta-analyzed.Results:HLA-DRB1*15 is associated with OCB+: p = 0.03, Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.6, 95% Confidence Limits (CL) = 1.1-2.4. None of the 52 non-HLA MS susceptibility loci was associated with OCB, except one SNP (rs2546890) near IL12B gene (OR: 1.45; 1.09-1.92). The weighted Genetic Risk Score mean was significantly (p = 0.0008) higher in OCB+ (7.668) than in OCB- (7.412) patients. After meta-analysis on the three datasets (Italian, Scandinavian and Belgian) for the best associated signals resulted from the Italian GWAS, the strongest signal was a SNP (rs9320598) on chromosome 6q (p = 9.4×10-7) outside the HLA region (65 Mb).Discussion:genetic factors predispose to the development of OCB

Genetic risk and a primary role for cell-mediated immune mechanisms in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a common disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay between inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes typically results in intermittent neurological disturbance followed by progressive accumulation of disability. Epidemiological studies have shown that genetic factors are primarily responsible for the substantially increased frequency of the disease seen in the relatives of affected individuals, and systematic attempts to identify linkage in multiplex families have confirmed that variation within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) exerts the greatest individual effect on risk. Modestly powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have enabled more than 20 additional risk loci to be identified and have shown that multiple variants exerting modest individual effects have a key role in disease susceptibility. Most of the genetic architecture underlying susceptibility to the disease remains to be defined and is anticipated to require the analysis of sample sizes that are beyond the numbers currently available to individual research groups. In a collaborative GWAS involving 9,772 cases of European descent collected by 23 research groups working in 15 different countries, we have replicated almost all of the previously suggested associations and identified at least a further 29 novel susceptibility loci. Within the MHC we have refined the identity of the HLA-DRB1 risk alleles and confirmed that variation in the HLA-A gene underlies the independent protective effect attributable to the class I region. Immunologically relevant genes are significantly overrepresented among those mapping close to the identified loci and particularly implicate T-helper-cell differentiation in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis