The structural developments of regional television in Britain and Germany

This paper compares the structural developments of regional television in Britain and Germany from the early days of broadcasting to the present from an institutional and organisational perspective. Drawing on a series of interviews with policy-makers and other key personalities, it is argued that the combination of political administrative borders and regional television boundaries, as exists in the German Länder, provides a fruitful basis for a strong regional television service. During the post-war period divergences between Länder borders and Consortium of Public-Law Broadcasting Institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany (ARD) broadcasting boundaries, palpably manifest in south-west Germany, have been harmonised, leading to thorough conformity. However, in centralised England questions of regionalism have strangely played such an important role in the evolution of television, and there are evident disjunctures between regional boundaries and television regions. This applies to the regional structure of Independent Television (ITV) as well as to the regional initiatives of the BBC, which, since the mid-1980s, increasingly takes over ITV's regional duties, fulfilling primarily political demands

N-Acetyl-L-Leucine Accelerates Vestibular Compensation after Unilateral Labyrinthectomy by Action in the Cerebellum and Thalamus

An acute unilateral vestibular lesion leads to a vestibular tone imbalance with nystagmus, head roll tilt and postural imbalance. These deficits gradually decrease over days to weeks due to central vestibular compensation (VC). This study investigated the effects of i.v. N-acetyl-DL-leucine, N-acetyl-L-leucine and N-acetyl-D-leucine on VC using behavioural testing and serial [18F]-Fluoro-desoxyglucose ([18F]-FDG)-mu PET in a rat model of unilateral chemical labyrinthectomy (UL). Vestibular behavioural testing included measurements of nystagmus, head roll tilt and postural imbalance as well as sequential whole-brain [18F]FDG-mu PET was done before and on days 1, 3, 7 and 15 after UL. A significant reduction of postural imbalance scores was identified on day 7 in the N-acetyl-DL-leucine (p < 0.03) and the N-acetyl-L-leucine groups (p < 0.01),compared to the sham treatment group, but not in the N-acetyl-D-leucine group (comparison for applied dose of 24 mg i.v. per rat, equivalent to 60 mg/kg body weight, in each group). The course of postural compensation in the DL-and L-group was accelerated by about 6 days relative to controls. The effect of N-acetyl-L-leucine on postural compensation depended on the dose: in contrast to 60 mg/kg, doses of 15 mg/kg and 3.75 mg/kg had no significant effect. N-acetyl-L-leucine did not change the compensation of nystagmus or head roll tilt at any dose. Measurements of the regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCGM) by means of mu PET revealed that only N-acetyl-L-leucine but not N-acetyl-D-leucine caused a significant increase of rCGM in the vestibulocerebellum and a decrease in the posterolateral thalamus and subthalamic region on days 3 and 7. A similar pattern was found when comparing the effect of N-acetyl-L-leucine on rCGM in an UL-group and a sham UL-group without vestibular damage. In conclusion, N-acetyl-L-leucine improves compensation of postural symptoms after UL in a dose-dependent and specific manner, most likely by activating the vestibulocerebellum and deactivating the posterolateral thalamus

Protocol for a systematic review of guidelines for rigour in the design, conduct and analysis of biomedical experiments involving laboratory animals

Objective: Within the last years, there has been growing awareness of the negative repercussions of unstandardized planning, conduct and reporting of preclinical and biomedical research. Several initiatives have set the aim of increasing validity and reliability in reporting of studies and publications, and publishers have formed similar groups. Additionally, several groups of experts across the biomedical spectrum have published experience and opinion-based guidelines and guidance on potential standardized reporting. While all these guidelines cover reporting of experiments, an important step prior to this should be rigours planning and conduction of studies. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and harmonize existing experimental design, conduct and analysis guidelines relating to internal validity and reproducibility of preclinical animal research. The review will also identify literature describing risks of bias pertaining to the design, conduct and analysis of preclinical biomedical research. Search strategy: PubMed, Embase and Web of Science will be searched systematically to identify guidelines published in English language in peer-reviewed journals before January 2018 (box 1). All articles or systematic reviews in English language that describe or review guidelines on the internal validity and reproducibility of animal studies will be included. Google search for guidelines published on the websites of major funders and professional organisations can be found in (Box 2). Screening and annotation: Unique references will be screened in two phases: screening for eligibility based on title and abstract, followed by screening for definitive inclusion based on full text. Screening will be performed in SyRF (http://syrf.org.uk). Each reference will be randomly presented to two independent reviewers. Disagreements between reviewers will be resolved by additional screening of the reference by a third, senior researcher. Data management and reporting: All data, including extracted text and guidelines, will be stored in the SyRF platform. Elements of the included guidelines will be identified using a standardized extraction form. Reporting will follow the PRISMA guidelines as far as applicable

Transnational Relations between the BBC and the WDR (1960-1969): The Central Roles of Hugh Greene and Klaus Von Bismarck

This paper addresses the relationship between the BBC Director-General Hugh Carleton Greene and the director of the West German Broadcasting Corporation (WDR) Klaus von Bismarck between 1960 and 1969. The thrust of the article is to point out the great potential of evaluating interpersonal relationships and their contribution to European perspectives on television history. The research is situated within transnational television historiography and it argues that the relationship between the two key personalities is manifested in multiple interdependencies, exchanges, visits and correspondences that exemplify the long-term British impact on the German broadcasting system as well as the bilateral cordial relations between the BBC and the WDR

Towards a market in broadcasting: a comparative analysis of British and German communications policy

Political structures and the evolution of late capitalism in liberal Western democracies lend a common frame to the development of national media systems. However, whereas media policy from the post-war period to the mid-1980s was largely driven by socio-political concerns and coextensive with policy for public service television, this model has been vehemently challenged. Key factors were the convergence of erstwhile-separated industries and infrastructures, as well as the ambitions of the corporate sector and governments alike, to benefit from the economic opportunities offered by the communications revolution. By assessing the changing relationship between the role of the state, economic structures and technological innovation, this research investigates these processes in the UK and Germany. Both countries have the two key public service systems but also feature striking differences such as the antithetic political systems and democratic processes (majoritarian vs. consensus democracy). The basic assumption suggests that a genuine understanding of contemporary developments is only possible if political/economic as well as historic/sociological perspectives are incorporated into the holistic approach applied. Thereby this study gives consideration to key processes and events which have determined transitions between communications policy paradigms and regulatory regimes. Given the Anglo-Saxon tradition of regulating, key processes and events in the UK are often indicated by the appointment and report of a committee of enquiry. For the purpose of this study the most crucial of these is the Committee on Financing the BBC (1986), which first applied market-driven politics onto British broadcasting, and whose recommendations still serve as a blueprint for current communications policy-making. In Germany the KtK Report (1974) formed the basis for decisive reforms in broadcasting and communications. Apart from that, however, Germany features the characteristic of administering state interventions in as detailed a manner as possible through legislation. Of central importance are, therefore, the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, which continuously set decisive parameters for the development of the broadcasting system. The thesis follows two driving themes which have been identified as crucial in terms of the comparative dimension and are elaborated continuously in more detail. First, the focus is on the interdependencies between public and private sector. Second, implications and responses of the central vis-à-vis federal characteristic of state formation are investigated. In doing so, the thesis draws on vast sources of archival documents as well as exclusive material from a series of elite interviews with a purposively-selected sample of very high-level sources, including Chairmen, Director-Generals, ministers, very senior civil servants and so on. The thesis demonstrates how communications policy-making is carried out in both countries and how these processes are determined by national regulatory frameworks which are rooted within the borders of the nation state. As such the research findings have broader implications for commercial and public sector regulation

Disruption of the sodium-dependent citrate transporter SLC13A5 in mice causes alterations in brain citrate levels and neuronal network excitability in the hippocampus

In addition to tissues such as liver, the plasma membrane sodium-dependent citrate transporter, NaCT (SLC13A5), is highly expressed in brain neurons, but its function is not understood. Loss-of-function mutations in the human SLC13A5 gene have been associated with severe neonatal encephalopathy and pharmacoresistant seizures. The molecular mechanisms of these neurological alterations are not clear. We performed a detailed examination of a Slc13a5 deletion mouse model including video-EEG monitoring, behavioral tests, and electrophysiologic, proteomic, and metabolomic analyses of brain and cerebrospinal fluid. The experiments revealed an increased propensity for epileptic seizures, proepileptogenic neuronal excitability changes in the hippocampus, and significant citrate alterations in the CSF and brain tissue of Slc13a5 deficient mice, which may underlie the neurological abnormalities. These data demonstrate that SLC13A5 is involved in brain citrate regulation and suggest that abnormalities in this regulation can induce seizures. The present study is the first to (i) establish the Slc13a5-knockout mouse model as a helpful tool to study the neuronal functions of NaCT and characterize the molecular mechanisms by which functional deficiency of this citrate transporter causes epilepsy and impairs neuronal function; (ii) evaluate all hypotheses that have previously been suggested on theoretical grounds to explain the neurological phenotype of SLC13A5 mutations; and (iii) indicate that alterations in brain citrate levels result in neuronal network excitability and increased seizure propensity