Remembering the ‘unwanted’ victims: initiatives to memorialize the National Socialist euthanasia program in Germany

Between 1939 and 1945, approximately 200,000 patients were murdered under the National Socialist euthanasia program in Germany and Austria. For many years, these victims were largely excluded from post-war commemorative culture and they are yet to attain legal equality with the victims of political or racial persecution. This article considers recent initiatives to commemorate the victims of euthanasia, focusing on three examples: 1) the national memorial and information point for the victims of National Socialist “euthanasia” killings in Berlin; 2) the web portal http://www.gedenkort-t4.eu” www.gedenkort-t4.eu; and 3) the national competition “Andersartig Gedenken”, which invited young Germans to design their own memorial

Construction of a questionnaire for the evaluation of the benefit and use of the national German medication plan

With the formulation of a claim for a national uniform medication plan, the German government has taken an important step towards optimizing the documentation of medication for multimorbid patients. The aim of the research project "Medication Plan PLUS" is, amongst others, to identify previously unknown optimization potentials in the national medication plan and implement it into a more improved specification. The following work deals with the conceptualization of a questionnaire for the evaluation of optimization potentials within the national uniform medication plan. The focus lies on improving the health-related quality of life of the individual patients. In addition to the setting and the number of subjects, further research questions serve as the basis for the survey instrument defined for this purpose. The primary focus lies on questions that are aiming to determine the subjective perception of readability as well as the general acceptance and practicability of the medication plan. Although the national uniform medication plan has already been evaluated in various studies and project proposals, they show significant limitations which can be excluded in the project proposal for Medication Plan PLUS.Mit der Formulierung eines Anspruchs auf einen Bundeseinheitlichen Medikationsplan hat die Bundesregierung einen wichtigen Schritt zur Optimierung der Medikamentendokumentation für multimorbide Patientinnen und Patienten unternommen. Ziel des Forschungsprojektes "Medikationsplan PLUS" ist es unter anderem, bisher unbekannte Optimierungspotentiale im Bundeseinheitlichen Medikamentenplan zu identifizieren und in eine verbesserte Spezifikation umzusetzen. Die folgende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Konzeption eines Fragebogens zur Bewertung von Optimierungspotentialen innerhalb des Bundeseinheitlichen Medikamentenplans. Der Fokus liegt auf der Verbesserung der gesundheitsbezogenen Lebensqualität der einzelnen Patientinnen und Patienten. Neben dem Rahmen und der Vielzahl an Gegenständen dienen weitere Forschungsfragen als Grundlage für das hierfür definierte Erhebungsinstrument. Der Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf Fragen, die darauf abzielen, die subjektive Wahrnehmung der Lesbarkeit sowie die allgemeine Akzeptanz und Praktikabilität des Medikamentenplans zu erheben. Obwohl der Bundeseinheitliche Medikamentenplan bereits in verschiedenen Studien- und Projektvorhaben evaluiert wurde, zeigen diese Studien teilweise erhebliche Einschränkungen, welche im Projektvorhaben Medikationsplan PLUS ausgeschlossen werden können

DNA looping and translocation provide an optimal cleavage mechanism for the type III restriction enzymes

EcoP15I is a type III restriction enzyme that requires two recognition sites in a defined orientation separated by up to 3.5 kbp to efficiently cleave DNA. The mechanism through which site-bound EcoP15I enzymes communicate between the two sites is unclear. Here, we use atomic force microscopy to study EcoP15I–DNA pre-cleavage complexes. From the number and size distribution of loops formed, we conclude that the loops observed do not result from translocation, but are instead formed by a contact between site-bound EcoP15I and a nonspecific region of DNA. This conclusion is confirmed by a theoretical polymer model. It is further shown that translocation must play some role, because when translocation is blocked by a Lac repressor protein, DNA cleavage is similarly blocked. On the basis of these results, we present a model for restriction by type III restriction enzymes and highlight the similarities between this and other classes of restriction enzymes

Transnational Entanglements: Switzerland's Newly Emerging Literary Culture of the 1960s and the Anglophone World

In 1966, Emil Staiger, one of the most prominent literary scholars in literary studies of the postwar era, gave a talk on literature and the public. In his speech, which initiated what came to be known as the Zürcher Literaturstreit, Staiger developed a normative idea of literature as an agent of social cohesion. Around the same time, a new literary culture emerged in Switzerland, one which challenged Staiger's conception by exploring literature's critical potential. This article argues that this more modern direction taken by German Swiss literature was the result of transnational dynamics. Focusing on three examples of literature written by a new generation of Swiss authors (Walter, Federspiel, Bichsel), the article explores the various transnational alliances these authors built with modernist authors, mostly beyond the German‐speaking world, as a means of breaking with literary conventions. Leaving the logic of a national literary history behind, the article argues that seemingly local literary conflicts in 1960s Switzerland arose out of transnational dynamics