Agonistic Interventions into Public Commemorative Art:An Innovative Form of Counter-memorial Practice?

In light of recent controversies around the removal or modification of public commemorative art, such as memorials and monuments, this paper interrogates the value of competing approaches to counter-memorial practice using the framework of agonistic memory. It argues that much counter-memorial practice today, as it relates to historical memory, is dominated by a “cosmopolitan” mode that fails to offer a convincing response to the rise of right-wing populism and its instrumentalization of conflicts over public commemorative art. The article investigates two case studies of counter-memorial interventions that focus on the memory of fascism in Europe today and seeks to identify and assess emergent agonistic practices

Fallback level concepts for conventional and by-wire automotive brake systems

Brake-by-wire represents the replacement of traditional brake components such as pumps, hoses, fluids, brake boosters, and master cylinders by electronic sensors and actuators. The different design of these brake concepts poses new challenges for the automotive industry with regard to availability and fallback levels in comparison to standard conventional brake systems. This contribution focuses on the development of appropriate fallback level concepts. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) techniques and field trials will be used to investigate the performance and the usability of such systems

Relation between electroconvulsive therapy, cognitive side effects, neuron specific enolase, and protein S-100

OBJECTIVE—To investigate whether electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) induces brain tissue damage expressed as an increase in neuron specific enolase and protein S-100.
METHODS—A total of 179 serial measurements of S-100 and NSE serum concentrations were performed on 14 patients during the course of a bilaterally stimulated ECT series. Cognitive performance was assessed by psychometric testing carried out on the day before the start of ECT as well as on the days after the third, sixth, and last ECT. Pre-ECT and post-ECT concentrations of NSE and S-100 were compared by non-parametric tests.
RESULTS—On average, 9.5 (SD 2.9) (range 3-12) ECTs were applied; 13 of 14 patients received at least six ECTs. The average duration of convulsion (computed for all ECTs) was 29.0 (SD 10.5) seconds. At no point during the ECT series was there a significant increase in the average NSE or S-100 concentrations compared with the baseline investigation before the start of the ECT series. The maximal measured post-ECT values of NSE and S-100 were 26.6 ng/ml and 0.46 ng/ml, respectively. The cumulative energy doses applied, seizure durations, and ECT induced changes in cognitive performance scores were never significantly correlated with the NSE or S-100 serum concentrations.
CONCLUSION—This pattern of findings suggests that a modern ECT, fulfilling current quality standards, induces no brain tissue damage detectable by changes in NSE or protein S-100.