The force of the sign. Terrorism as a symbolic phenomenon

Seit der radikalen Änderung der weltpolitischen Lage durch das Selbstmordattentat islamistischer Terroristen auf die Supermacht U.S.A. am 11.9.01 versucht die Weltöffentlichkeit, dem Phänomen des Terrorismus durch die verschiedensten Erklärungsstrategien Herr zu werden. Man führt den Kampf der Kulturen oder Religionen an, verweist auf die Ausbeutung der Peripherie des kapitalistischen Weltsystems durch den Hegemon U.S.A. oder pathologisiert bzw. dämonisiert die Taten der Terroristen. Uns scheinen diese Erklärungsstrategien den Machtkonstellationen der postmodernen Gesellschaften nicht gerecht zu werden, da sie ein zentrales soziales Phänomen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte nicht beachten: das Unbehagen an der pluralistischen Gesellschaft und der konsensuell-repräsentativen Demokratie. Um dieses Unbehagen angemessen beschreiben zu können, wollen wir uns ihm aus einer zeichentheoretischen Perspektive nähern, die soziale Formationen nicht durch (kooperative) Arbeit determiniert sieht, sondern durch die Instanz des Codes. Für Jean Baudrillard ist die Wahl des Ziels der beiden Türme bedeutend, die sich wechselseitig reflektieren und das System nach allen Seiten hin abschließen. Mit ihnen wurde das neuralgische Zentrum des Systems getroffen, das sich auf einem binären Code gründet. Die Twintowers bedeuteten nicht nur das Ende jedweder originalen Referenz, sondern auch den Abschluss des Bezeichneten durch die Wiederholung des Zeichens. Der Code führt eine symbolische Verteilung der gesellschaftlichen Körper durch und zielt auf eine möglichst genaue Übereinstimmung der Gemeinschaft mit sich selbst gemäß eines arithmetischen und geometrischen Kalküls. Die integrative Kraft dieses auf dem Identitätsprinzip basierenden Systems scheint immer häufiger nicht mehr in der Lage zu sein, das negative Potential antagonistischer Strategien binden zu können, die in Form von zivilem Ungehorsam, Politik von Minoritäten oder terroristischen Akten die symbolische Ordnung der westlichen Gesellschaften unterhöhlen. In diesem Tagungsband diskutieren wir das Ausmaß der Krise der konsensuellen Demokratie und ihrer Institutionen. Die Aufsätze behandeln folgende Themen: • Die Krise der pluralistischen Gesellschaft: Wie verständlich ist das kulturelle, politische und religiöse Unbehagen am westlichen Wertekanon? • Die Funktion der Medien in der konsensuellen Demokratie; die gesellschaftliche Wirkung der medialen Reproduktion terroristischer Akte; das Bild des Terrorismus in der Populärkultur • Ästhetischer Terror: Die Vernichtung von Sinn und Bedeutung in der zeitgenössischen Kunst und Kunsttheorie • Die politische Logik des Terrorismus (Ziele, Bedingungen u. Legitimität des Terrorismus in Abgrenzung zu alternativen politischen Ausdrucksformen wie z.B. dem zivilen Ungehorsam; die Bedeutung des terroristischen Opfertodes) • Geschichte des Terrorismus (speziell der Terrorismus der RAF) • Terror als irrationale Gewalt (der ontologische Status des Terrorismus)Since the radical changes in international politics caused by the suicide attacks on the USA by Islamic terrorists on the 11th of September in 2001, the world public tries to grasp the phenomenon of „Terrorism“ through different explanatory strategies. These include referring to the clash of cultures and of religions, to the exploitation of the periphery by the capitalist system incarnated by the USA, or pathologizing as well as demonizing the deeds of the terrorists. All these explanatory attempts do not seem to do justice to the actual constellations of power in postmodern societies, because they do not take a widespread social phenomenon of the past decades in consideration: the discomfort with the pluralistic society and with the concurrent-representative democracy. In order to describe this discomfort adequately we would like to approach the phenomenon from a semiotic perspective which does not consider social formations as determined by cooperative work but rather by the authority of the code. For Jean Baudrillard the target was meaningful since the two towers not only reflect each other but also completely close the system. With them the neuralgic center which is based upon the binary code was severely hit. The twin towers not only meant the end of every original reference but also the completion of the signified by the reduplication of the sign. The code conducts a symbolic distribution of the social bodies and aims at an as accurate as possible identification of the community with itself corresponding to an arithmetic and geometric calculus. The system which is based upon the principle of identity does not seem to have the ability to integrate antagonist energies properly. So these antagonist powers undermine the symbolic order of western societies in terms of civil disobedience, politics of minorities or terroristic acts. In this conference transcript we discuss the degree of crisis of consensual democracy and ist institutions. The essays cover the following topics: • The crisis of the pluralistic society: How comprehensible and justified is the cultural, political, and religious discomfort with western values? • The function of mass media in democratic systems: What is the impact of the reproduction of terrorist acts on society? How does popular culture deal with terrorism? • Aesthetic terror: the destruction of sense and meaning in contemporary arts and art theory • The political logic of terrorism (aims, legitimacy of terrorism as opposed to other forms of opposition like civil disobedience; the meaning of the terrorist self-sacrifice death) • History of terrorism (e.g. The German terrorism of the RAF) • Terrorism as an irrational power (ontological status of terrorism

Motor, cognitive and mobility deficits in 1000 geriatric patients : protocol of a quantitative observational study before and after routine clinical geriatric treatment – the ComOn-study

© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Background: Motor and cognitive deficits and consequently mobility problems are common in geriatric patients. The currently available methods for diagnosis and for the evaluation of treatment in this vulnerable cohort are limited. The aims of the ComOn (COgnitive and Motor interactions in the Older populatioN) study are (i) to define quantitative markers with clinical relevance for motor and cognitive deficits, (ii) to investigate the interaction between both motor and cognitive deficits and (iii) to assess health status as well as treatment outcome of 1000 geriatric inpatients in hospitals of Kiel (Germany), Brescia (Italy), Porto (Portugal), Curitiba (Brazil) and Bochum (Germany). Methods: This is a prospective, explorative observational multi-center study. In addition to the comprehensive geriatric assessment, quantitative measures of reduced mobility and motor and cognitive deficits are performed before and after a two week's inpatient stay. Components of the assessment are mobile technology-based assessments of gait, balance and transfer performance, neuropsychological tests, frailty, sarcopenia, autonomic dysfunction and sensation, and questionnaires to assess behavioral deficits, activities of daily living, quality of life, fear of falling and dysphagia. Structural MRI and an unsupervised 24/7 home assessment of mobility are performed in a subgroup of participants. The study will also investigate the minimal clinically relevant change of the investigated parameters. Discussion: This study will help form a better understanding of symptoms and their complex interactions and treatment effects in a large geriatric cohort.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 Abstract Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 IPRO Day Presentation Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 Final Report Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 Project Plan Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 Poster Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism (semester?), IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology IPRO 302 Midterm Report Sp07

Synthetic biology is a relatively new approach to genetic research where the focus is to build a simple genetic system with known processes and test it in a biological setting. This is in contrast to the reductionist approach where a complex pre-existing biological system is analyzed in an attempt to discover the purpose of each of the parts. In this IPRO, a very simple genetic system is being designed, built, and tested in a biological setting. Previous semesters have already accomplished such in bacteria. This semester's focus will be on building the system designed last semester and inserting it into an eukaryotic organism; the zebrafish. The main purpose of this IPRO is to advance the knowledge of biological systems and their manipulation. This is being done through the design and creation of a simple, but novel, genetic circuit, and the introduction of this circuit into an organism to observe its properties in vivo. In order to accomplish this goal, we have split up into 4 different sub-teams: Fish, Math Modeling, Futures and Design, and ConstructionDeliverables for IPRO 302: Synthetic Biology: Engineering a Novel Organism for the Spring 2007 semeste

The cost-effectiveness of routine tuberculosis screening with Xpert MTB/RIF prior to initiation of antiretroviral therapy: a model-based analysis.

BACKGROUND: In settings with high tuberculosis (TB) prevalence, 15-30% of HIV-infected individuals initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) have undiagnosed TB. Such patients are usually screened by symptoms and sputum smear, which have poor sensitivity. OBJECTIVE: To project the clinical and economic outcomes of using Xpert MTB/RIF(Xpert), a rapid TB/rifampicin-resistance diagnostic, to screen individuals initiating ART. DESIGN: We used a microsimulation model to evaluate the clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of alternative TB screening modalities - in all patients or only symptomatic patients - for hypothetical cohorts of individuals initiating ART in South Africa (mean CD4 cell count = 171 cells/μl; TB prevalence 22%). We simulated no active screening and four diagnostic strategies, smear microscopy (sensitivity 23%); smear and culture (sensitivity, 100%); one Xpert sample (sensitivity in smear-negative TB: 43%); two Xpert samples (sensitivity in smear-negative TB: 62%). Outcomes included projected life expectancy, lifetime costs (2010 US$), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). Strategies with ICERs less than$7100 (South African gross domestic product per capita) were considered very cost-effective. RESULTS: Compared with no screening, life expectancy in TB-infected patients increased by 1.6 months using smear in symptomatic patients and by 6.6 months with two Xpert samples in all patients. At 22% TB prevalence, the ICER of smear for all patients was $2800 per year of life saved (YLS), and of Xpert (two samples) for all patients was$5100/YLS. Strategies involving one Xpert sample or symptom screening were less efficient. CONCLUSION: Model-based analysis suggests that screening all individuals initiating ART in South Africa with two Xpert samples is very cost-effective