Libuse Monikova: Perspectives on Heimat

As one of the most significant postmodern writers in contemporary Germany, Libuse Monikova critically explores the political divisions of Europe from different perspectives, using an interdisciplinary approach to educate her reader. All her works relate either directly or indirectly to her native Czecho-Slovakia. This dissertation focuses on four of Monikova's works, Prager Fenster, "Tetom and Tuba," Pavane fur eine verstorbene Infantin, and Der Taumel, and examines her understanding of the densely layered concept of Heimat. Monikova depicts her Heimat construct through the metaphor of disability and disease as a landscape of German and Soviet occupations and as a territory of historically and politically rooted power struggles. Her analysis of the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans from the former Czecho-Slovakia as well as her portrayal of Czech complicity in the totalitarian regime redefines concepts of victimization and resistance, and reveals the unstable discursive nature of subordination and domination. Monikova's concept of Heimat cannot be fully understood without the inclusion of minority and gender discourses as well as art as cultural space. This study underscores Monikova's analysis of the situation of women and minorities in her country of origin. Monikova makes transparent the kind of masculine superiority that is comfortably ensconced not only in Czecho-Slovak society, but also in western epistemologies. Her dynamic, witty, and politically alert female figures are independent intellectuals with vitriolic humor who offer a fresh alternative to ideological and dogmatic idealism that prevails in many feminist texts of the 1970s. Furthermore, I attempt to show how Monikova, an author who emphasizes a decentralized perspective of writing through otherness and displacement, portrays minorities living in her Heimat. Methodologically, I include theories of Czech, Slovak, German, and US cultural critics in my study. Consequently, I seek to not only [re]discover Monikova as a writer and political activist in the Czech Republic where her texts began to be published only recently, but also to engage her critics in a constructive inter-cultural dialogue

Retransplantace u nemocnych s mnohocetnym myelomem.

High doses of chemotherapy followed by autologous transplantation became widespreadly indicated as upfront therapy for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) in the last decade, with very good tolerance and low mortality. MM remains unfortunately incurable and the relaps of the disease is unavoidable. Therapy of relapsing MM is still considered to be experimental. The principle of T2 model is a repeated transplantation therapy with testing different experimental approaches in patients with MM relapsing/progressing after the 1st autologous transplantation (AT). The patients are treated with the same + something more - same or very similar induction and reinduction treatment, same myeloablative regimen in the 1st and the 2nd AT and a different maintenance, experimental therapy after the 2nd AT. The evaluation of the results of each therapeutic approach uses the intra-individual analysis - the comparison of event free survival I (EFS I) (after the 1st AT) and EFS II (after the 2nd AT) in one patient. In T2 model both EFS I and EFS II are compared in one patient, therefore the individual differences are excluded.Available from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi

Efficacy and safety of Id-protein-loaded dendritic cell vaccine in patients with multiple myeloma \u2013 Phase II study results

In a\u202fphase II clinical study, pretreated multiple myeloma patients with relapsing or stable disease received autologous anticancer vaccine containing dendritic cells loaded with Id-protein. Patients received a\u202ftotal of 6 vaccine doses intradermally in monthly intervals. No clinical responses were observed. During the follow-up with a\u202fmedian of 33.1 months (range: 11-43 months), the disease remained stable in 7/11 (64%) of patients. Immune responses measured by ELISpot were noted in 3/11 (27%) and DTH skin test for Id-protein was positive in 8/11 (73%) of patients; out of those, 1/11 (9%) and 5/11 (46%), respectively, had preexisting immune response to Id-protein before the vaccination began. Outcomes were compared to those of a\u202fcontrol group of 13 patients. A\u202ftrend to lower cumulative incidence of progression in the vaccinated group was observed at 12 months from the first vaccination (p= 0.099). More patients from the control group compared to vaccinated patients required active anticancer therapy [4/11 (36%) vs. 8/13 (62%)]. Vaccines based on dendritic cells loaded with Id-protein are safe and induce specific immune response in multiple myeloma patients. Our results suggest that the vaccination could stabilize the disease in approximately two-thirds of patients