Epilepsie im Film : eine erste Filmographie

Epilepsie ist in zahlreichen Werken der Weltliteratur verarbeitet worden; in der Filmgeschichte stellt sie ein eher randständiges Motiv dar, das erst in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren vermehrte Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen hat. Erst eingehende Recherchen machten die folgende Filmographie möglich. Die Filme sind nicht gleichrangig, Epilepsie ist selten ein Hauptmotiv. Sie tritt meist nur am Rande auf, oft ist sie Merkmal der Nebenrolle. Auch die Literatur ist äußerst rar (Maio 1999; Wulff 1999); etwas breiter ist die Auseinandersetzung mit der literarischen Behandlung der Krankheit. Die folgende kleine Literaturliste versammelt alles, was wir haben nachweisen können; wir verweisen darüber hinaus auf die Epilepsie-Blätter, die bislang zwei Supplemente zur Epilepsie in der Literatur veranstaltet haben (7, 1994, Suppl. 2; 9, 1996, Suppl. 1)

Un lieu de reconstitution de la main d'Suvre ? La fonction d'un petit hôpital allemand dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle

À travers l'exemple de Donaueschingen, cet article a pour but d'analyser la fonction d'un petit hôpital allemand du grand-duché de Bade dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle. L'examen des registres d'entrées de l'hôpital et des listes des malades soignés dans le cadre des consultations externes a permis de montrer que ce ne sont ni les indigents, ni les vieux, ni les incurables qui ont recours à l'hôpital. Cette clientèle traditionnelle des hôpitaux est écartée de l'admission par le système d'abonnement mis en place par la commission hospitalière. Ce système s'adresse en effet à une population essentiellement formée de compagnons et d'apprentis mais aussi de domestiques, particulièrement nombreux du fait de la qualité de ville-résidence de Donaueschingen. L'hôpital est donc un lieu de reconstitution d'une main d'œuvre jeune et intégrée au monde du travail.Through the example of Donaueschingen, this article pursues the goal of analysing the function of a small German hospital in the grand duchy of Baden in the first half of the 19th century. Examination of the hospital's admissions registers and out-patients lists shows that neither the poor, nor the old, nor the terminally ill utilize the hospital. This conventional clientele is excluded from admission because of a special subscription system introduced by the hospital administration. This for the South of Germany typical kind of hospital insurance is geared to a population of journeymen and apprentices, as well as servants. The hospital, therefore, is to be seen as a place of recovery for the young part of the population which is integrated into the working world

Un lieu de reconstitution de la main d'Suvre ? La fonction d'un petit hôpital allemand dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle

À travers l'exemple de Donaueschingen, cet article a pour but d'analyser la fonction d'un petit hôpital allemand du grand-duché de Bade dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle. L'examen des registres d'entrées de l'hôpital et des listes des malades soignés dans le cadre des consultations externes a permis de montrer que ce ne sont ni les indigents, ni les vieux, ni les incurables qui ont recours à l'hôpital. Cette clientèle traditionnelle des hôpitaux est écartée de l'admission par le système d'abonnement mis en place par la commission hospitalière. Ce système s'adresse en effet à une population essentiellement formée de compagnons et d'apprentis mais aussi de domestiques, particulièrement nombreux du fait de la qualité de ville-résidence de Donaueschingen. L'hôpital est donc un lieu de reconstitution d'une main d'œuvre jeune et intégrée au monde du travail.Through the example of Donaueschingen, this article pursues the goal of analysing the function of a small German hospital in the grand duchy of Baden in the first half of the 19th century. Examination of the hospital's admissions registers and out-patients lists shows that neither the poor, nor the old, nor the terminally ill utilize the hospital. This conventional clientele is excluded from admission because of a special subscription system introduced by the hospital administration. This for the South of Germany typical kind of hospital insurance is geared to a population of journeymen and apprentices, as well as servants. The hospital, therefore, is to be seen as a place of recovery for the young part of the population which is integrated into the working world

Psychotherapie als Managementaufgabe? Gefährdung des therapeutischen Selbstverständnisses durch die ökonomische Rationalität

Die gegenwärtige Psychotherapie ist wie viele andere Bereiche unserer Gesellschaft dem Diktat der Ökonomie so weit unterworfen, dass darunter ihre ureigene Identität als verstehende Sorge um einen leidenden Menschen verloren zu gehen droht. Die Auswirkungen der Ökonomisierung sind deswegen besonders prekär und von ethischer Brisanz, weil sie nicht nur den äußeren Rahmen psychotherapeutischer Arbeit diktieren, sondern weil sie zu einem allmählichen inneren Bewusstseinswandel führen. Diese inneren Veränderungen der Psychotherapie aufzuzeigen, ist Aufgabe des vorliegenden Beitrages. Am Ende stellt sich die Frage: Ist es wirklich der Kern dessen, was Psychotherapie ausmacht, was zum Nachweis der "Nützlichkeit" und "Finanzierbarkeit" zusammengetragen wird? Viel zu oft gerät bei diesem Trend zur Ökonomisierung aus dem Blick, dass die Psychotherapie konstitutiv auf eine Begegnung angewiesen ist; diese Begegnung ist nicht in ein standardisiertes Verfahren zu gießen, sondern sie kann nur dann wirklich glücken, wenn realisiert wird, dass innerhalb dieser Begegnung sich Dinge ereignen, die nicht vorher so planbar und skalierbar sind wie es das ökonomisierte System gerne hätte.Psychotherapy is part of the healing professions, but actually it is so much influenced by commodification and economy that it loses its identity as healing profession. Aim of the paper is to analyze, how economy transforms psychotherapy. It is argued, that it is necessary to reestablish a personal psychotherapy which focusses on the human encounter between patient and psychotherapist. It is necessary to transcend the mere objectivizing approach of psychotherapy and to reappreciate the healing power of the dialogue with the patient. It is the healing power of understanding which can mobilise the inner forces of the patient to cope with the unchangeable. Therefore psychotherapy has to learn to deal with the limits of technical possibilities and to concentrate on the limitless power of the inner forces of the patients

Redox sensitivity of tyrosine hydroxylase activity and expression in dopaminergic dysfunction

Oxidant molecules generated during neuronal metabolism appear to play a significant role in the processes of aging and neurodegeneration. Increasing experimental evidence suggests the noteworthy relevance of the intracellular reduction-oxidation (redox) balance for the dopaminergic (DA-ergic) neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta. These cells possess a distinct physiology intrinsically associated with elevated reactive oxygen species production, conferring on them a high vulnerability to free radical damage, one of the major causes of selective DA-ergic neuron dysfunction and degeneration related to neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Tyrosine hydroxylase (tyrosine 3-monooxygenase; E.C. 1.14.16.2; TH) activity represents the rate-limiting biochemical event in DA synthesis. TH activity, metabolism and expression are finely tuned by several regulatory systems in order to maintain a crucial physiological condition in which DA synthesis is closely coupled to its secretion. Alterations of these regulatory systems of TH functions have indeed been thought to be key events in the DA-ergic degeneration. TH has seven cysteine residues presenting thiols. Depending on the oxido-reductive (redox) status of the cellular environment, thiols exist either in the reduced form of free thiols or oxidized to disulfides. The formation of disulfides in proteins exerts critical regulatory functions both in physiological and in pathological conditions when oxidative stress is sustained. Several reports have recently shown that redox state changes of thiol residues, as consequence of an oxidative injury, can directly or indirectly affect the TH activity, metabolism and expression. The major focus of this review, therefore, is to report recent evidence on the redox modulation of TH activity and expression, and to provide an overview of a cellular phenomenon that might represent a target for new therapeutic strategies against the DA-ergic neurodegenerative disorders.peer-reviewe

The global burden of chronic respiratory diseases

Key points Currently, the serious consequences of chronic diseases and their risk factors are not fully recognised by the international health community. In the period of 1990–2020, COPD deaths are expected to increase from 2.2 to 4.7 million worldwide. Reducing chronic disease death rates by an additional 2% annually would avert 36 million deaths by 2015. The abatement of the main risk factors for respiratory diseases, in particular tobacco smoking, environmental tobacco smoke, indoor biomass fuels, outdoor air pollution and unhealthy diet, can achieve huge health benefits. Educational aims To define the burden of chronic respiratory diseases all over the world. To underline the importance of chronic diseases recognition by the international health community. To provide details about the burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): the predicted third cause of death by 2020. Summary Currently, the serious consequences of chronic diseases and their risk factors are not fully recognised by the international health community. Moreover, chronic diseases are not only a problem of the ageing population in developed countries. In fact, it has been estimated that 80% of mortality for chronic diseases occurred in low-income and middleincome countries in 2005. Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) Dept of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion has suggested a new Millennium Development Goal for the next few years: to reduce chronic disease death rates by an additional 2% annually, in order to avert 36 million deaths by 2015

PE_PGRS proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: A specialized molecular task force at the forefront of host–pathogen interaction

To the PE_PGRS protein subfamily belongs a group of surface-exposed mycobacterial antigens that in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) H37Rv accounts to more than 65 genes, 51 of which are thought to express a functional protein. PE_PGRS proteins share a conserved structural architecture with three main domains: the N-terminal PE domain; the PGRS domain, that can vary in sequence and size and is characterized by the presence of multiple GGA-GGX amino acid repeats; the highly conserved sequence containing the GRPLI motif that links the PE and PGRS domains; the unique C-terminus end that can vary in size from few to up to ≈ 300 amino acids. pe_pgrs genes emerged in slow-growing mycobacteria and expanded and diversified in MTBC and few other pathogenic mycobacteria. Interestingly, despite sequence homology and apparent redundancy, PE_PGRS proteins seem to have evolved a peculiar function. In this review, we summarize the actual knowledge on this elusive protein family in terms of evolution, structure, and function, focusing on the role of PE_PGRS in TB pathogenesis. We provide an original hypothesis on the role of the PE domain and propose a structural model for the polymorphic PGRS domain that might explain how so similar proteins can have different physiological functions

Epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Health effects of air pollution

Abstract:  COPD is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the industrialized and the developing countries. According to the prediction of the World Health Organization, COPD will become the third leading cause of mortality and the fifth cause of disability in 2020 worldwide. In epidemiology, distinct phenotypic entities converge on the term COPD, so that prevalence and mortality data may be inclusive of chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma; moreover, the assessment of prevalence rates may change considerably according to the diagnostic tools used. Thus, a considerable problem is to estimate the real prevalence of COPD in the general population. COPD is determined by the action of a number of various risk factors, among which, the most important is cigarette smoking. However, during the last few decades, evidence from epidemiological studies finding consistent associations between air pollution and various outcomes (respiratory symptoms, reduced lung function, chronic bronchitis and mortality), has suggested that outdoor air pollution is a contributing cause of morbidity and mortality. In conclusion, epidemiological studies suggest that air pollution plays a remarkable role in the exacerbation and in the pathogenesis of chronic respiratory diseases. Thus, respiratory physicians, as well as public health professionals, should advocate for a cleaner environment

Fast tracking of wind speed with a differential absorption LiDAR system: First results of an experimental campaign at Stromboli volcano

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is considered a precursor gas of volcanic eruptions by volcanologists. Monitoring the anomalous release of this parameter, we can retrieve useful information for the mitigation of volcanic hazards, such as for air traffic security. From a dataset collected during the Stromboli volcano field campaign, an assessment of the wind speed, in both horizontal and vertical paths, performing a fast tracking of this parameter was retrieved. This was determined with a newly designed shot-per-shot differential absorption LiDAR system operated in the near-infrared spectral region due to the simultaneous reconstruction of CO2 concentrations and wind speeds, using the same sample of LiDAR returns. A correlation method was used for the wind speed retrieval in which the transport of the spatial inhomogeneities of the aerosol backscattering coefficient, along the optical path of the system, was analyzed

Dominant mutants of ceruloplasmin impair the copper loading machinery in aceruloplasminemia.

The multicopper oxidase ceruloplasmin plays a key role in iron homeostasis, and its ferroxidase activity is required to stabilize cell surface ferroportin, the only known mammalian iron exporter. Missense mutations causing the rare autosomal neurodegenerative disease aceruloplasminemia were investigated by testing their ability to prevent ferroportin degradation in rat glioma C6 cells silenced for endogenous ceruloplasmin. Most of the mutants did not complement (i.e. did not stabilize ferroportin) because of the irreversible loss of copper binding ability. Mutant R701W, which was found in a heterozygous very young patient with severe neurological problems, was unable to complement per se but did so in the presence of copper-glutathione or when the yeast copper ATPase Ccc2p was co-expressed, indicating that the protein was structurally able to bind copper but that metal loading involving the mammalian copper ATPase ATP7B was impaired. Notably, R701W exerted a dominant negative effect on wild type, and it induced the subcellular relocalization of ATP7B. Our results constitute the first evidence of "functional silencing" of ATP7B as a novel molecular defect in aceruloplasminemia. The possibility to reverse the deleterious effects of some aceruloplasminemia mutations may disclose new possible therapeutic strategies