Mors militans. Figurationen des streitbaren Todes in der nordalpinen Druckgrafik des 16. Jahrhunderts

Die Forschung zur Todesikonografie behandelte individuelle Darstellungsformen des Todes bisher meist als Spielarten der Totentänze. Die vorliegende Arbeit führt für ein erweitertes Verständnis der Todesfigur den Begriff der mors militans in die kunsthistorische Forschung ein und erfasst erstmalig kohärent die Darstellungskomplexe des streitbaren Todes. Anhand einer ikonografischen, rezeptionsästhetischen sowie kulturhistorischen Untersuchung werden Befunde der bisherigen, von einer teleologischen Motiventwicklung ausgehenden Forschung revidiert. Mit dem Blick für Details, tiefgreifenden Bildanalysen vieler bisher kaum untersuchter Grafiken und einem umfassenden Bild- und Quellenanhang leistet die Dissertation somit einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur Erforschung künstlerischer Innovationen im Bereich frühneuzeitlicher Druckgrafik

Extracting Urban Morphology for Atmospheric Modeling from Multispectral and SAR Satellite Imagery

This paper presents an approach designed to derive an urban morphology map from satellite data while aiming to minimize the cost of data and user interference. The approach will help to provide updates to the current morphological databases around the world. The proposed urban morphology maps consist of two layers: 1) Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and 2) land cover map. Sentinel-2 data was used to create a land cover map, which was realized through image classification using optical range indices calculated from image data. For the purpose of atmospheric modeling, the most important classes are water and vegetation areas. The rest of the area includes bare soil and built-up areas among others, and they were merged into one class in the end. The classification result was validated with ground truth data collected both from field measurements and aerial imagery. The overall classification accuracy for the three classes is 91 %. TanDEM-X data was processed into two DEMs with different grid sizes using interferometric SAR processing. The resulting DEM has a RMSE of 3.2 meters compared to a high resolution DEM, which was estimated through 20 control points in flat areas. Comparing the derived DEM with the ground truth DEM from airborne LIDAR data, it can be seen that the street canyons, that are of high importance for urban atmospheric modeling are not detectable in the TanDEM-X DEM. However, the derived DEM is suitable for a class of urban atmospheric models. Based on the numerical modeling needs for regional atmospheric pollutant dispersion studies, the generated files enable the extraction of relevant parametrizations, such as Urban Canopy Parameters (UCP).Peer reviewe

Induction of Apoptosis in Small-Cell Lung Cancer Cells by an Antisense Oligodeoxynucleotide Targeting the Bcl-2 Coding Sequence

Background: The emergence of resistance to chemotherapy remains a major problem in the treatment of patients with small-cell lung cancer. Elevated expression of Bcl-2, a protein that inhibits programmed cell death or apoptosis, has been associated with radiation and drug resistance and has been observed in the majority of small-cell lung cancer specimens and cell lines. Purpose: To test the hypothesis that Bcl-2 expression levels are critical for inhibiting apoptosis in small-cell lung cancer cells, we used an antisense strategy to reduce Bcl-2 expression in these cells in an attempt to restore the natural occurrence of apoptosis. Methods: Thirteen antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) targeting various regions of the bcl-2 messenger RNA and a control scrambledsequence ODN were tested to identify the most effective sequence(s) for reducing Bcl-2 protein levels. Northern and western blot analyses were used to examine basal bcl-2 messenger RNA and protein levels, respectively, in four human small-cell lung cancer cell lines (SW2, NCI-H69, NCI-H82, and NCI-N417). SW2 cells were treated with the antisense ODNs in the presence of cationic lipids (to facilitate uptake), and cytotoxic effects were measured by use of a cell viability assay. Flow cytometric analysis of DNA fragmentation and cell morphology was also performed. The cytotoxic effect of the most potent antisense ODN was also tested on the three other cell lines. Results: The viability of SW2 cells was effectively reduced by ODNs that targeted the translation initiation and termination sites of the bcl-2 messenger RNA, but ODN 2009 that targeted the coding region was the most cytotoxic. Treatment of SW2 cells with 0.15 µM ODN 2009 for 96 hours reduced their viability by 91% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 88%-94%) and caused a dose-dependent reduction in Bcl-2 levels that became detectable 24 hours after treatment and persisted up to 96 hours; analysis of cellular morphology demonstrated that viability was reduced through apoptosis. Moreover, ODN 2009 at 0.15 µM was cytotoxic to NCI-H69, NCI-H82, and NCI-N417 cells, resulting in decreases in cell viability of 82% (95% CI = 78%- 86%), 100%, and 100%, respectively, after 96 hours of treatment. The cytotoxic effects were inversely correlated with the basal Bcl-2 levels in the cell lines (r = −.9964). A control scrambled-sequence oligodeoxynucleotide had no statistically significant effect on the cell lines (P values ranging from .38 to .89). Conclusion: We have identified a novel antisense ODN sequence (ODN 2009) that effectively reduces the viability of small-cell lung cancer cells by reducing Bcl-2 levels and facilitating apoptosi

Elevated pretreatment serum levels of soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 and lactate dehydrogenase as predictors of survival in cutaneous metastatic malignant melanoma.

Very rapid progression of disease with a median survival of 6-9 months is a common feature of metastatic cutaneous malignant melanoma. Nevertheless, substantial variability of survival suggests that metastatic cutaneous malignant melanoma can be divided into several biological subgroups. Pretreatment serum levels of soluble adhesion molecules and various clinical parameters in cutaneous metastatic malignant melanoma were evaluated to determine their prognostic value. In this study pretreatment serum levels of soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1), soluble intercellular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1), soluble endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule 1 (sE-selectin) and multiple clinical factors were assessed in relation to overall survival of 97 consecutive patients with metastatic cutaneous malignant melanoma seen at our institution between May 1990 and April 1996. For statistical analysis, both univariate and multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models were used. Elevated pretreatment serum levels of sVCAM-1 (P < 0.005) and of lactate dehydrogenase (P < 0.002) were rendered statistically independent and were significantly associated with unfavourable outcome. Patients were assigned to one of three risk categories (low, intermediate and high) according to a cumulative risk score defined as the function of the sum of these two variables. There were significant differences in overall survival (P < 0.0001) between low- (n = 53, 5-year survival probability of 23.3%), intermediate- (n = 29, 5-year survival probability of 9.9%) and high-risk (n = 15) patients. Elevated pretreatment serum levels of sVCAM-1 and of lactate dehydrogenase correlate with poor outcome in metastatic cutaneous malignant melanoma. These data support risk stratification for future therapeutic trials and identify factors that need to be validated in prospective studies and may potentially influence decision-making in palliative management of patients with disseminated cutaneous malignant melanoma

Elevated serum levels of S100 and survival in metastatic malignant melanoma.

Current reports suggest serum S100 as a prognostic marker for disease progression in advanced malignant melanoma. In this study, we assessed serum levels of S100 and multiple clinical factors in relation to overall survival in 99 patients with metastatic malignant melanoma seen at our institution between May 1990 and April 1996. For statistical analysis, we used both univariate and multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models. Elevated serum levels of S100 correlated with poor outcome in metastatic malignant melanoma (P < 0.0001), univariate analysis). Upon multivariate analysis, however, S100 added no information to known clinical prognostic parameters