Der Zweite Weltkrieg in der Literatur : österreichische Beispiele

Das Interesse an den literarischen Antworten auf den Krieg war in Österreich nicht besonders ausgeprägt, sonst hätte die Literatur zum Krieg einen größeren Stellenwert als sie hatte und hat – bei den Lesern wie bei den Literaturhistorikern. Es gibt zwar Aufsätzen zu einzelnen Werken, doch es existiert – mit Ausnahme einer Monographie zur Dramatik – bis heute keine umfassende Arbeit zum Thema. Die Ausstellung ‚Verbrechen der Wehrmacht’, die sie begleitende wissenschaftliche Debatte und die durch beide ausgelösten öffentlichen Kontroversen haben unseren Blick auf den Zweiten Weltkrieg entscheidend verändert. Sie haben ihn geschärft für das, was den anderen angetan werden sollte und tatsächlich angetan wurde. Das lässt auch eine Lektüre der Literatur über diesen Krieg nicht unberührt. Was ist vom nationalsozialistischen Vernichtungskrieg gegen diese Personengruppen in der österreichischen Literatur sichtbar? Der folgende Bericht bezieht sich auf die unmittelbare Nachkriegszeit bis zum Abschluss der Staatsvertragsverhandlungen 1955. Dieses politische Datum bildet, wie sich zeigen wird, einen auffallenden Einschnitt

Endothelin receptor antagonists influence cardiovascular morphology in uremic rats

Endothelin receptor antagonists influence cardiovascular morphology in uremic rats.BackgroundIt is generally held that renal failure results in blood pressure (BP)-independent structural changes of the myocardium and the vasculature. The contribution, if any, of endothelin (ET) to these changes has been unknown.MethodsWe morphometrically studied random samples of the left ventricle myocardium and small intramyocardial arteries in subtotally (5/6) nephrectomized (SNx) male Sprague-Dawley rats treated with either the selective ETA receptor antagonist BMS182874 (30mg/kg/day) or the nonselective ETA/ETB receptor antagonist Ro46-2005 (30mg/kg/day) in comparison with either sham-operated rats, untreated SNx, or SNx rats treated with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor trandolapril (0.1mg/kg/day).ResultsEight weeks later, systolic BP was lower in trandolapril-treated SNx compared with untreated SNx animals. No decrease in BP was seen following either ET receptor antagonist at the dose used. A significantly increased volume density of the myocardial interstitium was found in untreated SNx rats as compared with sham-operated controls. Such interstitial expansion was prevented by trandolapril and either ET receptor antagonist. SNx caused a substantial increase in the wall thickness of small intramyocardial arteries. The increase was prevented by trandolapril or BMS182874 treatment. The arteriolar wall:lumen ratio was significantly lower in all treated groups when compared with untreated SNx. In contrast, only trandolapril, but not the ET receptor antagonists, attenuated thickening of the aortic media in SNx animals.ConclusionsThe ETA-selective and ETA/ETB-nonselective receptor antagonists appear to prevent development of myocardial fibrosis and structural changes of small intramyocardial arteries in experimental chronic renal failure. This effect is independent of systemic BP

Case Report: Pediatric Renal Sarcoidosis and Prognostic Factors in Reviewed Cases

Background: Pediatric sarcoidosis is a complex inflammatory disorder with multisystemic manifestations. Kidney involvement in children is rare, and prognostic factors are unknown. Case Report and Methods: We report the case of a 16-year-old girl with multiorgan sarcoidosis and renal involvement. The patient presented with tubulointerstitial nephritis, acute kidney injury (AKI), chest CT disseminated noduli, granulomatous iridocyclitis, giant-cell sialadenitis, and arthralgia. The kidney biopsy revealed non-granulomatous interstitial nephritis. Treatment consisted of initial high-dose methylprednisolone pulse followed by oral prednisolone and methotrexate. Full remission was achieved. In addition, we performed a literature review using PubMed and analyzed data on pediatric renal sarcoidosis cases. Results: We identified 36 cases of pediatric sarcoidosis with renal involvement on presentation and data on the end-of-follow-up glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The data from the literature review showed that renal involvement was slightly more prevalent in males (60%). AKI was present in most of the described patients (84%). Oral prednisolone was used in 35 of 36 cases; in more severe cases, other immunosuppressants were used. We newly identified renal concentration impairment and granulomatous interstitial nephritis as factors with a clear trend toward GFR loss at the end of follow-up, emphasizing the importance of kidney biopsy in symptomatic patients. In contrast, higher GFR at presentation and hypercalcemia were rather favorable factors. According to the identified predictive factors, our patient has a good prognosis and is in remission. Conclusion: The factors indicating a trend toward an unfavorable renal outcome in pediatric sarcoidosis are renal concentration impairment and granulomatous interstitial nephritis at presentation, while a higher GFR is beneficial

Precursors for cytochrome P450 profiling breath tests from an in silico screening approach

The family of cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) is a major player in the metabolism of drugs and xenobiotics. Genetic polymorphisms and transcriptional regulation give a complex patient-individual CYP activity profile for each human being. Therefore, personalized medicine demands easy and non-invasive measurement of the CYP phenotype. Breath tests detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the patients’ exhaled air after administration of a precursor molecule. CYP breath tests established for individual CYP isoforms are based on the detection of 13CO2 or 14CO2 originating from CYP-catalyzed oxidative degradation reactions of isotopically labeled precursors. We present an in silico work-flow aiming at the identification of novel precursor molecules, likely to result in VOCs other than CO2 upon oxidative degradation as we aim at label-free precursor molecules. The ligand-based work-flow comprises five parts: (1) CYP profiling was encoded as a decision tree based on 2D molecular descriptors derived from established models in the literature and validated against publicly available data extracted from the DrugBank. (2) Likely sites of metabolism were identified by reactivity and accessibility estimation for abstractable hydrogen radical. (3) Oxidative degradation reactions (O- and N-dealkylations) were found to be most promising in the release of VOCs. Thus, the CYP-catalyzed oxidative degradation reaction was encoded as SMIRKS (a programming language style to implement reactions based on the SMARTS description) to enumerate possible reaction products. (4) A quantitative structure property relation (QSPR) model aiming to predict the Henry constant H was derived from data for 488 organic compounds and identifies potentially VOCs amongst CYP reaction products. (5) A blacklist of naturally occurring breath components was implemented to identify marker molecules allowing straightforward detection within the exhaled air.peer-reviewe

Effect of pitchfork bifurcations on the spectral statistics of Hamiltonian systems

We present a quantitative semiclassical treatment of the effects of bifurcations on the spectral rigidity and the spectral form factor of a Hamiltonian quantum system defined by two coupled quartic oscillators, which on the classical level exhibits mixed phase space dynamics. We show that the signature of a pitchfork bifurcation is two-fold: Beside the known effect of an enhanced periodic orbit contribution due to its peculiar $\hbar$-dependence at the bifurcation, we demonstrate that the orbit pair born {\em at} the bifurcation gives rise to distinct deviations from universality slightly {\em above} the bifurcation. This requires a semiclassical treatment beyond the so-called diagonal approximation. Our semiclassical predictions for both the coarse-grained density of states and the spectral rigidity, are in excellent agreement with corresponding quantum-mechanical results.Comment: LaTex, 25 pp., 14 Figures (26 *.eps files); final version 3, to be published in Journal of Physics

Socio-Informatics

Contents Editorial Thematic Focus: Socio-Informatics Introduction to the Thematic Focus “Socio-Informatics” / Claudia Müller Digitalisation in Small German Metal-Working Companies. Appropriation of Technology in a “Traditional” Industrial Domain / Bernhard Nett, Jennifer Bönsch Travelling by Taxi Brousse in Madagascar: An Investigation into Practices of Overland Transportation / Volker Wulf, Kaoru Misaki, Dave Randall, and Markus Rohde Mobile and Interactive Media in the Store? Design Case Study on Bluetooth Beacon Concepts for Food Retail / Christian Reuter, Inken Leopold Facebook and the Mass Media in Tunisia / Konstantin Aal, Marén Schorch, Esma Ben Hadj Elkilani, Volker Wulf Book Review Symposium Charles Goodwin Charles Goodwin’s Co-Operative Action: The Idea and the Argument / Erhard Schüttpelz, Christian Meyer Multi-Modal Interaction and Tool-Making: Goodwin’s Intuition / Christian Meyer, Erhard Schüttpelz Co-Operation is a Feature of Sociality, not an Attribute of People : “We inhabit each other’s actions.” (Goodwin, cover) / Jutta Wiesemann, Klaus Amann The Making of the World in Co-Operative Action. From Sentence Construction to Cultural Evolution / Jürgen Streeck On Goodwin and his Co-Operative Action / Jörg R. Bergman

Prevention and treatment of renal osteodystrophy in children on chronic renal failure: European guidelines

Childhood renal osteodystrophy (ROD) is the consequence of disturbances of the calcium-regulating hormones vitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) as well as of the somatotroph hormone axis associated with local modulation of bone and growth cartilage function. The resulting growth retardation and the potentially rapid onset of ROD in children are different from ROD in adults. The biochemical changes of ROD as well as its prevention and treatment affect calcium and phosphorus homeostasis and are directly associated with the development of cardiovascular disease in pediatric renal patients. The aims of the clinical and biochemical surveillance of pediatric patients with CRF or on dialysis are prevention of hyperphosphatemia, avoidance of hypercalcemia and keeping the calcium phosphorus product below 5 mmol(2)/l(2). The PTH levels should be within the normal range in chronic renal failure (CRF) and up to 2–3 times the upper limit of normal levels in dialysed children. Prevention of ROD is expected to result in improved growth and less vascular calcification

Kidney Pathology Precedes and Predicts the Pathological Cascade of Cerebrovascular Lesions in Stroke Prone Rats

INTRODUCTION: Human cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) has been hypothesized to be an age-dependent disease accompanied by similar vascular changes in other organs. SHRSP feature numerous vascular risk factors and may be a valid model of some aspects of human CSVD. Here we compare renal histopathological changes with the brain pathology of spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats (SHRSP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We histologically investigated the brains and kidneys of 61 SHRSP at different stages of age (12 to 44 weeks). The brain pathology (aggregated erythrocytes in capillaries and arterioles, microbleeds, microthromboses) and the kidney pathology (aggregated erythrocytes within peritubular capillaries, tubular protein cylinders, glomerulosclerosis) were quantified separately. The prediction of the brain pathology by the kidney pathology was assessed by creating ROC-curves integrating the degree of kidney pathology and age of SHRSP. RESULTS: Both, brain and kidney pathology, show an age-dependency and proceed in definite stages whereas an aggregation of erythrocytes in capillaries and arterioles, we parsimoniously interpreted as stases, represent the initial finding in both organs. Thus, early renal tubulointerstitial damage characterized by rather few intravasal erythrocyte aggregations and tubular protein cylinders predicts the initial step of SHRSPs' cerebral vascular pathology marked by accumulated erythrocytes. The combined increase of intravasal erythrocyte aggregations and protein cylinders accompanied by glomerulosclerosis and thrombotic renal microangiopathy in kidneys of older SHRSP predicts the final stages of SHRSPs' cerebrovascular lesions marked by microbleeds and thrombotic infarcts. CONCLUSION: Our results illustrate a close association between structural brain and kidney pathology and support the concept of small vessel disease to be an age-dependent systemic pathology. Further, an improved joined nephrologic and neurologic diagnostic may help to identify patients with CSVD at an early stage