Ein Staat - zwei Gesellschaften: Deutschland 14 Jahre nach der Vereinigung

Mit „Hartz IV“ und den Protesten gegen den Reformkurs der Bundesregierung rückt die Situation in Ostdeutschland wieder stärker ins Blickfeld auch der westdeutschen Öffentlichkeit. Ist der Aufbau Ost gescheitert? Ist Ostdeutschland für die Wachstumsschwäche Gesamtdeutschlands verantwortlich? Welche Maßnahmen sollte die Wirtschaftspolitik zur Verbesserung der Situation in Ostdeutschland ergreifen? --

Project lightspeed: A case study in research ethics and accelerated vaccine development

The COVID-19 pathogen led to a fast expanding pandemic because it proved lethal in certain populations but could be transmitted by persons who appeared healthy. As a result, researchers came under unprecedented time pressure to develop a vaccine. This case study focuses on the first COVID-19 vaccine, which was approved for use in humans, known as Comirnaty, the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine or Vaccine BNT162b2. With the benefit of hindsight, we show how close collaboration with regulators and trust-based decisions meant that the race for a COVID-19 vaccine was won without purposefully infecting healthy participants with an infectious agent that can cause severe illness or death and for which no rescue therapy had existed

Light actuated remote control security system

A remote control security apparatus includes a lock element movable between locked and unlocked positions by an electrically actuated power device. The operator is provided with a portable transmitter adapted to generate light which is interrupted at a predetermined frequency so as to produce an encoded light signal. This signal is detected by a light transceiver which generates an independent signal at the same predetermined frequency and which compares the frequencies of the detected signal and independent signal. If these frequencies are substantially the same, the transceiver actuates the power means to move the lock element to its unlocked position. The security apparatus may be advantageously installed as a door lock, in which case a lock element receiving member is secured to the door. The signal detector is positioned at the exterior side of the door for receiving encoded signals from the transmitter and an override switch may be positioned at an interior side of the door for opening the lock without a transmitter. A contact switch is disclosed which maintains the lock element in the unlocked position whenever the door is open