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The article addresses the question of who reports the dialogue in fictional texts featuring an unreliable narrator. Since no human being can remember and reproduce lengthy conversations accurately, some narrative theorists attribute direct speech representation to the author instead of the character narrator. This means that the speech of other characters may be reported reliably even if the narrator is totally unreliable. The narrator’s version of the events may then be contradicted by others, which allows the reader to perceive his biases. However, Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World illustrates the fact that direct speech reports, too, can be distorted by the narrator’s subjectivity, especially his emotions. In Ishiguro’s novel, the narrator’s grief and depression lead him to misremember and invent past conversations. Following Meir Sternberg, the article argues that the reliability of speech reporting in unreliable narration must be determined on a case-by-case basis. The text must signal that the narrator’s speech reporting is unreliable. In the absence of a signal, the reader is supposed to disregard any deviations from verbatim reproduction and to accept the transgression of the limits of human memory.
This article approaches literary translation from a contact-linguistic perspective and views translation as a language contact situation in which the translator "moves" between the source and target language. The study touches upon the possible linguistic effects of the source text on the translated text and relates the translation-mediated cross-linguistic influence to other language-contact situations. The study investigates the use of Finnish passive in a corpus of literary texts consisting of Finnish translations from Estonian and German and comparable non-translated Finnish literary texts. The translated texts are compared with non-translated ones by using corpus-linguistic tools, and the results are related to a previous contact-linguistic study on the use of the Finnish passive in spoken interviews of Finnish migrants in Estonia. The main objective is to test methodological tools that could be used for this kind of comparative purposes.
In addition, the study approaches the question whether translation as a type of language contact affects the use of the Finnish passive in a similar way as an oral language contact situation. All in all, the study shows that there are some features that differentiate the investigated literary translations from non-translated Finnish texts but the evidence is not unambiguous. The article discusses the possible reasons for the mainly non-conclusive results of the analysis and points out factors that should be taken into account in future studies, such as the size of the sub-corpora and the possibly biased text or genre specific stylistic characteristics. The methodology clearly has to be adjusted and more in-depth methods developed in order to acquire a fuller picture of the Finnish passive in literary texts and to confirm what is author, translator, genre or source-language specific in the use of the Finnish passive.
This article analyzes the representation of linguistic variation in the Finnish translations of four Swedish coming-of-age stories depicting migrant or minority perspectives: Mikael Niemi’s 2000 Popular Music from Vittula, Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s 2003 Ett öga rött, Marjaneh Bakhtiari’s 2005 Kalla det vad fan du vill, and Susanna Alakoski’s 2006 Svinalängorna. Through an analysis of speech and thought representation techniques and focalization, the article explores the role played by literature and translation in the materialization of dialects and sociolects as bounded entities. The paper argues that linguistic and social hybridity, on which the reception of minority and migrant literatures often focuses, is accompanied by the reification of new varieties conceived as authentic expressions of migrant and minority experience. Literature and translation are active agents in such processes, which are largely based on cultural, discursive, and cognitive constraints that condition the interpretation of each text.
C’est trop auch! the translation of contemporary French literature featuring urban youth slang
(2016)
The French post-colonial novel has recently been witnessing the emergence of urban youth language or français contemporain des cités (Goudaillier 2001). This linguistic variety allows underprivileged youths from multi-ethnic suburbs to rebel against authority by deliberately violating standard language norms. Its characteristics include frequent lexical input from immigrant languages, in particular Arabic and English, and the use of verlan at the morphological level, with the latter involving a form of back slang using syllabic inversion, which can be recurrently applied to heighten its coding function. In view of the social rejection of this ‘antilanguage’ (Halliday 1978), it has had difficulty penetrating into literature. However, this is now beginning to change, with urban youth discourse appearing in a number of novels, mostly by young ‘post-migration’ writers (Geiser 2008), such as Faïza Guène, Insa Sané and Rachid Djaïdani. While this language variety has mainly been dealt with by sociolinguists, some of the novels concerned are now crossing borders, and a multi-disciplinary approach to this phenomenon is now called for, combining linguistic, literary and translatological tools.
The transfer of this heterolingual genre does indeed raise a number of issues. For example, if we assume that translation is a cultural-political practice (Venuti 2008), what options do translators have to convey the resistant discourse of young immigrant slang users? How will the relationship between language use and social identity manifest itself in the target text? And how can a contrastive linguistic analysis of the features of urban youth language help to resolve translation problems? I will draw on a corpus of French and Dutch novels as well as some translations from French in an attempt to answer these questions.
Several translation scholars have recognised translation as a form of discourse mediation or discourse presentation (see, for example, Mossop 1998). In line with this, "universals" of translation have also been re-framed in the larger context of discourse mediation, as mediation universals rather than something strictly translationspecific (Ulrych 2009). In the present article, this line of enquiry is developed by comparing some of the alleged universals of translation, namely standardization and explicitation, with insights from literary and narratological studies on the nature of discourse presentation. The notion of reportive or interpretative interference (Sternberg 1982) and Fludernik’s (1993) claim that all represented discourse is typical and schematic in nature seem to bear curious resemblance to the notion of standardization or normalization, posited as a possible universal of translation (Mauranen & Kujamäki 2004). Drawing on the results of my earlier research (Kuusi 2011), I present examples of free indirect discourse (FID) used in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment with their translations into Finnish. Analyzing the translations, I demonstrate how in
translations, the narratological and literary-theoretical notions of reportive interference and typification/schematization coincide with the translation-theoretical notions of explicitation and standardization.
The article deals with Finnish translations of varieties of spoken language in fiction from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 2000s. It presents the central findings of a comprehensive study on the changes and developments of translational norms in Finnish literature. The study is based on a corpus consisting of 200 literary works (the original and its translations are counted as one work), representing various genres: literary fiction, young-adult fiction, as well as genre fiction (romance and crime). During this 100-year period, the use of colloquial variants in translations has strongly increased, influenced by the changing literary and linguistic norms of original Finnish literature. The norms of different literary genres, however, vary, and rich, non-standard variation can be found in translated works from different periods.
This article is a linguistic study of David Bellos’ indirect translation of Ismail Kadare’s The File on H (1997), a novel first published in 1980-1981 in the Albanian literary review Nëntori, and translated into English on the basis of Jusuf Vrioni’s French version, Le Dossier H (1989). Also called "double", "mediated" or "second-hand", indirect translation is an understudied phenomenon, often criticised by scholars because of its greater distance to the original. Cay Dollerup (2000: 23), for example, argues that the grammatical structure of the mediating language (ML) obscures the distinctions made in the source language (SL), and that possible "mistakes" in the ML may be repeated in the target language (TL). Do fidelity and loyalty to the author become weakened in Bellos’ indirect translation? To what extent is such weakening discernible linguistically? And does this particular case of indirect translation reveal notable patterns or recurring types of linguistic shifts between ST and TT? Showing that some of the features specific to Kadare’s Albanian writing are tempered in the doubly-translated English text, yet highlighting that similar shifts occur in the three language directions involved, this article demonstrates that changes between ST and TT may occur in indirect translation regardless of the strategies adopted by MT – thus challenging the hypothesis that linguistic shifts in indirect translation follow a single or consistent pattern.
Thomas Mann’s Der Tod in Venedig (1912) owes much of its fame in English to a translation from 1928 by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter. The novella however has in fact been translated many times – first by Burke (1924, with a revised edition following in 1970), and, after Lowe-Porter, by Luke (1988), Koelb (1994), Appelbaum (1995), Neugroschel (1998), Chase (1999), Heim (2004), Doege (2007) and Hansen & Hansen (2012). Most of these versions are neither known to readers nor discussed in academic literature. This paper, which comes as part of a larger study on linguistic creativity in Der Tod in Venedig, focuses on the use of neologisms by Mann and what happens to them in (re)translation. Relying on a digital corpus composed of the complete set of English retranslations and a corpus-based methodology, the paper argues that, despite the extended time period between the publications and different translation conditions, neologisms are treated uniformly by the translators. Mann’s coinages are nearly always obliterated through normalisation and, if preserved, demonstrate less creativity overall than in the ST, raising questions about the Retranslation Hypothesis (RH) which proposes that early TT versions tend to domesticate while later ones increasingly foreignise.
This special issue of the International Journal of Literary Linguistics offers seven state-of-the-art contributions on the current linguistic study of literary translation. Although the articles are based on similar data – literary source texts and their translations – they focus on diverse aspects of literary translation, study a range of linguistic phenomena and utilize different methodologies. In other words, it is an important goal of this special issue to illuminate the current diversity of possible approaches in the linguistic study of translated literary texts within the discipline of translation studies. At the same time, new theoretical and empirical insights are opened to the study of the linguistic phenomena chosen by the authors of the articles and their representation or use in literary texts and translations. The analyzed features range from neologisms to the category of passive and from spoken language features to the representation of speech and multilingualism in writing. Therefore, the articles in this issue are not only relevant for the study of literary translation or translation theory in general, but also for the disciplines of linguistics and literary studies – or most importantly, for the cross-disciplinary co-operation between these three fields of study.
The common theme that all these articles share is how the translation process shapes, transfers and changes the linguistic properties of literary texts as compared to their sources texts, other translations or non-translated literary texts in the same language and how this question can be approached in research. All articles provide new information about the forces that direct and affect translators’ textual choices and the previously formulated hypotheses about the functioning of such forces. The articles illustrate how translators may perform differently from authors and how translators’ and authors’ norms may diverge at different times and in different cultures. The question of how translation affects the linguistic properties of literary translations is approached from the viewpoint of previously proposed claims or hypotheses about translation. In the following, we will introduce these viewpoints for readers who are not familiar with the recent developments in translation studies. At the same time, we will shortly present the articles in this issue.
This article analyzes the dynamics of fictional dialogue in three short stories by the Finnish author Rosa Liksom. These stories are constructed almost entirely of dialogue, with minimal involvement on the part of the narrator. We adopt two different approaches to dialogue. First, we analyze dialogue from a micro level, as interaction between the characters within the storyworlds, then from a more holistic perspective, paying attention to how dialogue contributes to the rhetorical structure and ethical interpretation of the stories. We show that resorting mainly to dialogue as a narrative mode works as a way of depicting tensions between Liksom’s characters, and between them and the surrounding fictional world. This, in turn, engages the reader in an interpretative process to understand the story’s logic both within the fictional worlds and on the level of communication between the implied author and the authorial audience.
This article explores the uses and functions of dialogue in Frank McCourt’s memoir Angela’s Ashes. Taking conversational dialogue and fictional dialogue as points of comparison, the article argues that dialogue in autobiographical writing is essentially constructed, albeit not in the same way as fictional dialogue is. Dialogue as a means of dramatisation raises questions regarding factuality and fictionality. In McCourt’s memoir, dialogue is shown to serve numerous functions: characterisation and stereotyping; selfpositioning and indirect stance-marking; the creation of verisimilitude, humour and reader involvement.
This special issue is devoted to a cross-disciplinary investigation of a specific literary phenomenon, fictional dialogue. Fictional dialogue is used to refer to passages of character-character conversation within a literary text. More specifically, the articles of the issue deal with fictional dialogue as a narrative mode in prose fiction. The issue aims to engender an appreciation and a better understanding of the workings of dialogue by drawing on the insights and methods from both literary studies and linguistics. These methods include a rhetorical-ethical approach to narrative, cognitive and “natural” narratology, the study of everyday conversational storytelling, and Conversation Analysis (CA). Combining these methods helps us to understand that while dialogue is a central means to depict character-character relationships it also serves other levels of communication in a narrative and thus contributes to the reader's comprehension of the narrative design's rhetorical and ethical dimensions. The articles also suggest that while understanding dialogue depends partly on the reader’s experiences of real-life conversation, the interpretation of dialogue is determined by the overall design of a literary text and the historically changing conventions.
Metaphors we may not live by
(2016)
Metaphors We Live By created an immediate stir in 1980, and it continues to spur interest in cognitive linguistics, cognitive stylistics, and metaphor theory. This article uses both collocations and random samples of words used in conceptual metaphors to search for corpus evidence of the pervasiveness of conceptual metaphor that was unavailable to Lakoff and Johnson. Some metaphors, such as TIME IS MONEY, are pervasive in giant natural language corpora. Others, such as MORE IS UP, are frequent in clearly and consciously metaphorical forms, but relatively rare in the basic forms that would clearly show that we use metaphor to understand more abstract concepts in terms of concrete ones. Some, including ARGUMENT IS WAR, that Lakoff and Johnson discuss throughout their book, are poorly represented. Some gaps in evidence probably result from multiple ways of expressing a complex conceptual metaphors, but others suggest that intuitive plausibility is an insecure basis for argument.
Most of us receive numerous spam e-mails, texts that in one or the other way try to convince us to engage in the transaction of enormous sums of money, promising enormous benefits. In reality, such scam e-mails are fraudulent attempts to swindle money from unsuspecting Internet users. Language, its social contexts, and the composition of texts play a crucial role in the scammers’ strategies to approach their victims. This article uncovers and discusses some of the linguistic strategies by which scammers try to shape a sense of identity and mutual relationship – in the face of virtual anonymity –, and to involve their readers personally. In their attempts to get the recipients involved, scammers combine cultural indexicals, interactional roles, and narrative strategies. The analysis distinguishes three different narrative strategies in scam e-mails: Based on first, second, and third person stories, scammers establish links with the recipients by combining fictional content with real-world contexts. Some of the narratives display quite elaborate and artful traits and involve prototypical functions of traditional fairy tales. Hereby they implicitly connect the story content with the interactional roles of e-mail communication.
Establishing coherent identity patterns for literary characters in novels is a difficult task. In this respect, we assume that readers rely on pre-stored cultural models in order to construct mental models of the text content, including character identity. By significantly extending the approach by Van Dijk and Kintsch and going beyond the related accounts of Schneider and of Culpeper, we aim to clarify the constitutive role of conceptual metaphor as proposed by Lakoff et al. in processes of literary identity construction. The analysis of a corpus of three contemporary novels supports our claim that conceptual metaphors and the mapping of domains involved interact with cultural models and connect text phenomena to such prior knowledge structures. On this basis, we provide an integrated model of literary identity construction which acknowledges the constitutive value of conceptual metaphors in literary identity construction.
Frederick Turner and Ernst Pöppel (1983) proposed that lines of metrical poetry tend to measure three seconds or less when performed aloud, and that the metrical line is fitted to a three second "auditory present" in the brain. In this paper I show that there are faults both in their original argument, and in the claims which underlie it. I present new data, based on the measurement of line durations in publicly available recorded performances of 54 metrical poems; in this corpus, lines of performed metrical verse are often longer than three seconds: 59% of the 1155 lines are longer than 3 seconds, 40% longer than 3.5 seconds and 26% longer than 4 seconds. On the basis of weaknesses in the original paper, and the new data presented here, I propose, against Turner and Pöppel, that there is no evidence that lines of verse are constrained by a time-limited psychological capacity.
Editorial
(2013)
The aim of this two-part special issue of The International Journal of Literary Linguistics is to probe the implications of the cognitive turn in literary linguistics that has gone hand in hand with the field’s growing appreciation of pragmatics at the end of the twentieth century (as illustrated e.g. by MacMahon, Mey, Verdonk and Weber). The view, increasingly shared by literary linguists, that literature is a communicative endeavour between text (author) and reader has resulted in a heightened interest in the cognitive abilities that ultimately make this communication possible. Yet the ease with which the buzzword ‘cognition’ sometimes is applied to explain these abilities and processes (which are often only assumed to exist rather than substantiated with empirical evidence) seems to be at odds not least with the fact that the cognitive sciences are far from a uniform field yielding fixed and finite results. Indeed, whether or not all language phenomena are underpinned by innate cognitive rules is an issue that remains a bone of contention amongst scholars, as does the nature of these cognitive rules themselves. Even a cognitive grammarian like Ronald Langacker warns against jumping to premature conclusions about the natural foundations of language (14) and avoids making such claims in his own work. ...
Invasive treatment of NSTEMI patients in German chest pain units – evidence for a treatment paradox
(2018)
Background: Patients with non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) represent the largest fraction of patients with acute coronary syndrome in German Chest Pain units. Recent evidence on early vs. selective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is ambiguous with respect to effects on mortality, myocardial infarction (MI) and recurrent angina. With the present study we sought to investigate the prognostic impact of PCI and its timing in German Chest Pain Unit (CPU) NSTEMI patients.
Methods and results: Data from 1549 patients whose leading diagnosis was NSTEMI were retrieved from the German CPU registry for the interval between 3/2010 and 3/2014. Follow-up was available at median of 167 days after discharge. The patients were grouped into a higher (Group A) and lower risk group (Group B) according to GRACE score and additional criteria on admission. Group A had higher Killip classes, higher BNP levels, reduced EF and significant more triple vessel disease (p < 0.001). Surprisingly, patients in group A less frequently received early diagnostic catheterization and PCI. While conservative management did not affect prognosis in Group B, higher-risk CPU-NSTEMI patients without PCI had a significantly worse survival.
Conclusions: The present results reveal a substantial treatment gap in higher-risk NSTEMI patients in German Chest Pain Units. This treatment paradox may worsen prognosis in patients who could derive the largest benefit from early revascularization.
The following mission statements by linguists and literary scholars working in different institutional and cultural contexts and at different stages of their careers are intended to map out the terrain covered by this journal. They tell similar stories about how these scholars came to cross the disciplinary boundary that too often divides their two fields, and they reveal a number of shared interests and emphases. But they also highlight the diversity of methodologies to which this journal is open – from metrics and stylistics to the cognitive sciences and Systemic Functional Grammar. The hopes and expectations voiced by the authors are partly pragmatic, expressing the wish that the journal’s Open Access format will have a broader reach than a journal published in the "traditional" way would, notably to colleagues outside of Western Europe. They also, however, emphasise the journal’s potential to shape our conception of "literary linguistics" and, therefore, to make an innovative contribution to shaping what continues to be a contested and often misunderstood "field".
The adaptor molecule stimulator of IFN genes (STING) is central to production of type I IFNs in response to infection with DNA viruses and to presence of host DNA in the cytosol. Excessive release of type I IFNs through STING-dependent mechanisms has emerged as a central driver of several interferonopathies, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Aicardi–Goutières syndrome (AGS), and stimulator of IFN genes-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI). The involvement of STING in these diseases points to an unmet need for the development of agents that inhibit STING signaling. Here, we report that endogenously formed nitro-fatty acids can covalently modify STING by nitro-alkylation. These nitro-alkylations inhibit STING palmitoylation, STING signaling, and subsequently, the release of type I IFN in both human and murine cells. Furthermore, treatment with nitro-fatty acids was sufficient to inhibit production of type I IFN in fibroblasts derived from SAVI patients with a gain-of-function mutation in STING. In conclusion, we have identified nitro-fatty acids as endogenously formed inhibitors of STING signaling and propose for these lipids to be considered in the treatment of STING-dependent inflammatory diseases.
Background: This study assessed the ability of mid-regional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) in comparison to conventional biomarkers (procalcitonin (PCT), lactate, C-reactive protein) and clinical scores to identify disease severity in patients with sepsis.
Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock across 33 German intensive care units. The association between biomarkers and clinical scores with mortality was assessed by Cox regression analysis, area under the receiver operating characteristic and Kaplan-Meier curves. Patients were stratified into three severity groups (low, intermediate, high) for all biomarkers and scores based on cutoffs with either a 90% sensitivity or specificity.
Results: 1089 patients with a 28-day mortality rate of 26.9% were analysed. According to the Sepsis-3 definition, 41.2% and 58.8% fulfilled the criteria for sepsis and septic shock, with respective mortality rates of 20.0% and 32.1%. MR-proADM had the strongest association with mortality across all Sepsis-1 and Sepsis-3 subgroups and could facilitate a more accurate classification of low (e.g. MR-proADM vs. SOFA: N = 265 vs. 232; 9.8% vs. 13.8% mortality) and high (e.g. MR-proADM vs. SOFA: N = 161 vs. 155; 55.9% vs. 41.3% mortality) disease severity. Patients with decreasing PCT concentrations of either ≥ 20% (baseline to day 1) or ≥ 50% (baseline to day 4) but continuously high MR-proADM concentrations had a significantly increased mortality risk (HR (95% CI): 19.1 (8.0–45.9) and 43.1 (10.1–184.0)).
Conclusions: MR-proADM identifies disease severity and treatment response more accurately than established biomarkers and scores, adding additional information to facilitate rapid clinical decision-making and improve personalised sepsis treatment.
Neurons collect their inputs from other neurons by sending out arborized dendritic structures. However, the relationship between the shape of dendrites and the precise organization of synaptic inputs in the neural tissue remains unclear. Inputs could be distributed in tight clusters, entirely randomly or else in a regular grid-like manner. Here, we analyze dendritic branching structures using a regularity index R, based on average nearest neighbor distances between branch and termination points, characterizing their spatial distribution. We find that the distributions of these points depend strongly on cell types, indicating possible fundamental differences in synaptic input organization. Moreover, R is independent of cell size and we find that it is only weakly correlated with other branching statistics, suggesting that it might reflect features of dendritic morphology that are not captured by commonly studied branching statistics. We then use morphological models based on optimal wiring principles to study the relation between input distributions and dendritic branching structures. Using our models, we find that branch point distributions correlate more closely with the input distributions while termination points in dendrites are generally spread out more randomly with a close to uniform distribution. We validate these model predictions with connectome data. Finally, we find that in spatial input distributions with increasing regularity, characteristic scaling relationships between branching features are altered significantly. In summary, we conclude that local statistics of input distributions and dendrite morphology depend on each other leading to potentially cell type specific branching features.
Das im zweijährigen Turnus stattfindende International Symposium on Place Names (ISPN) wurde unter Leitung von Prof. Herman Breyer ausgerichtet.
In zahlreichen Vorträgen wurde herausgearbeitet, welche hohe Bedeutung die Namengebung für Straßen, Schulen und andere öffentliche Einrichtungen für die Identitätsstiftung besitzen kann. Ein weiterer Aspekt, der in vielfältiger Weise diskutiert wurde, ist die Relevanz von Toponymen als Teil des historischen Erbes.
Gemeinsam mit dem Fach Germanistik an der Universität Stockholm richten die Fächer Germanistik und Translation Deutsch der Universität Helsinki in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Goethe-Institut Finnland und der Botschaft der Republik Österreich in Finnland vom 23. bis 25. August 2017 die siebente internationale Tagung zur kontrastiven Medienlinguistik aus. Der thematische Rahmen dieser Tagung lautet: Medienkulturen - Multimodalität und Intermedialität.
Die Jubiläumstagung feierte das 25jährige Bestehen des Franz Werfel-Programms. Viele Tagungsbeiträge analysierten Werke und Tendenzen der Literatur der österreichischen Moderne, andere suchten Erotik bei vergessenen oder jüngeren Autoren.
Die regelmäßig stattfindende internationale Konferenz des Franz-Werfel-Programms vertieft die Zusammenarbeit der Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler und bietet einen spannenden Perspektivenaustausch nicht nur im Rahmen der Auslandsgermanistik, sondern auch zwischen ihr und der Literaturwissenschaft in Österreich.
Vom 16. bis 18. März 2017 fand am Institut für Germanistik der Universität Wroclaw eine internationale sprachwissenschaftliche Konferenz statt. Die Tagung mit dem Rahmenthema 'Intra- und interlinguale Zugänge zur deutschen Phraseologie und Parömiologie' wurde vom Lehrstuhl für Angewandte Linguistik des Instituts für Germanistik der Universität Wroclaw in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Slawistik (FR Westslawistik) der Universität Leipzig veranstaltet.
In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, dass das Wort Volk seit einigen Jahren ein Schlüsselwort politischer Diskurse in Deutschland darstellt. Dies bedeutet im Sinne Wolf-Andreas LIEBERTs (2003) nicht nur, dass es von unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Akteuren verwendet wird, um gegensätzliche Ideale und Antworten auf die Frage nach der eigenen individuellen und kollektiven Identität zu formulieren, sondern auch selbst zum Gegenstand von Kontroversen und damit diskursbestimmend wird. Dass diese jüngere Entwicklung eine besondere ist, machen Analysen deutlich, die die Verwendung des Wortes in unterschiedlichen und hinsichtlich nationaler und sozialer Identitäten dynamischen Phasen der deutschen Geschichte in den Blick nehmen.
Dort, wo es zu einem intensiven kulturellen Kontakt, Austausch und Transfer zwischen Gemeinschaften kommt, lassen sich Kategorien wie Identität und Alterität nicht immer scharf voneinander trennen, sondern erscheinen eher als "ständig zu aktualisierende soziale Konstruktionen" (NEULAND 2013: 168). Sie können zudem auch zu transkulturellen innovativen sprachlichen Schöpfungen führen. Die Sprache ist wegen ihrer identitätskonstitutiven Funktion fester Bestandteil des Modells der multiplen Sprachidentität von Marijana KRESIĆ (2007). Ausgehend von diesem Modell wird im Beitrag das enge Verhältnis von Identitätskonstruktion - Standardsprache - Sprachgebrauch diskutiert und anhand von ausgewählten Beispielen dargestellt. Die identitätskonstitutive Funktion der Sprache basiert auf der Selektion von Normen aus dem Sprachsystem, wobei der Sprechende durch die Verwendung sprachlicher Zeichen, "seine (soziale und/oder personale Identität) [begründet], d.h. er markiert, wer er als Individuum ist bzw. welcher sozialen Gruppe er zugehört" (KRESIĆ 2007: 19). Im Rahmen der Besprechung dieses Konzepts wird geprüft, wie Formen interkulturellen Sprachgebrauchs (z. B. Kiezdeutsch) in dieses Modell eingefügt werden können.
In diesem Beitrag wurden deutsche Entlehnungen in der albanischen Mundart in Kosova untersucht, welche in verschiedenen semantischen Bereichen verwendet werden. Schriftliche Quellen zu diesen Germanismen fehlen völlig, daher wurden sie durch mündliche Befragung von Informanten inventarisiert. Den Schwerpunkt dieser Untersuchung bilden der Bekanntheitsgrad und die Akzeptanz dieser Lehnwörter. Die Befragung hat ergeben, dass die Lehnwörter in den hier untersuchten semantischen Bereichen durchschnittlich von über 70% der Befragten erkannt wurden. Im Allgemeinen konnten keine großen Unterschiede im Erkennungsgrad bei männlichen und weiblichen Befragten festgestellt werden, wohingegen bei der Variable Alter eine etwas größere Diskrepanz beobachtet wurde, was das Erkennen oder Nichterkennen der deutschen Entlehnungen anging.
Aufgrund soziokultureller Unterschiede im Bereich der Rechtsordnungen und demnach auch in den Terminologien kommen beim juristischen Übersetzen etliche Divergenzen zum Vorschein. Im Falle der Null- oder partiellen Äquivalenz zwischen den Termini der Ausgangs- und Zielsprache (AS und ZS) drohen nicht nur Missverständnisse zwischen den Parteien, sondern auch fatale Folgen. Um dem vorzubeugen, muss der Übersetzer als Kenner der Rechtsbegriffe und ihrer Rolle in den Rechtssystemen als Mediator nicht nur interlinguale, sondern v.a. interkulturelle Konflikte in Bezug auf das (Miss)Verstehen lösen. Die theoretischen Ansätze werden durch Erfahrungen aus einer weitläufigen Enquete unter sowohl Auftraggebern als auch unter beeidigten Übersetzern ergänzt
In diesem Beitrag wird korpusbasiert, qualitativ und aus kontrastiver Sicht anhand ausgewählter Einzelbeispiele untersucht, welchen Beitrag die Frame-Semantik bei der Analyse konzeptueller Metaphern im aktuellen Migrationsdiskurs in der deutschen und italienischen Presse leisten kann. Sie macht es möglich, unterschiedliche Perspektivierungen bei der Betrachtung des Phänomens herauszukristallisieren, da semantische Frames ein facettenreiches Angebot für den Blickwinkel der Betrachtung bereitstellen. Auch Metaphern selbst besitzen diese Eigenschaft der Perspektivierung, vor allem auch solche, die charakteristisch für einen kulturspezifischen Kontext stehen. Zu den Möglichkeiten, die der Einsatz von Metaphern bietet, zählt vor allem der "Highlighting und Hiding"-Effekt (LAKOFF/JOHNSON 1980), indem Metaphern bestimmte Aspekte betonen oder verdunkeln. Um welche es sich dabei im Einzelnen handelt, hängt von mehreren Faktoren ab, wie zum Beispiel der politischen Orientierung von Journalisten oder Politikern oder der wirtschaftlichen Lage eines Landes.
Sprache gehört zu den wesentlichen Aspekten der Interkulturalität. Zuerst wird eine kurze Einführung in die soziolinguistische Interkulturalitätsforschung gegeben, besonders in Hinblick auf interlinguale Strategien als Forschungsfeld. Als theoretischer Rahmen wird der Forschungsansatz des Sprachmanagements vorgestellt, mit dem die Konstruktionsprozesse sprachlicher Verständigung in interkulturellen Situationen auf verschiedenen Ebenen umfassend behandeln werden können. In der Fallstudie geht es um eine deutsch-polnischen Inszenierung von Familie Schroffenstein (Heinrich von Kleist). Die in dieser Inszenierung verwendeten alternativen Strategien wie rezeptive Zweisprachigkeit, Sprachaustausch oder Einbeziehung der weniger verbreiteten Partnersprache weisen neue Anwendungsmöglichkeiten für die deutsche Sprache im mehrsprachigen Kontext auf, die auch in der Forschung und Lehre der interkulturellen Germanistik berücksichtigt werden sollten.
Die linguistic landscapes als alltägliches Phänomen vermitteln neben der unmittelbaren Konfrontation mit der gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeit auch Einblicke in die spezifischen, kulturell vorstrukturierten Kommunikationssituationen, die auch für den Fremdsprachenunterricht interessante Impulse bieten können. Der Beitrag befasst sich mit den linguistic landscapes als wissenschaftlichem Paradigma in seinen verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen. Besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei auf das aktuelle Paradigma gelegt, das auch für das Forschungsfeld des Fremdsprachenlernens und -lehrens eine erweiterte empirische Basis schafft. Im Anschluss daran wird das sprachdidaktische Potential von Sprachlandschaften fokussiert, indem auf die sprachliche Vielfalt eingegangen wird, die in der Stadt Brünn überall im öffentlichen Raum feststellbar ist. Das Projekt "Linguistic landscapes von Brünn (Brno)" spiegelt nicht nur die Sprachkontakte und die Sprachenpolitik in diesem Raum wider, sondern macht auch die hier ablaufenden Kulturkontakte transparent und zeigt, wie der öffentliche Raum als Diskursplattform genutzt wird.
Potenzial interkultureller Konzeptualisierung und Hermeneutik am Beispiel des Flüchtlingsdiskurses
(2017)
In diesem Beitrag soll untersucht werden, wie die in größtmöglicher Breitenwirkung erzielende Online-Kommunikation deutscher und österreichischer Akteure des politischen Zentrums sowie der politischen Peripherie das Zusammenspiel kultureller Konstellationen im weiteren Sinn innerhalb des Flüchtlingsdiskurses die kulturelle Identität der eigenen bzw. der anderen Bezugsgröße konzeptuell-semiotisch konstruiert und inwieweit kulturelle Unterschiede populistisch oder zum besseren Verständnis der involvierten Kulturen genutzt werden. Dabei soll eine Methode erprobt werden, die einerseits die Einflüsse der kulturellen Konstellationen wie Landes- bzw. Regionalkultur vs. andere Kulturgemeinschaften, jeweiliges Selbstverständnis der drei Gesellschaftssektoren, Organisations- und Gruppenkulturen erfasst sowie ihre Synergie auswertet, andererseits auch die erforderlichen interdisziplinär ausgerichteten hermeneutischen Instrumente definiert.
Der wissenschaftliche Artikel ist eine Textsorte, die weltweit und zahlreich von der scientific community produziert und rezipiert wird. Doch obwohl es sich um eine international bekannte und häufig verwendete Textsorte handelt, zeichnen sich wissenschaftliche Artikel je nach Herkunft und Sprache durch zahlreiche Unterschiede aus. In diesem Beitrag folgt auf eine kurze Darstellung von Unterschieden deutscher und tschechischer wissenschaftlicher Artikel eine kontrastive Betrachtung der Fußnoten innerhalb dieser Texte. Interessant ist diesbezüglich nicht nur, welche unterschiedlichen Typen von Fußnoten in deutschen und tschechischen wissenschaftlichen Artikeln Verwendung finden, sondern auch, inwiefern die sprachlichen Merkmale der Fußnoten denen der Texte selbst entsprechen bzw. von ihnen abweichen.
Thema des vorliegenden Beitrags ist das interaktionale Potenzial des Scherzens in seiner Funktion als kooperativ entfaltete Handlung der Kritik. Im Fokus liegen speziell Kontexte, die als 'interkultureller Dialog' markiert sind und in denen sich die Interaktionsaufgabe stellt, an diskursiven 'kulturellen Grenzen' verständigungsorientiert zu arbeiten. Exemplarisch wird an einer Gesprächssequenz zwischen deutschen und ägyptischen Studierenden gezeigt, wie gerade im gemeinsamen Scherzen Konstruktionen kultureller Zugehörigkeit und Differenz kritisch-konstruktiv bearbeitbar werden, auch in beziehungsorganisatorisch schwierigen Situationen. Als entscheidend erweist sich die damit verbundene Initiierung "kulturellen Handelns". Grundlage der Untersuchung ist ein sprachwissenschaftlicher kritisch-diskursanalytischer Zugang zum Material ('Oldenburger Ansatz' der Kritischen Diskursanalyse), in dessen Rahmen diskurssemantische und interaktionsanalytische Perspektiven zusammengeführt werden.
Zieht man ein Fazit aus den verschiedenen Aspekten der Disziplinen Fremdsprachenerwerb, Musikerziehung und Interkulturelle Erziehung, führt dies zu interdisziplinären Überlegungen darüber, inwieweit sich eine Kooperation miteinander für jeden der Bereiche als sinnvoll erweist bzw. erweisen kann. Musik und Sprache haben sehr viel gemeinsam - beide sind nach einem Regelsystem konstruiert d.h. Wörter und Klänge werden zu größeren funktionellen Einheiten wie Sätzen und Phrasen zusammengefügt. Diese Regelsysteme bestimmen jeweils auch die Beziehungen ihrer einzelnen Teile zum Ganzen und bestimmte Abhängigkeiten der sprachlichen und musikalischen Elemente voneinander. Sie werden vom Menschen durch unbewusste Lernprozesse erworben. Der Beitrag stellt die Ergebnisse einer Studie dar, die an der Pädagogischen Fakultät Hradec Králové durchgeführt wurde und die sich dem Thema Musik im Fremdsprachenunterricht widmet. Es wurden ausgewählte Deutschlehrwerke analysiert und anschließend eine Umfrage unter Fremdsprachenlehrern durchgeführt. Musik im Fremdsprachenunterricht (FSU) zu verwenden, hat ein großes Potenzial. Deshalb sollte sie ein fester Bestandteil in jeder Phase des Fremdsprachenerwerbens sein.
In diesem Beitrag geht es zunächst um den aktuellen Stand der Forschung über das Verhältnis von Sprache und Emotionen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Untersuchungen zum Deutschen und Tschechischen. Anschließend werden einige Teilaspekte des Themas behandelt: die Unterscheidung zwischen emotionsausdrückender und emotionsbezeichnender Lexik, die Rolle der bildlichen Sprache sowie das Verhältnis vom Sprachübergreifenden und Einzelsprachlichen bei der Verbalisierung von Emotionen. Abschließend wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche Konsequenzen die im Rahmen eines Projektes ermittelten Gemeinsamkeiten, Ähnlichkeiten und Unterschiede bei der Versprachlichung von Emotionen im Deutschen und Tschechischen für die Behandlung emotionsrelevanter Lexik im DaF-Unterricht bei tschechischen Muttersprachlern haben können.
Beim Gebrauch einer Fremdsprache durch Anfänger handelt es sich offensichtlich um "Spielarten interkultureller Kommunikation" (FÖLDES 2007: 614). Eine bezüglich der arabischen Auslandsgermanistik ergiebige Auseinandersetzung mit der Schreibfertigkeit gelingt erst, wenn interkulturelle und handlungsorientierte Aspekte zusammen und sprachkomparatistisch berücksichtigt werden. Davon ausgehend lässt sich dann erklären, inwieweit mögliche differente Verhaltens- und Handlungsmuster in der deutschen und der arabischen Sprach- bzw. Kulturgemeinschaft das Schreiben in der deutschen Sprache beeinflussen. Neben Faktoren im sprachsystematischen und lexikalisch-semantischen Bereich lässt sich dies im pragmatischen Bereich an zwei Parametern des kommunikativen Verhaltenstyps (Grad der Expressivität sowie der der Ritualisierung) untersuchen. Mögliche differente Verhaltens- bzw. Handlungsweisen werden hier anhand von arabischen Germanistikstudierenden geschriebener Aufsätze bzw. E-Mails diskutiert.
The script of Caryl Churchill’s short play Hot Fudge (like several other plays by this author) contains detailed directions for overlapping conversation. At certain points in the play these may be contributing to a number of effects similar to those described for the naturally occurring ‘collaborative floor’, such as enthusiasm and mutual support. The importance of an interactive approach to constructed conversation is pointed out in the article, particularly that of analysing the overlapped speaker’s response to appreciate the discursive significance of the overlapping turn. For instance, acknowledging and/or reusing the other speaker’s overlapping formulations in a non-oppositional format can show an understanding of these contributions as collaboratively oriented. Therefore, such an interpretation of overlapping dialogue in a dramatic text will affect the reader’s understanding of the interpersonal context (e.g. dominance-seeking/mutual support/collaboration between pairs of speakers). In particular, this approach is taken to show how certain kinds of overlapping similar to those described for the naturally occurring conversation can be used dramatically to supportive rather than conflictive ends. Overall, it is shown how the dramatic characters’ interpersonal orientations become inferable from their use of certain dialogic options.
Spleen injuries are among the most frequent trauma-related injuries. At present, they are classified according to the anatomy of the injury. The optimal treatment strategy, however, should keep into consideration the hemodynamic status, the anatomic derangement, and the associated injuries. The management of splenic trauma patients aims to restore the homeostasis and the normal physiopathology especially considering the modern tools for bleeding management. Thus, the management of splenic trauma should be ultimately multidisciplinary and based on the physiology of the patient, the anatomy of the injury, and the associated lesions. Lastly, as the management of adults and children must be different, children should always be treated in dedicated pediatric trauma centers. In fact, the vast majority of pediatric patients with blunt splenic trauma can be managed non-operatively. This paper presents the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) classification of splenic trauma and the management guidelines.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze systematically the influence of the relative centrifugation force (RCF) on leukocytes, platelets and growth factor release within fluid platelet-rich fibrin matrices (PRF).
Materials and methods: Systematically using peripheral blood from six healthy volunteers, the RCF was reduced four times for each of the three experimental protocols (I–III) within the spectrum (710–44 g), while maintaining a constant centrifugation time. Flow cytometry was applied to determine the platelets and leukocyte number. The growth factor concentration was quantified 1 and 24 h after clotting using ELISA.
Results: Reducing RCF in accordance with protocol-II (177 g) led to a significantly higher platelets and leukocytes numbers compared to protocol-I (710 g). Protocol-III (44 g) showed a highly significant increase of leukocytes and platelets number in comparison to -I and -II. The growth factors’ concentration of VEGF and TGF-β1 was significantly higher in protocol-II compared to -I, whereas protocol-III exhibited significantly higher growth factor concentration compared to protocols-I and -II. These findings were observed among 1 and 24 h after clotting, as well as the accumulated growth factor concentration over 24 h.
Discussion: Based on the results, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to enrich PRF-based fluid matrices with leukocytes, platelets and growth factors by means of a single alteration of the centrifugation settings within the clinical routine.
Conclusions: We postulate that the so-called low speed centrifugation concept (LSCC) selectively enriches leukocytes, platelets and growth factors within fluid PRF-based matrices. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effect of cell and growth factor enrichment on wound healing and tissue regeneration while comparing blood concentrates gained by high and low RCF.
The etiology and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are marked by a complex interplay of various cell populations and is mediated by different signaling pathways. Traditionally, therapies have primarily focused on pain relief, reducing inflammation and the recovery of joint function. More recently, however, researchers have discussed the therapeutic efficacy of autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP). The main objective of this work is to examine the influences of platelet-released growth factor (PRGF) on human synoviocytes under inflammatory conditions. Additionally, it is checked to which extend treatment with platelet concentrate influences the release of cytokines form synoviocytes. For this purpose, an in vitro RA model was created by stimulating the cells with the TNF-α. The release of cytokines was measured by ELISA. The cytokine gene expression was analyzed by real-time PCR. It has been observed that the stimulation concentration of 10 ng/ml TNF-α resulted in a significantly increased endogenous secretion and gene expression of IL-6 and TNF-α. The anti-inflammatory effect of PRGF could be confirmed through significant reduction of TNF-α and IL-1β. An induced inflammatory condition seems to cause PRGF to inhibit the release of proinflammatory cytokines. Further study is required to understand the exact effect mechanism of PRGF on synoviocytes.
Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01045-x, published online 31 October 2017
It has come to our attention that we did not specify whether the stimulation magnitudes we report in this Article are peak amplitudes or peak-to-peak. All references to intensity given in mA in the manuscript refer to peak-to-peak amplitudes, except in Fig. 2, where the model is calibrated to 1 mA peak amplitude, as stated. In the original version of the paper we incorrectly calibrated the computational models to 1 mA peak-to-peak, rather than 1 mA peak amplitude. This means that we divided by a value twice as large as we should have. The correct estimated fields are therefore twice as large as shown in the original Fig. 2 and Supplementary Fig. 11. The corrected figures are now properly calibrated to 1mA peak amplitude. Furthermore, the sentence in the first paragraph of the Results section ‘Intensity ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 mA (current density 0.125–0.625 mA mA/cm2), which is stronger than in previous reports’, should have read ‘Intensity ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 mA peak to peak (peak current density 0.0625–0.3125 mA/cm2), which is stronger than in previous reports.’ These errors do not affect any of the Article’s conclusions. Correct versions of Fig. 2 and Supplementary Fig. 11 are presented below as Figs. 1, 2.
Transcranial electrical stimulation has widespread clinical and research applications, yet its effect on ongoing neural activity in humans is not well established. Previous reports argue that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can entrain and enhance neural rhythms related to memory, but the evidence from non-invasive recordings has remained inconclusive. Here, we measure endogenous spindle and theta activity intracranially in humans during low-frequency tACS and find no stable entrainment of spindle power during non-REM sleep, nor of theta power during resting wakefulness. As positive controls, we find robust entrainment of spindle activity to endogenous slow-wave activity in 66% of electrodes as well as entrainment to rhythmic noise-burst acoustic stimulation in 14% of electrodes. We conclude that low-frequency tACS at common stimulation intensities neither acutely modulates spindle activity during sleep nor theta activity during waking rest, likely because of the attenuated electrical fields reaching the cortical surface.
Ribosome recycling orchestrated by the ATP binding cassette (ABC) protein ABCE1 can be considered as the final—or the first—step within the cyclic process of protein synthesis, connecting translation termination and mRNA surveillance with re-initiation. An ATP-dependent tweezer-like motion of the nucleotide-binding domains in ABCE1 transfers mechanical energy to the ribosome and tears the ribosome subunits apart. The post-recycling complex (PRC) then re-initiates mRNA translation. Here, we probed the so far unknown architecture of the 1-MDa PRC (40S/30S·ABCE1) by chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry (XL-MS). Our study reveals ABCE1 bound to the translational factor-binding (GTPase) site with multiple cross-link contacts of the helix–loop–helix motif to the S24e ribosomal protein. Cross-linking of the FeS cluster domain to the ribosomal protein S12 substantiates an extreme lever-arm movement of the FeS cluster domain during ribosome recycling. We were thus able to reconstitute and structurally analyse a key complex in the translational cycle, resembling the link between translation initiation and ribosome recycling.
The endoplasmic reticulum–mitochondria encounter structure (ERMES) connects the mitochondrial outer membrane with the ER. Multiple functions have been linked to ERMES, including maintenance of mitochondrial morphology, protein assembly and phospholipid homeostasis. Since the mitochondrial distribution and morphology protein Mdm10 is present in both ERMES and the mitochondrial sorting and assembly machinery (SAM), it is unknown how the ERMES functions are connected on a molecular level. Here we report that conserved surface areas on opposite sides of the Mdm10 β-barrel interact with SAM and ERMES, respectively. We generated point mutants to separate protein assembly (SAM) from morphology and phospholipid homeostasis (ERMES). Our study reveals that the β-barrel channel of Mdm10 serves different functions. Mdm10 promotes the biogenesis of α-helical and β-barrel proteins at SAM and functions as integral membrane anchor of ERMES, demonstrating that SAM-mediated protein assembly is distinct from ER-mitochondria contact sites.
In this paper, we study the limit of compactness which is a graph index originally introduced for measuring structural characteristics of hypermedia. Applying compactness to large scale small-world graphs (Mehler, 2008) observed its limit behaviour to be equal 1. The striking question concerning this finding was whether this limit behaviour resulted from the specifics of small-world graphs or was simply an artefact. In this paper, we determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for any sequence of connected graphs resulting in a limit value of CB = 1 which can be generalized with some consideration for the case of disconnected graph classes (Theorem 3). This result can be applied to many well-known classes of connected graphs. Here, we illustrate it by considering four examples. In fact, our proof-theoretical approach allows for quickly obtaining the limit value of compactness for many graph classes sparing computational costs.
Background: To evaluate survival data and local tumor control after transarterial chemoembolization in two groups with different embolization protocols for the treatment of HCC patients.
Methods: Ninty-nine patients (mean age: 63.6 years), 78 male (78.8%) with HCC were repeatedly treated with chemoembolization in 4-week-intervals. Eighty-eight patients had BCLC-Stage-B and in 11 patients, chemoembolization was performed for bridging (BCLC-Stage-A). In total, 667 chemoembolization treatments were performed (mean 6.7 treatments/patient). The administered chemotherapeutic agent included mitomycin. For embolization, lipiodol only (n = 51;51.5%; mean age 63.8 years; 38 male), or lipiodol plus degradable starch microspheres (DSM) (n = 48; 48.5%; mean age 63.4 years; 40 male) were used. The local tumor response was assessed by MRI using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors 1.1 (RECIST 1.1). Patient survival times were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests.
Results: The local tumor control in the lipiodol-group was: PR (partial response) in 11 (21.6%), SD (stable disease) in 32 (62.7%) and PD (progressive disease) in 8 cases (15.7%). In the lipiodol-DSM-group, PR was seen in 14 (29.2%), SD in 22 (45.8%), and PD in 12 (25.0%) individuals (p = 0.211). The median survival of patients after chemoembolization with lipiodol was 25 months and in the lipiodol-DSM-group 28 months (p = 0.845).
Conclusion: Our data suggest a slight benefit of the use of lipiodol and DSM in comparison of using lipiodol only for chemoembolization of HCC in terms of local tumor control and survival data, this trend did not reach the level of significance.
Age-related diseases, such as osteoarthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, are often associated with chronic unresolved inflammation. Neutrophils play central roles in this process by releasing tissue-degenerative proteases, such as cathepsin G, as well as pro-inflammatory leukotrienes produced by the 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) pathway. Boswellic acids (BAs) are pentacyclic triterpene acids contained in the gum resin of the anti-inflammatory remedy frankincense that target cathepsin G and 5-LO in neutrophils, and might thus represent suitable leads for intervention with age-associated diseases that have a chronic inflammatory component. Here, we investigated whether, in addition to BAs, other triterpene acids from frankincense interfere with 5-LO and cathepsin G. We provide a comprehensive analysis of 17 natural tetra- or pentacyclic triterpene acids for suppression of 5-LO product synthesis in human neutrophils. These triterpene acids were also investigated for their direct interference with 5-LO and cathepsin G in cell-free assays. Furthermore, our studies were expanded to 10 semi-synthetic BA derivatives. Our data reveal that besides BAs, several tetra- and pentacyclic triterpene acids are effective or even superior inhibitors of 5-LO product formation in human neutrophils, and in parallel, inhibit cathepsin G. Their beneficial target profile may qualify triterpene acids as anti-inflammatory natural products and pharmacological leads for intervention with diseases related to aging.
Practical considerations when prescribing a long-acting muscarinic antagonist for patients with COPD
(2018)
COPD is characterized by persistent airflow limitation, progressive breathlessness, cough, and sputum production. Long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs) are one of the recommended first-choice therapeutic options for patients with COPD, and several new agents have been developed in recent years. A literature search identified 14 published randomized, placebo-controlled studies of the efficacy and safety of LAMAs in patients with COPD, with improvements seen in lung function, exacerbations, breathlessness, and health status. A greater weight of evidence currently exists for glycopyrronium (GLY) and tiotropium than for umeclidinium and aclidinium, especially in terms of exacerbation reductions. To date, there have been few head-to-head clinical studies of the different LAMAs. Available data indicate that GLY and aclidinium have similar efficacy to tiotropium in terms of improving lung function, dyspnea, exacerbations, and health status. Overall, evidence demonstrates that currently available LAMAs provide effective and generally well-tolerated therapy for patients with COPD. Delivery devices for the different LAMAs vary, which may affect individual patient’s adherence to and preference for treatment. Subtle differences between individual therapeutic options may be important to individual patients and the final treatment choice should involve physician’s and patient’s experiences and preferences.
Apheresis therapies for NMOSD attacks : a retrospective study of 207 therapeutic interventions
(2018)
Objective: To analyze whether 1 of the 2 apheresis techniques, therapeutic plasma exchange (PE) or immunoadsorption (IA), is superior in treating neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) attacks and to identify predictive factors for complete remission (CR).
Methods: This retrospective cohort study was based on the registry of the German Neuromyelitis Optica Study Group, a nationwide network established in 2008. It recruited patients with neuromyelitis optica diagnosed according to the 2006 Wingerchuk criteria or with aquaporin-4 (AQP4-ab)-antibody–seropositive NMOSD treated at 6 regional hospitals and 16 tertiary referral centers until March 2013. Besides descriptive data analysis of patient and attack characteristics, generalized estimation equation (GEE) analyses were applied to compare the effectiveness of the 2 apheresis techniques. A GEE model was generated to assess predictors of outcome.
Results: Two hundred and seven attacks in 105 patients (87% AQP4-ab-antibody seropositive) were treated with at least 1 apheresis therapy. Neither PE nor IA was proven superior in the therapy of NMOSD attacks. CR was only achieved with early apheresis therapy. Strong predictors for CR were the use of apheresis therapy as first-line therapy (OR 12.27, 95% CI: 1.04–144.91, p = 0.047), time from onset of attack to start of therapy in days (OR 0.94, 95% CI: 0.89–0.99, p = 0.014), the presence of AQP4-ab-antibodies (OR 33.34, 95% CI: 1.76–631.17, p = 0.019), and monofocal attack manifestation (OR 4.71, 95% CI: 1.03–21.62, p = 0.046).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest early use of an apheresis therapy in NMOSD attacks, particularly in AQP4-ab-seropositive patients. No superiority was shown for one of the 2 apheresis techniques.
Classification of evidence: This study provides Class IV evidence that for patients with NMOSD, neither PE nor IA is superior in the treatment of attacks.
Fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) nanoarchitectures by focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) has matured to a level that highly complex and functional deposits are becoming available for nanomagnetics and plasmonics. However, the generation of suitable pattern files that control the electron beam’s movement, and thereby reliably map the desired target 3D structure from a purely geometrical description to a shape-conforming 3D deposit, is nontrivial. To address this issue we developed several writing strategies and associated algorithms implemented in C++. Our pattern file generator handles different proximity effects and corrects for height-dependent precursor coverage. Several examples of successful 3D nanoarchitectures using different precursors are presented that validate the effectiveness of the implementation.
Background: Acute critical bleeding is one of the most feared complications during treatment with oral anticoagulating agents. As more patients undergo treatment with anticoagulating agents, critically bleeding episodes in patients with vitamin K antagonists, thrombin inhibitor, or factor Xa inhibitor-inducted coagulopathy will be encountered frequently by physicians. Hence, an effective treatment capable of reversing the iatrogenic coagulopathy in the acute setting is needed. In randomised clinical trials and observational studies, prothrombin complex concentrate has been reported to be superior to other acute interventions, and many guidelines recommend prothrombin complex concentrate in treatment of critically bleeding patients. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise the evidence of the effects of prothrombin complex concentrate compared with placebo, no intervention, or other treatment options in critically bleeding patients treated with oral anticoagulants.
Methods/design: A comprehensive search for relevant published literature will be undertaken in Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, Embase, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, Science Citation Index, regulatory databases, and trial registers. We will include randomised clinical trials comparing prothrombin complex concentrate versus placebo, no intervention, or other interventions in critically bleeding patients with oral anticoagulant-induced coagulopathy. Data extraction and risk of bias assessment will be handled by two independent review authors. Meta-analysis will be performed as recommended by Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, bias will be assessed with domains, and trial sequential analysis will be conducted to control random errors. Certainty will be assessed by GRADE.
Discussion: As critical bleeding in patients treated with oral anticoagulants is an increasing problem, an up-to-date systematic review evaluating the benefits and harms of prothrombin complex concentrate is urgently needed. It is the hope that this review will be able to guide best practice in treatment and clinical research of these critically bleeding patients.
Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42018084371
There are 63 known species of Thecaphora (Glomosporiaceae, Ustilaginomycotina), a third of which occur on Asteraceae. These smut fungi produce yellowish-brown to reddish-brown masses of spore balls in specific, mostly regenerative, plant organs. A species of Thecaphora was collected in the flower heads of Anthemis chia (Anthemideae, Asteraceae) on Rhodes Island, Greece, in 2015 and 2017, which represents the first smut record of a smut fungus on a host plant species in this tribe. Based on its distinctive morphology, host species and genetic divergence, this species is described as Thecaphora anthemidis sp. nov. Molecular barcodes of the ITS region are provided for this and several other species of Thecaphora. A phylogenetic and morphological comparison to closely related species showed that Th. anthemidis differed from other species of Thecaphora. Thecaphora anthemidis produced loose spore balls in the flower heads and peduncles of Anthemis chia unlike other flower-infecting species.
After initial formation, the heart tube grows by addition of second heart field progenitor cells to its poles. The transcription factor Isl1 is expressed in the entire second heart field in mouse, and Isl1-deficient mouse embryos show defects in arterial and venous pole development. The expression of Isl1 is conserved in zebrafish cardiac progenitors; however, Isl1 is required for cardiomyocyte differentiation only at the venous pole. Here we show that Isl1 homologues are expressed in specific patterns in the developing zebrafish heart and play distinct roles during cardiac morphogenesis. In zebrafish, isl2a mutants show defects in cardiac looping, whereas isl2b is required for arterial pole development. Moreover, Isl2b controls the expression of key cardiac transcription factors including mef2ca, mef2cb, hand2 and tbx20. The specific roles of individual Islet family members in the development of distinct regions of the zebrafish heart renders this system particularly well-suited for dissecting Islet-dependent gene regulatory networks controlling the behavior and function of second heart field progenitors in distinct steps of cardiac development.
Panmixia and dispersal from the Mediterranean Basin to Macaronesian Islands of a macrolichen species
(2017)
The Mediterranean region, comprising the Mediterranean Basin and the Macaronesian Islands, represents a center of diversification for many organisms. The genetic structure and connectivity of mainland and island microbial populations has been poorly explored, in particular in the case of symbiotic fungi. Here we investigated genetic diversity and spatial structure of the obligate outcrossing lichen-forming fungus Parmelina carporrhizans in the Mediterranean region. Using eight microsatellite and mating-type markers we showed that fungal populations are highly diverse but lack spatial structure. This is likely due to high connectivity and long distance dispersal of fungal spores. Consistent with low levels of linkage disequilibrium and lack of clonality, we detected both mating-type idiomorphs in all populations. Furthermore we showed that the Macaronesian Islands are the result of colonization from the Mediterranean Basin. The unidirectional gene flow, though, seemed not to be sufficient to counterbalance the effects of drift, resulting in comparatively allelic poor peripheral populations. Our study is the first to shed light on the high connectivity and lack of population structure in natural populations of a strictly sexual lichen fungus. Our data further support the view of the Macaronesian Islands as the end of the colonization road for this symbiotic ascomycete.
Nutrition support is a necessary therapy for critically ill cardiac surgery patients. However, conclusive evidence for this population, consisting of well-conducted clinical trials is lacking. To clarify optimal strategies to improve outcomes, an international multidisciplinary group of 25 experts from different clinical specialties from Germany, Canada, Greece, USA and Russia discussed potential approaches to identify patients who may benefit from nutrition support, when best to initiate nutrition support, and the potential use of pharmaco-nutrition to modulate the inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass. Despite conspicuous knowledge and evidence gaps, a rational nutritional support therapy is presented to benefit patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
Objectives: Sphingolipids (SLs) have been implicated as potent regulators of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) life cycle. We investigated the SL biomarker potential regarding virologic endpoints in a prospective subgroup of patients with HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infection.
Methods: From 2009–2016 98 patients with HBeAg-negative HBV infection were prospectively followed over four years. Clinical, laboratory and imaging data were evaluated annually. SLs were assessed in available serum probes via liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry.
Results: Of those 98 patients, 10 (10.2%) showed HBV reactivation, 13 (13.2%) lost HBsAg and 9 (9.1%) gained status of HBsAg-/HBsAb-coexistence, whereas 66 (67.3%) had no events. Within the four-year analysis sphingosine (p = 0.020), sphinganine (p<0.001), dhS1P (p<0.001), C16DHC (p<0.01) and C20Cer (p<0.001) showed a significant upregulation in patients without virologic events, C18Cer significantly decreased (p<0.001). At baseline decreased S1P-, dhS1P- and C16Cer-levels were observed in patients with upcoming status of HBsAg-/HBsAb-coexistence. S1P and dhS1P levels were elevated HBV genotype D infected patients.
Conclusions: In a prospective cohort of patients with a HBeAg-negative HBV infection, serum SLs associated with the virologic course and HBV genotype D. Further studies are required to elucidate SLs as potential novel predictors of the course of HBeAg-negative HBV infection.
Loperamide, pimozide, and STF-62247 trigger autophagy-dependent cell death in glioblastoma cells
(2018)
Autophagy is a well-described degradation mechanism that promotes cell survival upon nutrient starvation and other forms of cellular stresses. In addition, there is growing evidence showing that autophagy can exert a lethal function via autophagic cell death (ACD). As ACD has been implicated in apoptosis-resistant glioblastoma (GBM), there is a high medical need for identifying novel ACD-inducing drugs. Therefore, we screened a library containing 70 autophagy-inducing compounds to induce ATG5-dependent cell death in human MZ-54 GBM cells. Here, we identified three compounds, i.e. loperamide, pimozide, and STF-62247 that significantly induce cell death in several GBM cell lines compared to CRISPR/Cas9-generated ATG5- or ATG7-deficient cells, pointing to a death-promoting role of autophagy. Further cell death analyses conducted using pharmacological inhibitors revealed that apoptosis, ferroptosis, and necroptosis only play minor roles in loperamide-, pimozide- or STF-62247-induced cell death. Intriguingly, these three compounds induce massive lipidation of the autophagy marker protein LC3B as well as the formation of LC3B puncta, which are characteristic of autophagy. Furthermore, loperamide, pimozide, and STF-62247 enhance the autophagic flux in parental MZ-54 cells, but not in ATG5 or ATG7 knockout (KO) MZ-54 cells. In addition, loperamide- and pimozide-treated cells display a massive formation of autophagosomes and autolysosomes at the ultrastructural level. Finally, stimulation of autophagy by all three compounds is accompanied by dephosphorylation of mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), a well-known negative regulator of autophagy. In summary, our results indicate that loperamide, pimozide, and STF-62247 induce ATG5- and ATG7-dependent cell death in GBM cells, which is preceded by a massive induction of autophagy. These findings emphasize the lethal function and potential clinical relevance of hyperactivated autophagy in GBM.
Aims: Balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA) is an interventional treatment modality for inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Therapy monitoring, based on non-invasive biomarkers, is a clinical challenge. This post-hoc study aimed to assess dynamics of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) as a marker for myocardial damage and its relation to N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels as a marker for cardiac wall stress.
Methods and results: This study included 51 consecutive patients who underwent BPA treatment and completed a 6-month follow-up (6-MFU) between 3/2014 and 3/2017. Biomarker measurement was performed consecutively prior to each BPA and at 6-MFU.
In total, the 51 patients underwent an average of 5 BPA procedures. The 6-month survival rate was 96.1%. The baseline (BL) meanPAP (39.5±12.1mmHg) and PVR (515.8±219.2dyn×sec×cm-5) decreased significantly within the 6-MFU (meanPAP: 32.6±12.6mmHg, P<0.001; PVR: 396.9±182.6dyn×sec×cm-5, P<0.001). At BL, the median hs-cTnT level was 11 (IQR 6–16) ng/L and the median NT-proBNP level was 820 (IQR 153–1872) ng/L. The levels of both biomarkers decreased steadily after every BPA, showing the first significant difference after the first procedure. Within the 6-MFU, hs-cTnT levels (7 [IQR 5–12] ng/L; P<0.001) and NT-proBNP levels (159 [IQR 84–464] ng/l; P<0.001) continued to decrease. The hs-cTnT levels correlated with the PVR (rrs = 0.42; p = 0.005), the meanPAP (rrs = 0.32; p = 0.029) and the NT-proBNP (rrs = 0.51; p<0.001) levels at BL.
Conclusion: Non-invasive biomarker measurement provides valuable evidence for the decreasing impairment of myocardial function and structure during BPA therapy. Changes in hs-cTNT levels are suggestive for a reduction in ongoing myocardial damage.
Using the method or time-delayed embedding, a signal can be embedded into higher-dimensional space in order to study its dynamics. This requires knowledge of two parameters: The delay parameter τ, and the embedding dimension parameter D. Two standard methods to estimate these parameters in one-dimensional time series involve the inspection of the Average Mutual Information (AMI) function and the False Nearest Neighbor (FNN) function. In some contexts, however, such as phase-space reconstruction for Multidimensional Recurrence Quantification Analysis (MdRQA), the empirical time series that need to be embedded already possess a dimensionality higher than one. In the current article, we present extensions of the AMI and FNN functions for higher dimensional time series and their application to data from the Lorenz system coded in Matlab.
Imaging non-adherent cells by super-resolution far-field fluorescence microscopy is currently not possible because of their rapid movement while in suspension. Holographic optical tweezers (HOTs) enable the ability to freely control the number and position of optical traps, thus facilitating the unrestricted manipulation of cells in a volume around the focal plane. Here we show that immobilizing non-adherent cells by optical tweezers is sufficient to achieve optical resolution well below the diffraction limit using localization microscopy. Individual cells can be oriented arbitrarily but preferably either horizontally or vertically relative to the microscope’s image plane, enabling access to sample sections that are impossible to achieve with conventional sample preparation and immobilization. This opens up new opportunities to super-resolve the nanoscale organization of chromosomal DNA in individual bacterial cells.
Als Beginn der Theatermoderne gelten der Forschung gemeinhin Max Reinhardts vielgestaltige Versuche, das etablierte Modell des Repräsentationstheaters zu überwinden. Konzeptionell niedergeschlagen haben sie sich erstmals in den Überlegungen zur innenarchitektonischen Ausgestaltung des Berliner 'Kleinen Theaters', die Reinhardt in seinem Brief an den mit dem Projekt betrauten Freund Berthold Held vom 4. August 1901 anstellt: "Von der Bühne müssen meiner Ansicht nach unbedingt Stufen ins Publikum führen. Das können wir gut brauchen und erhöht die Intimität, vielleicht an jeder Seite ein paar Stufen, worauf in der Skizze gleich Rücksicht genommen werden möge." Die von Reinhardt gewünschten Stufen sollen die Einheit des den Bühnen- und Zuschauerraum umfassenden Raum-Zeit-Kontinuums markieren und so die programmatische Revision der im Laufe des 18. Jahrhunderts erfolgten Ausgliederung des Zeichenraums Bühne aus dem weltlichen Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum symbolisieren. In gleicher Weise markiert wird diese Revision der etablierten Kommunikationssituation Theater schon in Hugo von Hofmannsthals frühem lyrischen Drama 'Der Tod des Tizian' (1892), in dem dieser die Figur des Pagen ins Proszenium treten und das Publikum direkt ansprechen lässt, um die den Zuschauerraum vom Zeichenraum Bühne trennende Rampe in metaleptischer Geste zu überspielen. Bestimmt man das Repräsentationsparadigma, das durch diese Operationen überwunden werden soll, mit Jacques Derrida semiologisch als ein wesentlich durch die "Exteriorität des Signifikanten" bestimmtes Zeichenmodell, dann ist es wohl angemessen, die (im gemeinsamen Konzept der Salzburger Festspiele kulminierenden) Versuche Reinhardts und Hofmannsthals, mit dem Repräsentationsparadigma zu brechen, als ein von der Intention zur Interiorisierung des Signifikanten gesteuertes Programm zu bezeichnen.
Background: Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk of myocardial infarction. Cardiac troponins are the biomarkers of choice for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) without ST‐segment elevation (NSTE). In patients with CKD, troponin levels are often chronically elevated, which reduces their diagnostic utility when NSTE‐AMI is suspected. The aim of this study was to derive a diagnostic algorithm for serial troponin measurements in patients with CKD and suspected NSTE‐AMI.
Methods and Results: Two cohorts, 1494 patients from a prospective cohort study with high‐sensitivity troponin I (hs‐cTnI) measurements and 7059 cases from a clinical registry with high‐sensitivity troponin T (hs‐cTnT ) measurements, were analyzed. The prospective cohort comprised 280 CKD patients (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2). The registry data set contained 1581 CKD patients. In both cohorts, CKD patients were more likely to have adjudicated NSTE‐AMI than non‐CKD patients. The specificities of hs‐cTnI and hs‐cTnT to detect NSTE‐AMI were reduced with CKD (0.82 versus 0.91 for hs‐cTnI and 0.26 versus 0.73 for hs‐cTnT) but could be restored by applying optimized cutoffs to either the first or a second measurement after 3 hours. The best diagnostic performance was achieved with an algorithm that incorporates serial measurements and rules in or out AMI in 69% (hs‐cTnI) and 55% (hs‐cTnT) of CKD patients.
Conclusions: The diagnostic performance of high‐sensitivity cardiac troponins in patients with CKD with suspected NSTE‐AMI is improved by use of an algorithm based on admission troponin and dynamic changes in troponin concentration.
Ziele: Das Ziel dieser offiziellen Leitlinie, die von der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe (DGGG) und der Deutschen Krebsgesellschaft (DKG) publiziert und koordiniert wurde, ist es, die Früherkennung, Diagnostik, Therapie und Nachsorge des Mammakarzinoms zu optimieren.
Methoden: Der Aktualisierungsprozess der S3-Leitlinie aus 2012 basierte zum einen auf der Adaptation identifizierter Quellleitlinien und zum anderen auf Evidenzübersichten, die nach Entwicklung von PICO-(Patients/Interventions/Control/Outcome-)Fragen, systematischer Recherche in Literaturdatenbanken sowie Selektion und Bewertung der gefundenen Literatur angefertigt wurden. In den interdisziplinären Arbeitsgruppen wurden auf dieser Grundlage Vorschläge für Empfehlungen und Statements erarbeitet, die im Rahmen von strukturierten Konsensusverfahren modifiziert und graduiert wurden.
Empfehlungen: Der Teil 1 dieser Kurzversion der Leitlinie zeigt Empfehlungen zur Früherkennung, Diagnostik und Nachsorge des Mammakarzinoms: Der Stellenwert des Mammografie-Screenings wird in der aktualisierten Leitlinienversion bestätigt und bildet damit die Grundlage der Früherkennung. Neben den konventionellen Methoden der Karzinomdiagnostik wird die Computertomografie (CT) zum Staging bei höherem Rückfallrisiko empfohlen. Die Nachsorgekonzepte beinhalten Untersuchungsintervalle für die körperliche Untersuchung, Ultraschall und Mammografie, während weiterführende Gerätediagnostik und Tumormarkerbestimmungen bei der metastasierten Erkrankung Anwendung finden.
Schriftenschau
(2011)
Fremdländische Gräser (Poaceae) in Deutschland Beitrag zur Diskussion biologischer Invasionen
(2011)
Gegenwärtig sind 42 etablierte fremdländische Arten und Unterarten der Gräser, Neophyten, aus Deutschland bekannt (Liste 1). Sie sind weder außergewöhnlich häufig und invasiv noch bedrohen sie die Existenz einheimischer Arten, reduzieren die Biodiversität und schädigen die natürliche/halbnatürliche Vegetation, selbstverständlich auch nicht die seltenen, nach dem 2. Weltkrieg beobachteten unbeständigen Gräser (Liste 2). Auch sind bis heute in Deutschland keine abträglichen Wirkungen durch Kreuzungen von fremdländischen mit einheimischen Gräsern bekannt. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird den Anökophyten, d. h. cultigenen Taxa s. l. gewidmet (Liste 3): ausländische Getreidegräser können aus Kulturen verwildern und sind dann unbeständig, andere Arten und Unterarten entstanden als Ruderalia oder Segetalia auf Kulturland (Wiesen, Weiden, Felder etc.). — der hier vorliegende Text und die Listen enthalten mehrere kritische Bemerkungen zu DAISIE („Delivering Alien Invasive Species Inventories for Europe“), betreffend z. B. falsch klassifizierte und fehlende Taxa.
Im Rahmen stadtfloristischer Untersuchungen des Ruhrgebietes wurden in Brunnen- und Kellerlichtschächten Vorkommen von Pteris cretica var. albolineata (Pteridaceae) und Adiantum raddianum (Adiantaceae) nachgewiesen, beide taxonomisch im weiteren Sinne zu verstehen. Die Wuchsorte, Populationsgrößen und Begleitvegetation werden beschrieben, Status und Ausbreitungstendenzen der Taxa diskutiert.
Dryopteris lacunosa – eine neue Art des Dryopteris-affinis-Aggregats (Dryopteridaceae, Pteridophyta)
(2011)
Eine weitere Sippe des Dryopteris-affinis-Aggregats wird als Art, D. lacunosa S. JESS., ZENNER, CH. STARK & BUJNOCH beschrieben. Sie lässt sich morphologisch von den anderen bisher beschriebenen Taxa des Aggregats unterscheiden, ist triploid und zeigt spezifische Phloroglucid- und RAPD- Bandenmuster. Bisher sind Funde aus Norditalien, Österreich, der Schweiz, Frankreich, Deutschland, Großbritannien und Irland belegt.
Fünf neue Arten aus dem Ranunculus-auricomus-Komplex in Deutschland werden beschrieben und abgebildet. R. pleiophyllus ist weiter verbreitet und bislang aus Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Saarland und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern nachgewiesen. Die übrigen neuen Arten besitzen – soweit bis jetzt bekannt – kleine Areale: R. excisus in Rheinland-Pfalz, R. vertumnaliformis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, R. biclaterae in Nordbayern und R. ferocior in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern und Nordbayern.
Angegeben wird jeweils das Sammeldatum des für die Chromosomenzählung verwendeten Materials (Lebendpflanze, Samen) zuzüglich eines eventuell gesammelten Beleges sowie – getrennt durch einen Schrägstrich – Sammeldatum und Aufbewahrungsort eines Beleges der gezählten Pflanze. Wird nur ein Datum angegeben, ist allein die Wildaufsammlung dokumentiert. Die Abkürzungen der Herbarien richten sich nach HOLMGREN & al. (1990, sowie Online- Nachträge, für die neuerdings B. Thiers verantwortlich zeichnet). Taxonomie und Nomenklatur richten sich nach der aktuellen deutschen Standardliste (BUTTLER & HAND 2008). Die Abbildungen zeigen Metaphasen, die an Quetschpräparaten von Wurzelspitzen gewonnen wurden (zur Methodik siehe VOGT & APARICIO 2000). Ralf Hand dankt Michael Meyer und seinem Gärtnerteam sowie Monika Lüchow und Marion Cubr (alle Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem) für Kultur, Dokumentation und Hilfe bei der Zählung von Material.
Alchemilla pseudo - decumbens wird als Art neu beschrieben. Im Gegensatz zur weit verbreiteten A. decumbens bleibt ihr Areal auf den Jura beschränkt. In Abbildungen, Merkmals- und Bestimmungstabellen wird A. pseudodecumbens mit ähnlichen Arten verglichen (A. decumbens, A. demissa, A. frigens, A. lunaria, A. semisecta, A. subcrenata, A. undulata, A. versipila).
Pilosella aurantiaca – tetraploid, fakultativ apomiktisch und eingebürgert – und P. officinarum – tetraploid, sexuell und einheimisch – bilden bei Hagen, Nordrhein- Westfalen, einen Hybridschwarm aus tetraund hexaploiden Pflanzen. Der Hybridschwarm wurde 1990 auf einer inzwischen brach gefallenen Wiese gefunden. Seit 20 Jahren kommt hier fast unverändert ein breites Spektrum von Hybriden vor: P. aurantiaca angenäherte Morphotypen (entsprechen P. rubra), intermediäre Morphotypen (P. stoloniflora) und verschiedene P. officinarum angenäherte Morphotypen. Diese Population wurde hinsichtlich Ploidiegrad, Genomgröße, Fortpflanzungssystem, Chloroplasten- Haplotypen und Isoenzym-Phänotypen untersucht. Der zu P. rubra korrespondierende Morphotyp ist hexaploid mit variabler Fortpflanzung. Er produziert neben apomiktischen einen erheblichen Anteil sexueller und polyha - ploider Nachkommen. Die Struktur des Genotyps und der DNA-Gehalt macht eine wiederholte Entstehung aus unreduzierten Eizellen von P. aurantiaca und reduziertem Pollen von P. officinarum (2n + n-Hybridisierung) wahrscheinlich. Die damit koexistierenden Hybriden (P. stoloniflora) sind tetraploid und sexuell. Bei P. officinarum wurden zwei Chloroplasten-Haplotypen gefunden, wovon einer auch bei P. aurantiaca vorkommt. Das Vorkommen eines Chloroplasten-Haplotypen bei P. officinarum, der typisch für P. aurantiaca ist, macht Rückkreuzungen wahrscheinlich. Die unterschiedlichen Genomgrößen der wahrscheinlichen Elternarten spiegeln sich in den Genomgrößen der homoploiden (tetraploiden) Hybriden wider. Eine mehrfache Rückkreuzung mit P. officinarum, wie sie durch die Morphologie wahrscheinlich gemacht wird, wird durch Genomgröße und Chloroplasten-Haplotypen gestützt.
Schriftenschau
(2012)
Bromus secalinus, früher sehr häufig in Getreidefeldern, aber im letzten Jahrhundert durch Bekämpfungsmaßnahmen immer seltener geworden, ist derzeit mit geänderter Landbaupraxis wieder in Ausbreitung begriffen und umfasst heute zwei morphologisch definierte Unterarten. B. secalinus subsp. infestus wird als neu für die Wissenschaft beschrieben und ist vermutlich ein Neo-Endemit der Flora Mitteldeutschlands. Seine Herkunft und Evolution wird diskutiert (a) nach der neodarwinistischen Selektionstheorie und (b) nach der neogoldschmidtschen Saltationstheorie.
Panicum riparium wurde 2002 als neoindigene Art aus Deutschland neu beschrieben. Die Merkmale der Art werden kritisch untersucht und mit denen von P. capillare verglichen. Eine Karte zeigt erstmals die bislang bekannte Verbreitung von P. riparium in Europa. Es wurden historische Herbarbelege gefunden, die bis in das 18. Jahrhundert zurückreichen. Ein Merkmalsvergleich bestätigt die weitgehende Übereinstimmung mit amerikanischen Pflanzen. Eine taxonomische Klärung der amerikanischen Sippen des P.-capillare-Aggregats lässt keine Zweifel: die Merkmale des P. riparium sind weitgehend identisch mit denen des P. barbipulvinatum NASH. P. riparium ist somit in die Synonymie dieser Art zu stellen.
Erstnachweis von Dryopteris affinis s. str. (Dryopteridaceae, Pteridophyta) für Nordrhein-Westfalen
(2013)
Neuerdings werden fünf Sippen des Dryopteris-affinis-Komplexes in Mitteleuropa als eigenständige Arten bewertet, wovon vier auch in Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) vorkommen. Dazu gehören die triploide D. bor - reri, die offenbar die mit Abstand häufigste Art repräsentiert, und zwei weitere triploide Arten, D. pseudodisjuncta und D. lacunosa. Letztere wurde erst vor kurzem neu beschrieben und ist in NRW bislang nur von einem Fundpunkt bekannt. Mit Hilfe der Flow-Cytometrie gelang es nun, eine auf Grund der kleinen Sporen verdächtig erscheinende Pflanze aus dem Schwalm- Nette-Gebiet als diploide D. affinis s. str. zu identifizieren. Die anfängliche Vermutung, diese Art sei auf Tiefland-Vorkommen im deutlich atlantisch getönten äußersten Nordwesten von NRW beschränkt, haben sich als unzutreffend erwiesen; die Art konnte nachfolgend auch mehrfach im Süderbergland gefunden werden. Ebenfalls mit Hilfe der Flow-Cytometrie wurden eine Reihe von Vorkommen von D. borreri bestätigt sowie tetra- und pentaploide Hybriden (D. ×complexa und D. ×critica) nachgewiesen, die durch Bastardbildung mit D. filix-mas entstehen. Während Vorkommen der pentaploiden D. ×critica bereits seit längerer Zeit aus NRW bekannt sind, handelt es sich bei denjenigen von D. ×complexa ebenfalls um Erstnachweise. Das nordrhein-westfälische Areal dieser Sippen wird in drei Fundortkarten dargestellt (für den D.-affinis-Komplex insgesamt sowie für cytologisch bzw. flow-cytometrisch bestätigte Vorkommen der beiden Arten D. affinis s. str. und D. borreri sowie der beiden Hybriden D. ×complexa und D. ×critica). Aus einer mit der räumlichen Verteilung der Jahresniederschläge kombinierten Verbreitungskarte wird die enge Bindung an niederschlagreichere Lagen (zumeist mehr als 800mm) deutlich. Dies und weitere standortökologische Besonderheiten weisen darauf hin, dass die Sippen des D.-affinis-Komplexes in größerem Maße von der Wasserversorgung abhängig sind als D. filix-mas. Zwar repräsentieren die D.-affinis-Sippen offenbar typische Waldfarne und zeigen eine Präferenz für bodensaure Buchenwald-Gesellschaften, vor allem D. affinis s. str. kommt aber auffallend häufig an anthropogen überformten Sekundärstandorten vor, so an Weg- und Grabenböschungen, in Abgrabungen sowie an einem künstlichen Steilhang und in einem Steinbruch.
An einem Beispiel wird demonstriert, dass es oft vom Erfassungsaufwand abhängt, ob ein Merkmal als qualitativ oder quantitativ (zähl- bzw. messbar) einzustufen ist. Es folgt ein Überblick über quantitative Merkmale, die von 1820 bis heute in der Literatur über mitteleuropäische Wildrosenarten (Rosaceae: Rosa) behandelt werden. Bei vielen dieser Merkmale erscheint eine Erfassung in Ordinalskalen sinnvoller als eine metrische. Zu 8 Merkmalen, bei denen das Sammeln von Messwerten und ihre statistische Aufbereitung Erfolg verheißt, werden eigene Beobachtungen und Untersuchungen mitgeteilt. Bei ihrer Erfassung gilt es, eine Reihe von Fehlerquellen zu beachten, die meist in den Objekten, in einem Fall im Beobachter liegen. Bei der Erfassung von Hagebuttenmerkmalen muss ein Dimorphismus zwischen End- und Seitenblüten der Blütenstände berücksichtigt werden. Die Beschränkung von Messungen auf solitäre Blüten verringert die Streuung der Messwerte ebenso wie die Ermittlung der Standardabweichung anstelle der von älteren Autoren verwendeten Variationsbreite. Aufgrund einer optischen Täuschung wird die relative Länge des Fruchtstiels in Bezug zur Hagebuttenlänge meist zu hoch eingeschätzt. Merkmale, deren quantitative Erfassung diagnostisch brauchbare Daten liefern kann, sind in erster Linie die relative Fruchtstiellänge und der Griffelkanaldurchmesser, in zweiter Linie die Endfiederlänge, der Längen-Breiten index der Endfiedern und die Kronblattlänge.
Nur wenige Differentialmerkmale erlauben eine sichere Unterscheidung der diploiden Stellaria pallida von der allotetraploiden S. media: die fehlenden oder rudimentären Kronblätter, die Staubblattanzahl sowie Größe und Masse der Samen. Nicht bewährt haben sich dagegen die Farbe der Laubblätter und der Samen sowie die Länge und die Behaarungsverhältnisse der Kelchblätter. Bestimmungsschwierigkeiten und die Tatsache, dass S. pallida oft übersehen wird, sind die Gründe, weshalb über Standort und Vergesellschaftung immer noch wenig bekannt ist. S. pallida bleibt nicht auf Sandgebiete und Tieflagen beschränkt, auch ist sie nicht in erster Linie eine Ruderalart (häufiger in Rasen-, Tritt- und Saumgesellschaften). Die Verbreitung ist überall erst unvollständig erfasst, sowohl innerhalb des als ursprünglich angesehenen Areals (Europa, Nordafrika, Westasien), als auch in Nord- und Südamerika, Südafrika, Ostasien und Australien, wo S. pallida als Neophyt angesehen wird. Fundierte Aussagen über eine Bestandsentwicklung sind bis jetzt nicht möglich. Ausbreitungsmöglichkeiten und Indigenat werden diskutiert. Strittig ist, ob der Name S. pallida (DUMORT.) PIRÉ 1863 als gültig veröffentlicht angesehen werden darf oder durch S. pallida (DUMORT.) CRÉPIN 1866 zu ersetzen ist. Der ältere Name S. apetala UCRIA 1793 hat Priorität vor S. pallida; ein Neotypus wird festgelegt.
Die Intention der hiermit fortgesetzten Reihe sowie die Kriterien zur Aufnahme der besprochenen Literatur und der nomenklatorischen Neuigkeiten sind in der Einführung zur ersten Folge in Kochia 1 erläutert. Uwe Amarell (Offenburg), Bernhard Dickore (München), Gerwin Kasperek (Frankfurt am Main) und Peter A. Schmidt (Tharandt) danken wir für Hinweise auf wichtige Neuerscheinungen.
Purpose: The aim of this official guideline coordinated and published by the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) and the German Cancer Society (DKG) was to optimize the screening, diagnosis, therapy and follow-up care of breast cancer.
Methods: The process of updating the S3 guideline dating from 2012 was based on the adaptation of identified source guidelines which were combined with reviews of evidence compiled using PICO (Patients/Interventions/Control/Outcome) questions and the results of a systematic search of literature databases and the selection and evaluation of the identified literature. The interdisciplinary working groups took the identified materials as their starting point to develop recommendations and statements which were modified and graded in a structured consensus procedure.
Recommendations: Part 1 of this short version of the guideline presents recommendations for the screening, diagnosis and follow-up care of breast cancer. The importance of mammography for screening is confirmed in this updated version of the guideline and forms the basis for all screening. In addition to the conventional methods used to diagnose breast cancer, computed tomography (CT) is recommended for staging in women with a higher risk of recurrence. The follow-up concept includes suggested intervals between physical, ultrasound and mammography examinations, additional high-tech diagnostic procedures, and the determination of tumor markers for the evaluation of metastatic disease.
Als Fortschreibung zu der in dieser Zeitschrift im Jahr 2006 erschienenen Zusammenstellung von Florenwerken und Verbreitungsatlanten der Gefäßpflanzen Deutschlands aus dem Zeitraum 1945 bis 2005 werden hier Ergänzungen aus den Jahren 2006 bis 2010 aufgeführt und mit Schlüsselinformationen versehen. Dabei handelt es sich um 29 neue Publikationen und zusätzlich 22 Neuauflagen, Ergänzungen oder Nachträge bereits in der ersten Zusammenstellung berücksichtigter Florenwerke.
Zwei neue Arten aus dem Ranunculus-auricomus-Komplex in Deutschland werden beschrieben und abgebildet: R. reichertii und R. mosellanus. Ihre bislang bekannte Verbreitung beschränkt sich auf Rheinland-Pfalz, dort im Saar-Nahe-Bergland (R. reichertii) und im Moseltal und Umgebung (R. mosellanus). R. reichertii zeichnet sich durch seine Größe und eine flache Basalbucht der Grundblätter aus, R. mosellanus weicht durch eine starke Blattspreitenteilung der Grundblätter mit überlappenden Seitenabschnitten morphologisch von allen bislang bekannten Arten ab.
Im Rahmen der botanischen Kartierung im baden- ürttembergischen Alpenvorland und dem angrenzenden bayerischen Allgäu wurden in den Jahren 2001 bis 2011 sechs Exemplare der seltenen Hybride Dryopteris ×brathaica (D. carthusiana × D. filix- mas) entdeckt. Molekulargenetische Untersuchungen an mitteleuropäischen Vertretern der Gattung Dryopteris zeigen sippendifferenzierende Längenunterschiede von DNA die in der vorliegenden Arbeit für einige hier interessierende Taxa in Form von Elektropherogrammen gezeigt werden. Für D. ×brathaica und D. ×deweveri wird die hybridogene Abstammung molekulargenetisch bestätigt. Nach einem Rückblick auf bisherige Funde von D. ×brathaica in England, Deutschland, Frankreich und Österreich werden von den Wuchsorten in Baden-württemberg und Bayern ökologische Aspekte und das Artenspektrum der begleitenden Farnpflanzen beschrieben. Die ausführliche morphologische Beschreibung von D. ×brathaica basiert auf Proben der neu aufgefundenen Pflanzen sowie auf uns vorliegenden Herbarbelegen englischer und österreichischer Herkunft. Ergänzt durch morphometrische Messungen wird die morphologische Mittelstellung von D. ×brathaica zu beiden Elternarten an verschiedenen Merkmalen verdeutlicht und die Hybride gegen D. remota abgegrenzt. An einer der neu aufgefundenen Pflanzen von D. ×brathaica wurde eine Chromosomenzählung durchgeführt.
Die taxonomische Umgrenzung und interpretation von Hieracium fallax war im 19. Jahrhundert sehr unklar und teilweise schwankend. Sie hat dann vor allem durch die Monographie von Nägeli & Peter (1889) eine starke Wandlung erfahren, die mit Beschreibung bei Willdenow (1809) und dem Typus-Material in B nicht mehr übereinstimmt. Die Geschichte dieses Bedeutungswandels wird kurz dargelegt. Der von Bräutigam & Greuter (2007) im Zuge der Ausgliederung von Pilosella aus Hieracium vorgenommene Namenswechsel zu P. setigera Fr. ist zu korrigieren, da für die betreffende „echioides-cymosum“- Zwischenart mit H. cymosiforme Froel. ein älterer Name aufgegriffen werden muss. Die Namen H. cymosiforme, H. fallax und Pilosella setigera werden lectotypisiert und die Neukombination P. cymosiformis vorgenommen.
Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial pathogen which can persist in the hospital environment not only due to the acquirement of multiple antibiotic resistances, but also because of its exceptional resistance against disinfectants and desiccation. A suitable desiccation assay was established in which A. baumannii ATCC 19606T survived for ca. 1 month. The growth medium slightly influenced survival after subsequent desiccation. A significant effect could be attributed to the growth phase in which bacteria were dried: In exponential phase, cells were much more desiccation sensitive. The main focus of the present study was the elucidation of the role of compatible solutes, which are known to protect many bacteria under low water activity conditions, in desiccation survival of A. baumannii. Exogenous trehalose was shown to efficiently protect A. baumannii on dry surfaces, in contrast to other compatible solutes tested such as mannitol or glycine betaine. To analyze the importance of intracellularly accumulated solutes, a double mutant lacking biosynthesis pathways for mannitol and trehalose was generated. This mutant accumulated glutamate as sole solute in the presence of high NaCl concentrations and showed severe growth defects under osmotic stress conditions. However, no effect on desiccation tolerance could be seen, neither when cells were dried in water nor in the presence of NaCl.
The centrosome linker proteins C-Nap1, rootletin, and CEP68 connect the two centrosomes of a cell during interphase into one microtubule-organizing center. This coupling is important for cell migration, cilia formation, and timing of mitotic spindle formation. Very little is known about the structure of the centrosome linker. Here, we used stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy to show that each C-Nap1 ring at the proximal end of the two centrioles organizes a rootletin ring and, in addition, multiple rootletin/CEP68 fibers. Rootletin/CEP68 fibers originating from the two centrosomes form a web-like, interdigitating network, explaining the flexible nature of the centrosome linker. The rootletin/CEP68 filaments are repetitive and highly ordered. Staggered rootletin molecules (N-to-N and C-to-C) within the filaments are 75 nm apart. Rootletin binds CEP68 via its C-terminal spectrin repeat-containing region in 75-nm intervals. The N-to-C distance of two rootletin molecules is ∼35 to 40 nm, leading to an estimated minimal rootletin length of ∼110 nm. CEP68 is important in forming rootletin filaments that branch off centrioles and to modulate the thickness of rootletin fibers. Thus, the centrosome linker consists of a vast network of repeating rootletin units with C-Nap1 as ring organizer and CEP68 as filament modulator.
Complex I (proton-pumping NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is the largest enzyme of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and a significant source of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We hypothesized that during energy conversion by complex I, electron transfer onto ubiquinone triggers the concerted rearrangement of three protein loops of subunits ND1, ND3, and 49-kDa thereby generating the power-stoke driving proton pumping. Here we show that fixing loop TMH1-2ND3 to the nearby subunit PSST via a disulfide bridge introduced by site-directed mutagenesis reversibly disengages proton pumping without impairing ubiquinone reduction, inhibitor binding or the Active/Deactive transition. The X-ray structure of mutant complex I indicates that the disulfide bridge immobilizes but does not displace the tip of loop TMH1-2ND3. We conclude that movement of loop TMH1-2ND3 located at the ubiquinone-binding pocket is required to drive proton pumping corroborating one of the central predictions of our model for the mechanism of energy conversion by complex I proposed earlier.
Light absorption of myoglobin triggers diatomic ligand photolysis and a spin crossover transition of iron(II) that initiate protein conformational change. The photolysis and spin crossover reactions happen concurrently on a femtosecond timescale. The microscopic origin of these reactions remains controversial. Here, we apply quantum wavepacket dynamics to elucidate the ultrafast photochemical mechanism for a heme–carbon monoxide (heme–CO) complex. We observe coherent oscillations of the Fe–CO bond distance with a period of 42 fs and an amplitude of ∼1 Å. These nuclear motions induce pronounced geometric reorganization, which makes the CO dissociation irreversible. The reaction is initially dominated by symmetry breaking vibrations inducing an electron transfer from porphyrin to iron. Subsequently, the wavepacket relaxes to the triplet manifold in ∼75 fs and to the quintet manifold in ∼430 fs. Our results highlight the central role of nuclear vibrations at the origin of the ultrafast photodynamics of organometallic complexes.
Previous magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies have revealed gamma-band activity at sensors over parietal and fronto-temporal cortex during the delay phase of auditory spatial and non-spatial match-to-sample tasks, respectively. While this activity was interpreted as reflecting the memory maintenance of sound features, we noted that task-related activation differences might have been present already prior to the onset of the sample stimulus. The present study focused on the interval between a visual cue indicating which sound feature was to be memorized (lateralization or pitch) and sample sound presentation to test for task-related activation differences preceding stimulus encoding. MEG spectral activity was analyzed with cluster randomization tests (N = 15). Whereas there were no differences in frequencies below 40 Hz, gamma-band spectral amplitude (about 50–65 and 90–100 Hz) was higher for the lateralization than the pitch task. This activity was localized at right posterior and central sensors and present for several hundred ms after task cue offset. Activity at 50–65 Hz was also increased throughout the delay phase for the lateralization compared with the pitch task. Apparently cortical networks related to auditory spatial processing were activated after participants had been informed about the task.
The ATP-binding cassette transporter TAPL translocates polypeptides from the cytosol into the lysosomal lumen. TAPL can be divided into two functional units: coreTAPL, active in ATP-dependent peptide translocation, and the N-terminal membrane spanning domain, TMD0, responsible for cellular localization and interaction with the lysosomal associated membrane proteins LAMP-1 and LAMP-2. Although the structure and function of ABC transporters were intensively analyzed in the past, the knowledge about accessory membrane embedded domains is limited. Therefore, we expressed the TMD0 of TAPL via a cell-free expression system and confirmed its correct folding by NMR and interaction studies. In cell as well as cell-free expressed TMD0 forms oligomers, which were assigned as dimers by PELDOR spectroscopy and static light scattering. By NMR spectroscopy of uniformly and selectively isotope labeled TMD0 we performed a complete backbone and partial side chain assignment. Accordingly, TMD0 has a four transmembrane helix topology with a short helical segment in a lysosomal loop. The topology of TMD0 was confirmed by paramagnetic relaxation enhancement with paramagnetic stearic acid as well as by nuclear Overhauser effects with c6-DHPC and cross-peaks with water.
Some students evidently find it difficult to paraphrase the content of a text (particularly a specialist or professional text) after reading it. This inability may have a negative impact on their performance when writing Bachelor theses or when studying in general. This paper therefore addresses the question of how to help students of German develop the important competency of paraphrasing and summarizing the content of texts. The starting point was a small-scale research project conducted among students at the Department of German Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ostrava; the results of the research were analyzed to identify the main problems encountered by students when carrying out these tasks. This analysis forms the basis for an overview of strategies and methods which can be practised by students when paraphrasing and summarizing the content of texts. The article systematizes the key processes and operations for paraphrasing and summarizing with reference to the theoretical literature. The article seeks to contribute to the discussion of a broad range of methods that can be used to help improve the quality of foreign language studies and the study of specialist and professional language
The recent recolonisation of the Central European lowland (CEL) by the grey wolf (Canis lupus) provides an excellent opportunity to study the effect of founder events on endoparasite diversity. Which role do prey and predator populations play in the re-establishment of endoparasite life cycles? Which intrinsic and extrinsic factors control individual endoparasite diversity in an expanding host population? In 53 individually known CEL wolves sampled in Germany, we revealed a community of four cestode, eight nematode, one trematode and 12 potential Sarcocystis species through molecular genetic techniques. Infections with zoonotic Echinococcus multilocularis, Trichinella britovi and T. spiralis occurred as single cases. Per capita endoparasite species richness and diversity significantly increased with population size and changed with age, whereas sex, microsatellite heterozygosity, and geographic origin had no effect. Tapeworm abundance (Taenia spp.) was significantly higher in immigrants than natives. Metacestode prevalence was slightly higher in ungulates from wolf territories than from control areas elsewhere. Even though alternative canid definitive hosts might also play a role within the investigated parasite life cycles, our findings indicate that (1) immigrated wolves increase parasite diversity in German packs, and (2) prevalence of wolf-associated parasites had declined during wolf absence and has now risen during recolonisation.