What is fair? Ethical analysis of triage criteria and disability rights during the COVID-19 pandemic and the German legislation.

This essay discusses the ethical challenges and dilemmas in allocating scarce medical resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the German legislative process as a starting point. It is guided by the right to non-discrimination of people with disability and generally contrasts utilitarian and rights-based principles of allocation. Three approaches that were suggested in the German discussion, are presented, the lottery principle, the first come first served principle and the probability to survive principle.

Somatic mosaicism of chromosome 7 in a highly proliferating melanocytic congenital naevus in a ring chromosome 7 patient.

Ring chromosome 7 is a rare but well documented chromosomal aberration in man. So far at least 14 cases have been reported in the literature showing a variable but distinct pattern of phenotypic characteristics in affected individuals. Besides others, skin findings as pigmented naevi are especially frequent.

High rate of constitutional chromosomal rearrangements in apparently sporadic ALS.

Of 85 patients with ALS, the authors identified 3 patients with balanced translocations and 2 patients with pericentric inversions, all affecting distinct chromosomal loci. The high rate of constitutional aberrations (5.9%) suggests that ALS is, in part, associated with recombination-based rearrangements of genomic sequences.

Human carbonic anhydrase XII: cDNA cloning, expression, and chromosomal localization of a carbonic anhydrase gene that is overexpressed in some renal cell cancers.

We report the cloning and characterization of a tumor-associated carbonic anhydrase (CA) that was identified in a human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) by serological expression screening with autologous antibodies. The cDNA sequence predicts a 354-amino acid polypeptide with a molecular mass of 39,448 Da that has features of a type I membrane protein. The predicted sequence includes a 29-amino acid signal sequence, a 261-amino acid CA domain, an additional short extracellular segment, a 26-amino acid hydrophobic transmembrane domain, and a hydrophilic C-terminal cytoplasmic tail of 29 amino acids that contains two potential phosphorylation sites.

Human endogenous retroviral element k10 (HERV-K10): chromosomal localization by somatic hybrid mapping and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

The human endogenous retrovirus K10 (HERV-K10) was mapped to human chromosomes using HERV-K10 specific PCR primers on a somatic hybrid mapping panel. A non-random chromosomal location was demonstrated with PCR signals on chromosomes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22 and Y. There was a lack of PCR products on the other chromosomes, even after hybridization with a HERV-K10 specific probe.