Degradation Behavior of Biodegradable Man-Made Fibers in Natural Soil and in Compost.

In open environment applications, fibers are increasingly being used that are expected to biodegrade in the soil after their desired service life. Biodegradable polymer fibers are a versatile alternative to natural fibers. In this study, the degradation behavior of fibers made from polylactic acid (PLA) and a polyhydroxy alkanoate (PHA) blend with PLA, as well as a bicomponent fiber (BICO) made from polybutylene succinate (PBS) and PLA, was investigated.

Forced surgical extrusion using an axial tooth extraction system as a practicable technique for preserving severely destroyed teeth? - Clinical outcomes up to 4.8 years.

Objective: Several extrusion techniques have been described to restore teeth with insufficient coronal tooth structure and to avoid their extraction. Still, there is little evidence for a treatment concept combining surgical extrusion using an atraumatic axial extraction system.

Materials And Methods: A total of nine patients, each with an iso- or subgingival fractured tooth, were retrospectively examined.

Ways to improve the efficiency and reliability of radio frequency driven negative ion sources for fusion.

Large RF driven negative hydrogen ion sources are being developed at IPP Garching for the future neutral beam injection system of ITER. The overall power efficiency of these sources is low, because for the RF power supply self-excited generators are utilized and the plasma is generated in small cylindrical sources ("drivers") and expands into the source main volume. At IPP experiments to reduce the primary power and the RF power required for the plasma production are performed in two ways: The oscillator generator of the prototype source has been replaced by a transistorized RF transmitter and two alternative driver concepts, a spiral coil, in which the field is concentrated by ferrites, which omits the losses by plasma expansion and a helicon source are being tested.

Maintenance electroconvulsive therapy for comorbid pharmacotherapy-refractory obsessive-compulsive and schizoaffective disorder.

Objective: There is a high comorbidity of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsory disorder (OCD) associated with more severe symptoms. Standard pharmacotherapy achieve symptom improvement in approximately 60% only.

Results: We report about a 48-old women treated for depression which developed successively psychotic symptoms (ideas of reference, psychotic worries), negative symptoms (blunted affect, impoverished thinking, difficulties in planning), and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (mainly repeating rituals, avoidance behaviour, collecting and hoarding).

Julius Ludwig August Koch (1841-1908): Christian, philosopher and psychiatrist.

Being deeply rooted in a Christian faith and having much interest in moral and ethical issues, Koch published some philosophical works Die Wirklichkeit und ihre Erkenntnis (Reality and its knowledge; Koch, 1886), in which he tried to bring together critical Kantian philosophy and Christian conviction. In 1888 he published Kurzgefasster Leitfaden der Psychiatrie (Short Textbook of Psychiatry). The next work, entitled Die psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten (Psychopathic Inferiority; Koch, 1891-93) became one of his fundamental texts on the concept of personality disorders, a concept still used today.

[Edema related to treatment with olanzapine].

Objective: In comparison to metabolic syndrome, edema seems to be a rare occurrence in antipsychotic treatment.

Method: In this paper, we report on two subjects with psychotic disorders who were found to have peripheral edema during olanzapine therapy.

Discussion: The theoretical background and the relevance of this observation are examined.

[Julius Ludwig August Koch (1841-1908). Psychiatrist, philosopher, and Christian].

Julius Ludwig August Koch was born 1841 in the small town of Laichingen (Württemberg) in the Southwest of Germany. After working as a chemist for about seven years, he studied medicine in Tübingen from 1863 to 1867. First he worked as a physican and later in a private mental hospital in Göppingen.

[Palinacousis in alcohol hallucinosis].

Objective: Palinacousis seems to be a rare phenomenon in mental disorders.

Methods: In this paper, we report on a subject with alcohol hallucinosis who displayed one episode with palinacousis after remission from the typical acoustic hallucinations according to the disorder.

Discussion: The theoretical background and the relevance of this observation are discussed.

On the way to a scientia sexualis: 'On the relation of the sexual system to the psyche in general and to cretinism in particular' (1826) by Joseph Häussler.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, several works were published by physicians trying to explain, in an increasingly systematic manner, the emergence of psychic derangements with sexual disorders. A contribution to this development was provided by Joseph Häussler with his monograph 'On the relation of the sexual system to the psyche in general and to cretinism in particular' (1826). Häussler was interested in whether the sexual system was the cause of psychic disturbance.

[Hans Kurella's 'Naturgeschichte des Verbrechers' [Natural history of the criminal], 1893, as an apology of Cesare Lombroso's doctrine of 'Uomo delinquente'].

At the end of the 19th century Cesare Lombroso and his theory of the 'delinquente nato' had great influence on a lot of scientists in the German speaking world. One of the psychiatrists who published several books and articles about Lombroso's theory was Hans Kurella. In his 'Naturgeschichte des Verbrechers' (1893) he elaborates the thesis of the 'delinquente nato' agreeing with its central point that the criminal.

Self-amputation of penis and tongue after use of Angel's Trumpet.

This case report draws attention to the dramatic consequences of the consumption of Angel's Trumpet. Angel's Trumpet contains alkaloids (especially scopolamine, as well as hyoscyamine, atropine and other alkaloids) in a relatively high concentration. When intoxicated with Angel's Trumpet, patients can suffer hallucinations, motoric restlessness, overtalkativeness, convulsive sobbing and sexual excitement, as well as aggressive and autoaggressive behaviour.

Hermann Joseph Löwenstein's dissertation: De mentis aberrationibus ex partium sexualium conditione abnormi oriundis (1823).

In the nineteenth century there was a growing number of publications by physicians who were concerned with the relation between abnormal sexual behaviour or abnormal conditions in the genital sphere and psychiatric disorders. These publications were part of an anti-onanism discourse which had been initiated in the eighteenth century. One of the earliest works in this field was hermann Joseph Löwenstein's dissertation: De mentis aberrationibus ex partium sexualium conditione abnormi oriundis (1823).

[Psychotic processing and psychotic gestalt of somatic symptoms: the risk of diagnostic errors].

We report on a 50-year old patient who on admission to hospital demonstrated several disorders of sensation of her body which seemed to be bizarre and exclusively caused by a psychotic disorder. It soon turned out that a somatological disorder was of primary importance. The symptoms of the somatic disorder had been assimilated and shaped psychotically.

Modification of callosal afferents of the primary visual cortex ipsilateral to the remaining eye in rats monocularly enucleated at different stages of ontogeny.

Callosal afferents to the primary visual cortex (area Oc1) mainly originate in the border region between the lateral portion of the primary visual cortex (area Oc1) and the laterally positioned secondary visual cortex (area Oc2L) of the contralateral hemisphere. The extent of this region has been determined by retrograde labeling with horseradish peroxidase (HRP). In normal rats the width of the retrogradely labeled cortical strip is about 0.