Tod des Körpers oder Tod der Person?

Definition of the problem

Within the current philosophical debate on the adequate definition of human death, death is defined either as the death of the body or the death of the person. However, the application of these notions leads to several practical conflicts, which can be seen first and foremost in the brain-death debate and the discussions on how to increase organ donation.

Arguments

The conflicts are based in both a dualistic and objectivistic notion of the human being which are implied in both definitions of death. In order to solve these conflicts, we are in need of a nondualistic concept of human being which at the same time enables us to elaborate a first- and second-person perspective on death. On the basis of Helmuth Plessner’s philosophical anthropology, such an integrative concept of death can be developed.

Conclusion

Following this concept, it seems reasonable to abandon the brain-death criterion as the criterion for human death and to fundamentally reform the current information campaigns for organ donation.

     

Tobacco use disorder]

PURPOSE: To compare first- and fourth-year medical students' opinions about primary care practice. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was made of medical students at New York Medical College (NYMC) and East Carolina University School of Medicine (ECUSOM) over three years (1993-94, 1994-95, and 1995-96). Three consecutive classes of first-year students from both schools (n = 807), two consecutive classes of fourth-year NYMC students (n = 373), and three consecutive classes of fourth-year ECUSOM students (n = 221) were given a self-administered questionnaire about professional aspects of primary care practice. Responses to ten items about primary care practice were the independent variables in a logistic regression analysis. Career choice, categorized as primary care or non-primary care, was the dependent variable. Independent, two-tailed t-tests were employed to compare the responses of the first-year students interested in primary care careers with those of the fourth-year students interested in primary care careers. RESULTS: In all, 639 (79%) of the first-year students and 396 (67%) of the fourth-year students returned completed questionnaires. The first-year students interested in primary care careers were significantly more likely to believe that primary care practice has more prestige, has more intellectual stimulation, needs a large knowledge base, and involves work that is more important than that of non-primary care physicians, and were significantly more likely to disagree with the assertion that in primary care practice, physicians have more control over their working hours. With one exception (prestige of primary care practice), all these independent variables were significant for the fourth-year students as well. The comparison of the first- and fourth-year students indicated that the fourth-year students were significantly more likely to believe that primary care practice has more intellectual stimulation, needs a large knowledge base, and requires knowledge that non-primary care practice may not; they were also significantly more likely to disagree with the assertions that primary care practice is adequately compensated, has more prestige, and allows more control over working hours. CONCLUSION: It appears that students' positive perceptions about primary care practice may change as realistic perceptions about the professional demands on primary care physicians develop during medical school.     

Monitoring of p53 autoantibodies in lung cancer during therapy: relationship to response to treatment

Alteration of the p53 gene is the most frequent genetic alteration in human cancer, and it leads to the accumulation of mutant p53 in the nucleus of tumor cells. In addition, it has been shown that patients with various types of neoplasias have p53 antibodies in their sera. ELISA was used to detect anti-p53 antibodies in their sera of 167 patients with lung cancer. Among these, 32 individuals (16 positive for p53 antibodies and 16 negative) were monitored over a period of 30 months for p53 antibodies. Twelve of 16 antibody positive patients had reduced titers during chemotherapy that led to partial or complete remissions of disease. The specificity of these antibodies was confirmed by two different ELISA procedures and by immunoprecipitation. The very rapid, specific decrease in these antibodies during therapy suggests that a constant level of tumoral cells with nuclear accumulating p53 protein is necessary for a detectable humoral anti-p53 response. The good correlation found between the specific evolution of the p53 antibody titer and the response to therapy suggests that p53 antibodies could represent a useful tool for checking the response to therapy and for monitoring some relapses before they are clinically detectable.     

Do the nonsmoking daughters of smokers tend to marry smokers? Implications for epidemiological research on environmental tobacco smoke: the IARC collaborative study

The IARC collaborative study on exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) involved collecting interview data and biochemical indicators of exposure from 1369 nonsmoking women in 13 centers in 10 countries. Information on childhood and adulthood exposure to other people's smoke and duration of this exposure from both parents and spouse was gathered at the interview. Of the 900 women whose husbands smoked (current or exsmokers), 71.3% had one or both parents who smoked (predominantly the father), whereas among the 277 women married to never-smokers, only 60.3% had at least one parent who smoked. The odds ratio for the daughter of a smoker to marry a smoker was, therefore, 1.64 (95% confidence interval = 1.24-2.17; P > 0.001), and there was an exposure-response relation between the number of years of childhood exposure to ETS from the parents and the likelihood of being married to a smoker. These results show that nonsmoking women married to smokers are more likely to have been exposed to tobacco pollution during their whole life. Because the duration of exposure is known to be important in the genesis of lung cancer, some of the excess risk of lung cancer in nonsmoking women married to smokers may be due exposure to ETS from parents during childhood.     

Corrosion and wear behavior of alumina coatings obtained by various methods

Alumina coatings are widely used in a range of industrial applications to improve corrosion protection, wear and erosion resistances, and thermal insulation of metallic surfaces. Refined alumina surfaces with long-term use are obtained from various efficient and adjustable processes. It can be seen that costefficient arc-sprayed Al coatings post-treated by plasma-electrolytic oxidation (PEO) form Al₂O₃ -layers with remarkable corrosion protection, hardness, bonding strength, and abrasion resistance, as well as with the extended service time. The properties of these coatings are compared with alumina coatings obtained by flame spraying and atmospheric plasma spraying.     

Biological Activity of Acyl Glucose Esters from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Datura wrightii</Emphasis> Glandular Trichomes against Three Native Insect Herbivores

Datura wrightii is dimorphic for leaf trichome type in southern California. “Sticky” plants produce glandular trichomes that secrete acylsugars, whereas velvety plants produce nonglandular trichomes. Glandular trichomes confer resistance to some potential insect herbivores and are associated with reduced feeding in the field by two native coleopteran herbivores: the tobacco flea beetle, Epitrix hirtipennis, and a weevil, Trichobaris compacta. In contrast, another native beetle, Lema daturaphila, damages sticky and velvety plants similarly in the field. A series of choice and no-choice “ester removal” and “ester addition” feeding experiments were performed in the laboratory to evaluate the role of acylsugars in feeding by all three insect species. Consumption of sticky leaves after their esters were removed by washing was compared to consumption of unwashed sticky leaves and velvety leaves in ester removal experiments. Consumption of velvety leaves was measured after acylsugars were applied to those leaves in controlled amounts in the ester addition experiments. Consumption by E. hirtipennis was reduced by acylsugars in all experiments. Consumption by T. compacta was reduced by acylsugars in the ester removal experiments, but not in the ester addition experiments. The location of the acylsugars at the tip of a long trichome, rather than simply on the leaf surface, may be an important component of the biological activity of acylsugars against T. compacta in nature. Consumption by L. daturaphila was not significantly reduced by acylsugars in any experiment. The acylsugars caused no significant mortality of any of the three insect species.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>-Curve Approach to Describe the Fracture Resistance of Tool Steels

This work addresses the events involved in the fracture of tool steels, aiming to understand the effect of primary carbides, inclusions, and the metallic matrix on their effective fracture toughness and strength. Microstructurally different steels were investigated. It is found that cracks nucleate on carbides or inclusions at stress values lower than the fracture resistance. It is experimentally evidenced that such cracks exhibit an increasing growth resistance as they progressively extend, i.e., R-curve behavior. Ingot cast steels present a rising R-curve, which implies that the effective toughness developed by small cracks is lower than that determined with long artificial cracks. On the other hand, cracks grow steadily in the powder metallurgy tool steel, yielding as a result a flat R-curve. Accordingly, effective toughness for this material is mostly independent of the crack size. Thus, differences in fracture toughness values measured using short and long cracks must be considered when assessing fracture resistance of tool steels, especially when tool performance is controlled by short cracks. Hence, material selection for tools or development of new steel grades should take into consideration R-curve concepts, in order to avoid unexpected tool failures or to optimize microstructural design of tool steels, respectively.     

Effect of Nozzle Material on Downstream Lateral Injection Cold Spray Performance

In cold gas dynamic spraying, the gas nature, process stagnation pressure and temperature, and the standoff distance are known to be important parameters that affect the deposition efficiency and coating quality. This investigation attempts to elucidate the effect of nozzle material on coatings produced using a downstream lateral injection cold spray system. Through experimentation, it is shown that the nozzle material has a substantial effect on deposition efficiency and particle velocity. It is proposed that the effects are related to complex interaction between the particles and the internal nozzle walls. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that during the particle/nozzle wall contact, a nozzle with higher thermal diffusivity transfers more heat to the particles. This heat transfer results in lower critical velocities and therefore higher deposition efficiencies, despite a noticeable reduction of particle velocities which is also attributed to particle-nozzle interactions.     

Production of Induced Volatiles by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Datura wrightii</Emphasis> in Response to Damage by Insects: Effect of Herbivore Species and Time

Natural enemies of herbivorous insects utilize numerous chemical cues to locate and identify their prey. Among these, volatile plant compounds produced after attack by herbivores may play a significant role (hereafter herbivore-induced plant volatiles or HIPVs). One unresolved question is whether the composition of the volatile cue blends induced by different herbivore species differ consistently enough to indicate not only that the plants are damaged by herbivores but also the identity of the herbivore species causing the damage. We studied HIPV production in the undomesticated plant species Datura wrightii in the laboratory when damaged by either of two leaf-chewing herbivore species, Lema daturaphila or Manduca sexta, or when damaged by L. daturaphila and the piercing-sucking bug, Tupiocoris notatus, or both L. daturaphila and T. notatus, for 24 hr. HIPV production was monitored 1 d before induction, the day of induction, and for 7 d after induction. In all experiments, both the quantities and composition of the HIPV blends varied with the time since induction as different components reached peak production at different times after induction. HIPV blends did not differ consistently with the herbivore species causing the damage. For plants damaged by both L. daturaphila and T. notatus, greater amounts of HIPVs were produced than by plants damaged by either species alone, but the amounts did not differ from that predicted as the sum from damage inflicted by each herbivore species independently. The HIPVs of D. wrightii are a general rather than specific indicator of damage by herbivores. Because generalist predators are the most abundant natural enemies in this system, general cues of herbivore damage may be all that are required to facilitate the discovery by predators of plants damaged by any of several suitable prey species.     

The role of human resource management in implementing a 'new agreement' between employers and employees

When quality in an organisational context includes more employee-oriented arrangements and systems, the introduction of a new relationship pattern between employers and employees can rightly be considered a quality program. In this article we describe the shifting roles of HRM and 'people management' in general within a changing environmental and organisational context. We present an original 'FIT' organisational model, in which the role of HRM as 'partner-champion' is highlighted, and which was implemented during the 1990s in a multinational company. More specifically, we describe the company background, the motives for this new approach, the basic principles and the main phases of implementation of this new 'social contract'.