15N natural abundance during early and late succession in a middle-European dry acidic grassland.

delta(15)N and total nitrogen content of above- and belowground tissues of 13 plant species from two successional stages (open pioneer community and ruderal grass stage) of a dry acidic grassland in Southern Germany were analysed, in order to evaluate whether resource use partitioning by niche separation and N input by N(2)-fixing legumes are potential determinants for species coexistence and successional changes. Within each stage, plants from plots with different legume cover were compared. Soil inorganic N content, total plant biomass and delta(15)N values of bulk plant material were significantly lower in the pioneer stage than in the ruderal grass community. The observed delta(15)N differences were rather species- than site-specific. Within both stages, there were also species-specific differences in isotopic composition between above- and belowground plant dry matter. Species-specific delta(15)N signatures may theoretically be explained by (i) isotopic fractionation during microbial-mediated soil N transformations; (ii) isotopic fractionation during plant N uptake or fractionation during plant-mycorrhiza transfer processes; (iii) differences in metabolic pathways and isotopic fractionation within the plant; or (iv) partitioning of available N resources (or pools) among plant groups or differential use of the same resources by different species, which seems to be the most probable route in the present case. A significant influence of N(2)-fixing legumes on the N balance of the surrounding plant community was not detectable. This was confirmed by the results of an independent in situ removal experiment, showing that after 3 years there were no measurable differences in the frequency distribution between plots with and without N(2)-fixing legumes.

[Integrated therapy approach in the inpatient rehabilitation of women and men with total gastrectomy for stomach carcinoma]. / Integrativer Therapieansatz in der stationären Rehabilitation von Frauen und Männern mit totaler Gastrektomie wegen Magenkarzinom.

On the basis of the documented course of 83 in-patient rehabilitation procedures in 28 female and 55 male patients who had undergone total gastrectomy due to cancer of the stomach, "objective" and "subjective" data were analyzed and correlated within an integrative treatment concept in order for one, to obtain as rehabilitation-specific a description as possible of how patients cope with the conditions resulting from their illness, and for the other, to contribute to furthering a multidisciplinary treatment concept, uniting the medical and psychosocial lines of approach. "Objective" data, i.e., data based on therapist assessments, inter alia include laboratory and other measures, diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and their gradings, sociomedical and psychosocial parameters, Karnofsky index, as well as Edinburgh Rehabilitation Status scores, while "subjective" ones, i.e., data based on the patients' own estimates, included symptom scores and judgements relative to treatment course and the so-called therapeutic environment. Findings are presented in detail for both planes (i.e., "objective" and "subjective" parameters) and discussed in light of pertinent literature. In particular the "missing" (yet perhaps expected) correlations among these planes are considered indicative of an urgent need for inclusion of the patient's behaviour and experience in the rehabilitative-therapeutic process. The partially surprising gender differences found are discussed with a view to behavioural patterns that might be conducive to coping with the malignant disease and its sequelae, an integrative treatment approach found to be of utmost importance, in particular in terms of the (therapeutic) relationship with self and others.

[The course of inpatient rehabilitation in gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases under increasing integration of behavior and experience]. / Verlaufsbeschreibung stationärer Rehabilitation bei Verdauungs- und Stoffwechselkrankheiten unter zunehmender Integration von Verhalten und Erleben.

Starting out from the thesis that behaviour and felt experience, i.e., the patient's "subjective world", have considerable influence on chronic diseases and their consequences in the gastrointestinal field, a "basic course documentation"-based comparison has been carried out of the courses of 4-week in-patient rehabilitation programmes designed to increasingly incorporate interventions directed at this area; the study population had consisted of two groups of patients (n = 688 each) without any significant differences concerning age and sex distribution admitted during the summer terms of 1990 (Group A) and 1991 (Group B), respectively. This documentation (in DBASE IV format) compiles (anonymized) patient data at an "objective" level on the one hand, i.e. basic data (such as diagnoses, age, sex), results obtained by the Edinburgh Rehabilitation Status Scale (ERSS), risk behaviour, and scope of interventions both in the organ-medical and physical therapy fields and in the area of "instruction, motivation, support, group work, and creativity" (designed to achieve integration of behaviour and felt experience); on the other hand, at "subjective level", it comprises the patient's own judgements relative to the treatment regimen and its environment, with subsequent correlational analysis of the data obtained (using the SPSSPC statistical package). As had been expected, correlations have on the one hand been stated at the "objective" level between an increased share of more "serious" conditions (ICD) in 1990 as compared to 1991 and higher ERSS scores (i.e., increased impact of disease consequences), greater organ-medical care intensity, and frequency of incapacity for work; on the other hand, at "subjective" level, strong linkages were found among the item ratings for general sense of improvement, specific and general therapy, as well as so-called "therapeutic environment". When the two levels are linked, the sense of improvement, as expected, is found to correlate negatively with the ERSS, but positively with the scope of the interventions designed to foster integration of behaviour and felt experience. The judgements given for quality of care provided relative to the patient's self-reported primary disorder and for general medical care correlate positively both with the scope of diagnostic/therapeutic organ-medical interventions and integration-focussed ones, which, at least from the patient's perspective, hence exercise an ascertainable, essential effect in the therapeutic setting of in-patient rehabilitation in gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases.

Optic tectum in congenitally monophthalmic fishes and chicks.

Morphometry of optic tectum layers was performed in fishes and birds that were congenitally monophthalmic (or had one very small or malformed eye). The optic chiasm was studied with regard to possible anomalies of the fiber distribution. In two very young fish larvae with only one ocular rudiment, no differences were found between the two tecta. In fishes and chicks with one normal and one eye of reduced size, the volume of superficial tectal layers contralateral to the small eye was significantly more affected (reduction by 40 to 70%) than that of the deep layers (reduction by 10 to 30%). Particularly pronounced differences between the superficial tectal layers of both sides were found in a fish where a thin optic nerve, originating in an unusually small eye, projected to the ipsilateral side of the brain. It is concluded that (1) the development of superficial tectal layers depends more strongly on optic innervation than that of deep layers; (2) obvious differences between tecta with and without optic innervation develop rather late in ontogeny; (3) there seems to be no measurable difference between effects of a poor (less than 25%) innervation of the tectum and a complete lack of this projection.

[The germ colonization of the oral cavity in small children with the nursing bottle syndrome]. / Keimbesiedelung der Mundhöhle bei Kleinkindern mit Nursing-Bottle-Syndrom.

46 infants, aged 23 to 77 months, presenting with the nursing bottle syndrome, were examined clinically [dmf(t)] and microbiologically. Saliva and carious tooth substance was analysed for the presence of Streptococcus mutans, Lactobacilli and Candida albicans, using in part commercial tests. For comparative reasons, a group of caries-free children, aged 37 to 77 months, was examined as well. Increased numbers of specific caries bacteria (mutans streptococci and lactobacilli) and of Candida albicans were found in saliva and in the carious material of children with diseased teeth. The results confirm that excessive drinking from nursing bottles over a period longer than the first 12 months of life does not only lead to problematic tooth decay and its consequences but also to pathological changes in the entire oral flora. The invasion of candida forces us to reconsider the development of caries in infants.