Nettle as a distinct Bronze Age textile plant.

It is generally assumed that the production of plant fibre textiles in ancient Europe, especially woven textiles for clothing, was closely linked to the development of agriculture through the use of cultivated textile plants (flax, hemp). Here we present a new investigation of the 2800 year old Lusehøj Bronze Age Textile from Voldtofte, Denmark, which challenges this assumption. We show that the textile is made of imported nettle, most probably from the Kärnten-Steiermark region, an area which at the time had an otherwise established flax production. Our results thus suggest that the production of woven plant fibre textiles in Bronze Age Europe was based not only on cultivated textile plants but also on the targeted exploitation of wild plants. The Lusehøj find points to a hitherto unrecognized role of nettle as an important textile plant and suggests the need for a re-evaluation of textile production resource management in prehistoric Europe.

[Neurological Reha-Score. An instrument to measure outcome and expenditure of neurologic rehabilitation]. / Neurologischer Reha-Score. Eine Skala zur Messung des Patientenzustandes und Aufwandes in der neurologischen Rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND: A new measurement instrument was developed to combine common scores with the parameter of effort for rehabilitation, the latter being a control instrument for medical professionals and rehabilitational health organisations. METHODS: The Neurological Rehabilitation Score (NRS) contains 61 items (including the ten from the Barthel Index) resulting in scores of 0 (worst patient condition) to 600 (best). The items are grouped into seven categories: activities of daily life (13), mobility (8), communication and social skills (7), arm and hand function (7), orientation and cognition skills (10), strength and pain (8), and coping and miscellaneous (8). We investigated 8,139 patients and determined reliability (kappa statistic) and responsivity (standardised response means). In 100 consecutive patients, we also measured the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) to address validity. RESULTS: With an average kappa value of 0.86 (range 0.62-0.98), the NRS showed excellent inter-rater reliability. There was a good correlation between NRS, FIM, and SSS. Response was good at 0.84. The ceiling effect was also less than 1%, compared to 17% in the Barthel Index. CONCLUSION: The NRS was shown to be effective for evaluation of outcome and expenditure in neurological rehabilitation.

Emmonsiosis of subterranean rodents (Bathyergidae, Spalacidae) in Africa and Israel.

The presence of adiaspores of the fungal genus Emmonsia was examined in the lungs of 85 mole rats representing 3 subterranean genera: blind mole rats (Spalax galili and S. golani) from Israel, Ansell's mole-rats (Cryptomys anselli) from Zambia, and silvery mole-rats (Heliophobius argenteocinereus) from Malawi and Zambia. Emmonsiosis was found in 28% of the blind mole rats, 100% of the Ansell's mole-rats, but in none of the silvery mole-rats. Infection in African mole-rats was caused by Emmonsia parva, and infection in Israeli blind mole rats was caused by E. parva and E. crescens. The study indicates that the perennial burrow system of the Ansell's mole-rat forms an appropriate microhabitat for the saprophytic growth of E. parva in Lusaka region, Zambia. We suggest that factors contributing to the striking difference in prevalence of emmonsiosis between the two African mole-rat genera (Cryptomys, Heliophobius) may be their differing burrow types, burrow longevity, and social lives.

[20 years experience with chlorprothixene (author's transl)]. / 20 Jahre Erfahrungen mit Chlorprothixen.

Chlorprothixene was the first neuroleptic of the thioxanthene group and was marketed in 1959 under the trade names of Taractan and Truxal. Since then 20 years have passed and the authors were of the opinion that it would be opportune to study the literature published during these 20 years. They perused 801 publications, hereof 542 clinical works. Of these clinical works 109 were suited for statistical analysis. They represented 7109 patients. The other publications comprise 4378 patients which means that all the literature studied consists of a total of 11487 patients. The chlorprothixene proved to be a broad-spectrum neuroleptic with good therapeutic effects. Side effects, especially the extrapyramidal symptoms, appeared only seldom. Among the 11487 patients only 1.02% showed extrapyramidal symptoms and of these only 0.05% had tardive dyskinesias. Sme evidence seems to exist that these are schizophrenic patients showing extrapyramidal symptoms, without having received neuroleptics. It is the authors' opinion that chlorprothixene is still a neuroleptic of topical interest.