Characterization of primary lesions caused by the plastome mutator of Oenothera.

Oenothera plants homozygous for a recessive allele at the plastome mutator (pm) locus show non-Mendelian mutation frequencies that are 1000-fold higher than spontaneous levels. Characterization of RFLP sites in a collection of mutants indicates that insertion-deletion hot spots in the pm lines are defined by tandem direct repeats, implicating replication slippage or misalignment during recombination. Several sites known to contain very short direct repeats were examined, and all were found to have been targeted in one or more plants of the mutant collection. To determine if replication slippage was occurring, two oligo-A stretches in non-coding DNA were examined, and 3 of 12 plants were found to have an additional adenine in a 13-base track. To search for other mutations that would not be visible as restriction fragment length polymorphisms, PCR-amplification products of the psbB gene were digested with a restriction endonuclease, denatured, and examined for single-strand conformational polymorphisms. Among 21 mutants, one 4-bp insertion and one point mutation were identified in psbB. The discovery that the plastome mutator can cause base substitutions as well as repeat-mediated insertions and deletions points to a likely defect in a component of the cpDNA replication machinery.

[Legal aspects of treatment and care of elderly patients]. / Rechtliche Aspekte bei der Behandlung und Pflege alter Menschen.

Legal aspects in criminal and civil law of treatment of senior patients are discussed: Problems of euthanasia, physician's duty to save and protect life, patient's right of freedom and the problems of unlawful personal injuries. If the senior patient is unable to give consent, then the consent of the patient's legal representative (legal guardian) must be obtained, in certain cases also the consent of the District Court.

Ethical, legal and medical problems on the borderline between life and death.

'Brain death' appears to be almost a closed chapter in medical history. But it remains fascinating, particularly regarding future developments, how medical discoveries, moral dilemmas, ethics and law have merged and lead to a common consent on the principal medical, ethical and juristic positions. After a consideration of these questions, topical problems concerning the extent and the limits of medical responsibilities, especially with regard to euthanasia and the problems of a broad interpretation of brain death are discussed.

[Medical autopsy. Problems in the medical field, in judicial inquiries and with federal laws]. / Arztliche Leichenschau. Probleme im ärztlichen Bereich, bei Ermittlungsbehörden und bei landesrechtlichen Regelungen.

A basic duty of coroner's inquest is to ascertain whether death was due to an internal or external cause or cause of death remains unclear; economic constrains and less effort for the coroner's inquest lead to blunders on several levels: the physician's level, the level of judicial inquiry and the Land governments. Typical negative and positive marks as well as intermediate stages on each of these levels are pointed out, perspectives are shown.

[Reliability of forensic evidence in breath alcohol analysis]. / Zur Frage der forensischen Beweissicherheit der Atemalkoholanalyse.

Drinking experiments were performed by using a device-combination appreciated by the German National Institut of Health (BGA) as being evidential and proposed as prototype for the future practice of breath-alcohol analysis. Comparing the breath- (BrAC) and blood alcohol-concentrations (BAC), however, there were relevant deviations. Our evaluation of the facts published Schoknecht demonstrated nevertheless distinct divergences in comparison to the blood alcohol determination: A BAC-nominal of 1% gave divergences of the nominal up to 0.25% resulted from the measured BrAC-values of Schoknecht on corresponding conversion. The divergences are distinctly above those that are tolerated by legislation according to previous standards for the blood alcohol determination. Consequently it requires further checking in standardized experiments and field experiments in order to be able to judge the practice usefulness; furthermore such further checking would have to be implemented by unconcerned institutions. Basing on these experiments an evidential breath-alcohol analysis for forensic purposes has not been established yet.

[Automobile driving studies to determine alcohol-induced driving insecurity after dark]. / Pkw-Fahrversuche zur Frage der alkoholbedingten Fahrunsicherheit bei Dunkelheitsfahrten.

To further elucidate the question whether the criteria for assessing alcohol-induced unfitness to drive should be stricter for night-time than for day-time driving (cf. Schewe et al., 1977) 64 test persons performed automobile driving tests in daylight and in darkness while being sober and while under the influence of alcohol. The first set of tests was done in daylight. A test course of approx. 600 m involving six everyday driving maneuvers had to be covered, first in the sober state and then at blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of 1.1 g % and 1.4 g %. The driving tests in the dark were performed on the same test course, first in the sober state and then at a BAC of 1.1 g%. In both test series the errors were counted and the driving times measured. Statistical evaluation of the test results was done parametrically (t-test for dependent random samples) and distribution-free (Wilcoxon's test for paired comparison). In the sober state 2.1 errors were made on average during the day and 3.2 errors, i.e. one error more, at night. At 1.1 g %, 4.3 errors occurred during the day but 8.0 errors at night (i.e. 3.7 errors more than during the day). The differences were statistically significant. With 8 errors during night-time driving at 1.1 g % the number of errors was still higher than the average number of 6.8 errors made during day-time driving at 1.4 g %. The average driving times required in the sober state were 241 s during the day and 256 s at night. At 1.1 g %, 243 s were needed during the day and 272 s at night, i.e. on average 17 s more than for day-time driving at 1.4 g % for which 255 s were needed. For an orienting comparison of driving performance it can be assumed that "performance" in the sense meant here is reciprocally proportional to the number of errors and reciprocally proportional to the time required, i.e. on the whole reciprocally proportional to the product from number of errors and time. The deterioration of performance can be illustrated best by assuming performance in the sober state during the day to be 100% and relating the other "performances" thereto.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cytoplasmic male sterility and nuclear restorer genes in a natural population of Beta maritima: genetical and molecular aspects.

One natural population (F0 generation) of Beta maritima situated on the French Atlantic coast has been analysed. It was composed of 62% female, 30% hermaphrodite and 8% intermediate plants. The analysis of half-sib progeny (F1 generation) obtained from in situ open pollination demonstrates the cytoplasmic determination of male sterility in Beta maritima and the restoration of fertility by nuclear genes. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the chloroplast DNA (ctDNA) of sixteen F1 plants, extracted from offspring of the three sexual phenotypes, were analysed using the restriction enzymes Sal I and Bam HI, respectively. Two cytoplasmic lines with their own peculiar genetic characteristics were distinguished using the restriction enzyme patterns of mtDNA: (i) the S cytoplasmic line was found in segregating progeny of two F0 plants; all three phenotypes were produced (that is, progeny including hermaphrodite, female and intermediate plants); (ii) the N cytoplasmic line was found in the progeny of one F0 hermaphrodite plant; this produced only hermaphrodites. Thus, segregating and non-segregating hermaphrodite F0 plants can be distinguished. The nuclear genes maintaining sterility or restoring fertility are expressed in line S. At the same time the analysis of Beta vulgaris material has been carried out at the molecular level: N cytoplasmic lines of B. vulgaris and B. maritima differed only by 3 fragments of mtDNA; but the S cytoplasmic line of B. maritima was very different from Owen's cytoplasmic male sterile line of B. vulgaris. No variation in the ctDNA pattern was detected within and between the two taxa.

[Recent developments in medical law]. / Die neuere Entwicklung des Arztrechts.

The most spectacular aspect is the extremely rapid expansion of medical law. Even if there is a close connection between developments in medicine and in law, the question must be asked as to what extent new discoveries and advances in medicine play a dominant role here, and to what extent the emphasis is on the further development of law. How advances in medicine can give rise to new legal problems was most impressively demonstrated some time ago by the discussion about cerebral death. In view of the progress made in the field of re-animation and intensive care, the current question is whether or not the physician's duties and rights to maintain life should be limited in hopeless cases when patients are incapable of making decisions themselves. This is demonstrated in particular by the discussion about the binding character of "patient testaments" in which healthy subjects declare that they do not want treatment under such circumstances. The decisive factor will continue to be the presumptive will of the patient at the respective time, and this will have to be ascertained considering all circumstances prevailing at that time. New questions with regard to the ethical and legal limitation of the technically feasible also arise from the possibility of culturing embryos from legal abortions or extracorporally fertilized ova to obtain transplants, and from the possibility of implanting extracorporally fertilized ova into the uterus, perhaps that of a "hired childbearing wet-nurse." In addition to ethical and legal problems, questions of parentage would arise here similar to those already of current interest in connection with artificial heterologous insemination. For physicians practicing these methods, questions concerning liability and the limitation of professional secrecy vis-à-vis the semen donor might become the issue of law suits in the near future. Current problems of "unsuccessful sterilization" and nonperformance of an abortion through the physician's fault although abortion was indicated for eugenic reasons are, on the other hand, primarily due to the fact that the law--possibility even for acceptable reasons--establishes legal obligations for the physician which, in the last analysis, aim at preventing human life from coming into being.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

[When should contraceptive agents be given to minors?]. / Wann Ovulations-hemmer an Minder-jährige?

PIP: The problem of prescribing oral contraceptives to minors is discussed. The prescription must not go against the established mores of society. The patient must be thoroughly informed about the use and possible side effects of the oral contraceptives. The patient must also be capable of giving informed consent, which is different from being of "legal age". It is difficult for a physician to determine if his minor patient is capable of giving informed consent, especially if she is under 16. Such decisions must be left up to the individual physician to reach in each individual case.^ieng