Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät I--Zürich--Universität, 1992.

Thesis--Zürich. / Pub. also without thesis statement. Lebenslauf. Bibliography included in "Quellennachweise und Anmerkungen" (p. 76-83).

Permission from the author to digitize this work is pending. Please contact the ICS library if you would like to view this work.

Diese Arbeit analysiert die Serum-Creatin-Kinase Spiegel von Konduktorinnen der Duchenneschen und Beckerschen Muskeldystrophie. Besonderes Augenmerk dieser Arbeit liegt auf den CK-Werten von schwangeren Konduktorinnen für die Muskeldystrophie Duchenne und Becker. Es werden Unterschiede im CK-Wert zwischen Schwangeren und nicht Schwangeren aufgezeigt. Die Berechnung der Odds-Ratio für die Gruppen der schwangeren Frauen soll es ermöglichen, auch nach bereits eingetretener Schwangerschaft, eine möglichst genaue Ermittlung des Carrierstatus durchzuführen. Die CK-Werte wurden auch für nicht schwangere Frauen reevaluiert. Es wurden retrospektiv über einen Zeitraum von 7 Jahren Daten für die CK-Werte von Frauen gesammelt und ausgewertet, bei denen es innerhalb der Familie zu Fällen von Beckerscher oder Duchennescher Muskeldystrophie kam. Die Bestimmung der Serum Creatin-Kinase erfolgte nach der von der IFCC empfohlenen Methode bei 37 °C. Die Auswertung der Daten erfolgte nach folgenden Kriterien. Es wurden folgende Gruppen gebildet: Muskeldystrophie Duchenne, Muskeldystrophie Becker und Kontrollen. Innerhalb dieser Gruppen wurden zwei Altersgruppen gebildet. Die Altersgrenze lag bei 16 Jahren. Schwangere Frauen wurden getrennt von Frauen bei denen keine Schwangerschaft bestand analysiert. Die gewonnenen Daten wurden nach folgenden Gesichtspunkten ausgewertet: Die CK-Werte wurden logarithmiert, um einer Normalverteilung zu entsprechen. Die logarithmierten Creatin-Kinase Werte aller Gruppen waren normalverteilt. Die Verteilung der Daten innerhalb der relevanten Gruppen unterschied sich signifikant voneinander. Die Anzahl der ausgewerteten CK-Werte für die Gruppe der schwangeren BMD Überträgerinnen war deutlich zu klein. Es wurde der Mindestumfang für diese Gruppe ermittelt, um in zukünftigen Analysen signifikante Ergebnisse zu erhalten. Für die Gruppe der nicht schwangeren Überträgerinnen für die Duchennesche Muskeldystrophie bestand ein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen Alter und CK-Wert. Es konnte eine Regressionsgerade bestimmt werden und anhand dieser eine Alterskorrektur durchgeführt werden. Die Odds Ratio, die anhand des CK-Werts einer Frau errechnet wird, ist ein Element für die individuelle Risikoberechnung. Es ließ sich anhand der statistischen Kennwerte, Mittelwert µ und Standardabweichung σ, der einzelnen Gruppen Formeln zur Berechnung der Odds Ratio herleiten. Abschließend erfolgte die Berechnung der Sensitivität und Spezifität der CK-Wert Bestimmung. / Creatine Kinase levels in female carriers of Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy with particular reference to pregnancy

The overall assumption of this dissertation project is that there is something wrong with how humans typically communicate about death in regard to both the acknowledgment of one's own death as well as the passing of others. Through the primary utilization of the work of Ernest Becker and Viktor Frankl, this deficit of human communication is discussed, defined, and reoriented toward finding meaning in the moments of life that are often mistook for being meaningless. This metaphorical march of this project is toward finding the music in both life and death that allows the importance of both to be at the forefront of conscious communication. This project engages elements of sociology, philosophy, psychiatry, and the rich culture of New Orleans in order to uncover meaning-rich communicative spaces in which one can begin to consider the inherent power and responsibility that one must communicate about death. Though this project is guided by the metaphor of mythical Grim Reaper, the reader should not be confused about the menacing tone; Ultimately this dissertation is about life more than it is about death. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD; / Dissertation;

Thorsten Becker’s novel Schönes Deutschland appeared in 1996, six years after German reunification. Numerous people in both eastern and western Germany had hopes for a golden future in which the two Germanies would become one, but the realities of the “Wende” disappointed many citizens. Today enormous differences between eastern and western living standards, commerce and industry, and political and social mentalities still exist. Thorsten Becker’s novel imagines what would have happened had a new socialist revolution taken place reversing the “Wende” and returning Germany to a two-state configuration. This fictional new utopian socialist state, built upon market-orientated structures and isolating the populace from the outside world by means of full control of the media, addresses the disappointments associated with the “Wende” by letting the people think that they live in a paradise on earth where consumer-orientated happiness is more important than freedom, and individual happiness runs counter to the doctrine of the utopian state. The novel’s West German state, though not described in full detail, is similarly totalitarian in its control of public memory and history. With Schönes Deutschland Thorsten Becker partially revives the utopian genre in German literature, a category which had become largely ignored after the collapse first of national socialism and more recently of eastern European socialism. This can be traced to the fact that utopian fiction always contains totalitarian aspects, and the Germans’ experience with totalitarianism thus made them wary of the genre. By relying on motifs found in many utopian novels Schönes Deutschland explores the potential and the problems of imagining utopias in a media-based society. Therefore the main aspect of the thesis is not utopian motifs in a “Wende-Roman” but moreover the power and magic of the utopian imagination in modern times. This thesis reviews the history of German utopian literature before turning to a discussion of the new German Democratic Republic described by the novel’s nameless protagonist. The ability of this state to impinge on the freedom of the main character, and the roles which media, theatre and romantic love play in realizing or countering the state’s utopia visions for society are analyzed. The thesis concludes that utopian literature and thinking is not necessarily out of fashion. The novel contains both the positive and the negative sides of utopian thinking: progress, faith in the future, and personal individual happiness on the one hand, and totalitarian control, lack of political maturity, and a state-constructed propaganda of happiness on the other. Becker’s Schönes Deutschland is therefore worth examining because it combines these competing ideas in a way that provides new impulses for German utopian literature.

Thorsten Becker’s novel Schönes Deutschland appeared in 1996, six years after German reunification. Numerous people in both eastern and western Germany had hopes for a golden future in which the two Germanies would become one, but the realities of the “Wende” disappointed many citizens. Today enormous differences between eastern and western living standards, commerce and industry, and political and social mentalities still exist. Thorsten Becker’s novel imagines what would have happened had a new socialist revolution taken place reversing the “Wende” and returning Germany to a two-state configuration. This fictional new utopian socialist state, built upon market-orientated structures and isolating the populace from the outside world by means of full control of the media, addresses the disappointments associated with the “Wende” by letting the people think that they live in a paradise on earth where consumer-orientated happiness is more important than freedom, and individual happiness runs counter to the doctrine of the utopian state. The novel’s West German state, though not described in full detail, is similarly totalitarian in its control of public memory and history. With Schönes Deutschland Thorsten Becker partially revives the utopian genre in German literature, a category which had become largely ignored after the collapse first of national socialism and more recently of eastern European socialism. This can be traced to the fact that utopian fiction always contains totalitarian aspects, and the Germans’ experience with totalitarianism thus made them wary of the genre. By relying on motifs found in many utopian novels Schönes Deutschland explores the potential and the problems of imagining utopias in a media-based society. Therefore the main aspect of the thesis is not utopian motifs in a “Wende-Roman” but moreover the power and magic of the utopian imagination in modern times. This thesis reviews the history of German utopian literature before turning to a discussion of the new German Democratic Republic described by the novel’s nameless protagonist. The ability of this state to impinge on the freedom of the main character, and the roles which media, theatre and romantic love play in realizing or countering the state’s utopia visions for society are analyzed. The thesis concludes that utopian literature and thinking is not necessarily out of fashion. The novel contains both the positive and the negative sides of utopian thinking: progress, faith in the future, and personal individual happiness on the one hand, and totalitarian control, lack of political maturity, and a state-constructed propaganda of happiness on the other. Becker’s Schönes Deutschland is therefore worth examining because it combines these competing ideas in a way that provides new impulses for German utopian literature.

This thesis investigates the causes for the abrupt, universal and virtually unprecedented decline in the total fertility rate in transition Europe. Using evidence from Russia, it tests two competing hypotheses on the fertility decline: the demographic and economic hypotheses. Empirical findings can be summarized as follows: I find insufficient support for the demographic hypothesis-the fertility decline in Russia cannot satisfactorily be explained by a simultaneous shift in values and attitudes towards reproduction and timing of births. In contrast, I provide preliminary cross-regional evidence to support the economic hypothesis-regions with the largest fall in (the proxy for) income and large uncertainty experienced the largest declines in the fertility rates. This result is consistent with Becker's economic model of reproductive behaviour, insofar as it establishes a positive relationship between changes in income and fertility. It however introduces an additional explanatory variable: people's perception of uncertainty. In a preliminary attempt to reconcile the standard economic model with these findings, a simple model of households' reproductive decision is developed. It shows that each household tends to postpone the decision for an incremental child, whenever there is widespread uncertainty. It suggests that, if the individual decision to procrastinate is replicated over a large number of households, it can lead to an aggregate, short-term fall in the fertility rate. Provided that conclusions for the transition European region can be drawn from the Russian evidence, this inquiry shows that fertility has declined in response to a lower income and higher uncertainty: it reflects the deterioration in the quality of life and a loss in welfare. Thus, it is a strong negative indicator of the transition process.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät I--Zürich--Universität Zürich, 1992.