[Revoked driving right--a blunt weapon?]. / Fahrverbot--eine stumpfe Waffe?

I would like to complete and correct the article by Zabel in Blutalkohol XXXII (1995), 254 ff. by adding that the driving ban after speeding offences does not lead to a reduced risk of relapse. Furthermore, the standard federal list of offences punishable by fines is also valid in the Free State of Bavaria, and the principle of in dubio pro securitate is unknown in the German criminal law.

[Recent regulations on alcohol and other drugs in German criminal traffic law]. / Neuere Rechtsprechung zu Alkohol und anderen Drogen im deutschen Strassenverkehrs-Strafrecht.

The article contains a compilation of decisions recently made by German criminal courts. These decisions regarded punishable offences due to driving vehicles under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. They also dealt with the assessment of respective criminal offences and their legal consequences (punishment and withdrawal of driving licences).

[Alcohol related accidents and revoking the driving license for alcohol-induced traffic violations in Germany 1975-1993]. / Alkoholunfälle und Fahrerlaubnisentziehungen wegen Alkoholverkehrsstraftaten in Deutschland von 1975 bis 1993.

The Federal Office for Statistics and the Federal Office for Motor Vehicles made some statistics available on the development of accidents due to alcohol on German streets and the withdrawal of driving licences due to criminal offences involving drinking and driving in Germany from 1975 to 1993. These statistics are evaluated so that a connection between the accidents and the withdrawal of driving licences can be worked out. This evaluation showed that in the long run both the number of accidents caused by the influence of alcohol and the withdrawal of driving licences due to drinking and driving are falling in Germany.

[Testing the automobile driver in cases of uncertain qualification prognosis]. / Erprobung des Kraftfahrers bei unsicherer Eignungsprognose.

The qualification of a person to drive a motor vehicle is the presupposition for the required permission. The prognosis on future human behaviour, which is indispensible for a judgement on such a qualification, is difficult. Only in a few of these cases a clear "good"-prognosis or "bad"-prognosis can be found out. Frequently only an "uncertain"-prognosis is to be justified as a matter of fact. It is only to be said by the regulations of law, whether in cases of uncertain qualification prognosis the driver's licence should be given or denied or whether a driver's licence already given should be withdrawn or not. Starting points for theory and dogmatics on prognosis-decisions due to law and orientated in the knowledge of empiric sciences are to be found in administrative law as well as in criminal law. For example: penal regulations which call for prognosis should be interpreted in the manner that as a sanction (only to be imposed in cases of "bad"-prognosis) the milder measure is to be used at first. Only after an unsuccessful attempt with this milder measure it is allowed to take a more incisive measure (Frisch). In planning law the dilemma with prognosis should be overcome by reflexive feedback within the scope of a new type of procedural law, which would make a process of learning and evaluation possible and enforcable. From these starting points common legal principles on a "test-method" can be developed, which may be used in cases of "uncertain"-prognosis. Such a test-method may help for example to decide on execution relaxations due to the Law on Execution of the Sentence (OLG Celle). The decree on driver's licences on probation (valid since 1.11.1986) contains the most extensive regulations concerning the application of test-methods within driver's licences law. The solution of the problem shown there should be extended: Not only the first driver's licence should only be given on probation but also a renewed one. Even motorists coming conspicuous after the lapse of probation-time should be induced to behave appropriately in traffic by a test-method, which does not force qualification prognosis. So far a further development of point-system for repeated offenders is to be recommended. The test-method could be made quite more effective by refinement of the list of measures (e. g. injunction to participate in follow-up assistance or follow-up examination).

[Regulation for medical-psychologic examination of drunk drivers]. / Zur Anordnung einer medizinisch-psychologischen Untersuchung bei Trunkenheits-Ersttätern.

The author gives some further arguments for the truth of the critical review by Müller on the present legal situation of the medical-psychological examination of first-time drunken drivers by order (Blutalkohol 27, 116). He demands: Every person who applies for a driver's licence and whose former driving licence has been withdrawn should (after a screening of his person) be obliged to present a short expert opinion by a medical-psychological examination department, which gives hints on the further procedure before he is permitted to get a new driver's licence. The same procedure should be in force for persons who apply for a driver's licence on probation, if their former driving licence on probation has been withdrawn. Post-schooling, which is included in the law on driving licences, should not be carried through, if it is evidently hopeless. A certification on the participation in post-schooling course within the scope of the driver's licence on probation should not be given, if the aims of the course are evidently not within reach.

[King Solomon was wise after all. Defensive comment for saving the reputation of a deceased person and summons for the education of descendents]. / König Salomo war doch "weise". Schutzschrift zur Ehrenrettung eines Verstorbenen und Aufruf zur Aufkärung Nachgeborener.

Referring to the Bible the author contradicts Stephan's statement (Blutalkohol 26, 249) that Solomon was not "wise". He maintains and explains in detail that nowadays jurists and psychologists cannot be "wise" in a biblical sense. He welcomes and, considering it more deeply, supports the demand that with investigations through experts and with the corresponding valuation through jurists prejudices are to be avoided and that defendants and probationers are to be fully informed.

A viscosity model of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

In current theories of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the idea prevails that molecular sieving relies on different accessibility of volume fractions and of cross-sectional area fractions (denoted "pores") to different-sized ions due to the effect of "geometric exclusion". This correlates with the assumption that all elements of a polyacrylamide network occupy fixed and unchangeable positions thus forcing colliding macro-ions to diffuse laterally in order to find an "accessible pore" and to resume motion in direction of the electrical field. However, the alternative conception would be equally well justified, i.e. the assumption that polyacrylamide chains represent smooth obstacles cleared aside under the electrokinetic pressure of a macro-ion. This explanation would even be preferable with respect to the molecular sieving effects occurring in solutions of "liquid polyacrylamide". Yet no theory exists as to describe such effects in quantitative terms. In the present article, a parameter is defined and discussed, which can be estimated by experiment, and which seems to be apt to characterize local resistivity of polymer structures against dislocation and deformation: the "fractional specific resistance". Definition of this parameter is based on the model of a "viscosity-emulsion" composed of two interpenetrating liquid compartments which are characterized by different levels of hydrodynamic friction and the spatial dimensions of which are inferred from Ogston's theory. This concept of "localized viscosity" may also serve as a link between theories of molecular sieving and of "macroscopic viscosity" of flexible polymers. The data of Morris, formerly taken as verifications of the "rigid-pore" concept, are now interpreted in terms of four factors responsible for sizediscrimination: collision frequency, duration of single contacts, size-dependent frictional force, and the extent of cooperation among fibres, due to crosslinking and to simultanous contacts of several fibres to a single macro-ion. Some functions relevant for problems of molecular weight determination by gel electrophoresis are discussed in relation to the suggested model.