Munich Institute Research Articles

Guest Editorial: Situational awareness of integrated energy systems

Guest Editorial: Situational awareness of integrated energy systems

Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) Technical University of Munich.

The application of robotic and intelligent technologies in healthcare is dramatically increasing. The next generation of lightweight and tactile robots have provided a great opportunity to be used for a wide range of applications from medical examination, diagnosis, therapeutic procedures to rehabilitation and assistive robotics. They can potentially outperform current medical procedures by exploiting the com- plementary strengths of humans and computer-based technologies. In this study, the importance of human- robot interaction is discussed and technological re- quirements and challenges in making human-centered robot platforms for medical applications is addressed.

CyberLimb: a novel robotic prosthesis concept with shared and intuitive control

BackgroundExisting assistive technologies attempt to mimic biological functions through advanced mechatronic designs. In some occasions, the information processing demands for such systems require substantial information bandwidth and convoluted control strategies, which make it difficult for the end-user to operate. Instead, a practical and intuitive semi-automated system focused on accomplishing daily tasks may be more suitable for end-user adoption.MethodsWe developed an intelligent prosthesis for the Cybathlon Global Edition 2020. The device was designed in collaboration with the prosthesis user (pilot), addressing her needs for the competition and aiming for functionality. Our design consists of a soft robotic-based two finger gripper controlled by a force-sensing resistor (FSR) headband interface, automatic arm angle dependent wrist flexion and extension, and manual forearm supination and pronation for a shared control system. The gripper is incorporated with FSR sensors to relay haptic information to the pilot based on the output of a neural network model that estimates geometries and objects material.ResultsAs a student team of the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, we achieved 12th place overall in the Cybathlon competition in which we competed against state-of-the-art prosthetic devices. Our pilot successfully accomplished two challenging tasks in the competition. During training sessions, the pilot was able to accomplish the remaining competition tasks except for one. Based on observation and feedback from training sessions, we adapted our developments to fit the user’s preferences. Usability ratings indicated that the pilot perceived the prosthesis to not be fully ergonomic due to the size and weight of the system, but argued that the prosthesis was intuitive to control to perform the tasks from the Cybathlon competition.ConclusionsThe system provides an intuitive interface to conduct common daily tasks from the arm discipline of the Cybathlon competition. Based on the feedback from our pilot, future improvements include the prosthesis’ reduction in size and weight in order to enhance its mobility. Close collaboration with our pilot has allowed us to continue with the prosthesis development. Ultimately, we developed a simple-to-use solution, exemplifying a new paradigm for prosthesis design, to help assist arm amputees with daily activities.

Epigenomics in trees: decoding the plastic lives of mangroves.

This article is a Commentary on Miryeganeh et al. (2022), 233: 2094–2110.

Dibaryons: Molecular versus compact hexaquarks * *This work has been supported by DFG (CL 214/3-3). H. Cl. appreciates the support by the Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics (MIAPP) which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC-2094 - 390783311

Hexaquarks constitute a natural extension of complex quark systems, just as tetra- and pentaquarks do. To this end, the current status of in both experiment and theory is reviewed. Recent high-precision measurements in the nucleon-nucleon channel and analyses thereof have established as an indisputable resonance in the long-sought dibaryon channel. Important features of this state are its narrow width and deep binding relative to the threshold. Its decay branchings favor theoretical calculations predicting a compact hexaquark nature of this state. We review the current status of experimental and theoretical studies on as well as new physics aspects it may bring in future. In addition, we review the situation at the and thresholds, where evidence for a number of resonances of presumably molecular nature has been found – similar to the situation in charmed and beauty sectors. Finally, we briefly discuss the situation of dibaryon searches in the flavored quark sectors.

Expert Opinions on Foreign Law in Court: Applied Comparative Law in the Munich Institute for East European Law

Comparative law has many facets. It often consists of basic research for academic purposes, but it may have a practical side as well. A genuine combination of basic and applied comparative legal research are expert opinions on foreign law for a domestic court. The expert researcher has to fully comprehend the foreign law on the books as well as in action, and has to be able to translate this foreign law into the legal background of the domestic court and into the procedural setting of the law-suit at hand. Taking the ‘Munich Institute for East European Law’ as an example, this essay describes the continuous basic research as a prerequisite for expertise on foreign law, as well as the practice of writing expert opinions for courts of law and authorities with regard to the law of the formerly socialist countries in Europe.

Hadronic cross section of e+e− annihilation at bottomonium energy region * * Supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11521505, 11475187, 11375206); Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS, (QYZDJ-SSW-SLH011); the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP); and the Munich Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics (MIAPP) which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

The Born cross section and dressed cross section of and the total hadronic cross section in annihilation in the bottomonium energy region are calculated based on the values measured by the BaBar and Belle experiments. The data are used to calculate the vacuum polarization factors in the bottomonium energy region, and to determine the resonant parameters of the vector bottomonium(-like) states , , and .

Problem of Social Leadership and Social Conflict in USSR in Works of Scientists of Russian Emigre of 1950s and 1970s

The issue of understanding by scientists and public figures of the Russian Emigre of social relations in the USSR of the 1950-1970s is considered in the article. The novelty of the work lies in the choice of sources of research - articles and books of figures of Russian Emigre. The author emphasizes that the main part of the ideas of the considered authors is not sufficiently represented in the scientific community. It is noted that the founders of the research of Soviet society were scientists from the Munich Institute for the Study of History and Culture of the USSR, which in 1957 held a major international conference “Modern Soviet Society”. It is concluded that the conference reports on the multiplicity of Soviet society, the presence of serious legal and economic differentiation, the emergence of new progressive classes (engineering and technical intelligentsia) laid the foundation for promoting research on Russian society. According to the author, in the late 1960s, this direction was actively cultivated by Soviet dissidents who emigrated to the West, and close associates who remained in the USSR (A. A. Amalrik, K. Bourzhuademov, S. S. Malevsky-Malevich, V. Belotserkovsky). A review of the historiography of the Russian Emigre allows us to create a platform for reflection on the social forces of Soviet society, the driving motives of their activity and the struggle for a place in the class hierarchy.

Get the picture?

Geologist and science writer Nina Morgan hears of a formidable force in palaeobotany Morgan, N. Distant Thunder: Get the picture? Geoscientist 29 (9), 26, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1144/geosci2019-052; Download the pdf here Passionate about palaeobotany, and a pioneer in the study of coal geology, Marie Stopes [1880-1958] is best known to the public at large as a sex symbol for her enthusiastic promotion of birth control and best-selling books such as Married Love, first published in 1918. Blessed with a formidable intellect, as well as a flamboyant and determined nature, she was nothing if not controversial. Left, Marie Stopes (taken in 1904) [Author unknown; Public domain] In 1902, at a time when few women attended universities, Stopes obtained a double honours degree in botany and geology from University College London (UCL)—after just two years of study. She went on to become the first woman to obtain a PhD in botany from the Botanical Institute in Munich, where university rules had to be altered to allow her to graduate. In 1904, she was appointed Demonstrator in Palaeobotany at Manchester University, overcoming opposition from some in the Senate who opposed the idea of a young woman teaching men. In 1905, she became the youngest Doctor of Science in Britain, and in 1907 she travelled to Japan to spend two years carrying out palaeobotanical research. Along the way she prepared museum catalogues, participated in international discussions, went down coal mines and carried out pioneering work on Carboniferous calcite-rich concretions known as coal-balls. Strong minded In 1910, Stopes was elected a fellow of UCL and, for the rest of her life, made regular appearances in the geology department. As a young Assistant Lecturer at UCL during the 1950s, Eric Robinson [born 1929] recalls how he was delegated to receive her when she visited the department because the then professor, Sydney Hollingworth [1899-1966], chose not to meet her.

Ein Haus für Pettenkofer. Wissenschaftliche Traditionspflege in München 1902–1962

AbstractA House for Pettenkofer. Cultivation of a Scientific Tradition in Munich, 1902–1962. The article deals with three attempts to preserve the memory as well as the scientific heritage of Max von Pettenkofer, made by his successors at the University of Munich's Institute of Hygiene, Max von Gruber, Karl Kisskalt, and Hermann Eyer. All of those scientific memorials were supposed to take the form of a building: an interdisciplinary center of science and education in the city of Munich, an outpost of the Institute of Hygiene in Pettenkofer's birthplace in rural Bavaria, and a new building for the institute itself. The effort to establish such a place of memory and emulation were driven, on the one hand, by Pettenkofer's downright mythical reputation as the man who not only had established a new scientific field but saved Munich from dirt and pestilence; on the other hand, it was motivated by his successors’ respective understanding of which aspects of Pettenkofer's legacy were worth preserving as well as helpful in order to advance their own scientific and institutional standing – a calculation which turned out to be still valid and compelling more than half a decennium after Pettenkofer's death.

Review of the tutorial: Novikova O., Tuluzakova O., Shtandenko U. Ukrainian as a foreign language. Preparation for test, training tasks. Intermediate level (O. Novikova (ed.). Mykolaiv : Publishing House of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, 2017

Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University has published a tutorial “Ukrainian as a Foreign Language. Preparation for Test, Training Tasks. Intermediate Level”. The tutorial is addressed to adults who study Ukrainian for daily communication, have reached the appropriate level of language proficiency regardless of the forms and conditions of education and want to improve the already acquired knowledge of Ukrainian as a foreign language. It can be used to prepare for the exam to determine the level of language proficiency, for certain forms of control of the main types of speech activity, as an additional material for the study of conversation topics of everyday and socio-cultural orientation. The key-answers should not only facilitate the work of the teacher but also help to independently test the student’s knowledge. The tutorial is clearly structured: it contains 20 sections devoted to various areas of daily communication built mainly on the materials of electronic editions of the modern Ukrainian press. They cover not only the traditional circle of topics and situations, such as “Education”, “Health”, “Work”, “Hobbies”, etc. but also new ones, such as “Business”, “Finance”, “Modern technologies” and so on. The manual includes the actual problem texts (“What salary Ukrainians want to get”, “Ukraine as Europe in miniature”, “Ukrainian nature has something to surprise”, “5 myths of Ukrainians about the European Union”, “More than 85 % of drivers in Ukraine do not use safety belts”, “Interesting about the oldest Ukrainian cities”, etc.), which distinguishes it from other similar editions. The unquestioning advantage of a reviewed publication is the professional audio recording of texts relating to topics (part 1), short adverts (part 2), and tasks to them (on a CD attached to the manual). The materials of the tutorial have been tested by the students of the Munich Institute of Slavonic Philology of the University of Ludwig-Maximilian during the teaching of the discipline “Ukrainian as a Foreign Language”.Матеріал надійшов 14.06.2018

GroundCare - Invertebrates as indicators for untreated water and intrusion of surface water in water supply systems

Functioning, healthy groundwater ecosystems are essential for high quality drinking water, and they minimize costs of processing groundwater for drinking purposes. GroundCare is a multidisciplinary project, which is led by the Helmholz Institute in Munich, Germany and funded by the BMBF (German federal Ministry of education and Research). The aim is to parametrize and to quantify groundwater ecosystem services as a basis for sustainable water management and water pollution control by biomonitoring. In other words: the development of biological assessment techniques. Multiple parameters are evaluated (physico-chemical parameters, microbial and fauna community composition, ecotoxicological effects). Invertebrate fauna is investigated at five sites all across Germany. During the project, molecular identification through DNA Barcoding and Metabarcoding of groundwater invertebrates is being implemented and compared to traditional morphological bio-assessment. The subterranean fauna can be used as bio-indicators to validate groundwater conditions, in particular surface water intrusion. For the water suppliers, surface water intrusion means an increased risk of contamination. The discrimination of epigean from stygobiotic fauna is the simple and basic idea of this approach. A very specific kind of water treatment is used by the water works in Würzburg (Bavaria), one of the fife study sites, which is located directly along the Main river bank. Uncommonly, they use part time river bank filtration if land-side groundwater levels are low. Another possibility is the extraction of Main River water by near-bank wells, followed by intensive water treatment and then the water is infiltrated again. The question asked was, whether the fauna indicates this specific situation or not. In the area, three types of subsurface waters can be distinguished, which are land-side groundwater, riverbank water and artificially infiltrated Main river water. Representative bores were sampled four times over one year for invertebrates. First results clearly show that the faunal patterns reflect these different hydrological situations.

Опыт мультидисциплинарного исследования памятников и материалов эпохи голоцена Барабинской лесостепи: к 45-летию Западносибирского археологического отряда Института археологии и этнографии СО РАН

Purpose. We show the main directions of work of the West Siberian archaeological detachment (team) of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, demonstrate the methods used and present the results and the possibilities of their interpretation. Results. In 2018, the West Siberian archaeological detachment celebrates the 45th anniversary of its formation. The long-term head of the team is academician V. I. Molodin. All studies are carried out within the framework of a multidisciplinary approach starting from the search for archaeological objects (sites Tartas-1, Vengerovo-2, -2A, -6, Staryi Tartas-5, Ust’-Tartas-1,-2; Chicha-1, Vengerovo-6 and others) to their laboratory investigation. We widely apply a range of analytical methods in all of our activities including almost all stages of research: from the search for archaeological sites to their processing in close cooperation with various scientists. We collaborate with specialists from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia; the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia; the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia; the Institute of Cytology and Genetics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia; the Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia; Novosibirsk National Research State University, Novosibirsk, Russia; the Center of Collective Use (CCU) “Geochronology of Cenozoic”, Novosibirsk, Russia; Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany; Ludwig-Maximilian Munich Institute, Munich, Germany; the Center of Archaeology of Kurt Engelhorn, Mannheim, Germany and others. Conсlusion. Studies of the West Siberian archaeological detachment, which were carried out over the recent two decades, have provided new data that develop existing points of view, clarify existing concepts or allow to build new concepts of historical and cultural processes. It is obvious that the modern paradigm of science requires participation of specialists in natural sciences at all stages of archaeological research.

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis-Ökonomen und die führenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse

Zusammenfassung Rezente Beiträge in der wachsenden Disziplin der Szientometrie und Bibliometrie haben begonnen, nicht nur den „Impact“ der Veröffentlichungen in Fachzeitschriften, sondern auch von Büchern zu studieren. Diese Methode kann auf einzelne Autoren oder sogar auf den „Impact“ eines gesamten Verlags-Unternehmens angewendet werden. In unserem Aufsatz analysieren wir die Publikationsmuster der Nobelpreisträger für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, 1994–2014. Mehr als 50% der besten und zweithäufigsten global vertretenen Buchpublikationen dieser Autorinnen und Autoren geschahen bei nur 8 Verlagen, die alle durch ihre strenge Peer-Review bekannt sind. Wir diskutieren dann die bisherigen Rankings der Verlage in der Literatur, und präsentieren dann unseren eigenen multivariaten Versuch, der folgende Dimensionen kombiniert: – Die Veröffentlichung der Ergebnisse der Wissenschaft, – Zitate und Ranking in der akademischen Gemeinschaft, – Marktdurchdringung in zwei typischen westlichen Industrieländern, – Die Beachtung der veröffentlichten Bücher durch internationale Entscheidungsträger, – Marktdurchdringung in Entwicklungsländern, – Beachtung in den internationalen Medien. Die 6 Indikatoren für die 57 Unternehmen mit vollständigen Daten werden präsentiert und die Ergebnisse vorgestellt.

Nikolaus Wachsmann. KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps.

June 28, 2016 Harold Marcuse, Featured Review for American Historical Review, of: KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps, by Nikolaus Wachsmann, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), 865 pp., cloth $40. review: 2574 words with 130 struck through = 2444 (2500 max) The title of this prodigious but eminently readable work, KL, is programmatic. Instead of the more commonly known and used abbreviation for the German Konzentrationslager, KZ, Nikolaus Wachsmann has chosen the official Nazi abbreviation, which was guarded like a trademark by the system's potentate, Heinrich Himmler, who did not want competing camps outside of his system. KL reflects Wachsmann's attempt to roll back the veils of historiography and memory to reveal the system as seen by its contemporaries as it unfolded over time. This undertaking synthesizes numerous works of German scholarship, which since the 1990s have drawn upon a wealth of newly available sources to shed light on many aspects of the Nazi camp system. While a meticulous and innovative overview of the Nazi concentration camp system based on the latest scholarly research would already be a significant achievement, Wachsmann combines this scholarship with an encyclopedic knowledge of published and unpublished survivor accounts. The many corrective and illustrative anecdotes that lace this dense account also keep it engaging. Additionally, Wachsmann is attentive to the broader social, political and economic contexts within which the camp system evolved and operated. This enables him to revise longstanding preconceptions about the camp system, which have persisted because of its unique historiography. A look back at previous attempts to portray the entire system highlights the achievement embodied by KL. The first such attempt was made by Eugen Kogon, a non-party-affiliated anti-Nazi who was liberated from Buchenwald, where he had been imprisoned since 1939. Immediately after liberation the US Army commissioned the scholar-journalist to write a report about the camp system. Over the following months Kogon augmented and reworked his original Buchenwald Report, publishing it under the title Der SS-Staat in 1946. It was translated into English in 1950 as The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them. Still in print today, the nearly 50 German editions and dozen translations of this book remained the only attempt at a comprehensive portrayal of Himmler's KL system until the 1990s. This is not to say that no scholars had written about the camps until then. Historians at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) compiled historical reports for the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial in 1963, soon published under the title Anatomy of the SS-State (1965, English 1968). Typical of works during this period, they were based almost exclusively on perpetrator-

PGSB/MIPS PlantsDB Database Framework for the Integration and Analysis of Plant Genome Data.

Plant Genome and Systems Biology (PGSB), formerly Munich Institute for Protein Sequences (MIPS) PlantsDB, is a database framework for the integration and analysis of plant genome data, developed and maintained for more than a decade now. Major components of that framework are genome databases and analysis resources focusing on individual (reference) genomes providing flexible and intuitive access to data. Another main focus is the integration of genomes from both model and crop plants to form a scaffold for comparative genomics, assisted by specialized tools such as the CrowsNest viewer to explore conserved gene order (synteny). Data exchange and integrated search functionality with/over many plant genome databases is provided within the transPLANT project.

German neurology and neurologists during the Third Reich: exemplified by research on epilepsy

There are only a small number of studies dealing with the impact of eugenic theories and practices on the research of particular neurological diseases during the Third Reich. Thus, this contribution to the special issue on neurology in Germany between 1933 and 1945 focuses exemplarily on epilepsy research. By drawing on primary sources and secondary literature the article tries to reconstruct the scientific discourse of the time and consider the implications for patients. National socialistic ideology was based on eugenic thinking and the implementation of eugenic policies was a major political objective. An immediate effect of this policy was the passing of the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) in 1933. According to this law "hereditary epilepsy" along with various other neurological and psychiatric disorders was regarded as a mandatory indication for forced sterilization. Subsequently, funding of epileptological research was generously increased and extended, e. g. at the German Research Institute (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt) in Munich and the Rheinische Provinzial-Institut in Bonn. The main focus was placed on idiopathic forms of the disease, which were a priori considered as hereditary. At the annual meetings of the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists (Gesellschaft deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater), lectures and debates on epilepsy repeatedly constituted a key topic. Some participants opted for a broad interpretation of "endogeneity" and thus favored an extension of the practice of sterilization but others advocated a more differentiated and restricted attitude. Several neurology researchers showed a penchant for self-mobilization in line with the doctrine of the new government.

EMIL KRAEPELIN’S INAUGURAL LECTURE IN DORPAT: CONTEXTS AND LEGACIES

1. Introduction The psychiatrist Emil (1856-1926) is today best known for having distinguished between what we have come to call schizophrenia on the one hand, and manic-depressive illness on the other. This basic dichotomy has been enormously influential in the history of twentieth century psychiatry. Over the past several decades, with the rise of biological psychiatry and--especially in the United States--the displacement of psychoanalytic psychiatry, has become an icon. His legacy has been appropriated by so-called neo-Kraepelinian psychiatrists who have repeatedly evoked his name in support of efforts to strengthen the biomedical model of mental disorders and to reinforce psychiatry's status as a research-based medical specialty within the mental health professions (Mayes and Horowitz 2005, McCarthy and Gerring 1994). Indeed, what some have described as a 'revolutionary' (Compton and Guze 1995, Klerman 1989:31) paradigm shift toward 'biological psychiatry' in the late twentieth century has gone hand-in-hand with recourse to Kraepelin's work. In the words of a former editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry, in moving forward, psychiatric research has found itself returning to the past and coming back full circle to the work of Kraepelin (Andreasen 1997:108). Emil Kraepelin's enormous influence in psychiatry is commonly put down to his clinical methods and nosology. According to advocates and detractors alike, his empirical research techniques and unique powers of observation were decisive factors in the delineation of schizophrenic and manic-depressive forms of mental illness. So it is hardly surprising--and certainly not without justification--that we have come to view him as a grand clinical nosologist. But in the 1880s, was not yet the clinical nosologist that he later became. Rather, a far more apt description of him at that stage in his career would be an experimental psychologist. worked in the famous laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) in Leipzig, where he conducted psycho-physical experiments on the effects of various pharmacological and other stimulants. And over the course of his entire career, strove to establish the Wundtian psychological experiment as part of psychiatry's diagnostic repertoire. He created laboratories for psychological research at the university clinics he headed in Dorpat, Heidelberg, and Munich, as well as at the German Research Institute in Munich which he founded in 1917. For well over forty years, up to the very end of his career, conducted psychological research and remained convinced of its importance and usefulness in the development of psychiatric science (Kraepelin 1920:359-360, 1983:218). In general, historians of psychiatry have tended to ignore Kraepelin's laboratory research and it has come to be seen as little more than an awkward appendage to his clinical work (Gaupp 1939:68, Birnbaum 1928:42, Gruhle 1929:46, Ackerknecht 1985:78). From the perspective of clinical medicine, never succeeded, as he had hoped, in integrating psychological research into his broader nosological scheme. His enormously influential textbook Psychiatry was all but silent on the relevance of experimental psychology in psychiatric practice. Hence, it is not surprising that it has been largely purged from historical memory, while at the same time his pragmatic taxonomy was readily canonized by clinical psychiatry. My aim in this article is to reflect on Kraepelin's research in experimental psychology and its relationship with his nosology. Much of his early experimental research took place at the University of Dorpat, where from 1886 to 1891 he was a member of the medical faculty and director of the psychiatric clinic. In his inaugural lecture of 1886, he articulated the significance of experimental psychology in his early research agenda (Kraepelin 1887a). 2. Historical contexts: unitary psychosis and neuropsychiatry To fully appreciate the importance of Kraepelin's inaugural lecture, it is worth recalling two especially noteworthy historical contexts. …

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis--konomen und die ffhrenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse (The Book Publications of the Nobel-Prize Economists and the Leading Book Publishers of the Discipline. A Bibliometric Analysis)

Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis--konomen und die ffhrenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse (The Book Publications of the Nobel-Prize Economists and the Leading Book Publishers of the Discipline. A Bibliometric Analysis)

An exciting and well-written overview of China's patent law

This section is dedicated to the review of ideas, articles, books, films and other media. It will include replies (and rejoinders) to articles, the evaluation of new ideas or proposals, and reviews of books and articles both directly and indirectly related to intellectual property law. This book on patent law in China is outstanding and it is hoped that it will enjoy regular updates in this rapidly developing legal field. The book, written by experienced practitioners and scholars, provides a comprehensive and helpful insight into patent law and practice in China. The editors, Stefan Luginbuehl, a long-standing member of the legal department of the European Patent Office and a publisher on Chinese patent law, and Peter Ganea, who has published work on Japanese and Chinese law over many years, formerly at the Max-Planck Institute in Munich and currently at the University of Frankfurt, have gathered a number of China-experienced authors who provided in-depth information on patent-related topics concerning China.