Munich Research Research Articles

Adventure and contingency in literary theory

The relation between adventure and contingency is an ambivalent one. This ambivalence can be described by using a distinction of two aspects already tied together in âventiure (as a French foreign word in German), distinguished by Jacob Grimm as “begebenheit” versus “erzählte geschichte selbst,” rendered as ‘type of event’ versus ‘narrative pattern’ in the terminology of the Munich research group Philology of Adventure. On the one hand, it seems obvious that for an adventure, as a type of event, a contingent element is a crucial precondition. An adventurous agent must willingly expose himself to this contingent event and interpret it as a ‘Chance’ (using a French foreign word in German, again), i.e. as opportunity to gain by risking, be it simply capital—as in the economic usage of the word, from English ‘Merchant Adventurers’ to contemporary ‘Venture Capital’—, or be it fame or prestige—as in Medieval and Early Modern adventure epics and novels. On the other hand, adventure, as a narrative pattern, tends to reduce contingencies in order to ‘make sense’. Even if adventure tales tolerate and actually support episodic structures, these episodes must, after all, be motivated and integrated into a plot. In other words: Writing an adventure story always already implies to tame (or perhaps rather frame) the very contingency it is based on. Adventure stories are therefore typical cases of “eliminat[ing] the contingent part of the literary phenomena it deals with” (Duprat and Jordan, introduction to the present special issue). This tension is, however, rarely acknowledged in the history of literary theory—here taken in the longue durée, starting with Early Modern poetics. The present essay discusses some steps from the history of relevant theories, with a particular emphasis on Giorgio Agamben's recent eulogy of adventure.

The political ecology of the entropy principle: 19th century physics and the electrification of Germany

The formalisation of the entropy law by Rudolf Clausius in 1865 marks a shift in 19th century physics. By defining energy as a process, German physicists were able to shape the necessary epistemological instruments for the second industrial revolution. The Berlin School of Thermodynamics applied physics for industrialising the recently unified Prussian state, making energy an important site of state governance. The entropy principle, an economic abstraction of the entropy law, called for a stronger interconnection of science and economics. Facilitated by a pessimistic anthropocentrism of Hermann von Helmholtz, German physics pushed for the application of statistical thermodynamics to the real world. Thus, nature's chaotic energy flows were rationalised for them to be legible to the state. Based on archival research in Berlin and Munich, this paper tells the story of such development, by highlighting how the entropy principle became institutionalised for industrialisation. Next to Clausius paradigm shift in 1865, it focusses on the foundation of the Physical Technical Reich Institute in 1887 and the International Electricity Exhibition in Frankfurt in 1891. The latter introduced the centralised production and grid-like distribution of electricity, revolutionising modes of production in urban as well as rural spaces. The analysis of such socio-technical development of the energy system in the fin de siècle enables the necessary thrust to make wider claims about how environmentalism, changing modes of production and the craft of the state are intertwined. This has great relevance for the historicization of current modes of transition towards a low-carbon economy in Germany and beyond. Physical knowledges and institutional arrangements of the energy system were shaped in conjunction, establishing a certain path dependency to such developments.

Shipping Fools: Foucault’s Wandering Madman and Civic Responsibility in Late Medieval Germany

Abstract Few aspects of Michel Foucault’s seminal study The History of Madness have been more widely derided and debunked than Foucault’s assertion that medieval mad persons sailed the rivers of Europe as a kind of real-world counterpart to the literary and artistic trope of the ship of fools. But while Foucault was not correct in many of his assumptions, he also was not entirely wrong to draw attention to the river. Based on archival research in Nuremberg, Munich, and Frankfurt, this article offers a critical insight into how some medieval cities managed their problematic mad. In particular, it uncovers the widespread and little-understood practice of expelling the mad from late medieval German towns. It argues that the practice of expulsion was multilayered, ranging from relatively benign trips to convey a mad person back home, to official banishments of criminal mad men and women. It finds that most of the expelled mad, however, were simply sent away, out of the city walls and away from municipal responsibility. These expulsions appear frequently in fifteenth-century records and reveal that one particular kind of route was preferred by cities in Southern Germany: the river. In fact, municipal leaders routinely used the Danube, the Isar, and the Main rivers as the best way to rid their towns of difficult or friendless mad persons. While such river journeys did not take place on “ships of fools,” the river was thus a critical and meaningful part of the geographic and cultural landscapes of madness.

On the life and work of Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918)

ABSTRACTThis study describes the life and work of early-twentieth-century German scientist Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918). His medical training at universities in Munich, Würzburg, Berlin, and Freiburg and his further education are illustrated. His early Leipzig career and cooperation with brain researchers Oskar and Cécile Vogt in Berlin are portrayed, as are his contributions to a localization theory of the cerebral cortex—namely, Brodmann’s cytoarchitectonic approach—and the invention of a cortex area nomenclature, further developed until the beginning of World War I. His Tübingen professorship and being nominated to manage a major department of Emil Kraepelin’s Munich research unit represent further aspects of this study, a promising career ahead, harshly interrupted by an early and unexpected death.

When Deaf Parents' Deaf Children Provided with Cochlear Implant Begin to Hear: Effects on the Family Situation

1993 marked the beginning of CI provision for deaf children of deaf parents. The situation of these children and their parents is a recurring research topic within the Munich Research Program "Deaf Parents and CI Children", in operation since 2000. A component of this study is subtitled "The Family Situation of Deaf Parents with CI Children". One of the findings of this study is that these so-called Coda (Children of Deaf Adults), assume the role of interpreter for their parents.

Patterns of vitamin D, parathyroid hormone and c-terminal telopeptide of collagen type 1 in Caucasian and African descent HIV-infected populations in Central Europe.

Risk factors for bone loss in HIV patients might differ or have a different impact in African descent compared to Caucasian populations. The aim of the paper is to analyze the relevance of risk factors on surrogate markers of bone metabolism in HIV-infected African descent and Caucasian patients. This is a cross-sectional study in a single HIV-specialized research and clinical care center in Munich, Germany. We included 889 patients in the study, among them 771 Caucasians (86.7%). Only in Caucasians lower vitamin D levels [OR: 2.5 (95CI: 1.6-3.7)], lower calcium levels [OR: 1.8 (1.2-2.8)], and the use of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate [OR: 2.8 (1.8-4.4)] were significantly associated with elevated PTH in multivariate analysis. Likewise, only in Caucasians elevated PTH was significantly associated with elevated markers of c-terminal telopeptides of collagen type 1 (β-CTX) [OR: 1.7 (1.0-3.0)]. Effects of traditional risk factors for secondary hyperparathyroidism and increased markers of bone turn-over seem to be less distinct in African descent HIV patients. The clinical impact and generalizability of this finding as well as the significance of vitamin D supplementation in African descent patients therefore warrants further investigation.

Music perception and the Hunt Fellowship

I was the 1987–1988 Hunt Postdoctoral Research Fellow a lifetime ago. As a mathematics/physics nerd with a love of music, I consider it the greatest privilege of my life to have spent my formative years at the feet of Dr. Arthur Benade at Case Western Reserve University, where I earned my Ph.D. in physics. Art was my mentor and my friend, and I was his last Ph.D. student. I accompanied him to many ASA meetings in the early 1980’s. Although Art’s primary expertise was in the physics of wind instruments, he put me to work on issues of perception of musical sounds in the random sound fields of enclosed spaces. The focus on music perception paved the way for my post-doctoral research in Munich, supported by the Hunt Fellowship, where I worked with Professor Ernst Terhardt at the Technical University of Munich, testing his robust pitch algorithm with genuine musical sounds derived in a reverberant space. The results of that research mainly supported Terhardt’s work. Since then, I have redirected my interests to physics education and undergraduate research and also serve in departmental leadership at Truman State University, a public liberal arts institution in rural northeast Missouri.

Pedagogical staff in children’s day care centres in Germany – links between working conditions, job satisfaction, commitment and work-related stress

This article investigates links between staff working conditions in children’s day care centres (Kindertageseinrichtungen – known as Kitas in Germany), job satisfaction, commitment and perceived stress at work. Data are based on the nationwide, representative questionnaire survey AQUA (Arbeitsplatz und Qualität in Kitas – Workplace quality in children’s day care centres), a project conducted by the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich. From the participants’ responses (Ntotal = 6606) regarding their working conditions, an index was established that permitted a categorisation into three groups of quality. Well-established instruments and scales were used to measure general job satisfaction and commitment. The Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI) model by Siegrist and colleagues (2004) was used to examine stress at work. Results indicate that staff working under good conditions show higher job satisfaction, higher commitment values and less stress at work. Furthermore, distinct differences could be found between centre directors and staff without a leading function.

Smoking Cessation in Workplace Settings: Determinants of Quit Rates in a Group Behaviour Therapy Programme in Switzerland (2006-2013)

Background Tobacco smoking is the single leading risk factor for burden of disease in Western Europe. To facilitate adherence to smoking ban legislation in Switzerland a smoking cessation programme in a workplace setting was developed with the IFT Institute for Therapy Research in Munich and nationally implemented by the Lung Association Basel. AIM: We will investigate the association of quit rates (QR) with trainer characteristics in this programme. Methods This scientific analysis is based on 1’600 …

Development of a new time and position resolving detector for the pulsed low energy positron system PLEPS

The pulsed low energy positron system PLEPS at the Munich research reactor FRM-II is a user facility for depth resolved positron lifetime measurements. Besides positron lifetime measurements 2D-AMOC (Two Dimensional Age Momentum Correlation) experiments are also possible. 2D-AMOC provides in coincidence the lifetime of the positron and the longitudinal momentum distribution of the annihilated electron. It would be of great scientific concern to measure simultaneously the entire 3D-momentum distribution of the electron annihilating with the positron and the corresponding lifetime of the positron (4D-AMOC). To perform 4D-AMOC measurements a time and position resolving detector is required in coincidence with a pixelated Germanium detector. Therefore a time and spatially resolving detector is currently developed at our institute with envisaged time resolution of 100 ps (FWHM) and a spatial resolution of about 2.6 mm (FWHM) over an area of 12 cm2. First test measurements have been carried out with a 25 mm diameter MCP (Micro Channel Plate) image intensifier and with special delay-line anode readout for the spatial information. Up to now 178 ps (FWHM) time resolution and on average 3.4 mm (FWHM) position resolution have been achieved with BaF2 as scintillator material and a 60Co source.

RBE of thermal neutrons for induction of chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes

The induction of chromosome aberrations in human lymphocytes irradiated in vitro with slow neutrons was examined to assess the maximum low-dose RBE (RBE(M)) relative to (60)Co γ-rays. For the blood irradiations, cold neutron beam available at the prompt gamma activation analysis facility at the Munich research reactor FRM II was used. The given flux of cold neutrons can be converted into a thermally equivalent one. Since blood was taken from the same donor whose blood had been used for previous irradiation experiments using widely varying neutron energies, the greatest possible accuracy was available for such an estimation of the RBE(M) avoiding the inter-individual variations or differences in methodology usually associated with inter-laboratory comparisons. The magnitude of the coefficient α of the linear dose-response relationship (α=0.400±0.018Gy(-1)) and the derived RBE(M) of 36.4±13.3 obtained for the production of dicentrics by thermal neutrons confirm our earlier observations of a strong decrease in α and RBE(M) with decreasing neutron energy lower than 0.385MeV (RBE(M)=94.4±38.9). The magnitude of the presently estimated RBE(M) of thermal neutrons is-with some restrictions-not significantly different to previously reported RBE(M) values of two laboratories.

The legacy of Paul Fraisse: II. Two further studies of sensorimotor synchronization.

This brief introduction precedes translations from the French of classic articles on sensorimotor synchronization: Fraisse, Oleron, and Paillard (1958) and Fraisse (1966). It points out how these pioneering but often overlooked studies anticipated findings of more recent research reported in Anglophone journals.Keywords: sensorimotor synchronization, tapping, multisensory integration, anticipation, feedbackThis projected series of translations of Paul Fraisse's seminal publications on rhythm and timing began in 2009, when my translations of short articles (Fraisse & Ehrlich, 1955; Fraisse & Voillaume, 1971) appeared in a special double issue of this journal devoted mainly to A History of Music Psychology in Autobiography. The article by Fraisse and Ehrlich was the first demonstration of the increasing difficulty of tapping in antiphase with a metronome as the tempo of the metronome increases, whereas Fraisse and Voillaume were the first to study how movement timing is affected by an overt or covert switch in control over the timing of an auditory rhythm, from control by a machine (synchronization) to control by the human participant's taps (auditory feedback).Fraisse's work is pioneering and important, but today's Anglophone researchers rarely cite it, and one reason for this neglect is surely the language barrier. The research was published in French, mainly in thejournal L'Annee Psychologique, which is now openly accessible (http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/ revue/psy); but this is little help for those who cannot read French. The aim of the present series of translations is to help reestablish Fraisse's preeminent place in the history of rhythm research. For this issue of the journal, substantial articles have been selected: Fraisse, Oleron, and Paillard (1958) and Fraisse (1966).Fraisse et al. (1958) conducted the first systematic study of sensorimotor synchronization in which the nature and timing of sensory feedback from the rhythmic movement were manipulated. In particular, they contrasted presence versus absence of auditory and tactile feedback, and they also introduced delays in the auditory feedback. Their main conclusion was that participants try to achieve a kind of equilibrium, such that different forms of feedback arriving at different times are grouped around the auditory pacing stimuli, resulting in minimization of the overall asynchrony. The equilibrium can be achieved in different ways, depending on the relative weights that participants assign to the different kinds of feedback, spontaneously or according to instructions.This research anticipated by several decades the systematic investigations conducted by Gisa Aschersleben and her colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich, in which tactile and auditory feedback were manipulated in various ways during synchronization tasks (Aschersleben, 2002; Aschersleben, Gehrke, & Prinz, 2001, 2004; Aschersleben & Prinz, 1995, 1997; Mates & Aschersleben, 2000). These authors mention Fraisse et al. (1958) only in passing or at all. Aschersleben and Prinz (1997) curtly dismiss the results of Fraisse et al. as being not very conclusive because of shortcomings in the control of the experimental situation (p. 36), but they do discuss those shortcomings. Instead, they give much attention to the so-called PaillardFraisse hypothesis (Fraisse, 1980; Paillard, 1949), according to which different neural transmission times of pacing stimuli and sensory feedback stimuli account for their relative asynchrony in synchronization. Although Aschersleben and colleagues were primarily trying to explain the commonly observed anticipation tendency in synchronization (taps preceding pacing sounds), their conclusions regarding the combination of different sources of feedback are quite similar to those of Fraisse et al. (1958). For example, Aschersleben and Prinz (1995) say two sources of feedback enter into a joint-event code whose effective onset point is computed as a weighted average from the onset points of its components (p. …

On Vacuum Insulated Thermal Storage

This paper presents a first state of the art review on vacuum insulated thermal tanks. On the one hand this contribution gives a short introduction on the physics of vacuum insulations, used in existing thermal hot water tanks. On the other hand it presents the two common concepts of the Center for Applied Energy Research in Munich (ZAE) and the University of Applied Science in Nuremberg.

A niche for stem cell research

Developmental biology is currently at a turning point, with the more traditional approaches attracting fewer of the top scientists and becoming progressively less popular among students and funding agencies, while new emerging fields, such as stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and systems

The Early Childhood Education Workforce in Europe Between Divergencies and Emergencies

AbstractAcross and beyond Europe, demographic, social and economic pressures both at the macro and the micro level are impacting on the work contexts of early childhood educators. Alongside heightened drives towards expansion and increasing regulation of the field, expectations are intensifying. Additionally, goals and targets for higher education and vocational education at the European policy level are generating restructurings of the national qualification systems for work in the early childhood field. In this dynamic context of change the SEEPRO (Early Education/care and Professionalisation in Europe) study, based at the State Institute of Early Childhood Research in Munich and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs, set out to map the qualification requirements and workplace settings of early years practitioners in their country-specific context. Similarities and differences across the 27 countries of the European Union were documented and analysed. The findings of the study show considerable divergencies across Europe in terms of formal education and training requirements and the desired professional profiles for working with young children. Against this background of diversity, similarities in terms of workforce emergencies and challenges have also emerged: one is a common lack of truly flexible and inclusive pathways linked to formal professional recognition and status forallpractitioners in the field; another is the continuing need to seek more effective ways of including men in the early childhood workforce.

Ultracold neutrons extracted from a superfluid-helium converter coated with fluorinated grease

We report experiments on the production of ultracold neutrons (UCN) in a converter of superfluid helium coated with fluorinated grease (fomblin). We employed our special technique of window-free extraction of accumulated UCN from the superfluid helium, in which they were produced by downscattering neutrons of a cold beam from the Munich research reactor. The fomblin-coating reduced the time constant for UCN passage through the extraction hole by a factor three compared to our previous experiment employing an uncoated stainless steel vessel. A time-of-flight measurement of the cold neutron spectrum incident on the converter, combined with a gold foil activation, allowed us to determine both the single-phonon and multi-phonon contributions to the UCN production. The UCN production rate is in reasonable agreement with the theoretical expectation.

Fission neutron therapy at FRM II: Indications and first results

Based on 15 years of experience with neutron therapy at the former facility at Munich research reactor FRM, fast neutron therapy with fission neutrons of FRM II is performed at the new facility MedApp since June 2007. General indications are superficially located tumors with insufficient response to conventional radiotherapy. Until August 2009, 58 patients were treated, 25% of them with curative intention (adenoid cystic carcinoma of major salivary glands, malignant melanoma, sarcoma). The most frequent palliative indications were breast wall recurrences of breast cancer and skin or lymph node recurrences of squamous cell carcinomas, resulting in response rates of 84% and 42%, respectively. Short treatment times of fast neutron therapy (3–5 fractions in 2–3 weeks) are advantageous in palliative treatment strategies.

Implicit Coordination with Shared Belief: A Heterogeneous Robot Soccer Team Case Study

A striking aspect of human coordination is that we achieve it with little or no communication. We achieve this implicit coordination by taking the perspective of others and inferring their intentions. In contrast, robots usually coordinate explicitly through the extensive communication of utilities or intentions. In this paper we present a method that combines both approaches: implicit coordination with shared belief. In this approach, robots first communicate their beliefs about the world state to each other, using a CORBA-based communication module. They then use learned utility prediction models to predict the utility of each robot locally. Based on these utilities, an action is chosen. Within a heterogeneous soccer team, with robots from both the Munich and Ulm research groups, we apply implicit coordination with shared belief to a typical task from robotic soccer: regaining ball possession. An empirical evaluation demonstrates that the redundancy of implicit coordination with shared belief leads to robustness against communication failure and state estimation inaccuracy.

Biotin-dependent Enzymes: the Work of Feodor Lynen

The Enzymatic Synthesis of Holotranscarboxylase from Apotranscarboxylase and (+)-Biotin. I. Purification of the Apoenzyme and Synthetase; Characteristics of the Reaction (Lane, M. D., Young, D. L., and Lynen, F. (1964)J. Biol. Chem.239, 2858–2864)

A developmental psychology perspective in Germany: co‐construction of transitions between family and education system by the child, parents and pedagogues

In Germany, there exists a traditional gap between kindergarten and primary school. Transition research has led to a new understanding of the need for cooperation between different educational institutions and the family at this time. This article emphasises that educational transitions affect not only the child but also the parents, who actively cope with a family transition. A team from the State Institute of Early Childhood Education and Research (Staatsinstitut für Frühpädagogik) in Munich has formulated developmental tasks for children and their parents during transition, based on interviews with children and parents as well as on the research literature. This approach to transition has informed initiatives at different administrative levels within Germany, as well as a European project for training transition experts in order to support children and their parents to cope with transitions, and enhance collaboration between families and educators in kindergartens and primary schools.