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The anthology "Text Complexity and Text Understanding" by Angela Schrott, Johanna Wolf, and Christine Pflüger addresses various aspects of text comprehensibility. The twelve contributions in the book mostly come from the field of Romance studies at the University of Kassel. Theoretical models on text complexity, recontextualization, and simplification techniques are discussed. The significance of visual codifications in texts is also debated. One contribution examines the appropriateness of text simplifications in administrative and legal contexts. Analyses on topics such as comics, memes, and digital communication are presented. The volume is primarily aimed at experts but has some shortcomings in terms of explaining terms and does not adequately consider text complexity in some cases. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten an deutschen Universitäten" by Schäfer and Heinrich has been published in its second edition and is specifically aimed at foreign students in the humanities and social sciences. It provides practical assistance with exercises and fills a gap in the literature on academic work, as it is explicitly targeted at foreign students. The book covers various aspects of academic work, such as note-taking, presenting, and writing a written academic paper. It also includes exercises and examples to help students. Although the book has some shortcomings, it can be recommended as long as there is no better work available for the target audience. [Extracted from the article]

The book "Writing in Contexts" by Sandra Reitbrecht presents selected contributions from a conference in Vienna in 2019. The first part of the book deals with the modeling of writing contexts, while the second part addresses the exploration of writing contexts. The authors discuss various theoretical approaches and models for investigating writing processes. It is emphasized that context plays an important role in the modeling and exploration of writing processes. The third part of the book, which deals with the design of writing contexts, is not covered in this review. The text addresses various methodological problems in the field of writing and language analysis. It is pointed out that in writing didactics, the promotion of discourse-related competencies is often lacking, especially in foreign languages. It is also discussed whether cognitive processes can be investigated through thinking aloud. Furthermore, the significance of the language act of comparison in written exams is analyzed, and it is noted that transparency and clear criteria are often lacking. Finally, the necessity of appropriately addressing variation and precision in the school context is emphasized in order to prepare for academic writing at the university level. [Extracted from the article]

The book "China Competence in Germany and Germany Competence in China" offers various perspectives on the topic of "China competence". However, there are points of criticism as the expectations for multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary approaches are not met and the term "China competence" is not sufficiently clarified. Many contributions consist of previously published articles, which limits the gain of knowledge. Nevertheless, various approaches and positions by Chinese authors from different fields are illuminated. It is discussed how China competence can be defined and whether it should be understood strategically or in terms of understanding. [Extracted from the article]

A series of substituted benzylnitrates (1) and the formally but not chemically similar cyclohexylmethylnitrate (CHMN) have been synthesised. Vasodilating activities were measured on endothelium-intact and NG-nitro-l-arginine (l-NNA)-blocked porcine right coronary arteries, precontracted with prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α). Glyceroltrinitrate (GTN) was used as reference. In intact coronary arteries the vasodilating activities of all benzylnitrates are lower compared with GTN, but higher compared with CHMN. However, blocking the function of the endothelium by l-NNA, the activity of all benzylnitrates increased, whereas that of CHMN and GTN remained nearly unaffected. Under these conditions, the mononitrates 4-nitro-benzylnitrate (1c) and 4-nitrooxymethyl-benzonitrile (1h) even showed higher vasodilator activities than the trinitrate GTN and in general, vasorelaxation by the benzylnitrates as defined by the concentrations for half maximal effects (EC50 values) was found to be 2–3 orders of magnitude higher than that induced by CHMN. The study demonstrates that the in vitro activities of organic nitrates do not correlate with the number of nitrate groups within the molecule nor to the lipophilicity of the molecules. Instead, vasodilator activity is highly sensitive to the structure and the type of the substituents in the molecular carrier of the nitrate group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]