Hasil untuk "Ancient history"

D. Steverding

In this review article the history of leishmaniasis is discussed regarding the origin of the genus Leishmania in the Mesozoic era and its subsequent geographical distribution, initial evidence of the disease in ancient times, first accounts of the infection in the Middle Ages, and the discovery of Leishmania parasites as causative agents of leishmaniasis in modern times. With respect to the origin and dispersal of Leishmania parasites, the three currently debated hypotheses (Palaearctic, Neotropical and supercontinental origin, respectively) are presented. Ancient documents and paleoparasitological data indicate that leishmaniasis was already widespread in antiquity. Identification of Leishmania parasites as etiological agents and sand flies as the transmission vectors of leishmaniasis started at the beginning of the 20th century and the discovery of new Leishmania and sand fly species continued well into the 21st century. Lately, the Syrian civil war and refugee crises have shown that leishmaniasis epidemics can happen any time in conflict areas and neighbouring regions where the disease was previously endemic.

Yuxing Deng, Ganqi Wang, Yongjia Zhang

In this paper, we study the asymptotic geometry of a noncollapsed ancient Ricci flow with nonnegative Ricci curvature via its tangent flow at infinity -- a noncollapsed $\mathbb{F}$-limit metric soliton [Bam23,CMZ23]. We first prove some estimates for noncollapsed $\mathbb{F}$-limit metric solitons with nonnegative Ricci curvature, and then obtain two dichotomy theorems for ancient Ricci flows. In particular, we show that: (1) for a noncollapsed ancient Ricci flow with nonnegative Ricci curvature, either its asymptotic volume ratio is always zero, or every tangent flow at infinity is a Ricci flat cone; (2) for a noncollapsed ancient Ricci flow with positively pinched Ricci curvature ($\operatorname{Ric}\ge \varepsilon R g$), either it is compact, or every tangent flow at infinity is a Ricci flat cone.

Isaac S. Narrett, Rona Oran, Yuxi Chen et al.

Spacecraft measurements of Mercury indicate it has a core dynamo with a surface field of 200-800 nT. These data also indicate that the crust contains remanent magnetization likely produced by an ancient magnetic field. The inferred magnetization intensity is consistent with a wide range of paleofield strengths (0.2-50 uT), possibly indicating that Mercury once had a dynamo field much stronger than today. Recent modeling of ancient lunar impacts has demonstrated that plasma generated during basin-formation can transiently amplify a planetary dynamo field near the surface. Simultaneous impact-induced pressure waves can then record these fields in the form of crustal shock remanent magnetization (SRM). Here, we present impact hydrocode and magnetohydrodynamic simulations of a Caloris-size basin (~1,550 km diameter) formation event. Our results demonstrate that the ancient magnetospheric field (~0.5-0.9 uT) created by the interaction of the ancient interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and Mercury's dynamo field can be amplified by the plasma up to ~13 uT and, via impact pressure waves, be recorded as SRM in the basin antipode. Such magnetization could produce ~5 nT crustal fields at 20-km altitude antipodal to Caloris detectable by future spacecraft like BepiColombo. Furthermore, impacts in the southern hemisphere that formed ~1,000 km diameter basins (e.g., Andal-Coleridge, Matisse-Repin, Eitkou-Milton, and Sadi-Scopus) could impart crustal magnetization in the northern hemisphere, contributing to the overall remanent field measured by MESSENGER. Overall, the impact plasma amplification process can contribute to crustal magnetization on airless bodies and should be considered when reconstructing dynamo history from crustal anomaly measurements.

Haofeng Wang, Yilin Guo, Zehao Li et al.

The Yellow River is China's mother river and a cradle of human civilization. The ancient Yellow River culture is, moreover, an indispensable part of human art history. To conserve and inherit the ancient Yellow River culture, we designed RiverEcho, a real-time interactive system that responds to voice queries using a large language model and a cultural knowledge dataset, delivering explanations through a talking-head digital human. Specifically, we built a knowledge database focused on the ancient Yellow River culture, including the collection of historical texts and the processing pipeline. Experimental results demonstrate that leveraging Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) on the proposed dataset enhances the response quality of the Large Language Model(LLM), enabling the system to generate more professional and informative responses. Our work not only diversifies the means of promoting Yellow River culture but also provides users with deeper cultural insights.

G. Lusztig

The history of the canonical basis and crystal basis of a quantized enveloping algebra and its representations is presented

Gad Barnea

Inscribed trays, plates, mortars, and pestles made of beautiful green chert bearing formulaic administrative textual formulae were found during excavations at the Persepolis Treasury in the 1930s. These implements and the enigmatic formulae inscribed upon them present scholars with a complex and unique challenge whose correct interpretation holds important implications for the study of Achaemenid history, imperial administration, and relations between ancient Arachosia (roughly modern-day Afghanistan) and the centers of power, as well as—as I argue in this article—for the symbiosis between administration and cult in antiquity. They continue to be hotly debated ever since their inauspicious initial publication by Bowman in 1970, yet they have thus far remained obscure. By comparing these finds with material and textual data from across the Achaemenid empire and early Parthian sources, this article offers a new comprehensive study of these objects. My analysis suggests that these objects are to be considered as a more systematized and tightly controlled Arachosian form of “informal taxation”—namely, regulated gifts—which are comparable to similar imperial donations found in the Treasury at Persepolis. Specifically, they take part in an “economy of fealty” demonstrating loyalty to king and empire through the adherence to the era’s Mazdean ritual orthopraxy.

Benjamin Vernot, E. I. Zavala, A. Gómez‐Olivencia et al.

The value of dirty DNA Environmental DNA can identify the presence of species, even from the distant past. Surveying three cave sites in western Europe and southern Siberia, Vernot et al. identified nuclear DNA and confirmed that it is from the close relatives of anatomically modern humans—Neanderthal and Denisovan individuals. A phylogenetic analysis and modeling show that the DNA in sediment samples from several layers corresponds to previously studied skeletal remains. These results demonstrate that environmental data can be applied to study the population genetics of the extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages, identifying a turnover of Neanderthal populations ∼100,000 years ago. Science, this issue p. eabf1667 The retrieval and analysis of ancient hominin nuclear DNA from cave deposits allows for the study of ancient populations. INTRODUCTION The study of hominin history has progressed through both archaeological and genetic insights. Although DNA sequencing from hominin skeletal remains allows the association of ancient populations with specific places in time and space, many archaeological sites lack associated hominin remains, limiting the scope of genetic analyses. Even when ancient hominin remains are found, they often do not cover the full time span of a site or sampling them for DNA may not be possible. The fossil record is particularly sparse for Pleistocene hominins, leaving large gaps in our understanding of the genetic histories of archaic and early modern humans. RATIONALE Recent work has demonstrated the feasibility of sequencing ancient mammalian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), including that of hominins, from Pleistocene cave sediments. However, mtDNA represents only the maternal lineage and thus provides limited data for the resolution of population relationships. It is therefore desirable to complement mtDNA analysis with the retrieval of nuclear DNA, but no strategies are in place to enrich hominin nuclear DNA from a background of related sequences from other mammals present in most sedimentary deposits. To close this gap, we developed a set of probes for hybridization capture that targets 1.6 million ancestry-informative positions in the hominin nuclear genome, specifically at loci with high mammalian sequence divergence. We then developed computational methods to deplete residual microbial and faunal DNA sequences, along with methods to account for such non-hominin DNA in population genetic analyses. RESULTS We applied these methods to explore the history of Neanderthal populations in western Europe and southern Siberia using sediment samples from three Pleistocene caves: Galería de las Estatuas, a site in northern Spain with 40 thousand years of Neanderthal occupation but that is genetically unexplored, and Chagyrskaya and Denisova Caves, which have previously yielded high-coverage genomes of two Neanderthals and one Denisovan hominin. In total, we recovered Neanderthal or Denisovan mtDNA from >60 sediment samples and nuclear DNA from 30 of these. For Chagyrskaya and Denisova Caves, our phylogenetic results from sediment DNA were consistent with previously published results from skeletal remains, confirming the accuracy of our approach. At Galería de las Estatuas, we recovered Neanderthal DNA from layers spanning nearly the entire stratigraphy, and identified a population turnover ~100,000 years ago accompanied by a loss of mtDNA diversity. By incorporating genetic data from previously published skeletal samples, we associated this turnover with two putative radiations in Neanderthal history. CONCLUSION We developed methods for the effective retrieval and analysis of ancient hominin nuclear DNA from sediments and used them to uncover previously unknown events in Neanderthal history. This work demonstrates that detailed genetic analyses are now possible for many more archaeological sites than previously thought, with DNA from abundant sediments allowing dense time-series studies that are independent of the fossil record. Sediments from Pleistocene caves contain hominin mitochondrial and nuclear DNA that can be enriched, sequenced, and analyzed to reveal the genetic histories of past occupants even in the absence of their skeletal remains. Shown is a view of pit I at the Galería de las Estatuas, Spain, and stratigraphic column with ages in thousands of years (ka). PHOTO CREDIT : PANTOJA-PÉREZ,NTTF Bones and teeth are important sources of Pleistocene hominin DNA, but are rarely recovered at archaeological sites. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been retrieved from cave sediments but provides limited value for studying population relationships. We therefore developed methods for the enrichment and analysis of nuclear DNA from sediments and applied them to cave deposits in western Europe and southern Siberia dated to between 200,000 and 50,000 years ago. We detected a population replacement in northern Spain about 100,000 years ago, which was accompanied by a turnover of mtDNA. We also identified two radiation events in Neanderthal history during the early part of the Late Pleistocene. Our work lays the ground for studying the population history of ancient hominins from trace amounts of nuclear DNA in sediments.

Marta Bermúdez Cordero

V. I. Kashcheev

The article deals with the problem of academic environment evolution in which an antiquity historian, A.S. Shofman (1913–1993) conducted his research and taught students in different periods of his life. The author shows that Shofman’s personal qualities, such as determination, ability to work in any external conditions, considerate and, at the same time, demanding attitude to his students and colleagues, sense of humor, irony, self-deprecation, and others played an important role in his development as a scholar. It is also pointed out that fate often brought him to teachers and colleagues who facilitated his success. Different spheres of his scientific communication are studied: prominent scholars of Ancient History and Philology – his teachers at Leningrad State University; international scientific contacts with his colleagues from Macedonia and Serbia, which used to be the part of Yugoslavia, from Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia. His relationship with Russian historians and philologists from Moscow, Leningrad, Voronezh, Tomsk and Belorussian scholars from Minsk were also discussed as well as academic environment at Kazan State University, especially at the Department of World History which A.S. Shofman headed for several decades. The article reveals the influence of his scientific surroundings on his development as a scholar and on themes of his research. A.S. Shofman, in his turn, shaped the mode of activity of the Department he headed and set up a scientific school in Kazan State University well-known in the country

Geyang Guo, Jiarong Yang, Fengyuan Lu et al.

Interpreting ancient Chinese has been the key to comprehending vast Chinese literature, tradition, and civilization. In this paper, we propose Erya for ancient Chinese translation. From a dataset perspective, we collect, clean, and classify ancient Chinese materials from various sources, forming the most extensive ancient Chinese resource to date. From a model perspective, we devise Erya training method oriented towards ancient Chinese. We design two jointly-working tasks: disyllabic aligned substitution (DAS) and dual masked language model (DMLM). From an evaluation perspective, we build a benchmark to judge ancient Chinese translation quality in different scenarios and evaluate the ancient Chinese translation capacities of various existing models. Our model exhibits remarkable zero-shot performance across five domains, with over +12.0 BLEU against GPT-3.5 models and better human evaluation results than ERNIE Bot. Subsequent fine-tuning further shows the superior transfer capability of Erya model with +6.2 BLEU gain. We release all the above-mentioned resources at https://github.com/RUCAIBox/Erya.

Raphaël Demès

The sculpted decoration on the chancel slabs of the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Aquileia depicts a harmonious universe that channels matter in the process of transformation, like the spiritualization of the caro through the sacraments. The various elements that make up this universe are linked together to emphasize the coherence of Creation. In this constructed space, the boundaries between plant, mineral, animal and ornamental dissolve and merge, as does the distinction between known and imaginary animals. On one of the chancel slabs, two creatures are depicted with characteristics of terrestrial, celestial and aquatic animal species. They drink from the Fountain-Tree of Life, making a link between here below and hereafter and bringing hope of salvation. Facing each other, they oppose each other to obstruct the passage of the faithful, reinforcing the separating function of the chancel, marking the frontier between the nave and the choir, between the laity and the clerics. Presented on a vertical support facing the faithful, these composite beings help to bring man closer to God, inviting him to be one with Christ through communion, to give himself, body and soul, to the Church. Based on order, diversity and moderation, this rhythmic pictorial universe invites us to go beyond the limits of the visible, the sensible, the material, to move away from the opposition of similarity/dissimilarity and to advance towards the invisible, the intelligible and the immaterial.

Mahnaz Rezai

. Introduction Theater, as one of the literary types, has created a link between literature and performing arts. There have been two types of theater, comedy and tragedy. In the past, the type of tragedy was superior to the type of comedy. In the seventeenth century in France, with the appearance of Molière, comedy flourished and a revolution took place in the classical theater. In Iran, playwriting does not have much history. But its traditional and religious forms have always existed. In this article, we have done a comparative study of two comedy plays, Molière's The Miser and Akhundzadeh's The Tale of the Miserly Man. In the two studied works, miserliness is shown as one of the biggest moral pests that not only affects family relationships, but also involves social relationships.In this article, we have benefited from the theories of Michel Viegnes in the field of theater and his classification of types of humor and the theories of Ménandre, the ancient Greek playwright, in the field of classification of the characters of classical plays, and by examining and comparing the content, character, we have discussed the structure of two works to see how and in what cases Akhundzadeh imitated Molière and what was his purpose in writing this play.In fact, the era of comedy flourishing can be considered the post-Renaissance era and the 17th century. With the emergence of playwrights such as Molière, it became possible to pass from the rule of tragedy to the flourishing era of comedy, and the kings and princes of tragedy gave way to trivial characters of comedy. Molière had a significant influence on the playwrights of the world and also influenced the Iranian theater during the constitutional period. The plays of Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzadeh (1228-1295), an Iranian writer, thinker and critic, were among the first plays written following European plays. The title, structure, characters, and content of his play The Tale of the Miserly Man also convey his impression of Molière's The Miser. Methodology Comparative literature arose in France in the nineteenth century. Researchers of French comparative literature or the "French school of comparative literature" emphasized the issue of "relationship" between literatures. According to Guyard, "the researcher of comparative literature should focus on the exchange of themes, opinions, books or feelings between two or more literatures." (Guyard, 1958:12) With Guyard and after him Pierre Brunel, comparative literature becomes more of a science than a type of literary criticism. In addition to the issue of historical investigation, Yves Chevrel also brings the issue of boutiques into this topic. In his opinion, "comparative literature should add comparative boutique studies to its studies." (Chevrel, 2016: 48) In the American school of comparative literature, which is led by René Wellek (1903-1995), the historical study is abandoned and the focus is placed on the works themselves: "Everything It should be examined from the perspective of a literary work." (Brunel & Chevrel, 1989: 189-190) As mentioned, Akhundzadeh was influenced by Molière and the similarity between these two works is not accidental. Therefore, in this article, our research will be comparative literature based on the French school and we will discuss the influence of thoughts and themes and the comparative style of two works. To examine the types of humor in these two plays, we will rely on the theories of Michel Viegnes, a French writer and researcher, and to examine the characters of the plays, we will rely on the theories of Ménandre, the ancient Greek playwright. Discussion  3-1. Content reviewAs one of the freedom-loving playwrights of the Qajar era, Akhundzadeh criticized the traditional customs of the society through theater. Moliere's theater can also be defined as a realistic reflection of the performance of the members of a society. In this section, we will discuss the socio-political content of the plays and the analysis of the characters.  3-1-1. Socio-political and anthropological satireMoliere's play The Miser and Akhundzadeh's play are both social comedies. Moliere's The Miser depicts the bourgeois society of Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. Harpagon is a typical example of the 17th century bourgeois, who later became a type of personality in such a way that today in France, a stingy person is called Harpagon. Akhundzadeh's story of the miserly man also portrays the society of Iran in the early 13th century. In their works, these two playwrights describe the characters with a realistic, anthropological and sociological perspective and thus study different human aspects. In the preface of Tartuffe, Molière clearly states that "comedy can be effective in reforming some customs and traditions." (Molière, 2016: 5) In fact, for both authors, the main purpose of art is to cultivate positive qualities in human beings. According to Akhundzadeh: "It should be known that what is meant by the art of "comedy" is moral refinement. It means knowing the ugly and beautiful of human nature by looking at the shape and resemblance" (Adamiyat, 1349: 63).3-1-2. Personality psychologyAccording to the theories of Ménandre, the ancient Greek dramatist, the characters of the classical drama belong to three categories of people: 1) young people who intend to get married but face obstacles; 2) A slave and servant who is very clever and cunning and removes obstacles to marriage; and 3) secondary funny characters that provide joy and happiness in the theater scene. (Blanchard, 2000: 22-24) The main characters of both plays under our study are miserly and domineering old men, young people in love and simple-hearted, clever and cunning servants, and wise women. The choice of such characters actually shows the classicity of these two plays.Boileau emphasizes that "in Molière's plays, humor is created due to the mocking aspect that is rooted in the psychology of the character" (Conesa, 1995: 146).3-2. Structural investigationAkhundzadeh, like Molière, is not only concerned with showing some social and moral problems, but also emphasizes the artistic aspect of writing. In his plays, although he maintained the "unity of action", Molière questioned the "unity of place" and "unity of time". In other words, he followed the principle of classical theater according to which the plot should revolve around a single event. But refuse to limit this event to one day and one place. Akhundzadeh also wrote his play The Tale of the Miserly Man in a classical style and in five chambers (curtains) and did not limit it to a fixed place and time of one day.3-2-1. Language and styleThe language of Akhundzadeh's play, like Molière, is close to reality and effective. The story of the play and the dialogues of the actors are told with sweet and attractive expressions. In that period, the written language and the spoken language were significantly different. In this play, Akhundzadeh tried to distance himself from the common prose of his era and use spoken language for the characters. Regarding the similarities of the language of the two plays in question, it can be pointed out that the language used is vernacular. In this play, Molière's language is a natural and spontaneous language that shows the reality of the present and is performed quickly and impromptu by the actors. Another characteristic of Molière's language is his writing rhythm, to the point where we sometimes see a special rhythm in consecutive sentences and answers (Attaque des répliques).3-2-2. A combination of humorWriters and theoreticians have always tried to classify its types since the emergence of comic theater. In this research, we try to explain the types of humor from Michel Viegnes’s point of view. Viegnes divides humor into three types: personality humor, verbal humor, and situational humor. (Viegnes, 1992: 88) Molière and Akhundzadeh have used all three types of humor in their plays.One of the theater techniques mentioned by Michel Viegnes is the monologue ou soliloque technique. With soliloque, in fact, the character "thinks out loud" (Viegnes, 1992: 60) and this issue provides reasons for laughter. Like Molière, Akhundzadeh used monologue to show the humor of a characterThe scope of comic language or verbal humor is very wide. And "Includes exaggeration and exaggeration, changes in the construction and shape of the language, playing with words." (Viegnes, 1992: 9) According to Michel Viegnes: "In all languages, people have laughed at people whose way of speaking is out of the norm." (Ibid.)According to Michel Viegnes, "situation comics go beyond speech and include all kinds of kicking, spinning jumps, spinning on heels, and...." (Viegnes, 1992: 98).  Conclusion These two playwrights, in fact, study different human types and their disadvantages from a sociological and anthropological point of view, and depict the complexity of the human spirit in order to force the society of their age to think about their weaknesses through a humorous language.The style of both authors is classic, but it has undergone many changes and innovations. In fact, they present a mixture of comedy and tragedy to the audience.In this research, we come to the conclusion that with the help of comparative study, we can identify the roots of the currents of thought that influence the literature of the interior. With the help of comparative study, from an aesthetic, content and even theoretical point of view, literature can be studied not individually, but in its relationship with foreign literature. The comparison of the studied works is to test their similarities and convergences in order to consider literary phenomena in their transnational reality. Akhundzadeh's acceptance of this foreign genre, drama, and its rules, is important. In fact, with the help of this comparative study, we examined the entry and acceptance of a style, a theory, a theme in the literature of the country. Akhundzadeh's play is actually a kind of rewriting and literary representation in a transnational perspective. The purpose of literature is not only to connect with its reader and accept the work by him, but it is the influence of languages and thoughts on each other and the influence and influence, and as a result, progress and innovation in literature.

Raluca Elena Patrascu, Andrei Ionut Cucu, Claudia Florida Costea et al.

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that has been a concern for humanity throughout history, being recognized and referred to as the white plague. Since ancient times, starting with Hippocrates and Galen of Pergamon, doctors and scientists have attempted to understand the pathogenesis of tuberculosis and its manifestations in the brain. If, in the medieval period, it was believed that only the touch of a king could cure the disease, it was only in the early 17th and 18th centuries that the first descriptions of tuberculous meningitis and the first clinico-pathological correlations began to emerge. While the understanding of neurotuberculosis progressed slowly, it was only after the discovery of the pathogenic agent in the late 19th century that there was an upward curve in the occurrence of treatment methods. This review aims to embark on an odyssey through the centuries, from ancient Egypt to the modern era, and explore the key moments that have contributed to the emergence of a new era of hope in the history of neurotuberculosis. Understanding the history of treatment methods against this disease, from empirical and primitive ones to the emergence of new drugs used in multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, leads us, once again, to realize the significant contribution of science and medicine in treating a disease that was considered incurable not long ago.

Miguel Ángel Maté-González, Jesús Rodríguez-Hernández, Cristina Sáez Blázquez et al.

This research presents a virtual tour performed on the <i>oppidum</i> of Ulaca, one of the most relevant archaeological sites of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Iron Age (<i>ca</i>. 400–50 BC). Beyond the clear benefits of the tool to the interpretation, dissemination, and knowledge of the mentioned archaeological site and its surroundings, the novelty of this research is the implementation of the platform in alternative scenarios and purposes. In this way, the present work verifies how the access to multi-source and spatially geolocated information in the same tool (working as a geospatial database) allows the promotion of cross-sectional investigations in which different specialists intervene. This peculiarity is also considered useful to promote tourism with an interest beyond the purely historical/archaeological side. Likewise, the possibility of storing and managing a large amount of information in different formats facilitates the investigation in the contexts of excavations and archaeological or environmental works. In this sense, the use of this kind of tool for the study of cultural landscapes is especially novel. In order to better contextualize the potential of the virtual tour presented here, an analysis about the challenges and possibilities of implementing this tool in environments such as the Ulaca <i>oppidum</i> is performed. The selected site stands out for: (i) being in a unique geological, environmental and ecological context, allowing us to appreciate how human beings have modified the landscape over time; (ii) presenting numerous visible archaeological remains with certain conservation problems; and (iii) not having easy access for visitors.

V. Schuenemann, Alexander Peltzer, Beatrix Welte et al.

Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions with ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia and Europe. Particularly, in the first millennium BCE Egypt endured foreign domination leading to growing numbers of foreigners living within its borders possibly contributing genetically to the local population. Here we present 90 mitochondrial genomes as well as genome-wide data sets from three individuals obtained from Egyptian mummies. The samples recovered from Middle Egypt span around 1,300 years of ancient Egyptian history from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period. Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians, who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times. This analysis establishes ancient Egyptian mummies as a genetic source to study ancient human history and offers the perspective of deciphering Egypt’s past at a genome-wide level. Archaeological and historical records had shown ancient Egypt before and after Ptolemaic and Roman periods to be a hub of human migration and exchange. Here, Schuenemann and colleagues analyse ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to investigate the genetic history of Egypt.

Michael A. Garrett

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a research activity that started in the late 1950s, predating the arrival of "Big History" and "Astrobiology" by several decades. Many elements first developed as part of the original SETI narrative are now incorporated in both of these emergent fields. However, SETI still offers the widest possible perspective, since the topic naturally leads us to consider not only the future development of our own society but also the forward trajectories (and past histories) of many other intelligent extraterrestrial forms. In this paper, I present a provocative view of Big History, its rapid convergent focus on our own planet and society, its oversimplified and incomplete view of events in cosmic history, and its limited appreciation of how poorly we understand some aspects of the physical world. Astrophysicists are also not spared - in particular those who wish to understand the nature of the universe in "splendid isolation", only looking outwards and upwards. SETI can help re-expand all of our horizons but the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence may also require its own practitioners to abandon preconceptions of what constitutes intelligent, sentient, thinking minds.

Mikhail Shubov

Motive and electrical energy has played a crucial role in human civilization. Since Ancient times, motive energy played a primary role in agricultural and industrial production as well as transportation. At that time, motive energy was provided by work of humans and draft animals. Later, work of water and wind power was harnessed. During the 19$^{\text{th}}$ century, steam power became the main source of motive energy in USA and Britain. Modern transportation and industry depend on the work of heat engines that use fossil fuel. A brief history of different sources of energy is presented in this work. The energy consumptions in pre-industrial and industrial societies are calculated. The lost opportunities for the Second Industrial Revolution (such as fast breeder reactors and thermonuclear power stations) are discussed. The case that the Solar Power will become the main source of energy by the second half of this century is presented. It is calculated that the Solar Power has the potential to bring about the new Industrial Revolution. Based on material and energy resources available in the Solar System, it is demonstrated that the Solar System Civilization supporting a population of 10 Quadrillion with a high standard of living is possible.

Rosa Gurrea Barricarte, Marcus Heinrich Hermanns, Juan Aurelio Pérez Macías

Se presentan los análisis de seis muestras de escoria halladas durante trabajos de acondicionamiento urbanístico de la ciudad de Ibiza (Islas Baleares). Estas muestras, que son unas de las primeras muestras de escoria analizadas procedentes del casco antiguo de la ciudad de Ibiza, corresponden a productos de un taller metalúrgico dedicado a la industria broncínea. Las tres primeras muestras son restos de elementos metálicos de bronces ternarios (cobre, estaño y plomo) en fase de producción. Esos metales se mezclarían en vasos (crisoles), a los que corresponden las tres últimas muestras, que conservan en algún caso restos de esos tres elementos (cobre, estaño y plomo). Como nota interesante, están fabricados en arcillas ricas en hierro y cal, cuya adición posiblemente sea intencional a juzgar por paralelos históricos. 

Jorge Rios

Introduction: Arteriosclerosis has its history since ancient times, rare at that time due to the high mortality from infectious diseases. It arises with changes in dietary habits and the aging of the population. The disease is characterized by being an inflammatory chronic process, generalized and progressive, with multiple risk factors that converge at the onset of itself. However, it is important to bear in mind that 20%–30% of patients lack risk factors and debut with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents. OBJECTIVES: To determine in asymptomatic patients without previous atherothrombotic events, with risk factors and without them, the presence of atheroma in the carotid and iliofemoral sectors, with the use of Echo Doppler Color. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients were included between January and December 2019, without previous atherothrombotic events, with and without risk factors. All were studied with Echo Doppler color with transverse and longitudinal sections in the carotid and iliofemoral sectors. RESULTS: In this period, 426 patients were studied, 303 women with an age range of 37–84 with an average of 59.86 years old, 123 men with an age range of 40–92 with an average of 62.42 years old. The number of women with risk factors was 129 (42.62%), of which 41 (32.13%) had subclinical arteriosclerosis affectations and of the 174 women without risk factors, no subclinical arteriosclerosis was found. In men, the factors of present risk were in 55 (45.23%) patients, all of whom had arteriosclerosis subclinical and 25 (20.40%) patients had arteriosclerosis without risk factors. The presence of subclinical arteriosclerosis was 65.63% in men. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors according to sex were: Arterial hypertension (M 48%, H 41%), diabetes (M 9%, H 11%), dyslipidemia (M 43%, H 48.5%), and smoking (M 21%, H 25%). The region more affected was the carotid in both men and women, with a slight predominance of single-site impact versus multiple sites. CONCLUSION: According to the results obtained, we can say that risk factors can predict events, but the use of Doppler ultrasound to detect atheromas increases the possibility of finding subclinical arteriosclerosis, which allows patients to be reclassified and thus intensify preventive measures.

Mikhail G. Katz

We compare several approaches to the history of mathematics recently proposed by Blasjo, Fraser--Schroter, Fried, and others. We argue that tools from both mathematics and history are essential for a meaningful history of the discipline. In an extension of the Unguru-Weil controversy over the concept of geometric algebra, Michael Fried presents a case against both Andre Weil the "privileged observer" and Pierre de Fermat the "mathematical conqueror." We analyze Fried's version of Unguru's alleged polarity between a historian's and a mathematician's history. We identify some axioms of Friedian historiographic ideology, and propose a thought experiment to gauge its pertinence. Unguru and his disciples Corry, Fried, and Rowe have described Freudenthal, van der Waerden, and Weil as Platonists but provided no evidence; we provide evidence to the contrary. We analyze how the various historiographic approaches play themselves out in the study of the pioneers of mathematical analysis including Fermat, Leibniz, Euler, and Cauchy.