This paper frames calculus as a global, centuries-long development rather than a subject that began only with Newton and Leibniz. Drawing on ideas from Greek, Indian, Islamic, and later European mathematics, it highlights how concepts like infinity, area, motion, and continuous change slowly evolved through solving problems and cultural exchange. I argue that bringing this history into the classroom helps students see calculus as more than a set of procedures: it becomes a story of human creativity and persistence. By revisiting the questions early mathematicians struggled with, students can better appreciate and better understand the core ideas behind the formulas they use today.
U radu se analiziraju britanski dokumenti o nestanku majora Terensa Atertona, vođe savezničke misije Hidra na prostoru okupirane Kraljevine Jugoslavije u aprilu 1942. godine. Dati su pregled i uporedna analiza posleratne jugoslovenske istoriografije o sudbini te britanske misije. Autor prati proces nastanka i razvoja mita o Atertonu u komunističkoj istoriografiji, ukazujući na to da ta verzija nema uporište u stvarnim dešavanjima, kako kada je reč o osnovnom zadatku misije, tako ni kada je reč o odgovornosti za nestanak i verovatnu pogibiju njenih članova.
This paper provides an overview of recent historical research regarding scientifically-informed challenges to the idea that the stars are other suns orbited by other inhabited earths -- an idea that came to be known as "the Plurality of Worlds". Johannes Kepler in the seventeenth century, Jacques Cassini in the eighteenth, and William Whewell in the nineteenth each argued against "pluralism" based on what in their respective times was solid science. Nevertheless, pluralism remained popular despite these and other scientific challenges. This history will be of interest to the astronomical community so that it is better positioned to avoid difficulties should the historical trajectory of pluralism continue, especially as it persists in the popular imagination.
This paper explores the complex relationship between demographics and artificial intelligence (AI) advances in Europe and Africa, projecting into the year 2050. The advancement of AI technologies has occurred at diverse rates, with Africa lagging behind Europe. Moreover, the imminent economic consequences of demographic shifts require a more careful examination of immigration patterns, with Africa emerging as a viable labor pool for European countries. However, within these dynamics, questions are raised about the differences in AI proficiency between African immigrants and Europeans by 2050. This paper examines demographic trends and AI developments to unravel insights into the multifaceted challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the realms of technology, the economy, and society as we look ahead to 2050.
Bettina Fazzinga, Elena Palmieri, Margherita Vestoso
et al.
We present ACME: A Chatbot for asylum-seeking Migrants in Europe. ACME relies on computational argumentation and aims to help migrants identify the highest level of protection they can apply for. This would contribute to a more sustainable migration by reducing the load on territorial commissions, Courts, and humanitarian organizations supporting asylum applicants. We describe the background context, system architecture, underlying technologies, and a case study used to validate the tool with domain experts.
REFLEKSJE NAD 30 ROCZNICĄ KODYFIKACJI JĘZYKA RUSIŃSKIEGO NA SŁOWACJI
Mija 30 lat od momentu, kiedy Rusini na Słowacji w stolicy swojego kraju – Bratysławie, dokonali historycznego aktu, uroczyście proklamując kodyfikację języka rusińskiego na Słowacji. Jako pierwsi w obszarze Karpat zrealizowali główny cel I Kongresu Języka Rusińskiego, który odbył się w 1992 r. W niniejszym artykule podjęta została próba podsumowania, jakie dalsze cele udało się lub nie udało się osiągnąć Rusinom na Słowacji, ale także Rusinom w ogóle, odnosząc się do postulatów wspomnianego kongresu językowego, stanu języka rusińskiego i jego znajomości na Słowacji, a także badań związanych z jego kodyfikacją.
The purpose of the study. To investigate and analyze the problems of scientific thought and the evolution of the study of the volunteer movement in Ukraine.
The research methodology. The research used general scientific methods, the method of historiographical analysis and synthesis, and the main methods of historical research.
Scientific novelty. For the first time, the methodological problems of the multidisciplinarity of scientific thought regarding the issue of volunteering in Ukraine were considered in the study.
Topicality. Analysis of the latest research and publications using general scientific and specifically historical methods allows us to study such a social phenomenon as volunteering more widely.
Conclusions. Scientific work on the study of the volunteer movement in Ukraine, thanks to specialists in various fields of science, contributes to the well-founded implementation of scientific achievements in practical activities and interaction of volunteering with the state. A multidisciplinary approach in research makes it possible to increase the historiographical studies of this issue many times over, which in turn stimulates an in-depth and versatile, further study of the volunteer movement in Ukraine. Also, it is worth noting that the historiography of the issue significantly affects the institutionalization of the volunteer movement, which in turn strengthens the defense capability of our state against the background of Russian expansion. The full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against our country added another historical stage, which, upon its completion, will be the subject of scientific discussions. Therefore, the prospect of further research of the volunteer movement in Ukraine, from the point of view of both the historical aspect and related sciences, will arouse the scientific interest of many researchers.
During the Second World War, several thousands of Jews from France were detained on German territory as prisoners of war. Although many endured racial discrimination, they survived. This article will deal with this exceptional as well as largely unknown micro-history through the thorny issue of the recognition of their status as racial victims in the aftermath. On their return to the bloodless France of 1945, these survivors who had remained on the bangs of the genocide faced great material and moral difficulties. Although they were excluded from the legislation governing war victims in both France and the FRG, some of them tried to assert their rights on the grounds of antisemitic discrimination at the end of the 1950s. Their perseverance in the face of an initially hostile German administration enabled some prisoners of foreign origin to obtain compensation under the BEG Act. However, this recognition was not only imperfect, but also incomplete: their comrades of French origin remained excluded from French compensation legislation.
Marco Cirelli, Caterina Doglioni, Federica Petricca
We introduce the initiative for Dark Matter in Europe and beyond (iDMEu), a collective effort by a group of particle and astroparticle physicists to set up an online resource meta-repository, a common discussion platform and a series of meetings on everything concerning Dark Matter. This document serves as a status report as well as a citable item concerning iDMEu.
The Kaystrova Balka IV site was discovered by A.V. Dobrovolsky in Kaystrova Balka in 1933. In 1936, A.N. Rogachev examined the collections from Kaystrova Balka sites and made their technical and typological classification. Then, these materials were transferred to the Odesa State Historical and Archaeological Museum. In 1971, S.V. Smirnov published the flint inventory from the Kaystrova Balka IV site.
The purpose of the article is the typological attribution of flint product from the collection of the Upper Paleolithic site of Kaistrova balka IV.
The scientific novelty. In the 20th century and now, the typological method is widely used for processing archaeological collections. This method is widely used for collections of sites of the Stone Age, when we do not always understand what we are working on. On the basis of the typological analysis of the products of knepping of flint (core, chips, etc.), a reconstruction of the technology of staged primary splitting is proposed, thanks to which a new typological attribution of the product is proved.
Conclusions. Іn general terms, it is possible to reconstruct the technology of primary splitting at the Kaystrova Balka IV site. At the first stage, the platform was prepared (most likely with one strike). At the second stage, the blanks were spalled. The spalling could also occur without the initial preparation of the rib, which is typical for the prismatic technique. At the third stage, one massive spall was made. After that, further splitting could occur with or without making a rib.
This reconstruction of primary splitting at the Kaystrova Balka IV site allows us to assume that the examined item appeared at the first or second stage. Thus, this item is a flake, which was chipped from the nucleus at the very beginning of the primary splitting.
The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), a premier autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has a legacy of about seven decades with contributions made in the field of observational sciences namely atmospheric and astrophysics. The Survey of India used a location at ARIES, determined with an accuracy of better than 10 meters on a world datum through institute participation in a global network of Earth artificial satellites imaging during late 1950. Taking advantage of its high-altitude location, ARIES, for the first time, provided valuable input for climate change studies by long term characterization of physical and chemical properties of aerosols and trace gases in the central Himalayan regions. In astrophysical sciences, the institute has contributed precise and sometime unique observations of the celestial bodies leading to a number of discoveries. With the installation of the 3.6 meter Devasthal optical telescope in the year 2015, India became the only Asian country to join those few nations of the world who are hosting 4 meter class optical telescopes. This telescope, having advantage of geographical location, is well-suited for multi-wavelength observations and for sub-arc-second resolution imaging of the celestial objects including follow-up of the GMRT, AstroSat and gravitational-wave sources.
This article examines two memoirs of authors who indirectly witnessed the horrendous crimes committed by Nazi Einsatzgruppen squads in Babi Yar where more than 33,000 of the Jewish inhabitants of Kiev were brutally murdered on 29–30 September 1941: Anatoli Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel and Ziama Trubakov’s The Riddle of Babi Yar: The True Story Told by a Survivor of the Mass Murders in Kiev, 1941–1943. Starting from Kuznetsov’s final remarks on the power of memory that will never fade even if only few witnesses or survivors remained to tell the story, I will show what types of witnessing occur in both memoirs: the two narrators use both “ear-witnessing” (Susan Vice’s term), eye-witnessing, and “flesh-witnessing” (Yuval Noah Harari’s term) in the structure of their books and, following Amos Goldberg’s model for first-person Holocaust memoirs and diaries, I will show how these three types of witnessing unfold the story of Babi Yar.
According to recent theoretical studies, classical novae are expected to erupt every ~$10^5$ years, while the recurrence time scale of modern recurrent novae (N_r) stars ranges from 10 to ~100 years. To bridge this huge gap in our knowledge (three orders of magnitude in time scales), it appears attractive to consider historical data: In Far Eastern sources, we searched for brightening events at different epochs but similar positions that possibly refer to recurrent nova eruptions. Probing a sample of ~185 Asian observations from ~500 BCE to 1700 CE, we present a method to systematically filter possible events. The result are a few search fields with between 2 and 5 flare ups and typical cadences between $10^2$ and $10^3$ years. For most of our recurrence candidates, we found possible counterparts among known cataclysmic variables in the corresponding search areas. This work is based on an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods from digital humanities and computational astrophysics when applying our previously developed methods in searches for classical novae among Far Eastern guest stars. A first and rather preliminary comparison of (possible) historical and (well known) modern recurrent novae reveals first tentative hints on some of their properties, stimulating further studies in this direction.
This paper discusses the relation between the decoherent histories approach to quantum mechanics that is based on coarse-grained decoherent histories of a closed system, and the approximate quantum mechanics of measured subsystems, as in the Copenhagen interpretation. We show how the a classical world used in such formulations is not to something to be postulated but rather explained by suitable sets of alternative histories of quasiclassical variables. We discuss the general definition of measurement, the collapse of the wave function, and irreversibility from the perspective of decoherent histories quantum theory..
The memory of the Krimmler Tauernflucht. Scientific research and public history initiatives
The following seminar paper examines the memory of the Krimmler Tauernflucht, a journey of a group of Jews from Eastern Europe across an Austrian alpine pass to reach Palestine in 1947. For almost forty years, this historical event was ignored by historians and the public, but the anniversaries in 1997, 2007 and 2017 as well as the founding of Alpine Peace Crossing in 2007 have brought new momentum. As a result, various initiatives have emerged and the crossing is now also being prominently addressed in the field of public history.
This paper examines the narrative strategies of the oldest two medieval Eastern Adriatic historical accounts regarding the emergence of the Early Medieval gentes in local history. Seen through the framework of Othering, these accounts display complicated images within images rather than a linear narrative. At the same time, two categories of the Other seem to appear in them – the present, preferable Other, and the past, undesirable Other. By employing such strategies, the two histories depict all the gentes in an almost identical manner, and in accordance with the established images, with only some layers of actual historical background.Keywords: Middle Ages, Eastern Adriatic, medieval historians, Others, Croats“… multi christianorum … eligentes magis cum eis sustinere persecutiones et penuriam et salvare animas suas, quam gaudere ad tempus cum gentilibus et vi eorum perdere animas” (CPD 1: 28-30). Such severe accusations were brought in historical accounts from the High Middle Ages against those wicked gentes that were, at some point during the Migration Period, disturbing the “peacefully living” urban population of the Eastern Adriatic. Did the events mentioned in them really happen? If not, what was the point of a medieval historiographical narrative? Who were the gentes of those “dark ages,” especially from the viewpoint of the High Medieval histories? To answer these questions in the following text, I will employ one among a variety of useful frameworks for understanding Early Medieval history of the Eastern Adriatic – that of Othering. To put it simply, Othering can be understood as a binary dichotomy of interrelationships between persons, social groups, and/or identities in dominant and inferior cultural positions, in which the notion of belonging becomes a crucial sign of one’s social position. In such a formation of the Self and the Other, the process of the Othering provides evidence of the fashioning of the Self, its hidden desires and goals, through the stereotyping and scapegoating of the Other – weather positively or negatively – and by being aware of the Other. In fact, the Self is revealed and constructed through the Other and in relation to the Other. In such a dynamic, the value judgment of the Other varies over time between inferior (most often) and equal. Depending on how distant they are from the Self, there can be more than one Other, although they are to some extent all the same because of their Otherness. The concept can be deployed in many ways, one of which is also the construction of the identity/ethnicity, particularly suitable in this case. It is also a useful tool primarily in postcolonial medieval studies (or postcolonial theory applied to medieval societies). Although such use has been much debated, it seems to serve the purpose of interpreting various medieval cultural and social contacts, confrontation, and exchange (above all transculturation and hybridity), as well as medieval narratives. I will proceed to examine the narratives of the two oldest historical accounts from the Eastern Adriatic area – Gesta Regum Sclavorum (CPD; also called Chronicle of the Priest of Diocleia) and Historia Salonitana (HS) – about the Migration Period, with a focus on the emergence of Croats in the history of South-Eastern Europe. I aim to demonstrate the manner in which medieval historians used multi-layered strategies of Othering to present the past in a hierarchical order corresponding to the needs of their present. By doing so, two categories of the Other seem to appear – the present, preferable Other, and the past, undesirable Other. I hope that I will, at the same time, promote a more thorough (inter)textual analysis of the narrative corpora and symbol structures of both Eastern Adriatic medieval histories, as medievalist
This article contributes to a global history of relativity, by exploring how Einstein's theory was appropriated in Belgium. This may sound as a contradiction in terms, yet the early-twentieth-century Belgian context, because of its cultural diversity and reflectiveness of global conditions (the principal example being the First World War), proves well-suited to expose transnational flows and patterns in the global history of relativity. The attempts of Belgian physicist Théophile de Donder to contribute to relativity physics during the 1910s and 1920s illustrate the role of the war in shaping the transnational networks through which relativity circulated. The local attitudes of conservative Belgian Catholic scientists and philosophers, who denied that relativity was philosophically significant, exemplify a global pattern: while critics of relativity feared to become marginalized by the scientific, political, and cultural revolutions that Einstein and his theory were taken to represent, supporters sympathized with these revolutions.
Benjamin Adroit, Xin Zhuang, Torsten Wappler
et al.
Interactions between plants and insects evolved during millions of years of coevolution and maintain the trophic balance of terrestrial ecosystems. Documenting insect damage types (DT) on fossil leaves is essential for understanding the evolution of plant–insect interactions and for understanding the effects of major environmental changes on ecosystem structure. However, research focusing on palaeoherbivory is still sparse and only a tiny fraction of fossil leaf collections have been analysed. This study documents a type of insect damage found exclusively on the leaves of Parrotia species (Hamamelidaceae). This DT was identified on Parrotia leaves from Willershausen (Germany, Pliocene) and from Shanwang (China, Miocene) and on their respective endemic modern relatives: Parrotia perisca in the Hyrcanian forests (Iran) and Parrotia subaequalis in the Yixing forest (China). Our study demonstrates that this insect DT persisted over at least 15 Myr spanning eastern Asia to western Europe. Against expectations, more examples of this type of herbivory were identified on the fossil leaves than on the modern examples. This mismatch may suggest a decline of this specialized plant–insect interaction owing to the contraction of Parrotia populations in Eurasia during the late Cenozoic. However, the continuous presence of this DT demonstrates a robust and long-term plant–herbivore association, and provides new evidence for a shared biogeographic history of the two host plants.