Object-Based Geomorphological Mapping: Application on an Alpine Deep-Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation Contest (Germanasca Valley, Western Alps—Italy)

This research reports the use of a new method of geomorphological mapping in GIS environments, using a full-coverage, object-based method, following the guidelines of the new geomorphological legend proposed by ISPRA–AIGEO–CNG. This methodology is applied to a tributary valley of the Germanasca Valley, shaped into calcschist and greenschist, of the Piedmont Zone (Penninic Domain, Western Alps). The investigated sector is extensively affected by dep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD) that strongly influences the geological setting and the geomorphological features of the area. The mapping of these gravitational landforms in a traditional way creates some difficulties, essentially connected to the high density of information in the same site and the impossibility of specifying the relationships between different elements. The use of the full-coverage, object-based method instead is advantageous in mapping gravitational evidence. In detail, it allows for the representation of various landforms in the same sector, and their relationships, specifying the size of landforms, and with the possibility of multiscale representation in the GIS environment; and, it can progressively be update with the development of knowledge. This research confirms that the use of the full-coverage, object-based method allows for better mapping of the geomorphological features of DSGSD evidence compared to classical representation.

Electrodynamic analysis of mirror antennas in the approximation of the barycentric method

In the article, the features of using the barycentric method in solving problems of electrodynamic analysis of mirror antennas are considered. The solution of the internal problem of electrodynamics is the basis of the study. The problem of electrodynamic analysis of a mirror antenna is formulated in the classical representation of the problem of diffraction of an electromagnetic wave on a system of infinitely thin perfectly conducting screens of arbitrary shape and reduced to a system of integro-differential equations. The solution of the latter is performed numerically in the projection formulation of the Galerkin method when determining the approximation of the desired surface current density function in the system of global basis functions formed in the approximation of the barycentric method for the analyzed screen. The integral representation of the electromagnetic field of the mirror antenna, taking into account the properties of the introduced basic functions, is given. Thefeatures of the algorithmic implementation of the developed solutions are clarified. The efficiency and comparative preference of the use of the barycentric method in the problems of electrodynamic analysis of mirror antennas are tested on test examples.

Unambiguous determinism in captivity of illusory perceptions

This article attempt to clarify whether the accusations brought by modern physics and probabilistic thinking against unambiguous determinism are justified. Is it incompatible with the existence of various possibilities, coincidences, free will, and certain laws of microcosm? Does it really lead to absolute predetermination? Is the perception of universality and fundamentality of unambiguous causation really outdated? Can the dynamic laws  be limited in their manifestation? Can they be replaced with probabilistic laws? At the same time, the logic of research is founded on determination of the essence of all the phenomena that are supposedly incompatible with the unambiguous determinism. In the course of research, the author adheres to gradual implementation of the principle of materialistic monism. The conclusion is made that the classical representation of universality and fundamentality of unambiguous causality remains relevant and is fully compatible with the presence of various possibilities, coincidences, free will, and probability. The author reveals the nature of possibilities and coincidences, as well as indicated inseparability of these phenomena from the predictive activity of a human. The article also determines inextricable link between the dynamic laws and the materiality of  the cognizable world, which testifies to their unlimited fundamentality. The nature of probabilistic laws and their inseparability from dynamic laws is underlined. The author provides arguments that unambiguous causality does not lead to absolute predomination of events, emphasizes the importance of the worldview criterion of validity of scientific representations; and clarifies the definition of matter.

BRAGINSKII EQUATIONS FOR HOT RELATIVISTIC PLASMAS: MIXED APPROACH

In the paper, the Braginskii equations for relativistic electrons in hot plasmas with slow macroscopic fluxes are derived. This consideration is suitable for description of the typical fusion plasma with the temperatures of about several tens of kiloelectronvolt, when the plasma rotation and the longitudinal currents should be taken into account. Contrary to other papers devoted to classical description of transport processes in fusion devices, as well as to fully relativistic description of the astrophysical objects, we propose the mixed approach with fully relativistic kinetics for the hot electrons and non-relativistic macroscopic fluxes. The obtained form of the Braginskii equations includes all important features of relativistic hydrodynamics, has the same form as the classical representation, which is currently implemented into modern transport codes, and can easily replace the latter.

Remarks on the Nonlocal Dirichlet Problem

We study translation-invariant integrodifferential operators that generate Lévy processes. First, we investigate different notions of what a solution to a nonlocal Dirichlet problem is and we provide the classical representation formula for distributional solutions. Second, we study the question under which assumptions distributional solutions are twice differentiable in the classical sense. Sufficient conditions and counterexamples are provided.

NEO-ZIONIST FRONTIER LANDSCAPES IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Immediately after the 1967 war and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza the national religious youngsters (Gush Emmunim settlers) reached out to settle the new frontier of the biblical places. By thus, they have developed a Messianic myth. The interpretation of Gush-Emmunim settlers’ experience of landscapes reveals a complex and contradictory structure of sense of space. Settlers’ mythical sense of space may be understood in two strata - imagined and material. The imagined stratum is conceived mainly in transcendental romantic terms while the material is reified according to classic conceptions. Two main contradictions are outstanding: first, between the romantic representation of Jewish landscapes and the classic representation of Palestinian landscapes in the imagined stratum; second, between the romantic representation of the Jewish home space in the imagined stratum and the classical representation of the suburban Jewish home landscape in the material stratum. The first contradiction is inherent in frontier societies as a means to pseudo-rationalize the colonisation of the land, although in general there may be a mixture of romantic and classic attitudes towards the natives. The settlers pioneering myth is highly subsidised by the government and aggressively backed by military force. This enables them to tolerate the surrounding fear, antagonism and hatred. Thus, the landscape they build represents power and domination with no regard to local nature and to the Palestinian landscapes that are perceived by the settlers as part of it.

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION OF SOVIET SOCIETY (1917−1930’S). MODERN CONCEPTS AND APPROACHES

The article analyzes modern approaches to studying the social stratification of Soviet society in the 1917–1930’s in the humanities. Modern science is characterized by an interest in social stratification within the framework of sociology. Among the scholars of that science there is a rejection of the classical representation for the stratification of society whereas a new theoretical approach is created, associated with an idea of the existence of more than three classes in Soviet society (works by Zinaida T. Golenkova, Vladimir I. Ilyin and Ovsei I. Shkaratan). In the 21st century, social stratification becomes the object for studying by some culture researchers exemplarily Irina V. Glushchenko considers classes through the prism of the formation of the food culture by the Soviet government. The today history formed several approaches to the study of the concept: works within the framework of the new social history (Sh. Fitzpatrick), among which the study of social stratification in its connection with public catering (E.V. Barysheva, A.A. Ilyukhov, T.S. Kondrat’eva); research conducted using methods of the everyday history (for example, Sh. Fitzpatrick, Natalia B. Lebina, E.A. Osokina, etc.).

Introduction

Who was Petronius Arbiter? The twentieth century’s most famous ancient novelist is one good answer. Of all the works of ancient prose fiction—by Apuleius, Xenophon, Chariton, Achilles Tatius, Longus, Heliodorus—only Petronius’s Satyrica resonated with the twentieth century, providing Eliot with the epigraph for The Waste Land and Fitzgerald with the ur-text for Gatsby—originally entitled “Trimalchio at West Egg”—and Fellini with his film. The fascination of the arbiter elegantiae—as Nero’s court called Petronius—on twentieth-century avant-gardists is quite puzzling. What sets this fragmented text apart from kindred others? Is the answer precisely that it is one of a kind? Why did Petronius’s scabrous text become modern experimentalists’ favorite ancient analogue? That Auerbach’s Mimesis identified Petronius as one of three authors who exemplify classical representation could also be adduced as evidence of Petronius’s newfound status in the modernist century.