Possibilities of Preparing Pupils for Proof Problems of Synthetic Plane Geometry Solvable by Deductive Methods

Proof problems, especially the ones of the synthetic plane geometry solvable by deductive methods, play a significant role in mathematical education and due to their demanding principle also in the above-standard education including mathematical competitions. Therefore, the issue of preparing pupils for solving the proof problems is very important. This study aimed to find out if the contemporary state of the system of pupils’ preparation for synthetic plane geometry proof problems is sufficient enough for the mentioned purpose. From the full set of schools of the Czech Republic, there were 14 schools identified as the successful ones based on the results of the national round of the Mathematical Olympiad. These schools were asked questions about literature used for pupils’ preparation and the publications named in the answers were then deeply inspected. The results showed a narrow range of the literature used by the schools and the didactic-methodical inspection of stated literature detected considerable space for improvements which led the author to the main theme of his dissertation.

Contemporary State of Preservation of the Lichen Biota in the Eastern Part of the “Paprocie Serpentynitowe w Masywie Ślęży” Ecological Area

The purpose of this study was to assess the contemporary conditions of the lichen biota in the eastern part of the “Paprocie Serpentynitowe w Masywie Ślęży” ecological area in the Sudetes Foothills. The studies were carried out at three localities selected from 10 sites that were designed to protect the Asplenium fern genus. A total of 47 lichen species were found in the three localities. For each of the recorded species, the state of preservation in the Ślęża Massif area was assessed according to three factors: frequency at all three localities, general viability of the thalli, and stability in occurrence on the habitat. Stability was defined based on contemporary and historical data. From the analysis, most of the species (17) were classified as taxa with “moderate preservation status” in the study area. However, the preservation status of the 18 newly recorded taxa was defined as “insufficient data” due to the lack of previous records. Other species received a “very good preservation status” (three taxa) and “good preservation status” (nine taxa). The analyses allowed us to document the current number of taxa, determine their health condition, and indicate trends in the transformation within the lichen biota of the serpentinite rocks in the study area. Moreover, some actions were proposed to actively protect the valuable lichens in the ecological area of “Paprocie Serpentynitowe w Masywie Ślęży.”

Peculiarities of the Contemporary State Youth Policies in Russia and the United States: Comparative Analysis

This article examines the main causes and processes for the development of US public youth policy due to legal regulation of governmental and public institutions. The research identifies the main legal terms used by American and Russian legislators and the systems of youth policy, analyze the mechanisms of functioning of state and public institutions for working with youth. In addition, the study provides examples of the implementation of youth policy in the United States and the Russian Federation at the federal, regional and municipal (local) levels.

Security Provision and Counterterrorism in the Sahel

This chapter discusses the politics of security provision and counterterrorism in the Sahel, in light of the main security challenges facing the region: poverty and structural food insecurity, economic and social grievances, organized crime, protracted crisis derived from territorial and ethnic competition, and terrorism and violent radicalization. It emphasizes the concept of human security against the current background of international policies and academic analysis that favors realpolitik, and it focuses on the characteristics of the contemporary state in this part of Africa to explain both the security challenges and the provision of security. The fragility of institutions and the authoritarian trends observed in Sahelian states affect their capacity and legitimacy. The chapter discusses these two aspects in detail, hinting at paths for security sector reform both by the countries and by regional initiatives such as the G5 Sahel.

Documentary Hypothesis of the Origin of the Pentateuch in the Works of Erhard Blum

В статье рассматриваются труды современного немецкого библеиста Эрхарда Блюма, посвящённые анализу истории и современного состояния документальной гипотезы происхождения Пятикнижия, которая до сих пор является доминирующей в современной западной библеистике. В начале статьи рассказана краткая история этой гипотезы, затем излагается её современное состояние, как его описывает Э. Блюм с выделением трёх основных направлений развития, и приводится его критическая оценка её проблем и перспектив. Далее рассматриваются рассуждения Блюма о проблемах лингвистической датировки библейского текста, очень важной для разных аспектов современной библеистики и в том числе документальной гипотезы. В качестве примера описывается лингвистический анализ отрывка Быт. 24 (о женитьбе Исаака), сделанная израильским библеистом А. Рофэ, и даётся его критический разбор. В конце статьи приводятся выводы автора о современной критической оценке документальной гипотезы на основе анализа трудов Э. Блюма. Автор считает, что история данной гипотезы и её современное состояние наглядно показывают её спорность и хаотичность выводов. Вместе с тем альтернативные (по отношению к традиционной церковной позиции) точки зрения на происхождение Пятикнижия не обязательно должны противоречить церковному вероучению и могут быть полезны для обнаружения и решения некоторых проблем библейского текста. В частности, может быть перспективной гипотеза Девятикнижия. Эрхарда Блюма можно назвать типичным представителем современной библейской критики, с одной стороны использующим документальную гипотезу для своих исследований, а с другой - способным её критически оценить. Ввиду того, что профессор Э. Блюм является ныне действующим исследователем, его научное творчество до сих пор, насколько известно автору, не было объектом научных исследований. Таким образом, данная статья может считаться первой в этой области, и автор вынужден был опираться только на труды самого немецкого библеиста. The article examines the works of the modern German biblical scholar Erhard Blum, devoted to the analysis of the history and contemporary state of the documentary hypothesis of the origin of the Pentateuch, which is still dominant in modern Western biblical studies. An introduction to the article contains a brief history of the documentary hypothesis. Further in the text, the contemporary state of the hypothesis is represented by the description of Blum, with three main directions of its development, which he distinguishes, and his critical assessment of its problems and prospects. The author considers Blum's reasoning about the problems of linguistic dating, which is important for various aspects of modern biblical studies, including the documentary hypothesis. As an example, the linguistic dating of Genesis 24 (the marriage of Isaac), made by the Israeli biblical scholar Alexander Rofe, is described, and its critical analysis is given. The author reasons about the modern critical assessment of the documentary hypothesis based on the analysis of Blum’s works, and applies his own interpretations. The author presumes that the history of the documentary hypothesis and its current state clearly demonstrates controversy. Meanwhile, opinions on the origin of the Pentateuch, alternative to the traditional church views, should not necessarily contradict the church doctrine and may be useful for identifying and solving some problems of the biblical text. Due to the fact that Blum is a contemporary biblical scholar, his person, as far as the author knows, has not been an object of academic research yet, and the present article can be considered the first in this area, and the author, therefore, is forced to rely solely on Blum’s works.

Vigilantism and Security-Making

Vigilantism and security-making ask that we both acknowledge the importance of legal pluralism (and its lived, and often contradictory, experiences), and that we recognize its limits. They insist that we acknowledge statecraft as a process engaged in by state and non-state actors, and that we rethink the contours of the contemporary state and the role of law within it. In imagining how anthropologists, lawyers, and legal scholars might think through these issues collaboratively and productively, this chapter suggests that legal pluralism can only take us so far. Ethnography is crucial to understanding how people engage, often simultaneously, various domains of law and how those domains themselves are also objects for scrutiny and investigation. Bringing these insights to policymaking and legal reform across various emerging fields, I suggest that vigilantism asks us to think about violence and to examine the roles and receptions of security-making and their integration into legal domains.

Trees as Village Protectors, Guru Rinpoche’s Wayfinders and Adopted Family Members

Forests occupy a large amount of territory in the contemporary state of Sikkim. However, their ubiquitousness should not be interpreted as a signal that Sikkimese communities are inherently environmentally friendly. Historically trees have been exploited as fuel for human use; but they have also fueled forms of interspecies relationality and sustained ecosystems, health for multiple species, folklore, history and ritual life. Just as trees have different parts—the roots, the trunk, the branches, and the foliage—so do Sikkimese relationships with trees. In this paper, I will draw on Buddhist ritual literature, oral sources related to traditional forest management, and state-level forest management materials to examine the complexity of tree traditions in conversation with other global examples of tree veneration traditions. In Sikkim, human-tree relationality evades politicization and state control in the Anthropocene, and offers an alternative local environmental ethics.

POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN EAST-EUROPEAN LINGUISTICS: THE ADDRESSEE ASPECT

The article deals with the review of contemporary state of the study of the political discourse addressee category in the works of East-European linguists; the topicality and importance of the study of the addressee category is substantiated. Inadequate attention towards the research of the discourse addressee constituent in comparison to the text constituent and the forwarder constituent of the political discourse is pointed out. The necessary connection with the addressness (targeting) category in the study of the political discourse addressee constituent is emphasized. The paper includes a brief history of the research of the addressness (targeting) category, as it is the basis of the study of the political discourse addressee phenomenon. It is shown that the attention to an addressee as a category appeared in linguistics quite a while ago and can be attributed primarily to the works of M. Bakhtin and Yu. Lotman, owing to who the interest to the category in question was spread throughout other European linguistic schools and university research departments. Notwithstanding its long history, the categorical features of text and discourse targeting are still not formulated clearly enough, either in linguistic or in non-linguistic paradigms; however, the necessity of the multi-paradigm studies is acknowledged. There exist a few papers, published within the last decade, in which certain attempts were made to outline and determine categorical features of the addressee category. However, they either dealt with other kinds of discourse, for instance, with the belles-lettres one, or were made on a limited research material. Hence, the category in question remains poorly studied, and this fact only emphasizes the timeliness of its further research.