How to Identify Scientifc Revolutions?

Conceptualizing scientific revolutions by means of explicating their causes, their underlying structure and implications has been an important part of Kuhn's philosophy of science and belongs to its legacy. In this paper we show that such “explanatory concepts” of revolutions should be distinguished from a concept based on the identification criteria of scientific revolutions. The aim of this paper is to offer such a concept, and to show that it can be fruitfully used for a further elaboration of the explanatory conceptions of revolutions. On the one hand, our concept can be used to test the preciseness and accuracy of these conceptions, by examining to what extent their criteria fit revolutions as they are defined by our concept. On the other hand, our concept can serve as the basis on which these conceptions can be further specified. We will present four different explanatory concepts of revolutions – Kuhn's, Thagard's, Chen's and Barker's, and Laudan's – and point to the ways in which each of them can be further specified in view of our concept

Kuhn and the question of pursuit worthiness

The aim of this paper is, on the one hand, to critically investigate Kuhn's stance on the assessment of the pursuit worthiness of scientific theories, and, on the other hand, to show the actuality of some of Kuhn's points on this issue, in view of their critical analysis. To this end we show that Kuhn presents certain tools, which may help scientists to overcome communication breakdowns when engaging in the process of rational deliberation regarding the question whether a theory is worthy of further pursuit. These tools are persuasion, translation and interpretation. However, we argue that the perspective of epistemic semantic monism present in Kuhn's work obstructs the full applicability of these tools. We show that dropping this perspective makes the notions of persuasion and interpretation more fruitful, and moreover, allows for a pluralism of scientific theories and practices that complements the pluralism based on disagreement among scientists, emphasized by Kuhn

Oil and gas

Nafta i plin poznati su kao fosilna goriva. Nastali su od organske tvari (mikroskopskih planktona, kopnenog bilja) koja se taložila na dnu oceana, dubokih jezera i obalnih područja. Ta organska materija sakupljala se u sedimentima, te je pod utjecajem visokog tlaka i temperature pretvorena u ugljikohidrate, koji su migrirali kroz pore i pukotine matičnih stijena. Međutim, ukoliko bi dospjeli u zamku, nastaju ležišta ili akumulacije.U takvim rezervoarima lakši plin popuni pore stijene iznad nafte. Prerada nafte i plina vrši se u rafinerijama, kako bi se preveli u korisne produkte koje svakodnevno koristimo. Važno je, međutim, i napomenuti negativan utjecaj nafte i plina na okoliš. Naime, prilikom prerade i korištenja tih sirovina ispuštaju se velike količine ugljikovog-dioksida (staklenički plin) u atmosferu. Osim toga, jedna od velikih katastrofa vezanih uz naftu jeste njeno izlijevanje u mora, prilikom čega dolazi do uništavanja cijelog ekosistema, a ponovno uspostavljanje ravnoteže zahtijeva mnogo vremena. Treba naglasiti i to da su zalihe nafte i plina sve manje, područja koja su bogata naftom sve su rjeđa, a to je dakako i jedan od velikih uzroka svjetskih sukoba. Trebali bismo početi više aktivno razmišljati o drugim izvorima energije poput energije Sunca, vjetra, vode, bioenergije.Oil and gas are known as fossil fuels. Oil is the residue of organic waste (primarily microscopic plankton floating in seas, and also land plants) that accumulated at the bottom of oceans, lakes, and coastal areas. Over millions of years, this organic matter was collected beneath successive levels of sediments. Pressure and underground heat "cooked" the organic matter, converting it into hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas). The droplets of oil liquid migrated through small pores and fractures in the rocks until they were trapped in permeable rocks. In such a reservoir, the lightest gas fills the pores of the reservoir rock as a "gas cap" above the oil. All crude is processed in a refinery to turn it into useful products like gasoline, jet fuel, home heating oil, and industrial fuel oil. It’s also important to mention what influence does oil have on natural environment. Processing and using oil and gas has negative influence on nature, because of the carbon-dioxide that ends up in atmosphere. Also, big ecological catastrophes happen when oil leaks from tankers into oceans and seas. Plants and animals, living in the area struck by the disaster, vanish for good, and it takes a very long time for that biological eco-system to recondition. Oil and gas are used as source of energy, but the supply of those sources is getting fewer. In the future, we should try to use other sources of energy, such as energy of Sun, water, wind, bio energy

Urnfield Culture Knives in Croatia

U radu se obrađuju brončanodobni noževi po vrstama nalazišta: ostave, grobovi, naselja i pojedinačni nalazi. Najviše je noževa nađeno u ostavama, a najmanje u naseljima brončanoga doba. Datirani su, ovisno o tipskoj pripadnosti, od srednje bronce do Ha B 2/B 3.Most knives’ fragments have been found in hoards (descending): Brodski Varoš, Beravci, Podcrkavlje, Mačkovac, Poljanci II, Otok–Privlaka. One knife has been found in each of the hoards: Bošnjaci, Budinšćina, Dabar– Marina, Donja Bebrina, Dolina, Ivanec Bistranski, Kapelna, Lonđica, Mačkovac I (Crišnjevi), Malička, Podrute, Poljanci I and Topličica. The Urnfield necropolis Velika Gorica yielded a couple of interesting knife types of the late Urnfield culture, e.g. of the type Seeboden, an antenna-handle knife, etc. Among isolated finds there is a knife of the Egelsheim type from Ivanska, which is the oldest. The knife from Torčec has a special shape and has been subject to ICP AES analysis, and the results were compared to corresponding investigations of Bronze Age finds in Slovenia (Hočko Pohorje, Pekel, Udje). Only two fragmented knives have been found within the context of a settlement – the knife from Novigrad on Sava River and the knife from Pogorišće

Proper construction and arrangement of modern landfill

S povećanjem broja stanovništva potrebno je pronaći održivi način gospodarenja otpadom. U ovom radu su prikazane osnovne komponente modernog odlagališta otpada, koje teže tom cilju. Primjenom mehaničko-biološke obrade otpada i tehnologije za dobivanje energije iz otpada, smanjuje se količina otpada koji će se odložiti na odlagalište i dobivaju se korisni produkti (npr. kompost, bioplin). Primjenom odlagališta u smislu bioreaktora, ubrzava se razgradnja organske tvari mikrobiološkom aktivnošću koja dovodi do brže stabilizacije odlagališta.As the population increases it is necessary to find sustainable waste management. In this paper fundamental components of modern landfill for sustainable waste management are presented. By using mechanical-biological treatment of waste and waste-to-energy technologies, the volume of waste which is disposed of is reduced and useful byproducts are derived from it (e.g. compost, biogas). By implementing a bioreactor landfill, the degradation of organic compounds by microorganisms is faster which leads to a quicker stabilization of the landfill

The relation between velocity dispersion and mass in simulated clusters of galaxies: dependence on the tracer and the baryonic physics

[Abridged] We present an analysis of the relation between the masses of cluster- and group-sized halos, extracted from $\Lambda$CDM cosmological N-body and hydrodynamic simulations, and their velocity dispersions, at different redshifts from $z=2$ to $z=0$. The main aim of this analysis is to understand how the implementation of baryonic physics in simulations affects such relation, i.e. to what extent the use of the velocity dispersion as a proxy for cluster mass determination is hampered by the imperfect knowledge of the baryonic physics. In our analysis we use several sets of simulations with different physics implemented. Velocity dispersions are determined using three different tracers, DM particles, subhalos, and galaxies. We confirm that DM particles trace a relation that is fully consistent with the theoretical expectations based on the virial theorem and with previous results presented in the literature. On the other hand, subhalos and galaxies trace steeper relations, and with larger values of the normalization. Such relations imply that galaxies and subhalos have a $\sim10$ per cent velocity bias relative to the DM particles, which can be either positive or negative, depending on halo mass, redshift and physics implemented in the simulation. We explain these differences as due to dynamical processes, namely dynamical friction and tidal disruption, acting on substructures and galaxies, but not on DM particles. These processes appear to be more or less effective, depending on the halo masses and the importance of baryon cooling, and may create a non-trivial dependence of the velocity bias and the \soneD--\Mtwo relation on the tracer, the halo mass and its redshift. These results are relevant in view of the application of velocity dispersion as a proxy for cluster masses in ongoing and future large redshift surveys.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures. Minor modifications to match the version in press on MNRA