Emigration of mathematicians from outside German-speaking academia 1933-1963, supported by the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning

Racial and political persecution of German-speaking scholars from 1933 onward has already been extensively studied. The archives of the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), which are deposited in the Western Manuscripts Collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, is a rich source of information about the emigration of European scientists, also those who did not come from German-speaking institutions. This is an account of the support given by the SPSL to the persecuted mathematicians among them. The challenges faced by these emigrants included, in addition to anti-Semitism and xenophobia in their countries both of origin and of destination, the restricted financial means of the SPSL, and the sometimes arbitrary assessment of academic merits. Der rassistischen und politischen Verfolgung deutschsprachiger Wissenschaftler nach 1933 wurden bereits umfassende Studien gewidmet. Die Akten der Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL), die bei der Western Manuscripts Collection der Bodleian Library in Oxford deponiert sind, bieten umfangreiche Informationen zur Emigration auch derjenigen europäischen Wissenschaftler, die nicht deutschsprachig sozialisiert waren. Hier soll die Unterstützung der SPSL für verfolgte nicht-deutschsprachige Mathematiker beschrieben werden. Diesen Emigranten standen verschiedene Hindernisse entgegen; insbesondere Antisemitismus und Xenophobie in den Ursprungsländern und auch Empfangsländern, die zeitweilig problematische ökonomische Situation der SPSL, sowie einige Willkürlichkeiten in der Beurteilung akademischer Meriten

Presuppositions in Context: Constructing Bridges

About the book: The First International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modelling and Using Context, Rio de Janeiro, January 1997, gave rise to the present book, which contains a selection of the papers presented there, thoroughly refereed and revised. The treatment of contexts as bona fide objects of logical formalisation has gained wide acceptance, following the seminal impetus given by McCarthy in his Turing Award address. The field of natural language offers a particularly rich variety of examples and challenges to researchers concerned with the formal modelling of context, and several chapters in the volume deal with contextualisation in the setting of natural language. Others adopt a purely formal-logical viewpoint, seeking to develop general models of even wider applicability. The 12 chapters are organised in three groups: formalisation of contextual information in natural language understanding and generation, the application of context in mechanised reasoning domains, and novel non-classical logics for contextual application

Agents in proactive environments

Agents situated in proactive environments are acting au-tonomously while the environment is evolving alongside, whether or not the agents carry out any particular actions. A formal framework for simulating and reasoning about this generalized kind of dynamic systems is proposed. The capabilities of the agents are modeled by a set of conditional rules in a temporal-logical format. The environment itself is modeled by an independent transition relation on the state space. The temporal language is given a declarative semantics

A letter from Malevich to Semevsky about Kovalevskaya

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Lexicographic answering in travel choice: Insufficient scale extensions and steep indifference curves?

This study assesses lexicographic answering in stated choice surveys of travel alternatives. Respondents answering lexicographically in three different data sets are analysed in relation to how important they found the attributes that dominated their choices. Lexicographic answering is also regressed against covariates indicating commuting situation and socioeconomic status. A larger share of those answering lexicographically in relation to one specific attribute stated that this attribute was decisive in their choice compared to the share trading-off attribute levels in choices. Furthermore, a large majority of those answering lexicographically stated that the difference between the highest and lowest values of the attribute, according to which they chose lexicographically, was “very important”. Relevant variables explained lexicographic answering in a logistic regression analysis, e.g. that the probability of lexicographic answering with respect to travel time increases with income and travel distance. Response strategies other than neo-classical trade-off, e.g. simplification with a focus on one attribute alone, cannot be ruled out. However, the results indicate that lexicographic answering is due primarily to steep indifference curves in combination with insufficient attribute scale extension. These findings have implications for choice design and for the treatment of respondents answering lexicographically

Trafikantenes verdsetting av bedre kvalitet på kollektivtilbudet: En Stated Preference-undersøkelse på internett

Kollektivtransporten i Norge står overfor nye utfordringer siden tilskuddene til kollektivtrafikken er redusert betraktelig de siste årene. Utfordringene kollektivtransporten står overfor stiller krav til bedre kunnskap om trafikantenes ønsker og behov. Dette gjelder både prioritering av nye tilbud og avveiningen mellom allerede eksisterende tilbud. Det er derfor viktig å utvikle metoder som gir bedre grunnlag for å foreta disse avveiningene. Analysene i denne artikkelen baserer seg på data samlet inn høsten 2002 i forbindelse med prosjektet ”Samvalganalyse for Oslo og Akershus 2002”. Hovedformålet med prosjektet har vært å analysere trafikantenes preferanser og vurderinger av kvaliteten på kollektivtilbudet, i tillegg til å finne ut om trafikantenes verdsettinger har endret seg over tid. Det er i første rekke blitt fokusert på reisetid, bytte av transportmiddel, forsinkelser og om det finnes en egen preferanse for skinnegående transportmidler fremfor buss. Hovedfinansieringskilden til prosjektet har vært AS Oslo Sporveier

Vertical Color Maps: A Data Independent Alternative to Floor Plan Maps

Location sharing in indoor environments is limited by the sparse availability of indoor positioning and lack of geographical building data. Recently, several solutions have begun to implement digital maps for use in indoor space. The map design is often a variant of floor-plan maps. Whereas massive databases and GIS exist for outdoor use, the majority of indoor environments are not yet available in a consistent digital format. This dearth of indoor maps is problematic, as navigating multistorey buildings is known to create greater difficulty in maintaining spatial orientation and developing accurate cognitive maps. The development of standardized, more intuitive indoor maps can address this vexing problem. The authors therefore present an alternative solution to current indoor map design that explores the possibility of using colour to represent the vertical dimension on the map. Importantly, this solution is independent of existing geographical building data. The new design is hypothesized to do a better job than existing solutions of facilitating the integration of indoor spaces. Findings from a human experiment with 251 participants demonstrate that the vertical colour map is a valid alternative to the regular floor-plan map

The sine anecdote in Kovalevskaya’s memoirs

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A uniform quantificational logic for algebraic notions ofcontext

A quantificational framework of formal reasoning is proposed, which emphasises the pattern of entering and exiting context. Contexts are modelled by an algebraic structure which reflects the order and manner in which context is entered into and exited from. The equations of the algebra partitions context terms into equivalence classes. A formal semantics is defined, containing models that map equivalence classes of certain context terms to sets of first order structures. The corresponding Hilbert system incorporates the algebraic equations as axioms asserted in context. In this way a uniform logic for arbitrary algebras of context is obtained. Soundness and completeness are proved. In semigroups of contexts, where combination of contexts is associative, finite ground algebraic equations correspond to contingent equivalence between certain logical formulas. Systems for sets and multisets of contexts are obtained by presenting their respective algebras as associativity plus finite ground equations. Some contextual reasoning systems in the literature are inherently associative, and we present those as special cases

A decidable multi-modal logic of context

We give a logic for formulas Á¡± Ã, with the informal reading ”à is true in the context described by Á”. These are interpreted as binary modalities, by quantification over an enumerable set of unary modalities c¡± Ã, meaning ”à is true in context c”. The logic allows arbitrary nesting of contexts. A corresponding axiomatic presentation is given, and proven to be decidable, sound, and complete. Previously, quantificational logic of context restricted the nesting of contexts, and was only known to be decidable in very special cases