Traveling Theory: The Legacy of Edward W. Said in Eastern Europe

This text is a pre-publication format made available for the University of Lodz online repository with the permission of the publisher, Éditions québécoises de l’oeuvre.This paper discusses the circulation of Edward W. Said’s concepts in Eastern Europe. In his text “Traveling Theory” Said examines intercultural translations of Western ideas for use in new historical contexts. The phenomenon of traveling applies as well to Said’s notion of Orientalism. Many researchers of Eastern Europe have applied Said’s concept to analyze post-communist societies. The cultural translation has led both to creative interpretations of Said’s thought and to an ideological voice trapped in the post-communist discourse of modernization.Cet article étudie la circulation des concepts formulés par Edward W. Said en Europe de l’Est. Dans son texte « Traveling Theory », Said analyse la traduction interculturelle d’idées occidentales en vue de leur utilisation dans de nouveaux contextes historiques. Le phénomène de traveling s’applique aussi à la notion d’orientalisme de Said. De nombreux chercheurs en Europe de l’Est ont utilisé ce concept de Sain pour analyser des sociétés postcommunistes. Cette traduction interculturelle a donné lieu à la fois à des interprétations créatrices de la pensée de Said et à une voix idéologique enfermée dans le discours postcommuniste de modernisation.This paper was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through a grant to young scholars research

Analysis of Actual Versus Permitted Driving Speed: a Case Study from Glasgow, Scotland

With a lack of consistent information about actual driving speed on the majority of roads in the UK we propose a method to determine car speeds from a sample of movement data from a GPS-based travel survey. Furthermore, we identify potential road links within a road network where speeding incidents take place. Speed at which a car travels is a strong determinant in the potential risk of a crash as well as the severity of the crash. Using the GPS movement data we can detect areas in the city of Glasgow where the driving speed exceeds the permitted limits and thus identifying possible areas of higher crash risk

Explicit solutions of the invariance equation for means

Extending the notion of projective means we first generalize an invariance identity related to the Carlson log given in a recent paper of P. Kahlig and J. Matkowski, and then, more generally, given a bivariate symmetric, homogeneous and monotone mean M, we give explicit formula for a rich family of pairs of M-complementary means. We prove that this method cannot be extended for higher dimension. Some examples are given and two open questions are proposed

Exploring spatiotemporal dynamics of urban fires: A case of Nanjing, China

Urban fire occurs within the built environment, usually involving casualties and economic losses, and affects individuals and socioeconomic activities in the surrounding neighborhoods. A good understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of fire incidents can offer insights into potential determinants of various fire events, therefore enabling better fire risk estimation which can assist with future allocation of prevention resources and strategic planning of mitigation programs. Using a twelve-year (2002–2013) dataset containing the urban fire events in Nanjing, China, this research explores the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban fires using a range of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) approaches. Of particular interest here are the fire incidents involving residential properties and local facilities due to their relatively higher occurrence frequencies. The results indicate that the overall amount of urban fires has greatly increased in the last decade and the spatiotemporal distribution of fire events varies among different incident types. The identified spatiotemporal patterns of urban fires in Nanjing can be linked to the urban development strategies and how they have been reflected in reality in recent years

Half a century of research on diatoms in athalassic habitats in central Poland

The authors would like to dedicate this paper to Prof. Marcin Pliński who started the phycological research in these unique habitats of Central Poland.Part of the geology in the Łódź province was formed during the Upper Permian period when rich Zechstein salt was deposited. Groundwater drains the deposits and flows out in the village of Pełczyska, creating a unique hydrogeological site in Central Poland. An inland, athalassic ecosystem can be a reference site for halophile microflora. The outflow with surrounding marshes has been an algological research site since 1964. The research reveals changes recorded in diatom assemblages from athalassic habitats, characterized by a wide range of salinity levels, and verifies the tolerance of taxa to salinity. The comparative analysis was based on the diatom material sampled in 1964-1965, 1992-1994 and on recently collected samples. The analysis revealed the temporal change in assemblages caused by a change in the chloride concentration, and the spatial change from one to another habitat type, characterized by varying salinity levels. The halophilic species in the studied habitats included e.g. Halamphora dominici, H. tenerrima, Navicula digitoconvergens, N. meulemansii, Staurophora salina. The analysis of changes allowed the verification of the species’ requirements and tolerance range to the salinity factor. Therefore, in the case of Fragilaria famelica and Halamphora sydowii, we propose a change in the halobion system classification