Religious Tensions in Early Modern Torun, a History of War and Peace?

The history of acute inter-confessional conflict in Poland began with Martin Luther in 1517 and the presentation of the declaration of faith by the Protestants at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530. Those events became a turning point, which introduced a period of tension and war into an apparently rationalized Europe. However, it was not only the great cultural centres of the contemporary world that were affected by this new conflict. In many cases, smaller centres of regional importance were plunged into a period of confusion and bloodshed, due to tensions between the representatives of different Christian denominations. This is what happened in Toruń, one of the major cities of Royal Prussia. In 1724, despite efforts to reconcile the faiths, the city experienced turbulent riots that had widespread repercussions not only across the Kingdom of Poland but also throughout the rest of Europe. In fact, this provoked a powerful reaction from Prussia, England and Russia, which were disturbed by that religious intolerance so contrary to Enlightenment ideals. The Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke, Augustus II the Strong, saw in this an opportunity to reform internal and external policy, but these were not well received internationally. The situation between Protestants and Catholics in German Toruń thus remained unresolved for a long time. The event is often dealt with by historians as isolated from the earlier history of Toruń. However, the omission of references to that earlier period gives the impression that the bloodshed was merely a local social disturbance caused by individuals. Without claiming to offer a detailed comprehensive account of the phenomenon, this study nevertheless considers important events that preceded the riots and were closely connected with it, namely the spread of Lutheranism throughout Royal Prussia, religious education in the high schools of Toruń and a failed attempt at inter-faith dialogue in 1645

Ralph Linton in Madagascar (1926-1927).

Based on archival records and other writing of the period, the author traces in detail the Ralph Linton Expedition to the Island of Madagascar, 1926-1927. Liliana Mosca also comments on the nature and extent of the American Anthropologists collecting for the Field Museum of Natural History and his encounters while touring the different regions of Madagascar in various locales that would help unravel the web that bedeviled students of Malagasy culture

Is street art good or bad for you?

Economic growth can occur within a monolithic, grey urban environment, allowing for decaying facades and deteriorating public spaces. Where artists provide a colorful facelift to urban infrastructure, cities learn to channel the creative capacity of street art. The public good aspect thereby becomes significant in street art’s dimension of wide accessibility and going beyond the controversy of graffiti. This paper explores the case for supporting street art, as a driver for innovation in urban economies. We review the influence of cultural goods on the well-being of various demographic groups and explore the learning process in their consumption. The paper evaluates the willingness to pay towards public culture by controlling for conscious and unconscious exposure to street art in the public space. From a set of 970 field-based interviews, cultural goods ultimately emerge as a promotor of public well-being. Education is the strongest individual characteristic linked with the appreciation of public art. The better skilled further increase their support for potentially controversial cultural goods when works of street art are explicitly presented. A ‘skilled consumption’ emerges for such novel public goods, with further potential for increasing public tolerance through ongoing exposure to art in the urban environment. Finally, as the value of public art amongst the active population is primarily linked to its potential to drive creativity, we will reframe it as a promotor of dynamic local economies, going beyond individual preferences and well-being

Evolutionary Computation in High Energy Physics

Evolutionary Computation is a branch of computer science with which, traditionally, High Energy Physics has fewer connections. Its methods were investigated in this field, mainly for data analysis tasks. These methods and studies are, however, less known in the high energy physics community and this motivated us to prepare this lecture. The lecture presents a general overview of the main types of algorithms based on Evolutionary Computation, as well as a review of their applications in High Energy Physics.Comment: Lecture presented at 2006 Inverted CERN School of Computing; to be published in the school proceedings (CERN Yellow Report

Jets in QCD matter: Monte Carlo approaches

Monte Carlo approaches are a powerful tool in collider physics as they allow to make theory-data comparison on complex multi-particle observables, otherwise difficult for perturbative calculations. In heavy-ion collisions, there is a multitude of Monte Carlo approaches that try to address jet quenching phenomena, name given to the collection of medium-induced modifications that high momentum particles and jets undergo when traversing the hot and dense medium that is produced in such collisions. These models are being continuous developed alongside the theoretical efforts to understand and accurately describe experimental results provided by both RHIC and the LHC. In this manuscript, it is given a general overview about the fundamental building blocks that these tools have to address to describe jets in heavy-ion collisions. It follows a comparison on the latest results provided by some of the jet quenching Monte Carlo models to jet and intra-jet observables. A final personal outlook is presented at the end of the manuscript.Comment: Hard Probes Proceeding

Making disabled people’s voices vulnerable

This paper attempts to utilise creative writing to contribute to discourse in the fields of critical disability studies and inclusive education. Twelve semi-structured interviews were carried out with young disabled adults with different physical and/ or sensorial disabilities who followed or were following courses at further and higher education levels. Research findings that show day-to-day experiences that disabled persons live are presented in short poems to reveal their presumed struggles. The evidence espoused that inclusive education is a process and a way of living. Support from parents, peers, administrators and lecturers are key to individual and community building. Self-help strategies are crucial in developing agency which, with a washback effect would transform society into a more democratic one. However, disabled persons need to be given the opportunity by eradicating the deficit mentality in society towards disability and disabled persons. The discussion unveils how society makes the voices of disabled persons disempowered and vulnerable. It is suggested that in Malta, wider opportunities for disabled persons to pursue their education at further and higher education levels and to enter the employment sector are needed to promulgate inclusive communities. Entities need to emulate a positive and proactive attitude towards social inclusion and cohesion. The contribution of this paper is to create awareness about the dire need for social praxis in fostering emancipation and social justice from a rights-based standpoint in favour of disabled people.peer-reviewe