Scientific World View

Abstract: Brentano’s conception of scientific philosophy had a strong influence on his students and on the intellectual atmosphere of Vienna in the late nineteenth century. The aim of this article is to expose Brentano’s conception and to contrast his views with that of two traditions he is said to have considerably influenced: phenomenology and analytic philosophy. I will shed light on the question of how and to what extent Brentano’s conception of philosophy as a rigorous science has had an impact on these two traditions. The discussion will show that both took their liberties in the interpretation of the thesis, a move that allowed them to liberate themselves from Brentano’s inheritance and to fully develop their own philosophical positions.

This paper presents the results of a study on the reliability and performance of the solar-powered street lighting systems installed at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Nigeria, a hot and humid environment. The technical performance of the systems was studied using the following performance indicators: system energy yield, capture loss, as well as the system performance ratio while the reliability of the systems was examined using a model developed from the findings from the maintenance and fault diagnosis of the systems. The model was used to predict the total failure and survival probability of the systems using the Weibull distribution. The performance evaluation during the monitored period (February 2012 to January 2015) indicated that the performance ratios of the systems vary from 70% to 89% and the energy yields of the systems ranging from 2.87 h/day to 5.57 h/day. The results from the reliability analysis also showed that when the stress concentrati...

In today's world, the construction industry both structural and non-structural elements are fabricated from thin gauges of steel sheets. These thin walled sections are being used as columns, beams, joists, studs, floor decking, built-up sections and other components for lightly loaded structures. Unlike hot rolled sections, the design of Cold-Formed Steel (CFS) section for beam is predominantly controlled by various buckling modes of failure, thereby drastically reducing their load carrying capacity. Hence there is an urgent need in the CFS industry to look beyond the conventional CFS beam sections and investigate newly proposed innovative CFS beam sections, which seem to prove structurally much more efficient. Prior to any experimental investigation of innovative beam sections, there is a need to carry out theoretical design using some of the most appropriate available methods applicable to the case under consideration. This paper focuses on such theoretical designs for various...

Astronomy in the Baltic - Observatories, Planetariums and Instruments.

Astronomy has always played an important role for time keeping and calendars, especially for the calculation of the Easter date, so the church had a great interest in
it. Observatories in the Baltic Sea region had three roots:
• Dukes and kings performed as patrons, as did the Danish king for Tycho Brahe – observatories Uraniborg (1576) and Stellaeburgum (1584) – and for the Rundetårn Observatory (1642).
• The second option were private observatories like Johannes and Elisabetha Hevelius in Danzig (Gdansk) or later the Remplin Observatory (1793).
• Since the 17th century many observatories were built within the framework of
the universities: Rostock Observatory Specula (1662), observatory in Kiel Castle (1769), Uppsala Celsius house (1741), observatory Lund (1749), Stockholm Academy Observatory (1753), Greifswald Observatory (1741, 1775), Vilnius
Observatory (1753). Astronomy was flourishing in the 19th century – in connection with land surveying and later with the emergence of astrophysics: Uppsala Observatory (1853), observatory Königsberg (1810/13), observatory Dorpat / Tartu, Estonia (1810), observatory Helsinki (1834), observatory Pulkovo / St. Petersburg (1839).

Die Tagung des Arbeitskreises Astronomiegeschichte in der Astronomischen Gesellschaft (AKAG) in Göttingen, 17.–18. September 2017, stand unter dem Thema Astronomie und Astrologie im Kontext von Religionen – im Kontext des 500jährigen Reformationsjubiläums.
https://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/GNT/events/akag-goettingen-2017.php
Ziel war es nun, Beiträge in diesem Band zusammenzustellen, die auf aktuellen Forschungen im Sinne von Fallanalysen beruhen oder die einen fundierten Überblick zu der übergreifenden Problematik geben.

With contributions by Christoph Meinel, Fritz Krafft, Marta Quatrale, Harald Gropp, Reinhard Folk, Volker Bialas, Frank Fürbeth, Regina Umland, Ute Frietsch, Stefan Kratochwil, Xian Wu.

Shortest path is among classical problems of computer science. The problems are solved by hundreds of algorithms, silicon computing architectures and novel substrate, unconventional, computing devices. Acellular slime mould P. polycephalum is originally famous as a computing biological substrate due to its alleged ability to approximate shortest path from its inoculation site to a source of nutrients. Several algorithms were designed based on properties of the slime mould. Many of the Physarum-inspired algorithms suffer from a low converge speed. To accelerate the search of a solution and reduce a number of iterations we combined an original model of Physarum-inspired path solver with a new a parameter, called energy. We undertook a series of computational experiments on approximating shortest paths in networks with different topologies, and number of nodes varying from 15 to 2000. We found that the improved Physarum algorithm matches well with existing Physarum-inspired approaches ...

Rett syndrome (RS) is a genetic disorder affecting mainly females. In the majority of cases, it is caused by a mutation in MECP2, an X-linked gene, and considered the most common multidisabling genetic disorder in females after Down syndrome. This article is an introduction to RS. It presents the basic understanding of common characteristics typical of this disorder, and the variants from the classical expression of RS. The present article will review the current literature on RS, specially focusing on the clinical characteristics of the disorder. The intention of the article is to set a clear, up-to-date picture of the individual with RS to prepare the clinician for their future meetings with this population.

Many physicians have argued that anatomical healing is strictly the result of biological processes of the human body, having absolutely nothing to do with the presence or influence of a deity. This is an ongoing argument among many – did a doctor save the man’s life, or was it a god?

Shortest path is among classical problems of computer science. The problems are solved by hundreds of algorithms, silicon computing architectures and novel substrate, unconventional, computing devices. Acellular slime mould P. polycephalum is originally famous as a computing biological substrate due to its alleged ability to approximate shortest path from its inoculation site to a source of nutrients. Several algorithms were designed based on properties of the slime mould. Many of the Physarum-inspired algorithms suffer from a low converge speed. To accelerate the search of a solution and reduce a number of iterations we combined an original model of Physarum-inspired path solver with a new a parameter, called energy. We undertook a series of computational experiments on approximating shortest paths in networks with different topologies, and number of nodes varying from 15 to 2000. We found that the improved Physarum algorithm matches well with existing Physarum-inspired approaches ...

The absurd idea that the universe exploded out of nothing is a commonplace among today's mathematicians , cosmologists, astronomers, and physicists. Cosmology has become cosmogony, the dubious study of the "origin" of the universe. The entire universe is being treated conceptually as a "system;" a finite, isolated entity. We have reached an intellectual dead end. How do we get out of it? My new book, The Scientific Worldview: Beyond Newton and Einstein, shows the direction we must take. Mere calculation and additional rose-colored observation will be to no avail, for the persistence of the Big Bang Theory (BBT) is rooted in the perpetual philosophical struggle that underlies our understanding of the universe and our place in it. In philosophy, as in science, it is necessary to begin with assumptions. One cannot travel to the end of the universe to prove whether it is infinite or finite. To begin with the assumption of finity, as mathematics and the BBT demand, is to end with finity. However, if one chooses the philosophical alternative, infinity, then the irrationality perpetrated by the BBT disappears and cosmology becomes legitimate. We are left with an eternal, infinite universe that, as David Bohm maintained exactly 50 years ago, can never yield complete equations for even one phenomenon. The Scientific Worldview describes how this universe works via the universal mechanism of evolution, "univi-ronmental determinism." Univironmental determinism is the simple proposition that what happens to a portion of the universe is determined by the relationship between the infinite matter in motion within (the microcosm) and the infinite matter in motion without (the macrocosm). In the scheme of things, the BBT is pre-Copernican and symptomatic of the myopic worldview held by society at large. The BBT cannot be rejected without rejecting finity.