Polish mathematicians and mathematics in World War I. Part I: Galicia (Austro-Hungarian Empire)

In this article we present diverse experiences of Polish mathematicians (in a broad sense) who during World War I fought for freedom of their homeland or conducted their research and teaching in difficult wartime circumstances. We discuss not only individual fates, but also organizational efforts of many kinds (teaching at the academic level outside traditional institutions, Polish scientific societies, publishing activities) in order to illustrate the formation of modern Polish mathematical community. In Part I we focus on mathematicians affiliated with the existing Polish institutions of higher education: Universities in Lwów in Kraków and the Polytechnical School in Lwów, within the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Modelling the efficiency of a drainage gallery work for a large landslide with respect to hydrogeological heterogeneity

This study describes transient hydrogeological and geomechanical models realized jointly in 2006 by the Geolep office (Géologie de l’Ecole Polytechnique) of the Polytechnical School of Lausanne (EPFL) and GeoMod SA within the framework of the stabilization work of the La Frasse landslide (Vaud, Switzerland). These models evaluate the impact of a deep drainage gallery with subvertical drainage boreholes towards the surface in terms of reduction of the deformation velocities and increase of the landslide’s factor of safety. The paper presents the effect of different pipe spacing of the drainage system. Considering the local heterogeneities, the results show that a mean spacing between the drainage boreholes of the order of 10 m is sufficient to control the temporal head fluctuations between the wells within a range of a few metres. Moreover, this solution induces a strong diminution of the predicted displacements during a specific crisis, from 101 cm for the model without drainage to around 14 cm for the drained model, and a significant gain of stability (from a factor of safety (FoS) of 1.05 to 1.30).

Formal Education in Medical Informatics

A specialized curriculum for education in medical informatics at university level was initiated jointly by the University of Heidelberg and the Polytechnical School of Heilbronn in 1972. The experience gained during the past decade is reviewed as an example of a curriculum of applied informatics in general and of medical informatics in particular. For this purpose, the underlying basic concept is described and its realization in the current third version of the curriculum specified in some detail. In particular, its practice-oriented didactic concepts are emphasized. The concept and its realization are discussed on the basis of a review of the experience of 51 graduates.