Search Results (25)

This paper employs allegory to examine how pupils experience exclusion in mathematics education. Using Dante’s Inferno as a structural frame, I present nine fictional narratives aligned with the nine circles of Hell. These depict recurring learner experiences: displacement, disorientation, mechanical drill, grade-chasing, resistance, doubt, internalised failure, performance without understanding, and withdrawal. The narratives are not verbatim accounts but constructed stories synthesising themes from research, classroom practice, and observed discourse. Through narrative inquiry, each story reframes issues such as language barriers, high-stakes assessment, proceduralism, and stereotype threat—not as individual shortcomings but systemic conditions shaping learner identities. The allegorical mode makes these conditions vivid, positioning mathematics education as a moral landscape where inclusion and exclusion are continually negotiated. The analysis yields three insights: first, forms of exclusion are diverse yet interconnected, often drawing pupils into cycles of silence, resistance, or performance; second, metaphor and fiction can serve as rigorous research tools, allowing affective and structural dimensions of schooling to be understood together; and third, teacher education and policy must confront the hidden costs of privileging narrow forms of knowledge. Reimagining classrooms through Dante’s allegory, this paper calls for pedagogies that disrupt exclusion and open pathways to belonging and mathematical meaning. Full article

In an era of accelerating secularization, art serves as a vital mediator for non-institutional forms of spirituality. This article examines Robert Rauschenberg’s Inferno series (1958–1960) as a case study of how modern art reconfigures religious narratives to engage with humanity’s “ultimate concerns.” Through his solvent transfer technique, Rauschenberg dismantles Dante’s theological structure and reconfigures it into a fragmented, participatory experience of spirituality. The argument develops in two parts. First, it demonstrates how Rauschenberg secularizes sacred imagery to portray modern social realities as a “contemporary inferno” marked by systemic violence and commodified desire. Second, it theorizes that the materiality of solvent transfer—its blurring, erasure, and contingent traces—creates what may be called “material spirituality,” a sacred presence perceived through absence and indexical trace. Within this reconfigured structure, spectatorship itself takes on a ritualistic character. When confronted with fragmented and unstable imagery, viewers engage in active, contemplative practice, transforming the act of viewing into a secular ritual of attentiveness. Thus, Rauschenberg’s Inferno radically redefines the religious function of art—not as redemption, but as the cultivation of fragile yet enduring forms of spirituality within the estrangement of modern life. Full article

This paper presents an analysis of the debris flow phenomena in the Rio Inferno watershed (Municipality of Cesana Torinese, Western Alps, Italy). The annual frequency and magnitude of these events have caused significant damage to the viability of the historic Chaberton Military Road, which is now closed to transit. This study delved into the processes governing debris flows in the Rio Inferno watershed through detailed geomorphological analysis, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetric survey, and the elaboration of rainfall data from the nearby weather monitoring stations. The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) code was used to simulate debris flow events considering critical precipitations associated with return periods of 20, 50, 100, and 200 years, based on the highly detailed topographical model obtained by means of photogrammetry. The paper highlights the importance of studying debris flow phenomena to implement effective risk mitigation and management strategies, especially in the context of climate change and the increased vulnerability of mountain territories. Full article

The Inferno highlights many categories of sins and varieties of pains yet it has another unifying theme. From the earliest descriptions of Christian monastic discipline to the Benedictine Rule and beyond, “inner death” inspired contemplatives to confront the hell that awaits them if they succumb to pride, give way to sloth (acedia), or lack humility. Scholastic theologians (e.g., Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure) developed the notion, and mendicant preachers brought it to laypeople like Dante Alighieri. Inner death has ironic force in the Inferno because it contradicts the inscription on the gates of hell: “Abandon all hope you who enter”. Yes, one must abandon all hope upon entering hell unless, through the cultivation of inner death, one does so “nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” (midway in the journey of our life—Singleton), while alive. Here is the irony; here is inner death. If living persons contemplate the consequences in hell of their faults in life, they transcend them and escape. Full article

The medieval epic poem, The Divine Comedy, and Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s prestige drama, Westworld, have more in common than at first meets the eye. Both represent hellish and purgatorial geographies, both physical and psychological. And both share the view that what is regularly considered “perfect liberty”, or the liberty to indulge in any and every desire one wishes to with impunity, is in fact a form of slavery, as argued by Aristotle. Both the denizens in Dante’s Inferno and the guests in Westworld’s park, therefore, are ensnared by their own desires. This article will consider the structure of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s hit HBO show Westworld, which I will argue takes parts of its structure consciously from Dante’s The Divine Comedy. And though at the outset, the two works of art appear dissimilar, the theologically and philosophically infused medieval Catholic-Italian poetry of Dante and the sensuous, nihilistic, and provocative story-telling of Jonathan Nolan’s recent work on the generation and expression of consciousness, ultimately what they share is similarity in structure and an agreement on the connection between activity, suffering, madness, perfection, consciousness, and freedom of the will from sin. Full article

Theoretically, a poem can begin in any way. What does it mean that in practice, poems often begin in a particular way—that is, by returning to a fragment of some prior thing? We see this in the encore of John Milton’s opening to Lycidas (‘Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more’); differently, we see this in the widely used convention of the poetic epigraph (for instance, T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ begins with six lines from Dante’s Inferno). While there is an established model for understanding the beginning as an act that invokes poetic precedent, this paper seeks to expose the beginning’s logic of return to a broader sense of language that is beyond the remit of poetic tradition as such. With a focus on the epigraph, this paper thinks about the everyday existence of poems and about how this existence relates to ordinary language, asking, how do these different modes of language function together? How does ordinary language collude in the creation of poetry? In its enactment of the passage of language from one mode of existence to another, the beginning of a poem might offer some answers to these questions. Full article

Forest fires exert detrimental effects on the economic, social, and ecological well-being of both individual nations and expansive geographical regions. These fires lead to the destruction of substantial quantities of valuable timber, the degradation of forest plantations, extensive deforestation, a decline in the protective functions of forests, diminished effectiveness in safeguarding water resources, and heightened soil erosion, particularly in mountainous terrain. Concurrently, agricultural production faces deteriorating conditions, and both wildlife and human populations, along with their production facilities, residences, infrastructure, and other assets, become exposed to significant hazards as a direct or indirect consequence of these raging infernos. The data that are used and analysed are for the period 1980–2018. Full article

The Small Island Developing State, Cabo Verde, is one of the most important marine biodiverse hotspots in the North Atlantic. One of its national conservation strategies has been the declaration of protected areas, and currently, the country has 47 declared protected areas and only 26 have been fully implemented. The latest protected area, Baía do Inferno e Monte Angra Natural Park, is the first protected area proposed by a civil initiative, and the local people strongly support the declaration of this protected area. Therefore, this study aims to better understand the mechanisms behind strong local support, explore the lessons learned from this case and how it can help improve the implementation of other protected areas in Cabo Verde. We conducted 7 semi-structured interviews with previously identified community leaders and 480 questionnaires with the general population of the local communities. The results show that 78.6% of the questionnaire respondents chose co-management as the desired management model. We also found that non-governmental organizations and local leaders have played a crucial role in sharing knowledge with local populations and helping them to have a critical and informed view about the future implementation of the protected area. Full article

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become a necessary part of modern living along with the increased adoption of new computational devices. Because machine learning and artificial intelligence can detect malware better than traditional signature detection, the development of new and novel malware aiming to bypass detection has caused a challenge where models may experience concept drift. However, as new malware samples appear, the detection performance drops. Our work aims to discuss the performance degradation of machine learning-based malware detectors with time, also called concept drift. To achieve this goal, we develop a Python-based framework, namely Rapidrift, capable of analysing the concept drift at a more granular level. We also created two new malware datasets, TRITIUM and INFRENO, from different sources and threat profiles to conduct a deeper analysis of the concept drift problem. To test the effectiveness of Rapidrift, various fundamental methods that could reduce the effects of concept drift were experimentally explored. Full article

Poetry elicits emotions, and emotion is a fundamental component of human ontogeny. Although neuroaesthetics is a rapidly developing field of research, few studies focus on poetry, and none address its different modalities of fruition (MOF) of universal cultural heritage works, such as the Divina Commedia (DC) poem. Moreover, alexithymia (AX) resulted in being a psychological risk factor during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to investigate the emotional response to poetry excerpts from different cantica (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) of DC with the dual objective of assessing the impact of both the structure of the poem and MOF and that of the characteristics of the acting voice in experts and non-experts, also considering AX. Online emotion facial coding biosignal (BS) techniques, self-reported and psychometric measures were applied to 131 literary (LS) and scientific (SS) university students. BS results show that LS globally manifest more JOY than SS in both reading and listening MOF and more FEAR towards Inferno. Furthermore, LS and SS present different results regarding NEUTRAL emotion about acting voice. AX influences listening in NEUTRAL and SURPRISE expressions. DC’s structure affects DISGUST and SADNESS during listening, regardless of participant characteristics. PLEASANTNESS varies according to DC’s structure and the acting voice, as well as AROUSAL, which is also correlated with AX. Results are discussed in light of recent findings in affective neuroscience and neuroaesthetics, suggesting the critical role of poetry and listening in supporting human emotional processing. Full article

On the occasion of the 700th centenary of the death of Dante Alighieri, medium wave infrared imaging analysis of illuminations of the XIV-century code of the Divina Commedia (MS. 1102), hosted in the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome, was performed and discussed. The investigation was carried out by means of thermographic and reflectographic techniques on illuminations where the iconographic representation appeared severely damaged. In particular, through the combined use of both techniques, it was possible to recover the images of the damaged parts of the pictorial layer of the illuminations and of their underdrawings, displaying details of the “lost guardians”, which was useful to reconstruct the conservative history of the precious manuscript. Full article

Historically, fire incidents in high-rise buildings reveal that Fire and Rescue Services frequently rely on the stay-put tactic (i.e., occupants of high-rise buildings should remain in their apartments) during an inferno. Recent fire occurrences in high-rise buildings reveal that there are two opposing viewpoints on the stay-put tactic. First, the understanding that the stay-put tactic is a beneficial practice used to protect, control, and facilitate smooth evacuation of occupants during fire incidents. Second, the argument that the stay-put tactic is a misjudgement and futile strategy that leads to fatalities, particularly in high-rise buildings. The aim of this study was to provide awareness and understanding of fire and rescue services use of the stay-put tactic in high-rise buildings. We attempted to answer the questions: is the stay-put tactic a misjudgement or magnificent strategy? The study adopted phenomenological research strategies with various focus groups consisting of seasoned firefighters and survivors with first-hand accounts of stay-put instructions in high-rise buildings. The study also scrutinised three case studies of fire incidents in high-rise buildings in two countries. The study revealed that the stay-put tactic is obsolete; with the potential to cause catastrophic misjudgement, mostly during conflagrations in high-rise buildings. There is a need to advance research on the use of artificial intelligence communication systems and infrared image detectors camera to enhance quick and smooth fire evacuation in high-rise buildings. Full article

We review the thermodynamics of combustion reactions involved in aluminum fires in the light of the spate of recent high-profile tower-block disasters, such as the Grenfell fire in London 2017, the Dubai fires between 2010 and 2016, and the fires and explosions that resulted in the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York. These fires are class B, i.e., burning metallic materials, yet water was applied in all cases as an extinguisher. Here, we highlight the scientific thermochemical reasons why water should never be used on aluminum fires, not least because a mixture of aluminum and water is a highly exothermic fuel. When the plastic materials initially catch fire and burn with limited oxygen (O₂ in air) to carbon (C), which is seen as an aerosol (black smoke) and black residue, the heat of the reaction melts the aluminum (Al) and increases its fluidity and volatility. Hence, this process also increases its reactivity, whence it rapidly reacts with the carbon product of polymer combustion to form aluminum carbide (Al₄C₃). The heat of formation of Al₄Cl₃ is so great that it becomes white-hot sparks that are similar to fireworks. At very high temperatures, both molten Al and Al₄C₃ aerosol react violently with water to give alumina fine dust aerosol (Al₂O₃) + hydrogen (H₂) gas and methane (CH₄) gas, respectively, with white smoke and residues. These highly inflammable gases, with low spontaneous combustion temperatures, instantaneously react with the oxygen in the air, accelerating the fire out of control. Adding water to an aluminum fire is similar to adding “rocket fuel” to the existing flames. A CO₂–foam/powder extinguisher, as deployed in the aircraft industry against aluminum and plastic fires by smothering, is required to contain aluminum fires at an early stage. Automatic sprinkler extinguisher systems should not be installed in tower blocks that are at risk of aluminum fires. Full article

This paper presents a communication network for a squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be used in the scanning rocket impact area for Barreira do Inferno Launch Center—CLBI (Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil), aiming at detecting intruder boats. The main features of communication networks associated with multi-UAV systems are presented. This system sends information through Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). After comparing and analyzing area scanning strategies, it presents the specification of a data communication network architecture for a squadron of UAVs within a sensor network using XBee Pro 900HP S3B modules. A brief description is made about the initial information from the construction of the system. The embedded hardware and the design procedure of a dedicated communication antenna to the XBee modules are presented. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed architecture in terms of robustness and reliability, a set of experimental tests in different communication scenarios is carried out. Network management software is employed to measure the throughput, packet loss and other performance indicators in the communication links between the different network nodes. Experimental results allow verifying the quality and performance of the network nodes, as well as the reliability of the communication links, assessing signal received quality, range and latency. Full article

Dante’s Commedia provides a useful context or “frame” for a discussion of love in literature from the Middle Ages to the present day in the undergraduate seminar. Selected cantos of the Commedia can initiate an examination of love—lust, romantic love, caritas—and provide ways to analyze depictions of love by important authors. For example, Inferno Cantos I and III introduce the concept of the “journey”—Dante’s through the three realms of the afterlife, and our “journey” through a series of texts to be read over one semester. Dante’s education in Inferno constitutes an understanding of sin and of hell as the farthest place from God and His love. Moreover, in Canto I of Paradiso, Dante reiterates that God and His love can be found throughout creation “in some places more and in others less” (I: 3), and he concludes his poem with a vision of God and of the entire universe as moved by His love. Six great authors—Francis of Assisi, Vittoria Colonna, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Flannery O’Connor, and Gabriel García Márquez—articulate in their own words this very human experience of love, of loving something or loving someone. In the process, they illuminate both Dante’s experience in the afterlife and ours in the modern world. Full article