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Nations of Central and Eastern Europe in the near past have all faced the same dilemma: how can they manage international encouragement to adopt atlantic patterns in promise of ready-made routes with immediate success, in a way also promoting the paths of organic development, relying on own resources and potentialities that can only be gained from tradition? Or, otherwise speaking, is it feasible at all to rush forward by rapidly learning all the responses others elaborated elsewhere at a past time? Or are they expected themselves to become Sisyphus bearing his own way, at the price of suffering and bitter disillusionment? The question was not raised by each country individually in the region as not much time was left for pondering in the rapid drift of events. Anyhow, cost-free solutions adopted from without may easily lead to adverse results, far away from expectations for the time being. The principles of free market, democracy and parliamentarism-with rule of law and human rights in the background-are usually believed to offer a kind of panacea curing the basic ills in the contemporary world. Generalised experience notwithstanding, social science has to be given the chance to record-if found so-that the same staff may not work at some places where it has just recently been transplanted as it is used to work amidst its natural surrounding in the western hemisphera, not with the same cost/benefit ratio at the least. For that reason, scholarship in Central and Eastern Europe is growingly aware of the fact that what it can provide is by far not marginal feedback but the very first testing and teasing proof on social embeddedness of some ideas and ideals, deservedly fundamental for the atlantic world. Realistically speaking, not even western social development is separable from the economic reserves of the development actually run. Or, operation of any societal complexity requires resources in both social organisation and material production.

Yugoslav composer Rudolf Bruči is known on the international scene primarily as the author of Sinfonia Lesta, a composition winning the first prize in 1965 at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium. On a national level, Bruči was a powerful social entity, not only in respect of his creative freedom. As a member of the League of Communists, Bruči spent a lifetime as an official in social organizations and cultural institutions, thus dictating the rhythm of musical life of Novi Sad and the Province of Vojvodina, until the collapse of Socialism when he was suddenly forgotten. The developmental line of Bruči’s oeuvre – leading from Zhdanovian national classicism, through the adoption of elements of the European avant-garde, to the reaffirmation of a national/regional idiom in the mid-1970s – largely corresponds to the general tendencies of postwar art music in the socialist countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Bruči broke with the European avant-garde models not only in his creative practice, but he also reasoned it in the articles “The Composers’ Role in the Modern Development of Self-governing Socialist Society,” “Statements of Yugoslav Music Forum Composers’ Workgroup,” and “Manifesto of the ‘Third Avant- Garde’,” where he based his discourse on conformism, lack of communication and dehumanization of avant-garde, and in particular on Yugoslav ideological projects, such as self-management, non-alignment, and deprovincialization. The article analyzes the context in which Bruči’s creative transformation during the 1970s was expressed as the criticism of the Eurocentric cultural model, as well as the suspicion towards the imperative of modernization in a world obsessed with technological advances.

The management of an urban context in a Smart City perspective requires the development of innovative projects, with new applications in multidisciplinary research areas. They can be related to many aspects of city life and urban management: fuel consumption monitoring, energy efficiency issues, environment, social organization, traffic, urban transformations, etc.

Geomatics, the modern discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering digital spatially referenced information, can play a fundamental role in many of these areas, providing new efficient and productive methods for a precise mapping of different phenomena by traditional cartographic representation or by new methods of data visualization and manipulation (e.g. three-dimensional modelling, data fusion, etc.). The technologies involved are based on airborne or satellite remote sensing (in visible, near infrared, thermal bands), laser scanning, digital photogrammetry, satellite positioning and, first of all, appropriate sensor integration (online or offline).

The aim of this work is to present and analyse some new opportunities offered by Geomatics technologies for a Smart City management, with a specific interest towards the energy sector related to buildings. Reducing consumption and CO2 emissions is a primary objective to be pursued for a sustainable development and, in this direction, an accurate knowledge of energy consumptions and waste for heating of single houses, blocks or districts is needed.

A synoptic information regarding a city or a portion of a city can be acquired through sensors on board of airplanes or satellite platforms, operating in the thermal band. A problem to be investigated at the scale

A problem to be investigated at the scale of the whole urban context is the Urban Heat Island (UHI), a phenomenon known and studied in the last decades. UHI is related not only to sensible heat released by anthropic activities, but also to land use variations and evapotranspiration reduction. The availability of thermal satellite sensors is fundamental to carry out multi-temporal studies in order to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of the UHI for a city.

Working with a greater detail, districts or single buildings can be analysed by specifically designed airborne surveys. The activity has been recently carried out in the EnergyCity project, developed in the framework of the Central Europe programme established by UE. As demonstrated by the project, such data can be successfully integrated in a GIS storing all relevant data about buildings and energy supply, in order to create a powerful geospatial database for a Decision Support System assisting to reduce energy losses and CO₂ emissions.

Today, aerial thermal mapping could be furthermore integrated by terrestrial 3D surveys realized with Mobile Mapping Systems through multisensor platforms comprising thermal camera/s, laser scanning, GPS, inertial systems, etc. In this way the product can be a true 3D thermal model with good geometric properties, enlarging the possibilities in respect to conventional qualitative 2D images with simple colour palettes.

Finally, some applications in the energy sector could benefit from the availability of a true 3D City Model, where the buildings are carefully described through three-dimensional elements. The processing of airborne LiDAR datasets for automated and semi-automated extraction of 3D buildings can provide such new generation of 3D city models.

Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: A COVID–19-járvány az egész világon elterjedt. A járvány Európában való első megjelenése során megfigyelhető volt, hogy a terjedés mértéke kisebb azokban az országokban, ahol a tuberkulózis elleni védekezésül kiterjedt BCG-vakcinációt végeznek. Célkitűzés: A jelen munkában olyan összefüggéseket igyekeztünk feltárni, amelyek befolyásolták a járványterjedés paramétereit, különös figyelemmel a BCG-vakcinációs gyakorlatra. Módszerek: A világ összes olyan országára vonatkozóan, ahol megfelelő minőségű statisztikai adatok álltak rendelkezésünkre, vizsgáltuk a járvány terjedésének első hullámát. A mozgóátlagolt járványgörbéken elemeztük a járvány időtartamát, a tetőzés mértékét, a fertőzöttek és a halálesetek egymillió lakosra vetített számát. Figyelembe vettük az országok gazdasági mutatóit (GDP, légi forgalom, a tengeri hajózás mértéke). Statisztikai analízis: A vizsgált paraméterek nem mutattak normális eloszlást, így nemparaméteres próbákkal (rangkorreláció, Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA) statisztikai kapcsolatot kerestünk a járványterjedés mértéke, a BCG-vakcináció és más paraméterek között. Eredmények: A járvány gyorsan elterjedt a világon, de mégis, február első három hetében a terjedésben egy szünet volt megfigyelhető. A járványhullám Európában nagyjából egyszerre ért véget. A járvány által leginkább azok az országok érintettek, ahol nem alkalmaztak rendszeres BCG-vakcinációt, bár a képet bonyolítja, hogy ezek az országok gazdaságilag többnyire fejlettek. A halálozási rátában nem mutatkozott ilyen különbség. Következtetés: Statisztikailag igazolható tény, hogy a vakcinációt végző országokból az első hullám alatt kevesebb fertőzöttet jelentettek; az ok-okozati összefüggés bizonytalan, hiszen az országok múltja, szokásai, társadalmi berendezkedése, gazdasági fejlettsége nem azonos. Eredményeink alátámasztják az összehasonlító kontaktkutatás fontosságát annak tisztázására, hogy a BCG-oltás hogyan befolyásolja az emberek vírussal szembeni érzékenységét, valamint a vírus terjesztésének, továbbadásának képességét. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(4): 123–134.

Summary. Introduction: The new type of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic is widespread throughout the world. During the outbreak of the pandemic in Europe it was revealed that the rate of spread was lower in countries where extensive BCG vaccination is used to protect against tuberculosis. Objective: In the present work, we sought to explore relationships that influenced epidemic spreading parameters, with particular reference to BCG vaccination practice. Methods: We examined the first wave of the spread of the epidemic for all countries in the world where adequate quality statistics were available. We analyzed the duration of the epidemic, the extent of the peak, the number of infected people, and the number of deaths per million inhabitants with the moving average of epidemic curves. We took into account the economic indicators of the countries (GDP, air traffic and extent of maritime shipping). Statistical analysis: The examined parameters did not show a normal distribution, so we looked for a statistical relationship with non-parametric tests (rank correlation, Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA) between the extents of epidemic spread, BCG vaccination and other parameters. Results: The epidemic spread rapidly around the world, but still, in the first three weeks of February, there was a pause in the spread. The first wave of epidemics ended roughly at the same time in Europe. Those countries are the most affected by the epidemic where regular BCG vaccination has not been used, although the picture is complicated by the fact that these countries are mostly economically developed. There was no such difference observable in the mortality rate. Conclusion: Although this work clearly demonstrates that during the first wave of the pandemic, fewer infections were reported worldwide in countries where BCG vaccination is obligatory, however, the causal relationship is uncertain, as the countries’ past, customs, social organization and economic development are different. Our results support the necessity of comparative contact tracing to clarify how BCG vaccination affects people’s susceptibility to this new type of coronavirus as well as their ability to spread and transmit the virus. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(4): 123–134.

Összefoglaló. Mérei Ferenc (1909–1986) életműve sok nyilvánvaló paradoxont tartalmaz. Ott áll az egyik oldalon az 1945 és 1949 közti kommunista nevelési vezér, aki az általa vezetett budapesti műhelyben és a nagy hatáskörű Országos Neveléstudományi Intézetben aktívan alakította az államilag szervezett szocialista iskolát, és ott van az 1950-től a partvonalra került, majd bebörtönzött értelmiségi, harmadik lépésként pedig az 1970-es évektől a lelki ellenállás alapú, egyéni életmód-szerveződések és csoportterápiák irányítója. Felfogásom szerint a kettősségek nem csupán az élet külsőségeiből fakadó kényszerek következményei, hanem Mérei szellemi arculatára végig jellemző belső dilemmákból fakadtak. A Franciaországban töltött korai 1930-as évek óta élt benne az a hit, hogy összhang teremthető a francia felvilágosodás örökségeként értelmezett baloldali, gyerekközpontú pedagógiai hitvallás (én ezt a polgári, individualizációs eszménynek tartom) és a kommunista társadalomszervezés egyenlősítő centralizációs elvei között. Szervező munkájában, miközben sokat tett azért, hogy a demokratikus eszményképeket követő általános iskola egyenlőség eszméje hassa át a szocialista nevelést, ezt összekapcsolta azzal a hittel, hogy a gyermeki közösségek sajátos érzelmikohó-szerepe meg tudja teremteni az összhangot az egyenlőség és a centralizáció között. Igyekszem rámutatni arra, hogy valójában nehezen összeegyeztethető a polgári individualizáció, mint a modern pszichológia egyik kiindulópontja és a hivatalnok eszményű szocialista közösségi felszabadítás. A gyermekből induló liberális és az egyenlőség elvű baloldali eszmények az oktatás irányába nem olyan könnyen illeszkednek, mint sok baloldali polgár, köztük Mérei hitte volt.

Summary. The work of Ferenc Mérei (1909–1986) the Hungarian social and clinical psychologist and for a time communist educational leader involves several paradoxes. On one hand, we have the leader of the communist education reform between 1945 and 1949, who, as head of the Budapest municipal institute for education and the Countrywide Institute for Educational Research helped shape socialist schooling. On the other hand, from 1950 on, there is the expelled ostracized intellectual, who is even sentenced to prison after the 1956 revolution. As a third step, from the 1970s on, he appears as the leader of small groups, displaying life style reforms relying on mental resistance and resilience. In my view, these dualities are not only due to constraints of external life events, but are embedded in the internal dilemmas of the intellectual tensions continuously characterizing Mérei. From the time he spent in France in the early 1930s he cherished the belief that a harmony could be found between a child-centered educational commitment as a continuation of the heritage of French enlightenment (I consider this to be a citoyen individuation ideal) and the centralizing principles of communist social organization aimed at equalization. In his organizational work while he made many efforts to center socialist education around the program of a comprehensive school based on principles of democratic equality, he connected these to the belief that the peculiar emotional atmosphere of child communities could reconcile equality and centralization. I try to show that bourgeois individualization as one starting point of modern psychology is difficult to reconcile with community liberation with burocratic inspirations. The liberal child based ideals of education are not easy to reconcile with leftist ideals of equality – contrary to what was and is believed by many left wing citoyen thinkers, among them by Mérei.