Law Applicable to Liability for Damages due to Traffic Accidents Involving Autonomous Vehicles

The authors examine the problem of the law applicable to liability for damages due to traffic accidents involving autonomous vehicles. Existing conflict-of-laws regulation adopted in the Rome II Regulation and both Hague Conventions of 1971 and 1973 is criticized. Upon examination of these legal instruments, it becomes clear that existing regulation is very complex and complicated. In effect authors recommend revisions to the legal framework. Proposed solutions are balanced and take into consideration both the interests of the injured persons, as well the persons claimed to be liable. New approach allows for more individual consideration of specific cases and direct to better outcome of the disputes. The findings may be useful in handling the cases related to use of algorithms of artificial intelligence in private international law

Dorozumiany wybór prawa : glosa do wyroku Sądu Najwyższego z dnia 8 stycznia 2003 r., IICKN 1077/00, niepubl. [niepublikowany]

Głosowany wyrok Sądu Najwyższego, mimo relatywnie prostego stanu faktycznego i skromnego uzasadnienia, zasługuje na szersze omówienie. Nieczęsto wszak zdarza się, by w jednym orzeczeniu doszło do skumulowania tylu zagadnień z zakresu prawa prywatnego międzynarodowego. Tymczasem w analizowanym przypadku Sąd Najwyższy zajął się kwestiami tak istotnymi, jak dorozumiany wybór prawa, określenie właściwości prawa dla stosunków majątkowych małżeńskich oraz zagadnienie tzw. substytucji

Phonological Task Enhances the Frequency-Following Response to Deviant Task-Irrelevant Speech Sounds

In electroencephalography (EEG) measurements, processing of periodic sounds in the ascending auditory pathway generates the frequency-following response (FFR) phase-locked to the fundamental frequency (F0) and its harmonics of a sound. We measured FFRs to the steady-state (vowel) part of syllables /ba/ and /aw/ occurring in binaural rapid streams of speech sounds as frequently repeating standard syllables or as infrequent (p = 0.2) deviant syllables among standard /wa/ syllables. Our aim was to study whether concurrent active phonological processing affects early processing of irrelevant speech sounds reflected by FFRs to these sounds. To this end, during syllable delivery, our healthy adult participants performed tasks involving written letters delivered on a computer screen in a rapid stream. The stream consisted of vowel letters written in red, infrequently occurring consonant letters written in the same color, and infrequently occurring vowel letters written in blue. In the phonological task, the participants were instructed to press a response key to the consonant letters differing phonologically but not in color from the frequently occurring red vowels, whereas in the non-phonological task, they were instructed to respond to the vowel letters written in blue differing only in color from the frequently occurring red vowels. We observed that the phonological task enhanced responses to deviant /ba/ syllables but not responses to deviant /aw/ syllables. This suggests that active phonological task performance may enhance processing of such small changes in irrelevant speech sounds as the 30-ms difference in the initial formant-transition time between the otherwise identical syllables /ba/ and /wa/ used in the present study

What factors influence colonization of lichens, liverworts, mosses and vascular plants on snags?

The dead standing trees i.e. snags are known as habitat for epiphytic and epixylic species including first of all lichens and bryophytes. The vascular plants are much rarer on this type of coarse woody debris (CWD). The eighty snags (CWD elements higher than 1.5 m) of Norway spruce Picea abies and beech Fagus sylvatica in the Karkonosze Mts. were examined for the presence of lichens, liverworts, mosses and vascular plants. The height of snags, their decomposition stage, cover of bark, diameter at breast height (DBH) as well as site conditions (elevation, slope and aspect, presence in forest community) were measured and noted. The percent cover of plants and lichens were estimated on each snag. Totally 99 taxa were recorded. There lichen species were dominant (44), followed by mosses (34), liverworts (13) and there were only 8 vascular plants. The total species richness varied from 1 to 22 taxa. The species composition growing on snags was subjected to canonical correspondence analysis and statistical analyses. They revealed that the species identity of snag is one of the most important factors influencing species composition. The number of species is positively correlated with DBH whereas decomposition stage, presence of bark, snag height are not significant factors. The species richness increases also with altitude what is connected with higher abundance of spruce snags. The occurrence of snags in this area is mainly associated with forest management practices in the past. Despite of some observed patterns in colonization of snags they are important habitat especially for lichens

W odpowiedzi na ankietę skierowaną do państw członkowskich Unii, dotyczącą stosowania Rozporządzenia nr 864/2007 o prawie właściwym dla zobowiązań pozaumownych (Rzym II)

Rome II Regulation of 11 July 2007 contains the conflict of laws rules relating to the non‑contractual obligations such as torts, unjust enrichment, negotiorum gestio, culpa in contrahendo and product liability. Recently, the Commission has commenced consultations regarding the practical application of these rules, in relation to its obligation to submit a report pursuant to Article 30 of the Regulation. The Commission seeks the view of the Member States in order to consider modification and suggestions for future. The present work constitutes a response to the Commission’s Questionnaire prepared jointly by a group of authors under a lead of professor Maksymilian Pazdan. The response constituted the basis for the reply given by Polish Codification Committee on behalf of the Polish government. There were some general and several specific questions posed by the Commission in the Questionnaire. They are dealt with in the response. Some of the most important suggestions are summarized below. The Polish doctrine generally approves of the Regulation and the rules provided therein. Nevertheless, there are certain solutions that could be improved and gaps that could be filled out. The following recommendations are made in the response: First, a time has come to create not only specific (as it is the case so far) but also general uniform rules of private international law at the European level. Second, the rules contained in Regulation Rome II should apply to matters covered by the 1971 Hague Traffic Accidents Convention. Third, the conflict rules with respect to the violation of privacy and rights relating to personality should be added to Rome II, since this constitutes a considerable gap in the European regime

Characterization of Microbial Communities in Acidified, Sulfur Containing Soils

Over a period of three years, microbial communities in acidified soil with high sulfur content were analyzed. In soil water extracts ureolytic, proteolytic, oxidoreductive, and lipolytic activity were detected. The presented results indicate that the enzymatic activity of soil micro­bial communities varied considerably over time. Isolated 26 (80%) bacterial strains belonged to genus Bacillus sp. and were identified bycultivation and 16S rRNA methods. The commercially available procedures for bacterial DNA isolation from acidified soil failed, therefore a new, specific DNA isolation method was established. Ureolytic activity, detected in soil extracts as well as in isolated Bacillus sp. strains may be considered as a tool for the bioremediation of acidified soils with high sulfate content

Author correction : a global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space

Correction to: Scientific Data https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0344-7, published online 08 January 202

Author correction : a global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space

Correction to: Scientific Data https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0344-7, published online 08 January 202

A global database for metacommunity ecology, integrating species, traits, environment and space

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology