Greenbelts – Planning Instruments and Landscape Structure – a European Perspective

Since 100 years the concept of planning tools addressed to control the urban sprawl has concentrated on open space protection around metropolitan cities. This has been applied using various green structures i.e.: belts, hearts, wedges or system of protected open spaces. The common element of these tools to control the urban sprawl is open spaces protection. Numerous applications in different natural and economic conditions create great potential for planners to adapt the concept (Cieszewska 2012, Cieszewska, Adamczyk 2014). Open spaces that preserve unbuilt part of metropolis fulfil four main functions: productive, environmental, recreational and ecological. The main question posed by the authors of this paper is how has the metropolitan region that applied greenbelt concept achieved the ecological function. We analysed eleven metropolitan areas where the greenbelt concept has been already applied, or where there is an intent to adopt the aforementioned concept in order to find out a potential of ecological function in planning polices and landscape structure. The studied metropolitan regions are: Berlin, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London, Manchester, Paris, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna, the Randstad – the green heart of the Netherlands, and Warsaw, as the only case where the grennbelt concept is planned

Tourism attractiveness of the landscape of Mazovia in Poland ‒ an untapped potential for bicycle tourism development

The region of Mazovia in Poland helps meet the growing demand for recreational areas, which is related to the existence of large urban centres in the region and the ever-increasing trend towards an active lifestyle. This paper demonstrates the potential of Mazovia in terms of bicycle tourism, discusses the state of the existing bicycle infrastructure and outlines prospects for its development. For that purpose the authors: 1) summarised the spatial distribution of natural values important for cycling and the condition of cycling infrastructure; 2) examined the relation between the values of the Mazovia region and their use for cycling; 3) checked the state of the bicycle routes network in the Mazowieckie voivodeship in relation to other voivodeships. This study shows that Mazovia has a considerable potential for cycling tourism and recreation on both a regional and local scale for short-term and short-distance trips. On a supra-regional scale, the Mazovia area offers excellent conditions for establishing transit routes between regions of the highest tourist attractiveness in Poland. However, the above-mentioned potential is at present partially untapped, the likely reasons for which have been indicated in this paper

Gra zespołowa oraz czytanie nut "a'vista" w procesie kształcenia studentów

The article presents some of the problems connected with playing in a chamber band and the ability to read the notes a’vista. These are the very factors directly influencing the artistic development of a young musician and necessary in his/her education. The part devoted to playing in a band briefly presents the history of chamber music and, subsequently, discusses the phenomena connected with the performance of the genre under investigation. The author presents the observations coming from her own pedagogical and performing experiences as well as introduces the issues related to playing a’vista on the basis of works by Tadeusz Wroński and Juliusz Adamowski. She briefly discusses their reflections and methods of practicing. The final part presents her own remarks connected with making this skill perfect

Influence of bismuth content on complex immittance characteristics of pressureless sintered BiNbO4 ceramics

Goal of the present research was to study immittance properties of BiNbO4 ceramics fabricated by the solid state reaction route followed by pressureless sintering. Four sets of samples were examined, namely the one fabricated from the stoichiometric mixture of oxides, viz. Bi2O 3 and Nb2O5 as well as the ones with an excess of 3%, 5% and 10% by mole of Bi2O3. The immittance properties were studied by impedance spectroscopy. Measurements were carried out within the frequency range T =20Hz-1MHz and temperature range T =RT-550°C. The Kramers-Kronig data validation test was employed in the impedance data analysis. It was found that complex impedance first increases with an increase in Bi2O3 content and decreases for 10mol% excess of Bi2O3. Two relaxation phenomena manifested themselves at elevated temperature (T >267°C) within the measuring frequency range. The conductivity relaxation phenomenon (M′′(v) spectra) took place at higher frequency than the phenomenon with dominant resistive component (Z′′(v) spectra)

Dielectric properties of bismuth ferrite-bismuth titanate ceramic composite

In this paper the BiFeO3//Bi4Ti3O12 (BF//BiT) ceramic-ceramic composites with 0-3 connectivity were prepared from BiFeO3 and Bi4Ti3O12 ceramic powders by free sintering method at T=900 C, for different concentration of the BF ceramic phases. Bi4Ti3O12 and BiFeO3 ceramic powders were synthesized by the conventional mixed oxide method (MOM). Synthesized BF powder was dispersed in a BiT solution and next such composite was pressing and sintering. Crystalline structure was studied by X-ray diffraction method. The dielectric properties of the BF//BiT ceramic composites were also investigated. Temperature dependence of dielectric permittivity of BF//BiT composites was measured in the frequency range of f =10kHz-100kHz. It was found, that properties of the ceramic-ceramic composite are not a simple sum of properties of the phases constituting the composite but they depend on both the way of connectivity and mutual influence of the phases on each other. The abrupt increase in permittivity may indicate an excess of the percolation threshold, so the ceramic composite for the concentrations of the BF ceramic phase cV >10% cannot be indexed as composites with 0-3 connectivity

α-Synuclein induced cell death in mouse hippocampal (HT22) cells is mediated by nitric oxide-dependent activation of caspase-3

AbstractOur previous studies indicated that exogenous α-synuclein (ASN) activates neuronal nitric oxide (NO) synthase (nNOS) in rat brain slices. The present study, carried out on immortalized hippocampal neuronal cells (HT22), was designed to extend the previous results by showing the molecular pathway of NO-mediated cell death induced by exogenous ASN. Extracellular ASN (10μM) was found to stimulate nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and increase caspase-3 activity in HT22 cells, leading to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1) cleavage. The inhibitor of Ca2+-dependent NOS (N-nitro-l-arginine, 100μM) prevented ASN-evoked caspase-3 activation and PARP-1 degradation. ASN exposure resulted in apoptotic death of HT22 cells and this effect was reversed by inhibition of NO synthesis and caspase-3 activity. Our results demonstrated that extracellular ASN induces neuronal cell death by NO-mediated caspase-3 activation

Wpływ V2O5 na strukturę i właściwości dielektryczne ceramiki BiNbO4

Goal of the present research was to investigate the influence of V 2O5 additive on the structure and dielectric properties of BiNbO4 ceramics. To fabricate BiNbO4 ceramics with V2O5 added the solid state reaction route and pressureless sintering was utilized. Thus obtained ceramics was characterized in terms of its microstructure (SEM), chemical composition (EDS), phase composition and crystalline structure (X-ray phase and structural analysis, respectively). Also dielectric properties in both temperature and frequency domains were investigated. The impedance spectroscopy was utilized for dielectric characterization and the measurements of complex impedance were performed within the frequency range ν =10Hz-1MHz and temperature range T =RT-550°C. It was found that V2O5 additive changed slightly lattice parameters of BiNbO4 ceramics, decreased porosity of samples and revealled relaxation phenomena within the frequency ranges ν =102-103Hz and ν =105-106Hz at temperature T>285°C

Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of multiple sclerosis patients receiving disease-modifying treatment in Poland

Aim of study. The aim of this study was to collect and analyse data on relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients receiving disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) in Poland.Material and methods. This observational, multicentre study with prospective data collection included RRMS patients receiving DMTs reimbursed by the National Health Fund (NFZ) in Poland, monitored by the Therapeutic Programme Monitoring System (SMPT). Demographic profiles, disability status, and treatment modalities were analysed.Results. Data from 11,632 RRMS patients was collected (from 15,368 new prescriptions), including 10,649 patients in the first-line and 983 in the second-line therapeutic programme of DMTs. The proportion of females to males was 2.39 in the first-line and 1.91 in the second-line. The mean age at DMTs start was 36.6 years in the first-line and 35.1 in the second-line. The median time from the first symptoms to MS diagnosis was 7.4 months, and from MS diagnosis to treatment it was 18.48 months. A total of 43.4% of MS patients started DMT during the 12 months following diagnosis. There was a positive correlation between the duration from MS diagnosis to the start of DMT and a higher initial EDSS value [correlation 0.296 (p < 0.001)]. About 10% of patients stopped DMTs. In Poland, about one third of all MS patients are treated in both lines, and the choice of first-line treatment depends on the region of the country.Conclusions. In Poland there is a need to increase MS patient access to DMTs by improving the organisation of drug programmes