Social capital and institutions. A tentative analysis of the polish case

The article deals with the relationship between social capital and institutional system in post-communist Poland. In the first part the author presents the factors contributing to a social fragmentation (and integration) in post-communist and “post-solidarity” Poland. One of the theses shows that these factors should be seen in historical and evolutionary perspective and that even in the beginning of the Solidarity period there have been already seeds of disintegration built into the system. In the second part some empirical illustrations concerning networks of social capital of trust are presented. The author attempts to show the peculiarities of the relationship between the level of interpersonal trust and some aspects of the institutional performance, including the economic one. The concluding part deals with the discrepancies and similarities in the trust level concerning local and European politicians in various European countries. --

Social capital and institutions: a tentative analysis of the Polish case

"The article deals with the relationship between social capital and institutional system in post-communist Poland. In the first part the author presents the factors contributing to a social fragmentation (and integration) in post-communist and 'post-solidarity' Poland. One of the theses shows that these factors should be seen in historical and evolutionary perspective and that even in the beginning of the Solidarity period there have been already seeds of disintegration built into the system. In the second part some empirical illustrations concerning networks of social capital of trust are presented. The author attempts to show the peculiarities of the relationship between the level of interpersonal trust and some aspects of the institutional performance, including the economic one. The concluding part deals with the discrepancies and similarities in the trust level concerning local and European politicians in various European countries." (author's abstract

Reforms, adaptation and breakthrough: the sources of and limits to institutional changes in Poland

[i]Keywords: command economy; sociology of institutional and economic change; polish economy after 1989; social and economic transformation of 1989, communism and NSZZ "Solidarno\u15b\u107" [/i] S\u142owa kluczowe: gospodarka nakazowa; socjologia zmiany; gospodarka Polski po 1989 r.; transformacja systemu spo\u142eczno-gospodarczego; komunizm a NSZZ "Solidarno\u15b\u107

BUILDING OUTLINE RECONSTRUCTION FROM ALS DATA SET WITH A PRIORI INFORMATION

ABSTRACT: Extraction of building boundaries is a n important step towards 3D buildings reconstruction. It may be also of interest on their own, for the real estate industry, GIS and automated updating of cadastral maps. In this paper we propose a comprehensive method for an automated extraction and delineation of building outlines from raw airborne laser scanning data. The presented workflow comprises three steps. It starts with identification of the points belonging to each singular building. The second step is to trace the points that compose a building boundary. In the last step an adjustment process is applied, that aims in boundary lines regularization. The first step -building detection is a most computationally expensive process and has a fundamental importance for the whole algorithm. A proposed approach is to include building address points that give exact information about building location. This additional information highly reduces the complexity of the building points extraction

Projekt: Uniwersytet PAN

Among the scientific institutions in Poland, the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences possess top-ranking research potential. In the years 2013-2016, for instance, 19.7% of all research articles published in the most prestigious research journals for each particular field (the top 10% of the list of journals for each field, ranked by impact factor) by authors affiliated with Polish institutions came from the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences – this is far the best such percentage among all Polish academic institutions. The staff members at the PAS institutes are engaged not only in research, but also in teaching: as of 31 December 2016, there were 1607 individuals in regular PhD programs at the PAS institutes. Moreover, the degree of internationalization (8%) of these programs at the PAS institutes is the highest among all Polish higher-education institutions. These and other factors are seen as providing justification for the plan to pull together the potential of the PAS institutes in order to create a new higher-education institution, to be called the University of the Polish Academy of Sciences (UPAS), meant to become Poland’s first-ever research university. Plans call for UPAS to ultimately have a total of 2500 students studying in its programs, predominantly third-cycle (PhD-level) programs. Such a number will enable each student to be ensured individual supervision by top-notch researchers. It will also allow innovative teaching programs to be developed and tested in keeping with the new trends of the Internet era and e-learning, through online course offerings and through inter- and cross-disciplinary studies. Under this plan, UPAS stands a real chance of becoming a proud showpiece of Polish science and higher education: holding open, international competitions for various long-term positions as visiting professors, post-doc researchers, and PhD candidates will help further bolster the degree of internationalization among both the staff and students of UPAS, bringing it up to the level that characterizes the world’s best higher-education institutions. Given the size of Poland’s budget for science and higher education, attaining such a degree of internationalization in the near future will only be financially feasible for a university as small as UPAS. The above measures will also have a quality-boosting impact on the PAS institutes themselves, significantly improving their level. After several years, UPAS will stand a real chance of attaining very good standing in international rankings of the world’s higher education institutions, among the top 200 or even top 100 in the world. We should stress clearly: for this to happen, the funding for research at PAS institutes will need to be maintained on at least the same level as at present, the network of PAS institutes will need to be made more flexible, incorporating mechanisms generating significant synergy between the institutes (with UPAS as the common objective), and the project will need to be supported by a long-term program of internationalization of staff and students.Instytuty Polskiej Akademii Nauk mają wśród polskich instytucji naukowych czołowy potencjał merytoryczny. W instytutach PAN w latach 2013-2016 powstało 19,7% prac afiliowanych w polskich instytucjach i umieszczonych w najbardziej prestiżowych pismach naukowych danych dziedzin (górne 10% z list pism danej dziedziny nauki uszeregowanych według rosnącego współczynnika wpływu, IF). Jest to najlepszy wynik wśród polskich instytucji akademickich. Kadra instytutów PAN zajmuje się nie tylko badaniami, ale też dydaktyką; 1607 osób (stan na 31 grudnia 2016) było na stacjonarnych studiach doktoranckich w Instytutach PAN. Stopień umiędzynarodowienia studiów w PAN (8%) jest największy wśród polskich uczelni. W związku z tym uzasadnione wydaje się powołanie Uniwersytetu PAN (UPAN), który mógłby stać się pierwszą w Polsce uczelnią badawczą. Planuje się, że docelowo kształciłoby się na nim 2,5 tys. osób, w przeważającej części studentek i studentów III stopnia. Taka liczba pozwoli na zagwarantowanie indywidualnej merytorycznej opieki każdemu studentowi, a także na wprowadzenie i przetestowanie nowatorskich programów dydaktycznych, właściwych erze Internetu i e-learningu, prowadzenia studiów online poprzez courser, studiów inter- i crossdyscyplinarnych. UPAN ma realne szanse stać się wizytówką polskiej nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego, gdyż otwarte, międzynarodowe wieloletnie programy konkursowe na pozycje: wizytujących profesorów, stażystów podoktorskich i doktorantów mogą podnieść umiędzynarodowienie zarówno kadry, jak i studentów UPAN do poziomu właściwego najlepszym uczelniom świata. Z uwagi na wielkość naszego budżetu nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego osiągnięcie takiego umiędzynarodowienia jest finansowo realne w najbliższym czasie tylko dla uczelni tak małej jak UPAN. Opisane działania będą projakościowe także dla samych instytutów PAN i istotnie podniosą ich poziom merytoryczny. Po kilku latach UPAN ma realne szanse na uplasowanie się w międzynarodowych rankingach na bardzo dobrych pozycjach, w pierwszej dwusetce, a nawet w pierwszej setce najlepszych światowych uczelni. Należy podkreślić, że warunkiem tego jest zapewnienie finansowania badań w instytutach PAN na co najmniej takim jak obecnie poziomie, uelastycznienie ich sieci, wytworzenie mechanizmów synergii pomiędzy instytutami (wspólny cel – UPAN) oraz wsparcie tego projektu długoletnim programem umiędzynarodowienia kadry i studentów

Pandemic chronicles 2020-2021

Kroniki pandemii to zbiór 27 stanowisk opublikowanych przez interdyscyplinarny Zespół doradczy ds. COVID-19 przy Prezesie Polskiej Akademii Nauk, działający od lipca 2020 roku. Jest to już drugie po Zrozumieć COVID-19 obszerniejsze opracowanie naszego zespołu porządkujące wiadomości dotyczące wirusa SARS-CoV-2 i powodowanej przez niego choroby COVID-19. Wydane we wrześniu 2020 roku Zrozumieć COVID-19 miało na celu podsumowanie przebiegu pierwszych miesięcy pandemii i przygotowanie społeczeństwa w Polsce do ciężkiego sezonu jesienno-zimowego 2020/2021. Niniejsze opracowanie powstaje po dwóch latach trwania pandemii, która rozpoczęła się w Wuhan w grudniu 2019 roku. Mamy nadzieję, że dzięki na bieżąco tworzonym tekstom raportującym przebieg pandemii i dylematy, przed którymi stawało społeczeństwo, w przypadku kolejnych podobnych wyzwań skorzystamy z tych trudnych i ważnych doświadczeń

PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS. WHO CREATES A NEW DEAL?

It aims to determine the question: where are placed main actors of a new deal. The role of organizations, institutions as well as individuals and social groups under onging social change is considered. The author makes this distinction in terms of neoinstitutional approach. The main thesis concerns evolution of the role of chief social forces engendering this change: once it proceeds social actors become more and more important and role of organizations and institutions is getting down. The author shows that forces which contributed to collapse of the old system (e.g. trade unions and church), cannot lead in construction of a market democracy. Consequent on this evolution is weakness of institutional forces and social actors of the changes. Social actors are involved, chiefl y, in a local activity. The two main consequences of this situation are considered. First, it is possible that current activity outside politics will be established leading to neocorporatist solutions. Second, the activity may create 'new politics' in the future: however it will not be based on old divisions related to ‘solidaristic' vs ‘antisolidaristic' traditions

The health care system in Poland: The case of Lodz as compared with foreign regions; A secondary analysis

This paper is based on the results of empirical research on the utilization of the Health Care System (HCS) by twelve study areas from seven countries (WHO/International Collaborative Study of Medical Care Utilization). The aim of the secondary analysis was to compare the health care needs, resources and determinants of use of the HCS between the Polish city, Lodz, and the remaining study areas. The chief findings were as follows: 1. 1. The level of needs for health care is higher in Lodz than in other study areas. 2. 2. The volume of HCS resources in Lodz is at the medium level, but its organization makes the utilization of the HCS difficult. 3. 3. The utilization of medical assistance by physicians in Lodz is near the median comparing with the remaining study areas but the lenght of hospital stay in Lodz is the longest among all study areas. Problems of the accessibility of medical assistance cause an overloading of the inadequate hospital system. 4. 4. The extra-medical causes of the use of the HCS are stronger in Lodz than in other study areas, whereas the medical determinants (perceived morbidity) are weaker.