Academic Research Achievements in the Geography of Tourism at the Department of Regional Geography and Tourism, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin: DidacticI and Practical Applications

The present paper is an attempt to assess academic research achievements in the field of the geography of tourism and their didactic and practical applications. The study method was a review of academic articles and archival compilations as well as materials collected in the department

Gender Equality in the Case Law of the European Court of Justice. IES WORKING PAPER 2/2009

The principle of gender equality forms a part of the EU’s social policy and serves equally men and women. So far, fourteen directives concerning gender equality have been adopted in the EU, with the New Equal Treatment Directive as the latest one. The EU has developed different models to promote gender equality: equal treatment, positive action and most recently gender mainstreaming. The equal treatment model is primarily concerned with formal equality and it unfortunately prevails in the ECJ’s rulings. Indeed, this paper argues that so far, the ECJ has not managed to develop a firm and consistent case law on gender equality, nor to stretch it coherently to positive action and gender mainstreaming. It seems that in spite of some progress in promoting the position of women, the ECJ’s case law has recently taken a step backwards with its conservative judgments in e.g. the Cadman case. Overall, this paper aims at summing up and evaluating the most important cases of the ECJ on gender equality

Enhancing the Efficiency of a Decision Support System through the Clustering of Complex Rule-Based Knowledge Bases and Modification of the Inference Algorithm

Decision support systems founded on rule-based knowledge representation should be equipped with rule management mechanisms. Effective exploration of new knowledge in every domain of human life requires new algorithms of knowledge organization and a thorough search of the created data structures. In this work, the author introduces an optimization of both the knowledge base structure and the inference algorithm. Hence, a new, hierarchically organized knowledge base structure is proposed as it draws on the cluster analysis method and a new forward-chaining inference algorithm which searches only the so-called representatives of rule clusters. Making use of the similarity approach, the algorithm tries to discover new facts (new knowledge) from rules and facts already known. The author defines and analyses four various representative generation methods for rule clusters. Experimental results contain the analysis of the impact of the proposed methods on the efficiency of a decision support system with such knowledge representation. In order to do this, four representative generation methods and various types of clustering parameters (similarity measure, clustering methods, etc.) were examined. As can be seen, the proposed modification of both the structure of knowledge base and the inference algorithm has yielded satisfactory results

Properties of Pb1–xBax(Zr1–yTiy)1–zSnzO3 (x = 0.03, y = 0.02, z = 0÷0.08) Ceramics

This paper presents the results of obtaining and investigations of Pb1–xBax(Zr1–yTiy)1–zSnzO3 (PBZTS) ceramics with constant x = 0.03 and y = 0.02, and variable z = 0, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08 (abbreviations of the samples were following PBZTS0, PBZTS4, PBZTS6, PBZTS8, respectively). The investigated compositions are close to rhombohedral-orthorhombic morphotropic phase boundary. The ceramic samples have been obtained by conventional ceramic technology from simple oxides PbO, ZrO2, TiO2, SnO2 and barium carbonate BaCO3. The ceramic powders, after calcination, have been pressed into discs and sintered using free sintering (FS) method. For samples obtained in such a way, the dielectric properties at various frequencies and electrical conductivity have been investigated. The increase of Sn content orders the microstructure of ceramics, and as a result the improvement of the dielectric properties of ceramic samples can be obtained

Przywilej czy prawo? O statusie zabawy swobodnej w kontekście współczesnych tendencji rodzicielskich i zjawiska projektowania dzieciństwa

The subject of the study is the status of free play in contemporary parenting trends and in the phenomenon of childhood design. The author’s objective is to discuss the problem of marginalized role of free play in children’s upbringing. Classic theories of play define it through the prism of free, spontaneous activity, which is an inseparable element of childhood. Nowadays, in institutional education, free play gives way to teaching through play, as evidenced by nursery and pre-school education curricula and a wide range of extra classes. The author therefore assumes that the issue of free play should be considered in the family environment. In view of the above, the article reflects upon contemporary parenting trends and the phenomenon of childhood design. The picture that emerges from their theoretical analysis is the picture of free play as a category which is missing in contemporary childhood. The author recognizes the problem of appropriating child’s autonomy and raises the question of the child’s right to play in the 21st century.Przedmiotem opracowania jest status zabawy swobodnej we współczesnych tendencjach rodzicielskich i w zjawisku projektowania dzieciństwa. Celem autorki jest omówienie problemu marginalizowania roli zabawy swobodnej w wychowaniu. Klasyczne teorie zabawy definiują ją przez pryzmat swobodnej, spontanicznej aktywności, która stanowi nieodłączny element dzieciństwa. Współcześnie, w wychowaniu instytucjonalnym, zabawa swobodna ustępuje miejsca nauczaniu przez zabawę, o czym świadczą programy edukacji żłobkowej i przedszkolnej oraz bogata oferta zajęć dodatkowych. Autorka przyjmuje zatem, że środowiskiem, w którym należy rozpatrywać kwestię zabawy swobodnej, jest rodzina. W związku z powyższym w artykule podjęto refleksję nad współczesnymi tendencjami rodzicielskimi oraz nad zjawiskiem projektowania dzieciństwa. Z ich teoretycznej analizy wyłania się obraz zabawy swobodnej jako kategorii nieobecnej we współczesnym dzieciństwie. Autorka dostrzega problem zawłaszczania dziecięcej autonomii i stawia pytanie o prawo dziecka do zabawy w XXI wieku