Legal regulations and the development of German and Polish allotment gardens in the context of the production function

Allotment gardens (AGs) serve various socio-cultural, ecological and economic functions, mostly for the urban community, and they also provide agricultural produce for their users. German and Polish legislation includes this function in the definitions regulating allotment gardening. The article aims to compare the legal regulations for allotment gardening in operation in Germany and Poland. This study analyses legal acts concerning the development and functioning of allotments, since they may greatly influence their production function. Moreover, field research and structured interviews were carried out and, as a result, the collected data were contrasted with the actual state of development of selected allotments. The study shows that some of the provisions of legal acts, both German and Polish, are not strictly adhered to by the users. Also, the analysis of use of allotments in both countries reveals the strong influence of the present legal norms. The regulations concerning allotment gardening in Germany are conducive to preserving plant cultivation, while in Poland unclear provisions on the way in which crop cultivation is to be developed have led to a replacement of the farming function by recreational and residential uses. It is necessary, then, to maintain and observe the existing regulations in Germany. In Poland, on the other hand, there is a strong need for a regulation at the national level which would specify the principles regarding the obligatory use of part of a plot for food production.Ogrody działkowe pełnią różnorodne funkcje: kulturowo-rekreacyjne i ekonomiczne, w tym aprowizacyjne dla użytkowników, ekologiczne, środowiskowe, edukacyjne i społeczne dla mieszkańców całego miasta. Niemieckie, jak i polskie ustawodawstwo „działkowe” wpisuje się w ten trend definiowania, a tym samym regulowania ogrodnictwa działkowego. Celem artykułu jest porównanie regulacji prawnych w zakresie ogrodnictwa działkowego obowiązujących w Niemczech i Polsce. Analizie zostały poddane zapisy dotyczące zagospodarowania i funkcjonowania ogrodów działkowych, gdyż te mogą istotnie przekładać się na realizację funkcji produkcyjnej. Ponadto przeprowadzono badania terenowe, ustrukturyzowane wywiady - zgromadzone dane konfrontowano z faktycznym stanem zagospodarowania wybranych ogrodów. Przeprowadzone badania wykazały, że niektóre zapisy aktów prawnych, zarówno niemieckich, jak i polskich, nie są w pełni przestrzegane. Jednocześnie analiza wykorzystania ogrodów działkowych w obu krajach wskazuje na silny związek z istniejącymi normami prawnymi. W Niemczech istniejące regulacje prawne dotyczące ogrodnictwa działkowego sprzyjają zachowaniu funkcji uprawowej, podczas gdy w Polsce niedoprecyzowane przepisy dotyczące sposobu zagospodarowania działek doprowadziło do wypierania funkcji uprawowej przez rekreacyjną i mieszkaniową. Konieczne jest zatem utrzymanie i przestrzeganie przepisów aktualnie obowiązujących w Niemczech. Natomiast w Polsce istnieje pilna potrzeba wprowadzenia przepisu na poziomie krajowym, który precyzyjnie regulowałby zasady dotyczące obowiązkowego użytkowania części działki do produkcji żywności

The acoustic diversity in the phoneme inventories of the world’s languages

A comparative analysis of multi-language speech samples is conducted using acoustic characteristics of phoneme realisations in spoken languages. Different approaches to investigation of phonemic diversity in the context of language evolution are compared and discussed. We introduced our approach (materials and methods) and presented preliminary results of research. We built an online database dedicated to voice acquisition and a storage of good quality speech samples collected across the globe. Software designed for automatic extraction and analysis of phonemes was developed and adapted for languages classification. Research involves both experimental and theoretical works that aim at gaining knowledge about phonetic diversity of languages across the world. Additionally, the expected results may be applied to verify the hypothesis of modern languages expansion from Africa, brought to attention by Atkinson

Between food growing and leisure: contemporary allotment gardeners in Western Germany and Poland

Allotment gardens have existed in Europe for 170 years and have changed their functions over time. While the scholarly literature emphasizes the economic, social and ecological benefits of allotment gardens, little is known about today’s allotment gardeners, especially in different geopolitical environments. This paper describes allotment gardeners’ profiles based on empirical data obtained from surveys conducted in two countries with, on the one hand, a long tradition of allotment gardens and, on the other hand, a recent history of belonging to two different geopolitical regions: Poland and West Germany. Inspired by the cultural-geographical approach that acknowledges that the gardening practice is influenced by culture and based on the method of non-hierarchical “k-means” clustering, this paper identifies characteristics of today’s allotment gardeners from the region of Westphalia-Lippe in Germany and of Wielkopolska in Poland. Significant differences in profiles were factored together in the statistical analysis based on garden practices and the meanings attributed to these practices as reported by the gardeners in the survey. As a result, German gardeners can be described first and foremost as urban farmers and ecologists, while Polish allotmenteers seem to prefer using their gardens for leisure (as well as a holiday retreat) and for ornamental purposes. Results can inform municipalities, stakeholders and garden organizations who are interested in adjusting existing allotment garden areas to meet future needs. However, in both countries the community of gardeners cannot be conclusively defined, as it is subject to further development, triggered by a generational change in many allotment gardens. For instance, in the context of the recent COVID-19 crisis, a significant increase in demand for allotment plots has been reported in both countries, which again confirms their role in times of crisis.Bis in die Mitte des 20. Jahrhundert waren das Kleingartenwesen in Deutschland und Polen weitgehend vergleichbar. Aufgrund der historischen und sozioökonomischen Transformationen in beiden Ländern im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert haben sich die heutigen Kleingärten in beiden Ländern ausdifferenziert. Als Folge davon hat sich auch das Profil der Kleingärtnerinnen und –gärtner geändert. Der vorliegende Artikel identifiziert Merkmale der heutigen Gärtnerinnen und Gärtner aus Deutschland und Polen. Um Einblicke in die komplexen Charakteristika zeitgenössischer Kleingärtnerinnen und -gärtner zu gewinnen, führten die Autoren Befragungen in Kleingärten in der Region Westfalen-Lippe in Deutschland und in der Region Wielkopolska in Polen sowie strukturierte Interviews mit den Vorsitzenden der in die Studie einbezogenen Kleingartenvereine sowie vertiefte Interviews mit den Geschäftsführern der regionalen Kleingartenverbände durch. Einige Materialien wurden durch eigene Beobachtungen bei Studienbesuchen in beiden Regionen gewonnen. Die Forschungsergebnisse zeigen, dass ein/e typische/r deutsche/r Kleingärtner/in in erster Linie ein/e Produzent/in und Ökologe/in ist, der/die auf die Erhaltung der Biodiversität in seinem/ihrem Kleingarten achtet. Im Gegensatz dazu ist ein/e typische/r polnische/r Kleingartennutzer/in eher ein/e Gärtner/in, der/die sich im Garten vorwiegend ausruht und den Garten auch für Urlaube nutzt. Im Gegensatz zur multinationalen Gemeinschaft der deutschen Kleingartennutzer ist ihr polnisches Pendant in Bezug auf die Nationalität praktisch homogen. Allerdings ist in beiden Ländern die Gemeinschaft der Gärtnerinnen und Gärtner nicht abschließend definierbar, da sie, ausgelöst durch einen Generationswechsel in vielen Kleingärten einer weiteren Entwicklung unterworfen ist

A Formal Model of an Argumentative Dialogue in the Management of Emotions

In this research, we focus on designing an interactive tool which will be used as an aid in learning how to manage emotions during argumentative dialogues. To this end, a collection of examples illustrating the typical human’s reactions was collated and used to explain mechanisms that appear in dialogues. We present a theoretical background of the project, i.e., a formal system to represent the change of intensity of emotions in argumentative dialogues. We rely here on persuasive dialogue games. A formal language for expressing properties of protocols for dialogues with emotional reasoning is proposed. We suggest that awareness of emotions improves communication between parents and children, and that it is an important element of both raising communication skills in adults and development of communication skills in children

MsATL: a Tool for SAT-Based ATL Satisfiability Checking

We present MsATL: the first tool for deciding the satisfiability of Alternating-time Temporal Logic (ATL) with imperfect information. MsATL combines SAT Modulo Monotonic Theories solvers with existing ATL model checkers: MCMAS and STV. The tool can deal with various semantics of ATL, including perfect and imperfect information, and can handle additional practical requirements. MsATL can be applied for synthesis of games that conform to a given specification, with the synthesised game often being minimal

Home language will not take care of itself : vocabulary knowledge in trilingual children in the United Kingdom

Language input is crucial for language acquisition and especially for children's vocabulary size. Bilingual children receive reduced input in each of their languages, compared to monolinguals, and are reported to have smaller vocabularies, at least in one of their languages. Vocabulary acquisition in trilingual children has been largely understudied; only a few case studies have been published so far. Moreover, trilingual language acquisition in children has been rarely contrasted with language outcomes of bilingual and monolingual peers. We present a comparison of trilingual, bilingual, and monolingual children (total of 56 participants, aged 4;5-6;7, matched one-to-one for age, gender, and non-verbal IQ) in regard to their receptive and expressive vocabulary (measured by standardized tests), and relative frequency of input in each language (measured by parental report). The monolingual children were speakers of Polish or English, while the bilinguals and trilinguals were migrant children living in the United Kingdom, speaking English as a majority language and Polish as a home language. The trilinguals had another (third) language at home. For the majority language, English, no differences were found across the three groups, either in the receptive or productive vocabulary. The groups differed, however, in their performance in Polish, the home language. The trilinguals had lower receptive vocabulary than the monolinguals, and lower productive vocabulary compared to the monolinguals. The trilinguals showed similar lexical knowledge to the bilinguals. The bilinguals demonstrated lower scores than the monolinguals, but only in productive vocabulary. The data on reported language input show that input in English in bilingual and trilingual groups is similar, but the bilinguals outscore the trilinguals in relative frequency of Polish input. Overall, the results suggest that in the majority language, multilingual children may develop lexical skills similar to those of their monolingual peers. However, their minority language is weaker: the trilinguals scored lower than the Polish monolinguals on both receptive and expressive vocabulary tests, and the bilinguals showed reduced expressive knowledge but leveled out with the Polish monolinguals on receptive vocabulary. The results should encourage parents of migrant children to support home language(s), if the languages are to be retained in a longer perspectiv

Neither action nor phonological video games make dyslexic children read better

The prevalence and long-term consequences of dyslexia make it crucial to look for effective and efficient ways of its therapy. Action video games (AVG) were implied as a possible remedy for difficulties in reading in Italian and English-speaking children. However, the studies examining the effectiveness of AVG application in dyslexia suffered from significant methodological weaknesses such as small sample sizes and lack of a control group with no intervention. In our study, we tested how two forms of training: based on AVG and on phonological non-action video games (PNAVG), affect reading in a group of fifty-four Polish children with dyslexia. Both speed and accuracy of reading increased in AVG as much as in PNAVG group. Moreover, both groups improved in phonological awareness, selective attention and rapid naming. Critically, the reading progress in the two groups did not differ from a dyslexic control group which did not participate in any training. Thus, the observed improvement in reading in AVG and PNAVG can be attributed either to the normal reading development related to schooling or to test practice effect. Overall, we failed to replicate previous studies: Neither AVG nor PNAVG remedy difficulties in reading in school children

How does L1 and L2 exposure impact L1 performance in bilingual children? : evidence from Polish-English migrants to the United Kingdom

Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children’s second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migrant monolingual peers, and then investigated the influence of the cumulative exposure to L1 and L2 on bilinguals’ performance. We then examined whether high exposure to L1 could possibly minimize the gap between monolinguals and bilinguals. We analyzed data from 233 typically developing children (88 bilingual, 145 monolingual) aged 4;0 to 7;5 (years; months) on six language measures in Polish: receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, receptive grammar, productive grammar (sentence repetition), phonological processing (non-word repetition) and discourse abilities (narration). Information about language exposure was obtained via parental questionnaires. For each language task, we analyzed the data from the subsample of bilinguals who had completed all the tasks in question and from monolinguals matched one-on-one to the bilingual group on age, SES (measured by years of mother’s education), gender, non-verbal IQ and short term memory. The bilingual children scored lower than monolinguals in all language domains, except discourse. The group differences were more pronounced on the productive tasks (vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing) and moderate on the receptive tasks (vocabulary and grammar). L1 exposure correlated positively with the vocabulary size and phonological processing. Grammar scores were not related to the levels of L1 exposure, but were predicted by general cognitive abilities. L2 exposure negatively influenced productive grammar in L1, suggesting possible L2 transfer effects on L1 grammatical performance. Children’s narrative skills benefitted from exposure to two languages: both L1 and L2 exposure influenced story structure scores in L1. Importantly, we did not find any evidence (in any of the tasks in which the gap was present) that the performance gap between monolinguals and bilinguals could be fully closed with high amounts of L1 input

Warsaw Argumentation Week (Waw 2018) Organised by the Polish School of Argumentation and Our Colleagues from Germany and the UK, 6th-16th September 2018

In September 2018, the ArgDiaP association, along with colleagues from Germany and the UK, organised one of the longest and most interdisciplinary series of events ever dedicated to argumentation - Warsaw Argumentation Week, WAW 2018. The eleven-day ‘week’ featured a five day graduate school on computational and linguistic perspectives on argumentation (3rd SSA school); five workshops: on systems and algorithms for formal argumentation (2nd SAFA), argumentation in relation to society (1st ArgSoc), philosophical approaches to argumentation (1st ArgPhil), legal argumentation (2ndMET-ARG) and argumentation in rhetoric (1st MET-RhET); and two conferences: on computational models of argumentation (7th COMMA conference) and on argumentation and corpus linguistics (16th ArgDiaP conference). WAW hosted twelve tutorials and eight invited talks as well as welcoming over 130 participants. All the conferences and workshops publish pre- or post-proceedings in the top journals and book series in the field