Everyday Lives in Occupied Poland. Some Ideas for a (Slightly) Different View

This article (or rather this essay) demonstrates several possibilities for a slightly different perspective on not so much everyday life during the occupation but on everyday lives. Only within the framework of the German occupation, which from the summer of 1941 covered almost the entire pre-war territory of Poland, the range of differences, both between administrative units (e.g., the General Government, the Wartheland or the Eastern Borderlands) as well as within them, between city and countryside, between individual social, professional, ethnic and age groups, was vast. The occupation was not a static and homogeneous phenomenon but a diverse and dynamic one, full of complex interactions. This text, based variously on the subject literature, published and archival sources (Polish and German), clandestine and official press, focuses on the following phenomena: the situation of Polish officials working for the occupation administration, mobility (both spatial and social – horizontal and vertical), relations between the city and the countryside, the breakdown of social norms, the wartime economy (with a greater than usually considered subjectivity of Polish actors) or the process of ‘taming’ the occupation (including terror), both materially and psychologically. The text may be treated as encouragement and invitation to interdisciplinary, methodologically innovative, cross-sectional research on Polish society during the Second World War

Through the Back Door

This book analyzes the history of the black market in Poland before the 1940s and the development of black-market phenomena in post-war Poland. The author evaluates the interrelation between black-market phenomena and historical and geographical conditions. At first, the black market stabilized the system by making it more flexible and creating a margin of freedom, albeit in the short term. In the long run, the informal economic activities of the people ran counter to and undermined the official ideology of the state. The author concludes that in post-war Poland, owing to a singular coincidence of historical, political, economic and social factors, the second economy had its own unique character and an endemic presence that loomed large in the Soviet Bloc

(Nad)morskie pogranicza nowoczesności. Rostock, Kłajpeda i Tallin od lat 70. XIX do lat 20. XX w.

Coastal frontiers of modernity. Rostock, Memel and Tallinn from the 1870s to the 1920s. (Summary)Three various port cities of the Baltic Sea are discussed in the article: Rostock, Memel and Tallinn. These three cities were selected because of their location in the dynamic south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea region and comparing the related historical, demographic, social, economic and legal and state-related conditions, promises interesting and original results. The article discusses the fifty years between the 1870s and the first half of the 20th century. It was then that the cities had to deal with both the new political situation after the unification of Germany and the technological and globalization processes which occurred at an alarming speed, and – after World War I – the challenges posed by the emergence of new national states. The article attempts to answer the question of whether, how and why Rostock, Memel and Tallinn differed from other maritime cities, and what the sum of their social, economic and political experiences were when entering into the 20th century, in particular the interwar period. It was the interwar period that determined the nature of the cities after 1939 when the fate of all three was united – first under German, and from 1944/1945 – under Russian influence. In consequence, all three faced the transformation challenge more or less at the same time (Rostock in 1990, Memel and Tallinn in 1991). The article discusses mainly the factors that were decisive for the (non)modern nature of the said cities, their (non) compliance with the global technological and economic standards and their reactions to external models.Coastal frontiers of modernity. Rostock, Memel and Tallinn from the 1870s to the 1920s. (Summary)Three various port cities of the Baltic Sea are discussed in the article: Rostock, Memel and Tallinn. These three cities were selected because of their location in the dynamic south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea region and comparing the related historical, demographic, social, economic and legal and state-related conditions, promises interesting and original results. The article discusses the fifty years between the 1870s and the first half of the 20th century. It was then that the cities had to deal with both the new political situation after the unification of Germany and the technological and globalization processes which occurred at an alarming speed, and – after World War I – the challenges posed by the emergence of new national states. The article attempts to answer the question of whether, how and why Rostock, Memel and Tallinn differed from other maritime cities, and what the sum of their social, economic and political experiences were when entering into the 20th century, in particular the interwar period. It was the interwar period that determined the nature of the cities after 1939 when the fate of all three was united – first under German, and from 1944/1945 – under Russian influence. In consequence, all three faced the transformation challenge more or less at the same time (Rostock in 1990, Memel and Tallinn in 1991). The article discusses mainly the factors that were decisive for the (non)modern nature of the said cities, their (non) compliance with the global technological and economic standards and their reactions to external models

O związkach literatury i filozofii na przykładzie postaci Iwana Karamazowa

Stanislaw Gałkowski weist im Artikel Die Grenze der Philosophie. Die Metapher in der Philosophie am Beispiel der Sprache von Józef Tischner auf die Notwendigkeit hin, zwischen Literatur und Philosophie zu unterscheiden. Die Philosophie sei demnach ein Gebiet, dessen Anforderungen die intersubjektive Kommunizierbarkeit und Überprüfbarkeit von verfochtenen Thesen sind. Indem ich mich auf das Beispiel der Figur von Iwan Karamazow und auf seine existentiellen Dilemmas stütze, die den Nährboden für philosophische Überlegungen von Leo Schestow und Nikolai Berdiajew bildeten, weise ich nach, dass die Philosophie sowohl solche Forschungsbereiche, die keine Nahtstellen mit der Literatur haben (wie Logik) als auch solche, die das literarische Schaffen benutzten und immer noch benutzen (wie Existenzphilosophie oder Metaphysik). Für jene Bereiche sind literarische Werke sowohl mittelbar eine Inspirationsquelle als auch unmittelbar philosophische Texte sensu stricte, indem sie die Grundlage für Polemik und weitere Forschungen bilden, was keinen Abbruch der Autonomie der Philosophie gegenüber der Literatur tut.The author argues in favour of defining a clear distinction between literature and philosophy in view of their outright different nature. Intersubjectivity in communication and verifiability of theses are typical in philosophy. He quotes as example the case of Ivan Karamazov and his existential dilemmas which inspired Lev Shestov’s and Nicolai Berdyaev’s philosophical thoughts in order to observe that philosophy covers versatile domains of study such as logic, which is not tied up with literature directly, as well as fields such as philosophy of existence or metaphysics which have been drawing all along from literary output indirectly as a source of inspiration and directly providing strictly philosophical substance for polemics and studies. None of that jeopardizes the independence of philosophy from literature.Stanisław Gałkowski w artykule Granica filozofii. Metafora w filozofii na przykładzie języka Józefa Tischnera wskazuje na konieczność rozgraniczenia pomiędzy literaturą a filozofią, jako dziedziną, której wymogiem jest intersubiektywna komunikowalność i sprawdzalność tez w jej ramach głoszonych. Opierając się na przykładzie postaci Iwana Karamazowa i jego egzystencjalnych dylematach, które stanowiły podłoże filozoficznej refleksji Lwa Szestowa i Mikołaja Bierdiajewa wskazuję, że filozofia mieści w sobie zarówno obszary badawcze, takie jak logika, które nie mają punktów stycznych z literaturą, jak i takie dziedziny, jak filozofia egzystencji bądź metafizyka, które korzystały i nadal korzystają z dorobku literackiego, zarówno pośrednio jako źródła inspiracji jak i bezpośrednio – jako tekstów stricte filozoficznych, będących podstawą polemik i dalszych badań, przy czym nie stanowi to zagrożenia dla autonomii filozofii wobec literatur

Koncepcja „boga ułomnego” i jej warianty w wybranych utworach Stanisława Lema

Im Artikel beschreibe ich das im Schaffen von Stanislaw Lem auftretende Konzept des „unvollkommenen Gottes“ und seine unterschiedlichen Varianten in ausgewählten Romanen und Erzählungen des Autors. Zufolge des Konzepts ist Gott ein Wesen ohne Attribute der Allmacht und des Allwissens, das keine separate transzendentale Sphäre des Daseins beansprucht, sondern in die Welt und in Materie verwickelt ist. Es bleibt durch jene Welt und durch die von ihm geschaffenen Wesen beschränkt und entdeckt allmählich diese Beschränkungen. Darüber hinaus unterziehe ich die Anschauungen der Interpreten des Schaffens von Lem hinsichtlich des einschlägigen Konzeptes einer kritischen Analyse.Discussed is the notion of a "defective god" and its variants featured in novels and short stories written by Stanisław Lem.  Accordingly,  god is a  being devoid of such  attributes as omnipotence and omniscience,  one that does not exist in a separate, transcendent sphere of being, but is entangled in the world and matter, is limited by that world and also by  beings which he created , and is gradually discovering all these limitations. The paper also contains a critical analysis of commentators’ views on the writer's idea.W artykule opisuję występującą w twórczości Stanisława Lema koncepcję „boga ułomnego” oraz różne jej warianty występujące w wybranych jego powieściach i opowiadaniach. Zgodnie z nią, bóg ten jest istotą pozbawioną atrybutów wszechmocy i wszechwiedzy, która nie zajmuje odrębnej, transcendentnej sfery bytu, lecz uwikłany jest w świat i materię, pozostając ograniczony przez ów świat, a także przez stworzone przez siebie byty, odkrywając stopniowo owe ograniczenia. Nadto poddaję krytycznej analizie poglądy komentatorów twórczości pisarza na temat omawianej koncepcji

3D PET image reconstruction based on Maximum Likelihood Estimation Method (MLEM) algorithm

Positron emission tomographs (PET) do not measure an image directly. Instead, they measure at the boundary of the field-of-view (FOV) of PET tomograph a sinogram that consists of measurements of the sums of all the counts along the lines connecting two detectors. As there is a multitude of detectors build-in typical PET tomograph structure, there are many possible detector pairs that pertain to the measurement. The problem is how to turn this measurement into an image (this is called imaging). Decisive improvement in PET image quality was reached with the introduction of iterative reconstruction techniques. This stage was reached already twenty years ago (with the advent of new powerful computing processors). However, three dimensional (3D) imaging remains still a challenge. The purpose of the image reconstruction algorithm is to process this imperfect count data for a large number (many millions) of lines-of-responce (LOR) and millions of detected photons to produce an image showing the distribution of the labeled molecules in space.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

TOF-PET detector concept based on organic scintillators

In this contribution we present a new concept of the large acceptance detector systems based on organic scintillators which may allow for simultaneous diagnostic of large fraction of the human body. Novelty of the concept lies in employing large blocks of polymer scintillators instead of crystals as detectors of annihilation quanta, and in using predominantly the timing of signals instead of their amplitudes

Application of the compress sensing theory for improvement of the TOF resolution in a novel J-PET instrument

Nowadays, in positron emission tomography (PET) systems, a time of fl ight (TOF) information is used to improve the image reconstruction process. In TOF-PET, fast detectors are able to measure the difference in the arrival time of the two gamma rays, with the precision enabling to shorten signifi cantly a range along the line-of-response (LOR) where the annihilation occurred. In the new concept, called J-PET scanner, gamma rays are detected in plastic scintillators. In a single strip of J-PET system, time values are obtained by probing signals in the amplitude domain. Owing to compressive sensing (CS) theory, information about the shape and amplitude of the signals is recovered. In this paper, we demonstrate that based on the acquired signals parameters, a better signal normalization may be provided in order to improve the TOF resolution. The procedure was tested using large sample of data registered by a dedicated detection setup enabling sampling of signals with 50-ps intervals. Experimental setup provided irradiation of a chosen position in the plastic scintillator strip with annihilation gamma quanta

Plastic scintillators for positron emission tomography obtained by the bulk polymerization method

This paper describes three methods regarding the production of plastic scintillators. One method appears to be suitable for the manufacturing of plastic scintillator, revealing properties which fulfill the requirements of novel positron emission tomography scanners based on plastic scintillators. The key parameters of the manufacturing process are determined and discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Multiple scattering and accidental coincidences in the J-PET detector simulated using GATE package

Novel Positron Emission Tomography system, based on plastic scintillators, is developed by the J-PET collaboration. In order to optimize geometrical configuration of built device, advanced computer simulations are performed. Detailed study is presented of background given by accidental coincidences and multiple scattering of gamma quanta