Polish grid infrastructure for science and research

Structure, functionality, parameters and organization of the computing Grid in Poland is described, mainly from the perspective of high-energy particle physics community, currently its largest consumer and developer. It represents distributed Tier-2 in the worldwide Grid infrastructure. It also provides services and resources for data-intensive applications in other sciences.Comment: Proceeedings of IEEE Eurocon 2007, Warsaw, Poland, 9-12 Sep. 2007, p.44

Praca w pamięci zbiorowej mieszkańców górnośląskiej wsi na tle procesów przemian obszarów wiejskich

The subject of the article is collective memory of the concept of work among the inhabitants of the Upper Silesian village of Bojszowy. The author of the study employs the classic understanding of collective memory, while simultaneously pointing to the importance of the communication process and the diversity of information sources shaping it. Empirical data was collected during research conducted in 2018 using in-depth interview techniques. The research sample consisted of 30 rural residents. Analysis of the functioning of collective memory about work revealed the development processes—especially industrialization and deagrarianization— taking place in Bojszów. The analysis clearly shows the specificity of the Upper Silesian village, where these processes began relatively early, and work was associated not only with agriculture, but also with industry and trade

"Hearts" of Silesian cities in social perception

The article shows a few reflections resulting from research on perception of Silesian cities space conducted by the authors. The research showed, that although citizens do see a number of central space crisis symptoms (e.g. hypermarketisation, desacralisation, loss of residential functions), centres still fulfil an import role and citizens appreciate the need of their existence. The research also showed, that citizens perceiving and appreciating city space refer to spatial archetype – a city with a market square as a central point

Przetrwanie i trauma. Pamięć zbiorowa o latach wojny w śląskiej wsi

Artykuł podejmuje problem pamięci zbiorowej o czasach II wojny światowej wśród mieszkańców śląskiej wsi Bojszowy. Odwołując się do koncepcji traumy kulturowej Jeffreya C. Alexandra zadano pytanie: czy w przypadku pamięci mieszkańców badanej wsi o czasach wojny mamy do czynienia z wystąpieniem traumy kulturowej? Do analizy wybrano dwa problemy: pamięć o służbie mężczyzn w Wehrmachcie oraz pamięć o sąsiedztwie nazistowskiego obozu zagłady w Auschwitz-Birkenau (wieś znajduje się w bezpośrednim sąsiedztwie Oświęcimia). Odpowiedź na pytanie badawcze uzyskano dzięki analizie trzydziestu relacji zebranych techniką wywiadu pogłębionego. Badanie odtworzonych treści pamięci zbiorowej pokazało, że pamięć o służbie bojszowian w Wehrmachcie ma charakter traumy kulturowej. Pamięć o tych dramatycznych doświadczeniach przetworzona została na narrację, która odmieniła tożsamość mieszkańców wsi. Taki proces nie zaszedł w przypadku pamięci o obozie Zagłady, dlatego równie trudnych wydarzeń związanych z tym sąsiedztwem nie można ujmować w kategoriach traumy kulturowej

The past as part of a city's identity

In his book entitled Społeczne wytwarzanie przestrzeni (The Social Production of Space), Bohdan Jałowiecki contends that “space is the permanent remembrance of a society, and hence what exists today is deeply entrenched in the more or less distant past”2 (Jałowiecki 2010: 13). Along the same lines, Jałowiecki recalls the idea of Fernand Braudel, who writes that “any city as a tight society with its crises, intervals and disasters […] must be placed and understood in the complex of its surrounding villages and the archipelagos of neighbouring cities […] and hence must be situated in a lively motion, which more or less delves into the past, sometimes even into the distant reaches of time” (Braudel 1971: 65, in Jałowiecki 2010: 13). The recollection of these wellknown thoughts by the two prominent humanists is intended to clearly indicate that the contemporary thinking about a city and the interpretations of the various aspects of urbanness cannot ignore the past (...)

Rola Obserwatorium Procesów Miejskich i Metropolitalnych w procesie tworzenia Górnośląsko‑Zagłębiowskiej Metropolii : od deficytu wiedzy do oczekiwań wobec nowej instytucji

The article presents the chosen results of the research conducted between November 2016 and January 2017 among the councilors and presidents of cities forming the Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia. The aim of the research was to identify the needs and deficits of knowledge of local government units in their functioning in the Upper Silesian metropolitan area, as well as the tasks that may be carried out by the Observatory of Urban and Metropolitan Processes — a unit established at the University of Silesia in Katowice. The plans (currently implemented) for the creation of the “Górnośląsko‑Zagłębiowska Metropolia” (Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis) have become a direct impulse for the research. The article also reviews the theoretical considerations relating to the metropolitan area, referring to the specificity of the discussed metropolis

A Shift from 2D Design Paradigm of the 19 th Century to 3D/CityGML, BIM, 3D Printing and Some of Smarter Cities in Poland

A road from paper-based-administration of the 80-ties to Smart Cities of today is being showed in this paper. Shift from paper do digital environment started with regaining of Polish independence in 1989, 26 years ago. The first e-mail from Poland was sent in 1990 year, 19 years after the first e-mail on the world of Ray Tomlinson (1971). Transfter of legal responsibilities, legal power, competences and finance from the top to local levels resulted in revolution in IT sector, which was the first commercial sector running in apost comunist country, in the 80-ties and the beginning of 90ties.Pressure for changes was visible exspecially in the biggest cities, and were initially connected with process of “mucicipalization” – i.e. – transfering of ownership of land from the state level to the level of municipalities. Signum Tempori of this time, was a process of transfer of state owned land to the city property of the City of Gdansk, where more than 30000 real estates of of the market value of 750 million US dollars were transferred and became municipal between 1992 and 1994 years. More and more LIS (Land Information Systems) and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) were implemented, without interoperability rules and standards. Lack of ability to adapt centrain common standards between State Surveying and the biggest cities resulted in appearance of more than 20 graphical applications and more then 20 textual databases applications which required later substantial efforts and costs to overcome information chaos. 10 biggest metropolitan Polish Cities spend more then 3 times than the General Office of Geodesy and Cadasrte of Poland, between 1991 and 1994. Gradual implementaion of INSPIRE Directive and the Law of National Infrastrructure of Spatial Information created unprecedented shitf from paper maps and paper records to almost all digital Poland. Expenditures of c.a. 650 million PLN were assigned to creation of digital representaion of all 34 data layers of INSPIRE Directive for the impelmentaion period of 2010 to 2019. Nevertheless, this amount has been almost doubled in the first 3 years, taking into acccount expenditures of only regional and local GIS/SDI Projects. Polish spatial and economic conditions created spatio-economic background, within which more than 65 % of GDP of Poland is located within 12 metropolitan areas, and at the same time around 67 % of Polish GDP is being generated by more than 4 million of micro or small businesses (often small “family” businesses.).Polish Spatial Planning Law of 2003 has weakened spatial planning regulation, allowing for certain “exception from the rule”, which became a new rule in itself. Basically, this “door” in the law to obtain building permint outside the borders of local development plan – resulted in issuing of more than 700 000 building permits – all located ouside territories of local spatial development plans between 2003 and 2015. Therefore we observe freely flowing process of urban sprawl on one hand and increased land consumption, expecially in the peri-urban zones of all metropolitan cities, and on the other hand, from the economic point of view – Poland has experienced unprecedented GDP growth in recent 10 or 12 years. Nevertheless several really interesting projects have been kicked-off by metropolitan cities, regions and General Survey of Poland (GUGIK). One of the most interesting projects – ISOK (Informatic System of State Protection against Extraordinary Threads) was impelmented between 2011 and 2015, at the cost of c.a. 300 million PLN, resulting in creation of laser scanning data for 92 % of territory of Poland. Continuation of this project was secured in the autumn of 2015 year, devoting budget of 189 million PLN for the project called CAPAP (acronyme from “ Centre of Spatial Analysis of Public Administration), which aim is to provide 3D model of all buildings in Poland, in compliance with CityGML LOD 2 (second Level of Detail), withing the time frame 2016 – 2018. So, all territory of Poland will become 3D in 3 years time in accordance with CityGLM LoD2 and some studies and pilot projects going in this direction are being described in this paper. Some recent exercises with 3D printing of new urban projects are being reported at the end of article

Software for the robot-operated inspection station for engine guide vanes taking into consideration the geometric variability of parts

U radu je prikazan proces projektiranja i izgradnje softvera za robotsku ispitnu stanicu koja se koristi za provjeru statora. Softver je razvijen za stanicu sa ABB IRB 140 robotskim manipulatorom i PC radnom stanicom koja upravlja s dva ultrazvučna senzora i pokreće LabVIEW softverski paket. Kontrolni algoritmi robota uključuju potencijalne razlike u geometrijskim značajkama pregledanih elemenata na ispitnoj stanici i nastalim razlikama u stazama kretanja manipulatora alata. Softver je dizajniran i isporučen Pratt & Whitney Rzeszów Sp. z o.o.The paper presents a process of designing and building software for a robotic test stand used for inspection of stators. The software was developed for a test stand comprising the ABB IRB 140 robotic manipulator, and a PC workstation that handles two ultrasound sensors and runs the LabVIEW software suite. The control algorithms of the robot include the potential differences in the geometric features of the items inspected on the test stand and the resulting differences in the manipulator tool motion paths. The software was designed for and delivered to Pratt & Whitney Rzeszów Sp. z o.o

The outcomes of Polish patients with advanced BRAFpositive melanoma treated with vemurafenib in a safety clinical trial

Aim of the study: The BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib has improved progression- free survival and overall survival in patients with BRAFV600-mutationpositive metastatic melanoma. Here we present the results of an open-label safety study with vemurafenib in patients with metastatic melanoma enrolled in Polish oncological centres. Material and methods: Patients with untreated or previously treated Stage IIIC/IV BRAFV600 mutation-positive melanoma were treated with oral vemurafenib in an initial dose of 960 mg twice daily. Assessments for safety and efficacy were made every 28 days. For the survival analysis the Kaplan-Meier estimator was used with the log-rank tests for bivariate comparisons. Results: In total, 75 Polish patients were enrolled in the safety study across four centres. At data cut-off, 28 patients died (37%), mainly (26) due to disease progression; 33 (44%) patients continued vemurafenib after disease progression. The objective response rate was 46%, including two patients with a complete response and 29 with a partial response. Median progression-free survival was 7.4 months. The one-year overall survival rate was 61.9% (median overall survival was not reached). Seventy-three (97.3%) patients reported adverse events (AEs), and grade 3–5 toxicity was reported in 49.4% (37) patients. The most common AEs were: skin lesions (including rash and photosensitivity), arthralgia, and fatigue. Conclusions: The overall safety profile and response rate of vemurafenib were comparable to those reported in previous studies of this drug. Our study confirmed the value of well-established prognostic features for overall survival, such as initial LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) level and AJCC staging

Cs Fountain Clocks for Commercial Realizations—An Improved and Robust Design

We report on the design, assembly, testing, and delivery of a series of new cesium fountain primary frequency standards built through commercial and scientific collaboration with international users. The new design, based on proven National Physical Laboratory solutions, improves reliability, simplicity of operation, and transportability. The complete system consists of a novel physics package, a specially developed optical package, and dedicated electronics for system control. We present results showing that despite their simplified and more compact design, the new fountains have state-of-the-art performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and robust long-term operation. With a sufficiently low-noise local oscillator, they are capable of reaching a short-term stability below $3\times 10^{-14}$ (1 s) and have potential accuracy in the low $10^{-16}$ range, similar to the best cesium fountains currently in operation. This cost-effective solution could be used to increase the availability of accurate frequency references and timescales and provide redundancy in critical locations