Singularities of the urban climate of Łódź, Central Poland

Published in: Natural environment of Poland and its protection in Łódź University Geographical Research, edited by E. Kobojek and T.MarszałThe results presented in the work show the selected features of local climate modification caused by urbanisation in Łódź, Central Poland. The city structure is similar to many other mid-European towns, but the influences of urbanisation on local climate are not affected here by other factors. Thus, the outcomes of presented investigations can be generalised for many cities of the region. The findings about the urban heat island are similar to those of other cities and they confirm the general rules about the UHI phenomenon, its spatial distribution and temporal variations (see Arnfield 2003 for a comprehensive review). Similarly, the influence of the city on incoming shortwave radiation in Łódź simply quantify well established relations. More unique are the studies on the albedo and the influence of surface geometry on the absorption of radiation. The influence of the town on humidity is more disputable. On the average, our data confirm the findings on the urban-rural contrasts of these elements, but they also show that unlike the UHI evolution, the diurnal course of humidity differences can take different form even in favourable weather conditions. The measurements of turbulent fluxes of sensible and latent heat, carbon dioxide and methane are unique in Poland and one of the few in Europe; thus they just provide new data and extend our understanding of poorly known processes. At the present stage, it is hard to evaluate if these result are case-specific or more general. The comparison with other cities is problematic because of a small number of similar works – there are several concerning urban energy balance, very few on carbon dioxide flux, and almost none about the flux of methane

The development of learner autonomy through internet resources and its impact on English language attainment

Since the arrival of the Internet and its tools, computer technology has become of considerable significance to both teachers and students, and it is an obvious resource for foreign language teaching and learning. The paper presents the results of a study which aimed to determine the effect of the application of Internet resources on the development of learner autonomy as well as the impact of greater learner independence on attainment in English as a foreign language. The participants were 46 Polish senior high school students divided into the experimental group (N = 28) and the control (N = 18) group. The students in the experimental group were subjected to innovative instruction with the use of the Internet and the learners in the control group were taught in a traditional way with the help of the coursebook. The data were obtained by means questionnaires, interviews, learners’ logs, an Internet forum, observations as well as language tests, and they were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show that the experimental students manifested greater independence after the intervention and they also outperformed the controls on language tests

Robust field-dressed spectra of diatomics in an optical lattice

The absorption spectra of the cold Na2 molecule dressed by a linearly polarized standing laser wave is investigated. In the studied scenario the rotational motion of the molecules is frozen while the vibrational and translational degrees of freedom are accounted for as dynamical variables. In such a situation a light-induced conical intersection (LICI) can be formed. To measure the spectra a weak field is used whose propagation direction is perpendicular to the direction of the dressing field but has identical polarization direction. Although LICIs are present in our model, the simulations demonstrate a very robust absorption spectrum, which is insensitive to the intensity and the wavelength of the dressing field and which does not reflect clear signatures of light-induced nonadiabatic phenomena related to the strong mixing between the electronic, vibration and translational motions. However, by widening artificially the very narrow translational energy level gaps, the fingerprint of the LICI appears to some extent in the spectrum

Another look at boredom in language instruction: The role of the predictable and the unexpected

Although recent years have seen a growing interest in positive emotions in second or foreign language learning and teaching, negative emotions are always present in the classroom and they deserve to be investigated in their own right. The article focuses on boredom, a construct that has been explored in educational psychology but has received only scant attention from second language acquisition researchers. It reports a study which examined the changes in the levels of boredom experienced by 13 English majors in four EFL classes and the factors accounting for such changes. Using data obtained from a few different sources (i.e., boredom grids, narratives, interviews, class evaluations and lesson plans), it was found that although boredom can be attributed to different constellations of factors, it was mainly traced to repetitiveness, monotony and predictability of what transpired during a particular class

Potential sources of foreign language learning boredom: A Q methodology study

The present study employed an interpretive approach to investigate individual learners’ viewpoints on foreign language learning boredom (FLLB). To this aim, a Q method, which shares features of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, was used to explore 37 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ perceptions of potential sources of boredom in the classroom. Nonprobability purposeful sampling was used to select participants from two private language institutes in Mashhad, Iran. A hybrid-type Q sampling was employed to produce 40 statements related to the sources of FLLB. Using PQ Method, an exclusive statistical package for Q methodology, the Q sorts were intercorrelated and factor-analyzed. Three factors were extracted and rotated using varimax rotation and hand adjustment. Factor arrays and qualitative analyses were utilized to find and interpret three different accounts of FLLB. The three factors showed that the students held three divergent prototypical points of view about the sources of boredom experienced in EFL learning in class: (a) teacher-induced boredom, (b) student-induced boredom, and (c) activity-induced boredom. The findings also showed that different learner prototypes experience FLLB distinctly. Thus teachers should consider using different strategies to prevent or reduce this negative emotion in the context of L2 learning since otherwise this process could be impeded

Novel diagnostic tests for breast cancer

W niniejszej pracy zaprezentowano nowoczesne testy diagnostyczne stosowane w raku piersi. OncotypeDx jest zbadanym klinicznie, wielogenowym testem dla pacjentów z wczesnym rakiem piersi, za pomocą którego ocenia się prawdopodobieństwo nawrotu choroby oraz przewiduje korzyść z zastosowanej chemioterapii, co umożliwia zaplanowanie optymalnego leczenia. GeneSearch pozwala wykryć przerzuty raka piersi do regionalnych węzłów chłonnych, stanowiąc cenną alternatywę dla współczesnych technik śródoperacyjnych. CellSearch to zaawansowana platforma diagnostyczna analizująca krążące komórki guza u pacjentów z uogólnionym rakiem piersi. Przewiduje ona przeżycia wolne od progresji oraz całkowite przeżycia lepiej niż obecne metody diagnostyczne.The current paper presents novel diagnostic tests for breast cancer. OncotypeDx is the clinically validated multi-gene assay for early-stage breast cancer that quantifies the likelihood of distant breast cancer recurrence to assist in treatment planning and predicts the magnitude of chemotherapy benefit. GeneSearch is the objective test system for breast cancer lymph node analysis, a viable alternative to current intraoperative techniques. CellSearch is an advanced diagnostic platform for the analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Circulating tumor cells analysis provides valuable diagnostic information for predicting progression-free survival and overall survival earlier than the current standard of care