Structure and importance of soil-protecting forests in the areas administered by the RDSF Toruń

The paper presents the state and importance of soil-protecting forests in the areas managed by the RDSF in Toruń, as well as changes in their structure over 29 years. The management of the RDSF in Toruń is characterized by a systematic increase in the area, thickness and rich abundance of soil-protecting forests, particularly intense since the mid-nineteen-nineties. They cover mainly rusty soils and podzols on outwash areas, sandy terraces in sloped areas of postglacial valleys and gullies as well. Soil-protecting forests, which are managed by the RDSF in Toruń, vary a great deal considering their habitat, both in terms of dampness and trophic richness as well as spatially. The dominance of coniferous forests is due to the fact that they grow in the poorest habitats, which have not been previously used for agricultural purposes, and to the common practice in recent years of pine reforestation in open stromal areas. The assessment of the state of habitats indicates that 66.2% of the soil-protecting forest area is characterized as natural and close-to-natural. Distorted or transformed habitats occupy 26.2% of the soil-protecting forest area, while the degraded habitats 7.6%. Taking the study area into consideration we can observe the relationship between the incompatibility of habitat in its natural form and the post-arable feature. Changes in habitat characteristics are shown by 75.5% of the area of the soil-protecting forest located on former farmland, mainly in the areas with rusty podzolic soils (Albic Brunic Arenosols). Incompatibility of the habitats is, among others, the result of the creation in recent years, during the afforestation of agricultural lands, of solid pine stands, also in fertile habitats. Secondary planted pine monocultures in the forest areas resulted in podzolization of rusty soils and transformed them into rusty podzolic soils

Use of agricultural soils as a source of nitrous oxide emission in selected communes of Poland

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the main greenhouse gases with a potential to produce greenhouse effect nearly 300 times greater than the potential of carbon dioxide (CO2). Almost 80% of the annual emissions of this gas in Poland come from agriculture, and its main source is the use of agricultural soils. The study attempted to estimate the N2O emission from agricultural soils and to indicate its share in the total greenhouse gas emissions in 48 Polish communes. A simplified solution has been proposed for this purpose, which can be successfully applied by local government areas in order to assess the nitrous oxide emissions as well as monitor the impact of the undertaken actions on its limitation. The estimated emission was compared with the results of the baseline greenhouse gas inventory prepared for the needs of the low-carbon economy plans adopted by the studied self-governments. This allowed us to determine the share of N2O emissions from agricultural soils in the total greenhouse gas emissions of the studied communes.The annual N2O emissions from agricultural soils in the studied communes range from 1.21 Mg N2O-N to 93.28 Mg N2O-N, and the cultivation of organic soils is its main source. The use of mineral and natural fertilizers as well as indirect emissions from nitrogen leaching into groundwater and surface waters are also significant. The obtained results confirm the need to include greenhouse gas emissions from the use of agricultural soils and other agricultural sources in low-carbon economy plans

Small-Scale Energy Use of Agricultural Biogas Plant Wastes by Gasification

In Poland, there are 78 biogas plants producing a total electrical power of 85.94 MW. The byproduct of biogas plants is called a digestate. A single biogas plant with a power of 500 kW produces more than 10,000 ton of digestate per year. The goal of this chapter is to present a low-cost method of raw digestate processing with water content of about 94.55%, and also the results of thermal gasification of dried and pelletized digestate. Initial dehydration method is based on mechanical separation of the solid fraction in screw separator with a slot filter. Pre-dewatered digestate had been dried in biodrying process in semi-technical scale bioreactor. Afterward, the digestate was dried in tubular dryer and pelletized. The chapter covers the energy consumption for each stage of preparation of digestate for thermal gasification process. The gasification tests were conducted in fixed bed downdraft reactor. The chapter also features the physicochemical properties of digestate used in gasification process. The result of research on the gasification of drier digestate was gaseous fuel that does not differ from the quality of fuels obtained from the thermal treatment of other types of biomass

Przedsiębiorstwa międzynarodowe z sektora farmaceutycznego a nieuczciwa konkurencja

Multinational enterprises increasingly exploit their institutional advantages by consciously influencing institutions in the expansion market in such a way as to protect corporate interests. To a large extent, this can apply to multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in highly regulated markets, both on the demand and the supply side. The aim of the study was to analyze the actions taken by global pharmaceutical corporations present on the Polish market to influence the institutions of national regulators in order to prevent unfair and unethical competition. The study was of a qualitative nature and covered three very large pharmaceutical entities in Poland. The surveyed companies actively tried to co-create the institutional environment of the target country, in this case the Polish market. At the same time, to a much lesser extent, they took actions to limit unfair competition by means of their institutional advantages, relying primarily on the use of traditional competitive advantages concept.Przedsiębiorstwa międzynarodowe w coraz większym stopniu wykorzystują swoje przewagi instytucjonalne, poprzez świadome oddziaływanie na instytucje na rynku docelowym w taki sposób, aby chroniły interesy korporacji. W dużym stopniu może to dotyczyć międzynarodowych przedsiębiorstw sektora farmaceutycznego, działających na rynkach silnie regulowanych, zarówno po stronie popytowej jak i podażowej. Celem badania była analiza działań podejmowanych przez globalne koncerny farmaceutyczne obecne na polskim rynku, w zakresie wpływania na instytucje regulatorów narodowych w celu zapobiegania nieuczciwej i nieetycznej konkurencji. Badanie miało charakter jakościowy i objęło trzy bardzo duże podmioty farmaceutyczne w Polsce. Badane firmy aktywnie próbowały współkształtować otoczenie instytucjonalne kraju docelowego, w tym przypadku rynku polskiego. Jednocześnie, w dużo mniejszym stopniu podejmowały działania na rzecz ograniczania nieuczciwej konkurencji za pomocą swoich przewag instytucjonalnych, opierając się przede wszystkim na wykorzystaniu tradycyjnych przewag konkurencyjnych

Vowel recognition in continuous speech with application of MLP neural network

The aim of the present work was to find the answer to the question: To what extent can the multilayer perceptron be applicable in the automatic vowel recognition process in any given fragments of a particular speaker?Initial research was carried out with the use of recordings of 3 adult people's speech. Vowel recognition was performed with the application of multilayer perceptron. On the input of the network, N-element vectors were fed, which consisted of sound levels values obtained every 0.02s as a result of spectral analysis. Each created network was taught to recognise 6 vowels - a, e, o, u, i, y as well as one pattern including all other fragments of an utterance - consonants and pauses.The networks in which a result of over 90 % correct classifications for all the time moments was obtained were used to carry out a test on a completely different set of data. The best result in that part of research was 92% vowel recognition. At the same time, only 50% time moments, which made up these vowels, were correctly recognised. The other half was recognised as other vowels or a different fragment of the utterance. There also occurred 15% incorrect recognition of time moments making up consonants or pauses

Interdisciplinary team – institutional counteracting domestic violence

Nieskuteczność dotychczasowych rozwiązań w zakresie przeciw-działania przemocy w rodzinie wymagała podjęcia przez ustawodawcę działań legislacyjnych dających prawne podstawy do ukonstytuowania ciała zajmujące-go się wyłącznie przedmiotowym zjawiskiem. Jak obrazują statystyki policyjne, zjawisko przemocy w rodzinie zakorzeniło się bardzo głęboko, co sprawiło, że dotychczasowy system sankcjonowania oraz prewencja ogólna okazały się niewy-starczające. Zespół interdyscyplinarny przyjął rolę fundamentu, na którym wyspecjalizowane instytucje konstruują szeroko zakrojony plan pomocy rodzinie. Tym samym konieczne stało się przybliżenie problematyki jego działania.The inefficiency of previous solutions in terms of counteracting domestic violence demanded that legislator take action to give legal basis to constitute a body dealing only with the case. As it is shown by police statistics, domestic violence became deeply enrotted, which made current penal system and general prevention insufficient. Interdisciplinary team became a base on which other institutions create broad family service plans. And thus it became necessary to explain how it works

Instytut Łączności wobec wyzwań związanych z wdrażaniem sieci 5G w Polsce, Telekomunikacja i Techniki Informacyjne, 2018, nr 1-2

W artykule zaprezentowano korzyści gospodarcze płynące z wdrożenia nowej generacji sieci mobilnych, tzw. sieci 5G, oraz omówiono wynikające z nich efekty społeczne, w tym spodziewany wpływ na rozwój społeczeństwa informacyjnego. Następnie przedstawiono wyzwania związane z wdrażaniem 5G w Polsce. W głównej mierze wynikają one z obecności barier o charakterze technicznym, ekonomicznym i prawnym, które mogą spowolnić proces wdrażania 5G w Polsce. W artykule przedstawiono również inicjatywy mające na celu identyfikację barier wdrażania sieci 5G oraz potencjalne sposoby ich likwidacji. W tym kontekście przedstawiono działania Instytutu Łączności na rzecz wdrażania 5G w Polsce, w tym poprzez organizację prac w kierowanym przez Ministra Cyfryzacji Porozumieniu na rzecz Strategii „5G dla Polski” oraz uczestnictwo w projekcie 5G@PL realizowanym w ramach strategicznego programu badań naukowych i prac rozwojowych „Społeczny i gospodarczy rozwój Polski w warunkach globalizujących się rynków – Gospostrateg”

Quantitative anatomy of the growing supraspinatus muscle in the human fetus

The supraspinatus muscle, one of the four rotator cuff muscles, initiates abduction of the arm, simultaneously stretching the articular capsule at the glenohumeral joint, and also contributes to exorotation of the arm. In the present study we aimed to evaluate the age-specific normative values for morphometric parameters of the supraspinatus muscle in human fetuses at varying ages and to elaborate their growth models. Using anatomical dissection, digital  image analysis (NIS Elements AR 3.0) and statistics (Student’s t-test, regression analysis), the length, width, circumference and projection surface area of the supraspinatus muscle were measured in 34 human fetuses of both sexes (16♂, 18♀) aged 18–30 weeks of gestation. Neither sex nor laterality differences were found in numerical data of the supraspinatus muscle. In the supraspinatus muscle its length and projection surface area increased logarithmically, while its width and circumference grew proportionately to gestational age. The following growth models of the supraspinatus muscle were established: y = –71.382 + 30.972 × ln(Age) ± 0.565 for length, y = –2.988 + 0.386 × Age ± 0.168 for greatest width (perpendicular to superior angle of scapula), y = –1.899 + 0.240 × Age ± 0.078 for width perpendicular to the scapular notch, y = –19.7016 + 3.381 × Age ± 2.036 for circumference, and y = –721.769 + 266.141 × ln(Age) ± 6.170 for projection surface area. The supraspinatus muscle reveals neither sex nor laterality differences in its size. The supraspinatus muscle grows logarithmically with reference to its length and projection surface area, and proportionately with respect to its width and circumference

Erotetic Reasoning Corpus. A data set for research on natural question processing

The aim of this paper is to present the Erotetic Reasoning Corpus (ERC) which constitutes a data set for research on natural question processing. We describe the theoretical background, linguistic data and tags used for the annotation process. We also discuss potential areas of ERC exploitation

Surgical treatment of rectal cancer in Poland — a report from a prospective, multi-centre observational study PSSO_01 conducted under the auspices of the Polish Society of Surgical Oncology

Introduction. Since 2016, as part of the PSSO_01 multi-centre research project conducted under the auspices of the Polish Society of Surgical Oncology, clinical data on rectal cancer treatment have been collected. The objective of the study was to illustrate the state of early results of surgical treatment. Material and methods. The research project is multi-centre in nature. Data shall be collected electronically. The study protocol does not impose or suggest any course of procedure. It only systematizes the way data are collected for scientific purposes. The analysis of early results of surgical treatment was compared with the results of population studies from other European countries (Netherlands, Belgium). Results. By the end of June 2018, 736 patients were registered in the study. In 399 (54.2%) an anterior resection was performed. More than half of patients undergoing subsequent surgical treatment (54.2%) receive neoadjuvant treatment, with the percentage of patients undergoing radiotherapy or radiochemical treatment for lower rectal cancer being about 70%. Most patients (96%) are operated in elective procedure. The percentage of laparoscopic surgeries is low (8.6%). Postoperative complications are observed in 21.1% of patients. Severe complications (grades III–V according to Clavien-Dindo classification) occur in 7.6% of patients undergoing surgery. Postoperative mortality is 1.1%. Discussion. Although the project does not have the character of a registry and does not allow for drawing wider conclusions concerning the compliance with the standards of qualification for neoadjuvant treatment, the important information is that more than half of rectal cancer patients receive preoperative treatment, and the percentage of severe postoperative complications does not exceed 10%. Conclusions. The results of the PSSO_01 project are representative and reflect the actual situation concerning surgical treatment of rectal cancer patients in Poland