Distance from the city centre as a determinant of hotel room rates

In the recent studies, the impact of hotels’ distance from city centre on room rates has been widely discussed. The aim of this paper was to depict findings from the 2009 and 2013 research conducted by the authors in the four Polish cities: Cracow, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw. Hotel industry in mentioned metropolises is most developed in Poland: most of hotels are located in these cities, and the number of the hotel rooms offered in these metropolises is most significant. The authors discuss the influence of hotels’ distance from city centre on room rates. The authors consider hotel rooms offered in Cracow, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw, sold in the summer and autumn 2009 and 2013, on particular days: working days and weekends. The authors’ findings are compared with results of studies carried out by other researchers for few European and Asian cities. Because of multinational aspect of cities’ competitiveness, mentioned comparison seems to be crucial. Therefore, understanding the spatial specific of the hotel room rates offered in Cracow, Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw might be useful for building global competitiveness of mentioned cities

Municipal budget as an instrument of tourism development policy in rural municipalities in the region of Łódź

Głównym celem badań było wskazanie, czy budżet gminy może być wykorzystany jako narzędzie realizacji planów strategicznych dotyczących rozwoju turystyki w gminie. Badania zrealizowano w wybranych gminach wiejskich województwa łódzkiego. Realizacja celu głównego możliwa była dzięki pogłębionej analizie uchwał budżetowych i sprawozdań z wykonania budżetów. Rezultatem owej analizy była pełna identyfikacja środków na rozwój turystyki w jednostkach samorządu terytorialnego. Do osiągnięcia celu głównego konieczna była też analiza planów strategicznych określających kierunki rozwoju turystyki. Finalnie, dokonano oceny zgodności pomiędzy zadaniami zaplanowanymi w dokumentacji strategicznej i w budżetach gmin. Pozwoliło to na wskazanie, w jakim stopniu budżety wykorzystywane są do realizacji planów strategicznych gmin. Pośrednio oceniono jakość polityki turystycznej w gminach.The main goal of the paper is to verify, if the municipal budget can be implemented as an instrument of tourism development local policy. Presented case study research were conducted in five selected rural municipalities. Authors analysed budget plans and reports on budget execution. Furthermore, municipal expenditures on tourism development were clearly identified. The analysis of tourism development local plans and strategies was necessary. Finally, authors assessed compatibility of budget tasks with strategic plans at a local level. Therefore, local tourism policy could be partially evaluated

Regionalna sieć transportowa determinantą lokalizacji centrów logistycznych w województwie łódzkim

The main focus of the paper is to indicate the impact and significance of the location of transport hubs and road’s network for the location of logistics centres. The analysis was based on existing and constructed roads’ (regional, national and international level) data. Therefore, it was possible to determine the influence of the transport hubs, international and local transport policy on previous location decisions. Authors identified optimal locations of logistic centres in the Łódź region. Furthermore, authors assessed the location decisions and their determinants. Finally, universal recommendations for the development of the regional transport network have been formulated. This work was partially founded by the Municipality of Łódź. The study focused on the characteristics and trends of development of intermodal logistics centres in the context of the operation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) in the Łódź region, particularly in the Łódź Metropolitan Area

Pozytonowa tomografia emisyjna (PET) w nowotworach złośliwych jajnika

Accessibility of positron emission tomography integrated with computed tomography (PET/CT) has improved significantly in recent years. PET/CT with the use of 18F-deoxyglucose (FDG) is widely used in patients with ovarian malignancies at different stages of the management. FDG PET/CT shows high diagnostic accuracy in the differentiation of benign and malignant ovarian lesions with the exception of borderline tumors that may cause false negative results. Moreover, FDG PET/CT is used in some centers for preoperative staging and determining the prognosis of ovarian cancer. However, further studies including larger groups of patients are needed to confirm the applicability of FDG PET/CT in case of the two abovementioned indications. Until now, the best documented indication for FDG PET/CT in patients with ovarian cancer has been the detection of recurrence, especially in subjects with elevated CA125 marker and negative results of other imaging techniques. This review focuses on the applicability of PET with the use of FDG in ovarian malignancies and points out to theW ostatnich latach znacznie wzrosła dostępność do pozytonowej tomografii emisyjnej sprzężonej z tomografią komputerową (PET/CT). PET/CT z użyciem 18F-deoksyglukozy (FDG) znajduje szerokie zastosowanie w nowotworach złośliwych jajnika na różnych etapach postępowania. FDG PET/CT wykazuje wysoki poziom dokładności diagnostycznej w różnicowaniu zmian łagodnych i złośliwych jajnika, przy czym w przypadku guzów o złośliwości granicznej obserwuje się wysoki odsetek wyników fałszywie ujemnych. Ponadto FDG PET/CT jest stosowana w niektórych ośrodkach w przedoperacyjnym stopniowaniu zaawansowania klinicznego raka jajnika oraz w określaniu rokowania u chorych na ten nowotwór, jednak dalsze badania na większych grupach pacjentek są konieczne do potwierdzenia użyteczności FDG PET/CT w tych dwóch wskazaniach. Dotychczas najlepiej udokumentowanym wskazaniem do badania FDG PET/CT jest ocena wznowy raka jajnika po leczeniu operacyjnym i chemioterapii, zwłaszcza w przypadku podwyższonych wartości CA 125 i negatywnego wyniku innych badań obrazowych. W niniejszym artykule dokonano przeglądu zastosowań PET z użyciem FDG w nowotworach złośliwych jajnika oraz zwrócono uwagę na ograniczenia tej metody

Hotel establishments in Łódź in the 19th century and in the early 20th century (1824–1918)

Understanding how hotel industry operated in Łódź in 19th century and in the early 20th century, requires simultaneous analysis of different factors which directly and indirectly influenced the development and operations of hotel establishments. The task is difficult because of a time distance of the issue and a large variety of factors. Moreover, due to its specifics, the task bears a large margin of error. In order to analyze the issue, a specially modified method used by modern companies to examine causes and results of undergone activities was used. It is called the fishbone diagram and was created by Kaoru Ishikawa. The analysis is displayed as a multilevel top-down process, where causes fixed on a main axis are treated as the results of other causes. The chart displays hierarchical division of causes within the chosen categories (Kaczmarek and Sikorski 1999). The modification of the method, used in this paper, aims at collecting and generalizing the characteristics of hotel industry, their division into positive and negative (in relation to their influence on the development of operations) and finally a general evaluation of this industry sector in Łódź within the selected timeframe. The following division into cause categories was chosen: Man, Methods, Machines, Management, Environment, Product. Thanks to the application of the fishbone diagram analysis (Fig. 4) we are able to determine that hotel establishments in the 19th and in the beginning of the 20th century were institutions characterized by a great involvement of managerial staff. The main task of hotel establishment owners was to manage the facility so that the appropriate number of guests was served and the right quality of services was provided. The influence of activities affecting the proper standard of services was the key issue at that time. It was caused by the fact that only the wealthiest people could afford a room at the hotel. The most frequent hotel guests at the time were: industrialists, merchants and freelancers. There was a large focus on hotel staff. The employees had to be versatile and devoted to their work. Only people with highest skills were hired. Back in those days, it was already known that such a specific enterprise as a hotel or inn is all about the people who work there. It is worth to underline, that luxurious hotels such as Grand or Savoy required their staff to speak foreign languages. It was due to the fact that Łódź was inhabited by many nationalities. It is worth to focus on issues related to marketing and shaping of the brand of a hotel establishment. It had to earn renown in order to become the force to be reckoned with on the Łódź market of hospitality services. It was earned through the costly advertisements in the press, introduction of new technologies and creating an image of an establishment as an important meeting place, where the local elites socialize. Another factor, which shaped the hotel industry in the 1824–1918 period, was the strong influence of the environment, which due to its numerous, turbulent changes caused the number of hotels to increase rapidly but also led to the demise of many establishments. For example, the period of Łódź’s prosperity at the turn of the 19th and 20th century led to the increase in the amount of hotel establishments, whereas World War I resulted in putting some of the hotels into military use and subsequently, decrease in quality and quantity of the services provided. It is worth to mention the influence of hotels and other hotel establishments on the society of the 19th and 20th century Łódź. It is clear that at that time, apart from providing lodging services, the hotels were also centers of social life. They seated best cafes and restaurants, which served the wealthiest clients. The hotels were ornaments of the streets of Łódź and a testimony to city’s development. To conclude, the hotel industry in Łódź during the 1824–1918 period developed very rapidly. When analyzing the tendencies in the creation of new esta-blishments, it is clear that there was a large demand for this kind of services. If it was not for the outbreak of two world wars, Łódź would nowadays be able to take pride in numerous hotel establishments with over a hundred year’s tradition. Nowadays, it is worth to contemplate the development of Łódź’s hotel network based on prewar, traditional establishments. Grand Hotel can be an example of an establishment, which has offered top-quality hospitality services since 1888 and up to this day, remains one of the most popular landmarks of Łódź

Wykorzystanie technik uczenia maszynowego i teledetekcji do wspomagania interpretacji przestrzeni geograficznej

Niniejsza praca stanowi próbę opracowania metodyki wspierania procesu badawczego przestrzeni geograficznej, stosowanego w naukach o Ziemi i środowisku, opartego na analizie zobrazowań lotniczych i satelitarnych. Metodyka ta oparta jest o zastosowanie modeli uczenia maszynowego (ang. machine learning, ML), zbudowanych w oparciu o głębokie splotowe sieci neuronowe (ang. deep convolutional neural networks, DCNN). W trakcie powiązanych ze sobą przedmiotowo, przestrzennie i czasowo projektów badawczych Autor wraz z towarzyszącymi mu zespołami badaczy podjął się opracowania zaawansowanych rozwiązań geoinformatycznych. Umożliwiają one opracowanie problemów badawczych dotyczących analizy pokrycia terenu. Autor skupił się przede wszystkim na potwierdzeniu przydatności transformacji, jaka zachodzi w splotowej głębokiej sieci neuronowej podczas procesu uczenia reprezentacji (ang. representation learning) obrazu cyfrowego, w interpretacji przestrzeni geograficznej. W ramach rozprawy powstały cztery wysokiej jakości modele głębokiego uczenia wraz z obsługującymi je programami komputerowymi. Opracowane rozwiązania informatyczne pozwalają na przeprowadzenie nadzorowanej i nienadzorowanej klasyfikacji oraz segmentacji pokrycia terenu przy użyciu zobrazowań satelitarnych i lotniczych. Zwieńczeniem badań jest opracowanie autorskiej metody nienadzorowanej segmentacji przestrzeni geograficznej z wykorzystaniem współzawodniczących generatywnych sieci neuronowych (ang. generative adversarial networks, GAN)

Tourism development financing in the region of Lodz (Poland) and in Oppland county (Norway)

In this paper, the authors determined the specific features of the construction of budgets in Poland and Norway and showed areas of tourism occurrence in the budget classifications of both countries. Then, thoroughly analysed the expenditures made by municipalities and counties of the Lodz region, booked in the financial accounts which content was strongly connected with tourism. Authors had focused on direct relationship, as well as indirect effects on the development of tourism through promotion, development of culture and sport. The obtained results were compared with corresponding values observed in the Norwegian county of Oppland and its municipalities