The person of Athanasius of Brest in the light of his "Diary" : an attempt at interpretation

The short study is devoted to the person of Athanasius of Brest, one of the most prominent Orthodox priests and religious activists of the 17th century, seen in the light of his only work, Diary (Дыярыуш, 1646). The paper attempts to analyse Athanasius’ dis-uniate mission as a consequence of his own prophetic creation, belief in supernatural visions and radical passion for the Orthodox traditionalism, described in his book. It appears that the key place in the work of Athanasius is occupied by the Icon of Virgin Mary of Kupiatycze, the sacred image regarded by the monk not only as a source of grace for his Apostolic ministry, but also as a sign of the real identity of the Orthodox Church. Athanasius’ social activity turns out to be important for understanding the controversies surrounding the Union of Brest

"Thou hath ebellished the shape of man over all creation" : on the Good of creation and the evil of sin based on psalmic cantos in "Niepróżnujące próżnowanie" by Wespazjan Kochowski

The study is devoted to the issues of eulogy of the world and contempt of the temporal and sinful condition of man based on "psalmic cantos" in "Niepróżnujące próżnowanie" ["Not Idling Idleness"] by Wespazjan Kochowski. As I try to prove, the religious attitude of the Sarmatian poet indicates continuity of patristic tradition, especially the so-called "golden era" of the Fathers of the Church (turn of the fourth and fifth centuries). Kochowski’s theological vision contained in the song Everything from Heaven and in the poetic series To the Penitent is based on the dichotomy between the original perfection of creation and the need for God’s healing grace

Scenario analyses for a sustainable transport system development

The paper presents selected aspects of developing sustainable transport system and provides the essential elements of scenario analysis procedure. The scenario analyse permits a background for setting approaches for the development of transport system. A major step towards reliable scenario analyses is establishing a system of criteria and indicators for evaluating the quality of analyse results. The appropriate system of criteria was proposed as a support for decision maker examining variants of transport system development. Scenario analyses require a tool for traffic distribution into transport network under different scenarios of its development. The large scale and detailed transport systems can be investigated with EMITRANSYS model – a new tool for multivariate distribution of traffic flow with regard to ecological, economic and technological criteria

Computed tomography urography with iterative reconstruction algorithm in congenital urinary tract abnormalities in children : association of radiation dose with image quality

Purpose: To assess the extent to which a radiation dose can be lowered without compromising image quality and diagnostic confidence in congenital urinary tract abnormalities in children by using a CT scanner with an iterative reconstruction algorithm. Material and methods: 120 CT urography image series were analysed retrospectively. Image series were divided into four study groups depending on effective radiation dose (group 1: 0.8-2 mSv; group 2: 2-4 mSv; group 3: 4-6 mSv; group 4: 6-11 mSv). Objective and subjective image quality were investigated. In objective analysis, measurements of attenuation and standard deviation (SD) in five regions of interest (ROIs) were performed in 109 excretory image series, and image noise was evaluated. In subjective analysis, two independent radiologists evaluated 138 kidney units for subjective image quality and diagnostic confidence. Results: There were no significant differences in image noise in objective evaluation between the following study groups: 2 vs. 3 and 3 vs. 4 in all ROIs (with the only exception in spleen SD measurement between study groups 2 vs. 3), while there was significantly more image noise in group 2 in comparison to group 4. For all other ROIs in all study groups, there was more image noise on lower dose images. There were no significant differences in pairwise comparisons between study groups in subjective image quality. Diagnostic confidence was not significantly different between all study groups. Conclusions: Low-dose CT urography can be a valuable method in congenital urinary tract abnormalities in children. Despite poorer image quality, diagnostic confidence is not significantly compromised in examinations performed with lower radiation doses