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Search results for: background contamination
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The influence of Be addition on the structure and thermal properties of alkali-silicate glasses
PublicationBe-Na-(Li)-Si oxide glasses containing up to 15 mol% of BeO were prepared. Their structure was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction and Raman as well as infrared spectroscopic techniques, while their chemical compositions were examined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry. All materials were found to be amorphous and contain Al contaminations from minor dissolution of the alumina crucibles. The results...
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Mutagenic and Carcinogenic Compounds in Food
PublicationFood is a major environmental human cancer risk factor. One of the reasons for this is that food products contain substances that exhibit mutagenic and carcinogenic potential which may induce the transformation of normal somatic cells into cancerous cells. These compounds occur in food as a result of microbial contaminations (mycotoxins produced by molds), are generated from natural food components upon processing (e.g. heterocyclic...
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English, French, and Polish Aliases of Criminals: Diversity of Inspirations in their Creation and Typical Nicknaming Schemes
PublicationThe present paper examines the topic of aliases of criminals, which seems to be understudied in linguistic research. Therefore, this article’s primary goal is to describe how criminals’ aliases are created and what are the differences and similarities in that process in English, French, and Polish. Firstly, the theoretical background concerning the topic of pseudonyms is presented. Then, the corpus gathered for this paper (available...
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Computer-assisted assessment of learning outcomes in the laboratory of metrology
PublicationIn the paper, didactic experience with broad and rapid continuous assessment of students’ knowledge, skills and competencies in the Laboratory of Metrology, which is an example of utilisation of assessment for learning, is presented. A learning management system was designed for manage, tracking, reporting of learning program and assessing learning outcomes. It has ability to provide with immediate feedback, which is used by the...
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Can Evaluation Patterns Enable End Users to Evaluate the Quality of an e-learning System? An Exploratory Study.
PublicationThis paper presents the results of an exploratory study whose main aim is to verify if the Pattern-Based (PB) inspection technique enables end users to perform reliable evaluation of e-learning systems in real work-related settings. The study involved 13 Polish and Italian participants, who did not have an HCI background, but used e-learning platforms for didactic and/or administrative purposes. The study revealed that the participants...
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Visual Object Tracking System Employing Fixed and PTZ Cameras
PublicationThe paper presents a video monitoring system utilizing fixed and PTZ cameras for tracking of moving objects. First type of camera provides image for background modelling, being employed for foreground objects localization. Estimated objects locations are then utilised for steering of PTZ cameras when observing targeted objects with high close-ups. Objects are classified into several classes, then basic event detection is being...
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Perspectives of Transport Systems Development in the Light of Radio Communication Systems Evolution Towards 5G
PublicationIn the paper conditions of development and implementation of transport systems with reference to the development of radio communication networks towards 5G are presented. First, general properties of next generation systems are mentioned and their architecture. Moreover, planned characteristics of B4G and 5G systems are depicted which can significantly contribute to the promotion and development of transport systems. In particular...
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Neural networks and deep learning
PublicationIn this chapter we will provide the general and fundamental background related to Neural Networks and Deep Learning techniques. Specifically, we divide the fundamentals of deep learning in three parts, the first one introduces Deep Feed Forward Networks and the main training algorithms in the context of optimization. The second part covers Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and discusses their main advantages and shortcomings...
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Pervaporation Zeolite-Based Composite Membranes for Solvent Separations
PublicationThanks to their well-defined molecular sieving and stability, zeolites have been proposed in selective membrane separations, such as gas separation and pervaporation. For instance, the incorporation of zeolites into polymer phases to generate composite (or mixed matrix) membranes revealed important advances in pervaporation. Therefore, the goal of this review is to compile and elucidate the latest advances (over the last 2-3 years)...
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Risk Diagnosis and Management with BBN for Civil Engineering Projects during Construction and Operation
PublicationThe authors demonstrate how expert knowledge about the construction and operation phases combined with monitoring data can be utilized for the diagnosis and management of risks typical to large civil engineering projects. The methodology chosen for estimating the probabilities of risk elements is known as Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN). Using a BBN model one can keep on updating the risk event probabilities as the new evidence...
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WPŁYW KAUSTYKI NA AKUSTYKĘ GROT SZEPTÓW W PARKU OLIWSKIM W GDAŃSKU
PublicationW pracy omówiono kaustykę jako uporządkowaną formę rozmycia ogniska, tworzonego przez zwierciadło wklęsłe. Zaprezentowano przykład kaustyki powstającej przy odbiciu światła od zwierciadła wklęsłego. Na tym tle wskazano na możliwość powstawania kaustyk w pomieszczeniach. Szczególną uwagę zwrócono na duże pomieszczenia o charakterze historycznym, ze względu na częstą obecność w nich zwierciadeł akustycznych w postaci sklepień i...
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Metal tolerance and Cd phytoremoval ability in Pisum sativum grown in spiked nutrient solution
PublicationIn the presented study, the effects of cadmium (Cd) stress and silicon (Si) supplementation on the pea plant (Pisum sativum L.) were investigated. The tendency to accumulate cadmium in the relevant morphological parts of the plant (roots and shoots respectively)—bioaccumulation, the transfer of this element in the plant (translocation) and the physiological parameters of the plant through...
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Speciation of heavy metals in bottom sediments of a drinking water reservoir for Gdańsk, Poland – changes over the 14 years
PublicationThere was conducted a comparative study of the concentrations of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, andCd) in the surface layer of sediments collected in two investigation periods: 1999–2000 and 2013.The results demonstrated that the degree of metals pollution decreased over time. The contaminationfactors (Cf) calculated for Zn, Cu, Pb, and Cd were respectively 3.63, 3.86, 3.23, and 3.25 in thefirst period of...
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Photocatalytical properties of maze-like MoO3 microstructures prepared by anodization of Mo plate
PublicationIn this work, we present a simple method of the formation of MoO3 microstructures via an electrochemical anodization of Mo plate carried out under varied conditions. The morphology, composition and structure of samples were investigated by SEM, EDX, XRD and Raman spectroscopy. The band gap energy was estimated using the Kubelka–Munk function and was found to be 2.87 eV. Finally, the photocatalytic activities of MoO3 samples were...
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Structural Health Monitoring of Overhead Power Transmission Lines
PublicationStructural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a novel and continuously developing branch of science and technology that draws attention of scientists all over the world. It creates opportunities to detect, localize and identify structural damage of various types such as: line breakage, permissible sag, bolt loosening, fatigue cracking or insulator contamination. On the other hand the methods used to estimate the remaining operational...
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Toxicity and chemical analyses of airport runoff waters in Poland
PublicationThe aim of this study was to assess the ecotoxicological effects of various compounds in complex airport effluents using a chemical and ecotoxicological integrated strategy. The present work deals with the determination of sum of PCBs, PAHs, pesticides, cations, anions, phenols, anionic, cationic, non-ionic detergents, formaldehyde and metals – as well as TOC and conductivity – in runoff water samples collected from 2009 to 2011...
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Evaluation of candidate reference material obtained from selenium - enriched sprouts for the purpose of selenium speciation analysis
PublicationSelenium is an essential element in animals and humans. Diet supplementation with selenium-rich vegetables has better chemoprotective effect than Se (IV) and SeMet. The production of selenium-enriched vegetables requires a preliminary stage in soil preparation, which may subsequently pose a risk of soil contamination. It seems that the sprouting of seeds under controlled conditions would be a good solution for delivering SeMetSeCys...
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Deep eutectic solvents – Ideal solution for clean air or hidden danger?
PublicationThe industrial sector is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases, due to its excessive energy consumption to meet the rapidly growing demand for energy-intensive products. The use of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) has been studied extensively in order to cope with these harmful gases, but their usage can be an issue in respect to ecological reasons. Do deep eutectic solvents harm the atmosphere? Yes, these solvents...
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Electrochemical determination of nitroaromatic explosives at boron-doped diamond/graphene nanowall electrodes: 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and 2,4,6-trinitroanisole in liquid effluents
PublicationThe study is devoted to the electrochemical detection of trace explosives on boron-doped diamond/graphene nanowall electrodes (B:DGNW). The electrodes were fabricated in a one-step growth process using chemical vapour deposition without any additional modifications. The electrochemical investigations were focused on the determination of the important nitroaromatic explosive compounds, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 2,4,6-trinitroanisole...
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On minimum cost edge searching
PublicationWe consider the problem of finding edge search strategies of minimum cost. The cost of a search strategy is the sum of searchers used in the clearing steps of the search. One of the natural questions is whether it is possible to find a search strategy that minimizes both the cost and the number of searchers used to clear a given graph G. We call such a strategy ideal. We prove, by an example, that ideal search strategies do not...
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Searching by heterogeneous agents
PublicationIn this work we introduce and study a pursuit-evasion game in which the search is performed by heterogeneous entities. We incorporate heterogeneity into the classical edge search problem by considering edge-labeled graphs: once a search strategy initially assigns labels to the searchers, each searcher can be only present on an edge of its own label. We prove that this problem is not monotone even for trees and we give instances...
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Metody usuwania zakłóceń podczas pomiarów polowych widm Ramana
PublicationW pracy zostały scharakteryzowane źródła zakłóceń występujące podczas pomiarów widm Ramana w warunkach polowych. Zaprezentowano wpływ czasu integracji na jakość rejestrowanych widm w przypadkach, gdy szumy własne spektrometru mają składową typu 1/f, dominującą w zakresie małych częstotliwości. Przedstawiono także wyniki uzyskane podczas pomiarów z detekcją synchroniczną, stosowaną w przenośnych spektrometrach Ramana, w pomiarach...
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Wytwarzanie energii elektrycznej - diagnoza i terapia
PublicationW artykule przeanalizowano stan i dalszy rozwój krajowego sektora wytwarzania energii elektrycznej w świetle najnowszych raportów Międzynarodowej Agencji Energetycznej, wskazujących potencjalne trendy i perspektywy w światowej energetyce. Na tle przewidywanego wzrostu zapotrzebowania na energię elektryczną wskazano na możliwość istotnego ograniczenia emisji CO2 drogą zastąpienia przestarzałych, nieefektywnych...
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Dew Formation and Chemistry Near a Motorway in Poland
PublicationIn this study, the influence of traffic intensity on dewformation efficiency and chemistry is presented. The measurementswere conducted near the A4 motorway in SW Poland in almost flatland relief with intense agricultural activity. The dew/hoarfrost wascollected by means of insulated plain passive radiative condensersat three sites: AN and AS located in the close vicinity of themotorway (30 m) on the opposite sides of the road,...
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Application of Artificial Intelligence by Poland’s Public Administration
PublicationThis chapter presents an overview and analysis of artificial intelligence-driven solutions created and implemented by or with the support of Poland’s central public administration (PA). After discussing governance of AI-related issues, we analyze a set of examples of AI innovation to map the actors and their relations within the ecosystem, describe the field where innovation in AI for PA occurs, and highlight the potentialities...
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Visual Traffic Noise Monitoring in Urban Areas
PublicationThe paper presents an advanced system for railway and road traffic noise monitoring in metropolitan areas. This system is a functional part of a more complex solution designed for environmental monitoring in cities utilizing analyses of sound, vision and air pollution, based on a ubiquitous computing approach. The system consists of many autonomous, universal measuring units and a multimedia server, which gathers, processes and...
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Material for Automatic Phonetic Transcription of Speech Recorded in Various Conditions
PublicationAutomatic speech recognition (ASR) is under constant development, especially in cases when speech is casually produced or it is acquired in various environment conditions, or in the presence of background noise. Phonetic transcription is an important step in the process of full speech recognition and is discussed in the presented work as the main focus in this process. ASR is widely implemented in mobile devices technology, but...
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Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) at Boron-doped Diamond (BDD) Sensor by Means of Amperometric Technique
PublicationA boron-doped diamond (BDD) sensor was proposed for effective detection of chemical oxygen demand (COD) by means of amperometric technique. Thin boron doped diamond active sensor layer was deposited on Si wafer and glassy carbon substrate by Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (MW PE CVD). The structure of BDD was confirmed by Raman spectra analysis. Broad Raman bands centered at 482 cm-1 and 1219 cm-1 are typical...
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Detection of vehicles stopping in restricted zones in video from surveillance cameras
PublicationAn algorithm for detection of vehicles that stop in restricted areas, e.g. excluded by traffic rules, is proposed. Classic approaches based on object tracking are inefficient in high traffic scenes because of tracking errors caused by frequent object merging and splitting. The proposed algorithm uses the background subtraction results for detection of moving objects, then pixels belonging to moving objects are tested for stability....
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New generation of analytical tests based on the assessment of enzymatic and nuclear receptor activity changes induced by environmental pollutants
PublicationAnalytical methods show great potential in biological tests. The analysis of biological response that results from environmental pollutant exposure allows: (i) prediction of the risk of toxic effects and (ii) provision of the background for the development of markers of the toxicants presence. Bioanalytical tests based on changes in enzymatic activity and nuclear receptor action provide extremely high specificity and sensitivity....
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Protection in elastic optical networks
PublicationIn this article, we analyze gains resulting from the use of EON architectures with special focus on transportation of cloud-ready and content-oriented traffic in the context of network resilience. EONs are a promising approach for future optical transport networks and, apart from improving the network spectral efficiency, bring such new capabilities as squeezed protection, which reduces resource requirements in failure scenarios....
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Does offshoring affect industry employment? Evidence from a wide European panel countries
Publicationis paper contributes to the literature on the possible impact of international outsourcing on domestic labour markets. We focus on off shoring-employment relationship. Th e analysis is performed for a wide European panel, composed of 27 EU countries and 13 manufacturing sectors, observed in the period 1995-2009. Th anks to the use of input-output tables from the WIOD project, we measure the intensity of off shoring in the sectors,...
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Determination of chemical oxygen demand (cod) at boron-doped diamond (bdd) sensor by means of amperometric technique
PublicationA boron-doped diamond (BDD) sensor was proposed for effective detection of chemical oxygen demand (COD) by means of amperometric technique. Thin boron doped diamond active sensor layer was deposited on Si wafer and glassy carbon substrate by Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (MW PE CVD). The structure of BDD was confirmed by Raman spectra analysis. Broad Raman bands centered at 482 cm-1 and 1219 cm-1 are typical...
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Analysis of arsenic species in environmental samples
PublicationMany analytical methods for determining arsenic in various forms in environmental samples have been developed in recent years. The main objective of this review article is the presentation and comparison of the three principal techniques for the determination arsenic compounds, namely: hydride generation (HG), voltammetry and chromatography (liquid chromatography including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gas...
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Camera Orientation-Independent Parking Events Detection
PublicationThe paper describes the method for detecting precise position and time of vehicles parking in a parking lot. This task is trivial in case of favorable camera orientation but gets much more complex when an angle between the camera viewing axis and the ground is small. The method utilizes background subtraction and object tracking algorithms for detecting moving objects in a video stream. Objects are classified into vehicles and...
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Knowledge Risks in the Sharing Economy
PublicationThis chapter presents a theoretical analysis of potential risks connected with knowledge that organizations operating in the sharing economy might potentially face. Nowadays, it can be stated that an increasing amount of individuals and organizations participate in sharing and exchanging data, information, and knowledge, as well as physical goods and services (Botsman & Rogers, 2011). The development of the sharing economy has...
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Fuzzy Sets in the GIS Environment in the Location of Objects on the Surface of Water Bodies
PublicationThe issue presented here focuses on concerns about the localization of the object on water surface. The article shows how to facilitate localization process by applying mathematical solutions characterized by simplicity, rapid action and delivering credible results. The paper shows the results of background experiments, which enabled to collect technical parameters needed for conducting simulation testing. The research has been...
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Detection of moving objects in images combined from video and thermal cameras
PublicationAn algorithm for detection of moving objects in video streams from the monitoring cameras is presented. A system composed of a standard video camera and a thermal camera, mounted in close proximity to each other, is used for object detection. First, a background subtraction is performed in both video streams separately, using the popular Gaussian Mixture Models method. For the next processing stage, the authors propose an algorithm...
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To Work or Not to Work… in a Multicultural Team?
PublicationThe main goal of the article is to present research findings regarding student’s attitude to working in a multicultural team (MCT). Research participants of different cultural background completed the research survey. Their willingness to work in MCT was measured together with factors that influence it. These include factors related to both team members and the task structure. Research findings indicate that the respondents preferred...
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THEORETICAL POTENTIAL OF HYDROGEN PRODUCTION FROM TEXTILES WASTES IN POMERANIAN REGION BY MEANS OF DARK FERMENTATION
PublicationModel has been developed for calculating theoretical mass of hydrogen produced from textile wastes by mean of dark fermentation. As vegetable fibres wastes were chosen two mostly used — cotton and linen (flax). As the synthethic carbohydrate rich fiber was chosen viscose. In the background there were introduced: problems of dark fermentation, characteristics of textile material structure. Additionally pathways of the process...
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On the current state of dovetail wall-corner joints in wooden Greek Catholic churches in Polish Subcarpathia with structural and sensitivity analyses
PublicationThis paper describes the current condition of some dovetail joints which form the wall corners of two Greek Catholic churches of wooden construction in Polish Subcarpathia. It also gives the historical background of the sacral architecture of that region. The two structures, which represent the same type of log corner joints are situated in Chotylub and Cewków. The buildings were examined e.g. for damage, wood moisture content,...
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Improving Clairvoyant: reduction algorithm resilient to imbalanced process arrival patterns
PublicationThe Clairvoyant algorithm proposed in “A novel MPI reduction algorithm resilient to imbalances in process arrival times” was analyzed, commented and improved. The comments concern handling certain edge cases in the original pseudocode and description, i.e., adding another state of a process, improved cache friendliness more precise complexity estimations and some other issues improving the robustness of the algorithm implementation....
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From structures to landscapes – towards re-conceptualization of the urban condition
PublicationThis paper presents an original approach towards the phenomena of re-naturalization of cities and indicates its possible consequences for the urban design and planning strategies. It focuses on the ongoing shift “from structures to landscapes” in understanding urban conditions. While modern architecture introduced geomet-ric compositions against the background of nature, early modern theories of architects and sociologists started...
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Influence of the Widespread Use of Corten Plate on the Acoustics of the European Solidarity Centre Building in Gdansk
PublicationThis paper describes the relationship between a strong architectural vision that is difficult to balance, and user expectations in terms of acoustics. The focus is on the use of corten steel as the dominant finishing material on façades and interiors to achieve an expressive, symbolic message through program-based design. The architectural premises justifying the adopted solutions are presented, especially the universality and...
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Difference in Perceived Speech Signal Quality Assessment Among Monolingual and Bilingual Teenage Students
PublicationThe user perceived quality is a mixture of factors, including the background of an individual. The process of auditory perception is discussed in a wide variety of fields, ranging from engineering to medicine. Many studies examine the difference between musicians and non-musicians. Since musical training develops musical hearing and other various auditory capabilities, similar enhancements should be observable in case of bilingual...
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Qualia: About Personal Emotions Representing Temporal Form of Impressions - Implementation Hypothesis and Application Example
PublicationThe aim of this article is to present the new extension of the xEmotion system as a computerized emotional system, part of an Intelligent System of Decision making (ISD) that combines the theories of affective psychology and philosophy of mind. At the same time, the authors try to find a practical impulse or evidence for a general reflection on the treatment of emotions as transitional states, which at some point may lead to the...
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Process arrival pattern aware algorithms for acceleration of scatter and gather operations
PublicationImbalanced process arrival patterns (PAPs) are ubiquitous in many parallel and distributed systems, especially in HPC ones. The collective operations, e.g. in MPI, are designed for equal process arrival times (PATs), and are not optimized for deviations in their appearance. We propose eight new PAP-aware algorithms for the scatter and gather operations. They are binomial or linear tree adaptations introducing additional process...
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Urban city lights. Light pollution as one of the effects of incorrectly designed external illumination. How can a successful lighting masterplan diminish its impact?
PublicationIn the modern world, artificial lighting brings many tangible benefits such as the ability to extend working hours and so increase production, recreational use of the city after dark, or the possibility to travel regardless of the time of day. However, this flexibility comes at a price and negatively impacts on the environment. One such negative phenomenon is Light Pollution ‐ a term used to describe excessive nighttime artificial...
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Ergonomic Aspects of Transport of Patient through the Operating Theatre
PublicationOne of the most crucial decisions to be made while designing and re-modernizing an operating theatre is selecting a method of transporting the patient through the hospital’s spatial arrangement. This decision, while irrelevant at first thought, implies numerous project and functional consequences. Designing an operating theatre within a hospital is related to numerous specialist requirements with an aim of minimizing the risk of...
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„Jeśli my zapomnimy, kto będzie pamiętał?". Dzieło sztuki jako manifestacja postpamięci
PublicationTekst jest próbą ujęcia relacji między postpamięcią (lub inaczej ujmując - „pamięcią zastępczą”) a sztuką, przy czym szczególny akcent położono na sztuki wizualne. Dokonano analizy dzieł artystów młodszego pokolenia, podejmujących temat pamięci o Szoa (między innymi Libera, Bałka, Żmijewski, do pewnego stopnia Betlejewski), traktując je jako formy manifestacji postpamięci. Wychodząc z założenia, że analiza zjawisk artystycznych...