In the early 1990s, the first questions began to arise about the legitimacy of large-scale projects, made on a grand scale for sports events, lasting only a short period. Doubts were not only raised about the organizers’ budgets and the debts often left behind, but also about the impact of these projects on the environment and society. During this time, the word ‘legacy‘ also appeared — in academic discourse, defining the remnants of these competitions. The two most recent editions of the Summer Olympics in Europe were analysed, which did not differ in scale, but due to being played over a longer interval, differed in the awareness of the organizers and the knowledge of how to plan projects more sustainably. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the design of Olympic venues in the context of the idea of an Olympic legacy should take into account elements of a strategy for the duration of these venues over time. It is only over a longer period of time that one can assess whether these original assumptions were correct, and the region gained valuable spaces for recreation, or whether they led to the creation of costly unfunctional sports facilities.

The results of experimental test of nine thickset reinforced concrete slabs in punching are presented in the this paper. The aim of the tests was verifi cation of the Eurocode EC 2 procedure, by which the ultimate shear stresses vRd,c depend on the slenderness of the slab. Besides of the performed tests results, the analysis of the foreign investigation of the fundaments is also included. The test results, as well as other tests, show the correctness of the function assumed in Eurocode 2, which gives correlation between ultimate stresses vRd,c and shear slenderness.

The paper presents design and experimental verification of platform mechanism with cost-effective wire-based sensors for measuring of spatial displacement or pose of some moving object. This task, also known as spatial tracking, has a very wide application. The proposed mechanism, guided by the moving object, has a parallel structure with two platforms and at least six wire-based sensors for measuring distances between the platform points. Changes of the platform pose cause corresponding changes of the sensors' wire lengths. Forward position problem of an equivalent mechanism model with 6 degrees of freedom is described together with analyses of work space limitations and error propagation in a measurement system. A specific application is illustrated for tracking of a wheel knuckle of 5-link suspension mechanism used in passenger cars. The developed device has the following advantages: it can be installed in a wheel cavity; enables dynamic measurements on the road; is cost-effective. Performance of the latest prototype of the wire-based tracker was verified on the basis of measurements on a test rig, where two other measuring devices were used for comparison purposes.

This review compiles the pioneers of biological sciences who have been born and educated on the territories, which has got political independence as Poland state in 1918. Their work and passing knowledge to the next generations had a great impact not only on the progress in science but also on a newly formed Polish society. Many of these contributions laid foundations for chemistry, physics, biochemistry, genetics and other biological sciences.

This paper recapitulates Polish botanical and mycological research on terrestrial and freshwater Antarctic ecosystems carried out between 1977 and 2009. The main results are briefly summarized. The references encompass nearly 200 papers on floristics, taxonomy, biogeography, ecology, cytology, bioc hemistry, physiology and genetics of lichens, mosses, fungi, algae and vascular plants inhabiting soils, rocks and inland waters in the Antarctic.