The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

Hallmark professionalism in probabilistic analysis is to quantify the uncertainties involved in construction materials subject to intrinsic randomness in its physical and mechanical properties and is now gaining popularity in civil engineering arena. As well, knowledge of behaviour of materials is continuously evolving and its statistical descriptors are also changing when more and more data collected or even data updated and hence reliability analysis has to be carried out with the updated data as a continuous process. As per the committee report ACI 544.2R, it is found that there is no attempt made for probabilistic relation between cube compressive strength and cylinder compressive strength for fiber reinforced concrete. In consequence of this report, a robust relation between cube and cylinder of experimentally conducted compressive strength was established by Monte-Carlo simulation technique for different types of fibrous concrete like steel, alkali resistant glass and polyester fibrous concrete before and after thermoshock considering various uncertainties. Nevertheless simulated probabilistic modals, characteristic modals, optimized factor of safety and allowable designed cylinder compressive strength have been developed from the drawn probability of failure graph, which exhibits robust performance in realistic Civil Engineering materials and structures.

This article discusses the issue of hypermodernity, which was studied as part of the research project Poles in the World of Late Capitalism. The article presents biographical models of hypermodernity and strategies of coping with hypermodern ideology, that is, cyclothymias, conversions, and hypermodern episodes.

Drawing on extensive qualitative research into experiences of migration and settlement among Central and East European (CEE) migrants living in Scotland, this article examines the role of intersecting emotional and material (in)securities in migrant families’ decision-making regarding and experiences of longer-term settlement. The article queries fixed or given understandings of either ‘family’ or ‘secu-rity’ and explores the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between them. In so doing, it makes a number of significant and interconnected theoretical and empirical contributions to existing research in the field of family migration. Through a critical analysis of the relationship between family and (in)security the article offers nuanced insight into the ways in which family processes of reunion, separation and (re)formation link to decisions regarding migration and settlement. The intersecting and sometimes contradictory forms of emotional and material support, obligation and vulnerability which both family relations and processes of migration and settlement entail are critically analysed by bring-ing together theoretical frameworks of social (in)security and understandings of family as ‘made’ rather than ‘given’. Finally, attention given to the temporal aspects of (in)security, as well as the transnational aspects of migrants’ lives, provides new ways of understanding the open-endedness of decision-making processes relating to migration and settlement, especially where these involve multiple decision-makers.