Europe has to face strong competitive challenges in the field of QIT from other regions of the world. The tools for the effective implementation of the challenges related to the start, we hope, of building a quantum civilization are both common and individual in particular European countries. Joint projects in the field of QIT, usually narrowly focused, are announced by large European Agencies and are related to their activities. Large-scale collaborative projects are of course the domain of the EC. National projects depend heavily on the capabilities of individual countries and vary greatly in size. The most technologically advanced European countries invest hundreds of millions of Euros in national QIT projects annually. The largest European FET class project currently being implemented is the Quantum Flagship. Although the EQF is basically just one of the elements of a large and complicated European scene of development of quantum technologies, it becomes the most important element and, in a sense, a dominant one, also supported from the political level. There are complex connections and feedbacks between the elements of this quantum scene. National projects try to link to the EQF. Here we are interested in such connections and their impact on the effectiveness of QIT development in Europe, and especially in Poland.

Machine learning (ML) methods facilitate automated data mining. The authors compare the effectiveness of selected ML methods (RBF networks, Kohonen networks, and random forest) as modelling tools supporting the selection of materials in ecodesign. Applied in the design process, ML methods help benefit from the knowledge, experience and creativity of designers stored in historical data in databases. Implemented into a decision support system, the knowledge can be utilized – in the case under analysis – in the process of design of environmentally friendly products. The study was initiated with an analysis of input data for the selection of materials. The input data, specified in cooperation with designers, include both technological and environmental parameters which guarantee the desired compatibility of materials. Next, models were developed using selected ML methods. The models were assessed and implemented into an expert system. The authors show which models best fit their purpose and why. Models supporting the selection of materials, connections and disassembly methods help boost the recycling properties of designed products.

The paper reports results of investigations concerning the influence of saponin extract of quillaja on the food choice and development of Colorado potato beetle. Choice tests with the use of potato leaf discs treated and untreated with tested saponins’ extract were made. The influence of the presence of saponins on the food choice and intensity of insect feeding were observed. It was stated that saponins significantly restrain feeding and disturb development of this pest.

A review of Poggio Bracciolini’s Facetiarum liber in Inga Grześczak’s Polish translation.

Candona rectangulata is an ostracod species common in cold (<15 ° C ) shallow freshwater Arctic water bodies. This species is useful in palaeolimnological studies because only few known autecological data can be applied in reconstructions of palaeoclimate. Particular attention was paid to the temperature, which is the basic factor determining the geo− graphic range of a species. In this study a wide tolerance of C. rectangulata to the temperature was demonstrated for the first time. Its high tolerance to the temperature changes seems to be based on induction of set of proteins belonging to the family of heat shock proteins. Using PAGE−SDS electrophoresis variation in the protein profile of non−model organism undergoing stress in the field (South Spitsbergen, near Stanisław Siedlecki Polish Polar Station) and in laboratory cultures was presented. These results could explain the eurythermic range of C. rectangulata and its good adaptation to the environmental conditions which normally do not exist in Arctic freshwater ponds.