This article concerns constitutional problems related to the implementation of EU directives seen from both the legal and comparative perspectives. The directives are a source of law which share a number of characteristic features that significantly affect and determine the specificity of Member States’ constitutional review of the directives as well as the legal acts that implement them. The review of the constitutionality of EU directives is carried out in accordance with the provisions of national implementing acts. Member States’ constitutional courts adopt two basic positions in this respect. The first position (adopted by, inter alia, the French Constitutional Council and German Federal Constitutional Court) is based on the assumption of a partial “constitutional immunity” of the act implementing the directive, which results in only a partial control of the constitutionality of the implementing acts, i.e. the acts of national law implementing such directives. The second position, (adopted, explicitly or implicitly by, inter alia, the Austrian Federal Constitutional Court, Czech Constitutional Court, Polish Constitutional Court, Romanian Constitutional Court and Slovak Constitutional Court) concerns the admissibility of a full review of the implementing acts. This leads to the admissibility of an indirect review of the content of the directive if the Court examines the provision as identical in terms of content with an act of EU law. Another issue is related to the application of the EU directives as indirect yardsticks of review. The French Constitutional Council case-law on review of the proper implementation of EU directives represents the canon in this regard. Nonetheless, interesting case studies of further uses of EU directives as indirect yardsticks of review can be found in the case law of other constitutional courts, such as the Belgian Constitutional Court or Spanish Constitutional Court. The research presented in this paper is based on the comparative method. The scope of the analysis covers case law of the constitutional courts of both old and new Member States. It also includes a presentation of recent jurisprudential developments, focusing on the constitutional case-law regarding the Data Retention Directive and the Directive on Combating Terrorism.

In this article particular emphasis is laid on the compounds which constitute parts of the titles of the press articles which were published in the online version of the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper between 1 August 2016 and 31 October 2016. The examples selected from the author’s research corpus make it possible to state that title is the kind of text which is highly open to word games and linguistic puns. The research conducted demonstrates and explains the role that compounds – especially occasionalisms which are parts of the press article titles under analysis – play in terms of assigning functional tasks to the given press titles (headlines). The research corpus gathered for the purpose of the analysis in the present article, i.e. selected press article titles, serves as a means of describing not only general linguistic traits of the said titles from the semantic and syntactic point of view, but also, and to an even larger extent, their sociolinguistic, i.e. pragmatic functions. Particular atten-tion is drawn to the role of compounds in performing the communicative function assigned to press article titles.

This paper presents the results of a small-scale study into advanced trainee interpreters’ performance in tasks which involve consecutive interpretation of openly evaluative texts, with particular focus on the use of agentless structures and nominalizations by male and female subjects. It seeks answers to the following questions: i) Is the interpreter’s involvement in the ongoing discourse a factor that may elicit agentless structures in the output? ii) Does the preference for such constructions seem to be related to the gender of the interpreter? The analysis is based on 40 interpretations of four formal addresses, of which two express criticism and the other two praise of the audience. One text in each set is addressed to students of English at the University of Silesia, a group to which the trainee interpreters belong and with which they identify. The results indicate that while there is no substantial difference in the use of agentless structures in contexts which involve identification of the interpreter with the ultimate receiver and in contexts which preclude identification, nominalizations tend to be used slightly more frequently in the former set of circumstances. It also appears that female interpreters are more likely to use nominalizations in texts which express open evaluation of the audience with which they identify, irrespective of the direction of valuation.

In cities with large educational institutions, the inflow of educational migrants is important for con-sumption demand, and can trigger multiplier effects. The main aim of this article is to show the mecha-nism of the aggregate demand-income effect created by educational migration in the Polish city of Opole. An estimate of this effect is provided, based on questionnaire research among a sample of 1 075 students from all institutions of higher education located in the city. The estimated effects analysed concern the direct consumption impulse, as well as the indirect job creation and increase in income for providers of accommodation for students, in turn triggering increased consumption demand. While the results must be interpreted with care, an estimated 15 per cent of consumption demand created through expenditure of migrant students (about PLN 175 400 000) and 485 extra job show the significance of such expenditure for the local economy.

The theatres of Antiquity, Greek and Roman, constitute public buildings of the utmost importance in the history of Western culture and in universal cultural heritage. Many of these spaces are being used for their original function with or without only minor adaptations. If they are well preserved and/or restored, these performance buildings attract large audiences to representations of classical and contemporary plays, thereby serving the purpose for which they were built in the Ancient Age. These theatres bear witness to the existing relationship between architectural work, visual and acoustic experience, and dramatic art. Although the majority are located in the Mediterranean region, these structures were also built in the major cities of the ancient world in Europe, the Middle East, northern Africa, and beyond. This paper aims to summarise and critically review research published in the literature regarding their acoustic aspects, with particular emphasis on Roman theatres. These pieces of research emphasize the importance of the diffraction of sound in the tiers of the cavea and the good intelligibility for speech of the Greco-Roman theatre.

The paper presents a numerical model of the novel design of the axial magnetic bearing with six cylindrical poles. The motivation behind this idea was to eliminate vibrations in rotating machinery due to the axial load. Common conception of such a bearing provides a single component of the electromagnetic force, which is not enough to reduce transverse and lateral vibrations of the armature. The proposed design allows for avoiding wobbling of the disc with the use of a few axial force components that are able to actively compensate the axial load and stabilise the disc in a balanced position. Before a real device is manufactured, a virtual prototype should be prepared. The accurate numerical model will provide essential knowledge about the performance of the axial magnetic bearing.

The paper presents results of a simulation of the plasmon effect achieved between a thin precious metal layer and a biconical optical fibre taper, manufactured on a standard single mode fibre. Gold, silver and titanium were used as a metal which fulfilled a cladding function for a small diameter structure. For simulation Mode Solution software was used on which modal and frequency analyses of a wavelength were provided in the range of 800–1700 nm. A displacement of a plasmon pick in dependence of thickness of a deposited precious layer for the highest plasmon effects was observed.

In this paper ∼16 μm-emitting multimode InP-related quantum cascade lasers are presented with the maximum operating temperature 373 K, peak and average optical power equal to 720 mW and 4.8 mW at 303 K, respectively, and the characteristic temperature (T₀) 272 K. Two types of the lasers were fabricated and characterized: the lasers with a SiO₂ layer left untouched in the area of the metal-free window on top of the ridge, and the lasers with the SiO₂ layer removed from the metal-free window area. Dual-wavelength operation was obtained, at λ ∼ 15.6 μm (641 cm⁻¹) and at λ ∼ 16.6 μm (602 cm⁻¹) for lasers with SiO₂ removed, while within the emission spectrum of the lasers with SiO₂ left untouched only the former lasing peak was present. The parameters of these devices like threshold current, optical power and emission wavelength are compared. Lasers without the SiO₂ layer showed ∼15% lower threshold current than these ones with the SiO₂ layer. The optical powers for lasers without SiO₂ layer were almost twice higher than for the lasers with the SiO₂ layer on the top of the ridge.

Novel FTIR spectrometer for the monitoring of atmosphere is presented. Its design stands out by a compact form allowing the measures in two IR spectral bands 3-5 and 8-12 μm simultaneously. The spectrometer is composed of two Michelson interferometers with the joint sliding mirror. The paper contains the detailed description of the optics and electronics units, preliminary results of the measurement of biological aerosols and calibration methods.

Flood risk management are considerably influenced by several factors, such as all sources of flooding, social circum-stances, policy and even the potential for local economic growth. To encourage government, business, community and oth-er parties to continue investing in flood risk management projects, it is necessary to give understanding that the projects can also provide economic benefits through systematic predictions and assessments of costs, benefits and social values, espe-cially on flood-affected communities. This study aims: (1) to develop knowledge and understanding on small-scale flood risk management project in Malang City, Indonesia, and; (2) to assess the economic efficiency of the project investment considering all benefits, both monetary and non-monetary. The research method is a mixed method combining quantitative questionnaires (N = 53 from 162 families) with qualitative in-depth interviews (N = 10) and field observations. The runoff discharge and the inundation depth were calculated using hydrology and hydraulic analysis, while the economic efficiency was analysed using cost benefit analysis (CBA). The results show that the community-based flood risk management system can reduce the flood risk up to 30% compared to before the implementation of that system. This system also provides direct financial benefits through the use of drainage channels for fish and vegetables farming. It causes the increase of the net so-cial benefit about 70–90% and the net present value (NPV) greater than zero (NPV > 0). Therefore, the project investment is recommended to be proceeded.

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapour can be captured from gas streams on a zeolite 13X adsorbent. Experimental water vapour adsorption isotherms and kinetic curves were measured in the temperature range of 293–393 K and pressure up to 2100 Pa. The equilibrium data were developed with Toth and Sips multi-temperature isotherm models. The results of the process rate studies were described using pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic models. Findings were compared with our own results of CO2 adsorption studies on the same zeolite.