In EU law a lot of attention has recently been paid to personal data protection standards. In parallel to the development of the general EU rules on data protection, the Members States also develop cooperation between law enforcement agencies and create new information exchange possibilities, including the processing of personal data of participants in criminal proceedings. The aim of this article is to analyse whether the personal data of victims of crime are safeguarded according to the standards of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. For this purpose, the author analyses two directives: 2012/29/EU, which regulates minimum standards of victims of crime; and 2016/680/EU (also known as the Law Enforcement Directive), which regulates personal data processing for the purpose of combating crime. Based on the example of the Polish legislation implementing both directives, the author comes to the conclusion that the EU legislation is not fully coherent and leaves too much margin of appreciation to the national legislator. This results in a failure to achieve the basic goals of both directives. The author expects the necessary reflection not only from the national legislator, but also from the European Commission, which should check the correctness of the implementation of the directives, as well as from national courts, which should use all possible measures to ensure that the national law is interpreted in the light of the objectives of the directives.

This article examines the consequences of the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) ruling in Achmea concerning Investor-State Arbitration (ISA) under intra- EU Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) from a treaty law perspective. It begins by briefly setting out the arguments of Advocate General Wathelet and the CJEU supporting their different positions on whether intra-EU BITs ISA clauses are compatible with EU law. The article then proceeds to analyse Achmea’s implications for intra-EU BIT ISA. It concludes that, as a result of the CJEU’s ruling, arbitral tribunals are deprived of their jurisdiction to entertain investors’ claims brought under intra-EU BIT ISA clauses. Finally, the article argues that Achmea’s applicability to cases brought under intra-EU BIT ISA clauses is limited, using the application of EU law as a relevant qualification. In order for an arbitral tribunal to be deprived of its jurisdictional competence as a result of Achmea, it must be entitled to interpret and apply EU law directly or indirectly in determining its jurisdiction.

The law is not effective in forcing the advertisers to communicate complete and reliable information about advertised products: the mere inclusion of written disclosures does not guarantee their successful perception, let alone comprehension. TV commercials are especially troublesome in this respect, because not only are the disclaimers presented in microscopic font size, but their display time challenges the perceptive abilities of even the most effi cient readers, not to mention the distracting effect of the simultaneously presented visual images and voice-overs. Yet, their effective comprehension could very often significantly modify the overall message and in this way lead to altered (often in a way unfavourable for the advertiser) persuasive effect. The study presents the ways in which the small print components interact with the information presented by means of the more conspicuous linguistic and pictorial items in a collection of 20 Polish TV commercials for erection stimulants. In particular, attention is given to the potential changes in the communicated message in the conditions of full comprehension and intake of the small print items.

The article discusses the complex relations between the three different areas of culture and language in the Swiss canton of Grisons and describes the historical processes that have created this situation. The developing of the diversity of languages and cultures on the territory of Grisons was infl uenced to a high degree by the mountainous confi guration of this region, the isolation of the alpine valleys and by the situation of Grisons on the border line between the territories of the German and Romance cultures and languages. So the linguistic landscape of the canton of Grisons is composed nowadays of areas of German, Italian and Romansh. The peculiarity of Grisons is the existence of Romansh, one of the most ancient languages of the Alps. This Romance language was in the 5th century the only language used in Grisons, but has lost his dominant position to German and today it is struggling for its survival.

The use of foreign language elements in advertisements is quite a common practice. Therefore, a large number of publications on this topic comes as no surprise. However, for the study purposes the researchers apply different perspectives and points of reference when it comes to defining what actually constitutes the use of foreign-language elements. The present paper offers a short review of those approaches, showing the discrepancies between various standpoints. It also addresses the methodological difficulties related to the application of clear-cut definitions. Given the variability of standpoints, it is suggested that the issues outlined in the paper need to be taken into consideration before any attempts are made at comparing the results of different studies of the problem.

The paper addresses the issue of culture shock and the challenges met in the process of adaptation to a new culture, as experienced by international students studying in Poland. Until recently, Poland has not been regarded as a very attractive educational market. Poland joining the EU in 2004 contributed to a surge in various types of migrant arriving in the country, including international students. However, for the last few years the number of young people coming to Poland in order to study has been growing steadily. Yet, this growth does not mean that state, local or university authorities have any knowledge of how to resolve possible future conflicts which might and often do arise between overseas students and the society which receives them, or of how to help these students with their everyday problems. This dilemma is the result of a lack of studies regarding this group. Previous studies regarding migrants in Poland were only slightly focused on international students. In spite of the fact that international stu-dents are migrants, they differ significantly from other types of migrant – mostly those who are in Poland for economic or political reasons. The aim of the research presented in this article was therefore to carry out an initial exploration of the problems which this group encounters both at university and in society. The research was carried out in two stages with medical students in Łódź. The first stage was a paper-based questionnaire completed by international students studying at the Medical University of Łódź (N=74). The second stage involved three focus-group interviews conducted with some of these students.

A single acoustic vector sensor (AVS) cannot be used to find the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of two or more coherent (fully correlated) sources. We have proposed a technique for estimating DOAs (in 2D geometry) of two simultaneous coherent sources using single AVS under the assumption that acoustic sources enter in the field sequentially. The DOA estimation has been investigated with two different configurations of AVS, each consisting of three microphones in a plane. The technique has been also applied in tracking (a) an acoustic source in the presence of stationary interfering coherent source and (b) two coherent sources when the sources are changing their locations alternatively. The experimental environment has been generated using the Finite-Element Method tool viz. COMSOL to corroborate the proposed scheme.

An algorithm of determination of mechanical stresses and deformations of the magnetic circuit shape, caused by forces of magnetic origin, is presented in this paper. The mechanical stresses cause changes of magnetizing characteristics of the magnetic circuit. The mutual coupling of magnetic and mechanical fields was taken into account in the algorithm worked out. A computational experiment showed that it was possible to include the interaction of both fields into one numerical model. The elaborated algorithm, taking into account the impact of mechanical stresses on magnetic parameters of construction materials, can be used in both the 2D and the 3D type field-model.

There is a cascade of hydroelectric power plants built on the Váh River. From a water-management point of view, the natural channel is used to drain extreme discharges. During most of the year, discharges are regulated by water-management structures. These discharges are not used for energy-related purposes; therefore, it is important to determine the optimal discharge that will not negatively affect the ecosystem of the stream. The minimum balance discharge (hydro-ecological discharge) was determined based on the instream flow incremental methodology (IFIM) using the riverine habi-tat simulation system (RHABSIM). Input data were obtained from direct measurements on three reference reaches in the area between the cities Piešťany and Nové Mesto nad Váhom. Hydraulic flow characteristics were derived from three measurements at different water levels. Habitat quality was represented by ichthyofauna. Data to determine the habitat suit-ability curves of fish were obtained using a diving technique to collect video footage. The modelling resulted in the quanti-fication of the effect of discharge on ichthyofauna as a bio-indicator of habitat quality, which implied the need of 20 m3∙s–1 for a minimum balance discharge in summer.

The cyclic Electrothermal Temperature Swing Adsorption (ETSA) process in a fixed-bed column with Supersorbon K40 activated carbon (AC) was applied to remove propan-2-ol (IPA) from air. The bed was electrothermally regenerated using direct resistive heating method. The tests were performed in the range of operating parameters: IPA loading 0.18-0.26 kg/kg, voltage 19.5 V, set-point temperature 393–403 K, nitrogen flow rate 0.12 m3/h.

The analysis revealed, that raising the bed temperature resulted in an increase of desorption degree of adsorbate, reduction of regeneration time and an increase in the energy consumption. The application of insulation enabled reduction of energy consumption and regeneration time by 27% and 10%, respectively.