In the paper, the authors discuss the possibility to apply the "Nodalised Beam" method for vibroinsulation of manually operated tools. They indicate the difficulties in applying the original method for this purpose. On the bases of the reciprocity principle, the authors propose a method for modifying the system that allows them to avoid the mentioned disadvantages. Equations derived for the modified system that makes it possible to define the position of nodal points. The relations were verified at a test station. Furthermore, a method of tuning the system was proposed.

Leaf-thin bracteate coins were minted for several hundred years during the Middle Ages. The existence of hundreds of small independent currency areas with their own mints in central, eastern and northern Europe and the strong link between bracteates and periodic recoinage explain the large number of bracteate types. A special minting technology linked to goldsmithing technology was required to produce the bracteates. A soft material was placed under a flan, and the motif was created by bending the flan rather than pressing the motif into the flan. This study analyzes how bracteate technology could save costs in the minting procedure compared to traditional coinage technology. The bending characteristic of the bracteates together with the flat hammering of old bracteates imply that the size of the flan remained almost unchanged after recurrent overstrikes. Thus, the bracteate technology saved one of the costliest steps in the minting procedure: the time-consuming production of the flan. In contrast, overstriking of biface coins using the traditional coin technology could only be performed a few times, since it caused a stepwise thinner and larger flan. The latter phenomenon explains the existence of biface half-bracteates.

For the optimal location of an additional surplus measurements in the design of redundant measurements system, from data reconciliation point of view, of thermal processes, an information entropy has been applied. The relative entropy - Kullback-Leibler divergence, has been used. As a criterion of the optimal location of an additional surplus measurements in a system of measurements data, the minimum of the entropy information of reconciled measurements data has been assumed. Hence, the objective function in the described optimization task is maximum of the relative entropy - Kullback-Leibler divergence concerning sets of raw and reconciled measurements data. Simulation calculation with application of data reconciliation algorithm and Monte Carlo method concerning the influence of installation of the additional surplus measurements on decrease of entropy information of measurements after data validation have been carried out. The example calculations concerned the cross high-pressure heat regeneration system with cascade flow of condensate installed in 153 MW power unit equipped with cooler of steam are presented. Calculations for all variants of configurations of an additional surplus measurements in the analyzed thermal system have been done. Usefulness of the proposed Kullback-Leibler divergence as a objective function has been demonstrated.

The subject matter dealt with in this article fits into a broader discussion on sovereignty and patriotism, which has intensified since Poland’s accession to the European Union. It is also associated with the topical issue of patriotic education of children and adolescents, in which the Church engages along with the family and the school (e.g. as part of religion lessons, parochial catechesis, specialist pastoral work). When taking up the subject matter described in the title, the author first focused on whether now, in a changed historical context, speaking about patriotism and patriotic attitudes is still sensible and whether a Christian can (should) be a patriot. When seeking an answer to this question, a reference was made mainly to the Letter of the Polish Episcopate On Christian Patriotism, issued on the 200th anniversary of the first partition of Poland, and to the document of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate prepared by the Council for Social Matters, entitled The Christian Shape of Patriotism. It was against this background that an answer was sought to the question about patriotic content in homilies and catechesis. Homilies delivered by St. John Paul II during his pilgrimages to his homeland were used as a model in this regard. The basic assumptions of the religion teaching syllabus for schools and parochial catechesis, which refer at multiple points to patriotism as a value, emphasising the importance of developing an attitude of respect and love for one’s homeland and its cultural heritage, as well as a motivation to actively participate in social life, were also discussed.