Kazimiera Szczuka talks about the late Prof. Maria Janion – a humanistic visionary, a revolutionary scholar of Romanticism, and a modest “maestra” in the eyes of her students.

Flame retardants (FRs) that have an adverse effect on human and the environment have been subject to regulation since 1972. However, FRs emerging as a replacement, are not proving to be fully environmentally safe. Water and sediment contamination by FRs, including organophosphorus (OPFRs) and novel brominated (NBFRs) ones, is a matter of major concern. Due to their common usage, many release sources, and relatively high mobility, they pose a threat to aquatic organisms and ecosystems. This review summarises studies on the OPFRs’, and NBFRs’ simultaneous occurrence in water and corresponding sediment. The main sources of occurrence and routes of entry of FRs into the environment are presented. The newest reports on the ecotoxicity of selected FRs had been summarised in order to bring the matter to attention. The research revealed that although great efforts had been made to study the occurrence of OPFRs and NBFRs in water and sediment separately, there is a lack of research on their occurrence in both media in the same area. Although major efforts have been made to study the ecotoxicity of OPFRs, there are some deficiencies for the NBFRs. Considering their relatively high ecotoxicity, further studies should be conducted on joint ecotoxicity, which may cause synergistic or antagonistic effects.

Dielectric properties of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) mixture ZhK-1282 were investigated in the frequency range of 10²–10⁶ Hz and a temperature range of −20 to 80°С. On the basis of the Debye’s relaxation polarization model dielectric spectra of temperature dependence of the orientational relaxation time τ and the dielectric strength δe were numerically approximated at the parallel orientation of a molecular director relative to alternating electric field. Influence of ester components in the mixture plays crucial role in relaxation processes at low temperature and external field frequency. The activation energy of the relaxation process of a rotation of molecules around their short axis was measured in a temperature interval of −20 to  +15°С in which the dispersion of a longitudinal component of the dielectric constant takes place. The energy of potential barrier for polar molecules rotation in the mesophase was calculated. The value of the transition entropy from the nematic to isotropic phase was obtained from this calculation. The values of the coefficient of molecular friction and rotational diffusion were obtained by different methods. The experimental data obtained are in a satisfactory agreement with the existing theoretical models.