Sentence stress is one of the most prominent elements of intonation. For the unmarked cases certain regularities can be observed as to its location, however, it has no single, established once-and-for-all site in an utterance, instead it is used to signify and signal additional information, such as thematic/rhematic structure, co-reference, contrast or emphasis. The fact is that within a linguistic unit containing more than one stressed syllable, these stresses will be perceived as being of different relative prominence. This difference is normally used to perform a number of varied linguistic function. Yet, it appears to be rarely consciously used. This feature of connected speech has been given relatively little attention, both within discussions of phonological systems of individual languages as well as in a contrastive or interactional perspective. The paper attempts to partially fi ll this gap by investigating the awareness of additional meanings carried by the marked/variable position of sentence stress. The investigations will focus on Polish speakers of English, as users of their native Polish language but also as competent users of English. The respondents are residents of Poland who have passed the extended level of the fi nal secondary school leaving examination in English at the minimum level of 80%. The observation of this preliminary study seems to be that Polish speakers modify their sentence stress patterns proportionally to the growing profi ciency and impact of other languages, with slightly different patterning than as predicted by, among others, the normative sources.

Nasal consonants feature in phonological systems of both Polish and Welsh, yet, apparently, they are active in a different manner and to a different degree. The paper aims first at establishing the ‘players’ – the prototypical segments and their nonprototypical variants. The relevant inventories seem to be comparable, however, the contextually and non-contextually dependent realizations vary considerably in the two systems. Polish nasal consonants do not appear to have terribly complex phonology, their occurrence and phonotactics seems to be dictated through use (Bybee, 2001). Nasal segments in Welsh, on the other hand, are actively involved in the alternation of Initial Consonant Mutation, where they occur as strengthened equivalents of plosives through (possibly) assimilation (Buczek, 1995). It remains to be discovered whether nasals in general (and the so-called voiceless nasals in particular) are independent categories or rather, additionally they feature as nonprototypical variants of plosives. There is, indeed, substantial overlap here. Secondly, the paper looks at certain instances of what appears to be sonorant lenition in Welsh, where nasals [m] and [n] are broken into complex consonantal diphthongs [mh] and [nh] respectively (Pilch, 1975). In its entirety, this paper examines the two systems, hinting at the similarities and exploring the points of difference, especially in cases where the similar phonetic realizations possibly result from different categorical membership.

The porous structure of cylindrical and ring-shaped char material was developed by partial steam gasification. Micropore and mesopore structures of active carbons with various forms of burn-off were evaluated by nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms. Parameters of the Dubinin- Radushkevich equation were calculated as well as the micropore size distribution by the Horvath- Kawazoe method. The results of textural investigations showed that more uniform micropore structure and better mechanical properties were found for ring-shaped active carbons.

Samples of active coke, fresh and spent after cleaning flue gases from communal waste incinerators, were studied. The outer layers of both coke particles were separately removed by comminution mechanism in a spouted bed. Analyses included density, mercury porosimetry and adsorption. The remaining cores were examined to determine the degree of consumption of coke by adsorption of hazardous emissions (SO2, HCl, heavy metals) through its bed. The differences in contamination levels within the porous structure of the particles were estimated. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of active coke in the cleaning of flue gases.

Jednym z parametrów, pozwalającym ocenić surowiec węglowy, jest efekt cieplny zwilżania. Wielkość ciepła zwilżania dostarcza informacji o energii powierzchniowej ciał zanurzonych w cieczy oraz ich teksturze. Znajomość ciepła zwilżania materiałów węglowych jest wykorzystywana w badaniach ich właściwości sorpcyjnych, do charakteryzowania struktury i do wyznaczania powierzchni właściwej. Zaproponowano metodę pomiaru zwilżania materiałów węglowych jako jedną z metod do oceny surowca węglowego. Na podstawie przeprowadzonych badań wyznaczono ciepło zwilżania alkoholem metylowym węgla kamiennego z kopalni Brzeszcze, węgli brunatnych z kopalni w Turowie i Bełchatowie oraz dla porównania wybrano jeden z węgli aktywnych firmy Gryfskand (WD-ekstra). Opierając się na uzyskanych wynikach obliczono powierzchnię badanych materiałów oraz entalpię immersji. Wykazano, że efekty cieplne zwilżania zależą od budowy materiału zwilżanego, zarówno od jego struktury jak i budowy chemicznej. Największe ciepło zwilżania obliczone na 1 g materiału węglowego uzyskano dla węgla aktywnego, który jest materiałem o najbardziej rozwiniętej powierzchni właściwej i największej objętości mikroporów. Jednak ciepło zwilżania nie wzrasta proporcjonalnie do wielkości powierzchni właściwej. W pracy stwierdzono, że efekty cieplne zwilżania dla węgli kopalnych maleją wraz ze wzrostem powierzchni właściwej. Dla badanych trzech próbek uzyskano zależność liniową. Wśród węgli kopalnych najwyższe efekty cieplne (ΔT) oraz ciepło zwilżania (Q) wyznaczono dla węgla brunatnego z kopalni w Bełchatowie, mimo że węgiel ten miał najsłabiej rozwiniętą strukturę porowatą. Na przykładzie tej próbki widać wyraźny wpływ procesu pęcznienia na mierzone efekty cieplne.

Experiments on a confined fluidized bed system with various shapes of particles have been presented in the paper. Its influence on hydrodynamic properties in the whole range of gas velocity has been analysed. Relations allowing calculation of the Richardson-Zaki-type equation coefficients, including description of inter-particle void and gas pressure drop in such systems have been determined. Necessary condition for confined fluidization of non-spherical coarse particles has also been determined.

The processing of cartographic data demands human involvement. Up-to-date algorithms try to automate a part of this process. The goal is to obtain a digital model, or additional information about shape and topology of input geometric objects. A topological skeleton is one of the most important tools in the branch of science called shape analysis. It represents topological and geometrical characteristics of input data. Its plot depends on using algorithms such as medial axis, skeletonization, erosion, thinning, area collapse and many others. Area collapse, also known as dimension change, replaces input data with lower-dimensional geometric objects like, for example, a polygon with a polygonal chain, a line segment with a point. The goal of this paper is to introduce a new algorithm for the automatic calculation of polygonal chains representing a 2D polygon. The output is entirely contained within the area of the input polygon, and it has a linear plot without branches. The computational process is automatic and repeatable. The requirements of input data are discussed. The author analyzes results based on the method of computing ends of output polygonal chains. Additional methods to improve results are explored. The algorithm was tested on real-world cartographic data received from BDOT/GESUT databases, and on point clouds from laser scanning. An implementation for computing hatching of embankment is described.

Publikacja obejmuje badania parametrów fizykochemicznych odpadów wapiennych z procesu produkcji sody metodą Solvay'a. Szlam jako pozostałość procesu zawierający chlorek wapniowy stanowi uciążliwy odpad. Ocena możliwości wykorzystania tych odpadów jako sorbentu w instalacjach suchego i mokrego oczyszczania spalin odlotowych z kotłów parowych jest głównym celem prezentowanych badań obejmujących parametry chemiczne (skład pierwiastkowy i związkowy, straty prażenia oraz pH) i fizyczne (gęstość, powierzchnia właściwa i skład ziarnowy). Właściwości reakcyjne sorbentu dla odsiarczania suchego określano na podstawie testu Alhstrom Pyropowcr, natomiast dla odsiarczania mokrego wykorzystano metodę ABB Flakt. W oparciu o uzyskane wyniki badań stwierdzono wysoką przydatność sorbentu dla odsiarczania mokrego (stopień reaktywności SRm* = 0,87. Dla odsiarczania suchego przydatność sorbentu jest ograniczona wysokim zużyciem wynoszącym około 5 kg sorbentu na kg SO2.

The low-frequency optical-signal phase noise induced by mechanical vibration of the base occurs in field-deployed fibers. Typical telecommunication data transfer is insensitive to this type of noise but the phenomenon may influence links dedicated to precise Time and Frequency (T&F) fiber-optic transfer that exploit the idea of stabilization of phase or propagation delay of the link. To measure effectiveness of suppression of acoustic noise in such a link, a dedicated measurement setup is necessary. The setup should enable to introduce a low-frequency phase corruption to the optical signal in a controllable way. In the paper, a concept of a setup in which the mechanically induced acoustic-band optical signal phase corruption is described and its own features and measured parameters are presented. Next, the experimental measurement results of the T&F transfer TFTS-2 system’s immunity as a function of the fibre-optic length vs. the acoustic-band noise are presented. Then, the dependency of the system immunity on the location of a noise source along the link is also pointed out.

The aim of the paper was to study the epizootic situation of babesiosis in the cattle population in eastern Poland and possibly to determine what species of protozoa infects Polish cattle. Blood samples for molecular analysis (real time PCR) were collected from 192 dairy cows from various farms located in eastern Poland. The infection was detected in 10.4% of the samples. All animals were infected with Babesia occultans which sequence of the 18S RNA gene fragment showed a 93.1%, homology with the sequence of B. occultans EU 376017. This is the first report about the detection of B. occultans DNA in asymptomatic cattle in eastern Poland.