The Author discusses the 8th General Congress of Polish Historians in Cracow in 1958 in the context of the so-called Polish "thaw".

Biography and scientific achievements of Professors Marianna Sankiewicz-Budzyński and Gustaw K.E. Budzyński - Founders of the Polish Audio Engineering.

In the early modern period, there were around 40 religious confraternities in the agglomeration of Cracow, one of the oldest and most important being the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary at the Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity. It is not known when it was founded, but it was probably already operating in the late Middle Ages. In 1600, this confraternity, existing “ab immemorabilis tempore”, was reformed by Fr. Abraham Bzowski, who on this occasion prepared and published an extensive dissertation, having the character of its “statutes”. From 4 February 1601 the seat of the renewed confraternity was in the Chapel of the Three Kings, at the far end of the northern nave of the church. It contained the Brotherhood’s altar which was transferred, probably after 1688, to the church of St. Giles and placed on the altar’s stone in the apse of the presbytery. The altar contained the holy picture of the Virgin Mary of the Salus Populi Romani type, connected by tradition established in the first half of the 17th century with Pope Clement VIII, who was to grant it indulgences. Bernard Maciejowski, then Bishop of Łuck, later Bishop of Cracow and finally Primate, is considered as the donor of the painting. Every first Sunday in October, the Cracow copy of the Roman image was carried out by the brothers out of the chapel and in a solemn procession around the Main Square. This custom was linked to the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turkish one near Lepanto in 1571, after which Pope Pius V established its liturgical memory (7 October). In Poland, this tradition gained a new dimension after to the successful defence of the Chocim fortress against the Turks in 1621. The devotion to the Rosary was cultivated not only in the Brotherhood’s chapel, but also in the Conventual Church, where the altar of the Holy Rosary stood to the left of the choir entrance. Symmetrically to it, on the right side of the rainbow arcade stood the altar of the Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus, founded in 1585 by Fr. Bartłomiej of Przemyśl. Its aim was to eradicate the sinful custom of swearing oaths, and because of the connections with the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary it was called the Archconfraternity of the Rosary of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. The spreading of the rosary prayer by the Order went beyond the Conventual Church. A special role in this work was played by the Gothic Church of St. Giles, which the Dominicans took under their protection in 1588. An important caesura in the history of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Rosary was the move to a new spacious oratory, which was erected on the site of the medieval Chapel of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the far end of the southern nave of the church. One of the reasons for undertaking this new work is considered to be the desire to commemorate the victory of John III Sobieski over the Turks at Vienna on 12 September 1683. The opulent decor and interesting ideological programme have only partially survived, but they can be reconstructed on the basis of preserved written sources, as can be the character of the Brotherhood’s celebrations. Particularly interesting monuments include those connected with the so-called Century of the Rosary, established with the consent of Pope Innocent XII (1694). It was a congregation of 100 brothers and 100 sisters, whose task was to pray continuously for the souls suffering in Purgatory. Among other things, a book of this association has been preserved, which contains illuminations showing the salutary effects of the prayer of the Rosary.

The article presents the results of numerical and analytical investigations of the influence of raw liquid natural gas (LNG) composition on parameters characterizing the combustion process. The high content of higher hydrocarbons influences the thermodynamic combustion process described with parameters like the adiabatic flame temperature, laminar flame speed and ignition delay time. A numerical study of the impact of LNG fuels on emission characteristics using the Cantera code has been performed. Results have shown that the change of grid natural gas to some types of liquid natural gas can result in an incomplete combustion process and an increase of emission of toxic compounds such as carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbons. For all investigated fuels the laminar flame speed rises by about 10% compared to natural gas, while the adiabatic flame temperature is nearly the same. The ignition delay time is decreased with an increase of ethane share in the fuel. The analysis of chemical pathways has shown that hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen formation is present, particularly in the high temperature combustion regimes, which results in an increase of nitric oxide molar fraction in flue gases by even 10% compared to natural gas. To summarize, for some applications, liquid natural gases cannot be directly used as interchangeable fuels in an industry sector, even if they meet the legal requirements.

A method for precise sound sources detection and localization in interiors is presented. Acoustic vector sensors, which provide multichannel output signals of acoustic pressure and particle velocity were employed. Methods for detecting acoustic events are introduced. The algorithm for localizing sound events in the audience is presented. The system set up in a lecture hall, which serves as a demonstrator of the proposed technology, is described. The accurracy of the proposed method is evaluated by the described measurement results. The analysis of the results is followed by conclusions pertaining the usability of the proposed system. The concept of the multimodal audio-visual detection of events in the audience is also introduced.

The implemented online urban noise pollution monitoring system is presented with regard to its conceptual assumptions and technical realization. A concept of the noise source parameters dynamic assessment is introduced. The idea of noise modeling, based on noise emission characteristics and emission simulations, was developed and practically utilized in the system. Furthermore, the working system architecture and the data acquisition scheme are described. The method for increasing the speed of noise map calculation employing a supercomputer is explained. The practical implementation of noise maps generation and visualization system is presented, together with introduced improvements in the domain of continuous noise monitoring and acoustic maps creation. Some results of tests performed using the system prototype are shown. The main focus is put on assessing the efficiency of the acoustic maps created with the discussed system, in comparison to results obtained with traditional methods.