The concentration of hydrocarbons in the yield of dry matter in ryegrass depended upon the sludge dose. The highest concentrations of hydrocarbons in ryegrass were found in a control object. In objects fertilized with waste activated sludge the highest concentration of hydrocarbons was found in ryegrass with 20% ofwaste activated sludge. After a two-year experiment, the highest concentration of hydrocarbons was found in the control object. In soil materials fertilized with waste activated sludge the concentration of hydrocarbons grew along with the sludge dose.

MP estimation is a method which concerns estimating of the location parameters when the probabilistic models of observations differ from the normal distributions in the kurtosis or asymmetry. The system of Pearson’s distributions is the probabilistic basis for the method. So far, such a method was applied and analyzed mostly for leptokurtic or mesokurtic distributions (Pearson’s distributions of types IV or VII), which predominate practical cases. The analyses of geodetic or astronomical observations show that we may also deal with sets which have moderate asymmetry or small negative excess kurtosis. Asymmetry might result from the influence of many small systematic errors, which were not eliminated during preprocessing of data. The excess kurtosis can be related with bigger or smaller (in relations to the Hagen hypothesis) frequency of occurrence of the elementary errors which are close to zero. Considering that fact, this paper focuses on the estimation with application of the Pearson platykurtic distributions of types I or II. The paper presents the solution of the corresponding optimization problem and its basic properties. Although platykurtic distributions are rare in practice, it was an interesting issue to find out what results can be provided by MP estimation in the case of such observation distributions. The numerical tests which are presented in the paper are rather limited; however, they allow us to draw some general conclusions.

W artykule omówiono i poddano analizie dwa źródłowe teksty Henryka Elzenberga dotyczące zagadnienia zależności i niezależności etyki od obrazu świata oraz sporu o zależność etyki od religii. Temat dyskutowany był w Polsce od połowy lat pięćdziesiątych. W tekstach Elzenberga poddany został precyzyjnej analizie semantycznej i realnej. Jej wynik pokazuje, że treść ocen i norm pochodnych, ich realność i uzasadnienie są zależne od obrazu świata, w którym oceny i normy funkcjonują. Zależność od obrazu świata ulega natomiast ograniczeniu w sferze ocen i norm podstawowych. Podobnie jest z zależnością etyki od religii. Religijny obraz świata wielorako wpływa na zakres podmiotowy i przedmiotowy etyki, jej strukturę, na świadomość mocy obowiązującej i siłę motywacyjną, ale nie ma wpływu na logiczne uzasadnienie etyki. Etyka poza religijnym obrazem świata jest możliwa. Elzenberg wypowiada się z pozycji intuicjonisty w teorii poznania moralnego i jest perfekcjonistą w podążaniu za tym, co poznane moralnie i etycznie ugruntowane. Odrzuca jednak nieścisłe twierdzenie o niezależności etyki od obrazu świata i religii w ogóle.

The paper discusses two characters of speculators as shown in two 19th century novels. Zola’s Aristide Saccard incarnates fever, chaos and prodigality of a provincial who has become a millionaire pursuing his dream of fortune. Guy de Maupassant’s William Andermatt is a banker whose extraordinary capacity of making money is based on rationalism, cold calculation and exceptional intuition. Despite all the differences, they both embody three basic features of a businessman: desire, will and power.

Despite great technological progress scientists still are not capable of ascertaining how many species are there on Earth. Systematic studies are not only time-consuming, but sometimes also significantly impeded by constraints of available equipment. One of the methods for morphology evaluation, which is gradually more often used for taxonomical research is microcomputed tomography. It’s great spatial resolution and ability to gather volumetric data during single acquisition without sectioning specimen are properties especially useful in evaluation of small invertebrates. Nondestructive nature of micro-CT gives possibility to combine it with other imaging techniques even for single specimen. Moreover, in case of rare organisms studies it allows to collect full structural data without fracturing their bodies. Application of proper staining, exposure parameters or specific sample preparation significantly improves quality of performed studies. The following article presents summary of current trends and possibilities of microtomography in morphology studies of small invertebrates.

The method that is proposed in the present paper is a special case of squared M split estimation. It concerns a direct estimation of the shift between the parameters of the functional models of geodetic observations. The shift in question may result from, for example, deformation of a geodetic network or other non-random disturbances that may influence coordinates of the network points. The paper also presents the example where such shift is identified with a phase displacement of a wave. The shift is estimated on the basis of wave observations and without any knowledge where such displacement took place. The estimates of the shift that are proposed in the paper are named Shift- M split estimators.

Wild boars use natural feed such as ground cover for about half a year. In this work the contamination of boar muscles with caesium-137 and contamination of ground cover were compared. The level of caesium- 137 was measured by spectromertic method. Muscle samples from total 86 wild boars were collected just after Chernobyl accident (years I 986-1988 and in years I 998-1999). The results of the studies indicate that there is a relationship between radiocontamination of the environment as well as muscles of wild boars. It seems that animals at large can be good indicators of radiocontamination of the environment.

In the paper presented have been the results of the analysis of effectiveness of operation of binary power plant consisting of combined two Clausius-Rankine cycles, namely the binary cycle with water as a working fluid in the upper cycle and organic substance as a working fluid in the lower cycle, as well as a single fluid component power plant operating also in line with the C-R cycle for superheated steam, with water as a working fluid. The influence of the parameters of superheated steam in the upper cycle has been assessed as well as the type of working fluid in the lower cycle. The results of calculations have been referred to the single-cycle classical steam power plant operating at the same parameters of superheated steam and the same mass flow rate of water circulating in both cycles. On the basis of accomplished analysis it has been shown that the binary power plant shows a greater power with respect to the reference power plant.

The article deals with the process of restoring life into the Elblag’s waterfront – located in the heart of the city, which is the Old Town with still forgotten Granary Island, both damaged by the second world war. The conclusions are inspired by publications about Elblag deriving from various periods, as well by international or students’ workshops. The author describes various considerations how to bring Granary Island into cultivation simultaneously with rebuilding Elblag’s Old Town, that derive from the conservation concept based on a new method named retroversion, how to create new panorama of the waterfront and what is the best way to integrate it with The Old Town, using Elblag River.

Ursula K. Le Guin was an American writer, a master of science fiction and fantasy. She was the author of the famous Earthsea trilogy, in which magic remains the pivotal idea. In the novels, Le Guin links immense, yet dangerous, supernatural abilities with the idea of Equlibrium within realms, a principle that governs the universe. The paper is an attempt to elucidate how certain visions of life after death are constellated within Le Guin’s fantasy writings. Visibly inspired by Eastern mythologies and religious doctrines, the author does not steer clear from the vision rooted in Western traditions. The ongoing debate is an attempt at clarifying the universal concept of soul and mankind.

The cognitive aim of this study is to point to the optimum number of local government units and the optimum boundaries of spatial units in Poland with the assumption of minimizing the cumulated theoretical travel time to all settlement units in the country. The methodological aim, in turn, is to present the use of the ArcGIS location-allocation tool for the purposes of delimitation processes as exemplified by administrative boundaries in Poland. The rationale for the implementation of this study is that number and the boundaries of units of all levels of Poland’s current territorial division are far from optimum in the light of minimization of accumulated theoretical travel time to all settlement units in the country. It may be concluded that it would be justifiable to increase the number of voivodships from the current number of 16 to 18. Besides it would be necessary to introduce modifications in relation to units with regional functions. In contrast, the number of districts and communes should be reduced. A continuation of this research may go in the direction of including analysis of public transport network in the research, creating in this way a multimodal set of network data. This would illustrate, apart from the potential itself resulting from the infrastructure, also the actually existing connections.

The authors presented problems related to utilization of exhaust gases of the gas turbine unit for production of electricity in an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power plant. The study shows that the thermal coupling of ORC cycle with a gas turbine unit improves the efficiency of the system. The undertaken analysis concerned four the so called "dry" organic fluids: benzene, cyclohexane, decane and toluene. The paper also presents the way how to improve thermal efficiency of Clausius-Rankine cycle in ORC power plant. This method depends on applying heat regeneration in ORC cycle, which involves pre-heating the organic fluid via vapour leaving the ORC turbine. As calculations showed this solution allows to considerably raise the thermal efficiency of Clausius-Rankine cycle.

Biogas plants processing municipal waste are very important investments from the point of view of waste management and also the sustainable development of urban infrastructures. They may also have a potentially negative impact on the environment in the form of odour emission. Olfactometry is the main method for odour impact assessment. Field olfactometry allows for performing a wide range of tests, the results of which are practically instantaneous. The purpose of this work is to provide a tool for assessing the odour impacts of municipal management facilities, including biogas plants processing municipal waste and evaluating the correctness of processes carried out in these plants, namely the method of field olfactometry. In order to compare obtained olfactometric results with the concentration of chemical compounds, chromatographic tests were also carried out using the Photovac Voyager portable chromatograph (hydrogen sulphide – H2S and dimethyl sulphide – (CH3)2S. The results of the odour concentration tests are in line with the results of odorant concentration tests and indicate that cod is strongly related to the concentration of hydrogen sulphide. Thanks to this method, it is possible to find a relationship between odour nuisance, technological processes used in the plant and the type of treated waste.

The basic tests that allow the mechanical properties of grained material to be evaluated are tests of an aggregate’s resistance to crushing - the Los Angeles coefficient, and resistance to abrasion - the micro-Deval coefficient. These parameters primarily depend on the physical and mechanical properties of the raw material from which they are produced. The available literature widely describes the relationship between these parameters and bulk density, porosity, ultrasonic wave velocity, compression strength, tensile strength and point strength. This paper presents the relationship between the mechanical properties of aggregates and their geometrical properties. The analysis was carried out for the relationship between the Los Angeles and micro- Deval coefficients and the flatness and shape indices. As a result of the conducted considerations, the influence of the aggregate assortment on the analysed coefficients was also noted. All of the tests were carried out for aggregates (arch stones and mixtures) produced from sandstones from the Magura, Cergo and Krosno layers.

In the paper presented are definitions of specific indicators of power which characterize the operation of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC) plant. These quantities have been presented as function of evaporation temperature for selected working fluids of ORC installation. In the paper presented also is the procedure for selection of working fluid with the view of obtaining maximum power. In the procedure of selection of working fluid the mentioned above indicators are of primary importance. In order to obtain maximum power there ought to be selected such working fluids which evaporate close to critical conditions. The value of this indicator increases when evaporation enthalpy decreases and it is known that the latent heat of evaporation decreases with temperature and reaches a value of zero at the critical point.

Anaerobic digestion residue represents a nutrient rich resource which, if applied back on land, can reduce the use of mineral fertilizers and improve soil fertility. However, dewatering and further thermal processing of digestate may be recommended in certain situations. Limited applicability of digestate as fertilizer may appear, especially in winter, during the vegetation period or in areas where advanced eutrophication of arable land and water bodies is developing. The use of digestate may be also governed by different laws depending on whether it is treated as fertilizer, sewage sludge or waste. The aim of this paper is to present the effects of thermal treatment of solid fraction of digestate by drying followed by pyrolysis and gasification. Pyrolysis was carried out at the temperature of about 500°C. During this process the composition of flammable gases was checked and their calorific value was assessed. Then, a comparative analysis of energy parameters of the digestate and the carbonizate was performed. Gasification of digestate was carried out at the temperature of about 850°C with use of CO2 as the gasifi cation agent. Gasification produced gas with higher calorific value than pyrolysis, but carbonizate from pyrolysis had good properties to be used as a solid fuel