With the improvement of the planning level of underground space, the location of the planned under-crossing tunnel can be known in advance when constructing the upper-span tunnel. Therefore, pre-protection measures can be taken in advance during the construction of the upper-span tunnel. A new pre-protection method of a pipe-jacking channel was proposed to reduce the adverse effects of under-crossing shield tunnels. Numerical simulations of different pre-protection schemes were carried out using the finite element method to analyze its deformation control effect. The simulation results show that the deformation control effect of the gantry reinforcement scheme is the most significant. It is shown that the displacement of the pipe-jacking channel is more significantly suppressed with pre-protection measures than without preventive protection measures. The vertical displacement curve of the pipe-jacking channel exhibits a “W” shape after the construction of the double-lane shield underpass. By comparing the three different working conditions, it is found that the maximum vertical displacement and surface settlement of the pipe-jacking channel greatly reduced the gantry reinforcement pre-protection. Compared with Case 3, the effect of the pre-protection measures adopted in Case 2 was less obvious, which indicated that the form of the pre-protection had an important influence on controlling the deformation of the pipe-jacking channel.

The fixed fleet heterogeneous open vehicle routing problem (HFFOVRP) is one of the most practical versions of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) defined because the use of rental vehicles reduces the cost of purchasing and routing for shipping companies nowadays. Also, applying a heterogeneous fleet is recommended due to the physical limitations of the streets and efforts to reduce the running costs of these companies. In this paper, a mixed-integer linear programming is proposed for HFFOVRP. Because this problem, like VRP, is related to NP-hard issues, it is not possible to use exact methods to solve real-world problems. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid algorithm based on the ant colony algorithm called MACO is presented. This algorithm uses only global updating pheromones for a more efficient search of feasible space and considers a minimum value for pheromones on the edges. Also, pheromones of some best solutions obtained so far are updated, based on the quality of the solutions at each iteration, and three local search algorithms are used for the intensification mechanism. This method was tested on several standard instances, and the results were compared with other algorithms. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than these methods in cost and CPU time. Besides, not only has the algorithm been able to improve the quality of the best-known solutions in nine cases but also the high-quality solutions are obtained for other instances.

Titania dioxide (TiO₂) layers were synthesized via the acid-catalysed sol-gel route using titania (IV) ethoxide, and then annealed at temperatures varying in the range of 150–700 °C. The research concerned the effect of annealing temperature on the structure of TiO₂ layers, their surface morphology, and their optical properties. Further, X-ray diffractometry, and Raman spectroscopy were used to determine the structure of TiO₂ layers. Scanning electron and atomic force microscopy were used to study the surface morphology of TiO₂ layers. Transmittance, reflectance, absorption edge, and optical homogeneity were investigated by UV-VIS spectrophotometry, while the refractive index and thicknesses of TiO₂ layers were measured using a monochromatic ellipsometer. Chromatic dispersion characteristics of the complex refractive index were determined using spectroscopic ellipsometry. Structural studies have shown that the TiO₂ layers annealed at temperatures up to 300 °C are amorphous, while those annealed at temperatures exceeding 300 °C are polycrystalline containing only anatase nanocrystals with sizes increasing from 6 to 20 nm with the increase of the annealing temperature. Investigations on the surface morphology of TiO₂ layers have shown that the surface roughness increases with the increase in annealing temperature. Spectrophotometric investigations have shown that TiO₂ layers are homogeneous and the width of the indirect optical band gap varies with annealing temperature from 3.53 eV to 3.73 eV.

On 28 March 2023, the first ESP EASAC meeting in 2023 took place in Budapest at the invitation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The broad and interesting range of issues addressed by Environmental Steering Panel should attract more interest also in Poland. Unfortunately, the activity in EASAC is pro publico bono, which is probably the main reason for the low activity of Polish scientists as experts invited to individual projects. Is the organisation referred to in this article credible? The answer is that, at the end of 2018, EASAC was awarded “Think Tank of the Year” by the prestigious Public Affairs Awards Europe. This shows that the activity is appreciated among professionals. I sincerely encourage anyone interested to find out more about what ESP EASAC is doing and to keep checking our activities.

Professor Michał Głowiński died September 29th, 2023. Polish science has lost a great humanist and writer. Text brings a little reminder of his biography, work and influence on the scientific community.

This short paper presents the activity and achievements of Professor Zenon Waszczyszyn, active member of Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Cracow University of Technology and Rzeszów University of Technology, doctor honoris causa of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, creator of scientific schools in the field of stability of engineering structures and mechanics of shell structures as well as in the field of computational intelligence methods, in particular artificial neural networks.

Na Uniwersytecie im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu od kilku lat bardzo aktywnie działa Szkoła Nestorów Nauki, zorganizowana i prowadzona przez dwoje uczonych profesora Kazimierza Przyszczypkowskiego i doktor Izabelę Cytlak. W tej niezwykłej instytucji prowadzone są systematycznie wykłady akademickie dojrzałych wiekiem uczonych o najwybitniejszych kompetencjach. Dotychczas organizatorzy Szkoły Kazimierz Przyszczypkowski i Izabela Cytlak przygotowali trzy tomy zbiorów wykładów wygłoszonych w tej Szkole (dwa pierwsze nazwano „Wykłady nestorów nauki”): Nestorzy nauki Uniwersytetowi, 2019; Uniwersytet. Wspólnota różnorodności i różnicy, 2021; Uniwersytet. Otwarte przestrzenie dyskursów, 2023 (wszystkie opublikowane przez Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM).
Wykłady nestorów nauki odbywają się co miesiąc, gromadząc około 200 uczestników – naukowców z różnych dziedzin i młodzież akademicką oraz są transmitowane i utrwalane na YouTube. Autor artykułu omawia i analizuje te książki zbiorowe na tle innych badań, studiów i debat interdyscyplinarnych. Dowodzi, że Szkoła Nestorów Nauki w Uniwersytecie im. Adama Mickiewicza jest unikatową w Polsce instytucją akademicką realizującą Humboldta ideę uniwersytetu.

Autorka artykułu analizuje wpływ twórczości Marcela Prousta na utwory dramatyczne Tennessee Williamsa, zwłaszcza na dramat Szklana menażeria, znany także z hollywoodzkiej wersji filmowej. W sztuce tej ważną rolę odgrywają Proustowskie motywy, takie jak czas, pamięć i jej mechanizmy. Podobnie jak Proust, Williams nie ukrywa w swoim utworze elementów autobiograficznych. W Szklanej menażerii zwraca również uwagę inspirowane powieścią Prousta wykorzystanie motywów muzycznych oraz doszukiwanie się podobieństw między bohaterami literackimi a postaciami z dzieł malarskich. Choć Proust nie pisał dramatów, a Williams nie zostawił po sobie żadnej powieści, to łączyła ich miłość do teatru i przekonanie, że wspomnienie jest swego rodzaju spektaklem, a scena to szczególnie odpowiednie miejsce, by opowiadać o przeszłości.

This article presents the results of a study on the process of creating evaluative homogeneity within the Polish performance-based research funding system. To achieve this, the creation process of the national journal ranking from 2019 was analysed in two scientific disciplines: biology and history. The selection of this case is motivated by its particular nature – the creation of the list using bibliometric indicators and expert input. Therefore, the following question was posed: What guided the actors participating in the process of creating the list using bibliometric indicators when introducing changes to its original form? To answer this question, mixed methods were applied. Firstly, a quantitative analysis was conducted on the changes introduced to the ranking during its various stages of creation. Secondly, a qualitative analysis was carried out on partially structured interviews regarding the motivations of the actors. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, the study revealed the extent to which actors influence the form that evaluative homogeneity takes within the Polish system. Through qualitative analysis and quantitative results, the study revealed the extent to which actors influence the form that evaluative homogeneity takes in the Polish system. Furthermore, the article argues that the form that evaluative homogeneity takes is dictated by how actors position themselves in relation to two opposing forces: heterogeneity and homogeneity, and the practice and form of research quality evaluation as seen through their prism. The text concludes with a short epilogue, updating the findings of the study beyond its time frame.

We present some university rankings, the differences between them and the role they can play in shaping the higher education landscape. We analyse the position of Polish universities in various rankings and suggest why the Polish economy makes little use of the output of Polish researchers.

In the article, we characterize the current and extremely serious problem of mass migration of people and indicate the necessary political actions that can alleviate it. The problem in question has increasingly dramatic consequences and has now reached proportions requiring decisive action. The basic suggestions are, on the one hand, the need to recognize the social situation in emigrants' homelands and offer these countries well-thought-out assistance, and, on the other hand, arrangements must be made on the part of the countries that are the destination of migration in order to develop a common and uniform policy, which is of special importance in countries of the European Union.

The article presents a number of comments regarding artificial intelligence (AI) that are not obvious to people who do not deal with this field on a daily basis. At the beginning, the name “artificial intelligence” itself and what it is are discussed. This is needed to follow the discussion on what this AI is. Then it was described how AI was created – in the world and in Poland. The consequences of the appearance of the Chat GPT program, as well as the principles of its operation, are also discussed. Due to the widespread interest in AI, controversial statements have also appeared, often coming from scientific authorities from areas of science far from computer science. There is a polemic against such statements in the section entitled “Weeds to weed out”. The article goes on to show that people have wanted AI since ancient times and describe what an intelligent avatar can do. It also presents what legal regulations are currently being tried to impose on AI systems – in the United States and in the European Union, respectively, and therefore also in Poland. Finally, the topic of mutual relations between AI and cybersecurity was discussed.

The number 1 aim of the paper is to note theoretical explanations of three facts: the remarkably rapid acceleration of the rate of growth of the per capita domestic product (GDP) in a small part of the world economy in the early 19th century, a strong stability of the per capita GDP growth rates in countries of that part since then, and a very strong divergence in the per capita GDP growth among the less developed countries. The number 2 aim is to note the probable implications of these explanations for the likely rate of global economic growth during this and next centuries.

The essay investigates issues related to the ways in which University participates in the complex and dramatically changing reality. The „melancholy” refers, on the one hand, to University’s irrevocable right and responsibility to ask difficult questions to which there may be no easy, immediate answers, which is the mode of University addressing urgent issues of actual social and cultural life. On the other hand, however, we have recently faced the authorities’ reluctant attitude towards scholarly activities which may not coincide with the ideological guidelines, which mistrust may result in the imposition of various limitations on research and funding allocations.

Structural biology is concerned with the three-dimensional atomic structure of the molecules of life, proteins and nucleic acids. It was born in mid-1950s with a visionary application of X-ray diffraction to structure determination of protein crystals, and for several decades “structural biology” and “protein crystallography” were synonymous. In the 1980s structural biology received new experimental support from NMR spectroscopy, but a true breakthrough occurred only recently, with the development of atomic-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo- EM), enabling direct visualization of macromolecular objects without the need of growing crystals. The Protein Data Bank (PDB) was created in 1971 with merely seven protein structures known. In mid-1990s the PDB entered an explosive growth phase, ignited by advances of biotechnological methods of protein production and, even more importantly, by widespread use of synchrotrons as extremely powerful X-ray sources. The technological advances did not stop there, and today we have on offer ever more powerful X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs), producing astronomically bright femtosecond X-ray pulses, which allow studying the structure of nanometer-sized crystals or even of single macromolecules. Thanks to all those methodological developments, the PDB holds today over 210,000 experimental macromolecular structures, many of which (such as those related to HIV or SARS-CoV-2) have fundamental importance for medicine as targets for rational drug design. In addition to innovative experimental methodology, structural biology has recently seen a huge progress of artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods of protein structure prediction, capable now of quite accurate divination of the three-dimensional structure for billions of protein sequences in very short time. However, those machine-learning algorithms, such as AlphaFold, recognize patterns that have been seen before, while for truly new sequences and for oligomeric proteins the prediction is still less than certain and needs experimental validation. It appears then that experimental structural biology is not quite dead yet and will remain the main source of reliable novel structural information for the foreseeable future.