Electronic reverse auctions (e-RAs) are considered to be an effective tool for negotiating tender prices and achieving cost savings. Furthermore, if multicritera evaluation is used, it can be expected that e-RAs will also contribute to achieving benefits in other areas, e.g. helping to minimize life-cycle costs. This study aims to analyse the mutual relationships between selected e-RA variables. More specifically, correlation analysis is applied to explore real e-RA data representing public tenders for construction work. This study’s findings reveal that the correlations examined are generally weak or very weak. Furthermore, it has been found that the value of correlation coefficients varies depending on the type of structure, and that public tenders are usually evaluated solely on the basis of the criterion of the lowest bid price. Recommendations for public authorities in using e-RAs in the role of the buyer are also provided at the end of this paper.

The paper aims at proposing a contemporary typology of factors building attractiveness and competitiveness of cities. The notions of urban attractiveness and urban competitiveness have been covered in literature for many years. As such the authors approached specification of the current factors, in the way they are understood by relevant representatives of researchers and territorial authorities. The A&K [standing for Polish: Atrakcyjność & Konkurencyjność] Model is presented in the paper and a typology is derived upon it.

The smart city concept is becoming more and more popular as a direction for further development of cities in the European Union.

The main goal of the article is to determine the relationship between the concept of a smart city and the competitiveness of a modern city, understood as a standard of living of city’s inhabitants. The research method is a case study, based on a selected example of the city of Mannheim in Germany.

The author assumes that the results of the research, in addition to the contribution to the still developing knowledge on smart cities, will be able to fulfill the practical task – support the development and increase of competitiveness of contemporary Polish cities.

The article deals with the contemporary translation of Tadeusz Różewicz’s poems into Russian. Regardless of the fact that some of his poetry had already been translated and published, new times and new readers need new translations. The considerations presented in the article refer precisely to them. Taken into account were primarily the translations of a generation of contemporary translators for an international competition on the translation of Różewicz’s poems, announced in 2013 by the foundation ‘For your freedom and ours’. The translations of three poems by the Polish poet have been considered: Words, In the light of flickering lamps and Such is the master, works frequently chosen by the winners of the said competition. In particular the analysis regards the saturation of the poems with cultural realities and inter-textual elements. Therefore, comments and some translators’ notes accompanying the translations were taken into account, ones defining their approach to the translation and the translated text itself. The considerations confirmed the need to activate the cognitive function of translation in modern translations – the purpose of the mentioned comments – but also to pay attention to the problems of translating free verse into Russian.

Ozonation is a heterogeneous process of chemical absorption often controlled by a gas-liquid mass transfer rate. This paper presents the results of kinetics in a reaction between phenylphenol isomers and ozone. The degradation of phenylphenol isomers during ozonation proceeds quite fast. In order to avoid the influence of mass transfer limitation the kinetics experiments were conducted in a homogenous liquid-liquid system. The second-order rate constants were determined using classical and competition methods, which are especially recommended for fast reactions. The determined rate constants at pH 2 using the two different methods are almost the same. The increase of pH causes an increase of rate constants for the reaction of phenylphenol isomers with ozone.

Coagulation and solidification of the copper droplets suspend in the liquid slag are usually accompanied by the appearance of the Cu-Cu2O eutectic. Locally, this eutectic is created in the stationary state. Therefore, frequently it has a directional morphology. Since the E = (Zn) + Zn16Ti – eutectic is similar in the asymmetry of the phase diagram to the Cu-Cu2O – eutectic, the (Zn) single crystal strengthened by the E = (Zn) + Zn16Ti precipitate is subjected to directional growth by the Bridgman’s system and current analysis. Experimentally, the strengthening layers (stripes) are generated periodically in the (Zn) – single crystal as a result of the cyclical course of precipitation which accompanies the directional solidification. These layers evince diversified eutectic morphologies like irregular rods, regular lamellae, and regular rods. The L – shape rods of the Zn16Ti – intermetallic compound appear within the first range of the growth rates when the irregular eutectic structure is formed. Next, the branched rods transform into regular rods and subsequently the regular rods into regular lamellae transitions can be recorded. The regular lamellae exist only within a certain range of growth rates. Finally, the regular rods re-appear at some elevated growth rates. The entropy production per unit time and unit volume is calculated for the regular eutectic growth. It will allow to formulate the entropy production per unit time for both eutectic structure: rod-like and lamellar one.

We are observing an increase in development activity of the cities with poviat rights nowadays. It is visible especially in the area of obtaining European funds, financial policy, infrastructure or entrepreneurship. Those matters, especially experience of cities with poviat rights as the main beneficiaries became an interesting research area now. The aim of the article is to assess the competitiveness and development level of the cities with poviat rights in voivodships of Eastern Poland. For the purposes of this article, a synthetic measure has been used. Taking into account the availability and comparability of data as well as statistical criteria, the variables describing: financial situation, economy and infrastructure in the system of cities with poviat rights in voivodships of Eastern Poland were adopted. Data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office for 2008, 2012 and 2016 were the main source of the article.

The article presents a structured approach to the attractiveness and competitiveness of Polish regions in the context of selected international experiences.

The author of the article is aimed at reconstructing the concept of academic freedom as a base of university existence, regarding both its didactic and research function. The author takes into account various definitions of academic freedom and analyzes areas and dimensions, especially its institutional (university) and individual (professor) level. He reconstructs also controversies which are exposed in discussions on academic freedom and arguments regarding its limitations. He considers the phenomenon of actuarial policy and various forms of academic competition. He puts question: does the concept of academic freedom can be still vivid in the time of growing commercialization of didactits and research functions of contemporary university as well as its growing dependance on economy and politics?

The awareness of the growing importance of the complexity in creating a new type of a modern enterprise strategy and in introducing changes within planning, control and organizational structures contributed to undertaking studies on relationships occurring between the complexity of a modern enterprise and its flexibility in the sector of industrial automation, as well as filling the gap relating to the cognitive impact of poor complexity management on the flexibility of the company. The main objective of the research work is to check whether there is an important relationship between the complexity of the business and its flexibility in the industrial automation sector. Quantification of the relationship between these two quantities – the complexity and flexibility – happened by the use of the Multidimensional Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Perceptual Maps. The study which has been carried out indicated that the flexibility and complexity functions in the enterprise management rise, however, the knowledge of these issues is highly insufficient. The research discovered that the obstacles which hamper striking a balance between the flexibility and complexity in their advanced stages exert a devastating impact on the quality of the process management. Reducing the flexibility at its higher levels generates a context in which the market risk is enhanced. Companies characterised by improper flexibility management bear higher workforce costs and their processes of decision-making last longer. Methodical and systematized study of flexibility and complexity will decrease the destructive influence of the interaction between these two categories.

Post-industrial areas are an area of concentration, penetration and shaping the economic, social and environmental zone. The strategic goal of transforming post-industrial areas should be to obtain a new, dynamic and favorable state of equilibrium for a given area, as well as its surroundings after cessation of operations. The purpose of the article is to indicate the possibility of adaptation of post-industrial areas, especially after exploitation of the mineral, to perform new functions. The direction and the purpose of the recultivation and planning actions to a large extent may be influenced by specific social and economic conditions affecting the competitiveness of each and individually treated fragment of space.

In accordance with the principles of conducting revitalization activities specified in the Revitalization Act in force from 9 October 2015 and horizontal guidelines for revitalization in operational programs for 2014-2020, the preparatory phase of the revitalization process should include multi-layered analyzes concluded with deductions included in communal urban regeneration programs. The article describes the role of student architectural and urban competitions performed in cooperation between municipalities and universities as innovative analytical and conceptual activities that could form the basis for specifying recommendations in revitalization strategies planned by a given municipality. The infl uence of the student competitions’ results on the development of the city revitalization strategy is presented on grounds of periodic competitions organized at the Faculty of Architecture of the Gdańsk University of Technology in cooperation with the Department of Plans and Marketing of the City Hall of the City of Gdańsk.

The paper indicates the signifi cance of the development policy territorialization for an enhancing competitiveness of cities and regions. The characteristics of such a policy allow revealing of the nature of territorial instruments. The authors, referring to their consulting practice and the research work done for the Ministry of Development, frame their recommendations. Those recommendations constitute the guidelines for amendment of territorial instruments in the context of National Regional Development Strategy actualization.

The paper investigates the competitiveness of the Polish hard coal mining sector as a fuel source for heat and power generation. The main objective of the study is to make a quantitative assessment of the impact of the price relationship between domestic and imported steam coal on the consumption of domestic fine coal in the Polish heat and power generation sector. For this purpose, a long-term mathematical model of the Polish steam coal market is employed and scenarios that mimic the relationship between domestic and imported steam coal prices is developed. The following results are analysed:

- the volume of total domestic steam coal consumption under the scenarios analysed,

- the absolute difference in domestic steam coal consumption under the scenarios analysed in comparison with the scenario 0%,

- the total imported and domestic steam coal consumption in the period analysed.

In addition, the results were depicted in cartograms in order to present the distribution of domestic and imported coal consumption in the various regions of Poland.

The results of the study indicate that the supply of steam coal in Poland can be completely covered by domestic mines when the price of domestic coal is from –40% to –20% lower than that of imported coal. For the remaining scenarios, the consumption of imported coal increases and reaches its highest value in the scenario +40%, in which imported coal covered of 71% of total steam coal consumption in Poland over the period.

The conclusions presented in this paper provide valuable findings and policy insights into the competitiveness of domestic mines and management of domestic production both in Poland and other countries in which power generation systems are mostly dominated by coal.

Southern elephant male seals (Mirounga leonina Linnaeus, 1758) were studied at King George Island (62°14´S, 58°40´W) from September to December 1999. The first males came ashore at the beginning of September. Twenty-five adults were immobilized, hot iron branded, and measured. Thirteen out of the 25 marked males spent an average of 66 (+/-8) days on land. Early arrival was positively correlated with the time spent ashore (r = 0.88, P < 0.05). Nine harems were formed in the study area. At the maximum haul-out of females (28 October) mean harem size was 32ą42 females (range 3–107). During the course of harem development, 10 changes in male harem dominance were observed. These changes were more frequent during the early (1–20 October, n = 6) than during the mid (21 October – 10 November, n = 2) and late (11–29 November, n = 2) periods of harem development. Overall, there were 14 dominant males; five of these in two different harems and nine in one harem. Of the 25 marked males, 44% were resighted in the following breeding or moulting season, and 16% seemed to improve their potential breeding success.

The article indicates the potential of revitalization activities in the process of building the image of the city, associated also with its “brand”. It shows the role of city-marketing to create a city product, connected to the development of the cultural industries and the urban tourism. The article indicates common areas between the revitalization process and the creating the city brand, focusing on Gdańsk. Two main documents are taken into account: Brand Strategy Gdańsk until 2013 and Program for the development and promotion of the product off er of Gdańsk and the region in the 2014-2020 perspective. The article shows different types of revitalization activities aff ecting the image of Gdańsk, including: the spectacular investments in postindustrial areas, as well as residents’ and independent organizations’ activities, aiming to transform and to promote neglected, but valuable, areas of the city.

Recent works of the authors, concerning the future of urban regions, are synthesised in the paper. Three methodological paths – focused on exploring and creating the future of urban regions – are the backbone of the presented work. Within the fi rst path, creation of regional future by applying the concept of intellectual and strategic challenges is recommended. Second path introduces a new perspective for the future, based upon vehicles. A new philosophy of urban and regional growth emerges here. Third path is a new approach towards creation of regional specialisations in a contemporary notion of technological and creative economy.