The Dilemmas of the Kaliningrad Oblast Today. The Kaliningrad Oblast is a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea neighbouring with the EU countries of Poland and Lithuania. On one hand, the Oblast belongs to the Russian political, economic and defence area, and on the other, it is separated from other parts of the Russian Federation. This specific location affects the nature of the local economy, the dependence on import and a drive towards cooperating with countries abroad. The economic situation of the Kaliningrad Oblast is strictly related to the economic situation of the remaining parts of Russia. Kaliningrad is subject to principles established by the federal centre, and Moscow decides about the most important issues of the region. At the same time, the Oblast makes efforts to provide conditions for social and economic development comparable to the development standards of neighbouring countries. The residents of the Oblast can be characterised by a sense of own identity, their openness to Europe, as well as activeness and entrepreneurship as compared to other Russian citizens. The greatest number of military units in Russia cluster in Kaliningrad Oblast. This potential is continually strengthened with the progressing modernisation of Russian military forces. Small border traffic, initiated in July 21 between the Republic of Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of the RF, had a major impact on the animation, volume and the dynamics of cross-border relations and the promotion of Poland. In July 2016, the Polish side suspended the project.

The paper presents the possibilities of teaching a robot controller to perform operations of autonomous segregation of objects differing in features that can be identified using a vision system.Objects can be arranged freely on the robot scene also covered with others. In the learning phase, a robot operator presents the segregation method by moving subsequent objects held in a human hand, e.g. a red object to container A, a green object to container B, etc. The robot system, after recognizing the idea of segregation that is being done using the vision system, continues this work in an autonomous way, until all identified objects will be removed from robotic scene. There are no restrictions on the dimensions, shapes and placement of containers collecting segregated objects. The developed algorithms were verified on a test bench equipped with two modern robots KUKA LBR iiwa 14 R820.

The aim of the herein paper is to present the processes of managing science and technology

parks by means of indicating their essence, types and domains of activities. Moreover, the

attributes of these parks were emphasized in the context of the innovative processes. Pilot

research was conducted which concentrated on the institutionalization and functionality of

the science and technology parks which facilitated the formulation of conclusions relating

to the cooperation between enterprises, science and technology parks and the sphere of

science in terms of innovativeness.

After 1989 the cooperation between catholic theological departaments and the secular academies was standarized. The rules of cooperation between seminaries and theological departaments, existing either in ecclesiastical universities or in the state-controlled ones, were also circumscribed. The aim of this collaboration is to gain the academic degrees by the prospective priests.

The Author of an article recalls the legal rules, that regulate this cooperation and points the chances of it. Th anks to the collaboration, the seminary is raising academic qualifications of employees, and the students are being educated by the university standards.

The university gains an unique group of students, whose spiritual and moral formation, may be an example for a modern graduate in theology. Moreover, throughout affiliating seminaries to the theological departaments, the university has chance to benefit of the rich seminary archives and libraries, and to examine the great architectural, musical and painting treasures, concentrated in diocesancities.

In contrast to Antarctica, the Arctic was for a long time deprived of an adequate system of multilateral international scientific cooperation. That gap was filled in 1990 by the foundation of a non-governmental International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). In this article, the origin, structure, operation and perspectives of that Committee are presented.

Polish spatial data infrastructure dates back 2010, the year when the Spatial Information Infrastructure Act transposing INSPIRE Directive entered into force. The present study provides valuable insight into the current status of Polish spatial data infrastructure (PSDI) as well as lessons learnt from so far efforts in implementing the principles and provisions of the INSPIRE Directive. Particular respect is given to policy, interoperability of data as well as cooperation between actors involved in PSDI establishment and maintenance. Data managed by the Surveyor General (SG), perceived as a backbone of a spatial data infrastructure, are of special importance. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations for further developments are given to foster SDI implementation in Poland. Results of the analysis clearly show that Polish spatial data infrastructure is in line with INSPIRE, and in a half of way being fully operational.

Good practices in the creation of the Commune Revitalization Program – cooperation between the University of Adam Mickiewicz and the City of Kalisz, The entry of the Revitalization Act on November 18, 2015 enabled municipalities to efficiently plan and conduct the process of moving degraded areas out of the crisis. The Act introduced key regulations affecting the programming of revitalization in Poland. One of the most important instruments is the Municipal Revitalization Program. In order to be able to fully use the potential of this document, we should look for solutions that allow creating the most comprehensive solutions. One of the examples of such activities is cooperation between the university and the local government. Thanks to this combination of practical knowledge of officials with theoretical knowledge of academic experts, we can say that it is a project unique in the country. It is also unique due to the fact that spatial economy students who actively participated in the document creation process were included in the work. The aim of the work is to present the course of the cooperation process of the University of Adam Mickiewicz with the Office during the preparation of the Municipal Revitalization Program for the city of Kalisz and showing the role that the students included in the project played in this project

The analysis of changes in the mechanical properties of wooden mining cribs under the influence of different types of exploitation loads is the question for which deals with many domestic and abroad research centers deal with. High The high interest in this subject results from the increase of the conducted depth exploitation, which contributes to the increase in both the vertical pres-sure and the complexity of geological – mining conditions and in- the intensification of natural hazards. Another reason is the tendency of decreasing the thickness of the exploited ores deposits. Wooden crib support is used Both both in underground ore, hard coal and salt mining is used wooden crib support. Mining cribs with various configurations are especially useful for the reinforcement of excavations workings behind the front and for further strengthen of the crossings. In particular, additional reinforcement support in the form of wooden cribs (pile supporting), which shall be left empty or filled with waste rock is applied in the ore mining in places where found extended rooms or drifts are found or in places with degraded roof conditions, applies additional reinforcement support in the form of wooden cribs (pile supporting), which shall be left empty or filled with waste rock. During underground ex-ploitation is produced waste Waste rock, which comes from the access, prepar-atory excavations and from ongoing field of exploitation is produced during underground exploitation. In the case of the underground exploitation of cop-per ore, waste rock is used to fill voids after exploitation as rock stowing. It is also used for filling mining wooden cribs, as an artificial support and for harder transportation roads. This paper presents the results of the laboratory strength tests performed on models of four-point timber cribs, built with beams set horizontally, at the ge-ometrical scale of 1:10. In the laboratory research Research wooden cribs models with size 200 × 200 × 200 mm and 100 × 100 × 100 mm were used in the laboratory. The paper describes the maximum loading capacity of the cribs consisted consisting only of beams and filled with waste rocks. In addition, a vertical and appropriate strain of cribs at maximum force was shown. On the basis of laboratory research it was found that the use of the same number of timbers and the management of waste rocks, the filling of the four-point cribs with the waste rocks allowed several times to increase its support to be increased several times.

The paper presents the long-term project “Online Dictionary of Surnames in Germany” (“Digitales Familiennamenwörterbuch, DFD”), its conception, main objectives, and its technical realisation. By means of representative examples, the paper depicts how the project works along the categories of conflation, validation, specification or revision of etymologies so far proposed in standard references and the development of new ones. Exploiting new digital resources — especially with the help of new findings in surname geography, the surname stock can be captured and analysed all-encompassing and systematically.

Surnames of foreign origin like English, French, Italian, Slavic, Baltic or Turkish are also considered. The importance of Slavic roots in German surnames is exemplified by the name Novak (‛new settler’) which ranks position 156 in the total frequency of German surnames. The article’s outlook discusses the importance and possibilities for future cooperation with surname projects in other countries like Poland, with a long-term perspective for a European network of surname dictionaries.

For a considerable period of time, we lived under conditions in which we paid little heed to the state of our security in its various aspects: military, economic, social, or health-related.

Over the past two decades, Polish higher education institutions and research institutes have made significant progress in internationalizing their activity. Likewise, the Polish Academy of Sciences has taken many steps to boost the collaboration between the PAS researchers and their partners abroad.

In this article, Svalbard was presented as place and object of intensive scientific research, carried on under the rule of the 1920 Spitsbergen Treaty, which has transformed the archipelago into a unique political and legal entity, having no counterpart anywhere else in the world. Scientific activities in Svalbard are carried out within an uncommon legal framework, shaped by a body of instruments both of international law and domestic laws of Norway, as well as other countries concerned, while the Spitsbergen Treaty, in despite of its advanced age of 75 years, still remains a workable international instrument, fundamental to the maintenance of law and order within the whole Arctic region. In 1995 two important for Svalbard anniversaries were noted: on 9 February, 75 years of the signing of the Spitsbegren Treaty and on 14 August, 70 years of the Norwegian rule over the archipelago.

According to European Bison Pedigree Book, wisent population in Poland by the end of 2016 counted 1698 individuals, including 1455 animals in freedom. Therefore in Poland, live over 25% of presently living wisents, i.e. the largest population of this species in the world. Next to our state borders, there are free ranging populations in Belarus – Białowieska Forest about 480 individuals, in Ukraine – National Park Beskyd Skolyvski – 33, and Slovakia – National Park Poloniny – 27 wisents. Planned is the establishment of new transboundary populations at Landscape Park of Lower Oder River Valley, at Romincka, and Augustowska Forests. In many places where transboundary populations already exist or are planned, their potential joint home ranges are divided by anthro-pogenic (fencing – Ukraine, Belarus) or natural barriers (Oder River – Germany). The basic prob-lem for creating such populations will be either elimination of such barriers or introduction of passages allowing for animals' movements. Benefits provided by transboundary populations are: larger area of available habitats, a possi-bility for the maintenance of larger populations, and a chance for mitigation of isolation among particular herds. However possible problems include: more difficult population management due to differences in formal status of the species in particular countries, complicated budgeting of costs connected with maintenance of such herds and compensation of damages, and a possibility for a transmission of infectious diseases, not occurring at territory of one of neighbouring countries. Therefore, creation of transboundary populations of wisents is desirable regarding the possibility of extension of their home ranges and increase of effective numbers. Effectiveness of such initiatives will however depend upon a possibility for stable international agreements and routine coopera-tion. Very important is an establishment of an uniform formal status of this species in Europe or at last in EU member countries.

The judgments delivered by the European Court of Human Rights in Al-Nashiri v. Poland and Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) v. Poland highlight the potential tension that may arise between states’ broad reliance on national security grounds to withhold disclosure of secret files and compliance with their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. The present article examines the above-mentioned judgments, focusing, in particular, on how (and to what extent) the withholding of secret information may infringe on the right to the truth and, as far as proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights are concerned, the state’s duty to cooperate with it.

We consider fiscal and monetary policy interactions in a monetary unionunder monetary leadership, when the common central bank is concerned with theaverage fiscal stance of the union. We use a static two-country monetary unionmodel to investigate the policy-mix problem under different regimes of non-cooperation, cooperation, and enforced cooperation among fiscal authorities.We find that fiscal policy is unambiguously countercyclical, a feature that ismore pronounced under fiscal policy cooperation. Monetary policy can be eithercountercyclical or procyclical. A central bank concerned about the aggregatefiscal stance is effective in stabilizing output and central budget, but at theexpense of inflation stabilization.

Self-fulfilling prophecy is seen as an important phenomenon linking social perception with social interaction, being in line with the assumption that conviction creates reality. The adoption of such a perspective upgrades the rank of expectations, which being in control of human behaviour, permeate all areas of people’s activity. Within the area of interpersonal interaction, its participants either perceive what is expected of them or make assumptions about expectations on the basis of behaviour which is directed towards them. Following this lead, and referring to the possibility of co-operation between teachers and parents, we are confronted with a question whether within the anticipated interaction parents may cope as well, or as badly as it is expected of them by teachers. This article attempts to answer this question as well as to analyse the relationships between teachers and parents through the prism of the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy, bearing in mind that the phenomenon itself consists of extremely complex interaction of cognitive and behavioural factors.

Local development, based on the use of endogenous potentials, requires the cooperation of muni-cipalities in urban functional areas (agglomerations). However, conducting joint activities in the area of building and running local development policy is a serious challenge. On the one hand, there is a shortage of experience in this area (not counting the short period of functio-ning municipal unions in the years 1920-1939 and intentional inter-communal relations after 1990). In addition, there are still no legal solutions needed (in addition to the act passed in 2017 for the metropolis of Silesia and Zagłębie). In recent years, however, projects of integra-ted territorial investments and other project partnerships have been implemented under the European Union and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism Programs, which result in prac-tical conclusions and legislative recommendations. The most important of them concern the introduction of a new form of partner cooperation and the adoption of a new urban code. Their quick implementation will enable more eff ective cooperation for development.

Mineral markets, in spite of many common features with other goods markets, are distinctive. Their functioning sometimes deviates from the rules of the free market. This feature results from the specificity of acquiring the good being an object of trade. In general, changes in the supply of strategic raw materials are indicated earlier (characterized by a lengthy investment cycle from deposit reconnaissance to mining development), develop slowly, andare inelastic. Demand for common mineral raw materials often has a clear and economic character. However, mineral markets as well as markets of other goods have a common feature - the fact that both are a place where an incessant game is being played. In general, two types of strategic behaviours are distinguished: competition or cooperation. This paper recalls an existing model known as the oil market game. Based on a three-entity market of aggregate producers, an attempt has been made to model entrepreneurs' behaviour. The analysis applies n-person game theory. Game theory enables the evaluation of diverse potential coalitions forming. Possible strategies of activity coming from the prospect of cooperation (or its omission) are presented. Expected payoffs are estimated for possible alliances. Proposals for the division of the payoffs among the participants forming the coalition are also suggested.

For many years, the Polish Academy of Sciences has been undertaking activities aimed at increasing the international importance of Polish scientific research by establishing cooperation with international scientific institutions and supporting the participation of Polish scientists in international research programs. Currently, the Polish Academy of Sciences has six scientific centers abroad – in Paris, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Brussels and Kiev. These institutions have different origins. The oldest ones, in Rome and Paris, continue the tradition of Polish emigration from the 19th century. These traditions are also referred to by the much younger station in Vienna, which to some extent has continued the activities of Polish diaspora organizations operating in this area since the beginning of the 20th century. The centers in Berlin and Kiev are relatively young. The first was established in 1996 as the Representation of the German Academic Exchange Service and transformed in 2006 into the Historical Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The youngest of the centers has been operating in Kiev since 2013 under the name of the Representation “Polish Academy of Sciences” in Kiev. The Office for the Promotion of Science PolSCA in Brussels, established in 2006, has a different character. Due to its location, the specificity of this facility consists in developing scientific and scientific-technical cooperation through the promotion and expert support of Polish partners in the framework programs of the European Union. The activities of these institutions emphasize the presence of science, culture and intellectual achievements of Poland in the European research area, which is important for building the image of our country abroad. The Polish Academy of Sciences scientific centers are therefore a kind of scientific attaché of the Republic of Poland, the more so as Polish embassies in these six countries do not have such an attaché. The article analyzes the administrative, financial and legal conditions of the station's operation and the expectations towards their substantive activity from the point of view of the Academy's management.

In the last decades borderlands studies have been rapidly developing in various disciplines. Within the changing function of European borders (from separating line between two souvereign states to borderscapes of intercultural flows and fluid identity) the focus of border scholars moved towards social relations and bottom-up perspective. Thus, borderlands are perceived as laboratories of European integration and multicultural spaces. For the aim of this article, borderlands are defined as spaces located on the geographical border between different states, nations and cultures that are objects of European Union cohesion policy. By analysing the Eurobarometer survey on cross-border cooperation I try to demonstrate differences between border regions covered by the Interreg cross-border cooperation programmes in terms of cross-border practices, general trust in others and attitudes towards citizens of neighbouring countries.

The article presents conclusions from research on changes in the practice of creating knowledge in the social sciences and humanities, resulting from research cooperation with the socio-economic environment. The research focused primarily on the impact of such collaboration on the advancement of scientific knowledge in these fields. The theoretical framework adopted in the analysis is the concept of science as an autopoietic, social system, derived from the sociological theory of Niklas Luhmann (presented in his Die Wissenschaft der Gesellschaft, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1990).
According to the results of the study, the cooperation of the science system with other social subsystems in its environment significantly affects both the practices of creating knowledge and its ultimate character. Such knowledge, under certain conditions, can become an element of scientific communication, but there are some limitations that are associated with differentthat rationalities of cooperating subsystems. An important barrier is the subordination of the research process to the needs of external systems, which, combined with the high selectivity of the science system, means that knowledge generated in cooperation, mainly of an operational nature, is not accepted by the science system. However, there is a great potential for this type of practice because the knowledge thus generated, after an appropriate translation into the system code of science and embedding it in its wider context, can significantly enrich it, among others, with otherwise inaccessible empirical data and different points of view that may become a basis for further scientific research. Research shows that for many representatives of the social sciences and humanities this potential is effectively used.

The article presents aspects of the legal characterization and regulation of the natural resource’s treatment that are under the joint tenancy of two or more states. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by that fact that shows the aspects of international interaction and the formation of the practice of legislative regulation of the use of natural resources, not only in the field of state and legal regulation but also within the context of private-public partnership. The relevance is determined by the fact that the main problem of the development of energy resources is an opportunity to determine and accordingly implement certain provisions for international business enterprises. The purpose of this article is to study the question of how representatives of international business can implement projects for the extraction of natural resources across boundary areas and under various conditions within the framework of cross-border cooperation. In the work, the methods of mathematical statistics, historical and legal methods were used. A three-level model was presented. This model determines the possibility of ensuring cooperation, then it forms its legal and regulatory framework and then determines instruments of an economic and legal nature that can be implemented in this field. The final point of the model is the finding of opportunities for investing in the development of natural energy resources on a parity basis, as well as the formation of an integrated environment that determines the possibility of integrating the subjects of international business into the economic environment of the state.

The Author discusses the present state of Polish geography against the background of the traditional position, and the rapid development taking place after the Second World War. The introduction of new methods and new directions, as well as new organization are considered to have been reflected in the rising international position of Polish geography. Further topics here include the relationship between physical and human geography, the growing de facto separation of these two branches, and the development of several independent sciences rooted in geography but now existing apart from it (like geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, etc. on the physical geography side, with the element of the environment as a subject of study). On the other hand, social economic geography examines the effects of human activity in the environment, thereby synthesizing spatial management and bridging the gap between the earth sciences, the economy and the social sciences. The degradation of environmental resources, explosion of the human population and climate change have all forced geography (and other sciences) to head in the global direction, as well as towards interdisciplinary cooperation, likewise on the level of the world as a whole. If we are to meet the challenges this all entails, we will need to think about creating interdisciplinary problem teams, as well as activating existing organisational structures in science (notably the geographical sciences), with full benefit taken from research centres that run studies on differing spatial scales, in conjunction with international global programmes like the Future Earth. The geography of the future should not be a closed science, but should draw on the knowledge of scholars of various specialisations, seeking environmental solutions that require intervention on both the global and regional scales. Polish geography should participate in this activity, inter alia as part of Future Earth, as a new venture. It can also be regarded as our task to ensure that society is aware of all the above issues.

The environment in general and the marine environment in particular forms an ecosystem. Such ecosystem is characterized by high interconnectivity and interdepen-dence of species inhabiting it. Often enough, marine ecosystems far exceed the limits of the State’s sovereignty. Thus, their effective protection and preservation shall be carried out on a cooperative basis, engaging all States sharing common environment. The first international treaty to tackle the issue of marine environmental protection on a systemic basis is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is also a treaty which directly established an obligation to cooperate in ensuring this protection. However, homogenous international regulation is not capable of addressing regional varying circumstances of marine environment. As the example of the South China Sea shows, lack of cooperation between coastal States can result in an irreversible damage to the environment. On the other hand, a remarkable model of effective realization of the obligation to cooperate has been established in the region of the Baltic Sea. What we can learn from these experiences is that fulfillment of the obligation to cooperate on a re-gional basis is a prerequisite for effective protection and preservation of the marine environment.