The main reason behind the development of the International Safety Management Code was a series of tragic maritime accidents at the end of the twentieth century caused by human error. The ISM Code has introduced a brand new instrument, the safety management system (SMS), to the set of already existing legal devices, established to ensure safety during ship operation. Properly applied and implemented within the shipping company, SMS can be an advantage that will not only result in a measurable increase in the level of safety, but will also result in cost optimization and an increase in the company’s reputation. However, if an SMS is conceived without commitment and conviction on the part of the management, it will be only an empty and façade, bureaucratic procedure that will not only fail its purpose, but will also only be an additional burden for all staff. The following article will present the characteristics of SMS and its impact both on the broadly understood safety in the shipping company, and including vessels in its fleet, moreover the requirement of the efficiency of SMS procedures specified in shipboard manual for each vessel will be emphasized, which is the need to create a new safety culture.
Prof. Wojciech Burszta from the PAS Institute of Slavic Studies discusses what has remained of the ideals of the cultural revolution that took place in the 1960s.
In vitro test of antagonistic activity of culture filtrates from Trichoderma harzianum Rifai and Trichoderma pseudo-koningii Rifai strains against post-harvest pathogens of some fruits were investigated. The undiluted culture filtrates of the two Trichoderma species completely inhibited germination of conidia/spores of all the rot pathogens, but 50% dilution showed varying degree of inhibition of spore germination. T. pseudo-koningii culture filtrate had a rather moderate to strong inhibitory effect on mycelia of the pathogenic fungi. The highest per cent inhibition of 45.6% of mycelial growth was recorded for Aspergillus niger Tiegh.
A mathematical model of a hybrid culture system supported with a stationary layer of liquid perfluorochemical (PFC) as a source of O2 for cells which grow in the aqueous phase of culture medium has been developed and discussed. The two-substrate Monod kinetics without inhibition effects, i.e. the Tsao-Hanson equation, has been assumed to characterise the biomass growth. The Damköhler number which relates the growth rate to the mass transfer effects has been used to appraise the regime (i.e. diffusion-limited or kinetics) of the whole process. The proposed model predicted accurately previously published data on the submerged batch cultures of Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 heterotrophic cells performed in a culture system supported with a stationary layer of hydrophobic perfluorodecalin as a liquid O2 carrier. Estimated values of the parameters of the model showed that the process proceeded in the kinetics regime and the growth kinetics, not the effects of the mass transfer between aqueous phase and liquid PFC, had essential influence on the growth of biomass.
Fully synthetic, biochemically inert and water-immiscible liquid perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are recognised as flexible liquid carriers/scavengers of gaseous compounds (respiratory gases mainly, i.e. O2 and CO2) and increasingly applied in bioprocess engineering. A range of unmatched physicochemical properties of liquid PFCs, i.e. outstanding chemo- and thermostability, extremely low surface tension, simultaneous hydro- and lipophobicity, which result from carbon chain substitution with fluorine atoms (the most electronegative chemical element) and the presence of intramolecular C-F bonds (the strongest single bond known in organic chemistry) have been described in detail. Exceptional propensity to solubility of respiratory gases in liquid perfluorinated compounds has been widely discussed. Advantages and disadvantages of bioprocess applications of liquid PFCs in the form of a pure PFC as well as in an emulsified form have been pointed out. A liquid PFC-mediated mass transfer intensification in various types of microbial, plant cell and animal cell culture systems: from miniaturised microlitre-scale cultures, via biomaterial-based scaffolds containing culture systems, to litre-scale bioreactors, has been reviewed and elaborated on bearing in mind the benefits of bioprocesses.
Cell culture transplantation is very promising in the treatment of various diseases. Cells obtained from a number of sources have been analysed to provide a basis for further studies in the area of regenerative medicine. The objective of the study was to compare morphological and phenotypic changes in cat adipose tissue and bone marrow cell cultures from the first to fifth passages. Adipose tissue and bone marrow were used to obtain cell cultures (coming from 3 cats) using standard methods with own modification. Phenotype changes were monitored by CD-marker identification and CD pan-keratin. The cytogenetic analysis was performed on 50 metaphase plates of cell cultures from the first to fifth passage. Cytogenetic assays showed that the adipose tissue cell culture (ATCC) at all passages was more stable than the bone marrow cell culture (BMCC).
An efficient micropropagation system for Taraxacum pieninicum using seedling explants germinated in vitro is described. Shoot tips and fragments of cotyledons, hypocotyls and roots were isolated from several-day-old seedlings. The highest response, 100% frequency with 12.3 axillary shoots/explant, was from shoot tips on medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 BA and 0.05 mg L-1 NAA. In subsequent subcultures the number of shoots was significantly higher on all explants cultured on medium containing 0.25 and 0.5 mg L-1 BA, and the multiplication rate was highest (20 shoots/explant) in the 4th passage. Shoots rooted on MS and 1/2 MS medium; the highest rooting frequency was 90% and the highest number of roots 2.7/shoot. Rooted plants showed 96.2% survival in sterile soil:sand, and 100% survival in hydroponic culture. Regenerated plants flowered in the second year after acclimatization and yielded viable seeds. This protocol for obtaining complete plants through micropropagation may prove useful for conservation of the genetic resources of this and other endangered species
Dr. Naomi Mandel from Israel, one of this year’s fellows of the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies (PIASt), studies how culture informs technology and, vice-versa, how technology informs culture.
The phenomenon of publication, in the same year, of two books having identical titles, is enough to study the theory presented therein. Both books feature the notion of culture, which was broadly elaborated by both authors: Antonina Kłoskowska and Raymond Williams already in their earlier analyses. It turns out, however, that no matter the title of a book interesting to us, culture is tackled differently in both of them. Williams seems to keep using anthropological definition of culture, while Kłoskowska suggests sociological approach. A reflection on culture by the English academic has shaped the character of British cultural studies and their subsequent follow-ups around the world. A question arises, to what extent the sociological approach by Kłoskowska may give impetus to cultural research in Poland, especially when symbolic culture appears beyond the principle of autotelism.
The article presents results of the author’s bachelor thesis, which deals with detailed cataloguing and analysing of findings of so-called Scythian character in the Moravia in the late Early Iron Age period. The author based this article on catalogue from his thesis. Relevant analogies and typological assignments were studied for concerning every subject in the catalogue and on their basis there was made general chronological classification of each piece. The aim of this article is to present observations that resulted from a detailed evaluation, on its basis occurrence of the subjects of so-called Scythian origin in the Moravia were divided into three time horizons.
The focus of the article is the Vatin culture settlement at the site of Vinča-Belo Brdo in Northern Serbia. The general idea is that this settlement, whose existence was relatively short in time, benefited from being established by the Danube — a great connective factor in the world of the Middle Bronze Age. It shares many characteristics with the contemporary settlements in the southernmost part of the Carpathian basin, starting from the position in the vicinity of the Danube, at the places which had already been settled in prehistory, prior to the Middle Bronze Age. Not only do they have pottery style in common, but the wider repertoire of finds illustrating the material culture. What’s more, comparison of the material remains from Vinča with the neighbouring sites from the left Danube bank enlightens how the Vatin culture was integrated into a wider space of the Bronze Age cultures of the Carpathian basin, influencing the Balkans hinterland, too.
The Corded Ware culture societies inhabiting the Carpathian zone used various outcrops of flints to processing axes: Volhynian, Turonian (the Świeciechów and the Gościeradów types), Jurassic A and G-type, cretaceous K-type as well as siliceous marl and radiolarite. From the analysed area 81 axes associated with the Corded Ware culture are known. Most of them come from funeral sites — from grave pits or burial mounds. The predominance of the Volhynian flint is observable in the whole area to the east of Wisłok River, basins of the San River, and in the upper basins of the Tisza and Dniester Rivers. Axes from niche graves on the Rzeszów Foothills, where the Świeciechów flint prevails, are specific in this scope or raw materials distribution. Dispersion of flints can be used indirectly as basis for reconstructing movements of human groups using these raw materials, as well as determining directions of their interactions. It can be noticed that communities of the Corded Ware culture from the Dniester Basin resembled in this respect their counterparts from the Roztocze and the Sokal Ridge, while those from the Rzeszów Foothills shows connections both with the“Volhynian zone” and the Lesser Polish Małopolska Upland.
The study examined tyrosol glucosyltransferase activity and the efficiency of salidroside production in natural and transformed root cultures of Rhodiola kirilowii (Regel) Regel et Maximowicz. Neither enzyme activity nor salidroside accumulation were detected in natural and transformed root cultures maintained in media without tyrosol. To induce TGase activity in biotransformation reactions, tyrosol was added to natural and transformed root cultures on the day of inoculation. The first peak of TGase activity (0.23 U/μg) was detected on day 9 in natural root culture, accompanied by the highest salidroside content (15.79 mg/g d.w.), but TGase activity was highest (0.27 U/μg) on day 15. In transformed root culture, day 18 showed the highest TGase activity (0.15 U/μg), which coincided with the highest salidroside content (2.4 mg/g d.w.). Based on these results, tyrosol was added to the medium on the days of highest previously detected activity of TGase: day 15 for natural root cultures and day 18 for transformed root cultures. This strategy gave significantly higher yields of salidroside than in the cultures supplemented with tyrosol on the day of inoculation. In natural root culture, salidroside production reached 21.89 mg/g d.w., while precursor feeding in transformed root cultures caused a significant increase in salidroside accumulation to 7.55 mg/g d.w. In all treatments, salidroside production was lower in transformed than in natural root cultures.