Artykuł prezentuje hipotezę, iż istotnym współczesnym wyzwaniem dla polskiej społeczności akademickiej jest punktoza, rozumiana jako wartość kulturowa, wskazująca, iż jednym z najważniejszych celów pracy naukowej jest publikowanie i zdobywanie punktów za publikacje naukowe. Jako element systemu aksjo-normatywnego stanowi ona regułę wyznaczającą normy i kształtującą zachowania akademików, mając przy tym szereg niezamierzonych negatywnych konsekwencji. Punktoza przyczynia się do rozwoju systemów parametrycznej oceny pracowników naukowych, które utożsamiają indywidualny poziom naukowy z miejscem publikacji, generując nietrafne i nierzetelne oceny pracy badawczej. Punktoza może negatywnie wpływać na zdrowie naukowców, obniża jakość prowadzonych badań i nie zwiększa, wbrew intuicyjnym oczekiwaniom, motywacji do podnoszenia poziomu naukowego. Poprawa jakości nauki nie nastąpi przez zmienianie zasad ewaluacji działalności naukowej, ale jedynie poprzez zmianę leżącej u podłoża tych zasad wartości kulturowej, wskazującej publikacje w określonych miejscach jako cel pracy naukowej.

Planning a construction project, the investor frequently faces the choice of the option of the planned investment. Assessment of options is difficult due to the complex nature of construction projects. Various methods of multicriteria evaluation are successfully applied in the assessment and analysis of options. For those methods to work, a handful of information must be prepared beforehand. Among others, it is necessary to establish the assessment criteria and determine their weight for specific cases. This stage is implemented in cooperation with experts. The results of evaluations, obtained on the basis of the experts' opinions, must be processed and prepared. The paper will discuss one possible option for assessing the experts' opinion.

This paper analyses multi-criteria methods for assessing sustainable buildings and their impact on the ecological quality of the built environment. The aim is to define assessment standards in multi-criteria methods and to demonstrate that civil structures designed and built in accordance with established standards and procedures increase the ecological value of the built environment and the comfort of the inhabitants within it. The methods chosen for the analysis were mainly those enjoying the greatest prestige among users, planners, designers and investors. Selected methods were analysed and verified to propose the author’s building assessment model and verification thereof in the design process on the example of the presented projects. The building assessment methods analysed were shown to have a positive impact on the design process and the environmental quality of the built environment. Quality improvement takes place through: pro-environmental land use, improved energy and water efficiency, improved efficiency in the use of materials and resources, preference for local materials and technologies, preference for eco-innovation, increased comfort for users and residents and their participation in the design and evaluation process of the built environment.
A complementary objective is to promote knowledge of sustainable design methodologies that can result in the creation of environmentally friendly architecture that influences the quality of the residential environment and the comfort of residents.

The article presents the main functions of aesthetic values (beauty, simplicity, symmetry) in the process of formulating, evaluating and accepting scientific theories in the work of physicist: 1) they motivate to undertake scientific research; (2) have a heuristic role which enables the direction of the search for a new theory to be selected; (3) are a criterion for choosing between empirically equivalent theories in the absence of empirical evidences and (4) sometimes constitute an epistemological obstacle. The basic thesis of the work is that aesthetic values, in addition to positive functions, also play a negative role in science, hindering the acceptance of new theories or leading to inefficient research. Too much weight on the aesthetic side of theory can pose a threat to the objectivity of scientific cognition.

The paper presents the characteristics of the attitude that students have towards electric cars and the significance of distinguished attitude elements in creating interest in the purchase of such vehicles. Electric cars are the new type of vehicles that have an electric motor and use the electricity stored in batteries. They are introduced to the market, but for various reasons the volume of sales is not high. So far, it is not sufficiently known how electric vehicles are assessed by Poles. The presented research is an attempt to know what the attitude towards this type of vehicle. The attitude model tested in this research includes three areas: knowledge about them, emotions that they evoke and potential behaviors. The participants were students of Rzeszów University of Technology – a group of young people who are potential consumers of new technologies. The obtained results indicate that electric cars are rather unknown. At the same time, they arouse great interest and their image is very positive. The attitude characteristics towards this type of vehicle is supplemented by perceived limitations: too high of a purchase price, lack of sufficient information about them and unsatisfactory technical parameters, mainly the long time needed to recharge the battery and the insufficiently long distance with one recharge. The interest in the purchase is dependent on positive emotions, and the lack of sufficient information is an obstacle in thinking about buying such a vehicle. Understanding the attitudes of Polish students towards electric cars can be helpful in adapting information about such cars to potential customers, which in turn may affect the level of interest and sales volume.

A village on the outskirts of a city. An analysis and assessment of the west part of Inowrocław for the purposes of spatial planning, The article presents results of a research concerning the landscape of the west part of Uzdrowisko Inowrocław which is characterized by a rural origin and physiognomy, despite being located in the city. The goal of the paper was to identify the resources of that landscape, determine the pace of its transformation, its value, and indicate the possible directions of development. The research consisted in a landscape diagnosis concerning physiognomy aspects in various dimensions (composition, panoramic, and planning), taking advantage of methods used in landscape architecture and urban design. The execution allowed to formulate guidelines concerning the protection and formation of the researched landscape. The goal was also to determine the usefulness of the used model of research proceedings in practice, including indicating the possibilities of implementing the identified results in spatial planning on a local scale. The work has a case study character which conclusions may be helpful in analyzing similar areas and their landscapes.

The research of development capabilities is a fundamental of strategic issues, which has to be taken into consideration by coal mines. This is particularly difficult in the current environment, which is determined by its crisis situation. In such conditions, it is necessary to take difficult decisions, and serious, strategic challenges into account, which allow for the crisis to be overcome, for the renewal and economic effectiveness of the operation of these coal mines, which have potential to grow, and closing the coal mines, which have not potential to grow. Due to the effects of such decisions, which concern not only coal mines but also the Silesian region, it is essential to prepare information to support them and promote rational choices. This is related to the issue of research for development possibilities. The article presents considerations related to the subject of research for development possibilities of coal mines in a crisis situation. Taking the results of literature study into account, the model of research process was developed, and identified the research issues concerning the following:

- the identification of external factors which determine the possibility of development of the Polish mines and drawing a schedule of their changes in the future,

- the identification of internal factors which determine the possibility of development of the Polish mines,

- developing a way for the assessment of the development potential of the coal mines, to show appropriate strategic options and action programmes for these options,

- determining possible strategic options and corresponding schedules, appropriate for the specific nature of the mines.

The proposition of their solutions, which were obtained in the process of using the specific methods and research tools, allowed the guidelines in terms of research of development capabilities of coal mines to be presented.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of the criteria of project success and the complexity of the subject in the context of environmental and nature conservation projects financed by European Union. The article presents various definitions of project success The article deals with definition and evaluation process of the project success as well as specific conditions of EU project management. Thematic evolution and trends in defining project success are presented through systematic review of literature on project management. The first part of the article focus on reviewing different approaches to the subject of criteria of project success, which is the crucial part of the proces. It is impossible to determine critical success factors (CSF) without deciding on the criteria of the project success. Project success definition is an important and complex project management issue. The success of the projects was considered for the last 50 years in a various ways and by different project management scholars. There is a consensus about the importance of this aspect for the project management practice. However, the project management in the context of EU-funded projects is still subject of further research, as this issue was not yet properly analyzed. The article presents the specific of the environmental and nature conservation EU-funded project judgement proces. The procedures and the scope of the formal and substantive assesment which is the part of selection procedure were described. The paper presents also how formal and substantive assesment criteria correspond with success criteria definitions created so far by the researchers. Moreover, the article analyses how existing asssesment criteria, precisely defined in EU programmes documentation and procedures, can be treated as EU project success criteria. The article presents also the most important challenges and issues in determining the set of success criteria based on assesment criteria set for regional operational programmes and Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment for 2014–2020 programming period.

The rapid development of the global economy has led to an increasing demand for resources. The disparity between the supply and demand of resources continues to be prominent and shows a situation of short supply. Resource investment projects with large amounts and long construction periods face many risks due to various unpredictable factors. Cultural, legal, economic and other environments vary between different countries. Therefore, comprehensive risk identification, understanding, evaluation, and analysis are important prerequisites for the success of mineral investment. In this paper, the risk of mineral resources investment in host countries is identified. A risk evaluation index system is established to objectively evaluate the risk environment of the host country. The risk evaluation index system includes four first-level indexes: political and legal risk, social and cultural risk, economic and financial risk, and natural risk. The subjective weight was determined by sending questionnaires to experts and scholars in the industry and conducting data processing. The entropy method was used to determine the objective weight. Finally, the subjective weight and the objective weight were combined to obtain a group of scientific and accurate combined weights. The matter-element theory was introduced into the cloud model and a risk assessment model based on the cloud matter-element theory was constructed with comprehensive consideration of the fuzziness and randomness of risks. Eight countries with relatively rich mineral resources were taken as cases to verify the model application. The research results provide a theoretical basis and decision-making methods for mineral enterprise investment.

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 present study is the first attempt at examining the perception and evaluation of 10 internationally known political and religious leaders’ English pronunciation. 40 Polish students’ assessed their speech samples in terms of the degree of foreign accentedness, comprehensibility and acceptability. We examine whether the following factors affect the assessors’ judgements: their personal attitude to the speakers, the students’ level of English proficiency and the genetic proximity between between the speakers’ and the listeners’ L1s combined with the raters’ familiarity with foreign accents of English. It is demonstrated that the listeners’ attitude to the speakers has no impact on the ratings of the samples’ comprehensibility and accentedness, but plays an important role in their evaluations of acceptability. The participants’ level of English proficiency is crucial for their assessment of comprehensibility, but not accentedness and acceptability. Finally, the genetic proximity between the involved languages and the listeners’ familiarity with varieties of foreign-accented English are shown to be relevant for all the presented accent jugdements.

The topic „The Bible and Christian Morality" was thoroughly studied by the Papal Biblical Commission. The article's author presents the originality of this concept. He proves why we ought to speak of „revealed morality" and not about Gospel ethics, the writings of St. Paul or OT and NT ethics. Morality - as opposed to ethics - does not rely on freely accepted initial assumptions, but is man's response to the gifts received from God: creation, covenant and fullness of revelation in Christ. It brings to light the criteria resulting from the Bible itself, which contemporary Christians should apply when dealing with problems that contemporary sciences, techniques and culture present, but about which the inspired books do not directly speak of. He stresses that the Bible itself, revealing what is unique and which does not undergo discussion, at the same time calls the faithful of God to dialogue with the world in which we live, particularly with believers of other religions.

Construction risk assessment is the final and decisive stage of risk analysis. When highly changeable conditions of works execution are predicted, risk should be evaluated in the favorable, moderate, and difficult random conditions of construction. Given the random conditions, the schedule and cost estimate of the construction are developed. Based on these values, the risk of final deadline delay and the risk of total cost increase of construction completion are calculated. Next, the charts of the risks are elaborated. Risk changes are shown in the charts and are analyzed in the range [1, 0].

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 presents an approach to evaluating a building throughout its whole life cycle in relation to its sustainable development. It describes basic tools and techniques of evaluating and analysing the costs in the whole life cycle of the building, such as Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Management, Life Cycle Cost and Social Life Cycle Assessment. The aim of the paper is to propose a model of cost evaluation throughout the building life cycle. The model is based on the fuzzy sets theory which allows the calculations to include the risks associated with the sustainable development, with the management of the investment and with social costs. Costs incurred in the subsequent phases of the building life cycle are analysed and modelled separately by means of a membership function. However, the effect of the analysis is a global cost evaluation for the whole life cycle of the building.

W ramach Programu B adań Stosowanych PBS został wykonany projekt „Innowacyjne metody i system do oceny zagrożenia tąpaniami na podstawie probabilistycznej analizy procesu pękania i geotomografii online”, w którym został opracowany, wykonany i przebadany prototyp systemu INGEO. Stanowi on kontynuację rozwoju systemów sejsmicznego ARAMIS M/E i sejsmoakustycznego ARES-5/E poprzez ich wzbogacenie o nowe, innowacyjne technologie i metody analiz. System został wyposażony w cyfrową transmisję na powierzchnię z wykorzystaniem światłowodów i lokalną w rejonie ściany z wykorzystaniem linii przewodowych. INGEO umożliwia ocenę zagrożenia tąpaniami metodami standardowymi: sejsmoakustyczną, sejsmologii, hazardu sejsmicznego, oraz opartymi na tomografii rejonu przed frontem ściany: pasywną z wykorzystaniem wstrząsów górniczych i aktywną z wykorzystaniem wzbudników lub organu urabiającego kombajnu. System wyposażono ponadto w otworowe czujniki zmian naprężenia i ultradźwiękowe czujniki deformacji wyrobisk w rejonie ściany z lokalną transmisją radiową do przesyłu danych do kanału cyfrowej transmisji przewodowej i światłowodowej. INGEO umożliwia współbieżną kontrolę deformacji w rejonie wyrobisk wokół ściany wydobywczej z precyzyjną kontrolą deformacji na powierzchni nad rejonem ściany w celu doskonalenia opracowanych stochastycznych modeli dla predykcji występowania zagrożeń spowodowanych wstrząsami górniczymi. Monitoring może obejmować szczególnie zagrożone rejony z wykorzystaniem geofonów i nowo opracowanych czujników lub obszar całej kopalni czy kilku połączonych kopalń z wykorzystaniem sejsmometrów. Ze względu na zastosowanie transmisji światłowodowej, precyzyjnie zsynchronizowanej zegarem GPS, strumieniowej transmisji danych oraz wielorejonowej detekcji zjawisk, INGEO stanowi zaawansowaną technicznie ofertę dla kopalń węgla kamiennego oraz rozległych kopalń rud miedzi.

The industrial grinding devices, which work in the high-energetic fluidized bed conditions make it possible to obtain guaranteed particle size distribution of product and decrease of consumption energy. The matrix model for transformation of particle size distribution in the fluidized bed opposed jet mill is presented in the part IV of article. The proposed model contains the mass population balance of particle equation, in which are block matrices: the matrix of circuit M, the matrix of inputs F and the matrix of feed F0. The matrix M contains blocks with the transition matrix P, the classification matrix C, the identity matrix I and the zero matrix 0. The matrix was marked using with discrete forms of the selection and breakage functions, mean while the matrices of classification - using the equation, describing classification of grains in the grinding chamber of mill. In paper was discussed this model in details (part 2.1). The correctness of received form of the selection and breakage functions was confirmed. The method determination of the transition matrix for fluidized-jet grinding of grains (part 2.2) and the classification matrix for gravitational and centrifugal zones of grains (part 2.3) are presented. The verification of model obtained on basis results with experimental investigations, which were performed on a laboratory fluidized bed opposed jet mill. The experiment contained grinding of selected narrow size fractions of limestone in turbulent fluidized layer conditions, what in part I and part II of article (Zbroński, Górecka-Zbrońska 2007a, b) are presented. The parameters of parametric identification were: factor of proportionality - contained in the equation on the discrete form of selection function and sizes of limiting grains - contained in equation on the diagonal elements of classification matrix for stage of gravitational and centrifugal (part 3). The classic Fisher-Snedecor test was applied for estimation of prediction particle size distribution of grinding product (part 4). The significant divergences between numerical and experimental results of particle size distribution weren't affirmed. The experimental verification, parametric identification and statistical estimation of the proposed model showed that this model make it possible to forecasting particle size distribution of grinding product.

Overseas mining investment generally faces considerable risk due to a variety of complex risk factors. Therefore, indexes are often based on conditions of uncertainty and cannot be fully quantified. Guided by set pair analysis (SPA) theory, this study constructs a risk evaluation index system based on an analysis of the risk factors of overseas mining investment and determines the weights of factors using entropy weighting methods. In addition, this study constructs an identity-discrepancycontrary risk assessment model based on the 5-element connection number. Both the certainty and uncertainty of the various risks are treated uniformly in this model and it is possible to mathematically describe and quantitatively express complex system decisions to evaluate projects. Overseas mining investment risk and its changing trends are synthetically evaluated by calculating the adjacent connection number and analyzing the set pair potential. Using an actual overseas mining investment project as an example, the risk of overseas mining investment can be separated into five categories according to the risk field, and then the evaluation model is quantified and specific risk assessment results are obtained. Compared to the field investigation, the practicability and effectiveness of the evaluation method are illustrated. This new model combines static and dynamic factors and qualitative and quantitative information, which improves the reliability and accuracy of risk evaluation. Furthermore, this evaluation method can also be applied to other similar evaluations and has a certain scalability.

Praktyka badawcza w biomedycynie ma fundamentalne znaczenie dla rozwoju bardziej bezpiecznych i skutecznych metod leczniczych. Praktyka ta ma więc ogromną wartość społeczną, jest jednak działalnością moralnie problematyczną, ponieważ jej realizacja wymaga narażania ludzi na ryzyko dla dobra innych – nauki, przyszłych pacjentów i społeczeństwa jako całości. Problem ten jest szczególnie widoczny w przypadku badań niemających potencjału dostarczenia uczestnikom bezpośrednich korzyści zdrowotnych – tzw. badaniach „nieterapeutycznych”. Istnieje międzynarodowy konsensus co do tego, że prowadzenie badań „nieterapeutycznych” na osobach niezdolnych do wyrażenia zgody jest dopuszczalne tylko wtedy, gdy ryzyko związane z udziałem w takich badaniach nie przekracza pewnego minimalnego progu. Brak jednak zgody co do tego, czy powinien istnieć nieprzekraczalny próg ryzyka badawczego, na jakie mogą narażać się osoby kompetentne za swoją zgodą. Celem pracy jest przedstawienie argumentów etycznych przemawiających za wyznaczeniem maksymalnego dopuszczalnego poziomu ryzyka w badaniach „nieterapeutycznych” z udziałem ochotników. Przeanalizowane zostają także sposoby wyznaczenia takiego maksymalnego progu ryzyka, zawarte w dokumentach regulacyjnych oraz sformułowane w literaturze bioetycznej.

In his book Mortal Questions (1979) Thomas Nagel discusses four practical moral issues: (1) fear of death, (2) the absurdity of human life, (3) sexual perversion and (4) military massacre. His primary concern is neither to justify moral opprobrium nor to find an appropriate punishment for the culprits. Instead, he wants to clarify motives of those individuals who are not afraid of death, who can deal resolutely with the pointlessness of human life, who are not deeply dismayed by the crudity of some forms of sexual behavior or who refuse to justify whatever forms of military atrocities with higher purposes. He reviews various cases of excessive or deficient moral sensitivity and offers specific, case‑oriented advice on how to deal with them. Nagel favors self‑persuasion in cases of fear of death and argues that the sense of absurd is not much different from skepticism. He proposes to draw a line between private and public aspects of sexual behavior and supports dual evaluation of military activities by distinguishing between the moral value of an act and the moral value of the motives of the actor. He condones no atrocities. These arguments do not add up to constitute a form of moral relativism but, instead, seem to restore intellectual respectability of casuistry.