The present article investigates theoretically the refection and transmission through a lossless dielectric slab embedded between two semi−infinite left−handed materials (LHMs) in which the electric permittivity and magnetic permeability are simultaneously negative. The LHM is assumed to be dispersive according to Lorentz as well as Drude medium model. The reflection and transmission coefficients are studied with the angle of incidence, frequency and slab thickness. The effect of the damping frequency is also investigated. It is found that the damping frequency has an insignificant effect on reflected, transmitted and loss powers. Band pass filter is one of the possible applications of the proposed structure.

This essay presents an intellectual profile of Roger Scruton. Its contents have been gathered from personal reminiscences of the author about their friendly encounters and discussions of books that inspired them both when Scruton was involved in the activities of the anti-communist opposition in East-Central Europe. His motives and ventures are tentatively reconstructed. He has been remembered in Poland as a conservative thinker and intellectual figure with views that are shown here against the background of his past and in the context of his efforts to understand religion with its practices, origin, the role in Western and local communities, and its bearing on the changes that have occurred European culture.

A ternary photonic crystal with left-handed material (LHM) layer is examined for refractometric applications. One of the layers is assumed to be air and treated as an analyte. The transmittance from the ternary photonic crystal is studied in details and the wavelength shift due to the change in the refractive index of the analyte is investigated. The transmittance is investigated with the parameters of the LHM. It is found that the wavelength shift can be significantly enhanced with the decrease of both real part of the LHM permittivity and thickness.

Proper heart’s nomenclature is very important in daily clinical practice and research studies, and when it is consistent, it can facilitate better communication between different medical specialists. The general rule of the anatomy is to describe organs and their structures in attitudinally correct position. However, the use of the old-fashioned Valentine position (where the heart is described as if it were standing on its apex) is still in use to describe important cardiac structures. Upon closer analysis, all main chambers of the heart and their associated subcomponents have mislabeled structures that should be renamed. In this article we aimed to emphasize the limitations of Valentinian nomenclature, present proper anatomical names of the most important heart’s structures and advocate to change certain mislabeled anatomical structures. Attitudinally correct designations presented in this study will benefit all medical specialties, and they will reinforce the importance of consistent orientational naming. Correct naming of heart’s structures will also help improve communication between different medical specialists.

In this paper, an advanced study covering the comparison between two classes of generalized inverses is conducted. Two sets of instances, strictly derived from the recently introduced nonunique S- and σ-inverse, are analyzed, especially in terms of degrees of freedom-oriented interchangeable application in different engineering tasks. Henceforth, the respective collections of right and left inverses can be combined in order to achieve a complex tool for robustification of a plethora of real processes. The great potential of two S- and σ-inverse, in particular in robust control and signal recovery as well as complex optimal tasks, is confirmed in the manuscript and supported by the recently carried out research investigations.

The normative system of Bogusław Wolniewicz (1927–2017) can be subsumed under three categories: (1) pessimism (fatalism, or ‘tychism’ in Wolniewicz’s terms), (2) moral determinism (‘non-meliorism’), (3) conservatism (‘right-hand orientation’). Ad (1) Wolniewicz was pessimistic in two ways: he believed human life to be tragic (fatalism) and was also convinced that most people are guided by bad instincts (dualism). Ad (2) Wolniewicz believed that moral character was biologically determined and immutable. But his strong position on this subject ignores the classical view of Aristotle or the Stoics for whom moral character (or conscience) was acquired by habit and shaped deliberately. Ad (3) I suggest that a good historical example of conservative tendency was Critias of Athens. His famous fragment of the Sisyphus contains the idea of a supremacy of laws over human passions, and reduces religion to a supportive role with respect to ethics and politics. Wolniewicz’s dualism of right-hand and left-hand orientation encourages me to distinguish between a right-wing and a left-wing perception of value. For a leftist, value is intensity of a chosen feature (progressive value), whereas for a rightist, value is an area of freedom between inacceptable extremities (modular value). On these premises I propose a simple model of axiological conflict between left-wing and right-wing citizens.