Nauka

The article depicts the personage of Karol Modzelewski (1937–2019) the outstanding activist for freedom of Poland, long-term political prisoner, prominent medievalist historian and full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In these considerations, I undertake a polemic with thinking based on the assumption that the value of scientific achievements can be measured with almost mathematical accuracy and give fully reliable point indicators for them. It is not only part of those who introduce the current reform of higher education and science in Poland, but also experts who support them, as well as some representatives of science and natural sciences. This thinking was called point syndrome and expert syndrome. Although it was diagnosed as a manifestation of academic disease a few years ago, it still not only finds its supporters, but also translates into activities, which in some scholars cause astonishment, in others indignation, and still strong opposition in others.

The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, I present the scholarly book publications patterns of Polish scholars. Secondly, I show how scholarly book publications are assessed in various European research evaluation systems. Moreover, I argue that the diversity of evaluation models depends on the scientific policy aims in a given country. This presentation of European models allows me to discuss a new Polish science policy instrument, that is the list of publishers prepared for the upcoming evaluation exercise in 2021. In 2018, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland implemented a new model of scholarly book publication assessment based on the list of publishers. On the one hand, such a science policy instrument might be a way to appreciate the best quality scholarly books and give them more points than articles in the evaluation exercise. On the other hand, it is a so far unknown instrument which differentiates publications that have been treated the same up to date. Additionally, this paper aims to shed some light on how the new Polish model was prepared.

The process of cognitive aging in global sense can be characterised by changes of the fluid and crystallised intelligence. In the context of this explanation the basic question is which cognitive functions and regulatory mechanisms play the basic role of the determinants for cognitive aging. Probable, mechanism of associative memory play a central role in top-down direction of cognitive processing. This type of memory connect the resources/networks of long term memory with the current processing in working memory. Another set of mechanisms concerns with bottom-up direction based on procedural memory, which is fundamental for the functioning of the mind as whole (Tulving theory,1985). Unfortunately, our knowledge about associative memory and its relations to working and procedural memory is incomplete and unclear. The importance of associative memory are partly, empirically supported by classic research on decreasing the cognitive components of intelligence aging, since the fluid and crystallized intelligence where discovered (Horn, Cattell, 1967). Changes of the mind functioning and its cognitive growth/aging can be characterised as a complex chain from primary, biologically determined mind, through Piagetian and Vygotsky’s type of mind to relatively balanced mind.

The article is an answer to questions concerning values, goals and functions of the University in the era of globalization changes that enforce changes in the area of higher education. The author emphasizes the need for balanced development of science, humanities and social sciences as a condition for preserving research independence, as well as the importance of cooperation, both in research and in the „shaping of autonomous institutionalism” of the University (Roggero). The article provides an analysis of the commercialization process of research results, based on data from Polish and foreign studies, and indicates its various forms and social costs. This is a study of the University's condition in the face of the growing importance of transnational corporations, regulating not only the flow of capital, but also the distribution of scientific prestige and appropriating in a different way the effects of academic work. The metaphor of the university as a enterprise/knowledge factory visualizes the errors in perceiving the role that it should play. It proves that research and teaching is not the production and transmission of knowledge, but the creation and sharing of knowledge. In this dialogical process, the idea of a university understood as a community of educators and taught in pursuit of truth is achieved most fully, not for glory, for making profit or for gaining a competitive advantage.

Stanisław Wyspiański (1869–1907) was the Polish dramatist, the poet, besides the illustrator and the painter, one of the best known artist of the Young Poland movement. His journey to Europe (particulary to Paris) became very important experience in his life. He discovered the value of loneliness, he had to be alone – as an artist and as a man. He was called “a hermit from Cracow” and for this reason his genius was not always appreciated. However, at the end of life, Wyspiański undergoes a significant transformation: he feels a strong connection to community, as a member of the nation and society, as well as a host.

The article treats about a forgotten play Zaduszki (All Souls’ Day) by Stefan Grabiński, widely known as the author of fantastic literature and horror stories. The play Zaduszki consists of three parts: 1. Strzygoń. Klechda zaduszna; 2. W dzień zaduszny; 3. Sen Krysty. Misterium zaduszne. First of them is written in folk dialect. The second one, sometimes named „the longest one-act play ever staged in Polish theatre”, considers a problem of a fault and a punishment. The third one, similarly to the first one, presents folk beliefs in supernatural phenomena which take place on All Souls’ Day. Moreover, it partly resembles a mystery play. Although the trilogy got an unfavourable reception (it was shown only seven times in Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków), it may be considered as an ambitious attempt to match the heritage of Stanisław Wyspiański – according to Grabiński, the greatest authority in the field of theatre.

School textbooks written by a Spanish erudite and pedagogue Juan Luis Vives were used in schools of Protestant denominations in Royal Prussia – in Gdańsk, Toruń, Elbląg, but also in other towns and cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth– for teaching Latin. Nicolaus Volckmar, of German descent, a Polis language teacher at the Academic Gymnasium in Gdańsk, utilized the structure and themes of Vives’ dialogues Exercitatio linguae latinae (1538) for teaching the Polish language. In this manner, paradoxically, the “phrasebook” of the Spanish humanist, as well as its subsequent editions, still in the 18th century was used by Gdańsk schoolers of German origin to learn the language which they needed for everyday communication in the community of multi-cultural and multi-ethnic Gdańsk. The Vives-Volckmar phrasebook was undoubtedly used by Arnold von Holten, later a lifetime mayor of the city, sent on a diplomatic mission to Spain by the Hanseatic League.

Patients with coronary chronic total occlusions have usually anginal symptoms, reversible ischemia on stress testing and viable myocardium subtended by the occluded artery. Notwithstanding the optimal clinical characteristics for revascularization by means of percutaneous coronary intervention, the majority of subjects with chronic total occlusions are treated medically or referred for coronary artery bypass grafting. This review highlights the evolution and latest advancements in percutaneous techniques and technologies for revascularization of CTO.

The article treats of one of the most innovative series in the Polish humanities after the 1945, the Poznań German Library. The series is a scientific-editorial project initiated 1996 to introduce readers in Poland (both specialists and nonspecialists) into the most important questions of German history, sociology, political science etc. in the 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st century.

This article analyses a hierarchical structure of academia within two academic social media networking sites, i.e. Academia.edu and ResearchGate. In this study, I investigate profiles (in these two services) of all academic staff members of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (N = 2661). I use the concept of prestige to analyse whether the hierarchical structure of academia is being reproduced in analysed services. Since prestige is an unobservable construct, I use two indicators to measure it: the number of followers and the number of views. My findings show that the hierarchical structure differs between Academia.edu and Research- Gate. While the structure of ResearchGate is explicitly hierarchical in reference to degrees of the researchers (a higher degree is related to a higher value of the prestige indicators), the structure of Academia.edu resembles a reversed pyramid (a higher degree is related to a lower value of the prestige indicators). The article concludes with a discussion concerning possible causes of differences between services in terms of reproducing the hierarchical structure. Moreover, I provide potential implications of the results as well as the justification of the necessity of using the concept of prestige to determine hierarchical structure of academia.

The motto of Zofia Nałkowska’s short-story collection Medaliony [Medalions] – “People doomed people to this fate” [Polish, “Ludzie ludziom zgotowali ten los”] – as obvious as it may apparently seem, has aroused various controversies. Henryk Grynberg believed that the only right formula, the one that would do justice to those persecuted, would have been “People doomed Jews to this fate”. Recently, the discussion was resumed in a book on the portrayal of the Holocaust in Medaliony – Zagłada w „Medalionach” Zofii Nałkowskiej, edited by Tomasz Żukowski: one of its essays (by Żukowski and Aránzazu Calderón Puerta) notices that endeavours to universalise the Holocaust is at least premature for the Poles tending to avoid facing the truth about their own contribution to annihilation of the Jews. While the threads addressed in these debates are important, they disregard the beliefs and the system of values Nałkowska adhered to. The Polish novelist adopted the view that man and the pleasure he takes in inflicting pain is the actual cause of evil. This inclination revealed itself not only during the war. This more general observation was rooted in her knowledge of life, relations between people, and daily cruelty. Supported by an ideology and furnished with technical resources, the war added a historical dimension to this bent. Moreover, Nałkowska was definitely not one among those who stayed silent in respect of the Jewish victims. Conversely, a few of the stories in Medaliony speak exactly about this problem, never trying to conceal anti-Semitic attitudes among Poles.

Poland has been active in Antarctica for 41 years and modernizes its infrastructure and research program in accordance with the recommendations of the Antarctic Treaty, SCAR, and international recommendations.