Volume 117 (2020): Issue 1 (January 2020)

This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants. This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants. This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants. This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants. This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants.

This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants. This paper summarises the indoor air quality of a sports hall built in the passive standard. The sanitary conditions within the object were measured and analysed to identify whether the standards were met and if the test object was safe for occupants.

One of the modern methods of reducing vibrations of plates and beams is using piezoelectric materials in the form of distributed elements or patches (applied in a passive or an active system). However, for the multimodal response of a structure, there is no possibility to place the actuators in exactly the areas with maximum curvature values for each mode. Additionally, in the case of passive multimodal suppression systems – in which energy is needed to be supplied to the system – there is the necessity to create a complicated electrical circuit. The particular electrical shunts of the circuit are tuned to the specific vibration forms which require damping. The main objective of this article is to show the possibility of creating a multimodal vibration suppression system with typical resonant shunts and proposed second slightly modified.

The quest for sustainable development and biodiversity protection leads to the creation of a new generation of urban parks where man allows natural plant succession, soil regeneration, and rainwater infiltration. New urban nature parks are also places for the promotion of social contacts and physical activity. They can be regarded as health-affirming places. The common features of urban parks presented in this paper can be seen in modern eco-neighbourhoods in France. Public parks of this new generation are planned for the centres of new eco-neighborhoods. These parks are being constructed in the first stages of development. Similar commonalities have been observed for eco-neighbourhoods around the world. The paper presents three examples of good practices: three new parks of this new generation in the eco-neighbourhoods of Paris.

This paper presents a proposal for updating and expanding the teaching of technical university students concerning the subject of roofs. Through the analysis of Polish textbooks and teaching studies, a lack of information on retractable roofs was identified. As a consequence, a lecture was prepared to fill this gap and presented to students of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and to teaching staff of the Silesian University of Technology. The main components of the lecture are presented in this article. Furthermore, a discussion was undertaken to analyse the possibilities of incorporating new content (in the form of supplementary material) into the currently run courses as well as into optional classes such as student workshops and optional facultative courses.

In this article a new version of the ant colony optimisation algorithm with a desirability function for the triple matching problem is described. The problem is modelled by means of two 2-dimensional arrays. The new version of the ant algorithm was compared with the previous version of the ant algorithm and tested for different values of ant algorithm parameters; the results of these tests are presented and discussed.

The paper investigates whether time and doses of powder activated carbon (PAC) effect adsorption rates of organic contaminants from water and proposes a new model of volume adsorption. Depending on the nature of the organic compounds present in water, a general description of the adsorption process may require a linear combination of adsorption models running at different rates and at different parameters of adsorption isotherms. The model showed a good fit with the measured data and could be used in designing adsorption units at water or wastewater treatment plants. The proposed set of model equations enables to predict the effects of PAC adsorption in both plug flow reactors and homogeneous reactors.

Selected districts of Valencia and the gradual transformation of their image are presented in this article. The formulation of an appropriate strategy of action and the effect of an example that were initiated by the construction of the City of Arts and Sciences have broken through the stagnation in thinking about space. Revitalisation efforts have been initiated in many of the city’s districts, as well as in its suburban zone. The great explosion of ideas and emotions also carried over to enhancing the historical traditions of the city and the holistic, multi-directional approach to the subject matter of renewal, providing the city with economic stimulation. The author’s own analyses presented in the article pertain to: Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences), the new development of the Poblats Maritims coastal district, the Ciutat Fallera district and the Orba district of the town of Alfafar, located in Valencia’s metropolitan area. Various proposals for transforming the spatial structure of these districts point to the possibility of conducting an experimental hybrid policy intended to reconcile economic rescaling, entrepreneurship and cultural regionalism in the planned landscape.

This article presents two examples of contemporary private religious spaces against the background of the small-town architecture of the typical, largely unknown town of Szécsény, Hungary, using projects by the Hungarian architect Csanády Gábor Mátyás, DLA, as an example. It discusses the ideas that defined the adaptive reuse of a former school, located in an existing complex adjacent to a monastery of the Order of St. Francis, which was converted into a social care home, and a chapel in the architect’s own house.

The proposed self-adjusting mechanism consists of a carousel rotor with a vertical axis consisting of two kinematically connected flat blades. The torque of this rotor can change the position of the directing unit and additionally the position of the main propeller in order to direct the wind stream or save the main rotor when the wind is too strong. The theory, principles of operation, and the properties of the self-adjusting system were illustrated by formulas and graphs. Based on research conducted in a boundary layer wind tunnel, the values of the aerodynamic coefficients of the flat blades were determined, and then the power and propeller torque of the rotor were found as a function of the angle of wind attack. A computational procedure provides kinematical and force relations as well as the resulting torque diagrams of the rotor. An example of the use and the design structure of a self-adjusting unit in the case of a horizontal axis wind turbine is presented.

This paper presents changes observed in the green areas in the city of Sopot. Analyses of Sopot archival materials, both cartographic and graphic, provided grounds for an assessment of changes and transformations in that respect starting from the 19^th century. These analyses covered all the spa town protection zones A, B and C. This study also focuses on the aspect related with the primary function served by the spa town within the city. The city was also investigated in terms of the considerable cultural value frequently associated with green areas, since Sopot is an architectural gem of historical value. The analysis empasised the positive effect of green areas on the health resort character of the city. Green areas in the spa town of Sopot were analysed applying the comparative method. For this purpose maps and city maps were investigated. Additionally, the study is also based on archival graphic materials collected from the dawnysopot.pl website, as well as recent field studies (Świeczkowska, 2017).

This article presents the results of testing the sound pressure level and sound power level of the experimental 3PW-KPF1-24-40-2-776 high-pressure gear pump. Acoustic tests were conducted in an reverberation chamber. The results of the acoustic power tests indicate good acoustic parameters of the tested high-pressure unit.

This paper presents a review of modern modelling of porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks used in catalysis. The authors’ own research approach using the nano-design of metal-organic frameworks is included in this review.

The following article is intended to discuss the issues concerning the introduction of passive measures aimed at improving solar protection in multi-family buildings. A system of classifying these methods into two groups of solutions (architectural and material-building) was applied. The first group includes issues concerning facade design, the spatial features of which (such as loggias, balconies and other overhangs) can be treated as one of the solar protection methods. The authors’ own studies are presented and expressed in a sequence of formulas. The formulas enable assessment of the effectiveness of the above elements, depending on external conditions. As far as the second group is concerned, material-construction solutions for building facades and roofs are discussed. The solutions mentioned include solar-control glazing, spatial shading elements (such as venetian blinds, roller blinds), roof and façade vegetation, and the thermal mass of the building. The essence of the functioning of the analysed solutions in relation to the characteristic functional specificity of multi-family buildings is discussed. Problematic areas of application of the above methods are indicated. As shown in the study, problematic areas may include a group of utilitarian-operating, economic and aesthetic issues, in the case of which the use of passive solutions encounters limitations. In conclusion, the possibilities for alleviating these limitations are highlighted. The authors’ own solutions presented in the following paper can contribute to energy savings and may thus prove beneficial for environmental reasons, thereby serving the aims of sustainable development.

This article presents the results of a durability test of a prototype low-pulsation pump. Hydraulic measurements conducted during the test enabled visualisation of the behaviour of the unit in working conditions. The test was conducted according to a strict factory standard, which states that pump performance parameters cannot decrease by more than 8% during durability testing. The material presented in this publication is the result of a study within the project entitled The development of innovative gear pumps with a reduced level of acoustic emission. The solution developed as part of the project has been successfully implemented for a series of gear pumps consisting of twenty-two units. Among other awards, the product won the Gold Medal at the 10^th International Fair of Pneumatics, Hydraulics, Drives and Controls, Kielce 2017.

The aim of this paper is to present an overview of protected areas in Polish seaside spa towns in order to preserve their nature value while focusing on the spatial order. Analyses were conducted considering the status of works on the Landscape Act concerning the interior of Polish spa towns and advantageous effects of that Act in the town space. This review paper presents protected areas based on the resources of the Central Register of Nature Conservation Forms (Centralny Rejestr Form Ochrony Przyrody CRFOP) available at the website of the General Directorate for Environmental Protection (Generalna Dyrekcja Ochrony Środowiska GDOŚ), which data may find multiple uses. The material for analyses is related to all the six Polish seaside spa towns (as for 01.2020). Polish seaside spa towns have many common natural characteristics. All of the six towns are located on the Baltic Sea, have sandy beaches and dunes and they are situated in the vicinity of protected areas. Frequently a green belt, typically a pine forest, separates the seaside zone from the town. Despite its very long seaside line Poland in 2019 has only six seaside spa towns (Kołobrzeg, Świnoujście, Sopot, Kamień Pomorski, Ustka, Dąbki).

The subject of this paper is the inventory-production problem, which is a one of the optimization problems in a decision area in which inventory volume and production volume are considered together. There are many approaches to this problem but for the first time, this problem is modelled by means of a capacitated graph network and a solution to the problem is proposed on the basis of this model which consists of finding the maximum flow with the minimum sum of production and inventory cost. In this article, only a solution for one kind of product for the deterministic inventory-production optimisation problem is presented and for this one kind of product, a maximum flow with a minimum cost for each considered demand period is calculated. The maximum flow with minimum cost is a solution to the homogenous inventory-production optimisation problem. The solution to the one kind of product for the inventory-production problem consist of maximum flow with minimum cost for a total demand from all periods, which has been taken into consideration.

This paper presents the practical application of fracture mechanics in investigating the possibility of crack propagation in a brake calliper bracket mounted in a vehicle bogie. The extended finite element method available in the Abaqus software was used. This method allows the modelling of material damage and its propagation independently of the finite element mesh. Damage can arise in any area of finite elements without changing the mesh. Numerical simulation of crack propagation was performed in order to analyse how crack changes as a result of the location change of damage initiation.

The objective of the studies was to recognise the need for and possibilities of preserving and revitalizing the soundscapes of health resorts in Poland. The research process included an analysis of the legal environment determining the functioning of Polish health resorts. Noise hazards and values of soundscapes were identified and acoustic revitalization measures were proposed for the selected health resorts. A review of scientific literature was performed and health resort surveys and audit reports were conducted. The next stage was focussed on the questionnaire sent out to the local governments of health resort districts and towns in Poland. The discussion referred, inter alia, to the recommendations of the team of experts in the field of changes within the spa treatment system in Poland. The conducted studies demonstrated that most health resorts in Poland have some soundscape values. However, these values may be lost because of the threat of noise from transport and tourism. Health resorts in Poland thus need revitalization measures aimed at achieving a high quality of soundscape.

The term housing estate (Wohnsiedlung, osiedle mieszkaniowe) appeared in the press and professional literature at the beginning of 20^th century. Analysis of the German terms, initially of a cultural and geographical nature, used then in the emerging professional architecture-related language, reveals what factors were considered to be the most important in deciding on the characteristic traits of the housing development. In most cases, the nomenclature and typology were based on experience from Berlin and the largest German cities. The local specificity based on research into the characteristics of an ‘experimental’ region (i.e. the developing Wałbrzych (Waldenburg) agglomeration) may highlight not only issues related to the perception of the terms of housing estate types but also their design solutions, and in some cases, also the origins of new architectural concepts.

The coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and its immediate impact on all aspects of human life have changed the way we use public space in our cities. People have been forced to adopt social isolation measures and wear masks. Street life has ground to a halt and public transport use has plummeted, while social facilities such as restaurants, clubs and cinemas have been closed. The relationship between private and public space has been reversed: public space has become deserted while private space, one of luxury, has been available only to the richest. The behaviour and interactions between people in public space have also changed. The paper analyses the above phenomena and raises questions about the future of metropolitan public spaces after the COVID-19 pandemic.

A crucial activity in architectural and archaeological conservation research is the process of synthesising information in which the researcher records collected field data in the form of a planar drawing. This labour-intensive stage is significantly improved by automated systems which support the measurement work. Some of these are programs that convert sets of photographs into virtual and spatial models.

The author compares the reasonably priced software options, shares the experience which was gathered during their use and presents the results of the research. The paper also presents the economic aspect and practical examples and highlights the development potential of these tools.

This article deals with the problem of light pollution, which is associated with the use of incorrectly constructed and positioned lamps, lanterns and reflectors. This problem is common in Polish villages, towns and cities, one of which is Tarnów. External lighting was analysed and evaluated in some areas of this city. This lighting was classified into the following groups: street, stylish, park, architectural and parking. This analysis enables solutions to the problem of excessive night-time lighting to be proposed.

Contemporary civilisation has an obsession for consuming more and more goods. This, combined with the packaging habbits of suppliers, results in the emergence of increasingly large amounts of waste in Poland. The collection, selection and utilisation of this waste are becoming more and more significant, expensive and logistically complicated problems. In Poland, municipal utilities enterprises are responsible for solving these problems. However, as the space occupied by the collection, storage and disposal of waste is becoming larger, architects and urban planners should also consider being involved in providing solutions. This article presents figures and legal regulations related to the subject of municipal waste management in Poland. They are correlated with the methods of selective waste collection in Polish housing estates. Scientific research that was performed in housing estates is also presented; this research was aimed at checking the quality of existing urban and architectural solutions for municipal waste collection points. The article moves on to present good practices – examples of beneficial solutions for selective waste collection in selected European countries, such as Sweden and Italy. In order to carry out preliminary analyses of how to solve the functional and aesthetic issues related to housing waste collection points as part of the didactic classes at the Faculty of Architecture, of SUT, research exercises were conducted on the subject of developing a concept for new containers in a housing estate. Based on the received work (65 drawings) elements can be noticed that students most often paid attention to. Based on the conducted research and analysis, conclusions were reached regarding the methods of aestheticisation of district selective waste collection points and fundamental problems related to their design.

The article describes the basic features of the lightweight floor system with heat-dissipating lamellas (LFS-L) that do not require screeds and are used in the design of radiant heating. It was assumed that reactive polyurethane adhesive constitute the connection layer between the ceramic tile floor and the thermal insulation substrate, which is covered with aluminium foil. This type of construction has not been fully tested for mechanical strength. To define it, for example, using the finite element method, strength indicators of the tested adhesives which were not used in any of the previous studies discussed in this paper should be determined, such as Young’s modulus E, Poisson’s ratio ν and linear thermal expansion coefficient α. This article presents research methods by which these data were determined. Module E and the ν ratio were determined in the compression strength test of cylindrical samples of polyurethane adhesive. Coefficient α was determined by using digital image correlation in the Aramis system, placing the prepared adhesive samples in a thermal chamber.

This paper aims to outline the selected issues of risk management in construction enterprises operating in the Silesian and Małopolskie voivodships (Poland). In this context, it seems vitally important to have risk accurately identified, quantified and, consequently, responded to in the right way. Although the paper is mainly empirical in its character, it is based on a theoretical background, particularly when it comes to risk management in the construction industry, which is referred to in the literature on the subject as CRM (Construction Risk Management). The paper contains a review of the literature in this field and uses the method of synthesis. It emphasises the applicability and methodology of the issues discussed here, i.e. those which were verified in the empirical research conducted among construction contractors as participants of investment and construction processes.

This paper discusses the results of research conducted with the Ansys Fluent programme on the air flow through natural ventilation supply and exhaust ducts of rooms located on the ground and upper floor of a building. A scenario with air inflow to a room through an air intake located on the basement floor level was selected for the tests. All simulations were performed for outdoor temperatures of +3,+12, and -15°C (simulations run for an outdoor air temperature of +12°C are discussed in detail). The temperature inside the room is +20°C, i.e. at the minimum temperature level for thermal comfort. The simulations address such issues as the pressure system inside the room and in the exhaust duct, the distribution of air temperature in the room and the vector direction of airflow through the supply and exhaust ducts.

Let D(G) be the Davenport constant of a finite Abelian group G. For a positive integer m (the case m = 1, is the classical case) let E_m(G) (or η_m(G)) be the least positive integer t such that every sequence of length t in G contains m disjoint zero-sum sequences, each of length |G| (or of length ≤ exp(G), respectively). In this paper, we prove that if G is an Abelian group, then E_m(G) = D(G) – 1 + m|G|, which generalizes Gao’s relation. Moreover, we examine the asymptotic behaviour of the sequences (E_m(G))_m≥1 and (η_m(G))_m≥1. We prove a generalization of Kemnitz’s conjecture. The paper also contains a result of independent interest, which is a stronger version of a result by Ch. Delorme, O. Ordaz, D. Quiroz. At the end, we apply the Davenport constant to smooth numbers and make a natural conjecture in the non-Abelian case.

Industrial Computed Tomography (CT) is a broadly used measurement method allowing for quality control of objects produced using additive manufacturing methods. The combination of tensile tests and simultaneous 3D imaging of the behavior of an object under a particular force (i.e. in situ examination – during the process) significantly broadens the possibilities of analyzing objects with a complex internal geometry. The purpose of this paper is to present the author’s project of a mini testing machine, to verify its functioning with regards to a static testing machine, and to present the initial in situ examination results for polymer samples.

The article presents an analysis of the interventions carried out as part of the revitalisation of the complex of tenement houses on Strona Dekerta Starego Miasta na Rynku (Dekert’s Side of the Old Town Market Square) in Warsaw. The design works in question took place between 2014 and 2017, resulting in the reconstruction of the Museum of Warsaw and the adaption of its space to the current needs. The article describes the conservation activities undertaken in the tenement houses over the last one hundred years, the main focus being put on the conditions, project process and final outcome of the revitalisation. As highlighted by the author, the most recent interventions in the Museum of Warsaw’s tenement houses were completed with awareness of the object’s great historic value as an important component of the Old Town inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. They are an example of typically Polish conservation interventions and a specific attitude towards architectural monuments, which were in great part lost by Poland as a result of warfare.

In this paper, we compare the following machine learning methods as classifiers for sentiment analysis: k – nearest neighbours (kNN), artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), random forest. We used a dataset containing 5,000 movie reviews in which 2,500 were marked as positive and 2,500 as negative. We chose 5,189 words which have an influence on sentence sentiment. The dataset was prepared using a term document matrix (TDM) and classical multidimensional scaling (MDS). This is the first time that TDM and MDS have been used to choose the characteristics of text in sentiment analysis. In this case, we decided to examine different indicators of the specific classifier, such as kernel type for SVM and neighbour count in kNN. All calculations were performed in the R language, in the program R Studio v 3.5.2. Our work can be reproduced because all of our data sets and source code are public.

Due to the amount of medical image data being produced and transferred over networks, employing lossy compression has been accepted by worldwide regulatory bodies. As expected, increasing the degree of compression leads to decreasing image fidelity. The extent of allowable irreversible compression is dependent on the imaging modality and the nature of the image pathology as well as anatomy. Interpolation, which often causes image distortion, has been extensively used to rescale images during radiological diagnosis. This work attempts to assess the quality of medical images after the application of lossy compression followed by rescaling. This research proposes a full-reference objective measure of quality for medical images that considers their deterministic and statistical properties. Statistical features are acquired from the frequency domain of the signal and are combined with elements of the structural similarity index (SSIM). The aim is to construct a model that is specialized for medical images and that could serve as a predictor of quality.

Whilst Poland has remarkably valuable experience in promoting the idea of built environment education (BEE), there is an unfortunate and sizable deficiency with regard to the national coordination of architectural policy. The objective of this research was to investigate the extent to which these valuable educational activities influence social interest in architecture and whether they could have an impact upon students’ choice of university major. To this end, a survey of 215 current students of architecture in Poland was performed. The research outcome was very interesting. Inter alia, it revealed the fact that despite the substantive quality of several educational initiatives, their range was unfortunately very limited. The majority of interviewed architecture students stated that they did not know of any all-Polish architectural education programme and that during their obligatory education, they had not participated in any architectural workshops.

The dynamic development of technology benefits from an access to information about space, and thus this development has a significant impact on the urban form of cities. This applies not only to spatial behaviour of users but also to the principles of spatial policy. The purpose of this study is to systematise knowledge in the field of shaping the development of tall buildings in Poland in the light of available spatial data and their impact on the urban structure of cities. The method of aggregation of spatial data in the form of a point cloud from LiDAR laser scanning was validated; geospatial analysis and map studies in the GIS environment were conducted taking into account trends in building height distribution. The conclusions highlight the primary aim of the latest research methods that can be implemented in the context of urban analysis. The case study of Wrocław shows that the method for the aggregation of spatial data from laser scanning is a universal research tool in the search for trends occurring in the urban form of the city, in particular with relation to building height.

European cities are centuries-old connections of social and cultural interrelations in which the history and heritage of generations have formed a specific model of collective life and culture. The nature, prestige and signs of urban life in these cities are best indicated by their public spaces and their structure and inclusion in the urban tissue. Being presentable areas as well as places of social intercourse and activity, public spaces form multipurpose areas which establishe the city’s cultural landscape. Simultaneously, the game for urban areas in the city and related economic interests, and market all activities promoting the city’s image and interfering with the city’s structure, pose a threat to the sensible development of the most valuable parts of the urban space. Globalisation processes contribute to the unification and standardisation of any forms of life, including space. The need for maintaining the continuity of urban tissue requires that its historical traces be cultivated. In this context, the contemporary role of the Old Canal area for downtown Bydgoszcz and its influence on the development of the city’s cultural landscape are part of the current strategies for the culture-forming regeneration of urban space.

The generation of waste is one of the main global environmental problems. Waste segregation, storage in containers and disposal are issues requiring adequate solutions. It is the architect who is responsible for designing the correct place for the collection of solid waste within the area of residential development, and this task is a complicated issue. A place for solid waste collection and its disposal is particularly important in the context of a friendly acoustic climate and a healthy residential environment. The author analysed the amounts of solid waste generated in the residential development area and the requirements related to refuse segregation. A significant element of the performed analysis is to study formal requirements and design guidelines for solid waste collection points in the area of multi-family residential developments. The author describes the impact of the individual elements of the refuse collection and disposal process on the acoustic climate prevailing in the nearest residential locations.

The research aim was to analyse the influence of velocity and size of markers on the accuracy of motion capture measurement utilising image processing with the use of OpenCV. On the basis of the obtained results, the usefulness of the applied measurement method in studying the kinematics of the human body while driving operating a wheelchair was determined. This article presents the test results for a low-budget motion capture measurement system for testing the kinematics of the human body in a single plane. The tested measuring system includes a standard activity camera Xiaomi Yi4K, expanded polystyrene markers with printed ArUco codes, and original software for marker position detection developed by the author. The analysis of the measurement method with regard to its applicability in biomechanical studies has highlighted several key factors: the number of measuring points, measurement accuracy expressed as a relative error and the limit velocity at which the marker trajectory is correctly represented. The article shows that the limit velocity of the marker is 2.2 m/s for 50x50 mm markers and 1.4 m/s for 30x30 mm markers. The number of measured points ranged from 233 to 2,457 depending on the marker velocity. The relative error did not exceed 5% for the marker velocities and thus provided a correct representation of its trajectory.

Respirometric tests, carried out in OxiTop system, were used to determine biogas production (BP) from two waste materials, willow bark residue (W) from the chemical industry and brewer’s spent grain (BSG) from the brewing industry. Moreover, the kinetics of BP and the loss of organic compounds (expressed as COD) were investigated. In this investigation, W and BSG were used both in their unchanged forms and after mechanical pretreatment (grinding to a diameter of 1 mm) (W_G and BSG_G). The initial organic load in the bioreactors was 4 kg OM/m³. The BP from W was 154.1 dm³/kg DM (166.6 dm³/kg OM), and from BSG, it was 536.9 dm³/kg DM (559.5 dm³/kg OM). This probably resulted from the fact that the content of lignin that was hard to biodegrade was higher in W than in BSG. Mechanical pretreatment increased BP from W_G to 186.7 dm³/kg DM (201.9 dm³/kg OM), and from BSG_G to 564.0 dm³/kg DM (588.7 dm³/kg OM). The net biogas yield from W and BSG increased by 17% (35 dm³/kg OM) and 5 % (29 dm³/kg OM), respectively. The kinetic coefficient of BP (k_B) and the rate of BP (r_B) of W were lower than those of BSG. Mechanical pretreatment increased the k_B and r_B of biogas production from both waste materials.

With the construction of Grenadier Barracks in 1874, Legnica joined the prestigious group of 82 Silesian garrison towns that were regularly visited by the highest authorities. Barracks, which were often built according to a typical plan, were characterized by a set of standard features that immediately distinguished them from the surrounding buildings and communicated a set of intangible impressions: prestige, community, strength, etc. Today, these features form a link with intangible heritage and local tradition. For this reason, when demilitarized barrack complexes are redeveloped, priority should be given to preserving the plan and architectural form as these now constitute cultural capital. The present study contains a synthetic description of the evolution of Legnica garrison, a detailed analysis of the Grenadier Barracks, and an introduction to the discussion on their protection through suitable revitalization.

Following the results of field research, the main (grand) staircase in the architecture of the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia at the end of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century was analysed. Main (grand) staircases are classified according to the principles of shaping (single-marching, double-marching, and multi-marching, spiral), the material of manufacture (wood, metal, stone and concrete) and the stylistics of the artistic design of railings (using geometric motifs, with floral ornaments that are combined and plastered). The leading manufacturers of main staircases were identified, the products of which decorated the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia in the late nineteenth and first third of the twentieth century. The relationship between the main staircase and other arts in the decor of the entrance spaces of residential buildings in Eastern Galicia from this period were traced.

This paper summarises the results of motion analysis of a platform mechanism with a monolith design. A four-link planar mechanism was engineered in which the platform positioning is effected via one passive link and two eccentric links actuated by stepper motors. The prototype of the device was fabricated following a computation procedure based on the classical mechanism and machine theory and FEM calculations. Testing performed on the model and on the real device revealed the presence of two points on the platform for which the resultant of two independent perpendicular displacements implemented by two stages can be obtained for small values of angular displacement.

The threat to health and social life resulting from the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease has influenced people’s awareness of the need to maintain appropriate hygiene conditions in every area of life. The use of public bathrooms and toilets has also become a controversial topic. The aim of the study was to investigate the risks associated with the use of bathrooms, taking into account the potential risk of coronavirus infection. Another goal was to analyse and indicate the possibilities of protection as well as the application of design solutions in order to maintain appropriate hygienic and healthy conditions in these spaces. As a result of the research, factors and precautions that should be taken into account in the process of designing and implementing these facilities were identified. Design possibilities were examined in the field of the functional and spatial arrangement of bathrooms, and the selection of material solutions, elements of equipment, fittings and technical installations with a particular emphasis on potential threats related to bacteria and viruses, including coronavirus in public bathrooms. Design criteria for bathrooms have been defined, taking into account potential health and social life hazards and the possibility of their elimination thanks to the use of available knowledge, modern technology and innovation.

We discuss, using recent results on the thermodynamics of multivalued logic, the difficulties and pitfalls of how to apply the Landauer’s principle to thermodynamic computer memory models. The presentation is based on Szilard’s version of Maxwell’s demon experiment and use of equilibrium Thermodynamics. Different versions of thermodynamic/mechanical memory are presented – a one-hot encoding version and an implementation based on a reversed Szilard’s experiment. The relationship of the Landauer’s principle to the Galois connection is explained in detail.

Authors present a short review of selected natural-origin zeolite materials. This article discusses the structure, classification and ability to modify natural zeolites, along with examples of their potential applications as adsorbents or catalysts.

This study is devoted to the analysis of the impact that the basic constituents of ductile iron (carbon and silicon) and spheroidising treatment combined with inoculation exert on the final properties of heavy ductile iron castings. To evaluate the possibility of the application of ductile iron technology in the manufacture of castings for wind power plants, simulations were conducted on cast hubs of the rotor blades for wind turbines. For this type of product, it is necessary to produce castings characterised by a ferritic matrix (over 90% ferrite) and to reduce the amount of pearlite and graphite to a minimum, both of which are considered as the main structural constituents that affect the casting properties. The key guidelines for the manufacture of heavy castings from ductile iron, wind turbines included, were discussed, with particular emphasis placed on the process of spheroidising treatment and inoculation, both of which are aimed at producing in the structure of castings a spheroidal graphite of a size from 5 to 12 mm (class V to VI) and a ferritic structure in an amount exceeding 90%. This article is the result of the work done by Krakodlew S.A to implement research project No. POIG 01.04.00-12-116/12, supported by the National Centre for Research and Development and financed by the European Regional Development Fund, measure 1.4 POIG (Execution of industrial research and development in the company Krakodlew S.A., 2014).

The aim of the research was to design and validate the prototype of a device developed to improve the quality of indoor air by supporting the natural ventilation in building. A CO₂ sensor and thermo-hygrometer were used to measure the physical parameters of the indoor air. The developed device is based on the Raspberry Pi single-board-computer (SBC) and optical sensors. The prototype casing was made using 3D printing technology. The software was written using the Python 2.7 programming language. The key algorithm of control uses fuzzy logic. The effectiveness of the developed device has been confirmed. The use of the device enabled improvement of the indoor air quality. The presented device may be a solution to improve the indoor air quality by supporting the ventilation system.