The European standards, developed extensively over last 30 years, are driven by the need for continuous evolution and their Authors’ pursuit of better EU-wide quality in civil engineering – combining safety, economy, and sustainable development. The adoption of theory of reliability as the basis for design has played a major role in shaping current geotechnical practice. However, it requires from practitioners a greater understanding of underlying uncertainties. Furthermore, a number of alternative approaches, not generally used in structural design, are also allowed, as some situations in geotechnical engineering require an individual approach. Moreover, the current trends in geoengineering increase the importance of risk assessment and management. The paper presents general philosophy guiding the geotechnical design and pointing to some of the ideas introduced by Eurocode 7 and its requirements, in relation to preexisting practice of geotechnical design in civil engineering.

This paper summarizes the activity of the chosen Polish geodetic research teams in 2015–2018 in the fields of Earth: rotation, dynamics as well as magnetic field. It has been prepared for the needs of the presentation on the 27th International Union of Geodesy and Geodynamics General Assembly, Montreal, Canada. The part concerning Earth rotation is mostly focused on the use of modelling of diurnal and subdiurnal components of Earth rotation by including low frequency components of polar motion and UT1 in the analysis, study of free oscillations in Earth rotation derived from both space-geodetic observations of polar motion and the time variation of the second degree gravitational field coefficients derived from Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) observations, new methods of monitoring of Earth rotation, as well as studies on applications of the Ring Laser Gyroscope (RLG) for direct and continuous measurements of changes in Earth rotation and investigations of the hydrological excitation of polar motion. Much attention was devoted to the GRACE-derived gravity for explaining the influence of surface mass redistributions on polar motion. Monitoring of the geodynamical phenomena is divided into study on local and regional dynamics using permanent observations, investigation on tidal phenomena, as well as research on hydrological processes and sea level variation parts. Finally, the recent research conducted by Polish scientists on the Earth’s magnetic field is described.

The aim of this study was to create a single-language counterpart of the International Speech Test Signal (ISTS) and to compare both with respect to their acoustical characteristics. The development procedure of the Polish Speech Test Signal (PSTS) was analogous to the one of ISTS. The main difference was that instead of multi-lingual recordings, speech recordings of five Polish speakers were used. The recordings were cut into 100–600 ms long segments and composed into one-minute long signal, obeying a set of composition rules, imposed mainly to preserve a natural, speech-like features of the signal. Analyses revealed some differences between ISTS and PSTS. The latter has about twice as high volume of voiceless fragments of speech. PSTS’s sound pressure levels in 1/3-octave bands resemble the shape of the Polish long-term average female speech spectrum, having distinctive maxima at 3–4 and 8–10 kHz which ISTS lacks. As PSTS is representative of Polish language and contains inputs from multiple speakers, it can potentially find an application as a standardized signal used during the procedure of fitting hearing aids for patients that use Polish as their main language.

The impact of musical experience on results concerning sound perception in selected auditory tasks, such as pitch discrimination, pitch-timbre categorization and pitch memorization for blind and visually impaired children and teenagers is discussed. Subjects were divided into three groups: of those with no experience of music, with small musical experience and with substantial musical experience. The blind and visually impaired subjects were investigated, while sighted persons formed reference groups. To date no study has described impact of musical experience on results of such experiments for blind and visually impaired children and teenagers. Our results suggest that blind persons with musical experience may be more sensitive to frequency differences and differences in timbre between two signals as well as may have better short-term auditory memory than blind people with no musical experience. Musical experience of visually impaired persons does not necessary lead to better performance in all conducted auditory tasks.

The present work discusses results concerning sound perception obtained in a pitch memorization experiment for blind and visually impaired subjects (children and teenagers). Listeners were divided into two age groups: 7-13 year olds and 14-18 year olds. The study tested 20 individuals (8 congenitally blind and 12 visually impaired) and 20 sighted persons comprising reference groups. The duration of the experiments was as short as possible due to the fact that our listeners were children. To date, no study has described results of such experiment for blind/visually handicapped children and teenagers. In the pitch memory experiment blind teenagers outperformed blind children and both age groups of visually impaired subjects in two out of three tested cases. These results may have implications for the development of auditory training in orientation and mobility of young visually handicapped people.

The paper is a presentation of an analysis concerning performance of a 12/8 dual-channel switched reluctance motor (DCSRM). Formulas constituting a base for a non-linear mathematical model of DCSRM are presented. Simulation and laboratory tests were carried out for the motor operating in the dual-channel and single-channel mode. The results of the field theory-based calculations are presented in the form of fluxes in individual phases expressed as functions of currents and a rotor position angle. The results of the computer simulations are shown as the static characteristics of fluxes and the torque as well as voltage, current, and torque waveforms. The results of the laboratory tests are also presented.

In the paper, the modified (compared to the classical asymmetric half-bridge) converter for a switched reluctance machine with an asymmetric rotor magnetic circuit was analysed. An analysis for two various structures of switched reluctance motors was conducted. The rotor shaping was used to obtain required start-up torque or/and to obtain less electromagnetic torque ripple. The discussed converter gives a possibility to turn a phase off much later while reduced time of a current flows in a negative slope of inductance. The results of the research in the form of waveforms of currents, voltages and electromagnetic torque were presented. Conclusions were formulated concerning the comparison of the characteristics of SRM supplied by the classic converter and by the one supplied by the analysed converter.

This paper presents the summary of research activities carried out in Poland in 2011–2014 in the field of Earth rotation and geodynamics by several Polish research institutions. It contains a summary of works on Earth rotation, including evaluation and prediction of its parameters and analysis of the related excitation data as well as research on associated geodynamic phenomena such as geocentre motion, global sea level change and hydrological processes. The second part of the paper deals with monitoring of geodynamic phenomena. It contains analysis of geodynamic networks of local, and regional scale using space (GNSS and SLR) techniques, Earth tides monitoring with gravimeters and water-tube hydrostatic clinometer, and the determination of secular variation of the Earth’ magnetic field.