The purpose of the study, carried out in the years 2001–2003 was to determine which fungal species inhabited decaying grapevine cuttings during callusing and soon after planting them into pots. The plant material was collected from 5 commercial plantations and 8 cultivars, which were most frequently cultivated. From each plantation and cultivar 20 cuttings with symptoms of the growth inhibition or decay were randomly sampled during the callusing period i.e. March/April (term I) and 2–3 months after planting the cuttings into pots i.e. June/July (term II). The results showed that from affected grapevine cuttings Phomopsis viticola, Botrytis cinerea, Alternaria alternata and Fusarium spp. were isolated most frequently. Moreover, it was found that after planting young cuttings into the pots, numerous isolates of soil borne pathogenes were obtained, among others Cylindrocarpon spp., Phytophthora sp., Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium spp.

Leon Król (1842 -1927) was born at Rogalin near Kórnik to the family of the manor administrator of Count Raczyński and was educated to become a saddler and harness-maker in Kórnik, Poznan, and Łowicz. In 1863, Leon joined Leon Young’s insurgent detachment. After the defeat suff ered by Brdów on 29 May, he subsequently came under the command of Alojzy Seyfried, Ludwik Oborski, and Edmund Taczanowski. He fought in the battles of Babsk (17 May), Niewiesz (23 May), Sędziejowice (26 August; it was here that he rendered outstanding services), and Kruszyna (29 August), where Taczanowski’s detachment was finally smashed. He then participated in insurgent gendarmerie actions at Łask and Szadek, and in the battle of Jeżew on 5 December 1863. Having returned to his family area, he was subsequently punitively conscripted into the Prussian army, served in several campaigns, and finally settled at Kórnik. After Poland regained independence in 1918, Leon Król was promoted to the rank of a lieutenant, received a uniform as a military veteran, and participated in the production of one of the first Polish historical fi lms. Many of his descendants still live in Kórnik today. The text of his unfi nished memories of 1863, written in 1911, has survived in the Kórnik Library in the form of a typescript copy, and was edited by Stanisława Andrejewska.

Perception takes into account the costs and benefits of possible interpretations of incoming sensory data. This should be especially pertinent for threat recognition, where minimising the costs associated with missing a real threat is of primary importance. We tested whether recognition of threats has special characteristics that adapt this process to the task it fulfils. Participants were presented with images of threats and visually matched neutral stimuli, distorted by varying levels of noise. We found threat superiority effect and liberal response bias. Moreover, increasing the level of noise degraded the recognition of the neutral images to higher extent than the threatening images. To summarise, recognising threats is special, in that it is more resistant to noise and decline in stimulus quality, suggesting that threat recognition is a fast ‘all or nothing’ process, in which threat presence is either confirmed or negated.

The paper presents optimization of power line geometrical parameters aimed to reduce the intensity of the electric field and magnetic field intensity under an overhead power line with the use of a genetic algorithm (AG) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The variation of charge distribution along the conductors as well as the sag of the overhead line and induced currents in earth wires were taken into account. The conductor sag was approximated by a chain curve. The charge simulation method (CSM) and the method of images were used in the simulations of an electric field, while a magnetic field were calculated using the Biot–Savart law. Sample calculations in a three-dimensional system were made for a 220 kV single – circuit power line. A comparison of the used optimization algorithms was made.

Open pit mining of rock minerals and the affected areas requiring further development are a serious challenge for shaping the positive image of the mining industry among the public. The direction and method of post-mining land reclamation are important for this image, which should take into account various factors describing the mining area, including social preferences. The article presents an example solution – fuzzy system (FSDR) – which supports the selection of the direction of reclamation of post-mining areas created after the termination of operations of open pit gravel and sand natural aggregate mines. The article presents selected factors determining the selection of the direction and possible reclamation variants as input and output data of the fuzzy system. The rules base of the developed system, as well as the mechanisms of inference and defuzzification, were also characterized. The application of the developed system is presented on selected examples.

This work presents an influence of cooling rate on crystallization process, structure and mechanical properties of MCMgAl12Zn1 cast magnesium alloy. The experiments were performed using the novel Universal Metallurgical Simulator and Analyzer Platform. The apparatus enabled recording the temperature during refrigerate magnesium alloy with three different cooling rates, i.e. 0.6, 1.2 and 2.4°C/s and calculate a first derivative. Based on first derivative results, nucleation temperature, beginning of nucleation of eutectic and solidus temperature were described. It was fund that the formation temperatures of various thermal parameters, mechanical properties (hardness and ultimate compressive strength) and grain size are shifting with an increasing cooling rate.

In the calculations presented in the article, an artificial immune system (AIS) was used to plan the routes of the fleet of delivery vehicles supplying food products to customers waiting for the delivery within a specified, short time, in such a manner so as to avoid delays and minimize the number of delivery vehicles. This type of task is classified as an open vehicle routing problem with time windows (OVRPWT). It comes down to the task of a traveling salesman, which belongs to NP-hard problems. The use of the AIS to solve this problem proved effective. The paper compares the results of AIS with two other varieties of artificial intelligence: genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). The presented methods are controlled by sets of parameters, which were adjusted using the Taguchi method. Finally, the results were compared, which allowed for the evaluation of all these methods. The results obtained using AIS proved to be the best.

Although the terrestrial marginal zones of some glaciers on Spitsbergen are relatively well described, we are largely ignorant about the morphology of their submarine forefields. Initial reconnaissance of the forefields of the Aavatsmark and Dahl glaciers in the Kaffiøyra region and soundings made in that of the Hans Glacier (southern Spitsbergen ) indicate the occurrence of sea-floor push-moraines which can be as much as 3 m high. Their lateral separation is considered to denote annual recession rates. They appear to result from cyclical annual advances of ice-cliffs during winters when the deposits are risen up at the contact of the ice with the sea-floor. The development of the major forms may be related to surge. There is some evidence that certain elements in the sea-bed morphology date from the Little Ice Age (LIA).

Reconciliation between two copper ore mines transferred ore from one mine to another for processing in enrichment plants generated the need to regularly study the amount and composition of the ore on the conveyor connecting these two mines. To ensure the objectivity of the study, taking composite samples and their analysis was entrusted to a specialized outside laboratory. However, the managing staff of both mines still have doubts whether sampling results reflect correctly content of transported ore especially when the fed is highly variable. In order to investigate how the relatively low sampling rate affects the accuracy and precision of the measurement, the article investigates the hypothetical situation on the linking conveyor with the ore having extremely differentiated mineralization: 80% of almost barren rock (below 0.7% Cu) and 20% of the richly mineralized shale (around 10% Cu). Such ore occurs in some areas of the mine, from which it is fed onto a connecting conveyor. Through simulation techniques it was examined how the frequency of sampling can influence the distribution of the pooled sample results. It turned out that for 16 randomly selected samples in the following 15 minutes time intervals of a working shift, the spread of results around the simulated value is very large. A satisfactory accuracy level for the estimations of mean Cu content in the transported ore is achieved when the samples are collected at 30-second intervals. Only with sampling frequency close to on-line scanner parameters the probability of obtaining estimations with deviation exceeding 10% drops to the level of 2%. In the case of extremely differentiated ore doubts about confidence in the described measurements are fully confirmed, because with over 50% probability a single measurement could be deviated by 50% up and down from the true value.