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The paper shows how “the service of thought” (using an expression of John Paul II) has been performed at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow during last ten years. This paper presents the main cyclical scientific events, such as conferences and symposia, as well as signs of growth of the unique pontifical university in Central and Eastern Europe. For example the “Krakow methodological conferences” are of particular interest, because the discovery of an appropriate method ensures success in the search for truth.

This work was focussed on the recognition of the emission of volatile compounds resulting from the combustion of engineered wood products waste. This kind of waste is broadly used for heating purposes in an unauthorised way, giving rise to unorganised emissions. The recognition of such events is very difficult due to the complexity of the produced gas mixture. We proposed to apply differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS). This is a promising technique in terms of complex gas mixtures measurements. The recognition was based on the measurements of ambient air in the vicinity of the emission source and classification. The ensemble of classification trees was chosen as the classier. The obtained results showed that volatile compounds resulting from the combustion of wood based boards waste produced the distinctive DMS spectra, which could be used as the basis for the effective recognition. We achieved almost 100 % successful recognition of: 1) ambient air which contained volatile compounds resulting from OSB board waste combustion, 2) ambient air which contained volatile compounds resulting from MDF board waste combustion, and 3) ambient air, which was did not contain volatile compounds of this kind. The presented results have a considerable practical value. The DMS spectrometer was successfully applied to recognize wood-based boards waste combustion in field conditions.

The problem of indoor air quality (IAQ) has attracted a great deal of attention recently. One of interesting aspects of this problem is the characterization of human impact on IAQ. This work presents a method which allows to determine the diversity of building occupants influence on indoor air. The method is based on the supervised clustering of the indoor air measurement data in domains of various indoor air parameters. The introduced approach was applied to examine the exemplary data set. The diversity of impact was studied in the domain of air parameters which characterize thermal conditions indoors and in the domain of chemical parameters of indoor air. The obtained results showed that the diversity of impact was greatly related to the fact that occupants’ activities occurred in combinations, rather than individually. It was also demonstrated that the diversity of impact was domain dependent. Most of examined activities showed greater diversity of influence in the domain of parameters which characterize thermal conditions. This shows that the activity-specific impacts would be rather associated with the domain of chemical parameters of indoor air. The proposed method allows to obtain information which can be useful in the diagnostics of IAQ and for the control of ventilation.

Differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) is a promising measurement technique. It is used in the detection of chemical warfare agents, explosives, drugs, and volatile organic compounds. The measurement principle is based on separation of gas-phase ions according to their differential mobility in alternating low and high electric fields. The DMS measurement result is a two dimensional spectrum of ion current displayed as a function of separation voltage and compensation voltage. The DMS spectral peaks, in terms of their height, location and width, are affected by gas sample composition, separation field and the gas flow rate. In this work, there is presented the calibration procedure which utilises the univariate and multivariate approach to differential ion mobility spectrum. We demonstrated the possibility of a successful retrieval of quantitative information using partial least squares regression as well as univariate linear regression. However, the multivariate approach outperformed the univariate one in terms of the quality of the model and the concentration prediction accuracy.

Circe, Lamia or Erinya - The Image of the Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis The aim of this article is to present a variety of inspirations and reception of ancient myths that affected the shaping of the Witches in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ by C.S. Lewis. Lewis purposefully mingled different traditions, believing that the most important classical myths carry a faint shadow of divine truth falling on human imagination. The most famous witches created by him: The White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle, have a great deal of sources in the literature, but they derive above all from ancient patterns, combining the features of, among others, Venus, Ishtar, Erinyes, Lamia and Circe. A comparative analysis of the mythological witches and those created by Lewis will demonstrate not only the complexity of their characters, but also the manner of his reception of antiquity.

Formaldehyde is an important indoor air pollutant. It is released mainly from building materials and consumer products. This contaminant has been recognized as having negative effect on humans. Recently, there are developed methods of reducing its emission as well as removal from indoor air. An example of the last approach is the functionalisation of interior wall paints. The influence of such paint on indoor air was preliminarily examined in this work. The obtained results show that, during intermittent exposures, responses of formaldehyde measurement device were lower in the room painted with functionalised paint compared with the room painted using traditional formula paint. This outcome was statistically significant in 67% of the examined cases at the significance level α=0.01. It was found that the serious problem associated with determining the influence of functionalised paint on indoor air, in real conditions, is the low level of formaldehyde concentrations, compared with the detection limit and accuracy of the available measurement devices.

BTEX compounds can cause a threat to environment and human health. For this reason measurement devices are needed for rapid identification of such pollutants. The paper presents the results of recognition of mixtures of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes in humid air by means of two gas sensor arrays and linear discriminant analysis. Measurements were conducted during stabilization/solidification processes of contaminated soils. High classification ratios were obtained for both arrays (I: 88%–94%; II: 94%–96%). Improvement of identification was achieved when two copies of every sensor were included in analysis – classification rates reached 97.1–100%.

This work focussed on thermal comfort as the basis to control indoor conditions. Its objective is a method to determine thermal preferences of office occupants. The method is based on detection of thermal events. They occur when indoor conditions are under control of occupants. Thermal events are associated with the use of local heating/cooling sources which have user-adjustable settings. The detection is based on Fourier analysis of indoor temperature time series. The relevant data is collected by temperature sensor. We achieved thermal events recognition rate of 86 %. Conditions when indoor conditions were beyond control were detected with 95.6 % success rate. Using experimental data it was demonstrated that the method allows to reproduce key elements of temperature statistics associated with conditions when occupants are in control of thermal comfort.

Volatile organic compounds are one of the most important group of air pollutants. Potential health and environmental problems resulting from their emission prompted the requirement for monitoring these species. It motivates development of new measurement techniques which are fast, cost effective, reliable and field deployable. One of novel approaches is ion mobility spectrometry. It dwells on ion separation in electric field, based on differences in ion mobility. Many variants of this method are developed. In this wok, differential ion mobility spectrometry (DMS) was considered in respect of acetate measurements in air. It was demonstrated that DMS offers linear response to methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl acetate in concentration range from 0.3 ppm to 7 ppm. Positive ions spectrum has to be utilised for this purpose. We showed that fragments of DMS spectrum which secure linearity are compound-specific. The obtained results are promising from the application point of view.

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The aim of this article is to present a variety of inspirations and reception of ancient myths that affected the shaping of the Witches in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' by C.S. Lewis. Lewis purposefully mingled different traditions, believing that the most important classical myths carry a faint shadow of divine truth falling on human imagination. The most famous witches created by him: The White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle, have a great deal of sources in the literature, but they derive above all from ancient patterns, combining the features of, among others, Venus, Ishtar, Erinyes, Lamia and Circe. A comparative analysis of the mythological witches and those created by Lewis will demonstrate not only the complexity of their characters, but also the manner of his reception of antiquity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]