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The development of studies on the first- and third-person human experience which took place in the 20th century revealed the need to re-empirize Thomistic anthropology. Among the thinkers who undertook this task were Karol Wojtyła and Mieczysław Krąpiec. This re-empirization was linked with adapting the cognitive tools developed within the modern philosophy of the subject to descriptions of the first-person experience. Wojtyła assumed that the starting point of the cognition of the personal subject was the experience of performing an act, in opposition to what happens within a man. Krąpiec criticized this concept and proposed basing Thomistic anthropology on the subjective experience of existence, in which the ‘I’ manifests itself through ‘my’-acts. The experience of the act, on the one hand, and the immanence and transcendence of the self in relation to ‘my’-acts, on the other hand, allowed these philosophers to build an anthropological bridge to the Thomistic system.

Depopulation is a fundamental problem of the local governments in highly developed countries. The article presents the results of the research into the perception of this phenomenon in Poland. In the introduction, theoretical determinants of the problem of the “shrinking” of cities were indicated. Then, the process of depopulation in Poland was discussed, based on the analysis of strategic documents of the selected cities (64), particularly those at risk of depopulation. The text ends with the conclusions of the research. The added value of the article is presentation of the local government’s perspective.

The aim of this article is to examine the multidimensional issue of urban leadership and to identify the key theoretical approaches in the study of this fascinating phenomenon. The importance of big cities in both the socioeconomic and political spheres is growing rapidly. The article discusses four leadership trends (political, systemic, community, and global), highlighting their key assumptions and characteristics. The author’s original way of organising deliberations on urban leadership constitutes an attempt to give structure to multithreaded theoretical research in this field

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the modified light spectrum of glass containing red luminophore on the performance of the photosynthetic apparatus of two types of lettuce cultivated in soil in a greenhouse. Butterhead and iceberg lettuce were cultivated in two types of greenhouses: (1) covered with transparent glass (control) and (2) covered with glass containing red luminophore (red). After 4 weeks of culture, structural and functional changes in the photosynthetic apparatus were examined. The presented study indicated that the red luminophore used changed the sunlight spectrum, providing an adequate blue:red light ratio, while decreasing the red:far-red radiation ratio. In such light conditions, changes in the efficiency parameters of the photosynthetic apparatus, modifications in the chloroplast ultrastructure, and altered proportions of structural proteins forming the photosynthetic apparatus were observed. These changes led to a decrease of CO2 carboxylation efficiency in both examined lettuce types.

We performed reinterpretation of the DEKORP-BASIN’96 offshore deep reflection seismic profiles PQ-002 and PQ-004-005 running ENE-WSW in the South Baltic area through the transition zone between the East European Craton (EEC) in the NE and the Palaeozoic Platform in the SW. These profiles intersect the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone (TTZ) and the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone (STZ) to the south and north of the Bornholm Island, respectively. While the STZ is considered to be an intra-cratonic structure within the EEC, the TTZ is often believed to represent the actual edge of the Precambrian craton. Regardless of their origin and tectonic position, both zones are characterized by intense compressional deformations associated with the Alpine inversion of the Permian-Mesozoic basins at the transition from the Cretaceous to Paleogene.Our research aimed to explain the structure of the transition zone between the EEC and the Palaeozoic Platform and check whether its structure differs north and south of Bornholm. We also aimed at documenting the nature of the Late Cretaceous deformations and their relationship to the STZ and TTZ, as well as the marginal zone of the EEC.Both PQ profiles show a continuation of the EEC crust toward the WSW beyond the STZ and TTZ. The cratonic crust has a considerable thickness and is characterized by a deep Moho position along the entire length of the profiles. The depth of Moho is in our interpretation much greater than that postulated in previous interpretations. Consequently, numerous reflections once interpreted as upper mantle reflections occur within the lower crust in our opinion.The most spectacular feature of both PQ profiles is related to the zones of thick-skinned compressional deformation associated with the Alpine inversion along the STZ and TTZ. Crustal-scale, ENE-vergent thrusts have been traced from the top of the Cretaceous down to the Moho in terms of the detachment faults through the entire crust. They are accompanied by back thrusts with vergence toward the WSW, which also reach the Moho. The Late Cretaceous deformation resulted in the uplift of a block of cratonic crust as a pop-up structure, bounded by thrusts and back thrusts, and displacement of the Moho within the STZ and TTZ. It also led to the formation of the Late Cretaceous syn-inversion troughs on both sides of the uplifted wedge providing evidence for the age of deformation.The STZ and TTZ, imaged by the PQ profiles, appear as zones of the localised Late Cretaceous thick-skinned deformation that is superimposed on the EEC crust and its sedimentary cover. Within these zones, the Moho is faulted in several places and a large block of the basement is uplifted as a crustal-scale pop-up structure. A similar crustal architecture characterises the Dnieper-Dontes Paleorift, which was also inverted in the Late Cretaceous. A special position is occupied by the island of Bornholm, located in the middle of the pop-up structure, which owes its formation to the Late Cretaceous inversion of the sedimentary basin in this place.This study was funded by the Polish National Science Centre grant no UMO-2017/27/B/ST10/02316.

In Europe, formation of the Palaeozoic Variscan orogenic belt, and the Mesozoic–Cenozoic Alpine–Carpathian orogenic belt led to a widespread inversion events within forelands of both orogenic domains. We used legacy 2-D seismic data together with the newly acquired 3-D seismic data that, for the first time, precisely imaged sub-Zechstein (i.e. sub-evaporitic) upper Palaeozoic successions in NW Poland in order to develop a quantitative, balanced 2-D model of the late Palaeozoic–recent evolution of this area, characterised by a complex pattern of repeated extension and inversion. Four main tectonic phases have been determined: (1) Late Devonian–early Carboniferous extension and subsidence possibly related to extensional reactivation of Caledonian thrusts, (2) late Carboniferous inversion caused by the Variscan orogeny, (3) Permo-Mesozoic subsidence related to the development of the Polish Basin and (4) its Late Cretaceous–Paleogene inversion. Variscan and Alpine structures form a superimposed multilayer inversion system, mechanically decoupled by the Zechstein evaporites.

The coronavirus causing COVID-19 disease, among many other effects, has re-evaluated the world of science and higher education. Experts representing the world of science have become indispensable for developing strategies to fight the pandemic, and their knowledge has become valuable not only for developing and producing an effective vaccine. Relying on modern and innovative facilities of higher education institutions, representatives of the business sector, state and local administration and science, must jointly participate in finding practical solutions to the problems of the state and society. Countries affected by the pandemic need such a system of research and higher education, in which science will serve social and economic development, university graduates will find absorbing work, and those in power will benefit from an independent expert base, regardless of which political option is at the helm of government. Given the new challenges faced by researchers and higher education in times of the coronavirus pandemic that causes COVID-19 disease and the changing economic and social conditions resulting from the pandemic, this paper examines the role and importance of the scientific world both during and after the pandemic.

Background: Early intramuscular administration of SARS-CoV-2-neutralising monoclonal antibody combination, tixagevimab–cilgavimab, to non-hospitalised adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 has potential to prevent disease progression. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of tixagevimab–cilgavimab in preventing progression to severe COVID-19 or death. Methods: TACKLE is an ongoing, phase 3, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study conducted at 95 sites in the USA, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. Eligible participants were non-hospitalised adults aged 18 years or older with a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (determined by RT-PCR or an antigen test) from any respiratory tract specimen collected 3 days or less before enrolment and who had not received a COVID-19 vaccination. A WHO Clinical Progression Scale score from more than 1 to less than 4 was required for inclusion and participants had to receive the study drug 7 days or less from self-reported onset of mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms or measured fever. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either a single tixagevimab–cilgavimab 600 mg dose (two consecutive 3 mL intramuscular injections, one each of 300 mg tixagevimab and 300 mg cilgavimab) or placebo. Randomisation was stratified (using central blocked randomisation with randomly varying block sizes) by time from symptom onset, and high-risk versus low-risk of progression to severe COVID-19. Participants, investigators, and sponsor staff involved in the treatment or clinical evaluation and monitoring of the participants were masked to treatment-group assignments. The primary endpoints were severe COVID-19 or death from any cause through to day 29, and safety. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04723394. Findings: Between Jan 28, 2021, and July 22, 2021, 1014 participants were enrolled, of whom 910 were randomly assigned to a treatment group (456 to receive tixagevimab–cilgavimab and 454 to receive placebo). The mean age of participants was 46·1 years (SD 15·2). Severe COVID-19 or death occurred in 18 (4%) of 407 participants in the tixagevimab–cilgavimab group versus 37 (9%) of 415 participants in the placebo group (relative risk reduction 50·5% [95% CI 14·6–71·3]; p=0·0096). The absolute risk reduction was 4·5% (95% CI 1·1–8·0; p Interpretation: A single intramuscular tixagevimab–cilgavimab dose provided statistically and clinically significant protection against progression to severe COVID-19 or death versus placebo in unvaccinated individuals and safety was favourable. Treating mild to moderate COVID-19 earlier in the disease course with tixagevimab–cilgavimab might lead to more favourable outcomes.

The goal of the article is to present and analyze the paradoxes of person in the historical, logical-epistemological, and systematic aspect. Their historical source should be sought already in the beginnings of philosophical reflection on the issue of personhood. The interpretation of this concept has been influenced by the Christian religion which contributed to highlighting the opposition between properties common to man and other beings, and those which distinguish him from those beings. It was finally reflected in the paradoxes of person which are construed today as the opposition between existence (being a person) and becoming; (ontic) non-communicability and (intentional) communicability; overtness (knowability) and covertness (essential unknowability); being a whole and being a part. These paradoxes, however, are not antinomies or paralogisms in the logical sense. They cannot be explained away by flaws in human thinking or cognition. They are an expression of the opposite properties of personhood which represent aporias – objective difficulties. As such, they arise from the way a person exists. The paradoxes of person are superimposed, so to say, onto the paradoxes of being, e.g. that of identity and change. They cannot be interpreted as compounds of being. Therefore, they are most often treated as a result of the complex, spiritual-corporeal structure of man. Another problem, just as important as the cause of paradoxes, is the question of their significance. For they may be interpreted as a manifestation of a way of personal being that extends between extreme (almost contradictory) poles; multifaceted, diverse, never limited only to the arrangement of particular properties which form the paradoxes, or to that which can be known through them.

Cambrian age volcanic arc-related rocks crop-out in high-grade metamorphic complexes marking the principal Devonian age suture zone in the Bohemian Massif. The age and tectonic setting of these rocks are established from whole-rock geochemical and isotopic data from basic-intermediate rocks transformed to eclogite and granulite, and U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic data of detrital zircon in associated meta-sediments. Recent works have established that these rocks can be correlated on the basis of their age and tectonic setting as well as their Variscan metamorphic evolution with allochthonous complexes in NW Iberia, and potentially, the whole European Variscan Belt (Martínez Catalán et al., 2020). Detrital zircon spectra from the high-grade metasediments associated with the Cambrian volcanic arc are superficially similar to the classically interpreted ‘West African signature’ with Neoarchean, Paleoproterozoic and late Neoproterozoic maxima. Nonetheless, limited Cryogenian input and shifting of the late Neoproterozoic maxima into the early Cambrian is in contrast to Variscan autochthonous complexes. Moreover, Lu-Hf isotopic data show important contrasts in the source of the Paleoproterozoic detritus. The Variscan autochthon is charecterised by Paleoproterozoic detritus with negative ɛHfi values indicating reworking of an Archean crust. However, the Paleoproterozoic detritus in the Cambrian arc terrane exhibits mostly positive ɛHfi values indicating a juvenile Paleoproterozoic source.In fact, the data from the Cambrian arc terrane show remarkable similarity to detrital zircon data from early Cambrian sediments on the southern margin of the East European Craton (Paszkowski et al., 2021). These sediments incorporate significant juvenile late Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian detritus from an as yet unidentified volcanic arc and their whole-rock geochemical composition is consistent with immature sediments sourced from intermediate igneous rocks. If true, this correlation suggests that the Cambrian arc terrane is a peri-East European Craton assemblage and necessitates a re-evaluation of the role of the East European Craton within the Variscan Orogeny.Catalán, J. R. M., Collett, S., Schulmann, K., Aleksandrowski, P., and Mazur, S., 2020. Correlation of allochthonous terranes and major tectonostratigraphic domains between NW Iberia and the Bohemian Massif, European Variscan belt. International Journal of Earth Sciences, 109, 1105-1131.Paszkowski, M., Budzyń, B., Mazur, S., Sláma, J., Środoń, J., Millar, I.L., Shumlyanskyy, L., Kędzior, A. and Liivamägi, S., 2021. Detrital zircon U-Pb and Hf constraints on provenance and timing of deposition of the Mesoproterozoic to Cambrian sedimentary cover of the East European Craton, part II: Ukraine. Precambrian Research, 362, 106282.

[Abstract The diagenetic history of the Ediacaran sedimentary rocks in the East European Craton (EEC) over the area extending from Arkhangelsk (Russia) in the north to Podolia (Ukraine) in the south was revealed by means of the XRD characterization and K–Ar dating of clay fractions, mudstone porosity measurements and organic geochemistry investigations. Mudstone porosity measurements produced direct evidence of shallow maximum burial of the Ediacaran sediments on the craton (Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Volyn), not exceeding 1.5 km, and much deeper burial at the cratonic margin, in Podolia and Poland. In general, illitization of smectite and biomarker indices indicates more advanced diagenesis at the cratonic margin. K–Ar dating of authigenic illite–smectite and aluminoceladonite revealed the Palaeozoic age of mineral diagenesis (ca. 450–300 Ma) both on the craton and its margin, with older ages generally observed in the north. When the maximum palaeotemperatures were evaluated from illite–smectite and biomarkers, based on the calibrations from the conventional burial diagenetic sections, a major mismatch was detected for the cratonic area: 100°C–130°C from illite––smectite and tens of oC lower from the lipid biomarkers. This diagenetic pattern was interpreted as the result of short‐lasting (in ky scale) pulses of potassium‐bearing hot fluids migrating from the Caledonian and Variscan orogens deep in the craton interior, effectively promoting illitization in porous rocks without altering the organic matter. Analogous short pulses of fluids were responsible for numerous diagenetic phenomena, including Mississippi Valley‐Type ore deposits, in the American Midwest, in front of the Appalachians. K–Ar dating indicates that the entire Proterozoic sedimentary cover of the Great Unconformity on the EEC remained untouched by measureable post‐sedimentary changes until the early Palaeozoic, thus for over 1000 My, which is an unprecedented finding., Short‐lasting pulses of potassium‐bearing hot fluids migrated from Caledonian and Variscan orogens deep into the craton interior, effectively promoting illitization without altering the organic matter in Ediacaran sediments of EEC. ]

The currently implemented reform of Poland’s science and higher education system extensively draws on the principles of new public management in both curricula and management. It also replicates, at times uncritically, the changes put into effect in European higher education institutions. As early as 2017, the intentions of the decision makers were made clear by the introduction of a new funding algorithm, which completely altered the existing rules of the game. This algorithm particularly affected public economics universities, which were forced to make some adaptations. In this article, we focus on ways in which economics universities adapted to two specific solutions proposed by the legislator, that is, (1) the new funding algorithm and (2) the new career path called ‘teaching professorship’. Based on an in-depth study and using the theories of new institutionalism, we explore the mechanisms of adaptation to the new provisions as they apply to public economics universities. Finally, we identify and discuss four kinds of risks resulting directly from the new public management–based assumptions adopted by the reformers, namely, (1) the invasiveness of the proposed changes, (2) the fragmentary perception of the science and higher education system, (3) the inconsistency of the actions and (4) the ostensible adaptation measures taken by the institutions.

A tephra-rich cherty-clayey Famennian succession within the major Brzeźnica olistostrome in the Bardo Mountains, Central Sudetes, SW Poland, preserves a record of the lost ocean later incorporated into the Variscan orogenic belt. Fluctuating but mostly oligotrophic regimes and low primary production levels were influenced by weak upwelling below the perennial oxygen minimum zone, which controlled the interplay between biosiliceous and siliciclastic deposition in the oceanic basin, with episodic oxygen deficiency. The Hangenberg Black Shale has been identified in this oceanic setting based on its characteristics described worldwide (including mercury enrichments). A tectonic uplift of the sediment source area near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, recorded in the distinguishing provenance signal of old continental crust, was paired with a global transgression, anoxia, and volcanic episode in an interglacial interval. Assuming paleogeographic affinity with the Bavarian facies of the Saxothuringian terrane, we interpret the allochthonous sediments as part of an accretionary prism that was gravitationally redeposited into the late orogenic basin in front of advancing Variscan nappes. The oceanic basin parental to the Bardo pelagic succession is therefore thought to represent a tract of the waning Saxothuringian Ocean in the Peri-Gondwanan paleogeographic domain that was eventually subducted beneath the Brunovistulian margin of Laurussia. The sediments of the Bardo Ocean basin also include a distal record of Famennian explosive volcanic activity that was likely related to a continental magmatic arc whose remnants are preserved as the Vrbno Group of the East Sudetes., GSA Bulletin, 134 (9-10), ISSN:0016-7606, ISSN:1943-2674

According to the author of the article, Christian anthropology is characterized by an affirmative approach to Christianity and personalism in the understanding of man. During the last century in Poland it faced four key challenges for its development which were: 1) searching for a proper model of social life connected with the rejection of individualism and collectivism; 2) the clash with collectivist totalitarianism (communism) which imposes an erroneous concept on man; 3) resignation of the Church in her teaching from the domination of the Thomistic model of understanding the world and man; 4) establishment of a naturalistic and transhumanistic model of man in the culture of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Christian anthropology responded to the first three calls with a specific type of personalism: social – in the first case, metaphysical – in the second, liberalist and ethical – in the third. At present time, it must seek a personalistic response to the fourth challenge, while the author believes that Christian anthropology is threatened by fideistic personalism resulting from the acceptance of the naturalistic image of man coming from detailed sciences and the abandonment of attempts to ­philosophically justify his personal status.

Buxus sempervirens (L.) is an evergreen shrub often used in urban plantings intended for forming the trimmed hedges, as well as for creating geometrical shapes. Its decorative qualities are often diminished by the effects of pathogens colonizing the roots, shoots and leaves. The study was conducted in three consecutive growing seasons. The experimental material originated from a nursery located in southern Poland. The subjects under study were diseased leaves, stems and roots of the boxwood variety ‘Suffruticosa’. Samples consisting of 720 diseased fragments of the shrub were taken for mycological examination. Mycological isolations were performed according to the standard methods used in phytopathology. A total of 1059 colonies of fungi and fungus-like organisms were isolated from the diseased boxwood plants. The fungus Alternaria alternata dominated among all the isolates. The pathogens frequently isolated from the leaves included Macrophoma candollei, Volutella buxi and Fusarium buxicola. Those frequently isolated from the shoots included: Pestalotiopsis sydowiana, Volutella buxi and Fusarium avenaceum. The root system, in turn, was colonized in large numbers by: Fusarium oxysporum, F. avenaceum, Rhizoctonia solani, Botrytis cinerea and Phytophthora cinnamomi. Results of the three-year study show a comprehensive participation of phytopathogens in the disease process affecting the boxwood variety ‘Suffruticosa’.

The NW Iberian Allochthon and the Tepla-Barrandian and Moldanubian zones represent the internal parts of the Variscan belt in their respective domains. A correlation based on the lithological association, protolith ages, metamorphic evolution, detrital zircon age spectra and tectonic setting is attempted between the NW Iberian Massif and SE Bohemian Massif in order to check whether they could have formed part of the same allochthonous stack. The Galicia-Tras-os-Montes Zone of the Iberian Massif and the internal zones of the Bohemian Massif include from bottom to top a Parautochthon and Lower Allochthon representing the outer edge of the northern Gondwana margin, an oceanic Middle Allochthon with Cambro-Ordovician and Early Devonian ophiolites and an Upper Allochthon interpreted as a peri-Gondwanan terrane. Early Variscan, subduction-related high-pressure metamorphism characterizes many of the allochthonous units, with ages younging from the structurally upper to the lower units from 400–385 Ma to 370–360 Ma, respectively. High- and ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism occurred also in the Saxothuringian Autochthon at 360–340 Ma, but not in the NW Iberian Autochthon. The different behavior of the Autochthon in the Iberian and Bohemian massifs accounts for their distinct evolutions from 360 Ma onward. We conclude that the Upper Allochthon was a unique peri-Gondwanan terrane, whereas the Middle Allochthon represents units of the same peri-Gondwanan ocean, opened at the Cambro-Ordovician boundary, and having recorded localized renewed activity in the Silurian–Early Devonian. No other oceans separated the Lower Allochthon, Parautochthon and Autochthon.

In Europe, formation of the Palaeozoic Variscan orogenic belt, and then the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Alpine-Carpathian orogenic belt led to a widespread inversion events within forelands of both orogenic domains. We used legacy 2D seismic data together with the newly acquired 3D seismic data that for the first time precisely imaged sub-Zechstein (i.e. sub-evaporitic) upper Palaeozoic succession in NW Poland in order to develop quantitative, balanced 2D model of the late Palaeozoic – recent evolution of this area, characterised by a complex pattern of repeated extension and inversion. Four main tectonic phases have been determined: (1) Late Devonian – early Carboniferous extension related to extensional reactivation of Caledonian thrusts, (2) late Carboniferous inversion caused by Variscan orogeny, (3) Permo-Mesozoic subsidence related to the development of the Polish Basin, and (4) its Late Cretaceous – Paleogene inversion. Variscan and Alpine structures form superimposed multilayer inversion system, mechanically decoupled along the Zechstein evaporites.

The Phanerozoic tectonothermal evolution of the SW slope of the East European Platform (EEP) in Poland is reconstructed by means of thermal maturity, low-temperature thermochronometry, and thermal modelling. We provide a set of new thermochronometric data and integrate stratigraphic and thermal maturity information to constrain the burial and thermal history of sediments. Apatite fission track (AFT) analysis and zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) thermochronology have been carried out on samples of sandstones, bentonites, diabase, and crystalline basement rocks collected from 17 boreholes located in central and NE Poland. They penetrated sedimentary cover of the EEP subdivided from the north to south into the Baltic, Podlasie, and Lublin basins. The average ZHe ages from Proterozoic basement rocks as well as Ordovician to Silurian bentonites and Cambrian to lower Carboniferous sandstones range from 848 ± 81 to 255 ± 22 Ma with a single early Permian age of 288 Ma, corresponding to cooling after a thermal event. The remaining ZHe ages represent partial reset or source ages. The AFT ages of samples are dispersed in the range of 235.8 ± 17.3 Ma (Middle Triassic) to 42.1 ± 11.1 Ma (Paleogene) providing a record of Mesozoic and Cenozoic cooling. The highest frequency of the AFT ages is in the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous prior to Alpine basin inversion. Thermal maturity results are consistent with the SW-ward increase of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments thickness. An important break in a thermal maturity profile exists across the base Permian–Mesozoic unconformity. Thermal modelling showed that significant heating of Ediacaran to Carboniferous sedimentary successions occurred before the Permian with maximum paleotemperatures in the earliest and latest Carboniferous for Baltic–Podlasie and Lublin basins, respectively. The results obtained suggest an important role of early Carboniferous uplift and exhumation at the SW margin of the EEP. The SW slope of the latter was afterward overridden in the Lublin Basin by the Variscan orogenic wedge. Its tectonic loading interrupted Carboniferous uplift and caused resumption of sedimentation in the late Viséan. Consequently, a thermal history of the Lublin Basin is different from that in the Podlasie and Baltic basins but similar to other sections of the Variscan foreland, characterized by maximum burial at the end of Carboniferous. The Mesozoic thermal history was characterized by gradual cooling from peak temperatures at the transition from Triassic to Jurassic due to decreasing heat flow. Burial caused maximum paleotemperatures in the SW part of the study area, where the EEP was covered by an extensive sedimentary pile. However, further NE, due to low temperatures caused by shallow burial, the impact of fluids can be detected by vitrinite reflectance, illite/smectite, and thermochronological data. Our new results emphasize the importance of using multiple low-temperature thermochronometers and thermal modelling in connection with thermal maturity analysis to elucidate the near-surface evolution of platform margins.

We present the U-Pb geochronology and Hf isotope analysis of detrital zircons from the Ediacaran/Cambrian sediments of Podillya and south Volyn in western Ukraine, supplemented by the bulk rock XRD mineralogy of the host rocks. Such a combined analytical approach allows for identifying the source areas supplying detritus to sediments and for constraining an age of deposition. Our provenance analysis is based on fourteen samples collected from six exposures, mostly in the valley of the Dniester river. 84 mudstone samples were also examined by the XRD method. U-Pb dating of detrital zircons yielded two sets of maximum depositional ages: 578–546 Ma and 547–523 Ma, for the Mohyliv-Podilsky and Kanyliv Series, respectively. This suggests that the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in Podillya coincides with a major erosional gap, with a major change in provenance, and the disappearance of the Ediacaran fauna at the base of the Kanyliv Series, with implications for the stratigraphy and paleogeography of the entire East European Platform. Zircon U-Pb age spectra from the lower part of the Mohyliv-Podilsky Series include a large quantity of 2.2 to 1.9 Ga grains that reveal predominantly negative to nearly chondritic ɛHf values, jointly suggesting detritus supply from the crystalline basement of Sarmatia. Both U-Pb and mineralogical data also indicate a major contribution of volcanic detritus from the Volyn flood basalts. The younger Nagoryany rocks yielded zircon age spectra with peaks at c. 1.80 and 1.49 Ga, implying a shift of the catchment area to Fennoscandia. Above an erosional gap, the zircon age spectra in the Kanyliv and Baltic Series are dominated by peaks at 560–535 Ma. These data and ɛHf values ranging from negative to chondritic and juvenile suggest, in line with the mineralogical data, detritus supply from a continental magmatic arc and collisional orogen. Thus, we interpret the Kanyliv Series as infill of an early Cambrian foreland basin that was established in front of the Scythides and Santacrucides orogens, overriding the SW margin of Baltica.

The Intra-Sudetic Basin, a ~ 12 km deep Variscan intramontane basin, has the best preserved post-orogenic sedimentary record available at the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif. Apatite fission track (AFT) analyses have been performed on 16 sedimentary and volcanic samples of Carboniferous to Cretaceous age from the Intra-Sudetic Basin to improve understanding of the post-Variscan thermal evolution. AFT central ages range from 50.1 ± 8.8 to 89.1 ± 7.1 Ma (Early Eocene to Coniacian), with 13 of them being Late Cretaceous. The mean track length values range from 12.5 ± 0.4 to 13.8 ± 0.5 (except for one sample 14.4 ± 0.2) µm. This relatively short mean track length together with the unimodal track length distributions and rather low standard deviation (0.8 to 1.7 µm) in most samples indicate a long stay in the partial annealing zone during slow cooling. However, in the northern part of the Intra-Sudetic Basin, samples show a wider track length distribution (standard deviation of 1.8 to 2.1 µm) that could indicate a more complex thermal evolution possibly related to Mesozoic reheating. Vitrinite reflectance data combined with thermal models based on the AFT results indicate that the Carboniferous strata reached maximum palaeotemperatures in the latest Carboniferous to Early Permian time, corresponding to a major coalification event. The second phase of temperature rise occurred due to Late Mesozoic sedimentary burial, but it had no influence on maturation of the Carboniferous organic matter. Final cooling phase in the Late Cretaceous–Paleogene was related to tectonic inversion of the Intra-Sudetic Basin, which occurred after deposition of a significant thickness of Cenomanian–Turonian sediments. Thermal modelling demonstrates that ~ 4 km thick cover of Upper Cretaceous sediments is required to obtain a good match between our AFT data and modelled time–temperature paths. This outcome supports a significant amount of Late Cretaceous–Paleogene inversion within the Variscan belt of Central Europe.

After conducting two-year observations in nurseries in the Małopolska province, Poland, the species of shrubs on which symptoms of discoloration and withering of the leaves/needles and shoots, and sometimes of whole plants, occurred most frequently were selected for further study. The species included juniper (Juniperus horizontalis ‘Wiltonii’, rose (Rosa ‘Star Profusion’), yew (Taxus × media ‘Hillii’) and highbush blueberry (Vaccinum corymbosum ‘Patriot’). The predominant fungus isolated from the diseased plants was Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl. A pathogenicity test performed in the laboratory confirmed the pathogenic effects of A. alternata on all of the tested species of shrubs. In 2011-2014, a field experiment was conducted with A. alternata inoculum introduced into the growth substrate. The presence of the pathogen reduced considerably the annual growth of all the shrubs tested. The applied mycorrhizal inocula had an effect on some morphological characteristics of plants, such as height and number of shoots. Moreover, the plants whose roots had been treated with the mycorrhizal inocula and were grown in the substrate inoculated with the pathogen also achieved greater increases in growth in comparison with the plants treated with the pathogen as well as relative to the control. The protective role of mycorrhizal inocula against the damaging effects of the pathogen was evident in all the species of shrubs.

The authors of the Comment suggest that our geological overview map of the European Variscides is incorrect in the section showing SW Iberia (our Fig. 1a). However, our paper reports results of the provenance study from the northern Rhenish Massif, and does not attempt to discuss the architecture and tectonic evolution of the Appalachian-Variscan belt. The aim of Fig. 1 is to locate the study area in the geological context of the European Variscides and not to extrapolate the implications of our findings down to southern Portugal. The map is mostly based on Franke (2014) that is explicitly stated in the caption. Our results are neutral towards the hypothetical correlation between the Mid-German Crystalline High and the southern domains of the Ossa-Morena Zone that is shown on the map[…]

The aim of this study was to determine whether the weeds accompanying potato crops can be a source of Alternaria spp. causing Alternaria leaf blight and to determine the genetic similarities of Alternaria alternata isolates infecting selected weeds: Chenopodium album, Cirsium arvense and tested potato cultivar. Three-year field experiment was conducted on the potato cultivar ‘Vineta N’. The isolates were classified into different species on the basis of macro- and microscopic features. In each year of the study, A. alternata dominated among the isolated fungi colonizing the leaves of potato plants and the selected weeds. The genetic similarities of A. alternata isolates was determined by the RAPD-PCR method. Tested genetic forms of A. alternata were closely related; only small differences in the pattern of the separated amplification products was evidenced. The dominance of A. alternata on the weeds accompanying potato crops suggests that if weed infestation is extensive, the pathogen is very likely to spread and its population to increase.

Results of a depth-to-basement study are presented for the East European Craton and the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone (TTZ) in Poland. The terrestrial gravity data are inverted for the top of the Paleoproterozoic basement and, independently, for the top of the Ediacaran using seismic horizons from the PolandSPAN™ seismic survey and well tops as input depth measurements. The depth to the Ediacaran modelling was additionally extended to cover the Łysogory Block and northern Malopolska Block. The results are visualised as isobath maps for the top of the Paleoproterozoic basement and top of the Ediacaran and an isopach map for the Ediacaran, supplemented with qualitative structural interpretation based on gravity and magnetic data. The results of modelling show a smooth crystalline basement slope within the TTZ with the top of the Paleoproterozoic basement uniformly descending south-westwards by 10–14 km. The thickness of the Ediacaran in SE Poland increases in the same direction to more than 10 km within the TTZ. Such a crustal architecture, in combination with the earlier documented Moho elevation of 4–6 km, reveals significant thinning of the Paleoproterozoic crust within the TTZ to form a crustal necking zone due to the Ediacaran rifting. A smooth geometry of the top of basement along with the lack of basement-rooted faults suggests a ductile mode of crustal thinning during rifting of Rodinia. Moreover, the development of the NW–SE-oriented rift, a precursor of the Tornquist Ocean, was associated with rifting in a NE–SW direction parallel to the Orsha-Volyn Rift.

Tourmaline occurring in hornfelses from the eastern envelope of the Karkonosze Granite (Western Sudetes, Poland) reveals at least two stages of crystallization expressed by its complex zoning. The cores and mantles of the crystals probably grew during prograde metamorphism under intermediate pressure-temperature conditions reflected by increasing Mg, Ti and Ca. Outermost rims show enrichment in Al and Ca, indicating growth during contact metamorphism in the presence of an Al-saturating phase. The Ti-content in biotite indicates that the temperature of the contact metamorphic event did not exceed 650ºC. The presence of andalusite and the lack of garnet and cordierite also indicates pressure conditions of ~ 2-3 kbar, typical of the C1 bathozone of Carmichael (1978) or the P1 bathozone of Pattison (2001).

In the early 1990s, the Central and Eastern European countries (CEE countries) saw the collapse of communist regimes and an unprecedented political and economic transformation that resulted in the establishment of democratic, law-governed states and market economies. Administrative reforms, which became an important milestone in this transformation, were considerably influenced both by administrative legacies predominant in the countries and by the Europeanization processes associated with their accession to the European Union. The administrative legacies, which combine elements of various traditions (e.g., German, Napoleonic, and Anglo-American) are still strongly affected by what is left of the communist era. Conversely, the impact of Europeanization processes on public administrations in CEE countries has proved to be much weaker than initially expected. The process of building a professional and apolitical civil service in CEE countries has been plagued by discontinuity and inconsistency, owing to the specific administrative culture of the region, the weakening pressure to modernize EU institutions, and the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis, as well as growing populist tendencies in the region. All these factors encouraged the belief that political control over public administration needs to be tightened in order for the effectiveness and quality of governance mechanisms to be improved. The quality of governance and public management varies widely across the CEE countries. What they have in common—at least to some extent—is the fairly high dynamics of change, including the reversal of the effects of previously implemented reforms. The latter factor may be interpreted as a search for country-specific reform paths, partly due to disappointment with the values and models prevailing in Western Europe, and somewhat as a consequence of growing populist tendencies in the region.

The German philosopher Robert Spaemann proposed a complex but incomplete concept of philosophy. It has features of a classical approach, but it is difficult to define what is classical in it. Its comparison to the contemporary version of classical philosophy developed by the Lublin School of Philosophy shows that Spaemann may be considered as a representative of a classical, though not metaphysical, manner of philosophizing. Both in philosophy, systematically perceived as a type of cognition, and history, perceived as a type of discourse, classical influences can be observed in terms of the concept of philosophy, its object, purpose, and method. Despite the tension between philosophy as the cognition and philosophy as the discourse, in his concept these two aspects cannot be reduced one to another and cannot be separate from each other. The awareness that philosophy is an endless and controversial discourse on ultimate problems does not relieve philosophers from their efforts to pursue the truth about reality. And this is how Spaemann looks at his own philosophising.

The vast Tarim basin is surrounded by Tian Shan Mountains in the north, West Kunlun Mountains in the southwest, and the Altyn Mountains in the southeast. The southwestern Tarim Basin developed within the foreland of the West Kunlun Mountains and cumulated up to 10 km of Cenozoic strata. Despite several decades of geological studies its structural styles and details of its geological evolution are still being debated. In this study, we used seven regional seismic transects from the Yecheng - Hotan area calibrated by deep wells to assess lateral variations of a structural style and syn-tectonic sedimentation in this part of the basin.The basement of the SW Tarim Basin is covered by Paleozoic and Cenozoic strata, as revealed by several deep calibration wells. The regional north-directed basement thrust together with two evaporitic detachments including the Middle Cambrian evaporites (Awatage Formation) and Paleogene evaporites (Aertashi Formation) controlled the overall tectonic framework and structural evolution of this part of the basin. The visible growth strata on seismic data indicate progressive development of the structural wedge within the frontal W Kunlun Mountains from the Late Miocene to the Present day.Four main Cenozoic evolutionary stages of the W Kunlun Mountains and adjacent SW Tarim Basin have been determined. At the end of Paleogene, evaporites of the Aertashi Formation have been deposited in SW Tarim Basin; their thickness, as indicated by seismic data, increases towards the Kunlun orogenic wedge which suggests their deposition within the flexural foreland basin. Then, during the Early to Middle Miocene, about 4000m of sediments have been deposited in rapidly subsiding foreland basin. Towards the end of Late Miocene-Pliocene, tectonic wedging along thrust front led to significant uplift of the Kunlun Mountains that presently form S margin of the Tarim Basin. Quaternary migration of compressional deformations towards the North, towards the basin interior led to formation of the intra-basinal Jade anticline that was re-interpreted as a thin-skinned syn-depositional “fish tail” structure detached within the Paleogene evaporites. Present-day activity along some deeply buried thrusts of the Kunlun Mts. tectonic wedge might be related to current earthquakes.