Damage caused to fibres by vapour cloud explosions

Research on the very specific damage to single textile fibres caused by vapour cloud explosions is presented. Vapour cloud explosion experiments were carried out using a selection of 41 garments differing in colour, fibre composition and textile construction. Fibres subjected to a vapour cloud explosion become wider at the end, often taking the form of a ball, bulb or shovel, while the morphological structure of the remaining part of the fibre remains almost unchanged. The presented results can clearly indicate that an explosion took place at the scene of the crime. The authors would like to be able to provide investigators with specific information on how to link clothes (and thus people) to a specific type of crime.     

A serological and histological study of the Egyptian mummy 'Iset Iri Hetes' from the Ptolemaic period III-I B.C

Serological and histological examinations of the muscles of the calf of an Egyptian mummy dated between the third and first centuries B.C. were performed. Human protein was identified, the ABO phenotype was determined as type B, and morphological disruption of the cells was observed.     

Anticipated Transition to Adulthood: The Effect of Educational Track,Gender, and Self-Evaluation on Finnish and Polish Adolescents' Future Orientation

In Finland and Poland, a total of 352 (192 boys and 160 girls) 17-year-old general secondary and vocational school students participated in a study investigating their anticipated transition to adulthood. In times of large sociohistorical change in both countries, Finland (economic depression) and Poland (change from socialism to market economy), we investigated to what extent those changes were reflected in the students' probability estimations (for potential goal attainment in three future life domains; education, occupation and family life), generational comparison (attaining a life different from the life of parents), future time extension (for anticipated events in those life domains), and self-evaluations (self-esteem and control over future). The results showed that girls in both countries expressed a higher level of probability for success in education than boys did. As expected, vocational school students in both countries expressed a lower probability of success in future occupation than general secondary school students did. General secondary school students from both countries expressed higher levels of self-esteem and control over future than vocational school students did. Unexpectedly, no differences between boys' and girls' probability estimations for family life were found, in either country. However, girls from both countries anticipated an earlier and more rapid transition to adulthood than boys did, thus reflecting social time tables. The results suggested that the educational track remains a significant stratifying factor in times of societal change in both countries.     

Understanding Dual Identities in Poland

'Parallel' divisions of identity in Poland are a thing of the past – and perhaps the future – but not the present. Yet contemporary Poles are still politically divided by identities – albeit by 'nested' Polish/European identities rather than by 'parallel' ethnic identities. They are not divided between Polish and European identities, however, but between exclusive and dual identities – in essence a division between parochial and cosmopolitan identities. Contrary to fears that Europeanism in Poland especially might be narrow, culturally restrictive, or even racist, our data show that dual identities reflect broader cosmopolitan perspectives as well as specifically European or Western sympathies. There is a real significant difference of values between exclusive and dual identifiers which extends well beyond attitudes to Europe – and far beyond attitudes to the EU in particular. To a considerable degree this is a difference – some have argued a conflict – between traditional and modern Poland, between secular and devout Poland, between educated and ignorant Poland, between young and old Poland, and between hopeful and fearful Poland.     

The Warsaw Stock Exchange in the period 1991–1993. Qualitative problems of its modelling

The paper focuses on the analysis of return on shares quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) in the period 1991–1993. We found that the WSE specific institutional background resulted in a large variation of return rates, their distributional assymetry and truncations which make hypotheses testing procedures about criteria of investors' choice and the price setting mechanism more complicated.     

Gender Pay Gap in Poland

In this paper we examine the gender pay gap in Poland over 1987–1996, i.e., shortly before and during the transition to market economy. The principle source of data used throughout the paper is the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Polish Central Statistical Office. The study documents three major results. First, the transition to market economy in Poland favored women substantially in terms of relative earnings differentials. The gender pay gap decreased by 10.2 log% points and the position of mean female in male wage distribution went up by 9.9 percentiles over 1987–1996. By 1995, the values of these measures reached the level observed in industrial economies such as the U.K., Austria, Italy or Australia. Second, rising relative skills of women and rising returns to skills explain about half of the fall in the gender pay gap over 1987–1996. Third, the pay gap did not follow a smooth adjustment process. 1989, the year of the first democratic parliamentary elections, which resulted in forming the first non-communist government, saw the most spectacular change, although actual market reforms began one year after. The changes in the early phase of the transition were mostly driven by sudden shifts in relative wages and employment across industries. Afterwards, the pay gap measures stabilized, partly because rising overall wage inequalities offset the advantages of females due to observed skills.     

Postmortem examination of transepithelial ion currents in rabbit colon and trachea in relation to temperature of storage and its importance for interlethal reactions

Electrical phenomena resulting from transepithelial ion transport have been a subject of clinical, physiological, pharmacologic and toxicologic studies. These examinations concern mainly electric phenomena in live organisms. The changes of transepithelial ion pathways which take place postmortem have not been yet established. The aim of the study was an attempt to trace variability of electrophysiological parameters related to transepithelial ion transport in specimens of rabbit trachea and colon depending on temperature at which specimens were stored after death. It was observed that postmortem electric phenomena in epithelium of airways and alimentary tract of rabbit occur well-ordered but with slower course in trachea samples and in tissues which were preserved at low temperature after death.