The “plain and intelligible language” requirement performs a dual function within the framework of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts. First, it is listed as a requirement for application of the exemption included in Art. 4(2) as regards policing terms relating to the main subject matter of the contract or to the adequacy of the price and remuneration. Second, the “plain and intelligible language” requirement is a general requirement addressed at all consumer contracts executed in writing (Art. 5). This paper examines the boundaries of the precept, and places particular emphasis on the recent developments in both EU and Polish law, where the requirement has been used to imply a host of information duties aimed at enhancing consumers’ capacity to foresee the consequences of the terms that they are assenting to. This apparently novel approach, which has been developing in piecemeal fashion in the CJEU’s ever-expanding case law, may trigger significant consequences in the field of consumer contract law. In some ways, expansion of the substantive scope of the requirement may be said to be motivated by the fact that courts, under Art. 4(2) of Directive 93/13, are unable to subject the adequacy of the price and remuneration against the services or supply of goods received in exchange to the substantive fairness test under Art. 3(1) (examination of terms through the prism of the notions of good faith and significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer).
Maternal mortality has posed a great problem in the health sector of most African countries. Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio remains high despite efforts made to meet millennium development goal 5 (MDG5). This study used the Lagos state community health survey 2011 and the Lagos state health budget allocations 2011 to examine the effect of government expenditure on maternal mortality ratio. Factors like inadequate transportation facilities, lack of awareness, inadequate infrastructures, which contribute to high maternal mortality rate, can be traced back to revenue though under different ministries. The other ministries need to work and support the ministry of health in the fight against maternal, especially in Lagos state. Secondary data was compiled from the state budget, records of death in different local governments in the state and relevant reviewed literature. Regression analysis was used to analyze the hypothesis and it was discovered that government expenditure does not have a significant effect on maternal mortality based on the R-square coefficient. However, correlation coefficient gives a contrasting result. Hence, further research work, government expenditure from other local government areas need to be taken into consideration to arrive at a valid conclusion. It is difficult to ascertain how much of the revenue allocated was put to appropriate use, due to a high level of corruption.
The article examines the different ways in which various types of shortened forms are employed in Polish-English translation of a corpus of medical articles found in the Case Report section of Acta Angiologica, a bilingual quarterly for vascular specialists. A comparative analysis of the source and target texts is conducted to determine the reasons for the use and non-use of abridged forms in medical translation. On the one hand, attention is devoted to how the source text abbreviations are handled in translation. On the other hand, the focus is on those cases in which an abbreviated form is used in the target text regardless of its absence in the source language version.
Sentence stress is one of the most prominent elements of intonation. For the unmarked cases certain regularities can be observed as to its location, however, it has no single, established once-and-for-all site in an utterance, instead it is used to signify and signal additional information, such as thematic/rhematic structure, co-reference, contrast or emphasis. The fact is that within a linguistic unit containing more than one stressed syllable, these stresses will be perceived as being of different relative prominence. This difference is normally used to perform a number of varied linguistic function. Yet, it appears to be rarely consciously used. This feature of connected speech has been given relatively little attention, both within discussions of phonological systems of individual languages as well as in a contrastive or interactional perspective. The paper attempts to partially fi ll this gap by investigating the awareness of additional meanings carried by the marked/variable position of sentence stress. The investigations will focus on Polish speakers of English, as users of their native Polish language but also as competent users of English. The respondents are residents of Poland who have passed the extended level of the fi nal secondary school leaving examination in English at the minimum level of 80%. The observation of this preliminary study seems to be that Polish speakers modify their sentence stress patterns proportionally to the growing profi ciency and impact of other languages, with slightly different patterning than as predicted by, among others, the normative sources.
Implementation of European directives is closely related to the quality of production and the associated operational safety, maintenance of machines and mechanical systems, both mobile or stationary, in order to reduce the dynamic load (vibration and noise) on the working environment, not only during their operating state but also during their design, production, and setting of the vibration isolation components. Reducing the dynamic load of mechanical systems and their components is reflected in the working environment by reduced emissions and immissions of noise and vibration. The presented paper investigates the methods and conditions for noise and vibration control, focusing mainly on increasing the quality of rotating machine components, such as bearings by means of effective vibration isolation of the machines. The solution of this problem requires theoretical analysis and methodology for the measurement of the mechanical systems involved. The results of the vibroacoustic measurements were analysed in terms of the low frequency vibration and noise level (quality) of bearings and conditions for effective vibration isolation of the machines using vibroacoustic diagnostic method. Furthermore, the impact on the working environment was also analysed. Finally, the paper suggests some actions to be taken to effectively reduce the unwanted vibrosound energy in working places, also using recycled material as a vibration isolation element.
The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), is a polyphagous and holocyclic aphid which significantly damages agricultural crops. In the current study, the effects of micronutrients on some secondary metabolites of bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) leaves and their subsequent influence on the life table parameters of M. persicae were investigated under greenhouse conditions. The flavonoid content in bell pepper leaves significantly changed following micronutrient treatments in the wavelength of 270 nm while there were no significant differences in the wavelengths 300 and 330 nm. The highest anthocyanin content was recorded after Fe treatment (3.811 mg ⋅ ml–1) while the total phenolic content in the bell pepper leaves increased after Mn (541.2 mg ⋅ ml–1) treatment compared to Fe (254.5 mg ⋅ ml–1) and control (216.33 mg ⋅ ml–1), respectively. The highest values of intrinsic (r) and finite rates of population increase (λ) of M. persicae were gained with Zn (0.320 and 1.377 day–1, respectively) treatment although the highest and the lowest values of the mean generation time (T) were found with Fe and Zn (14.07 and 12.63 days, respectively) treatments, respectively. Our findings suggest that Mn, more than Zn micronutrients, decreased ecological fitness of green peach aphid and may help enhance the efficiency of pest control techniques.
Defending against DoS (denial of service) attacks has become a great challenge, especially for institutions that provide access to their services in the public network. State-of-the-art identity concealing tools and vast number of computers connected to the network require ensuring appropriate means for entities at risk to enable defence from the particular type of threats. This article presents a concept of user authentication in IP communication. The concept consists in providing the receiver with the possibility to determine sender՚s identity at the Internet layer level. This provides both the capability of defence against DoS attacks and possibility of utilizing the presented model over existing Internet network, which is directly responsible for transmission. The authors hope that the concept is a significant step in the perception of public network data transmission.
Chloride ion erosion in offshore environment may damage the mechanical properties of beam bridges. In this study, the reinforced concrete specimen was designed, accelerated erosion experiments were carried out to simulate the coastal corrosion environment, and the corrosion rate, nominal strength and equivalent strength of steel bars, concrete cracks and reliability of beam bridges were calculated to understand the time-varying mechanical properties of beam bridges. The results showed that the nominal and equivalent strength of reinforcing bars decreased with the increase of corrosion rate of reinforcing bars. The change of yield strength was greater than that of equivalent strength. The change of crack width of concrete showed a slow-fast-slow trend, and the reliability of beam bridges decreased significantly in about 50 years. The experimental results show that chloride ion corrosion can significantly damage the mechanical properties of the beam bridge and affect the time-varying reliability of the beam bridge. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out timely maintenance and inspection and take effective methods to control steel corrosion to ensure the safety of the use of the beam bridge.
The mechanical properties of cement paste modified by nano-TiO2 (nT) and nano-SiO2 (nS) were experimentally studied. The compressive strength increased first and then decreased with the increase of nanoparticle content. When nanoparticles were added into the cement paste as a filler to improve the microstructure, the two kinds of particles both could form a tighter mesh structure, which would enhance the density and strength of the structure. The elastic modulus increased rapidly with the increase of the nT content and reached a peak when the nanoparticle content is about 3%, which was about twice the elastic modulus of ordinary cement paste. The Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation results showed that the microstructure of cement was network connection and fiber tube. The hydration progress of ordinary cement slurry was insufficient, and many unreacted cement particles remained. With the addition of nanoparticles, the internal structure of the cement became denser, with fewer pore cracks, smaller pore diameters, more complex fiber tube arrangements, and significant anisotropy, thereby improving strength and mechanical properties.