These days, a kind of information embargo is increasingly being applied, to ensure that only selected scientific information is accessible only to selected recipients at the right time.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

The article discusses the importance of small hydro power plants in the Polish power system and defines the legal conditions for the operation of small hydro power plants. The phenomena occurring in the hydrological system of small hydro power plants and their impact on the natural environment were analyzed. An analysis of phenomena occurring in the hydrological system and the activity of small hydro power plants that are operating on the Radunia River helped us identify relations between different types of power plants working in cascades and possibilities of power generation control in period of several days. The above-mentioned analysis has been used in the development of a mathematical model of a hydroelectric plant and cascades of hydroelectric plants. The numerical simulations carried out concerned both the self-operating power plant and a cascade of two identical objects of this type. There is a possibility for small hydro power plant to run as a base load power plant and during periods of high demand as well (peak demand or unexpected loss of generation in the power system). A single hydroelectric power plant can deal with varying peak load demands while adding a second stage increase those abilities. A cascade of reservoir hydropower plants has a much greater ability to store energy and give it back in time. In addition, the existence of a second power plant equipped with a surge reservoir allows for a significant reduction in the amplitude of flows in the river below the cascade, which will reduce the negative impact of the cascade on the environment.

The condition of the Polish energy sector does not inspire any trust of its customers. Outdated machinery and the lack of investment in new technologies make it necessary to take action to ensure the stability and continuity of electricity supplies to the end-user. In Poland, the industrial power sector is based on the use of coal and despite the Government’s announcements to resign from this raw material, more and more power investments are being made to generate energy from coal (Ostrołęka power plant). The solution which compensates for the current state of the Polish power industry is the development of distributed generation. The article presents a description of dispersed sources, power market, its organization and problems arising from its implementation. Distributed energy sources in the form of micro installations, energy clusters and virtual power plants have been described and characterized as well. It also assesses the impact of power market introduction on the development of distributed energy sources. The impact of the power market on the development of distributed sources is very hard to predict and determine. The functioning and further development of the energy sector, including the capacity market, strongly depends on the laws, regulations, as well as the economic and political situation in Poland and Europe. The social factor will also play an important role as the introduction of the capacity market will burden the financial side of each energy consumer. On the basis of the data presented on particular sources and distributed systems, one can only make predictions related to the possible effects of introducing the capacity market for the development of distributed sources.

The environment in general and the marine environment in particular forms an ecosystem. Such ecosystem is characterized by high interconnectivity and interdepen-dence of species inhabiting it. Often enough, marine ecosystems far exceed the limits of the State’s sovereignty. Thus, their effective protection and preservation shall be carried out on a cooperative basis, engaging all States sharing common environment. The first international treaty to tackle the issue of marine environmental protection on a systemic basis is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is also a treaty which directly established an obligation to cooperate in ensuring this protection. However, homogenous international regulation is not capable of addressing regional varying circumstances of marine environment. As the example of the South China Sea shows, lack of cooperation between coastal States can result in an irreversible damage to the environment. On the other hand, a remarkable model of effective realization of the obligation to cooperate has been established in the region of the Baltic Sea. What we can learn from these experiences is that fulfillment of the obligation to cooperate on a re-gional basis is a prerequisite for effective protection and preservation of the marine environment.

Washing is very popular technological operation removing clay particles from aggregates. The amount of mineral washing sludges increases. Besides filling the excavations, there is no common method of their utilization. The usage of sludges from washing aggregates in building ceramics might be environmentally friendly way to utilize them.

This paper presents laboratory research on two type of sludges: from dolomite and limestone aggregates washing. Selected properties of sludges such as water content, particle size distribution (sieve and areometric method), chemical composition (XRF), mineral composition (XRD), thermal properties (STA/EGA, dilatometry, heating microscopy) and stability of fired materials during steam exposure were determined.

It was found that dolomite sludge contains more clay minerals and less carbonates, it is more finely grained than limestone sludge. Limestone sludge has large fluctuations in water content and has high content of potentially hazardous calcite grains. During heating up to 1300°C of both dried sludges decarbonation and sintering take place. Dolomite sludge softens, melts and flows below 1300°C. After firing sludges at 1000°C material made of limestone sludge is not resistant to steam.

The obtained result suggests that dolomite sludge can be used in building ceramics technology without processing as main component of ceramic mass. Limestone sludge have to be ground before its application in building ceramic materials. Results suggest that it can not be used as the main raw material in ceramic masses, but only as an additive.

A domestic hot water (DHW) system has been modernized in a multi-family house, located in the southeastern part of Poland, inhabited by 105 people. The existing heating system (2 gas boilers) was extended by a solar system consisting of 32 evacuated tube collectors with a heat pipe (the absorber area: 38.72 m2). On the basis of the system performance data, the ecological effect of the modernization, expressed in avoided CO2 emission, was estimated. The use of the solar thermal system allows CO2 emissions to be reduced up to 4.4 Mg annually. When analyzing the environmental effects of the application of the solar system, the production cycle of the most material-consuming components, namely: DHW storage tank and solar collectors, was taken into account. To further reduce CO2 emission, a photovoltaic installation (PV), supplying electric power to the pump-control system of the solar thermal system has been proposed. In the Matlab computing environment, based on the solar installation measurement data and the data of the total radiation intensity measurement, the area of photovoltaic panels and battery capacity has been optimized. It has been shown that the photovoltaic panel of approx. 1.8 m2 and 12 V battery capacity of approx. 21 Ah gives the greatest ecological effects in the form of the lowest CO2 emission. If a photovoltaic system was added it could reduce emissions by up to an additional 160 kg per year. The above calculations take also emissions resulting from the production of PV panels and batteries into account.

The perceptual text is the one described by means of sense organs and having specific cohesion tools which include among others lexis belonging to the perception modus, so called introductory predicates indicating specific perception acts, synesthetic expressions, the observer as well as spatial and locative syntactems. Text architectonics is determined by the change of the speaker’s position (observer, perceiver), his transition within the text time and space.

The meaning of temporal distributiveness occurs either in situations in which a habi-tual activity is correlated with the recurrent periods of time, or in situations in which the recurrent periods of time are accompanied by an activity. The proposed framework is yet another contribution to a series of papers exploring temporal constructions in Polish that express the meaning of distributiveness. It focuses on the analysis of con-structions with a noun phrase including “the instrumental case without a preposition”, such as uczyć się nocami, which are exponents of the distributive time proper.

This paper explores how people live together in different places in the context of Brexit. This issue seems more relevant than ever due to the continued attention being paid to immigration, identity and nation and raising questions about conviviality – understood in this paper as a process of living and interacting together in shared spaces. Building on my earlier research in 2012/13 and drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with Polish migrant women after the EU referendum in 2016, this paper explores the complexity of my participants’ everyday interactions with the local population in Manchester in the context of Brexit, viewed by many as a disruptive event impacting on social relations. The paper shows that conviviality is a highly dynamic process influenced by spatio-temporal characteristics, revealing not only tensions but also various forms of conviviality, in some cases sustained over time. It illustrates that, while Brexit poses challenges to conviviality, there are instances of thriving and sustained conviviality that endures despite exclusionary anti-immigration rhetoric. The paper also reflects on the possibilities of maintaining social connections and belonging in the context of Brexit, whereby some migrants become more rooted in their local areas and are likely to be settled on a more permanent basis, contrary to earlier assumptions that post-accession migrants are temporary.

As the adoption of the Hungarian simplified naturalisation scheme raised much tension both in the neighbouring countries of Hungary and in the main host countries of EU citizens, this paper summarises the nature of such reactions and the most frequent fears that EU states expressed. The main aim of the study is to show what effects a country’s modification of its citizenship rules may have on the situations of other EU member-states and European Union citizens. The article also raises one practical aspect of the situation that evolved as a result of the answer by Slovakia to the Hungarian modifications – namely the ex lege withdrawal of Slovakian citizenship if a person acquires a new one from another country. It introduces in detail the free-movement aspects of ethnic Hungarians losing their Slovakian citizenship, while not leaving their homeland in Slovakia, arguing that people in such a situation may rightfully and immediately be eligible for permanent residence rights, which would provide them with a higher level of protection.