They lived around 200 million years ago, and they resembled today's squids and cuttlefishes. Belemnites can reveal a wealth of fascinating information about climate in past geological eras.

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 rapid surge of global oil prices, on account of the pent-up demand after COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war, has significantly contributed to the cost-push inflation as well as twin deficits, predominantly in developing economies. Motivated by the intention to curb the inflation, governments of several oil-dependent economies have rolled out fiscal measures to provide immediate relief to households through subsidizing the fuel component of the consumption basket. This paper provides a case study of Pakistan, wherein the effectiveness of untargeted gasoline and diesel subsidies has been gauged against alternative direct disbursement mechanisms. The analysis reveals that under the price-control based indirect subsidy disbursement mechanism, only 11% of the total domestic subsidies were directed to the poorest 40% of the households, whereas approximately 55% of the total subsidies were allocated to the 20% of the most liquid household segment. The case study analyzes the performance of alternative direct subsidy disbursement mechanisms which transpires into the potential fiscal savings of PKR 74.63 billion, while providing coverage to 40% of the lowest household segment. The study also evaluates the implication of the pass-through of the true prices on the national consumption of gasoline and diesel in the short-term, which reveals the sharp reduction of petroleum consumption in the total bill from 37% to 23%, thereby providing substantial relief to the current account balance. The finding provides key insights for economies to institutionalize the necessary social protection system and progressively transit to the direct subsidy disbursement mechanism while striving to contain the cost-push-based inflation triggered through the rapid movement of global oil prices.

The aim of the article to assess the functioning of the NewConnect market over 10 years from the organizer’s and participants’ perspective. This helps to diagnose the most important organizational advantages and problems of the Polish MTF, determine further development prospects and propose potential changes to neutralize the negative factors. To illustrate the problem, a comprehensive analysis will be made of aggregated statistical data from 2007–2017, which show the changes and trends on this market, and additionally include the data comparing the current state of the NewConnect market with other alternative markets organized by European stock exchanges.

The conducted research does not allow to view the NewConnect market as an organizational success. The analysis identified a number of problems in the functioning of the Polish MTF, ranging from the inappropriate organization of the primary market, resulting in the admittance of too high a number of issuers of dubious credibility, to the consequences appearing on the secondary shares market. It does not give unambiguous grounds to expect positive prospects for the market development in the future. In order to stop unfavorable trends and to improve the issuers’ quality, a discussion on the regulations regarding issuers’ admission, i.e. the size of the minimum equity, IPO, capitalization and the issue price of the debuting company, should be initiated.

The article analyzes the present state of the phosphate raw material base to meet Ukrainian chemical enterprises’ needs. In Ukraine, a number of complex apatite and phosphorite deposits have been explored. Their exploitation can lead to a complete supply of Ukrainian chemical enterprises with raw materials and can partly reduce the amount of expensive imported phosphate mineral fertilizers. At present, the following deposits, where apatite is connected with other useful components, are prepared for exploitation: Stremyhorod, Fedorivka, Novopoltavka, Kropyvna and others. The advantage of the development of these deposits is the possibility to extract apatite along with the production of rare earth concentrates, ilmenite, titanomagnetite, as well as feldspars, olivine, pyroxenes, mica and others which will significantly increase the profitability of the deposits development.

The alternative to apatite-containing deposits in Ukraine can be sedimentary deposits of nodule, granular and mixed type phosphorites. Phosphorite deposits can be used mainly for the production of phosphorite and limestone flour. Considerable resources of granular phosphorites have been discovered in Volyn-Podillia and Dnieper-Donetsk which are considered to have a various agricultural effect. They are environmentally friendly ores without impurity which prevents plants from cesium, strontium and reduces nitrates in the soil. Arranging the exploration of phosphorite ores in certain parts of Volyn-Podillia basin and Dnieper-Donets Rift is recommended.

The world economy is constantly faced with crises that cause a significant negative impact. Each crisis poses new challenges to the economy and, on the one hand, inhibits economic growth, and on the other hand, can become a powerful stimulus for the development and rethinking of fundamental approaches to its construction. Conducting an analysis and establishing relationships between the economic situation and the state of the energy sector make it possible not only to predict the future but also to develop specific steps to prevent crises or reduce their negative impact. At the same time, establishing and evaluating the relationship between key economic and energy indicators, the main one of which is definitely the energy intensity of GDP, will provide an opportunity to understand how improving energy security will affect the economic situation in the country. The generalization of Ukraine’s experience in rebuilding and recovering the economy after the biggest crisis creates a basis for further research in the field of energy management, crisis management, economics, and the construction of investment policy. The reconstruction of Ukraine after the war has the potential to become the most significant stimulus for development and economic growth. During the crisis, it is very important to pay attention to the country’s energy security. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the diversification of energy resources, taking into account their rising cost. Energy markets are currently experiencing extreme volatility caused by geopolitical tensions, which requires additional attention in the development and implementation of strategic guidelines for sustainable economic recovery in Ukraine.

This article discusses regulations on the management of rock mass resources more broadly than previous literature in this area. Significant changes in the directions of globalization development as well as the transformations and disruptions of existing raw-material supply chains and changes in their structure call for verification of and changes in regulations on raw-material management in individual countries, not only in the UE. The article examines the current EU regulations and their amendments in Poland. The article presents problems that have arisen during works on the necessary regulatory reform of the following policies: development, spatial (land-use), raw material, geology and mining, environmental protection, and waste and water management. The article shows that strategies, policies, and regulations prepared simultaneously, which were to be correlated with the horizontally integrated National Development Concept, are not. This should effectively enhance the country’s raw-material security. Deficiencies have been highlighted both in assumptions and procedures adopted in developing said documents. The author also emphasizes the need to balance competing values and make necessary choices when specific solutions affect at least two competitive areas, e.g. mineral deposits vs. water, farmlands or woodlands, critical infrastructure, housing, investment in the defense sector. The need is highlighted to rationally and sustainably manage resources and country space, to protect and explore them, and plan their management. The author justifies the need for a new Act of the Code status –that comprehensively and consistently regulates both the management of rock mass resources and land and water resources, and the country space management.

Liberal and communitarian orientation refers to different concepts of the relationships linking citizens with the political community. A significant proportion of Poles combine their various elements, but both orientations are antagonistic in the prototype form. Earlier studies have shown that the distinction between liberalism vs. communitarianism was one of the critical dimensions of the Polish socio-political polarization. These two different concepts of the community imply two sets of hypotheses concerning their moral justifications and specific patterns of civic engagement. The hypotheses were verified in two survey studies conducted on large nationwide samples (N = 710 and N = 1477). Study 1 has shown that the hypothesized liberal orientation's embedding in individualizing moral values found empirical support only for the code of Liberty/Oppression. On the other hand, communitarian orientation turned out to be positively related not only to all components of binding moral values (Ingroup loyalty, Authority, Sanctity) but also to some individualizing moral values (Care, Fairness). Pattern of relationships with moral values largely explains the differences observed in study 2. In this study liberals are better at unconventional activity, which consists in exerting direct pressure on various groups of decision-makers. Communitarianism is more often expressed in helping and cooperation at the local or neighborhood community level. People with a liberal mindset want to be active when they perceive a threat to personal freedoms, human rights, tolerance, and socio-cultural diversity. Communitarians want to protect/cultivate traditional values and the welfare of the local and national community. For both orientations, competing values - liberal or communitarian - seem not even minimally worthy of public involvement.

The Laplace operator is a differential operator which is used to detect edges of objects in digital images. This paper presents the properties of the most commonly used fifth-order pixels Laplace filters including the difference schemes used to derive them (finite difference method – FDM and finite element method – FEM). The results of the research concerning third-order pixels matrices of the convolution Laplace filters used for digital processing of images were presented in our previous paper: The mathematical characteristic of the Laplace contour filters used in digital image processing. The third order filters is presented byWinnicki et al. (2022). As previously, the authors focused on the mathematical properties of the Laplace filters: their transfer functions and modified differential equations (MDE). The relations between the transfer function for the differential Laplace operator and its difference operators are described and presented here in graphical form. The impact of the corner elements of the masks on the results is also discussed. A transfer function, is a function characterizing properties of the difference schemes applied to approximate differential operators. Since they are relations derived in both types of spaces (continuous and discrete), comparing them facilitates the assessment of the applied approximation method.

The paper investigates the interdependence between the perceptual identification of the vocalic quality of six isolated Polish vowels traditionally defined by the spectral envelope and the fundamental frequency F0. The stimuli used in the listening experiments were natural female and male voices, which were modified by changing the F0 values in the ±1 octave range. The results were then compared with the outcome of the experiments on fully synthetic voices. Despite the differences in the generation of the investigated stimuli and their technical quality, consistent results were obtained. They confirmed the findings that in the perceptual identification of vowels of key importance is not only the position of the formants on the F1 × F2 plane but also their relationship to F0, the connection between the formants and the harmonics and other factors. The paper presents, in quantitative terms, all possible kinds of perceptual shifts of Polish vowels from one phonetic category to another in the function of voice pitch. An additional perceptual experiment was also conducted to check a broader range of F0 changes and their impact on the identification of vowels in CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) structures. A mismatch between the formants and the glottal tone value can lead to a change in phonetic category.

How landscapes are understood in human life can be linked to successive stages in the evolution of art and imagery. How humans perceive the world around us is reflected in how artists craft the messages they want to convey.

In the 17th century, when the fashion for music in the Italian style prevailed in Europe, singers and instrumentalists from Italy headed north across the Alps, invited by wealthy patrons. Some came to Poland, enriching the ensembles at the courts of kings and magnates with their talent.

Sahelanthropus, Orrorin tugenensis, Ardipithecus kaddaba, Australopithecus, Paranthropus and finally Homo. Humans have traveled quite a long evolutionary path. Only one of these many species has managed to survive to the present day: Homo sapiens.

We can hardly imagine the Earth without majestic trees and omnipresent shrubs. But not all of us realize that these plants owe their success to ubiquitous yet often unnoticeable fungi. What links these two types of organisms together is life-giving water. It is the reason why trees and fungi have been inseparable for hundreds of millions of years. How do droughts affect trees and their evolutionarily ancient symbiosis with fungi?

We had not always dreamed of becoming polar explorers. It was through pure chance, and a bit of courage, that we became the first married couple to spend winters at both of Poland’s polar stations.

We talk to Prof. Jerzy Jarzębski from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and the Eastern Europe State University in Przemyśl about Stanisław Lem and the future he foresaw, his cautionary tales and whether he is still an author often misunderstood.

Small woodlots and shelterbelts in agricultural areas can partially stand in for larger forests. What role do they have in the context of climate change and conservation?

Identity, reputation, the system of values, experience, and relations with institutions are only some of the elements making up the brand of the Polish Academy of Sciences

The ways the Romani have been depicted in European literature are projections of various fears, phobias, and prejudices against strangers, while at the same time expressing yearnings for the idealistic side of life - freedom, happiness, and disregard for borders.

In the 1920s Polish female painters and sculptors made their mark on the artistic scene in Poland and in Europe. Now their accomplishments are being rediscovered.

Nuclear power plants are playing an increasingly important role in energy production in many European countries. One of the key problems that arise as a result is what to do with the high volume of nuclear waste.

As the amount of online content grows, Internet users' attention span decreases. This brings an acute need for social and technological solutions that enable users to select the most important and relevant information.

Umbilical cord blood doesn't become useless after a child is born. In the future it may serve as a source of "spare parts" for humans.