Sport as a Factor of Nation Branding: A Quantitative Approach

In recent times, governments have become increasingly aware of the significance of shaping the international image of a state. However, the multidimensional character of the state’s brand causes difficulties in measuring it. The aim of the paper is to investigate whether good performance in sport shapes the brand of a nation, thus, making sport a tool of nation branding. The paper is both theoretical and empirical. Theoretically, a conceptualization of nation branding has been presented. The empirical part is focused on analyzing the influence of the level of sport on the international image of states. The level of sports was measured on the basis of the states’ achievements at the Summer Olympics, and on the international image of 10 selected countries with the use of available data concerning a states’ brand.     

Science Education – An Event Staged on Two Stages Simultaneously

The article discusses the interaction of scientific knowledge and everyday human experience, using a phenomenological framework, which lets a picture of meaning constitution emerge. This leads to conclusions including construction of a model of curriculum work (on the levels of planning, implementation and evaluation) involving translation between the setting of everyday experience and the setting of science. The model may provide the emergence of meaningful science knowledge.     

Factors affecting success of training companies

This study aims to identify the key factors which influence the functioning quality and success of training companies. Based on an analysis of the requirements included in the quality management system standards for providers of education and training services, a set of twenty factors has been developed. This was followed by a survey for specifically selected managers of 90 Polish firms, which provide training, who evaluated both the influence of the factors on the probability of success and also the level of difficulty required to accomplish the factors. The findings indicate that the managers of the learning providers need to focus on employing qualified trainers and providing a curriculum which is unique and adjusted to their customers’ needs.     

DigitalHub: A Repository Focused on the Future

The DigitalHub scholarly repository was developed and launched at the Galter Health Sciences Library for the Feinberg School of Medicine and the greater Northwestern Medicine community. The repository was designed to allow scholars the ability to create, share, and preserve a range of citable digital outputs. This article traces the evolution of DigitalHub’s development and engagement activities, highlighting project challenges, innovations, success stories, and the team-based approach that was employed to successfully achieve project goals.     

The strategic role of public relations in creating the competitive advantages of private higher education in Poland: The example of the school of banking in Poznan´

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the key role of public relations in increasing the competitive advantages of higher education institutions. It identifies and describes the mechanism of the shift in interest from advertising to public relations that results from the increasing complexity of the environment of a private higher education institution. Moreover, the authors conduct an analysis of the main target groups of public relations activities, referring to the conceptual model of the “two markets” according to which a private higher education institution “sells” access to education to potential candidates and then “sells” its graduates on the labour market. The practical example of the marketing and public relations activities undertaken by the authors at the School of Banking in Poznan´ since 1994 are presented and elucidated.     

The effect of peer group stability on achievements: Evidence from Poland

This article reports on a study using data from nation-wide standardised examinations in Poland. We analysed the extent to which grade 9 student achievements have depended on the stability of their peer group over the course of middle school. We controlled for the fixed effects of schools attended by the students, as well as for individual achievements prior to middle school enrolment. To mitigate the risk for endogeneity, analysis was informed by a consideration of the fact that middle schools operate in different institutional relations with nearby primary schools. This also allowed us to distinguish between the effect related to peer group stability and the one connected to the stability of the learning environment in general. The results of our analysis show that instability significantly reduces students' expected performance in mathematics and science. The impact of peer group stability on test achievements varies strongly across the student ability distribution. Very low-performing students and top performers were most affected. The average students were largely unaffected. One category of students that seems to benefit from the change when moving to middle school are students from very competitive primary schools who have average skills.     

Virtual laboratory—Using a hand movement recognition system to improve the quality of chemical education

The rapid development of information and communication technologies has enabled the development of interfaces, which allow the recognition of the gestures and movements of the user. These interfaces, due to their affordable prices, are available to a wide range of users. They are called natural user interfaces (NUI). NUI are commonly used in game consoles and electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets. We used the Kinect sensor from Microsoft in our studies to identify the movements and gestures of the user. This interface was used by us in teaching Chemistry in a Middle School and High School by developing a virtual chemical laboratory, which is based on a system of hand movements. We have analyzed the gestures and movements of the virtual chemical laboratory user to determine how they raise the effectiveness in chemical education. The results show how much better students work with a virtual laboratory, when studied by us in chemical areas, that concerned remembering information, understanding information, applying their experience in situations familiar to them from school and in solving chemical problems.     

Crisis of Abundance: A Conversation with Tomasz Makowski,Director of the Polish National Library

Piotr Dobro??cki interviews Tomasz Makowski, Director of the Polish National Library. The conversation primarily concerns reforming the system of obligatory (legal) deposit of publications in Poland.     

Block-and-break generation of microdroplets with fixed volume

We introduce a novel type of droplet generator that produces droplets of a volume set by the geometry of the droplet generator and not by the flow rates of the liquids. The generator consists of a classic T-junction with a bypass channel. This bypass directs the continuous fluid around the forming droplets, so that they can fill the space between the inlet of the dispersed phase and the exit of the bypass without breaking. Once filled, the dispersed phase blocks the exit of the bypass and is squeezed by the continuous fluid and broken off from the junction. We demonstrate the fixed-volume droplet generator for (i) the formation of monodisperse droplets from a source of varying flow rates, (ii) the formation of monodisperse droplets containing a gradation of solute concentration, and (iii) the parallel production of monodisperse droplets.