Future climate-induced pressures on painted wood

A broad category of cultural heritage objects are multilayer structures composed of organic, humidity-sensitive materials – wood, animal glue, paper, leather, bone or paints. They respond to variations in relative humidity (RH) in their environment by cyclically gaining and losing moisture, and consequently swelling and shrinking. Differences in the moisture response of the materials induce internal stresses in the individual layers of the structures, which cause objects to deform and crack. Polychrome wood is examined in detail. The cumulative physical damage of the design layer on wood due to repeated RH variations is quantified in terms of their magnitude and number of times they occur. The climatological risk index for accumulated, ‘fatigue’ damage is established, using a procedure to reduce irregular real-world climate histories into simple RH cycles of known damage impact. Using output from the Hadley Model (HadCM3) and simple transfer functions predicting indoor temperature and RH from outdoor climate, changes in the indoor climate through to 2100 were forecast for unheated buildings. European maps highlighting the areas in which painted wood may be significantly affected by climate change are presented.     

The Scope of Academic Freedom Right and the Situation of Scientists in Poland

Interchange - The implementation of academic freedom can be difficult both for policymakers and university authorities. A good example of these difficulties is the case of Poland. These...     

Entrepreneurship,Innovation, and Quality: The Successful Strategy of a Newly Established Institution: The Example of Wy sza Szko ^ a Biznesu-National Louis University in Nowy Sacz

The success of the Polish private tertiary-level business school, Wy sza Szko ^ a Biznesu-National Louis University (WSB-NLU) in Nowy Sacz, is discussed and analyzed. The reasons for the success of this institution in filling a niche are underlined. While, at the start, the institution was designed as one that would meet local educational needs in a specialized field, it has evolved and has taken on national and even international importance. Most of the institutional success is attributed to the drive and entrepreneurial spirit of the Rector. WSB-NLU is a positive example of education and business enterprise, flexibility, and effectiveness in gaining competitive advantage.     

Dimensional Stability and Moisture Properties of Gap-Fillers Based on Wood Powder and Glass Microballoons

ABSTRACT

Conservation of wooden objects exposed outdoors is extremely difficult and complex due to their constant exposure to fluctuating weather conditions and biological degradation. Filling the gaps in such objects requires the use of specific materials that in particular can adapt to changes in wood dimensions in response to humidity variations. Various materials have been used so far for filling voids in wooden artefacts but none of them was entirely suitable. Therefore, the authors have attempted to provide the basic characteristics of the selected commonly used filling materials based on pine wood powder or glass microballoons as fillers and Paraloid® B-72, Klucel® G, or glutin glue as binders, as the first step in research aiming at developing new and more appropriate gap-fillers. Special attention was paid to the dimensional stability of filling materials upon drying and exposure to water vapour and liquid water. The overall results indicate that among the examined fills those consisting of Paraloid® B-72 and glass microballoons revealed best properties as they were relatively dimensionally stable upon drying and exposure to moisture – despite high absorption of water – and were quite easy to finish. Generally, better properties were observed for filling materials containing higher concentrations of adhesives and these materials will be modified in the next step of the research. Since the main drawbacks of the examined gap-fillers were low water resistance, poor dimensional stability upon drying or exposure to water vapour or liquid water, and fragility or friability, future research into their modification will head towards improvement of the above-mentioned properties.     

The communities providing religious education and catechesis to Polish immigrants in England and Wales

Since Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004, hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens have arrived in the UK in search of work, of which the majority landed in England and Wales. This process, although not as fast now, is still ongoing. The majority of immigrants from Poland are young people who start families and have children. Many of these children are born in the UK. For this reason, it is increasingly common for the children of Polish immigrants to be covered by the local school system. In addition to general knowledge, they also have the right to religious education and catechesis. This article presents a summary of the communities providing religious education and catechesis to Polish migrants living in England and Wales. It describes the specific features of religious education in state-run schools, Catholic schools and Polish Saturday Schools. The objectives of parish catechesis conducted by the Polish Catholic missions operating in England and Wales are also outlined. The primary objective of this discussion is to present the various options for religious education and catechesis for the children of Polish immigrants living in England and Wales.     

Topic Map as a Method for the Development of Subject Headings Vocabulary: An Introduction to the Project of the National Library of Poland

Subject searches in the National Library of Poland catalog are still comprised of a significant number of all searches, but understanding and exploration of the National Library of Poland Subject Headings causes many problems, not only for the end-users, but also for many librarians. Another problem in the National Library of Poland is the insufficient use of relationships between the terms. The solution could be a properly designed Web application based on a topic map using appropriate visualization that supports indexing and information retrieval in the National Library of Poland. The article presents the main stages of a planned project.