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The year 1999 marked the beginning of reforms in social insurance in Poland. Changes which were implemented then regarded mainly retirement insurance. Until the reform was introduced, the retirement insurance had operated under a pay-as-you-go system. However, political changes in Poland, as well as adverse demographic trends, led to ineffective functioning of the existing system of financing liabilities arising from retirement insurance. It was necessary to introduce changes that, above all, would allow for maintaining an appropriate level of retirement pension. The following article concentrates on one selected aspect of this insurance - Open Pension Funds (in Polish: Otwarte Fundusze Emerytalne; OFEs) and presents major changes occurring in 2002-2018, their reasons and effects. The analysis is mainly based on data from the Financial Supervision Authority and the Social Insurance Institution.

In spatial econometrics,Wrefers to the matrix that weights the value of the spatially lagged variable of other units. As unimportant as it may appear,Wspecifies, or at least ought to specify, why and how other units of analysis affect the unit under observation. This article shows that theory must inform five crucial specification choices taken by researchers. Specifically, the connectivity variable employed inWmust capture the causal mechanism of spatial dependence. The specification ofWfurther determines the relative relevance of source units from which spatial dependence emanates, and whether receiving units are assumed to be identically or differentially exposed to spatial stimulus. Multiple dimensions of spatial dependence can be modeled as independent, substitutive or conditional links. Finally, spatial effects need not go exclusively in one direction, but can be bi-directional; recipients can simultaneously experience positive spatial dependence from some sources and negative dependence from others. The importance ofWstands in stark contrast to applied researchers' typical use of crude proxy variables (such as geographical proximity) to measure true connectivity, and the practice of adopting standard modeling conventions rather than substantive theory to specifyW. This study demonstrates which assumptions these conventions impose on specification choices, and argues that theories of spatial dependence will often conflict with them.

The language question in St Catherine's Convent in Krakės in the first half of the twentieth centuryAfter 1918, the two Catholic convents on the territory of the Republic of Lithuania faced the issue of Lithuanisation, which was solved in different ways. The Benedictine Convent in Kaunas, the provisional capital of Lithuania, had been firmly Lithuanised by 1924. However, St Catherine's Convent in Krakės in Samogitia chose a different path. This article aims to find out how the Krakės convent dealt with the challenges of nationalism in the context of ongoing modernisation of its life at that time. The main objective is to present the shift from the Polish to the Lithuanian language in public and private life of the convent. The study is mostly based on original documents held in the archives of St Catherine's Convent in Kaunas.The Polish language was very important for the Krakės convent (established in 1645). According to the modified Rule of St Catherine the Virgin and Martyr adopted in Krakės in 1673, the language of prayers and sermons was Polish. Only daughters of noblemen were accepted to join; they were obliged to donate a dowry, which meant that only wealthy girls could become nuns. The Krakės convent stemmed from the cultural traditions of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The establishment of the independent Republic of Lithuania meant that St Catherine's sisters of Krakės needed to re-evaluate their political (civic), national and cultural identities.The study indicates that the solution to the language question in the Krakės convent was not enforced. The sisters were able to naturally reconcile to the situation, with time left to adapt. The article provides a detailed account of the reasons behind the gradual shift from Polish to Lithuanian. Initially, the nuns used Lithuanian to communicate outside the convent. It was not until 1930 that it began to be used in their community life, including prayers. Even then nuns could use Polish to communicate among themselves, say their private prayers or write letters.The study reveals various tensions which existed during this transitional period. However, the conclusion is that the convent successfully managed to avoid hasty decisions and resist emotions, as well as to balance between the universal and local church, the congregation of St Catherine in Braniewo (Braunsberg), the aims of various Lithuanian institutions, and the needs of the convent itself. The greatest achievement can be seen in the fact that the language issue in Krakės was not given unnecessary prominence and prioritised. As the study shows, giving it time was the best solution as the issue of language became resolved naturally, although the transition period lasted for a decade. Problem języka w klasztorze sióstr katarzynek w Krokach w pierwszej połowie XX wiekuPo 1918 roku dwa żeńskie klasztory katolickie, które znalazły się na terytorium Republiki Litewskiej, zetknęły się z problemem lituanizacji, który został rozwiązany na różne sposoby. Klasztor benedyktynek, który znajdował się w tymczasowej stolicy Litwy – Kownie, do 1924 roku uległ drastycznej lituanizacji. Klasztor katarzynek w Krokach, znajdujący się na Żmudzi, wybrał inną drogę. Celem artykułu, opartego głównie na autentycznych dokumentach przechowywanych w kowieńskim archiwum zgromadzenia katarzynek i innych, jest ukazanie, w jaki sposób w klasztorze katarzynek w Krokach poradzono sobie z wyzwaniami dotyczącymi kwestii narodowości w kontekście modernizacji życia klasztoru w owych czasach. Głównym zamiarem jest pokazanie, w jaki sposób nastąpiło przejście z języka polskiego na język litewski w życiu publicznym i wewnętrznym klasztoru.Język polski był bardzo ważny dla klasztoru w Krokach, ufundowanego w 1645 roku. Reguła Zgromadzenia Sióstr św. Katarzyny Dziewicy i Męczennicy przyjęta przez klasztor w Krokach w 1673 roku przewidywała modlitwy i słuchanie kazań księdza w języku polskim. Do klasztoru mogły wstąpić tylko córki szlacheckie. Należało wnieść posag, dlatego mogły być przyjęte tylko osoby o odpowiedniej kondycji majątkowej. Klasztor w Krokach ukształtował się jako ośrodek kultury szlacheckiej WKL. Powstanie niepodległej Republiki Litewskiej oznaczało, że katarzynki z Krok musiały zastanowić się nad swoją tożsamością polityczną (obywatelską), narodową i kulturową.Badania wykazały, że rozwiązanie kwestii języka w klasztorze sióstr katarzynek w Krokach nie było forsowane. Siostrom pozwolono w sposób naturalny zdać sobie sprawę z sytuacji, dano im czas na jej zaakceptowanie. W artykule przedstawiono szczegółowo powody, które doprowadziły do tego, że katarzynki w Krokach stopniowo przeszły od używania języka polskiego do używania języka litewskiego. Początkowo używały go do komunikowania się ze światem zewnętrznym, a dopiero od 1930 roku zaczęły używać go w życiu wewnętrznym klasztoru, podczas modlitw. Jednakże nawet wówczas nie zakazano siostrom używania języka polskiego do własnych kontaktów, do komunikacji między sobą, korespondencji lub podczas osobistej modlitwy.W artykule zostały ujawnione różne napięcia, które miały miejsce w badanym okresie przejściowym, aczkolwiek stwierdza się, że udało się bez podejmowania pochopnych decyzji, bez ulegania emocjom uwzględnić zarówno potrzeby Kościoła powszechnego i lokalnego, zgromadzenia sióstr katarzynek z Braniewa, jak i cele różnorodnych instytucji państwa litewskiego, a także potrzeby klasztoru w Krokach.Za największe osiągnięcie można uznać fakt, że kwestia języka w Krokach nie była wyolbrzymiona, nie była najważniejsza. Jak wykazują badania, czas miał najlepszy wpływ na rozwiązanie problemu. Kwestia języka w klasztorze w Krokach została rozwiązana w sposób naturalny, chociaż zajęło to całe dziesięciolecie.

The Crucifix in the Public School Classroom in European Court RulingsLautsi v. Italy was an important court case that was brought before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The subsequent ruling on 3 November 2009 noted that the display of religious symbols (i.e. the crucifix in Italian public school classrooms) is contrary to Article 2 of the 1st Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. This decision, which went against Italy, is in line with other judgments in similar cases, and seems to be promoting the European public school as a place of confessional neutrality, where the goal is to cultivate secular values of a democratic society in pupils.The European Court of Human Rights thus clearly supports the idea and principles of secularism and the impartiality of the state. However, the ruling did not impose any obligation to undertake adequate legal solutions or verify the existing law, leaving each member state a level of freedom to make opinions and final decisions on their own. The Lautsi v. Italy judgment had an indirect influence on the entire public service sphere, of which the public school is just one link of a chain. Yet Italy filed an appeal and the case was referred to the Court's Grand Chamber. Its hearing is to be held on 30 June 2010. The legal ramifications of this ruling therefore remain an important debate in Europe.

Presentation of the novelties of the W-STEM project website, made in the 2nd face-to-face meeting of the W-STEM ERASMUS + Capacity-building in Higher Education European Project (Ref. 598923-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), which was held in the Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla (Colombia), 27-29 November 2019. ; W-STEM (Building the future of Latin America: engaging women into STEM) is a project funded under European Union ERASMUS + Capacity-building in Higher Education Programme (598923-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi­ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

A search for the production of events containing three W bosons predicted by the standard model is reported. The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC and corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb-1. The search is performed in final states with three leptons (electrons or muons), or with two same-charge leptons plus two jets. The observed (expected) significance of the signal for W±W±W production is 0.60 (1.78) standard deviations, and the ratio of the measured signal yield to that expected from the standard model is 0.34-0.34+0.62. Limits are placed on three anomalous quartic gauge couplings and on the production of massive axionlike particles. ; Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie program and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract No. 675440 (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the A.P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office; the Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium); the F.R.S.-FNRS and FWO (Belgium) under the "Excellence of Science — EOS" — be.h project n. 30820817; the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic; the Lendület ("Momentum") Program and the J´anos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the New National Excellence Program UNKP, the NKFIA research grants 123842, 123959, 124845, 124850 and 125105 (Hungary); the Council of Science and Industrial Research, India; the HOMING PLUS program of the Foundation for Polish Science, cofinanced from European Union, Regional Development Fund, the Mobility Plus program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the National Science Center (Poland), contracts Harmonia 2014/14/M/ST2/00428, Opus 2014/13/B/ST2/02543, 2014/15/B/ST2/03998, and 2015/19/B/ST2/02861, Sonata-bis 2012/07/E/ST2/01406; the National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund; the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2015-0509 and the Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias; the Thalis and Aristeia programs cofinanced by EU-ESF and the Greek NSRF; the Rachadapisek Sompot Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University and the Chulalongkorn Academic into Its 2nd Century Project Advancement Project (Thailand); the Welch Foundation, contract C-1845; and the Weston Havens Foundation (U.S.A.).