Several DNA-damage detection and repair mechanisms have evolved to repair double-strand breaks induced by mutagens. Later in evolutionary history, DNA single- and double-strand cuts made possible immune diversity by V(D)J recombination and recombination at meiosis. Such cuts are induced endogenously and are highly regulated and controlled. In meiosis, DNA cuts are essential for the initiation of homologous recombination, and for the formation of joint molecule and crossovers. Many proteins that function during somatic DNA-damage detection and repair are also active during (...) homologous recombination. However, their meiotic functions may be altered from their somatic roles through localization, posttranslational modifications and/or interactions with meiosis-specific proteins. Presumably, somatic repair functions and meiotic recombination diverged during evolution, resulting in adaptations specific to sexual reproduction. BioEssays 27:795–808, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The paper presents findings gathered in an exploratory, descriptive, corpus-based analysis of a parallel corpus composed of English corporate documents and their translations into Polish with regard to the frequency-related, binary strategy distribution pattern. In general, the author posits a distinctiveness of interlingual communication in the domain of law, as delineated by the institutional and disciplinary framework. The material extracted from the corpus and studied for its generic features points to the hermetic character of corporate written communication in English. The (...) thesis to be verified is whether there are any tendencies in the distribution of the translation strategies in the corpus texts. The research question was operationalised via coding the corpus extracts according to the binary strategy division scheme. Further, the data have been discussed in reference to the sociocultural background of the communicative situation covered under the analysis in order to account for the translators’ motivation. (shrink)

The paper aims at describing the findings and conclusions formulated in the analysis of the authorship factor in legal discourse. It is hypothesised that verbal structures show systemically varied distribution across legal discourse and the relevant distinctions run through the authorship categories. When it comes to the aim of the research it draws on the tradition of sociolinguistic methodology targeting issues related to language variation which follows the basic assumptions of functional grammar. From the point of view of the material (...) covered by the analysis it contributes to the research on legal discourse and specifically on its specialised domain referred to as corporate, company or business discourse. It provides additional empirical data pointing to the non-homogeneity of the legal style and formal distinctions originating from rich contextual background. The study is conducted on the material of a custom-designed corpus of English legal texts, classified as secondary genres. Methodologically, the study makes use of the tenets of supervised search of digitalised corpora and automatic data extraction based on discrete units, subsequent identification of recurring longer contiguous and/or non-contiguous sequences, if any, built around the axis of specific verbal structures and finally qualitative comparative analysis of the material. The discussion presents sample data and focuses on the most salient categories, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The inductive approach confirms the formal divergencies in the communicative situation covered by the analysis. The findings encapsulate patterns and tendencies in the quantitative distribution of verbal structures depending on the authorship category. It may be concluded that authorship is a factor delineating distinctions as regards the repertoire of grammatical instruments exploited, which contributes to the specific stylistic profile of given authors. This shows that the thesis posed is verified positively and the study shows further, more detailed distinctions running through groups of subcategories distinguished within the authorship categories specified upon the start of the research. (shrink)

W artykule przedstawiono normatywne aspekty działalności komisji do spraw etyki badań naukowych z udziałem ludzi na polskich uczelniach technicznych. Spośród osiemnastu uczelni, jedenaście w ostatnich latach powołało takie komisje. Szczegółowo opisano działalność komisji etyki badań z udziałem ludzi działającej na Politechnice Wrocławskiej, zestawiając jej sposób funkcjonowania z wybranymi elementami praktyki działania analogicznej komisji z Uniwersytetu Technicznego w Delft. W kontekście pracy komisji omówiono problemy dotyczące definicji, zakresu kompetencji komisji oraz identyfikacji czynników ryzyka i zarządzania ryzykiem badawczym. Podsumowaniem badań są propozycje (...) organizacyjne i badawcze związane z funkcjonowaniem komisji etyki badań naukowych z udziałem ludzi na uczelniach technicznych. (shrink)

Context is a notion that is commonly invoked in many linguistic studies, either with very general reference or, more specifically, in the light of one of a number of research approaches which assign distinct definitions to context, ranging from factors that can be recovered from a text, through social parameters serving as an index for the appropriation of discursive performance, to factors that bring texts into being and give them meaning. This exploratory and descriptive research problematises the notion of context (...) specifically on the grounds of English/Polish translation of corporate documentation processed in company registration proceedings, touching upon factors that are presumed to be discursively relevant in this communicative situation. The study is conducted from the perspective of the sociocultural approach and it adopts the parallel corpus methodology. The author discusses the concept of context on the ground of legal communication and secondarily presents a corpus-based description of the context categories that are idiosyncratic and potentially discursively relevant for the said communicative situation in the cross-linguistic perspective. The contextual variation is tested for its capacity to affect translation performance. The results reveal specific tendencies as regards the distribution patterns in the values corresponding to the investigated context categories. They point to some divergencies in translation output caused by the source text variantivity and they pave the way and directions for further research. Already at this stage the findings may have significant pedagogical value and they constitute a solid starting point for sociolinguistic research on discourse variantivity. (shrink)

The paper explores the hypothesis that multinomials can act as authorship-based style distinguishing markers in legal communication. Specifically, the analysis focuses on identifying the quantitative distribution patterns of structural categories of multinomials as typical for two authorship categories and on their communicative function. The two authorship categories that are contrasted here are legal professionals/experts and lay people. The analysis is conducted in the corpus-based methodology with a custom-designed corpus of English, authentic texts found in the legal trade, in the domain (...) of company registration proceedings. The findings confirm that multinomials that are conventionally considered to be a feature of professional legal communication are also cognitively salient in lay communication. Further, the texts drafted by the two categories of authors are profiled by structurally distinct multinomials. Functionally, it has been demonstrated that the structurally distinct types of multinomials that are found quantitatively salient in the two authorship categories are used predominantly for specific stylistic and/or pragmatic functions. Stylistically, multinomials contribute to conventional and ritual patterns which are used to meet the formality standards that have evolved in specific legal professions where authority is of particular importance. Pragmatic factors which account for quantitative salience of specific, structurally profiled categories of multinomials involve mainly reduplication of multinomials that embody norm-related concepts, which is required on the ground of intertextuality and ensures the materialisation of legal effect. (shrink)

A method is presented for constructing natural deduction-style systems for propositional relevant logics. The method consists in first translating formulas of relevant logics into ternary relations, and then defining deduction rules for a corresponding logic of ternary relations. Proof systems of that form are given for various relevant logics. A class of algebras of ternary relations is introduced that provides a relation-algebraic semantics for relevant logics.

In this study the author has focused on the impact of activeness and independence on the quality of life of seniors. Activeness is taken to mean the participation in regular everyday tasks. Functional independence is independence in everyday life. Quality of life in old age describes the level of satisfaction with life and indicators of successful ageing. The survey was conducted in October 2013 among four groups of seniors. Two variables determined the distribution of respondents: the level of activeness and (...) the functional independence of the seniors. The study involved 99 seniors from Sopot and Gdansk. Functional independence has a much greater impact on the quality of life of seniors than activeness in as much as independence is influenced by our state of health over which we may always have full control, whereas activeness to a large extent depends on ourselves. (shrink)

In the paper we define a class of languages for representation o knowledge in those application areas when a complete information about a domain is not available. In the languages we introduce modal operators determined by accessibility relations depending on parameters.

In this chapter the life, education, scientific path, and research of Ewa Orłowska are presented. Information on her service for the logic community, in particular on activities in scientific organisations, councils, and committees, on membership of editorial boards, and on participation in national and international projects is also mentioned.

ABSTRACT Propositional dynamic logic with converse and test, is enriched with complement, intersection and relational operations of weakest prespecification and weakest postspecification. Relational deduction system for the logic is given based on its interpretation in the relational calculus. Relational interpretation of the operators ?repeat? and ?loop? is given.

A method of defining semantics of logics based on not necessarily distributive lattices is presented. The key elements of the method are representation theorems for lattices and duality between classes of lattices and classes of some relational systems . We suggest a type of duality referred to as a duality via truth which leads to Kripke-style semantics and three-valued semantics in the style of Allwein-Dunn. We develop two new representation theorems for lattices which, together with the existing theorems by Urquhart (...) and Bimbo-Dunn, constitute a complete, in a sense, representation theory for lattices. As observed by Dunn and Hardegree, variations of Urquhart's duality arise by varying his disjointness assumption on the canonical frame. Four possible assumptions – disjoint, exhaustive, non-disjoint and non-exhaustive – are discussed in the paper. Each of the four corresponding representation theorems is expanded to a duality via truth. Based on these dualities we suggest four corresponding types of semantics for lattice-based logics. We also discuss a new topological representation of lattices. (shrink)

This article provides an overview of development of Kripke semantics for logics determined by information systems. The proposals are made to extend the standard Kripke structures to the structures based on information systems. The underlying logics are defined and problems of their axiomatization are discussed. Several open problems connected with the logics are formulated. Logical aspects of incompleteness of information provided by information systems are considered.

In the paper ordering relations for comparison of verisimilitude of theories are introduced and discussed. The relations refer to semantic analysis of the results of theories, in particular to analysis of concepts the theories deal with.

One of the generalizations of R. W´ojcicki’s concept of referential matrix is so-called pseudo-referential matrix . G. Malinowski, who introduced that concept, also considers a particular case of pseudo-referential matrices called discrete pseudo-referential matrices . In this note we want to show how any generalized matrix determines a semantically equivalent discrete pseudo-referential matrix.

ABSTRACT In this paper we introduce and investigate various classes of multimodal logics based on frames with relative accessibility relations. We discuss their applicability to representation and analysis of incomplete information. We provide axiom systems for these logics and we prove their completeness.

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the findings (which were reported on more extensively in earlier work) regarding the visibility of gender issues in the literature on selected information and communication technologies (ICTs) with a view to make predictions about potential ethical issues that the application of these ICTs may bring about in the future. On the basis of the analysis of around 100 published sources, which dealt with various aspects of selected ICTs, conclusions have been (...) drawn regarding gender issues and concerns that the applications of these ICTs may cause. The authors' analysis is theoretically informed by critical discourse analysis (CDA) which assumes that texts, both written and spoken, as well as other forms of symbolic representations, are indicative of social practices. Of particular methodological relevance was the survey of methods of text and discourse analysis presented in Titscher et al and especially the application of keyword search as a way to measure the prominence of each investigated method. This approach to literature surveying proved very useful in selecting analytic material: only those published sources on the selected four ICTs have been included in the survey, for which the analysis of keywords, abstracts and indexes of terms indicated authors' interest in gender issues. Findings - First, ICTs such as affective computing, ambient intelligence, and artificial intelligence, have been found to have the potential of positively affecting gender power relations and thus positively affecting gender balance in the areas of labour market related to ICT across EU countries and worldwide. Second, more research on the relationship between gender and ICT design, application and representation is needed, so as to enhance a better understanding of ethical issues resulting from unequal participation of women and men in all aspects of ICT production and implementation, which in itself is an ethical dilemma with which both the ICT business and legislators have to grapple. The paper offers insight into the relationship between the level of attention devoted to particular ICTs by ICT researchers, as evidenced in the reviewed literature, and the likelihood of the application of a particular ICT in the future, which is looked at and assessed from a gender perspective. (shrink)

The book presents logical foundations of dual tableaux together with a number of their applications both to logics traditionally dealt with in mathematics and philosophy (such as modal, intuitionistic, relevant, and many-valued logics) and to various applied theories of computational logic (such as temporal reasoning, spatial reasoning, fuzzy-set-based reasoning, rough-set-based reasoning, order-of magnitude reasoning, reasoning about programs, threshold logics, logics of conditional decisions). The distinguishing feature of most of these applications is that the corresponding dual tableaux are built in a (...) relational language which provides useful means of presentation of the theories. In this way modularity of dual tableaux is ensured. We do not need to develop and implement each dual tableau from scratch, we should only extend the relational core common to many theories with the rules specific for a particular theory. (shrink)

A survey of some classes of Post algebras is given including the class of plain semi-Post algebras, Post algebras of order m, m>1, as its particular instance, Post algebras of order ω+, and Post algebras of order ω + ω∗. Representation theorems for each of the classes are given. Some examples of the algebras in the classes are constructed.

We present two discrete dualities for double Stone algebras. Each of these dualities involves a different class of frames and a different definition of a complex algebra. We discuss relationships between these classes of frames and show that one of them is a weakening of the other. We propose a logic based on double Stone algebras.

This paper contains a logic enabling us to reason in the presence of vague- ness phenomena. We consider an epistemological vagueness of concepts caused by the unavailability of total information about a continuous world which we describe in observational terms. Lack of information is manifested by the existence of borderline cases for concepts. Since we are unable to perceive concepts exactly, we cannot establish a sharp boundary between an extension of a concept and its complement. Some results for reasoning about (...) vague concepts are already known in the literature [1], [2], [3], [4], [10]. Usually, a semantics of vague concepts is developed within the theory of fuzzy sets or the theory of supertruth [9]. Following the idea that reasoning about vague concepts requires a special logic, we introduce a propositional language with sentential operators en- abling us to dene positive, negative, and borderline regions of any vague concept. A semantics of the language is rened within a framework of the theory of rough sets . The admitted semantics provides means for dening extensions of concepts in a formal way. We show that these extensions re ect properly our intuition connected with vagueness. For ex- ample, the law of excluded middle is not valid on the level of extensions. Moreover, for any concept, the extensions of formulas representing its pos- itive, negative, and borderline regions provide a partition of a universe of discourse. (shrink)