In research about degraded towns two cognitive currents can be observed: empirical (what? how? where? when?) and theoretical (why?). Contrarily, no study to date has dealt with the issue of discursivity of its central concept ‘degradation’, i.e. its a priori linguistic characterization determining ways in which research on the subject has been done. As geographers, we are fascinated by the ”real”

In this concluding chapter, our aim is to outline the state-of-the-art within the deliberated topic in order to identify challenges for future research. Firstly, reminiscent of George Orwell’s aphorism “who controls the past controls the future”, we stress the importance of research into the origins of degraded and restituted towns in order to understand the socio-economic context that has shaped

Degradations in Poland are sometimes made on an individual basis. Most often, however, they are the result of large-scale administrative reforms. Throughout history, the Polish lands were subject to many such reforms. Relatively little-known is the Polish reform of 1933–1934, which – depending on the definition of ‘city’ – degraded up to 722 units with some form of urban denominator. The modest no

One important element in the interaction between the natural and the human environment is the negative impact of the first on the latter when seen through the prism of urban destabilization. Within this scope, the issue of urban abandonment and disappearance holds an important place, the indirect cause of which are the specifics of local and regional natural subsystems. Small towns are especially

One of the less known problems in settlement geography is the issue of so-called degraded and restituted towns. This lack of reconnaissance, however, is perhaps less the result of the towns’ scarcity than their specificity of being ‘awarded’ or ‘deprived of’ an urban label by means of strictly socio-political actions. Degraded and restituted towns, hence, are spatial units made ‘urban’ or ‘rural’

Social deprivation and marginalization in urban areas are hardships that are not necessarily limited to developing countries. Around 80 million Europeans today live in conditions that fall within the definition of poverty. However, certain areas are more prone to affliction than others. Such estates usually consist of concrete slab high-rise buildings and are often characterized by high levels of

Concepts are the basic building blocks of all knowledge, while the strength of the theories that guide any societal project is dependent on the quality those concepts. Contrarily, the utilization of questionable concepts will result in questionable material effects. As two of the oldest geographical concepts still in widespread use, ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ stand in stark contrast to the immense change

We examined word associations in Swedish children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) compared to their typically developing (TD) peers. Furthermore, the study aimed to explore the dimensions of vocabulary knowledge (breadth, depth, and fluency) in these children. Fifty children (15 DLD and 35 TD) participated in the study, aged six to nine years. This age span is commonly associated with s

Meteoric beryllium-10 (10Be) is commonly used as a proxy of landscape dynamics (erosion and sedimentation rates) and soil development. Soil represents the first-stage reservoir of meteoric 10Be, and variability in the concentration of the isotope in soils may be affected by soil properties and atmospheric deposition. Although many investigations have targeted this issue, there are still problems i

The downscaling of silicon-based structures and proto-devices has now reached the single-atom scale, representing an important milestone for the development of a silicon-based quantum computer. One especially notable platform for atomic-scale device fabrication is the so-called Si:P δ-layer, consisting of an ultra-dense and sharp layer of dopants within a semiconductor host. Whilst several alterna

The intensification of agriculture has resulted in more homogeneous landscapes and declines of many species associated with farmland or other semi-natural open habitats. In parallel, forestry has also intensified causing declines in many species associated with old-growth forests. While intensive forestry negatively affects forest species, it inadvertently creates new habitats such as clear-cuts,

Biodiversity is challenged worldwide by exploitation, global warming, changes in land use and increasing urbanization. It is hypothesized that communities in urban areas should consist primarily of generalist species with broad niches that are able to cope with novel, variable, fragmented, warmer and unpredictable environments shaped by human pressures. We surveyed moth communities in three cities

Seeking to examine the implications of social distancing, isolation and the silencing of public spaces brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic, I offer an interpretation of Kafka’s short story ‘The Silence of the Sirens’ contrasting it to the Homeric original. In Homer’s story, Odysseus resists the temptation of the Sirens’ deadly song by having himself tied to the mast of his ship, while his oarsm

We discuss γ ∗γ ∗→ ηc(1S) ; ηc (2S) transition form factor for both virtual photons. The general formula is given. We use difierent models for the cc̄ wave function obtained from the solution of the Schrödinger equation for diffierent cc̄ potentials: harmonic oscillator, Cornell, logarithmic, power-law, Coulomb and Buchmüller{Tye. We showed some examples of wave functions in the Light Front repres

In Pb-free solder alloys used in solder balls of diameter of 50 µm or smaller, larger proportion of Cu6Sn5 intermetallics formation is a major reliability concern, and this is aggravated in presence of external thermal gradient. A complete understanding of the mechanism for intermetallics compound (IMC) growth under thermomigration is essential for devising solder materials resistant to degradatio

A Soft X-ray Laser project (the SXL) aiming to produce FEL radiation in the range of 1 to 5 nm is currently in a conceptual design phase and a report on the design is expected to be delivered by March 2021. The FEL will be driven by the existing 3 GeV linac at MAX IV laboratory, which also serves as injector for the two storage rings. The science case has been pushed by a large group of mainly Swe

Objectives: To assess if mammographic density (MD) changes during neoadjuvant breast cancer treatment and is predictive of a pathological complete response (pCR). Methods: We prospectively included 200 breast cancer patients assigned to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in the NeoDense study (2014–2019). Raw data mammograms were used to assess MD with a fully automated volumetric method and radiolog

Web-based public participatory GIS (PPGIS) has been used by governmental organizations to facilitate people's contribution to decision-making processes. However, these applications do not provide an open and transparent environment for public participation. This study suggests that PPGISs should be developed as decentralized applications (DApp) based on Ethereum blockchain technology to have a ful