The common hamster is a critically endangered species, but it is also perceived as a pest. Searching for an economic reason for its protection can be an argument to prevent its extinction. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the identification services provided by hamsters in the agricultural ecosystem and the determination of their correlation with human welfare. We propose the methods that can be applied for this purpose, and we check if the knowledge of the species is sufficient in order to use available methods for estimating the value of the services. The common hamster is a provider of supporting, regulating, and cultural services. Estimating their value is difficult because (1) available knowledge on the species’ ecology requires an update, in many aspects, due to changes to agricultural practices that have taken place since the 1970s (e.g., assessment of actual losses to cereal, vegetable, or root crops), and also extending by context, enabling the economic valuation of services (e.g., determination of impact range on various habitat components); it is also necessary to identify the correlations between profits and losses caused by this species; (2) there is a low level of public knowledge on the presence of hamsters and their role in the ecosystem. Education, primarily for consumers, followed by the promotion of hamsters as an umbrella and key species for agricultural areas, may result in the development of cultural services, which will increase the economic value of the services provided by hamsters.

Measures taken by the public administration to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to drastic consequences for the economy. The full identification of its effects is hindered due to the delay in publishing the results of public statistics. The use of financial reports prepared by self-government authorities of all municipalities in Poland made it possible to obtain preemptive information in relation to the public statistics regarding the impact of COVID-19-related limitations on the energy expenditures incurred by local government units (LGUs), as well as an assessment of to what extent the LGUs had rationalized the energy consumption. By contrast, data from reports of energy companies made it possible to determine the impact of restrictions arising from the pandemic on the amount of energy sold and revenues from sales made by these companies. The analyses use indexes of the dynamics of changes in energy prices as well as indexes of the dynamics of changes in energy expenditures incurred by LGUs. Additionally, distributions of these indexes for the populations of municipalities are analyzed. To assess the effect of economic activity on energy expenditures incurred by LGUs, classification trees are utilized. It is established that the total production and sales of energy in Poland, in volume, in each quarter of 2020 were lower than in the corresponding period of the preceding year. However, as a result of an increase in energy prices by approximately 25%, the sales of electric power generating companies, in amounts, were higher in 2020 than in 2019. The increase in energy prices was also a cause of slightly increased total expenditures for purchasing energy in LGUs in Poland, which increased by 2.15% in 2020 compared to 2019. However, a substantial diversity in expenditure indexes was observed. That concerned both total expenditures and expenditures within individual sections of the budgets of municipalities.

Changes in the agrarian structure are among the indicators of Polish agriculture’s adaptation to competition with the EU agriculture and therefore require a thorough examination. The purpose of this paper is to determine the scale, direction and level of diversification of Polish agricultural farm size structures in 2010–2020 by typological groups of voivodeships. The research was carried out on the basis of Statistics Poland (GUS) data on the number of farms by size groups for the years 2010 and 2020. The following farm size groups were analysed: up to 2 ha of agricultural land (AL), 2–5 ha, 5–10 ha, 10–20 ha, 20–50 ha and over 50 ha. Based on fuzzy classification, four typological groups were distinguished, comprising voivodeships with similar farm size structure. Then, changes in the structure of the typological groups and changes in the number of farms in absolute terms were presented. The structure of the typological groups changed only marginally, while changes in the number of farms in absolute terms were very significant. In all groups, a decrease in the total number of farms was observed, notably farms of up to 10 ha in size, as well as an increase in the number of farms larger than 20 ha, with the rate and scale of those changes varying regionally. The largest decrease in the number of farms was recorded for voivodeships with the most fragmented agrarian structure.

Age estimation at the time of death is an integral part of forensic examination whenever unidentified human remains are discovered. In the case of adult remains the methods of age estimation are based mostly on the extent of age-related degenerative changes. The most controversial method makes use of cranial suture assessment. The purpose of this study was to verify whether assessment of cranial suture closure may be considered a useful and reliable method in forensic estimation of age at death. Postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) acquisitions of 114 male skulls were evaluated. Multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) to visualize the progress of suture closure in cross-sections was used. The inner and outer surfaces of each skull were visualized with the volume rendering technique (VRT). The coronal, sagittal, and lambdoid sutures were assessed with a suture closure scale introduced by Broca. Cranial suture assessment has been generally used for estimating age ranges, such as “younger/older”, “under about 30 years of age”, “over 50 years of age”. Moreover, lambdoid suture closure is unrelated to age, except for its ectocranial part L3 on the left side. These observations indicate no major importance of this age estimation method in forensic anthropology.

Celem badań jest ocena skali zmian poziomu rozwoju gospodarczego województw w czasie pandemii COVID-19, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem województwa wielkopolskiego, które zajmuje w całym badanym okresie stosunkowo wysokie miejsce w rankingu. Badania przeprowadzono na podstawie danych GUS. Zastosowano metodę porządkowania liniowego obiektów wielowymiarowych przy normowaniu zmiennych metodą Strahl w ujęciu dynamicznym. Wyznaczono syntetyczny wskaźnik poziomu rozwoju obejmujący 13 zmiennych diagnostycznych i porównano poziom rozwoju gospodarczego województw w latach 2019–2021 oraz w 2010 i 2015 r. Analiza wykazała niewielkie obniżenie wskaźnika w 2020 r., ale w 2021 r. we wszystkich województwach osiągnął on wartość wyższą niż przed pandemią. Dynamika wzrostu była nierównomierna – zmiany w województwach bardziej rozwiniętych były szybsze niż w pozostałych, co spowodowało pogłębienie regionalnych różnic rozwojowych.

The European Union is composed of countries among which considerable disparities in living standards are observed, and levelling them out is one of the priorities of the EU policy. The aim of the study discussed in this article is to compare the scale and trends in the changes in living standards across EU countries. The analyses were conducted on the basis of data for the years 2013–2022 from the Eurostat database. We used the method of linear ordering of multidimensional objects, normalising variables by means of the Strahl method in a dynamic approach, which allowed the quantification of changes in the studied phenomenon over time as well as the interpretation of the results in percentages. On the basis of 15 selected partial variables, a synthetic index of the standard of living was constructed, which was used to make a ranking of EU countries and compare the scale of changes in the studied phenomenon in the analysed period. The results of the research confirm long-standing disparities in the standard of living across the populations of EU countries. In the studied period, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium boasted an index of standard of living considerably higher than that of other EU countries. The lowest standard of living, on the other hand, was consistently observed in Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Croatia and Greece. All the studied countries saw an increase in the standard of living in the analysed period, although the scale of changes was different in different countries. A greater increase in the indicator was mostly observed in lower-ranked countries, which means that they developed faster than the others and there is a chance of the living standards converging across the whole EU in the future.