International protection is granted pursuant to the provisions of the Polish Act of 13 June 2003 on granting protection to foreigners on the territory of the Republic of Poland to persons who: meet the conditions for granting refugee status or do not meet the conditions for granting refugee status, but qualify for subsidiary protection. Article 3 of this Act enumerates the forms of protection that may be granted to a foreigner. It includes: granting refugee status, granting subsidiary protection, granting asylum and granting temporary protection. Applications for granting international protection are decided in the first instance by the Head of the Office for Foreigners. A person who wants to submit an application to the Head of the Office for Foreigners for granting international protection must report to the appropriate Border Guard body. If the application is to also concern other persons, e.g. minor children, the applicant’s spouse, these persons must also be present when submitting the application. The office’s decision on granting international protection – refugee status or subsidiary protection should be made within 6 months of the date of submission of the application, which – in special cases – may be extended to 15 months. In some cases, documents are considered in an accelerated procedure (within 30 days).
What is it and what legal problems does it create?
Distributed intelligence (fr. intelligence distributee, eng. swarm intelligence) – a concept denoting the creation of cooperation between many natural (e.g. ant colony) or artificial (e.g. robots) agents without a previously defined plan and without a single commanding body, where the concept appears most often in works on artificial intelligence.
Swarm Intelligence: Collaborating Towards Collective Wisdom
Swarm intelligence, also known as distributed intelligence, is a fascinating area of artificial intelligence that draws inspiration from the natural world. It is based on the idea that a group of individuals, entities, acting together and without central control can achieve impressive results, often surpassing the capabilities of a single, intelligent entity.
Examples from nature
Nature is full of examples of swarm intelligence. Bees building their elaborate hives, ants transporting loads many times their own weight, and schools of fish moving in synchronized motion are just a few examples. These amazing phenomena inspire scientists to create algorithms and artificial intelligence systems that mimic the patterns of cooperation observed in the animal world. Humans can also be seen as examples of swarm intelligence. We cooperate with each other in various areas of life, such as work, science, art, and sports. We communicate with each other using language, gestures, and other signals. Some human artifacts also fall into the domain of swarm intelligence, notably some multi-robot systems, as well as some computer programs written to solve optimization and data analysis problems.
Over the past decade, a new term has emerged in the global economy that has stirred both interest and concern: “zombie companies”. These companies, while formally operating, live in the shadow of debt, and are only able to “survive” thanks to low interest rates and the support of financial institutions. Unable to generate sufficient profits to repay capital, they constitute an unusual economic phenomenon that affects both market dynamics and financial stability. “Zombie companies” not only hinder the potential for economic growth, but also raise questions about the effectiveness of monetary policy and government interventions in times of crisis. This article will explore the causes of their emergence, their consequences for the global economy, and possible strategies for managing them. Analyzing various cases from different parts of the world, we will also look at whether there are effective methods for “saving” zombie companies and what challenges economic decision-makers face when making decisions about their future.
What are zombie companies?
Zombie companies are companies that do not have enough profits to continue operating and servicing debt, but are unable to repay their debt. Such companies, given that they survive only on overhead costs (e.g., salaries, rent, interest on debt), do not have surplus capital that they can invest to stimulate growth. “Zombie companies ” are particularly dependent on banks for financing, which is essentially their source of income. Zombie companies are also known as “living dead” or “zombie stocks.”
With the current medical standards, the birth of a new medicinal product (drug) can only become a fact as part of a long and expensive research and development process. Such a process is burdened with a high risk of failure. Usually, the research and development process lasts many years and is low in efficiency. However, such research is undoubtedly needed.
How to obtain permission for a clinical trial of a medicinal product?
In order to obtain permission to conduct such a trial in the territory of the Republic of Poland, an application for permission must first be submitted. Such an application may be submitted only by the sponsor – which stands for a natural person, company, institution or organization responsible for initiating, managing and arranging the financing of a clinical trial (Article 2, paragraph 2, point 14 of the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) No 536/2014 of 16 April 2014, OJ EU.L.2014.158.1). The sponsor is obliged to submit such an application via CTIS (i.e. the new European system, Clinical Trials Information System) to each interested Member State concerned by a given clinical trial. In the case of the Republic of Poland, the body that issues permits for clinical trials is the President of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products.
The Whistleblower Protection Act of 14 June 2024 is a key element of the Polish legal system, aimed at protecting people reporting irregularities in the workplace (Article 4 of the Act – definition of a whistleblower). The provisions of this legal act focus primarily on ensuring effective internal reporting mechanisms, which aims to build a culture of compliance with the law in organizations. The Act sets out obligations for employers and gives whistleblowers specific tools to defend their rights. This analysis focuses on key aspects of the Act, such as reporting procedures, whistleblower protection and the impact of the Act on employee-employer relations.
