REPOSITORY
THE NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY
IN TORUŃ
is an institutional repository of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The task of the Repository is to promote scientific achievements and research conducted at NCU and to support teaching.
Recent Submissions
An intercity investment network dataset of China based on the enterprise registration records (2000–2020)
(Nature Research, 2025) Shu, Tianheng; Yang, Shuo; Cheng, Guangyu; Ren, Yitian; Ren, Yitian; Shi, Fangchen; Derudder, Ben; Liao, Xia
Intercity investment activities among enterprises reflect the flow of capital between cities, thereby directly illustrating the economic connections between them. However, there is currently no publicly available dataset that captures this important feature. In this study, we introduce an intercity investment network (IIN) dataset for China, covering the period from 2000 to 2020, based on 17,273,411 large-scale enterprise registration records. The dataset represents 367 cities as nodes, with investment frequency between cities serving as edge weights to construct both directed and undirected networks. It captures the spatiotemporal patterns of China’s IIN, highlighting dynamic changes in economic connectivity over time and space. The dataset aligns closely with urban networks formed by China’s population mobility and the economic gravity model, is consistent with official records and existing research findings, and satisfies the distance decay effect, thus validating its scientific reliability.
This dataset provides unique opportunities for exploring economic interactions and functional organization between cities, and advancing urban network research in China.
Environmental sustainability in polycentric urban regions: an urban resilience perspective
(Routledge, Taylor&Francis Group, 2025) Yang, Yuting; She, Wei; Derudder, Ben
Regional studies research examining the environmental impacts of polycentric urban structures is often called for, but remains scarce. This study uses urban resilience theory to conceptualise, ethodologically specify and empirically assess the effects. We develop an evaluation system to establish a regional environmental sustainability index and apply it to urban regions across China. Gridded population datasets and inter-city co-patent data proxy morphological and functional polycentricity. Results show that morphological polycentricity positively impacts environmental sustainability, while functional polycentricity only positively affects public stewardship in environmental protection. Urban resilience attributes such as diversity and flexibility have uneven explanatory power on these dynamics.
Application of amino acid-based adsorbents for the extraction of antisense oligonucleotides from serum samples
(Elsevier, 2025-10-10) Studzińska, Sylwia; Ostrowska, Karolina; Vosáhlová, Zuzana; Sasim, Kseniya; Bocian, Szymon
Antisense oligonucleotides are synthetic, short, single-stranded nucleic acid analogues used for several years as an active ingredient of drugs for treating genetic diseases. Their effective sample preparation is a topic that still requires in-depth research. Consequently, amino acid-modified silica adsorbents were utilized for the first time in the dispersive solid-phase extraction of antisense oligonucleotides. The impact of the composition of solvents used for adsorption and desorption was tested (pH, salt type, salt concentration, organic solvent type, and content in the solution). Adsorption of oligonucleotides occurred from water or salt solutions with low pH. Increasing the pH cause increase of recovery contrary to increase salt concentration. Moreover addition of methanol or acetonitrile to elution solvent reduce recovery. The developed method is based on weak ion exchange, with pH playing a key role in the extraction procedure. Thus, the adsorption and desorption are driven solely by the change in pH of the ammonium acetate solution. All tested adsorbents allowed for the efficient recovery of oligonucleotides. Nevertheless, adsorbent with bonded methionine showed the highest efficiency. The recovery depended on the structure of the antisense oligonucleotide (the highest for short and modified ones). The recovery also increases with increasing hydrophobicity of the modification. The developed method was successfully applied to oligonucleotide extraction from human serum samples resulting in a recovery of 91±1%. Only a 10 mM ammonium acetate with pH 4 (adsorption) or 11 (desorpion) is used throughout the whole procedure. The developed procedure is simple, efficient, selective, and environmentally friendly.
Development of Novel Semiconductor Scintillators
(2025) Abdellah Bachiri; Winicjusz Drozdowski
This research focuses on the scintillation properties of three types of crystals: pure and doped gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3), Ga-based spinels (MgGa2O4 and ZnGa2O4), and mixed (Zn,Be)Se crystals with Be compositions from 2% to 20%.
The study includes pulse height spectra, scintillation time profiles, and radio- and thermoluminescence measurements. For β-Ga2O3, the pure crystals achieved the highest scintillation yield (~9000 ph/MeV) and the best energy resolution (10.6%) with free electron concentrations of 1016 cm-3. Higher free carrier concentrations led to decreased light yield due to Auger quenching. MgGa2O4 and ZnGa2O4 crystals were also found to scintillate under gamma irradiation, with yields up to 2500 ph/MeV. Mixed (Zn,Be)Se crystals initially showed low scintillation efficiency, but zinc vapor annealing increased the yield to 7700 ph/MeV for Be concentration of 2%. A new method for analyzing scintillation decay curves was developed,
involving recording both the sample and apparatus responses, which were deconvolved and fitted with multi-exponential decay functions. This revealed that the fastest mean decay times were observed for samples with lower scintillation yields. Thus, a balance is needed to achieve both fast and efficient scintillation in β-Ga2O3, MgGa2O4, ZnGa2O4 and (Zn,Be)Se crystals, which is to be found by adjusting selected parameters prior to the crystal growth. Radioluminescence spectra revealed typical bands for all the studied materials, with some negative thermal quenching. Thermoluminescence measurements detected glow peaks in crystals across all categories, which were analyzed quantitatively. Additionally, the temperature dependence of relative light yield was examined, showing significant variation with temperature. For instance, β-Ga2O3 exhibited only 40% of its light yield at room temperature as compared to liquid N2.
Aseksualność w powieściach „Breasts and Eggs” („Natsu Monogatari”) Mieko Kawakami i „Dziewczyna z konbini” („Konbini ningen”) Sayaki Muraty
(Wydawnictwo Naukowe TYGIEL, 2022) Rupińska, Agata
Aseksualność to orientacja seksualna odnosząca się do osób, które nie odczuwają pociągu seksualnego. Mimo zwiększającej się akceptacji oraz świadomości na temat osób LGBT+ społeczna świadomość o aseksualności pozostaje niska. Osoby aseksualne są grupą mało reprezentowaną w kulturze, a postaci aseksualne w literaturze skierowanej do dorosłych należą do rzadkości. Nie znaczy to jednak, że niemożliwe jest znalezienie bohaterów literackich, których można poddać aseksualnej interpretacji. Artykuł składa się z czterech części: wstępu, części dotyczącej najważniejszych zagadnień na temat aseksualności, części interpretacyjnej oraz podsumowania. Wiedza zawarta w podrozdziale pierwszym i drugim umożliwiają przeprowadzenie interpretacji utworów literackich. W podrozdziale trzecim zawarto analizę powieści „Breasts and Eggs” Mieko Kawakami oraz „Dziewczyna z konbini” Sayaki Muraty. Wykorzystano w niej technikę aseksualnego odczytywania tekstu (ang. asexual reading), pochodną queer readingu, czyli analizę i interpretację aseksualnych podtekstów dzieła. Analiza obu tekstów udowadnia, że ich główne bohaterki mają cechy zgodne z orientacją aseksualną. Obie powieści poruszają również problemy, z którymi borykają się osoby aseksualne na co dzień, co może pomóc czytelnikom je zrozumieć.
Asexuality is a sexual orientation describing people who do not experience sexual attraction. Despite growing acceptance and awareness about LGBT+ people, social awareness about asexuality remains low. Asexual people are unrepresented group in media, and asexual characters in literature intended for adult readers remain a rarity. However, this does not mean that it is impossible to find characters that could be interpreted as asexual.
The article consists of four parts: introduction, subchapter dedicated to key knowledge about asexuality, subchapter dedicated to interpretation of the two novels, and summary. The first and second subchapters are dedicated to an overview of asexuality and related issues in order to make the interpretation of the texts possible. The third subchapter is dedicated to the analysis of the novels „Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami and „Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata. This part of the article uses the asexual reading technique, which stems from the practice of queer reading. Asexual reading uses hidden asexual subtexts in the analysis and interpretation of the work. The analysis proves that the main characters of both novels have characteristics in accordance with asexuality. Both texts also touch on problems with which asexuals deal on everyday basis, which might help the readers to understand asexual people.