Search results for: population dynamics
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Low-cost multi-objective design of compact microwave structures using domain patching
PublicationA good compromise between size and electrical performance is an important design consideration for compact microwave structures. Comprehensive information about size/performance trade-offs can be obtained through multi-objective optimization. Due to considerable electromagnetic (EM) cross-couplings in highly compressed layouts, the design process has to be conducted at the level of high-fidelity EM analysis which is computationally...
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Photophysics of Soret-Excited Tin(IV) Porphyrins in Solution
PublicationThe photophysics of low-chlorin tin(IV) tetraphenylporphyrin dihydroxide, a core building block for axially substituted supramolecular tin porphyrin constructs, has been studied in a variety of hydrogen-bonding, nonpolar, and aprotic polar solvents using steady-state, nanosecond, and femtosecond time-resolved emission, and femtosecond time-resolved absorption methods. In hydrogen-bonding solvents the metalloporphyrin exists as...
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Genetic predisposition to inflammatory bowel disease
PublicationInflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, incurable inflammatory disease of the digestive system. The two main disease entities included in the IBD are ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. According to epidemiological studies there are more and more new cases every year. In especially among the youngest patients with symptoms of malnutrition and growth inhibition to land up in hospitalwith cancer suspected. The purpose...
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Concentrations of heavy metals and PCBs in the tissues of European beavers (Castor fiber) captured in northeastern Poland
PublicationEuropean beavers (Castor fiber) from two regions were examined to identify exposure to persistent environmental contaminants. A reference group was comprised of six animals from the Forest Division of Srokowo, and an exposed group was comprised of five animals from the vicinity of a former military airport operated in 1918–1986—both from Warmia land in Poland. 137 Cs in beavers' muscles was considered negligible for the overall...
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Elderly persons professional activity - substantive issues and methodical challenges
PublicationPopulation ageing and mass withdrawal of persons around retirement age from the labour market constitutes a serious threat for European Union economy, especially in the so-called new member states. The coming years are expected to bring a considerable increase in public spending on pensions and health care, as well as changes in the structure and size of consumer demand and an increase in the number of socially excluded individuals....
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A comprehensive assessment of environmental pollution by means of heavy metal analysis for oysters' reefs at Hab River Delta, Balochistan, Pakistan
PublicationThe heavy metal pollution status of oyster reefs has been assessed with respect to ten metals pollutants in seawater, sediments, and tissues of above two oysters (soft tissues and shells) for assessing the pollution status in a short food chain in Hab River Delta. The results showed that heavy metals accumulated in M. bilineata were higher than those in M. cuttackensis. Simultaneously, the population of M. bilineata species has...
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Preferences and Transport Behavior of Gdansk Residents in the Light of the Result of Complex Traffic Survey
PublicationPreferences and transport behavior of the population are a fundamental aspect of research in public transport. Identifying the basic postulates of transport, the factors determining the specific behavior of transport and modal split allow to analyze the differences between the groups singled passengers and to prepare better offer of an urban transport. In Poland, still in many cities urban transport research is conducted ad hoc,...
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Mitochondrial DNA copy number and trimethylamine levels in the blood: New insights on cardiovascular disease biomarkers
PublicationAmong cardiovascular disease (CVD) biomarkers, the mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) is a promising candidate. A growing attention has been also dedicated to trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), an oxidative derivative of the gut metabolite trimethylamine (TMA). With the aim to identify biomarkers predictive of CVD, we investigated TMA, TMAO, and mtDNAcn in a population of 389 coronary artery disease...
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A bisection‐based heuristic for rapid EM‐driven multiobjective design of compact impedance transformers
PublicationDesign of microwave structures is a multiobjective task where several conflicting requirements have to be considered at the same time. For contemporary circuits characterized by complex geometries, multiobjective optimization cannot be performed using standard population‐based algorithms due to high cost of electromagnetic (EM) evaluations. In this work, we propose a deterministic approach for fast EM‐driven multiobjective design...
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Equivalence scales for continuous distributions of expenditure
PublicationResearch background: In the actual sizable populations of households, the standard microeconomic concept of equivalence scales is intractable since its necessary condition of equality of household welfare levels is unlikely to be fulfilled. Purpose of the article: This paper aims to develop a concept of an equivalence scale, which can be suitable for continuous distributions of expenditures in the population. Methods: Using household...
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Caffeine Inhibits Differentiation Of Lung Cancer Stem Cells By Modulating Their Respiratory Metabolism
PublicationIt is ell established that many tumor types contain a fraction of cells, with stem cell-like properties, called cancer stem cells (CSCs), that are resistant to apoptosis induced by therapeutic agents. The presence of CSCs may explain why a standard anticancer treatment, that eliminates only differentiated cancer cells, does not lead to cancer cure.We previously showed the existence of caffeine-sensitive mechanism that controls...
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Policy Monitoring on Accessible Technology for Inclusive Education – Research Findings and Requirements for a Software Tool
PublicationStatistics about disabled people usually do not receive as much attention as statistics highlighting other socio-economic problems. However, such statistics is important due to its actual weight.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 15% of the world population, meaning one billion people, live with disabilities, and 80% of them live in developing countries. UNESCO claims that 90% of the children with disabilities...
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Usability study of various biometric techniques in bank branches
PublicationThe purpose of the presented research was to evaluate the performance of the prepared biometric algorithms and obtain information on the opinions and preferences of their users in bank branches. The study aimed to determine users' attitudes towards particular modalities and preferences on how to use biometrics after the bank customers had practical experience with the operation of the prototype solutions. The research results...
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ROAD SAFETY MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR COUNTRY STRATEGIC LEVEL
PublicationStrategic road safety programmes setting out long-term visions and road infrastructure development plans must be based on road safety forecasts and an understanding of the long-term impact of different measures on road safety. The objective of this paper is to discuss a concept of road safety management for an area of a selected country because there are no simple tools of road safety management for the development and implementation...
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Evolving gene regulatory networks controlling foraging strategies of prey and predators in an artificial ecosystem
PublicationCo-evolution of predators and prey is an example of an evolutionary arms race, leading in nature to selective pressures in positive feedback. We introduce here an artificial life ecosystem in which such positive feedback can emerge. This ecosystem consists of a 2-dimensional liquid environment and animats controlled by evolving artificial gene regulatory networks encoded in linear genomes. The genes in the genome encode chemical...
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Daylighting Education in Practice Verification of a new goal within a European knowledge investigation
PublicationTwo independent surveys were conducted in 2017 and in 2018 among architecture students across Europe to investigate their knowledge on daylighting and the impact of that knowledge on the visual perception of daylit spaces. A total of 600 responders were involved. This paper presents findings from the second survey, which was distributed in six European countries. Based on the findings from the first survey, a new goal was set for...
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Local Conformation and Cocrystallization Phenomena in Renewable Diaminoisoidide-Based Polyamides Studied by FT-IR, Solid State NMR, and WAXD
PublicationBiobased polyamides synthesized from diaminoisoidide (DAII), 1,4-diaminobutane, and sebacic acid are investigated by FT-IR, 13C{1H} magic-angle spinning/cross-polarization (CP/MAS) NMR spectroscopy, and WAXD. Their molecular conformation and mobility undergo distinct changes as a function of temperature and diaminoisoidide content in the compositions. The presence of randomly distributed diaminoisoidide (DAII) in the polyamides...
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Entrepreneurship nests in a polish edge city
PublicationThe last two decades in Poland have been a period of both a dynamic development of the small and medium-sized enterprise sector and a transformation of the city surrounding territories. This development began during the economy transformation after 1989. Population migration and movement of economic entities away from central cities resulted in development of territorial structures within some Polish suburban areas, defined as...
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Potential of Functionalized Polyolefins in a Sustainable Polymer Economy: Synthetic Strategies and Applications
PublicationPolymers play a crucial role in our modern life as no other material exists that is so versatile, moldable, and lightweight. Consequently, the demand for polymers will continue to grow with the human population, modernization, and technological developments. However, depleted fossil resources, increasing plastic waste production, ocean pollution, and related growing emission of greenhouse gases has led to a change in the way we...
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Pt-rich intermetallic APt8P2 (A = Ca and La)
PublicationThe combination of experimental and theoretical investigation of two new Pt-rich intermetallic compounds: APt8P2 (A = Ca and La) is presented, including solid-state synthesis, crystal structure determination, physical properties characterization and chemical bonding analysis. APt8P2 was obtained through the high-temperature pellet synthesis. According to both single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction results, APt8P2 crystallize...
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The Self-employment of Women in Azerbaijan
PublicationAzerbaijan has a population of more than 10 million, of which women accounted for 50% in 2020. At the same time, 93% of Azerbaijan’s citizens describe themselves as Muslims. Since the beginning of independence, Azerbaijan has been a secular state by virtue of Article 48 of the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of worship, choice, or non-practice of religion and the freedom of...
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Unsupervised machine-learning classification of electrophysiologically active electrodes during human cognitive task performance
PublicationIdentification of active electrodes that record task-relevant neurophysiological activity is needed for clinical and industrial applications as well as for investigating brain functions. We developed an unsupervised, fully automated approach to classify active electrodes showing event-related intracranial EEG (iEEG) responses from 115 patients performing a free recall verbal memory task. Our approach employed new interpretable...
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Analysis of Signalized Intersections in the Context of Pedestrian Traffic
PublicationGdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivod e ship of Poland with a population of about 250,000. It faces a growing motorization rate th at needs to be addressed. Car ownership in Gdynia now exceed s 500 vehicles per 1000 residents. Travel by public transport is decreasing and the rate of walking and cycling remains low. It is necessary to reverse these negative trends by implementing solu tions based...
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Environmental risk assessment of Polish wastewater treatment plant activity
PublicationWastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play an extremely important role in shaping modern society's environmental wellbeing and awareness, however only well operated and supervised systems can be considered as environmentally sustainable. For this reason, an attempt was undertaken to assess the environmental burden posed by WWTPs in major Polish cities by collecting water samples prior to and just after wastewater release points....
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Quasi-Global Optimization of Antenna Structures Using Principal Components and Affine Subspace-Spanned Surrogates
PublicationParametric optimization is a mandatory step in the design of contemporary antenna structures. Conceptual development can only provide rough initial designs that have to be further tuned, often extensively. Given the topological complexity of modern antennas, the design closure necessarily involves full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations and—in many cases—global search procedures. Both factors make antenna optimization a computationally...
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Affronter la distance et la séparation : l'utilisation des médias sociaux par les migrants dans leurs relations interpersonnelles
PublicationL'augmentation progressive de la mobilité, de l'interconnectivité et de l'instabilité, la transformation du travail et de l'emploi et celle de la communication (Castells, 2010) ont contribué à l’émergence d’une déracinés et séparés de leur foyer évoluent vers de nouvelles perspectives les migrants comme des sujets mobiles et interconnectés qui, grâce aux TIC, peuvent entretenir des relations et des connexions à distance les...
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Data and knowledge supporting decision-making for the urban Food-Water-Energy nexus
PublicationCities are hubs of innovation and wealth creation, and magnets for an increasing urban population. Cities also face unprecedented challenges in terms of food, water and energy scarcity, and governance and management. Urban environmental issues are no longer problems for experts to address but have become issues of public debate, in which knowledge from multiple sectors is needed to support inclusive governance approaches. Consequently,...
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EM-Driven Multi-Objective Optimization of a Generic Monopole Antenna by Means of a Nested Trust-Region Algorithm
PublicationAntenna structures for modern applications are characterized by complex and unintuitive topologies that are difficult to develop when conventional experience-driven techniques are of use. In this work, a method for automatic generation of antenna geometries in a multi-objective setup has been proposed. The approach involves optimization of a generic spline-based radiator with adjustable number of parameters using a nested trust-region-based...
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Colored Tattoo Ink Screening Method with Optical Tissue Phantoms and Raman Spectroscopy
PublicationDue to the increasing popularity of tattoos among the general population, to ensure their safety and quality, there is a need to develop reliable and rapid methods for the analysis of the composition of tattoo inks, both in the ink itself and in already existing tattoos. This paper presents the possibility of using Raman spectroscopy to examine tattoo inks in biological materials. We have developed optical tissue phantoms mimicking...
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Monitoring Trends of Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Rajang River Basin
PublicationIn this study, the spatiotemporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC) were evaluated from 1992 to 2015 for the Rajang River Basin (RRB) located in the Sarawak State of Malaysia. The changes in water bodies cropped lands, and forests were assessed based on the available remotely sensed satellite data. Supervised classification with the Maximum-Likelihood-Algorithm technique was adopted for monitoring the LULC changes using...
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Climate Change Impacts on Environmental and Human Exposure to Mercury in the Arctic
PublicationThis paper reviews information from the literature and the EU ArcRisk project to assess whether climate change results in an increase or decrease in exposure to mercury (Hg) in the Arctic, and if this in turn will impact the risks related to its harmful effects. It presents the state-of-the art of knowledge on atmospheric mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources worldwide, the long-range transport to the Arctic, and it discusses...
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Spectroscopic and photophysical properties of ZNTPP in a room temperature ionic liquid
PublicationThe steady-state absorption and emission spectra and the time-resolved Soret- and Q-band excited fluorescence profiles of the model metalloporphyrin, ZnTPP, have been measured in a highly purified sample of the common room temperature ionic liquid, [bmim][PF(6)]. S(2)-S(0) emission resulting from Soret-band excitation behaves in a manner completely consistent with that of molecular solvents of the same polarizability. The ionic...
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Social media and efficient computer infrastructure in smart city
PublicationSocial media require an efficient infrastructures of computer and communication systems to support a smart city. In a big city, there are several crucial dilemmas with a home and public space planning, a growing population, a global warming, carbon emissions, a lack of key resources like water and energy, and a traffic congestion. In a smart city, we expect an efficient and sustainable transportation, efficient management of resources...
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W-dominance: Tradeoff-inspired dominance relation for preference-based evolutionary multi-objective optimization
PublicationThe paper presents a method of incorporating decision maker preferences into multi-objective meta-heuristics. It is based on tradeoffcoefficients and extends their applicability from bi-objective to multi-objective. The method assumes that a decision maker specifies a priori each objective’s importance as a weight interval. Based on this, w-dominance relation is introduced, which extends Pareto dominance. By replacing reference...
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Sustainable Use of the Catenary by Trolleybuses with Auxiliary Power Sources on the Example of Gdynia
PublicationThe current developments in onboard power source technology, in particular, traction batteries, open up new potential in trolleybus transport and also make it possible to introduce electric buses. Thus far, trolleybus transport has required the presence of overhead lines (OHL). Introducing trolleybuses with onboard batteries makes it possible to grow the zero-emissions transport network in places with limited power supply capabilities...
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Correlations between organic pollution indicators in municipal wastewater
PublicationThe paper presents the results of a study of parameters used for determining the amount of organic pollutants in wastewater flowing into a collective wastewater treatment plant with a population equivalent of about 120 000 PE. The plant constituted part of a sewage system. Assays were performed for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (CODCr), permanganete index (CODMn) and total organic carbon (TOC). In addition,...
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COMBINATION OF ARCHITECTURAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND SOCIAL ASPECTS IN URBAN STORMWATER MANAGEMENT. A CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
PublicationIncreasing a city’s resilience against climate change is one of the major concerns of today. Sustainable stormwater management, using Green Infrastructure units (GI) integrated with an urban area, has proved to be effective in flooding control and to offer extra benefits encompassing groundwater recharge, stormwater treatment, mitigation of air pollution, and an urban micro-climate. Moreover, GI brings cultural benefits for the...
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MRI-Derived Subcutaneous and Visceral Adipose Tissue Reference Values for Children Aged 6 to Under 18 Years
PublicationThe assessment of body composition in pediatric population is essential for proper nutritional support during hospitalization. However, currently available methods have limitations. This study aims to propose a novel approach for nutrition status assessment and introduce magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived subcutaneous and visceral fat normative reference values. A total of 262 healthy subjects aged from 6 to 18 years underwent...
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Yerba Mate - A Long but Current History
PublicationBearing in mind the growing interest in Yerba Mate, a comprehensive study has been prepared containing the most important aspects and possibilities of its use. The introduction of the work contains the species characteristics of Yerba Mate, as well as information about the origin and places of cultivation. The next part focuses on the analysis of the composition, pointing to purine alkaloids, polyphenols, saponins, and minerals...
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Gender as a moderator between Present-Hedonistic time perspective and depressive symptoms or stress during COVID-19 lock-down
PublicationAlthough numerous studies have addressed the impact of the COVID-19 lock-downs on psychological distress, scarce data is available relating to the role of Present-Hedonistic (PH) time perspective and gender differences in the development of depressive symptoms and stress during the period of strict social distancing. We hypothesized that gender would moderate the relationship between PH and depressiveness or stress levels, such...
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Primary degradation of antidiabetic drugs
PublicationType 2 diabetes is a chronic disease affecting a large portion of the world population and is treated by orally administered drugs. Since these drugs are often taken in high doses and are excreted unchanged or partially metabolised many of them are nowadays detected in surface waters or wastewater treatment plants effluents. Unmetabolised antidiabetics or some of their transformation products retain their pharmacological activity,...
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Expedited Simulation-Driven Multi-Objective Design Optimization of Quasi-Isotropic Dielectric Resonator Antenna
PublicationMajority of practical engineering design problems require simultaneous handling of several criteria. Although many of design tasks can be turned into single-objective problems using sufficient formulations, in some situations, acquiring comprehensive knowledge about possible trade-offs between conflicting objectives may be necessary. This calls for multi-objective optimization that aims at identifying a set of alternative, Pareto-optimal...
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Psychometric properties of the Bern illegitimate tasks scale using classical test and item response theories
PublicationCombining a classical test theory and an item response theory (IRT), this study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Bern Illegitimate Tasks Scale (BITS) by measuring two conceptually separate dimensions capturing unnecessary tasks (perceived by employees as pointless) and unreasonable tasks (perceived as unfairly or inappropriately assigned). Data collected among Polish employees in two samples (N= 965 and N=...
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The mediational role of future and past time perspectives in the relationship between negative affectivity and sense of coherence
PublicationSense of coherence (SoC) can promote positive coping, and one of its most prominent negative correlates is negative affectivity (NA). In the current study, we hypothesized that future and past time perspectives (TPs) will mediate the relationship between sense of coherence and negative affectivity, and the inverse relationship. The study was questionnaire-based, performed online. N = 719 participants aged 25-45 from...
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Women's Entrepreneurship in Poland- Opportunities and Barriers According to Young Women Entering the Labour Market
PublicationWomen entrepreneurship is an important issue for both economic and social reasons. However cultural factors have an additional impact. In Poland women represent more than 50% of the population, nonetheless only 35% of people who run their own business are women. Main research questions in the current study were: What are the determinants of the above mentioned imparity? Do young women evaluate themselves as entrepreneurial? Do...
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Antimicrobial resistance of fecal indicators in disinfected wastewater
PublicationThe main objective of the study was to assess the potential of three systems (UV irradiation, ozonation, and micro/ultrafiltration) operated in a pilot scale in removal of antimicrobial-resistant fecal bacteria from secondary effluent of the local wastewater treatment plant (700,000 population equivalent). The effectiveness of the processes was analysed using the removal ratio of fecal indicators (Escherichia coli and Enterococcus...
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Inhibition effect of free ammonia on deammonification process under different intermittent aeration strategies in sequencing batch reactor
PublicationThe deammonification process involves two steps. The first step is the partial nitrification of ammonia (NH4-N) by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) to produce nitrite (NO2-N) and the second step is the anammox process to “anaerobically” oxidize ammonia to nitrogen gas with nitrite as an electron acceptor (Lackner et al., 2014). Free ammonia (FA) plays a significant role in the stable, long-term deammonification system operation....
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Biological responses to environmental contamination. How can metal pollution impact signal honesty in avian species?
PublicationEnvironmental pollution, for example with metals, can significantly affect the ecosystem balance leading to severe changes. Biologically active pigments are relevant for the appearance and condition of birds. Melanin and carotenoid particles are the most frequently deposited pigments in avian integument. They are responsible for the majority of colors of bird plumage. The phenotypic expression can be affected by metal contamination....
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Evolutionary Sets of Safe Ship Trajectories Within Traffic Separation Schemes
PublicationThe paper presents the continuation of the author's research on Evolutionary Sets of Safe Ship Trajectories (ESoSST) methodology. In an earlier paper (Szlapczynski, 2011) the author described the foundations of this methodology, which used Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) to search for an optimal set of safe trajectories for all the ships involved in an encounter. The methodology was originally designed for open waters or restricted...
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Mathematical Models of Control Systems of Angular Speed of Steam Turbines for Diagnostic Tests of Automatic and Mechatronic Devices
PublicationAccurate modeling of physical processes of many automatics and mechatronics systems is often necessity. In power system such a process is control of angular velocity of power objects during connection to operation in parallel. This process is extremely dynamic. For this reason response of control system depends from changes of many physical parameters (temperature, pressure and flow of the medium, etc.). Precision modeling influences...