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Multimode systems of nonlinear equations: derivation, integrability, and numerical solutions
PublicationWe consider the propagation of electromagnetic pulses in isotropic media taking a third-order nonlinearityinto account. We develop a method for transforming Maxwell's equations based on a complete set ofprojection operators corresponding to wave-dispersion branches (in a waveguide or in matter) with thepropagation direction taken into account. The most important result of applying the method is a systemof equations describing the...
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The quality of sewage sludge stabilized for a long time in reed basins
PublicationThe aim of the work was to determine changes of long-term sewage sludge quality stabilized in reed basins from 7-15 years. The following parameters were evaluated: dry matter and organic matter concentration, nitrogen, phosphorus, and selected heavy metal (Cd, Ni, Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn) fractions. The material for the investigations was collected from 4 reed basin systems (utilisated sewage sludge) located in conventional WWTPs in Denmark...
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Fracture in composite/aluminium joints of variable adhesive properties
PublicationA strain gauge technique recently developed with the wedge test, for estimating crack length and, thus, the fracture energy of structural adhesive bonding, has been employed on a system in which one adherend had two types of surface treatment. Simple polishing and polishing with subsequent sandblasting were the treatments used, with a distinct straight line, perpendicular to the sample edges, separating the two. Despite the clear-cut...
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China and the Chinese in the modern world. An interdisciplinary study
PublicationThis monograph is a collection of chapters devoted to modern China on various approaches. There is no future without a past and a modern China is a country that skillfully combines the new with the old and the authors have attempted to present this phenomenon in this book. It brings to light issues such as a honorificativity in Chinese administrative and legal documents, a comparison of Chinese and...
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A novel method for archiving multibeam sonar data with emphasis on efficient record size reduction and storage
PublicationOver the past few years considerable advances in sonar technology, spatial positioning capabilities and computer processing power have lead to significant improvements in mapping, imaging and technologies of seafloor exploration. Recently, modern multibeam echosounder systems (MBES) capable of recording backscatter data for the whole water column, not just for the seabed, have become available thus providing data allowing for...
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Fecal indicators resistance to antimicrobial agents present in municipal wastewater
PublicationIn this study removal rate of six antimicrobial compounds (belonging to folate pathway inhibitors and macrolides class) was analyzed in processes of local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) together with susceptibility patterns of erythromycin (E) resistant Enterococcus spp. and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT) resistant Escherichia coli. According to the obtained data, six of tested antimicrobial agents, namely erythromycin,...
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The Effect of Sterols on Amphotericin B Self-Aggregation in a Lipid Bilayer as Revealed by Free Energy Simulations
PublicationAmphotericin B (AmB) is an effective but toxic antifungal drug, known to increase the permeability of the cell membrane, presumably by assembling into transmembrane pores in a sterol-dependent manner. The aggregation of AmB molecules in a phospholipid bilayer is, thus, crucial for the drug’s activity. To provide an insight into the molecular nature of this process, here, we report an atomistic molecular dynamics simulation study...
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Three-dimensional representation of geographic data in a Web-based GIS
PublicationPresenting geographic data in a web environment has been a long standing problem. For many years the low performance of web browsers has limited the visualization of spatial data to only two dimensions. More recently, the introduction of open standards for 3D acceleration of web applications sparked the emergence of new methods of presenting three-dimensional data in a web browser without using third-party extensions. However,...
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On the Structure of Time in Computational Semantics of a Variable-Step Solver for Hybrid Behavior Analysis
PublicationHybrid dynamic systems combine continuous and discrete behavior. Often, computational approaches are employed to derive behaviors that approximate the analytic solution. An important part of this is the approximation of differential equation behavior by numerical integration. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the integration usually depend on the complexity of the method and its implicated approximation errors, especially...
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ESTIMATION OF THE WILLINGNESS-TO-PAY FOR PRESERVING THE FOOTBALL ARENA IN GDANSK
PublicationThe European Football Championship (Euro 2012) organized in Poland became the pretext for a number of infrastructural changes. A high level of expenditure makes the Polish event the most expensive among events of this magnitude. The fact that these changes were 100% financed by public funds raises the question of whether these funds were used in a substantiated way. Therefore, the aim of this study is...
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Investigation of catalytic layers on anode for solid oxide fuel cells operating with synthetic biogas
PublicationIn this paper solid oxide fuel cells operating with dry synthetic biogas have been examined. In order to increase their stability the layers of CuO-CeO2, Cu1.3Mn1.7O4 and Y0.08Sr0.92Ti0.8Fe0.2O3 -δ have been deposited on the Ni-YSZ anode site. These layers should catalyze the internal biogas reforming and prevent the carbon deposition on the anode site. It has been found that CuO-CeO2 and Cu1.3Mn1.7O4 catalysts led to an increase...
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Towards the Application of Structure-Property Relationship Modeling in Materials Science: Predicting the Seebeck Coefficient for Ionic Liquid/Redox Couple Systems
PublicationThis work focuses on determining the influence of both ionic liquid (IL) type and redox couple concentration on Seebeck coefficient values of such a system. The quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) and read-across techniques are proposed as methods to identify structural features of ILs (mixed with LiI/I2 redox couple), which have the most influence on the Seebeck coefficient (Se) values of the system. ILs consisting...
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A tetragonal polymorph of SrMn2P2 made under high pressure – theory and experiment in harmony
PublicationFollowing the predictions of total energy calculations, a tetragonal SrMn2P2 phase is proposed and successfully formed under high pressure. At ambient pressure, SrMn2P2 adopts the primitive trigonal La2O3 structure type (space group P[3 with combining macron]m1). However, the results of total energy calculations indicate that SrMn2P2 should be more stable in the tetragonal ThCr2Si2 structure type (space group I4/mmm) than in its...
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Theoretical Design of the Molecular Structure of Bent-Core Mesogens with Large Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties
PublicationABSTRACT: The first hyperpolarizability of two series of moleculeswith bent-shaped structures has been calculated at the ab initio level.The two series consist of carboxyl derivatives for which somemolecules are known to exhibit banana phases and of their sulfinatehomologues that have not been synthesized yet. The final purpose isto reveal the relevance or not in synthesizing these latter molecules.The strategy is based on reporting...
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Application of Structural Control Systems for the Cables of Cable-Stayed Bridges: State-of-the-Art and State-of-the-Practice
PublicationStay cables are one of the key elements of cable-stayed bridges and are characterized by lightweight, low inherent damping, and high flexibility. They are continuously subjected to small-to large-amplitude vibrations due to various types of dynamic loads that may, in the long term, cause fatigue and fracture problems for the cable system, and may eventually compromise the safety of cable-stayed bridges. Thus, several countermeasures...
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Shape-Based Pose Estimation of Robotic Surgical Instruments
PublicationWe describe a detector of robotic instrument parts in image-guided surgery. The detector consists of a huge ensemble of scale-variant and pose-dedicated, rigid appearance templates. The templates, which are equipped with pose-related keypoints and segmentation masks, allow for explicit pose estimation and segmentation of multiple end-effectors as well as fine-grained non-maximum suppression. We train the templates by grouping examples...
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Corrosion and Cavitation Resistances of Low Alloy Steel After Frictional-Mechanical Treatment
PublicationPaper presents the results of the studies of wear, corrosion and cavitation resistances of the S355J2 low alloy medium carbon steel subjected to surface modification by friction-mechanical treatment, as tested in sea water simulated solution. To evaluate the effect of the surface treatment, the comparative studies of the corrosive properties of the steel before and after treatment have been considered. The treatment due to a severe...
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Fate and significance of phthalates and bisphenol A in liquid by-products generated during municipal solid waste mechanical-biological pre-treatment and disposal
PublicationSamples of liquid by-products generated by municipal solid waste plants (MSWPs) were tested for the presence of phthalates (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA). The results indicated that the wastewater generated during mechanical (sorting unit - SU) and biological (composting unit - CU) pre-treatment (MBT) of residual (mixed) solid waste is a significant source of these compounds. The concentrations of PAEs (up to 32222 lg/L) and BPA...
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Integrate-and-fire models with an almost periodic input function
PublicationWe investigate leaky integrate-and-fire models (LIF models for short) driven by Stepanov and μ-almost periodic functions. Special attention is paid to the properties of the firing map and its displacement, which give information about the spiking behavior of the considered system. We provide conditions under which such maps are well-defined and are uniformly continuous. We show that the LIF models with Stepanov almost periodic...
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Designing Aggregate KPIs as a Method of Implementing Decision-Making Processes in the Management of Smart Cities
PublicationThe aim of the paper is to present a concept of measuring the performance of city management processes by use of a concept of aggregate KPIs. In the management of organizations and, as a consequence of the use of a common design framework also in the management of cities, silo KPIs are commonly used to show the statuses of the processes of organizations/cities. Thus the question arises as to what extent aggregate KPIs, as proposed...
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The Factors Affecting Group Identity of Cluster Structures
PublicationThe paper provides a new approach to cluster analysis, basing on a sociologically rooted concept of identity. The authors state that identity in cluster structures is formed by two main groups of factors – uncontrollable or slightly controllable factors (identity mix) and factors that can be fully controlled by a cluster initiative (corporate identity mix). It means that the cluster coordinator is able to consciously build the...
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Evaluating experimental molecular physics studies of radiation damage in DNA*
PublicationThe field of Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) is a mature field exploring the spectroscopy, excitation, ionisation of atoms and molecules in all three phases. Understanding of the spectroscopy and collisional dynamics of AMP has been fundamental to the development and application of quantum mechanics and is applied across a broad range of disparate disciplines including atmospheric sciences, astrochemistry, combustion and environmental...
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Web-based 3D processing and dissemination of multibeam sonar data
PublicationThe continuous detailed surveys of the various water bodies over time produce a large and ever-increasing volume and density of underwater sounding data. Three-dimensional data, such as those obtained by multibeam sonar systems, are quite complex to manage, and thus their growing numbers increase the pressure on development of new solutions dedicated to processing them. This paper presents a concept system for web-based dissemination...
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Multi-Agent Signal Filtering for Electrical Energy Demand Management
PublicationConsumers participating in electrical energy Demand Response (DR) programs may be exposed to energy-use related decisions at instants of time which are generally hard to predict. This is especially cumbersome to residential consumers who are less capable of investing in special equipment, or devoting significant time to analyze information and take decisions. To ease residential consumer participation, a multi-agent system proposed...
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Antimicrobial molecular nanocarrier–drug conjugates
PublicationMany antimicrobial drugs are poorly active against pathogenic microbes causing intracellular infections, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Plasmodium falciparum. On the other hand, several known antimicrobial agents are not effective enough because of their limited cellular penetration. A common feature of both challenges is the inability of an active agent to cross the biological membrane(s). One of the possible approaches...
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A 0.5 V Nanowatt Biquadratic Low-Pass Filter with Tunable Quality Factor for Electronic Cochlea Applications
PublicationA novel implementation of an analogue low-power, second-order, low-pass filter with tunable quality factor (Q) is presented and discussed. The filter feature is a relatively simple, buffer-based, circuit network consisting of eleven transistors operating in a subthreshold region. Q tuning is accomplished by injecting direct current into a network node, which changes the output resistance of the transistors and, as a result, modifies...
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Influence of conductive carbon and MnCo2O4 on morphological and electrical properties of hydrogels for electrochemical energy conversion
PublicationIn this work, a strategy for one-stage synthesis of polymer composites based on PNIPAAm hydrogel was presented. Both conductive particles in the form of conductive carbon black (cCB) and MnCo2O4 (MCO) spinel particles were suspended in the three-dimensional structure of the hydrogel. The MCO particles in the resulting hydrogel composite acted as an electrocatalyst in the oxygen evolution reaction. Morphological studies confirmed...
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Fast-SEC coupled to ICP-MS for selected metal determination and its stability over time in polish wine
PublicationMetal ions contribute to the wine browning (as reaction catalysts), turbidity (in complexes), and astringency (due to inter- action with tannins). Being aware that bioavailability and metabolism of metal ions in the human body are strictly related with their concentration and the form they occur it is important to monitor not only the total content of metals but also their speciation. Thus, we can obtain more information about...
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HDAC Inhibitors: Innovative Strategies for Their Design and Applications
PublicationHistone deacetylases (HDACs) are a large family of epigenetic metalloenzymes that are involved in gene transcription and regulation, cell proliferation, differentiation, migration, and death, as well as angiogenesis. Particularly, disorders of the HDACs expression are linked to the development of many types of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, making them interesting molecular targets for the design of new efficient drugs...
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A Comparative Study on Methods of Distinction Between Near- and Far-Side Defects as Techniques Used Alongside with the Magnetic Flux Leakage Testing
PublicationResults of the finite element analysis show that a far-side defect in a steel plate, with the depth greater by 10% of the plate thickness than a near-side defect, can produce a very similar magnetic flux leakage (MFL) signal. Due to the fact that a measurement of MFL itself can lead to misclassification of a far-side defect as a near-side one, and thus to underestimation of its depth, a comparative study of three complementary...
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Testing of the longest span soil-steel bridge in Europe – new quality in measurements
PublicationThe article describes interdisciplinary and comprehensive diagnostic tests of final bridge inspection and acceptance proposed for a soil – steel bridge made of corrugated sheets, being the European span length record holder (25.74 m). As an effect of an original concept a detailed and precise information about the structure response was collected. The load test design was based on the nonlinear numerical simulations performed by...
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Non-Least Square GNSS Positioning Algorithm for Densely Urbanized Areas
PublicationThe paper introduces an essentially new algorithm for calculating the GNSS position as an alternative to the least-square method. The proposed approach can be widely applied to any positioning method that uses multiple position lines for position calculation and is an example ofhow using a numerical solution can improve position accuracy without access to historical data. In essence, the method is based on the adaptation of the...
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Determination of vertical displacements by using the hydrostatic levelling systems with the variable location of the reference sensor,
PublicationAbstract: In this paper, the author proposed a new method for determination of vertical displacements with the use of hydrostatic levelling systems. The traditional method of hydrostatic levelling uses a rule in which a position of reference sensor is stable. This assumption was not adapted in the proposed method. Regarding the issue mentioned above, the reference sensor is treated in the same way as the others sensors that measure...
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Preparation of Allyl Alcohol Oligomers Using Dipicolinate Oxovanadium(IV) Coordination Compound
PublicationCurrently, new precatalysts for olefin oligomerization are being sought in the group of vanadium(IV) complexes. Thus, the aim of our research was to examine the catalytic activity of the oxovanadium(IV) dipicolinate complex [VO(dipic)(H2O)2] 2 H2O (dipic = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate anion) in 2-propen-1-ol oligomerization as well as to characterize oligomerization products using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization–time-of-flight...
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Solvent Exchange around Aqueous Zn(II) from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations
PublicationHydrated zinc(II) cations, due to their importance in biological systems, are the subject of ongoing research concerning their hydration shell structure and dynamics. Here, ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations are used to study solvent exchange events around aqueous Zn2+, for which observation in detail is possible owing to the considerable length of the generated trajectory. While the hexacoordinated Zn(H2O)62+ is the...
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Evaluation of the Cathodic Electrodeposition Effectiveness of the Hydroxyapatite Layer Used in Surface Modification of Ti6Al4V-Based Biomaterials
PublicationThe important issue associated with the design and the fabrication of the titanium and titanium alloy implants is the increase of their biointegration with bone tissue. In the presented paper, the research results concerning the conditions used in the cathodic deposition of hydroxyapatite on the surface Ti6Al4V substrates primarily modified by the production of TiO2 nanoporous coatings, TiO2 nanofibers, and titanate coatings, are...
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Synthetic strategies in construction of organic macromolecular carrier–drug conjugates
PublicationMany metabolic inhibitors, considered potential antimicrobial or anticancer drug candidates, exhibit verylimited ability to cross the biological membranes of target cells. The restricted cellular penetration ofthose molecules is often due to their highhydrophilicity. One of the possible solutions to this problem is aconjugation of an inhibitor with a molecular organic nanocarrier. The conjugate thus formed should beable to penetrate...
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Investigation of praseodymium and samarium co-doped ceria as an anode catalyst for DIR-SOFC fueled by biogas
PublicationThe Pr and Sm co-doped ceria (with up to 20 mol.% of dopants) compounds were examined as catalytic layers on the surface of SOFC anode directly fed by biogas to increase a lifetime and the efficiency of commercially available DIR-SOFC without the usage of an external reformer. The XRD, SEM and EDX methods were used to investigate the structural properties and the composition of fabricated materials. Furthermore, the electrical...
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Exploring Impact of Requirements Engineering on Other IT Project Areas – Case Study
PublicationRequirements Engineering (RE) is recognized as one of the most important (yet difficult) areas of software engineering that has a significant impact on other areas of IT projects and their final outcomes. Empirical studies investigating this impact are hard to conduct, mainly due to the great effort required. It is thus difficult for both researchers and industry practitioners to make evidence-based evaluations about how decisions...
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Vibration-Based Investigation of a Historic Bell Tower to Understand the Occurrence of Damage
PublicationABSTRACT The paper presents a survey of the historic Arch-cathedral bell tower in Vilnius induced by the appearance of cracks in the structure after a new bell system installation. An attempt is undertaken to identify the reason for the crack occurrence and to check a possible crack influence on global structural behaviour. The research is based on dynamic measurements made in the tower during ambient vibrations and during vibrations...
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Investigating Feature Spaces for Isolated Word Recognition
PublicationThe study addresses the issues related to the appropriateness of a two-dimensional representation of speech signal for speech recognition tasks based on deep learning techniques. The approach combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and time-frequency signal representation converted to the investigated feature spaces. In particular, waveforms and fractal dimension features of the signal were chosen for the time domain, and...
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Representing Process Characteristics to Increase Confidence in Assurance Case Arguments
PublicationAn assurance case is a structured, evidence-based argument demonstrating that a safety or other quality objective of a high integrity system is assured. Assurance cases are required or recommended in many industry domains as a means to convince the regulatory bodies to allow commissioning of such system. To be convincing, an argument should address all potential doubts and thus cover numerous additional issues, including the processes...
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An Island of Connectedness: Intra-Insular and Inter-Regional Communications of Rab Island (North-East Adriatic, Kvarner Gulf), Croatia
PublicationDrawing from archaeological data on Prehistoric and Roman settlement patterns, and respective sepulchral features, just as on later historic and cartographic sources, in this contribution it will be shown how movement along with mobility influenced on and were an integral part of settlement dynamics on the island of Rab (NE Adriatic, Croatia). The employed approach sees the practice of movement as dependent on specific social...
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Investigation of Wood Flour Size, Aspect Ratios, and Injection Molding Temperature on Mechanical Properties of Wood Flour/Polyethylene Composites
PublicationIn the present research, wood flour reinforced polyethylene polymer composites with a coupling agent were prepared by injection molding. The effects of wood flour size, aspect ratios, and mold injection temperature on the composites’ mechanical properties were investigated. For the preparation of the polymer composites, five different formulations were created. The mechanical properties including tensile strength and the modulus,...
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Evaluation and start-up of an electro-Fenton-sequencing batch reactor for dairy wastewater treatment
PublicationThis study examined the performance of an integrated wastewater (WW) treatment system, namely an electro-Fenton (EF)-sequencing batch reactor (SBR), for dairy industry WW. The EF process was used as the first stage of the SBR. It degrades bio-refractory compounds via advanced oxidation processes, thereby resulting in the formation of simple biodegradable intermediates. Several factors, including the hydraulic retention time (HRT),...
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Light-Modulated Sunscreen Mechanism in the Retina of the Human Eye
PublicationThe functioning of the human eye in the extreme range of light intensity requires a combination of the high sensitivity of photoreceptors with their photostability. Here, we identify a regulatory mechanism based on dynamic modulation of light absorption by xanthophylls in the retina, realized by reorientation of pigment molecules induced by trans–cis photoisomerization. We explore this photochemically switchable system using chromatographic...
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Ionic liquids in extraction techniques: Determination of pesticides in food and environmental samples
PublicationThe intensive use of pesticides in agricultural practices has promoted the appearance of environmentaland public health problems. Due to that, scientists face challenges with developing simple, fast, sensitive,selective, and low-cost methods dedicated to determining pesticide residues in food and environmentalsamples. Following thefifth principle of Green Analytical Chemistry, chemists are searching for greeneralternatives for...
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Selenium enrichment in broccoli sprouts as an initial step in the preparation of Certified Reference Material
PublicationSelenium is considered one of the essential elements in animals and humans. The main source of selenium intake for humans is the diet. Selenium deficiency has one of the most concerning issues worldwide. Broccoli sprouts are five-to-six-day old broccoli plants,...
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Study of probe signal bandwidth influence on estimation of coherence bandwidth for underwater acoustic communication channel
PublicationA signal transmitted in a shallow Underwater Acoustic Communication (UAC) channel suffers from time dispersion due to the multipath propagation and the refraction phenomena. This causes intersymbol interference of the received signal and frequency-selective fading observed in its spectrum. Coherence bandwidth is one of the key transmission parameters used for designing the physical layer of a data transmission system to minimise...
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CyberEye: New Eye-Tracking Interfaces for Assessment and Modulation of Cognitive Functions beyond the Brain
PublicationThe emergence of innovative neurotechnologies in global brain projects has accelerated research and clinical applications of BCIs beyond sensory and motor functions. Both invasive and noninvasive sensors are developed to interface with cognitive functions engaged in thinking, communication, or remembering. The detection of eye movements by a camera offers a particularly attractive external sensor for computer interfaces to monitor,...