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Gdańsk University of Technology

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  • A new relevant membrane application: CO2 direct air capture (DAC)
    • Roberto Castro Munoz
    • Mohd Zamidi Ahmad
    • Magdalena Malankowska
    • Joaquín Coronas
    2022 Full text CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL

    Since carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted into the atmosphere due to human activities, strong research efforts have been developed towards capturing and decreasing its production. Unfortunately, specific processes and activities make it impossible to avoid CO2 emissions. Among the different strategies scientists propose for CO2 reduction, direct CO2 capture from the atmosphere, also known as direct air capture (DAC), represents a promising alternative in which sorbents have been mainly used. Recently, gas separation membranes have also been speculated to carry out such a separation, thanks to their smaller footprint and simpler setup and operation; however, their application remains a proposition in the field. This paper gives a perspective of the ongoing research and attempts of DAC applications via membrane separation and introduces the main membrane materials and types used for CO2 separation. Finally, the process considerations for DAC using membranes are stated to guide the new researchers in the field.

  • A non-linear direct peridynamics plate theory
    • Konstantin Naumenko
    • Victor Eremeev
    2022 Full text COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

    In this paper a direct non-local peridynamics theory for thin plates is developed. Peridynamic points are assumed to behave like rigid bodies with independent translation and finite rotation degrees of freedom. The non-local mechanical interaction between points is characterized by force and moment vectors. The balance equations including the linear momentum, the angular momentum and the energy are presented. Peridynamic deformation states of the plate are introduced including the actual bond vector (relative translation of two points within the bond) and the relative finite rotation tensor (actual relative orientation of two points in the bond). The corresponding power-conjugate bond force and bond moment states are derived. The framework to develop constitutive equations for the plate peridynamic states is addressed. Special cases of the theory including plates with zero drilling moments, membranes, soft interlayers as well as stiff plate layers with small relative rotations are considered.

  • A note on the affective computing systems and machines: a classification and appraisal
    • Paweł Weichbroth
    • Wiktor Sroka
    2022 Full text Procedia Computer Science

    Affective computing (AfC) is a continuously growing multidisciplinary field, spanning areas from artificial intelligence, throughout engineering, psychology, education, cognitive science, to sociology. Therefore, many studies have been devoted to the aim of addressing numerous issues, regarding different facets of AfC solutions. However, there is a lack of classification of the AfC systems. This study aims to fill this gap by reviewing and evaluating the state-of-the-art studies in a qualitative manner. In this line of thinking, we put forward a threefold classification that breaks down to desktop and mobile AfC systems, and AfC machines. Moreover, we identified four types of AfC systems, based on the features extracted. In our opinion, the results of this study can serve as a guide for future affect-related research and design, on the one hand, and provide a better understanding on the role of emotions and affect in human-computer interaction, on the other hand.

  • A novel approach exploiting properties of convolutional neural networks for vessel movement anomaly detection and classification
    • Bartosz Czaplewski
    • Mariusz Dzwonkowski
    2022 Full text ISA TRANSACTIONS

    The article concerns the automation of vessel movement anomaly detection for maritime and coastal traffic safety services. Deep Learning techniques, specifically Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), were used to solve this problem. Three variants of the datasets, containing samples of vessel traffic routes in relation to the prohibited area in the form of a grayscale image, were generated. 1458 convolutional neural networks with different structures were trained to find the best structure to classify anomalies. The influence of various parameters of network structures on the overall accuracy of classification was examined. For the best networks, class prediction rates were examined. Activations of selected convolutional layers were studied and visualized to present how the network works in a friendly and understandable way. The best convolutional neural network for detecting vessel movement anomalies has been proposed. The proposed CNN is compared with multiple baseline algorithms trained on the same dataset.

  • A novel approach for processing CaAlSiON glass-ceramics by spark plasma sintering: Mechanical and electrical properties
    • Sharafat Ali
    • Abbas Saeed Hakeem
    • Mirva Eriksson
    • Natalia Wójcik
    2022 Full text JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN CERAMIC SOCIETY

    Lithium containing glassy materials can be used as solid electrolytes or electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries due to their high energy density. Conventional melt-quenched Ca11Al14Si16O49N10 glass powder containing 24 e/o N, doped with Li-ions (1, 3, and 6 wt. %) and sintered by spark plasma sintering technique (SPS) was studied. The benefits of using SPS to produce glass-ceramics are rapid heating rates compared to conventional consolidation techniques and tuning of properties, adjusting the temperature, holding time (closed to Tg temperature), heating rate (solidification), and pressure (densification) profile during the heat treatment using SPS. Pure glass and glass-ceramic were obtained under identical SPS conditions and compared with pristine oxynitride and soda-lime-silicate (float) glasses. XRD and SEM analysis confirmed that increasing the amount of Li increases the crystallinity in the glass matrix. Nano-indentation analysis showed a decreased hardness and reduced elastic modulus values with the addition of Li-ions. The direct current conductivity increases with the addition of Li due to the high mobility of Li-ions. However, the float glass sample doped with 6 wt.% of Li exhibits even higher values of D.C. conductivity, than the analogously doped Ca11Al14Si16O49N10 glass. The magnitude of activation energy (more than 1 eV) is typical for an ion hopping mechanism and the D.C. conduction mechanism is dominated by Li+ hopping.

  • A novel architecture of Web-GIS for mapping and analysis of echinococcosis in Poland
    • Marcin Kulawiak
    • Natalia Kulawiak
    • Małgorzata Sulima
    • Katarzyna Sikorska
    2022 Full text Applied Geomatics

    Echinococcosis is an infectious disease transferred through ingestion of food or water which have been contaminated with eggs of the Echinococcus tapeworm, which are spread by intermediate parasite hosts. Because the latter are primarily territorial, research related to diagnosis and prevention of echinococcosis requires investigation of environmental factors, which can be supported with the use of a Geographical Information System (GIS). In particular, since this type of research is usually performed by a team of medical researchers working individually with many patients, it can greatly benefit from the use of a Web-GIS, which provides remote access to data integration, storage and analysis tools. However, most existing Web-GIS solutions dedicated for disease mapping either exhibit limited functionality and interactivity (often due to the use of a thin-client approach), or are tied to a particular technological platform through a thick client based on a browser plugin. Moreover, few of the existing solutions provide user-friendly tools for data input, and none are directly integrated into the workflow of clinicians. This paper proposes a novel system architecture for Web-GIS dedicated to disease mapping, which attempts to optimize the use of client and server hardware resources while providing the user with a variety of analytic functionalities. The proposed architecture has been implemented in the form of a system for remote mapping and analysis of echinococcosis cases in Poland, which has been designed in cooperation with a major Polish hospital centre.

  • A Novel Cryptic Clostridial Peptide That Kills Bacteria by a Cell Membrane Permeabilization Mechanism
    • Monika Szadkowska
    • Michał Olewniczak
    • Anna Kloska
    • Elzbieta Jankowska
    • Malgorzata Kapusta
    • Bartosz Rybak
    • Dariusz Wyrzykowski
    • Wioletta Zmudzinska
    • Artur Gieldon
    • Aleksandra Kocot
    • Anna-Karina Kaczorowska
    • Łukasz Nierzwicki
    • Joanna Makowska
    • Tadeusz Kaczorowski
    • Magdalena Płotka
    2022 Full text Microbiology Spectrum

    This work reports detailed characteristics of the antimicrobial peptide Intestinalin (P30), which is derived from the LysC enzyme of Clostridium intestinale strain URNW. The peptide shows a broader antibacterial spectrum than the parental enzyme, showing potent antimicrobial activity against clinical strains of Gram-positive staphylococci and Gram-negative pathogens and causing between 3.04 ± 0.12 log kill for Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and 7.10 ± 0.05 log kill for multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii KPD 581 at a 5 μM concentration. Moreover, Intestinalin (P30) prevents biofilm formation and destroys 24-h and 72-h biofilms formed by Acinetobacter baumannii CRAB KPD 205 (reduction levels of 4.28 and 2.62 log CFU/mL, respectively). The activity of Intestinalin is combined with both no cytotoxicity and little hemolytic effect against mammalian cells. The nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular dynamics (MD) data show a high tendency of Intestinalin to interact with the bacterial phospholipid cell membrane. Although positively charged, Intestinalin resides in the membrane and aggregates into small oligomers. Negatively charged phospholipids stabilize peptide oligomers to form water- and ion-permeable pores, disrupting the integrity of bacterial cell membranes. Experimental data showed that Intestinalin interacts with negatively charged lipoteichoic acid (logK based on isothermal titration calorimetry, 7.45 ± 0.44), causes membrane depolarization, and affects membrane integrity by forming large pores, all of which result in loss of bacterial viability.

  • A novel degree-hour method for rational design loading
    • Andrii Radchenko
    • Mykola Radchenko
    • Dariusz Mikielewicz
    • Roman Radchenko
    • Andrii Andreev
    2022 Full text PROCEEDINGS OF THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS PART A-JOURNAL OF POWER AND ENERGY

    Cooling degree-hours (CDH) received the broadest application in evaluation of the ambient air cooling efficiency in power engineering (engine intake air cooling systems) and air conditioning. The current CDH numbers are defined as a drop in air temperature multiplied by associated time duration of performance and their summarized annual number is used to estimate the annual effect achieved due to sucked air cooling in power plants based on combustion engines (fuel saving, power output increment) and in air conditioning (refrigeration energy generation according to needs). A majority of approaches to designing ambient air cooling systems is proceeding from the cooling capacity of the chillers selected to provide a maximum current or annual CDH number with corresponding maximum current or annual effect (additional energy produced or fuel consumption reduction) in site climate location. But such approaches lead to inevitable oversizing the chillers and cooling systems in the whole. The analysis of intake air cooling efficiency in site varying climatic conditions, accompanied by quite a simple numerical simulation, enabled to reveal the potential of its enhancement and evaluate numerically the results of each step of designing in logical sequence. The new approaches to cooling system rational designing were introduced, that enables to synthesize and substantiate innovative principal decisions to exclude unproductive waste of installed (design) cooling capacity in actual operation. The innovative findings of methodological approaches include the use of the rate of annual CDH number increment as an indicator for selecting the optimum and rational values of design cooling capacity. The optimum cooling capacity corresponds to maximum rate of summarized annual CDH increment and maximum level of thermal loading accordingly, which provides minimum sizes of the chiller. In reality, it is a minimum permissible value of cooling capacity of the chiller installed and the overall ambient air cooling system. The rational cooling capacity, that enables to achieve practically maximum value of annual CDH and avoid chiller oversizing, is determined as the second, local, maximum of the rate in the summarized annual CDH over the range above the first one, global, maximum. A rational design cooling capacity determined by applying the novel methodology allows to decrease the ambient air cooling system sizes by 15 to 20% compared with traditional methods.

  • A novel DEM-based pore-scale thermo-hydro-mechanical model
    • Marek Krzaczek
    • Michał Nitka
    • Andrzej Tejchman-Konarzewski
    2022

    W warunkach nieizotermicznych ruch płynu w układzie porów i kapilar betonu jest silnie sprzężony z przenoszeniem ciepła. W takich warunkach pory i spękania ułatwiają wnikanie do betonu zewnętrznych czynników agresywnych, które degradują zarówno beton, jak i zbrojenie. Opracowano innowacyjny model termo-hydro-mechaniczny oparty na modelu DEM, aby szczegółowo śledzić frakcje cieczy/gazów w porach i pęknięciach pod kątem ich różnej geometrii, rozmiaru, lokalizacji i temperatury. Przydatność w pełni sprzężonego modelu termohydromechanicznego została zilustrowana przez symulację eksperymentu, w którym nasycona porowata próbka była poddana procesowi chłodzenia.

  • A novel hierarchically-porous diamondized polyacrylonitrile sponge-like electrodes for acetaminophen electrochemical detection
    • Mattia Pierpaoli
    • Chiara Giosuè
    • Natalia Czerwińska
    • Aneta Lewkowicz
    • Maria Letizia Ruello
    • Robert Bogdanowicz
    • Bartłomiej Dec
    • Paweł Jakóbczyk
    2022 Full text ELECTROCHIMICA ACTA

    A novel composite electrode material consisting of tangled fibrous polyacrylonitrile-based hierarchically-struc- tured nanocomposites has been produced by wet-spinning, carbonized and decorated with a carbon nano- architecture by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and investigated as a metal-free electrode for the enhanced electrochemical detection of acetaminophen. Surprisingly, the hierarchical fiber ar- chitecture is the result of the synergistic action between surface etching, by the H2 plasma, and nanostructure formation, by the C- and CH- radicals, which significantly affect the porosity and electrochemical performance. Moreover, by simultaneously conducting fiber carbonization and surface functionalization, it is possible to dramatically reduce the manufacturing time and to confer an 18-fold increase of the acetaminophen detection sensitivity, due to the sp2-C defect-rich overgrown nanostructure, which represents a preferable site for the drug adsorption, as supported by the molecular dynamics simulation results. Because of the excellent performance, and the simple and scalable production method, the prepared composite is a promising candidate as a metal-free electrochemical sensor

  • A novel in vivo approach to assess strains of the human abdominal wall under known intraabdominal pressure
    • Izabela Lubowiecka
    • Katarzyna Szepietowska
    • Agnieszka Tomaszewska
    • Paweł Michał Bielski
    • Michał Chmielewski
    • Monika Lichodziejewska-Niemierko
    • Czesław Kazimierz Szymczak
    2022 Full text Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials

    The study concerns mechanical behaviour of a living human abdominal wall. A better mechanical understanding of a human abdominal wall and recognition of its material properties is required to find mechanically compatible surgical meshes to significantly improve the treatment of ventral hernias. A non-invasive methodology, based on in vivo optical measurements is proposed to determine strains of abdominal wall corresponding to a known intraabdominal pressure. The measurement is performed in the course of a standard procedure of peritoneal dialysis. A dedicated experimental stand is designed for the experiment. The photogrammetric technique is employed to recover the three-dimensional surface geometry of the anterior abdominal wall at the initial and terminal instants of the dialysis. This corresponds to two deformation states, before and after filling the abdominal cavity with dialysis fluid. The study provides information on strain fields of living human abdominal wall. The inquiry is aimed at principal strains and their directions, observed at the level from -10% to 17%. The intraabdominal pressure related to the amount of introduced dialysis fluid measured within the medical procedure covers the range 11–18.5 cmH2O. The methodology leads to the deformation state of the abdominal wall according to the corresponding loading conditions. Therefore, the study is a step towards an identification of mechanical properties of living human abdominal wall.

  • A Novel Method for Intelligibility Assessment of Nonlinearly Processed Speech in Spaces Characterized by Long Reverberation Times
    • Adam Kurowski
    • Józef Kotus
    • Piotr Odya
    • Bożena Kostek
    2022 Full text SENSORS

    Objective assessment of speech intelligibility is a complex task that requires taking into account a number of factors such as different perception of each speech sub-bands by the human hearing sense or different physical properties of each frequency band of a speech signal. Currently, the state-of-the-art method used for assessing the quality of speech transmission is the speech transmission index (STI). It is a standardized way of objectively measuring the quality of, e.g., an acoustical adaptation of conference rooms or public address systems. The wide use of this measure and implementation of this method on numerous measurement devices make STI a popular choice when the speech-related quality of rooms has to be estimated. However, the STI measure has a significant drawback which excludes it from some particular use cases. For instance, if one would like to enhance speech intelligibility by employing a nonlinear digital processing algorithm, the STI method is not suitable to measure the impact of such an algorithm, as it requires that the measurement signal should not be altered in a nonlinear way. Consequently, if a nonlinear speech enhancing algorithm has to be tested, the STI—a standard way of estimating speech transmission cannot be used. In this work, we would like to propose a method based on the STI method but modified in such a way that it makes it possible to employ it for the estimation of the performance of the nonlinear speech intelligibility enhancement method. The proposed approach is based upon a broadband comparison of cumulated energy of the transmitted envelope modulation and the received modulation, so we called it broadband STI (bSTI). Its credibility with regard to signals altered by the environment or nonlinear speech changed by a DSP algorithm is checked by performing a comparative analysis of ten selected impulse responses for which a baseline value of STI was known.

  • A novel method of creating thermoplastic chitosan blends to produce cell scaffolds by FDM additive manufacturing
    • Robert Tylingo
    • Piotr Kempa
    • Adrianna Banach-Kopeć
    • Szymon Mania
    2022 Full text CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS

    Due to its remarkable and promising biological and structural properties, chitosan has been widely studied in several potential applications in the biomedical sector. Attempts are being made to use this polymer and its properties in thermoplastics dedicated to 3D printing in FDM technology. However, chitosan can be processed only from acid solution, which limits its applications. The paper presents a new path for the production of filaments based on unstable chitosan hydrogel obtained by carbon dioxide saturation, as well as synthetic polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol and polycaprolactone. The results confirm that the absence of acid allows formation of thermally stable and printable filaments containing from 5% to 15% of chitosan, capable of reducing S. aureus and E. coli bacteria by 0.41–1.43 in logarithmic scale (56–94%) and 0.28–0.94 in logarithmic scale (36–89%), respectively.

  • A Novel Method of Endotoxins Removal from Chitosan Hydrogel as a Potential Bioink Component Obtained by CO2 Saturation
    • Adrianna Banach-Kopeć
    • Szymon Mania
    • Joanna Pilch
    • Ewa Augustin
    • Iwona Gabriel
    • Robert Tylingo
    2022 Full text INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES

    The article presents a new approach in the purification of chitosan (CS) hydrogel in order to remove a significant amount of endotoxins without changing its molecular weight and viscosity. Two variants of the method used to purify CS hydrogels from endotoxins were investigated using the PyroGene rFC Enzymatic Cascade assay kit. The effect of the CS purification method was assessed in terms of changes in the dynamic viscosity of its hydrogels, the molecular weight of the polymer, microbiological purity after refrigerated storage and cytotoxicity against L929 cells based on the ISO 10993-5:2009(E) standard. The proposed purification method 1 (M1) allows for the removal of significant amounts of endotoxins: 87.9–97.6% in relation to their initial concentration in the CS hydrogel without affecting the solution viscosity. Moreover, the final solutions were sterile and microbiologically stable during storage. The M1 purification method did not change the morphology of the L929 cells.

  • A novel (Ti/Ce)UiO-X MOFs@TiO2 heterojunction for enhanced photocatalytic performance: Boosting via Ce4+/Ce3+ and Ti4+/Ti3+ redox mediators
    • Patrycja Parnicka
    • Wojciech Lisowski
    • Tomasz Klimczuk
    • Alicja Mikolajczyk
    • Adriana Zaleska-Medynska
    2022 APPLIED CATALYSIS B-ENVIRONMENTAL

    Titanium-substituted cerium-oxo-based UiO MOFs with terephthalate linkers modified by various groups (–Br, –NH2, –NO2) or their derivatives (N-heterocyclic or biphenyl groups) were combined with titanium dioxide in a multistep route to obtain a core-shell-like architecture. DFT simulations showed that Ce- and bimetallic Ti/Ce- MOFs exhibited different charge compensation. Extended characterization revealed the formation of heterojunctions between the (Ti/Ce)UiO-X MOFs and TiO2 nanoflowers, suitable band edge positions, and high specific surface area and porosity, which resulted in effective electron transfer and excellent photocatalytic activity. The photoactivity of the (Ti/Ce)UiO-X@TiO2 composites for hydrogen production or phenol degradation varied according to the order –NH2 > biphenyl > –N– > –H > –Br > –NO2 > pristine TiO2 or –Br > –NH2 > –NO2 > –N– > –H > biphenyl > pristine TiO2. The photocatalytic hydrogen production rate of (Ti/Ce)UiO-66-NH2@TiO2 was 4724 and 19.3 μmol⋅gcat–1 after 4 h of UV–Vis and visible light irradiation, which were 79 and 19 times higher than that of pristine rutile, respectively.

  • A numerical and experimental analysis of multi-hole orifice in turbulent flow
    • Anna Golijanek-Jędrzejczyk
    • Andrzej Mrowiec
    • Sławosz Kleszcz
    • Robert Hanus
    • Marcin Zych
    • Marek Jaszczur
    2022 Full text MEASUREMENT

    In this research study, the comprehensive metrological analysis is investigated for a 4-hole orifice with module m = 0.25 installed in the pipeline with an internal diameter of 50 mm. A detailed numerical simulation was performed for the turbulence models: k-ε-realizable and k-ω-BSL. The novelties of the research include model validation by comparing the results of numerical studies with the experiment conducted in the area of developing turbulent flow in the range of Reynolds numbers from 4,200 to 19,000. Such validated models are sought by the system designers and can be used for further analyses and optimisation of this orifice in this flow type. The multi-hole orifices are less sensitive to flow disturbances than the standardized standard centric orifice. In addition, orifices of this type can be mounted in installations with much shorter sections upstream and downstream of the orifice - which is very often the case in industrial flow installations.

  • A NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE DYNAMICS OF DENGUE DISEASE MODEL WITH FRACTIONAL PIECEWISE DERIVATIVE
    • Javed Khan
    • Mati Ur Rahman
    • Muhammad Riaz
    • Jan Awrejcewicz
    2022 Full text FRACTALS-COMPLEX GEOMETRY PATTERNS AND SCALING IN NATURE AND SOCIETY

    The aim of this paper is to study the dynamics of Dengue disease model using a novel piecewise derivative approach in the sense of singular and non-singular kernels. The singular kernel operator is in the sense of Caputo, whereas the non-singular kernel operator is the Atangana–Baleanu Caputo operator. The existence and uniqueness of a solution with piecewise derivative are examined for the aforementioned problem. The suggested problem’s approximate solution was found using the piecewise numerical iterative Newton polynomial approach. In terms of singular and non-singular kernels, a numerical scheme for piecewise derivatives has been established. The numerical simulation for the piecewise derivable problem under consideration is drawn using data for various fractional orders. This work makes the idea of piecewise derivatives and the dynamics of the crossover problem clearer.

  • A Quantitative Investigation of Dislocation Density in an Al Matrix Composite Produced by a Combination of Micro-/Macro-Rolling
    • Behzad Sadeghi
    • Ali Shabani
    • Ali Heidarinejad
    • Aleksandra Laska
    • Marek Szkodo
    • Pasquale Cavaliere
    2022 Full text Journal of Composites Science

    An aluminum matrix composite with dispersed carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was produced via flake powder metallurgy using a micro-rolling process and vacuum hot pressing (VHP), followed by conventional rolling using a macro-rolling process. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the produced composites were studied. In addition, a new quantitative model was introduced to study the dislocation density based on the microstructural parameters. The results revealed that the distribution characteristics of the CNTs in the Al matrix and the Al-CNT interfaces were the two main governing parameters of dislocation density. Moreover, the dependence of dislocation density on the geometry of the grains and crystallographic texture was shown in this model. The microstructural evolution revealed that a lamellar grain structure had been achieved, with a high capacity for the storage of dislocation. A uniform distribution of CNTs with high bonding quality was also seen in the final microstructure.

  • A review of design approaches for the implementation of low-frequency noise measurement systems
    • Graziella Scandurra
    • C. Ciofi
    • Janusz Smulko
    • He Wen
    2022 Full text REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

    Electronic noise has its roots in the fundamental physical interactions between matter and charged particles, carrying information about the phenomena that occur at the microscopic level. Therefore, Low-Frequency Noise Measurements (LFNM) are a well-established technique for the characterization of electron devices and materials and, compared to other techniques, they offer the advantage of being non-destructive and of providing a more detailed view of what happens in the matter during the manifestation of physical or chemical phenomena. For this reason, LFNM acquire particular importance in the modern technological era in which the introduction of new advanced materials requires in-depth and thorough characterization of the conduction phenomena. LFNM also find application in the field of sensors, as they allow to obtain more selective sensing systems even starting from conventional sensors. Performing meaningful noise measurements, however, requires that the background noise introduced by the measurement chain be much smaller than the noise to be detected and the instrumen- tation available on the market does not always meet the specifications required for reaching the ultimate sensitivity. Researchers willing to perform LFNM must often resort to the design of dedicated instrumentation in their own laboratories, but their cultural background does not necessarily include the ability to design, build, and test dedicated low noise instrumentation. In this review, we have tried to provide as much theoretical and practical guidelines as possible, so that even researchers with a limited background in electronic engineering can find useful information in developing or customizing low noise instrumentation.

  • A review on computer‐aided chemogenomics and drug repositioning for rational COVID ‐19 drug discovery
    • Saeid Maghsoudi
    • Bahareh Taghavi Shahraki
    • Fatemeh Rameh
    • Masoomeh Nazarabi
    • Yousef Fatahi
    • Omid Akhavan
    • Mohammad Rabiee
    • Ebrahim Mostafavi
    • Eder C. Lima
    • Mohammad Saeb
    • Navid Rabiee
    2022 Full text Chemical Biology & Drug Design

    Application of materials capable of energy harvesting to increase the efficiency and environmental adaptability is sometimes reflected in the ability of discovery of some traces in an environment―either experimentally or computationally―to enlarge practical application window. The emergence of computational methods, particularly computer-aided drug discovery (CADD), provides ample opportunities for the rapid discovery and development of unprecedented drugs. The expensive and time-consuming process of traditional drug discovery is no longer feasible, for nowadays the identification of potential drug candidates is much easier for therapeutic targets through elaborate in silico approaches, allowing the prediction of the toxicity of drugs, such as drug repositioning (DR) and chemical genomics (chemogenomics). Coronaviruses (CoVs) are cross-species viruses that are able to spread expeditiously from the into new host species, which in turn cause epidemic diseases. In this sense, this review furnishes an outline of computational strategies and their applications in drug discovery. A special focus is placed on chemogenomics and DR as unique and emerging system-based disciplines on CoV drug and target discovery to model protein networks against a library of compounds. Furthermore, to demonstrate the special advantages of CADD methods in rapidly finding a drug for this deadly virus, numerous examples of the recent achievements grounded on molecular docking, chemogenomics, and DR are reported, analyzed, and interpreted in detail. It is believed that the outcome of this review assists developers of energy harvesting materials and systems for detection of future unexpected kinds of CoVs or other variants.

  • A Review on Deactivation and Regeneration of Catalysts for Dimethyl Ether Synthesis
    • Joanna Sobczak
    • Izabela Wysocka
    • Stanisław Murgrabia
    • Andrzej Rogala
    2022 Full text ENERGIES

    he deactivation of catalysts and their regeneration are two very important challenges that need to be addressed for many industrial processes. The most quoted reasons for the deterioration of dimethyl ether synthesis (DME) concern the sintering and the hydrothermal leaching of copper particles, their migration to acid sites, the partial formation of copper and zinc hydroxycarbonates, the formation of carbon deposits, and surface contamination with undesirable compounds present in syngas. This review summarises recent findings in the field of DME catalyst deactivation and regeneration. The most-used catalysts, their modifications, along with a comparison of the basic parameters, deactivation approaches, and regeneration methods are presented.

  • A review on electrospun membranes for potential air filtration application
    • Francesca Russo
    • Roberto Castro Munoz
    • Sergio Santoro
    • Francesco Galiano
    • Alberto Figoli
    2022 Full text Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering

    Air pollution is one of the major environmental concerns in most highly populated cities, which is typically caused by particulate (PM2.5 and PM0.1) or gaseous pollutants that can be removed using electrospun membranes. These membranes are characterized by different features in terms of uniform and controllable structure, tuneable porosity, and high surface area, where their separation efficiency strongly depends on their properties. In general, electrospinning is likely to be the most applied technique for the fabrication of nanofiber membranes for air filtration. The materials that can be employed for their production have been widely investigated relying on polymers and biopolymers which are key part for determining the overall membrane performance. Herein, the presence of additives often determines specific properties to the final membrane. Therefore, in this review, the current advances on fabricating electrospun membranes via electrospinning process for air filtration approaches and the potential air filtration applications are outlined.

  • A risk comparison framework for autonomous ships navigation
    • Cunlong Fan
    • Jakub Montewka
    • Di Zhang
    2022 Full text RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY

    Maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) may operate in three predefined operational modes (OM): manual, remote, or autonomous control. Determining the appropriate OM for MASS is important for operators and competent authorities that monitor and regulate maritime traffic in given areas. However, a science-based approach to this respect is currently unavailable. To assist the selection of the proper OM, this study presents a risk-based framework to compare risks in a given situation. To determine the risk level for a given OM, this framework utilizes expected failure modes (FM) related to people, organization, vessel, environment, and technology. FMs and associated accident scenarios (AS) were identified from conventional ship accidents, operating in manual control, in a coastal area in China, based on an extended 24Model. To expand these FMs to other OMs, experts’ knowledge elicitation sessions were carried out. Subsequently, a metric for navigation risk of MASS in given OMs was introduced and estimated for the expected AS, using interval-based risk prioritization numbers to convey inherent uncertainty. Finally, by ranking interval-valued metrics in the three OMs, a risk picture was obtained. The feasibility of the proposed framework for risk comparison was verified using grounding in coastal areas where accident data were collected.

  • A robust sliding mode observer for non-linear uncertain biochemical systems
    • Mateusz Czyżniewski
    • Rafał Łangowski
    2022 Full text ISA TRANSACTIONS

    A problem of state estimation for a certain class of non-linear uncertain systems has been addressed in this paper. In particular, a sliding mode observer has been derived to produce robust and stable estimates of the state variables. The stability and robustness of the proposed sliding mode observer have been investigated under parametric and unstructured uncertainty in the system dynamics. In order to ensure an unambiguous non-linear state (coordinates) transformation, the appropriate system model for the observer synthesis has been devised and analysed. The stability analysis of dynamics of estimation error has been carried out, based on the Lyapunov stability theory in relation to Lipschitz assumptions for non-linear functions. In order to validate the performance of the devised observer, it has been applied to the model of a continuous stirred tank reactor (bioreactor). The promising simulation results have been obtained and they demonstrate the high effectiveness of the devised approach.

  • A shared curriculum for daylighting education to meet the educational needs of society
    • Niko Gentile,
    • Federica Giuliani
    • Mandana Khanie, Sarey
    • Natalia Sokół
    • Valerio Roberto Maria Lo Verso
    • Federica Caffaro
    • Mikkel Kofod Pedersen
    • Federica Pompili
    • Pimkamol Mattsson
    2022

    This article describes the collaborative creation of the curriculum for a new eLearning programme on daylighting design of buildings targeting both traditional and lifelong learners. The programme consists of an online platform integrated with a summer school for practical applications. The process was conducted through several workshops with professionals, representatives of national bodies on building regulations, academics, and a survey distributed among professional and potential users. The goal was to create a curriculum to meet society's educational needs while reflecting the status of research by bridging the current gap between requirements set on daylighting by the latest regulation and the low level of education on daylighting in university curricula.

  • A Simple Replica Method as the Way to Obtain a Morphologically and Mechanically Bone-like Iron-Based Biodegradable Material
    • Marlena Grodzicka
    • Gabriela Gąsior
    • Marek Wiśniewski
    • Michał Bartmański
    • Aleksandra Radtke
    2022 Full text Materials

    Porous iron-based scaffolds were prepared by the simple replica method using polyurethane foam as a template and applying the sintering process in a tube furnace. Their surface morphology was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and phase homogeneity was confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). Corrosion behavior was determined using immersion and potentiodynamic polarization methods in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The surface energy was calculated by studying the changes of enthalpy of calorimetric immersion. A preliminary biological test was also carried out and was done using the albumin adsorption procedure. Results of our work showed that in using the simple replica method it is possible to obtain iron biomaterial with morphology and mechanical properties almost identical to bones, and possessing adequate wettability, which gives the potential to use this material as biomaterial for scaffolds in orthopedics.

  • A state of the art review on the use of fungi in biofiltration to remove volatile hydrophobic pollutants
    • Milena Marycz
    • Anna Brillowska-Dąbrowska
    • Raúl Muñoz
    • Jacek Gębicki
    2022 Full text REVIEWS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND BIO-TECHNOLOGY

    The physical/chemical abatement of gas pollutants creates many technical problems, is costly and entails significant environmental impacts. Biological purification of off-gases is a cheap and ecologically safe way of neutralization of gas pollutants. Despite the recent advances, the main technological challenge nowadays is the purification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of hydrophobic character due to their low solubility in water. Among all known biological methods of air purification, the most cost-effective biodegradation of hydrophobic VOCs is conducted by biotrickling filters. In this context, fungi have gained an increasing interest in this field based on their ability to biodegrade hydrophobic VOCs. In addition, biotrickling filtration using fungi can support a superior hydrophobic VOC abatement when compared to the bacterial biofilters. This paper aims at reviewing the latest research results concerning biocatalytic activity of fungi and evaluating the possibilities of their practical application in biofiltration systems to remove hydrophobic VOCs.

  • A Strategy for Managing the Operation of Technical Infrastructure Based on the Analysis of “Bad Actors”—A Case Study of LOTOS Group S.A.
    • Tomasz Dziabas
    • Mariusz Deja
    • Aleksandra Wiśniewska
    2022 Full text Sustainability

    The article covers issues related to the selection of a management strategy for the operation of technical infrastructure. It contains the approaches, methodology and a general model of the system of operation of the Maintenance Services of the LOTOS Group production company, which is an example of a large oil concern. Nowadays, an increasing aspect is put on the efficiency of individual repair processes, as well as the operation of equipment. Doubts often arise as to which strategy is the right one and which one to choose. With numerous machines, there are problems related to work planning and optimal use of resources. In addition, there are frequently difficulties in identifying the devices that interfere with the processes. The aim of this article is to present the maintenance strategy of the LOTOS production company and to introduce a procedure that allows for the assessment of the efficiency of machinery and equipment operation. It includes a method extending the identification of "Bad Actors" used so far, based on data from the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, with a solution based on reports made after device repairs. MTBR (Mean Time Between Repair) coefficients were calculated for particular Complex, Plants and Machines, which allowed for the identification of troublesome areas and the most difficult devices in production processes. This made it possible to select the equipment that should be repaired in the first place. After the implementation of the method and service activities, a decrease in the number of problematic machines was observed.

  • A subdomain model for armature reaction field and open‐circuit field prediction in consequent pole permanent magnet machines
    • Ahmed Abbas
    • Atif Iqbal
    2022 Full text INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NUMERICAL MODELLING-ELECTRONIC NETWORKS DEVICES AND FIELDS

    In this paper, the machine quantity, such as electromagnetic torque, self and mutual inductances, and electromotive force, is analytically calculated for non-overlapping winding consequent pole slotted machine for open-circuit field and armature reaction. The sub-domain approach of (2-D) analytical model is developed using Maxwell's equations and divide the problem into slots, slot-openings, airgap and magnets region, the magnet flux-density is calculated and analyzed for both permanent magnet (PM) and armature current reaction (AR) with radial magnetization pattern. The magnetization surface currents (MSCs) are considered at the borders of iron-pole magnets and the value of MSCs is accurately computed. The result obtained using proposed model compared with that of FEM, (2-D) analytical model required less computation time and achieve higher accuracy of AR and PM.

  • A Surrogate-Assisted Measurement Correction Method for Accurate and Low-Cost Monitoring of Particulate Matter Pollutants
    • Marek Wójcikowski
    • Bogdan Pankiewicz
    • Adrian Bekasiewicz
    • Tuan-Vu Cao
    • Jean-Marie Lepioufle
    • Islen Vallejo
    • Rune Odegard
    • Hoai Phuong Ha
    2022 Full text MEASUREMENT

    Air pollution involves multiple health and economic challenges. Its accurate and low-cost monitoring is important for developing services dedicated to reduce the exposure of living beings to the pollution. Particulate matter (PM) measurement sensors belong to the key components that support operation of these systems. In this work, a modular, mobile Internet of Things sensor for PM measurements has been proposed. Due to a limited accuracy of the PM detector, the measurement data are refined using a two-stage procedure that involves elimination of the non-physical signal spikes followed by a non-linear cor-rection of the responses using a multiplicative surrogate model. The correction layer is derived from the sparse and non-uniform calibration data, i.e., a combination of the measurements from the PM monitoring station and the sensor obtained in the same location over a specified (relatively short) interval. The device and the method have been both demonstrated based on the data obtained during three measurement cam-paigns. The proposed correction scheme improves the fidelity of PM measurements by around two orders of magnitude w.r.t. the responses for which the post-processing has not been considered. Performance of the proposed surrogate-assisted technique has been favorably compared against the benchmark approaches from the literature.

  • A Survey of Vehicular Network Systems for Road Traffic Management
    • Karol Jurczenia
    • Jacek Rak
    2022 Full text IEEE Access

    In this survey, we analyze the proposals of vehicular communication systems in the context of road traffic management. Starting with the definition of communications between vehicles (V2V), vehicles-to-infrastructure (V2I) and vehicles-to-everything (V2X), we first focus on the requirements and current standards for the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), including the maximum communication delay, the communication range and the size of messages (in the case of V2I transmission). After that, we analyze the use cases in line with the implementation of intelligent traffic management and review the respective methods that support or directly manage traffic on roads. One of the primary objectives of this paper is to highlight the architectures of four classes of systems able to support vehicular traffic management and communication between vehicles and roadside infrastructure, namely: vehicular cloud computing (VCC), cloudlets, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) and fog computing. In this context, we also present our classification of the methods for these four classes of architectures. In the end, we provide our opinion on problems and limitations concerning the deployment of mechanisms belonging to each considered architecture class.

  • A Systematic Review for Establishing Relevant Environmental Parameters for Urban Lighting: Translating Research into Practice
    • Catherine Vega, Pérez
    • Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska
    • Andreas Jechow
    • Sibylle Schroer
    • Franz Hölker
    2022 Full text Sustainability

    The application of lighting technologies developed in the 20th century has increased the brightness and changed the spectral composition of nocturnal night-time habitats and night skies across urban, peri-urban, rural, and pristine landscapes, and subsequently, researchers have observed the disturbance of biological rhythms of flora and fauna. To reduce these impacts, it is essential to translate relevant knowledge about the potential adverse effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) from research into applicable urban lighting practice. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify and report, via a systematic review, the effects of exposure to different physical properties of artificial light sources on various organism groups, including plants, arthropods, insects, spiders, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and non-human mammals (including bats, rodents, and primates). PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used to identify a total of 1417 studies from Web of Science and PubMed. In 216 studies, diverse behavioral and physiological responses were observed across taxa when organisms were exposed to ALAN. The studies showed that the responses were dependent on high illuminance levels, duration of light exposure, and unnatural color spectra at night and also highlighted where research gaps remain in the domains of ALAN research and urban lighting practice. To avoid misinterpretation, and to define a common language, key terminologies and definitions connected to natural and artificial light have been provided. Furthermore, the adverse impacts of ALAN urgently need to be better researched, understood, and managed for the development of future lighting guidelines and standards to optimize sustainable design applications that preserve night-time environment(s) and their inhabiting flora and fauna.

  • A Tutorial on AGREEprep an Analytical Greenness Metric for Sample Preparation
    • Francisco Pena-Pereira
    • Marek Tobiszewski
    • Wojciech Wojnowski
    • Elefteria Psillakis
    2022 Full text Advances in Sample Preparation

    Sample preparation is a key step in the analytical procedure and a critical component for achieving analytical greenness. AGREEprep is the first metric intended for evaluating the environmental impact of sample preparation methods. The approach consists of ten steps of assessment that correspond to the ten principles of green sample preparation and uses a user-friendly open-source software to calculate and visualize the results. Despite the simplicity of the approach, some assessment steps can be difficult to evaluate in a straightforward manner, either because essential data are not readily available or, in some cases, are poorly defined. This walkthrough tutorial on AGREEprep serves as an in depth yet simple guide for new users that elucidates all aspects of the greenness assessment. It will prove beneficial to analysts wishing to assess the greenness of their own developed procedures or those found in the literature, which can be challenging taken that critical data is often not reported. Particular attention is given to the calculations involved in estimating the amount of waste generated and energetic requirements. The impact of weight values of criteria on the overall final score are discussed and using two hypothetical scenarios is related to the analytical goals of operators. Finally, several assessment examples are given in the supplementary information to familiarize assessors with all assessment steps.

  • A Vision of Sustainable Design Concepts for Upgrading Vulnerable Coastal Areas in Light of Climate Change Impacts: A Case Study from Beirut, Lebanon
    • Bahaa Bou Kalfouni
    • Dorota Wojtowicz-Jankowska
    2022 Full text Sustainability

    Rapid urbanization combined with the effects of climate change has increased the vulnerability of poor urban communities to natural hazards, particularly to informal settlements located in coastal areas. Apart from socio-economic challenges, the effects of climate change threaten the very existence of these settlements. They are particularly vulnerable due to their poor structural quality and lack of adequate infrastructure to mitigate the consequences of any natural event. The article highlights an informal settlement belt, located on the coastline of the southern suburb of the capital Beirut. This area is an example of a complex urban, social, and economic structure. As a result, this research speculates on the possible sustainable design solutions and tested development strategies through urban, architecture, and landscape design proposals, derived from interventions that succeed in facing similar challenges compatible with the studied context. The aim is to advocate for comprehensive consideration and transformation of coastal informal settlements that can be used to encourage neutralizing the obvious challenges of climate change in urban settings. Therefore, planning specifications and quality aspects for future coastal informal settlements are proposed and extracted. The research involves analysis of qualitative data rather than quantitative data, as there is not much definite information available in terms of statistics, such as review of publications and grey literature. The scope of the study ranges from microscale improvement to providing usable and accessible city-wide ecological urban settings and sustainable spaces with new standards for coastal informal settlements as a potential backbone.

  • A Visual Method of Measuring Railway-Track Weed Infestation Level
    • Jacek Skibicki
    • Roksana Licow
    2022 Full text Metrology

    This paper concerns the assessment of railway track surface conditions in relation to the degree of weed infestation. The paper conceptually describes the proposed method using a visual system to analyse weed infestation level. The use of image analysis software for weed detection is also proposed. This new measurement method allows for a mobile assessment of the track’s weed infestation status. Validation of the assessment method in real conditions will allow for further expansion of the system using new shades of green from the RAL palette, and will take into account a more extensive and detailed assessment of weed infestation on the track in accordance with applicable railway regulations.

  • About Unusual Diffraction and Thermal Self-Action of Magnetosonic Beam
    • Anna Perelomova
    2022 Full text Archives of Acoustics

    The dynamics of slightly diverging two-dimensional beams whose direction forms a constant angle θ with the equilibrium straight magnetic strength is considered. The approximate dispersion relations and corresponding links which specify hydrodynamic perturbations in confined beams are derived. The study is dedicated to the diffraction of a magnetosonic beam and nonlinear thermal self-action of a beam in a thermoconducting gaseous plasma. It is shown that the divergence of a beam and its thermal self-action is unusual in some particular cases of parallel propagation (θ = 0) and has no analogues in the dynamics of the Newtonian beams. The nonlinear attenuation of Newtonian beams leads to their defocusing in gases, whereas the unusual cases correspond to the focusing in a presence of magnetic field. The examples of numerical calculations of thermal self-action of magnetoacoustic beams with shock fronts are considered in the usual and unusual cases of diffraction concerning stationary and non-stationary self-action. It is discovered that the diffraction is more (θ = 0) or less (θ = π~2) manifested as compared to that of the Newtonian beams. The beams which propagate oblique to the magnetic field do not reveal diffraction. The special case, when the sound and Alfvénic speeds are equal, is discussed. This magnetosonic beams incorporate acoustic and Alfvénic properties and do not undergo diffraction in this particular case.

  • AC Motor Voltage and Audible Noise Dataset
    • Beata Pałczyńska
    2022 Full text

    The dataset titled AC motor voltage and audible noise waveforms in ship’s electrical drive systems with frequency converters contains the voltage and sound measurement results recorded in a marine frequency controlled AC drive system. The dataset is part of research focussing on the impact of the ship’s electrical drive systems with frequency converters on vibrations and the level of audible noise on ships. The dataset allows the correlation between electric disturbances and vibration, as well as audible noise in marine frequency controlled AC drive systems to be investigated.

  • Accident susceptibility index for a passenger ship-a framework and case study
    • Jakub Montewka
    • Teemu Manderbacka
    • Pekka Ruponen
    • Markus Tompuri
    • Mateusz Gil
    • Spyros Hirdaris
    2022 Full text RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY

    The continuous monitoring and assessment of operational vulnerability and accident susceptibility of passenger ships is crucial from the perspective of ship and passenger safety. Despite the existing solutions for vulnerability monitoring, stemming mainly from watertight door operations, a comprehensive framework for accident susceptibility assessment and monitoring is missing in the literature. Therefore, this paper offers a straightforward approach, utilizing heuristics rooted in the solid foundations of the first principles related to human performance. The proposed approach allows the evaluation of accident susceptibility of a ship in operation involved in open-sea and coastal navigation. The framework presented is based on observable and relevant factors, known to affect the navigator’s performance, and as a consequence accident probability. The layout of the framework as well as the parameters of the developed model are based on literature survey in maritime and aviation domains, knowledge elicited from maritime experts and extensive simulations with the use of an in-house developed ship-ship encounter simulator. Subsequently, the model is applied to selected case studies, involving two distinctive ship types, namely a large cruise ship and a RoPax vessel. The results obtained for the case study presented in this paper reveal that most of their time the analyzed ships operate with negligible accident susceptibility (87%), while 1% of the cases are labelled as very high accident susceptibility. The remaining share of 12% is distributed among low, moderate and high values of accident susceptibility. The results are in line with earlier studies conducted in the same area but adopting different methods. The proposed solution can be applied as an onboard decision support tool, evaluating the operational accident susceptibility and vulnerability, thus increasing the crew’s situational awareness. Additionally, it can be applied to historical data, allowing ship navigational safety diagnosis and implementation of appropriate countermeasures.

  • Accumulation of radioisotopes and heavy metals in selected species of mushrooms
    • Oskar Ronda
    • Elżbieta Grządka
    • Iwona Ostolska
    • Jolanta Orzeł
    • Bartłomiej Cieślik
    2022 Full text FOOD CHEMISTRY

    Seven species of forest mushrooms from different regions of Poland (edible: Imleria badia, Cantharellus cibarius, Xerocomus subtomentosus, Suillus luteus and inedible by humans but being food for animals: Paxillus involutus, Tylopilus felleus and Russula emetica) were analyzed for radioisotope activity (Cs-137, K-40, Bi-214 and Pb-210) as well as concentrations of heavy metals (aluminum, chromium, cadmium, manganese, iron, lead, zinc, copper, nickel and mercury). The activity of radioisotopes was measured with a gamma spectrometer, while the concentrations of heavy metals were examined by microwave plasma – atomic emission spectrometry. The obtained results of the analyses were compared with the recommendations of the European Food Safety Authority concerning the consumption of the determined heavy metals and the European standards concerning the content of radioisotopes in food. The obtained results proved that the consumption of mushrooms may result in a significant exceeding of the consumption limits of cadmium, copper and Cs-137

  • Accurate Modeling of Antenna Structures by Means of Domain Confinement and Pyramidal Deep Neural Networks
    • Sławomir Kozieł
    • Nurullah Calik
    • Peyman Mahouti
    • Mehmet Belen
    2022 Full text IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION

    The importance of surrogate modeling techniques has been gradually increasing in the design of antenna structures over the recent years. Perhaps the most important reason is a high cost of full-wave electromagnetic (EM) analysis of antenna systems. Although imperative in ensuring evaluation reliability, it entails considerable computational expenses. These are especially pronounced when carrying out EM-driven design tasks such as geometry parameter tuning or uncertainty quantification, both requiring repetitive simulations. Conducting some of the design procedures, e.g., global search or yield optimization, directly at the level of simulation models may be prohibitive. The employment of fast replacement models (or surrogates) may alleviate these difficulties; yet, accurate modeling of antenna structures faces its own challenges. The two major obstacles are the curse of dimensionality, manifesting itself in a rapid growth of the number of training data samples necessary to render a reliable model (as a function of the number of antenna parameters), and high nonlinearity of antenna characteristics. Recently, the concept of performance-driven modeling has been introduced, where the modeling process is focused on a small region of the parameters space, which contains high-quality designs with respect of the considered performance figures. The most advanced variation of this class of methods is nested kriging, where both the model domain and the surrogate itself are constructed through kriging interpolation. Domain confinement is realized using a set of pre-optimized reference designs, and allows for significant improvement of the model predictive power while using a limited number of training data samples. In this work, the constrained modeling concept is coupled with a novel pyramidal deep regression network (PDRN) surrogate, which offers improved handling of highly-nonlinear antenna responses. Three examples of microstrip antennas are used to demonstrate the advantages of constrained PDRN metamodels over the nested kriging surrogates with the (average) accuracy improved by a factor of two without increasing the training data set cardinality.

  • Acid–Base Equilibrium and Self-Association in Relation to High Antitumor Activity of Selected Unsymmetrical Bisacridines Established by Extensive Chemometric Analysis
    • Michał Kosno
    • Tomasz Laskowski
    • Joanna Frąckowiak
    • Agnieszka Potęga
    • Agnieszka Kurdyn
    • Witold Andrałojć
    • Julia Borzyszkowska-Bukowska
    • Katarzyna Szwarc-Karabyka
    • Zofia Mazerska
    2022 Full text MOLECULES

    Unsymmetrical bisacridines (UAs) represent a novel class of anticancer agents previously synthesized by our group. Our recent studies have demonstrated their high antitumor potential against multiple cancer cell lines and human tumor xenografts in nude mice. At the cellular level, these compounds affected 3D cancer spheroid growth and their cellular uptake was selectively modulated by quantum dots. UAs were shown to undergo metabolic transformations in vitro and in tumor cells. However, the physicochemical properties of UAs, which could possibly affect their interactions with molecular targets, remain unknown. Therefore, we selected four highly active UAs for the assessment of physicochemical parameters under various pH conditions. We determined the compounds’ pKa dissociation constants as well as their potential to self-associate. Both parameters were determined by detailed and complex chemometric analysis of UV-Vis spectra supported bynuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The obtained results indicate that general molecular properties of UAs in aqueous media, including their protonation state, self-association ratio, and solubility, are strongly pH-dependent, particularly in the physiological pH range of 6 to 8. In conclusion, we describe the detailed physicochemical characteristics of UAs, which might contribute to their selectivity towards tumour cells as opposed to their effect on normal cells.

  • Acoustic Hysteresis in Flows with Different Kinds of Relaxation and Attenuation
    • Anna Perelomova
    2022 Full text Archives of Acoustics

    Graphs in the thermodynamic plane acoustic pressure versus excess acoustic density representing acoustic hysteresis, are considered as indicators of relaxation processes, equilibrium parameters of a flow, and kinds of wave exciters. Some flows with deviation from adiabaticity are examined: the Newtonian flow of a thermocon- ducting gas, the flow of a gas with vibrational relaxation, the flow of liquid electrolyte with a chemical reaction, and the Bingham plastic flow. The total range of characteristic frequencies of a harmonic exciter is taken into account. The impulsive sound is considered as well. The peculiarities of hysteretic behaviour are discussed in dependence with the kind and degree of deviation form adiabaticity. Examples of acoustically active flows are discussed.

  • ACTIVATED BIOCHAR AS AN ADSORBENT OF ORGANIC POLLUTANTS FOR WATER AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT
    • Beata Barczak
    • Paweł Kazimierski
    • Justyna Łuczak
    • Ewa Klugmann-Radziemska
    • Katarzyna Januszewicz
    2022

    The use of biomass, especially waste biomass, as an alternative energy source is a very important issue today. Pyrolysis is a process of thermal degradation of raw material and one of its products is biochar. This product is mainly distinguished by its high carbon content, and by improving its quality through activation, it can be more widely used. Activated biocarbon has a strongly developed surface and porous structure, and as an adsorbent, it can be used as a pollutant sorbent. Chemical activation is one way of improving the quality of carbon materials by applying high temperature and an activator, e.g. KOH. This method allows to obtain sorption materials with the highly developed specific surface area of more than 1100 m2 /g. Another important parameter characterizing activated carbons is the adsorption capacity of the model pollutant by the analyzed sorbent, which allows quantifying the ability to adsorb an organic compound from an aqueous solution. Pyrolysis of waste biomass, which consisted of corn cobs (without kernels) and cherry kernels, was performed. The results of the study of the adsorption capacity of organic pollutants from the aqueous phase by the activated with potassium hydroxide biocarbons are presented. An aqueous solution of Rhodamine B was used as a model pollutant. The effect of waste biomass type on the adsorption capacity of organic pollutant is discussed based on the study.

  • Activation Energy and Inclination Magnetic Dipole Influences on Carreau Nanofluid Flowing via Cylindrical Channel with an Infinite Shearing Rate
    • Assad Ayud
    • Tanveer Sajid
    • Wasim Jamshed
    • Rolando William Miranda Zamora
    • Alonso Leandro Vallejos More
    • Marina LuzGalván Talledo
    • Isabel Nélida Rodríguez Ortega de Peña
    • Syed Hyssain
    • Muhammad Bilal Hafeez
    • Marek Krawczuk
    2022 Full text Applied Sciences-Basel

    The infinite shear viscosity model of Carreau fluid characterizes the attitude of fluid flow at a very high/very low shear rate. This model has the capacity for interpretation of fluid at both extreme levels, and an inclined magnetic dipole in fluid mechanics has its valuable applications such as magnetic drug engineering, cold treatments to destroy tumors, drug targeting, bio preservation, cryosurgery, astrophysics, reaction kinetics, geophysics, machinery efficiency, sensors, material selection and cosmology. Novelty: This study investigates and interprets the infinite shear rate of Carreau nanofluid over the geometry of a cylindrical channel. The velocity is assumed to be investigated through imposing an inclined magnetic field onto cylindrical geometry. Activation energy is utilized because it helps with chemical reactions and mass transport. Furthermore, the effects of thermophoresis, the binary chemical process and the Brownian movement of nanoparticles are included in this attempt. Formulation: The mathematics of the assumed Carreau model is derived from Cauchy stress tensor, and partial differential equations (PDEs) are obtained. Similarity transformation variables converted these PDEs into a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Passing this system under the bvp4c scheme, we reached at numerical results of this research attempt. Findings: Graphical debate and statistical analysis are launched on the basis of the obtained computed numerical results. The infinite shear rate aspect of Carreau nanofluid gives a lower velocity. The inclined magnetic dipole effect shows a lower velocity but high energy. A positive variation in activation energy amplifies the concentration field.

  • Activation of the C=P bond in phosphanylphosphaalkenes C=P–P bond system) in the reaction with nucleophilic reagents: MeLi, nBuLi and tBuLi
    • Aleksandra Ziółkowska
    • Natalia Szynkiewicz
    • Łukasz Ponikiewski
    2022 Full text RSC Advances

    Three reactions of phosphanylphosphaalkene (1) with nucleophiles were performed to activate the diphosphorus monomer. We observed similar results in the reactions with MeLi and nBuLi, in which the P–P bond is cleavaged and triphosphorus systems [P(Me)2–CH(biph)–CH(biph)–P–(PtBu 2)]- (1a'') and [P(nBu)2–CH(biph)–CH(biph)–P–(PtBu 2)]- (1b''), respectively, are formed depending on the nucleophilic reagent (biph ¼ biphenyl). In the case of tBuLi, the P–P bond remains intact; on the phosphorus atom,only one -tBu group is substituted, and as a result, [(biph)(H)C–P(tBu)–PtBu2]- (1c) is generated as a stable carbanion. We additionally investigated the effect of substitution in the phenyl ring in the course of these reactions by involving two other phosphanylphosphaalkenes (3 and 4). All initial reactions were conducted in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution at ambient temperature.

  • Active Learning Based on Crowdsourced Data
    • Tomasz Boiński
    • Julian Szymański
    • Agata Krauzewicz
    2022 Full text Applied Sciences-Basel

    The paper proposes a crowdsourcing-based approach for annotated data acquisition and means to support Active Learning training approach. In the proposed solution, aimed at data engineers, the knowledge of the crowd serves as an oracle that is able to judge whether the given sample is informative or not. The proposed solution reduces the amount of work needed to annotate large sets of data. Furthermore, it allows a perpetual increase in the trained network quality by the inclusion of new samples, gathered after network deployment. The paper also discusses means of limiting network training times, especially in the post-deployment stage, where the size of the training set can increase dramatically. This is done by the introduction of the fourth set composed of samples gather during network actual usage.

  • Activity of Patents in Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Production in the Context of Passenger Car Fleet in the V4 Countries
    • Sylwia Pangsy-Kania
    • Aleksandra Romanowska
    • Katarzyna Wierzbicka
    • Katarzyna Kania
    2022 Full text Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric

    The hydrogen market in the world today is capable ovule and em-pirical evidence on activity of patents in fuel cells and hydrogen production islimited so far. Patent applications in zero-emission mobility in the aspect of fuelcells include: DAFC/DMFC&DMFC, PEMFC, SOFC, AFC, PAFC. As for thepatents relating to the hydrogen production, they concern low carbon, electrol-ysis and inorganic. The purpose of the study was to investigate certain aspectsof the activity of patents in fuel cells and hydrogen production in the context ofpassenger car fleet in the Visegrad group (V4) countries and to explore the rela-tionship between patent registrations and GDP per capita in V4. The researcharea relates to the answer to the question of whether a country’s involvementin zero-emission patent activity (patents in fuel cells and hydrogen production)could contribute to the renewal of the country’s passenger car fleet. The theseswere formulated as follows: 1) activity of patents in fuel cells and hydrogen pro-duction in the V4 countries doesn’t depend on the car fleet in these countries,2) the level of GDP per capita in the V4 countries is not followed by the numberof patents registrations in hydrogen technology, 3) the highest patent activityin fuel cells and hydrogen production doesn’t mean that the car fleet in thesecountry will be zero-emission in coming years. The method used in this article isa comparative analysis, but also the relationships between patent registrations,GDP per capita and passenger car fleet in V4 are considered

  • Actual field corrosion rate of offshore structures in the Baltic Sea along depth profile from water surface to sea bed
    • Juliusz Orlikowski
    • Michał Szociński
    • Krzysztof Żakowski
    • Piotr Igliński
    • Kinga Domańska
    • Kazimierz Darowicki
    2022 OCEAN ENGINEERING

    The paper presents the results of field electrochemical investigations on the corrosion rate of carbon steel in seawater of the Baltic Sea at the location of the Baltic Beta production rig. The measurements were conducted throughout the year in seawater at different depths from the sea surface to the sea bed (about 75 m). The results revealed corrosion aggressiveness of the seawater along the entire depth profile. There was no multiple decrease in the corrosion rate of carbon steel at deeper levels (below 15 m), which had been observed in the literature reporting the investigations in the seas and oceans of higher salinity (3.5%) than southern Baltic Sea (about 0.8%). A model for monitoring water physico-chemical parameters along a depth profile showed the presence of a substantial amount of oxygen far below the sea surface, which translated into high corrosion aggressiveness of the Baltic seawater. Throughout the year corrosion rate is higher than 0.8 mm/year at the sea surface and even 0.4 mm/year at the sea bed. Presented results can constitute a guideline for the design of the anticorrosion protection systems for offshore wind farms or oil and gas production platforms in the Baltic Sea region.

  • Adaptive Dynamical Systems Modelling of Transformational Organizational Change: with Focus on Organizational Culture and Organizational Learning
    • Lars Rass
    • Jan Treur
    • Wioleta Kucharska
    • Anna Monika Wiewiora
    2022

    Transformative Organizational Change becomes more and more significant both practically and academically, especially in the context of organizational culture and learning. However computational modeling and a formalization of organizational change and learning processes are still largely unexplored. This paper aims to provide an adaptive network model of transformative organizational change and translate a selection of organizational learning and change processes into computationally modeled processes. Additionally, it sets out to connect the dynamic systems view of organizations to self-modelling network models. The creation of the model and the implemented mechanisms of organizational processes are based on extrapolations of an extensive literature study and grounded in related work in this field, and then applied to a specified hospital-related case scenario in the context of safety culture. The model was evaluated by running several simulations and variations thereof. The results of these were investigated by qualitative analysis and comparison to expected emergent behaviour based on related available academic literature. The simulations performed confirmed the occurrence of an organizational transformational change towards a constant learning culture by offering repeated and effective learning and changes to organizational processes. Observations about various interplays and effects of the mechanism have been made, and they exposed that acceptance of mistakes as a part of learning culture facilitates transformational change and may foster sustainable change in the long run. . Further, the model confirmed that the self-modelling network model approach applies to a dynamic systems view of organizations and a systems perspective of organizational change. The created model offers the basis for the further creation of self-modelling network models within the field of transformative organizational change and the translated mechanisms of this model can further be extracted and reused in a forthcoming academic exploration of this field.

  • Adaptive identification of sparse underwater acoustic channels with a mix of static and time-varying parameters
    • Maciej Niedźwiecki
    • Artur Gańcza
    • Lu Shen
    • Yuriy Zakharov
    2022 Full text SIGNAL PROCESSING

    We consider identification of sparse linear systems with a mix of static and time-varying parameters. Such systems are typical in underwater acoustics (UWA), for instance, in applications requiring identi- fication of the acoustic channel, such as UWA communications, navigation and continuous-wave sonar. The recently proposed fast local basis function (fLBF) algorithm provides high performance when identi- fying time-varying systems. In this paper, we further improve the performance of the fLBF algorithm by exploiting properties of the system. Specifically, we propose an adaptive time-invariance test to identify whether a particular system tap is static or time-varying and exploit this knowledge for choosing the number of basis functions. We also propose a regularization scheme that exploits the system sparsity and an adaptive technique for estimating the regularization parameter. Finally, a debiasing technique is proposed to reduce an inherent bias of fLBF estimates. The high performance of the fLBF algorithm with the proposed techniques is demonstrated in scenarios of UWA communications, using numerical and real experiments.