Arsenic, antimony and selenium belong to toxic contaminants with high environmental risk. In contrast to metal cationic contaminants (Be, Zn, Cd, Hg Pb, etc.) the metalloids and nonmetals of groups 5 and 6 of periodic system generally form the oxyanions in two oxidizing states (i.e. arsenates and arsenites, antimonates and antimonites, as well as selenates and selenites) in dependence on redox potential and pH value. It is well known that above mentioned oxyanions have a strong adsorption affinity to hydrated oxides and/or oxides hydroxides of Fe, Al and Mn, preferably Fe forming stable surface complexes. In fact, commercially produced Fe oxides-based sorbents are too expensive for strongly contaminated aqueous systems. Aluminosilicates have opened new possibilities in sorption technology due to favourable surface properties, availability, environmental and economical reasons, but they are not selective sorbents of anionic contaminants thanks to a low pHZPC. A simple Fe/Al/Mn pre-treatment of raw aluminosilicates can significantly improve their sorption affinity to oxyanionic contaminants, including arsenites and arsenates, selenites and selenates and antimonites and antimonates, respectively. Different types of natural and/or second-rate clays (metakaolines with the large content of Fe, raw bentonites and natural clinoptilolite-rich tuff, ) from Central European localities were used for FeII, FeIII, AlIII and MnII pre-treatment., Barbora Doušová, Lucie Fuitová, Lenka Herzogová, Tomáš Grygar, David Koloušek and Vladimír Machovič., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Air transportation between Europe and the U.S. is becoming more and more significant. It can only hardly be replaced by other means of transportation, since its biggest advantages include speed and reliability. Air transportation forecasting is important for planning the development of airports and related infrastructure, and of course also for air carriers. Therefore, it is important to forecast the number of flights between selected airports in Europe and the U.S. and the number of transported persons. A gravity model is usually used for this forecasting. Determination of coefficients which significantly affect results of the formulas used in the gravity model is crucial. Coefficients are, as a rule, computed by an iterative algorithm implementing the gradient method. This technique has some limitations if the state space is inappropriate. Moreover, the exponent parameter in the formula is obviously fixed. We have chosen the new method of differential evolution to determine the gravity model coefficient. Differential evolution works with populations similarly to other evolution algorithms. It is suitable for solving complex numerical problems. The suggested methodology can be helpful for various airlines to forecast demand and plan new long-haul routes.
Point estimators based on minimization of information-theoretic divergences between empirical and hypothetical distribution induce a problem when working with continuous families which are measure-theoretically orthogonal with the family of empirical distributions. In this case, the ϕ-divergence is always equal to its upper bound, and the minimum ϕ-divergence estimates are trivial. Broniatowski and Vajda \cite{IV09} proposed several modifications of the minimum divergence rule to provide a solution to the above mentioned problem. We examine these new estimation methods with respect to consistency, robustness and efficiency through an extended simulation study. We focus on the well-known family of power divergences parametrized by α∈R in the Gaussian model, and we perform a comparative computer simulation for several randomly selected contaminated and uncontaminated data sets, different sample sizes and different ϕ-divergence parameters.
Mediální dialog ztrácí některé rysy přirozeného dialogu tváří v tvář, který leží v jeho půdorysu, a získává rysy další, neboť komunikace tu přestupuje přes hranice primární řečové situace. Televizní dialog je dialog veřejný, který se vede před diváckým publikem a pro toto publikum. Divák je nejen svědkem, ale pravým cílem, k němuž je dialog směrován. Stať analyzuje komunikační situaci, při níž jsou ve studiu přítomni redaktor a dva hosté, představitelé různých profesí a názorových proudů (ekonom a ekoložka) i různých stanovisek k určité otázce (globalizace). Redaktor se obrací s otázkami střídavě k oběma. aby je vzájemně konfrontoval a spor vyhrotil. Dotazovaní hosté se snaží nejen odpovídat na otázky redaktora (to je jejich základní role v interview), ale i zpochybňovat či přímo vyvracet odpovědi druhého z hostí (role často neméně důležitá). Hosté komunikují nejen s redaktorem, ale komunikují i mezi sebou navzájem, ať už skrytě, či zjevně, s cílem získat diváka na svou stranu. Stať analyzuje toto interview v souvislosti s otázkou typologie debat a debat založených na konfliktu zájmů a konfliktu hodnot.
Cieľom kohortového kontrolovaného experimentu bolo preukázať vplyv biofeedbackovej metodiky (HRV biofeedback) na anxietu, depresiu, nezameranú hostilitu, časovú tieseň, vnímanie stresu, vnímanie sociálnej opory, kvalitu života a variabilitu srdcovej frekvencie (HRV). Zrovnocenený súbor (N = 66) bol získaný štatistickým vyvážením skupín pacientov absolvujúcich kúpeľnú liečbu podľa veku, pohlavia, society, farmakoterapie, kardiorehabilitačných procedúr a časového obdobia absolvovania kúpeľnej liečby po konzultácii s lekárom. Experimentálnej skupine (N = 39) bola poskytnutá štandardná kardiorehabilitácia a HRV biofeedback. Kontrolnej skupine (N = 27) sa poskytla len štandardná liečebná kardiorehabilitácia. Výsledky boli spracované parametrickou štatistikou s možnosťou zrovnocenenia vstupných údajov merania, analýzu kovariancie a viacnásobnou hierarchickou regresnou analýzou. Preukázal sa signifikantne pozitívny vplyv absolvovania HRV biofeedbacku na všetky sledované biopsychosociálne oblasti osobnosti pacientov. Pozitívny efekt sa potvrdil aj zmenami HRV v sede, v stoji, v ľahu, ale predovšetkým pri mentálnej záťaži. Dosiahnuté výsledky podnietili implementáciu tejto metódy do štandardných kardiorehabilitačných intervencií FNsP L. Pasteura v Košiciach.
We show that dynamical systems in inverse problems are sometimes foliated if the embedding dimension is greater than the dimension of the manifold on which the system resides. Under this condition, we end up reaching different leaves of the foliation if we start from different initial conditions. For some of these cases we have found a method by which we can asymptotically guide the system to a specific leaf even if we start from an initial condition which corresponds to some other leaf. We demonstrate the method by two examples. In the chosen cases of the harmonic oscillator and Duffing's oscillator we find an alternative set of equations which represent a collapsed foliation, such that no matter what initial conditions we choose, the system would asymptotically reach the same desired sub-manifold of the original system. This process can lead to cases for which a system begins in a chaotic region, but is guided to a periodic region and vice versa. It may also happen that we could move from an orbit of one period to an orbit of another period.
Extendecl Classifier Systems, or XCS, are a soft-computing approach to machine learning in rule-based Systems. While XCS has been shown effective in learnirig accurate, compact and complete mappnigs of an environmenťs payoff landscape, it can require significant resources to do so. This paper presents four modifications that allow XCS to achieve high performance even in highly size-constrained populations. By modifying (1) the genetic algorithm trigger function, (2) the classifier deletion-selection mechanism, (3) the genetic algorithm selection function, and (4) the frequency of classifier parameter updates, the modified system uses the available population resources more efficiently. Ex{)erimental results demonstrate the irnprovement in performance achievcd with the proposed modifications in both the single-step 6-Multiplexer problem and the niulti-step Woods-2 problem.
This study evaluates MODIS snow cover characteristics for large number of snowmelt runoff events in 145 catchments from 9 countries in Europe. The analysis is based on open discharge daily time series from the Global Runoff Data Center database and daily MODIS snow cover data. Runoff events are identified by a base flow separation approach. The MODIS snow cover characteristics are derived from Terra 500 m observations (MOD10A1 dataset, V005) in the period 2000–2015 and include snow cover area, cloud coverage, regional snowline elevation (RSLE) and its changes during the snowmelt runoff events. The snowmelt events are identified by using estimated RSLE changes during a runoff event. The results indicate that in the majority of catchments there are between 3 and 6 snowmelt runoff events per year. The mean duration between the start and peak of snowmelt runoff events is about 3 days and the proportion of snowmelt events in all runoff events tends to increase with the maximum elevation of catchments. Clouds limit the estimation of snow cover area and RSLE, particularly for dates of runoff peaks. In most of the catchments, the median of cloud coverage during runoff peaks is larger than 80%. The mean minimum RSLE, which represents the conditions at the beginning of snowmelt events, is situated approximately at the mean catchment elevation. It means that snowmelt events do not start only during maximum snow cover conditions, but also after this maximum. The mean RSLE during snowmelt peaks is on average 170 m lower than at the start of the snowmelt events, but there is a large regional variability.
Flooding remains the most widely distributed natural hazard in Europe, leading to significant economic and social impact. Earth observation data is presently capable of making fundamental contributions towards reducing the detrimental effects of extreme floods. Technological advance makes development of online services able to process high volumes of satellite data without the need of dedicated desktop software licenses possible. The main objective of the case study is to present and evaluate a methodology for mapping of flooded areas based on MODIS satellite images derived indices and using state-of-the-art geospatial web services. The methodology and the developed platform were tested with data for the historical flood event that affected the Danube floodplain in 2006 in Romania. The results proved that, despite the relative coarse resolution, MODIS data is very useful for mapping the development flooded area in large plain floods. Moreover it was shown, that the possibility to adapt and combine the existing global algorithms for flood detection to fit the local conditions is extremely important to obtain accurate results.