Observational constraints on the nature of very short gamma-ray bursts

We discuss a very peculiar subgroup of gamma-ray bursts among the BATSE sources. These bursts are very short ($T_{90} \le$0.1 s), hard, and came predominantly from a restricted direction of the sky (close to the Galactic anti-center). We analyze their arrival times and possible correlations, as well as the profiles of individual bursts. We find no peculiarities in the arrival times of Very Short Bursts (VSBs) despite their highly non-uniform spatial distribution. There is no dependence in the burst shapes on location. Bursts coming both from the burst-enhancement Galactic Anticenter region and from all other directions show considerable dispersion in their rise and fall times. Significant fraction of VSBs have multiple peaks despite their extremely short duration. Burst time properties are most likely to be consistent with two origin mechanisms: either with binary NS-NS mergers with low total masses passing through a phase of hypermassive neutron star, or with evaporation of the primordial black holes in the scenario of no photosphere formation.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures; accepted to New Astronom

Ecological Life Cycle Assessment Modified Novolaks Waste Used in Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Ecological Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied in the assessment of the impact of products on the environment is a technique that allows for the evaluation of the environmental impact of polymeric flocculants used in industrial wastewater treatment. The possibility of conducting a full life cycle and thus manufacturing process analysis allows for reliable and accurate identification of the sources of environmental hazards and the impact of new products on the environment. Newly synthesized waste-based polymers are water soluble and possess the properties of flocculants, while reducing the parameters in industrial wastewater. In the paper, there are presented the results of the analysis conducted using LCA technique for the assessment of the impact of modified waste phenol formaldehyde resin (Novolak) on the environment. LCA technique was used to assess the impact of the new flocculant applied in the process of metallurgical wastewater treatment taking into account the environmental impact of the fl occulant manufacturing process

Building Information Modeling as Tool for Enhancing Disaster Resilience of the Construction Industry

As frequencies of the disasters are increasing, new technologies can be used to enhance disaster resilience performance of the construction industry. This paper investigates the usage of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in enhancing disaster resilience of the construction industry and in the establishment of the resilient built environment. In-depth literature review findings reveal BIM’s contribution to the disaster resilience in the pre-disaster and post-disaster phases especially through influencing the performance of the supply chain, construction process, and rescue operations. This paper emphasises the need for BIM’s integration to the education and training curriculums of the built environment professionals. Policy makers, construction professionals, professional bodies, academics can benefit from this research

Transmission Phase of a Quantum Dot with Kondo Correlation Near the Unitary Limit

The complex transmission amplitude -- both magnitude and phase -- of a quantum dot (QD) with Kondo correlation was measured near the unitary limit. Contrary to previous phase measurements, performed far from this limit [Ji et al., Science 290, 779 (2000)], the transmission phase was observed to evolve linearly over a range of about 1.5 pi when the Fermi energy was scanned through a Kondo pair -- a pair of spin degenerate energy levels. Moreover, the phase in Coulomb blockade (CB) peak, adjancent to the Kondo pair, retained a memory of the Kondo correlation and did not exhibit the familiar behavior in the CB regime. These results do not agree with theoretical predictions, suggesting that a full explanation may go beyond the framework of the Anderson model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Current Approaches of Occupational and Safety Health Management in Work Environments Containing Nanoparticles

The development of nanotechnology is particularly in recent years very dynamic and is applied in many not only technical branches. This is not possible to say about monitoring of possible health and environmental undesirable influence. The first area of possible risk assessment is work environment because there is a lot of possible ways to exposition. The aim of the paper is to analyze current situation in the field of occupational safety and health management in the workspace with occurrence of nanoparticles not only like the engineered nanomaterials. Because there is a lot of influence which could have the negative impact on the employee's healt

Hybrid methods based on empirical mode decomposition for non-invasive fetal heart rate monitoring

This study focuses on fetal electrocardiogram (fECG) processing using hybrid methods that combine two or more individual methods. Combinations of independent component analysis (ICA), wavelet transform (WT), recursive least squares (RLS), and empirical mode decomposition (EMD) were used to create the individual hybrid methods. Following four hybrid methods were compared and evaluated in this study: ICA-EMD, ICA-EMD-WT, EMD-WT, and ICA-RLS-EMD. The methods were tested on two databases, the ADFECGDB database and the PhysioNet Challenge 2013 database. Extraction evaluation is based on fetal heart rate (fHR) determination. Statistical evaluation is based on determination of correct detection (ACC), sensitivity (Se), positive predictive value (PPV), and harmonic mean between Se and PPV (F1). In this study, the best results were achieved by means of the ICA-RLS-EMD hybrid method, which achieved accuracy(ACC) > 80% at 9 out of 12 recordings when tested on the ADFECGDB database, reaching an average value of ACC > 84%, Se > 87%, PPV > 92%, and F1 > 90%. When tested on the Physionet Challenge 2013 database, ACC > 80% was achieved at 12 out of 25 recordings with an average value of ACC > 64%, Se > 69%, PPV > 79%, and F1 > 72%.Web of Science8512185120

Assurance of quality and the accessibility of public spaces under current legislation

This paper focuses on the issue of accessibility and the quality of public space, particularly its barrier - free use and relation to current Czech legislation. The legislative framework should help reshape theoretical knowledge and contemplations of this issue into live practice, which is met with varying success. Important factors in this field include the continuity of the legislative environment and specifics for the given region (primarily in the border regions where there is a collision of the "domestic" and "foreign" legal environments)

Grid Power Quality Enhancement Using Fuzzy Control-Based Shunt Active Filtering

Active filtering has proved efficient for the mitigation of harmonics in distribution grids. This paper deals with the design of fuzzy control strategies for a three-phase shunt active filter to enhance the power quality via the regulation of the DC bus voltage of the distribution network. The proposed control scheme is based on Interval Type 2 Fuzzy Logic controller. A simulation study is performed under Simulink/Matlab to evaluate the performance and robustness of the proposed control schemePeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio