Predicting Presence of Amphibian Species Using Features Obtained from GIS and Satellite Images

The construction of transport infrastructure is often preceded by an environmental impact assessment procedure, which should identify amphibian breeding sites and migration routes. However, the assessment is very difficult to conduct because of the large number of habitats spread out over a vast expanse, and the limited amount of time available for fieldwork. We propose utilizing local environmental variables that can be gathered remotely using only GIS systems and satellite images together with machine learning methods. In this article, we introduce six new and easily extractable types of environmental features. Most of the features we propose can be easily obtained from satellite imagery and spatial development plans. The proposed feature space was evaluated using four machine learning algorithms, namely: a C4.5 decision tree, AdaBoost, random forest and gradient-boosted trees. The obtained results indicated that the proposed feature space facilitated prediction and was comparable to other solutions. Moreover, three of the new proposed features are ranked most important; these are the three dominant properties of the surroundings of water reservoirs. One of the new features is the percentage access from the edges of the reservoir to open areas, but it affects only a few species. Furthermore, our research confirmed that the gradient-boosted trees were the best method for the analyzed dataset

ZnSe/GaAs(001) heterostructures with defected interfaces: structural, thermodynamic and electronic properties

We have performed accurate \emph{ab--initio} pseudopotential calculations for the structural and electronic properties of ZnSe/GaAs(001) heterostructures with interface configurations accounting for charge neutrality prescriptions. Beside the simplest configurations with atomic interdiffusion we consider also some configurations characterized by As depletion and cation vacancies, motivated by the recent successfull growth of ZnSe/GaAs pseudomorphic structures with minimum stacking fault density characterized by the presence of a defected (Zn,Ga)Se alloy in the interface region. We find that--under particular thermodynamic conditions--some defected configurations are favoured with respect to undefected ones with simple anion or cation mixing, and that the calculated band offsets for some defected structures are compatible with those measured. Although it is not possible to extract indications about the precise interface composition and vacancy concentration, our results support the experimental indication of (Zn,Ga)Se defected compounds in high-quality ZnSe/GaAs(001) heterojunctions with low native stacking fault density. The range of measured band offset suggests that different atoms at interfaces rearrange, with possible presence of vacancies, in such a way that not only local charges but also ionic dipoles are vanishing.Comment: 26 pages. 5 figures, revised version, in press (Physical Review B

Band gap bowing of binary alloys: Experimental results compared to theoretical tight-binding supercell calculations for CdZnSe

Compound semiconductor alloys of the type ABC find widespread applications as their electronic bulk band gap varies continuously with x, and therefore a tayloring of the energy gap is possible by variation of the concentration. We model the electronic properties of such semiconductor alloys by a multiband tight-binding model on a finite ensemble of supercells and determine the band gap of the alloy. This treatment allows for an intrinsic reproduction of band bowing effects as a function of the concentration x and is exact in the alloy-induced disorder. In the present paper, we concentrate on bulk CdZnSe as a well-defined model system and give a careful analysis on the proper choice of the basis set and supercell size, as well as on the necessary number of realizations. The results are compared to experimental results obtained from ellipsometric measurements of CdZnSe layers prepared by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements on catalytically grown CdZnSe nanowires reported in the literature.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Wiktymologiczny obraz handlu ludźmi i niewolnictwa na tle prawa międzynarodowego i polskiego prawa karnego

W myśl klasyfikacji przedstawionej przez E.A. Fataha, ofiary handlu ludźmi będą przede wszystkim victims participating (ofiarami uczestniczącymi). Jest to zresztą kategoria, która w wiktymologii odegrała szczególną rolę. Uczestnictwo ofiary w przestępstwie handlu ludźmi, ze względu na (niejednokrotnie) wyrażenie przez nią zgody, ma specyficzny charakter. Trafniejsza zatem wydaje się typologia S. Schafera, zgodnie z którą ofiary handlu ludźmi należałoby zaliczyć do ofiar słabych społecznie. Być może faktycznie zwykle nie są uważane za pełnoprawnych członków społeczeństwa i z tego powodu odpowiedzialność za ich wiktymizację powinna być dzielona między przestępcę i społeczeństwo/państwo, które sankcjonuje uprzedzenia wobec nich[...

Machine-learning methods in the classification of water bodies

Amphibian species have been considered as useful ecological indicators. They are used as indicators of environmental contamination, ecosystem health and habitat quality., Amphibian species are sensitive to changes in the aquatic environment and therefore, may form the basis for the classification of water bodies. Water bodies in which there are a large number of amphibian species are especially valuable even if they are located in urban areas. The automation of the classification process allows for a faster evaluation of the presence of amphibian species in the water bodies. Three machine-learning methods (artificial neural networks, decision trees and the k-nearest neighbours algorithm) have been used to classify water bodies in Chorzów – one of 19 cities in the Upper Silesia Agglomeration. In this case, classification is a supervised data mining method consisting of several stages such as building the model, the testing phase and the prediction. Seven natural and anthropogenic features of water bodies (e.g. the type of water body, aquatic plants, the purpose of the water body (destination), position of the water body in relation to any possible buildings, condition of the water body, the degree of littering, the shore type and fishing activities) have been taken into account in the classification. The data set used in this study involved information about 71 different water bodies and 9 amphibian species living in them. The results showed that the best average classification accuracy was obtained with the multilayer perceptron neural network

Thermoelectric enhancement in PbTe with K, Na co-doping from tuning the interaction of the light and heavy hole valence bands

The effect of K and K-Na substitution for Pb atoms in the rock salt lattice of PbTe was investigated to test a hypothesis for development of resonant states in the valence band that may enhance the thermoelectric power. We combined high temperature Hall-effect, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity measurements to show that K-Na co-doping do not form resonance states but2 can control the energy difference of the maxima of the two primary valence sub-bands in PbTe. This leads to an enhanced interband interaction with rising temperature and a significant rise in the thermoelectric figure of merit of p-type PbTe. The experimental data can be explained by a combination of a single and two-band model for the valence band of PbTe depending on hole density that varies in the range of 1-15 x 10^19 cm^-3.Comment: 8 figure

T(x) phase diagram of the CuSbS2–CuInS2 system and solubility limit of Sb in CuInS2.

The starting ternary compounds CuInS2 and CuSbS2 and alloys of the CuSbS2–CuInS2 system with the molar fractions of CuInS2 (x) equal to 0.05, 0.15, 0.25, 0.375, 0.50, 0.625, 0.75, 0.85, and 0.95 were prepared and the phase relations in this system were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and differential thermal analysis. It was shown that the T–x phase diagram of the CuInS2–CuSbS2 system has a eutectic character with the eutectic temperature of 807 K. The alloys of the CuSbS2–CuInS2 system with the molar fraction of CuInS2 in the range from 0.038 to 0.941 at room temperatureare two-phased, and the limits of solu-bility are 0.059 molar fractions for CuSbS2 in CuInS2 and 0.038 molar fractions for CuInS2 in CuSbS2

Mediacje karne w opiniach stron postępowania oraz sędziów i prokuratorów – wyniki badań ankietowych. Część I

Artykuł stanowi prezentację wyników rozbudowanych badań dotyczących opinii stron postępowania, sędziów i prokuratorów na temat mediacji w sprawach karnych

Mediacje karne w opiniach stron postępowania oraz sędziów i prokuratorów – wyniki badań ankietowych. Część II: Opinie skazanych oraz sędziów i prokuratorów

Artykuł stanowi drugą część opracowania prezentującego wyniki badań opinii stron postępowania, sędziów i prokuratorów na temat mediacji w sprawach karnych