Swój „Obcy”. Wewnętrzni uchodźcy w Gruzji

Strangers in their own country. Internally Displaced Persons After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia participated in the armed conflicts over South Ossetia (1991-1992 and 2008) and Abkhazia (1992-1993). As a consequence, Georgia had to accept forced displaced persons. The following thesis focuses on the Abkhazian conflict, its causes and effects. The thesis is based on the analysis of the specific situation of IDPs which has gone on since 1993. The thesis describes the living conditions and prospects of the group of Abkhazian Georgians who were displaced within the territory of their own country and became internally displaced persons

Zmiana zasad organizacji i funkcjonowania organów stanowiących jednostek samorządu terytorialnego – wzmacnianie czy osłabianie decentralizacji?

Autor dokonuje analizy i oceny zmiany zasad organizacji i funkcjonowania organów stanowiących jednostek samorządu terytorialnego wprowadzonych nowelizowaną ustawą z dnia 11.01.2018 r. o zmianie niektórych ustaw w celu zwiększenia udziału obywateli w procesie wybierania, funkcjonowania i kontrolowania niektórych organów publicznych (Dz.U. poz. 130)

Ubichip Virtual Machine and visualization of Spiking Neural Network Parameters

Since ages people have been wondering the inner workings of brain. There is more and more information about processes involving particular brain regions, yet synthesizing neural-networks in a large scale has always been a problem. Despite the fact that the popular desktop computer is becoming more powerful, simulating massively parallel computations aways proved to be a challenge. Due to its genericness, in very specialized work, such as neural networks, it is far better to design and use dedicated array of processors. Such approach has been used in development of the Ubichip – a device designed specifically for such purposes. The design goal was to simplify the execution elements to suit the needs of efficient neuron model algorithms emulation. As with every development cycle of a complex tool there are many tasks that may be carried out in parallel. This, of course, effects in allowing the development team to shorten the cycle and provide the solution faster. This however, requires a set of tools that will allow to prototype and verify work progress against some set of basic rules. The Ubichip was already supported by a toolkit named SpiNDeK, that allowed to create networks and with the use of ModelSim simulate the code. This solution for proof-checking the algorithms however proved to be cumbersome and due to many levels of indirection – slow. To increase efficiency when working with code, the programmer should not have to wait endlessly watching the progress bars. To remedy this, improve efficiency and encourage more precise tuning and development of new neuron-model algorithms the Ubichip Virtual Machine was born. At first it was just meant to be a simple visualization tool, but as it turned out there was a missing link in the chain of tools available for the Ubichip, which had to be filled. Thus, in this work a virtual machine for the Ubichip has been developed, as well as a visualization tool that enables a convenient display of the evolution of spiking neurons in a network.

Uavs path planning under a bi-objective optimization framework for smart cities

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used extensively for search and rescue operations, surveillance, disaster monitoring, attacking terrorists, etc. due to their growing advantages of low-cost, high maneuverability, and easy deployability. This study proposes a mixed-integer programming model under a multi-objective optimization framework to design trajectories that enable a set of UAVs to execute surveillance tasks. The first objective maximizes the cumulative probability of target detection to aim for mission planning success. The second objective ensures minimization of cumulative path length to provide a higher resource utilization goal. A two-step variable neighborhood search (VNS) algorithm is offered, which addresses the combinatorial optimization issue for determining the near-optimal sequence for cell visiting to reach the target. Numerical experiments and simulation results are evaluated in numerous benchmark instances. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach can favorably support practical deployability purposes

2-Meth­oxy-3-[(3,4,5-trimethoxy­anilino)methyl­idene]-3,4-dihydro-2H-1-benzopyran-4-one

The title mol­ecule, C20H21NO6, adopts a keto–amine tautomeric form. An intra­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bond, classified as a resonanse-assisted hydrogen bond, influences the mol­ecular conformation; the two benzene rings form a dihedral angle of 24.6 (1)°. In the crystal structure, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link mol­ecules into chains propagating along [001]

The molecular pattern of histopathological progression to anaplastic meningioma – A case report

Meningiomas (MGs) are the most frequent primary tumours of the central nervous system (CNS) and exhibit a large spectrum of histological types and clinical phenotypes. The WHO classification of CNS tumours established strict diagnostic criteria of the benign (Grade 1), atypical (Grade 2) and anaplastic (Grade 3) subtypes. Combined with the resection rate, WHO grading has the most crucial role as the prognostic factor. Additionally, such biomarkers as Ki-67/MIB-1, progesterone receptors and phosphor-histone H3 were correlated with MG progression. Recently, it was suggested that the aggressive behaviour of some MGs is attributed to molecular alterations, regardless of their histopathology. The analysis of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at chromosomes 1, 9, 10, 14 and 22 was performed. The presented case of WHO Grade 2 MG initially exhibited LOH at chromosomes 10, 14 and 22. In the first recurrence, the tumour genetic profiling revealed additional LOH at chromosome 1p and atypical histopathology. During the second recurrence, an aggressive phenotype was observed and tumour progressed to an anaplastic form. Considering the appearance of the tumour relapses, the set of molecular changes overtook the histopathological progression. The genetic and histopathological imbalance in the tumour progression in secondary anaplastic MGs has not been previously described. The evolution of genetic and histopathological changes was presented in the same patient. In the future, the individualised therapy of potentially more aggressive forms of MGs could be based on certain chromosome aberrations

Synthesis, structural characterization, antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects of aziridine, 2-aminoethylaziridine and azirine complexes of copper(II) and palladium(II).

The synthesis, spectroscopic and X-ray structural characterization of copper(II) and palladium(II) complexes with aziridine ligands as 2-dimethylaziridine HNCH2CMe2 (a), the bidentate N-(2-aminoethyl)aziridines C2H4NC2H4NH2 (b) or CH2CMe2NCH2CMe2NH2 (c) as well as the unsaturated azirine NCH2CPh (d) are reported. Cleavage of the cyclometallated Pd(II) dimer [μ-Cl(C6H4CHMeNMe2-C,N)Pd]2 with ligand a yielded compound [Cl(NHCH2CMe2)(C6H4CHMe2NMe2-C,N)Pd] (1a). The reaction of the aziridine complex trans-[Cl2Pd(HNC2H4)2] with an excess of aziridine in the presence of AgOTf gave the ionic chelate complex trans-[(C2H4NC2H4NH2-N,N′)2Pd](OTf)2 (2b) which contains the new ligand b formed by an unexpected insertion and ring opening reaction of two aziridines (“aziridine dimerization”). CuCl2 reacted in pure HNC2H4 or HNCH2CMe2 (b) again by “dimerization” to give the tris-chelated ionic complex [Cu(C2H4NC2H4NH2-N,N′)3]Cl2 (3b) or the bis-chelated complex [CuCl(C2H2Me2NC2H2Me2NH2-N,N′)2]Cl (4c). By addition of 2H-3-phenylazirine (d) to PdCl2, trans-[Cl2Pd(NCH2CPh)2] (5d) was formed. All new compounds were characterized by NMR, IR and mass spectra and also by X-ray structure analyses (except 3b). Additionally the cytotoxic effects of these complexes were examined on HL-60 and NALM-6 human leukemia cells and melanoma WM-115 cells. The antimicrobial activity was also determined. The growth of Gram-positive bacterial strains (S. aureus, S. epidermidis, E. faecalis) was inhibited by almost all tested complexes at the concentrations of 37.5–300.0 μg mL−1. However, MIC values of complexes obtained for Gram-negative E. coli and P. aeruginosa, as well as for C. albicans yeast, mostly exceeded 300 μg mL−1. The highest antibacterial activity was achieved by complexes 1a and 2b. Complex 2b also inhibited the growth of Gram-negative bacteria. Graphical abstract: Synthesis, structural characterization, antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects of aziridine, 2-aminoethylaziridine and azirine complexes of copper(ii) and palladium(ii