Recent Labour Market Trends in the Visegrad Group Countries

The large declines in the Slovak and Czech employment appeared because the countries' GDPs grew smaller while real wages grew bigger. Shorter working hours and limitations on labour productivity that the two countries introduced could not reverse the unfavourable employment trends that occurred during economic downturn.Duże spadki zatrudnienia w Słowacji i Czechach były związane ze słabym wzrostem PKB i silnym wzrostem płac realnych. Redukcje czasu pracy i wydajności pracy nie były w stanie odwrócić niekorzystnych tendencji w zatrudnieniu

Featured Snippets Results in Google Web Search: An Exploratory Study

In this paper authors analyzed 163412 keywords and results with featured snippets collected from localized Polish Google search engine. A method-ology for retrieving data from Google search engine was proposed in terms of obtaining necessary data to study featured snippets. It was observed that almost half of featured snippets (48%) is taken from result on first ranking position. Furthermore, some correlations between prepositions and the most often appearing content words in keywords was discovered. Results show that featured snippets are often taken from trustworthy websites like e.g., Wikipedia and are mainly presented in form of a paragraph. Paragraph can be read by Google Assistant or Home Assistant with voice search. We conclude our findings with discussion and research limitations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 tables, accepted to conference ICMarktech'1

Beam profile investigation of the new collimator system for the J-PET detector

Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is a multi-purpose detector which will be used for search for discrete symmetries violations in the decays of positronium atoms and for investigations with positronium atoms in life-sciences and medical diagnostics. In this article we present three methods for determination of the beam profile of collimated annihilation gamma quanta. Precise monitoring of this profile is essential for time and energy calibration of the J-PET detector and for the determination of the library of model signals used in the hit-time and hit-position reconstruction. We have we have shown that usage of two lead bricks with dimensions of 5x10x20 cm^3 enables to form a beam of annihilation quanta with Gaussian profile characterized by 1 mm FWHM. Determination of this characteristic is essential for designing and construction the collimator system for the 24-module J-PET prototype. Simulations of the beam profile for different collimator dimensions were performed. This allowed us to choose optimal collimation system in terms of the beam profile parameters, dimensions and weight of the collimator taking into account the design of the 24 module J-PET detector.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Topological effects in the thermal properties of knotted polymer rings

The topological effects on the thermal properties of several knot configurations are investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. In order to check if the topology of the knots is preserved during the thermal fluctuations we propose a method that allows very fast calculations and can be easily applied to arbitrarily complex knots. As an application, the specific energy and heat capacity of the trefoil, the figure-eight and the $8_1$ knots are calculated at different temperatures and for different lengths. Short-range repulsive interactions between the monomers are assumed. The knots configurations are generated on a three-dimensional cubic lattice and sampled by means of the Wang-Landau algorithm and of the pivot method. The obtained results show that the topological effects play a key role for short-length polymers. Three temperature regimes of the growth rate of the internal energy of the system are distinguished.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figures, LaTeX + RevTeX. With respect to the first version, in the second version the text has been improved and all figures are now in black and whit

Analysis framework for the J-PET scanner

J-PET analysis framework is a flexible, lightweight, ROOT-based software package which provides the tools to develop reconstruction and calibration procedures for PET tomography. In this article we present the implementation of the full data-processing chain in the J-PET framework which is used for the data analysis of the J-PET tomography scanner. The Framework incorporates automated handling of PET setup parameters' database as well as high level tools for building data reconstruction procedures. Each of these components is briefly discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Processing optimization with parallel computing for the J-PET tomography scanner

The Jagiellonian-PET (J-PET) collaboration is developing a prototype TOF-PET detector based on long polymer scintillators. This novel approach exploits the excellent time properties of the plastic scintillators, which permit very precise time measurements. The very fast, FPGA-based front-end electronics and the data acquisition system, as well as, low- and high-level reconstruction algorithms were specially developed to be used with the J-PET scanner. The TOF-PET data processing and reconstruction are time and resource demanding operations, especially in case of a large acceptance detector, which works in triggerless data acquisition mode. In this article, we discuss the parallel computing methods applied to optimize the data processing for the J-PET detector. We begin with general concepts of parallel computing and then we discuss several applications of those techniques in the J-PET data processing.Comment: 8 page

Searches for discrete symmetries violation in ortho-positronium decay using the J-PET detector

In this paper we present prospects for using the J-PET detector to search for discrete symmetries violations in a purely leptonic system of the positronium atom. We discuss tests of CP and CPT symmetries by means of ortho-positronium decays into three photons. No zero expectation values for chosen correlations between ortho-positronium spin and momentum vectors of photons would imply the existence of physics phenomena beyond the Standard Model. Previous measurements resulted in violation amplitude parameters for CP and CPT symmetries consistent with zero, with an uncertainty of about 10-3. The J-PET detector allows to determine those values with better precision thanks to a unique time and angular esolution combined with a high geometrical acceptance. Achieving the aforementioned is possible due to application of polymer scintillators instead of crystals as detectors of annihilation quanta.Comment: in Nukleonika 201

Studies of unicellular micro-organisms Saccharomyces cerevisiae by means of Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy

Results of Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) and microscopic studies on simple microorganisms: brewing yeasts are presented. Lifetime of ortho - positronium (o-Ps) were found to change from 2.4 to 2.9 ns (longer lived component) for lyophilised and aqueous yeasts, respectively. Also hygroscopicity of yeasts in time was examined, allowing to check how water - the main component of the cell - affects PALS parameters, thus lifetime of o-Ps were found to change from 1.2 to 1.4 ns (shorter lived component) for the dried yeasts. The time sufficient to hydrate the cells was found below 10 hours. In the presence of liquid water an indication of reorganization of yeast in the molecular scale was observed. Microscopic images of the lyophilised, dried and wet yeasts with best possible resolution were obtained using Inverted Microscopy (IM) and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) methods. As a result visible changes to the surface of the cell membrane were observed in ESEM images.Comment: Nukleonika (2015

Trilateration-based reconstruction of ortho-positronium decays into three photons with the J-PET detector

This work reports on a new reconstruction algorithm allowing to reconstruct the decays of ortho-positronium atoms into three photons using the places and times of photons recorded in the detector. The method is based on trilateration and allows for a simultaneous reconstruction of both location and time of the decay. Results of resolution tests of the new reconstruction in the J-PET detector based on Monte Carlo simulations are presented, which yield a spatial resolution at the level of 2 cm (FWHM) for X and Y and at the level of 1 cm (FWHM) for Z available with the present resolution of J-PET after application of a kinematic fit. Prospects of employment of this method for studying angular correlations of photons in decays of polarized ortho-positronia for the needs of tests of CP and CPT discrete symmetries are also discussed. The new reconstruction method allows for discrimination of background from random three-photon coincidences as well as for application of a novel method for determination of the linear polarization of ortho-positronium atoms, which is also introduced in this work.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Nuclear Instrumentation and Methods in Physics Research

Calculation of time resolution of the J-PET tomograph using the Kernel Density Estimation

In this paper we estimate the time resolution of the J-PET scanner built from plastic scintillators. We incorporate the method of signal processing using the Tikhonov regularization framework and the Kernel Density Estimation method. We obtain simple, closed-form analytical formulas for time resolutions. The proposed method is validated using signals registered by means of the single detection unit of the J-PET tomograph built out from 30 cm long plastic scintillator strip. It is shown that the experimental and theoretical results, obtained for the J-PET scanner equipped with vacuum tube photomultipliers, are consistent.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure