Transformation of Forest Vegetation After 40 Years of Protection in the Tomczyce Nature Reserve (Central Poland)

The Tomczyce nature reserve is characterized by a degenerated forest vegetation. We assume that the regeneration process was possible to launch after the establishment of the nature reserve in 1968. The vegetation of the Tomczyce forest complex was characterized for the first time by Jakubowska-Gabara (1976) whose studies were taken as a basis of our research. The phytocenoses after 40. years of protection have a greater participation of species with higher trophic and moisture requirements. The regeneration process in communities with pine trees is caused by an expansion of broad-leaved trees and shrubs. Transformation of forest vegetation causes a decrease in cover of thermophilous and heliophilous species. On the other hand, species of oak-hornbeam forests as well as anthropophytes are in expansion. Planning of the protection activities in the nature reserve needs to include these dynamic tendencies of the vegetation

Contact angle of sessile drops in Lennard-Jones systems

Molecular dynamics simulation is used for studying the contact angle of nanoscale sessile drops on a planar solid wall in a system interacting via the truncated and shifted Lennard-Jones potential. The entire range between total wetting and dewetting is investigated by varying the solid--fluid dispersive interaction energy. The temperature is varied between the triple point and the critical temperature. A correlation is obtained for the contact angle in dependence of the temperature and the dispersive interaction energy. Size effects are studied by varying the number of fluid particles at otherwise constant conditions, using up to 150 000 particles. For particle numbers below 10 000, a decrease of the contact angle is found. This is attributed to a dependence of the solid-liquid surface tension on the droplet size. A convergence to a constant contact angle is observed for larger system sizes. The influence of the wall model is studied by varying the density of the wall. The effective solid-fluid dispersive interaction energy at a contact angle of 90 degrees is found to be independent of temperature and to decrease linearly with the solid density. A correlation is developed which describes the contact angle as a function of the dispersive interaction, the temperature and the solid density. The density profile of the sessile drop and the surrounding vapor phase is described by a correlation combining a sigmoidal function and an oscillation term

New proof-of-concept in viral inactivation: virucidal efficacy of 405 nm light against feline calicivirus as a model for norovirus decontamination

The requirement for novel decontamination technologies for use in hospitals is ever present. One such system uses 405 nm visible light to inactivate microorganisms via ROS-generated oxidative damage. Although effective for bacterial and fungal inactivation, little is known about the virucidal effects of 405 nm light. Norovirus (NoV) gastroenteritis outbreaks often occur in the clinical setting, and this study was designed to investigate potential inactivation effects of 405 nm light on the NoV surrogate, feline calicivirus (FCV). FCV was exposed to 405 nm light whilst suspended in minimal and organically-rich media to establish the virucidal efficacy and the effect biologically-relevant material may play in viral susceptibility. Antiviral activity was successfully demonstrated with a 4 Log10 (99.99%) reduction in infectivity when suspended in minimal media evident after a dose of 2.8 kJ cm−2. FCV exposed in artificial faeces, artificial saliva, blood plasma and other organically rich media exhibited an equivalent level of inactivation using between 50–85% less dose of the light, indicating enhanced inactivation when the virus is present in organically-rich biologically-relevant media. Further research in this area could aid in the development of 405 nm light technology for effective NoV decontamination within the hospital environment

Wall-liquid and wall-crystal interfacial free energies via thermodynamic integration: A molecular dynamics simulation study

A method is proposed to compute the interfacial free energy of a Lennard-Jones system in contact with a structured wall by molecular dynamics simulation. Both the bulk liquid and bulk face-centered-cubic crystal phase along the (111) orientation are considered. Our approach is based on a thermodynamic integration scheme where first the bulk Lennard-Jones system is reversibly transformed to a state where it interacts with a structureless flat wall. In a second step, the flat structureless wall is reversibly transformed into an atomistic wall with crystalline structure. The dependence of the interfacial free energy on various parameters such as the wall potential, the density and orientation of the wall is investigated. The conditions are indicated under which a Lennard-Jones crystal partially wets a flat wall.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure

The Effects of Private Self-Consciousness and Perspective Taking on Satisfaction in Close Relationships.

131 heterosexual student couples, aged 17–32 yrs, 30 of whom were married or engaged answered questions concerning themselves and their relationships. It was predicted that individual differences in private self-consciousness would be positively related to relationship satisfaction because of the greater self-disclosure resulting from that heightened self-attention. It was further predicted that individual differences in perspective taking would foster relationship satisfaction, independent of any influence of self-disclosure. Both expectations were confirmed. Scores on the private self-consciousness scale were predictive of reported self-disclosure, and self-disclosure was predictive of satisfaction in the relationship. Once the influence of self-disclosure was removed, no effect of self-consciousness on satisfaction remained. In contrast, after disclosure was controlled, perspective-taking scores were significantly related to satisfaction and were in fact unrelated to disclosure at all. Findings indicate that 2 personality characteristics having to do with habitual attention to behavioral tendencies, emotions, and motivations significantly enhance the quality of close heterosexual relationships in different ways

An analytic multi-currency model with stochastic volatility and stochastic interest rates

We introduce a tractable multi-currency model with stochastic volatility and correlated stochastic interest rates that takes into account the smile in the FX market and the evolution of yield curves. The pricing of vanilla options on FX rates can be performed effciently through the FFT methodology thanks to the affinity of the model Our framework is also able to describe many non trivial links between FX rates and interest rates: a second calibration exercise highlights the ability of the model to fit simultaneously FX implied volatilities while being coherent with interest rate products

The [4+2]‐Cycloaddition of α‐Nitrosoalkenes with Thiochalcones as a Prototype of Periselective Hetero‐Diels–Alder Reactions—Experimental and Computational Studies

The [4+2]‐cycloadditions of α‐nitrosoalkenes with thiochalcones occur with high selectivity at the thioketone moiety of the dienophile providing styryl‐substituted 4H‐1,5,2‐oxathiazines in moderate to good yields. Of the eight conceivable hetero‐Diels–Alder adducts only this isomer was observed, thus a prototype of a highly periselective and regioselective cycloaddition has been identified. Analysis of crude product mixtures revealed that the α‐nitrosoalkene also adds competitively to the thioketone moiety of the thiochalcone dimer affording bis‐heterocyclic [4+2]‐cycloadducts. The experiments are supported by high‐level DFT calculations that were also extended to related hetero‐Diels–Alder reactions of other nitroso compounds and thioketones. These calculations reveal that the title cycloadditions are kinetically controlled processes confirming the role of thioketones as superdienophiles. The computational study was also applied to the experimentally studied thiochalcone dimerization, and showed that the 1,2‐dithiin and 2H‐thiopyran isomers are in equilibrium with the monomer. Again, the DFT calculations indicate kinetic control of this process

Structure of Demographic Types of Small Towns in Poland Spatial and Temporal Approach

The aim of this paper is to determine changes in the structure of demographic types of small towns in Poland between 2004 and 2013. It is assumed in the paper, following the Central Statistical Office of Poland, that small towns are urban settlements having less than 20,000 inhabitants. The time period covered in this study is the time of Poland’s accession to the EU, which brought reduction of many barriers on the labour market and in migration movement. Demographic types of small towns were determined using Webb’s typology. Natural increase and migration indicators constitute its base. It was found that the share of towns of progressive character decreased and the share of those of regressive character increased in the analyzed period. A negative migration balance had the greatest effect on the number of inhabitants of the analyzed settlement units. The described demographic changes in small towns in Poland were connected with the second stage of demographic transition

Characteristic function pricing with the Heston-LIBOR hybrid model

We derive an approximate characteristic function for a simplified version of the Heston-LIBOR model, which assumes a constant instantaneous volatility structure in the underlying LIBOR market model. We also implement measures to improve the numerical stability of the characteristic function derived in this dissertation as well as the one derived by Grzelak and Oosterlee. The ultimate aim of the dissertation is to prevent these characteristic functions from exploding for given parameter values