EXAMINING SIMILARITIES IN TIME ALLOCATION AMONGST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The aim of the article is to analyse the similarities between the selected European countries in terms of time allocation. Time allocation has been defined as the daily distribution of time to various activities. Professional work time, domestic work time and leisure time are the most important for the economic approach. It has been proved that there are coherent groups of countries with similar structure of time allocation. The taxonomic methods used in order to verify the thesis included: cluster analysis, k-means method, generalised distance measure GDM and interval taxonomic method TMI. The analysis was performed on the basis of HETUS data

IS POLAND BECOMING NORDIC? CHANGING TRENDS IN HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURES IN POLAND AND FINLAND WITH THE EMPHASIS ON PEOPLE LIVING ALONE

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the household structure and its dynamics between post-economic-transformation Poland and Scandinavian-welfare-state Finland, with a focus on one-person households (OPH). Based on the literature, two research hypotheses were formulated: (H1) strong differences in the household structure in Finland and Poland still occur, and (H2) the share of one-person households is at very different levels in the two countries. However, due to the globally growing popularity of solo living, the difference is diminishing. Finally, an estimate was made for the time when the shares of one-person households will be equal in both countries if the changing trends from 2005–2015 stay the same. The first research hypothesis was proven to be correct. Small, one- or two-person households dominate the household structure in Finland, while in Poland the household structure by size was considerably more balanced. The second hypothesis was confirmed only partially. The share of OPH among all the households in 2015 was significantly larger in Finland (42%) than in Poland (24%). However, the difference between the countries was not diminishing. The share in Finland is increasing, while it is decreasing in Poland. This allowed the assumption that if the changing trends from the studied period are maintained, the shares of OPH in the two countries will not equalize, but will instead grow further apart. An estimate was made that in 2030 46% of Finnish households and 22% of Polish households will be one-person households.Peer reviewe

Oxidation and Release of Ruthenium from White Inclusions

In this paper the laboratory test results on oxidation and release of ruthenium as a fission product element are summarised. The ruthenium appears in the nuclear fuel pellets of pressurized water reactors as one of the fission product elements during burnup. In case of severe accident when the air can contact the degraded hot fuel, the ruthenium oxidises and its gaseous oxides, especially the RuO4, release rapidly from the pellets to the environment. Because of high radio- and chemotoxicity of ruthenium tetra-oxide further experimental study of oxidation and release is essential. It is well known that ruthenium in the irradiated fuel UO2 fuel appears in small metallic alloy precipitations together with fission product elements as Mo, Rh, Pd and Tc. The precipitations are seen in the metallographic pictures as white inclusions. This separate effect study focused on the differences in the release rate of gaseous ruthenium oxides when pure ruthenium or Mo-Ru-Rh-Pd metallic alloy is present in the simulated nuclear fuel. The oxidation and release were studied at constant reaction temperatures of 1000 or 1100 Celsius. The tests showed that during high-temperature oxidation of the Mo-Ru-Rh-Pd alloy in air flow the release rate of gaseous ruthenium oxides is reduced to 60-80% compared to the value measured in case of oxidation of pure metallic ruthenium powder in the same thermal-hydraulic conditions. Furthermore, if additional elements and chemical compounds representing other fission products were added in the alloy, a time delay of 30 to 60 min appeared in the release of gaseous ruthenium to the room-temperature environment. One of the main results was that in the outlet air flow reaching the environment the partial pressure of RuO4 was far above what could be expected for room-temperature equilibrium conditions. It was pointed out that the highly volatile RuO4 can decompose in solid, non-volatile RuO2 and O2. The X-ray fluorescence analysis results showed that some ruthenium compounds deposited on the colder circuit walls of the test facility. This suggests RuO4 is not fully airstable, i.e., its stability in air can be limited in time.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet

Where are the Polish Sunday babies? Declining weekend births in the years 1967-2017

PURPOSE: The main objective of the paper was to analyze the weekly seasonality of childbirths in 1967-2017 nationwide, divided by voivodeships and types of gminas (local communities). The relationship between the intensity of births on Sundays and the proportion of childbirths performed by caesarean section was also investigated.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The analysis covered 26,060,540 records containing the dates of births in Poland from the PESEL database for 1967-2017. The seasonality of births was presented by means of heat maps, while the Pearson correlation coefficient was used in the analysis of relationships.FINDINGS: Research confirms the increasing proportion of deliveries carried out by the cesarean section in the majority of countries worldwide. However, Poland is one of the countries where the prevalence of cesarean sections is the highest in the world. According to WHO, the percentage of cesarean sections should be about 10-15 % of all births, while in 2017 in Poland it amounted to 45%. The empirical study confirmed a marked decline in births on Saturdays and Sundays in Poland.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The described trends may adversely affect demographic processes, e.g., they may exacerbate the low fertility rate in Poland.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study fills the gap in the international research on the phenomenon by adding results from Poland.The project is co-financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name „Regional Excellence Initiative” in the years 2019 – 2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.peer-reviewe

Oxidation and Release of Ruthenium from Short Fuel Rods above 1500oC

The fission product ruthenium is radiotoxic and in oxidized form as ruthenium-tetroxide (RuO4) also chemical toxic. During fuel element change or in case of a leakage in fuel storages, air flows in the containment or fuel storage. If the circulation pump fails, the fuel elements are heated-up, and at high temperatures gaseous ruthenium oxides are formed and rapidly released from the fuel. Due to the significant higher volatility of RuO4 in the Chernobyl Catastrophe the measured concentration of the Ru-isotopes in the fall-outs was comparable to those of iodine and caesium. In order to get more insight in the chemical and physical behaviour of this fission product under severe accident conditions, the Ruthenium release was studied in a series of Separate Effect Tests (RUSET). In the test short fuel rod segments were used and exposed to air and steam atmosphere at high temperatures. The experiments in air atmosphere showed, that the partial pressures of the released Ru-oxides was two orders of magnitudes lower compared to those measured in previous tests with Ru-powder diluted in a ZrO2 matrix. It was found that ruthenium was not released in steam atmosphere in the examined temperature range. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the deposition was detected by XRF analysis.JRC.F.4-Nuclear design safet

Sequential mechanisms underlying concentration invariance in biological olfaction

Concentration invariance—the capacity to recognize a given odorant (analyte) across a range of concentrations—is an unusually difficult problem in the olfactory modality. Nevertheless, humans and other animals are able to recognize known odors across substantial concentration ranges, and this concentration invariance is a highly desirable property for artificial systems as well. Several properties of olfactory systems have been proposed to contribute to concentration invariance, but none of these alone can plausibly achieve full concentration invariance. We here propose that the mammalian olfactory system uses at least six computational mechanisms in series to reduce the concentration-dependent variance in odor representations to a level at which different concentrations of odors evoke reasonably similar representations, while preserving variance arising from differences in odor quality. We suggest that the residual variance then is treated like any other source of stimulus variance, and categorized appropriately into “odors” via perceptual learning. We further show that naïve mice respond to different concentrations of an odorant just as if they were differences in quality, suggesting that, prior to odor categorization, the learning-independent compensatory mechanisms are limited in their capacity to achieve concentration invariance

Gender equality and economic growth in BSR and EAP countries : a quantitative approach

PURPOSE: The main objective of the paper is to quantitatively analyze the relationship between gender equality and economic growth in selected countries worldwide.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The study is based on the Solow Augmented model. Four hypotheses have been tested: Hypothesis 1 (H1): Higher educational levels of women lead to greater economic growth. Hypothesis 2 (H2): Greater participation of women in the labor market leads to greater economic growth. Hypothesis 3 (H3): Higher fertility and fecundity rates lead to lower economic growth. Hypothesis 4 (H4): Greater participation of women in the democratic system leads to greater economic growth.FINDINGS: The research on links between gender, economic growth and development has proven that the power and mutual impact of these categories can differ significantly depending on the type of growth and key driving factors. The relation between GDP per capita and female wages was proved statistically significant.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Increased women’s market activity means a more effective allocation of human resources, better use of people’s talents (both women and men), the consequence of which is a positive impact on economic growth. Gender equality was thus described as “smart economics”. We have proved that in the European countries under study plus Georgia and Armenia a 1 % increase of female wages will result in GDP per capita rising by 0.56%.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper is based on own, primary research.The project is co-financed within the framework of the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education under the name „Regional Excellence Initiative” in the years 2019 – 2022; project number 001/RID/2018/19; the amount of financing PLN 10,684,000.00.peer-reviewe

Experimental investigation of the late phase of spent fuel pool accidents

Experimental programmes have been carried out in order to investigate the behaviour of nuclear fuel components in high-temperature air atmosphere, which characterises the main conditions of the late phase of spent fuel pool accidents. The tests provided new data on the oxidation of zirconium cladding in different atmospheres, on the oxidation and release of ruthenium from fuel pellets and on the integral behaviour of fuel bundles. The integral test confirmed that water injection into the spent fuel storage pool is the right measure to terminate a severe accident