Near-ground Effect of Height on Pollen Exposure

The effect of height on pollen concentration is not well documented and little is known about the near-ground vertical profile of airborne pollen. This is important as most measuring stations are on roofs, but patient exposure is at ground level. Our study used a big data approach to estimate the near-ground vertical profile of pollen concentrations based on a global study of paired stations located at different heights. We analyzed paired sampling stations located at different heights between 1.5 and 50m above ground level (AGL). This provided pollen data from 59 Hirst-type volumetric traps from 25 different areas, mainly in Europe, but also covering North America and Australia, resulting in about 2,000,000 daily pollen concentrations analyzed. The daily ratio of the amounts of pollen from different heights per location was used, and the values of the lower station were divided by the higher station. The lower station of paired traps recorded more pollen than the higher trap. However, while the effect of height on pollen concentration was clear, it was also limited (average ratio 1.3, range 0.7–2.2). The standard deviation of the pollen ratio was highly variable when the lower station was located close to the ground level (below 10m AGL). We show that pollen concentrations measured at >10m are representative for background near-ground levels

Modele upadłości : weryfikowanie ich ważności jako czynnik prognostyczny niepowodzenia korporacyjnego

Although the issue of corporate failure analysis is a hot topic for business research since the last century, even nowadays there are numerous researches focusing on assessing the financial health of companies. Within increasing internationalization and globalization the demand for bankruptcy prediction is important not only for owners of the companies, but also for other interested groups. We aim to test the validity of prediction models developed as partial results of our research project. Bankruptcy prediction models were constructed on the data set of Slovak companies covering the year 2015 and based on the various statistical methodologies. We provided the validity of these models and their prediction accuracy on the data set of Slovak companies covering the following year 2016.Chociaż kwestia analizy niepowodzenia korporacyjnego jest gorącym tematem badań biznesowych od zeszłego wieku, nawet obecnie prowadzone są liczne badania skupiające się na ocenie kondycji finansowej firm. W warunkach rosnącej internacjonalizacji i globalizacji zapotrzebowanie na prognozy bankructwa jest ważne nie tylko dla właścicieli firm, ale także dla innych zainteresowanych grup. Celem artykułu jest sprawdzenie ważności modeli prognostycznych opracowanych jako częściowe wyniki projektu badawczego przez autorów. Modele przewidywania bankructwa zostały zbudowane na zbiorze danych słowackich firm w roku 2015 na podstawie różnych metodologii statystycznych. Zapewniona została poprawność tych modeli i dokładność ich prognozowania na zbiorze danych słowackich firm obejmująca rok 2016

Variation in Artemisia Pollen Seasons in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper aims to address some gaps in current knowledge by studying temporal and spatial variations in Artemisia pollen counts (2000-2009) at 13 sites located in different biogeographical areas of Central and Eastern Europe. Analysis showed that start dates of Artemisia pollen seasons are greatly dependent on temperature during June and July, with hot summer temperatures having a tendency to delay summer flowering. However, this relationship is not linear and the rate at which seasons become later increases when mean minimum June-July temperatures reach a threshold of about 13°C. No explanation for variations in pollen season intensity could be found. The geographical location or amount of urbanisation did not influence, either positively or negatively, the seasonal pollen index. Second peaks in Artemisia pollen seasons can be described as the pollen seasons of late flowering Artemisia species, and mainly occurred in the geographical area south of the Carpathian Mountains. These second peaks can significantly influence the seasonal pollen index, contributing over 50 to the season's total Artemisia pollen recorded at one site

The Pannonian Plain as a Source of Ambrosia Pollen in the Balkans

This study aims to find likely sources of Ambrosia pollen recorded during 2007 at five pollen-monitoring sites in central Europe, Novi Sad, Ruma, Negotin and Nis (Serbia) and Skopje (Macedonia). Ambrosia plants start flowering early in the morning and so Ambrosia pollen grains recorded during the day are likely to be from a local source. Conversely, Ambrosia pollen grains recorded at night or very early in the morning may have arrived via long-range transport. Ambrosia pollen counts were analysed in an attempt to find possible sources of the pollen and to identify Ambrosia pollen episodes suitable for further investigation using back-trajectory analysis. Diurnal variations and the magnitude of Ambrosia pollen counts during the 2007 Ambrosia pollen season showed that Novi Sad and Ruma (Pannonian Plain) and to a lesser degree Negotin (Balkans) were located near to sources of Ambrosia pollen. Mean bi-hourly Ambrosia pollen concentrations peaked during the middle of the day and concentrations at these sites were notably higher than at Nis and Skopje. Three episodes were selected for further analysis using back-trajectory analysis. Back-trajectories showed that air masses brought Ambrosia pollen from the north to Nis and, on one occasion, to Skopje (Balkans) during the night and early morning after passing to the east of Novi Sad and Ruma during the previous day. The results of this study identified the Southern part of the Pannonian Plain around Novi Sad and Ruma as being a potential source region for Ambrosia pollen recorded at Nis and Skopje in the Balkans