Re-use of public sector information in cultural heritage institutions

In 2013 the European Union amended the Directive on Public Sector Information, establishing the principle that all available information produced and collected by public sector institutions must be made available for reuse under open terms and conditions. The amended Directive also brings publicly funded libraries, museums and archives into its scope. These new rules on reuse of heritage materials, treated as public sector information (PSI), attempt for the first time to define a general framework for sharing cultural heritage information all around Europe. In this paper we argue that if Member States are not careful, the implementation of the changes required by the new Directive could do more harm than good when it comes to access to digitized cultural heritage in Europe. These concerns center on how the directive interacts with copyright legislation. The paper recommends that in order to contribute to the opening up of cultural heritage resources, Member States should ensure that all qualifying documents that are not currently covered by third party intellectual property rights fall within the scope of the Directive. Member States should also implement the Directive in a way that does not encourage or require institutions to charge for the reuse of works that they make available for reuse. For documents that are still protected by intellectual property rights but where these rights are held by the cultural heritage institutions that have these works in their collections, Member States should encourage the use of Open Definition-compliant licenses

Interferencje w procesie tworzenia polskiej terminologii glottodydaktycznej

Zadanie pt. Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

The mass function of hydrogen-rich white dwarfs: robust observational evidence for a distinctive high-mass excess near 1Msun

The mass function of hydrogen-rich atmosphere white dwarfs has been frequently found to reveal a distinctive high-mass excess near 1Msun. However, a significant excess of massive white dwarfs has not been detected in the mass function of the largest white dwarf catalogue to date from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Hence, whether a high-mass excess exists or not has remained an open question. In this work we build the mass function of the latest catalogue of data release 10 SDSS hydrogen-rich white dwarfs, including the cool and faint population (i.e. effective temperatures 6,000 <~ Teff <~ 12,000 K, equivalent to 12 mag <~ Mbol <~ 13 mag). We show that the high-mass excess is clearly present in our mass function, and that it disappears only if the hottest (brightest) white dwarfs (those with Teff >~ 12,000 K, Mbol <~ 12 mag) are considered. This naturally explains why previous SDSS mass functions failed at detecting a significant excess of high-mass white dwarfs. Thus, our results provide additional and robust observational evidence for the existence of a distinctive high-mass excess near 1Msun. We investigate possible origins of this feature and argue that the most plausible scenario that may lead to an observed excess of massive white dwarfs is the merger of the degenerate core of a giant star with a main sequence or a white dwarf companion during or shortly after a common envelope event.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRA

Orbital periods and component masses of three double white dwarfs

The merger of close double white dwarfs (CDWDs) is one of the favourite evolutionary channels for producing Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia). Unfortunately, current theories of the evolution and formation of CDWDs are still poorly constrained and have several serious uncertainties, which affect the predicted SN Ia rates. Moreover, current observational constraints on this evolutionary pathway for SN Ia mainly rely on only 18 double-lined and/or eclipsing CDWDs with measured orbital and stellar parameters for both white dwarfs. In this paper we present the orbital periods and the individual masses of three new double-lined CDWDs, derived using a new method. This method employs mass ratios, the Hα core ratios and spectral model-fitting to constrain the masses of the components of the pair. The three CDWDs are WD0028–474 (Porb=9.350 ± 0.007 hours, M1 = 0.60 ± 0.06 M⊙, M2 = 0.45 ± 0.04 M⊙), HE0410– 1137 (Porb= 12.208 ± 0.008 hours, M1 = 0.51 ± 0.04M⊙, M2 = 0.39 ± 0.03 M⊙) and SDSSJ031813.25–010711.7 (Porb= 45.908 ± 0.006 hours, among the longest period systems, M1 = 0.40 ± 0.05M⊙, M2 = 0.49 ± 0.05M⊙). While the three systems studied here will merge in timescales longer than the Hubble time and are expected to become single massive (& 0.9 M⊙) white dwarfs rather than exploding as SN Ia, increasing the small sample of CDWDs with determined stellar parameters is crucial for a better overall understanding of their evolution

MicroRNA expression patterns in canine mammary cancer show significant differences between metastatic and non-metastatic tumours

Background MicroRNAs may act as oncogenes or tumour suppressor genes, which make these small molecules potential diagnostic/prognostic factors and targets for anticancer therapies. Several common oncogenic microRNAs have been found for canine mammary cancer and human breast cancer. On account of this, large- scale profiling of microRNA expression in canine mammary cancer seems to be important for both dogs and humans. Methods Expression profiles of 317 microRNAs in 146 canine mammary tumours of different histological type, malignancy grade and clinical history (presence/absence of metastases) and in 25 control samples were evaluated. The profiling was performed using microarrays. Significance Analysis of Microarrays test was applied in the analysis of microarray data (both unsupervised and supervised data analyses were performed). Validation of the obtained results was performed using real- time qPCR. Subsequently, predicted targets for the microRNAs were searched for in miRBase. Results Results of the unsupervised analysis indicate that the primary factor separating the samples is the metastasis status. Predicted targets for microRNAs differentially expressed in the metastatic vs. non- metastatic group are mostly engaged in cell cycle regulation, cell differentiation and DNA-damage repair. On the other hand, the supervised analysis reveals clusters of differentially expressed microRNAs unique for the tumour type, malignancy grade and metastasis factor. Conclusions The most significant difference in microRNA expression was observed between the metastatic and non-metastatic group, which suggests a more important role of microRNAs in the metastasis process than in the malignant transformation. Moreover, the differentially expressed microRNAs constitute potential metastasis markers. However, validation of cfa-miR-144, cfa-miR-32 and cfa- miR-374a levels in blood samples did not follow changes observed in the non- metastatic and metastatic tumours

Modelling flexible manufacturing systems through discrete event simulation

As customisation and product diversification are becoming standard, industry is looking for strategies to become more adaptable in responding to customer’s needs. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) provide a unique capability where there is a need to provide efficiency through production flexibility. Full potential of FMS development is difficult to achieve due to the variability of components within this complex manufacturing system. It has been recognised that there is a requirement for decision support tools to address different aspects of FMS development. Discrete event simulation (DES) is the most common tool used in manufacturing sector for solving complex problems. Through systematic literature review, the need for a conceptual framework for decision support in FMS using DES has been identified. Within this thesis, the conceptual framework (CF) for decision support for FMS using DES has been proposed. The CF is designed based on decision-making areas identified for FMS development in literature and through industry stakeholder feedback: set-up, flexibility and schedule configuration. The CF has been validated through four industrial simulation case studies developed as a part of implementation of a new FMS plant in automotive sector. The research focuses on: (1) a method for primary data collection for simulation validated through a case study of material handling robot behaviour in FMS; (2) an approach for evaluation of optimal production set-up for industrial FMS with DES; (3) a DES based approach for testing FMS flexibility levels; (4) an approach for testing scheduling in FMS with the use of DES. The study has supported the development of systematic approach for decision making in FMS development using DES. The approach provided tools for evidence based decision making in FMS

THE STRUCTURE OF THE FIRST CO-ORDINATION SHELL OF Pb ATOMS IN LEAD-SILICATE GLASSES :A MOLECULAR DYNAMICS STUDY

The structure of lead-silicate glasses, although being investigated for over sixty years, remains still controversial. One of the open questions is the structure of the lead subsystem: what are the basic structural units like, and how are they interconnected. In the literature the appearance of [PbO4]n, or [PbO3]n chains is reported even in the glasses of the same stoichiometry. In order to elucidate the problem of contradicting experimental findings, extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in the isobaric-isoenthalpic (NpH) ensemble of the structure of lead-silicate glasses have been performed in the whole range of glassformation. The atoms were assumed to interact by a two-body Born-Mayer-Huggins interaction potential with full ionic charges. The potential parametrization was taken from Damodaran et al. [Phys. Chem. Glasses, 31, 212 (1990)1. The simulation box contained about 3000 atoms. For each composition an equilibrated ming Pb03 pyramids with the Pb atom in the vertices or in the middle of an al ost flat triangle formed from forapical oxygens of three different SiO4 tetrahedra. Another of all Pb atoms can be qualified as vertices ofrather distorted square pyramids. The remaining of lead atoms have neighbourhoods difficult to classify. For x 0.67 only a few Pb atoms were identified as remaining in the front of a face of a SiO4 tetrahedron. Most of the Pb atoms are placed in the vertices of edge sharing square PbO4 pyramids. Our MD results are compared with available experimental data. 0.1 X 0.33, about of all Pb atoms is either placed in the front of the faces of the SiO4 tetrahedra, forapical oxygens of three different SiO4 tetrahedra. Another of all Pb atoms can be qualified as vertices of rather distorted square pyramids. The remaining of lead atoms have neighbourhoods difficult to classify. For x 0.67 only a few Pb atoms were identified as remaining in the front of a face of a SiO4 tetrahedron.Pozna

Assessment of the Braking System Damage in the Public Transport Vehicles of a Selected Transport Company

This paper analyzes damage to safety systems over a five-year period for a group of vehicles. In the first step of analysis, descriptive statistics characterizing the analyzed variables were calculated and analyses related to the assessment of damage to the braking system. The analyses were carried out in order to examine the relationship between the mileage of vehicles and the number of defects quarterly and monthly and the fit of the obtained empirical results of the analysed variables to a normal or other theoretical distribution was checked. In order to check whether the observed differences in the mean values of the number of failures of the safety systems are statistically significant, a non-parametric analysis of variance was performed. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied, the distribution of the monthly sum of the braking system faults, distribution of the sum of the braking system faults from individual quarters, distribution of the monthly kilometrage of all vehicles and distribution of the quarterly kilometrage of all vehicles were presented. After describing previous correlation analyses, a linear regression analysis was conducted in which a model was built to predict the number of braking system faults based on monthly vehicle mileage and month of measurement. The last part of the analysis was to verify whether the number of the braking systems faults depends on the season of the year and it was checked whether the season makes any difference to the vehicle's quarterly kilometrage. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to this end

Self-assembled hydrogel fibers for sensing the multi-compartment intracellular milieu

Targeted delivery of drugs and sensors into cells is an attractive technology with both medical and scientific applications. Existing delivery vehicles are generally limited by the complexity of their design, dependence on active transport, and inability to function within cellular compartments. Here, we developed self-assembled nanofibrous hydrogel fibers using a biologically inert, low-molecular-weight amphiphile. Self-assembled nanofibrous hydrogels offer unique physical/mechanical properties and can easily be loaded with a diverse range of payloads. Unlike commercially available E. coli membrane particles covalently bound to the pH reporting dye pHrodo, pHrodo encapsulated in self-assembled hydrogel-fibers internalizes into macrophages at both physiologic (37°C) and sub-physiologic (4°C) temperatures through an energy-independent, passive process. Unlike dye alone or pHrodo complexed to E. coli, pHrodo-SAFs report pH in both the cytoplasm and phagosomes, as well the nucleus. This new class of materials should be useful for next-generation sensing of the intracellular milieu

IRT Measurement Models for Conjoint Analysis

Conjoint analysis and discrete choice models are widely accepted methods for preference measurement in marketing research. However, in all of these methods, the measurement of overall consumer preferences is based on binary, nominal or ordinal scales without implying any measurement model of these overall preferences. The aim of the paper is to propose Item Response Theory (IRT) latent variable models of overall preference measurement model for conjoint analysis. The model–based overall preference index (as a factor or ability scores) may be introduced into traditional conjoint analysis, instead of ordinal or choice-based preferences measured on weak scales without evidence of measure reliability. Two classes of models, Rasch-conjoint and nominal response-conjoint models, are developed and compared in the paper. The advantage of model-based preferences is to control for error of measurement and reliability (via standard error of measurement and test information function) of preference measurement model and the size of potential distortions related to preference scale unreliability and part-worth parameters bias. The comparative analysis based on the banking products described with 5 binary attributes was done on the sample of 542 respondents from 172 households in the southern part of Poland