“OnQ”: Contextual Information Design

There is a countless amount of entertainment media available to a single viewer, and the internet makes that media easily accessible. However, keeping up with the rules, objectives, backstory, or culture of each one is difficult, and confusion hinders enjoyment. My thesis, “OnQ” dismantles the barrier of information in broadcast sports, viewership of which has been declining for 10-20 years. By exploring the flow of information, user interaction, user multitasking, and graphic design via on-demand explanations and statistics on top of live video, “OnQ” takes existing multitasking behavior and integrates it onto the same screen as the broadcast. Instead of dividing attention and sifting through irrelevant information by searching questions on a separate, internet-accessible device, “OnQ” aims to customize and summarize information, making learning low-effort and promoting enjoyment of the original media

Detection of a Source Code Plagiarism in a Student Programming Competition

The article presents a system for testing the independence of solutions to algorithmic problems sent by students as part of the student programming competition. First, the context was discussed, as well as the need to organize programming competitions resulting from this context. Then, an algorithm was proposed to study the mutual similarity of source codes of programs sent as part of a programming competition. Since, after implementation, the algorithm was used in practice, examples of its application for detecting the plagiarism of source codes of solutions in two programming competitions conducted as part of classes on Algorithms and Numerical Methods were also presented. Finally, the effectiveness of the solutions used in the work was discussed.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Intensification of sewage sludge composting

The effect of commercial enzymatic preparations on sewage sludge composting was studied. The process of composting was carried out in industrial conditions with addition of selected enzymatic preparations. The sludge was mineralized in aerobic conditions. It was found that when the tested preparations had been added, the mineralization of organic matter in the composted material was much improved. In a control prism in which no enzymatic preparations were added, more beneficial changes of factors that had an influence on fertilizing value were observed. The range of changes in the factors being analyzed show that the most intensive transformations are reported in the first 8 weeks of the process. After that period the intensity of transformations decreases significantly and differences in changes of the tested parameters are very small

Starość darem losu, życiowym zadaniem i wyzwaniem dla przyszłości

The article is a personal reflection on old age. On the basis of his own memories author (born in 1934) sets the basic life tasks of old age as an important period of life, forecasting very important challenges of ageing for the future.Artykuł jest osobistą refleksją nad starością. Na podstawie własnych wspomnień autor (rocznik 1934) określa podstawowe zadania życiowe starości jako ważnego okresu życia, prognozując bardzo ważne wyzwania procesu starzenia się dla przyszłości

Neural prediction of cows’ milk yield according to environment temperature

Medium and maximum air temperatures around the milk cowsheds were measured and these empirical data were used to create a neural prediction model evaluating the cows’ milk yield under varying thermal conditions. We found out that artificial neural networks were an effective tool supporting the process of short-term milk yield forecasting. An analysis of sensitivity to input variables performed for the generated neural model allowed for identifying the dominant input variable for the proposed neural model. The dominant variable was the maximum temperature of the day, a key risk factor of the heat stress in cows.Keywords: Neural modeling, milk yield, cows, heat stress, prediction.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(29), pp. 4707-471

The role of grammatical and lexical aspect in the foregrounding/backgrounding of events during EFL reading

In dieser Diplomarbeit wurde der Einfluss von grammatischem und lexikalischem Aspekt auf das mentale in den Vordergrund/ Hintergrund Stellen von narrativen Ereignissen während des Lesens von Kurzgeschichten in Englisch als Fremdsprache untersucht. Die Teilnehmer/innen waren erwachsenen Leser/innen mit österreichischem Deutsch als Erstsprache und Englisch als Zweitsprache. Ausgehend von Laufer and Nation's (1999) Vocabulary Levels Test wurden diese in Sprachkompetenzgruppen eingeteilt (mäßig fortgeschritten, fortgeschritten, kompetent). Weiters gab es eine Kontrollgruppe von Teilnehmer/innen mit Englisch als Erstsprache. Basierend auf der Priming-Methode in J. P. Magliano und Schleich, M. C. (2000) wurden den Teilnehmer/innen kurze Geschichten präsentiert. Diese beinhalteten jeweils einen kritischen Satz (z.B. Mark packed/ was packing the bag. oder Mike played/ was playing the drum.). Dieser variierte in gr. Aspekt (perfektiv vs. progressiv) als auch lex. Aspekt (accomplishment- vs. activity-Prädikat). Drei Sätze nach dem kritischen Satz erschien ein Target (z.B. pack bag). Daraufhin mussten die Teilnehmer/innen so schnell und so korrekt wie möglich entscheiden, ob das Target zuvor im Text erschienen war, oder nicht. Die Ergebnisse zeigten keine statistischen Signifikanzen, da es eine große Varianz innerhalb der Gruppen gab. Es konnten jedoch einige Trends festgestellt werden, v.a. beim grammatischen Aspekt in der Subjektanalyse. Diese Trends lassen quantitative sowie qualitative Unterschiede in der Verarbeitung zwischen den Gruppen vermuten. Beispielsweise wurde beobachtet, dass die Kontrollgruppe tendentiell in einem höheren Grad grammatischen Aspekt nutzte um narrative Ereignisse in den Vordergrund/ Hintergrund zu stellen. Diese Beobachtung könnte die Behauptung stützen, dass das Arbeitsgedächtnis in der Fremdsprache mehr belastet ist, und daher das in den Vordergrund Stellen von narrativen Ereignissen bis zu einem gewissen Grad gemindert wird. Weiters konnte beobachtet werden, dass die Kontrollgruppe und kompetente Fremdsprachler tendentiell progressiven Aspekt in den Vordergrund stellten, und perfektiven Aspekt in den Hintergrund, wohingegen fortgeschrittene und mäßig fortgeschrittene Fremdsprachler den genau umgekehrten Trend zeigten. Dieser Trend wurde sowohl bei accomplishment- als auch bei activity-Prädikaten festgestellt. Das könnte die Annahme unterstützen, dass die Art und Weise wie gr. Aspekt das in den Vordergrund/ Hintergrund Stellen beeinflusst, davon abhängig ist, ob gr. Aspekt morphologisch in der Erstsprache ausgedrückt wird, und auch wie groß die Fremdsprachkompetenz ist. Es wurde keine Interaktion zw. gr. und lex. Aspekt beobachtet.The role of grammatical and lexical aspect in the foregrounding/ backgrounding of events during EFL story comprehension was investigated in this thesis. Participants included an L1 English control group and L1 Austrian German adults of intermediate, advanced and proficient EFL levels as indicated by Laufer and Nation's (1999) Vocabulary Levels Test. Based on a priming method developed in J. P. Magliano and Schleich, M. C. (2000). Verb Aspect and Situation Models. Discourse Processes, 29(2), 83-112, participants were presented short stories which contained a critical sentence prime that varied in grammatical aspect (perfective vs. progressive aspect) and lexical aspect (accomplishment vs. activity predicate). Three sentences after the prime (e.g. Mark packed the bag.) a probe flashed up (e.g. pack bag). Participants had to decide as quickly and as accurately as possible whether the probe had appeared in the story or not. Results yielded no relevant statistical significances because reaction times showed a high within group variance. This is consistent with previous research on L2. However, non-significant trends for grammatical aspect were noted in the subject analysis, which indicate quantitative and qualitative processing differences. First, the L1 English group showed a generally larger foregrounding/ backgrounding effect of grammatical aspect than L2 learners. This might support the claim that working memory resources are strained in L2 and so inhibit, to a certain degree, the higher-level process of foregrounding/ backgrounding. Second, the L1 English group and EFL proficient learners tended to foreground progressive aspect and background perfective aspect, while EFL advanced and intermediate learners tended to foreground perfective aspect and background progressive aspect. This trend remained constant for accomplishment and activity predicates. This might support the assumption that the way grammatical aspect influences foregrounding/ backgrounding is dependent on grammatical aspect marking in L1 (explicit vs. non-explicit) and L2 proficiency. Finally, no indication was found that grammatical and lexical aspect interact in foregrounding/ backgrounding

O modernizacji systemu ERP w przedsiębiorstwach przetwórczo-transportowych

The paper describes the case of the ERP system modernization as an effect of obligatory bringing in of the requirements according to the law related to the enterprises engaged at processing and trans-porting used up oils. The requirements of The Law were fulfilled by total informatization of the production and transport processes

RNA and protein 3D structure modeling: similarities and differences

In analogy to proteins, the function of RNA depends on its structure and dynamics, which are encoded in the linear sequence. While there are numerous methods for computational prediction of protein 3D structure from sequence, there have been very few such methods for RNA. This review discusses template-based and template-free approaches for macromolecular structure prediction, with special emphasis on comparison between the already tried-and-tested methods for protein structure modeling and the very recently developed “protein-like” modeling methods for RNA. We highlight analogies between many successful methods for modeling of these two types of biological macromolecules and argue that RNA 3D structure can be modeled using “protein-like” methodology. We also highlight the areas where the differences between RNA and proteins require the development of RNA-specific solutions