Anisotropic-cyclicgraphene: A new two-dimensional semiconducting carbon allotrope

Potentially new, single-atom thick semiconducting 2D-graphene-like material, called Anisotropic-cyclicgraphene, have been generated by the two stage searching strategy linking molecular and ab initio approach. The candidate derived from the evolutionary based algorithm and molecular simulations was then profoundly analysed using first-principles density functional theory from the structural, mechanical, phonon, and electronic properties point of view. The proposed polymorph of graphene (rP16-P1m1) is mechanically, dynamically, and thermally stable and can be semiconducting with a direct band gap of 0.829 eV.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figure

Sensitivity analysis and identification of material defects in dynamical systems

This paper deals with an analytical and computation strategy, based on the adjoint variable approach and boundary integral equation (BIE) formulations, for evaluating void or crack shape sensitivities of objective functionals. Boundary-only expressions for such sensitivities are sought in the context of linear elastodynamics. An evolutionary hybrid algorithm with the gradient mutation is employed for the identification of material defects. Numerical tests of sensitivity expressions and identification of an internal crack and void are presented

Parallel and distributed computations in evolutionary and immune optimization of laminates

Abstract The paper deals with the application of the parallel and distributed calculations for global optimization of composite structures. Evolutionary Algorithm and Artificial Immune System are employed as global optimization methods. The aim of the optimization is to find the best stacking sequence of laminates for given criteria. To reduce the computational time parallel versions of global optimization algorithms are used. Computational grid is used to perform distributed computations. A boundary-value problem for laminates is solved by means of Finite Element Method commercial software. Numerical examples presenting efficiency of proposed attitude are attached

Projekt: Uniwersytet PAN

Among the scientific institutions in Poland, the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences possess top-ranking research potential. In the years 2013-2016, for instance, 19.7% of all research articles published in the most prestigious research journals for each particular field (the top 10% of the list of journals for each field, ranked by impact factor) by authors affiliated with Polish institutions came from the institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences – this is far the best such percentage among all Polish academic institutions. The staff members at the PAS institutes are engaged not only in research, but also in teaching: as of 31 December 2016, there were 1607 individuals in regular PhD programs at the PAS institutes. Moreover, the degree of internationalization (8%) of these programs at the PAS institutes is the highest among all Polish higher-education institutions. These and other factors are seen as providing justification for the plan to pull together the potential of the PAS institutes in order to create a new higher-education institution, to be called the University of the Polish Academy of Sciences (UPAS), meant to become Poland’s first-ever research university. Plans call for UPAS to ultimately have a total of 2500 students studying in its programs, predominantly third-cycle (PhD-level) programs. Such a number will enable each student to be ensured individual supervision by top-notch researchers. It will also allow innovative teaching programs to be developed and tested in keeping with the new trends of the Internet era and e-learning, through online course offerings and through inter- and cross-disciplinary studies. Under this plan, UPAS stands a real chance of becoming a proud showpiece of Polish science and higher education: holding open, international competitions for various long-term positions as visiting professors, post-doc researchers, and PhD candidates will help further bolster the degree of internationalization among both the staff and students of UPAS, bringing it up to the level that characterizes the world’s best higher-education institutions. Given the size of Poland’s budget for science and higher education, attaining such a degree of internationalization in the near future will only be financially feasible for a university as small as UPAS. The above measures will also have a quality-boosting impact on the PAS institutes themselves, significantly improving their level. After several years, UPAS will stand a real chance of attaining very good standing in international rankings of the world’s higher education institutions, among the top 200 or even top 100 in the world. We should stress clearly: for this to happen, the funding for research at PAS institutes will need to be maintained on at least the same level as at present, the network of PAS institutes will need to be made more flexible, incorporating mechanisms generating significant synergy between the institutes (with UPAS as the common objective), and the project will need to be supported by a long-term program of internationalization of staff and students.Instytuty Polskiej Akademii Nauk mają wśród polskich instytucji naukowych czołowy potencjał merytoryczny. W instytutach PAN w latach 2013-2016 powstało 19,7% prac afiliowanych w polskich instytucjach i umieszczonych w najbardziej prestiżowych pismach naukowych danych dziedzin (górne 10% z list pism danej dziedziny nauki uszeregowanych według rosnącego współczynnika wpływu, IF). Jest to najlepszy wynik wśród polskich instytucji akademickich. Kadra instytutów PAN zajmuje się nie tylko badaniami, ale też dydaktyką; 1607 osób (stan na 31 grudnia 2016) było na stacjonarnych studiach doktoranckich w Instytutach PAN. Stopień umiędzynarodowienia studiów w PAN (8%) jest największy wśród polskich uczelni. W związku z tym uzasadnione wydaje się powołanie Uniwersytetu PAN (UPAN), który mógłby stać się pierwszą w Polsce uczelnią badawczą. Planuje się, że docelowo kształciłoby się na nim 2,5 tys. osób, w przeważającej części studentek i studentów III stopnia. Taka liczba pozwoli na zagwarantowanie indywidualnej merytorycznej opieki każdemu studentowi, a także na wprowadzenie i przetestowanie nowatorskich programów dydaktycznych, właściwych erze Internetu i e-learningu, prowadzenia studiów online poprzez courser, studiów inter- i crossdyscyplinarnych. UPAN ma realne szanse stać się wizytówką polskiej nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego, gdyż otwarte, międzynarodowe wieloletnie programy konkursowe na pozycje: wizytujących profesorów, stażystów podoktorskich i doktorantów mogą podnieść umiędzynarodowienie zarówno kadry, jak i studentów UPAN do poziomu właściwego najlepszym uczelniom świata. Z uwagi na wielkość naszego budżetu nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego osiągnięcie takiego umiędzynarodowienia jest finansowo realne w najbliższym czasie tylko dla uczelni tak małej jak UPAN. Opisane działania będą projakościowe także dla samych instytutów PAN i istotnie podniosą ich poziom merytoryczny. Po kilku latach UPAN ma realne szanse na uplasowanie się w międzynarodowych rankingach na bardzo dobrych pozycjach, w pierwszej dwusetce, a nawet w pierwszej setce najlepszych światowych uczelni. Należy podkreślić, że warunkiem tego jest zapewnienie finansowania badań w instytutach PAN na co najmniej takim jak obecnie poziomie, uelastycznienie ich sieci, wytworzenie mechanizmów synergii pomiędzy instytutami (wspólny cel – UPAN) oraz wsparcie tego projektu długoletnim programem umiędzynarodowienia kadry i studentów

Risk factors for cardiac arrhythmias in children with congenital heart disease after surgical intervention in the early postoperative period

ObjectiveEarly postoperative arrhythmias are a recognized complication of pediatric cardiac surgery.MethodsDiagnosis and treatment of early postoperative arrhythmias were prospectively analyzed in 402 consecutive patients aged 1 day to 18 years (mean 29.5 months) who underwent operation between January and December 2005 at our institute. All children were admitted to the intensive care unit, and continuous electrocardiogram monitoring was performed. Risk factors, such as age, weight, Aristotle Basic Score, cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic crossclamp time, and use of deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest, were compared. Statistical analysis using the Student t test, Mann–Whitney U test, or Fisher exact test was performed. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors of postoperative arrhythmias.ResultsArrhythmias occurred in 57 of 402 patients (14.2%). The most common types of arrhythmia were junctional ectopic tachycardia (21), supraventricular tachycardia (15), and arteriovenous block (6). Risk factors for arrhythmias, such as lower age (P = .0041⁎), lower body weight (P = .000001⁎), higher Aristotle Basic Score (P = .000001⁎), longer cardiopulmonary bypass time (P = .000001⁎), aortic crossclamp time (P = .000001⁎), and use of deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest (P = .0188⁎), were identified in a univariate analysis. In the multivariate stepwise logistic regression, only higher Aristotle Basic Score was statistically significant (P = .000003⁎) compared with weight (P = .62) and age (P = .40); in the cardiopulmonary bypass group, only longer aortic crossclamp time was statistically significant (P = .007⁎).ConclusionLower age, lower body weight, higher Aristotle Basic Score, longer cardiopulmonary bypass time, aortic crossclamp time, and use of deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest are the risk factors for postoperative arrhythmias. Junctional ectopic tachycardia and supraventricular tachycardia were the most common postoperative arrhythmias

Distributed evolutionary algorithms and their models: A survey of the state-of-the-art

The increasing complexity of real-world optimization problems raises new challenges to evolutionary computation. Responding to these challenges, distributed evolutionary computation has received considerable attention over the past decade. This article provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art distributed evolutionary algorithms and models, which have been classified into two groups according to their task division mechanism. Population-distributed models are presented with master-slave, island, cellular, hierarchical, and pool architectures, which parallelize an evolution task at population, individual, or operation levels. Dimension-distributed models include coevolution and multi-agent models, which focus on dimension reduction. Insights into the models, such as synchronization, homogeneity, communication, topology, speedup, advantages and disadvantages are also presented and discussed. The study of these models helps guide future development of different and/or improved algorithms. Also highlighted are recent hotspots in this area, including the cloud and MapReduce-based implementations, GPU and CUDA-based implementations, distributed evolutionary multiobjective optimization, and real-world applications. Further, a number of future research directions have been discussed, with a conclusion that the development of distributed evolutionary computation will continue to flourish