Burials of WWI soldiers in Bubiai

2018 m. liepos 26 d. vykdant kelio rekonstravimo darbus Bubių kaime (Šiaulių r., Bubių sen.), prie Gluosnių g. 3 namo aptikta žmonių kaulų. Pastebėjus pabirusius kaulus, darbai tuoj pat sustabdyti, apie tai pranešta Šiaulių KPD skyriui ir policijai, kurios tyrėjas rado ir identifikavo I Pasaulinio karo laikų šovinių tūteles. Šiaulių rajono savivaldybės administracija užsakė ištirti palaikų radimo vietą ir nustatyti jos ribas, kad būtų išvengta kitų palaikų suardymų. Abiejų pasaulinių karų metu ties Bubiais ėjo fronto linija, netoliese vyko intensyvūs mūšiai. 1915 m. balandžio 17 d. vokiečių kariuomenė po ilgų kovų užėmė Šiaulius, tačiau pabuvusi pusę mėnesio, turėjo vėl pasitraukti. Apylinkėse kovos nesiliovė iki liepos (Puzinas J., Šiaulių miestas ir jo istorija, Šiaulių metraštis: informacinė knyga 1930 metams, Šiauliai, 1930, p. 45–46). Carinės Rusijos kariams susigrąžinus Šiaulius, kelis mėnesius fronto linija sustojo netoli Bubių. Karščiausios kovos virė prie Šiaulių ir Kelmės miestų, bet žymesnių pergalių, kurios būtų leidusios įgyti akivaizdų pranašumą, nesugebėjo pasiekti nei viena, nei kita pusė. [...]During road reconstruction work in Bubiai village (Šiauliai District) in 2018, human bones were discovered. After excavating a 12 m² wide trench, a 5.6 m long, 0.6–1.2 m wide First World War trench containing the remains of four soldiers was found in it. Two skeletons had been disturbed by roadwork and earlier digging, the other two were intact and lay in an unnatural position. An anthropological analysis identified the skeletons as belonging to young (up to the age of 30) males. The precise cause of death could not be determined. Personal items, gear, clothing elements, and empty cartridges were found near the remains. Based on the finds, the remains are ascribable to First World War Imperial Russian soldiers. The front passed through Bubiai village three times between April and July 1915; thus the remains belong to soldiers who died during one of these military operations. The remains will be reburied in the Bubiai First World War military cemetery

The application of manufacturing informations systems to the needs of an enterprise

Šiame darbe nagrinėjama kiekvienai gamybos įmonei aktuali sritis - gamybos informacinės sistemos bei jų taikymas gamyboje. Ši tema yra aktuali tiek naujoms - mažoms, tiek didėlėms, ilgai veikiančioms gamybos įmonėms. Šiame darbe buvo iškeltas toks pagrindinis tikslas: išsiaiškinti ar yra būdų, kurie leistų integruoti atskiras gamybos įmonėje naudojamas gamybos informacines sistemas į vieną integruotą gamybos informacinę sistemą. Šiame magistro darbe yra trys pagrindinės dalys. Pirmoje darbo dalyje yra atlikta gamybos informacinių sistemų analizė, apibrėžti gamybos informacinių sistemų sudedamieji elementai. Taip pat išanalizuotos trys gamybos įmonės, kuriose yra įdiegtos gamybos informacinės sistemos. Rasti pagrindiniai įdiegtų gamybos informacinių sistemų privalumai ir trūkumai. Antroje darbo dalyje yra pasirinktas „Siemens Simatic IT“ gamybos informacinių sistemų kūrimo įrankis ir apžvelgtos jo galimybės. Trečioje darbo dalyje naudojant gamybos valdymo paketą „Siemens Simatic IT“ yra pateikiamas pasiūlymas, projektuojant integruotą informacinę sistemą, kuri sugebėtų išspręsti pagrindinius funkcinių informacinių sistemų trūkumus.In the following thesis the important field for every manufacturing enterprise – manufacturing information systems and their application in the manufacturing process - is analyzed. This subject is relevant for both new-small enterprises; and large, long-time working manufacturing companies. The main aim raised for this thesis was: to find out are there any methods that would allow integrating separate manufacturing information systems, which are used in manufacturing companies, into one integrated manufacturing information system. This Master thesis paper contains three main chapters: In the first chapter the analysis of manufacturing information systems is carried out, the main components of manufacturing information systems are defined. Also the examples of two manufacturing companies, in which the manufacturing information systems are implemented, are given. The main advantages and drawbacks of the implemented manufacturing information systems are identified. During the second chapter the manufacturing information systems’ development tool “Siemens Simatic IT“ is selected, its capabilities are reviewed. In the third chapter, by using manufacturing management package “Siemens Simatic IT“, the suggestion for designing integrated information system that could solve the main imperfections of installed functional information systems is proposed.Vytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Remote sensing and in-situ characterisation of atmospheric aerosol pollution

This work focuses on characterising various aspects of clean-background and polluted aerosol, mainly focusing on the North East Atlantic and Europe, using a range of in-situ and remote sensing instrumentation. Prior to achieving the objectives of aerosol characterisation, effort was invested in characterising a new, near-real-time satellite aerosol profiling products. The near-real-time Level 1.5 Cloud-Aerosol Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) products were evaluated against data from ground-based European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). A statistical study was performed on 48 CALIOP overpasses with ground tracks within a 100 km distance from operating stations over three years period. For the whole data set, the correlation coefficient (R) was 0.86. The correlation was reduced somewhat to R=0.6 when the analysis was repeated for the planetary boundary layer (PBL) on its own. Further filtering to remove free troposphere (FT) layers with high attenuated backscatter did not improve the agreement either and suggests that the considerable variability across the data set, leading to the low correlation, is due to spatial inhomogeneities in the PBL. Additional evaluation between CALIOP and ground-based lidar close to Atlanta (United States (US)) also showed poor agreement. This poor agreement led us to consider the whole feasibility of a Calibration & Validation (CALVAL) exercise using a ground-based reference stations for space-borne CALVAL platforms. The required accuracy necessitates uncertainties of the order of 2% to be meaningful. To achieve this level of uncertainty with a polar-orbiting satellite would require averaging the ground-based lidar profiles along the ground track of CALIOP for distances of at least 1,500 km, which, clearly, cannot be achieved with ground-based lidars. Satellite remote sensing is useful for characterising sources and extent of long range aerosol transport and, in particular, quantifying its contribution to transboundary air pollution. Using a threshold Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) value of 0.5 for extremely polluted conditions, we analysed the frequency of occurrence of such events at the Mace Head Global Atmosphere Watch station and found that over a period of 6 years, a total of 17 extremely-polluted cases were identified. Such events were associated with continental pollution outflow from Europe, Sahara Dust outflow, or a combination of both. In addition, volcanic ash eruptions and forest fires in Canada also contributed. Analysis of a 35 year record of sulphur air pollution revealed a 75% reduction in pollution associated with reductions in emissions following intervention and establishment of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention. Over the last 6 years, the pollution levels over the Mace Head region of the North East Atlantic have levelled off, providing us with the opportunity to conduct a detailed statistical analysis on the cleanliness of North Atlantic air and the frequency of occurrence on clean and polluted air at Mace Head. The unique dataset comprising 6-years online measurements of black carbon, aerosol size distributions and aerosol chemistry, including organic aerosol, revealed that air masses arriving at Mace Head were clean to pristine for 65% of the time, moderately polluted to polluted for 35% of the time, and extremely polluted for 1.5% of the time in a 6-year period. In clean-to-pristine air, sulphate mass dominates over organics, sea-salt and nitrates, contributing 42% to the total, while carbonaceous aerosol (of which more than 90% comprises organics and less than 10% black carbon) mass dominates with a 60% contribution in polluted air, increasing to 90% in the most polluted. Worryingly, organic aerosol mass, which is the single largest contributor to particulate mass pollution, is not measured in regulatory networks

Profesionalios mokslinių žurnalų leidybos programinės įrangos naudojimo Lietuvoje žvalgomasis tyrimas

Įvadas. Šiame tekste aptariama profesionalios mokslinių žurnalų leidybos programinės įrangos naudojimo tendencijos ir dėsningumai 2020 m. Uždarojo kodo programinės įrangos leidyboje tyrimai yra riboti, o tyrimų, kuriuose būtų išsamiai analizuojamas konkrečios šalies atvejis, trūksta. Metodas. Sudarėme žurnalų sąrašą rankiniu būdu patikrinę visų žurnalų interneto svetaines, o surinktus duomenis papildomai patikrinome kitose duomenų bazėse. Be to, elektroniniu paštu individualiai susisiekėme su leidėjais, kad patikslintume duomenis. Analizė. Duomenys buvo analizuojami taikant aprašomąją analizę, naudotas SPSS statistikos paketas. Rezultatai. Atlikus analizę nustatyta, kad populiariausias atvirojo kodo sprendimas leidybai yra antrosios arba trečiosios kartos OJS programinė įranga, kurią naudoja beveik pusė žurnalų Lietuvoje. Dažniausiai tiek Lietuvoje, tiek užsienyje OJS naudojasi socialinių ir technologijos mokslų atstovai. Pereinant nuo leidybos prie gamybos valdymo, OJS naudojimas Lietuvoje palaipsniui mažėja iki 24 proc. Dažnesnis nuosavybinės programinės įrangos naudojimas rankraščiams gauti gali būti susijęs su programinės įrangos kainodara ir žurnalo autorių sudėtimi. Išvados. Išsamesnė analizė galėtų padėti papildyti išvadas apie veiksnius, lemiančius profesionalios leidybos programinės įrangos naudojimo situaciją Lietuvoje. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: atvirasis kodas; uždarasis kodas; Open Journal Systems; mokslo periodikos leidyba; Lietuva.Introduction. This study investigates the adoption of professional scholarly journal publishing software in Lithuania, with a focus on the trends and patterns of its use in 2020. It underscores the limited research on proprietary software and the absence of comprehensive country-specific case studies. Method. We compiled a list of sources by manually reviewing all journal websites and independently verified the collected data against other databases. Additionally, we contacted publishers individually via email to clarify the data. Analysis. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis with the help of SPSS statistical package. Results. The analysis reveals that the second- or third-generation Open Journal Systems (OJS) software is the most popular open-source publishing solution, utilized by nearly half of the Lithuanian journals. The Social sciences and Technology sciences are the most frequent users of OJS, both in Lithuania and abroad. The use of OJS in Lithuania gradually decreases to 24% as one moves from publication towards production management, with a significant reduction in the use of OJS for manuscript delivery. The increased use of proprietary software for manuscripts may be related to pricing and the composition of the journal‘s authors. Conclusions. The ecosystem of scholarly journals in Lithuania has not yet reached the minimum level of technological advancement where all journals use professional software for publishing. Keywords: open-source; proprietary; Open Journal Systems; scholarly publishing; Lithuania

Comparisons of aerosol backscatter using satellite and ground lidars: implications for calibrating and validating spaceborne lidar

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on the polar orbiter Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) is an elastic backscatter lidar that produces a global uniformly-calibrated aerosol data set. Several Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) studies for CALIOP conducted with ground-based lidars and CALIOP data showed large aerosol profile disagreements, both random and systematic. In an attempt to better understand these problems, we undertook a series of ground-based lidar measurements in Atlanta, Georgia, which did not provide better agreement with CALIOP data than the earlier efforts, but rather prompted us to investigate the statistical limitations of such comparisons. Meaningful Cal/Val requires intercomparison data sets with small enough uncertainties to provide a check on the maximum expected calibration error. For CALIOP total attenuated backscatter, reducing the noise to the required level requires averaging profiles along the ground track for distances of at least 1,500 km. Representative comparison profiles often cannot be acquired with ground-based lidars because spatial aerosol inhomogeneities introduce systematic error into the averages. These conclusions have implications for future satellite lidar Cal/Val efforts, because planned satellite lidars measuring aerosol backscatter, wind vector, and CO2 concentration profiles may all produce data requiring considerable along-track averaging for meaningful Cal/Val

Quantitative changes in the publishing of Lithuanian scientific journals in 2015–2022: public and private sectors’ adaptation to the changing conditions.

The article analyses the quantitative changes in the Lithuanian scientific journal publishing in 2015-2022. The study reveals the problems of public bibliographic accounting and terminology in order to comprehensively analyse the public and private sector published print and electronic scientific journals. The gaps and uncertainties identified allow for the improvement of official publication records in the future, avoiding ambiguities in the assessment of the publication volumes of scientific journals. Science policy makers and implementers should take the initiative to standardise the definition of scientific journals, as this is the only way to achieve a clearer approach to this form of science communication. Although the annual volume of scientific journal publications has shrunk by 18.1% (from 265 (2015) to 217 (2022) publications), the decline itself has not been sharp. The decline has been stabilised by business involvement, changes in the evaluation of colleges, and the transformation of professional journals, book series and conference proceedings into scientific journals. Flexibility has been provided by electronic publishing instruments, which have reduced the dependence on external financial sources. The public publishing sector has tended to reduce the number of scientific journals in all scientific fields. This was mainly due to the reorganisation of the higher education network, the qualitative requirements for scientific articles and the reorganisation of scientific collectives. The publishing business has seen the greatest potential in the fields of technology and the medical and health sciences, and as a result, the number of journals published in these fields has not declined and continues to grow. Despite the private sector's growth trends, 50% of journals have 30 or more years of publication. This forms the core of Lithuanian scientific journals, which public sector publishers are striving to preserve and integrate into the international scientific environment

CALIOP near-real-time backscatter products compared to EARLINET data

The expedited near-real-time Level 1.5 Cloud–Aerosol Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) products were evaluated against data from the ground-based European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET). Over a period of three years, lidar data from 48 CALIOP overpasses with ground tracks within a 100 km distance from an operating EARLINET station were deemed suitable for analysis and they included a valid aerosol classification type (e.g. dust, polluted dust, clean marine, clean continental, polluted continental, mixed and/or smoke/biomass burning). For the complete dataset comprising both PBL and FT data, the correlation coefficient was 0.86, and when separated into separate layers, the PBL and FT correlation coefficients were 0.6 and 0.85 respectively. The presence of FT layers with high attenuated backscatter led to poor agreement in PBL backscatter profiles between the CALIOP and EARLINET measurements and prompted a further analysis filtering out such cases. However, the correlation coefficient value for the complete dataset decreased marginally from 0.86 to 0.84 while the PBL coefficient increased from 0.6 up to 0.65 and the FT coefficient also decreased from 0.85 to 0.79. For specific aerosol types, the correlation coefficient between CALIOP backscatter profiles and ground-based lidar data ranged from 0.37 for polluted continental aerosol in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) to 0.57 for dust in the free troposphere (FT). The results suggest different levels of agreement based on the location of the dominant aerosol layer and the aerosol type

Sophisticated clean air strategies required to mitigate against particulate organic pollution

Since the 1980\u27s, measures mitigating the impact of transboundary air pollution have been implemented successfully as evidenced in the 1980-2014 record of atmospheric sulphur pollution over the NE-Atlantic, a key region for monitoring background northern-hemisphere pollution levels. The record reveals a 72-79% reduction in annual-average airborne sulphur pollution (SO4 and SO2, respectively) over the 35-year period. The NE-Atlantic, as observed from the Mace Head research station on the Irish coast, can be considered clean for 64% of the time during which sulphate dominates PM1 levels, contributing 42% of the mass, and for the remainder of the time, under polluted conditions, a carbonaceous (organic matter and Black Carbon) aerosol prevails, contributing 60% to 90% of the PM1 mass and exhibiting a trend whereby its contribution increases with increasing pollution levels. The carbonaceous aerosol is known to be diverse in source and nature and requires sophisticated air pollution policies underpinned by sophisticated characterisation and source apportionment capabilities to inform selective emissions-reduction strategies. Inauspiciously, however, this carbonaceous concoction is not measured in regulatory Air Quality networks.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) project BACCHUS under grant agreement n°603445, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, the HEA PRTLI4 project