Given the significance of teacher characteristics in student motivation for class attendance, the present paper aimed to investigate the roles of teacher success, credibility, and stroke in students’ Willingness to Attend Classes (WTAC). To this aim, a total number of 276 undergraduate students majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and English Language and Literature completed four scales: Characteristics of Successful EFL Teachers Questionnaire (Moafian & Pishghadam, 2008), Teacher Credibility Scale (McCroskey & Teven, 1999), Student Stroke Scale (Pishghadam & Khajavi, 2014), and WTAC Scale (Rajabnejad, Pishghadam, & Saboori, 2017). For data analysis, Pearson multiple correlation coefficients and path analysis were employed. The results of correlational analyses revealed a significantly positive correlation, first, between teacher success and students’ WTAC, secondly, between teacher credibility and students’ WTAC, and thirdly, between teacher stroke and students’ WTAC. Furthermore, the results of path analysis indicated that students’ WTAC was significantly predicted by teacher success, credibility, and stroke. At the end, the results were discussed in light of previous findings, and potential conclusions were made in the EFL context accordingly.

Fusarium head blight (FHB) is one of the most important diseases that occurs in cereal regions worldwide and causes serious economic damage. This disease can be caused by several Fusarium species with Fusarium graminearum sensu stricto being the most common pathogen isolated from several crops. The aim of this study was to report the occurrence of F. graminearum sensu stricto on rye grains collected from field samples in Argentina and to determine the potential ability to produce deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol (NIV) and zearalenone (ZEA). Based on morphological characteristics, the isolate was identified as F. graminearum sensu stricto. To confirm molecularly, portions of the RED and TRI genes were sequenced and showed 99% similarity with the F. graminearum sensu stricto sequences available in the NCBI database. The potential to produce DON, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol (15-ADON) and ZEA was determined. Moreover, Koch´s postulates were carried out. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. graminearum sensu stricto associated with rye kernels in Argentina.

The paper presents a static load test of a pile with the largest vertical load in Poland to-date up to the force of 23000 kN. The test was performed in the centre of Warsaw on the construction site of a future high-rise building to be the tallest building in European Union. The designed building height measured from the ground level is 310 meters including an 80-metre mast. The foundation of the building was designed as a Combined Piled Raft Foundation (CPRF) utilising the barrettes and diaphragm walls technology. The test was carried out on barrettes with lengths of approx. 28 and 34 m and was aimed to estimate the stiffness (load-settlement relation) of the designed 17.5 metre-long barrette situated below the foundation level. In addition to that a series of extensometric sensors was placed inside the barrette to determine the distribution of the axial force.

The Puck (Mrzezino) hoard and procedures of the Prussian Monarchy towards coin finds. Treasure legislation in the Prussian monarchy shared hoards between the finders and the owners of the ground. This regulation produced archival evidence dating back to the eighteenth century. The large gold hoard, found in what is nowadays Mrzezino in northern Poland in 1795, was reported to Berlin shortly after its discovery. In the beginning, mainly juridical questions were discussed, but in 1798, this moved to the discussion of what to do with the coins and where and to whom they should be sold. The archival reports reveal that the coins were mainly of Anastasius, some of Zeno’s and only a few of Leo, Basiliscus and Theodosius and, as their value was above intrinsic value, they were sold to the royal collection in Berlin as well as to collections in Prussia and Poland.

The multidisciplinary journal Polish Polar Research is bibliometrically analysed as a medium of international scientific communication in light of current citation data from SCI Ex 1996 -2002. Despite its world-wide distribution and distinctive visibility in the polar society, the journal 's two-years impact factor is invariably not very high (below 0.35) because the cited papers are mostly from the 1980s. The increasing participation of foreign (co)authors in the Polish quarterly, paired with the slowly growing number of citing articles in SCI Ex are already promising steps to the immediate information transfer and subsequently improved brief-term journal impact. Citation links with polar investigators from Germany,and also from Great Britain, Spain and the USA are clearly manifested, especially in fields of marine Antarctic ecology and biology. Even if Polish Polar Research may successfully compete with several low-rated journals from different countries indexed in SCI Ex in related categories, its continuing internationalization is urgently required.

Microbes living in the polar regions have some common and unique strategies to respond to thermal stress. Nevertheless, the amount of information available, especially at the molecular level is lacking for some organisms such as Antarctic psychrophilic yeast. For instance, it is not known whether molecular chaperones in Antarctic yeasts play similar roles to those from mesophilic yeasts when they are exposed to heat stress. Therefore, this project aimed to determine the gene expression patterns and roles of molecular chaperones in Antarctic psychrophilic Glaciozyma antarctica PI12 that was exposed to heat stress. G. antarctica PI12 was grown at its optimal growth temperature of 12ºC and later exposed to heat stresses at 16ºC and 20ºC for 6 hours. Transcriptomes of those cells were extracted, sequenced and analyzed. Thirty-three molecular chaperone genes demonstrated differential expression of which 23 were up-regulated while 10 were down-regulated. Functions of up-regulated molecular chaperone genes were related to protein binding, response to a stimulus, chaperone binding, cellular response to stress, oxidation, and reduction, ATP binding, DNA-damage response and regulation for cellular protein metabolic process. On the other hand, functions of down-regulated molecular chaperone genes were related to chaperone-mediated protein complex assembly, transcription, cellular macromolecule metabolic process, regulation of cell growth and ribosome biogenesis. The findings provided information on how molecular chaperones work together in a complex network to protect the cells under heat stress. It also highlights the evolutionary conserved protective role of molecular chaperones in psychrophilic yeast, G. antarctica, and mesophilic yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Studies of the Quaternary evolution of the Hornsund Region in Spitsbergen focused in nine key areas, in which detailed fieldworks with mapping and sampling to radiocarbon and thermoluminescence analyses have been done. Glacial history of the Hornsund Region is known from the Torellkjegla (Holsteinian) Interglacial up to the recent times. The Wedel Jarlsberg Land (Saalian) Glaciation was the most widespread in this part of Spitsbergen and consisted of two stades(?). It was followed by considerable glacier retreat during the Bogstranda (Eemian) Interglacial, the latter being represented by development of soils. Four glacier advances (the two younger ones are the Lisbetdalen and the Slaklidalen stages) occurred during the Sörkapp Land (Vistulian) Glaciation. Three glacier advances (Gronfjorden and Revdalen stages, followed by the Little Ice Age) were recognized for the Holocene. The oldest and highest (although somewhat questionable) raised marine beaches come presumably from the Wedel Jarlsberg Land Glaciation. The beaches 80-100 m a.s.l. were formed during the Bogstranda (Eemian) Interglacial. The beaches 20-60 m a.s.l. are correlated with the Sórkapp Land Glaciation. All the lower marine beaches were formed during the Holocene.

This paper discusses the results of gravimetric and magnetic investigations carried out on the Hans Glacier (Hansbreen) in the area of the Hornsund Fiord in Spitsbergen. These pilot investigations were performed in profiles running across to the extension of the glacier. Analysis of the magnetic measurements permits the supposition that in the base of the glacier there are amphibolites assigned to the Skålfjellet series, one of the oldest links of the metamorphic complex in Spitsbergen. Fig. 3 shows the behaviour of the amphibolites determined from the qualitative and quantitative properties of the anomalies ΔT. This paper also determined the thickness of the glacier in a cross-section 1.5 km distant from its front. From interpretation of the gravity anomaly, thickness varies between several and more than 100 m, taking the highest values in the central part of the glacier.

Złoże dolomitów Ujków Stary jest pozabilansowym fragmentem dawnego złoża rud cynku i ołowiu kopalni Bolesław. Opracowanie jego dokumentacji geologicznej z 2006 roku stworzyło nowe perspektywy pozyskania surowca skalnego ze skał dolomitycznych dolnego i środkowego wapienia muszlowego, występujących w serii złożowej. Skały te są wyraźnie zróżnicowane pod względem cech strukturalnych i teksturalnych oraz udziału składników mineralnych. W artykule przedstawiono charakterystykę tej zmienności na podstawie badań próbek skał pobranych z różnych części dwóch poziomów eksploatacyjnych złoża. Stwierdzono, że w złożu występują dolomity o strukturze mikrosparytowej i sparytowej (drobnokrystalicznej i średniokrystalicznej) oraz brekcje dolomityczne. Dowiedziono, że różnorodność petrograficzna skał, związana z ich genezą, ma istotny wpływ na zmienność ich podstawowych fizyczno-mechanicznych właściwości: gęstości objętościowej, nasiąkliwości i wytrzymałości na ściskanie. Ta zmienność petrograficzna skał decyduje także o niejednorodności jakościowej uzyskanych z nich kruszyw. Podstawą do wnioskowania w tym zakresie były wyniki badań odporności na ścieranie (wskaźnik mikro-Devala) i rozdrabnianie (wskaźnik Los Angeles) oraz ocena poziomu reaktywności alkalicznej kruszyw reprezentujących wybrane odmiany dolomitów oraz mieszaninę wszystkich wydzielonych odmian. Stwierdzono, że poszczególne partie kruszywa dolomitowego, pozyskiwane z różnych części złoża, mogą odpowiadać odmiennym kategoriom, określonym przez normy PN-EN. Wykazują one tym samym zróżnicowaną przydatność do stosowania ich między innymi w betonach, mieszankach bitumicznych stosowanych w powierzchniach przeznaczonych do ruchu oraz w niezwiązanych i związanych hydraulicznie materiałach używanych w obiektach budowlanych i budownictwie drogowym.

Design of a delta/polygon-connected autotransformer based 36-pulse ac-dc converter is presented in this paper. The 36-pulse topology is obtained via two paralleled eighteen-pulse ac-dc converters each of them consisting of a nine-phase (nine-leg) diode bridge rectifier. For independent operation of paralleled diode-bridge rectifiers, two interphase transformers (IPT) is designed and implemented. A transformer is designed to supply the rectifier. The design procedure of magnetics is in a way such that makes it suitable for retrofit applications where a six-pulse diode bridge rectifier is being utilized. The proposed structure has been implemented and simulated using Matlab/Simulink software under different load conditions. Simulation results confirmed the significant improvement of the power quality indices (consistent with the IEEE-519 standard requirements) at the point of common coupling. Furthermore, near unity power factor is obtained for a wide range of DTCIMD operation. A comparison is made between 6-pulse and proposed converters from view point of power quality indices. Results show that input current total harmonic distortion (THD) is less than 4% for the proposed topology at variable loads.

This research proposes a method to enhance the payload message by embedding messages on the dilated edge areas by the Least Significant Bit (LSB) method. To add security aspects to messages, messages are not embedded directly on the LSB but encrypted with XOR operations with Most Significant Bit (MSB). The experimental results of the test in this study showed that the dilation process to some extent can increase the payload of 18.65% and the average bpp is 1.42 while maintaining the imperceptibilty quality of stego image with an average PSNR value of about 47 dB, SSIM is 0.9977 and MSE is 1.13.

Based on real-time multi-domain communication signal analysis architecture, a high-efficiency blind carrier frequency estimation algorithm using the power spectrum symmetry of the measured modulated signal is presented. The proposed algorithm, which utilizes the moving averaged power spectrum achieved by the realtime spectrum analysis, iteratively identifies the carrier frequency in according to the power difference between the upper sideband and lower sideband, which is defined and revised by the estimated carrier frequency in each iteration. When the power difference of the two sidebands converges to the preset threshold, the carrier frequency can be obtained. For the modulation analysis, the measured signal can be coarsely compensated by the estimated result, and the residual carrier frequency error is eliminated by a following carrier synchronization loop. Compared with previous works, owing to the moving averaged power spectrum normalization and the smart iterative step variation mechanism for the two sidebands definition, the carrier frequency estimation accuracy and speed can be significantly improved without increasing the computational effort. Experimental results are included to demonstrate the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm.

Optimization of dialysis needs methods for quantitative assessment of fluid and solutes transport in body compartments and solute

and fluid exchange between body and dialysate. A mathematical model describing the dynamics of these quantities during dialysis is presented. This model is first and foremost based on the existing models, but also includes some new solutions. All parts were combined and extended by the detailed descriptions of selected aspects. The “virtual patient” model was applied to simulate and test different methods of treatment and their influence on the condition of the patient. The purpose of this model is to serve as a decision support system for selection of “optimal” treatment options for particular patient.

The presented article is a report on progress in photovoltaic devices and material processing. A cadmium telluride solar cell as one of the most attractive option for thin-film polycrystalline cell constructions is presented. All typical manufacturing steps of this device, including recrystalisation and junction activation are explained. A new potential field of application for this kind of device - the BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaic) is named and discussed. All possible configuration options for this application, according to material properties and exploitation demands are considered. The experimental part of the presented paper is focused on practical implementation of the high- temperature polymer foil as the substrate of the newly designed device by the help of ICSVT (Isothermal Close Space Vapour Transport) technique. The evaluation of the polyester and polyamide foils according to the ICSVT/CSS manufacturing process parameters is described and discussed. A final conclusion on practical verification of these materials is also given.