It was expected that there would be a relationship between plant density and arrangement within soybean plantations and ground beetles due to changes of abiotic habitat conditions. The aim of this study was to determinate the effect of different plant arrangements of soybean plants on the abundance and species diversity of ground beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae). The studies were conducted from 2015 to 2017 at the Experimental Research Station, Wrocław, Poland. The occurrence of beetles was examined on soybeans, growing in four different treatments: row spacing of 15 cm or 30 cm, and seeding density of 50 or 90 seeds per m2. The experiment was conducted in a split-plot design in four replicates. Ground beetles were collected with 16 pitfall traps, with one trap in the middle part of each plot. The obtained results show that the general number of ground beetles was similar between the treatments. Some minor effects were found in species number, which was higher in the lower row spacing treatment. Only less abundant species were significantly affected. The most abundant species in all years and treatments were Pseudoophonus rufipes, Harpalus affinis, Calathus fuscipes and Pterostichus melanarius. The abundance of the above-listed common ground beetle species did not differ significantly between treatments.

This paper focuses on automatic locking of tracking filters used in optical frequency transfer systems. General concept of such a system is briefly described and the problems with its automatic startup, originating in the use of the analog phase locked loop to filter weak, received signal, are discussed. A supervisory circuitry and algorithm to solve these problems is proposed. The frequency of the signal to be filtered is measured indirectly and the output frequency of the tracking filter is monitored. In the case of lack of synchronism (i:e: after the startup) a significant difference of these frequencies is measured and the supervisory algorithm forces the filter to tune into the right frequency and then allows it to synchronize. A system with the proposed solution was implemented and tested experimentally on a fiber optic link with high attenuation and multiple optical connectors. Transient signals during locking were recorded to investigate the system’s behavior in real environment. The system was evaluated in the link causing synchronization losses every 17 min on average. During measurements over 3 days, the whole system was synchronized for over 99.98% of time despite these difficult conditions.

The micro-Particle Image Velocimetry (micro-PIV) was used to measure flow velocities in micro-channels

in two passive micromixers: a microfluidic Venturi mixer and a microfluidic spiral mixer, both preceded

by standard “Y” micromixers. The micro-devices were made of borosilicate glass, with micro-engineering

techniques dedicated to micro-PIV measurements. The obtained velocity profiles show differences in the

flow structure in both cases. The micro-PIV enables understanding the micro-flow phenomena and can help

to increase reproducibility of micromixers in mass production.

Abstract The paper shows that symmetry forms a basis for relations between different properties of material. In this way, the key quantities for specification of an atomistic model are identified. Material symmetry distinguishes representative processes of small strains. It is proved that the errors in the densities of the energies stored in these processes determine the range of inaccuracies with which an atomistic model recreates processes of small deformations. The errors are equal to the inaccuracies in the eigenvalues of the elasticity tensor, that is in the Kelvin moduli. For cubic crystals, the elementary processes indicated by the symmetry initiate the key paths of large deformations: Bain and trigonal ones. Therefore, the substantial errors in the Kelvin moduli lead to incorrect reconstructing the metastable phases: bcc, sc and bct. The elastic constants commonly used in the literature do not provide such information as the Kelvin moduli. Using the eigenvalues of the elasticity tensor as well as other key properties indicated by the symmetry, the EAM model proposed by A.F. Voter for copper is specified. The obtained potential more accurately reproduces small and large deformations and additionally, correctly describes defect formation as well as Cu dimer properties

In a follow-up to Ryszard Nycz’s work Culture as Verb this article outlines a new way of bringing forward his great project. The challenge it has to face is the cognitive dilemma that lurks at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences, or, in other words, the dissonance between the traditional paradigm of accumulating and developing the store of cultural knowledge and cognitive procedures that underpin new, experimental and inductive knowledge with a potential to effect qualitative change. The article contends that Nycz’s study allows us to bypass that dilemma. The ‘Third Way’, as it is called here, would open up new forms of innovation, i.e. not just knowledge whose value is determined by its utility for the systems of late capitalism, but a mode of concrete practice of rediscovering the outer world for the humanities. In the process of capturing and transforming of that world, the metaphors of embodied labour and of knowledge production (conceptualized as the verb) function as extraordinarily important tools of the humanities reinvented as a practical, embodied theory.