Malignant melanomas are the most deadly type of skin cancer, yet detected early have high chances of successful treatment. In the last twenty years, the interest in automatic recognition and classification of melanoma dynamically increased, partly because of appearing public datasets with dermatoscopic images of skin lesions. Automated computer-aided skin cancer detection in dermatoscopic images is a very challenging task due to uneven sizes of datasets, huge intra-class variation with small interclass variation, and the existence of many artifacts in the images. One of the most recognized methods of melanoma diagnosis is the ABCD method. In the paper, we propose an extended version of this method and an intelligent decision support system based on neural networks that uses its results in the form of hand-crafted features. Automatic determination of the skin features with the ABCD method is difficult due to the large diversity of images of various quality, the existence of hair, different markers and other obstacles. Therefore, it was necessary to apply advanced methods of pre-processing the images. The proposed system is an ensemble of ten neural networks working in parallel, and one network using their results to generate a final decision. This system structure enables to increase the efficiency of its operation by several percentage points compared with a single neural network. The proposed system is trained on over 5000 and tested afterwards on 200 skin moles. The presented system can be used as a decision support system for primary care physicians, as a system capable of self-examination of the skin with a dermatoscope and also as an important tool to improve biopsy decision making.

The condition of the Polish energy sector does not inspire any trust of its customers. Outdated machinery and the lack of investment in new technologies make it necessary to take action to ensure the stability and continuity of electricity supplies to the end-user. In Poland, the industrial power sector is based on the use of coal and despite the Government’s announcements to resign from this raw material, more and more power investments are being made to generate energy from coal (Ostrołęka power plant). The solution which compensates for the current state of the Polish power industry is the development of distributed generation. The article presents a description of dispersed sources, power market, its organization and problems arising from its implementation. Distributed energy sources in the form of micro installations, energy clusters and virtual power plants have been described and characterized as well. It also assesses the impact of power market introduction on the development of distributed energy sources. The impact of the power market on the development of distributed sources is very hard to predict and determine. The functioning and further development of the energy sector, including the capacity market, strongly depends on the laws, regulations, as well as the economic and political situation in Poland and Europe. The social factor will also play an important role as the introduction of the capacity market will burden the financial side of each energy consumer. On the basis of the data presented on particular sources and distributed systems, one can only make predictions related to the possible effects of introducing the capacity market for the development of distributed sources.

Portugal is a country on the Iberian Peninsula with a population of just over 10 million people. The country has no reserves of energy resources such as oil, natural gas, or coal and is therefore dependent on their imports. Nevertheless, it has no problems ensuring energy security. It imports oil from countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, and gas from Algeria, Nigeria, the United States of America and Qatar. All imports of crude oil and most imports of petroleum products pass through the two main ports of Sines and Leixões, while gas is imported via the Sines LNG terminal and two cross-border gas pipelines at Campo Maior and Valença do Minho. Coal imports are no longer a problem following the closure of the last coal-fired power plant in 2021. As recently as 2019, fossil fuels accounted for as much as 76% of Portugal’s total primary energy supply, with oil accounting for 43%, but the majority of this demand was consumed by road transport (51%), followed by oil-based industries (16%) and household heating (5%). Now, however, the situation is changing. Hydropower and rapidly developing wind and solar energy account for a large share of electricity generation. By 2030, Portugal plans to commission between 600 and 900 MW of new solar capacity annually. Energy security in Portugal is the responsibility of the government and the relevant ministries. As in many other European countries, there is a clear drive towards decarbonization and measures are being taken to ensure that this process takes place as soon as possible, as is explicitly stated in Portuguese government documents. The analysis presented in this article shows that Portugal, despite lacking significant energy resources, can guarantee its energy security at a high level.

There is a sulfide mineralization vein type in the Cindakko area, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi. The results of mineralogical studies on the Cindakko prospects for sulfide ore mineralization are explained in this paper. Petrographic, mineragraphic, and XRD methods analyzed the mineralization and alteration samples from the research area. The results showed that the host rock mineralization is basalt, a member of the Baturappe-Cindakko Volcano from the Late Miocene age. The identified hydrothermal alteration mineral associations include quartz, chlorite, epidote, biotite, actinolite, and pyrite, generally formed in propyllitic alteration zones mainly characterized by chlorite. The analysis provides the occurrence of mineralization types: crustiform-banding quartz veins, vuggy quartz, and disseminated, contain hypogenic pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, bornite, and tennantite ores, and supergene ore minerals in the form of covellite. Ore textures recognized under a microscope are intergrowth, replacement, open-space filling, and exsolution. Based on the interpretation of temperature stability of hydrothermal alteration minerals, it is concluded that it was formed at approximately 200 to 320°C with the hydrothermal fluid pH almost neutral. The fundamental characteristics of hydrothermal alteration, ore mineral assemblage and texture, mineralization type, temperature range form, and hydrothermal fluid pH indicate that the mineralization in the Cindakko Prospect is an epithermal type.

Shaft-stator rub and cracks on rotors, which have devastating effects on the industrial equipment, cause nonlinear and in some cases chaotic lateral vibrations. On the other hand, vibrations caused by machinery faults can be torsional in cases such as rub. Therefore, a combined analysis of lateral and torsional vibrations and extraction of chaotic features from these vibrations is an effective approach for rotor vibration monitoring. In this study, lateral and torsional vibrations of rotors have been examined for detecting cracks and rub. For this purpose, by preparing a laboratory model, the lateral vibrations of a system with crack and rub have been acquired. After that, a practical method for measuring the torsional vibrations of the system is introduced. By designing and installing this measurement system, practical test data were acquired on the laboratory setup. Then, the method of phase space reconstruction was used to examine the effect of faults on the chaotic behaviour of the system. In order to diagnose the faults based on the chaotic behaviour of the system, largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE), approximate entropy (ApEn) and correlation dimension were calculated for a healthy system and also for a system with rub and a crack. Finally, by applying these parameters, the chaotic feature space is introduced in order to diagnose the intentionally created faults. The results show that in this space, the distinction between the various defects in the system can be clearly identified, which enables to use this method in fault diagnosis of rotating machinery.