Blockchain technology currently receives a lot of public attention with its disruptive potential to rebuild a currently state of economy. While blockchain technology is treated potentially disruptive in socio-economic environment, there is a lack of understanding where and how blockchain technology is effectively applicable and where it has mentionable practical effects. The use of this technology inside many businesses caused a need to create a system of tools and methods allow properly description to generate valuable information for governments, management, customers etc. Due to a lack of information related to blockchain technology it is a must to explore potential of blockchain in the context of risk. This paper examinees a problem of implementation blockchain technology within finance industry. The main aim of the article was to outline how important is to understand potential of blockchain technology and its limitations, therefore the author prepared a model which can be used to classify blockchain technology implementations in finance industry. This study describes existing issues in the financial aspect.
The distribution of planktonic Ostracoda (Halocyprididae) was studied based on vertically-stratified zooplankton samples collected by hauling 200 p.m - mesh net by day and by night during two austral seasons: summer 1985/1986 and winter 1989, from the 1200 m deep Croker Passage off the Antarctic Peninsula. Seven species of Ostracoda were recorded: Alacia belgicae, Alacia hettacra, Melaconchoecia isocheira, Metaconchoecia skogsbergi, Boroecia antipoda, Disconchoecia aff. elegans and Proceroecia brachyaskos. The first three species, endemic to Antarctic waters, were predominant (about 90%). Generally Ostracoda were most numerous in 600-200 m layer in summer and in 1000-400 m layer in winter. In the investigated area there was a clear contrast between the abundance of Ostracoda during austral summer and scarcity during austral winter.
New information about presence and features of some Lecanora species as well as their ecology and distribution in Antarctica are provided. Lecanora dispersa (Pers.) Sommerf. is confirmed to occur in the Antarctic region; L. sverdrupiana Řvst. is recorded for the first time from maritime Antarctica; L. torrida Vain. is reported as new for that Antarctic area and for the southern hemisphere. An attempt to summarize the present state of knowledge for the genus Lecanora in the Antarctic region is made. Several species, which require more in depth studies, are briefly discussed and an up-to-date list of species occurring in Antarctica is included.
Distribution and numbers of Lobodon carcinophagus and Leptonychotes weddelli were evaluated. Lobodon carcinophagus dominated on ice floes in offshore zone of Mirnyj Station and in regions of open pack ice close to the northern edge of ice fields. Leptonychotes weddelli dominated only on the shore-ice close to Leningradskaja Station in March 1979. A thesis of the lowered daily activity of Leptonychotes weddelli was confirmed by observations.
During SIBEX the acoustically evaluated amount of krill in the Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage was very low with the mean density 3.24 individuals/m2 and 4.29 individuals/m2 accordingly. Any substantial quantities of krill were found North-West from the Elephant Island and North from the King George Island, where the density of krill exceeded 1000 individuals/m2 (about 100 t/nM2]). The total biomass was estimated at 70590 ton in the Bransfield Strait and at 122470 ton in the Drake Passage, which was many times less than during FIBEX 81, especially in the Bransfield Strait.
In the plankton samples collected with a Bongo net besides Euphausia superba the following species of the Euphausiacea were found:. £. frigida, crystallorophias, E. triacantha and T. macrura. The most aboundant and most frequently caught species was T. macrura equally distributed throughout the research area. The species E. frigida also occurred regularly though in much smaller numbers. E. triacantha occurred sporadically, mainly in the western part of the research region, and E. crystallorophias only at two stations in the Bransfield Strait. Some aspects of the biology and ecology of the mentioned above species are presented in this study.
On the basis of measurements of the depth of occurrence of 11000 krill aggregations and the biological analyses of these animals and measurements of some environmental factors the diurnal vertical distribution of aggregations is presented against the background of various environmental conditions. Vertical distribution of aggregations is closely related to the feeding rhythm of krill. Active vertical migrations have been recorded at civil twilight. The increasing and decreasing rate of aggregations in those periods is described.
Maximum values of the settling volume and dry weight of suspended particulate matter, were found in the open waters of the southern Drake Passage (between 60°8' S and 62° 11' S), and west of the Anvers Island. Minimum respective values were observed in the Bransfield Strait. The distribution of phytoplankton cell numbers and of algal biomass expressed as total cell volumes closely followed the distribution of particulate matter. Diatoms were the major algae of the plankton. Several species of the genera Chaetoceros, Nitzschia and Corethron were dominant and characteristic of the phytoplankton assemblages in different parts of the study area.
Numbers of saprophytic bacteria were determined by the plate count in samples obtained at 45 oceanographic stations, from six standard depths between 10 and 150 m. Depending on the sampling place, the numbers of bacteria fluctuated between 0.8 x 102 to 4.3 x l 04 x 1-1 and 1.2 x l07 to 1.3 x 108, in a water column under 1 m2 sea surface. Most of saprophytic bacteria were observed at stations located south and south-east of the King George Island, and also north and north-west of the Anvers Island. Fewer numbers were found in areas of large krill swarms in the Bransfield Strait, between 58°30' and 62°30' W, and in the north-western part of the research area, far away from the South Shetland Islands.
Between December 1978 and March 1979 studies on the ichthyofauna distribution in the regions of the Scotia Sea and Antarctic Peninsula were carried out on board of the r/v "Profesor Siedlecki" during the Fourth Polish Marine Antarctic Expedition. Fisheries were carried out using bottom and pelagic trawls. The presence of about 60 species of 15 families, including among others 17 species of Nototheniidae, 9 species of Chaenichthyidae and 7 species of Bathydraconidae was recorded. Iti the waters of the west regions of the Antarctic such species as Trematomus centronotus and Austrolycichtys botriocephalus were found.
In the region under investigations 30 species of seabirds were observed. In the southern part of Drake Passage Daption capense. and Oceanites oceanicus predominated quantitatively, Macronectes giganteus, M. halli and Pachyptila spp. were subdominant. The vessel was often accompanied by Diomedea exulans. In the Bransfield Strait Fulmarus glacialoides, D. capense and O. oceanicus were predominant. M. giganteus was subdominant. The estimated value of the biomass of seabirds was the highest in the region to the west of Elephant Island, slightly lower in the region of Anvers Island, Smith Island and Livingston Island, and the lowest in the south-eastern part of Bransfield Strait and the middle part of the investigated region of Drake Passage.
In recent years, many scientific and industrial centres in the world developed a virtual reality systems or laboratories. The effect of user “immersion” into virtual reality in such systems is largely dependent on optical properties of the system. In this paper, problems of luminance distribution uniformity in CAVE-type virtual reality systems are analyzed. For better characterization of CAVE luminance nonuniformity corner and edge CAVE nonuniformity were introduced. Based on described CAVE-type virtual reality laboratory, named Immersive 3D Visualization Lab (I3DVL) just opened at the Gdansk University of Technology, luminance nonuniformity of the system is evaluated and discussed. Data collection of luminance distribution allows for software compensation of intensity distribution of individual images projected onto the screen (luminance non-uniformity minimization) in the further research.
Four Ostracoda species belonging to one family, Halocyprididae, were found in plankton material collected from the Scotia Sea and off the King George Island (the Antarctic) during the austral summer 1988/1989. Alacia belgicae, A. hettacra and Metaconchoecia isocheira were dominant making up to nearly 99% of all Ostracoda. The horizontal distribution was modified by variability of hydrological conditions. The higher concentrations of chlorophyll a and phytoplankton, which were found in the mid- and eastern parts of the Scotia Sea, coincided with the highest densities of Ostracoda. The influence of ice pack presence in the Scotia Sea upon the higher abundance of Ostracoda in the period investigated in comparison with the earlier studies was distinctive. A vertical distribution analysis confirmed that the three above-mentioned endemic species were most abundant in the mesopelagial. The population structures of A. belgicae, A. hettacra, and M. isocheira were analysed. The presence of the youngest stage of A. belgicae in the Scotia Sea confirmed the beginning of reproduction of this species at that time. The vertical distribution patterns of A. hettacra and M. isocheira populations were similar, although their age structures in comparison with A. belgicae differ significantly. This was consistent with their higher mean population stage values.
In the region of the Admiralty Bay 12 nesting bird species were encountered of a total abundance of 40890 pairs and biomass amounting to about 395000 kg Three penguin species constituted 91.7% in abundance, their biomass constituting 98.7% of the whole community. Densities of abundance and biomass of adult birds in relation to the living area of penguins (i.e. 775 km2) ranged from 32.3 to 121.4 indiv. km-2 and from 115.1 to 4730 kg k m-2.
Within the SIBEX study area greater concentrations of net-phytoplanklon biomass and numbers were found in waters with clearly defined physical characteristics of either Bellingshausen Sea (an area north and west of Anvers Island and northern part of the Bransfield Strait) or Weddell Sea (south eastern entrance to the Bransfield Strait). Low biomass and cell numbers occurred in the southern Drake Passage and in the south central Bransfield Strait, which in the latter case, appears to be a characteristic feature of ihsse waters during the entire phytoplankton growing season. Early summer blooms of Chaetoceros neglectus and C. tortissimum were mainly responsible for high values of phytoplankton biomass. Some diatoms, such as C. socialis were exclusively associated with Weddell Sea water; a replacement of one water type by another in the Bransfield Strait may considerably modify phytoplankton populations which are present there.
This paper reports on 29 species of lichenicolous fungi collected in the Hornsund region and Sørkapp Land area, Spitsbergen. New to science are Hystrix gen. nov., Slellifraga gen. nov., Dactylospora cladoniicola sp. nov., Hystrix peltigericola sp. nov., Stellifraga cladoniicola sp. nov. and Zwackhiomyces macrosporus sp. nov. A further 15 species are new to Svalbard.
This paper reports on eleven species of hepatics collected on King George Island, South Shetland Islands (6Г50'—62°15'S latitude and 57°30'—59 00'W longitude). A short account of the vegetation of this Antarctic island is provided and the role of liverworts in particular plant communities is discussed. Two species, Hygrolembidium ventrosum (Mitt.) Grolle and Scapania abcordata (Berggr.) S. Arnell are reported for the first time from the Antarctic botanical zone; the latter is recorded for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere and, additionally, this is the first record of the genus Scapania from Antarctica. A detailed description of the habitat of each taxon is given and distribution maps for the eleven species are provided. A key to the eleven species from King George Island is given, and a detailed taxonomic discussion is included for Cephaloziella varians (Gott.) Steph and Lophozia excisa (Dicks.) Dumort. The former is considered to be synonymous with the widespread Arctic species C. arctica Bryhn & Douin ex K. Müll.
The irrigation system control is identified as a complex hierarchical process of stochastic nature, at the head of which the uncertainties, caused by random variations of meteorological factors (climate) and diversion capacity regime from irrigation canals, were laid.
Under such conditions application of the determinate methods for irrigation system control regarding the effectiveness surrenders to the formalistic and empirical methods.
The most appropriate method is the developed by us, method of preventive control.
As a result of retrospective analysis, to each system status, for example, diversion capacity, it is fixed the factors which lead to its changes, for example, rain layer or total evaporation. To every consequence “factor – system status” it is fixed the indicator and it is determined the probability of its exceeding in retrospective series.
The control is in following of such indicator dynamics, forecasting of the most probably changes within system status and adjustment of the water delivery regime to canal reaches with diversion capacity regime from irrigation canals by means of standard preventive graphical chats of water flow control within hydraulic structures and pumping stations.
Use of such control method allows to minimize the uncertainty influence, also it does not require the major modifications in the design and engineering infrastructure.
As an exception can be the measures, directed to the increase of self-regulating qualities of irrigation systems, namely the ability of on-line water volume control, which is regulated in the idle capacities, provided in canal beds or special reservoirs.
The example of such decision in practice is the Kakhovskaya irrigation system in the South of Ukraine. The use factor of water resources on this system reaches 0.85, the technological discharge water does not exceed 7%, the deficit of productive moisture reserve in soil at the end of interirrigation period does not exceed 20% and all these data were obtained under adverse weather conditions.