The Cannae Battlefield (216 BC), a pivotal engagement during the Second Punic War, led to the destruction of one of the largest consular armies ever raised by the Republic. Historians have for centuries paid the utmost attention to unitby- unit dispositions and tactical maneuvers without studying the local geology and particularly the geomorphology of the battle site. A brief traverse over the battle site, adjacent to the museum in 2004, led to a hidden defile, heretofore not mentioned in the literature, one which may have helped turn the tide for the Carthaginians, and offering prospect of further geoarchaeological investigation.

The purpose of the study is to reconstruct the cognitive semantics of the verbal predicates “чудиться”, “почудиться”, taking into account their inner form, and also to suggest a linguo‑cognitive model for explaining polysemy. The object of the study is the different contextual meanings of the verbal predicates “чудиться”, “почудиться” in the contexts of fictional discourse, the subject is cognitive semantics as a repeated structure of cognitive processes reflecting the patterns of understanding and thinking. The article presents a typology of contexts for the functioning of verbal predicates, their different contextual meanings are defined, the semantic dependence of the contextual meaning of the verb word on the semantics of the broader context analyzed, the role of the inner form in the creation of polysemy determined, while a linguo‑cognitive model for explaining polysemy in terms of “gestalt”, “focus”, “background – figure”, “focusing – defocusing” is suggested.

Antarctica is perceived as one of the most pristine environments on Earth, though increasing human activities and global climate change raise concerns about preserving the continent’s environmental quality. Limited in distribution, soils are particularly vulnerable to disturbances and pollution, yet lack of baseline studies limits our abilities to recognize and monitor adverse effects of environmental change. To improve the understanding of natural geochemical variability of soils, a survey was conducted in the fellfield environments of Edmonson Point (Victoria Land). Soil samples were analyzed for six major (Fe, Ca, Mg, Na, K and Ti) and 24 trace elements (As, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sn, Sr, Tl, U, V, Y, Zn and Zr). Relationships among element concentrations in the samples and local bedrock were analyzed to identify their origin and similarities in geochemical cycles. Element concentrations in the soils were highly variable but generally within the lowest values reported elsewhere in Antarctica. Though values of Cd, Mn, Ni and Zn were relatively high, they are consistent with those in the local soil-forming rocks indicating an origin from natural sources rather than anthropogenic contamination. Chemical composition of soils vs. rocks pointed to alkali basalts as the lithogenic source of the soil matrix, but also indicated considerable alteration of elemental composition in the soil. Considering local environmental settings, the soil elemental content was likely affected by marine-derived inputs and very active hydrological processes which enhanced leaching and removal of mobilized elements. Both of these processes may be of particular importance within the context of global climate change as the predicted increases in temperature, water availability and length of the summer season would favor mineral weathering and increase geochemical mobility of elements.

Position time series from permanent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations are commonly used for estimating secular velocities of discrete points on the Earth’s surface. An understanding of background noise in the GNSS position time series is essential to obtain realistic estimates of velocity uncertainties. The current study focuses on the investigation of background noise in position time series obtained from thirteen permanent GNSS stations located in Nepal Himalaya using the spectral analysis method. The power spectrum of the GNSS position time series has been estimated using the Lomb–Scargle method. The iterative nonlinear Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm has been applied to estimate the spectral index of the power spectrum. The power spectrum can be described by white noise in the high frequency zone and power law noise in the lower frequency zone. The mean and the standard deviation of the estimated spectral indices are −1.46±0.14,−1.39±0.16 and −1.53±0.07 for north, east and vertical components, respectively. On average, the power law noise extends up to a period of ca. 21 days. For a shorter period, i.e. less than ca. 21 days, the spectra are white. The spectral index corresponding to random walk noise (ca. –2) is obtained for a site located above the base of a seismogenic zone which can be due to the combined effect of tectonic and nontectonic factors rather than a spurious monumental motion. Overall, the usefulness of investigating the background noise in the GNSS position time series is discussed.

In the paper, the BTS (Background Traffic Simulator) tool is proposed to capture network traffic and then reproduce it in a simulations using the ns-3 simulator extension module. This new method of generating background traffic allows for repetitive testing of simulation scenarios under real network conditions. The authors described the differences between the previously available methods and the proposed solution. The operation of all the most important elements of the proposed tool has been described. The influence of the generated background traffic on the simulation scenario was presented as well as the results of the operation.

Studies of background donor concentration (BDC) in HgCdTe samples grown with different types of technology were performed with the use of ion milling as a means of eliminating the compensating acceptors. In bulk crystals, films grown with liquid phase epitaxy and films fabricated with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates, BDC of the order of ~10¹⁴ cm^-3 was revealed. Films grown with metal−organic chemical vapour deposition and with MBE on GaAs substrates showed BDC of the order of ~10¹⁵ cm^-3. A possibility of assessing the BDC in acceptor (arsenic)−doped HgCdTe was demon− strated. In general, the studies showed the effectiveness of ion milling as a method of reducing electrical compensation in n−type MCT and as an excellent tool for assisting evaluation of BDC.

The same speech sounds (phones) produced by different speakers can sometimes exhibit significant differences. Therefore, it is essential to use algorithms compensating these differences in ASR systems. Speaker clustering is an attractive solution to the compensation problem, as it does not require long utterances or high computational effort at the recognition stage. The report proposes a clustering method based solely on adaptation of UBM model weights. This solution has turned out to be effective even when using a very short utterance. The obtained improvement of frame recognition quality measured by means of frame error rate is over 5%. It is noteworthy that this improvement concerns all vowels, even though the clustering discussed in this report was based only on the phoneme a. This indicates a strong correlation between the articulation of different vowels, which is probably related to the size of the vocal tract.

Reverberant responses are widely used to characterize acoustic properties of rooms, such as the early decay time (EDT) and the reverberation times T20 and T30. However, in real conditions a sound decay is often deformed by background noise, thus a precise evaluation of decay times from noisy room responses is the main problem. In this paper this issue is examined by means of numerical method where the decay times are estimated from the decay function that has been determined by nonlinear polynomial regression from a pressure envelope obtained via the discrete Hilbert transform. In numerical experiment the room responses were obtained from simulations of a sound decay for two-room coupled system. Calculation results have shown that background noise slightly affects the evaluation of reverberation times T20 and T30 as long as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is not smaller than about 25 and 35 dB, respectively. However, when the SNR is close to about 20 and 30 dB, high overestimation of these times may occur as a result of bending up of the decay curve during the late decay.

This paper researches the application of grey system theory in cost forecasting of the coal mine. The grey model (GM(1.1)) is widely used in forecasting in business and industrial systems with advantages of minimal data, a short time and little fluctuation. Also, the model fits exponentially with increasing data more precisely than other prediction techniques. However, the traditional GM(1.1) model suffers from the poor anti-interference ability. Aimed at the flaws of the conventional GM(1.1) model, this paper proposes a novel dynamic forecasting model with the theory of background value optimization and Fourier-series residual error correction based on the traditional GM(1.1) model. The new model applies the golden segmentation optimization method to optimize the background value and Fourier-series theory to extract periodic information in the grey forecasting model for correcting the residual error. In the proposed dynamic model, the newest data is gradually added while the oldest is removed from the original data sequence. To test the new model’s forecasting performance, it was applied to the prediction of unit costs in coal mining, and the results show that the prediction accuracy is improved compared with other grey forecasting models. The new model gives a MAPE & C value of 0.14% and 0.02, respectively, compared to 1.75% and 0.37 respectively for the traditional GM(1.1) model. Thus, the new GM(1.1) model proposed in this paper, with advantages of practical application and high accuracy, provides a new method for cost forecasting in coal mining, and then help decision makers to make more scientific decisions for the mining operation.

The microphone data collected in aeroacoustic wind tunnel test contains not only desired aeroacoustic signal but also background noise generated by the jet or the valve of the wind tunnel, so the desired aeroacoustic characteristics is difficult to be highlighted due to the low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Classical cross spectral matrix removal can only reduce the microphone self-noise, but its effect is limited for jet noise. Therefore, an Airflow Background Noise Suppression method based on the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (ABNSEEMD) is proposed to eliminate the influence of background noise on aeroacoustic field reconstruction. The new method uses EEMD to adaptively separate the background noise in microphone data, which has good practicability for increasing SNR of aeroacoustic signal. A localization experiment was conducted by using two loudspeakers in wind tunnel with 80 m/s velocity. Results show that proposed method can filter out the background noise more effectively and improve the SNR of the loudspeakers signal compared with spectral subtraction and cepstrum methods. Moreover, the aeroacoustic field produced by a NACA EPPLER 862 STRUT airfoil model was also measured and reconstructed. Delay-and-sum beamforming maps of aeroacoustic source were displayed after the background noise was suppressed, which further demonstrates the proposed method’s advantage.

Forty years ago Antonina Kłoskowska built up a universal paradigm of three social frames of culture. They included: frame one, i.e. local production of symbolic processes, close to folk culture; frame two — understood as a network of local institutions of culture; frame three — involving a radiation of pan-local centers, in particular a reception of contents transmitted by mass media. A basic sociological criterion of differentiating between these categories includes a type of contact, and adjacency of sender and recipient of symbolic communication. Currently, following years of development of digital means of communication, computer networks and fiber optic technologies, audio-visual systems, mobile telephones, etc. a proposal of frames of culture must be examined again. New media shape new vehicles of expression (e.g. hypertext), but most importantly they inspire specific social relations. Discussion over cultural framework is also triggered by accelerated processes of economic and social transformation, advanced globalization, increase of living standards and dissemination of consumption attitudes, changes in leisure activities of the middle class. In more narrowly understood domain of institutional and professional culture one witnessed the processes of European deregulation and release of culture from state, which in Eastern Europe was accompanied by abolition of censorship and a different model of culture distribution, which is controlled by market and cultural (creative) industry rather than by central government. As a result, the nature of direct communication among people is subject to ongoing transformation. We witness more and more indirect cultural communication (off-line and on-line). Modified and broadened proposal of social frames of culture includes five rather than three paradigms, namely: the culture of indirect communication, the culture of associations and volunteers; the culture of local institutions (public and private), mass culture versus pop culture, cyber-culture, culture of network community.

One has to underline that in the new reality of our civilization we can still use analytic principles of Kłoskowska’s typology. First, we can treat spiritual culture as a phenomenon of autotelic semiosis with pragmatic definition of sign; second, while describing social functioning of culture we can use a sociological criterion of contact and adjacency.

In this paper, the relationship between Chinese speech intelligibility (CSI) scores of the elderly aged 60–69 and over 70 years old, and speech transmission index (STI) were investigated through the auralization method under different reverberation time and background noise levels (BNL, 40 dBA and 55 dBA). The results show that the CSI scores of the elderly are significantly worse than those of young adults. For the elderly over 70, the CSI scores become much lower than those of young adults. To be able to achieve the same CSI, the elderly, especially those over 70, need much higher STI and greater SNR than the young. The elderly aged 60–69 and over 70 need to improve their STI by 0.419 and 0.058 respectively under BNL 40 dBA, as well as 0.282 and 0.072 respectively under BNL 55 dBA, so as to obtain the same CSI scores as the young adults.

Concentrations and elemental composition of fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM2.5-10) ambient particles,

at two sampling points located at the same urban background sites, were investigated. The points were 20 m

distant from each other and at various heights (2 and 6 m) above the ground. A dichotomous sampler, equipped

with a virtual impactor, and a cascade impactor were used to sample the dust. An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was used in the elemental analyses. The investigations revealed heterogeneity of the spatial distribution

and the elemental composition of suspended dust at the investigated urban background site. Coarse dust, whose

concentration at 2.0 m above the ground was affected by secondary emission from roads, soil and other local

low-level sources in some periods, appeared more heterogeneous.