As it is found in the related published literatures, the transfer function (TF) evaluation method is the most feasible method for detection of winding mechanical faults in transformers. Therefore, investigation of an accurate method for evaluation of the TFs is very important. This paper presents three new indices to compare the transformer TFs and consequently to detect the winding mechanical faults. These indices are based on estimated rational functions. To develop the method, the necessary measurements are carried out on a 1.3 MVA transformer winding, under intact condition, as well as different fault conditions (axial displacement of winding). The obtained results demonstrate the high potential of proposed method in comparison with two other well-known indices. Additionally, two important methods for describing TFs by rational functions are studied and compared in this paper.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the matching function in the Polish labour market in 1994‒2008. Matching function is the relationship between outflows from unemployment to employment and the number of unemployed persons and vacancies as well as other variables which affect the efficiency of the matching process directly or indirectly. Such matching function in its augmented form is estimated here for Poland with the use of data from register of unemployed persons.

The results indicate that there is a statistically stronger impact of the unemployed than vacancies on new hires. Furthermore, the institutional conditions of the labour market, the structure of the unemployed and the participants of active labour market programs (ALMP) play a role in the matching process.

In deformation analyses, it is important to find a stable reference frame and therefore the stability of the possible reference points must be controlled. There are several methods to test such stability. The paper’s objective is to examine one of such methods, namely the method based on application of R-estimation, for its sensitivity to gross errors. The method in question applies three robust estimators, however, it is not robust itself. The robustness of the method depends on the number of unstable points (the fewer unstable points there are, the more robust is the proposed method). Such property makes it important to know how the estimates applied and the strategy itself respond to a gross error. The empirical influence functions (EIF) can provide necessary information and help to understand the response of the strategy for a gross error. The paper presents examples of EIFs of the estimates, their application in the strategy and describes how important and useful is such knowledge in practice.

Simultaneous propagation of vibrations and noise has an important role in the task of minimizing vibroacoustic hazards on the station of operator of the construction machinery. In many cases vibrations transferred by the construction are processed to noise in different points of the machine. As a result, they may increase the level of noise at the workplace. The paper presents the proposition of a simple estimation of noise and vibration propagation paths of the machine. On the basis of the analysis of hydraulic excavator an effectiveness of a proposed procedure was shown. This procedure helps to minimize the transfer of vibrations of power unit in selected frequency ranges which led to the change of overall noise level in operator’s cab about 5 dB.

This paper presents an overview of basic concepts, features and difficulties of the boundary element method (BEM) and examples of its application to exterior and interior problems. The basic concepts of the BEM are explained firstly, and different methods for treating the non-uniqueness problem are described. The application of the BEM to half-space problems is feasible by considering a Green's Function that satisfies the boundary condition on the infinite plane. As a special interior problem, the sound field in an ultrasonic homogenizer is computed. A combination of the BEM and the finite element method (FEM) for treating the problem of acoustic-structure interaction is also described. Finally, variants of the BEM are presented, which can be applied to problems arising in flow acoustics.

In spite of the fact that standardizing operations and increased awareness of hazards led to a significant improvement of vibroacoustic climate of operator’s stands of new machines, their long-term operation - often under difficult conditions - leads to a fast degradation of acoustic qualities of machines. Temporary operations performed during surveys and periodical overhauls are rarely effective, due to the lack of any guidelines. In this situation the authors propose the algorithm for selection of eventual screens or sound absorbing and sound insulating partitions, utilizing the measuring procedure aimed at identification, at the operator’s stand, of main noise components originated from various sources. On the basis of this procedure, the vibroacoustic energy propagation paths in the machine was estimated.

In the paper, the variation of the intensity of the geomagnetic field force is analysed in time and space. For the research, the data from measurements of the intensity of the geomagnetic field force at four airports (Kaunas, Klaip˙eda, Palanga andVilnius) and 6 geomagnetic field repeat stations aswell as the data from Belsk Magnetometric Observatory (Poland) were used. For the data analysis, the theory of covariance functions was applied. The estimates of the cross-covariance functions of the measured intensity of the geomagnetic field force or the estimates of auto-covariance functions of single data were calculated according to the random functions created from the force intensity measurement data arrays. The estimates of covariance functions were calculated upon varying the quantization interval on the time scale and applying the software created using Matlab package of procedures. The impact of radars of airports on the intensity of geomagnetic field variation and on changes of their covariance functions was established.

In this article, an engineering/physical dynamic system including losses is analyzed inrelation to the stability from an engineer’s/physicist’s point of view. Firstly, conditions for a Hamiltonian to be an energy function, time independent or not, is explained herein. To analyze stability of engineering system, Lyapunov-like energy function, called residual energy function is used. The residual function may contain, apart from external energies, negative losses as well. This function includes the sum of potential and kinetic energies, which are special forms and ready-made (weak) Lyapunov functions, and loss of energies (positive and/or negative) of a system described in different forms using tensorial variables. As the Lypunov function, residual energy function is defined as Hamiltonian energy function plus loss of energies and then associated weak and strong stability are proved through the first time-derivative of residual energy function. It is demonstrated how the stability analysis can be performed using the residual energy functions in different formulations and in generalized motion space when available. This novel approach is applied to RLC circuit, AC equivalent circuit of Gunn diode oscillator for autonomous, and a coupled (electromechanical) example for nonautonomous case. In the nonautonomous case, the stability criteria can not be proven for one type of formulation, however, it can be proven in the other type formulation.

The paper presents a simple, systematic and novel graphical method which uses computer graphics for prediction of limit cycles in two dimensional multivariable nonlinear system having rectangular hysteresis and backlash type nonlinearities. It also explores the avoidance of such self-sustained oscillations by determining the stability boundary of the system. The stability boundary is obtained using simple Routh Hurwitz criterion and the incremental input describing function, developed from harmonic balance concept. This may be useful in interconnected power system which utilizes governor control. If the avoidance of limit cycle or a safer operating zone is not possible, the quenching of such oscillations may be done by using the signal stabilization technique which is also described. The synchronization boundary is laid down in the forcing signal amplitudes plane using digital simulation. Results of digital simulations illustrate accuracy of the method for 2×2 systems.

This paper presents control method for multiple two-wheeled mobile robots moving in formation. Trajectory tracking algorithm from [7] is extended by collision avoidance, and is applied to the different type of formation task: each robot in the formation mimics motion of the virtual leader with a certain displacement. Each robot avoids collisions with other robots and circular shaped, static obstacles existing in the environment. Artificial potential functions are used to generate repulsive component of the control. Stability analysis of the closed-loop system is based on Lyapunov-like function. Effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by simulation results.

The article presents the process of functional changes in the area of the Metropolis of Poznań, i.e. 22 communes belonging to the Metropolia Poznań Association. The process was examined on the basis of changes in the employment structure and spatially different tendencies and segregation in the scope of dominant functions.

B a c k g ro u n d: Arterial hypertension (HTN) ranks among the most widespread chronic illnesses that affect adults in industrialized societies. The main goal of this study was to describe the control (inhibition) processes among HTN patients, and to evaluate the dynamics of brain activity while the patients were engaged in tasks measuring the cognitive aspect of self-control.

P a r t i c i p a n t s a n d p ro c e d u re: A set of neuropsychological tests (California Verbal Learning Test, Color Trails Test, The Trail Making Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test), and a fMRI Stroop test (rapid event design) were administered to 40 persons (20 HTN patients and 20 controls). Groups were matched in terms of age, sex, education, smoking history, and waist-to-hip ratio.

R e s u l t s: As revealed by fMRI, the HTN patients demonstrate left-hemisphere asymmetry in inhibitory processes. Also around 90% of patients had problems when completing tasks which rely on verbal and graphomotor aspects of self-control.

C o n c l u s i o n s: The results suggest that both cerebral hemispheres must interact correctly in order to provide successful executive control. The deficiencies in control and executive functioning, which were observed among the patients, prove that HTN negatively affects brain processes that control one’s cognitive activity.

In this paper, it has been shown that any measuring process can be modeled as a process of sampling of signals. Also, a notion of a special kind of functions, called here functions with attributes, has been introduced. The starting point here, in the first of the above themes, is an observation that in fact we are not able to measure and record truly continuously in time any physical quantity. The measuring process can be viewed as going stepwise that is in steps from one instant to another, similarly as a sampling of signals proceeds. Therefore, it can be modeled as the latter one. We discuss this in more detail here. And, the notion of functions with attributes, we introduced here, follows in a natural way from the interpretation of both the measuring process as well as the sampling of signals that we present in this paper. It turns out to be useful.

The aim of this work is to present new reliability characteristics expressed as functions of some variable expressing the measure of effective operation of a machine or a device. These characteristics can be used for both renewable and non-renewable objects. Their mathematical idea reflects the essence of already known characteristics, i.e. it expresses the probability of failure but expressed as a function of a variable, not necessarily identified with time.

Visualizations of mathematical functions have myriad applications in our daily lives, from the economy all the way to medicine.

This article presents methods and algorithms for the computation of isogenies of degree ℓn. Some of these methods are obtained using recurrence equations and generating functions. A standard multiplication based algorithm for computation of isogeny of degree ℓn has time complexity equal to O(n2 M (n log n)), where M(N) denotes the cost of integers of size N multiplication. The memory complexity of this algorithm is equal to O (n log (n log (n))). In this article are presented algorithms for:

• determination of optimal strategy for computation of degree ℓn isogeny,
• determination of cost of optimal strategy of computation of ℓn isogeny using solutions of recurrence equations,
• determination of cost of optimal strategy of computation of ℓn isogeny using recurrence equations,

where optimality in this context means that, for the given parameters, no other strategy exists that requires fewer operations for computation of isogeny.

Also this article presents a method using generating functions for obtaining the solutions of sequences (um) and (cm) where cm denotes the cost of computations of isogeny of degree ℓum for given costs p; q of ℓ-isogeny computation and ℓ-isogeny evaluation. These solutions are also used in the construction of the algorithms presented in this article.

Fatigue cracks in machine components are subjected to stress fields induced by the external load and residual stresses resulting from the surface treatment. Stress fields in such cases are characterized by non-uniform distributions and handbook stress intensity factor solutions for such configurations are not available. The method presented below is based on the generalized weight function technique enabling the stress intensity factors to be calculated for any Mode I loading applied to arbitrary planar convex crack. The method is particularly suitable for modeling fatigue crack growth in presence of complex stress fields.

The aim of my paper is to distinguish groups of semantic motivations that have become the basis for the formation of words or word associations expressing obviousness. The study covered various European languages with particular emphasis on the Slavic languages. On the basis of the research, the following groups were distinguished: 1) knowledge and understanding; 2) sight, perception and clearness; 3) talking and adjudication; 4) nature; norm and custom; 5) consequence; 6) confidence, trust and security.

In search for a path of development, some communities face internal factors deeply influencing the choice of development strategy. Such factor would be an environmental protection of the territory, as it may crucially limit industrial activity. Narol community, located in southeastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border (Podkarpackie Voivodeship), has landscape protection of several levels covering 100% of the territory, so the possible development could not consist on industrial investments. On the other hand the concerned region, Roztocze, is a recognized touristic area, but Narol was always rather out of its main tourists trails. Nevertheless its assets (nature reserves, landscape and monuments), would predestine Narol for a touristic destination. But, considering strong competition in the region, the distinguishing feature would be of importance. The municipality had recognized cultural tourism as a way Narol could adopt, and has started several activities aiming to transform Narol into a cultural centre of the region. This paper presents the study case of Narol municipality’s activities in the context of transferring neglected heritage into an activated agent of development – resulting in social and economic growth. Its’ aim is to research (based on the Narol example) a place of local heritage assets in development process: if, and how they can be used to increase community’s sustainable growth.

In this paper we present a copula-based model for a binary and a continuous variable in a time series setup. Within this modeling framework both marginals can be equipped with their own dynamics whereas the contemporaneous dependence between both processes can be flexibly captured via a copula function. We propose a method for testing the goodness-of-fit of such a time series model using probability integral transforms (PIT). This verification procedure allows not only a verification of the goodness-of-fit of the estimated marginal distribution for a continuous variable but also the conditional distribution of a continuous variable given the outcome of its binary counterpart (i.e. the adequacy of the copula choice). We test the model on an empirical example: investigating the relationship between trading volume and the indicators of arbitrarily ’large’ price movements on the interbank EUR/PLN spot market.

In technology of coal fines beneficiation in Poland mainly fines jigging processes are in use. In case of steam coal fines beneficiation it is till 80% of the whole amount of produced assortments, while in case of coking coal fines it is 100%. The necessary condition of not homogenous feed separation which is directed to beneficiation process in pulsating water stream is a sufficient liberation of particles. The stratification of particles in working bed causes that particles of certain size, density and shape gather in individual layers in working bed of jig. The introduction of sufficient amount of additional water determines appropriate liberation of particles group, which generates partition into concentrate and tailings. The paper presents the results of sampling of industrial jig used for the beneficiation of coal fines by three various settings of additional amount of water under sieve which is directed to jigging. These amounts were equal to 35, 50 and 70 [m3/h]. Collected samples of separation products were then sieved into narrow particle size fractions and divided into density fractions. In such narrow size-density fractions the coordinates of partition curves were calculated for tailings of hard coal fines, which were subsequently approximated by means of Weibull distribution function. The separation precision measured by separation density, probable error and imperfection were determined on the basis of obtained model separation curves. The evaluation of separation effects was performed for a wide particle size fraction: feed directed to jigging process and narrow particle size fractions. The analysis of separation results in size-density fractions allowed to determine the influence of particle size change on the value of probable error. The results of separation precision in size-density fractions were compared with effects of separation of wide particle fraction, i.e. feed directed to jigging process.

The aim of the paper is the comparison of the least squares prediction presented by Heiskanen and Moritz (1967) in the classical handbook “Physical Geodesy” with the geostatistical method of simple kriging as well as in case of Gaussian random fields their equivalence to conditional expectation. The paper contains also short notes on the extension of simple kriging to ordinary kriging by dropping the assumption of known mean value of a random field as well as some necessary information on random fields, covariance function and semivariogram function. The semivariogram is emphasized in the paper, for two reasons. Firstly, the semivariogram describes broader class of phenomena, and for the second order stationary processes it is equivalent to the covariance function. Secondly, the analysis of different kinds of phenomena in terms of covariance is more common. Thus, it is worth introducing another function describing spatial continuity and variability. For the ease of presentation all the considerations were limited to the Euclidean space (thus, for limited areas) although with some extra effort they can be extended to manifolds like sphere, ellipsoid, etc.

The paper presents proposal of a model of the fluidized bed boiler adapted for use in model-based controllers e.g. predictive, adaptive or internal model control (IMC). The model has been derived in the form of transfer function matrix which allows its direct implementation in the controller structure. Formulated model takes into consideration the principal cross-coupling between process variables which enables the opportunity to search for feasibility of decoupling control. The results of the identification of the dynamics of the 2 MW industrial bubbling fluidized bed boiler using the proposed model form was presented. According to the experimental data it was found that despite of introduced simplifications presented model allows the boiler behavior prediction.

The present study was conducted in the lobbies of 16 Taiwanese urban hospitals to establish what contributes to the degree of noisiness experienced by patients and those accompanying them. Noise level measurements were then conducted by 15 min equivalent sound pressure levels (LAeq, 15m, dB) during daytime hours. The average LAeq itself was found to be poorly related to perceived noisiness. Levels variations were better correlated, more continual noise may actually be perceived as noisier. According to the findings of a multiple linear stepwise regression model (r = 0.91, R2 = 0.83), the 3 independent variables shown to have the largest effects on perceived noisiness were 1) 1/(L5 − L95), 2) effective duration of the normalized autocorrelation function (τe, h), of all LAeq, 15m over 9–17, and 3) percentile loudness, N5, 15m. These results resemble previous studies that had assumed that a larger fluctuation of noise level corresponds to less annoyance experienced for mixed traffic noise studied in a laboratory situation. As an advanced approach, for hospital noise that consisted of 12 audible noise events, subjective noisiness were evaluated by the noise time structure analyzed by autocorrelation with loudness and levels variation.