Search

We evaluated concentrations of 15 PCB congeners in blood serum of 2047 adults, 431 8-9-year old children and 1134 mother-child pairs born in 2001-2003. These subjects were long-standing residents living up to 70 km (to the north) and up to 50 km (to the south) of the former Chemko Strážske PCB production facility in the Michalovce district of Slovakia. We plotted serum concentration against distance from the plant both with and without consideration of the direction of their homes from the site. The decrease in exposure with distance could be described by an exponential function which was dependent on direction and climatic parameters. By kriging we created maps depicting predicted isoconcentration contours for sex- and age-adjusted serum concentration of ∑PCBs for the same group of children, adults and mothers. The principle of our risk analysis was to relate serum concentration data, reflecting PCB body burden, using the critical concentrations established by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES 2010) as thresholds below which the probability of effects on health is regarded as negligible. We conclude that 10 years ago, around 200,000 residents were at risk in this densely populated area. Exposure has since decreased but the mechanism for this has not yet been studied.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chemicals which, because of their lipophilic properties, are abundant in human breast milk. Breastfed infants are therefore at risk of being exposed to considerable amounts of PCBs. The commonly used exposure estimations, based solely on breast milk PCB levels and duration of breastfeeding, may lead to exposure misclassification. To improve assessments of exposure to PCBs, we determined PCB 153 serum concentration, as a model substance for PCBs, at the critical time of weaning for each child in 305 breastfed infants from 5 single time point concentration measurements spread over 7 years and data on duration of breastfeeding, using an earlier developed model of the system type. We approximated the dependence of PCB 153 serum concentration, Ctbf, adjusted to cord serum concentration, C0, on nursing period, by a polynomial function Ctbf/C0=0.596+0.278t-0.0047t(2) which reliably predicts exposure to PCB 153 of breastfed infants, important for assessment of dose-outcome relationships. Adjustment of current serum concentrations to cord serum concentration improved validity of exposure assessment.

Pattern recognition algorithms are commonly utilized to discover certain patterns, particularly in image-based data. Our study focuses on quasiperiodic oscillations (QPO) in celestial objects referred to as cataclysmic variables (CV). We are dealing with interestingly indistinct QPO signals, which we analyze using a power density spectrum (PDS). The confidence in detecting the latter using certain statistical approaches may come out with less significance than the truth. We work with real and simulated QPO data of a CV called MV Lyrae. Our primary statistical tool for determining confidence levels is sigma intervals. The aforementioned CV has scientifically proven QPO existence, but as indicated by our analysis, the QPO ended up falling below 1 - σ, and such QPOs are not noteworthy based on the former approach. We intend to propose and ultimately train a convolutional neural network (CNN) using two types of QPO data with varying amounts of training dataset lengths. We aim to demonstrate the accuracy and viability of the classification using aCNNin comparison to sigma intervals. The resulting detection rate of our algorithm is very plausible, thus proving the effectiveness of CNNs in this scientific area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article is mentioned the process of the development and implementation of the virtual programmable logic controller (PLC). The developed controller is the basic element of the virtual laboratory project realizing at the Institute of Applied Informatics, Automation and Mathematics. The project includes also the development of the communication dispatcher and the virtual processes. The virtual programmable logic controller is developed precisely according to the Siemens module LOGO!12/24 RC. All the functions, the graphical design and the control logic of the virtual PLC are identical with the real Siemens module. PLC stations with their networks are used to be the essential features by the distributed control system (DCS) in the practice. DCS is the perspective field of the industrial market -- it's supported by the market exploration carried out by the Frost & Sullivan consulting company supposing the turnover with DCS in the world in amount of 8,5 mld. USD(in 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main of this paper is to draw attention to the new potential hidden in the combined discrete dynamic systems, which could represent new type of distributed systems for the industrial automation and could contribute to the faster design and development of the control system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article are mentioned combined discrete dynamic systems and analysis of their energy spectrum especially aimed to the event activated part of the system. The fusion result of time-driven and event activated systems are combined dynamic systems, called also hybrid systems. System consists of a combination of cyclically recurring processes in each period of processing and the stochastically emerging events. This theorem assumes stochastic events generation corresponding to the Poisson distribution. The energy picture of stochastic events generated by the Poisson distribution in the combined systems is created using the analogy from electrical engineering associated with telegraph signal transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chemicals which, because of their lipophilic properties, are abundant in human breast milk. Breastfed infants are therefore at risk of being exposed to considerable amounts of PCBs. The commonly used exposure estimations, based solely on breast milk PCB levels and duration of breastfeeding, may lead to exposure misclassification. To improve assessments of exposure to PCBs, we determined PCB 153 serum concentration, as a model substance for PCBs, at the critical time of weaning for each child in 305 breastfed infants from 5 single time point concentration measurements spread over 7 years and data on duration of breastfeeding, using an earlier developed model of the system type. We approximated the dependence of PCB 153 serum concentration, Ctbf, adjusted to cord serum concentration, C0, on nursing period, by a polynomial function Ctbf/C0=0.596+0.278t-0.0047t(2) which reliably predicts exposure to PCB 153 of breastfed infants, important for assessment of dose-outcome relationships. Adjustment of current serum concentrations to cord serum concentration improved validity of exposure assessment., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)