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ABSTRACTThe aim of the article is to present a model of decision-making processes in the design of flow-based Internet of Things systems. This is an attempt to fill the research gap in the construction of decision-making systems for designing both infrastructure and the application development environment. Therefore, the aim of the article is to show a decision-making model for selecting infrastructure and design environment for the development of IoT systems. In order for these processes to be implemented, it is necessary to use containerization processes and Flow Based Programming systems, both at the stage of system prototyping and its subsequent implementation.The model verification was carried out on the example of design in accordance with the assumptions of the parallel design process model proposed in the article, using the infrastructure as code approach in infrastructure design, the Docker process for creating containers, publisher and subscriber design in Node Red, and Postgress database design.

Closed-loop adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) continuously adjusts stimulation parameters, with the potential to improve efficacy and reduce side effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Rodent models can provide an effective platform for testing aDBS algorithms and establishing efficacy before clinical investigation. In this study, we compare two aDBS algorithms, on-off and proportional modulation of DBS amplitude, with conventional DBS in hemiparkinsonian rats.

This study discusses the use of quaternions and dual quaternions in the description of artificial fish kinematics. The investigation offered here illustrates quaternion and dual quaternion algebra, as well as its implementation in the software chosen. When it comes to numerical stability, quaternions are better than matrices because a normalised quaternion always shows the correct rotation, while a matrix more easily loses its orthogonality due to rounding errors and oversizing. Although quaternions are more compact than rotation matrices, using quaternions does not always provide less numerical computation and the amount of memory needed. In this paper, an algebraic form of quaternion representation is provided which is less memory-demanding than the matrix representation. All the functions that were used to prepare this work are presented, and they can be employed to conduct more research on how well quaternions work in a specific assignment.

In the paper review of unmanned underwater vehicle (AUV) is presented. The description of main systems is depicted with focus on autonomous single vehicle as well as a swarm. As a consequence of development of AUV technology, research centers are focused on issues related to increasing the degree of their autonomy. Nowadays, mostly navigation and communication as well as high-efficient propeller systems are being developed. There are problems linking this issues. Their solutions includes development of new control laws containing algorithms to prevent collisions - for unmanned vehicles with elements of the underwater environment and for several underwater vehicles cooperating with each other in a swarm.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is extended for [Orłowski, C., Cygert, D., & Nowak, P. (2020). Continuous improvement process model for supporting the construction of Internet of Things system design environments. In Communications in computer and information science(pp. 424–435). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3380-8_37] proposal build a model of continuous improvement systems design support, the Internet of Things (IoT). The model was based on the authors’ experience gained during the design process IoT nodes. Therefore, the article presents both the research experiment and the extent to which this experiment pointed to the need to design a production environment. This environment is still being developed. To achieve this goal, the article was divided into four main parts. At the beginning a basic project was presented, which goal was to create an IoT node. During its implementation, there were requirements for a system that would be used to monitor the status of IoT nodes and data flow. Therefore, the second chapter presents the functions of the production environment necessary for both designing the nodes and monitoring their condition. While in the paper [Orłowski, C., Cygert, D., & Nowak, P. (2020). Continuous improvement process model for supporting the construction of Internet of Things system design environments. In Communications in computer and information science(pp. 424–435). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3380-8_37], the basic functions were introduced in the presented article the scope was extended by the functionalities currently tested. They were then called the functions of the application enabling platform (AEP) used in IoT to assess their usefulness in improving the monitoring and maintenance processes of IoT nodes.

Mucormycosis is a rare disease caused by fungi of the genus Mucorales. It is most common in patients with inadequately controlled diabetes mellitus, in transplant recipients or in patients with cancer.

Reproduction of the dominant vector of Zika and dengue diseases, Aedes aegyptimosquito, is controlled by an active heterodimer complex composed of the 20-hydroxyecdysone receptor (EcR) and ultraspiracle protein. Although A. aegyptiEcR shares the structural and functional organization with other nuclear receptors, its C-terminus has an additional long F domain (AaFEcR). Recently, we showed that the full length AaFEcR is intrinsically disordered with the ability to specifically bind divalent metal ions. Here, we describe the details of the exhaustive structural and thermodynamic properties of Zn2+- and Cu2+-complexes with the AaFEcR domain, based on peptide models of its two putative metal binding sites (Ac-HGPHPHPHG-NH2and Ac-QQLTPNQQQHQQQHSQLQQVHANGS-NH2). Unexpectedly, only in the presence of increasing concentrations of Cu2+ions, the Ac-HGPHPHPHG-NH2peptide gained a metal ion-induced poly-l-proline type II helical structure, which is unique for members of the family of nuclear receptors.

The paper considers the assessment model of the category Accessibility, which is a basic element of the social aspect of sustainable construction. The model takes into account the standard PN-EN 16309+A1:2014-12, which generally provides methods and requirements for assessing the social performance of buildings. The authors, for the purposes of the model particularise the scope of the assessment category and set threshold values and the weight of particular social indicators. The model is treated as a contribution to developing a method for comprehensive assessment of the social characteristics of buildings.

We aimed to study the clinical significance of the lack of lymph node assessment (pNx status) and its impact on survival in non-small-cell lung cancer patients.

In this paper results of comparison of characteristic resonant frequencies of circular saw blades as a function of the saw clamping diameter from the impact test are presented. Obtained results revealed that proportionally with the increase of the saw clamping diameter also the dynamical stiffness of the saw blade increased. As a consequence of that the resonant frequencies of the saw blade move to higher values. Moreover, with the increase of the saw blade clamping diameter for higher frequencies of forcing vibrations of the saw blade the amplitude of vibration are expected to be decreased.

The aim of this article is to present the project framework for constructing a Software Process Simulation Modeling (SPSM) system. SPSM systems can be used as a virtual environment for the selection of methods and tools of project management in IT support organizations. The constructed system simulates the Scrum methodology, including the management processes and the project roles. For the implementation of Scrum processes, the Scrum ontology is proposed and for the competences of the roles of project team members, a fuzzy-logic representation. As a result the authors present the hybrid fuzzy ontological system as well as a prototype built during project work, allowing the initial verification of the proposed solution. The framework of the design processes proposed in the article was verified on the basis of real courses of project management processes in a large IT company.

More information is needed on gender differences in lung cancer surgery. Thus, we conducted a retrospective study on thoracic treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients between 2007 and 2020 in Poland. The aim was to characterize sex differences in survival after complete surgical resection and to compare postoperative complications between Polish men and women. The main aspects that were compared between women and men were as follows: type of surgery and postoperative staging, morbidity and mortality, thoracic surgery complications, comorbidities, and overall survival based on a univariate analysis including propensity score matching (PSM) and a multivariate analysis.

Developmental changes of the gizzard have rarely been studied in nestlings of non-domesticated birds or under natural conditions. Because nestlings would have variable amounts of stomach contents, we wanted to discover whether in natural conditions gizzard developmental changes are dependent on digesta mass. We examined the mass of gizzard and digesta in 56 nestling Rooks Corvus frugilegusaged between 1 and 13 days old. We found that gizzard mass increased nearly nine-fold, from an average of 1.25 g to 10.85 g. Gizzard mass expressed as a proportion of body weight significantly decreased with the age of nestlings. In hatchlings, the median ratio of gizzard mass to body weight was 18.4%; in 13-day old nestlings this value was only 5.8%. Tarsus length, a poor predictor of gizzard mass, explained 61% of its total variance. Nestlings (regardless of their age) without digesta or with small volumes of digesta had statistically significantly smaller gizzards (expressed as ratio of gizzard mass to body weight) than did nestlings with full gizzards, which suggest a rapid response of gizzard volume and musculature to variable food intake during post-hatch development.

The aim of this study was to develop and examine a model of apoptosis and necrosis of hepatocytes induced by a damaging factor - adriamycin, correlating time after its administration with cell death type, and to investigate the localisation within the liver acinus of hepatocytes dying in these two ways. The results obtained in the present and previous studies were compared in order to make a map of cell death localisation in the liver acinus, showing the effect of time in action and dose of adriamycin. The experiment was performed on 32 female Wistar rats, divided into four groups: I and II - experimental, and III and IV - control. Adriamycin (3 mg/kg b.w.) was administered intraperitoneally to rats in groups I and II, and the rats were decapitated after four (group I) and eight (group II) weeks. Animals in control groups III and IV were given 0.5 mL of 0.9% NaCl solution, and decapitated after four and eight weeks respectively. Sections of the liver were examined with a three-stage immunohistochemical method. This method allowed to examine hepatocytes qualitatively and quantitatively for the presence of proteins involved in three types of apoptosis: induced by the mitochondrial pathway (caspase 3, 9), the intrinsic pathway related to endoplasmic reticulum stress (caspase 3, 12), and the extrinsic pathway (caspase 3, 8). One of the inflammatory markers, caspase 1, was also examined. The zonal localisation of all three types of apoptosis was assessed in the liver tissue. More oxidated hepatocytes indicated only signs of the internal mitochondrial pathway, whereas less oxidated hepatocytes induced the internal reticular pathway and the external apoptotic pathway. The period between adriamycin administration and hepatic cell investigation was a main factor of the process. A longer period post insult resulted in a more pronounced effect of the activation of apoptosis. Sections explored eight weeks after treatment with different doses of the drug (3 and 5 mg/kg in the previous study) showed a similar intensity of apoptosis.

We analyzed interactions of concentrations of 11 essential and nonessential elements, including toxic metals within and between internal organs (liver, kidney and lung), muscles and bones of nestling rooks Corvus frugilegus with acute cadmium contamination and elevated level of lead. The number of statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) metal-metal relationships (positive/negative) within particular tissues was the highest in the kidney (7/6), following in the bone (9/2), liver (6/4), lung (5/2) and muscle (5/2). We found eight significant interactions of lead with other metals, and only two of cadmium (only with lead and cobalt, which probably mirrored a greater ability of lead (than in the case of cadmium) to functional and kinetic interaction with other metals, and/or inhibiting effect of lead or cadmium in co-accumulation. Furthermore, a positive relationship between concentration of cadmium and lead in the kidney could hint at the key importance of this organ in detoxification of both toxic metals. Analyses of relationships of individual metals between examined tissues show only positive results in the case of copper (n = 8), following potassium (n = 3), zinc and iron (in both cases n = 2) and a single ones for calcium and magnesium. We concluded that the lack of significant relationships of individual toxic metals (cadmium or lead) between analyzed tissues could result from high levels of these metals, which destroyed detoxifying capacity of kidney, and ultimately enabled a rapid bioaccumulation of these inorganic contaminations in all tissues of examined nestlings. An explanation of concentration of toxic metals in tissues of animals, especially in the case of their high level, require an identification of the actual level of essential elements associated with physiological status of organism.

The aim of the paper is to present the treatment schedule in laryngo-trocheal stenoses (LTS). LTS constitute the wide range of pathologies with different ethiology, different subjective complains and degree. The LTS classification according to localization, extension and patients general status was presented. The diagnosis steps and treatment plan were discussed. The algorythm of therapy was included.

The ecdysone receptor (EcR) and the ultraspiracle protein (Usp) form the functional receptor for ecdysteroids that initiates metamorphosis in insects. The Usp and EcR DNA-binding domains (UspDBD and EcRDBD, respectively) form a heterodimer on the natural pseudopalindromic element from the hsp27gene promoter. The conformational changes in the protein–DNA during the formation of the UspDBD-EcRDBD-hsp27complex were analyzed. Recombined UspDBD and EcRDBD proteins were purified and fluorescein labeled (FL) using the intein method at the C-ends of both proteins. The changes in the distances from the respective C-ends of EcRDBD and/or UspDBD to the 5′- and/or 3′-end of the response element were measured using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) methodology. The binding of EcRDBD induced a strong conformational change in UspDBD and caused the C-terminal fragment of the UspDBD molecule to move away from both ends of the regulatory element. UspDBD also induced a significant conformational change in the EcRDBD molecule. The EcRDBD C-terminus moved away from the 5′-end of the regulatory element and moved close to the 3′-end. An analysis was also done on the effect that DHR38DBD, the Drosophilaortholog of the mammalian NGFI-B, had on the interaction of UspDBD and EcRDBD with hsp27. FRET analysis demonstrated that hsp27bending was induced by DHR38DBD. Fluorescence data revealed that hsp27had a shorter end-to-end distance both in the presence of EcRDBD as well as in the presence of EcRDBD together with DHR38DBD, with DNA bend angles of about 36.2° and 33.6°, respectively. A model of how DHR38DBD binds to hsp27in the presence of EcRDBD is presented.

The norm is one of the fundamental concepts of linear algebra and functional analysis. The notion of the norm is often employed in engineering, e.g. in control engineering, where main application is calculating the norm of the transfer function. Unfortunately existing methods are applicable for systems that can be described using Laplace transform, i.e. linear time-invariant (LTI) systems. An operational equivalent of the transfer function for linear time-varying systems is transfer operator. The transfer operator defined for finite time horizon can be described by finite dimensional matrix. Although for infinite time horizon the operator is infinite dimensional. In the paper a method for norm estimation of transfer operator defined on infinite time horizon is proposed. The method is applicable for linear time-varying, discrete-time systems given in general state-space form. The method takes advantage of the properties of the transfer operator norm on a finite time horizon. Theoretical considerations are complemented by numerical examples.

The paper discusses the issue of the development of timber production market and timber industry in Poland and selected EU countries. The potential of forest resources in Poland against the background of other European countries is presented, as well as selected aspects exerting impact on the development processes of the sector of production. Particular attention is paid to the structure of ownership of forests in Poland and selected countries of the European Union. The structure of the use of means for research and development is analyzed with particular focus on those branches which allocate the biggest amounts for such purposes. Technological trends in the timber industry in Poland is described. Finally the prospects in the development of timber industry in the near future are discussed.

Estimation of the Output Deviation Norm for Uncertain, Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems in a State Dependent FormNumerical evaluation of the optimal nonlinear robust control requires estimating the impact of parameter uncertainties on the system output. The main goal of the paper is to propose a method for estimating the norm of an output trajectory deviation from the nominal trajectory for nonlinear uncertain, discrete-time systems. The measure of the deviation allows us to evaluate the robustness of any designed controller. The first part of the paper concerns uncertainty modelling for nonlinear systems given in the state space dependent form. The method for numerical estimation of the maximal norm of the output trajectory deviation with applications to robust control synthesis is proposed based on the introduced three-term additive uncertainty model. Theoretical deliberations are complemented with a numerical, water-tank system example.

This investigation of Pomeranian Bay waters was conducted from March 2001 to August of 2003 from aboard the r/v Nawigator XXI, which is owned by the Maritime Academy in Szczecin. A total of 147 water samples were collected at 15 stations on three transects in the Pomeranian Bay from Świnoujście, Międzyzdroje, and Dziwnów to the Odra Bank. Zooplankton was sampled with a Bongo type planktonometer Ø = 20 cm with a mesh size of 80 μm during 10 min. filtering hauls in the pelagic zone from the bottom to the surface at an average vessel speed of 3 - 4 knots. The method developed and published by Orłowski was used to transform the large amount of seasonal data for the entire study period into isoline illustrations of the spatial structures in the Pomeranian Bay of mesozooplankton and selected species, namely Acartia bifilosa, Acartia longiremis, Pseudocalanus elongatus, and Temora longicornis.The average mesozooplankton aggregations in ten consecutive seasons at the 15 stations investigated from 2001 to 2003 in the entire Odra estuary area fluctuated from 2,442 to 92,200 ind. m-3. The highest species variety was noted among marine Copepoda, which was the dominant group in virtually every season investigated. Their maximum abundance reached as much as 213,493 ind. m-3. The euryhaline species A. bifilosaoccurred throughout the research period and at all stations at an abundance that reached 210,443 ind. m-3. The seasonal succession series were as follows: in spring, the dominants were Acartiaspp. and Evadne nordmanni;in summer - Keratella cochlearis, Bosmina coregoni maritima, and A. bifilosa;in fall - T. longicornisand Acartiaspp.; in winter - T. longicornisand Centropages hamatus.

The aim of the study was to investigate a relation between p53 and HER2/neu expression in resected lung tumors and the response of those tumors to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The study population included 67 consecutive patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in stage II or III who were operated on at the Institute of Tuberculosis, Warsaw, Poland, between 20 April 2001 and 10 March 2003. All patients received two cycles of chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin and vinorelbine prior to the operation. The response to therapy was assessed as complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD) or progressive disease (PD), on the basis of CT scans performed before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. p53 and HER2/neu protein expression were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using antibodies against p53 (clone PAb 1801, Novocastra) and against HER2/neu (Dako) in paraffin-embedded specimens of tumors. A response to therapy (CR+PR) was observed in 27 patients, while 40 patients (SD+PD) were regarded as resistant to therapy. Resistance was observed significantly more often in tumors above 3 cm in diameter. p53 expression was found in 16 tumors (23.9%) and HER2/neu in 26 tumors (38.8%). We observed a nonsignificant tendency to chemoresistance in tumors with HER-2/neu overexpression and also in tumors with p53 overexpression. If we consider HER-2/neu and p53 together, chemoresistance was observed statistically significantly more often when one or both markers were positive (p<0.05). This significance was independent of tumor size.

The accuracy of 2D phase contrast (PC) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) depends on the alignment between the vessels and the imaging plane. PC MRA imaging of blood flow is challenging when the flow in several vessels is to be evaluated with one acquisition. For this purpose, semi-automatic determination of the plane most perpendicular to several vessels is proposed based on centerlines extracted from 3D MRA. Arterial centerlines are extracted from 3D MRA based on iterative estimation-prediction, multi-scale analysis of image moments, and a second-order shape model. The optimal plane is determined by minimizing misalignment between its normal vector and the centerlines’ tangent vectors. The method was evaluated on a phantom and on 35 patients, by seeking the optimal plane for cerebral blood flow quantification simultaneously in internal carotids and vertebral arteries. In the phantom, difference of orientation and of height between known and calculated planes was 1.2° and 2.5 mm, respectively. In the patients, all but one centerline were correctly extracted and the misalignment of the plane was within 12° per artery. Semi-automatic centerline extraction simplifies and automates determination of the plane orthogonal to one vessel, thereby permitting automatic simultaneous minimization of the misalignment with several vessels in PC MRA.The accuracy of 2D phase contrast (PC) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) depends on the alignment between the vessels and the imaging plane. PC MRA imaging of blood flow is challenging when the flow in several vessels is to be evaluated with one acquisition. For this purpose, semi-automatic determination of the plane most perpendicular to several vessels is proposed based on centerlines extracted from 3D MRA. Arterial centerlines are extracted from 3D MRA based on iterative estimation-prediction, multi-scale analysis of image moments, and a second-order shape model. The optimal plane is determined by minimizing misalignment between its normal vector and the centerlines’ tangent vectors. The method was evaluated on a phantom and on 35 patients, by seeking the optimal plane for cerebral blood flow quantification simultaneously in internal carotids and vertebral arteries. In the phantom, difference of orientation and of height between known and calculated planes was 1.2° and 2.5 mm, respectively. In the patients, all but one centerline were correctly extracted and the misalignment of the plane was within 12° per artery. Semi-automatic centerline extraction simplifies and automates determination of the plane orthogonal to one vessel, thereby permitting automatic simultaneous minimization of the misalignment with several vessels in PC MRA.

Background and Purpose: Purulent pericarditis is very rare. However, among patients suffering from this disease the mortality rate is very high. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and side effects of intrapericardial streptokinase administration in patients with confirmed purulent pericarditis. Patients and Methods: Three patients, one 50-year-old man and two women aged 64 and 40 years, who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) due to purulent pericarditis, entered the study. In all three cases a subxiphoid pericardiotomy followed by insertion of a drainage line into the pericardial space was performed. Antibiotic therapy was started immediately on admission to the hospital. Despite continued antibiotic therapy in all three patients, daily drainage from the pericardium—during several days after surgery—staggered between 50–200 ml/day. Due to considerable purulent pericardial drainage loculations and/or fibrin deposits confirmed by echocardiography, streptokinase (500,000 IU dissolved in 50 ml of normal saline) was administered into the pericardial space over 10 min, using the previously inserted drainage catheter. This regimen was repeated after 12 and 24 h. The total dose of streptokinase was 1,500,000 IU. Results: The clinical effect of intrapericardial streptokinase administration was excellent. Several days after intrapericardial administration of streptokinase, drainage of purulent pericardial fluid stopped. No complications associated with intrapericardial streptokinase administration were observed. In the follow-up echocardiography (in two patients repeated 6 and 9 months after delivery of streptokinase), pericardial fluid and echocardiographic signs of pericardial constriction were not observed. Conclusion: Intrapericardial administration of streptokinase in purulent pericarditis is effective and safe.

AbstractThe paper presents the simulation model of concrete mix transportation process in the system—batching centre—a number of construction sites. An essential part of the analysed model is a multi-phase system of queues which emerge in concrete transportation characterised by: waiting time for loading, waiting for discharge, the distances from the plant to construction sites, the number and type of truck mixers used, the types of transport means for on-site deliveries, transportation costs. The paper also includes an example solved with a computer program designed on the basis of an algorithm formulated in the model.

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We present the results of photoemission studies on (0001̄)(N-polar) surfaces of bulk gallium nitride crystals. The procedures that yield clean and well-ordered (0001̄)(1×1) surfaces were developed and tested. The surface crystallinity was assessed by low-energy electron diffraction. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation was used to determine the valence-band electronic structure of GaN along the Γ–Δ–Adirection of the Brillouin zone. The band structure derived from our experimental data is compared with the results of recent band structure calculations.

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Abstract:: Long-time correlations in both well-developed and emerging market indexes are studied. The Hurst exponent as well as detrended fluctuations analysis (DFA) are used as technical tools. Some features that seem to be specific for developing markets are discovered and briefly discussed.

The paper develops a mathematical framework within which an analysis of finite horizon control problems for uncertain non-stationary linear discrete-time systems. Uncertainty in the system description is modelled by an unknown (norm bounded) additive perturbation of the system matrix. It is assumed that the nominal control has feedback form and when applied to the nominal, unperturbed system produces nominal state and output. If we now apply this control to uncertain system the state and output will be (in general) different. In this paper we derive estimates for the deviations of the output of perturbed system from the output of the nominal (unperturbed) one. These estimates use norms of certain dynamical operators defined on a finite time interval. For computing of these operator norms we present a method based on parameterised difference Riccati equations. As example, estimating for control problem of communication satellite is presented.

The usefulness of Wehrl's entropy in quantum optics is investigated. Possible applications to the classification of quantum states with respect to their statistical properties are presented. A general variational proof of the observation that for a given average photon number the maximum Wehrl's entropy is attained for thermal states is given.

The membrane plasma filtration devices are the ones of the most atractive scientific subjects in the area of artificial organs. The possible application of this technique is very wide in the field of bioengineering and also play an important role in contemporary medicine. In order to evaluate this problem the simple mathematical model of capillary plasma filtration including the Blackshear-Forstrom theory was evaluated. The limitation of plasma outflow from the blood cells deposition is discussed. Based on the conclusions coming out from this analysis the controller of mean transmembrane pressure MTP was constructed and evaluated to standardize the conditions of the filtration process. The controll problems of membrane plasma separation in close loop circuit is discussed. The experimental mechanical and chemical data of the plasma separation in "ex vivo" conditions clinical evaluation are presented and analyzed from the sieving coefficient point of view. The method of controlling the membrane plasma separation process by means of filtration rate is suggested and compared with the driving criterion of mean transmembrane pressure from the filter sieving properties point of view.

This article is based on data on the levels of metals (Cd, Zn, Cu) and metallothionein (MT) determined radiochemically with203Hg in renal cortex and liver of 137 autopsy cases. From this number, for 23 cases, the gel filtration of the cytoplasmic fraction of the organs was performed.

We derive a phase-space description of squeezed fluctuations using the SU(1, 1) generalized coherent states. We introduce the coherent-diagonal representation of quantum states, based on squeezed coherent states. In this representation we derive generalized Fokker-Planck equations for a quasi-distribution in phase-space formed by SU(1, 1) states. We solve this equation for different representations of the SU(1, 1) group involving as examples parameteric amplifiers and two-mode upconvertors.

Anderson localization of electromagnetic waves in three-dimensional disordered dielectric structures is studied using a simple yet realistic theoretical model. An effective approach based on analysis of probability distributions, not averages, is developed. The disordered dielectric medium is modeled by a system of randomly distributed electric dipoles. Spectra of certain random matrices are investigated and the possibility of appearance of the continuous band of localized waves emerging in the limit of an infinite medium is indicated. It is shown that localization could be achieved without tuning the frequency of monochromatic electromagnetic waves to match the internal (Mie-type) resonances of individual scatterers. A possible explanation for the lack of experimental evidence for strong localization in 3D as well as suggestions how to make localization experimentally feasible are also given. Rather peculiar requirements for setting in localization in 3D as compared to 2D are indicated.

A fully quantum-mechanical description of the spontaneous emission from an excited two-level atom placed in front of a two-slit interferometer is given. Global modes of the electromagnetic field in a two slit system are derived within the Kirchhoff-Huygens diffraction approximation, serving as a base for the field quantization. The standard Fermi's golden rule, supplemented by a factor coming from the nontrivial mode structure caused by the presence of the two-slit interferometer, is used to show that interference results from the position-dependent coupling between the atom and different field modes of the system.

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We report on the time evolution of the Wehrl entropy in a Kerr-like medium. We show that the Wehrl entropy gives a clear signature for the formation of finite superpositions of coherent states (cat-like states). In addition, the actual value of the Wehrl entropy at the time of a superposition formation gives the number of coherent components taking part in the superposition.

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The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer has proposed a new classification of N descriptor based on the number of metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) stations, including skip metastasis. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of removed LNs on the adequacy of this new classification.

The efficacy of two methods of Langerhans islets immunoisolation was compared. For this purpose the function of islets encapsulated with alginate/polyethylenimine/protamine/heparin (APPH) or with alginate/poly-L-lisine/alginate (APA) membranes was assessed: in vitro according to their survival and response to glucose challenges, and in vivo according to their capability to provide sufficient insulin delivery to maintain normal fasting blood glucose following xenotransplantation to streptozotocin diabetic mice. In vitro insulin secretion and the response to glucose challenge of APPH and APA encapsulated islets were comparable to free islets. In vivo intraperitoneal concordant xenotransplantation of APA encapsulated rat islets reversed the diabetic state of streptozotocin diabetic mice for a longer period, than APPH islet grafts. This study clearly demonstrated the inadequacy of in vitro methods in the prediction of in vivo results of islets transplantation.