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This paper presented a new method for identifying promising areas for archaeological research. The method is based on graph analysis that iteratively compares and manipulates Hamming distances between graphs of input geographical parameters and graphs of human activity data in various historical periods. The weights learned from the comparison was used to build a prediction model to estimate the potential presence of an archaeological site of a certain time period in a given cadaster. This was applied in the Bohemian Moravian Highlands region based on the most complete archaeological dataset of the area. Resulting maps were analyzed from the archaeological and historical point of view to test against the existing knowledge of prehistoric population movement in the region. Overall, the method proved to overcome problems such as fragmentary inputs and is a good candidate for application in smaller and geographically diverse research areas. The aim of this work was to contribute to the methodology of the prediction of historical human activity, to facilitate greater comprehension of past local settlement dynamics, and to possibly ease the protection of cultural heritage.

The cost of electrochromic “smart” windows ranges from 200–800 USD/m². The high cost is determined by the small volume of production and the high cost of vacuum methods for applying device layers. The development of other methods could lead to lower costs and further mass use of “smart” windows. The paper presents the work on improving the electrochemical method of deposition of electrochromic films based on Ni(OH)2. Composite electrochromic films were deposited from Ni(NO3)2 solutions with the addition of watersoluble polymers – polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and mixtures thereof. Two PVA grades and one PVP grade were used in the experiments. As a result, six films were obtained from solutions of different compositions and concentrations of polymers. An investigation of the optical properties of the films in the initial state showed that there is no intense absorption of light in the entire visible spectrum and the transmission corresponds to a glass substrate. Thus, the formed electrochromic films will not produce tints and visible light absorption in the finished electrochromic element. The electrochemical and electrochromic characteristics of the films differed significantly depending on the amount and specific polymers used. The film obtained from a solution containing PVA grade 24–99 was the most electrochemically active, while the best electrochromic characteristics were in the film deposited from a solution of a mixture of PVP grade 24–99 and PVP. Moreover, the films obtained in solutions containing separately PVA grade 24–99 and PVP had worse electrochromic characteristics, and the electrochemical characteristics were the same or worse relative to the film obtained in a mixture of polymers. The results of the method of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed compliance with the found electrochromic and electrochemical characteristics of the formed films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, disulfides WS2 and MoS2 were successfully prepared using thermal decomposition and utilised for fabrication of supercapacitor- and water splitting electrodes. Both, energy storage and conversion performances of these electrodes were compared with electrodes prepared with commercial MoS2, WS2, and activated carbon (AC). The electrochemical characterisation confirmed the pseudocapacitive character of disulfide-based supercapacitor electrodes. A strong influence of the scan rate on the specific capacitance was found, which is due to the diffusion of ions and the pseudocapacitive nature of charge storage. A specific capacitance of 405 mF/cm2 at 10 mV/s scan rate was achieved on MoS2 structures prepared by thermal decomposition. This value is 3.5-times greater than the capacitance achieved on commercial MoS2 and 6.8-times greater than capacitance achieved on structures with activated carbon. A specific capacitance of 396 mF/cm2 at 10 mV/s scan rate was achieved on WS2 structures prepared by thermal decomposition, which was 2.2 and 6.7-times greater than the capacitance achieved on commercial WS2 and AC based electrodes, respectively. Water-decomposition structures showed greater catalytic activity of thermally decomposed disulfides for HER compared to commercial materials and AC. The study showed a high perspective of MoS2 and WS2 prepared by thermal decomposition for energy storage applications by means of supercapacitors and energy conversion trough water electrolysis and hydrogen generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is dedicated to preparation and analysis of metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) photoanode with a metal organic chemical vapor deposited RuO2 layer and TiO2 protection layer for photoelectrochemical water splitting. It is shown that utilization of TiO2 layers of 2, 4, and 6 nm thickness preserve the catalytic activity of underlying RuO2. The origin of increased overpotential and decreased photovoltage of the photoanode upon the increase of TiO2 layer thickness is discussed in the paper. Results revealed that utilization of TiO2 layer in the MIS concept is suitable for photoelectrochemical water oxidation applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Different types of spatial analyses and visualizations can be used in the police practice for investigation, crime prediction, and planning of police forces. The public availability of crime data is one of the often discussed issues for the police, general public and academia. The efforts to open police data are rooted in the philosophy of the so-called ‘community policing’. In this article, we demonstrate the possibilities of spatial analysis and cartographic visualization of open crime data. We provide two use cases based on the data gathered by the municipal police in Pardubice, Czech Republic. We investigate the impact of gambling sites on crime offence intensity and found that gambling sites considerably influence their surroundings within 100 m. The other use case is focused on traffic offences caused by cyclists. We extracted hot spots of these offences and tried to identify their causation, since the police should not only carry out repressive measures, but also strive to eliminate the causes (e.g. add cycle lanes, bike paths, underpasses or overpasses). Different types of cartographic visualization have been designed and discussed for both use cases. The advantages, limitations and future development of the described concepts are commented on in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prevention against landslides formation or activation is ensured by permanent monitoring of endangered areas, which is transferred to the landslide early warning systems in the socio-economically important sites. The paper describes general issues of the landslide warning systems creation, with an emphasis on their local level and the issues of the critical levels of landslide generating factors derivation. Since the state of the groundwater table level is usually the most important factor of the landslide activation, several methods of its critical level determination are used. The authors preferentially deal with the description of the model of parameters of groundwater regime, which was derived on the basis of their long-term experience in monitoring of landslides and other slope deformations. The model is based on the derivation of parameters characterizing the depth of the groundwater table level and duration of unfavorable conditions. The resulting parameters of the groundwater regime are compared with the indicators of kinetic activity of landslide masses (obtained by geodetic and inclinometer measurements). Provided there is a sufficiently close correlation between the groundwater regime and sliding activity of a landslide, the model can be applied in the definition of the critical levels of the groundwater table and to the prognosis of the expected motional activity of landslide. Practical application of this method is presented on example of slope stability development evaluation of the monitored landslide near the Okoličné Village. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]