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This paper reports the near space ballooning experiment carried out at Australian outback town West Wyalong (33°51′S, 147°24′E) on 19 July 2015. Several dedicated electronic detectors including digital temperature and acceleration (vibration) sensors and an energy compensated PIN-diode gamma ray dosimeter were installed in a thermally insulated Styrofoam payload box. A 9V Lithium-Polymer battery powered all the devices. The payload box was attached to a helium-filled latex weather balloon and set afloat. The balloon reached a peak burst altitude of 30km and then soft-landed aided by a self-deploying parachute 66.2km away form the launch site. The payload box was retrieved and data collected from the electronic sensors analysed. The integrated cosmic ray induced photon ambient dose equivalent recorded by the PIN diode detector was evaluated to be 0.36±0.05μSv. Furthermore, a high-altitude extended version of commercially available aviation dosimetry package EPCARD.Net (European Program package for the Calculation of Aviation Route Doses) was used to calculate the ambient dose equivalents during the balloon flight. The radiation environment originated from the secondary cosmic ray shower is composed of neutrons, protons, electrons, muons, pions and photons. The photon ambient dose equivalent estimated by the EPCARD.Net code found to be 0.47±0.09μSv. The important aspects of balloon based near-space radiation dosimetry are highlighted in this paper.

Une pullulation massive de scolytes s'est deroulee entre 1993 et 1998 dans les montagnes Tatras, situees entre la Pologne et la Slovaquie. Dans la partie Slovaque de la surface attaquee, la pratique forestiere a consiste a ne pas intervenir jusqu'en 1994, puis en une protection active via l'utilisation d'arbres-pieges, d'insecticides et de coupes sanitaires entre 1995 et 1996, et en diverses techniques de lutte diversifiees selon la zonation des surfaces attaques, combinees a l'utilisation de piegeages a pheromones en 1997 et 1998. En Pologne la pullulation etait localisee en grande majorite dans des reserves strictes ou aucune mesure de protection n'etait autorisee. Malgre l'importance des moyens de lutte mis en oeuvre, la mortalite des arbres n'a pas diminue significativement dans la partie Slovaque pendant les annees 1995-1996. Les techniques utilisees aboutissaient a l'augmentation de l'attractivite des bordures de la foret pour les scolytes, et ceux-ci pouvaient s'y developper en provenance de zones forestieres ou le meme niveau de controle n'etait pas applique. Un climat defavorable au developpement des scolytes a largement contribue a la diminution rapide des mortalites d'arbres observees dans les deux parties de la region etudiee.

The paper describes the application of Computational Intelligence (CI) methods for knowledge discovery from data collected in manufacturing execution system (MES) operating in a fasteners manufacturing company. The purpose of the research is to find factors causing decrease in the efficiency of the fasteners production process. The structure and preparation phase of analyzed data, concerning daily work data of pushing machines for cold forging are presented. Chosen methodology, i.e. classification algorithms is briefly described. Experiments of finding relationships between production speed, material and product type in the form of if-then rules were performed. The results received a positive opinion of the company management board and give promising prospects for the CI methods implementation in the factory. It is planned to use the CI methods as a continuously working part of a platform for Intelligent Manufacturing System (IMS), which has been implemented in the factory.

In the paper current results of a project devoted to industrial implementation of Intelligent Manufacturing System (IMS) for small and medium production companies are presented. Current work is concentrated on designing and creating hardware and software infrastructure as well as human system interface (HSI). So far, hardware for a factory floor level has been selected, a preliminary industrial testbed with simple HSI was constructed and tested in a real factory, and an advanced HSI was designed and implemented. It was proven that the main development-related barrier, pointed out in the literature, for industrial deployment of IMS, i.e. absence of industrial controllers with appropriate capabilities, is out-of-date. It was shown that modern embedded PC controllers facilitate implementations of advanced HSI/HMI (human machine interface) and allow integration of human operators and manufacturing resources into an Intelligent Manufacturing Control System.

An intensive bark beetle outbreak occurred in 1993-1998 in the Tatra mountains between Slovakia and Poland. In the Slovak part of the outbreak practices consisted of: no action prior to 1994, intensive pest control management (trap trees, insecticides, salvage cutting) from 1995-1996, active differentiated approach (control measures according to the zonation of attacked stands) combined with intensive use of pheromone traps from 1997-1998. In Poland, the outbreak was mostly located in reserve areas where pest management or other activities were prohibited. Despite the use of intensive pest management measures, tree mortality was not significantly decreased in the Slovak region during the peak outbreak years of 1995 and 1996. Classical forest protection led to an increase in attractiveness of forest edges to bark beetles which could disperse to these areas from locations where no control measures were practiced. Unfavourable weather for bark beetles led to a rapid decrease in tree mortality in both parts of the study area., Effets de différentes (active vs. passive) stratégies de gestion forestière des pullulations d'Ips typographus (L.) (Col.: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) dans les montagnes de Tatra en Pologne et Slovaquie. Une pullulation massive de scolytes s'est déroulée entre 1993 et 1998 dans les montagnes Tatras, situées entre la Pologne et la Slovaquie. Dans la partie Slovaque de la surface attaquée, la pratique forestière a consisté à ne pas intervenir jusqu'en 1994, puis en une protection active via l'utilisation d'arbres-pièges, d'insecticides et de coupes sanitaires entre 1995 et 1996, et en diverses techniques de lutte diversifiées selon la zonation des surfaces attaqués, combinées à l'utilisation de piégeages à phéromones en 1997 et 1998. En Pologne la pullulation était localiseé en grande majorité dans des réserves strictes où aucune mesure de protection n'était autorisée. Malgré l'importance des moyens de lutte mis en œuvre, la mortalité des arbres n'a pas diminué significativement dans la partie Slovaque pendant les années 1995-1996. Les techniques utilisées aboutissaient à l'augmentation de l'attractivité des bordures de la forêt pour les scolytes, et ceux-ci pouvaient s'y développer en provenance de zones forestières ou le même niveau de contrôle n'était pas appliqué. Un climat défavorable au développement des scolytes a largement contribué à la diminution rapide des mortalités d'arbres observées dans les deux parties de la région étudiée.