This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 8454, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Conference Committee listing.

The paper presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from technical universities during the SPIE-IEEE Wilga January 2012 Symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, new technologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonics-electronics codesign, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium held two times a year is a summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of chosen Wilga references is presented [1-268].

This paper is the first part (out of five) of the research survey of WILGA Symposium work, May 2012 Edition, concerned with photonics and electronics applications in astronomy and space technologies. It presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from different technical universities from this country during the Jubilee XXXth SPIE-IEEE Wilga 2012, May Edition, symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonics-electronics co-design, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET tokamak and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium is an annual summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of Wilga references is presented [1-275].

The paper is the second part (out of five) of the research survey of WILGA Symposium work, May 2012 Edition, concerned with accelerator technology and high energy physics experiments. It presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from different technical universities from this country during the XXXth Jubilee SPIE-IEEE Wilga 2012, May Edition, symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonicselectronics co-design, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium is an annual summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of Wilga references is presented [1-275].

This paper is the third part (out of five) of the research survey of WILGA Symposium work, May 2012 Edition, concerned with Photon Physics and Plasma Research. It presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from different technical universities from this country during the Jubilee XXXth SPIE-IEEE Wilga 2012, May Edition, symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonics-electronics co-design, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET tokamak and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium is an annual summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of Wilga references is presented [1-270].

This paper is the fourth part (out of five) of the research survey of WILGA Symposium work, May 2012 Edition, concerned with Optoelectronic Devices, Sensors, Communication and Multimedia (Video and Audio) technologies. It presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from different technical universities from this country during the Jubilee XXXth SPIE-IEEE Wilga 2012, May Edition, symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonics-electronics co-design, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET tokamak and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium is an annual summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of Wilga references is presented [1-270].

This paper is the fifth part (out of five) of the research survey of WILGA Symposium work, May 2012 Edition, concerned with Biomedical, Artificial Intelligence and DNA Computing technologies. It presents a digest of chosen technical work results shown by young researchers from different technical universities from this country during the Jubilee XXXth SPIE-IEEE Wilga 2012, May Edition, symposium on Photonics and Web Engineering. Topical tracks of the symposium embraced, among others, nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for photonics, sensory and nonlinear optical fibers, object oriented design of hardware, photonic metrology, optoelectronics and photonics applications, photonics-electronics co-design, optoelectronic and electronic systems for astronomy and high energy physics experiments, JET tokamak and pi-of-the sky experiments development. The symposium is an annual summary in the development of numerable Ph.D. theses carried out in this country in the area of advanced electronic and photonic systems. It is also a great occasion for SPIE, IEEE, OSA and PSP students to meet together in a large group spanning the whole country with guests from this part of Europe. A digest of Wilga references is presented [1-270].

GLORIA stands for “GLObal Robotic-telescopes Intelligent Array”. GLORIA will be the first free and open-access network of robotic telescopes of the world. It will be a Web 2.0 environment where users can do research in astronomy by observing with robotic telescopes, and/or analyzing data that other users have acquired with GLORIA, or from other free access databases, like the European Virtual Observatory. GLORIA project will define free standards, protocols and methodology for controlling Robotic Telescopes and related instrumentation, for conducting so called on-line experiments by scheduling observations in the telescope network, and for conducting so-called off-line experiments based on the analysis of astronomical meta-data produced by GLORIA or other databases. Luiza analysis framework for GLORIA was based on the Marlin package developed for the International Linear Collider (ILC), data analysis. HEP experiments have to deal with enormous amounts of data and distributed data analysis is a must, so the Marlin framework concept seemed to be well suited for GLORIA needs. The idea (and large parts of code) taken from Marlin is that every computing task is implemented as a processor (module) that analyzes the data stored in an internal data structure and created additional output is also added to that collection. The advantage of such a modular approach is to keep things as simple as possible. Every single step of the full analysis chain that goes eg. from raw images to light curves can be processed separately and the output of each step is still self consistent and can be fed in to the next step without any manipulation.

We have developed a new monitoring system for the "Pi of the Sky" experiment. It is based on the "open surce" Icinga package. The system allows to continuously monitor vital parameters of detectors and computers which control them. It facilitates a fast response to anomalies or failures in system's performance. Automatic recording of parameters of all components of the "Pi of the Sky" system allows an efficient identification of possible causes of eventual failures.

Starting March 2011 the “Pi of the Sky” project has two observatories in use: in northern Chile and in southern Spain. Since then we are able to observe a parallax of objects, which pass close to the Earth. Simultaneous observations from two sites are very important to us, because this allows us to reject false flash observations, due to cosmic radiation, meteors, planes, etc. In this paper we present theoretical limitations of our parallax observations. Moreover, first results are shown.

We analyse burst of MXB 1728-34 obtained by the RXTE PCA instrument during the observational period from 1995 to 2005. Each spectrum was integrated over 0.25 second and was fitted to the extensive grid of atmospheric models after background subtraction. Theoretical model spectra were calculated by the ATM code for various chemical compositions, effective temperatures from 10⁷ K to 3×10⁷ K and surface gravities from critical gravity up to log g = 15.0 (cgs units). As the result of the fitting procedure we obtained the surface redshift z and the surface gravity log g simultaneously for each trial set of parameters. Therefore, we are able to calculate mass and radius of the neutron star in MXB 1728-34. Many satisfactory fits were obtained for each chemical composition, but for models with iron abundance 100 times greater than the solar value fits were better than others. For this chemical composition we recommend that mass and radius of the neutron star is in the range: M = 0.103 – 1.564 M_ʘ and R = 1.745 – 10.620 km.

Two fully automatic Pi of the Sky detectors with a large field of view, located in Spain (INTA) and Chile (SPDA) observe the sky in search of rare optical phenomena but also collect observations which include many kinds of variable stars. To be able to draw proper conclusions from the data received, their adequate quality is very important. Data of the Pi of the Sky are subject to a systematic errors caused by various factors such as e.g. cloud cover seen as significant fluctuations in the number of stars observed by the detector, the problems with conducting mounting, a strong background of the moon or passing of a bright object near the observed star, such as a planet. Some of these adverse effects are already detected during the cataloging of individual measurements, but the quality of our data was still not satisfactory for us. In order to improve quality of our data we developed two new procedures which were based on two different approaches. In this article I will tell some words about these procedures, give an some examples and show how these procedures improve the quality of our data.

Two institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Space Research Centre and Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center cooperate on the project to build and place in orbit the first Polish scientific satellite. The BRITE (BRight Target Explorer) mission formed by Austria, Canada and Poland will send to space a constellation of six nanosatelites, two from each country. They will be observing star pulsations with fotometric methods gathering data that will verify thermodynamic models of bright, massive stars of our Galaxy, delivering information on their structure, formation and evolution. The first of two Polish satellites, "LEM", will closely resemble its international kin, while the second, "Heweliusz" will carry Polish flavor to space – delivering additional technological experiments. They will use commercial-off-the-shelf components.

This paper presents assumptions to a PhD thesis. The thesis will be based on the construction of Solar Photometer in X-rays (SphinX). SphinX was an instrument developed to detect the soft X-rays from the Sun. It was flown on board the Russian CORONAS-Photon satellite from January 30, 2009 to the end of November, 2009. During 9 months in orbit SphinX provided an excellent and unique set of observations. It revealed about 750 flares and brightenings. The instrument observed in energy range 1.0 - 15.0 keV with resolution below ~0.5 keV. Here, the SphinX instrument objectives, design, performance and operation principle are described. Below results of mechanical and thermal – vacuum tests necessary to qualify the instrument to use in space environment are presented. Also the calibration results of the instrument are discussed. In particular detail it is described the Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) for SphinX. The EGSE was used for all tests of the instrument. At the end of the paper results obtained from the instrument during operation in orbit are discussed. These results are compared with the other similar measurements performed from the separate spacecraft instruments. It is suggested design changes in future versions of SphinX.

The student activity related to aviation and space systems requires utilization of appropriate antenna systems and suitable tracking devices which are responsible for pointing the antennas in the required direction. There are employed various solutions from manual tracking (antenna in hand) to sophisticated computer systems. In this article are presented experiences which are the result of projects – building devices mentioned above – realized by students from Warsaw University of Technology. There are presented professional constructions and their equivalents built by students in order to reduce cost. The latter ones were used in ground stations for high altitude balloon missions, utilized for communication with amateur satellites as well as the essential part of ground communication systems for PW-Sat and YES2 satellite missions.

Design and implementation of hardware mock-up of high performance system for general avionics testing in reconfigurable FPGAs. Strong emphasis is put on exploiting dynamic partial reconfiguration capability as a method for functionality multiplexing and fault mitigation. Additionally, dynamic reconfiguration can be used for fault injection which makes Single Event Upset in configuration memory simulation possible. LEON3 processors are used to create an avionic systems test-bed, for testing the mock-ups of real system flight software and testing dynamic full and partial reconfiguration. Experiments with different means of reconfiguration are performed to measure reconfiguration times and stability of software. Several solutions for whole system reconfiguration controller have been implemented and tested.

PW-Sat satellite has been launched into the orbit together with eight other small satellites. After the launch and separation they were occupying very close positions (what has been indicated by radar observations), so it was impossible to determine which object was PW-Sat. This article describes how the exact position of satellite has been determined by means of precision signal reception and employing Doppler shift calculations.

This document presents the concept and implementation of a reconfigurable digital processing platform for airborne and satellite systems. Some recent trends visible in the technology development of on-board electronics were taken under consideration during the conceptual phase of the design. They were, namely, use of commercial-of-the-shelf (or COTS) components, utilization of FPGAs, common interfaces and system re-programmability. On the other hand, a matter that is constantly being a challenge for these types of applications that must be considered as crucial is the reliability. The key feature of described prototype device is a fusion of two different approaches: static functionality and ability of a self-reconfiguration on the fly, while retaining high availability of a system, especially when the configuration is altered by space radiation.

This work presents new design of an on-board computer utilizing COTS, non-space qualified components. Common attributes of already used computers for pico- and nanosatellites are presented as well, and the need for new solutions of on-board computer for such satellites (concentrating on CubeSat satellites) is explained. Requirements for electronic devices which are sent to low Earth orbit in CubeSats are described widely. Finally, first version of architecture of onboard computer for CubeSat is presented (PICARD project – Picosatellite Computer Architecture Development). Computer utilizes two processing units - primary: low power unit (ATmega128 microcontroller) and secondary: high performance unit (Spartan-6, SRAM FPGA). Basic features of these devices are presented, clarifying the choice of these units to the project.

The Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) is one of 10 instruments on board Solar Orbiter, an M-class mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) scheduled to be launch in 2017. STIX applies a Fourier-imaging technique using a set of tungsten grids in front of 32 pixelized CdTe detectors to provide imaging spectroscopy of solar thermal and non-thermal hard X-ray emissions from 4 to 150 keV. These detectors are source of data collected and analyzed in real-time by Instrument Data Processing Unit (IDPU). Besides the data processing the IDPU controls and manages other STIX’s subsystems: ASICs and ADCs associated with detectors, Aspect System, Attenuator, PSU and HK. The instrument reviewed in this paper is based on the design that passed the Instrument Preliminary Design Review (IPDR) in early 2012 and Software Preliminary Design Review (SW PDR) in middle of 2012. Particular emphasis is given to the IDPU and low level software called Basic SW (BSW).

The ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) is the outermost of the three sub-systems of the ATLAS Inner Detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. With ~300000 drift tube proportional counters (straws) filled with stable gas mixture and high voltage biased it provides precise quasi-continuous tracking and particles identification. Safe, coherent and efficient operation of the TRT is fulfilled with the help of the Detector Control System (DCS) running on 11 computers as PVSS (industrial SCADA) projects. Standard industrial and custom developed server applications and protocols are used for reading hardware parameters. Higher level control system layers based on the CERN JCOP framework allow for automatic control procedures, efficient error recognition and handling and provide a synchronization mechanism with the ATLAS data acquisition system. Different data bases are used to store the detector online parameters, the configuration parameters and replicate a subset of them used to flag data quality for physics reconstruction. The TRT DCS is fully integrated with the ATLAS Detector Control System.

A novel approach to the Gas Electron Multiplier¹ (GEM) detector readout is presented. Unlike commonly used methods, based on discriminators, and analogue FIFOs,[ the method developed uses simultaneously sampling high speed ADCs and advanced FPGA-based processing logic to estimate the energy of every single photon. Such method is applied to every GEM strip signal. It is especially useful in case of crystal-based spectrometers for soft X-rays, where higher order reflections need to be identified and rejected. For the purpose of the detector readout, a novel conception of the measurement platform was developed.

This paper presents a PCI Express based system dedicated for communication with FPGA in data acquisition systems. The system consisted of FPGA IP core containing PCIE endpoint tightly coupled with with the user core (further denoted as “USR core”) and the DDR3 memory controller, together with Linux device driver. The Linux OS was running on top of typical x86-64 system.

Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the third annual meeting of the EuCARD – European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development. The conference concerns building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement – control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution.

This paper describes the idea of the particle recognition at the Pattern Comparator Boards at the RPC detector at the CMS experiment at the LHC at CERN. This solution enables the muons and the Heavy Stable Charged Particles recognition and distinguishing. The described algorithms are implemented in the FPGA structures. They are able to realise the fast analysis of the data from the whole system and work on the reliable triggering decision with the same delay. The implementation is compared with the other solutions. The further development of the RPC system for the HSCPs search is described. Those solutions should provide the reliable data about the hipotetical existence of the HSCPs.

The new type of Micro-pixel Avalanche Photodiode (MAPD) has been measured and modeled. The paper presents principles of its operation and its comparison to widely used Multi-Pixel Photon Counters (MPPC) offered by Hamamatsu. An electrical model of the MAPD has been proposed and a method of obtaining its parameters has been presented.

It is shown in [1], feedback communication systems (FCS) with the analog feedback channel (AFCS) may explore the recourses of forward transmission channels in the most effective way and transmit the signals at the rate equal to their capacity. Designing of new AFCS requires deepened research of the work of the systems in different conditions, in many cases difficult for theoretical study but available if the model-based simulations are used. In the paper, we discuss particularities of the design and applications of flexible and interactive virtual research bench (VRB) for the analysis of AFCS which is was developed in MATLAB computing environment.

This paper discusses a methodology available to develop digital systems based on both: embedded computer and tightly coupled FPGA, using the virtual hardware. This approach allows to test design concepts and even to develop some parts of firmware and software before the real hardware is built, or to allow multiple developers to work simultaneously when only limited number of prototype devices is available. The aim of this paper is to show different available methods, providing the hardware-software co-simulation for development of such digital systems, with emphasis on the open source solutions, and to discuss their applicability.

This paper presents a concept of simple interface allowing to control the local bus of the FPGA based system from the computer working as USB host. Such approach may significantly simplify and decrease cost of development of FPGA based systems.

This article presents several hardware architectures of Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Huffman noiseless encoder, its optimisations and working implementation. Much attention has been paid to optimise the demand of hardware resources especially memory size. The aim of design was to get as short binary stream as possible in this standard. The Huffman encoder with whole audio-video system has been implemented in FPGA devices.

The purpose of a short-baseline stereo matching algorithm is calculation of the disparity map for a given rectified stereo pair. Most stereo algorithms presented in the literature achieve this goal by searching all possible disparities for all pixels. This may be extremely costly if an image size and search range are large. In this paper an efficient method of computing a disparity map for the whole image, by searching disparities for only a selected subset of pixels, is presented. It is shown how to select good initial set of pixels for matching given the over-segmentation of the input images. It is also presented that such a limited set of pixels is sufficient to obtain a rough estimate of the disparity map. Next, it is described how this disparity map can be improved. The results indicate that despite searching only a fraction of possible disparities for just a subset of input image pixels, a computed disparity maps are of quality comparable to those obtained with a full search algorithm. Moreover, the method is general enough to be used with almost any local stereo matching algorithm.

This paper presents a novel architecture of a MPEG-2 TS demultiplexer, implemented with a FPGA. The main objective of the design is an ability to separate selected elementary streams in real time, while ensuring minimal resource consumption. This is achieved by the decomposition of the demultiplexer into a number of independent sub-modules, which process the data in parallel. The flexible structure enables adaptation to the specific needs and significantly simplifies potential expansion, what may be important due to a wide range of potential applications of the MPEG-2 TS standard. To improve the functionality, the demultiplexer is equipped with a configuration and status interface. The transport stream and configuration data are supplied to the FPGA by a microcontroller through the External Peripheral Interface (EPI). The data is transmitted to the microcontroller via Ethernet, using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

The effective usage of transmission resources is becoming very important problem as new coding systems are extremely efficient and data transmission channels have higher throughput. That force us to look at the rate control algorithms. This paper presents test results of using local bitrate estimation instead of basic rate control algorithms for video sequences with intra-frame prediction. Local bitrate estimation enables inter and extrapolation of rho-rate function in neighborhood of currently used QP. This approach simplifies rate control process by excluding complex error-based operations.

Paper describes performance of embedded real-time system controlled by Linux. Interrupt latency is taken into account as a main measured parameter in further considerations. To improve and minimize system's interrupt latency two separate approaches were evaluated. Obtained results proved that its possible to build a hard real-time system based on a modified Linux kernel.

The paper discusses a new method of improvement of conversion quality in intelligent cyclic analog-to-digital converters (ICADCs). One of the key factors influencing performance of ICADC is integral nonlinearity (INL) of its internal digital-to-analog converter (DAC). In the paper this influence is analyzed and there is proposed a method of its reduction using randomization of the errors caused by DAC INL and their averaging, which allows to improve ICADC resolution. Effectiveness of the developed method was examined in simulation experiments.

In this report, numerical analysis on light propagation in photonic crystal fibers infiltrated with liquid crystalline materials is presented. In particular, influence of the optical power is shown, as obtained from numerical simulations based on the finite difference beam propagation method.

Properties of photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) filled with nematic liquid crystals (LC) can be easily tuned by using an external electric field. In this work we focus on electrical tuning of index-guiding photonic liquid crystal fibers (PLCF) based on fibers made from multi-component glasses with an enhanced value of the refractive index. The impact of an electric field on light propagation in index guiding PLCFs has been carefully studied and the effective tuning of phase birefringence has been observed experimentally. The dependence of time response on the modulation level will be presented. In the end we will show polarization controller made with two pair of electrodes.

An application concept of the MIMO technique, which is very well known from a radio transmission to increase a total information capacity of multimode fibers was discussed. The focus has been mainly on an incoherent version of this technique. Additionally an experimental setup based on the such approach has been described in a second part of the paper. The system cooperated with an OM2 50 μm GI silica fiber with 4.4 km of a length. Two digital streams with a 200 Mbit/s rate each had been transmitted simultaneously in the same band of the frequency beyond a baseband of the multimode fiber.

In the paper design and experimental study on manufacturing 8 - core double- clad optical fiber doped with Nd³⁺ were presented. Basing on ray tracing model the analysis of pumping efficiency in the 8 - core double - clad optical fiber was performed. The influence of constructional parameters of optical fiber on the laser beam quality of multicore fiber laser was analyzed. I was noticed that pumping efficiency of the fabricated 8 - core optical fiber is several times larger than in single core double – clad optical fiber. The maximum absorption at 808 nm band amounts to 4.5 dB/m. Manufactured multicore fiber doped with Nd³⁺ is characterized by strong luminescence at 1060 nm. In result of pump absorption optimization enhancement of pumping efficiency of produced 8- core double - clad optical fiber was attained.

The emission properties of Yb³⁺/Ho³⁺-codoped antimony-silicate optical fiber has been investigated. Luminescence at 2.1 μm corresponding to ⁵I₇→ ⁵I₈ transition in holmium was obtained by energy transfer between Yb³⁺ and Ho³⁺ ions. According to the Dexter-Miyakawa model, the parameters of energy migration C_DD of the ²F_5/2 (Yb³⁺) ↔ ²F_5/2 (Yb³⁺) transition and direct energy transfer C_DA of the 2F5/2 (Yb³⁺) → ⁵I₆ (Ho³⁺) transition was calculated. The optimization of the activator content and the concentration ratio were conducted with the purpose of maximizing the efficiency of energy transfer. It made possible to select best-suited glass which was used to manufacture double-clad optical fiber. Strong and narrow bands of spontaneous emission which formed as a result of energy transfer between ytterbium and holmium ions were observed in the fiber under exciting with radiation at 978 nm wavelength.

In the paper the influence of luminescent layer made of tellurite glass doped with Yb³⁺/Er³⁺ on parameters of silicon photovoltaic cell in the near infrared region was investigated. Luminescence properties of the fabricated glass under 976 nm excitation were measured. As a result of the conducted works enhancement of conversion efficiency of NIR radiation utilizing upconversion process in tellurite glass doped with RE was obtained. Parameters of PV cell with active layer: open circuit voltage increase of 5,5% for sample codoped with Yb³⁺/Er³⁺ system and 2,7% for sample doped with Er³⁺, 100% is the signal from pure PV cell illuminated by 976 nm laser.

In this paper the analysis of upconversion luminescence dynamics in tellurite and germanate glasses doped with Ho³⁺ and sensitized by Yb³⁺ in 8:1 molar ratio was presented. Population of energy levels was calculated using Runge-Kutta method. The influence of pump power (976 nm) radiation on population of excited levels and the possible upconversion mechanisms were analyzed. The energy transfer coefficient in tellurite glass C_^D2 = 5,0 x 10^-18 cm³/s, C_D3 = 1,5 x 10^-17 cm³/s and C_D4 = 9,0 x 10^-17 cm³/s and in germanate glass C_D2 = 2,80 x 10^-18 cm³/s, C_D3 = 6,35 x 10^-18 cm cm³/s and C_D4 = 3,56 x 10^-17 cm³/s were used to analyze dynamics of upconversion processes.

Miniaturization in technology of optical fiber sensors implies new areas of applications in the field of control of food fabrication. The paper presents new idea of capillary optical fibre sensor based on double layer capillary waveguide for dry weight in liquid sugar measurement. The mathematical analysis of sensor’s construction is presented. The construction of sensor, its fabrication process and measurement results are shown. The paper also contains the experimental characteristic of elaborated sensor.

The research and technical achievements in the area of lasers are summarized every three years by the National Symposium on Laser Technology held in the Baltic See Resort Świnoujście near Szczecin, Poland. The paper presents a preview of the symposium works to be shown and debated during this key event in September 2012. There are shown development tendencies of laser materials and technologies and laser associated branches of optoelectronics in this country, including the efforts of academia, governmental institutes, research businesses and industry. The second branch of the symposium works are laser applications, where the laser systems operators and laser users present their achievements. Topical tracks of the meeting are presented, as well as the keynote and invited subjects delivered by key representatives of the laser industry.

The subject of optical research is air slit. We present an optical method for a measurement of the width of it. The method is based on a diffraction pattern observation using raster. The diffraction pattern are used for real-time monitoring of the width of the air slit and their the increase in air pressure. A He-Ne laser was (1,5mW, λ=632 nm) a monochrome light source. The constructed air slit were used for the determination of parameters of air bearing.

Copper spectrum was registered as the atomic standard spectrum using PGS-2 instrument with the grating 1300 lines/mm. This grating gives quite another spectrum image then standard grating with 651 lines/mm and an elaboration of the atlas of Cu spectrum is very important. Range of the registered spectrum is situated at 2600 - 2100 Å region.

Hybrid microelectronics modules fabricated on LTCC (Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) substrates are most used in aerospace, automotive and medical industry. Microelectronics modules on LTCC substrates are common application for sensors in ABS or Air Bags systems. High scale of circuit integration and possibility to combine different types of elements and mounting techniques are factor which drags attention of Research Laboratories to develop new generations of hybrid microelectronics modules and new technologies of their fabrication. In the paper new method of fabrication hybrid microelectronic modules on LTCC substrates using Inkjet printing technique is describe. In particular latest achievements of Inkjet printed high resolutions circuits on unfired LTCC foil were presented. Paper also include unprecedented method of filing VIA (Vertical Electrical Connections) using developed in Tele & Radio Research Institute Inkjet printing System. Problems in fabrication hybrid microelectronic modules on LTCC substrates, in particular with screen printing electrical connections and VIA holes filing were discussed. Advantages of proposed new method of fabrication electric connections using Inkjet printing on LTCC substrates were given and possible areas of application were discussed.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have become more and more popular in the last few years because of their wide application fields, such as supply chain management and logistics. To continue their development further investigations of new conductive materials for fabrication of RFID transponders’ antennas are necessary to be carried out. These materials should provide high flexibility and good radiation performance of printed antennas. In this paper, two polymer silver pastes based on silver flakes were characterized with regard to manufacturing of flexible RFID antennas with screen printing technique. Foil and paper were used as a substrate materials. Surface profile of the printed antennas was measured using an optical profilometer and their resistance was measured with a four-point-probe method. Antenna flexibility was evaluated in cyclic bending tests and its performance with reflection coefficient measurements with the use of differential probe connected to a vector network analyzer. In addition, a maximum read distance of a fabricated RFID transponder was measured.

Composites are potential substitutes for metals as the materials used for heat spreaders in specified devises. They have a lot of advantages comparing to conductors, but it is not trivial to manufacture product meeting all of expectations. Main task is to choose the filler and the matrix properly and make them work efficiently. Lately, hope is reposed in carbonbased nanoparticles due to their great features. They are good heat conductors and rather easy to manufacture. There is wide range of materials which can be used as matrix according to their cheap processing, light weight, durability and good chemical affinity to some substances. Polymers are among them. There are being conducted some researches on different compounds. Expected characteristics depend on the application. FEM simulations has been carried out to confirm these theories and results are presented in this paper.

Transparent, flexible and conducting graphene films were produced by screen printing method using printing pastes based on graphene nanoplatelets in polymer matrix. The transparency of received layers and the mechanical resistivity in several bending cycles were measured. Subsequently percolation threshold was investigated. Graphene layers were printed on diverse substrates (glass, Al₂O₃, PET) and afterwards for samples printed on glass different firing atmospheres (N₂, H₂, air) were studied. Best firing results (resistance decrease) were obtained for treatment in 250 °C in atmosphere of air. Finally investigation results were used to produce a transparent and elastic electrode for an electroluminescent display, showing the application potential of our graphene nanocomposite pastes.

Newton-Raphson DC analysis of large-scale nonlinear circuits may be an extremely time consuming process even if sparse matrix techniques and bypassing of nonlinear models calculation are used. A slight decrease in the time required for this task may be enabled on multi-core, multithread computers if the calculation of the mathematical models for the nonlinear elements as well as the stamp management of the sparse matrix entries are managed through concurrent processes. This numerical complexity can be further reduced via the circuit decomposition and parallel solution of blocks taking as a departure point the BBD matrix structure. This block-parallel approach may give a considerable profit though it is strongly dependent on the system topology and, of course, on the processor type. This contribution presents the easy-parallelizable decomposition-based algorithm for DC simulation and provides a detailed study of its effectiveness.

In this paper it is shown how the idea of the BBD decomposition of large-scale nonlinear systems can be implemented in a parallel DC circuit simulation algorithm. Usually, the BBD nonlinear circuits decomposition was used together with the multi-level Newton-Raphson iterative process. We propose the simulation consisting in the circuit decomposition and the process parallelization on the single level only. This block-parallel approach may give a considerable profit in simulation time though it is strongly dependent on the system topology and, of course, on the processor type. The paper presents the architecture of the decomposition-based algorithm, explains details of its implementation, including two steps of the one level bypassing techniques and discusses a construction of the dedicated benchmarks for this simulation software.

The paper presents a model-based derivative-free minimax optimizer and a benchmarking methodology. The optimizer is dedicated to such simulation-based design scenarios, when a single simulation is time-consuming and not very accurate, and so when fast improvement of design is expected rather then high accuracy optimization. A benchmarking methodology is formulated to compare efficiency of optimizers in such scenarios. A set of electromagnetic (EM) designs, for which a design simulation involves solution of very large partial differential equations, is used to exemplify the methodology. Presented results demonstrate how accuracy requirements and computational budget change ranking of optimizers. The proposed optimizer is shown to provide competetively rapid and reliable initial design improvement for modest 5-10% tolerance, but for higher accuracy demands and larger computational budget other solvers become more competitive.

The paper presents a new approach to improvement of pipeline analog-to-digital (A/D) converters characteristics. The approach is based on application of adaptive estimation algorithms to control and calculate output codes of pipeline A/D converters. Implementation of adaptive algorithms is possible in so called intelligent pipeline A/D converters (IP ADCs) whose digital parts permit to calculate iteratively output codes in form of binary words using simple mathematical operations. This paper develops the earlier research on IP ADCs and removes some disadvantages of conventional IP ADCs simplifying their architecture and increasing achievable values of effective number of bits (ENOB) of converters. Results of selected simulation experiments illustrating new effects related to application of the proposed solutions and their potential benefits are also presented and discussed in the paper.

The paper presents results of investigation into properties of digital filters implemented in compliance with ANSI S1.11 Standard: Octave-Band and Fractional-Octave Band Analog and Digital Filters. The discussed solutions are digital one-third-octave IIR filters with Direct Form I topology. Performed simulations showed that the filters exhibit strong problems with stability, especially in the case of low center frequency filters. Another problem clearly visible in all investigated structures was poor attenuation at the frequencies above the passband. Although the filters were implemented according to the ANSI standard, none of them met all of the requirements of the standard.

The paper presents a model of transmission line in a generic circuit simulator (ngspice) enhanced by skin effect representation. The proposed model is available in a form of a subcircuit, parameterized by so-called corner frequency - parameter dependent on line material and geometry, indicating frequency for which skin-induced losses start to become apparent. Proposed model is validated by comparison with wide range of SPECTRE simulation results and also some TDR-based measurement of long transmission lines.

Reconfigurable computing is emerging as an important area of research in computer architectures and software systems. Many algorithms can be greatly accelerated by placing the computationally intense portions of an algorithm into reconfigurable hardware. Reconfigurable computing combines many benefits of both software and ASIC implementations. Like software, the mapped circuit is flexible, and can be changed over the lifetime of the system. Similar to an ASIC, reconfigurable systems provide a method to map circuits into hardware. Reconfigurable systems therefore have the potential to achieve far greater performance than software as a result of bypassing the fetch-decode-execute operations of traditional processors, and possibly exploiting a greater level of parallelism. Such a field, where there is many different algorithms which can be accelerated, is an artificial intelligence. This paper presents example hardware implementations of Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms and Expert Systems.

In Passive coherent location (PCL) radar using FM signal as emitter of opportunity the multipath propagation from transmitter to the reference antenna strongly decreases the radar detection ability. Thus, multipath removal from reference signal is a very important stage of signal processing in radar system. Since the FM signal with constant envelope is used the commonly known constant modulus algorithms suit very well for this purpose. In this introductory paper, we propose to use a block least squares constant modulus algorithm which has better convergence properties then the conventional LMS-type algorithm presented in literature. It appears as very appealing alternative since in further applications (not presented in this paper) it will very likely enable to achieve satisfactory results with less amount of data (signal samples).

In this paper we present a simplified and useful model of the human body movement based on the full gait cycle description, called the Mean Double Step (MDS). It enables the parameterization and simplification of the human movement. Furthermore it allows a description of the gait cycle by providing standardized estimators to transform the gait cycle into a periodical movement process. Moreover the method of simplifying the MDS model and its compression are demonstrated. The simplification is achieved by reducing the number of bars of the spectrum and I or by reducing the number of samples describing the MDS both in terms of reducing their computational burden and their resources for the data storage. Our MDS model, which is applicable to the gait cycle method for examining patients, is non-invasive and provides the additional advantage of featuring a functional characterization of the relative or absolute movement of any part of the body.

In this paper we present a model for effective methods of data collection with intensive data quality control and data security and design and deployment of management ICT system to ensure high quality-data in large scale population study. The designed and tested system fulfill all the requirements of entire IT and data management structure is designed with central server and web-based peripheral applications and tailored software managing data during entry/transmission/storage/coding under control of the QA and security procedures. The system was carried out during PONS project and the information from this model data management structure may improve the design of reliable databases’ management for large-scale epidemiological studies. The project model itself by tailored hardware/software application shows positive impact of QA on the quality of outcomes in outcome analysis results, effective data management with shorter time, efficiency, ensuring the quality of epidemiological data and indicators of health with elimination of common errors of research questionnaire and medical measurements.

This work is aimed to algorithmically (in silico) reproduce the sequence of DNA from protein sequence, i.e. solve protein back-translation problem or reverse translation problem. Presented solution produces a result using hidden Markov models without usage of codon frequency data obtained in other (previous) analysis. Based on biological foundations of protein biosynthesis the Markov model is constructed, then trained with the support of the Viterbi algorithm, and used to estimate the most likely coding sequence. An application that implements the above algorithm is described, the results obtained by this application are studied, and comparison to other solutions of the protein back-translation (reverse translation) problem is presented.

BCI (called Brain-Computer Interface) is an interface that allows direct communication between human brain and an external device. It bases on EEG signal collection, processing and classification. In this paper a complete BCI system is presented which classifies EEG signal using artificial neural networks. For this purpose we used a multi-layered perceptron architecture trained with the RProp algorithm. Furthermore a simple multi-threaded method for automatic network structure optimizing was shown. We presented the results of our system in the opening and closing eyes recognition task. We also showed how our system could be used for controlling devices basing on imaginary hand movements.

In presented paper the algorithms to to assign the RNA molecule to the appropriate category is presented. The new computer program was implemented in thin client architecture. The classification using different machine learning algorithms were performed on data retrieved from the database storing RNA secondary structures and on secondary structures calculated by prediction algorithms. We carried out the studies to compare the effectiveness and speed of the implemented algorithms.

Determining haplotypes with laboratory methods is an expensive and time-consuming activity therefore unsuit- able for the analysis of genetic data coming from a large number of tested individuals. Many existing algorithms for phasing genotypes operate on very impractical runtime and take into account only certain types of polymor- phisms, often without providing graphical user interface. The heuristic algorithm for estimating haplotype frequency developed in this work was examined in terms of time complexity, the speed of execution and the accuracy of results. Consequently, a Rich Internet Application that implements described algorithm has been created and its performance and accuracy to a known set of test data is analyzed. Eventually, a discussion on the architecture and the applications usability in bioinformatics applications is presented. Proposed algorithm can be used to improve the complexity of any algorithm that solves the problem of genotype phasing, which has a worse time complexity and is convergent. The algorithm is easy to scale and can achieve the desired ratio of calculations accuracy to execution time. Implemented application meets all requirements for the programs to solve problems in biology i.e. high performance, accessibility, scalability and usability.

The main purpose of this study was to describe the technique of impedance pneumography, the noninvasive method of quantitative, long lasting examination of respiratory system. In this paper there were presented physical foundations of the method, the measurement equipment and the different approaches to the measurement procedures. Also, various types and configurations of the electrodes were shown. The validation studies of impedance pneumography using clinically accepted reference the method were described, too. Finally, there were presented some proposals for future development of the technique.

This article describes processing methods used for short amino acid sequences classification. The data processed are 9-symbols string representations of amino acid sequences, divided into 49 data sets - each one containing samples labeled as reacting or not with given enzyme. The goal of the classification is to determine for a single enzyme, whether an amino acid sequence would react with it or not. Each data set is processed separately. Feature selection is performed to reduce the number of dimensions for each data set. The method used for feature selection consists of two phases. During the first phase, significant positions are selected using Classification and Regression Trees. Afterwards, symbols appearing at the selected positions are substituted with numeric values of amino acid properties taken from the AAindex database. In the second phase the new set of features is reduced using a correlation-based ranking formula and Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. Finally, the preprocessed data is used for training LS-SVM classifiers. SPDE, an evolutionary algorithm, is used to obtain optimal hyperparameters for the LS-SVM classifier, such as error penalty parameter C and kernel-specific hyperparameters. A simple score penalty is used to adapt the SPDE algorithm to the task of selecting classifiers with best performance measures values.

The paper enlists the pivotal guidelines for producing an empirical umbilical cord blood stem cell therapy quality assessment model. The methodology adapted was single equation linear model with domain knowledge derived from MEDAFAR classification. The resulting model is ready for therapeutical application.

The paper describes solution of feature selection from amino acid sequences in phosphorylation prediction problem. We show that even for short sequences the variable selection leads to better classification performance. Moreover, the final simplicity of models allows for better data understanding and can be used by an expert for further analysis. The feature selection process is divided into two parts: i) the classification tree is used for finding the most relevant positions in amino acid sequences, ii) then the contrast pattern kernel is applied for pattern selection. This work summarizes the research made on classification of short amino acid sequences. The results of the research allowed us to propose a general scheme of amino acid sequence analysis.

The aim of this paper is to design and implement information system containing large database dedicated to support neurological-psychiatric examinations focused on human brain after stroke. This approach encompasses the following steps: analysis of software requirements, presentation of the problem solving concept, design and implementation of the final information system. Certain experiments were performed in order to verify the correctness of the project ideas. The approach can be considered as an interdisciplinary venture. Elaboration of the system architecture, data model and the tools supporting medical examinations are provided. The achievement of the design goals is demonstrated in the final conclusion.

Cucumber is an important plant in horticulture and science world. Sequencing projects of C. sativus genome enable new methodological aproaches in further investigation of this species. Accessibility is crucial to fully exploit obtained information about detail structure of genes, markers and other characteristic features such contigs, scaffolds and chromosomes. Genome viewer is one of tools providing plain and easy way for presenting genome data for users and for databases administration. Gbrowse - the main viewer has several very useful features but lacks in managing simplicity. Our group developed new genome browser Web Omics Viewer (WOV), keeping functionality but improving utilization and accessibility to cucumber genome data.

This work, after a preliminary feasibility study using a Matlab environment simulation, defines the design and the real hardware testing of a new bio-inspired decision chain for UAV sense-and-avoid applications. Relying on a single and cheap visible camera sensor, computer vision, bio-inspired and automatic decision algorithms have been adopted and implemented on a specific ARM embedded platform through C++/OpenCV coding. A first data set processing, really captured on flight, has been presented.

The main goal of AURA (Autonomous collision avoidance system for unmanned flying vehicles based on active teledetection method) project is to create an collision avoidance system (comparable to see-and-avoid requirements for manned aircraft) that can be used in unmanned aerial vehicles. For testing purposes there was necessity to develop simulation environment, which could be used to generate the data required for testing of collision avoidance algorithms. The program allows adjusting of the operating parameters of the simulated device to ensure optimal efficiency. It gives us the possibility of preparing such test cases which would be very difficult or even impossible to prepare when using real aircraft. This paper includes description of developed simulator and its graphical user interface.

In this paper the new simulator of unmanned aerial vehicle is described. The application is capable of generating 3D environment based on graphical map input, and the vehicle motion is controlled by the Vector Field Histogram method, using radar heads as perception data source.

The paper presents a method of creating an environment model in collision avoidance system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The environment model is generated by the procedures processing the data from on-board equipment and digital maps. The main sensor that provides information about the current situation around the UAV is a radar obstacle detector. Each detected object is defined by such parameters as distance, speed and the number of radial zone. The method is based on the idea of the certainty grid introduced in vector field histogram method which is used as a probabilistic representation of the obstacles. The tests of developed algorithm were performed in simulated environment.

The paper presents the method of tuning the support vector machine hyperparameters by minimizing an estimate of the leave-one-out error known as radius/margin bound. The quality of the method, in terms of classification accuracy and generalization rate was tested against an exhaustive grid-search in hyperparameter space using a 2- dimensional Banana dataset.

Changes of knowledge, convictions or beliefs are subjects of interest in frame of so called epistemic logic. There are various proposed descriptions of a process (or its results) in which so a called agent may invent certain changes in a set of sentences that he had already chosen as a point of his knowledge, convictions or beliefs (and this is also considered in case of many agents). In the presented paper we are interested in the changeability of an agent's language which is by its own independent from already mentioned changes. Modern epistemic formalizations assume that the agent uses a fixed (and so we could say: static) language in which he expresses his various opinions which may change. Our interest is to simulate a situation when a language is extended by adding to it new expressions which were not known by the agent so he couldn’t even consider them as subjects of his opinions. Actually such a phenomenon happens both in natural and scientific languages. Let us mention a fact of expanding languages in process of learning or in result of getting of new data about some described domain. We propose a simple idealization of extending sentential language used by one agent. Actually the language is treated as a family of so called n-languages which get some epistemic interpretation. Proposed semantics enables us to distinguish between two different types of changes - these which occur because of changing agent's convictions about logical values of some n-sentences - we describe them using one place operator C to be read it changes that - and changes that consist in increasing the level of n-language by adding to it new expressions. However the second type of change - symbolized by variable G - may be also considered independently of the first one. The logical frame of our considerations comes from and it was originally used to describe Aristotelian theory of substantial changes. This time we apply the mentioned logic in epistemology.

The article describes an attempt to implement abstract and concrete inherence calculi in the PowerLoom technology. Issues in the field of artificial intelligence, ontology and philosophy have been addressed. The inherence calculus is a type of a formal logic system. The PowerLoom technology consists of a knowledge representation language and an inference engine. Six inherence calculi have been implemented and an appropriate testing environment has been developed. The inherence calculus has been also extended by categorical properties and a theoretical discussion of ontological Boolean algebra has been conducted. Carried out experiments showed properties of the inherence calculi and also verified capabilities of PowerLoom to construct such logic systems. It occurred that expert system operational mode of PowerLoom outperforms its abilities to work as a mathematical theorem prover.

Adequate representation of data is crucial for modeling any type of data. To faithfully present and describe the relevant section of the world it is necessary to select the method that can easily be implemented on a computer system which will help in further description allowing reasoning. The main objective of this contribution is to present methods of knowledge representation using categorial approach. Next to identify the main advantages for computer implementation. Categorical aspect of knowledge representation is considered in semantic networks realisation. Such method borrows already known metaphysics properties for data modeling process. The potential topics of further development of categorical semantic networks implementations are also underlined.

In this article there are presented a few methods of proving that can be adopted for epistemic logic. Those methods are used for proving sample thesis in a certain considered epistemic logic also described briefly in this work.

In this paper we discuss the philosophical inspirations underlying the description of “concept” in Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). We pose a question: What is the concept of “concept” in FCA? Firstly, we show how the term “concept” can be understood in philosophy. Then, we describe how formal concept is defined in FCA. At the end, we try to indicate the connections between the notion of “concept” in philosophy and of “formal concept” in FCA. It shows us the importance of certain philosophical inspirations for science.

In this paper we present an interface between Pogamut 3 platform and Clojure programming language. Clojure is a state of the art functional language with roots in Lisp. Pogamut 3 is a framework that simplifies creation of embodied agents. Our goal was to introduce Clojure code in our agents logic. Simple emergent behavior of a group of agents was implemented using Clojure code. Performance of execution of Clojure code called from Pogamut platform was measured.

In this paper we explore the problem of intelligent agent beliefs. We model agent beliefs using multimodal logics of belief, KD45_(m) system implemented as a directed graph depicting Kripke semantics, precisely. We present a card game engine application which allows multiple agents to connect to a given game session and play the card game. As an example simplified version of popular Saboteur card game is used. Implementation was done in Java language using following libraries and applications: Apache Mina, LWJGL.

Formal theories are based on sets of axioms. Philosophers as mathematicians may accept desired axioms and get some different incompatible theorems. Consequently, the truth of such theorem is conditional. The ultimate test for a philosophical system is logical consistency. If we want to treat philosophy as more scientific we first need to test philosophical systems for mentioned property. The method described in this paper is an elegant solution to automatically check for inconsistency of philosophical theories.

The paper presents an original application, written by authors, which supports writing and edition of source codes in VHDL language. It is a step towards fully automatic, augmented code writing for photonic and electronic systems, also systems based on FPGA and/or DSP processors. An implementation is described, based on VEditor. VEditor is a free license program. Thus, the work presented in this paper supplements and extends this free license. The introduction characterizes shortly available tools on the market which serve for aiding the design processes of electronic systems in VHDL. Particular attention was put on plug-ins to the Eclipse environment and Emacs program. There are presented detailed properties of the written plug-in such as: programming extension conception, and the results of the activities of formatter, re-factorizer, code hider, and other new additions to the VEditor program.

The chaotic signal generator based on the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems for applications in cryptographically secure distributed measurement and control systems with asymmetric resources is presented. This system was implemented on the basis of the physical chaotic electronic vibration generator in which the resonant circuit is composed of two capacitors, two resistors, coil and transistor, called the Colpitts oscillator. The presented system was designed, programmed and thoroughly tested in the term of cryptographic security in our laboratory, what there is the most important part of this publication. True cryptographic security was tested based on the author's software and the software environment called RDieHarder. The obtained results will be here presented and analyzed in detail with particular reference to the specificity of distributed measurement and control systems with asymmetric resources.

Modular multiplication forms the basis of modular exponentiation which is the core operation of the RSA cryptosystem. It is also present in many other cryptographic algorithms including those based on ECC and HECC. Hence, an efficient implementation of PKC relies on efficient implementation of modular multiplication. The paper presents a survey of most common algorithms for modular multiplication along with hardware architectures especially suitable for cryptographic applications in energy constrained environments. The motivation for studying low-power and areaefficient modular multiplication algorithms comes from enabling public-key security for ultra-low power devices that can perform under constrained environments like wireless sensor networks. Serial architectures for GF(p) are analyzed and presented. Finally proposed architectures are verified and compared according to the amount of power dissipated throughout the operation.