Improvement of Controlling in the Financial Management of Enterprises

One of the components of a highly effective management system is operational controlling at the enterprise. At the same time, the most important indicator characterising the efficiency of the functioning of the enterprise and, accordingly, subject to controlling is its solvency, which affects the level of competitiveness of the enterprise and the efficiency of its adaptation to the changing conditions of the market environment. In this regard, the purpose of the research is to modernize the procedure of financial controlling based on the development of an integral model for determining and analysing the transformational solvency index. The article forms a universal model of financial condition assessment, in which all threshold values of the coefficients, calculated according to existing methods of financial stability assessment, are reduced to one scale and the accumulated impact of indicator values for previous periods of economic activity is taken into account.On the basis of the correlation analysis, the nature and strength of the dependence of the transformational solvency index on the factors influencing its formation and causing tendentious trends in the dynamics of its change during a certain period are determined.

Cytoanatomical marker traits of the ploidy level in fruit and berry crops

For use in breeding work, the methods of complex accelerated cytological diagnosis of genotypes of fruit and berry crops with an altered ploidy level were optimized. The proposed diagnostic method was tested on polyploids of the genus Malus, Fragaria, Ribes, Rubus, rowan-pear hybrids and is recommended for wide scientific and practical application in the plant breeding and cytology. The effectiveness of this method is ensured by its availability and reliable statistical differences in accounting parameters. In a comprehensive cytological diagnosis of forms of fruit and berry crops with an increased level of ploidy, it is proposed to first study the morphoanatomical traits (sizes and proportions of stomatal guard cells, the number of chloroplasts in them, the diameter of pollen grains). This will significantly reduce the time of laboratory analysis and field assessment by deleting forms with unchanged indicator values.

Rating Potential Land Use Taking Ecosystem Service into Account—How to Manage Trade-Offs

Rating the potential land use for crop production and/or ranching is typically a process where production gains counterbalance environmental losses. Whereas the production gains are often easy to verify, the environmental losses may render visibility through the changes in the ecosystem service, such as water and habitat quality, carbon storage, etc., thus, leaving the decision maker with a multi-criteria problem. The present study demonstrates how partial-order methodology constitutes an advantageous tool for rating/ranking land use that takes trade-offs into account. It is demonstrated that not only the optimal choice of area, on an average basis, e.g., for crop production, is disclosed, but also the relative importance of the included indicators (production gains, ecosystem losses). A short introduction is given, applying data from a recent Chinese study looking for the optimal monoculture as a function of ecosystem tradeoffs. A more elaborate system applying data from the esgame was used, disclosing the most beneficial area for crop production and for ranching, as well as the relative indicators’ importance. The study further demonstrates that a single composite indicator obtained by simple aggregation of indicator values as a ranking tool may lead to a result where gains are optimized; however, this comes at the expense of the environment.

Phytosociological Data in Assessment of Anthropogenic Changes in Vegetation of Rzeszów Reservoir

Phytosociological research on aquatic and marsh vegetation was conducted in Rzeszów Reservoir (SE Poland): 134 relevés according to the Braun-Blanquet method were collected there in 2016 and compared to 91 relevés published in 1994 (225 relevés in total). Changes in vegetation type, diversity measures, species composition, and Ellenberg Indicator Values (EIVs) for light, moisture, reaction, and nitrogen were analysed. Over the 22 years (1994–2016), the greatest changes were noted in communities of the classes Lemnetea and Potametea and the alliance Salicion albae. The long-term observations demonstrated the disappearance of 14 phytocoenoses and the occurrence of 12 new ones. An expansion of marsh communities (Typhetum latifoliae, Typhetum angustifoliae, Glycerietum maximae, Leersietum oryzoidis) was noted, causing a decline of several species and vegetation types. According to canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), four environmental variables (light, moisture, nitrogen, and pH) were related to plant distribution. The strong disturbances reflected in intensive eutrophication were due to human activity, which is the main factor shaping the ecological succession and overgrowing of the reservoir.

Treatment of the railway freight wagon wash effluents by coagulation methods on accelator reactor

This paper presents results of the research carried out on a system made to pretreat the effluents produced in water treatment of dirty surfaces of railway transportation means (RTMs) mainly G, H, T and incidental F classes of rolling stock according to the International Union of Railways (IURs). The installation was designed for coagulation–flocculation pretreatment of wastewater with flow accelator reactor (AR) in total amount of up to 75.0 m3 day−1. The raw wastewater (RW) was characterized by a significant diversity of loads: TSS (total suspended solids), TDS (total dissolved solids), COD & BOD5 (chemical & biochemical oxygen demand) and periodically it had extremely different colors, Ta (turbidity) and EE (etheric extract). The application of two-stage, coupled acid-alkali or alkaline-acid coagulation using aluminum coagulants with final flocculation and phase separation in the system implemented in practice to treat the wastewater of statistically typical composition, usually allowed to removal, accordingly: EE & TSS > 99% and to eliminate completely color and Ta. However, COD and BOD5 were removal at different levels, depending on both initial concentrations and chemical composition of load pools registered in the RW, and a type of coagulation used. The use of pre-oxidation with aqueous solutions of hydrogen peroxide or peracetic acid coupled with coagulation based only on aluminum coagulants helps to achieve equal levels of removal of the basic indicator values and a sanitary clean stream of pretreated wastewater (PW) with a colony forming unit (CFU) of <100 ml−1.

An overview of the taxonomic groups of NPPs

Non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) are ‘extra’ microfossils often found in palynology slides. These include remains of organisms within the size range of pollen grains (∼10-250 microns), resistant to laboratory treatments used for the preparation of palynological samples. NPPs are a large and taxonomically heterogeneous group of remains of organisms living in diverse environments. Taxonomically, they belong to a wide variety of groups such as cyanobacteria, algae, vascular plants, invertebrates, and fungi. The aim of this chapter is to provide a general overview of NPP groups observed in palynology slides. It includes more than 40 of the most common groups starting with acritarcha, cyanobacteria and algae, moving through transitional groups to animals and fungi and finishing with human-made objects such as textile fibres. Although far from complete, it provides an updated overview of taxonomical diversity of NPPs and their indicator values. Further works on NPP identifications are of great importance to improve of our current knowledge. Since NPPs occur in all kinds of sediments, their analysis is a powerful tool for reconstructing environmental changes over time. Further detailed studies of specific NPP groups and their indicator values will open the way for new fields of study.

Modelling Past and Future Urban Ecosystem Health Assessment —A Case Study of Kunming

Rapid urbanisation leads to increasing conflict in the human-environment relationship. The health of urban ecosystems is deteriorating and this will directly harmcommunity health and wellbeing. This paper used Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, China as a case study. A health assessment model for the urban ecosystem of Kunming was built using 25 indicators reflecting five measures: driving force, pressure, state, impact and response. We calculated the indicator values in 2006, 2011 and 2016 with remote sensing and statistical data. We used the entire-array-polygon method to draw polygon graphs and calculate the overall indicator values of the three periods, based on the standardised values of all indicators. All the indicator values were below 0.25, showing that the urban ecosystem was assessed as unhealthy. On the basis of the past health assessment model, we applied a grey system forecasting method to predict the future health of the urban ecosystem. If the current trends continued, the urban ecosystem would remain in an unhealthy state for 5–10 years. Strong measures should be implemented to improve the overall health of the urban ecosystem. This paper serves as an early warning of the health state of the urban ecosystem in Kunming.

Effects of Changes to Architectural Elements on Human Relaxation-Arousal Responses: Based on VR and EEG

This study combines electroencephalogram (EEG) with virtual reality (VR) technologies to measure the EEG responses of users experiencing changes to architectural elements. We analyze the ratio of alpha to beta waves (RAB) indicators to determine the pre- and poststimulation changes. In our methodology, thirty-three females experience using private rooms in a postpartum care center participated in the experiment. Their brain waves are measured while they are experiencing the VR space of a private room in a postpartum care center. Three architectural elements (i.e., aspect ratio of space, ceiling height, and window ratio) are varied in the VR space. In addition, a self-report questionnaire is administered to examine whether the responses are consistent with the results of the EEG response analysis. As a result, statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) are observed in the changes in the RAB indicator values of the pre- and poststimulation EEG while the subjects are experiencing the VR space where the architectural elements are varied. That is, the effects of the changes to architectural elements on users’ relaxation-arousal responses are statistically verified. Notably, in all the RAB indicator values where significant differences are observed, the poststimulation RAB decreases in comparison to the prestimulus ratios, which is indicative of the arousal response. However, the arousal levels vary across the architectural elements, which implies it would be possible to find out the elements that could induce less arousal response using the proposed method. Moreover, following the experience in the VR space, certain lobes of the brain (F4 and P3 EEG channels) show statistically significant differences in the relaxation-arousal responses. Unlike previous studies, which measured users’ physiological responses to abstract and primordial spatial elements, this study extends the boundaries of the literature by applying the architectural elements applicable to design in practice.