The paper attempts to approach some peculiarities of the two branches of the early Slavs (Sclaveni and Antes), as the Byzantine sources of the sixth and early seventh centuries present them as being similar. Within this context the following are examined: a) the origin and ethnic identity of the Sclaveni and the Antes, taking into account certain historiographical models on the early Slavs, as well as the controversial issue of the ethnic identity of the Antes (Slavic or Iranian) and the etymology of their name; b) the material culture: under consideration are the Prague and Penkovka cultures, identifi ed with the Sclaveni and the Antes respectively, their common elements and peculiarities, their mutual infl uences as well as infl uences from other cultures; c) the political and social organization: the internal structures of the Sclaveni and the Antes, taking into account the testimony of Jordanes, Procopius and Maurice, the references in other sources to the titles of chieftains, or a kind of genealogy into the early Slavic society, as well as the treaty of Byzantium with the tribal union of the Antes are under scrutiny. The paper draws the conclusion that the Sclaveni and the Antes shared similarities, but actually were not one and the same at all, as it appears in the Byzantine sources. Furthermore, the peculiarities that appear the political-social organization and the material culture of the Antes, due to their historical and cultural evolution, are not of a degree that could dispute their Slavic ethnic and cultural identity.

Recent dynamic changes in global fossil fuels markets and the European carbon dioxide emission allowances system have significantly impacted the energy sectors. These fluctuations also influence district heating (DH) markets where coal and natural gas remain dominant energy vectors in numerous European countries. District heating markets are distinct from other commodity markets due to their local nature and distribution requirements. Consequently, they can operate under various market models and have different price design policies depending on the country and region. With these considerations, this study aims to review and analyse the current market models and regulations of price formulation in the context of final prices in selected district heating markets. The primary objective is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the key district heating markets in Poland and compare the outcomes with the markets of neighbouring countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Germany. Poland is taken as an example due to its high dependence on fossil fuels and its vulnerability to current global price fluctuations. The results indicate that Poland has one of the most regulated district heating markets, and these regulations can impact the profitability of district heating companies with high prices of fuel and carbon certificates observed in global markets. To create incentives for potential investors and incumbent companies to develop more sustainable and low-emission district heating markets in Poland – where energy transition processes are still underway – it is recommended to increase the frequency of formulation and approval of tariffs.

This paper presents the application of an improved ant colony optimization algorithm called mixed integer distributed ant colony optimization to optimize the power flow solution in power grids. The results provided indicate an improvement in the reduction of operational costs in comparison with other optimization algorithms used in optimal power flow studies. The application was realized to optimize power flow in the IEEE 30 and the IEEE 57 bus test cases with the objective of operational cost minimization. The optimal power flow problem described is a non-linear, non-convex, complex and heavily constrained problem.

The fused deposition modeling process of digital printing uses a layer-by-layer approach to form a three-dimensional structure. Digital printing takes more time to fabricate a 3D model, and the speed varies depending on the type of 3D printer, material, geometric complexity, and process parameters. A shorter path for the extruder can speed up the printing process. However, the time taken for the extruder during printing (deposition) cannot be reduced, but the time taken for the extruder travel (idle move) can be reduced. In this study, the idle travel of the nozzle is optimized using a bioinspired technique called "ant colony optimization" (ACO) by reducing the travel transitions. The ACO algorithm determines the shortest path of the nozzle to reduce travel and generates the tool paths as G-codes. The proposed method’s G-code is implemented and compared with the G-code generated by the commercial slicer, Cura, in terms of build time. Experiments corroborate this finding: the G-code generated by the ACO algorithm accelerates the FDM process by reducing the travel movements of the nozzle, hence reducing the part build time (printing time) and increasing the strength of the printed object.

The fixed fleet heterogeneous open vehicle routing problem (HFFOVRP) is one of the most practical versions of the vehicle routing problem (VRP) defined because the use of rental vehicles reduces the cost of purchasing and routing for shipping companies nowadays. Also, applying a heterogeneous fleet is recommended due to the physical limitations of the streets and efforts to reduce the running costs of these companies. In this paper, a mixed-integer linear programming is proposed for HFFOVRP. Because this problem, like VRP, is related to NP-hard issues, it is not possible to use exact methods to solve real-world problems. Therefore, in this paper, a hybrid algorithm based on the ant colony algorithm called MACO is presented. This algorithm uses only global updating pheromones for a more efficient search of feasible space and considers a minimum value for pheromones on the edges. Also, pheromones of some best solutions obtained so far are updated, based on the quality of the solutions at each iteration, and three local search algorithms are used for the intensification mechanism. This method was tested on several standard instances, and the results were compared with other algorithms. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than these methods in cost and CPU time. Besides, not only has the algorithm been able to improve the quality of the best-known solutions in nine cases but also the high-quality solutions are obtained for other instances.

The article is devoted to personal nouns with suffi x -ant in Polish and Belarusian. The lexical and semantic analysis of the studied group of words showed that in both languages they belong to the literary variety of language, however, numerous nouns represent rare vocabulary, sometimes characterized stylistically. The overwhelming majority of names defi nes the names of active contractors of activities, less often – passive contractors, and least frequently – names of owners. In addition, the nomina masculina with suffi x -ant belong to the attributive names, defi ning people on the basis of their character traits, tendencies, and often vices. The s tudied lexis include archaic or colloquial derivatives. Among the specialist words, there were examples representing such fi elds as law and judiciary, economics and trade, religion and art, education and science.

To improve the dynamic adaptability and flexibility of process route during manufacturing, a dynamic optimization method of multi-process route based on improved ant colony algorithm driven by digital twin is proposed. Firstly, on the basis of part manufacturing features analysis, the machining methods of each process are selected, and the fuzzy precedence constraint relationship between machining metas and processes is constructed by intuitionistic fuzzy information. Then, the multi-objective optimization function driven by digital twin is established with the optimization objectives of least manufacturing cost and lowest carbon emission, also the ranking of processing methods is optimized by an improved adaptive ant colony algorithm to seek the optimal processing sequence. Finally, the transmission shaft of some equipment is taken as an engineering example forverification analysis, which shows that this method can obtain a process route that gets closer to practical production.