Browse

Employing models in science teaching is considered to be fundamental for an authentic learning of science. In fact, the use of models in science classes may help students in the development of a better understanding of scientific content, of inquiry skills and also in the understanding of the nature of models and of the nature of science. Also, the analysis of historical models may also play a major contribution to the understanding of scientific knowledge construction and development. Moreover, in geoscience educ...

Compositional reservoir simulation runs involve, among others, the solution of the phase behavior of the hydrocarbon fluid phases at each block and at each time step. This iterative, high CPU time demanding calculation renders history matching and production optimization as extremely time consuming tasks. This paper presents a review of the available methods for speeding up the conventional phase behavior computations during compositional simulation Emphasis is given to the fluid-specific soft computing models whi...

To increase the efficiency of conversion of plant raw materials, a search for new enzymes is required. The hydrolysis of xylan using industrial xylanases is widely used in the production of bleached cellulose. However, an increase in activity, selectivity and thermostability of enzymes is relevant for modern biotechnology. Recently, the sources of bacteria that have important practical significance are very diverse: from sea depths to volcanoes. But there are also accessible habitats, for example deposits of waste...

In this article we consider the opportunity of the use of tree-ring ?13C carbon isotope composition records for detecting and recognizing changes in forest ecosystems in the south of the West Siberian Plain where the growth conditions for conifer trees are generally optimal. Trees grow in the closed stands. The wood of Larix sibirica and Pinus sylvestris trees was chosen as object of our research. The values of carbon isotope composition (?13?) were measured in tree ring cellulose and lignin of Larix sibirica and ...

Genesis of the Uralian oxide-silicate supergene nickel deposits remains disputable. There are supergene and polygenic hypogenous model of their origin. The second model usually involves supergene and hydrothermal-hypogenous stages of formation. To solve this problem isotope ratio 87Sr / 86Sr was determined for the first time for the Ufalei and Sakhara supergene nickel deposits. The obtained data on the 87Sr / 86Sr isotopic ratio in samples from ore zones are divided into two groups, which indicate two sources of s...

The work is aimed at evaluating the effects of deep coal mining on the landscape in the Jest?ebпїЅ Mountains (Czech Republic), where coal had been mined for more than 400 years. Changes in the landscape are described, especially new dominant features that arose from coal mining. These are mainly spoil heaps that were either reclaimed or left for natural regeneration, but also other objects used for different purposes пїЅ brownfields. The impact of coal mining on the character of the landscape in the region is asse...

This paper presents the results of joint processing of satellite data providing record of ionospheric parameter anomalies, thermal anomalies and dynamics of lineament systems during the preparation and occurrence of a strong earthquake (M6.2, 24.08.2016, Italy). We describe the methodology for joint analysis of various geophysical parameters in monitoring of seismic areas. Based on the results of step-bystep processing of satellite data, it was demonstrated that 2 months before the seismic event, an increase in th...

Multi Storied structures are used worldwide and have outstanding advantages in the use of composite materials in structural application. This study heads to an experimental study to reproduce the behavior on a composite joint configuration. Due to the lack of knowledge, during the last few years a lot of studies are based on the semi-rigid composite joints that can provide useful data about the behavior and the resistance of these connections. A number of two tests were performed to obtain a better development of ...

Schemes of mining and construction operations have been developed for inclined trenches on the open pit edge, where transport platforms and safety benches using the drilling and blasting method of rock mass preparation are located. The volume of mining operations is calculated taking into account the dislocation of a part of the open pit edge of the deep open pit mine for placement of loading points at the bottom of inclined workings. A new scheme of conducting mining operations implementing steeply inclined conve...

During the last decades, scientists have confirmed that global climate change is a result of human activities, aspects emphasized by long-term observation on different climate elements. Rural people, who make up approximately 40% of the global population, are generally more vulnerable to the adverse consequences of climate change. Despite the growing knowledge base on climate change and its impacts, much remains to be understood about the linkages between climate change and rural development. Climate change affect...

The presented paper covers the research of combustion products of selected natural and synthetic polymers and their key properties in terms of toxic effects on living organisms and the visibility in the area affected by fire. The samples of silver birch (Betula verrucosa Ehrh.), common oak (Quercus robur L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.), polyethylene and polypropylene were investigated. The examined materials were compared in the regard to their toxicity of the combustion products based on the carbon m...

Every day more than 60 tons of hydrolyzed lignin are produced only on one bioethanol manufacturing factory, 25000 tons per year. More than 1 million tons of lignin is produced by wood-recycling factories worldwide, which is being combusted to compensate energy costs or just stored as a waste. We suppose that there is a more sufficient way of its recycling and provide another way of lignin use, assuming the pyrolysis process as one of the pretreatment methods of its reproduction into more favorable derivatives. Pyr...

The dynamic architecture is not only the architecture of the movement as such, associated only with a spatial object changes, but also the architecture with qualitative changes occurring in time. Thus the concept of dynamic architecture does not exclude principles of permanence and stability. With the development of computer technology it became possible to create the complex structures that contain information about variable spatial configurations determined by different conditions. In the end, the architectural ...

The presence of metals in aquatic environment is known to cause several health problems to animals and human beings. The levels of heavy metals in wastewater and drinking water must be reduced to the maximum permissible concentration. Clays are abundant and inexpensive layered alumino-silicate minerals that have adsorbent properties. In general, chemical species can interact with clays either by ion exchange or physisorption, both being reversible processes. Among the mineral clays, smectites, especially montmoril...

We consider formation of the knowledge database within geographic information systems for support the managerial decisions on the development of spatially distributed systems and territories. Knowledge database built on systematized and formalized the laws of development of objects, phenomena, events of the subject area, obtained through theoretical studies, practical activities and work experience that allows professionals to formulate and solve management problems. To represent ontologies in the knowledge base i...

The KERMIT project deals with research and capacity-building targeted at two, related groups with academic backgrounds: 1) refugees in Europe and 2) local populations in the stressed regions from which people are fleeing. Although the long-term focus is aimed at raising the competence and capacity for sustainable resource management in stressed regions, the refugees with academic backgrounds involve both new challenges and opportunities with related objectives. These refugees need complementary study to adapt thei...

Purpose пїЅ Organization of future is organization which combines old employees know how with young employees enthusiasm and management tools customized for knowhow transfer. Global economic situation, crises and migration phenomena, IT new challenges( global networks) and the new way of human being interaction contribute for a new society, for new business approach and knowledge transfer will make a difference, will create a new framework for a new business models. The question is for organization of future if it...

The transformation of hydrothermal processes in sediments is accompanied by the transformation of organic matter. Work presents an analysis of the change in the composition of the bitumoid of domanic sediments of the Volga-Ural oil and gas province with thermal effects on the specimen of the kerogen containing formation. The laboratory modelling of the katagenesis process on domanic rock sample was conducted in autoclave at a pressure of 50 atm, at a temperature range of 200-350 пїЅC with the addition of water, an...

Conveyor belts operated on belt conveyors are subjected to a variety of loads that lead to damage. Belts undergo wear in a process that depends on the type of conveyor, its length, the material transported and the working site [2, 3, 5, 8]. Laboratory evaluation of a conveyor beltпїЅs lifetime requires determining a number of its properties, such as tensile strength, longitudinal and transverse elongation strength, delamination strength, shear strength, flammability, and resistance to low temperatures, as well as ...

The use of local soil as well as the recycling of existing structures such as road pavements using hydraulic binders is a beneficial technical solution, both in terms of economics and protection of the EarthпїЅs natural resources. Parameters of the soil stabilized with binders significantly affect the load bearing capacity and durability of the built structures. One of the important mechanical parameters applied in the analysis and design of soil structures is the modulus. Determination of the exact value of this ...

The authorsпїЅ previous research showed that in the development of competences of labour protection specialists in adult education programmes, self-assessment is essential to improving knowledge, skills, and a positive attitude. The aim of the study was to evaluate the dynamics of the development of the specialistsпїЅ labour protection competence in the learning process. The methodological basis of the study included studies, analyses and evaluation of the relevant publications in the context of the competence of ...

Enzymes are major components of organism defense against toxic chemicals in their environment. Despite the passage of more than 200 million years of life presence these enzymes now play an important role in detoxifying chemicals man-made addiction and it may be a useful biomarker. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH or LD) is intracellular enzyme year found early in all living cells (animals, plants, and prokaryotes). LDH catalyzes the conversion of pyruvic acid to lactic acid and back, as it converts NAD + to NADH and bac...

Changes of the lake shoreline of glacial lakes in Tatras are significant indicator of postglacial evolution of their lake basins. In this research we evaluate the lake shoreline changes of the tatras lakes on the historical and actual analysis of the orthophoto maps from period 1949-2015. We very precisely evaluated the dynamics of the lake shoreline with application of retrospective analysis of remote sensing materials from that period. In some cases it led to quite marked shrinkage of open water lake areas as th...

In this contribution we focus on the development of land use changes in two vineyard villages - RybnпїЅk and ?ajkov. Selected villages have very old vineyard tradition. Until now the traditional agricultural landscape (TAL) is fragmentary preserved here. They are localized in the Middle-Hron river region (Slovakia). The aim of this article is to evaluate and compare changes of secondary landscape structure (SLS) in two time periods (1949-1986 and 1986-2016). Processes of maps visualization were done in ArcGIS 10.2...

Climate change and population growth are the key drivers of land use-land cover (LULC) change in sub-saharan Africa. Ecosystem services from the species biodiversity have been the sources of food and energy in Nigeria through agriculture and provision of food, firewood, and shelter. The change in LULC has led to the degradation of the natural resources especially the plants which their severe extinction poses major threats to the increasing rural population whose livelihoods depend on them. The study aimed at usin...

Experience of radiological contamination of land, especially after the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters has shown the need to explore possible ways of capturing radionuclides in the area affected and adapting the landscape management to this purpose ex-ante the considered accident in terms of prevention. The project "Minimizing the impact of radiation contamination on land in the emergency zone of TemelпїЅn NPP" (2012-2015), dealt with the possibility of utilization of wetlands as retention sites for water carryi...

Pre-failed landslides occurring in quasi-homogeneous soils are difficult to be characterized from the standpoint of their partially formed failure surface geometry. The paper presents the combined geotechnical investigation methods (fully sampled boreholes with laboratory tests, in-situ dynamic probing and so on) giving a very accurate point-wise description of the soil, with geophysical methods (electric resistivity tomography пїЅ ERT, seismic refraction and multichannel analysis of surface waves пїЅ MASW) provid...

The Rare Earth Elements (REE) have been classified as resources critical for the European Union and divided into: light rare earth elements and heavy rare earth elements. The demand for REE is constantly increasing, which is connected with the wide range of their applications. The article presents the results of research conducted to determine the concentration of Rare Earth Elements in fly ashes obtained from the combustion of coal at the Rybnik Power Plant. The concentrations were measured using the ICP-MS and S...

INSPIRE directive describes how infrastructure for spatial information in European community should be developed. The directive provides standard (implementing rules) for European Union member statesпїЅ spatial data to ensure that spatial data is compatible in trans-boundary context. The directive covers 34 themes in 3 annexes, including such themes as: Agricultural and aquaculture facilities, Energy Resources, Environmental monitoring Facilities, Mineral Resources, Production and industrial facilities, Sea region...

This study aimed to investigate: i) the chemical composition and ii) the antimicrobial properties of the essential oil isolated from Lavandula angustifolia пїЅSevtopolisпїЅ cultivated in western Romania. The essential oil, obtained by steam distillation, was evaluated by GC/MS. The inhibitory effects of Lavandula angustifolia пїЅSevtopolisпїЅ essential oil were tested using the Kirby-Bauer agar disc diffusion method against five common food-related bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Pseudomonas aerugino...

Denitrifying bioreactors can be used to reduce high nitrate concentrations in agricultural runoff in situ. They operate on the basis of the flow of nitrate-rich water through a filtration medium containing biodegradable organic matter that serves as an organic carbon source for denitrification bacteria. However, undesirable excessive leaching of organic compounds from the bioreactor fillings can occur, especially in the start-up phase. The paper presents the results of static leaching tests conducted on six differ...

Flood risk, associated with rapid climate changes, improper development of river basins (e.g. intensive house building, deforestation) and low retention capacity of water bodies, has been observed in recent years in EU countries, including Poland. Floods pose a threat to human life and health and cause great property loss and irreversible changes to the natural environment. Studies concerning flood risk management have shown that seeking measures aimed at limiting the tragic consequences of floods are more effecti...

Crisis management is closely related to the emergency event prevention, crisis reaction and after crisis prevention. Each country within its legislative frame has involved certainly higher competencies of Rescue system forces, Integrated system forces or firefighters who are mostly acting part of Integrated rescue system in Slovakia. Recently there is a negative trend in European cities connected to aggressive behaviour against firefighters disabling them to do their job. It was also observed and very well describ...

In spatial data processing, the area of legislation is crucial but often neglected by the expert's community. Knowledge of the various legal aspects related to the data collection, data processing, and analysis of data, as well as publishing the results of spatial analysis and its visualization, is an essential prerequisite for effective work. Legislative aspects are understood as a set of legislative standards, their relationships and their influence on other fields of human activity. In the context of geoinforma...

The thermal insulation of the building envelope is a very important factor for the total energy consumption of buildings. Considering the fact that more than 40% of the global energy use and the corresponding CO2 emissions comes from the building sector, the choice of good thermal insulation products can contribute to large energy savings. The choice of thermal insulation products should not be solely made based on installation and operational costs, but rather on the global environmental impact and energy demand ...

One of the most important sectors in the Romanian beverage industry is beer production. In 2015 this sector brought revenues of 533 million Euros to the state budget. The Romanian consume an average of 80 liters per capita so that Romania ranks 7th in the hierarchy of European beer-consuming countries according to the Brewers of Europe. The largest beer consumers from Europe in 2015 were the Czechs with 143 L per capita followed by Germans (106 L per capita) and Austrians (105 L per capita). In our case 97% of bee...

This study aims to valorise the mineral wastes in particular glass wastes, brick wastes and clay to produce granulated foam glass at different characteristics (G1: Granulate foam glass without additive; G2: Granulate foam glass with 10% clay and Granulate foam glass with 10% Brick wastes). The aggregates of foam glass were manufactured at a temperature 850 пїЅ C from glass wastes (cullet), brick wastes, clay and limestone as a foaming agent. Mixtures of Self-compacting mortar have been developed with elaborated fo...

It is well known that the use of aluminium and its alloys in transports, aeronautics or in the car industry as a vehicle downweighting material, also decreases fuel and energy consumption and lowers greenhouse gas emissions. In our study, an innovative thermomechanical processing technology for obtaining flat ultra-strength aluminium products by subsequent cold rolling after equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) was proposed and experimented. ECAP is an advanced severe plastic deformation (SPD) method for controll...

Recent surge in the number of studies on inorganic nanoparticles has raised concerns over possible commercial implication of the same. The developmental stage of regulations and standards controlling the same amplifies this problem. In this perspective, we tried to analyze the current trends on lignocellulose nanomaterials (viz. Nanocellulose and lignin) and its global potential to offer an environmentally benign alternate. We used number of studies indexed in Scopus database to get an idea of trends. An additiona...

The problems of regeneration and recycling of the calcareous component in the composition of chemical and metallurgical industry waste products are studied. The possibility of obtaining chemically precipitated calcium carbonate from gypsum wastes and slimes of alumina production is shown on the basis of a number of low-temperature processes that ensure binding of carbon dioxide as part of production emissions. The influence of quality of raw materials on the volume of belite sludge which is formed during the proce...

The energy recuperation systems are being increasingly used in modern non-hybrid cars. It allows to recover part of the energy without mounting an additional electric engines and a set of batteries with high capacity in the vehicle. Recuperation of energy, however, involves a number of limitations resulting from: traffic conditions, vehicle construction parameters, electrical energy demand in the car and from the construction of the energy recovery system. In this article presented the results of road tests in a r...

The technique named "base isolation", resorts to place at the bottom of buildings special components, leading to long fundamental periods that would avoid resonance tendency of buildings with its site in the case of strong earthquakes. The nonlinear characteristics of the isolator layer change the linear period-shift estimation and can lead either to dangerous shortening shift in case of hardening nonlinearity or to unnecessary shift enlargement in case of softening nonlinearity. By neglecting this period-shift di...

Bulgarian territory is subjected to impact of almost all negative and destructive geological processes and phenomena. The engineering estimation of these hazards requires knowledge of their origin, evaluation of potential occurrence of these phenomena, and their resulting risk. The liquefaction of weak soils under dynamic impacts is one of the processes that compose the geological hazards. This phenomenon occurs in certain areas during strong earthquakes. It involves a loss of bearing capacity of sediments, terrai...

Within the eastern Siberian platform are known objects worth mentioning from the standpoint of organizing the extraction of heavy oil and bitumen. The Siberian platform is characterized by a wide spreading of the surface-bearing and shallow-lying rocks saturated with products of hypergenic oil conversion. The article describes the results of lithologic and petrographic studies of bitumen-saturated carbonate rocks of Anabar anteclise southern slope (Daldyno-Alakit region). The upper part of the section of the sedim...

The drinking water demand of most Estonian communities is covered by groundwater abstracted from the sedimentary rocks. Due to the climate and small population, EstoniaпїЅs fresh water resources are sufficient. However, Estonia faces a number of problems with natural groundwater quality in some areas. Fluoride concentrations up to 7 mg/l are recorded in western Estonia and deeper portion of the Silurian-Ordovician aquifer system, which consists of diverse limestone and dolomite. Fluorine contents in carbonate rock...

During period of preparing the construction of halls of the industrial park, according to the geotechnical investigation were found adverse properties of soil. Below the ground surface was situated 5.5 m soft clay layer, deeper clayey gravel. Due to the nearby located river, the groundwater level was found just below the ground surface. Strict requirements to fulfilling first of all the serviceability limit state have led to the preparing the load test in real geological conditions in scale 1:1. Expecting load on ...

Ensuring the stability of the sides and ledges of deep open-pit mines is one of the main conditions for the safety of mining operations. To detect various deformations in both the array of permafrost and on the surface of berms and bench slopes along the edges of the open-pit mine, a ground-based laser scanner was used to monitor the local section of the southeastern edge of the Nyurbinsky open-pit mine. There are three conditionally most active temperature periods, influencing on the geocryological state of perma...

The paper presents the results of the study on the local variability of accumulation index of cobalt in the shale series of part of the "Rudna" Cu-Ag deposit (the Lubin-G?ogпїЅw Copper District, LGOM). The Lubin-G?ogпїЅw mining district is a world-class copper-silver, stratabound ore deposit located in the SW Poland, in the area of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline. The average cobalt content for the sandstone and carbonate series was about 30 ppm. Meanwhile, the highest value of this parameter (280 ppm) was found for th...

Total duration of complex flows depends on many factors, one of them being the sequence of work locations in the work program. The aim of this research is to find a simple method which would allow us to determine the best work location sequencing in the location-based work program from work duration point of view. This was achieved by creating a synthetic criterion which allows the user to determine the optimal work location sequencing without having to simulate all of the scenarios upfront. The method discussed i...

Nowadays we see an increase in traffic intensity all around the world. The traffic infrastructure is extremely loaded by the traffic, which causes deformation of its parts. In addition to traffic load, significant is the effect of the weather conditions (wind, sunshine, temperature changes). All the mentioned effects cause changes in the spatial position and in the shape of the bridge structures. Due to these facts, geodetic monitoring is an integral part of bridge structures diagnosis and gives important informat...