Browse

Thermal insulating materials were obtained from diatomite and with burnable reinforcing additives, modified by synthetic and natural polymers. As burnable additives used rice husk, reinforcing additive is a basalt fiber, modifying polymer is polyvinyl alcohol and starch. Thermal insulating material obtained by mixing dry water mixtures at various ratios of components followed by drying and calcining at a temperature of 750 C. Parameters were determined linear shrinkage, density, compressive strength, the bending s...

The research studied the influence of the volume and construction of пїЅHikoпїЅ and пїЅPlantekпїЅ containers on acorn germination, resistance of root-closing substrate, height of aboveground plant parts and length of root systems of oak seedlings. The cell volume in пїЅHikoпїЅ containers varied from 25 cm3 to 530 cm3 while in пїЅPlantekпїЅ containers пїЅ 115 cm3 пїЅ 275 cm3. The seedlings were grown in greenhouses of arch type with polycarbonate coating and automatic watering. Peat-moss was used as a substrate. Av...

Poland, as a country with its own energy resources, has one of the lowest energy dependency rates in the EU - 25.8% (Eurostat, 2015). The deposits of black and brown coal ensure this situation. Therefore, in the present situation, it is so important to develop effective methods of forecasting the production of these resources on the basis of internal and external factors of this sector. This paper presents the importance of black coal for the energy security of Poland and the EU. Then, what the paper describes are...

This paper presents a semi-analytical analysis of wave propagation induced by a moving load due to rail traffic. The system studied is composed of a railway track coupled to a multilayered porous medium. The approach is proposed for a 3D modeling of the railway/soil system. It allows calculating the speed waves semi-analytically as well as the displacements of each solid or fluid phase at any point of the massif in both the wave number domain and the spatial domain. A model using a complete beam integrating all th...

When determining height differences by using trigonometric levelling method, some affecting values are present. Besides measuring imperfection due to instrumental imperfection and surveyorпїЅs errors, quality of the trigonometric levelling results also depends on following external affecting values: height difference between observed points, distance between observed points and temperature gradient (change of temperature with height) between observed points. Therefore, if the height difference is bigger, the influ...

1050 aluminum alloys are used in the conventional engineering applications where the increased corrosion resistance is required (e.g. automotive industries or construction, containers). Improving the corrosion resistance of 1050 aluminum alloy is an extensively studied topic. Different methods are applied to improve the corrosion resistance of 1050 aluminum alloy as: painting, waxing, zinc-chromate priming, thin layer of pure aluminum, coatings with a liquid protective solution, conversion coatings and also anodic...

In this article, the authors have analysed the influence of ultrasound, used in the quenching from the intercritical range (? + ?), on the volume fraction of martensite in the microstructure of a dual-phase steel with 0.087% C and 0.511% Mn. The ultrasonic oscillations, applied to the medium in which the quenching takes place, under the action of pressure and cavitation phenomenon, destroys and prevents the formation of vapor and gas films, thereby ensuring a more prolonged contact between the workpiece and the co...

The conceptual approach to the restoration of natural ecosystems (ecological restoration) is to use the idea of adaptive systemic organization of ecosystems, as the driving force of evolution is targeted adaptation of ecosystems, based on feedback, towards enhancing their viability and sustainability. On the basis of the principle of information unity of natural and engineering systems considering natural ecosystems as information-driven and environment conditions as controlling factors, an algorithm for adaptive ...

The paper deals with possibilities of recovery methods of technical installations in brownfields. The paper refers to basic problems of regeneration of technical installations in brownfields, namely the identification of individual networks, their often diametrically opposed structurally-engineering states, possibly the effectiveness of approach to reconstruction. The paper offers possibilities how to access to the structures that often exceed their moral life and last but not least, the paper offers new progressi...

On the night of February 21st, 2010, the county road 724 that connects the Malu cu Flori-Pucheni village was destroyed by a violent landslide, isolating it. In a few hours the road, together with the electrical, phone and water systems were moved downstream 30m along 100 meters. The area has been known for more than 100 years as being affected by landslides, which have appeared immediately after massive deforestation, regularly engaging local roads, house hold settlements. After the sliding in 1970, a series of wo...

The principal tool used for the implementation of spatial policy in Polish communes is a local spatial management plan. It is an act of local law and its provisions are binding in respect of the purpose of land development and the way it is achieved, development conditions and localisation of public aim investments. All actions undertaken by the commune authorities must be carried out in a manner which is both socially and economically efficient, in compliance with the requirements of environmental protection. The...

The relevance of the research is conditioned by the need to develop the theory and practice of integral assessment of the state and emergent properties of complicated natural and social systems, with the use of modern methods of evaluation. The article deals with assessment of stability of the social-ecological-economic system (SEES), being its integrative (complex, emergent) property influencing the "quality of life" of the population. The authors, analyzing a regional SEES, characterize it by the ability to reta...

At present, scale control through chemical inhibition is the preferred method in oil recovery though the principle of chemical agent action is still considered complex and not fully understood. An important issue that needs to be addressed is associated with compatibility of techniques and their impact on the reservoir and borehole zone. Scale control solutions remove deposits effectively and inhibit their formation, reducing costs associated with scale cleanup and disposal, while helping increase production and p...

Environmental assessment is also the basis for the definition and management of ecological risk of anthropogenic load on the environment. The possible impact on the Bugsky estuary are presented and substantiated and solutions are proposed to reduce the anthropogenic impact on the waters of the estuary. The main element of risk analysis is to identify hazards that can lead to negative consequences. Purpose is a comparative analysis of the environmental status of surface waters on the basis of integrated indicators....

This paper deals with the first results coming from the research activity of the SECOSUD Phase II, called пїЅConservation and equitable use of biological diversity in the SADC region (Southern African Development Community) a project supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the SADC [1]. The goal of this tiered study is to give an integrated view of three focus themes inside the area of Limpopo National Park, in Limpopo River Basin: groundwater, climate change, biodiversity. Limpopo National Park is...

The article presents our own solution of a monitoring information system developed on base of experience learned from completed projects. Information system integrates automated data collection by geodetic and non-geodetic sensors, and presentation of data through a web interface. The measuring part of the system supports data collection by multiple types of sensors. At present are pluggable leveling sensors (Leica DNA03, Leica Sprinter), GNSS sensors (Leica System 1200), 3D sensors (robotic total station Topcon G...

In accordance with the developed methodology for a comprehensive solution of issues of mineral deposits development in the Russian Arctic zone, a list of criteria has been established that allow evaluating the priority of nuclear power sources in solving problems of power supply to the Russian Arctic regions while developing the deposits and performing a ranking of the various reactor plants. The list is based on information technologies modeling objects, production and processing of raw material and geoecotechnol...

The authors have carried out uniaxial compression tests of 200 mm side cube specimens made of artificial layered geomaterial with the bedding angles of 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 deg and with the different strength of the layers to study the process of deformation to failure using the multiparametric equipment designed for synchronous recording of physical fields of stresses, macrostrains, microseismic emission (MSE) and microstrains by speckle method. The integrated analyses of MSE signals, microstrains, stresses and s...

The paper analyses the waste management practice for the Arad County located in the western part of Romania. Together with Timis County it forms a prosperous region in Romania, attracting numerous foreign investors, especially because its proximity to the border. The transformations that led to the modernization of land in this county were radical and occurred unevenly. The main driving forces of resource consumption are economic growth, technological developments and changing consumption and production patterns. ...

As a result of increasing of urban population cities are currently facing a growing demand for space for residential, commercial, industrial or leisure use. Brownfield sites are very common in Romania, especially in big cities like Timisoara and in former industrial cities. Reusing brownfields is a way forward for the Romanian cities. There are many inspiring examples of brownfields regeneration in the EU, but every site is unique (including regulations, landowners, market attractiveness etc.) and all these partic...

The increasing development of all industries is a trend that affects us every day. We take this as a part of our lives. Intelligent buildings are trying to meet the high requirements of the population. The aim is to combine individual rooms and power systems and to simplify their operation. Each room in the building can be controlled independently without affecting the thermal comfort other people who were located in the building. Intelligent buildings combine architecture and aesthetics of the construction, safet...

Detecting and monitoring of coccolithophores blooms is increasingly important due to their significant role in ocean biogeochemistry and unique capacity for feedbacks to climate because of calcite carbon and DMS production and high reflectance. Application of remote sensing approach, based on dependence of water optical properties on coccolithophores/coccoliths abundance (particulate back scattering coefficient) , allows for tracing of coccolithophores dynamics at basin-wide scale enabling quantification of bloom ...

Currently, the system of higher education is based on interdisciplinary relations established between the scientific disciplines of the natural sciences. The article covers issues related to improving the quality of environmental learning through the study of disciplines associated with pedology, ecology and geography of soils. The article justifies the significance of the courses dealing with pedology in teaching students to creative professional activities for solution of global and regional ecological problem w...

This paper presents the results of a complex investigation executed in Bucharest, Romania by both geotechnical and geophysical techniques. Soil structure has been explored through 20 geotechnical boreholes at maximum 60m depth, which provided hundred of soil samples. A comprehensive set of experimental data on subsoil from oedometer and direct shear tests are analyzed in order to determine the stiffness and strength parameters for cohesive soils. For sands and gravels, the stiffness and strength parameters derived...

Silver birch is economically important tree species in Latvia. Currently most of clearcuts in stands of this tree species are regenerated naturally, however, there is an increasing demand of birch plants. Around 5 mil. plants are produced in Latvia annualy, exceeding the amounts in other countries in the region. With a goal to intensity the forest management, while propagating only the best genotypes and reducing initial spacing in order to ensure large radial increment, recently testing of vegetatively propagated...

In this study the intra-site variations in climatic signal observed in tree rings of larch from the Polish Carpathian Mountains were analyzed. To identify the differences between tree-ring growth of particular trees within each of analyzed sites, the descriptive analysis, visualizations, Factor Analysis (FA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis were used. For evaluating observed differences the clustering methods (k-mean, EM, c-mean, Kohonen Artificial Neural Network) with ANOVA a...

Currently, in connection with the deterioration of the environmental conditions, the per-son experiences daily stress. There is a growing need to improve the immu-Niceta people in vitamins, microelements and biologically active substances. Traditional means of im-mune support due to the low efficiency pale into insignificance. Therefore, growing de-mand for environmentally safe products medicinal plant with a high content of vitamins and biologists-cally active substances such as Panax ginseng. Ginseng is known to...

A case study concerning a drystone retaining wall that failed during construction, is presented. The site geology, the materials and their geotechnical characteristics are documented and discussed. The detailed site investigation performed allowed to define three geotechnical units: 1 - anthropogenic deposits; 2 - quaternary alluvial and colluvial deposits; 3 - Neogene alluvial fan. The third geotechnical unit, the Neogene alluvial fan, is mainly composed by dense and very dense sands, showed the best geotechnical...

The present work aimed to investigation of influence molecular weight of chitosan, method of silver nanoparticles producing and immobilization, amount of cross-linking agent on antibacterial activity. Silver was incorporated in the matrix in two ways: 1 пїЅ by the recovery of silver ions from AgNO3 solution; 2 ? by addition to hydrogel the silver nanoparticles, obtained previously by microbiological synthesis. The molecular weight of chitosan shows strong influence on internal structure of matrices and on release ...

The hydrocarbon migration in a porous rock after waterflooding is a complex process. Mathematical models were developed through years to simulate the fluid flow, but input data from experimental works are needed to calibrate equations and/or trends. Routine and special laboratory analysis and measurements allow to determine the crucial input parameters. Knowledge of mineralogy, porosity, permeability, capillary pressure and relative permeability helps the reservoir engineers to predict and manage the future oil re...

In this work, the organic silicon-based composites were obtained from resorcinol, formaldehyde, TEOS, N-(b-aminoethyl)-g-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane (AEAPTES) as initial materials for carbon-silica composites producing. The solvent was acetone, those molar ratio to resorcinol varied in following: sample S1 ? 1:11; sample S2 ? 1:14 and sample S3 ? 1:19. Gels were prepared by one-stage method. The silica-organic gels were supper-critical dried. It was shown that the heat treatment of silica-organic gels allows gett...

Different species of plant aphids can be found in greenhouses worldwide, depending on the crop and climatic condition. Aphids may occur in large colonies on new growth, the base of buds, or the undersides of mature leaves. The aphids damage the plants directly by sucking plant sap from the plant tissues and indirectly as a vector of different plant viruses. The aim of this paper was to identify the most abundant aphid species causing damages to pepper cultivated in greenhouses. The two year experiment (2015 and 20...

Spatio-temporal distribution of pollutants in surface water bodies of the Baikal natural territory is shown on the example of the main inflow of the lake Baikal пїЅ the Selenga river. This is due to the fact that the transboundary Selenga river basin plays a very important role in socio-economic development, as well as in the formation and functioning of natural systems in a large part of Mongolia and the subject of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Buryatia. To assess the spatial-temporal distribution of p...

Tomato late blight (Phythophthora infestans), is among the most dangerous diseases of tomatoes grown in greenhouse conditions, but also in the open field. In Kosovo, this disease appears every year and poses a serious threat to tomato production in greenhouses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the spread of the disease in five tomato hybrids (Izmir, Amati, Shahmat, Jabuqar and Arigato) grown in greenhouse conditions. For these investigations, during vegetation period of 2015-2016 in a private greenhous...

Our paper presents the newest results of bathymetric measurements and underwater objects investigation on the fragment of Narew river between Granary and Modlin Fortress. The historical fortress and the Granary founded by the Polish Bank are both well-known historical places in Poland. Archaeologists and historians are still analyzing the history of these buildings. The main objective of the work was to elaborate a bathymetric map and a database of underwater objects. The necessary data for elaborations was collec...

The study deals with the features of using surfactants during waterflooding of an oilsaturated porous medium in the pore-scale. As an example of the study, we use natural sandstone from Ash'alchinskoye oil-field. For calculations the digital image of this sample is received with high resolution X-ray computer tomography use. The mathematical modeling of multiphase flow in porous medium is made on the base of Lattice Boltzmann equations and Color-field model. Numerical experiments are held for different values of s...

Potatoes take up metals by absorbing them from contaminated soils, as well as from deposits on different parts of the vegetables exposed to the air from polluted environments. The content of Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd in potato tubers grown in different production sites of Vushtri, Kosovo was determined using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). Experimental work was performed at the chemical laboratory of the Phytosanitary Corporation Sara & Meti, Kosovo, which is accredited according to ISO 17025. The results of this st...

Air pollution is a big problem of the last few decades due to aggression on human health, on all environmental components, generally on the natural or built environment.European directives on environment quality introduce the concept of modeling on quality of air ambient assessment and management, as a technique of measurement, calculation, prediction and assessment of the levels of pollutants.It is very important the role that the modeling pollutant dispersion has in the air quality assessment, while representing...

During the biomass densification can be recognized various technological variables and also material parameters which significantly influences the final solid biofuels quality. The paper deals with the experimental research of the relationship between technological variables and material parameters during densification of acacia wood sawdust. The main goal of presented experimental research is to determine the relationship between compression pressure, pressing temperature and raw material moisture content and par...

Topographic and topoisostatic reductions of gravity field measurements are important in geodesy and geophysics. Reductions filter high frequencies from gravity which are then used in geoid modelling or investigations of the EarthпїЅs structure. Practical computations of reductions are performed using digital elevation/bathymetric models as input data and some approximation scheme of the EarthпїЅs structure. The main parameters describing the EarthпїЅs structure are crustal, mantle and water density, density contra...

The paper describes the impact of factors which influence the buildingпїЅs energy consumption. Building constructions are important factor that influences total energy necessity for heating, where energetic efficiency presents way to better competition, since it decrease service costs. Building is greatest consumer of energy and here lies also potential of rationalization of energy costs. During quantification of energy savings there were used two methods: upside down пїЅ evaluation of savings through obligatory i...

With the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and technologies such as robotics, AI and Big Data, new regulatory frameworks are deployed in an age where data is the most important thing for any business. Internet of Things needs specific attention in the scope of, among others, the GDPR and the ePrivacy Regulation. Smart energy solutions and related systems like smart homes, smart cities are growing and stay the essential part of the whole ecosystem, that we use to optimize the energy consumption. At the same time...

Tonsteins are rocks which, due to their origin, mineral make-up and structure, are valuable petrographic benchmarks in the monotonously formed Carbon coal-bearing formation of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin in Poland. Mineralogical study of tonsteins is important with relation to learning more about their tuffogenic protolith. It can also serve as one of the criteria when differentiating tonstein horizons with a similar texture: structure, granulation, directions and intensity of transformations of the tuffogenic m...

The article presents data on the spatial distribution, concentrations and forms of the location and migration of iron in surface waters within the Russian territory of the Eastern Donbass. A map of the distribution of dissolved iron in the investigated territory is constructed. The areas with the highest levels of contamination with this metal have been identified. The tendency to decrease the level of total iron in the water in the direction of: small rivers of coal mining and processing areas, as well as storage...

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...

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...