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All the affluent countries are characterized by urbanization. Increase of the urbanized areas leads to change of total nitrogen and phosphorus unit discharges from the catchment areas. Therefore, there is necessity of the watersheds parameters ascertainment for usage of them at the biogenic elements outflow calculation. For that reason, we must determine the watersheds boundaries and types of surface within the watersheds. The considered methodology includes the watersheds boundaries ascertainment by means of digi...

Fires in road tunnels pollute the ventilation air of the underground space and create unfavorable conditions for life. International recommendations for the design of emergency ventilation share the statement that the critical velocity (specifically its numerical value of 3.0 m/s) can be used to predict the spread of toxic substances in underground space and to exclude backflow for the majority of tunnels. Nowadays, it is advisable to supplement this point of view with the results of new studies, which notes that ...

The removal and collection of dust particles from the air discharged into the atmosphere by industrial plants processing, transporting and storing dusty materials is an important objective for employers to prevent air pollution according to environmental legislation and employee safety regulations. Where the dust in question is flammable and may generate an explosive atmosphere, measures must be taken to prevent explosion and/or limit the effects of explosion. To this end, proper assessment of the risk of explosio...

Biochar is a highly porous pyrolysis product with a high specific surface area and adsorption properties, capable of adsorbing various compounds and formations, including ARG-containing MGEs. To assess the ability of biochar to adsorb MGE, a model experiment was carried out: in sterill flasks, the microbial community isolated from composts was cultivated on LB-medium, oxytetracycline and a mixture of heavy metals were added as factors potentially stimulating the production of MGE. Neither heavy metals nor oxytetra...

Rapeseed meal is a valuable source of protein for animals feeding. It can be used as an alternative to soybean meal in the mixtures of combined feeds intended for farm animals. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the chemical and nutritional composition of the rapeseed meal intended for use in the feeding of monogastric livestock. 70 samples of rapeseed meal arrived at the Laboratory of Chemical Analyses for Animal Nutrition, were analysed. The following values were obtained for the main nutritional co...

Drought is a complex weather and climate-related phenomenon with significant ecological and socioeconomic consequences. In light of the increasing severity and frequency of droughts in Europe in recent years, this study focuses on assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of drought in Bulgaria during the period 2014-2022. To achieve this, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is calculated at different time scales (1, 3, and 6 months) for both the country's territory and individual municipalities using software...

Dematerialization of local governments and environmental economics go hand in hand in pursuing sustainable development and environmental protection. Dematerialization, a concept in environmental economics, refers to reducing material consumption enabling economic growth without a commensurate increase in content consumption and associated environmental impacts [2]. This tendency to do more with less is essential to the municipalities' environmental economy. Advances in technology and the digital skills of municipa...

Albania is part of one of the most active seismic regions in Europe with dozens of devastating earthquakes throughout history. In this study, we will present an investigation of the earthquakes of the Elbasani region, in terms of the location accuracy and analysis of the features of the seismoactive layers. The distribution of focal depth shows the activation of a lithospheric zone, which extends in depth between 0 and 40 km. Accurate assessment of seismoactive layers of the Elbasani zone is of great interest in t...

The article analyzes and evaluates the current status of the water quality of the Chepinska River. It is one of the main right-hand tributaries of the Maritsa River, and large settlements are located in its catchment area and active agricultural activity is carried out. They cause a strong anthropogenic impact and a significant change in water quality. The heterogeneous impact requires the assessment to be carried out by using a complex of indices that includes the Canadian Water Quality Index (CCME WQI), the Bava...

Among the important parameters determining the likelihood of occurrence of significant damage to engineering structures during an earthquake are the dynamic and seismic characteristics of the structures such as natural frequency, damping coefficient, and vulnerability index of the structure. In this article, the Nakamura method is applied to investigate the seismic stability of an earth-filled dam wall and the surface layer using microtremors. Measurements were taken at seven points on the dam crest and three poin...

The significance of analog studies using lava tubes on Earth to inform on the design of future lunar and Martian missions is aimed at exploring and utilising those structures as potential habitats on those planetary bodies. Lava tubes, natural subsurface cavities formed by volcanic activity, have several characteristics that make them appealing for human habitation on the Moon and Mars. Researchers conducting analog studies on Earth can gain valuable insights into the geological, environmental, engineering, crew a...

Animal-origin glues are adhesives made by boiling animal tissues for a long time, and from the chemical point of view they are gelatinous and albuminoid protein substances bearing different names. The most frequently used are gelatins. They are extracted from raw animal hide residues, from cartilages, tendons, and from the gelatinous matter extracted from bones, on which the name and quality of gelatin depends. The gelatin extracted from unhaired hide waste/pelt waste resulting from unhairing bovine hide from tann...

Due to the historical development of individual regions in Slovakia, there are still areas without access to public water networks. The main reason is the challenging and uneconomical construction of public networks in scattered rural settlements. The small wastewater treatment plants have gained popularity in rural areas of the Slovak Republic. The increasing adoption of decentralized wastewater management is a result of the scattered layout of numerous rural settlements, presenting economic challenges, technical...

The horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is a root vegetable that belongs to the botanical family Brassicaceae and due to the high content of bioactive compounds, it has of great interest in many biotechnological fields. The high content of polyphenols, phenols, flavonoids, vitamin C and detoxification enzymes makes horseradish to have a great antioxidant potential and positive effects on the health, being used from ancient times as medicinal plant. The abundance of minerals, vitamins and dietary fibre make horseradi...

The effect of climate change on current life is becoming more visible daily. Our capacity to be resilient to these changes is an act of responsibility for the future. Several directions could serve this purpose. The present study aims to determine the current state of the art in unconventional energy sources. Mainly, the focus will be on biomass. Biopower sources are an element of renewable energy alternatives, along with solar, wind, tide, wave, ocean, and geothermal. The statistics underline an increasing trend ...

The Black Sea exhibits significant potential for the development of substantial gas hydrate reserves, primarily due to its low salinity, extensive sedimentary complexity, and the presence of vast deep-sea buried paleodeltas. Recent geophysical and geochemical studies carried out as part of European and national projects have yielded valuable data and outcomes, serving as the basis for a reassessment of gas hydrates in the Black Sea. This research aims to provide an updated estimation of the Black Sea gas hydrate r...

Urbanization and expansion of urban territory is a global trend that affects all major cities in the world. For this reason, the quality of the urban environment is increasingly important for human health and well-being. One increasingly popular element to improve and address the challenges associated with a warming urbanized landscape is blue-green infrastructure (BGI). Blue-green infrastructure is mainly associated with the urbanized landscape and its integration into the urban environment. In our post, we will ...

Among the newest and best performing metallic materials are high-entropy alloys, which is why more than five thousand articles related to them have been published in the last decade. However, there are few articles that refer to the brazing behavior of new types of metallic materials. In this publication, the brazed joint between two biocompatible alloy components from the MoNbTaTiZrW0.2 system were performed using an ecological Cu-Ag-Zn alloy as filler material. The optical and SEM microscopy analyzes were perfor...

The purpose of this research is to create a new paradigm as a scientific base for national programs for gas hydrate R&D and projects for technology development and gas hydrate exploitation. The main tasks are the results to mitigate climate and energy crises and to avoid technology problems of renewable energetics and social problems from mass jobs changes in energy and related sectors. The methodology includes analyses and examples from unsuccessful national programs and production tests and a thermodynamic appro...

For most soils, genetic inheritance is the determining factor of heavy metal abundance. The anthropogenic impact on the soil produced by fertilizers, pesticides, zootechnical residues, wastewater or particles brought to the soil by gaseous emissions, brings important quantities of heavy metals into the soil. Among these, the most toxic are Cd and Pb. The aim of the study was to establish the levels of Cd and Pb in soil and Beta vulgaris roots, sampled from eight locations from Tarnaveni area, an industrial center ...

Forest ecosystems are essential when dealing with climate change mitigation goals. Carbon stock of forest stand can hold substantial amounts of carbon as well products made from wood provide substitution effect, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Silvicultural practices, such as drainage, have proven to be highly efficient of enhancing tree volume, aligning with climate change mitigation goals. As forest drainage disruption for rewetting of drained areas gains momentum with appealing goals such as enhancing biolog...

The contribution unveils the outcomes of a case study conducted in Chotebor, Czech Republic, highlighting the pivotal role of long-term traffic analysis in fostering sustainable urban development. It exemplifies how cutting-edge technology and data can be instrumental in formulating more streamlined and eco-conscious urban blueprints. Within the framework of this initiative, surveillance cameras and traffic analysis software were deployed, yielding profound insights into the city's present dynamics and prospective...

Increasing demands on the thermal performance of the building envelope play a crucial role in the design of buildings in order to maintain a quality indoor climate with reduced energy consumption. In case of repair mortars development, the necessary thermal insulation improvement can be effectively achieved by using lightweight aggregates. However, the application of new materials to historical buildings might be problematic due to their incompatibility with materials originally used in the past. In this paper, tw...

Prevention and reduction of food waste production, food waste conversion into energy and products as well as the proper disposal are sequential processes in the food system. Technological standards and a legal framework for food waste recycling, as well as amendments to the relevant legal acts - both national- and municipal-level ones - have been made in Latvia. In addition, the compliance with the European Waste Classification for Statistics have been verified and the participation of nongovernmental organization...

The assessment of genetic diversity is a key step in evaluating the adaptation of populations to new environmental conditions, and thus in the selection of new cultivars. The present investigation aimed to assess genetic variability of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes grown in Algeria. The 17 hexaploid genotypes of bread wheat were assessed using 16 molecular microsatellites of SSR (Simple Sequence Repeat). Among the 16 microsatellite markers tested, only 11 markers were the most polymorphic and reprod...

21 strains of E. coli isolated from wild partridge birds - P. Perdix from the western part of Romania were studied. Through laboratory examination, the phenotypic characters of the isolated E. coli strains were highlighted. 21/70 (30%) of E. coli strains isolated from Perdix perdix fixed Congo Red, all isolated strains fermented lactose 21/21 (100%). Hemolytic activity was highlighted in a single strain of E. coli 1/21 (0.21%). The final identification of E. coli strains isolated from wild birds was done using the...

One of the main challenges in treating landfill leachate through membranes is managing the resulting concentrate. Depending on the membrane installation's performance and the stored waste's characteristics, significant quantities of concentrate may remain after leachate treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to identify an optimal disposal or treatment method for it. In the European Union List of Waste, the membrane concentrates are associated with leachates and are classified as either hazardous or non-hazardous w...

The use of a total station for carrying out high-precision work on the alignment of the stands of a continuous casting machine is an urgent task that directly affects the quality of steel. Modern devices such as laser trackers are used to carry out such work, but their use is limited due to the high cost of equipment, the need for knowledge and experience with such equipment. The use of classical techniques and equipment is subject to a huge influence of the human factor, thereby reducing the quality of work. Simi...

The objective of this work was to evaluate the physical, chemical and rhelogical characteristics of vegetable milk of soybean (soymilk homemade prepared, and some types of soymilk purchased from Romanian supermarkets). Soymilk is an alternative to dairy products and it has long been a traditional drink in China, Japan and other parts of Asia. The soybean (Glycine max) is the most important bean in the world, providing a wide range of vegetable proteins. Soybean is an important source of many bioactive compounds, w...

Sustainable cities are urban center engineered to improve their environmental impact through proper urban planning and management. The implementation of green infrastructures is one of the most important characteristics in sustainable cities. Urban green areas play a basic role in the socio-economic development and in the sustainability of the cities. Climate change is one of the factors that needs to be into consideration during the design of sustainable cities, as it constitutes a major problem that humanity has...

Lake Brates is located near Galati city, in the south-eastern part of Romania being one of the largest lakes in the country. Unfortunately, water quality has greatly decreased in recent years, both due to human actions and to climate change. The present paper aims at establishing the quality of the water in Lake Brates as resulted from the calculation of the water quality index (WQI) by the weighted arithmetic method. In order to calculate this index, several sampling campaigns were carried out in various points o...

The European Union stands apart through its ambitious blueprint to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Playing a pivotal role within this process, the energy transition in EU is challenged by the trilemma of supply security, competitiveness and sustainability. Historical contingencies and contextual factors trigger different evolutionary trajectories in terms of temporalities and geographies. Testing the club convergence hypothesis, studies addressed the heterogeneity of EU member states either from energy or environ...

Vegan alternatives to cheeses are in growing demand in European markets as more and more people are either lactose intolerant or switching to a plant-based diet. When the consumer chooses to buy a vegan cheese, his expectations are that the vegan product has the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics as similar as possible to those of conventional cheeses. This work aimed to obtain two variants of vegan alternative to cheese, using coconut milk as the raw material: one with the addition of white pepper and g...

The consequences of human actions on Earth are becoming increasingly evident, leading us to consider that the -climate collapse has begun-, as the General Secretary of the United Nations (UN) warned at the beginning of September 2023. At less than a decade from 2030, the goals and its targets for sustainable development (SD) in the UN 2030 Agenda are far from being achieved, requiring urgent actions. Their fulfilment is at risk, particularly considering recent events such as the war(s) and the pandemic. Developing...

The use of hydrogen as a fuel requires as much research as possible on the construction and functional parameters for the development of appropriate burners. The researches undertaken are addressed to diffuse flame burners with concentric jets of fuel and air. These burners cannot lead to flame return, the combustion being much safer, than for the case of burners with fuel-air mixture. The researches were carried out by numerical modeling through the ANSYS-FLUENT V.14.0 software. An important stage of the research...

A comparative analysis has been carried out on a set of indicators of two ways of recycling glass containers - collecting in retail stores and fast washing of containers at beverage bottling plants and processing into cullet, taking into consideration the whole life cycle of glassware production, use, recycling and utilization. Methods of systematization and statistical generalization were applied for comparative analysis. The specified work was based on data, that were received from various glass manufacturing en...

Soil contamination by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is a widespread concern due to the high potential for human exposure through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact. In this study, we compared the efficiency of three different methods for PAHs extraction from model samples, including ultrasonic (US), mechanical shaking and purification with commercial QuEChERS kit (Shq), and ultrasonic extraction coupled with QuEChERS (USq) by gas chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole tandem mass-spectromet...

The vibration study of the cycloidal gear and the prevention of vibrations are important issues in the field of mechanical engineering. Cycloidal gears are used in many different applications, including industrial machinery, industrial robots and medical devices. Vibration tests of the cycloidal gear consist in identifying the sources of vibrations and determining their characteristics. As a result of the conducted research, the sources of vibrations can be identified and strategies for their reduction can be deve...

As of 1.1.2023, a legal obligation under Decree No. 264/2020 Coll., Section 4, point 1 and Section 12 to calculate the total delivered energy for buildings with cooling, humidity adjustment and/or electricity generation by a maximum hourly step has been established in the Czech Republic. The current monthly calculations represented stationary thermal balances of losses and gains. The new hourly calculation is a dynamic model. The accuracy of the model increases significantly based on the solution of the differenti...

The aim of this project is to compare the effectiveness of different neural network architectures and pre-trained models for the classification of forest flora and fauna. Experiments were conducted on a dataset containing images of selected plants and animals found in the forest. The project covers the basics of convolutional neural networks, and compares the architectures of the networks used in the study. The results of the experiments compare the effectiveness of different convolutional neural network architect...

An assessment of processes in forest stands requires the monitoring of many parameters. The annual dynamics and composition of precipitation show the impact of atmospheric depositions on ecosystems. Throughfall depositions play a significant role not only in the dynamics of canopy processes but also influence soil conditions through the interception processes and element changes in canopies. The study was carried out in two permanent sample plots located at different altitudes in the Western Stara Planina in Bulga...

The present study aimed to track the changes in microbial communities during home composting of biodegradable plastic products (PLA). 6 waste mixtures and controls were prepared, with C:N about 30, placed in containers. The amount of PLA compared to the compostable mixture is 1%. Different depositing methods were used - active composting and placing part of the material in biodegradable bags. Temperature, humidity, pH, C:N ratio were measured. The amounts of bacteria, actinomycetes, micromycetes were recorded duri...

Wireless data transmission interfaces have advantages that ensure their wide and almost inevitable application in a number of tasks of creating modern automation systems, cyber-physical systems, Industrial Internet of Things, and sensor networks. However, there is a certain methodological gap between radiophysicists who are engaged in the design of wireless networks, and IT specialists who need to implement them into various computing systems. The gap is caused by the insufficiently high quality of documentation, ...

Because of the incoming mission of Artemis on the Moon, the extraction of water, oxygen, and metal from the lunar regolith is necessary, which involves intensive power requirements. To keep a mining unit operation running continuously, a technical solution known as the Tall Lunar Tower (TLT) claims to be able to capture sunlight 93% of the time through a solar panel structure. The composition of a typical panel is 76% glass, 10% polymer, 8% aluminum, 5% pure silicon, and 1% other metals. Fortunately, we just need ...

This paper presents the starting phase of a research project that aims to develop the technological demonstrator of a wind power generator system using a wind sail to capture the high altitude wind energy. The sail will capture the wind energy and will be raised to an altitude of minimum 100-200 meters to capture the stronger and more constant winds at this altitude. Flight attitude control will be done via an active control hub named WCU (Wing Control Unit) attached to the cable at about 10m from the sail. The gr...

In the energy field hydrogen will be more obvious to use by certain technologies than by direct combustion. The paper presents a conceptual analysis on the use of hydrogen by hydrogen by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide with final product methane, by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, with the final product of methanol and by injection in certain proportions into the natural gas network. A new application of carbon dioxide hydrogenation is the decarbonisation of flue gases. To this end, conceptual analyses have been ...

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the question of what the possible consequences will be on people and the building stock of a strong earthquake for the city of Varna. A seismic risk assessment methodology is used, which was approved by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works of the Republic of Bulgaria. The seismic impact is determined based on a detailed deterministic study of the seismic hazard. Initially, an assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the building stock is made based o...

The topic of sustainable mobility has been prioritized on the EU-s political agenda, with the goal of lowering CO2 emissions and air pollution. This goal entails the introduction of low-polluting cars, such as those driven by an electric battery (BEV), into the EU car market. The current investigation was guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB): The three main TPB constructs-attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control-as well as the intention to purchase a BEV have been measured. In additio...

Aphids have grown significantly both in number of species and in number of individuals in populations, especially in green spaces in urban environments. By feeding, they affect the plants in the structure of the ecosystem at the foliar and floral level, therefore it is necessary to manage them so that they are numerically reduced but at the same time to avoid the application of pesticides. Through this work, 2 ways of management were tried for 5 months (April-August): by exploiting existing natural enemies and by ...

Determining the optimal trajectory of a manipulator is a mathematically complex part of control due to the time-consuming determination of inverse kinematics, the complexity of which increases as the manipulator's degrees of freedom increase. The control of manipulator actuators is based on algorithms focusing on the shortest possible control time and zero position deviation. Values such as power consumption, which affect the growth of the carbon footprint, are not taken into account. For this reason, alternative ...