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Aim of the paper is to investigate the possibilities of applying the laser scanning method for overhead power transmission line monitoring in Latvia conditions. Today, in various sectors of the national economy, infrastructure monitoring takes an important place in the overall management of the system. It also plays an essential role in electric power, especially in maintaining overhead power transmission lines. Realizing the possibilities of digital development, the monitoring of power lines is more often perform...

Soil pollution by potentially toxic elements (As, Sb, Cu, Zn, Pb) near the mining areas has become a serious environmental problem. These risk elements can be released into the environment, causing a risk to human health. Stabilized pollution in various materials may constitute an additional risk in the long term. Organic acids play an important role in mobilizing contaminants. In the present work, various stabilizing agents (iron nanoparticles - nanoscale zerovalent iron (nZVI), amorphous manganese oxide (AMO), b...

During the process of drilling wells, it is necessary to have information about the composition of the soil layers through which the drill passes. This will optimize the parameters of rotation of the drill, the load on the drill, as a result of which equipment wear will be reduced. It will also make it possible to lay optimal trajectories during well drilling and track the penetration of the drill into the target layer. This issue is especially relevant for the oil industry, where production is carried out at grea...

The biodiversity of grassland ecosystems is strongly affected by climatic changes, i.e., by the galloping progression of desertification. These aspects are more and more visible on permanent grasslands (communal pastures). Most researchers in grassland science consider as a major priority the conservation of biodiversity and of the productive potential of permanent grasslands, given that the decrease in the number of livestock has been accelerated. Thus, in recent years, they started case studies on permanent gras...

Drought indicator systems help decision-makers to understand how and where the drought occurred and to take measures from the Drought Management Plans. The main goal in the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the achievement -good ecological status-, but the Article 4.6 allows temporary deterioration of the status, occurred as a result of so called -prolonged drought-. Reduction of natural water resources such as rivers, lakes, aquifers, is associated with the reduction in available water resources for water supply...

This article presents the concept of using neural networks in the recognition of fungi for use in a mobile forest ecosystem inspection robot. There are many dependencies regarding the occurrence of fungi in the vicinity of specific tree species. The presence of some fungi may be the result of a developing tree disease. The possibility of quick recognition of the fungus species using an autonomous mobile robot will allow for faster detection and prevention of the disease in entire ecosystems. An attempt was made to...

The processing, transport and storage of flammable materials in the form of dust generates an explosion risk due to the possibility of initiating potentially explosive atmospheres created by dust suspended in air with various ignition sources, some of which may be their own installations. As explosions can cause human casualties and severe property damage, the explosion risk assessment and the application of appropriate measures by manufacturers and users of installations to prevent the ignition of explosive atmos...

The use, production, processing and storage of petroleum products and gases generate hazardous atmospheres that can be ignited and generate explosions, causing serious damage both to materials and the environment, and especially to human health and integrity. The use of equipment in this environment requires compliance with certain well-defined parameters, which must be chosen in correlation with the potentially explosive atmosphere in which it is to be installed and the type of protection, temperature class and c...

The growth of the world population, the technical-scientific and socio-economic evolution have led to the increase of the need for food products and the diversification of their range. Under these conditions, beekeeping acquires an increasingly important role as a food supply (honey) but also as a vector of growth of agricultural vegetal production through crop pollination. It also provides various products with a role in maintaining the health of the population through products with high prophylactic and therapeu...

Combating poverty and social exclusion requires addressing individual needs in terms of life cycles. As children growing up in poor households will face a higher risk of poverty in the future, in order to break the intergenerational circle of poverty, the governments must adopt programs aimed at simultaneously child and adult poverty in a household. The intergenerational circle of exclusion is perpetuated when low levels of education and poor health seriously limit the chances of access to the labour market for th...

In the frame of latest requirements to improve the renewable energy harvesting, the wind turbines get more and more used. Due to the propeller sizes, the blades- materials must comply with high resistance and weight requirements. As consequence, composite materials with dedicated structures are used. These materials are designed for long life and, as consequence, are potential pollution factors for the environment, after turbine working life is ended. Beside the methods to destroy the blades and give other use to ...

The development and efficient use of renewable energy technologies is essential to sustain access to clean energy for all. In developing countries, it is necessary to improve the efficiency of biogas production to contribute to the decarbonization of the energy supply. This study aims to assess the quality of biogas produced from household biogas plants in rural areas of Cameroon. Through snowball sampling, data were collected from forty-five (45) functional biogas plants across the five agroecological zones of th...

The quality of agricultural land (including orchards) describes the productivity of the land, or the benefit that the soil can give to the owner if it is properly cultivated and used. It depends on the type of soil, the mechanical composition of the soil, the reaction of the acidity of the soil, the condition of the drainage system, the contour of the plot of land, the area, rockiness, terrain, and other factors. Alternative energy sources are types of energy resources which the use causes no or only minor damage ...

The competitiveness of product being offered is very important for company's competitiveness and successful business development. In Bulgarian forestry the main product is timber. It provides more than 85% from the revenues of state enterprises (DP), which are established with art. 163 from Forest Act (ZG), for management of state forest territories. Because of that the goal of this paper is to offer and verify practically applicable approach for complex quantitative assessment of competitiveness of timber, which ...

This paper addresses the impact of the increasing penetration of renewable solar photovoltaic (PV) in the power distribution grids. A collaborative project between the university and the local power distribution grid-s operator (PDO) led to this assessment, which addressed the operator-s specific concerns about how renewable energy-based generators might affect the power quality (PQ) in its grid system. There was evaluated the interaction between PV prosumers' installations and the hosting low voltage (LV) network...

This paper presents the findings of the mapping and evaluation of macrophyte vegetation from Tataru and Uzlina lakes, located within Danube Delta, Romania. Throughout time, the Danube Delta unique ecosystem has endured considerable ecological changes due to natural and anthropogenic stressors. Currently, the potential threats are those related to pollution, agriculture, land use, climate change and subsequently, the proliferation and/or the extinction of many macrophyte species. The excessive development of aquati...

The use of pesticides has negative effects on the quality of groundwater. The triazine pesticide atrazine has not been applied to soil in agriculturally used areas of the Czech Republic for many years, yet atrazine and its metabolites are detected in groundwater throughout the country. The effect of these substances on the denitrification process that takes place in groundwater is unclear. This study aims to examine the behavior of atrazine under denitrifying conditions and the pesticide-s effect on the denitrific...

Road managers are obliged by law to regularly monitor the condition of road pavements as part of road inspections. Visual inspections provide basic information on the condition of the road and regular assessments are the basis for planning maintenance and repairs. These inspections are usually carried out from a dedicated car and recorded manually by an operator or done by special sophisticated and very costly devices with cameras and various sensors. Inspections are done in defined periods based on road class and...

The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) is a test designed to measure the bearing capacity of the subgrade during a construction of roads. It has also been used as a baring capacity test for unpaved aircraft runways and other transport areas. Nowadays, CBR is used as a proof and control test in evaluating the bearing capacity of subgrade and structural layers of roads. A distinction is made between the laboratory test and the in-situ test, which is nowadays no longer widely used. This is due to several reasons. It is p...

The air pollution in many Bulgarian cities is of concern mainly due to high concentration of particulate matter (PM). Poor air quality has adverse health effects and is responsible for premature deaths and life loss. According to the World Health Organization air pollution remains the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. Additionally, negative effects of urban air pollution can be detected on buildings, cultural heritage, vegetation, biodiversity, etc. Air pollutant concentrations in the city depend...

In the paper are reported the results of the first stage of tests performed to verify the possibility of beneficiation of a wollastonite mineral (calcium metasilicate, CaSiO3). The studied ore comes from a mineralized body located in the southern part of Sardinia (Italy), in the area named "Gutturu Is Abis". The mineralized body is composed of wollastonite associated with limestone, garnets and silica. The approach to the problem has consisted of grinding tests followed by flotation tests to separate the wollaston...

The aim of the research is to develop a method for betulin integration into electrospinning solutions to electrospun qualitative nanofibers webs morphology with high surface area and increase bioavailability. The main challenge in this study is to prepare betulin - containing electrospinning solutions with suitable concentrations due to limited betulin solubility in water and low alcohol concentrations. Tree concentrations of betulin extracts were obtained. The operation sequence to obtain electrospinning solution...

Technology of in-situ recovery (ISR) of uranium is using in Kazakhstan for increasing of production 15 times from 800 ton in 1998 till 22 000 ton in 2013. This ISR process is zero wastes technology. Investigations showed serious potential to improve results of ISR technology using biotechnology methods. Uranium in the ore body is usually presented as hexavalent (soluble) and tetravalent uranium (slightly soluble). To convert uranium into a soluble form, it is necessary to oxidize tetravalent uranium. Leaching solu...

Chicken manure is a source of biogenic elements and therefore can be used as a nonconventional fertilizer after composting. However, chicken manure can contain different hazardous substances including antibiotic resistant bacteria and corresponding genes of antibiotic resistance that can be transmitted to human and livestock trough soils and plants even after composting. Besides chicken manure composts can contain heavy metals that not only harm soils and yields directly but also stimulate the process of antibioti...

Pollution of aquatic ecosystems with antibiotic-resistant genes originating from human medicine and veterinary is an urgent problem due to the potential threaten to public health. Antibiotic-resistant genes enter surface waters and wastewater through vertical and horizontal water runoff. At the same time, heavy metals and biogenic substances often presented in aqueous ecosystems often exacerbate the problem since the drive the horizontal transfer of antibiotic-resistance genes. To solve the problem of purification...

Solid municipal waste landfills are the third largest source of man-made methane emissions. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. The capture of methane emissions in the waste sector is addressed by collecting it and using it for energy production. Methane emissions from active or closed landfills can be reduced by methane oxidation, which is developed as a covering over these landfills. It is usually composed of a gas distribution layer that favours micro-organisms that consume me...

Geographical areas with high biodiversity, high geodiversity and high cultural diversity tend to coincide. However, conservation strategies tend to consider these aspect of diversity separately, instead of considering them all together. Application of an integrated approach could potentially improve effectiveness of conservation actions and deliver significant benefits both to human and to the natural environment. Practical implementation of the integrated approach might, however, be problematic due to the fact th...

In order to emphasize the distribution of chemical elements (ChE) in biological environments, we determined hair and blood chemical concentrations in forty-seven male volunteers aged 19-23, who were divided into two groups: athlete and control. Atomic emission analysis showed stable deficiencies, which is commonly characteristic of northerners (I, Co, Mg, Se, Ca). More correlations existed in hair samples than in blood, which again proves that blood is a more dynamic environment of the body while hair is a better ...

Gold and iron nanoparticles were generated via environmentally safe metal-vapor synthesis method applying acetone or toluene as organic dispersion medium. Biological properties of the nanoparticles were analyzed by the agar disc diffusion method using Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and via in vitro cytotoxicity assays with different human cell lines. The obtained results revealed distinct biological activity profiles of the studied specimens. Fe nanoparticles (Fe NPs) demonstrated inhibitory effects agai...

Certain studies have determined specific conifers, which can be found in urban and industrial areas can be used to monitor the degree of air pollution being used for passive biomonitoring processes. The needles and bark of conifers taken from the industrial and urban areas of the Jiu Valley, mercury, chromium) and arsenic, after acid mineralization of the samples of pine bark (Pinus sp.), spruce (Picea Abies) and thuja (Thuja Occidentalis) and those taken from these conifers in the urban area and in the vicinity o...

Biotope or habitat preferences are important species characteristics that can be used for understanding their ecology, as well as their conservation, and even as a tool for crime investigations for detection of post-mortem body manipulation. However, the characterization of species- habitat preferences can be difficult. There are several limiting factors like lack of quantitative data and reliance on anecdotal evidence for this trait. Further, we must consider the reaction to the border between two neighboring hab...

Studies aimed at improving the efficiency of the field preparation of hydrogen sulfide and mercaptan-containing oil are especially relevant in connection with the tightening of regulatory requirements for quality and safety indicators of commercial oil. The Technical Regulation (TR) of the Eurasian Economic Union TR 045/2017 -On the safety of oil prepared for transportation and (or) use- establishes uniform requirements for the safety indicators of oil delivered through trunk pipelines, as well as used as a raw ma...

The groundwater flow problems are often solved using numerical models. The numerical models based of known fundamental solution, known as Trefftz methods, represents one of the efficient approaches used to solve potential flow phenomena described by the Laplace differential equation. The Trefftz-like methods, such as the boundary element method (BEM), represent a very efficient approach to solving groundwater flow problems. However, the implementation of BEM is cumbersome because of the fundamental solution singul...

In the age of climate change, the sustainable adaptation of historical assets has gained importance. Adapting historical heritage assets helps to reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution. The sustainable adaptation of heritage assets causes minimal damage to natural and social environments by minimizing its use of these resources. The aim of using sustainability in conservation is to maximize the efficient use of an existing facility and minimize the negative impact on the environment. The physical fe...

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a tool that increases information in the project. Within the effective management of construction projects, a view on economic sustainability is important. In the context of this, the BIM issue needs to be addressed within the limits of economic parameters and the impact on sustainability from this point of view. This research is focused on the analysis of BIM technology from the point of view of the economic sustainability of construction project management (CPM). The goal o...

Air pollution is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality. The fact that more cities are now improving their air quality control system is good news, so when they take action to improve air quality, they set a goal accordingly. As air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases in people who live in these cities. Ambient air pollution, which contains high concentrations of fine and fine particles, poses ...

This paper engages architectural disciplines to explore possible development paths for abandoned extraction sites. With the growing importance attributed to the circular economy, dismissed quarries embody significant opportunities to compensate for the past exploitation of natural resources and, possibly, strengthen environmental equilibriums and local sociocultural distinctiveness. The example of the Lessinia quarries near Verona is assumed as the research case, with a method based on two key points. First, sever...

This research aims to develop a new strategy to valorize wasted COVID-19 masks based on pyrolysis to convert them into useful products. First, surgical and FFP2 masks were thermally pyrolyzed at temperatures of 450-550 ?C with the purpose of determining gas, liquid (oil) and solid (char) yields. At low temperatures, solid yield was high, while at high temperatures the gas product was enhanced. The highest yield of liquid was found at an operating temperature of 500 ?C in both surgical and FPP2 masks pyrolysis. The...

Many reasons deform the cavity inside the soil. The reasons can be classified to two main reasons natural and artificial reasons. Natural reasons belong to the type of soil (It is usually due to materials that enter the formation of the soil and may be affected by natural factors). And artificial reasons due to human work inside the ground like old buildings. The size of these cavities effect on the capacity on structures and it can cause huge damages for the structures. Experimental study presents the effect of s...

The European Green Deal has an overarching aim of making Europe climate neutral in 2050. The goal is to reduce EU's greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55% compared with 1990 levels. Its goals extend to many different sectors, including construction, biodiversity, energy, transport and food and includes carbon tariffs for countries that don't curtail their greenhouse gas pollution at the same rate. On 18 June 2020, the Taxonomy Regulation for climate change mitigation and adaptation was p...

Theoretically, environmental management is still seen as a relatively young field that is rapidly evolving in search of ways to deal with natural threats and problems caused by human activities and related to the search for opportunities to provide and implement Sustainable Development. Environmental problems are intertwined with socioeconomic problems, especially in poor developing countries. In addition, environmental management faces a number of challenges in the modern world. Increasingly, countries will face ...

The DNA barcoding project provides a very quick and easy way to identify different types of organisms based on their DNA. The main objective of this study is to obtain the sequences of different species of fungi, plants and animals to map the biodiversity of Slovakia. This project also represents a new use for collections stored in natural history museums around the world. This paper shows in particular a laboratory view of the DNA barcoding project, such as the practical application of the methodology for differe...

The sintering process has been used for years to agglomerate ores to prepare the material for better operations in furnaces. Many research works have been conducted at bench scale and upscaled to industrial. The composition of the raw material, the homogenization of the feed, the challenges due to granulometry, moisture content, the distribution of gases in the burden, the impact of the fuel on the morphologies obtained in the sinters have been largely investigated. During sintering, fossil fuels such as coke bree...

The threat of climate change and its negative consequences is currently a very serious and immediate problem. The most observable manifestation of climate change is undoubtedly global warming. The higher air temperature has already affected the length of the growing season in a large part of Europe. Flowering and ripening of cereals begin a few days earlier than was usual. These changes are expected to continue in many regions. The extension of the growing season and the frost-free period can generally lead to an ...

The way of land use and implicitly the spatio-temporal distribution of plant species are subject to quantitative and qualitative changes, under the influence of natural and/or anthropogenic factors. Appreciation of the spatio-temporal "mobility" of vegetation can be done through different work protocols, some of which are geomatic methods applied to satellite images. In this context, the purpose of this study is to analyze the trends in the dynamics of vegetation and land use, over a period of approximately 35 yea...

The present study investigated the antimicrobial behaviour of E. coli and Salmonella spp. strains, isolated from pigs after their weaning age. Antimicrobial testing susceptibility by the Kirby-Bauer method allowed the identification of bacterial strains with multiple antibiotic resistance (58.02% for E. coli isolated strains and 47.27% for Salmonella isolated strains). Thus, it was noted that all 54 strains of E. coli showed resistance to trimethoprim; sulfathiazole with sulfacetamide and sulfabenzamide; sulphamet...

Magnetospheric pulsations and the mechanisms underlying their generation are topics under active studies. The Pc5 (f =1.7-6.7 mHz) geomagnetic continuous pulsations, recorded at mid latitudes (L =1.6) during December 2019, with a low level of geomagnetic activity, are analyzed and discussed in this paper. The data sets of the series on geomagnetic field variations recorded at Panagjuriste Geomagnetic Observatory in Bulgaria are analyzed. The spectral characteristics of the pulsations were determined by Continuous ...

Utilization of renewable energy sources is future solution for providing the word energy demand and to solve the problems of climate changes. Carbon dioxide is greenhouse gas and major contributor to the global warming. Hydrogenation process of carbon dioxide with renewable hydrogen will not only mitigate the problem of global warming but will also produce valuable products and renewable energy. The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals and fuels is a promising route, providing products such as ...

Accidental explosions and fires caused by combustible dusts dust are some of the most significant threats in many industries where layers of combustible dusts and clouds are formed as a result of technological processes. When there is a possibility of a combustible dust to occur during the process, as a residue or byproduct, safety measures need to be taken in order to protect the installations and personnel. In the process of manufacturing the aluminum packaging a combustible dust residue is formed. In the presen...

Surfactants as detergents and emulsifying agents are used in various fields of industry and agriculture. These amphiphilic compounds contain hydrophobic and hydrophilic fragments and are usually produced by large-scale chemical synthesis processes. However, recently there is a request to develop biotechnological methods to obtain surfactants, since biosurfactants have many advantages above their chemical analogues - higher tolerance to extreme temperatures, pH and salinity, higher stability and lower or zero negat...