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Environmental concerns related to the implementation of circular economy has led to the development of new generations of materials. Interest in polymer composites reinforced with natural-organic/inorganic fillers is growing. Producers of polymer composites convert their production to optimize and replace traditional products with new ones with a high content of bio, recyclable materials, for sustainability and responsible actions. Research and industrial awareness are focused on ecological composites based on nat...

Analysis of old cartographic sources provides an opportunity to create a retrospective picture of the past. One of these important sources for study is "Map of Gurjstani vilayet" published by Al. Aslanikashvili in 1953, The map (which) was compiled according to the Ottoman document of the 16th century. The document reflects the period when the southern part of South Georgia was part of the Ottoman Empire under the name of the province of Gurjistani Vilayet (Samtskhe-Saatabago). Today, the largest part of this terr...

As part of the GoldenEye project with European co-financing type H2020, the Academic Leapfrog Geo licensed program was purchased, with which a 3D modeling of the deposit body was made based on open source data, geological maps of the Romanian Geological Institute, non- secret data of CUPRUMIN company and drone flights. The ore has not been modeled in 3D up to now, this work presents for the first time the first consolidated modeling that highlights the size of the ore deposit body. These modelings will allow the t...

The effect of pressurized hydrogen on pipeline walls is an important phenomenon that can cause damage to the integrity of the pipeline structure during transport and storage of gases. Hydrogen can penetrate the wall of metallic pipelines (alloy steel or carbon steel) and cause cracking or rupture of the material, which can lead to pressure loss or even serious effects (explosions, fires). The embrittlement of the metal by hydrogen is a phenomenon of degradation of the mechanical properties of the metal, as a resul...

The wealth of the bowels of Kazakhstan has not yet been exhausted, there are promising areas that are currently insufficiently studied, especially at depth. The reason for the insufficient knowledge of geological structures in depth is the lack of a theoretical basis for geological research and justification for the forecast of prospect for minerals. In this regard, geology faces the question of creating a scientific approach for predicting new prospect areas, especially at depth. Our analysis shows that the princ...

A type of protection represents specific measures applied to equipment to avoid ignition of a surrounding explosive atmosphere. Flameproof enclosure -d- consists in placing the parts that could ignite an explosive atmosphere inside of an enclosure that can withstand the pressure developed during an internal explosion of an explosive mixture and which prevents the explosion transmission to the explosive atmosphere surrounding the enclosure. Increased safety -e- represents a type of protection that consists in apply...

Natural zeolites, a family of hydrated aluminosilicates, are important raw materials for micro and nano technologies due to their molecular-sieve, ion-exchange and catalytic properties. Their porous crystalline framework is built from alternating SiO4 and AlO4 - tetrahedra forming cages and channels, and improvement of zeolite performance is possible by thermal and chemical treatment. The influence of hydrochloric acid and calcination on heulandite-containing tuff from the Georgian Dzegvi-Tedzami deposit was studi...

A common practice under modern conditions in urban planning is the tendency of urban areas to grow, which is usually at the expense of agricultural areas. This, both in a global aspect and specifically for Bulgaria, is a particularly relevant problem due to the extremely important ecosystem functions of soil resources and the fact that they are an extremely slowly renewable natural resource. The assessment of ecosystems condition and their services is a suitable approach as an additional study on the effects of ch...

Mycotoxins are agents with different and complex chemical structures, with toxic effects for humans and animals. They can be present in feed and food, although in very small quantities, mycotoxins have a negative effect on the health of animals and people. Ochratoxins are mycotoxins intensively studied in recent years due to their toxicity on the animal and human body; these toxins show nephrotoxic, immunotoxic and myelotoxic, neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects. Thirty male rats of the Sprague- Dawley breed were ...

The development and testing of advanced materials for the protection and repair of concrete structures is the main objective of the presented research. Two types of synthetic resins have been developed, applied to concrete samples and their effectiveness in improving the durability of the samples investigated has been tested. Type A is an epoxy resin with non-reactive solvents, originally designed for thin-layer surface treatment to achieve a highly closed and cross-linked surface. Type 50 is a modified low-viscos...

Historical pollution with hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers of soil and groundwater unfortunately is an unsolved problem, especially in some countries where Lindane is still produced, as also in Europe in the surrounding areas of former production sites or landfilling sites usually due to inadequate long-term storage, treatment or recovery of these wastes. HCH removal technologies are usually dedicated to soil remediation, leachate treatment, water and wastewater treatment. This paper presents the research effor...

Bregovo is a small Bulgarian town located on the border with the Republic of Serbia. It is situated 6 kilometers from the mouth of the Timok River, which flows into the Danube River. Despite the proximity of the river, the town experienced some complications in its water supply. The purpose of the research is to to analyze and evaluate the water supply system of the town of Bregovo. The water supply in the municipality of Bregovo is taken care of by the operator "ViK Vidin" EOOD. The separate territory of "ViK Vid...

Environmental problems in shipping belong to the most important research topics in the marine sector, where a number of technical and operational measures to improve environmental friendliness of ships can be found in the literature. Most of the fishing vessels are powered by diesel engines and alternative fuels or full electrification of the ship power system as the ultimate game changer are regularly considered in the literature as technical measures that offer both environmental and economic benefits. It is cle...

Firstly, this paper is focused on the analysis of runoff and erosion conditions in the chosen locality, which is in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. The analysis was made using geographic information systems, mainly the ArcGIS Pro software program. Water erosion endangers more than fifty percent of arable land in the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, there is no systematic protection of the majority of soil erosion-threatened areas that would prevent further losses. One of the main causes of this is t...

Sustainability reporting landscape is evolving rapidly due to the expanding legislation worldwide. The new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is challenging European companies to restructure their business models and processes and to enhance their corporate reporting. Considering the increasing number of reporting requirements, this paper aims at providing critical analysis of the current employers- demand on sustainability competences needed for setting up the relevant reporting processes. The empirical...

CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity systems of prokaryotes have been identified in 42% of bacteria and 85% of archaea [1] and are actively used in genetic engineering. However, in nitrogen-fixing nodule bacteria required for agriculture, these systems are very poorly characterized. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the diversity of CRISPR-Cas systems in the genomes of 39 isolates of alfalfa nodule bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti recovered from soil samples from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which belong to the Centra...

By elaborating this article, the authors wanted to present the situation of expenses incurred performed for the protection of the environment from Romania. The authors try to underline the fact that they have improved in recent years, against the background of the increase of the available funds, due to the economic growth and implicitly the revenues from state budget. A priority under all aspects must be the protection of the environment and those ways of protecting the Earth's resources for the following generat...

In a view of the sustainable development principles, the development of advanced lowcarbon building materials represents one of the most important issues in the construction industry. To follow the current trends in research and development of building materials, special attention is paid to the reuse of all kinds of waste and industrial byproducts. One of the serious problems of today-s society is the huge production of sewage sludge from waste water treatment and its disposal. As one of the promising ways of sew...

The article presents the results of satellite remote sensing to assess the consequences of hostilities in nature protected areas. Since February 24, 2022, 20% of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine has suffered from the war. The real level of damage to the objects of the nature reserve fund as a result of the war cannot be estimated. After all, active hostilities continue, and restrictions are created for environmental activities in the temporarily occupied territories. Therefore, remote monitoring is the only tool...

In the current energetical context, there is a need to diversify energetically independent applications. The presence of energetically independent vending systems is necessary in the smart cities of the future and beyond. Energetically independent vending equipment must ensure the delivery of cold or hot products with low energy consumption. Reduced energy consumption and the use of environmentally friendly sources lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time to higher energy autonomy. The paper p...

Road traffic fatalities are a significant concern worldwide, as highlighted by data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations. One approach to enhancing road safety is through the assessment of specific characteristics or features that contribute to the overall safety condition of roads. The International Road Safety Assessment Program (iRAP) identifies several attributes that have a direct impact on road safety. Some of these attributes can be collected from satellite imagery....

Through mathematical modeling at the local or regional level, local or zonal trends for meteorological factors can be determined and the main hazards to which elements of the infrastructure, the economy and the population are exposed. In the present study, a statistical analysis was aimed at trying to determine the analysis of variability and climate change in the western part of Romania and a statistical correlation between the temperature variation and the amounts of precipitation recorded at the Timisoara weath...

Changing climatic conditions in urbanized areas enormously impact the quality of life in urbanized areas. Persistent prolonged dry periods, extreme downpours with heavy heaviness or prolonged rainfall are an extreme problem for effective water management in cities. Extreme weather changes also risk the environment when infiltrating or relieving highly contaminated water from the first run-off. These wastewaters are a potential source of groundwater and surface water pollution in which various pollutants are concen...

Nodule bacteria increase the resistance of host plants to abiotic stress factors; however, the role of the genetic potential of rhizobia in the formation of productive salt-tolerant plant-microbial symbiosis remains underestimated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the pool of genes responsible for the salt tolerance of the alfalfa microsymbiont, Sinorhizobium meliloti, using the DNA microarray technique, phenotype microarray (PM), NGS and NNGS-technologies and genome mining (antismash 5.0). As a result of the ...

This article is devoted to the analysis of the consequences of military actions using the integration of spectral indices and remote sensing to assess the affected areas. Military conflicts have significant impacts on the natural and human environment, and accurately quantifying the extent of damage is an important task for recovery and humanitarian assistance. This paper examines the role of spectral indices such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and the No...

Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) belong to the so-called -critical infrastructure-, which are so essential that their continued operation is required to ensure the security of a people. Energy is the most important operating utilities of WWTP. The specific electric energy consumption of WWTP depending on many factors including the inflow quality, WWTP-s scale, the technology used and climate. High energy consumption indirectly produces ecological damage, accelerates the energy crisis, and increases carbon emissi...

Since ancient times, mankind has tried to establish a causality of the phenomena that occur in the surrounding world, to find solutions and answers. Floods are widespread in the Danube Delta they cause great material damage and loss of human life and important consequences. The production of floods in the Danube Delta is due to the entry into the Danube of large amounts of water from rains, from the sudden melting of snow and mountain glaciers, as well as from underground water sheets. Deforestation favors the rap...

Risks are present in all economic and industrial activities that manifest themselves both through economic losses, malfunctions of installations and equipment, as well as the occurrence of minor or major accidents with particularly serious consequences resulting in deaths and injuries, pollution of the environment. The assessment of risk levels stimulates the co-interest of economic operators to improve their working and environmental conditions, respectively to take measures to move from high risk levels to lower...

Climate factors are already exerting negative pressure on water resources, society and ecosystems. The analysis of trends and identification of vulnerable water supply areas is related to the River Basin Management Plans. For this end, a methodology for assessment of water resources vulnerability, developed in international projects of the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH), is adapted. The methodology is further developed by drought risk assessment. The main stages are: 1) Assessment of the cl...

In any terrestrial area, but especially in the case of mountainous areas, the spatial distribution of vegetation is conditioned by a series of natural factors such as relief, climatic factors or soils. From another point of view, the distribution of vegetation is different, depending on the phenophases, implicitly on the observation period, during the growing season. In this context, the aim of the work was to analyze the vegetation coverage of the grasslands in the Poiana Rusca Mountains, by applying the Normaliz...

An environmentally safe method - metal-vapor synthesis (MVS), was applied to produce iron nanoparticles (Fe NPs), which were conjugated with the drug methotrexate (MTX). The physicochemical properties and biological activity of the generated Fe NPs-MTX nanomaterials were analyzed. Transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that Fe NPs are stabilized in the form of aggregates with a size of 100 nm. The structure of these aggregates is similar to a -bunch of grapes-, which consists of metal particles ab...

This research aimed to determine the occurrence of different Staphylococcus spp., in three types of Romanian traditional cheeses made of raw milk, and to establish their antimicrobial resistance profile. Additionally, we have also screened the biofilm forming capacity of the S. aureus isolates. Thus, 25 samples (cow telemea n = 10, sheep telemea n = 5, and cow ca? n = 10) were collected from local small producers that sell in urban fresh markets in Timi? county. A total of 64% (16/25) of the examined samples were ...

The paper deals with the possibility of applying game theory in the decision of the dispatcher regarding the opening of the gates to the floodplain (construction of flood control measures). When the forecast of the flood course is bur ended with a random error from the normalized normal distribution N (0.1). The forecast itself is in the range of flows are capable of causing significant damage. The experiment tested different options for adjusting the probability of betrayal (error) of the forecast model. The prob...

In this study the effect of hazardous geodynamic processes in the area around the city of Sofia is investigated using radar satellite data. The area is of particular interest due to its high population density and high concentration of industrial facilities and residential areas. This highlights the importance of the study area in societal aspect. This the reason the authors set the main objective of this research to be the monitoring of the ongoing geodynamic processes by complementary use of synthetic aperture r...

Given the large interest for future uses of hydrogen, special safety measures have to be implemented for avoiding potential accidents. The broad objective of the research study is represented by the development and testing of experimental models representing areas of analysis and study for the initiation and combustion of air-hydrogen mixtures, respectively by numerical modelling of these phenomena, in order to obtain appropriate input data sets for precision computer simulations of chemical explosions of air- hyd...

The use of digital twin models in immovable culture heritage enables better decisionmaking about preventive maintenance, heritage management, and interpretation, as well as accurate digital documentation. This publication discusses an approach for creating a digital twin using different methods of spatial data acquisition: close range terrestrial digital photogrammetry, aerial digital photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning. The "Holy Transfiguration" Church in Pomorie, Bulgaria which is the oldest functioni...

The result of determining the quantitative relationship between the temperature and humidity of enrichment waste materials based on the analysis of digital photographs of laboratory experiments using RGB and Lab methods is presented. Using standard equipment, a laboratory experiment was performed to determine the temperature and humidity of samples of the tailing dam surface layer. Digital photographs of the samples were taken in natural light. The images were processed on a computer to obtain the components value...

In this paper, we address some challenges of protracted loading times and reduced performance when managing large image sets delivered as output by popular meso-scale weather and air-quality models when used in graphic engines of associated software applications. Following an examination of several distinguished models' output, we introduce an innovative approach centered on a three-tier software system architecture, supplemented by strategies including lazy-loading, image compression, and load stream prioritizati...

In the current context, in which the European Union, through various projects, requires the reduction of the consumption of pesticides it is necessary to investigate some different products to control the Phytophthora infestans potato blight, biological ones, that have the role of improving the structure and health of the soil, avoiding contamination of it but also of groundwater with synthetic active substances. Potato production is diminished by the presence of weeds, pathogens and pests. One of the most importa...

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...