Browse

Using aerial vehicles without pilot (UAV-unmanned aerial vehicle) or Drone has seen a rapid development, over the last decade, in order to obtain spatial information of the Earth's surface. This scientific paper was realized for the Hydrotechnical Node of Costei, from Timis County and has as purpose the processing of aerial images, obtained from a Phantom4 Pro device, which is capable to capture video at 4K resolution at 30 frames per second and Full HD 1080p at 120 frames per second for a slow motion with a Sony ...

By product is broadly understood as a product obtained in a usually industrial or biological process in addition to the main product for which the process is carried out. The main challenge addressed to humanity as well as productive ecosystems, regardless of the form of terrestrial or aquatic substrate, is to cope with the rapid rate of growth of the planet's population. The demographic growth of the planet must be in balance with the maintenance of the environment and also with climatic shifts. By-products are o...

In the latest years, there was an interest in seeking for antimicrobial substances of botanical parts that have capability to suppress foodborne pathogens. Therefore, the antibacterial activity was evaluated on the crude juices produced from the mechanical pressing of some agro and food industrial byproducts, i.e., pomegranate leaves and peels and the leaves of fig, guava and olive. Also, the cytotoxicity effects of these crude juices on normal cells were estimated to check the safety of these crude juices on the ...

Almonds can be infected by mycotoxigenic fungi both during the vegetation and during storage after harvesting. Most of the times the almonds are healthy, but during the improper storage they can be contaminated by fungi from the genus Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. The mentioned fungi are very dangerous for health because they are producing carcinogenic mycotoxins. The purpose of the work was to identify the fungi that are growing on the marketed almonds when they are placed on culture media after a previo...

Today, drones are already widely used in agriculture and forestry. Drones can help spray plants, take surface measurements, and estimate the damage caused by adverse weather conditions or wild animals. Drones can also be used in caring for the condition of crops. Traditional methods of detecting threats related to plant disease are time-consuming and ineffective. Thanks to the use of drones equipped with appropriate vision systems, it is possible to carry out quick and precise control of the condition of the plant...

Taxation can be used as a tool to promote sustainable waste management and recycling of industrial plastic, paper and glass; therefore, this article aims to assess the effectiveness of existing waste taxes by considering their effects on waste generation and disposal in Europe. In this context, a comparative study has been carried out to understand taxpayers- behaviours towards waste taxation, tax rates and methods preferred to calculate the amount of tax to be paid. Sustainable waste management is of particular i...

In the current society, the topic of global environmental problems that people face in their everyday lives is becoming more frequent. The consumption lifestyle of people has a negative impact on the environment, which causes reduced quality of life on Earth. One of the most important tasks of education is leading children toward sustainable living. The study is focused on a specific pedagogical-didactical approach - Forest pedagogy as one of the options for environmental education as well as building a relationsh...

Nutrient-poor, sandy, sterile material from the post-mining sterile dumps such as those in the Maramures region (Romania) presents a challenge for plants. Sterile dumps are considered extreme environments for plants due to their unfavorable physicochemical properties. Phytoremediation has great potential to remove heavy metals from sterile dumps, and Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) seems to be a possible candidate species for this purpose. The potential of Brassica juncea seeds to germinate in a medium contaminat...

The European Union (EU) is hurrying towards a climate-neutral economy, which includes increasing the use of renewable resources, including wood for heating. This direction means that the use of wood is increasing every year in the EU and beyond. The by-product of this activity, biofuel ash, is correspondingly increasing, so its further use should be considered a long-term issue. Energy producers face the challenge of making the best use of ash and often landfill it, thus moving countries further away from the EU D...

The effect of management practices lead to significant variations of the net C balance of agricultural soils, and in this paper is estimated the impact of long-term cultivation on the soil organic carbon stocks. This paper also evaluates the potential of carbon sequestration of mineral soils through management practices in temperate agricultural systems, under dry climate regime. For fulfilling of the objective of this study, the -stock-difference method- was used for estimating the soil organic carbon stocks betw...

Recent years have seen an increase in microbial biofilm resistance, which has led to great challenges for the medical community in terms of treating diseases and the food industry in terms of contamination and the loss of shelf life. The purpose of this work is to test the antimicrobial efficacy against the biofilm formed by the following reference strains: Streptococcus pyogenes (ATCC 19615), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Shigella flexneri (ATCC 12022), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Escherichia coli ...

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 ...

We investigated the changes in element content and distribution in peat profile in a study aimed to monitor the geochemical changes accruing in the process of peat accumulation. Changes in the chemical composition of peat ash and underlying sediments have been studied in the central part of the Ubinskoye bog in the foreststeppe zone of Western Siberia. Two parallel peat cores were sampled to a depth of 310 cm. The upper peat layers are characterized by oxidative environment and increased concentrations of elements...

Among the support activities of any waste management actions, the optimal logistics processes are essential to assure time and cost-effective recycling scheme. Companies are recognizing that reverse logistics is a component of the total logistics management process that is growing in importance. Reverse logistics services are part of a trend toward incorporating environmental concerns into business philosophy and everyday business operation of manufacturing firms. An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set ...

If we refer to the sustainable development of a territory, it can be stated that the natural resources and implicitly the land resources, occupy the central place within this process, in this case, the land use can be seen as an "indicator" element of the trends of the process of sustainable development. The specialized literature shows, in various studies, the direct and indirect influence of the relief on the way of land use, implicitly on the distribution of grasslands, through altitude, slope or morphometric c...

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...

As the planet-s population increases, pollution entering waterways increases, and the availability of non-renewable raw resource materials reduces. It is possible to reduce this pollution by constructing treatment wetlands, but these wetlands use significant amounts of natural aggregates. The question arises: is it not possible to replace non-renewable resources with recycled materials made from construction and demolition waste? This article examines the applicability of recycled building materials as filter medi...

The energy community, as a new mode of citizen participation in the European renewable energy market, highlights the close connection between energy decentralisation, territorial development, and the crucial role of local authorities in doing so. In the context of territorial development and keeping within the ongoing decentralisation processes, participation and sustainability is particularly important. Also, the very idea of promoting community energy, leads to the affirmation of an innovative system of energy g...

The theoretical model of perfect business competition is designed based on five assumptions: atomicity of demand and supply, homogeneity of the product, free entry/exit in/from a branch of activity or on/from the market, market transparency, (with the fundamental assumption of the individual's rationality) and perfect mobility of production factors [1], [2]. The factorial analysis carried out for an economic agent from an Eastern European country highlighted the fact that the production function is homogeneous. Fo...

Purification of aqueous solutions from radionuclide contamination is an extremely problematic topic, which is the subject of many scientific papers. This scientific topic is very relevant to Ukraine. In particular, the synthetic adsorbents - activated carbon, zeolites, metal oxide-adsorbents TiO2, titanium or zirconium phosphates, ion exchange resins, etc., are often used for the removal of heavy metal cations Pb (II), Cd (II), Ba (II), Hg (II), Sr (II) as well as some anions Cl-, F- from the aquatic environment. ...

Urbanization represents a process in a continuous dynamic and which appeared through the concentration of a population in a certain space. Its expansion was achieved by increasing the population of a certain territory, growth based on different factors such as migration, natural growth, the transformation of some rural areas into urban areas or the expansion of rural towns. Together with these phenomena, the population is faced with atmospheric pollution, the increasingly acute housing crisis and waste management,...

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 purpose of this research work is to provide an integrated techno-economic analysis and an optimal design of hybrid electricity power supply systems that incorporate autonomy and power supply stability with minimum cost. Three isolated Islands, namely, Lesvos, Karpathos and Astypalea, in the Aegean Sea, Greece, have been identified as the appropriate sites for the performance assessment of the off-grid hybrid power systems, due to the abundant renewable energy potential in the Islands, in conjunction with the r...

In contemporary architecture, glass is one of the most popular materials and considered a fundamental source for natural lighting. However, the advantage of high light transmittance has shortcomings: Intense solar radiation affects the energy balance and the well-being in indoor spaces with inadequate cooling. Vertical greenery systems (VGS) can contribute to an improvement of indoor climatic conditions behind glazed facades through natural shading and cooling of the surroundings. Natural light input is only parti...

Romania-s physical-geographical and lithological complexity creates a great diversity of climatic and pedological conditions, which determines the richness of the types of ecosystems and habitats, as well as the presence of five biogeographical regions, including the Alpine bioregion. In Romania this biogeographical region includes both Carpathians peaks and coniferous and mixed forests of the Carpathians, but also the intermountain depressions and higher hills along the mountain chain. Various mountains are home ...

This study presents a fertilization plan in Zadareni, Arad County, Romania, on an area of 113 ha cultivated with soybean and maize. The identified soils were mostly chernozem (108 ha) and eutricambosol (5 ha). Twenty-three soil samples were collected and, based on the soil analyses performed in the laboratory and on the specific consumption by the plants as kg/ha active substance, a series of calculations were made regarding the need for fertilizers for the two crops. A fertilisation plan was then elaborated takin...

The western area of Romania, like the entire country, due to its geographical position - in the temperate zone, is exposed to a wide range of risk weather and climate phenomena with the potential to occur throughout the year. The purpose of this work is to identify some indicators that most correctly express the extreme nature of the manifestations of some meteorological parameters and their characterization over a four-year period. The paper analyzes the main meteorological parameters from the profile stations in...

Along with pedestrian traffic, urban cycling is an ecological, social way of moving that does not generate pollution or noise and is good for health. In this context, more attention should be paid to the design of cycling infrastructure - because if we want more cyclists on city streets, then we need to provide them with adequate, fast and safe infrastructure. Infrastructure works for cycles must not affect spaces intended for pedestrians but must be located in the space used by motorized means of transport, aimin...

Arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb) are elements with similar chemistry and geochemistry, but their environmental risk differ depending on the origin and degree of the pollution. As and Sb are both very toxic, particularly their inorganic substances in the oxidation states of III and V, which also represent the most common As/Sb forms in the environment. In environmental systems, As mostly occurs as the tetrahedrally coordinated, pentavalent arsenate AsO43- (in oxidising environment), and the trivalent arsenite AsO33- ...

Uranium in situ recovery (ISR) is an effective method for extracting uranium from sandstone deposits. Many uranium deposits are characterized by the presence of associated metals: gold, platinum group metals and rare earth metals. For one of the uranium deposits in Kazakhstan, studies were carried out on sampling from productive wells at the ISR of uranium. An analysis was carried out for the content of uranium, rare earth elements, scandium, germanium, yttrium and other metals. For the study, samples were taken f...

The safety of navigation and life in the risk areas adjacent to the coastal area, represent the central objective of the paper and meet the provisions of the European directive "in force." In this context, for defining the geometry of the autonomous modular system used as physical system for marking the fairway, mathematical prediction models were developed. The prediction of phenomena and functional characteristics for autonomous modular system was possible by using a specialized software, where the calculation c...

Organic waste has been discharged into the environment by various industries in a global society. Anaerobic digestion has proven its potential as a waste-to-energy (WTE) technology to produce biogas, which can also replace fossil fuels while accommodating these unwanted wastes. However, there are limitations to anaerobic digestion, such as poor biomethane yield due to limited supply and fluctuations in the composition of the substrates, and an inadequate C/N ratio in the feedstocks. This paper aims to discuss poss...

Renewable Energy Communities (REC) are slowly becoming an important driver for promoting the energy transition in Europe. This paper addresses in particular the Italian current regulation on ECs, and analyses how they can implement the application of constitutional principles to the energy sector. In order to answer this question, at present, when we look into the different studies that have addressed the issue, it is pertinent to consider the fact that they have focused on constitutional values of landscape, envi...

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...

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...

In Bulgaria, the number of water sources and facilities for drinking and domestic water supply from surface and underground water is about 7,480. They are surrounded by sanitary protection zones (SPZ). Each SPZ has 3 belts, which are organised according to an accepted methodology. With the help of a designed geographic information system, it was found that in Bulgaria forest territories that belong to SPZ around water sources and water supply facilities for drinking and domestic needs have a total area of 576,117 ...

The objects of study are Hylocomiosa forest site forests owned by government and managed by JSC -Latvia-s State Forests-. Research object is a part of forest protection zone around cities. In those protection zones clear-cut is forbidden by law. In order to promote forest growth and mitigate the negative effects of climate change, forests in protected zones also need to be properly managed. The aim of research is to evaluate regeneration success of Scots pine Pinus sylvestris L after group selection felling in Hyl...

Aromatic plants play an important role in economic, social, medical, cultural and ecological aspects all over the world. The cultivation and processing of vegetable raw materials of plants containing essential oils with the help of green technologies are one the topical issues. The article discusses the results of the introduction and cultivation of an important aromatic plant in the Batumi Botanical Garden (Georgia) by green technologies. Based on the studies, Cumin passes the full cycle of growth and flowering i...

In recent years, the development of resistance to various antibiotics frequently used in veterinary practice has been observed. The cause seems to be the excessive use of antibiotics without doing an antibiogram. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial effect of different garlic extracts on Salmonella strains isolated from dogs. The research was carried out on a number of 19 strains of Salmonella spp. isolated from fecal samples from dogs. Salmonella spp is a bacterium with zoonotic risk. Differ...

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...

Noise is a "by-product of technological metabolism", omnipresent in most workplaces, representing one of the discomfort factors for personnel working in the presence of this noxae. Knowledge of risks generated by exposure to noise specific to each activity carried out, allow quantification of the effects on workers such as: masking, auditory fatigue, sound trauma, acute hypoacusis, professional deafness. Accidental exposure to noise leads to auditory fatigue, which is a transient and reversible phenomenon, but pro...

Open data is undoubtedly one of the most exciting innovations of the last decade. Data that can be (re)used freely and without restrictions is a key driver for achieving many environmental goals. Through the use of open crowdsourcing tools, noise monitoring is enabled by the active participation of citizens who measure noise and thus contribute to the creation of a dynamic noise map. This is consistent with the lifecycle of open data - the design of the process and practices for handling data from its creation, to...

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...

Forests rank at the top of the natural assets of Romania, both because of their rich biodiversity, and their livelihood-sustaining role. In the ex-socialist countries that entered the tumultuous early-democratic era and faced many socio-economic adjustments, the monitoring of this valuable biome becomes critical for its sustainable management. This study aims to examine 20 years (2001-2020) of forest canopy loss in the Moldavian counties in Romania, using the spatial dataset provided by the GLAD laboratory and the...

The building sector accounts for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Renovation and reconstruction are two of the main strategies to mitigate the energy use of existing building heritage and take action at the urban scale. Starting from GIS data concerning an Italian case study of the second half of the 20th century, a scenario-based analysis approach was taken to evaluate the energy savings of seven different renovation and reconstruction scenarios. The proposed meth...

The problem of carbon dioxide emission from the soil is relevant, since it affects the reduction of the soil organic carbon pool, thereby reducing its fertility and productivity. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions from the soil are a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect. The aim of this work was to evaluate the mineralizing activity of the microbial community of the soil of a new point of observation of carbon dioxide emissions, located in the previously little-studied territory of Russia, using suc...

The mass media are important actors in the conceptualization of the problems and possible solutions related to climate change. They have an opportunity to master the agenda and formulate it not only in all importance and complexity but also in the diversity of aspects to be included for proper understanding of the climate change concept by the public. In doing so they build on existing agendas by policymakers, scholars, and other actors, but also have their agency to be exercised in all responsibility and by speci...

Since the beginning of hostilities in the Ukraine territory, there have been several cases of detonation of dams on reservoirs. These events affected the surrounding areas, leading to a flood of different degrees. One of the significant cases occurred on the dam covering the Irpin river, close to Kyiv. It was built during the Kyiv Reservoir filling to prevent the flooding of the river valley and serves as a bridge. After a part of the dam was broken, water from the Reservoir began to fill the Irpin river. The floo...

For many years, oil derivatives, natural coal, and natural gas were used and still are, as primary energy supply due to their calorific potential, and their great availability on the planet. However, the utilization of these feedstocks causes greenhouse effects and helped in global warming, creating a general concern about this issue, and leading to the creation of urgent measures to overcome these problems. Hence, guidelines and public policies were granted to guarantee the reduction of emissions and increase the...

Modern way of life using means of producing energy through renewables and forming a part of energy communities and citizen energy communities represent innovative resources. National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), redefines an update of the objectives of both the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plane (INECP) and the long-term strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to reflect the changes that have occurred in the meantime in Europe. In detail, this article aims to ponder on the path ta...