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Air pollution in cities caused by traffic is an important environmental and health issue worldwide. Air pollution caused by traffic exceeds air pollution from other anthropogenic sources, such as industrial, various heat supply and residential areas. This study analyzes a wide range of pollutants in snowpacks at different intensity roads in one of the largest cities in Latvia in Jelgava. Snow samples are taken from three sampling points at distance of 1 m, 10 m, and 20 m from the roadway. In the study, various met...

World Economic Development in the Last Quarter of the 20th century has been marked by several major processes, which have been clearly expressed in spatial projection at global, regional and local levels. The active process of industrial restructuring, has grown into deindustrialization in a number of regions. The reasons for this were related to the depressing nature of a number of industries that, in changing economic conditions, failed to respond to the market trends. A number of demographic and social processe...

Traditionally, the rural areas are characterized by a lower level of social sphere development, a limited range of services offered, difficult access to part of the population, etc. The demographic resources of these territories have specific features and require target development policies that will limit the depopulation of the rural areas. The social entrepreneurship is seen as a mechanism for solving social problems in rural areas and social enterprises are seen as a way to promote the active integration of vu...

?Social futuring? labels a new, academic concept and approach tested to be exploited in the measurement of social entities? readiness for their prosperous futures. This novel approach was introduced by the Social Futuring Center (SFC) of Corvinus University of Budapest in the frame of an international and multidisciplinary research project launched in 2017. The planned outcome of the project is the Social Futuring Index (SFI) that will be employable to indicate countries? future-prone assets, capabilities and mind...

For the construction of alternative and sustainable cities of the future, due attention should be paid to the study of the socio-economic and political issues that result from the development of globalization processes. On the other hand, smart and sustainable cities of the future are the challenge of the 21st century faced by the local authorities of the cities and regions of the European Union, as regional imbalances must be reduced by discussing cohesion issues. The process of building and managing alternative ...

Both in science and industry, tailor-made software and hardware systems simplify and speed up the process of obtaining new knowledge or creating new products. Geoscientists have come to rely on geodetic instruments, various sensors and analyzers (for determining physical and chemical properties of soils, air, rocks) and data processing software in their research. Hardware complexes always come with their original software for primary and secondary data processing. These complexes are often aimed at a range of user...

Web applications nowadays are quite a common asset for any big service-oriented organization. Communication and interaction are done very easily on the Internet. The purpose of this paper is to offer a close look at several web systems that work and fulfill the needs of the academic and student communities within University of Economics ? Varna. Those systems have been operating for a period of 3 to 5 years and continue to grow in scope. We present an in depth comparison of available software solutions on the open...

Regular measurement of rock deformation processes makes it possible to make judgments about the nature of the deformations of the Earth's crust, as well as the likely precursors of earthquakes near the area where these data are obtained. Therefore, the continuous operation of measuring devices that record such deformations is extremely important. When measuring by laser methods in a normal atmosphere, the distance of measurements can be significant, up to 25 meters and higher. The disadvantage of such measurements...

By now, compact satellites whose weight does not exceed 10 kg have become very popular. The low cost of such satellites? development, production and launch, developed recommendations and specifications have led to the explosive growth of the number of the launched nanosatellites. So, over 1100 nanosatellites have been launched as of January 2019. Nanosatellites are used in various scientific, practical and educational projects. Nanosatellites opened the way to space for some countries and allowed them to have thei...

The taiga zone of the West Siberian Plain is characterized as a zone with risky agriculture. First of all, this is due to the natural climatic conditions of the northern part of the area under study. The soil and ecological evaluation of grasslands proves the possibility of feed production for dual-purpose cattle due to the natural fertility of Ob and Vakh floodplains alluvial soils. The study of these soils for evaluation of their soil, agrophysical indicators is based on the methodological basis of the soil-ecol...

Soil contamination is one of the most serious environmental problems. The aim of this study was to assess the level of contamination of soil by hazardous metals in 5 regions of Slovakia. Overall 152 samples (soil + plant) were collected from 76 sampling sites in investigated regions. In all samples contents of Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb and Cd were determined. In soil samples the total contents of risky elements in extracts by aqua regia as well as contents of bioavailable forms in extracts by NH4NO3 (c=1 mol/L) were determin...

Vertic Solonetz is a particular soil group with soil profile comprised diagnostic horizons and properties of both Solonetzes in the solum and Vertisols in the subsoil. The aim of project is to study genesis and geography of Vertic Solonetz on the basis of detail soil mapping for key plots from different regions at the East-European Plain: the Oka-Don Lowland, the Kalach Upland, the Northern Caspian Lowland, denudation plains at the Kerch Peninsular. Soil mapping is carried out by using GIS, field morphological des...

The Oltenia Mining Basin extends, intermittently from west to east, from the Danube to the Luncavat Stream, Valcea County. It is located as a fan shape at the contact area between the Getic Plateau and the Mehedinti Plateau, to the west of the Motru River and the Subcarpathian Depression of Oltenia, to the east of the Motru River, with the mention that most mining objectives are to the south of the contact area or in the immediate vicinity nearby.The surface mining operations in the Oltenia basin have affected lar...

Soil degradation, characterized by decline in quality, decreases ecosystem goods and services, and is a major constraint for further agricultural, including food, production. In addition, soil degradation caused by human activities, especially agriculture, contributes to climate change. The need to ensure a sustainable use of soils is outlined by the European Union (EU) Soil Thematic Strategy, as well as related legislation. This requires the prevention to further soil degradation and the preservation of its funct...

Both the United Kingdom as well as Czech Republic have seen increased impacts due to flooding in recent years. Rural flooding is due to intense and heavy rainfall-runoff events. Runoff brings with it soil erosion and sediment transport, so called ?muddy floods,? which causes serious onsite and offsite damages in the landscape or even in settlement area and infrastructure. Long-term observation and measurement is crucial step for understanding of complexity of processes involved in the generation of muddy floods an...

Biochar, as a product of carbon-rich thermal degradation of biomass, can increase crop yield and retention capacity of soil, improve soil quality and nutrient cycle. The use of biochar has positive effect primarily on soils with low quality, so its use in conventional agricultural temperate soils has often different effects and depends especially on the biochar feedstock and the pyrolysis process. There are not many research papers which are studying changes in biochar properties over time, i.e. whether the biocha...

Kozhukhovskaya metro line is under construction in the southeast of Moscow now. The geological cross-section at the construction site shows Carboniferous limestone at a depth of 30-65 m, overlain by Jurassic and Quaternary clay, loam, sand and sandy loam. The principle geohazards originate from the presence of the thick horizon of water-saturated sandy and sandy-loamy deposits. These deposits serve as an enclosing medium for the future metro tunnel. The deposits along the route were typified according to their res...

Windstorms are one of the main factors causing damages in forest in Northern Europe. The damages are especially severe, if the ground during the storm is not frozen and is wet, therefore the trees are less stable. Cyclonic windstorms primarily happens during the winter, and there is a prediction of notable rise of temperature in this period of the year ? thus we can expect more storm damages. It is known, that inside the forest stands specific microclimate exists, affecting also the soil temperature. However, ther...

Environmental pollution by manganese is a significant problem for the Imereti region. The source of pollution is derived from manganese extraction quarry and ore processing plant. The purpose of the study was to investigate the concentration of manganese and other heavy metals in the soil, air and water. Samples were taken from the industrial area, and the chemical elements were identified in them using ICP-MS. The results showed that the concentration of manganese and some other metals exceed to the permissible l...

The dolomite problem is very popular among geologists, who are especially working with oil-saturated carbonate rocks. Probably, this is the most common type of diagenetic transformation of limestone. However, the problem of secondary dolomitization is still insufficiently discussed, as a process associated with oil migration and oil-charge. The main purpose of this study is the geological reconstruction of diagenetic changes for the Tournaisian and Visean dolomites based on the application of data from cathodolumi...

If we create intelligent automated systems, decision support systems, expert systems, and in general knowledge-based systems then the development of the inference mechanism is very important. This mechanism of inference makes it possible to carry out reasoning on the available knowledge and data, to develop recommendations and decisions, to make their justifications and explanations. In this paper, a model of inference in the form of a bipartite graph is considered. The elements of the graph correspond to clauses,...

It is known that clastic material originated as a result of the transformation and translocation of rocks and minerals is the major constituent element of soil. Its genesis and petro-chemical composition essentially determines the formation of the soil of some or other taxon. The field and laboratory studies accomplished by us showed that soil-forming rocks in Interior Mountainous Ajara are andesite and andesite-basalt elluviums with intense magmatic instructive fracturing with various mechanisms and directions of...

The article reveals the role and importance of the coal mining industry in the structure of the fuel and energy complex of Russia. It reveals the main problems of the coal mining organizations in Russia, both at the macroeconomic level and at the level of economic entities. The possible ways of increasing the efficiency of the coal industry are investigated on the example of Kuzbass. Russia has one of the world's largest mineral resources potential, which is the basis of guaranteed economic and energy security of ...

The article deals with the problem of ownership of lands necessary for the operation of SHP by different entities. Several variants of solutions leading to the settlement of ownership relations to immovable property were elaborated. To ensure access, it was necessary to propose a range of service. The non-standard assessment also included solving problems related to the valuation of a flat in a small hydroelectric power plant, pricing and runoff and other engineering structures related to the hydroelectric power p...

The study of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere is one of the important parts of climate research, because according to the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the growth of GHG content in the atmosphere is the most likely cause of modern global warming. Such studies are of great importance in the arctic territories, where the climate effects are most pronounced. The Institute of Industrial Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterin...

A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research. A CubeSat can consist of one or more 10 cm ? 10 cm ? 10 cm cubic unit. A mass of any per unit is not exceed more 1.33 kilograms. Satellite operating conditions are quite extreme. And one of the most important problem which should be resolved for any CubeSat on the design stage is the thermal stabilization for any of its component. Thermal effects can have a significant impact on the operating characteristic of the nanosatellite and its components, i...

Adsorption on a suitable adsorption material is among the most frequently used methods in water treatment. In terms of plant operation, filtration (sorption) process represents a simple, effective and economical friendly method of heavy metals removal namely for the possibility of using a large scale of substances with a sorption ability ? sorbents. Oxides, oxyhydroxides and hydroxide containing iron are among the most frequently used sorbents of the heavy metals removal. The quality of the treated water (pH, sili...

Landslides are mass movement processes with severe consequences on the environment and human communities, and their identification and mapping is an important step in analyzing, evaluating and managing their potential risk. The results obtained in identifying areas of landslide activity may vary depending on the data sources used. The present paper is testing the landslides inventory at the scale of a commune in the Moldavian Plateau, Eastern Romania, using two different data sources: orthorectified images (2010-2...

In the environment are present heavy metals such as Cu2+ and Pb2+. Metal-processing industries, mineral processing, the manufacturers of inorganic products and large scale coal users, such as public utilities are the major sources of heavy metal pollution. These heavy metals are toxic, are non-biodegradable, and they pose potentially lethal risks at high levels. Chemosorption is emerging as a potential alternative to the existing conventional technologies for the removal and/or recovery of heavy metal ions from aq...

Spacecraft flights using light pressure energy are no longer a fantasy, but a reality of the near future. Such spaceships can be used to fly to large and small planets, to meet with asteroids and comets, to perform special tasks in the vicinity of the Sun or near the Earth. Of particular interest are the unique capabilities of such devices in remote areas of the Solar system, even near the solar corona. Here, the solar sail can simultaneously play the role of a power plant and a reliable screen, which protects the...

Among the restoration works in Northeast Romania, one can distinguish architect Ioana Grigorescu (1914 ? 2006). She was employed at Department for Historical Monuments and she designed inside existing buildings, spaces dedicated for the museum purposes as interpretation centers. Her work team used experience acquired during previous exhibitions spaces where the expressiveness of folk architecture forms where implemented. This creative architect conducted the restoration works of 17th and 18th century buildings, am...

In Latvia, land is the key natural resource, and the use of it for production purposes is of great importance. The utilised agricultural area in Latvia totalled 1.93 mln.ha, of which 47% or 905 thou.ha was grassland. Meadows and pastures had a 70% proportion, while permanent grasses had a 30% proportion in the cropping pattern for grassland. Therefore, the overall aim of the present research is to identify the grassland area and the geographic locations of and the cropping pattern for grasslands in Latvia. To achi...

Soils are the foundation of food production and food security. Many agricultural practices can potentially mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Managed organic soils are the largest sources of GHG emissions from agriculture. In Latvia, organic soils have been little researched to date. Therefore, the overall aim of the present research is to identify the geographical locations, quality and uses of organic soils in Latvia. To achieve the aim, the following specific research tasks are defined: 1) to analyse the ...

Seasonal and interannual variability of the Ekman pumping velocity in the Black Sea is studied based on ERA-Interim reanalysis data of 10 m wind speed for the period 1979?2015. Upward Ekman pumping prevails in the annual cycle due to the predominance of the cyclonic wind curl over the Black Sea. The maximum upward Ekman pumping occurs in winter. In June, the basin averaged pumping velocity is directed downwards. The magnitude and spatial distribution of the Ekman pumping velocity depends on the direction of the wi...

Competition in air transport is growing and is a significant factor influencing airlines in the development of the strategy. In this article, we analyse the Bucharest-Tel-Aviv line which is operated by three airlines Tarom, EL AL and Blue Air, which are not allied and have no bilateral agreements. These companies are therefore direct competitors, and in our analysis, we are more closely examining their pricing policy over the reference period. By analysing the data we compared the possibilities of the aforemention...

The results of the field studies of heavy metals in snow cover presented in this work for urbanized territory of Almaty agglomeration first time. Seventy-five samples were collected during the period from February 5 to March 10, 2018 at 25 permanent monitoring sites. Samples of snow were analyzed for heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd) using ??S-7000 (Shimadzu). The obtained quantitative data were used to assess the nature of the spatial distribution of metals in the snow cover of the study area and based on them were p...

The paper focuses on the determination of studied risk elements (Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn) in the upper layer of agricultural land located in the inundation zone of the Stiavnica River in the cadastral area of Dudince village. The studied area is characterized by historical contamination of floodplains. The contamination vector is represented by the Stiavnica River that drains the nearby area of Stiavnica Mountains, an important mining area in the past. Analyzes to determine the exchange soil reaction and the content of ...

High qualitative and quantitative requirements for dimension stone on the building materials market make producers update the methods used currently to assess natural fracturing in areas of interest at various levels when prospecting potential zones. As most well-exposed areas are already being quarried, new areas are most efficiently prospected using statistical and mining-geometric methods and the data obtained are analyzed. Locating dimension stone prospects is a multi-stage process. Analysis of large areas per...

The monitoring of the construction behavior is one of the important activities carried out to determine the state of construction, subject to various natural and anthropogenic actions at a given time. In Romania, the activity of rockfill dams monitoring is regulated according to the importance category (A, B, C). The Rausor Dam is located downstream of the confluence of the River Rausor with the river Targului, which springs from the Iezer-Papusa Mountains. The dam is located at 7.5 km from the village of Leresti,...

The accuracy of transference from the underground surface of the topographic reference system is determined by the mining work on topographic transmission papers. If mining is vertical, topographic operations are complex and require permanent preoccupation for improvement. The paper meets this requirement, presenting possibilities for improvement of junction methods (surface, underground) of topographic elements used for mechanical transmission. The mechanical method of transmitting the underground surface referen...

Optimization is an iterative iterative process of improving the distributions of distributed computer applications obtained through the reengineering process so as to ensure the efficient allocation of resources for the implementation of the stages included in the reengineering. The article mentions how to choose each new goal and studies the model already implemented to start the project. It starts from the design of the existing application, and then applies the succession of stages specific to re-engineering. O...

This paper describes the results of the project which uses information from core lab studies in reservoir simulation in order to improve the quality of the forecasting ability. Samples of core were selected for each of the rock type in order to study wettability. Studies on the determination of the contact angle of wetting were carried out by the device, which allows determining the surface tension and contact angle in the formation conditions. The obtained values were applied for each of the five rock types for f...

Interferometric data processing (InSAR) for extraction of information about the Earth terrain heights is one of the general guidelines in development of contemporary space-based radar systems. The InSAR processing for building the digital elevation models (DEM) and terrain displacement maps includes a phase noise suppression step, which is usually performed by different image filters, as well as spectral and adaptive spectral filters (mean/boxcar, spectral domain filtration with different window functions, Wiener,...

Reinforced concrete tanks are currently used for storage of different substances and products. Such as bulk material but also various liquid and gaseous substances. Most often they serve as reservoirs for drinking water, for wastewater treatment and storage of various technical liquids. Rectangular tanks are less used as cylinders, but they have their advantages, less sensitivity to unilateral load, and better use of space for a multi-tank system. The rectangular tank solved in this article is filled with water. T...

Spreadsheets often contain valuable data that are difficult to process due to an unclear structure. For this reason, spreadsheets also called semi-structured data. Table structure recognition and data extraction is an important area of research. Tables may contain statistical reports, schedules, grade books, results of research or product catalogue. Depending on the purpose, tables have a different structure. In this paper, the authors propose an approach for extracting information from "list" type spreadsheets. T...

The Lublin Coal Basin (LCB) is situated in the eastern part of Poland. Bituminous coals occur in Carboniferous Layers under the thin overburden built from Jurassic, Cretaceous and Neogene sediments. Most attractive seams (8 -12 to 18 balanced seams), with the mean thickness of about 1,3 ? 1,7 m (rarely under 2 ? 3 m) appear deep, most often at depth 750 ? 1000 m. They are cut by rare net of faults. Within the surface 1 200 km2 eleven deposits were documented, of which the only one is exploited. Total resources of ...

This paper has as main objective the statistical processing of geological information from hydrogeological wells on the ROIL16 ? Plain Vlasia groundwater body. The first step was the collection of detailed information and data, such as geological and hydrogeological characteristics, the features of the superficial deposits and soils, an inventory of associated surface systems, an estimation of the flow directions. The geological information was taken from the water wells of National Network Monitoring of Romania. ...

There are several thousand stone-shaped megalithic stone piles in Europe that have been built between the late Stone Age and the Middle Ages. Their cultural and historical significance has been deliberately studied only in a small number of cases. It is not surprising, therefore, that different stories about such megalithic sites are more widely known than the results of archaeological research. This is particularly true for impressive prehistoric complexes, which today are transformed into tourist attractions. On...

Foresight has been on the political and research agenda already for decades, nevertheless there is still no common understanding up to which extent application of strategic foresight impacts environmental sustainability. This is also not sufficiently explored in the body of literature within the research community. Thus, the study aims to contribute to the identified gap by developing a framework for application of the strategic foresight for ensuring environmental sustainability in policy decision making. The stu...

The purpose of our research is to develop and implement a long-term strategy for organizing independent work of students through the formation of students? autonomy culture in a foreign language setting. To achieve the goal set and verify the main provisions, we used the methods of theoretical and empirical research. Theoretical investigation included an analysis of pedagogical and psychological literature on the development of students' cognitive activity and learning autonomy in higher education. Empirical metho...