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Fennel (Foeniculum) is a member of the Apiaceae family, the most cultivated fennel cultivars belong to subspecies vulgare. This paper aim is to obtain essential oil from Foeniculum vulgare (FEO) seeds cultivated in the western part of Romania and to characterize the FEO in terms of chemical composition, herbicidal and antibacterial properties. Fennel essential oil was obtained by water vapour entrainment and the chemical composition of the oil was determined by GS-MS.The herbicidal effect was studied against weed ...

Fennel (Foeniculum) is a member of the Apiaceae family, the most cultivated fennel cultivars belong to subspecies vulgare. This paper aim is to obtain essential oil from Foeniculum vulgare (FEO) seeds cultivated in the western part of Romania and to characterize the FEO in terms of chemical composition, herbicidal and antibacterial properties. Fennel essential oil was obtained by water vapour entrainment and the chemical composition of the oil was determined by GS-MS.The herbicidal effect was studied against weed ...

Bioavailable heavy metals have been extensively studied in recent years because of their toxicity to natural ecosystems. Even though there is a large number of studies, relatively little is known about the biologically available metal fraction. The current study analyses seasonal concentrations of heavy metals associated with reactive fractions (solvable in HCl) in the soil of three areas on West Jiu river. Concentrations of heavy metals identified in indigenous ichthyofauna (Salmo trutta fario) collected from eac...

Due to the rapid increase in the global energy consumption of fossil fuels there has been an urgent demand for the development of alternative energy sources, one of them is a hybrid asymmetric supercapacitor. Electrode materials play a significant role in providing high performance for them. It was proposed as a cheap and environmentally friendly material to use activated carbon derived from plant raw materials. The properties of activated carbon derived from birch wood, corn trunks and leaves and beet pulp as ele...

The aim of this article is assessment biochar bioremediation potential in the benzo[a]pyrene artificially contaminated Haplic Chernozem with various doses of benzo[a]pyrene (200, 400 and 800 ?g/kg) equivalent to 10, 20 and 40 levels of maximal permissible concentrations (MPC) and 1-5% biochar amendment. The main subject of this study is to research the most effective dose of biochar amendment in benzo[a]pyrene contaminated soil in a model experiment with chernozem. The content of benzo[a]pyrene in soil was determi...

In the recent years, growing interest to biochar as a means of improving soil quality is observed. Biochar is a product of pyrolysis of biomass such as plant residues or organic wastes. Biochars made of manures are special because they can solve two environmental problems simultaneously ? waste reduction and soil fertilization, but they are less studied. In our research, we suggest to improve the properties of biochars derived from manures by means of immobilizing beneficial microbes on them. In this study, the ch...

This article presents the potential of biochar used in wastewater treatment processes and sludge management in small installations - for the maximum maintained number of users equal to 50. The possibilities of two substances used in sewage management processes, such as char and biochar will be presented. These substances, produced from pyrolysis, are stable carbon-rich compounds which have various beneficial applications like soil conditioning, remediation and wastewater treatment. In particular, biochar originati...

Direct Red 80 is a commercially produced azo dye commonly used in textile industry. It belongs to a significant group of textile dyes with high chemical stability and resistance to biodegradation. Microscopic fibrous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, as they were isolated from the sludge lagoon (a place significantly polluted by industrial organics), were utilized for biodegradation of the dye. Experiments on static cultivation took place for 10 and/or 20 days, and the results obtained showed the ability of all appl...

In the course of model experiments, the biological properties of ordinary chernozem at oil pollution of 5% and 10% of soil mass and subsequent introduction of biologically active substances such as urea and potassium humate were studied. The results of bioremediation of oil-contaminated chernozem on the 30th, 60th and 90th day have been assessed by its biological properties: the activity of the phosphatase, catalase and invertase, emission of carbon dioxide. The phosphatase and catalase activity have shown the mos...

Variations of biological properties (3, 30, 90 days) of chernozem under the impact of antibiotics (ampicillin, streptomycin, tylosin) and pesticides (systemic fungicide input) in the concentration of 500 mg/kg of soil have been studied in simulation experiments. Addition of biocides varies the enumeration of microorganisms and enzymatic activity of soils. Correlation analysis revealed positive interrelation between enzymes of the two considered classes (dehydrogenase, invertase) with enumeration of micromycetes (r...

The present paper brings to medical, agriculture and ecology specialists?attention a possibility of multivalent investigation of vegetable plants (leaves and fruits) and health of human body, in changed environment factors, due to the pollutants. Scientific studies have shown that human and plants emit electromagnetic fields. ?The aura? or corona?s image reveals information about their energetic state. Today we know that living organisms regulate all their biological processes through electromagnetic phenomena and...

Transesterification does not allow to make full conversion of oil to biodiesel because the glycerol as a by-product cannot be included in the composition of biofuel. The development of methods for full conversion of raw material to biofuel with higher yield remains entirely relevant. Interesterification, a reaction of vegetable oil with methyl acetate, constitutes a full conversion process which has not been investigated sufficiently. Instead of glycerol, the interesterification reaction gives triacetin (TA) which...

Autoimmune diseases affect approximately 5% of the population worldwide. Generally, these disorders induce high degree of morbidity and disability and therefore, they have a significant social and economic impact. The precise diagnosis of specific autoimmune response is necessary for adequate treatment of the patient. Accordingly, the diagnostic assays for autoimmune diseases are continuously developing and improving. Biofunctionalized nanoparticles represent a promising novel approach in this field. Our group has...

The most attractive tourist object of the West-Arctic region of Russia is Solovetsky Island. However, every year increasing the tourist flow has anthropogenic impact on unique Arctic areas. This article presents the features of the biogenic elements, oil products and heavy metals accumulation in the soils of the Solovetsky settlement (Bolshoy Solovetsky Island in the Solovetsky Islands archipelago) in order to determine the level of anthropogenic impact on these territories. The data of the physicochemical paramet...

The composition of micromycetes of rocks and deposits of the caves Kinderlinskaya and Oktyabrskaya, located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, have been studied. The caves are formed in the upper Devonian Famennian limestones. These caves differ significantly in anthropogenic load due to their different accessibility to humans. Kinderlinskaya is a horizontal cave with a large entrance often visited by tourists. It needs special climbing equipment to enter to the October cave as it is situated on the height ...

The examples of modern biophysical and biochemical methods used at the Black Sea coastal zone biotesting were presented. Their obvious advantages in precision, objectivity and efficiency of received information in comparison with other methods were shown. The bioluminescence analysis as biophysical method was used. The obtained results revealed trustworthy relation between bioluminescence field variability and ecological conditions of studied coastal areas. Ambiguous influence of heavy metals on bioluminescence of...

Metal-complex dyes form complex compounds with metal ions. In practice, these dyes shows very good level dyeing, have better penetration properties, can cover up for the irregularities in the substrates, are more resistant to washing processes, and are more stable to light. In molecules of metal complex dyes, pigments and inks, metals are bound that pose a serious risk to the environment in wastewater from textile and leather production. Despite the fact that today most EU countries have strict limits on the conte...

More and more scientific research studies have shown that plant extracts can act as a potential mediator for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The plant extracts are efficiently used in the synthesis of ecological metallic nanoparticles such as silver, gold, zinc, copper, palladium, platinum, cobalt, titanium, etc. Furthermore, it has been proved that plant extract-based nanoparticles are a potential remedy for various human and plant diseases. The use of nanotechnology in agriculture has been intensely debated and ...

More and more scientific research studies have shown that plant extracts can act as a potential mediator for the synthesis of nanoparticles. The plant extracts are efficiently used in the synthesis of ecological metallic nanoparticles such as silver, gold, zinc, copper, palladium, platinum, cobalt, titanium, etc. Furthermore, it has been proved that plant extract-based nanoparticles are a potential remedy for various human and plant diseases. The use of nanotechnology in agriculture has been intensely debated and ...

The paper gives a brief overview of the possibility of using microorganisms in ecological farming. Increasing the world's population is a serious challenge in the future to ensure food for mankind. That is why the scientists are looking for ways to increase agricultural production in a sustainable way and preserve the quality of the environment. The current concept of agriculture tends towards a unifying vision in which crop plants, microorganisms and agricultural land form a unity. Within this complex system, the...

The paper gives a brief overview of the possibility of using microorganisms in ecological farming. Increasing the world's population is a serious challenge in the future to ensure food for mankind. That is why the scientists are looking for ways to increase agricultural production in a sustainable way and preserve the quality of the environment. The current concept of agriculture tends towards a unifying vision in which crop plants, microorganisms and agricultural land form a unity. Within this complex system, the...

Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) is the component of a Spatial Data Infrastructure that encompasses marine geographic and business information in its widest sense. This would typically include seabed topography, geology, marine infrastructure, resources utilization, administrative and legal boundaries, areas of conservation, marine habitats and oceanography [8]. Marine Cadastre is considered as a base layer of a MSDI with fundamental information relating to maritime boundaries and associated rights and re...

Dendroclimatic studies based on the use of various indicators of annual tree-ring structure (width, maximum density, cell wall thickness, lumen size etc.) have become widespread over the past decade. However, reconstructions of climatic characteristics revealed limitations associated with the use of both the width and density of annual rings. In particular, annual ring width, in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and in mountain regions, is usually closely related either with June, or June and July air ...

Special orientation during logging is a very important task, and it is essential in almost all borehole tools. For this purpose, various orientation sensors (such as accelerometers, magnetometers, and others) are usually used. During logging, the task is being complicated with increasing temperature range and device vibrations due to the movement along the borehole. Thus, this paper describes experimental results in the downhole logging of the developed digital spatial orientation module, which was integrated into...

The use and maintenance of underground spaces in bedrock, e.g. those formed upon the completion of mining operations, often gives rise to discussion of other uses of remaining tunneling systems. Filling tunnels with rock blocks, concrete and groundwater is not always an optimum decision because this environmentally controlled work requires funding. Another option is to establish underground laboratories (UL?s) at these locations and to use underground spaces for non-quarrying purposes. However, the transition of s...

Managing knowledge is the most important part of every enhanced process. Well-adjusted knowledge management leads to effective way of sharing knowledge, its comprehension, visualization and managing other processes connected to it. New trend in the field of Civil Engineering and Building Design is BIM ? Building Information Modeling. Management of Building Information Modeling is very current topic linked with the creation of building modeling and knowledge sharing processes used by the Architecture, Engineering a...

The environmental performance of buildings needs to be considered in the early stages of the design process. Therefore, emphasis is nowadays placed in integrating the teaching of building performance with the design studios at schools of architecture. Preparing students for the complex role of an architect as a coordinator of all the aspects of a building design is gaining more and more importance.This article describes and compares the methods of teaching building performance to architecture students at several u...

The authors used a modern quantum theory allowing to determine the energy levels of electrons in real metal. What's more, the presented model allows to define the electrons energy density and consequently use the Gibbs ensemble theory. In combination of quantum theory and Gibbs statistics, the authors obtained analytical equations for both the work function and the bulk modulus of metals. Based on the obtained equations, the work function and the bulk modulus for Ti and several other metals were calculated. It sho...

The issues of teaching C++ programming language for cartographers and surveyors at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography are considered. As a result a new C++ programming course for undergraduate students has been developed. Cartographers and surveyors learning C++ programming are to solve tasks from the related areas of cartography and geodesy. The programming course is geared towards the needs of surveying and cartographic industry. This is the request of today to create programming courses suit...

This paper intents to present some of our results concerning a CAD based application which can provide a simple architectural procedure for the refurbishment of existing and abandoned courtyards in the historical center of Timisoara, Romania. Starting from the Local Urbanism Plan Map, this application could import the AutoCAD quotes and, based on these elements, could automatically add architectural elements, especially green areas, or other architectural objects, without using sophisticated architectural programs...

In recent years, the Cadastre of real estate in Slovakia focused on digitization and refinement of data as well as improvement and expansion of services related to provision of data from geodetic and descriptive information files. In 2015, territory of the whole state was covered by a coherent layer of vector cadastral maps; updated daily. Analog maps are no longer used. All property rights are registered in owner's folios. The current open cadastral system became an integrated and modular service that utilizes da...

Electromagnetic (EM) induction technique is one of the most important geophysical techniques in understanding the subsurface structure. The theory of magnetotelluric (MT) method, the main branch of the EM technique, was introduced during 50?s by Tickonov and Cagniard with the natural variation of electromagnetic fields, as its source. We will present the results of a study focused on the processing and modeling of magnetotelluric (MT) data in watered area located in the Moscow Region (Geophysical observatory "Mikh...

The oil production in Russia will be gained due to the field development in the Northwestern Federal District, Siberian Federal District, and Far Eastern Federal District. The remoteness of natural gas consumers from these Districts stimulates the development of pipeline transportation. A long range of pipelines and climatic and geological conditions result in toughening up the requirements for their reliability and lifetime improvement. Giant oil-gas condensate fields that have been discovered for the past few ye...

This research work describes cost-optimal calculations for existing buildings of different categories and main building elements, as well as comparison with the existing energy requirements. Calculations are based on Directive 2010/31/EU and on the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 244/2012 with the associated Guidelines. Those documents are used both ? for the calculation of cost-optimal energy performance for a whole building (MWh or kWh/m2 per year) and for the assessment of optimal U-value for different ...

This paper compares the indicators of spatial development for the road network of Croatia towards chosen countries in Europe and on a county level in Croatia. It also shows the number of traffic accidents per counties and links it with indicators of spatial development. The paper presents the results of the research of spatial distribution of traffic accidents in Croatia by counties. An example of a hazardous site identification on the A6 motorway is provided by the accident data report. All the comparisons and an...

Sustainable development of the state or the city as a whole is conditioned mainly by the sustainable development of its individual parts which also include water management infrastructure containing the sewer system. The article deals with the evaluation of the technical condition of the sewer network in the municipality Zaben in the Czech Republic. The first part of the paper describes the basic information about the sewer network in the municipality, its location, condition, age, etc. This part is followed by th...

In the context of sustainable development, special emphasis is assigned on the use of renewable and non-polluting energy sources. An important potential is due to the solar energy. There are several ways to convert solar radiant energy into useful energy forms, the most direct of which is to obtain electricity by using photovoltaic cells grouped into photovoltaic panels. Considering all the factors that contribute to the performances of a solar cell, as there are: solar radiation, generated power, energy productio...

Recently, hydrothermal catalytic process in reservoir conditions (in-situ upgrading) has got remarkable attentions. In this study, the feasibility of the in-situ upgrading of Ashal?cha crude oil (Tatarstan region, Russia) using steam and catalyst co-injection was investigated at the temperature of 350 В°C under high pressure for 24h using a stainless-steel 500-ml batch reactor. The changes in the density/API gravity, viscosity, chemical composition (SARA fractions, the composition of saturates), and elemental comp...

Today, supply of hydrogen in processes of hydrotreating of heavy hydrocarbonic raw materials is one of the main expenses in the course of hydrocracking. Therefore, alternative modernization processes that do not use externally supplied hydrogen are desirable and necessary. This scientific work is devoted to solving the problem associated with the processing of high-viscosity oils and shale hydrocarbons in supercritical water to valuable petrochemical raw materials with a high ratio of hydrogen to carbon. The catal...

The work is dedicated to solving a scientific problem related to the effective use of steam-thermal methods for extracting hard-to-recover hydrocarbon resources from carbonate reservoir rocks using catalytically active metal compounds of variable valency. The work is aimed at studying the behavior of nanoheterogeneous catalysts based on Al, Ni, Mn compounds on an organic matter in the presence of a carbonate rock under conditions of steam heating effect. The experimental part of the project was carried out on a la...

This paper presents the results of the study of Kraft lignin hydrogenolysis process, using 5%Pd/C. The catalyst was investigated using the following physico-chemical methods: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy of diffuse reflection of the adsorption of CO (DRIEFT), transmission electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, the low-temperature nitrogen adsorption. Among the products obtained during hydrogenolysis of lignin the most promising for fuels are...

The present work aims to present how to identify the causes and sub-cases that lead to delays in the implementation of the projects with non-reimbursable financing using the cause-effect diagram (Ishikawa), as well as how to combat the main causes. The importance of timely identification of the major issues and the concentration of the management teams in solving them can reduce the risk of losing the grant, avoiding the decommissioning of the European funds, while helping to increase their absorption. Projects wi...

One of the most important issues of the global economy including the European one is the problem of environmental pollution from the by-products of industrial activity. The development of energy, metallurgy, electro-machine and other industries makes the environment more and more contaminated and degraded. This process covers virtually all spheres of the natural environment which are the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. The contamination of the atmosphere is particularly dangerous because it adv...

In this study, the environmental impacts of blasting activities carried out for excavation of a building foundation close to a nearby building were investigated. The study was performed due to the complaints and request of the residents. Before blasting activities (shots), the residents, the investor and the blaster were informed about the environmental effects of blasting, regulations and the measures if an adverse effect occurs. In this scope, 7 shots were accompanied and blast-induced parameters were monitored....

In this paper, a pipeline implementing a multi-scale approach that can be used for modelling different steps of aerogel production is presented. Closely integrated modulesfor aerogel structures generation, properties prediction and adsorption, diffusion and chromatography processes modelling provide various options for systematic and comprehensive study of aerogels by performing computational experiments, which allows to reduce number of laboratory experiments. The results of pipeline validation are presented for ...

The study of the rate of autoregeneration of soil microbial community allows developing the strategy of soil management. The activity of cellulase in soils shows the rate of biological transformation of plant residues and may be used as indicator of autoregeneration of soil microbial community in disturbed soils. The most reliable data on the activity of cellulase in soils can be obtained with the help of the application method, which is based on a reduction in the mass of cellulose fiber that has been incubated i...

Wastewater management in Poland has a large potential for growth, however, like other countries has to face the new challenges related to the implementation of the circular economy. Innovative wastewater and sewage sludge treatment technologies can bring ecological, social and economic benefits but need to be supported by multi-criteria analyses. This approach has to contend with complex problems which is an important advance in the field of sustainable development and circular economy. This article aims to review...

The proposed paper analyzes an investment project implemented to create a complete, efficient, simple and sustainable Community waste management system for a number of settlements in the western part of Romania. The purpose of these actions is to create a functional intervention framework of the local public administration authorities in the field of environmental protection in the target area. The implementation of the system proposed by this project will lead to compliance with current environmental rules and le...

The article presents research on the capacity of Polish mining enterprises to introduce organizational changes. The main difficulties, which are problems arising in the introduction of changes in enterprises are primarily generated by the human factor. Moreover, the efficiency of the organization during the process of change depends largely on the productivity of employees. Therefore, our change management research focuses to the greatest extent on the situation of people in the organization. The authors carried o...

The iron phosphates coagulant is commonly used in lake restoration to improve water quality and eliminate cyanobacteria bloom. Nevertheless, the short-term abiotic environment transformation in particular inside macrophytes communities is still not sufficiently studied. The field experiments were carried out in mesocosms installed in Chara hispida community. This species is characteristic for eutrophic lakes, therefore is strongly vulnerable to restoration treatments. In the study five parameters were analysed: pH...