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Concrete is one of the most important and useful materials in the construction sector, which, unfortunately, has an adverse impact on the environment. It is evident that correct procedures for designing concrete structures need to be created. The sustainability approach is a key conceptual principle to be considered in cement and concrete production all around the world because about 7 % of global CO2 emissions are produced by cement manufacturing. An indicator expressing quality, with regard to sustainability, is...

The assessment of the vulnerability to pollution/contamination of natural mineral water is of maximum importance for long term exploitation of such a specific aquifer. A physically-based approach on the vulnerability should be based on three factors describing a pollution event, which are, the contaminant transfer time from the hazard location to the protected 'target', the level of contaminant concentration potentially reaching the 'target' and the contamination duration at the 'target' [1]. The main purpose of t...

In recent years, due to the rapid development of astrophysics and the capabilities of modern technologies, a huge amount of astronomical data such as type Ia supernova, cosmic microwave background anisotropy (CMB), acoustic baryon oscillations, weak lensing and large-scale structure have been obtained. In this regard, a fundamental discovery was made, which showed that our Universe is expanding with acceleration. To describe this phenomenon, many models have been created. One of the main directions is the modifica...

Factor analysis of three-hour dynamics from 01.01.2012 to 31.10.2018 of four meteorological parameters: atmospheric pressure; air temperature; relative humidity; dew point temperature was carried out by the method of identification (weather station Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, WMO_ID=27485). Power selection when accounting periods of the growing season of birch from 01.05 till 30.09 made 8558 instead 19713 lines in comparison with the continuous series, while there have been significant changes in the laws. The coefficien...

Factor analysis of three-hour dynamics from 01.01.2012 to 31.10.2018 of four meteorological parameters: atmospheric pressure; air temperature; relative humidity; dew point temperature was carried out by the method of identification of stable regularities (weather station Yoshkar-Ola, Russia, WMO_ID=27485). The sampling rate was 19713 lines. It is proved that pair connections allow to study quanta of weather behavior for different periods of time: long-term, annual, seasonal and period of plant ontogenesis. There a...

In the development of mineral deposits by the underground method, geomechanical processes are manifested, which significantly affect the quality of ore, the cost of production and the safety of mining operations. Insufficiently valid choice of geomechanical steady spans of outcrops can lead to a sudden collapse and formation in clearing workings, thereby reducing the safety of mining. The work provides a definition of sustainable roof exposures of the clearing workings according to the method of S.V. Vetrov for fr...

The funds for disbursement of unused amounts must be required by the need for population mobility to provide a rich set of spatial solutions for separate regions living in the country. This determines the size of this type of transport in its domestic, labor, educational and other daily routine. Against the backdrop of global improvements in the handling of goods transport from all countries, there is a downward trend both for the passengers and freight forwarders. This applies to the degree of retention of areas ...

The aim of this article is to present the possibility of incorporating the existing railway network into the transportation service system of the Krakow Metropolitan Area. The author discusses the problems and opportunities related to adapting the existing railway network to the emerging functional and spatial structure and the options of using it to make this area more accessible. Research done by the author focuses on the current condition of the railway infrastructure in the aspect of its functional and spatial...

The Central Anatolia Basement Units (CABU) have several mafic and felsic characterized magmatic systems which are associated with the closure of the Neotethys during the Late Mesozoic. Gucunkaya gabbro is located to the southern part of Agacoren Intrusive to the North East of Aksaray in Central Anatolia. Field and petrographic studies show that the mafic products of the area are mainly composed of two main units as a gabro and diorite. The gabbro and the diorite cut by fine crystalline gabbro, diorite porphyry, fi...

In the article an example of underground mining exploitation of hard coal deposits has been presented which by some mining plant in Poland has been conducted. Hard coal extraction took place in three seams numbered 338/2, 341, 358/1 which at the medium and great depths have been located. Exploitation was conducted by use of the longwall system with roof rocks cave-in. This exploitation caused an occurrence of curvatures on a mining terrain surface. The curvatures values on base of the surveys results have been cal...

Frozen fish is the primary raw material used in the industrial preparation of semi-finished ready to eat fish-based products. Ready to eat fish product manufacturers receive frozen fish raw materials from suppliers and defrost it before processing. Such raw materials are commodities; frozen fish are easily transported around the world, can be stored for a long time, and used for further processing as required, evenly distributing the company?s production capacity throughout the year and, thus, optimising costs. No...

In this paper the author answers the question about competitiveness of post-industrial areas against undeveloped land. The analysis concerns potential consequences related to the investment on former industrial areas and undeveloped areas usually located in suburbs or in city?s outskirts. In the research potential different costs were examined: social, economic, environmental and spatial costs of the investment of the two mentioned types of sites. The results shows that there is a number of negative phenomena in p...

Problems occurring in post-industrial areas constitute large issue in social, economic, spatial as well as ecological point of view. According to research of National Institute for Spatial Policy and Housing post-industrial areas occupy 4% of urbanized areas is Polish cities. Poland among European countries is one with the biggest percentage of post-industrial areas in cities. In the context of large scale of degradation of cities re-use of former industrial areas ? brownfields - is one of the challenges of ration...

In the Permian sediments of the Volga-Ural oil and gas province (east of the East European Platform) occurs layers of tar sands and sandstones. They are confined to the Sheshmian horizon of the Ufimian stage. Currently, bituminous deposits are being developed as high-viscosity oils. The internal structure of high-viscosity oil fields is very complex due to the combination of a large number of sedimentation and post-sedimentation processes, caused, among other things, by the influence of the oil substance. An impor...

Spatial distribution and temporal variations of snow cover and snow precipitations carry important information about available water resources, snow load estimations, the plant vegetation period, habitat change and etc., which is crucial for many environmental, ecological, hydrological and technical issues. This study is focused on the tendencies in the regime of the snowfalls and the snow cover in Strandzha region during the period 1961-2017. The monthly values about number of days with snow cover and snow precip...

Drought events are currently increasing in frequency and intensity all over the world as effect of climate change. One of the most related environmental issue is water resource scarcity, which is now becoming an emergency also for several industrialized countries in the Mediterranean area. In the summer of 2017, all Italian territory suffered from an extreme drought event that caused huge depletions of both groundwater and surface water availability. In particular, Bracciano Lake, which is one of the largest surfa...

Morphological processes of the fluvial channel are controlled by liquid and solid fluxes through hydraulic forces exerted by flow and sediment transport, erosion, and deposition [1]. Large river deltas are complex alluvial systems of outstanding social, ecological, and economical importance, deeply influenced by human activity: dam, groins and dikes construction, meander cutoff. Since the 1880s intensive anthropogenic disturbances have affected the channel of the St. George branch, the southern distributary of the...

Grouted ground anchor is a structural component used to transmit tension force from the structure to the subgrade. Determination of the ground anchors ultimate carrying capacity is mostly conducted using various empirical and semi-empirical methods. These procedures are usually successful, but highly simplified. Hence, each system ground anchor has to be tested during its prestressing to prove design assumptions. The aim of the test is to prove accomplishment of acceptance criteria, which has been defined to demon...

The negative phenomenon of suburbanisation has been observed around the globe for many years. One of the methods of counteracting the process is directing the city?s development inward, improving the urban planning parameters, and using areas potentially attractive in terms of location but in need of new management. They are among others post-industrial areas, frequently characterised by a considerable degree of degradation (brownfields). The objective of the article is the determination of the potential of degrad...

In the context of the aggravation of global contradictions in the interaction of man and nature, environmental consciousness must respond quickly and adequately to the situation, outstrip threatening events and seek ways to overcome environmental disruptions and harmonize relations in the supersystem «nature». These challenges encourage the natural and human sciences to create for man a new knowledge, which would be based on the laws of human development, as part of nature, and the principles of value-semantic pro...

Due to depletion of high-grade ores, high cost of mining and environmental issues, many mines have reverted to retreatment of slags. The recovery of Nickel from reverberatory furnace slag using sulfurization and flotation was studied. Critical parameters such as sulfurization temperature, sulfurization agent (Gypsum containing 86.87% CaSO4) dosage and time were investigated for the sulfurization process and effect of collector type and dosage, pH, particle size and flotation time for the flotation process. It was ...

Rare earth metals is a special group consisting of 17 elements (15 lanthanides, yttrium and scandium), with resembling chemical and some of the physical properties. Because of their unique properties, rare earth metals are widely used in various high-tech industries, e.g. metallurgy, electronics, optics, ceramics, medicine and many others. Growth in demand for rare earth metals intensified by scarcity of their rich mineral deposits is forcing researchers to look for new sources of raw materials for production of r...

Pollution of the environment as a result of human activity has become one of the most important problems of our time. Undoubtedly, in the twenty-first century, the development of civilization will be under increasing pressure from the environmental aspect. The use of waste becomes a permanent function of social production, expands the raw material base, preserves non-renewable sources of primary raw materials, prevents environmental pollution, provides a significant economic effect by saving current costs and inve...

Concrete slurry waste (CSW) from the production of prestressed poles production in original and Fe-modified form (CSWFe) was studied as potential adsorbent of environmentally risk cations (Cd2+, Pb2+) and oxyanions (AsO43- and CrO42-) from contaminated waters. Structural, surface and chemical properties of adsorbents were characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Specific surface area (SBET) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Adsorption experiments ran in a batch manner at lab...

Production of castings plays an important part in the global and in the national economy. The main recipient of the foundry production is the automotive industry, but castings find application also in other branches of industry, in civil engineering, in farming, in medicine, and can as well serve art production. In 2016, worldwide casting production reached 104.1 million metric tons, a shade over the 103.7 million metric tons produced in 2015. The remaining 2015 top 10 casting nations by tonnage are Japan at 5.4 m...

Self-heating and autoignition are the precursors of spontaneous combustion. All coals can be self-heat in mines or in storage; but only if the conditions are favourable they may autoignite, when the coal interact with the oxygen in the air. This is first step in the spontaneous combustion. In storage, the temperature of a stockpile is determined by the type of coal, particle size, oxygen concentration of the air, balance of the heat of coal oxidation, moisture content of the coal etc. Coal naturally oxidizes over ...

This paper addresses the problem of atmospheric pollution due to the scrapping of motor vehicles. Most of the materials used in the automotive industry are non-renewable, so the decommissioning of cars is a global problem. The environmental impact of this type of pollution is irreversible. In Romania, this problem is amplified by the purchase of second-hand cars that have a low life expectancy and are much earlier in the situation of being scrapped. Recovery of scrapped materials must be done selectively because a...

This paper aims to provide an overview of the technologies for the use and implementation of phase change materials, with the purpose of identifying possible applications in energy efficiency, reducing energy losses and reducing carbon dioxide emissions, while bringing a contribution in identifying the applications in the design of passive houses regarding the reduction of the overheating phenomenon. A passive house can be defined as an energy efficient construction, which ensures an optimal indoor microclimate bo...

Natural zeolites are able to remove lower concentrations of contaminants present in groundwater and drinking water through ion-exchange process. The main objectives of this work were: (1) to determine the efficiency of different types of regenerants: NaOH 0.5 M, NaCl 0.5 M, NaClO 0.5 M and NaClO:NaCl (1:1) 0.5 M; (2) to investigate the effect of initial pH (5.7 - 11.7) and molarity (0.5 - 1 M) of the regenerants; and (3) to determine the removal capacity of natural zeolite for ammonium removal after ten (10) sorpt...

Investigated were edaphic conditions of post-technogenic landscapes of the Yavoriv sulfur quarry (YSQ). Mycological characteristics of the devastated lands have been identified. The peculiarities of natural regeneration of the vegetation cover on the devastated lands of YSQ (the species, coenotic and ecological structures, directions of transformation of self-regenerating phytocoenoses) have been revealed. Analyzed are peculiarities of sulfur transformation by microscopic fungi. Investigated was the role of mycorr...

The purpose of the research was to study the regenerating potential of tomato callus culture depending on the hormonal composition of the medium, genotype, and age of the explant. Introduction in vitro culture was performed according to the standard method. As a basis, the mediums were served -Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Linsmaier and Skoog (LS). Growth hormones were added in various combinations and concentrations. As initial material, samples of local and foreign selection tomato varieties. As explants, cotyled...

The scale of geological events sets the system of spatial-time coordinates underlying modern natural science concepts. This determines the relevance of projects aimed at creating a network of field training polygons, providing geological practices and geological education of the population, the development of cognitive geological tourism. Localization of polygons determines the complexity of the geological structure of the territory, the presence of outcrops of igneous and sedimentary rocks of different ages, tect...

From fast-growing plants, Miscanthus is a promising alternative energy source exploitable at regional level. The climatic conditions in the region also have a significant impact on the biomass production and also on the economic efficiency. The aim of the paper was to evaluate the influence of selected climatic parameters on the total production of the above-ground biomass of two Miscanthus genotypes in the Nitra region in the Slovak republic for the years 2015-2018. The method of monitoring climatic parameters an...

In the case of construction works monitoring and the land on which they are situated, the observations can be made with classic or modern equipment granted it meets the precision requirements imposed by this type of work. The data collection stage is followed by their processing and final results, for the ongoing stage, the values of the monitored parameters. Regardless of the equipment and the method used to process the elements measured in the field, the in situ comparison of the results of the current observati...

The regular mode of the 3rd kind (method of periodic heating) is one of the effective ways to measure a complex of thermal characteristics (thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and heat capacity) of gases and liquids (see, for example, the works of L.P. Filippov and S.N. Kravchun). Currently, this method has become widely used to study the thermal properties of solids. In our works, schemes of the process of heat transfer in the system of three contacting bodies ? the sample under study and two semi-limited (...

Construction and subsequent operation of buildings fall among the main consumers of material and energy resources, while contributing to environmental pollution. Sustainable building construction therefore responds to the requirements of sustainable development and introduces a new approach to the design, construction and operation of buildings with the aim to reduce negative impacts on operating costs and thus on the environment. Operating costs generally represent the sum of the costs incurred for the operation ...

The European Union ?circular economy? aims to maintain the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible, minimizing the generation of waste by recycling and reusing them [1]. The leather industry generates large amounts of waste, more than 55% of raw material (hides and skin), and over 99% are stored at the landfill [2, 3]. Part of these waste generated are untreated solid waste (hide and skin), meaning around 500-600 kg per ton of raw hides [4, 5]. A way to valorize the untreated hide and sk...

This article is devoted to the questions of the reliability and the accuracy of the invented algorithm. Background: The implementation of autonomous navigation system for unmanned airborne vehicle is required for the reliable navigation in case of the instability of the satellite navigation system. Traditionally this problem is solved by the terrain landform navigation system, also the synthetic aperture radar navigation systems could be used as the correction system for the inertial navigation system. Nevertheles...

The effective precision crop products' production is impossible without modern contact and remote optical control methods of a physiological and phytosanitary condition of crops. At Agrophysical research institute (Russia, St. Petersburg) the technique of definition of homogeneous technological areas is developted by using the means of unmanned aerial vehicles of helicopter (Geoskan-401) and plane (own development) types. Also the test plots which are used as the standards with the known parameters of a physiologi...

Historical province in south-eastern Romania, Dobrogea has been inhabited since ancient times as attested to identify objects belonging to Neolithic cultures Gumelnita and Hamangia. On the western coastline of the Black Sea have placed the Greek colonists from sec. VII i. Chr. In ancient times, Dobrogea was named Scythia Minor. The population has been long and constant, traditional occupation being agriculture, in the present share of arable land exceeding 2/3 of the total. The total area of the Dobrogea Plateau i...

The tremendously increased energy needs due to advancement in technology have put pressure on electric grids. The conventional grids cannot bear that extra load. Although the availability of renewable resources (solar, wind, hydro and biomass) at a large scale have great potential to offer environment friendly energy solutions, however, the compatibility of Distributed Renewable Energy Sources (DRES) with existing conventional grids in developing countries is a serious concern. Therefore, the issue of growing elec...

Emergency management is a complex task, involving precise coordination of numerous activities and people, as well as fast decision-making in environments where critical, vital information, might often be missing. Despite all technical and technological progress, most industries record accidents with human casualties and property damage. For this reason, the presence of special intervention ? rescue teams at economic units is critical, because they can ensure a quick and efficient response to confine / eliminate da...

This paper tackles a research concerning the restoration for agricultural purposes of different soils affected by landslide phenomena. Landslide is an erosion process which adversely affects the relief, and the damage caused to life and to the environment as a whole are considerable. Nevertheless, soils are the most seriously affected by landslide, as they lose a vital characteristic: their fertility. Research has been conducted on several experimental fields, set up on different types of non-evolved soil, in orde...

The goal of integrated multidisciplinary research was to develop a model for estimating and forecasting the dynamics of phytoplankton depending on meteorological and hydrophysical parameters. The analysis of water samples from various horizons obtained in the Gorky reservoir from 2015 to 2018 was performed as an important part of the research. Samples were examined for the presence of algae using a Levenhuk microscope equipped with a digital camera and connected to a computer. The results of the identification of ...

In the Russian Federation, according to the United Nations, the area covered by forest is 8.5 million km?. Due to the available sufficient reserves of forest resources, the enterprises of the timber industry complex have developed significantly. In the conditions of a modern competitive economy, for the purpose of their further development, timber industry enterprises are forced to maintain investment activity at a high level, to optimize technological processes and modernize production equipment. The article pres...

The tensile properties of conveyor belts significantly affect their use in practice. Research is focused on the determination of the influence of sampling direction on the tensile strength and the elongation of 3 types of fabric conveyor belts. The carcass material determines the tensile properties of the conveyor belt. The carcass of a fabric conveyor belt is formed by several layers of textile plies. The textile plies are created by crossing the system of warp and weft fibres. The warp represents a set of fibres...

Intervention and rescue activity in special conditions can be conducted under special requirements only by trained and authorized personnel using personal protective breathing equipment. The decisive factor for the success of an intervention and rescue operation in toxic or chemically aggressive environments lies, among others, in optimum and efficient design of rescue personnel?s training process, in connection with their testing in environments with high temperature and humidity. Heat is normally generated as a ...

This paper presents the stages of embryonic and postembryonic development in Polyodon spathula (Polyodontidae) under the conditions of the acclimatization area at Fish Culture Research and Development Station Nucet, Dambovita county, Romania. Embryonic development at the paddlefish is carried out in the temperature range of 14-18o C with an optimum of 16o C. For the induction of maturation and ovulation, the Nerestin 5A hormone was used. The size of the eggs is between 2.7-3 mm and light gray to gray-black in colo...

Research was carried out between 2016 and 2018 on eutricambosol-type soil with pH-5.65, low humus content of 1.37% and a rate of base saturation of 69.68%. Soil texture is medium-fine. In climate terms, according to Koppen, the climate falls under the formula c.f.b.x, characterized by a temperate climate with rainfall all year round, but with a deficit of water in the summer months. The average temperature of the year is 10.80C. The average annual precipitation volume is 631 mm. To correct the acidic reaction of t...

Thermal treatment of solid waste, carried out in a rotary kiln, is a complex process most commonly used for selected types of waste. These wastes are a very diverse group, among which hazardous wastes are most often mentioned. The process is subject to specific legal and technical conditions, which was described in the work. An important aspect of the work of a waste incineration plant is the preparation of waste for the thermal process, thanks to which it is possible to identify risks and optimize the process, wh...