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The evaluation of the behaviour of natural stone applied in the built heritage of the historical centre of Porto city, Northwestern Portugal, classified World Heritage by UNESCO in 1996, has been carried out using a multidisciplinary approach in order to characterize both the rock that constitutes the main body of the building and the deterioration processes that have developed on the stone as a consequence of environmental and anthropogenic factors. Among an extensive and monumental historical heritage, built wit...

The clay consists of the tiniest particles of soil, which have a considerable amount of physical and chemical activity with influence on water and nutrient cycles, observable over several scales. Therefore, the Global Soil Map Project (GSM) has included clay content among the key properties estimated across the world at 100 m resolution. Subsequently, in 2015 the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission produced a clay content map of the soil uppermost layer (called пїЅtopsoilпїЅ), converging towards...

Research studies have also suggested that the antioxidant properties of hibiscus tea may also help in treating many diseases. Hibiscus tea is rich in vitamin C, minerals and various antioxidants, while also helping in the treatment of hypertension, stress and anxiety. Choosing the best sweetener for the hibiscus tea can face/be a big problem due to several composition changes that the hibiscus tea registers during the sweetening process, the level of gained toxicity, the different health level of the consumers (es...

In parallel with technological and scientific developments in the world, people's choice on the materials is changing. In the light of these developments, mankind's environmental awareness is also increasing and thus the people aim to live in natural environments. In recent years, natural stones have started to be used widely especially inside and outside of the buildings in big cities in Turkey and the world. The low block efficiency of rocks caused to move the production of artificial stone in the construction s...

The irregularity of rock joints in rocky terrains contributes considerably to better mechanical stability of these terrains. The assessment of the stage of surface irregularities (asperities) of jointed surfaces in rock massifs plays an important role when shear strength of rock joints are evaluated. For this purpose it is necessary to analyze morphology of surface reliefs of rock joints. The digital replicas of surface reliefs are ideal tools for such a morphology analysis. This paper describes a new method for d...

A novel image edge detection technique is proposed in this paper. The considered boundary detection approach uses a nonlinear parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) - based model. We develop a nonlinear anisotropic diffusion scheme consisting in a second-order parabolic equation and some boundary conditions. An effective edge-stopping function is constructed for this PDE model. Then, we construct an explicit iterative numerical approximation scheme for this model, by using the finite-difference method. This...

Joints in rocky massifs usually form a space network that is hidden under the surface of terrains. Although normally invisible, same parts of such networks may emerge when excavation work is running in terrains. The irregularity of joint rock surfaces are characterized by joint rock coefficients that serve for computations of shear strength of these joints. This is important for evaluation of the mechanical stability not only the rock joints themselves but also for the mechanical stability of rock massifs that are...

The paper deals with the green parametric architecture as a new approach to architectural and urban design. In the twenty-first century the digital design tools, which are interfaced with the production of computer technology, have opened the new opportunities that not only are shaping the architectural objects, but also interferencing in the buildings' structures. The first part of the paper defines the main features of the "green" architecture. Selected samples show a diverse approach to designing the architectu...

In comparison with other economic sectors, the agriculture is known for its specific characteristics. First, the production processes in agriculture are supplemented by a factor of the impact of natural conditions, weather, the length of the production cycle and associated length of current assets turnover. Financing of agriculture is formed from public or private sources in the form of equity capital, loans or gifts to enhance the development of this sector. It includes not only government funds through various g...

In this work, synthesis and swelling of a superabsorbent hydrogel based on copolymer of acrylic acid and acrylamide filled with pectin were investigated. The structure, thermal stability, sorption capacity and morphologies of the developed composites were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry analysis (TG-DSC), voltammetry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the swelling properties, and the stimuli-responsive behavi...

The goal of the presented application is to find a simple way how to randomly divide n patients into 2 groups 1 and 2. The main requirement is no dependency on target platform and the application must be available online for many different medical departments. Each department must have a unique login. No higher security level such as two-factor authentication is required. The results of the division into the groups represent a random choice of patients recommended to conventional and a new treatment without any pr...

The numerous cases of the upper headwaters drying are observed in the plains of the Middle Volga region. The reasons of the streamflow change pertain to the reduction of forest vegetation and the change of its species composition. More than 1000 cartographic materials for more than 200 years, as well as aerial and satellite imagery were used during the research of forest vegetation breadth. Currently, the forest and the forest-field landscapes prevail in the north of Tatarstan, where coniferous-deciduous forests a...

Ecosystems are open adaptive systems with self-organizing properties; they are based on local interaction of the composing elements and generating a general end-result. Digital ecosystems incorporate these features in context-aware applications that work together for the efficient solving of complex dynamic problems. This article considers the digital ecosystems as being open-system of applications with a certain degree of context-awareness. It also presents Econtxt a programming model for the context used by cont...

Mining is a strongly impacting anthropogenic activity, affecting to a greater or lesser extent the natural components. Thus, it is consensual that should be established a common practice that aims at the recovery of degraded mine sites. Otherwise, environmental balances can be irreversibly destroyed, with serious negative consequences for surrounding ecosystems, including humans. Therefore, the environmental reclamation of a mine site can be defined as the general process of repairing disturbed, damaged, degraded,...

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements including scandium, yttrium and 15 lanthanides. There are a number of applications for the REE in different industries, e.g. super magnets in electrical engines in vehicles and generators in wind turbines, fluorescent lights, catalysts for the automotive end petroleum industry. REEs are crucial concerning the rapidly developing clean energy applications and with the highest risk of supply. To meet the future demand, it is necessary to develop efficient, economi...

Molluscs are frequently used as a biomonitor of heavy metals (HMs) pollution of sea water and fresh water. This is because mollusks are very sensitive to sudden change of abiotic factors, they have a high rate of metals bioaccumulation, and there is a correlation between HMs concentration in molluscs and water and bottom sediment. Gastropods are important for biomonitoring of fresh surface waters. ItпїЅs well known that gastropods as biomonitor organisms have several advantages such as a reasonable size for analys...

In 2016 Pasztor and Schultz[1] proposed an analytical method for calculating a perforation designпїЅs effect on hydrocarbon-well inflow, using a new concept to analyze the effect of the shape of the perforation channelsпїЅ drainage area. The method compares well with standard industrial methods used to calculate the pressure drop caused by a given perforation design. In 2017 Toth and Pasztor[2] applied their model to investigate geothermal-well inflow, and achieved promising results. The modelпїЅs complexity makes...

The progress achieved over the past half century in modeling of hydrophysical processes and numerical methods, as well as the current level of computer and information technologies, led to an increasing use of 3-D models for modeling aquatic ecological systems. Nevertheless, the problem of numerical solution of systems of equations describing coupled hydrophysical, hydrochemical and hydrobiological processes is highly time-consuming and difficult from a computational point of view. In addition to computational dif...

The reliability of forecasted long-term peat settlement under embankment is primarily determined not by the soil models used, but by the specific features of peat laboratory testing. This article presents the results of oedometer tests of various-height peat samples with squeezing of pore water towards only top or top and bottom faces. The load was applied to the samples in two ways: by gradual stepwise increase or all at once. The stabilization condition for each load was sample deformation not exceeding 0.01 mm ...

This paper is a sequence that is part of the extensive analysis of the Danube Delta genesis. Sacalin island is a territory formed in the Black Sea, a short distance from the Romanian coast, in the south of the Saint Gheorghe branch of the Danube Delta, the main source of transport for alluviums. The history of this new territory is relatively recent. The first mention was in 1771. In 1856, Captain Thomas Spratt made a new map, in which the island of Sacalin appeared with two submerged nuclei. In 1924, Romanian res...

Erythromycin (E), a hydrophobic macrolide antibiotic, is prescribed for the treatment of acute bacterial infections, such as respiratory, urine, skin, and mouth infections. The main disadvantage of ER is its poor water solubility (2 mg/mL) that limits both formulation using hydrophilic bases and skin permeability. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are biocompatible cyclic oligomers of glucose, with a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic exterior. CDs are used to improve the bioavailability of drugs by increasing their solubility ...

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles have recently attracted researchersпїЅ attention by opening a new perspective on the development of new drug delivery systems. Such mesoporous materials are characterized by a uniform distribution of pore size, welldefined walls with a high volume that enables functionalization at the level of silanol group, having a large specific surface and good hydrothermal stability. The objective of this study is the synthesis and characterization of MCM -48 and KIT-6 silicate matrices, biomat...

This article deals with the spatial position of tracks surveying using a measuring truck and automatic total station. At the beginning of work it was necessary to gain theoretical knowledge on geodetic activities carried out in the process of reconstruction works on the track surface, and to define the concept of the geometric position of the track. Collecting necessary design documentation is an essential part of the whole measuring process. Adherence to the specified accuracies and deviations in the Slovak Techn...

Energy production from renewable sources, such as wind energy, in small-scale generation systems can be increased by improving the efficiency of power generating equipment and expanding the applicability of the implemented technologies. The performance of wind turbines can be improved by developing solutions that expand the range of wind speeds over which energy can be effectively generated and by optimizing the location of wind turbines. The presented system for multipoint measurement of wind parameters (SMMWP) i...

This paper investigates a theoretical aspect of application of partial correlation functions in hydrological system analysis. The functioning of hydrological system is simulated with the conceptual mathematical model consisting of series of linear reservoirs where the inputs are synthetic time series representing rainfall on catchment and the resulting output time series represents the discharge from spring. The partial correlation functions are calculated for the input and output time series describing specific h...

A source of thermo-mineral water of Vranjska spa is of great importance for environmental protection of rural settlements. Wealthy mineral water composition and the temperature of 93пїЅC are very suitable for the spa tourism development. Capacity of the water source allows appications in industry as well as in food production. Geographical position, developed road network, vicinity to the highway and consumers attainability allow economic development of Vranje region, to whom population from other regions gravitat...

The paper considers the problems of requirements formalization in the implementation of software development projects, as well as ways to solve these problems. When developing a unified model for converting requirements into a formal model, a static model describing the general concepts of the transformation of requirements into a formal model and their relations will be considered, taxonomies that classify and define the main types of requirements imposed on the requirements of the rule, approaches for pretreatme...

In the formation of the well under the influence of an axial load and speed core drilling shell is curved, with its lower bottomhole part consists of elements of different stiffness: a set of core and drill pipe. The researches allowed to formulate a number of conclusions. To determine the length of the half-wave in this part of the technological tools used energy method, according to which the whole work of external forces on the length of said potential energy goes into twisted drill. The half-wave length decrea...

At present, there are tendencies in the world of depletion of ores and the involvement of low-grade and technogenic raw materials into processing. The ever-increasing scale of industrial production, with the involvement of valuable raw materials components in the processing of raw materials, led to an increase in the amount of man-made waste polluting the environment. Hundreds of millions of tons of flotation tailings accumulated in the tailings processing plants processing various ores, which contain significant ...

In connection with finding - out of a question about probable feeding of deposits by hydrocarbons, acting from the basement, the results of integrated geologicalgeochemical research of the dynamics of variation of chemical and geochemical parameters of oils and bitumen from the rocks of sedimentary cover and basement in the zones of probable inflow of hydrocarbons at the central areas of the Romashkino oil field are presented in this work. Also the results of researches on comparative studying of changes in organi...

Meta-siltstones are solid sedimentary rocks containing some clay material. Such geomaterial is taken mainly for the production of cement and garden paths. It can also be found in coal mines between coal beds. Processes of technological extraction of such natural material are always connected with the problems of its physical and mechanical behavior, therefore it is important to evaluate the basic deformation-strength properties. Moreover, if we consider the influence of the scale factor, we will get a more complet...

Oil-saturated Visean dolomite reservoirs were studied from the Tatarstan Republic, east of Russian platform. The main methods of study were X-ray and SEM analysis. Dolomite forms interstratified dense and porous layers with thickness of 0.5-4.0 m in oil-saturated parts of reservoirs. The dolomites are characterized by rhombic form of crystals. Many of them have crystal growth zones as alternate micro-layers with different iron content. In the pore space of dense dolomites find some iron accessory minerals such as ...

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) describes the physical and topographic information of earthпїЅs surface. Today, DEM produced by different methods is successfully utilized in many geospatial applications such as gravimetric geoid determination in geodesy, morphology analysis in geology, topographic map production in cartography etc. As known, every year, the new satellites are launched to space and provide the most current information about the earthпїЅs surface with different working principles and different image t...

Generally speaking, a software interface may refer to a wide range of different types of interface at different levels: an operating system may interface with pieces of hardware. Nevertheless software interface can be use in order to extract a specific desired data format from a certain amount of data volume. In surveying, once with the topographic electronic equipment evolution, the possibility of getting field data measurements has very much increased as much as data volume but also as data quality. One of the m...

The G.I.S. It is used to create, store, analyze and process information spatially distributed through a computerized process. GIS technology can be used in various scientific and practical. G.I.S technology is increasingly used in the field of cadastre. To use technology G.I.S. in cadastre we must have both graphical database and the type attribute must be focused on cadastre requirements. Items graphic database is collected by conventional measurements, measurements GPS, photogrammetric measurements, through digi...

The natural oxidation of iron-sulfide minerals (mainly pyrite) contained in mine waste material can produce the acid rock drainage (ARD). It leads to low acidity, high sulfate and iron concentration in surface and ground water and its heavy-metal contamination. This study investigates ARD prediction for sulfide-bearing mine waste rocks in the Verhne-Krichalskaya area, where the epithermal gold-silver deposit is located (Western Chukotka, Russia). Twenty samples of waste rocks (altered dacites, andesites and rubble...

At uranium ore deposits surface waters and local streams are important for the environment. Because these are affected by uranium-bearing acid mine drainage and dissolved uranium is moderated by dilution and sorption uptake by stream sediments. Depend on the mineral alteration and in the case of the iron existence, acid drainage forms in the streams. In this case surface waters and streams become a significant mechanism for mobilization of suspended uranium particles. The aim of this study is to assess the acid mi...

One of the main problems in the exploration of porphyry copper deposits is the process of acid rock drainage and metal leaching (ARD/ML), that develops during storage enclosing rock in a dump. ARD/ML is formed by the natural oxidation of sulfide minerals exposed to air and water. It leads to the production of acidic, sulfate waters and results in the heavy-metal contamination of surface and ground natural water. Standard procedures for the evaluation of waste rocks ARD/ML potential are static and kinetic tests. St...

The paper presents a method for authenticating images that were shot using a mobile phone. Thanks to the newest advances in integrated cameras, smartphones represent one of the most popular ways to take a photograph. A picture could be critical evidence in a trial and, with the abundance of free editing software, a forgery is easy to achieve. A method to secure and test photographs for authenticity was developed, implemented as a mobile application, tested and detailed in this paper. The watermarking algorithm is ...

The technology of microbial fuel cells (MFC) makes it possible to obtain electricity by eliminating and utilizing wastewater components [7]. The promising biological agents in the MFC are microbial associations. The presence of strains of different species of microorganisms allows consortia to consume a much wider range of compounds. Multicomponent makes them more resistant to negative environmental influences. An example of such associations is the sludge of treatment facilities. As part of most wastewater enteri...

The study pertains to a regional and local context of the adaptation to climate change and explores the main international and European Union decisions in this regard, as well as the goals set for Latvia. The concept of adaptation is clearly connected with the drafting of sustainable development policy and must be handled at different levels. The study analyses the examples of international and local projects used in the situation of Latvia and the documents drafted by local governments, facilitating implementatio...

Wastewater treatment plants are essential in terms of environmental protection. The processes taking place into wastewater treatment plants are complex and require specialized machinery and equipment capable of operating in special conditions. Starting with the Sequential batch reactor (SBR) system (biological mechanical, chemical processes are carried out in the same basin), it could be reached a complex architecture with separate tanks, resulting scheme with predenitrification-nitrification, nitrification-postde...

The paper presents an analysis of a waste heat volume that may be recovered in dual-pressure waste heat recovery systems (DPWHR) cooperating with the selected two-stroke marine diesel engine. The analysis covers four developed DPWHR systems (two of them generate saturated steam and the remaining two generate saturated and superheated steam). The heat in the exhaust gas and charge air is also included therein. The steam, generated in the DPWHR system, is employed to provide heating at a ship and to drive the turbog...

In this study, cobalt oxide (Co3O4) was prepared by thermolysis of cobalt (II) oxalate at ???????????? This oxide was characterized by IR spectroscopy, XRD (X-ray diffraction) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). The adsorption of phenol and lead (II) ions, both singly and in combination, by obtained and characterized Co3O4 was studied in batch system. Kinetic and equilibrium experiments were conducted to study the effects of solid : liquid ratio, pH, contact time and initial concentration of the pollutants. Th...

The availability of drones and other types of UAVs makes this method very popular for gathering spatial data for different purposes. The derived orthophotos and digital surface models have wide usage in many branches. One of the UAV survey mission requirement are the Ground Control Points (GCP) allowing the resulting data to be georeferenced and overlaid with other data sources. Some UAVs may be equipped with the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and precise GNSS receiver пїЅ the Trimble UHX-5 in our case. The quali...

This paper deals with disinfection of drinking water at пїЅAquatim S.AпїЅ. The disinfection plant is part of an investment plan to provide conformation with the Romanian Law 485/2002 concerning drinking water quality and European Union Water Frame Directive. The new facility employs modern techniques of storage, dosage, injection and neutralization of chlorine. Under these circumstances, the risk of chlorine leakage decreased and increased the accuracy of chlorine dosage. The regulation and control of the process ...

Generally, there are 3 basic approaches to fire modelling. The oldest one is full scale modelling, than the small-scale modelling and finally PC simulation modelling such as FDS. If we compare the basic properties of these three approaches, we can compare following criteria. The most important is accuracy, relative costs, professional competence, time of preparation and very important is also the number of possible iterations within a short time period. The highest accuracy still belongs to full-scale models. Full...

Coal mining causes undesirable terrain subsidence due to caving in of the overlying rocks into the already excavated space. Subsidence deforms the terrain, damages structures on the surface and water flows, which results in the formation of inaccessible wetlands and swamps, and these areas need to be reclaimed. The problem of large flooded areas as a result of mining activities also concerns an area known as пїЅKozinecпїЅ, which is located between KarvinпїЅ and Doubrava in the Czech Republic. That territory has lo...

Currently, the trend is to increase the demand for high-rise buildings roofs that would serve as a social space or as a green roof. This trend is also confirmed by the fact that due to the lack of space in the city, the buildings are being built up even higher and the social space needs to be created as a part of them. The main idea of this article was to analyze the different shapes of the roofs using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software and to demonstrate the suitability of their use. From seve...

The aerogel is a nanomaterial that may represent a viable alternative to the traditional thermal insulations, especially when it is required an increase of the thermal performance of the building envelope elements and also a reduced thickness of their finishing layers. The paper presents the conclusions of some studies regarding the thermal behaviour of the aerogel and also some improvement possibilities of this material and of other materials, by integration of the aerogel in their structure. At the same time, th...