Browse

Modern buildings require energy-efficient heating and cooling method for the both parts of the system, the heating/cooling source and the heating/cooling distribution system. Modern heating and cooling systems typically combine a reversible heat pump with a low temperature radiant system. Thermally activated building systems (TABS) use the large thermal mass of concrete from building structure as a buffer for lowering the cooling and heating loads during the day. In this paper we illustrate the floor covering infl...

The rural space in the Baltic Sea East Coast States пїЅ Latvia, Lithuania and Poland пїЅ comprises a significant part of the territories of these states. It occupies more than half of each stateпїЅs territory and employs more than a third of labour market participants. For these reasons, the future prospects of the rural space in each of the states is an important issue in designing their smart growth strategies. Smart growth is determined not only by objective circumstances but also by local authorities, the acti...

In the paper we explain our experiences in the work towards a GML subset profile for Norwegian Areal Plan data sets, and how this GML subset profile together with requirements form the UML based conceptual application schema that can be used for data validation. GML is about to be the preferred exchange language for geographical information in Norway. One challenge using GML, slowing down the implementation of GML in Norway, is the complexity, e.g. the possibilities of representing the same information in multiple...

Wet ageing is the most commonly used ageing sistem by the meat industry to improve tenderness, which results in a more homogeneous product with high consumer acceptability. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of wet ageing duration on beef quality characteristics, at refrigeration temperatures (0 - 5пїЅC). The meat samples were kept under refrigeration conditions for 2, 7, 12, 17, 21 days. After each period, there were monitored: the textural parameters (hardness, adhesiveness, springiness, cohesiv...

In the context of deregulated energy market, energy companies need a flexible and efficient framework for energy trading. Along with concerns regarding environment issues, deregulation determined an increased share of sm all and medium renewable energy power plants. With these came along challenges in operation regarding their variability and the lack of central monitoring. Aggregation of distributed energy sources led to the concept of virtual power plant, which brings ad advantages as a better control of product...

The paper deals with the implementation of photovoltaic system in specific extraterrestrial area. It is focused on proposal of photovoltaic system for new international space station. Authors use in the analysis knowledge of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) space researches, information about of ISS (International Space Station) and proposal of first piece of new space station situated in cislunar area (space between Earth and Moon). Analysis of space deals with finding suitable location for ne...

The present study investigates and evaluates the frequency of emerging extreme wind-induced water level fluctuations, which line up with the marks пїЅadverse eventпїЅ and пїЅdangerous eventпїЅ. The method we applied involved statistics throughout 1972-2016. Standard observation data from hydrometer stations of the Sea of Azov were processed. The study provides the strong evidence that this period had abnormal level activity: ? annual cycle of level had marks above the average sea level datum; rising tide was 0,19 ...

Based on a previous research, a thermal bimorph actuator was used for a development of a micromirror element. An existing technological process for the manufacturing of IC was used as base for micromirror. An analysis of the available construction materials was made, on the basis of which a choice was made for silicon as the main material for the micromirror, aluminum as the reflective coating and the first element of the bimorph beam, and silicon dioxide as the second element of the bimorph beam. ? polysilicon he...

The article defines the subject of facility management and its possible application in the operation of water supply networks. The operation of structures for water supply is not a simple matter, and it is tied down with the responsibility to guarantee trouble-free and safe operation with limited financial means. Reliability, Facility Management and water supply networks are supported by Czech technical standards. We are going to include some of them, as well as some important concepts, terms, and links of Facilit...

Nowadays, the prices of the plots or the building sites grow and on the most they are defined as price per cubic meter. Although the fact, that the prices are growing extremely, areas in cadastre of real estates are not obligatory. The paper aims with the differences, which are resulting from the legislation and are focused on growing measurement precision necessity. The differences in the way of the break points measurement and better precision at all are applied on different plots. The paper is interested in rel...

This paper describes the optimized algorithm for searching Hamiltonian path in graph. Formerly a similar algorithm was developed for the finding of the optimized path in terrain for finding of the precise positioning of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) via Real Time Kinematics (RTK) method. The aim of this method is to achieve quality GNSS observation on all the points in question, so that the total length of the path within all these points can be minimized. There are nodes of two types in the graph: 1)...

Natural Killer (NK) cells are large granular cytotoxic lymphocytes that play a role in the innate immune response against tumour cells and virally infected cells. In pathogen-free chickens, these cells are thermolabile at 37oC and resistant to treatment with anti-B or anti-T cell anti-sera. This is in contrast to humans and rats, where NK cells are resistant to temperature manipulation for 30 or 60 minutes. While some reports suggest that NK cells are adherent and phagocytic, others suggest they are non-adherent a...

Thermal anomaly is one of the earthquake precursor in earthquake preparatory phase. Remote sensing in thermal region has been employed recently based on the concept of stress accumulation in the active plate tectonics region, which may be transformed as temperature variation prior event. MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) has been commonly used to locate thermal anomalies before earthquake. Recently research has been focusing on moderate or large magnitude earthquake events. In Thailand, even though small earthq...

On the territory of the Volga-Ural oil and gas province in the Permian sediments are concentrated significant resources of bitumen-containing rocks, which are of interest as a source of unconventional oil. In this connection, it is very important to clarify the conditions for the formation of bituminous strata and their productive areas. High efficiency in the study of oil-bearing rocks has radio-spectroscopic methods for determining the structure of the oil deposit and the nature of its oil and bitumen saturation...

Unique reservoir of Kazakhstan is a reservoir-cooler of Ekibastuz GRES-1, located on the territory of Pavlodar region in 17 km to North-East from Ekibastuz town. It was founded in 1979 in the washed basin of former bitter-salty lake Zhengeldy by filling with fresh water from the Irtysh-Karaganda canal. Currently, water of reservoir is used for technical supply of the power plant, and in the future, it will be used for fish farming and irrigation purposes. The results of many years of comprehensive experimental fie...

To date, in connection with active development of all branches of industry, transport, agriculture the most urgent issue of identifying the characteristics of the behavior of chemical elements in soils and parent rocks within local areas with characteristic patterns. The object of this study is to Rostov region. Soil cover of the territory is formed mainly by two genetic soil types пїЅ chernozems and chestnut soils. Since 2005 was conducted areal soil geochemical sampling areas, which yielded data on the content o...

State entrepreneurship and state marketing are the key forms of the state participation in national economy. Within their frames there is a distribution of the resources directed to the maintenance and development of infrastructure, implementation of social obligations and state programs. One of the instruments of state entrepreneurship is the procurement system provided with target budgetary financing by executive authorities. Introduction into the system of state and municipal management the methodology of proje...

Investigation of the paramagnetic properties of core samples from the section of the reference well was performed on the basis of a representative sample (97 samples) by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) for mineral associations of the Evlan horizon of the Upper Devonian deposits of the Volga-Ural region of the Republic of Tatarstan. Within the Volga-Ural region, reef formation dates back to the late Frasnian and has developed to the maximum extent in the Voronezh, Evlan and Liven times. The deposition of the ...

The paper reveals the distinctive features of the change in the composition of natural bitumen - asphaltite from from the sandstones of the Permian sediments of the Spiridonovsky field in the territory of Tatarstan, in model experiments at a temperature of 250 пїЅC, characteristic for steam-thermal impact on the formation, and the pressure in the system of not more than 2 MPa. The choice of low pressure is due to the fact that bituminous rocks in the Permian sediments occur at relatively shallow depths in the near...

The rivers of the Northern part of European territory of Russia (ETR) contain large amounts of organic matter. This is due to natural features of the area (short cool summer, high wetlands, large areas of forests and features of soil formation), and to specificity of the anthropogenic impact. One of the largest rivers of the Northern ETR is the Northern Dvina River, flowing into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. A general study of the organic carbon content in the bottom sediment of the Northern Dvina River mouth ar...

When conducting studies related to the study of the radon hazard of premises and territories, conducting radon monitoring measurements with the aim of predicting mountain impacts and earthquakes, studying the emanation characteristics of rocks and a number of other problems, it has been shown that in some cases the materials of the connecting elements used in measuring structures On the results. In this connection, experimental studies were carried out aimed at studying the sorption abilities of the material of th...

Total (specular+diffusive) reflection of nanostructured Si layers prepared by metal assisted chemical etching (MACE) of crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers is investigated. The thickness of nanostructured Si layers is varied from 0.3 to 100 ?m by increasing the MACE time. The time dependence of silicon nanostructured layers thickness on the etching time was found to be logarithmic. Spectra of the total reflection were measured in optical range from 0.2 to 2 ?m. Depending on the thickness of sample, it was observed a...

The contribution deals with pipe conveyors, which currently provide great environmental and economic benefits. Construction of the pipe conveyor is developed from standard belt conveyors with one major distinction, which is forming of the conveyor belt into the pipe. Wrapping the belt into the pipe form prevent leakage of material under the conveyor path and contamination of the surroundings. Among the main advantages belongs, in addition to the environmental impact, the option to transport material in both belt s...

Development of Fibre Engineered Cementitious Materials with Self-Healing Capacity (SH-FECM) was an important goal of the recent research programmes conducted in NIRD пїЅURBAN-INCERCпїЅ Cluj-Napoca Branch. Several theoretical and experimental studies were performed in order to improve the composites, considering both, fresh and hardened state properties and also the performance as filling material of the narrow spaces at the beam to column interface within the Hybrid spatial joint model [1]. Present studies are foc...

The paper deals with the oil recovery problem, research methods for heterogeneity parameter determination in oil-bearing horizons and its influence on the reservoir porosity and permeability. The article describes the author's lithologic-and-petrophysic anisotropy detection method. This method allows quantifying the directions, quantities, the lateral heterogeneity influence probability in the reservoir and takes into account its possible manifestation in the field development process. For measuring magnetic susce...

The research-development activity has not been quite adequately financed in Romania over the last few years. Annual financing programs and multiannual programs were issued (NPRDI I пїЅ [National Plan for Research, Development and Innovation]), and, as of 2007, together with RomaniaпїЅs adherence to the European Union, an effort was made to align the financing programs of this activity to the UnionпїЅs programs. Thus, beginning with the Seventh Framework Program (FP7), the National Plan for Research- Development an...

The bioactive compounds in apples and pears might confer many health protective benefits by improving oxidative stress, on the other hand in case of higher than the admitted values, Heavy metals could affect health. Apple and pears are members of the Rosaceae (Rose) family, known for their pomaceous fruits. The aim of this study was to describe the quality traits, the level of antioxidant activity and polyphenol content of some apples and pears available on the Romanian market as well as the heavy metals concentra...

Fatigue damage is determined from time signals of loading, usually in the form of stress or strain. However, there are many design scenarios when the loading, or fatigue damage process, cannot easily be defined using time signals. In these cases the design/operation engineer usually has to use a test based approach to evaluate the fatigue life of the structure or the component. Alternatively, a frequency based fatigue calculation can be used where the loading and response are represented using Power Spectral Densi...

Maps are the fundamental documents supporting the process of crisis management. It is important that the events formed on them were presented in the most credible and legible way. Legible, meaning that they should depict credible spatial information on the basis of presented spatial data. Only such formulation guarantees aid of the highest quality and organisation of actions during crisis situations. They also constitute extremely valuable content showing spatial location of the threats which have already occurred...

In particular, Sub-Sahara Africa and UgandaпїЅs energy sector is dominated by biomass, which contributes over 90% of the total expendable energy. Herein firewood and charcoal contribute more than 85%. The main use of biomass energy is cooking and or heating either as firewood or charcoal majorly by local households. There is also huge demand from commercial activities such as the production of bricks and some factories. In many areas, biomass continues to be the energy source of choice due to unavailability or una...

The north-western and western coast of the Black Sea, corresponding to Romania and Bulgaria, is subject of crustal deformations due to remote effects produced by geological processes ran at planetary (e.g. plate tectonics in the Atlantic and Eastern Mediterranean-Anatolia realms) and regional (e.g. the tectonic coupling of the Black Sea basin and Vrancea seismogenic area) scales as well as due to relatively local geological processes (e.g. subsidence of sedimentary basins, young sediments compaction, etc.). The ge...

Regarding the mining industry, the risk of an explosive atmosphere occurrence and the consequences differ from one mine to another, depending on the configuration of the mine and on the type of the coal extracted. Although preventive measures are taken, the potential risk of explosion cannot be excluded from firedamp mines, but only reduced as much as possible. Therefore, where the possibility of forming these explosive atmospheres exists, the explosion risk assessment is required by developing scenarios that cons...

Close-range photogrammetry (CRP) represents very perspective technology for many fields. It can provide results comparable to terrestrial laser scanning, and the hardware is still much cheaper. Our research group is developing low-cost CRP device based on Raspberry Pi 3 computer. Raspberry Pi 3 is a single-board computer with relatively high computing power and low price. In connection with a touchscreen, Pi Camera module v2.1 (Sony IMX219, 8Mpx) and powerbank it becomes a portable device for imagery. Continuous s...

The post-mining landscape of HornпїЅ Slezsko is characteristic by intense detorioration of original landscape features and components caused by underground coal mining. There are huge ecosystems changes typical for those landscapes reclaimed by classical nature-friendly methods and procedures. The aim of this study is fitness evaluation of selected trees species using their growth on selected plots for 2016 vegetation period. We have compared individual growth of trees by an orientation toward the cardinal points ...

The main purpose of the construction of flood protection measure is to protect the urban area. Flood strategy should cover the entire river basin area and promote the coordinated development and management of actions regarding water, land and related resources. Structural measures (defence structures) will remain important elements and should primarily focus on the protection of human health and safety, and valuable goods and property. Intensive rainfall and springпїЅs snow melting occurrence leads to floods almos...

Climate change also increase different natural risk possibility - erosion and floods in coastal local municipalities in Latvia are becoming increasingly more important. The most significant flood risk factor, particularly in the climate change context, are wind surges, especially coinciding with ongoing sea level raise and, even, rapid and intence, rainfall, while the nation wide spread snowmelt flood risks are less impacting the coastal municipalities. Research-and-development study analyzed coastal risk governan...

Floods are natural catastrophes which cause environmental and structural damages as also casualties. There is growing concern that flooding is becoming more frequent and severe not only in Europe but also in the whole world. This study investigates changes in trends and seasonality of annual peak-discharges for 51 mid-sized Slovakian gauging stations with the lengths of observations of 46 years. The area of selected catchments varies from 19 km2 to 295 km2. Seasonality of maximum annual peak-discharges is determin...

A major pollutant in indoor air are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from materials and building products The indoor surface materials are considered to be studied as the principal sources of indoor air pollution. The source control is the most practical approach to improve the indoor air quality. The measure for indoor pollutionпїЅs decreasing seems to be the effective control of volatile organic compounds and indoor odors. The perceived indoor air quality in four rooms with various flooring materials wa...

Calibrations of liquid flow meters are performed with primary standards that are based on measurements of the fundamental quantities; mass and time. Flow meters calibration are accomplished by timed collection of the measured mass of water flowing through the meter under test. Static gravimetric liquid flow meters calibration method is used as primary liquid flow standards. The method is based on the principle of measuring flow rate by static weighing and consists in: determining the initial mass of the weighing t...

We analyzed the dynamics of Lake Teletskoye water level and attempted to use data on bottom sediment geochemistry in combination with Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) tree-ring width chronology to reconstruct it for late Holocene. In particular, we studied the links among the water level characteristics, precipitation amount, bottom sediment geochemistry, and tree-ring width chronology available for Russian Altai. A correlation analysis revealed the annual water level fluctuations to correlate closely with mean ann...

Renewable energy is a key factor in the sustainable development of any modern society. The development of renewable energy project must continue to be part of a competitive economy and the research and innovation of this domain should be a priority. One of the renewable energy sources (RES) that are reliable, provides predictable energy, assures the energy supply in remote areas and at the end of the power transmission lines, are small hydro power plants (SHPP). In Romania SHPP are not new, being part of the devel...

The benefit of recycling industrial by-products in the construction industry led to growing interest in exploring and potentially exploiting these by-products, in the context of sustainable development, and in creating new materials. Fly ash is a type of byproduct waste, having enjoyed considerable attention, especially from the perspective of creating and perfecting fly ash based geopolymer concrete. In Romania, over 80% of industrial waste is deposited, this being the most widely used method of waste disposal. T...

The focal mechanism and rupture directivity for intermediate-depth earthquakes occurred in the Vrancea source (Romania) are determined using FMNEAR algorithm [1]. The method is based on the waveform inversion of near-source seismic waveforms and on a linear finite source model. When the FMNEAR algorithm is started the first parameters that are determined are the moment magnitude (Mw), the double couple focal mechanism (strike, dip, rake) and the distribution of seismic moment along strike. This provides a first or...

Food security has been and continues to be a current topic given the fact that, it stands at the base of all issues related of human existence. In this respect it is necessary to analyze the idea of food security on the two levels closely correlated, meaning the qualitative level and quantitative level. Quantitative aspect aimed the insurance of food necessary to meet the physiological needs of the population from the bottom of Maslow pyramid and converging towards meeting other needs found on top of the pyramid s...

The 21st century presents us with enormous challenges related to environmental protection. This applies to both the citizens of our globe, businesses, institutions as well as regions and countries. Contemporary companies increasingly focus on sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, and report their actions contributing to improvement and protection of the environment. Metrics known as footprint family, such as ecological, carbon, water, energy, waste, land or material footprints, are gaining i...

The research presented in this article is concentrated on developing a series of instruments in order to include modular design in producing customized footwear for the elderly women. For those who live longer, it is important that they stay healthy, active and independent and, as a consequence, it reflects in the market growth of the industry producing goods for the elderly, the footwear industry as well. The loss of the ability to walk due to foot problem, not only produces physical limitations, but also has a s...

In water scarce districts of the Akmola region the areas were revealed, perspective for carrying out exploration on underground waters and the card of forecast resources of underground waters of the Akmola region of scale 1:1 000 000 is constituted. As the main methods of researches are used: decryption of satellite images using cloudless fragments of space pictures of Landsat-8 from 2013 for 2016. In case of decryption of satellite images of the Akmola region comic pictures of the territory on 6 sites are process...

Decades are mining raw materials from seabed deposits. We are talking about deposits which are on the interface of land and sea. These are placer deposits as heavy metals and gemstones, secondary deposits of limestone, phosphorus, salt and also beach deposits on the edge of the continents. In this article, the authors want to become familiar with both forecasting utilization of selected earth resources, but also want to point out new trends in obtaining them. In this article, we have a broad spectrum of earth reso...

The forest canopy cover is an important element of forest inventories and it represents the proportion of the ground covered by the vertical projection of the tree crowns. Traditional ground-based methods cannot be efficient in measuring the vertical projection of the tree crowns and in accurately making determinations of forest canopy cover percentage in stands of over a few hectares. The purpose of the current paper is to present the potential of a new approach for forest canopy cover determination that is based...

The goal of given research is to identify the tendencies of development of ecotourism in the forests on protected areas in Georgia, evaluate of government tourism policy, bring out the key problems and elaborate the solutions for them. The research was inspired by problems that are related to the illegal cuts of trees and other interruptions of rational nature management caused by low involvement of local population in the economic processes related to the forests. Ecotourism could be considered, as a most effecti...