The article discusses issues related to improving the energy efficiency of heat supply systems. It draws attention to the need to take action not only for large objects and systems, but also for individual buildings and their boiler plants. Heat supply system monitoring allows for the diagnosis of the weakest elements and making decisions leading to the improvement of energy efficiency. In the case of the boiler room where the research was carried out, the results of such monitoring convinced to equip boilers with an additional automatic control system, with an algorithm limiting the number of burner switching cycles and shutdowns. Limiting the number of switching on the burners, as in the case of other combustion and electric devices, has a significant impact on the energy efficiency of the entire system. In addition, it also increases the durability of the devices, and thus reduces costs of servicing and repairs. The simplest control algorithms, often used in controllers installed in the boiler units, do not provide optimization in this respect. The external device used has allowed the number of burners on and off cycles to be limited while maintaining the quality of the heat supply to the heating installation and the heat treatment system.

The material also presents other ways to improve the energy efficiency of the heat supply system in existing multi-family buildings.

In the process of determining the content of impurities, including fossil fuels, crude oil, coke, pitch, plastics, glass, slag, rust, metals, and rock dust, in charcoal and wood briquettes via microscopic examination, the question of the use of ashes from the combustion of grill fuels (taking the scale of the new national sport into account, commonly referred to as „weekend grilling”) was raised. Another reason for addressing this issue was the question regarding the use of organic additives to acidified soil (mineral) fertilizers submitted by one of the clients of the bituminous coal and reservoir rocks analysis laboratory. In addition, the manufacturer of gardening soil has also expressed an interest in an unconventional deacidifying agent; the introduction of a new product with a unique ingredient is considered as a chance to stand out from the competition. A review of the literature shows that attempts to use ashes obtained from the biomass combustion in power boilers have been made. However, due to the biomass composition and additives and pollutants used in biomass for energy purposes, the production of such mixtures has been dropped. Based on the data from numerous samples of grill fuel, which meet the requirements regarding the content of impurities set out in the PN-EN 1860-2 standard, the question of the possible use of ash obtained from charcoal and wood briquette grilling as a component for use in the production of acidified soil (mineral) fertilizers was discussed. The article will present the amount of material obtained based on the statistical sales of barbecue fuels based on the experimentally calculated ash mass resulting from the combustion of 1 kg of starting material. In addition, a logistic proposal for obtaining ash from individual grill users will be developed. On the day of the submission of the present work, the results of the chemical analysis of charcoal and wood briquettes subjected to the gasification process have not yet been obtained. However, based on the microscopic analysis, it can be concluded that the content of impurities in the examined samples is highly unlikely to prevent the use of the mentioned ashes in agriculture.

The concept of endogenous development assumes the use of specifi c resources of the region, difficult to copy, to its development, and even to gain a competitive advantage in a wider dimension. This concept has been used in the provisions of the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship for 2014-2020 for smart specialization (RIS3), especially in relation to leading smart specialization the quality of life, in the areas of: production and processing of ecological, regional and traditional food; renewable energy and distributed energy; agrotourism and ecotourism. It was targeted at the development of the entire region, not only the leading urban centers. The special role of the food economy lies in the need to guarantee food security and food sovereignty in the region. This issue is of strategic importance.

The direct impetus for international cooperation on creating international legislation to regulate the legal status of sea and ocean bottoms lying outside of national jurisdiction was the presentation made at the First UN Committee by the Maltese Ambassador, A. Pardo. In 1967, he called for the establishment of new legal measures for these regions and for them to be recognized as ucommon human heritage. On December 17, 1970, the General Assembly of the UN voted in favor (108 ayes and 14 abstentions) of the declaration of principles regarding sea and ocean bottoms and undergrounds that are outside of national jurisdiction. On December 10, 1982, the UN Convention, which restrictively regulates the exploration and exploitation of deep-sea bottoms, was ratified with a majority of votes from developing nations. On July 28, 1994, the General Assemble of the UN voted in favor of a resolution regarding agreement for the implementation of part XI of the UN Convention on marine law of December 10, 1982 (known as the New York Accord).

On 23 April 2014 the 2002 Protocol to the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by the Sea (PAL 2002) entered into force. The purpose of the Protocol is to improve legal standing of the passenger. The author discusses legislative options as to the future shape of Articles 181 and 182 of the Maritime Code if PAL 2002 is to be ratified by Poland. The first option is to make the 2002 Athens Convention control domestic carriage of passengers, which currently remains outside of the scope of Regulation (EC) No 329/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the liability of carriers of passengers by sea in the event of accidents, and to exclude compulsory insurance or other financial security within limits prescribed by the Convention. The second option is to apply the Convention liability mechanism to carriage by Class C, Class D and Class B vessels.

The article discusses possibilities and usefulness of application of the cost approach for mineral deposits valuation. Author focuses on the ones related to exploration for and documentation of hypothetical deposits, looking in their case for possible areas of application of the approach in consideration. Analyses covers the three most commonly used valuation methods: Appraised Value Method (AVM), Multiple of Exploration Expenditure Method and Killburn's Method, indicating their strengths, deficiencies and dangers of potential misuse. In conclusion author indicates areas of potential application of the cost approach where it's proper application may deliver credible and useful results.

Nanotechnology is a manipulation of nature that has emerged through the use of basic sciences, material science and engineering at the nano-scale. The interaction between biological environment and nanoparticles-nanoparticles or nanoparticles-organic materials is not yet well-understood. The toxic effects of nanoparticles on plants were investigated and it was proved that they caused morphological and physiological changes in plants. This study aimed to determine the effects of TiO -TiO₂Ag nanoparticles, and co-application of EDDS-TiO₂Ag nanoparticles alone, co-application of ZnO nanoparticles- Ag nanoparticles on seed germination, seedling vigor, radicle and plumule elongation of two different wheat species. In the experimental stage, ten seeds were placed in petri-dishes with a double layer of fi lter paper which was used as an inert material. Then 5 mL of TiO₂Ag, ZnO+TiO₂Ag, and EDDS+TiO₂Ag suspensions were added to every petri dish. Results showed that the maximum SVI was determined at the concentration of 50 mg∙L^-1 TiO₂ Ag+EDDS for bread wheat and the minimum SVI was observed at 100 mg∙L^-1 TiO₂Ag nanoparticles concentration for durum wheat. The effect of both nanoparticles-nanoparticles interaction and the other chemicals-nanoparticles interaction on the ecosystems should be evaluated.

The aim of this work was to determine the influence of various variants of bioleaching on effectivity of releasing chosen critical metals: rhodium, cadmium, indium, niobium and chromium from ashes which are a byproduct of municipal waste and sewage sludge thermal processing. The research was conducted in 3 variants that considered different process factors such as temperature (24ºC and 37ºC), mixing intensity and aeration. After 5 days of the process the analyses were made of metals content, sulfate concentration, pH, general number of bacteria number, index of sulfur oxidizing bacteria. The best results of bioleaching were achieved by running the process at the temperature of 24ºC with aeration. The efficiency of rhodium and cadmium release from the byproduct of municipal waste thermal processing was above 90%. The efficiency of indium and chromium release reached 50–60%. Only niobium leached better in mixing conditions. The byproduct of sewage sludge thermal processing was far less susceptible to bioleaching. The highest effectivity (on a level of 50%) was reached for indium in temperature of 24°C with aeration. The efficiency of bioleaching depended on waste’s physiochemical properties and type of metal which will be released. Aeration with compressed air had a positive influence on the increase of sulfur oxidizing bacteria what corresponded with almost double increase of sulfate concentration in leaching culture. Such conditions had a positive influence on the increase of the efficiency of bioleaching process. Heightening the temperature to 37°C and slowly mixing did not impact bioleaching in a positive way.

Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) is a multiple antenna technology used extensively in wireless communication systems. With the ever increasing demand in high data rates, MIMO system is the necessity of wireless communication. In MIMO wireless communication system, where the multiple antennas are placed on base station and mobile station, the major problem is the constant power of base station, which has to be allocated to data streams optimally. This problem is referred as a power allocation problem. In this research, singular value decomposition (SVD) is used to decouple the MIMO system in the presence of channel state information (CSI) at the base station and forms parallel channels between base station and mobile station. This practice parallel channel ensures the simultaneous transmission of parallel data streams between base station and mobile station. Along with this, water filling algorithm is used in this research to allocate power to each data stream optimally. Further the relationship between the channel capacity of MIMO wireless system and the number of antennas at the base station and the mobile station is derived mathematically. The performance comparison of channel capacity for MIMO systems, both in the presence and absence of CSI is done. Finally, the effect of channel correlation because of antennas at the base stations and the mobile stations in the MIMO systems is also measured.

Compared to the new state borders of the Danube basin after World War One, the drawing of the Austro-Hungarian border was not only different but required the longest time (1918-1924). It was not a territorial dispute between a victorious and a losing state, but one between the two losers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Austria and Hungary. During the Hungarian Soviet Republic (March to August, 1919), only the Austrian delegation was invited to the peace conference. This delegation successfully argued, through peaceful diplomatic channels, to make Western Hungary part of the new Austrian Republic. Under the Austrian peace treaty of Saint-Germainen- Laye (September 10, 1919) and the Hungarian one of Trianon (June 4, 1920), Austria received the area as well. However, the Hungarian side, using the means of political violence namely the paramilitary activity, enforced a referendum on Sopron/Ödenburg, the natural capital of the territory, which was previously judged to Austria (December 12, 1920). The participants of the referendum and the entire frontier population decided about their homelands not on ethnic grounds but on purely economic interests.

The article describes the detection of a defect in a cast iron casting. It analyzes the cause of the crack in the Turbine Component casting. In this article, we are focusing on a particular turbine casting that is commonly used in automobiles as one of the components for turbochargers. The turbine is a casting made of ductile cast iron with a visible crack on the naked eye. The formation of cracks in castings is a common but undesirable phenomenon in the foundry practice. It is important to identify the errors, but also to know the cause of defects in castings. The solution is a detailed error analysis. In this paper I used metallographic analysis and magnetic powder method. The crack formation is due to tension in the casting, which results in tensile, shear, or shear forces. The crack formation kinetics is difficult because it is still very low during hardening and shortly after the casting is overloaded. The crack is most often due to core resistance or shrinkage molds that begin after the surface layer is tightened when the strength of the material is negligible to the end of the crystallisation.

Reasoning with limited computational resources (such as time or memory) is an important problem, in particular in knowledge-intensive embedded systems. Classical logic is usually considered inappropriate for this purpose as no guarantees regarding deadlines can be made. One of the more interesting approaches to address this problem is built around the concept of

active logics. Although a step in the right direction, active logics are just a preliminary attempt towards finding an acceptable solution. Our work is based on the assumption that labelled deductive systems (LDSs) offer appropriate metamathematical methodology to study the problem. As a first step, we have reformulated a pair of active logics systems, namely the memory model and its formalized simplification, the step logic, as LDSs. This paper presents our motivation behind this project, followed by an overview of the investigations on meta-reasoning relevant to this work, and introduces in some reasonable detail the MM system.

The preliminary stage of asphalt mixture production involves the drying and dedusting of coarse aggregates. The most common types of coarse aggregates used are limestone and basalt. In the process of drying and dedusting the dryer filter accumulates large quantities of waste in the form of mineral powder.

This paper introduces an investigation into limestone powder waste as a potential microfiller of polymer composites. Physical characteristics such as the granulation the of powder collected from the filter - in terms of the season of its collection and the type of input materials used - were analysed. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used for the investigation described within this paper. The obtained results were compared against those of other materials which can be used as polymer composites microfillers.

A study was undertaken to investigate the effects of crumb rubber on the strength and mechanical behaviour of Rubberized cement soil (RCS). In the present investigation, 26 groups of soil samples were prepared at five different percentages of crumb rubber content, four different percentages of cement content and two different finenesses of crumb rubber particle. Compressive strength tests were carried out at the curing age of 7 days, 14 days, 28 days and 90 days. The test results indicated that the inclusion of crumb rubber within cement soil leads to a decrease in the compressive strength and stiffness and improves the cement soil’s brittle behaviour to a more ductile one. A reduction of up to 31% in the compressive strength happened in the 20% crumb content group. The compressive strength increases with the increase in the cement content. And the enlargement of cement content is more efficient at low cement content.