The art of the leading 20th century still-life painter Giorgio Morandi (1898–1960) drew inspiration from various sources. One of the most important points of reference was Jean Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, an older master of still life active in the 18th century. In this article, the dialogue with Chardin will thus be considered in the context of important inter-pictorial associations leading to the reflection on the approach of both masters to the studied objects. Formal similarities between their paintings allow us to question their relationships in terms of the ways of representing objects, with a particular emphasis on the difference in their materialization in the field of vision.

An analysis of their works shows that in Chardin’s case the pictorial status and living texture of objects is an extension of the interior in which they are located, while in Morandi’s they are isolated from it and their earlier functions. The objects appearing in the paintings of the Bolognese painter are largely ‘eviscerated’ of any references to the rhythm of everyday life. Instead of a free gaze, characteristic of the domesticated atmosphere evoked by Chardin’s paintings, Morandi’s compositions force the viewer to an intense and focused contemplation, which corresponds to the painter’s own intense observation of the objects in his studio. An important aspect of the comparison will be an analysis of the temporality of the perception of objects implied by the works of both artists. Chardin’s still lifes aim to bring together the temporality of seeing objects and the time of seeing an image. They play their game by simulating in the pictures the natural process of looking – they allow the viewers to freely immerse themselves in the temporal development of the image. In their expression, Chardin’s paintings thus encourage the viewers to come to terms with the material reality of the surrounding world. If the 18th century artist stages in his still lifes the man’s time of looking at objects, Morandi activates the distinct temporality of the image itself. Looking at the latter’s works we experience pictorial fluctuations, in connection with which objects appear like actors leaving their everyday lives behind them. In this register, they become participants in the drama taking place in the act of observation, which touches upon the foundations of their existence. In Morandi’s paintings, the viewer is prompted to reflect on the distance between one object and another; to experience the threshold between oneself and things.

This article, however, is not limited to the identification of analogies and differences, but also aims to show a special relationship in which Chardin’s work stages elements of a still-life painter’s practice. From this point of view, Morandi’s reception of Chardin’s Boy Building a House of Cards is important. An analysis of the testimony of the Italian artist’s encounter with this painting during his stay in Winterthur shows that the art of the 18th century painter was for Morandi an object of a unique self-reflexive and existential identification.

Technological assurance and improvement of the economic efficiency of production are the

first-priority issues for the modern manufacturing engineering area. It is possible to achieve

a higher value of economic efficiency in multiproduct manufacturing by multicriteria optimization.

A set of optimality criteria based on technological and economic indicators was

defined with the aim of selecting the optimal manufacturing process. Competitive variants

and a system of optimization were developed and investigated. A comparative analysis of

the optimality criteria and their influence on the choice of optimal machining processes was

carried out. It was determine

Low cost manufacturing of quality products remains an essential part of present economy

and technological advances made it possible. Advances and amalgamation of information

technology bring the production systems at newer level. Industry 4.0, factory for future,

smart factory, digital manufacturing, and industrial automation are the new buzz words of

industry stalwarts and academicians. These new technological revolutions bound to change

not only the complete manufacturing scenarios but many other sectors of the society. In this

paper an attempt has been made to capture the essence of Industry 4.0 by redefining it in

simple words, further its complex, disruptive nature and inevitability along with technologies

backing it has been discussed. Its enabling role in manufacturing philosophies like Lean

Manufacturing, and Flexible Manufacturing are also

This paper presents a new welding quality evaluation approach depending on the analysis

by the fuzzy logic and controlling the process capability of the friction stir welding of

pipes (FSWoP). This technique has been applied in an experimental work developed by

alternating the FSW of pipes process major parameters: rotation speed, pipe wall thickness

and travel speed. variable samples were friction stir welded of pipes using from 485 to 1800

rpm, 4–10 mm/min and 2–4 mm for the rotation speed, the travel speed, and the pipe wall

thickness respectively. DMAIC methodology (Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving,

Control) has been used as an approach to analyze the FSW of pipes, it depends on the

attachment potency and technical commonplace demand of the FSW of pipes process.

The analysis controlled the Al 6061 friction stir welded joints’ tensile strength. To obtain

the best tensile strength, the study determined the optimum values for the parameters from

the corresponding range.

The paper proposes three multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods for the selection

of an industrial robot for a universal, flexible assembly station, taking into consideration the

technical and performance parameters of the robot. Fuzzy versions of AHP and TOPSIS

methods as well as SMART were chosen from the variety of MCDM methods as they represent

different attitudes to analysis. In order to minimise the impact of the method applied on

the final decision, a list of results of the analyses has been developed and a final classification

has been made based on decision makers’ preferences concerning selected parameters of the

robot.

Up to date, workload and worker performance in Small Medium-sized Enterprise (SMEs)

was assessed manually. KESAN (Kansei Engineering-based Sensor for Agroindustry) was

developed as a tool to assess worker workload and performance. The latest prototype of

KESAN was established. As the final step prior to the full-scale mass production, an industrial

design was required and must be designed based on the validation to user needs. This

research proposed an industrial design for mass production of KESAN using Kano model

and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). The user needs was extracted from attributive

analysis of Kano model. The matrix of House of Quality (HOQ) was utilized to connect

the user needs and technical requirement. The research result validated Thirteen (13) user

need attributes. The most important attribute was desktop application as an integrated

decision support system. Fourteen (14) technical requirement attributes were identified to

fulfil the user needs. Finally, a prototype was developed based on product final specification

and prioritized technical requirements.

Labor absenteeism is a factor that affects the good performance of organizations in any

part of the world, from the instability that is generated in the functioning of the system.

This is evident in the effects on quality, productivity, reaction time, among other aspects.

The direct causes by which it occurs are generally known and with greater reinforcement

the diseases are located, without distinguishing possible classifications. However, behind

these or other causes can be found other possible factors of incidence, such as age or sex.

This research seeks to explore, through the application of neural networks, the possible

relationship between different variables and their incidence in the levels of absenteeism. To

this end, a neural networks model is constructed from the use of a population of more than

12,000 employees, representative of various classification categories. The study allowed the

characterization of the influence of the different variables studied, supported in addition to

the performance of an ANOVA analysis that allowed to corroborate and clarify the results

of the neural network analysis.

Seasonality is a function of a time series in which the data experiences regular and predictable

changes that repeat each calendar year. Two-stage stochastic programming model

for real industrial systems at the case of a seasonal demand is presented. Sampling average

approximation (SAA) method was applied to solve a stochastic model which gave a productive

structure for distinguishing and statistically testing a different production plan. Lingo

tool is developed to obtain the optimal solution for the proposed model which is validated

by Math works Matlab. The actual data of the industrial system; from the General Manufacturing

Company, was applied to examine the proposed model. Seasonal future demand

is then estimated using the multiplicative seasonal method, the effect of seasonality was

presented and discussed. One might say that the proposed model is viewed as a moderately

accurate tool for industrial systems in case of seasonal demand. The current research may

be considered a significant tool in case of seasonal demand. To illustrate the applicability of

the proposed model a numerical example is solved using the proposed technique. ANOVA

analysis is applied using MINITAB 17 statistical software to validate the obtained results.

The operation of thermal devices and installations, in particular heat exchangers, is associated

with the formation of various deposits of sediments, forming the boiler scale. The

amount of precipitate depends on the quality of the flowing liquids treatment, as well as

the intensity of the use of devices. There are both mechanical and chemical treatment methods

to remove these deposits. The chemical methods of boiler scale treatment include the

cleaning method consisting in dissolving boiler scale inside heat devices. Worked out descaling

concentrate contains phosphoric acid (V) and the components that inhibit corrosion,

anti-foam substances, as well as anti-microbial substances as formalin, ammonium chloride,

copper sulphate and zinc sulfate. Dissolution of the boiler scale results in the formation of

wastewater which can be totally utilized as raw materials in phosphoric fertilizer produc

The presented method is constructed for optimum scheduling in production lines with parallel

machines and without intermediate buffers. The production system simultaneously

performs operations on various types of products. Multi-option products were taken into

account – products of a given type may differ in terms of details. This allows providing for

individual requirements of the customers. The one-level approach to scheduling for multioption

products is presented. The integer programming is used in the method – optimum

solutions are determined: the shortest schedules for multi-option products. Due to the lack

of the intermediate buffers, two possibilities are taken into account: no-wait scheduling,

possibility of the machines being blocked by products awaiting further operations. These two

types of organizing the flow through the production line were compared using computational

experiments, the results of which are presented in the paper.

This study demonstrates application of Lean techniques to improve working process in

a sewing machine factory, focusing on the raw material picking process. The value stream

mapping and flow process chart techniques were utilized to identify the value added activities,

non-value activities and necessary but non-value added activities in the current

process. The ECRS (Eliminate, Combine, Rearrange and Simplify) in waste reduction was

subsequently applied to improve the working process by (i) adjusting the raw material picking

procedures and pre-packing raw material as per demand, (ii) adding symbols onto the

containers to reduce time spent in picking material based on visual control principle, and

(iii) developing and zoning storage area, identifying level location for each row and also

applying algorithms generated from a solver program and linear programming to appropriately

define the location of raw material storage. Improvement in the raw material picking

process was realized, cutting down six out of 11 procedures in material picking or by 55%,

reducing material picking time from 24 to 4 min or by 83%. The distance to handle material

in the warehouse can be shortened by 120 m per time or 2,400 m per day, equal to 86%

reduction. Lean techniques

This study is aimed at evaluating the applicability of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model technique for river discharge forecasting. Feed-forward multilayer perceptron neural network trained with back-propagation algorithm was employed for model development. Hydro-meteorological data for the Imo River watershed, that was collected from the Anambra-Imo River Basin Development Authority, Owerri – Imo State, South-East, Nigeria, was used to train, validate and test the model. Coefficients of determination results are 0.91, 0.91 and 0.93 for training, validation and testing periodsrespectively. River discharge forecasts were fitted against actual discharge data for one to five lead days. Model results gave R2 values of 0.95, 0.95, 0.92, 0.96 and 0.94 for first, second, third, fourth, and fifth lead days of forecasts, respectively. It was generally observed that the R2 values decreased with increase in lead days for the model. Generally, this tech-nique proved to be effective in river discharge modelling for flood forecasting for shorter lead-day times, especially in areas with limited data sets.

Scarcity of fresh water resources is the major constraint for agricultural development in Iran as in many other regions with arid and semi-arid climate. With the pressure on fresh water resources, the use of un-conventional water resources including brackish, saline and sewage water has received greater attentions in recent years. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of farmers' practices using saline groundwater on wheat yield and soil salinity in a Mediterranean cli-mate of Fars province in southern Iran. The study was carried out in several commercial wheat production regions for two years. Chemical analysis of irrigation waters, volume of applied irrigation water, electrical conductivity of soil saturation extract (ECe) and yield were measured in each field. General information on agronomic practices was also collected using a questionnaire. Results demonstrate that waters with salinities higher than what has been classified as “suitable for irriga-tion” are being used for the production of wheat crop. Analysis of wheat yield response to saline irrigation water showed that for water salinities up to 10.7 mS∙cm–1 (threshold value) variation in yield was relatively minor, above which wheat yield decreased at a greater rate. Root zone salinity profiles showed the effect of winter rainfall in reducing soil salinity. It is concluded that although acceptable yields are obtained with some of the highly brackish waters, over application of these waters would threaten the sustainability of crop production in the region.

The present study tries to quantify soil losses using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and analytic hierarchy pro-cess (AHP) in the Medjerda watershed (Algerian-Tunisian border). The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is used in the quantification of erosion qualitative characteristics, through its weighting. It is used for many problems requiring decision-making. This catchment area is characterized by moderately consistent lithology, irregular rainfall, medium slope and low vegetation cover, which makes it very sensitive to erosion. Therefore we claim to develop a spatialization map of vulnerable areas, based on analytic hierarchy process and GIS that define the combination of specific factors. The integration of the thematic maps of the various factors makes it possible to identify the impact of each factor in the erosion, to classify the sensitive zones, and to quantify the soil losses in the basin. This mapping will be an important tool for land use planning and risk management. From the distribution map of erosive hazards, we have identified four classes of vulnerabil-ity, areas with very high to high vulnerability are mainly in the northern part of the watershed (where the relief is very important).

This study presents the hydrochemical composition of groundwater under long-term irrigation of Wonji plain (Ethiopia) and its quality status for drinking purpose. Groundwater samples were collected from 30 groundwater monitoring tube wells installed at different parts of the sugarcane plantation and then analysed for the major physico-chemical quality parameters (pH, EC, major cations and anions) following standard test procedures. The status of groundwater for drinking was compared with WHO and other quality standards. Analytical analysis results indicated that majority of the considered quality parameters are rated above the prescribed tolerable limits for drinking set by WHO. About 97% of the water sample has water quality index in the range of very poor to unfit for drinking. The contamination index is in the ranges of low (–1.0) to high (3.6). In general, the groundwater of the area is unsuitable for human consumption without proper treatment such as boiling, chlorination, filtering, distillation, desalinaization, defluoridation, deionization, demineralization (ionexchange) and membrane processes. Since the TDS concentration is relatively small (<2000 ppm), demineralization process alone can be sufficient to bring the water to an acceptable level.

For the last few decades there have been reports not only of the occurrence of new invasive species of European water-courses, but also their increasing expansion. One of such species is the Amur sleeper (Perccottus glenii). The present work contains assessment of age and length distribution, condition as well as growth rate and analysis of the parasite fauna of theAmur sleeper from the waters of the Vistula River tributary in its middle course (the Habdziński Canal). During the catch performed in 2017 and 2019, the total of 177 Amur sleepers were recorded in the studied watercourse and a statistically significant sex structure disproportion was observed. Among the specimens caught in 2017 dominant were fishes with lengths of 50.1–60.1 mm whereas in 2019 the majority of the Amur sleeper specimens measured 30.1–50.0 mm.Six age groups were recorded among the caught fish with a clear prevalence of specimens aged 1+ (70.06%). The most frequently recorded parasite of P. glenii was non-quantifiable Trichodina rostrata ciliate for which the Amur sleeper from the Polish waters appeared to be a new host. Moreover, the presence of an acanthocephalan Acanthocephalus lucii, not recorded in Poland in this host before, was observed in the chyme. Also, accidental presence of larvae of the Opisthioglyphe ranae tre-madote, which is a parasite typical of amphibians, was also recorded. Despite unfavourable habitat conditions and in-creased volumes of biogenic substances in the waters of the Habdziński Canal, the Amur sleeper found convenient condi-tions to reside in this small watercourse.

Reservoirs have a very important function in providing multi-sector water requirements. In the future, reservoirs not only serve to store and available water can also be used as disaster mitigation instruments. The completeness of hydrological measurements in reservoirs can be expanded more widely for climate change mitigation. The reliability of the reservoir capacity varies greatly depending on the El-Nino character that occurs among them El-Nino is weak, moderate, strong and very strong. The El-Nino characteristic is very influential on the period of water availability, the increase of evaporation capacity and decrease of reservoir capacity. Analysis of the reliability of the reservoir volume due to El-Nino using the Weibull equation. The deficit reservoir was calculated using the concept of water balance in the reservoir that is the relationship between inflow, outflow, and change of storage at the same time. Based on the results of the analysis showed that the evaporation increase and the decrease of reservoir capacity had a different pattern that is when the evaporation capacity started to increase at the same time the reservoir capacity decreased significantly. The correlation coefficient between evaporation capacity increase and decrease of reservoir water capacity are consecutively –0.828, –0.636, and –0.777 for El- Nino weak, moderate and very strong respectively. At the reservoir capacity reliability of 50% reservoir has a significant deficit. When weak El-Nino the deficit is 2.30∙106 m3, moderate: 6.58∙106 m3, and very strong 8.85∙106 m3.

The unique oasis of Zousfana, on the western edge of the Grand Erg Occidental, Taghit is the pearl of the oases of Saoura, a palm grove of 180 ha over an 18 km length crossed by Oued Zouzfana. It regroups the different types of landscapes of an arid zone (erg, hamada, barga – a small hill, oued ...). Taghit is known for its hydraulic civilization, the oasis in its hostile environment has survived thanks to the exploitation of rare groundwater irrigation according to the traditional customs applied to the whole of society. The peasants spur out the water resources through foggaras and traditional wells. But the intervention of modern irrigation techniques in an anarchic way has disrupted the fragile mode of irrigation and the abandonment of the palm grove. The over-exploitation of groundwater by the use of boreholes and motor pumps leads to the drying up of water sources, mists and traditional wells. Today, only 45 000 palm trees are productive and less than 1500 fruit trees. There are 500 fellahs in the entire agricultural area of Taghit, the majority of them is fleeing work in the oasis because of the lack of income from it. When comparing the results of analyses from different campaigns (2015 and 2008), a spectacular increase in the salt concentrations in the groundwater of the different palm groves is noticed. According to our investigations, the main causes of this jump are: the overexploitation of the water tables by motor pumps, the abandonment of land inside the palm grove, the lack of maintenance of the gardens, the exploitation of domestic wastewater in the irrigation. According to this preliminary study, it is important for the State to make farmers aware of the role of their traditional irrigation systems in the continuity of the oasis and life in it.

Modern technologies make it possible to obtain a lot of diverse information about the soil properties using satellite images, but field studies are also required to create or refine digital soil maps. To create a digital soil map scaled 1:25 000 in 2016, a classical field study was conducted with the laying of soil sections in places with the same coordinates as in the mapping of 1982. It allowed to carry out retrospective monitoring of transformation of morphogenetic and agrochemical properties of soils of the southern forest-steppe of the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia) for the 34-year period of farm use. Thus, the correction and digitization of the soil map allowed to establish that arable land occupies 69.792 ha (67.9%) in the structure of agricultural land (102 811 ha). The monitoring showed deterioration of the main characteristics of arable soil fertility: the diminishing of humus-accumulative horizons, significant decrease of humus content (p ≤ 0.05), a small but reliable acidification of the medium reaction and reducing labile phosphorus. Losses of organic matter occurred mainly in the most fertile soils; their proportion decreased from 55.9% of the total area of agricultural land to 12.4%.

Since the beginning of the 21st century floating buildings have been growing in popularity in Poland. According to market research and quantitative studies, the majority of operative Polish floating buildings serve for commercial purposes, such as short-term rentals, vacation houses and floating marinas. Simultaneously, despite the increasing demand, the development of floating buildings in Poland is limited by the inconsistent legislation, government policy and, most importantly, natural conditions of Polish inland waters. The most attractive sites for floating architecture are the semi-natural lakeshores and riverbanks. At the same time, low water levels and poor maintenance of many Polish basins require special architectural and engineering solutions. The article presents our experience with meeting the market’s demand for small cost-effective floating commercial buildings despite the local shortcomings of inland waters on the example of the floating apartment built in 2019 on the Roś Lake in Pisz, Poland. The presented building was intended as a water-based extension of the existing hotel on land. It was designed as a “modern barn” with all-glazed gable wall allowing for a spectacular view to the lake. With a 50 sqm footprint, the one-story house with a mezzanine has a small draft of 33 cm and meets the stability criteria defined for inland waters. The presented case study shows that integrating the naval architecture theory, Building Information Modeling simulation along with cutting-edge construction techniques such as Scottsdale Construction System (SCS) and polyurethane spray insulation, can bring significant progress into the development of the floating buildings market in Poland.

The ground source of drinking water for the village of Skalice nad Svitavou is located 35 km North of Brno (Czech Republic). An evaluation of developments in selected indicators of water quality in this groundwater source in the period 2013–2017 was the essence of this work. The data was provided by Vodárenská akciová společnost, a.s., i.e. the operator. At the same time, annual monitoring of water quality in the Úmoří stream, which flows through the catchment area and can affect the quality of groundwater, was carried out. Water samples were collected in 2017–2018 from 6 profiles on the Úmoří stream and its two tributaries. Raw water from the groundwater source does not meet the requirements for drinking water in some indicators and needs to be treated. Monitoring of surface water shows that the most problematic indicator is total phosphorus, the concentration of which exceeded limit values on all sampling profiles. The highest values were found in the tributaries, where total phosphorus concentrations exceeded 10 mg∙dm–3. There are 12 municipalities in the area of interest, only two of which have their own sewage treatment plant. It is clear from the results that wastewater in some municipalities is discharged directly into the recipient and is the cause of above-limit concentrations of both phosphorus and nitrogen. Intensively used agricultural land is another major source of pollution. Based on an analysis of sources of pollution, corrective measures have been proposed to improve the quality of surface and groundwater in the area.

In this paper, finite element modelling is employed for simulating and analysing seepage and slope stability of earthfill dam via GeoStudio software. Two products are employed, which are SLOPE/W for slope stability and SEEP/W for seepage analysis. The behaviour of earthfill dam with four different types of sandy soils having different values of hydraulic conductivity (K) has been studied. Different upstream (US) slopes of 1:2, 1:2.5, 1:3 and 1:3.5 for the earthfill dam are simulated. The downstream (DS) slope is constant at 1:2. The results showed for all the four types of soils that when the US slope is increased, the amount of seepage from the dam increases and the factor of safety (F) decreases. For each US slope, when K (type of soil) increases, both seepage and F increase. Fine sand soil is associated with less seepage and less F. Sixteen equations are obtained to predict both seepage and F with respect to US slope for each type of soil and K of the soil for US slope. An experimental model for earthfill dam is constructed in the laboratory of hydraulics, Benha University to investigate the seepage of water through earthfill dams. It is concluded that seepage decreased when K decreased, and when the US slope for each type of soil decreased. The seepage increased when K increased for each US slope. Seven equations are obtained to predict seepage with respect to US slope for each type of soil, and K for each US slope.

A failure analysis of Babar dam on the El Arab River was performed to highlight the impact of flood wave and velocities on the four villages downstream of the dam; Hella, Khérenne, Chebla and El Oueldja. The simulation of wave propagation along the El Arab River under several scenarios was performed by the hydraulic HEC-RAS model. This model is dedicated to the description of floods at the dam following a breach in the dike. The main factors considered in this simulation include the level of flood water, the flood hydrograph, and the typical scenario for this breach. The flood risk analysis revealed that the maximum of flood wave flow registered at the breach is (Qmax = 9253.02 m3∙s–1), and is beginning to mitigate downstream of the dam along the El Arab River where it reached at the last village with a low flow (Q = 1110.64 m3∙s–1). This simulation allowed drawing the risk map which showed the areas threatened by flood wave resulting from a total failure of the work, and consequently required a plan of security measures to moderate as much as possible the consequences of floods. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to approach the parameters of impact of the breach on the dam failure scenario. It was confirmed that these parameters as formulation time, breach width and side slope have a great influence on the dam failure scenario with the four adjustments (±20 and ±50).