Plastic rocks can creep, therefore the knowledge of the rheological properties of the drilled formations is an important element of the drilling process and when choosing borehole designs. These properties of plastic formations also influence the way in which appropriate drilling technology and drilling mud properties are selected. The article presents the effect of basic rheological parameters of salt from the Fore-Sudetic Monocline deposit on the drilling of boreholes in the mining area of KGHM Polska Miedź, which in the future can be used as a good drilling practice to improve the safety and efficiency of drilling.

The process of drilling in plastic rocks may be hindered. Salt is a plastic rock and in the analyzed rock mass it is deposited at a considerable depth. The caprock exerts big loads on it, beside the temperature in the deposit intensifies the rheological properties of the rock. The creep process causes that the borehole contracts, therefore the knowledge about the rheological properties of the drilled rock is very important for establishing the safe time in which the well may remain uncased. The paper is devoted to the influence of basic rheological parameters of salt bed in the Fore-Sudetic Monocline on the process of drilling of a borehole in the area of KGHM Polska Miedź as these data can be used in drilling practice in the future.

The article examines the meanings, both literal and figurative, that are expressed in the British national press by the words blue and blues. The materials on which this study is based come from two corpora of newspaper texts: one collected from the daily newspaper The Guardian, and the other from the weekly magazine The Economist. In its main part, the paper analyses numerous instances of blue and blues use to determine their meanings in respective contexts. This is done to see which aspects of their meaning potential are activated in newspapers targeted at different readerships and preoccupied with dissimilar thematic and ideological concerns.

Within this study, resonance phenomenon, which is one of the crucial problems in mechanical constructions, has been analyzed with respect to oil starvation failure in a ball bearing. A unique test rig is designed, constructed, and placed in a laboratory ambience. A ball bearing on the electrical motor, which is a component of the test rig, has been selected for acquisition of data within triple sensing technology in vibration, acoustic, and electrical consumption through testing conditions. The target of that study is condition monitoring of oil starvation fault and resonance fault for comparison of various predictive maintenance methods. The testing was carried out within the electrical frequency of 40.5 Hz, which actuated the electrical motor in order to identify the rotation speed. According to the analyzed results, oil starvation fault and resonance fault is most accurately inspected by vibration analysis.

Arnold Zweig (1887–1968) is one of the most respected and read German-speaking writers of the 20th century, which only a few Germanists remember today, whose works surprise with a very current pronunciation. The article addresses the issue of scientific and social interest in the works of this German-Jewish writer over several decades, while looking at the national and ideological conditions of this reception in terms of historical experience.

Artemisinin is a powerful antimalarial drug, useful in the treatment of many diseases, includ- ing chickens coccidiosis. Its toxic effects have been well studied in humans and experimental animals, but not sufficiently in broiler chickens. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess the side effects of artemisinin in chickens, by measuring the serum level of proteins and enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT, ALP, CK), by histopathological examination and by the evaluation of relative weight of organs (liver, kidney, heart). Artemisinin was administered in the standard feed for chickens in three different concentrations: 5, 50 and 500 ppm.

Each concentration of artemisinin increased the total serum proteins, gamma-globulins and the serum activity of CK and decreased the serum ALP level. The values of ALT and GGT were higher in the chickens treated with 50 and 500 ppm of artemisinin. Multifocal liver necrosis and inflammatory infiltrate were detected in the chickens that received the 50 and 500 ppm dosage of artemisinin. Minimal tubular necrosis, renal tubular epithelium vacuolation, multifocal interstitial nephritis and mild uric nephrosis were detected in chickens treated with the drug. Artemisinin administration produced no significant changes in the organs relative weight.

Artemisinin, at a concentration of 5 mg/kg of feed is well tolerated by broiler chickens, but the concentrations of 50 and 500 mg/ kg feed can produce toxic effects.

In the paper, we investigate queueing system M/G/∞ with non–homogeneous customers. As non–homogenity, we mean that each customer is characterized by some arbitrarily distributed random volume. The arriving customers appear according to a stationary Poisson process. Service time of a customer is proportional to his volume. The system is unreliable what means that all its servers can break simultaneously and then the repair period goes on for random time having an arbitrary distribution. During this period, customers present in the system and arriving to it are not served. Their service continues immediately after repair period termination. Time intervals of the system in good repair mode have an exponential distribution. For such system, we determine steady–state sojourn time and total volume of customers present in it distributions. We also estimate the loss probability for the similar system with limited total volume. An analysis of some special cases and some numerical examples are attached as well.

Thermodynamic descriptions of the ternary Fe-B-Cu system and its binary sub-system B-Cu aredeveloped in the context of a new Fe-B-X (X = Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Si, Ti, V, C) database. The thermodynamic parameters of the other binary sub-systems (Fe-B and Fe-Cu) are taken from earlier assessments. Experimental thermodynamic and phase equilibrium data available in the literature have been used for the optimization of the Fe-B-Cu and B-Cu systems’ thermodynamic parameters. The solution phases are described using a substitutional solution model and the compounds (two borides of the Fe-B system) are treated as stoichiometric phases. A good agreement was obtained between the calculated and the experimental thermodynamic and phase equilibrium data.

This paper presents a suggested approach for forensic investigation of bridge decks in which Ground penetrating radar (GPR) consisting of two antennas is used to assess the current conditions. The methodology was tested on a bridge deck in central Sicily. The acquired data were analyzed for identifying the asphalt overlay thickness, concrete cover depth and deck thickness and location of the rebar reinforcement. In the proposed approach for assessing bridge deck conditions the GPR survey was complemented with (i) a site investigation on layer thicknesses for calibration/verification purposes of the GPR response and (ii) a Terrestrial Laser Scanning system (TLS) to verify the bridge design slab curvature. The study shows that this methodology has significant merits on accurately assessing such bridge deck components when bridge design records are non-existing, and by using non-invasive methods such as laser scanning and GPR. The great advantage provided by the TLS technique is the possibility to obtain a 3D output model of the scanned element with the accuracy of the best topographic instruments in order to complement GPR data surveys for bridge inspection.

Intertidal zone of four gravel beaches in Hornsund Fjord (West Spitsbergen) were investigated in order to study macrofaunal distribution and diversity in these poor habitats. A total of 12 macrofaunal taxa were found in the collected material. The most frequent and the most abundant taxon was Lumbricillus sp. (Oligochaeta). The next most numerous group were juvenile Gammarus spp. juv. The fauna included also polychaetes, molluscs and other crustaceans. The diversity measured with Shannon-Weaver index was low and varied from 0 to 1.4. The analysis revealed that there were no statistically important differences in macrofaunal distribution among stations in fjord. However there were significant differences among various tidal mark zones and high patchiness in animals abundance at each station. Also species composition, density and biomass were diversified along the tide level profile.

The paper presents a new construction of an optical pulse amplitude monitoring unit (PAMU) used in a transceiver of Free Space Optics. It consists of a buffer, constant fraction discriminator (CFD), delay line, and a sample and hold (S&H) circuit. In the design FSO system, the PAMU provides to monitor transmitted and received optical pulses with duration of few ns. Using this device, there is no need to apply complicated and expensive digitizing systems. The unique aspect of its construction is to control S&H circuit using the CFD. The lab model of this unit allows to perform tests to define some virtues of constant fraction and leading-edge discriminators. The results were implemented in optical signal monitoring of FSO system. The unit was prepared to cooperate with two different detection modules. Using this setup, it was possible, e.g. to determine operation characteristics of FSO transmitter, identify interruption of transmission, and control light power to provide high safety of work.

Studies were carried out in the region of southern. Drake Passage and Bransfield Strait in February and March 1981. The relation occurring between the alimentary tract filling (ATF) and the quantity of chlorophyll α integrated within the range of 0-150 m water-layer may be described by Ivlev's equation expressing the amount of the food ration in relation to food concentration. The ATF value increases in large individuals and is proportional to their body weight. The daily rythm of krill feeding, expressed by ATF, depends on the quantities of food in the environment.