Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2009 to 2019, this paper empirically tests and analyzes the effects of industrial agglomeration and other important economic variables on industrial green technology innovation efficiency from the perspective of spatial statistical analysis. The results show that the efficiency of China’s industrial green innovation has not changed much during the study period, exhibiting an obvious polarization phenomenon. Moreover, the improvement of the degree of industrial agglomeration is conducive to the regional green innovation efficiency level. This means that industrial agglomeration produces effective environmental and innovation benefits. In addition, the influence coefficient of enterprise-scale is negative, indicating that for Chinese industrial enterprises, the enlargement of the production scale weakens the promotion effect of R&D activities. The influence coefficient of human capital is negative, mainly because the direct effect has a small and positive value, while the indirect effect (spillover effect) has a negative and large value, indicating that the spillover effect of human capital between regions in China is deficient.

Dyes and pigments are important organic pollutants of the water environment. Dyes may be removed from wastewater by using one of the most efficient methods for wastewater treatment-adsorption onto porous (natural and waste) minerals or organogenie substances. Feasibility of using smectite-clay, co-occurring in brown coal deposits, for removal of direct dyes was investigated. The Freundlich linear regression model was better in modeling of sorption direct dyes onto smectite-clay; it yielded better fit of the theoretical isotherm to the experimental data. The electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds were shown to play the most important role in adsorption of direct dyes onto smectite-clay.

Laboratory works on combustion of some organic compounds as air pollutants in presence of platinum, palladium and manganese catalysts at various oxygen concentrations were carried out. Several mixtures of nitrogen and oxygen contained vapours of hexane, isooctane, methanol, acetone ethyl acetate and toluene were examined. The experimental results show that conversion efficiency of 95% might be reached, despite of oxygen concentration decreasing to 5%.

Distribution of the exhaust gas temperature within the furnace of a grate boiler greatly depends on its operating parameters such as output. It has a considerably different character than temperature distributions in other types of boilers (with pulverised or fluidised bed), as it varies considerably across the chamber. Results presented in this paper have been obtained through research of a grate-fired hot water boiler with a nominal rating of some 30 MW. Measurements have been taken by introducing temperature sensors into prearranged openings placed in the boiler side walls. Investigation has been carried out for different output levels. Tests involved thermocouples in ceramic coating and aspirated thermocouples. The latter were used to eliminate influence of radiative heat transfer on measured results. Values obtained with both methods have been cross-checked.

Modern supercritical power plants operate at very high temperatures and pressures. Thus the construction elements are subjected to both high thermal and mechanical loads. As a result high stresses in those components are created. In order to operate safely, it is important to monitor stresses, especially during start-up and shut-down processes. The maximum stresses in the construction elements should not exceed the allowable stresses that are defined according to boiler regulations. It is important to find optimum operating parameters, that can assure safe heating and cooling processes. The optimum parameters define temperature and pressure histories that can keep the highest stresses within allowable limit and reduce operation time as much as possible. In this paper a new numerical method for determining optimum working fluid parameters is presented. In this method, properties of steel can be assumed as constant or temperature dependent. The constant value is taken usually at the average temperature of the operation cycle. For both cases optimal parameters are determined. Based on these parameters start-up operations for both cases are conducted. During entire processes stresses in the heated element are monitored. The results obtained are compared with German boiler regulations - Technische Regeln fur Dampfkessel 301.

This study examined whether differences in reverberation time (RT) between typical sound field test rooms used in audiology clinics have an effect on speech recognition in multi-talker environments. Separate groups of participants listened to target speech sentences presented simultaneously with 0-to-3 competing sentences through four spatially-separated loudspeakers in two sound field test rooms having RT = 0:6 sec (Site 1: N = 16) and RT = 0:4 sec (Site 2: N = 12). Speech recognition scores (SRSs) for the Synchronized Sentence Set (S3) test and subjective estimates of perceived task difficulty were recorded. Obtained results indicate that the change in room RT from 0.4 to 0.6 sec did not significantly influence SRSs in quiet or in the presence of one competing sentence. However, this small change in RT affected SRSs when 2 and 3 competing sentences were present, resulting in mean SRSs that were about 8-10% better in the room with RT = 0:4 sec. Perceived task difficulty ratings increased as the complexity of the task increased, with average ratings similar across test sites for each level of sentence competition. These results suggest that site-specific normative data must be collected for sound field rooms if clinicians would like to use two or more directional speech maskers during routine sound field testing.

Historic interiors with large cubature, such as reception, theatrical, and concert halls, need to be renovated periodically if they are to be preserved as cultural heritage for future generations. In such cases it is necessary to maintain appropriate balance between requirements imposed by heritage conservation authorities office which are usually being given a higher priority, applicable safety regulations, and the comfort of use, including good acoustics. The paper is a presentation of architectural interference in three historic interiors with large cubature leading to changes in their acoustic qualities. In two cases, the changes were beneficial to the functional qualities of the halls to satisfaction of the investors carrying out the renovation work. In the third instance, the architectural interference aimed at showing off the monumental valor of the interior resulted in significant degradation of its acoustics. To remedy the situation impairing the functional program of the facility, corrective measures are proposed neutral with respect to its historic character.

This paper describes a new and efficient method for quantifying and detection of the source of distortion caused by a single customer in a case when many other customers exist in a power grid. It is based on measuring distortion power, a component of apparent power that only exists with a nonlinear load. Different definitions for distortion power calculation are investigated. All these definitions show without doubt that the proposed method is feasible. Moreover, this method allows to develop fair and reliable billing schemes for controlling harmonic pollution. Measurement and simulation results confirm the effectiveness and applicability of the method. The proposed solution is suitable for software/hardware upgrade of existing electronic power-meters.

The article discusses the theoretical aspects of works by an outstanding Polish historian - Andrzej Feliks Grabski, who died in 2000.

This report describes the isolation and characterization of bacterial isolates that produce anti−microbial compounds from one of the South Shetland Islands, King George Is − land, Antarctica. Of a total 2465 bacterial isolates recovered from the soil samples, six (BG5, MTC3, WEK1, WEA1, MA2 and CG21) demonstrated inhibitory effects on the growth of one or more Gram−negative or Gram−positive indicator foodborne pathogens ( i.e. Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Salmonella spp., Klebsiella pneumoniae , Enterobacter cloacae , Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Bacillus cereus ). Upon examination of their 16S rRNA sequences and biochemical profiles, the six Antarctic bacterial isolates were identified as Gram−negative Pedobacter cryoconitis (BG5), Pseudomonas migulae (WEK1), P. corrugata (WEA1) and Pseudomonas spp. (MTC3, MA2, and CG21). While inhibitors produced by strains BG5, MTC3 and CG21 were sensitive to protease treatment, those produced by strains WEK1, WEA1, and MA2 were insensitive to catalase, lipase, a −amylase, and protease enzymes. In addtion, the six Antarctic bacterial isolates appeared to be resistant to multiple antibiotics.

550 individual odour intensity (S) assessments of 62 samples of air polluted with 2-propanol were collected (concentration c = 46-2 1000 mg/m3). The data were used to establish odour detection threshold of 2-propanol by extrapolation to S = 0 in the coordinate system of S-log c. The obtained values were compared with triangular tests results and data published in the literature. A reason for apparent positive deviations from Weber-Fechner law within a range of low odour intensities was indicated,

This review article is concerned with metamaterials, i.e. specifically engineered structures with special properties for interaction with sounds. The research on and practical design of these materials have gained momentum in the last decade, when 3D printing techniques provided the possibility to fabricate such geometrically complex structures. We briefly describe the history of research on AMMs and group them into active and passive metamaterials. For each of these groups of AMMs, we discuss the most notable construction achievements and outline the main applications. We conclude this review with a discussion of possible directions for further research and main applications of AMMs such as noise attenuation, acoustic lens, and the cloaking phenomenon.

Ambient concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), adsorbed on particles of PM2.5, were measured at 4 points located in Silesia and Małopolska Regions during 2004 through 2005 period. The fine dust was collected on filters at locations representing conditions of urban background, communication artery and industrial area. Distinctive differences between heating and summer season PAH concentrations were observed. The highest PM2.5 related PAH concentrations were observed in Krakow, within the effect of industrial and traffic sources, equally in summer and heating seasons. For selected cities, relations between the particular PM2.5 related PAHs were determined. The results show that contamination of the investigated PM2.5 with PAHs is considerable and comparable with that in other areas of similar degree of urbanization and industrialization.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD), whose basic aim was to create a legal back-ground for water bodies’ protection, undoubtedly affects all economic sectors. Being a specific and distinctly different water user, agriculture will have the greatest share in the implementation of WFD out of all sectors of national economy. This results from its special character (60% of the country area used by agriculture), large volume of water consumed by evapotranspiration, diffuse pollution etc. Implementation of WFD will call for undertaking of many activities to restrict an unfavourable im-pact of agriculture on water resources and water related ecosystems. It is assumed that agriculture should also protect water resources. Accomplishment of this task imposes significant changes in the land use of river basins. Water management can be an essential factor deciding about the sustainable development of rural areas and biological diversity of agricultural landscape. Actions undertaken so far to implement the WFD are mainly limited to the protection of water quality from agricultural pol-lution. It is also necessary to undertake implementation of other aims of WFD. This refers especially to the provision of good hydromorphological status of water bodies, protection of water related eco-systems and effective water use.

The main objective of the research work was to identify the dimensions of complexity and study the relationship between these defined dimensions in the industrial automation sector. To achieve these objectives in the study, there was assumed the following major hypothesis: With the increasing role of dynamic cross-section of the complexity there is growing importance of relationship dimension for competitive advantage. In the study there were diagnosed four dimensions of complexity. Existence of the relationship between these four identified dimensions of complexity occurred by the use of the Fisher’s exact test, which is a variant of the test of independence ��2. Furthermore, there were calculated V-Cramer factors to estimate the intensity of the above-mentioned relationship between analyzed dimensions. The research discovered that the three out of four dimensions such as the number of elements, variety of elements and uncertainty depend on the last dimension of complexity which is the relationship between elements. In the turbulent environment there is a growing importance of the relationship dimension. It forms competitive advantage and is a key condition of success in creating a new type of modern enterprise strategy that occurs within complexity management in the industrial automation sector.

The conflict between modernism and post-modernism is one of the defining philosophical debates of the latter half of the 20th century. Proponents of modernism, striving to uphold the banner of the Enlightenment, have sought to undermine dogmatism while maintaining the tenability of certain inviolable principles. Proponents of post-modernism, similarly seeking to advance emancipation, have seen “principles” as inherently antithetical to the achievement of the professed goals of the Enlightenment. In Habermas and Derrida – prime speakers of these respective camps – this debate reached a crescendo. Yet, in both of them, we see that the respective positions of modernism and post-modernism are essentially systemically incommensurable, whereby the position of each side is undermined – in the view of the other side – by its own stance.

In this Paper, a parametric study on pipes buried in soil was performed illustrating the results of blast loading. Effects of various parameters such as the physical properties of water, oil, gas, air, soil, pipes, and TNT have been investigated. The arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method was employed using LS-DYNA software. The maximum pressure in a buried pipe explosive was observed at an angle of about 0° to 45° and the minimum pressure occurred at an angle of about 45° to 90°. Therefore, all figures in this study illustrate that fluid pressure levels in buried pipes can help in their stabilization. In generally, by increasing the 1.23 times of liquid density under the explosion, the pressure levels in the soil decreased by 1.3 percent. The gas pressure has been increasing more than oil and water pipes 39.73 and 40.52 percent, respectively.

As a result of the necessity to improve energy properties of prefabricated buildings, their thermo-modernizations are performed. In the paper various approaches to the modelling of prefabricated load bearing walls before and after thermo-modernization are presented. Simple one layer models with extra mass from ceilings and equivalent stiffness as well as multilayer ones are taken into consideration using the finite element method software. Values of the natural frequencies of the wall horizontal vibrations calculated using the various models, are compared. It was proved that even the very simple model with equivalent stiffness allows to compute natural vibration frequencies of wall with acceptable accuracy for engineering practice.

Properties of a snow cover in the vicinity of Arctowski Station, King George Island (West Antarctica) were studied in 1991. Variations of snow quality and physical transformations were analysed against changes of atmospheric parameters, basing on water equivalent index and repeatable examination of snow pits. Essential dependence of snow cover distribution and snow structure from local climatic features and terrain morphology was found. Thawing occurs in the whole mass of snow, with its contribution of both liquid and gas water phases.