The year 2009 brought significant change in public maritime law. The author discusses amendments made to Act on Marine Zones o f the Republic of Poland and Marine Administration (1991) and to Fisheries Act (2004) and a new judgment by Constitutional Tribunal The overview includes remarks de lege ferenda.

Starting from consideration that urban intersections are sites with promise for safety and operational improvements, the paper describes the steps taken to develop a crash predictive model for estimating the safety performance of urban unsignalized intersections located in Palermo, Italy. The focus is on unsignalized four-legged one-way intersections widespread in Italian downtowns. The sample considered in the study consist of 92 intersections in Palermo, Italy. For the study were collected crashes occurred in the sites during the years 2006‒2012, geometric design and functional characteristics and traffic flow. Results showed that data were overdispersed and NB1 distributed. In order to account for the correlation within responses Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) were used under different working correlation matrices.

In Poland an increase in the of number solar thermal collectors is observed in household applications. For economic and ecological profitability the creation of a solar thermal installation design in a proper manner is essential.

In order to determine solar installations size, software calculating future solar heat gains is used. SHW software is an examples of such software. The aim of this work was to compare the simulation results with the real results of the solar installation operation. The comparison was performed by an example of a single-family house with flat plate collector installations located in south-east Poland. This installation supports domestic hot water preparation in a house occupied by four people (in two-year period of analyses). The additional heat source in this building is a gas boiler. Solar fraction parameter values were chosen for this comparison. Solar fraction is calculated as a ratio of solar heat gains used in the domestic hot water preparation process to the heat desired for domestic hot water preparation. The real results of Solar Fraction turned out to be higher than the simulation results from May to August (there were many days with Solar Fraction = 1). A difference of 20–50 percentage points was observed (Solar Fraction). Apart from this period no special differences were observed.

Additionally analyses of differences between solar heat gains calculated by Get Solar simulation software with real values (for analyzed building) was performed. This simulation analysis was done before process of building installations.

Silicon, an important clement for diatoms, is often beyond the main object of freshwater researches. In the last decade, many detergents containing silicon compounds have been released by municipal sewage to surface water ecosystems. In this paper, an influence of silicates and washing agents which contain silicates on algal primary production and biomass growth has been shown. The experimental analysis revealed that detergents with the silicate addition increased the rate of the biomass growth and had a direct impact on algal primary production.

The aim of the study was to assess the degree of soil contamination by PAHs in the area of charcoal kiln basis, located in the East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve. The concentrations of PAH in soil samples derived from various sampling locations pointed to a strong or a very strong contamination of the ecosystem by these compounds (8,95 μgxg·'-283,53 ugxg'). PAH concentrations in the soil differed significantly between the sampling locations. Analysis of samples from different soil layers (to 30 cm) pointed to a threat of washing out into groundwater. The highest concentrations of PAH corresponded to soil samples collected near kilns (distance of 1.5 m), and were in the range of 17.81 ugxg' - 435.54 ugxg'. PAH content in soil gradually decreased with increasing distance from the kilns to values < I μgxg-'. The analysis of the data from three sampling periods (June-August) pointed to higher concentrations of PAHs in soil collected in the middle of the burning season, what was probably due to their more intense emission and a relatively small amount of precipitation.

Lcachates from municipal solid waste landfills should be included in the group of strongly contaminated industrial wastewaters. This results form the presence of highly concentrated various organic and inorganic compounds, which frequently have toxic properties. Therefore, the proper purification of the leachates prior to their discharging to the environment is of great importance. One of the chemical methods that can be used for the purification of leachates is coagulation. The main objective of the experiments presented in the current study was to determine the effect of coagulation, combined with sedimentation, on the physicchemical and toxicological characteristics of leachates from one of a municipal solid waste landfill in Poland. Standard .jar-test" experiments were employed for coagulation. Polyaluminum chloride and ferric chloride were used as coagulants. Raw leachates as well as those after coagulation were tested for toxicity using a battery of tests embracing algal growth inhibition test, microbiotests and IQ Toxicity Tests with crustaceans and bacterial luminescence inhibition test (LUM!Stox). The studies carried out demonstrated that ferric chloride (0.92 g Fc3·/CODc, removed) is more effective technologically in the removal of organic compounds from lcachates than polyaluminum chloride (1.22 g AP'/CODc, removed). For optimal doses of coagulants the most advantageous coagulation effects were achieved at pH 6.5-6.6, adjusted with the use of NaOH. Coagulation conducted under optimal conditions allows for reducing the content of organic compounds, as expressed by CODc, values, from 40 to 84%. This effect of organic compound removal from leachatcs in the process of coagulation did not result in significant decrease of their toxicity, For the above reasons the coagulation process can be useful only as one of the clements· of a technological setup for the purification of leachates from municipal solid waste landfills. The battery of tests used in the studies proved usefulness for the evaluation of the toxicity of leachatcs with varied degree of contamination as well as at various stages of their purification.

This article is devoted to basalt reprocessing together with magnetite concentrate in order to obtain ferrous alloy and calcium carbide. The studies have been based on thermodynamic simulation and electric smelting in arc furnace. The thermodynamic simulation has been performed using HSC-5.1 software based on the principle of minimum Gibbs energy. The blend was smelted in arc furnaces. On the basis of the obtained results of combined processing of basalt, it has been established that under equilibrium conditions, the increase in carbon content from 36 to 42 wt % of basalt and concentrate mixture makes it possible to increase the aluminum extraction into the alloy up to 81.4%, calcium into calcium carbide – up to 51.4%, and silicon into the alloy – up to 78.5%. Increase in the amount of lime to 32% allows to increase the content of calcium carbide to 278 dm3/kg. Electric smelting of the blend under laboratory conditions in the presence of 17-32% of lime makes it possible to extract ferrous alloy containing 69.5-72.8% of silicon, 69.1-70.2% of aluminum, and to obtain ferrous alloy containing 49-53% of ΣSi and Al and calcium carbide in the amount of 233-278 dm3/kg. During large-scale laboratory smelting of blend comprised of basalt (38.5%), magnetite concentrate (13.4%), lime (15.4%), and coke fines (32.7%), the ferrous alloy has been produced containing 48-53% of ΣSi and Al, calcium carbide in amount of 240-260 dm3/kg. Extraction of Si and Al into the alloy was 70.4 and 68.6%, respectively; Ca into carbide – 60.3%; Zn and Pb into sublimates – 99.6 and 92.8%, respectively.

This paper presents a method of optical fluorescence analysis for the evaluation of homogeneity of multicomponent grain mixtures. This method is based on the evaluation of the content of fluorescent marker. Maize with two degrees of fineness d1 = 1:25 mm and d2 = 2:00 mm was used as a tracer. Maize was covered with Rhodamine B, which emits red light under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. The tracer was introduced into the mixture before the mixing process began. Nine multicomponent grain mixtures were used. The proportion of fluorescent maize was evaluated on the basis of computer image analysis. Additionally, the fraction of the tracer was evaluated using a control method (validation of the accuracy of the proposed method). The results indicate that the degree of the tracer’s fineness influences the results obtained. The use of fluorescent maize with particle size d2 = 2:00 mm allowed to obtain results which differed less from the control method. The average size of the difference in results ranged from 0.20–0.38 for the 2.00 mm tracer and 0.38–1.34 for the 1.25 mm tracer.