Slope Stability Analysis is one of the main aspects of Open-pit mine planning because the calculations regarding the stability of slopes are necessary to assess the stability of the open pit slopes together with the financial feasibility of the mining operations. This study was conducted to analyse the effect of groundwater on the shear strength properties of soft rock formations and determine the optimum overall slope angle for an open pit coal mine at Thar Coalfield, Pakistan. Computer modelling and analysis of the slope models were performed using Slide (v. 5.0) and Phase2 (v. 6.0) software. Integrated use of Limit Equilibrium based Probabilistic (LE-P) analysis and Finite Element Method (FEM) based shear strength reduction analysis was performed to determine the safe overall slope angle against circular failure. Several pit slope models were developed at different overall slope angles and pore-water pressure ratio (Ru) coefficients. Each model was initially analysed under dry conditions and then by incorporating the effect of pore-water pressure coefficients of Ru = 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 (partially saturated); finally, the strata were considered to be fully saturated. It was concluded that at an overall slope angle of 29 degrees, the overall slope will remain stable under dry and saturated conditions for a critical safety factor of 1.3.

By analyzing the individual stages of the building's life cycle, it can be easily concluded that the building's exploitation process is the longest and at the same time it is the justification for the construction project related to the construction of this building. In the course of the building's exploitation, various phenomena occur that affect its condition and thus the possibility of unlimited use. These are natural phenomena, as well as phenomena derived from external influences, which often lead to deterioration of the building's condition, or even its degradation. In response to these phenomena, maintenance, renovation and modernization activities are undertaken. Technical management is related to the identification of these phenomena, programming of adequate measures and their implementation. The conducted analysis of the results of the survey in the group of property managers allows to state categorically that the process of technical management is relatively little supported by IT tools and is still based on individual analysis and often intuitive actions. The article presents the possibilities of applying an innovative approach in the acquisition and collection of information about the technical condition of buildings, indicating the legitimacy of standardizing information forms and using them in building a database of cases of the CBR (case based reasoning) inference system.

Newly collected and restudied earlier materials on an enigmatic fish Ventalepis ketleriensis Schultze, 1980

from the upper Famennian (postera – ? Lower expansa conodont zones) of Latvia and central and northwestern

Russia support its porolepiform affinities. A new family Ventalepididae fam. nova is established for this genus

upon a peculiar combination of characters, including scale structure and dermal bones ornamentation. New

records extend the distribution of this genus and the Ventalepis vertebrate assemblage on the whole to a vast

geographical zone along the south-eastern coast of the Old Red Sandstone continent. The habitat area of the

Devonian vertebrate assemblage over such a large territory within the zoogeographical province of Baltica is

established for the first time. Palaeozoogeographical analysis suggests Laurentian affinities of the Ventalepis

assemblage demonstrating the major congruency to the Belgian and East Greenland ones. These and Russian

localities are separated by a vast ORS continent. Presence of the dipnoan Jarvikia in all three locations, as well

as an Ichthyostega-like tetrapod in the Belgian one reveals palaeozoogeographical connections, which might

reflect possible dwelling not only in the near-shore continent periphery but also in the river systems of the

continent itself.