Monitoring of surface waters within the transboundary section of the Western Bug River showed, that during 2014–2018, a significant excess of the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) was observed for some substances for fish ponds. As a result of this, the water in the river for these substances was rated as “dirty” in terms of purity and correspond-ed to water quality class IV, namely: phosphorus was observed to exceed the MPC at the observation point Ambukіv vil-lage in 2015 (9.7 times), for manganese – an excess of the MPC at the observation point Ambukіv village in 2018 (9.7 times) and in point Zabuzhzhia village in 2014 (7.9 times), 2015 (8.0 times), 2017 (7.1 times), 2018 (8.3 times); for the total iron – the exceeding of MPC at the observation point Ambukіv village in 2016 (5.95 times) and 2017 (6.13 times); at the observation point Ustilug town in 2016 (5.23 times); in the observation point Zabuzhzhia village in 2016 (9.44 times) and 2017 (5.27 times). The assessment of the surface waters based on the determination of the pollution factor showed that during the study period their quality did not deteriorate but did not meet the norms. In general, surface waters of the river correspond to the second class of quality and are characterized as “poorly polluted” waters by the level of pollution.

Whereas approximately 96.3% of the steel produced worldwide is made by continuous casting, great emphasis is put on the superior efficiency of this process. The water model of the tundish and mathematical modeling is often used for the simulation of the steel flow during continuous casting. The experiments were performed on a model of the tundish with two outlets, at two casting speeds (0.8 m.s–1 and 1.2 m.s–1). Eight setups of the tundish were evaluated, which differed in the design of the dams (with or without drainage holes), in their distance from the center of the tundish, and their height. The contribution of the work is the analysis of phenomena in the tundish water model in conditions of repeatability (ten repetitions). The goal is to find the setup providing the most symmetrical flow, with the minimum difference in the residence times Δτ on the two outlets. Taking into account the results obtained at both casting speeds, the most preferred is setup 2 with the 87 mm high dams placed 587 mm from the center of tundish (Δτ = 0.5). The setup 3 (Δτ = 8.25) appears to be the least appropriate. The higher the casting speed, the higher the number of unsuitable arrangements.

The purpose of the presented studies was to determine the species composition of the fungi occurring on the underground parts of potato at an thesis and to establish the qualitative and quantitative composition ofmicroorganisms living in the soil environment of this plant. Besides, the studies aimed at finding antagonistic microorganisms inhibiting potato infection by soil-borne phytopathogens. The mycological analysis showed that the symptoms of necrosis on the roots and the stem base of potato were caused by Alternaria alternata, Fusarium spp., Colletotrichum coccodes and Rhizoctonia so/ani. The microbiological analysis of the potato rhizosphere gave twice as many bacteria and fungi as from the non-rhizosphere soil. The dominating pathogenic fungi in the examined soil samples were Fusarium spp., A. alternata and R. so/ani. Three times as many antagonistic bacteria Pseudomonas spp. and Bacillus spp. and more than twice as many antagonistic fungi (Penicillium spp., Trichoderma spp., Gliocladium spp.) were obtained from the potato rhizosphere as compared to the non-rhizosphere soil.