The article deals with the issue of formation and functioning of rural tourism clusters in Ukraine. Here, formation of cluster structures in rural tourism is at its initial stage. Analysis of existing clusters resulted in their classification into groups based on the criterion of specialization: lodging and food (farmsteads), agritourist and local history tourism clusters. Analysis of the main research models for the creation and analysis of rural tourism clusters functioning has been performed. A multilevel universal model of the rural tourism clusters with basic structural levels (basic, affiliate and accompanying) has been proposed for scientific and practical purposes. This model was used to form two cluster initiatives in the ethnographic region of the Ukrainian Carpathians – in the Boykivshchyna. The need to use foreign experience in rural tourism cluster research has been emphasized.

Clusters belong to the regional innovation system, which led to the formulation and implementation of the cluster-based policy in many countries. The positive impact of clusters on the competitiveness of regions was confirmed by empirical studies. Absence of clusters means retardation in a regional development. The implementation of cluster policy supporting coopetition into the scope of principled regional policy assumptions seems urgent. In this way effective conditions for the formation of growth poles around industries specific for a given region will be developed and, consequently, the economic specialization of individual regions will be achieved. Observation of the benefits resulting from the functioning of clusters in the region, taking into account their possible negative impact, will allow to determine the specificity of regional development policy based on clusters. These problems indicated above are the subject of this study, based on the Polish and foreign literature available on the subject employing the desk research method.

The paper discusses the use of multiclustering statistical analysis in the assessment of domestic wastewater filtration effectiveness. Calculations included data collected over four months of experiments with using waste as filling material of vertical flow filters for domestic sewage treatment. The effectiveness of pollutants removal was analysed in case of me-chanically shredded waste in the form of PET flakes, PUR foam trims, shredded rubber tires and wadding. The organic compounds (CODcr, BOD5) removal, suspend solids, biogens (as NH4+, PO43– ions) and oxygen saturation changing com-pared with sand filling was analysed. Multiclustering statistical analysis allowed to divide pollutants removal efficiency of analysed materials into 3 clusters, depending on the hydraulic loading. The first group consisted in quality parameters of treated sewage: the highest reduction of BOD5 and NH4-N. It included the values of quality parameters and indicators for the filtrates obtained at the lowest hydraulic load from columns filled with 60 cm of rubber tires or sand. The second group comprised the results for fillings containing foam, PET and rubber tires (the other hydraulic loads).It featured the highest reduction of total suspended solids and PO43–. Removal of easily biodegradable organic compounds was at a similar level in both cluster groups. The filter filled with polyester waste (wadding), which was as effective as 30 cm layer of sand, and the filters filled with 60 cm of sand working at the highest hydraulic load. Third group showed the lowest values of parameters and indicators for analysed filtrates.

In the current industrial scenarios those involved in production and services distribution

are called to deal with a plurality of stakeholders, considering different interests, readings

and positions. This paper exploits the concept of collaboration in this fast changes and

flexible scenario by describing the characteristics of collaboration among enterprises and

their scope. In this context, the purpose of all managers to maximize utility, to save cost or

to minimize of transaction costs is hard to be reached. Under this prospective, to collaborate

with other firms is a logical way to work and to pursue the previous objectives. The purpose

of this paper is to define all the aspects of collaboration, mainly among enterprises, and the

reasons that can drive a manager to stipulate a collaboration agreement. Two different ways,

through collaboration can rise, have been described: collaboration induced by external body

(top-down collaboration) or born in a spontaneous way (bottom-up). The management of

the collaboration and the identification of key performance indicators, able to control the

development of the network system, is addressed by exploiting the Italian network contract

and the case study of the energy cluster.

The development of electromobility is a challenge for the power system in both technical and economic-market terms. As of today, there are no analyses to determine the power necessary to supply the planned infrastructure and to estimate the incentives and economic benefits resulting from the modification of the settlement method. The document determining the legal regulations and the obligation to build vehicle charging stations for specific municipalities is the Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels. This act estimates that the development of electromobility, due to the specifics including not only individual vehicles, will take place in certain areas. The places which in the first stage will be dedicated to the potential implementation of the concept of electromobility will be municipalities covering large agglomerations. In addition, due to the local aspect, the development of electromobility may take place in the areas of energy clusters’ initiatives, which, using the policy of increasing energy awareness, are aimed at energy production from local renewable energy resources. The planned development of electromobility assumes a systematic increase in the number of electric cars caused by the introduction of support systems. The dynamization of this sector will cause an increase in the demand for electricity. Due to power system reasons, an important factor determining the level of energy consumption depending on the time of day may be an appropriate shape of the pricing for the charging service. Appropriate price list stimulation can affect the behavior of recipients, causing the charging of cars in the off-peak of electricity demand. The aim of the article is to characterize the scale of the phenomenon of electromobility in the context of the emergence of a charging points infrastructure along with the possibility of price-setting stimulation affecting the profile of energy demand. It is also important to consider the challenges and responsibilities of municipalities and energy clusters from the perspective of introducing electromobility.

An analysis of the power system functioning and the behaviors of the energy market participants allows the trends taking place within years to be identified, including these associated with the evolution of the electric energy and power demand profiles. The problems of balancing the peak power demand are of both a short and long term nature, which implies the need for changes in the electricity generation sector. Apart from the existing “silo-type” generation units, the construction of distributed energy sources implemented in the civic formula in the framework of self-sufficient energy communes and energy clusters is becoming increasingly important. Support for these programs is realized both at the legislative level, as well as within dedicated competitions and ministerial activities. The financial support carried out by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management and the Regional Operational Programs is also noticeable. One of the activities aimed at spreading the idea of clustering was the competition for certified energy clusters, conducted by the Ministry of Energy. The goal of the contest was the promotion and development of the distributed energy sector, which could be used for the improvement of energy security in the local manner and constitute a basis for the knowledge necessary in planning and developing the state’s energy policy. The paper presents a synthetic analysis of the results of the competition for a certified energy cluster from the perspective of planning and operational needs related to the functioning of the power system. Further, the information about the investment plans of new generation capacities, including their breakdown with respect to type, achievable power and costs has been provided. Also, the balancing of the demand for electric energy by own generation within the energy clusters has been characterized for three time perspectives

In spite of technological, logistic and economic difficulties, interest in renewable energy sources in the world is consistently increasing. This trend is also observed in Poland, mainly due to the urgent need to tackle the problem of climate change, which is caused by the increasing concentration of gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere. The paper presents a short script of the issue of estimating renewable energy resources in Poland in the context of creating local low carbon economy plans at the level of municipalities/counties where RES sources should be taken into account. The author proposed an individual approach to estimate the potential of RES, taking the local conditions and the short characteristics of the small and medium companies sector in Poland into account. These companies have a great application potential to increase the share of renewable energies and to improve energy efficiency in their business. The actions, which are taken by the Ministry of Energy in the field of civil energy development, enhancing local energy security and the sustainable development of renewable energy resources support the development of energy clusters covering one district or five municipalities. In the article, the author presents data on the number of companies possessing a concession for generating electricity in RES installations in the power range from 40 kW to 200 kW. These companies can largely be the nucleus for creating a local cluster in which microgrids will be a key element.

This article presents a consistent solution of Transmit Power Control in centralized (clustered) wireless network with and without jamming. Depending on the policy assumed, appropriate solutions are applied to minimize the power used in a system or to satisfy expected Quality of Service. Because of specific nature of the system there is no optimal solution which can be applied in practice. Correctness and effectiveness of four proposed Transmit Power Control algorithms was presented in the form of computer simulation results in which the system capacity, mean power used and the number of successful links were described.

This paper details a hardware implementation of a distributed Θ(1) time algorithm allows to select dynamically the master device in ad-hoc or cluster-based networks in a constant time regardless the number of devices in the same cluster. The algorithm allows each device to automatically detect its own status; master or slave; based on identifier without adding extra overheads or exchanging packets that slow down the network. We propose a baseband design that implements algorithm functions and we detail the hardware implementation using Matlab/Simulink and Ettus B210 USRP. Tests held in laboratory prove that algorithm works as expected.

In this paper cluster consensus is investigated for general fractional-order multi agent systems with nonlinear dynamics via adaptive sliding mode controller. First, cluster consensus for fractional-order nonlinear multi agent systems with general formis investigated. Then, cluster consensus for the fractional-order nonlinear multi agent systems with first-order and general form dynamics is investigated by using adaptive sliding mode controller. Sufficient conditions for achieving cluster consensus for general fractional-order nonlinear multi agent systems are proved based on algebraic graph theory, Lyapunov stability theorem andMittag-Leffler function. Finally, simulation examples are presented for first-order and general form multi agent systems, i.e. a single-link flexible joint manipulator which demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed adaptive controller.

The interrelation between fuzzy logic and cluster renewal approaches for heat transfer modeling in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) has been established based on a local furnace data. The furnace data have been measured in a 1296 t/h CFB boiler with low level of flue gas recirculation. In the present study, the bed temperature and suspension density were treated as experimental variables along the furnace height. The measured bed temperature and suspension density were varied in the range of 1131–1156 K and 1.93–6.32 kg/m3, respectively. Using the heat transfer coefficient for commercial CFB combustor, two empirical heat transfer correlation were developed in terms of important operating parameters including bed temperature and also suspension density. The fuzzy logic results were found to be in good agreement with the corresponding experimental heat transfer data obtained based on cluster renewal approach. The predicted bed-to-wall heat transfer coefficient covered a range of 109–241 W/(m2K) and 111–240 W/(m2), for fuzzy logic and cluster renewal approach respectively. The divergence in calculated heat flux recovery along the furnace height between fuzzy logic and cluster renewal approach did not exceeded ±2%.

The aim of this article is to evaluate the quality of the Danube River in its course through Serbia as well as to demonstrate the possibilities for using three statistical methods: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Factor Analysis (FA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) in the surface water quality management. Given that the Danube is an important trans-boundary river, thorough water quality monitoring by sampling at different distances during shorter and longer periods of time is not only ecological, but also a political issue. Monitoring was carried out at monthly intervals from January to December 2011, at 17 sampling sites. The obtained data set was treated by multivariate techniques in order, firstly, to identify the similarities and differences between sampling periods and locations, secondly, to recognize variables that affect the temporal and spatial water quality changes and thirdly, to present the anthropogenic impact on water quality parameters.

The purpose of this work is to find a correlation for heat transfer to walls in a 1296 t/h supercritical circulating fluidised bed (CFB) boiler. The effect of bed-to-wall heat transfer coefficient in a long active heat transfer surface was discussed, excluding the radiation component. Experiments for four different unit loads (i.e. 100% MCR, 80% MCR, 60% MCR and 40% MCR) were conducted at a constant excess air ratio and high level of bed pressure (ca. 6 kPa) in each test run. The empirical correlation of the heat transfer coefficient in a large-scale CFB boiler was mainly determined by two key operating parameters, suspension density and bed temperature. Furthermore, data processing was used in order to develop empirical correlation ranges between 3.05 to 5.35 m·s-1 for gas superficial velocity, 0.25 to 0.51 for the ratio of the secondary to the primary air, 1028 to 1137K for bed temperature inside the furnace chamber of a commercial CFB boiler, and 1.20 to 553 kg·m-3 for suspension density. The suspension density was specified on the base of pressure measurements inside the boiler’s combustion chamber using pressure sensors. Pressure measurements were collected at the measuring ports situated on the front wall of the combustion chamber. The obtained correlation of the heat transfer coefficient is in agreement with the data obtained from typical industrial CFB boilers.