Liquid-liquid extraction provides an environmentally friendly process as an alternative to azeotropic distillation, pervaporation and reverse osmosis because these techniques require the use of large amounts of energy, may involve volatile organic compounds, and operation at high pressure.

Ionic liquids (ILs) continue to gain wide recognition as potential environmentally friendly solvents due to their unique properties. However due to their current high cost, their use in industry is seriously limited without an efficient methodology for recovery and recycle.

In this paper we describe an innovative methodology for a liquid-liquid extraction process based on an electrically induced emulsion of an ionic liquid as the extracting solvent dispersed in an organic mixture. This offers a most efficient exploitation of the solvent. On the other hand we present our own design of a pilot (semi-industrial) scale extractor based on this methodology and which demonstrates effective recovery of the ionic liquid. In order to achieve this goal we used a numerical modelling tool implemented using our own simulation software based on the finite element method. We also used our original previous experience with generating and investigating liquid-liquid electrosprays using phase Doppler anemometry. Finally we present recommendations for contactor geometry and for the preferred operating conditions for the extractor.

This study aimed to compare measures of religiosity and spirituality in the experience of positive and negative emotions. For this purpose, a measure of non-spiritual religiosity (Religious Sense Scale) was developed. Method: The study has been conducted on a sample of 279 participants aged between 19 and 69 (M=24.42, SD=9.463) who completed a questionnaire that included the Religious Sense Scale, the Portuguese version of the Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire and the abridged Portuguese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Findings: The was found to have excellent metrical properties for the measurement of religiosity or “religious sense”. Religious individuals differ from spiritual ones in the experience of emotions: spirituality tends to a greater experience of positive affect and religiosity to negative affect.

This paper presents the results of a study on the Polish version of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), which was designed to measure individual differences in conspiracist thinking (Brotherton, French, & Pickering; 2013). The Polish version of the scale had excellent internal consistency as measured by Cronbach alpha: .93. The Polish version also had excellent test-retest stability. To check the validity of the questionnaire, various tools were used to measure the characteristics that can be correlated with conspiracist thinking. As a result, it was found that conspiracist thinking is positively correlated with the external locus of control, the results obtained in the Scale of Belief in Zero-Sum Game and the results of the MMPI-2 Paranoia scale. It was also found that patients with paranoid personality disorder and paranoid schizophrenia had higher results on the adapted scale than healthy subjects. In sum, the Polish version of GCBS had satisfactory psychometric properties, which makes it useful for measuring conspiracist thinking.

Vertical distribution and quantitative and qualitative phytoplankton composition were studied in Ezcurra Inlet, Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands in the austral summer 1977/78. Nannoplankton flagellates, 12—15 μm in diameter and 4—6 μm "monads" were the principal algae of the plankton. Diatoms, present in a low abundance, were dominated by Thalassiosira antarctica and several species of the genera Nitzschia and Chaetoceros. Peaks of cell numbers within the 1—10 m surface stratum and at the bottom of the euphotic zone were characteristic of the vertical distribution of phytoplankton. Light, water movements and density micro-gradients were the likely factors controlling the vertical distribution of algae.

The transformation of the former docks in Dublin was one of the major urban regeneration projects in Ireland, which was built during the recent economic boom. Since the start of the project in the nineties, more than six thousand apartments have been built in the area. The construction of the apartments allowed for the diversifi cation of the character of this district into a living quarter. Initially the Docklands were considered as an offi ce district that would serve the Ireland’s service-based economy. New projects also allowed for the development of housing in a close proximity to existing city centre, although it did not happen not without avoiding the gentrifi cation and social polarization of this area.

The key role in the process was played by the operator – the urban development agency (Dublin Docklands Development Authority). It acted both as a strategic landowner and the coordinator of the development. The agency was responsible for the delivery of the infrastructure and the sale of the land. The actions of the operator included setting up the of the housing standards, requirements for the development of the infrastructure, both social and technical and public transportation systems. In the hindsight, the agency was praised for the management of the development of such large site. On the other hand, the lack of procedural oversight and a few dubious fi nancial decisions, as well as the other eff ects of the neoliberal policies, such as gentrification, fi nally lower the assessment of DDDA efficiency in that matter.

The article summarizes the main aims and achievements of the DDDA’s development policy and its assessment from the long-term perspective of two decades of transformation. This includes the eff ects of the actions in the aftermath of the fi nancial crisis. Such perspective allows to highlight the various stages of the development of the agency and to examine the efficiency and efficacy of these actions.

This study included investigation of efficiency of the threshold used to classify symptoms as present, investigation of efficiency of the cut-off point used to identify potentially addicted to work individuals, investigation of magnitude of the problem of class overlap, and investigation of effects of dichotomization of polytomous items on the estimates of the latent trait level. The sample comprised 16,426 working Norwegians (Mage = 37.31; SD = 11.36) who filled out the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS). The results showed that the difficulty/third threshold parameters corresponding to the threshold used to classify symptoms as present were lower than 1.5 for the items corresponding to tolerance and conflict and higher than or equal to 1.5 for the items corresponding to salience, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and problems. The cut-off point used to identify individuals as potentially addicted to work identified 411 individuals (31.9% of all individuals classified by the polythetic approach as potentially addicted to work) whose estimates of the latent trait level were lower than 1.5 as potentially addicted to work. The problem of class overlap (being classified by the polythetic approach into different class despite almost the same level of the latent trait) affected 4,686 individuals (28.5% of the whole sample). The dichotomization of polytomous items had a substantial effect on the estimates of the latent trait level. The findings show that the polythetic approach is not efficient in identifying potentially addicted to work individuals and that the prevalence rates of work addiction based on the polythetic approach are not trustworthy.

While assessing the effects of climate change at global or regional scales, local factors responsible for climate change are generalized, which results in the averaging of effects. However, climate change assessment is required at a micro-scale to determine the severity of climate change. To ascertain the impact of spatial scales on climate change assessments, trends and shifts in annual and seasonal (monsoon and non-monsoon), rainfall and temperature (minimum, average and maximum) were determined at three different spatial resolutions in India (Ajmer city, Ajmer District and Rajasthan State). The Mann–Kendall (MK), MK test with pre-whitening of series (MK–PW), and Modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) test, along with other statistical techniques were used for the trend analysis. The Pettitt–Mann–Whitney (PMW) test was applied to detect the temporal shift in climatic parameters. The Sen’s slope and % change in rainfall and temperature were also estimated over the study period (35 years). The annual and seasonal average temperature indicates significant warming trends, when assessed at a fine spatial resolution (Ajmer city) compared to a coarser spatial resolution (Ajmer District and Rajasthan State resolutions). Increasing trend was observed in minimum, mean and maximum temperature at all spatial scales; however, trends were more pronounced at a finer spatial resolution (Ajmer city). The PMW test indicates only the significant shift in non-monsoon season rainfall, which shows an increase in rainfall after 1995 in Ajmer city. The Kurtosis and coefficient of variation also revealed significant climate change, when assessed at a finer spatial resolution (Ajmer city) compared to a coarser resolution. This shows the contribution of land use/land cover change and several other local anthropogenic activities on climate change. The results of this study can be useful for the identification of optimum climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies based on the severity of climate change at different spatial scales.

In automatic and accurate reading recognition of analog meters based on machine vision, one of important issues is the detection of pointer features, which includes the meter center and pointer image processing. The current automatic-recognition approaches to reading analog meters often consist in locating the meter center based on the dial region or its border. The located center is not coincident with the rotation center of pointer which leads to inevitable reading errors. In the paper, the centripetalism of annular scale lines is used to calculate the position of the pointer rotation center. First, it uses the region growing method to locate the dial region and uses the eccentricity measure to extract annular scale lines. Second, the parameters of these scale lines are estimated with the Hough transform method. Then, the common intersection of a group of lines, i.e., the meter rotation center, is determined with the maximum probability criterion. Finally, the pointer centerline and direction are detected through the calculated center and the Hough transform results. The simulated and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately locate the pointer rotation center and obtain pointer centerline. Moreover, it is applicable to the meter image captured under a slant camera view or with uneven light illumination.

The concept of innovative educational environment of higher education establishment is considered and its main components are highlighted. The model of the integrated assessment of implementing innovations in higher education establishment is constructed. The developed model for assessing the level of development of the innovative educational environment of a specific higher education establishment during a certain period has been applied and a graphical analysis of the calculation results has been carried out.

The main objective of this work is to present an innovative method of numerical modeling of anchored piles system acting as a road protection against landslide, called the “2D/3D method”. Firstly, short description of the problem and “state of the art” review are included. An effective methodology of the design supported by the numerical analysis, solving the problem of interaction of a periodic system of piles and the unstable soil mass is presented, for which some detailed information about proposed numerical approach is given. The key idea of 2D/3D method is to join the pile with the 2D plane strain continuum by fictitious connectors of Winkler type with P-Y properties identified during the analysis of a subsidiary 3D problem. Practical example of usage of proposed approach to a real case of a road endangered by a landslide then protected by the piles system is presented. On the base of this example, a discussion about important design issues like internal forces in piles (mainly bending moments) and anchors (tensile forces) or overall stability of the soil-structure system is done.

In this study, cubic and cylindrical cement mortar specimens were first subjected to high temperatures, then the cubic and cylindrical specimens were taken out and conducted with uniaxial compressive test and splitting tensile test, respectively. The effect of the length to side ratio on the uniaxial compressive properties and the effect of thickness-to-diameter ratio on the splitting tensile properties of cement mortar specimens after high temperature were studied. Test results show that: (1) With temperature increasing from 25°C (room temperature) to 400°C, the compressive strength and elastic modulus of cubic specimens with three kinds of side lengths decrease; the decreasing rates of compressive strength and elastic modulus of cubic specimen with side length of 70.7 mm is higher than those of cubic specimens with side length of 100 mm and 150 mm, and the strain at the peak stress of cubic specimens with three kinds of side lengths increase. (2) After the same temperature, the tensile strength of cylindrical specimen decreases with the thickness-to-diameter ratio increasing from 0.5 to 1.0. The decreasing rate of tensile strength of cylindrical specimen with thickness-to-diameter ratio is highest when the temperature is 25°C (room temperature), followed by that after the temperature of 200°C, and that after the temperature of 400°C is the lowest.

This paper presents an analysis of natural vibrations of typical façade scaffolding. Three Finite Element Method models with different levels of accuracy of the real structure of the scaffolding representation were used. Modal analysis was carried out for each of these models. The obtained frequencies and mode shapes were compared with the results from the measurements performed on the full-scale scaffolding. The authors of the paper point out the difficulties arise while modelling such structures, and suggest ways to improve the accuracy of scaffolding computational models.