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Search results for: DANGEROUS MATERIALS
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Transport of dangerous goods by rail, and threats to the subsoil of the railway surface in the event of a disaster
PublicationIn Poland, in 2020, the mass of dangerous goods (loads) transported by rail was 26 151.06 thousand tone. This translated into the performance of 8 899 691.89 thousand tone - km of transport performance. In 2020, these figures accounted for 11.72% of the weight of goods transported by rail. The situation is similar in other countries around the world. With such a large volume of transport of dangerous...
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Hazardous material-related propagation of the effects of train accidents in the subgrade
PublicationA large part of the transport of hazardous materials is carried out by rail. Therefore, the security of these transports is becoming increasingly important. Every catastrophe involving dangerous materials has a negative impact on the participants of the incident and the surrounding environment, because its range is generally not local. It follows that in the event of a catastrophe, its effects should be minimized and remediation...
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Low-cost Adsorbents Derived from Agricultural By-products/Wastes for Enhancing Contaminant Uptakes from Wastewater: A Review
PublicationA major threat to the comfort of human life has been imposed by increased industrialization and urbanization. The generation and disposal of huge amounts of toxic materials and pollutants have heavily contaminated our environment. Some Organics such as synthetic dyes (SD) and heavy metals (HM) are becoming increasingly prevalent as the most dangerous pollutants in soil and surface water environments. They are...
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Miniaturized Passive Emission Chambers for In Situ Measurement of Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds
PublicationThe results of many different studies have demonstrated unequivocally that the quality of indoor air is often much worse than that of atmospheric air. The presence of dangerous chemical compounds in indoor air can have an adverse impact on human health and cause numerous diseases of the respiratory and circulatory systems. Such harmful chemicals get into indoor air as a result of their emission from building and indoor materials....
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Synthesis and Physicochemical Characteristics of Chitosan-Based Polyurethane Flexible Foams
PublicationThe use of shrimp waste to obtain chitosan (Ch) is an essential issue, considering a circular economy, waste management, and its application to environmentally friendly materials. In this study, northern prawn shells were utilized to obtain Ch, which could then be used for synthesizing chitosan-based polyurethane (PUR+Ch) foams with different Ch concentration. The chemical structure, morphology, hardness, thermal properties, viscoelastic...
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Raman miniaturised system for field applications
PublicationRaman spectroscopy is a powerful and versatile research technique with a broad range of potential applications, which includes laboratory studies, on-line industrial process monitoring and field measurements. Scope of the field applications includes environment monitoring, detection of dangerous or prohibited materials and rapid identification of unknown samples. It stimulates development of dedicated Raman measurement equipment...
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Effect of wet Hydrogen Sulfide on Carbon Steels Degradation in Refinery Based on Case Study
PublicationMaterial degradation caused by wet hydrogen sulfide (Wet H2S) is one of the major issues in refineries. Carbon steel is the main construction material used in refineries and is subjected not only to thickness loss but the hydrogen is the major concern. H2S leads to high atomic hydrogen penetration in steel which causes degradation in the form of blistering and/or cracking (HIC/SOHIC) and stress cracking in the area of welds and...
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Analysis of regulations regarding transport of dangerous goods by road in Poland and in Europe
PublicationThe subject of the article are regulations regarding transport of hazardous materials in road transportation. In Poland, as well as in most European countries, these regulations are mainly governed by the ADR Agreement, which is a supra-national legal act. The article contains an analysis of the mentioned legal act. Despite the fact that the ADR Agreement harmonizes regulations concerning the transport of hazardous materials, there...
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Properties and determination of pesticides in fruits and vegetables
PublicationThe intensive development of agriculture means that more and more toxic organic and inorganic compounds are entering theenvironment. Because of their widespread use, stability, selective toxicity and bioaccumulation, pesticides are among the mosttoxic substances contaminating the environment. They are particularly dangerous in fruit and vegetables, by which people areexposed to them. It is therefore crucial to monitor pesticide...
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Recent developments in biological sample testing methods for the confirmation of gestational exposure to tobacco smoke anddrugs of abused
PublicationSubstance use is most prevalent in reproductive-aged people also by women during pregnancy. In national prevalence surveys among women aged 15 to 44 years, 10.8 % of women reported using alcohol during pregnancy, 17 % reported smoking during pregnancy, and 4.4 % reported abusing any illicit substances during pregnancy. Virtually all illegal drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, pose dangers to a pregnant woman. Legal substances, such...
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Risks related to car fire on innovative Poroelastic Road Surfaces-PERS
PublicationTo reduce tyre/road noise, the concept of poroelastic road surfaces (PERS) was invented. PERS is a road surface material that is porous, and at the same time, it is flexible because of the substantial amount of rubber granulate content (from 20% to 85%). The rubber and stone particles are bound by polyurethane resin instead of bitumen. It was feared that in case of fire, because of the high content of rubber and polyurethane, there...
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Release of selected chemical elements from shale drill cuttings to aqueous solutions of different pH
PublicationThe effect of pH changes on leachability of light and heavy metals from shale drill cuttings generated from unconventional shale gas production was investigated. Cuttings, being the primary byproduct generated from drilling operations, belong to the potentially hazardous type of wastes due to presence of heavy and radioactive elements and remains of drilling fluid. In this regard, assessment of potentially dangerous components...
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Application of Nanomaterials for Cadmium Adsorption for Sustainable Treatment of Wastewater: a Review
PublicationMany heavy metals, particularly cadmium, are detrimental to both people and the environment when present in large quantities. In wastewater treatment plants, several conventional approaches are employed for cadmium abatement to restore the ecosystem, food supplies, and health of people and animals. Ion exchange, coagulation, membrane filtration, and chemical precipitation are a few examples of ways for removing heavy metals from...
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Implementation of localization and identification of ferromagnetic objects algorithm in labview enviroment
PublicationThe problem with detecting dangerous objects is still a matter of concern today. One of the methods of detecting dangerous objects is the magnetic method. While measuring a magnetic field in the surrounding of objects with ferromagnetic properties, it is possible to detect, localize and identify such object.
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Response of a steel tank during earthquakes and mining tremors - experimental investigation
PublicationCylindrical steel tanks are very popular shell structures used to store the products of chemical and petroleum industries. Any failure might have disastrous consequences, therefore their safety and reliability is essential. Earthquakes are the most dangerous and also the most unpredictable dynamic loads acting on such structures. On the other hand, mining tremors are usually considered to be less severe due to lower acceleration...
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Study of railway traffic safety based on the railway track condition monitoring system
PublicationThe solution to the problem of monitoring the railway track, as well as potentially dangerous objects and phenomena in the adjacent territories, is determined by the need to implement increased requirements for traffic safety (primarily to the geometric parameters of the devices of a long railway track under construction and functioning load-bearing highways), prevention of technological disasters and large-scale negative effects...
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Prediction of Ship Resonant Rolling - Related Dangerous Zones with Regard to the Equivalent Metacentric Height Governing Natural Frequency of Roll
PublicationPotentially dangerous zones corresponding to dynamical stability phenomena, possibly encountered by ships sailing in rough sea, are estimated nowadays with the use of the method recommended by IMO in the guidance coded MSC.1/Circ.1228. In this IMO method the parameter governing the natural period of roll is the initial metacentric height. Some earlier studies revealed that the initial metacentric height...
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Experimental investigation of Steel–Concrete–Polymer composite barrier for the ship internal tank construction
PublicationTransportation of dangerous cargo by ships demands ensuring an appropriate protection level in case of an accident. Two of the most dangerous accident types resulting in an oil spill are grounding and ship to ship collision. The article presents results of research on a new composite construction for a ship hull that increases structural safety during collision. The concept of semi-elastic Steel–Concrete–Polymer structure is presented....
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Bioterrorism — characteristics and possibilities of prevention
PublicationIn the paper bioterrorist threats have been presented. Historical background and possible methods of attacks have been described. The most dangerous pathogens and disease entities have been classified. Selected methods of detection and identification of biological weapon have been presented. The wireless system for threats monitoring — developed at Gdansk University of Technology — has been described.
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Reduction of steel chimney vibrations with a pendlum damper.
PublicationKarman vortices observed around chimneys may induce dangerous structural vi-brations at certain wind velocities. The aim of this paper is to analyse theeffectiveness of pendulum damper in vibration reduction of a steel chimney. A two degree-of-freedom system is used to model the behaviour of the struc-ture equipped with a damper. The results of the study show that the use of pendulum with tuned frequency leads to significant...
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A Framework of a Ship Domain-based Collision Alert System
PublicationThe paper presents a framework of a planned ship collision alert system. The envisaged system is compliant with IMO Resolution MSC.252 (83) “Adoption of the revised performance standards for Integrated Navigation Systems (INS)”. It is based on a ship domain-oriented approach to collision risk and introduces a policy of alerts on dangerous situations. The alerts will include cautions, warnings and alarms, which will be triggered...
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Special Issue "Applications of Finite Element Modeling for Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems"
PublicationNumerical modeling is very important in today's engineering because, among other things, it reduces the costs associated with prototyping or predicting the occurrence of potentially dangerous situations during operation in certain defined conditions. Different methods have so far been used to implement the real structure into the numerical version. The most popular have been variations of the finite element method (FEM). The aim...
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Detection of person presence and its activity in the bathtub
PublicationA practical application of a bioimpedance technique for a detection of a bathing person is presented in the paper. It addresses the possibility of supervising people in the bathtub without voiding of their intimacy. The measurement system installed in a fiber-glass or a plastic bathtub is able to detect a presence of the bathing person, to estimate its activity and thus to detect potentially dangerous events. In the paper a principle...
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The Effectiveness of Basic Resuscitation Activities Carried out by Combat Paramedics of the Police, as Exemplified by Polish Counterterrorist Units
PublicationThe tasks carried out by Police officers are often accompanied by dangerous situations that threaten the life and health of the people involved, the police themselves, and bystanders. It concerns especially counter-terrorism police units whose activities are aimed at terrorists and particularly dangerous criminals, and their course is violent and aggressive. In conjunction with the inability to bring civilian rescue services into...
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The influence of position of the post or its absence on the performance of the cable barrier system
PublicationRoad safety barriers are used to increase safety in potentially dangerous places on the roads. They are designed and installed on the roads to prevent any vehicle from getting outside the travelled way or from entering the opposite lane of the road. Barriers, which are used on European roads, have to undergo full scale crash tests according to the EN 1317 standards. Nowadays as a supplement to real crash tests, numerical simulations...
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Conditions and capacity for implementing Poland’s vision zero
PublicationSince 1991 Poland has been systematically reducing its traffic hazard. Despite considerable progress Poland is still among the most dangerous countries in the European Union. The key types of actions that help to reduce fatalities include enhancement of pedestrian safety, reducing the number of speeding drivers and eliminating or reducing hazard on the road. The paper presents a brief diagnosis of the state of road safety in Poland...
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Searching for Critical Conditions During Lifeboat Launching – Simulations
PublicationThe article describes numerical simulations of the process of lifeboat launching at the ship’s side. The research is aimed at finding the values of ship motion parameters which appear to be most dangerous for people in the lowered lifeboat due to the generated accelerations. The simplified model of ship hull motion adopted at this research stage bases on a superposition of harmonic motions with given amplitudes and periods in six...
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Analytical procedures for determination of cocaine and its metabolites in biological samples
PublicationThe dangerous effects and increased usage of illicit drugs have inspired the development of analytical methodologies. We based our review of analytical procedures for determination of cocaine (COC) and its metabolites on literature from the past two decades. Our main aim was to compare the capabilities of different analytical techniques. The diversity of matrices from which COC is determined (e.g., blood, hair, saliva, plasma,...
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The effects of selected factors on pedestrian crossings in urban areas
PublicationPedestrian crossings are designed to help pedestrians cross a road. There are at-grade pedestrian crossings with or without traffic lights and grade separated crossings such as subways and footbridges. Pedestrian crossings may be located next to a junction or on road sections between junctions. Where at-grade crossings are involved, pedestrians and motorists interact, which may lead to dangerous situations and road traffic conflicts....
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Pumping effect measured by PIV method in multi-layer spike electrode EHD device for air cleaning
PublicationDust particles can be harmful for human health when inhaled. Especially dangerous are submicron dust particles, which can contain traces of toxic elements and can easily penetrate into human respiratory system. Thus, new devices for air cleaning are needed. In this work the flow velocity field patterns measured by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method in an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) device for air cleaning are presented. The...
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Video analytics-based algorithm for monitoring egress from buildings
PublicationA concept and a practical implementation of the algorithm for detecting of potentially dangerous situations related to crowding in passages is presented. An example of such a situation is a crush which may be caused by an obstructed pedestrian pathway. The surveillance video camera signal analysis performed in the online mode is employed in order to detect hold-ups near bottlenecks like doorways or staircases. The details of the...
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Improving automatic surveillance by sound analysis
PublicationAn automatic surveillance system, based on event detection in the video image can be improved by implementing algorithms for audio analysis. Dangerous or illegal actions are often connected with distinctive sound events like screams or sudden bursts of energy. A method for detection and classification of alarming sound events is presented. Detection is based on the observation of sudden changes in sound level in distinctive sub-bands...
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Green aspects of techniques for the determination of currently used pesticides in environmental samples
PublicationPesticides are among the most dangerous environmental pollutants because of their stability, mobility and long-term effects on living organisms. Their presence in the environment is a particular danger. It is therefore crucial to monitor pesticide residues using all available analytical methods. The analysis of environmental samples for the presence of pesticides is very difficult: the processes involved in sample preparation are...
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Video Analytics-Based Algorithm for Monitoring Egress from Buildings
PublicationA concept and practical implementation of the algorithm for detecting of potentially dangerous situations of crowding in passages is presented. An example of such situation is a crush which may be caused by obstructed pedestrian pathway. Surveillance video camera signal analysis performed on line is employed in order to detect hold-ups near bottlenecks like doorways or staircases. The details of implemented algorithm which uses...
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INDICES FOR ASSESSING POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD FROM FUTURE SHIP SCRAPPING PROCESS, DETERMINABLE IN SHIP DESIGN STAGE
PublicationThis paper shortly presents the issue of utilization of ships after their withdrawal from service. Information on number of floating units liquidated in previous years was presented. Hazards to the environment , health and life of workers employed in the Far East ship scrapping yards operating on the beaches, were indicated. Then, the most important rules which have to make the ship recycling process safe were referred to. This...
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Shooting Gas Cylinders to Prevent Their Explosion in Fire
PublicationGas cylinders in general, and particularly cylinders containing acetylene, constitute a great potential danger to fire and rescue services involved in salvage operations. Experiments show that gas cylinders with acetylene, oxygen, hydrogen, CNG, LPG or CO2 may blow after short exposition to heat with very destructive effect as fragments of blown cylinder may fly even several hundred meters. In the case of acetylene the explosion...
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Development of tools for road infrastructure safety management for the provinces (voivodeships) in Poland
PublicationThe development of modern tools for road infrastructure safety management will help to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries as one of the main objectives adopted in 2013 in the National Road Safety Programme 2014-2020 and the new Road Safety Programme 2011-2020 in the EU. Risk Management in Highway Engineering can be applied in developing tools essential in the process of safety management. Risk Management in Highway...
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Load testing of a suspended footbridge in Radom (Poland)
PublicationThe footbridge in Radom is a suspended bridge of an interesting architectural form. The structure was de-signed for 4 kN/m2 of crowd loading. Dynamic calculations were not included in the design. The structure’s acceptance tests took place on the 14th of October 2016. The behaviour of the footbridge in static testing met the expectations. Unfortunately, as a result of dynamic tests, dangerous behaviour of the footbridge was revealed....
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Toward Safe and Efficient Recovery of Gas Munitions Dumped at Sea
PublicationThe proposal of a system for the safe recovery of unexploded ordnance (UXO), chemical weapons (CW) and chemicalwarfare agents (CWA) dumped at sea mainly after WWI and WWII is described in this work. The proposed solutionaddresses the tasks required to neutralise thousands of tons of dumped material and the currently available solutionsand proposed ideas. Requirements concerning the features of a recovery system are defined and...
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Green aspects of techniques for the determination of pesticides in fruits and vegetables
PublicationApplied all over the world, pesticides are some of the most dangerous pollutants of the environment because of their stability, mobility, their ability to accumulate in the environment and their consequent long-term adverse effects on living organisms in general and human health in particular. Their presence in the environment is a particular danger. It is therefore crucial to monitor pesticide residues using all available analytical...
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Pumping effect measured by PIV method in a multilayer spike electrode EHD device for air cleaning
PublicationDust particles can be harmful for human health when inhaled. Particularly dangerous are submicrometer dust particles, which can contain traces of toxic elements and can easily penetrate into the human respiratory system. Thus, efficient devices for the air cleaning from submicrometer dust particles are needed. Recently, Katatani and Mizuno have proposed an electrohydrody- namic (EHD) device for air cleaning for submicrometer particles....
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State-of-the-art ideas for engineering laboratory classes – virtual reality framework
PublicationNowadays challenges in science and technology are a driving force in the development of contemporary solutions in education. Virtual reality brings to an edge human imagination. In this paper, authors propose a framework for civil engineering laboratory classes which brings a new quality in this area. The framework shows how to provide learners with an environment where they can realize the health and safety hazards of construction...
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IMPULSE NOISE ASSOCIATED WITH FIRING HANDHELD MILITARY WEAPONS
PublicationSports, hunting and military shooting grounds are well known sources of noise that can be disruptive both for people present at those facilities, as well as for people and animals that live nearby. What is more, shooters are also subjected to very painful and dangerous impulse noise. The paper discusses the issues related to the noise immission during firing of small firearms of military type that are typical for Poland. The experiments...
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New generation of analytical tests based on the assessment of enzymatic and nuclear receptor activity changes induced by environmental pollutants
PublicationAnalytical methods show great potential in biological tests. The analysis of biological response that results from environmental pollutant exposure allows: (i) prediction of the risk of toxic effects and (ii) provision of the background for the development of markers of the toxicants presence. Bioanalytical tests based on changes in enzymatic activity and nuclear receptor action provide extremely high specificity and sensitivity....
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Remote Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants
PublicationAtmospheric air quality is one of the key factors influencing human health. Air quality evaluation is not an easy task as the atmosphere is a complex system subjected to continuous changes in time. Observed progress in the development of measurement devices and technologies is fundamental for acquisition of more reliable information about condition and quality of atmospheric air. Unfortunately, this process leads to an increase...
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Towards Synthetic and Balanced Digital Government Benchmarking
PublicationReliable benchmarking is essential for effective management of the government digitalization efforts. Existing benchmarking instruments generally fail to support this target. One problem is the diversity of instruments, resulting in a split image of digital progress and adding ambiguity to policy decisions. Another problem is disconnect in assessing progress between digital and traditional “analog” governance, lending support to...
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Towards Improving Optimised Ship Weather Routing
PublicationThe aim of the paper is to outline a project focusing on the development of a new type of ship weather routing solution with improved uncertainty handling, through better estimation of ship performance and responses to sea conditions. Ensemble forecasting is considered to take into account the uncertainty levels that are typical of operations in a stochastic environment. Increased accuracy of weather prediction is achieved through...
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On analysis of double-impact test of 1500-kg vehicle into w-beam guardrail system
PublicationEvery day on roads many scenarios of accidents may occur. One of the measures to minimize their consequences is road safety barriers. Finite Element analyses are being increasingly used to support the physical testing of these devices. The paper addresses the issue of a secondary impact into the previously damaged w-beam guardrail system. This situation belongs to one of the most dangerous which can happen on roads and may cause...
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3-Monochloropropane-1,2-diol in Infant Foods and Human Breast Milk: Determination by GC-MS
Publication3-Monochloropropane-1,2-diol is one of the food borne contaminants called chloropropanols. Over the last decade plenty of analytical methods was developed in order to determine 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol in its free and bound form in various foodstuffs with the use of GC-FID, GC-ECD, LC-TOFMS and finally GC-MS, which is now widely used in laboratories. The aim of this research was the determination of 3-monochloropropane--1,2-diol...
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Detection of vehicles stopping in restricted zones in video from surveillance cameras
PublicationAn algorithm for detection of vehicles that stop in restricted areas, e.g. excluded by traffic rules, is proposed. Classic approaches based on object tracking are inefficient in high traffic scenes because of tracking errors caused by frequent object merging and splitting. The proposed algorithm uses the background subtraction results for detection of moving objects, then pixels belonging to moving objects are tested for stability....