Search results for: PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
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Laboratory assessment of permeability of sand and biopolymer mixtures
PublicationLaboratory assessment of permeability of sand and biopolymer mixtures. This research presents a method of creating seepage barriers in a sandy soil using biopolymer additives (biosubstance), which consist of polysaccharides and water. Polysaccharides strongly interact with water to produce a viscous suspension. The paper aims to investigate the infl uence of a biosubstance employed in a highly permeable sandy soil. Amount of the...
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Design of a test bench for determining the general characteristics of an internal combustion engine using a hydraulic power take-off system
PublicationThe paper presents a design of an engine test bench, which is used to determine the general characteristics of a truck engine using a power take-off (PTO). PTO drives a hydraulic system that generates a load on the engine at various points in its operation in the power range specified by the hydraulic system. The design allows for stationary and mobile tests with the test bench mounted on the truck, without any modification of...
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Balancing Energy Inputs/Outputs and GHG Emissions for Sustainable Wastewater Treatment – a Case Study
PublicationThe aim of the study is a model-based evaluation of the selected operating modes and technological upgrades on the energy balance and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a large wastewater treatment plant in the city of Slupsk (northern Poland). The considered scenarios focus on energy savings for aeration, increasing energy recovery via biogas cogeneration and reduction of the CO2 equivalent emission from both direct processes (related...
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Approximate Cramér–Rao bound on Doppler error in correlation-processing relatively narrowband noise radar
PublicationThe paper studies limitations on accuracy of Doppler estimation in continuous-wave noise radar with correlation processing. Second order properties of output of the correlation receiver are evaluated and an approximate Cram´er-Rao bound on errors of Doppler measurement is derived. The accuracy of Doppler measurements is found to be affected by the following factors: power spectral density of noise signal, frequency response of the...
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Soft – Partial Frequency Reuse Method for LTE-A
PublicationIn the paper a novel SPFR frequency reuse method is proposed which can be used for improvement of physical resources utilization efficiency in LTE-A. The proposed method combines both SFR and PFR giving the possibility of more flexible use of frequency band in different regions of a cell. First, a short study on the problem of frequency reuse in cells is discussed including bibliography overview....
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Modern trends in solid phase extraction: New sorbent media
PublicationBased on the recently published literature, this review provides an update of the most important features and application of formats and devices employed in solid phase extraction (SPE). Special attention was paid on new trapping media proposed in SPE prior the chromatography analysis, based on the use of nanostructured materials, including carbon nanomaterials, electrospun nanofibers, dendrimes and magnetic nanoparticles, molecular...
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Centrifugal magnetic fluid seals
PublicationSeals perform an important and at times overlooked function in a lubricant system. They prevent or minimize the movement of the lubricant between two surfaces and also minimize the level of contamination in the system. Seals are divided into static and dynamic types. Static seals operate in systems where the mating surfaces do not move relative to each other. In contrast, dynamic seals operate under conditions where the mating surfaces...
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Green analytical chemistry: Social dimension and teaching
PublicationGreen Analytical Chemistry (GAC) is the idea which every analytical chemist should be familiar of. Due to continuous improvement in the subject both from the aspects of theory and experimentation, the dynamic way analytical chemistry studies are evolving in the frame of chemistry degrees should not be surprising. Recently, many efforts have been made in order to include Green Chemistry principles to Education, also in the field...
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Efficiency Evaluation of High Performance Computing Systems Using Data Envelopment Analysis
PublicationThe paper presents an evaluation method of high performance computing (HPC) systems using multicriteria efficiency analysis. The Data Envelopment Analysis approach was applied and adapted to the specifics of HPC, which enabled us to compare relative efficiency of systems considering simultaneously multiple parameters. The analysis is based on the TOP500 list of world largest supercomputers and their parameters such as: the number...
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Accurate design of pseudoelliptic inline SIW filters with frequency-dependent couplings
PublicationThis paper presents an accurate synthesis method for inline SIW (Substrate Integrated Waveguide) generalized Chebyshev bandpass filters with frequency-dependent couplings. The technique is based on the synthesis of a coupling matrix that takes into account the impedance of the frequency-dependent stub. Thus, a loading effect compensation in adjacent resonators (via resonant frequency adjustment) and coupling elements (via coupling-value...
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Energy efficient beam control for 5G antennas
PublicationThe rapid development of 5G and beyond systems demands improvement in communication speed, latency and safety to maintain the required quality of service. This paper presents an overview of different concepts of energy-efficient antenna systems, which offer beam-shaping and beam-steering functionalities, that enhance connectivity performance and can be used in 5G applications. Different designs for 5.9 GHz, 39 GHz and 60 GHz frequency...
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Exploring the Prevalence of Anti-patterns in the Application of Scrum in Software Development Organizations
PublicationThe paper presents a survey-based study that aimed to determine the prevalence of anti-patterns in the Scrum software development methodology. A total of 35 anti-patterns were selected from the literature review, and 42 respondents indicated whether they had encountered each anti-pattern in their organizations. The study found that``Unfinished Tasks'' was the most prevalent anti-pattern, highlighting the importance of proper planning...
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Stirling engines - the state of technology development and computational models
PublicationStirling engines represent a technologically important solution in combined heat and power systems. Their use enables the achievement of over 90 percent efficiency in the management of the primary energy source with a very high durability of the device, mainly due to the lack of contact of the working gas with external factors and a very small number of mechanical components. The use of a Stirling engine may be equally important...
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Reviewing the recent developments of using graphene-based nanosized materials in membrane separations
PublicationAccording to the potentialities of graphene-based materials and their unique physicochemical properties. Such 2D nanomaterials are likely to be the most implemented within the improvement of the selective separations of polymer membranes, together with enhanced physicochemical properties (such as hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, transport of molecules, mechanical and thermal features, among others). Hence, this review compiles and...
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Comparison of the Effectiveness of Health Systems in The European Countries-Two-Stage DEA Model
PublicationThis article compares the efficiency of health systems in selected European countries using two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA), based on data from the EUROSTAT database. In the first step, DEA efficiency scores were calculated for health care systems and, subsequently, the external variables describing lifestyle were used to calculate the truncated regression. Health care resources (physicians, nurses, hospital beds, financial...
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Side Effects of National Immunization Program: E-Governance Support Toward Elders' Digital Inclusion
PublicationIn response to the coronavirus pandemic, the European Union (EU) governments develop policies to regulate exclusive health protection actions that consider societal needs with the emphasis on elders. Given that the EU vaccination strategy uses a centralized ICT-based approach, there is little guidance on how seniors are included in national immunization programs (NIP). In this paper, we addressed a knowledge gap of the side effects...
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Sustainable Knowledge Sharing Model for IT Agile Projects
PublicationIn order to overcome work environment challenges and remain competitive in the market, organisations must adapt. An organisation's competitiveness can be improved through knowledge sharing; however, improvement without responsibility can have a negative impact on the sociotechnical environment which people cannot fully comprehend. According to researchers, business involvement in sustainable development goals remains minimal [51]....
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Recent advances in compatibilization strategies of wood-polymer composites by isocyanates
PublicationWood-polymer composites technologies are gaining more and more attention in the scientific community, positively affecting the increase in their industrial applications, for example, automotive, building, 3D printing, etc. Many research works are focused on the improvement in matrix–lignocellulosic filler interactions to produce highly filled composites with satisfying performance properties. In this field of research, using isocyanates...
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Residual MobileNets
PublicationAs modern convolutional neural networks become increasingly deeper, they also become slower and require high computational resources beyond the capabilities of many mobile and embedded platforms. To address this challenge, much of the recent research has focused on reducing the model size and computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a novel residual depth-separable convolution block, which is an improvement of the basic...
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Regional quality contests based on business excellence models – Pomeranian case study
PublicationCompetitions based on models of organizational excellence have significant potential. Organizations participating in these initiatives have the chance not only to get marketing benefits, but also gain comprehensive knowledge about their management systems. Moreover, thanks to the structure of models of excellence an organization can plan in detail the improvement activities in its main processes. The aim of the authors is to analyze...
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Characterization of small and medium enterprises (SMES) of Pomeranian Region in six sigma methodology application
PublicationThe paper presents the rarely researched and important issue for SMEs competitiveness - knowledge and practical application of Six Sigma methodology. The results of research conducted by Authors allow to answer the question - to what degree SMEs of Pomeranian region are aware of importance and prepared for systemic control and improvement of their processes?W opracowaniu poruszono istotne, z punktu widzenia podnoszenia konkurencyjności...
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An Overview of Image Analysis Techniques in Endoscopic Bleeding Detection
PublicationAuthors review the existing bleeding detection methods focusing their attention on the image processing techniques utilised in the algorithms. In the article, 18 methods were analysed and their functional components were identified. The authors proposed six different groups, to which algorithms’ components were assigned: colour techniques, reflecting features of pixels as individual values, texture techniques, considering spatial...
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Energy efficiency of electric multiple units in suburban operation
PublicationThis thesis presents approach to analysis of energy efficiency of a suburban rail network, using novel models developed on the Matlab/Simulink basis. Necessary features and requirements for such models were determined thru in-depth review of the source literature in all applicable fields: electrified transportation systems, electric multiple units construction, vehicle drivetrains and finally, existing simulation methods. Existing...
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Influence of a lipid bilayer on the conformational behavior of amphotericin B derivatives - A molecular dynamics study.
PublicationAmphotericin B (AmB) is an effective but very toxic antifungal antibiotic. In our laboratory a series of AmB derivatives of improved selectivity of action was synthesized and tested. To understand molecular basis of this improvement, comparative conformational studies of amphotericin B and its two more selectivederivatives were carried out in an aqueous solution and in a lipid membrane. These molecular simulation studies revealed...
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Histogram of Gradients with Cell Average Intensity for Human Detection
PublicationThe modification of the descriptor in human detector using Histogram of Oriented Gradients and support vector machine is presented. The proposed modification requires inserting the average cell intensitiesresulting with the increase of the length of the descriptor from 3780 to 4200 values, but it is easy to compute and instantly gives 14-26% of miss rate improvement at 10^-4 False Positives Per Window (FPPW). The modification...
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Elemental and tight monogamy relations in nonsignaling theories
PublicationPhysical principles constrain the way nonlocal correlations can be distributed among distant parties. These constraints are usually expressed by monogamy relations that bound the amount of Bell inequality violation observed among a set of parties by the violation observed by a different set of parties. We prove here that much stronger monogamy relations are possible for nonsignaling correlations by showing how nonlocal correlations...
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The use of liquid crystal thermography TLC and particle image velocimetry PIV in selected technical applications
PublicationNowadays, the energy cost is very high and this problem is carried out to seek techniques for improvement of the aerothermal and thermal (heat flow) systems performances in different technical applications. The transient and steady-state techniques with liquid crystals for the surface temperature and heat transfer coefficient or Nusselt number distribution measurements have been developed. The flow pattern produced by transverse...
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Objective relaxation algorithm for reliable simulation-driven size reduction of antenna structure
PublicationThis letter investigates reliable size reduction of antennas through electromagnetic-driven optimization. It is demonstrated that conventional formulation of the design task by direct footprint miniaturization with imposing constraints on electrical performance parameters may not lead to optimum results. The reason is that—in a typical antenna structure—only a few geometry parameters explicitly determine the antenna footprint,...
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Effect of plasma sprayed and laser re-melted Al2O3 coatings on hardness and wear properties of stainless steel
PublicationCommercially available austenic stainless steel substrate was coated with commercially available, raw Al2O3 powder applied by means of plasma spraying method and then re-melted with CO2 laser beam of various parameters. Tribological and mechanical properties of the 120 J/mm and 160 J/mm laser re-melted coatings were compared with the tribological and mechanical properties of the “as-sprayed” coating. The influence of the laser...
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Features extraction from the electrocatalytic gas sensor responses
PublicationOne of the types of gas sensors used for detection and identification of toxic-air pollutant is an electrocatalytic gas sensor. The electrocatalytic sensors are working in cyclic voltammetry mode, enable detection of various gases. Their response are in the form of I-V curves which contain information about the type and the concentration of measured volatile compound. However,...
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STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TURBINE CONDENSER AIR EXTRACTION SYSTEM USING HYDRO EJECTORS
PublicationThe aim of the paper is to investigate the effectiveness of the 18K380 steam turbine condenser air extraction system using hydro ejectors. Motivation for the analysis is a need of improvement of the energy conversion ratio of the power plant. To achieve this goal it is necessary to establish efficiency of each subsystem of the energy cycle. The air extraction system is not a highly power consuming system but it has great impact...
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Application of ionic liquids in electronic nose instruments
PublicationAmong many applications in different fields of science and technology the ionic liquids (ILs) are also utilised in chemical sensors yielding improvement of their operation parameters (Buzzeo, 2004; Wei and Ivaska, 2008; Silvester, 2011; Gebicki et al., 2013). Some of these chemical sensors are the components of the devices, which resemble human sense of smell as far as their operation is concerned. These devices are named electronic...
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COLREGS compliance in Evolutionary Sets of Cooperating Ship Trajectories
PublicationIn general, Evolutionary Sets of Cooperating Ship Trajectories combine some of the assumptions of game theory with evolutionary programming and aim to find optimal set of cooperating trajectoriesof all ships involved in an encounter situation. In a two-ship encounter situation the method enables the operator of an on-board collision-avoidance system to predict the most probable behaviour of atarget and to plan the own manoeuvres...
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Types of wear and tear of biomaterials used in orthopaedic surgery
PublicationPurpose of this paper is presentation of observations on different kinds of wear and tear of biomaterials used in contemporary orthopaedic surgery. Types of prosthesis damage, encountered in medical practice, and their causes have been described. Results of many clinical studies were analysed to review prosthesis damage from the stage of implanting (such as intrusion of a foreign object between its components) to their natural...
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The Application of Fibres from Recycled Postconsumer Tyres for Concrete Reinforcement
PublicationPoland as a Member State is obliged to implement the EU specific environmental legislation focused on the reduction, transport and treatment of waste. The Landfill Directive prohibited the landfilling of whole tyres and their by-products. Although the EU Directive of Waste limits the use of tyres as secondary fuel, Poland is still the EU leader in burning tyres in cement kilns. Post-consumer tyres are utilised in a number of...
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Efficiency of gas mixtures detection by resistive gas sensors
PublicationResistive gas sensors are very popular and are commonly used to detect various gases and their mixtures. Theeir main disadvantage is very limited selectivity. Practical use of gas sensors in environenmental applications requires determination of concentration of a few mixed gases at the same time. We would like to present recent results of gas detection improvement by utilizing a single gas sensor and additional measurements to...
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Greenness assessment of analytical methods used for antibiotic residues determination in food samples
PublicationFood of animal origin plays an important role in ensuring a healthy and sustainable human diet. However, residues of pharmaceuticals, especially antibiotics, can be the cause of many health problems. To protect consumers and improve food quality, analytical methods used to determine contaminants should be simple, selective, and have high throughput and low detection limits. Recently, greenness metric tools have proven useful in...
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Assessment of E-government inclusion policies toward seniors: A framework and case study
PublicationDigital exclusion of seniors covers both social and technical drivers that affect the magnitude of this phenomenon. It arises from the fear of technology, reduced manual and mental abilities, socio-economic status, and also the mismatch between the technological environment and the needs of the elderly. The consideration of the needs of seniors are mainly implemented through social policies while the provision of government services...
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Quest for the Molecular Basis of Improved Selective Toxicity of All-Trans Isomers of Aromatic Heptaene Macrolide Antifungal Antibiotics
PublicationThree aromatic heptaene macrolide antifungal antibiotics, Candicidin D, Partricin A (Gedamycin) and Partricin B (Vacidin) were subjected to controlled cis-trans to all trans photochemical isomerization. The obtained all-trans isomers demonstrated substantially improved in vitro selective toxicity in the Candida albicans cells: human erythrocytes model. This effect was mainly due to the diminished hemotoxicity. The molecular modeling...
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Sounding rocket vibration mechanical filter and amplifier
PublicationMeasuring accelerations and vibrations of a sounding rocket provides both information for engineers on the launcher vehicle performance as well as environment description for future payload designers. Typically, information on the level of vibration and eigenfrequencies are required to properly design a payload. This paper presents a design of a novel mechanical filter and amplifier for mechanical vibrations. Its key feature is...
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Efficiency limit of excitonic photovoltaic cells under phosphor-based white LED illumination
PublicationThe limit of energy conversion of excitonic photovoltaic cells working under white light illumination generated by phosphor-based LED is analysed using the modified Giebink approach. Particularly, the impact of the optical energy gap and energy loss associated with the excitons dissociation at the heterojunction interface on power conversion efficiency of the device are discussed. From the results of our study it follows that the...
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Multi-domain and Context-Aware Recommendations Using Contextual Ontological User Profile
PublicationRecommender Systems (RS) became popular tools in many Web services like Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube, because they help a~user to avoid an information overload problem. One of the types of RS are Context-Aware RS (CARS) which exploit contextual information to provide more adequate recommendations. Cross-Domain RS (CDRS) were created as a response to the data sparsity problem which occurs when only few users can provide reviews or...
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JUST CULTURE MATURITY QUESTIONNAIRE VALIDATION IN A POLISH HOSPITAL
PublicationPurpose: (To present the results of the statistical validation of just culture maturity questionnaire (JCMQ), used to recognize the maturity level of JC among nurses in the hospital in Poland. Methodology: (The case study and 5-stage research with the use of a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire with 28 statements, distributed among nurses. The results were statistically processed with Statistica 13.1 software. Findings: We confirmed...
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Evaluation of the prediction ability of air pollutants based on the electronic nose responses
PublicationElectronic noses are able to perform on-line measurements of the toxic volatile compounds in air. Due to their low cost and compact size they can be placed in the areas exposed to pollution, outside the laboratory. Those advantages, on the other side, force the need for development of the reliable sensors data analysis procedures. One of the most important issues connected with electronic noses is the lack of stability of the gas...
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Adsorption-assisted transport of water vapour in super-hydrophobic membranes filled with multilayer graphene platelets
PublicationThe effects of confinement of multilayer graphene platelets in hydrophobic microporous polymeric membranes are here examined. Intermolecular interactions between water vapour molecules and nanocomposite membranes are envisaged to originate assisted transport of water vapour in membrane distillation processes when a suitable filler-polymer ratio is reached. Mass transport coefficients are estimated under different working conditions,...
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Computationally Effcient Solution of a 2D Diffusive Wave Equation Used for Flood Inundation Problems
PublicationThis paper presents a study dealing with increasing the computational efficiency in modeling floodplain inundation using a two-dimensional diffusive wave equation. To this end, the domain decomposition technique was used. The resulting one-dimensional diffusion equations were approximated in space with the modified finite element scheme, whereas time integration was carried out using the implicit two-level scheme. The proposed...
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Minimal parameter implicit solvent model for ab initioelectronic-structure calculations
PublicationAbstract - We present an implicit solvent model for ab initio electronic-structure calculations which is fully self-consistent and is based on direct solution of the nonhomogeneous Poisson equation. The solute cavity is naturally defined in terms of an isosurface of the electronic density according to the formula of Fattebert and Gygi (J. Comput. Chem., 23 (2002) 662). While this model depends on only two parameters, we demonstrate...
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Method of managing drill cuttings from shale gas formations
PublicationProposed management method of drill cuttings involves recycling for the expanded clay production. A theoretical presentation of the possibility, choosing planning path based on similarity between the materials used in the manufacture of expanded clay and oily cuttings. Application for the main stages of manufacture of expanded clay production of drill cuttings from shale gas extraction. Introduced into circulation solid waste partly...
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Building the Learning Environment for Sustainable Development: a Co-creation approach
PublicationEducation for sustainable development supports the improvement of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors related to global challenges such as climate change, global warming and environmental degradation, among others. It is increasingly taking place through projects based on information and communication technologies. The effectiveness of the actions taken depends not only on the quality of the project activities or the...
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Hydraulic conductivity of a biopolymer treated sand
PublicationThis paper presents results of laboratory assessment of creating seepage barriers in a sandy soil using biopolymer additives (bio substance), which consist of polysaccharides and water. Polysaccharides strongly interact with water to produce a viscous suspension. The aim of the conducted work was to investigate the influence of a biosubstance employed in a highly permeable sandy soil. The amount of the biopolymer used in a sample...