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Search results for: REDUCTION OF POLLUTANT EMISSIONS
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The Method of Finding the Optimal Spindle Speed When Milling Flexible Details
PublicationThe paper presents a new method of vibration reduction during milling of flexible details. The method consists in selecting the optimal spindle speed, based on the natural frequency of the workpiece. For this purpose, an original method was created, which is based on minimizing the work of cutting forces in the direction of the depth of cutting. The effectiveness of the method has been proved by comparing the RMS values of vibration...
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Experimental and DFT insights into an eco-friendly photocatalytic system toward environmental remediation and hydrogen generation based on AgInS2 quantum dots embedded on Bi2WO6
PublicationBismuth tungstate (Bi2WO6) can work as a photocatalyst but suffers from rapid recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. Herein, density functional theory (DFT) simulations revealed that the formation of a thermodynamically stable AgInS2(112)/Bi2WO6(010) heterojunction could promote charge separation and enhance the photoactivity of Bi2WO6. To confirm these theoretical predictions, a new type of photocatalysts in the form...
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Ultimate compressive strength assessment of uncleaned and cleaned corroded plates with locked crack
PublicationThe work presented here investigates the structural response of cleaned corroded plates, subjected to compressive load in the presence of a locked crack, where the change of mechanical properties as a result of corrosion development and the cleaning process is also accounted for. A Finite Element model for assessing the compressive strength, considering geometric and material nonlinearities, is developed, and the analysed plates...
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Numerically efficient algorithm for compact microwave device optimization with flexible sensitivity updating scheme
PublicationAn efficient trust-region algorithm with flexible sensitivity updating management scheme for electromagnetic (EM)-driven design optimization of compact microwave components is proposed. During the optimization process, updating of selected columns of the circuit response Jacobian is performed using a rank-one Broyden formula (BF) replacing finite differentiation (FD). The FD update is omitted for directions sufficiently well aligned...
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Initial Field Validation of Poroelastic Pavement Made with Crumb Rubber, Mineral Aggregate and Highly Polymer-Modified Bitumen
PublicationTire/road noise in most driving conditions dominates other sources of traffic noise. One of the most efficient ways of reducing tire/road noise is to use the so-called “low noise pavement”. According to numerous studies, at present, poroelastic road pavement that is composed of rubber and mineral aggregate and polyurethane or bituminous binder gives the best noise reduction up to 12 dB. Unfortunately, there are many problems with...
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Refining of Secondary Pb with Retention of Sn Using Al and Ca Additions
PublicationLead grid from spent lead-acid batteries contains significant amounts of tin and antimony. In classical pyro-refining processes of lead, tin oxidizes and is transferred to dross, making its recovery problematic and expensive. This paper presents an innovative method of pyro-refining lead using metallic aluminum and calcium to purify the lead from contaminants while retaining a higher amount of tin than in the traditional process....
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Further development of the poroelastic road surface within the new Polish project SEPOR
PublicationRoad surfaces have a direct impact on noise generated by rolling tyres, the main and dominant source of noise of moving vehicles. Road surface texture, porosity and stiffness/elasticity govern the pavement contribution to tyre/road noise the most. An experimental PoroElastic Road Surface (PERS) is a wearing course with a high content of interconnected voids (pores) and with an elastic behavior due to the use of small particles...
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Feedline Alterations for Optimization-Based Design of Compact Super-Wideband MIMO Antennas in Parallel Configuration
PublicationThis letter presents a technique for size reduction of wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. Our approach is a two-stage procedure. At the first stage, the antenna structure is modified to improve its impedance matching. This is achieved through incorporation of an n-section tapered feedline, followed by reoptimization of geometry parameters. Reducing the maximum in-band reflection well beyond the acceptance...
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Degradation of electrical performance of a crystalline photovoltaic module due to dust deposition in northern Poland
PublicationThe reduction in power output caused by the accumulation of dust on the photovoltaic module surface is an important problem and should receive much more attention in the literature. This study was an evaluation of the performance degradation of crystalline photovoltaic modules due to natural and simulated dust deposition. Dust is created from powdered grains of sand and particles of different bodies. Dust originates from different...
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Triangulation-based Constrained Surrogate Modeling of Antennas
PublicationDesign of contemporary antenna structures is heavily based on full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools. They provide accuracy but are CPU-intensive. Reduction of EM-driven design procedure cost can be achieved by using fast replacement models (surrogates). Unfortunately, standard modeling techniques are unable to ensure sufficient predictive power for real-world antenna structures (multiple parameters, wide parameter ranges,...
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Structural and electrical properties of Cr-doped SrTiO 3 porous materials
PublicationSeries of single-phase materials with assumed formula SrTi1−xCrxO3 (where x = 0, 1, 4, 6 mol.%) were obtained by sol-gel method. The structure and microstructure of materials were characterised by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy methods. Moreover, the study of electrical properties and evaluation of chemical stability in CO2/H2O atmosphere was performed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and thermogravimery...
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Investigation and operation problems of metal tanks in Poland
PublicationThe paper consists of three parts concerned with steel cylindrical, vertical tank for liquid fuel. In the first part the present trends in tank design and building in Poland are described. The main are: · reduction of environment contamination danger caused by tank leakage and hydrocarbons evaporation, · increasing capacity of new tanks (100000 m3 and more) due to economic factor - reduction of steel amount per m3 of storage capacity....
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The influence of moderate pressure and subzero temperature on the shelf life of minced cod, salmon, pork and beef meat
PublicationThe effect of moderate pressure at subzero temperature on natural microflora of minced cod, salmony, pork and beef meat was studied. Pressure of 193 MPa at –20 °C caused reduction of total bacterial count in pork and beef meat by 1.1 and 0.6 log cycles, respectively, and by about 1.5 log cycles in fish meat. Under these conditions the psychrophilic and psychrotophic bacteria were below the detection limit (<10CFU/g of sample) in...
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Online sound restoration system for digital library applications
PublicationAudio signal processing algorithms were introduced to the new online non-commercial service for audio restoration intended to enhance the content of digitized audio repositories. Missing or distorted audio samples are predicted using neural networks and a specific implementation of the Jannsen interpolation method based on the autoregressive model (AR) combined with the iterative restoring of missing signal samples. Since the distortion...
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Poroelastic Road Surface – a Promising Road Traffic Noise Abatement Solution
PublicationRoad surfaces have a direct impact on the generation of noise by rolling tyres, the main and dominant source of noise of moving vehicles, as well as may affect propagation of noise emitted by all noise sources of a vehicle. Thus there is no doubt that pavement should be considered as one of the major potential road traffic noise abatement measure. Low noise pavements of existing types may in new conditions provide up to 8 dB of...
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Multi-fidelity EM simulations and constrained surrogate modelling for low-cost multi-objective design optimisation of antennas
PublicationIn this study, a technique for low-cost multi-objective design optimisation of antenna structures has been proposed. The proposed approach is an enhancement of a recently reported surrogate-assisted technique exploiting variable-fidelity electromagnetic (EM) simulations and auxiliary kriging interpolation surrogate, the latter utilised to produce the initial approximation of the Pareto set. A bottleneck of the procedure for higher-dimensional...
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Enabling simultaneous redox transformation of toxic chromium(VI) and arsenic(III) in aqueous media—A review
PublicationSimultaneous conversion of most harmful As(III) and Cr(VI) to their less toxic counterparts is environmentally desirable and cost-effective. It has been confirmed that simultaneous oxidation of As(III) to As(V) and reduction of Cr(VI) to Cr(III) can occur via free radical or mediated electron transfer processes. While Cr(VI) is reduced by reacting with H•, eaq−, photoelectron directly or undergoing ligand exchange with H2O2 and...
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Ice Load Characteristics on Floating Photovoltaic Platform
PublicationNowadays, based upon human needs and preferring perpetual types of energy, photovoltaic system (PV) is a suitable alternative and more frequently used in northern countries, which are recently more attracted by solar power. The new floating type of the structure is installed in the water bodies instead of land. One of the main elements in floating photovoltaic structures is the forces imposed on the panels. In the northern regions,...
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Experimentally Aided Operational Virtual Prototyping to Predict Best Clamping Conditions for Face Milling of Large-Size Structures
PublicationVibrations occurring during milling operations are one of the main issues disturbing the pursuit of better efficiency of milling operations and product quality. Even in the case of a stable cutting process, vibration reduction is still an important goal. One of the possible solutions to obtain it is selection of the favorable conditions for clamping the workpiece to the machine table. In this paper, a method for predicting and...
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The Influence of Global Corrosion Degradation on Localized Damage Detection Using Guided Waves
PublicationThis paper presents the results of a numerical analysis of the influence of corrosion degradation of metal plates on the wave propagation phenomenon. There are several different corrosion types, but general and pitting corrosion are the most common. General corrosion is more or less uniformly distributed over the entire exposed surface of the metal while pitting corrosion takes the form of localized cracks. Because the general...
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In Vitro and In Vivo Imaging-Based Evaluation of Doxorubicin Anticancer Treatment in Combination with the Herbal Medicine Black Cohosh
PublicationAs a substitution for hormone replacement therapy, many breast cancer patients use black cohosh (BC) extracts in combination with doxorubicin (DOX)-based chemotherapy. In this study, we evaluated the viability and survival of BC- and DOX-treated MCF-7 cells. A preclinical model of MCF-7 xenografts was used to determine the influence of BC and DOX administration on tumor growth and metabolism. The number of apoptotic cells after...
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Ni-based compounds in multiwalled graphitic shell for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reactions
Open Research DataThis study investigates Ni-based compounds (Ni, NiO, Ni3C) coated with a graphitic shell as electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are employed to identify the presence and contribution of Nickel ions (Ni0, Ni2+, Ni3+) and determine the phase composition. Electrochemical...
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Macromodels for efficient FEM simulations of waveguides and resonators
PublicationThis paper introduces a novel technique for enhancing the efficiency of the finite element method (FEM) by incorporating special modules, called macromodels, into the standard eigenvalue formulation. The number of unknowns in the separated macromodel subdomain can be significantly reduced by orthogonal projection, using the efficient nodal order reduction algorithm. The idea of macromodels implementation is demonstrated on a simple...
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Aryl and N-arylamide carbon nanotubes for electrical coupling of laccase to electrodes in biofuel cells and biobatteries
PublicationSingle walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were equipped with aryl residues by chemical reactions. These insoluble materials were used to substitute classical soluble mediators, which help to transfer electrical charge between the conducting electrode and the redox active center of enzyme molecules. The effect of different aryl residues on the efficiency of the catalytic reduction of dioxygen in the presence of laccase was systematically...
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Advances in analysis, quantification and modelling of N2O emission in SBRs under various DO set points
PublicationNitrous oxide (N2O), considered a major greenhouse gas (GHG) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), is produced during both nitrification and denitrification processes; hence, it needs to be controlled by internal and external strategies. Various factors, such as DO, temperature, and pH, could be incorporated into the mitigation of emissions in WWTPs. In this research, potential operational strategies were investigated in order...
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On the Use of Selected 4th Generation Nuclear Reactors in Marine Power Plants
PublicationThis article provides a review of the possibility of using different types of reactors to power ships. The analyses were carried out for three different large vessels: a container ship, a liquid gas carrier and a bulk carrier. A novelty of this work is the analysis of the proposal to adapt marine power plants to ecological requirements in shipping by replacing the conventional propulsion system based on internal combustion engines...
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Achieving energy neutrality in wastewater treatment plants through energy savings and enhancing renewable energy production
PublicationWastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) consume high amounts of energy which is mostly purchased from the grid. During the past years, many ongoing measures have taken place to analyze the possible solutions for both reducing the energy consumption and increasing the renewable energy production in the plants. This review contains all possible aspects which may assist to move towards energy neutrality in WWTPs. The sources of energy...
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Super capacitor energy bank MEDCOM UCER-01 in Gdynia trolleybus system
PublicationSince 2001, trolleybus system in Gdynia has been involved in many activities related to the reduction of power consumption, both in terms of implementation and research and development. The installation of the supercapacity energy bank on substation Wielkopolska in 2014 year was one of them. It is the first such big stationary supercapacitor storage system installed in trolleybus supply system in the Middle - Eastern Europe. The...
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Performance of data transmission in UMTS with turbo code about decreased number of states
PublicationIn the paper a structure of turbo encoder and decoder about decreased number of states has been described. The simulation results of transmission performance based on turbo coding without the reduction of the number of iterations for the uplink and downlink of WCDMA/FDD interface have been presented. The SOVA algorithm for turbo decoding has been used. The investigations have been carried out for Outdoor to Indoor & Pedestrian...
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Small Antenna Design Using Surrogate-Based Optimization
PublicationIn this work, design of small antennas using efficient numerical optimization is investigated. We exploit variable-fidelity electromagnetic (EM) simulations and the adaptively adjusted design specifications (AADS) technique. Combination of these methods allows us to simultaneously adjust multiple geometry parameters of the antenna structure of interest in a computationally feasible manner, leading to substantial reduction of the...
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A new quantum-inspired approach to reduce the blocking probability of demands in resource-constrained path computation scenarios
PublicationThis article presents a new approach related with end-to-end routing, which, owing to quantum-inspired mecha-nisms of prediction of availability of network resources, results in improved blocking probability of incoming requests to establish transmission paths. The proposed scheme has been analyzed for three network topologies and several scenarios of network load. Obtained results show a significant (even twofold) reduction of...
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Modelling of two-component turbulent mass and heat transfer in air-fed pressurised suits
PublicationIn this paper the modelling of an important industrial problem is addressed, which involves the two-component turbulent flow with heat transfer that takes place inside protective clothing. The geometry of the flow boundaries is reconstructed in a CAD system from photogrammetry scan data. The overall model is sufficiently realistic to allow, after validation, design improvements to be tested. Those presented here allow the reduction...
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Influence of dipoles on the recombination in organic photovoltaic devices
PublicationAlthough organic compounds are promising materials to use them in photovoltaic devices, the efficiencies of organic solar cells are still lower in comparison to inorganic photocells. The recombination of charge carriers leads to the loss of photocurrent, therefore a detailed theoretical description of this process is required. In the present work, an influence of interface dipoles on the recombination process is discussed. We show...
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A CMRC-based compact rat-race coupler with harmonic suppression
PublicationIn this paper, an eective miniaturization technique exploiting compact microstrip resonant cells has been discussed and experimentally validated on the basis of a 3-dB microstrip rat-race coupler. The application of the method proposed has resulted in 91 % circuit area reduction in comparison to a conventional rat-race coupler. Experimental results show good agreement with theoretical characteristics, as well as an additional eect,...
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Enhanced solar light photocatalytic performance of Fe-ZnO in the presence of H2O2, S2O82−, and HSO5− for degradation of chlorpyrifos from agricultural wastes: Toxicities investigation
PublicationThis study reported Fe doped zinc oxide (Fe-ZnO) synthesis to degrade chlorpyrifos (CPY), a highly toxic organophosphate pesticide and important sources of agricultural wastes. Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic analyses showed successful formation of the Fe-ZnO with highly crystalline and amorphous nature. Water collected from agricultural wastes...
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A screening of select toxic and essential elements and persistent organic pollutants in the fur of Svalbard reindeer
PublicationReindeers play an important role in the polar ecosystem, being long-lived sole vegetarians feeding on local vegetation. They can be used as a valuable bioindicator, helping us to understand contaminants’ impact on the polar terrestrial ecosystem. Still, scarce data exist from research in which polar herbivores (especially those from the European parts of the Arctic) were a major study subject for trace elements and persistent organic...
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Hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties of pollutants as a factor influencing their redistribution during snowpack melt
PublicationGlaciers accumulate organic pollutants delivered by snow. However, our understanding of the exact dynamics of organic pollutants in the snowpack relies primarily on laboratory experiments and mathematical models. To fill the gap related to the detailed field data, we have conducted observations of melting snow profiles in two locations and three different stages of melting on one High Arctic glacier, as well as in superimposed...
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Urban Lighting Research Transdisciplinary Framework—A Collaborative Process with Lighting Professionals
PublicationOver the past decades, lighting professionals have influenced the experience of the night by brightly illuminating streets, buildings, skylines, and landscapes 24/7. When this became the accepted norm, a dual perspective on night-time was shaped and the visual enjoyment of visitors after dusk was prioritized over natural nightscapes (nocturnal landscapes). During this time, researchers of artificial light at night (ALAN) observed...
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Bimetallic Bi/Cu0-catalyzed persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes towards clofibric acid degradation in wastewater
PublicationClofibric acid (CFA), an important blood-lipid regulatory drug is an emerging organic pollutant and widely reported in water resources. A novel bimetallic, bismuth/zero valent cupper (Bi/Cu0) catalyst was prepared which showed better physiological, structural, and catalytic properties than Cu0. The Bi/Cu0 effectively catalyzed persulfate (S2O82−) and caused 85% degradation of CFA. The Bi coupling improved reusability and stability...
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Magnetic photocatalysts for water treatment
PublicationThe concept of magnetic photocatalysts with separation function requires ferromagnetic material with high magnetic susceptibility to an external magnetic field to enable recycling of composite nanoparticles. Currently, much attention is devoted to functionalization of photocatalyst using MFe2O3, where M =Fe, Zn, Co, Mn. However direct contact between photocatalyst and magnetic iron oxide particles leads to photodissolution of iron...
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Low noise poroelastic road pavements based on modified asphalt binder
PublicationTire/road noise is one of the most important environmental problems related to road traffic. As the most effective way to fight noise is reduction of sound emission from the source, a lot of work is being done to improve tire and road surfaces construction. This paper describes the first “road” results obtained within the SEPOR project, which is focused on developing a low noise poroelastic road surface based on bituminous binder....
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Stress–strain model of lower corroded steel plates of normal strength for fitness-for-purpose analyses
PublicationThis study investigates the mechanical properties of specimens made of normal strength steel subjected to lower marine immersed corrosion degradation levels (below 25 %). The specimens were corroded in laboratory conditions, and only natural factors were controlled to raise the corrosion rate (reaching the level of 1 mm/year). Three different thicknesses of plates made of normal strength of shipbuilding steel are investigated (between...
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A Numerical Study on Baseline-Free Damage Detection Using Frequency Steerable Acoustic Transducers
PublicationIn structural health monitoring (SHM) a considerable amount of damage detection algorithms based on guided waves (GW) have been developed. Most of them rely on extensive transducer networks, besides preliminary reference measurements of the structures. This originated a growing demand for hardware simplification and cost reduction of the wave-based SHM methods, driving the conception of new solutions enabling both: the reduction...
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An MOR Algorithm Based on the Immittance Zero and Pole Eigenvectors for Fast FEM Simulations of Two-Port Microwave Structures
PublicationThe aim of this article is to present a novel model-order reduction (MOR) algorithm for fast finite-element frequency-domain simulations of microwave two-port structures. The projection basis used to construct the reduced-order model (ROM) comprises two sets: singular vectors and regular vectors. The first set is composed of the eigenvectors associated with the poles of the finite-element method (FEM) state-space system, while...
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Microextraction Techniques Used in the Procedures for Determining Organomercury and Organotin Compounds in Environmental Samples
PublicationDue to human activities, the concentrations of organometallic compounds in all parts of the environment have increased in recent decades. The toxicity and some biochemical properties of mercury and tin present in the environment depend on the concentration and chemical form of these two elements. The ever-increasing demand for determining compounds at very low concentration levels in samples with complex matrices requires...
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A Computationally Efficient Model for Predicting Successful Memory Encoding Using Machine-Learning-based EEG Channel Selection
PublicationComputational cost is an important consideration for memory encoding prediction models that use data from dozens of implanted electrodes. We propose a method to reduce computational expense by selecting a subset of all the electrodes to build the prediction model. The electrodes were selected based on their likelihood of measuring brain activity useful for predicting memory encoding better than chance (in terms of AUC). A logistic...
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Electrochemical determination of nitroaromatic explosives at boron-doped diamond/graphene nanowall electrodes: 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and 2,4,6-trinitroanisole in liquid effluents
PublicationThe study is devoted to the electrochemical detection of trace explosives on boron-doped diamond/graphene nanowall electrodes (B:DGNW). The electrodes were fabricated in a one-step growth process using chemical vapour deposition without any additional modifications. The electrochemical investigations were focused on the determination of the important nitroaromatic explosive compounds, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 2,4,6-trinitroanisole...
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The best porous asphalt pavement in Sweden so far
PublicationIn 2010 a double-layer porous asphalt concrete (DPAC) pavement was constructed in various versions on the E4 motorway through the Swedish city Huskvarna. As a result of a court decision the Swedish Transport Administration had to reduce noise emission by applying a low noise road surface that would reduce A-weighted noise levels by 5 dB, as an average. Earlier experience in Sweden indicated that it was possible to obtain a high...
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Domain segmentation for low-cost surrogate-assisted multi-objective design optimisation of antennas
PublicationAbstract: Information regarding the best possible design trade-offs of an antenna structure can be obtained through multiobjective optimisation (MO). Unfortunately, MO is extremely challenging if full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation models are used for performance evaluation. Yet, for the majority of contemporary antennas, EM analysis is the only tool that ensures reliability. This study introduces a procedure for accelerated...
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On Nonlinear Dynamic Theory of Thin Plates with Surface Stresses
PublicationWe discuss the modelling of dynamics of thin plates considering surface stresses according to Gurtin–Murdoch surface elasticity. Taking into account the surface mass density we derive the two-dimensional (2D) equations of motion. For the reduction of the three-dimensional (3D) motion equations to the 2D ones we use the trough-the-thickness integration procedure. As a result, the 2D dynamic parameters of the plate depend not only...