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Search results for: HEAVY METAL POLLUTION
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Review on the quality of sediments from the stormwater drainage system in the urban area
PublicationThe main task of the stormwater drainage system is a safe drainage of rainwater and snowmelt from the urban area to the receiver. The flow of rain water in the drainage pipes is directly related with the formation of sediments in the whole stormwater system. In addition, pollutants from land runoff get adsorbed to the sediments. The sludge is mainly formed in those elements of stormwater drainage system, wherein the flow conditions...
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ANALYSIS OF THE INCREASE OF CONSTRUCTION COSTS IN URBAN REGENERATION PROJECTS
PublicationThe subject of this paper is the analysis and evaluation of the reasons for construction costs increases in urban regeneration projects. The analysis considers major refurbishments of real estates’, as well as heavy repair and modernization of the road system. For the period mentioned, the costs from works and expenditure schedules were compared with the costs of additional works, which shows the percentage cost increase in relation...
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A Series of Novel 3D Coordination Polymers Based on the Quinoline-2,4-dicarboxylate Building Block and Lanthanide(III) Ions—Temperature Dependence Investigations
PublicationA series of novel 3D coordination polymers [Ln2(Qdca)3(H2O)x]yH2O (x = 3 or 4, y = 0–4) assembled from selected lanthanide ions (Ln(III) = Nd, Eu, Tb, and Er) and a non-explored quinoline- 2,4-dicarboxylate building block (Qdca2 = C11H5NO4 2) were prepared under hydrothermal conditions at temperatures of 100, 120, and 150 C. Generally, an increase in synthesis temperature resulted in structural transformations and the formation...
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Study on Dry Sliding Wear and Friction Behaviour of Al7068/Si3N4/BN Hybrid Composites
PublicationHybrid aluminium metal matrix composites have the potential to replace single reinforced aluminium metal matrix composites due to improved properties. Moreover, tribological performance is critical for these composites, as they have extensive application areas, such as the automotive, aerospace, marine and defence industries. The present work aims to establish the tribological characteristics of Al7068/Si3N4/BN hybrid metal matrix...
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The effect of Ag, Au, Pt, and Pd on the surface properties, photocatalytic activity and toxicity of multicomponent TiO2-based nanomaterials
PublicationMulticomponent TiO2-based nanomaterials (MC-NMs) show better physicochemical properties than their individual components or bulk materials. However, the same unique properties that offer innovative applications might also pose unknown risks to human health and the environment. In this context, TiO2- based nanomaterials with a mixture of noble metal precursors (Ag, Au, Pt, and Pd) for large-scale technological applications in air...
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Superconductivity in a new intermetallic structure type based on endohedral Ta@Ir7Ge4 clusters
PublicationWe report the observation of superconductivity at a temperature near 3.5 K for the previously unreported compound TaIr2Ge2. In addition to being a superconductor, this material displays a new crystal structure type that contains endohedral clusters, as determined by single-crystal x-ray diffraction structure refinement; the structure is more complex than those of the commonly observed tetragonal 122 intermetallic phases. Despite...
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Corrosion behavior of hydrogen charged super duplex stainless steel welded joints
PublicationThe electrochemical behavior of the weld metal, heat-affected zone (HAZ), and base material of super duplex stainless steel (SDSS) welded joints, made with the application of flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) and submerged arc welding (SAW), were investigated with the use of metallographic examinations (optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy), potentiodynamic polarization measurements and total hydrogen content determination...
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Photophysics of Ru(II) Dyads Derived from Pyrenyl-Substitued Imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline Ligands.
PublicationThe photophysics of a series of Ru(II) dyads based on the 2-(1-pyrenyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]-phenanthroline ligand was investigated. The ability of these metal complexes to intercalate DNA and induce cell death upon photoactivation makes them attractive photosensitizers for a range of photobiological applications, including photodynamic therapy. In the present study, time-resolved transient absorption and emission spectroscopy...
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Effects of Storing Flux-Cored Wires under Various Conditions
PublicationWelding processes involving the use of flux-cored wires are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in shipbuilding as well as in off-shore and civil engineering. The article presents characteristics of the welding process, its areas of application as well as advantages and disadvantages (e.g. necessity of ensuring appropriate conditions for the storage of filler metal wires). The satisfaction of quality-related requirements...
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Synergistic effects of nitrogen-doped carbon and praseodymium oxide in electrochemical water splitting
PublicationHybrid materials featuring perovskite-type metal oxide in conjunction with heteroatom-doped graphene hold immense promise as alternatives to costly noble metal catalysts for electrochemical water splitting, facilitating the generation of environmentally friendly hydrogen. In this study, perovskite-type oxide containing praseodymium, barium, strontium, cobalt, and iron atoms dispersed in a carbon matrix as a catalyst is synthesized...
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Defective TiO2 Core-Shell Magnetic Photocatalyst Modified with Plasmonic Nanoparticles for Visible Light-Induced Photocatalytic Activity
PublicationIn the presented work, for the first time, the metal-modified defective titanium(IV) oxide nanoparticles with well-defined titanium vacancies, was successfully obtained. Introducing platinum and copper nanoparticles (NPs) as surface modifiers of defective d-TiO2 significantly increased the photocatalytic activity in both UV-Vis and Vis light ranges. Moreover, metal NPs deposition on the magnetic core allowed for the effective separation...
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Sodium nitrite as a corrosion inhibitor of copper in simulated cooling water
PublicationThe corrosion inhibition behavior of sodium nitrite (NaNO2) towards pure copper (99.95%) in simulated cooling water (SCW) was investigated by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and dynamic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (DEIS). NaNO2 interferes with metal dissolution and reduce the corrosion rate through the formation or maintenance of inhibitive film on the metal surface. Surface morphologies illustrated...
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Calculation methods of interaction of electromagnetic waves with objects of complex geometries
PublicationModeling of the electromagnetic interaction with different homogeneous or inhomo-geneous objects is a fundamental and important problem. It is relatively easy to solve Maxwellequations analytically when the scattering object is spherical or cylindrical, for example. How-ever, when it loses these properties all that is left for us is to useapproximation models, to ac-quire the solution we need. Modeling of complex, non-spherical,...
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Analysis of the Usefulness of Cheap Audio Recorders for Spectral Measurement of Environmental Noise
PublicationEnvironmental noise pollution is nowadays one of the most serious health threats. The impact of noise on the human body depends not only on the sound level but also on its spectral distribution. Reliable measurements of the environmental noise spectrum are often hampered by the very high price of top quality measuring devices. This paper explores the possibility of using much cheaper audio recorders for the frequency analysis....
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Optimizing the computation of a parallel 3D finite difference algorithm for graphics processing units
PublicationThis paper explores the possibilities of using a graphics processing unit for complex 3D finite difference computation via MUSTA‐FORCE and WENO algorithms. We propose a novel algorithm based on the new properties of CUDA surface memory optimized for 2D spatial locality and compare it with 3D stencil computations carried out via shared memory, which is currently considered to be the best approach. A case study was performed for...
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Metals in the environment as risk factors for infectious diseases: gaps and opportunities
PublicationThis chapter aims to provide insights into current knowledge and gaps in our understanding of the influence that trace metals in the environment have on the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. By reducing immune function, trace metal deficiencies may substantially contribute to the global burden of diarhea, pneumonia, and malaria. Improved methods and biomarkers for assessing the risk of trace metals deficiencies and toxicities...
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On electrochemical noise analysis for monitoring of uniform corrosion rate
PublicationSzybkość korozji jest określona przez rezystancję polaryzacyjną warstwy metal-elektrolit. Jej wartość może być wyznaczona za pomocą pomiarów szumów elektrochemicznych. Przedstawiono szczegółowo algorytm wyznaczania wartości rezystancji polaryzacyjnej na podstawie rejestrowanych sygnałów losowych dla przykładowych wyników badań eksperymentalnych. Oszacowano dokładność wyznaczanej wartości.
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P92 steel and inconel 617 alloy welds joint produced using ERNiCr-3 filler with GTAW process: Solidification mechanism, microstructure, mechanical properties and residual stresses
PublicationThe objective of the current study was to analyse the microstructure, mechanical characteristics, and residual stresses of a dissimilar welded joint (DWJ) made of P92 steel and the Inconel alloy 617 (IN617) using the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) method. The ERNiCr-3 filler was selected to produce the conventional V groove (VG) and narrow V groove (NVG) butt joint. The filler deficient zones in the weldments, such as the filler...
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Imaging of the effects of pitting corrosion with the use of AFM
Open Research DataPitting corrosion is a local attack on a metal surface, limited to a point or small area, which appears as a hole. Pitting corrosion is one of the most harmful forms of corrosion due to the fact that it is associated with small, difficult to detect damage, that can even lead to perforation of the structure. A single pit may range in size from micrometers...
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Looking Up to the Stars. A Call for Action to Save New Zealand’s Dark Skies for Future Generations to Come
PublicationThe rapid development of technology coupled with humanity’s desire to reach beyond terra firma, has resulted in more than 60 years of Outer Space activities. Although the exploration of space has provided many advantages and benefits to society so far, including vast, new information that has greatly added to our understanding of our planet and beyond, unfortunately, mankind’s footprint has negative aspects that need to be minimised...
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Healthier and Environmentally Responsible Sustainable Cities and Communities. A New Design Framework and Planning Approach for Urban Illumination
PublicationAlthough sustainability and sustainable development are both considered necessary practices in various fields today, a recent analysis showed that the Sustainable Development Goal SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities established by the United Nations does not address urban illumination and its impact. This oversight is of concern because research carried out in the last 20+ years indicates artificial light at night (ALAN)...
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Balanced Spider Monkey Optimization with Bi-LSTM for Sustainable Air Quality Prediction
PublicationA reliable air quality prediction model is required for pollution control, human health monitoring, and sustainability. The existing air quality prediction models lack efficiency due to overfitting in prediction model and local optima trap in feature selection. This study proposes the Balanced Spider Monkey Optimization (BSMO) technique for effective feature selection to overcome the local optima trap and overfitting problems....
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A mixture of cellulose production waste with municipal sewage as new material for an ecological management of wastes
PublicationChemical contaminants present in cellulose production waste and municipal sewage sludge condition the necessity to treat these wastes before they are introduced into the environment. Environmental use of the these wastes appears to be justified owing to the content of organic substances as well as the considerable fertilising value. The aim of the study was to assess chemical composition and ecotoxicity of cellulose production...
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An approach for estimation of water wall degradation within pulverized-coal boilers
PublicationThe main aim of this paper is to estimate the lifetime of water walls of pulverized-coal boilers at nominal conditions as well as after degradation of water tubes. An approach for a pulverized-coal chamber degradation process has been formulated based on operational and experimental data. This model was formulated using on-line state monitoring of a pulverized coal burner with aim of preventing the fireplace screens from high degradation...
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The influence of the size of a one-faced metallic head in Janus nanoparticles as a co-catalyst on the photocatalytic efficiency of hydrogen evolution under vis light irradiation
PublicationJanus nanoparticles (NPs) consisting of MoOxSy nanospheres and silver (Ag) head, successfully developed by a simple, controlled method were in the first time they were applied as a co-catalysts in photocatalytic hydrogen generation reaction under vis light irradiation (λ > 420 nm). The MoOxSy-Ag as a co-catalysts were deposited on the obtained ZnIn2S4 microspheres (ZIS) using physical absorption method. The influence of the size...
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A novel hierarchically-porous diamondized polyacrylonitrile sponge-like electrodes for acetaminophen electrochemical detection
PublicationA novel composite electrode material consisting of tangled fibrous polyacrylonitrile-based hierarchically-struc- tured nanocomposites has been produced by wet-spinning, carbonized and decorated with a carbon nano- architecture by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and investigated as a metal-free electrode for the enhanced electrochemical detection of acetaminophen. Surprisingly, the hierarchical fiber ar- chitecture...
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APPLICATION POSSIBILITIES OF THE S960 STEEL IN UNDERWATER WELDED STRUCTURES
PublicationIn this paper, the application possibilities of the ultra-high strength (UHSS). Domex 960 steel in the underwater welded structures are analyzed. In the research, the investigated material has been tested in bead-on-plate wet welding conditions with the usage of different heat input values, namely 0.63 kJ/mm, 0.72 kJ/mm and 0.93 kJ/mm. Specimens were performed by the manual metal arc (MMA) welding method with the usage of rutile...
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Effects of preheating on laser beam–welded NSSC 2120 lean duplex steel
PublicationDuplex stainless steels show sustainable alternative for the conventional austenitic grades, with higher strength, higher resistance against stress corrosion cracking, and lower purchase cost. Thus, duplex stainless steel gains more attention in construction, oil and gas, and chemical industries. Among duplex stainless steels, low nickel and low molybdenum alloyed lean duplex stainless steel are a cost-efective substitution of...
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On the effective properties of foams in the framework of the couple stress theory
PublicationIn the framework of the couple stress theory, we discuss the effective elastic properties of a metal open-cell foam. In this theory, we have the couple stress tensor, but the microrotations are fully described by displacements. To this end, we performed calculations for a representative volume element which give the matrices of elastic moduli relating stress and stress tensors with strain and microcurvature tensors.
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LLA : A New Anypath Routing Scheme Providing Long Path Lifetime in VANETs
PublicationVehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) are a promising solution to improve the road traffic safety, reduce the environmental pollution, or simply provide the on-board infotainment services. However, these actions are often not possible due to high mobility of vehicles causing frequent failures of VANET links. In this paper, we focus on anypath routing to improve the reliability of multihop VANET communications. In particular, the paper...
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Smart heating system for home extending utilization of renewable energy sources
PublicationIn the paper a modern approach to smart home heating is presented. Proposed solution utilizes at least two low-polluting energy source technologies. The main idea is to connect well known ecological energy sources in a way that they can support each other and minimize risks of failure when using single system or even both of them but managed in separate way. Considered energy technologies, used separatelly, have disadvan-tages,...
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Deep compaction control of sandy soils
PublicationVibroflotation, vibratory compaction, micro-blasting or heavy tamping are typical improvement methods for the cohesionless deposits of high thickness. The complex mechanism of deep soil compaction is related to void ratio decrease with grain rearrangements, lateral stress increase, prestressing effect of certain number of load cycles, water pressure dissipation, aging and other effects. Calibration chamber based interpretation...
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THE POTENTIAL OF DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF WHITE CABBAGE IN PHYTOREMEDIATION OF ZN AND CD
PublicationThe species belong to the botanical family Brassi- caceae are considered to be useful for phytoremediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals. Problems with use the plants recognized as hyperacumulators is that, the plants need to be harvested shortly after the plants become mature, which causes problems of disposal of obtained biomass. When these plants are dried, they easily crumble and flake off, greatly reducing the yield obtained,...
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State equations in the mathematical model of dynamic behaviour of multihull floating unit
PublicationPrzedstawiony artykuł dotyczy dynamiki wielokadłubowej jednostki pływającej typu katamaran poddanej wymuszeniom pochodzącym od falowania nieregularnego. Analiza dynamiki jednostki wielokadłubowej została przeprowadzona przy założeniu, że model układu jest modelem liniowym na który działa fala nieregularna. Model matematyczny takiego układu dynamicznego jest reprezentowany poprzez równania stanu. Zapisane zostały równania uwzględniające...
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Comparative Study of Machining Technology Selection to Manufacture Large-Size Components of Offshore Constructions
PublicationThe focus of this paper is on process planning for large parts manufacture in systems of definite process capabilities, involving the use of multi-axis machining centres. The analysis of machining heavy mechanical components used in off-shore constructions has been carried out. Setup concepts applied and operation sequences determined in related process plans underwent studies. The paper presents in particular a reasoning approach...
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Effect of Impoundment on Physico-chemical Properties of Water in the Flowing through stream, the Case of the Turawa Reservoir
PublicationThe Turawa reservoir is one of the most important storage reservoirs in Poland. Quite many physico-chemical parameters of water in the reservoir itself and also in the Mała Panew, the river flowing through the reservoir were measured at various periods of the year. Measuring and sampling points were situated at the river inflow, over the reservoir, and at the river outflow. The parameters included temperature, electrical conductivity,...
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Towards Knowledge Sharing Oriented Adaptive Control
PublicationIn this paper, we propose a knowledge sharing oriented approach to enable a robot to reuse other robots' knowledge by adapting itself to the inverse dynamics model of the knowledge-sharing robot. The purpose of this work is to remove the heavy fine-tuning procedure required before using a new robot for a task via reusing other robots' knowledge. We use the Neural Knowledge DNA (NK-DNA) to help robots gain empirical knowledge and...
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Permanent traffic count stations - expressway S6 Poland 2016
Open Research DataThe data includes traffic data from permanent traffic count stations located on the expressway S6 in the Tri-City Agglomeration area in Poland. The data covers the 12 months of 2016.
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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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Statistics of AFM current-voltage curves
Open Research DataMapping surface electrical conductivity offers enormous cognitive possibilities regarding the structure and properties of modern materials. The technique invented for this purpose (Conductive AFM) by Murrel's team and colleagues allows independent monitoring of the local conductivity of materials in correlation with the topographic profile. The mentioned...
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Mono- and bi-metallic plasmonic photocatalysts for degradation of organic compounds under UV and visible light irradiation
PublicationTitania powders were surface modified with gold and/or silver nanoparticles (NPs) by photodeposition method. Gold modified titania exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity during methanol dehydrogenation under UV irradiation than titania modified with monometallic silver and bimetallic Au–Ag NPs. Bimetallic photocatalysts exhibited either enhanced or reduced visible light activity, depending on properties of noble metal NPs,...
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Influence of operation temperature instability on gas sensor performance
PublicationGas sensors based on the semiconducting metal-oxides, such as SnO2, have been found to be very useful for detecting a wide range of gases. The reversible interactions of the gas with the surface of the sensing layer made of semiconducting metal-oxides are responsible for changes of sensor resistance which is usually used as a measure of sensor response. Semiconductor gas sensors are commercially available and applied in numerous...
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Exhaled breath gas sensing using pristine and functionalized WO3 nanowire sensors enhanced by UV-light irradiation
PublicationThe development of advanced metal-oxide-semiconductor sensing technologies for the detection of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) present in exhaled breath is of great importance for non-invasive, cheap and fast medical diagnostics. Our experimental studies investigate the effects of operating temperature selection and UV-light irradiation on improving the response of WO3 nanowire sensors towards exhaled breath exposure. Herein,...
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Mechanical, Thermal and Rheological Properties of Polyethylene-Based Composites Filled with Micrometric Aluminum Powder
PublicationInvestigations related to polymer/metal composites are often limited to the analysis of the electrical and thermal conductivity of the materials. The presented study aims to analyze the impact of aluminum (Al) filler content (from 1 to 20 wt%) on the rarely investigated properties of composites based on the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix. The crystalline structure, rheological (melt flow index and oscillatory rheometry),...
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Performance Assessment of Using Docker for Selected MPI Applications in a Parallel Environment Based on Commodity Hardware
PublicationIn the paper, we perform detailed performance analysis of three parallel MPI applications run in a parallel environment based on commodity hardware, using Docker and bare-metal configurations. The testbed applications are representative of the most typical parallel processing paradigms: master–slave, geometric Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) as well as divide-and-conquer and feature characteristic computational and communication...
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Visible-light-driven lanthanide-organic-frameworks modified TiO2 photocatalysts utilizing up-conversion effect
PublicationHighly efficient and quite stable composite with core-shell-like architecture reported herein, responds to the challenge of sunlight-driven photocatalysts. The Ln(ndc)/TiO2 photocatalytic system comprises active lanthanide-carboxylate coordination networks (Nd, Er, Ho, and Tm as metal ions, and 2,6-naphthalene dicar-boxylic acid as the organic linker) and inert titanium dioxide and allow to convert incompatible visible radiation...
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Laser Beam as a Precision Tool to Increase Fatigue Resistance in an Eyelet of Undercarriage Drag Strut
PublicationThe article contains the results of tests on a laser-processed eyelet of undercarriage drag strut to increase its fatigue strength. Laser processing concentrated on both sides around the hole of eye for connecting the undercarriage drag strut caused that the material in this area withstood more than twice the number of load cycles established for this material. In order to determine the reasons for the increase in fatigue strength,...
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Pasywacja stali nierdzewnych
PublicationOdporność chemiczna stali odpornych na korozję oparta jest calkowicie na pasywnym charakterze warstw powierzchniowych istniejących na tych stalach. Pasywność to stan, w którym metal aktywny wykazuje podwyższoną odporność korozyjną dzięki tworzeniu na powierzchni warstewki, która jest stabilna w danym środowisku, pH i potencjale oraz stanowi produkt korozji.
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The Quality of the Outflow from Conventional WWTPs and Treatment Wetlands
PublicationUntil recently the humic substances were considered to have no negative impact on human health. Therefore elimination of these substances from potable water was only performed due to aesthetic reasons. In the recent years, however, it was found out that humic substances may cause unacceptable smell of water or cumulate toxic substances by complexing metal ions and adsorption of persistent organic pollutants such as pesticides,...
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The influence of humic substances in treated sewage on the quality of surface waters
PublicationAt present the evaluation of WWTP effectiveness is based upon organic matter and nutrients removal. Recently it was found out that sewage treatment leads to formation of resistant to biochemical degradation organic compounds, similar to humic acids. The humic acids formed during sewage treatment process play diversified functions when discharged to surface waters - for instance they can act as carriers of hydrophobic organic pollutants...