Engineering environmental protection at an industrial facility

The aim of this study is to study engineering safety at an industrial facility. The subject of the study is dangerous and harmful factors of production, which include dust and harmful gases. The objectives of the study is assessing the dispersed composition of dust, which determines the microclimate of the working area on the example of a foundry. The presence of fine dust in the air space of the workshop leads to occupational diseases, such as pneumoconiosis (silicosis), bronchitis, dermatitis, conjunctivitis. The dust dispersion assessment took into account the relationship between the particle size and the speed of movement under the action of gravitational or centrifugal forces. The granulometric composition of the provided powder sample was determined by laser diffraction, implemented on the Fritsch NanoTec “ANALISETTE 22” laser particle analyzer. Data analysis shows that almost all phases of the technological process determine the microclimate of the internal environment and in the inter-hull zone during emission dispersion. The degree of exposure depends on the dispersion and chemical composition of the dust, in particular, in the air, the dust is oxidized to form a SiO2 film. In addition, there are other harmful substances in the workshop air that can be deposited on dust particles, which makes dust more dangerous and in this case it is necessary to take into account more stringent values of maximum permissible concentrations (MPC). An increase in the SiO2 content tightens the requirements for the cleanliness of the air in the working area. In the work, on the basis of theoretical and experimental data, the most dangerous areas with the formation of industrial dust from the standpoint of environmental risk were identified, the dust dispersion was assessed, the dust collection system was finalized, and a wet cleaning system was installed

Plant Growth Promoting Properties of Four Arctic Seaweed Extracts

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the White Sea brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum, Fucus vesiculosus, Laminaria digitata and Saccharina latissimi extracts on plant growth and biomass accumulation. Extracts were obtained by isopropanol maceration method. Growth promoting effects of all four seaweed extracts were observed at the initial growth phase of Triticum aestivum and Cucumis sativus plants. A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus extracts were more effective at medium concentrations (60, 120 and 300 mg/L) while higher concentration (1200 mg/L) decreased the growth rate and biomass accumulation in wheat plants, but not in cucumber seedlings when compared to control. Higher phenolic content in A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus extracts can possibly be a reason of lower effectiveness of extracts with high concentration. These results suggest that investigated arctic seaweeds have biostimulatory properties that affect plant growth and biomass accumulation and after intensive future studies can be exploited for elaboration of innovative products for agriculture

Can Heritage Speakers Predict Lexical and Morphosyntactic Information in Reading?

Ample evidence suggests that monolingual adults can successfully generate lexical and morphosyntactic predictions in reading and that correct predictions facilitate sentence comprehension. In this eye-tracking corpus reading study, we investigate whether the same is true for reading in heritage language. Specifically, we ask whether heritage speakers (HSs) of Russian are able to anticipate lexical and/or morphosyntactic information of the upcoming words in the sentence and whether they differ in the predictions from monolingual children and L2 learners. We are also interested in whether the literacy level (i.e., Russian literacy experience or reading fluency in English) influences lexical and morphosyntactic prediction. Our results indicate that HSs as well as other groups were able to anticipate the specific lexical item, and the ability was contingent on the Russian literacy experience and reading fluency in dominant English as evident in some of the early and late eye-tracking measures. Similar to children and L2 learners, the word class and the verb number predictability affected reading times in HSs, but HSs were the only group to anticipate the number of the upcoming noun. We discuss findings in respect to the utility account of the bilingual prediction and divergent attainment trajectory of the heritage language development

Plant Growth Promoting Properties of Four Arctic Seaweed Extracts

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the White Sea brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum, Fucus vesiculosus, Laminaria digitata and Saccharina latissimi extracts on plant growth and biomass accumulation. Extracts were obtained by isopropanol maceration method. Growth promoting effects of all four seaweed extracts were observed at the initial growth phase of Triticum aestivum and Cucumis sativus plants. A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus extracts were more effective at medium concentrations (60, 120 and 300 mg/L) while higher concentration (1200 mg/L) decreased the growth rate and biomass accumulation in wheat plants, but not in cucumber seedlings when compared to control. Higher phenolic content in A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus extracts can possibly be a reason of lower effectiveness of extracts with high concentration. These results suggest that investigated arctic seaweeds have biostimulatory properties that affect plant growth and biomass accumulation and after intensive future studies can be exploited for elaboration of innovative products for agriculture

Engineering environmental protection at an industrial facility

The aim of this study is to study engineering safety at an industrial facility. The subject of the study is dangerous and harmful factors of production, which include dust and harmful gases. The objectives of the study is assessing the dispersed composition of dust, which determines the microclimate of the working area on the example of a foundry. The presence of fine dust in the air space of the workshop leads to occupational diseases, such as pneumoconiosis (silicosis), bronchitis, dermatitis, conjunctivitis. The dust dispersion assessment took into account the relationship between the particle size and the speed of movement under the action of gravitational or centrifugal forces. The granulometric composition of the provided powder sample was determined by laser diffraction, implemented on the Fritsch NanoTec “ANALISETTE 22” laser particle analyzer. Data analysis shows that almost all phases of the technological process determine the microclimate of the internal environment and in the inter-hull zone during emission dispersion. The degree of exposure depends on the dispersion and chemical composition of the dust, in particular, in the air, the dust is oxidized to form a SiO2 film. In addition, there are other harmful substances in the workshop air that can be deposited on dust particles, which makes dust more dangerous and in this case it is necessary to take into account more stringent values of maximum permissible concentrations (MPC). An increase in the SiO2 content tightens the requirements for the cleanliness of the air in the working area. In the work, on the basis of theoretical and experimental data, the most dangerous areas with the formation of industrial dust from the standpoint of environmental risk were identified, the dust dispersion was assessed, the dust collection system was finalized, and a wet cleaning system was installed

Monolingual and Bilingual Reading Processes in Russian: An Exploratory Scanpath Analysis

In the present study, we used a scanpath approach to investigate reading processes and factors that can shape them in monolingual Russian-speaking adults, 8-year-old children, and bilingual Russian-speaking readers. We found that monolingual adults’ eye movement patterns exhibited a fluent scanpath reading process, representing effortless processing of the written material: They read straight from left to right at a fast pace, skipped words, and regressed rarely. Both high-proficiency heritage-language speakers’ and second graders’ eye movement patterns exhibited an intermediate scanpath reading process, characterized by a slower pace, longer fixations, an absence of word skipping, and short regressive saccades. Second-language learners and low-proficiency heritage-language speakers exhibited a beginner reading process that involved the slowest pace, even longer fixations, no word skipping, and frequent rereading of the whole sentence and of particular words. We suggest that unlike intermediate readers who use the respective process to resolve local processing difficulties (e.g., word recognition failure), beginner readers, in addition, experience global-level challenges in semantic and morphosyntactic information integration. Proficiency in Russian for heritage-language speakers and comprehension scores for second-language learners were the only individual difference factors predictive of the scanpath reading process adopted by bilingual speakers. Overall, the scanpath analysis revealed qualitative differences in scanpath reading processes among various groups of readers and thus adds a qualitative dimension to the conventional quantitative evaluation of word-level eye-tracking measures