Industrial tomography platform for diagnostics and control of the crystallization process

PURPOSE: The aim of the article is an industrial system platform for diagnostics and control of the crystallization process with the use of tomographic technologies.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Various methods are used to study crystallization processes. Here, the tomographic method has been applied.FINDINGS: Tomography of industrial processes is a harmless, non-invasive imaging technique used in various industrial in-process technologies. It plays an important role in continuous data measurement for better understanding and monitoring of industrial processes, providing a fast and dynamic response that facilitates real-time process control, fault detection and system malfunctions.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Sensor networks with their feedback loops are fundamental elements of production control. A critical difference in the mass production of chemicals, metals, building materials, food and other commodities is that common process sensors provide only local measurements, e.g. temperature, pressure, fill level, flow rate or species concentration. However, in most production systems such local measurements are not representative of the entire process, so spatial solutions are required. Here the future belongs to distributed and image sensors.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The concept of a system based on industrial tomography represents a solution currently unavailable on the world market, in its assumptions and effects it has a legitimate character of innovation on a global scale. At the same time, it means the creation of a new, fundamentally different from those available on the market, universal product in the technological sphere. It is an innovative, efficient tool for diagnostics and process control.peer-reviewe

Search for thallium in the areas of southern Poland by means of bioindication methods

Thallium is a highly toxic element. For this reason it was applied in production of rodenticides and insecticides for many years. At present, after a ban on Tl rat poisons, it is used only in small amounts. At the beginning of the article, is presented the toxic impact of thallium at the molecular level, its cumulation in particular plant and animal tissues as well as its influence on the condition of individuals and populations. In vertebrate tissues the element cumulates mostly in kidneys and livers and causes very severe neurological, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular disturbances. Despite its toxicity, thallium is an element very rarely studied in Poland and it is not under any routine monitoring. The research, carried out in the 1990-ties at the Department of Ecology, Warsaw University, in industrialised areas, allowed to point out several regions of the country which are seriously threatened by thallium, as well as to indicate direct sources of pollution. A two-step bioindication method was applied. Thallium concentrations were first measured in magpie feathers, and then in internal tissues of rodents. Polluted regions included mainly the surroundings of the zinc smelter 'Bolesław' in Bukowno near Olkusz and a non-ferrous metal smelter in Szopienice (district of Katowice). The thallium originated from post-floatation waste arising during Pb, Zn and Cd ore processing and stored in deposit reservoirs. The study of many plants, fungi, invertebrates and rodents carried out afterwards at the Department of Ecology in both these areas pointed to Tl tissue concentrations distinctly exceeding those that are typical for unpolluted samples, i.e. 0.00X-0.X mg/kg dry weight. In Bukowno the highest values were found: in kidneys of rodents - up to 34.27 mg/kg, in Arion slugs - up to 33.48, in ovaries of frogs - up to 51.61 mg/kg. In Szopienice the highest values were found in earthworms - up to 35.1 mg/kg, and in bush crickets Tettigonidae - up to 83.6 mg/kg. Inhabitants of the villages living in the vicinity of the reservoir in Bukowno can be threatened with Tl pollution for example due to direct consumption of vegetables that contained 1.28-3.70 mg/kg d.w. of thallium. The mentioned above regions, as well as areas near other ore smelters should be constantly monitored for thallium. This article proposes a range of preventive actions which would limit the influence of Tl pollution on humans and the environment

Landscape Ecology vol. 4 nos. 2/3 pp 99-108 (1990)

A pine forest was separated from a lake littoral zone by a meadow on one area (discontinuous) while these habitats were separated by a shrub strip in another area (continuous). This shrub strip acted as an ecological corridor enhancing the movements of birds between the forest and the littoral reed zone. The number of in- dividuals of non-littoral species that visited the reed zone was higher (p < on the area with the connect- ing shrub strip in autumn but the number of species visiting the littoral zone was not significantly higher. Significantly more (p autumn movements by birds in the continuous area were oriented along paths between the forest and the littoral zone whereas movements in the discontinuous area paralleled the littoral and forest zones (p Movements of birds were concentrated along the edge of the shrub strip. The spatial configuration of the landscape facilitated access by some forest birds to the littoral habitat