Horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.) as a biomonitor of air pollution in the town of Plovdiv (Bulgaria)

The present study is a small part of a program for application the methods of passive and active phytomonitoring with herbaceous species, trees, mosses and lichens for assessment of the anthropogenic factor in urban conditions. Aesculus hippocastanum L. was studied as a possible biomonitor of air pollution with heavy metals and toxic elements in the town of Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, V and U in leaf samples from urban areas with different anthropogenic impact were compared. Motor transport was found to be the major source of contaminants. It was found the significant contribution of some factors as urban gradient, canyon-street effect and wind rose in forming the urban air quality

OPTIMIZATION OF NONSTANDARD REASONING SERVICES

The increasing adoption of semantic technologies and the corresponding increasing complexity of application requirements are motivating extensions to the standard reasoning paradigms and services supported by such technologies. This thesis focuses on two of such extensions: nonmonotonic reasoning and inference-proof access control. Expressing knowledge via general rules that admit exceptions is an approach that has been commonly adopted for centuries in areas such as law and science, and more recently in object-oriented programming and computer security. The experiences in developing complex biomedical knowledge bases reported in the literature show that a direct support to defeasible properties and exceptions would be of great help. On the other hand, there is ample evidence of the need for knowledge confidentiality measures. Ontology languages and Linked Open Data are increasingly being used to encode the private knowledge of companies and public organizations. Semantic Web techniques facilitate merging different sources of knowledge and extract implicit information, thereby putting at risk security and the privacy of individuals. But the same reasoning capabilities can be exploited to protect the confidentiality of knowledge. Both nonmonotonic inference and secure knowledge base access rely on nonstandard reasoning procedures. The design and realization of these algorithms in a scalable way (appropriate to the ever-increasing size of ontologies and knowledge bases) is carried out by means of a diversified range of optimization techniques such as appropriate module extraction and incremental reasoning. Extensive experimental evaluation shows the efficiency of the developed optimization techniques: (i) for the first time performance compatible with real-time reasoning is obtained for large nonmonotonic ontologies, while (ii) the secure ontology access control proves to be already compatible with practical use in the e-health application scenario.

Machine Understandable Policies and GDPR Compliance Checking

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) calls for technical and organizational measures to support its implementation. Towards this end, the SPECIAL H2020 project aims to provide a set of tools that can be used by data controllers and processors to automatically check if personal data processing and sharing complies with the obligations set forth in the GDPR. The primary contributions of the project include: (i) a policy language that can be used to express consent, business policies, and regulatory obligations; and (ii) two different approaches to automated compliance checking that can be used to demonstrate that data processing performed by data controllers / processors complies with consent provided by data subjects, and business processes comply with regulatory obligations set forth in the GDPR

Akumulacija metala u šarana i crvenperki iz umjetnog jezera Topolnitsa u Bugarskoj

Concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) were determined in water samples and five fish organs (gills, liver, kidney, spleen, and muscle) of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) and common rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus L.) from the Topolnitsa reservoir (Bulgaria) in three seasons (spring, summer, and autumn). This water ecosystem is located in a copper mining and metallurgical region. Water metal concentrations were significantly higher in the summer than in the spring (p<0.05). Moreover, As, Cd, Cu, and Zn concentrations were higher than the national limits. Qualitative factors “element” and “fish organ” had a stronger influence on metal bioaccumulation than the factors “season” and “fish species”. In fish, the highest metal levels were detected in the liver, spleen, kidney and gills, and the lowest in the dorsal muscle. Tissue levels were higher in the summer, but in general they were similar between the two Cyprinid fish. Fish muscles had the lowest metal levels at all times, but As and Pb exceeded the national and international standards. Therefore, we would not recommend fish consumption from Topolnitsa, as continuous metal contamination of the reservoir may seem to present human health risk.Izmjerena je koncentracija arsena (As), kadmija (Cd), bakra (Cu), nikla (Ni), olova (Pb) i cinka (Zn) u uzorcima vode te škrgama, jetrima, bubregu, slezeni i leđnom mišiću šarana (Cyprinus carpio L.) i crvenperke (Scardinius erythrophthalmus L.) iz umjetnog jezera Topolnitsa (Bugarska) tijekom tri godišnja doba (proljeće, ljeto i jesen) 2012. Taj se ekosustav nalazi u regiji poznatoj po rudnicima bakra i metalurgiji. Koncentracija metala u vodi bila je značajno viša u ljeto nego u proljeće (p<0.05), a koncentracija As, Cd, Cu i Zn prelazila je razinu dopuštenu državnim odredbama. Kvalitativni čimbenici “element” i “riblji organ” jače su utjecali na akumulaciju metala od čimbenika “godišnje doba” i “riblja vrsta”. Najviša razina metala u riba izmjerena je u jetrima, slezeni, bubregu i škrgama, a najniža u leđnom mišiću. Razina u tkivima bila je malo viša u ljeto, ali se uglavnom nije razlikovala između ribljih vrsta. Mišićna je razina cijelo vrijeme bila niska, ali su zato As i Pb bili iznad domaćih i međunarodnih normi. Stoga ne preporučujemo konzumaciju ribe iz Topolnitse s obzirom na to da stalno zagađenje umjetnog jezera za sobom povlači zdravstvene rizike

Graphical Approach for Variability Management in Safety-Critical Product Lines

The number and complexity of the systems realizing the functionality of the machines in the automotive domain are growing. In this arises the need for a systematic way to manage their development. As the technologies advance, the vehicles introduce an increasing range of capabilities. However, they have similar functions, which have the potential to be reused. One of the widely used approaches that manages the commonality and variability of the development artifacts in a systematic manner is Product Line Engineering (PLE). Consequently, PLE reduces the time to market and the development cost. The machines, realized in the automotive domain, interact with their operators and the surrounding environment. Possible malfunctions of the machines may introduce a risk of accidents with fatal consequences. Therefore, the products should be analyzed, developed and managed in a safe manner and certified according to different relevant safety standards like ISO 15998, ISO 61508 and ISO 26262. There is a diversity of functions in a Product Line (PL). Some of them are mandatory for all machines and others are optional for some models. This gives the opportunity to combine the functions in multiple configurations. However, not all combinations are possible due to dependencies among the functions. Furthermore, the configurations should be valid from a safety perspective, and the developed products should satisfy the requirements identified during the safety analysis. The above mentioned factors emphasize the need for explicit representation of the systems' characteristics, such as commonality and variability, functional dependencies and quality attributes. The purpose of the current work is to find an efficient way to satisfy this need. The scope of our research is limited to the automotive domain. In order to gain familiarity with the state of practice, we collaborated with Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) as an industrial partner. In particular, we: conducted an informal interview study with the practitioners, analyzed the requirements management tool used in Volvo CE and studied products typical for the domain in detail, examined the deliverables defined in the related domain specific safety standards. We gained knowledge on how variability is managed in an industrial context today, which safety aspects need to be considered and how functional safety artifacts are managed with regards to variability. We synthesized the characteristics that are explicitly represented during the development and safety certification of the products in a safety-critical product line. We identified the challenges that the practitioners meet today and the areas that need to be improved. As a result, we formulated evaluation criteria for search and assessment of possible solutions. Subsequently we searched in the literature for different modeling techniques, that are able to respond to the industrial needs, and found the following to be relevant in our context: Feature modeling techniques consider the different variability types and dependencies among the features. Model-based development techniques can represent different views of the system on each level of the development process. Orthogonal modeling techniques extract the variability and dependencies in a different view. Furthermore, we evaluated the methods found during the literature study, based on the proposed criteria. We concluded that the examined techniques alone cannot represent all characteristics needed to support the development of a safety-critical product line, especially the impact of the variability on the safety and vice versa. However, each of them focuses on the presentation of certain aspect of the product line, which can help in building a more complete representation. Thus we focused on the approaches that may be extended and integrated into a complete solution. As a result, we propose a model and graphical notation for variability management in safety-critical product lines, which takes the identified industrial needs into account. The concept is depicted graphically by several model-based diagrams, which represent the different aspects of the product line, on each development level. Special attention is paid to the representation of the safety and variability aspects of the systems. The method is exemplified on an industrial example, in order to show how it achieves the defined goals

Assessment of the urban trees health status on the base of nutrient and pigment content in their leaves

Town settlements have different load level by emissions originated mostly from transport, industry and heating system. Their environmental and climate conditions are more or less changed that effect to growth, physiology and vigor of woody plants at the city public vegetation areas. Our study on determining the impact of urban environment on the tree health status was focused on the quantities of nutrients and main components of the pigment complex – chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids. Leaves of Acer platanoides L., Aesculus hippocastanum L. and Betula pendula Roth. were sampled from urban areas with different type of anthropogenic pressure in the town of Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Concentrations of the elements Ca, K, Mg, N, Na, P, and S were analyzed by ICP-MS. Health condition of trees in the city parks and suburban areas was acceptable, but in the central part and close to the industrial area it was non-satisfactory. This preliminary research pointed ecophysiological tools as useful to develop new criteria for sustainable urban arboriculture, including species selection (based on stress tolerance criteria), nursery hardening and preconditioning, and care after planting

Nature-Based Solutions to Reduce Air Pollution: A Case Study from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Using Trees, Herbs, Mosses and Lichens

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) are becoming more and more recognized as useful instruments to address the challenges that urban areas are currently facing, i.e., climate change adaptation, flood mitigation, etc. In the present study, we aimed to: (1) compare the efficiency of mosses, lichens, herbs and trees in removing pollutants from the urban air using their biomonitoring potential; (2) assess their efficiency as nature-based solutions to mitigate urban air pollution; and (3) propose a framework for implementing such NBSs in urban areas. The first step involved analyses of the concentrations of 20 potentially toxic elements in eight selected biomonitors. After that, an assessment of their removal capacity was made on the basis of elements accumulation. This is the first complex study in an urban area involving the simultaneous application of organisms of eight different species and four different systematic groups (lichenized fungi, mosses, herbaceous plants, woody species) as well as such a large number of potentially hazardous elements. The present study sheds new light on some well-known biomonitors in the context of their application for air pollution mitigation. The great potential of the eight studied plant species for efficient removal of potentially toxic elements is highlighted and their implementation into NBS frameworks is recommended

Graphical Approach for Modeling of Safety and Variability in Product Lines

Abstract-Reuse of already developed parts and concepts is a common approach in industry to reduce the time to market and reduce the development efforts. Industrial product lines are often grown over time and structured approaches to support decision-making and manage the complexity are lacking. When developing safety-critical products through product lines, evidence must be provided for all possible product configurations. The lack of a structured product line approach taking the functional safety dimension into consideration makes it challenging for practitioners to provide the required evidence. In this paper we (1) identify requirements that a variability management approach will need to fulfill, (2) discuss existing approaches and their limitations, (3) propose potential extension, (4) apply our approach in an industrial use case and (5) discuss its applicability and future work