BIOGAS PLANTS AS AN ELEMENT OF PROSUMER ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The aim of this study is to assess the situation on the market for biogas plants in the EU, an analysis of the environmental benefits of the construction of agricultural biogas plants and the prospects for the development of this industry in the context of the prosumer energy. In the first part of this article the Authors provide basic information about agricultural production of gas in the European Union (total installed capacity, the number of biogas plants, different types of biogas plants, types of substrates used to feed the Biogas plants). The second part of the study provides an overview of the legislation governing prosumer energy and development of this element of the energy market which is an important and permanent part of the EU energy policy. In the third part of this paper the conducted SWOT analysis shows the strengths and weaknesses of the biogas energy, as well as the opportunities and threats of its further development. The scope of the research covers the period 2007-2015. In order to assess biogas plants market development, the Authors have used elements of multivariate statistical analysis and applied Herfindahl-Hirschman Index assessing the degree of concentration in this market

PROSUMER ENERGY DIFFUSION DETERMINANTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH LOCAL PLANS OF LOW EMISSION - SMOG - REDUCTION

The cognitive focus of the article concerns the measurement and aggregation of relationships between the diffusion of prosumer energy development and the effectiveness of implementing local Plans of Low Emissions Reduction. In this context, the Authors have justified that local actions in the area of low emission prevention (smog - unusual atmospheric phenomenon) are fully converged with the activities of prosumers, producing energy, among others, in order to meet their own needs. On the basis of the literature query and interviews in a group of managers of the energy and environmental management in territorial units - local perspective (in the selected EU country), levels of energy prosumer transformation have been determined in relation to the measures in the scope of low emission prevention.&nbsp

REGIONAL DIVERSIFICATION OF THE LEVEL OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND

In the modern world economy, the importance of regions and cities in economic development is increasing. In line with the policy of the European Union, efforts to level out regional developmental disparities should be made. Regional development can be explored in terms of social, economic or environmental aspects, satisfaction with the level and quality of life of inhabitants, and development of social capital. The aim of this study is to assess only the current level of economic development and its differentiation in various regions of Poland. Data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office from the years 2007-2015 have been used in the analysis. Obtained results will allow to draw conclusions about regional policy in Poland

Application of peripheral nerve conduits in clinical practice: A literature review

Understanding the pathomechanisms behind peripheral nerve damage and learning the course of regeneration seem to be crucial for selecting the appropriate methods of treatment. Autografts are currently the gold standard procedure in nerve reconstruction. However, due to the frequency of complications resulting from autografting and a desire to create a better environment for the regeneration of the damaged nerve, artificial conduits have become an approved alternative treatment method. The aim of this mini-review is to present the nerve scaffolds that have been applied in clinical practice to date, and the potential directions of developments in nerve conduit bioengineering. Articles regarding construction and characterization of nerve conduits were used as the theoretical background. All papers, available in PubMed database since 2000, presenting results of application of artificial nerve conduits in clinical trials were included into this mini-review. Fourteen studies including ≤10 patients and 10 trials conducted on >10 patients were analyzed as well as 24 papers focused on artificial nerve conduits per se. Taking into consideration the experiences of the authors investigating nerve conduits in clinical trials, it is essential to point out the emergence of bioresorbable scaffolds, which in the future may significantly change the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries. Also worth mentioning among the advanced conduits are hybrid conduits, which combine several modifications of a synthetic material to provide the optimal regeneration of a damaged nerve

Tracing human mobility in central Europe during the Upper Paleolithic using sub-seasonally resolved Sr isotope records in ornaments

Mobility of people and goods during the Upper Paleolithic has proven difcult to reconstruct given the relative rareness of remains. Nevertheless, archaeological contexts like the Late Pleistocene horizon of Borsuka Cave (Southern Poland) represent a unique opportunity to explore patterns of objects’ transportation across Central Europe. We investigated the origin of four ornaments made of European elk (Alces alces L.) incisors recovered at Borsuka Cave – the oldest known burial site in Poland, possibly a child grave. Laser-ablation plasma source mass spectrometric analyses of trace elements and Sr isotopic compositions revealed that one elk was roaming within a geologically uniform area while the others changed their pastures during their lifetimes. The non-local origin of the elk teeth is inferred from their exotic Sr isotopic compositions and the lack of evidence for the presence of elk in this territory during the Pleistocene. Instead, the elks’ Sr isotopic composition show good agreement with sites near the Austria-Slovakia border region and northern Hungary, ~250km away from the study site. We argue that the artefacts were most likely brought to Borsuka Cave by humans or by a network of exchange, so far never reported in the time range 32.5–28.8 ka cal BP for Southern Poland

A new high-resolution unstructured grid finite volume Arctic Ocean model (AO-FVCOM) : an application for tidal studies

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 114 (2009): C08017, doi:10.1029/2008JC004941.A spherical coordinate version of the unstructured grid 3-D FVCOM (finite volume coastal ocean model) has been applied to the Arctic Ocean to simulate tides with a horizontal resolution ranging from 1 km in the near-coastal areas to 15 km in the deep ocean. By accurately resolving the irregular coastlines and bathymetry in the Arctic Ocean coastal regions, this model reproduces the diurnal (K1 and O1) and semidiurnal (M2 and S2) tidal wave dynamics and captures the complex tidal structure along the coast, particularly in the narrow straits of the Canadian Archipelago. The simulated tidal parameters (harmonic constituents of sea surface elevation and currents) agree well with the available observational data. High-resolution meshes over the continental shelf and slope capture the detailed spatial structure of topographic trapped shelf waves, which are quite energetic along the Greenland, Siberia, and Spitsbergen continental slope and shelf break areas. Water stratification influences the vertical distribution of tidal currents but not the water transport and thus tidal elevation. The comparison with previous finite difference models suggests that horizontal resolution and geometric fitting are two prerequisites to simulate realistically the tidal energy flux in the Arctic Ocean, particularly in the Canadian Archipelago.This research was supported by the NSF Office of Polar Programs through grants OPP ARC-0712903, ARC- 0732084, and ARC-0804029 for C. Chen, G. Gao, and G. Cowles; OPP ARC-0804010 and ARC-0712848 for A. Proshutinsky; OPP ANT-0523223, ARC0712848, NOAA Cooperative Agreement NA17RJ1223 (409) and the WHOI Smith Chair for R. C. Beardsley. J. Qi was supported by the SMAST fishery program under NOAA grants NA04NMF4720332 and NA05NMF4721131. The spherical coordinate version of FVCOM was developed with initial funds from NSF grants OCE-0606928 and OCE- 0726851. Gao was also supported by the Chinese NSF Arctic Ocean grant under contract 40476007