MODELS FOR ASSESSING AND PREDICTING THE SUBSURFACE TRANSPORT OF CONTAMINANTS FROM THE WASTEWATER IN THE EFFLUENT CHANNEL OF KCM AD - PLOVDIV, SOUTHERN BULGARIA

Until the end of the 20th century, the uncontrolled discharge of highly polluted emissions from the non-ferrous metals companies in Bulgaria was the cause of heavy contamination in vast areas around these industrial sites. In the last two decades, after the introduction of good environmental practices and the closure of polluting industries, a deceleration of the negative processes and a gradual cleaning of the already polluted waters and soils are observed. In order to evaluate and predict these processes, numerical 2D models of the conditions for the subsurface transport of contaminants from the wastewater in the effluent channel of KCM AD-Plovdiv are developed using the VS2DI computer programme. The scheme of convection-diffusion mass-transport is applied, taking into account the concomitant processes of reversible elimination, mechanical dispersion and mixing. Employing the developed models, the fate and transport of pollutants typical for this type of industrial sites – sulphate ions and cadmium (SO4 and Cd) are studied, taking into account their concentration in the wastewater before and after the application of modern technologies and equipment for remediation of contaminated water. The computer simulation encompasses the period from the construction of the effluent channel till 2035

Characterization of Zahari Zograph's nave wall paintings in the church "The nativity of the virgin" of Rila Monastery (Bulgaria) by vibrational spectroscopy and SEM-EDX analysis

An analytical study on the nave mural paintings of the church “The Nativity of the Virgin” of Rila monastery, Bulgaria, painted by Zahari Zograph was carried out. Vibrational spectroscopy was applied to identify the pigments and organic materials used in the mural paintings. To complement the spectral information, elemental composition of the samples was determined by SEM-EDX. The data showed that smalt with carbohydrate binder was applied for the blue background, green colour was executed by green earths and red-orange colour – by red lead. Azurite is the pigment used to paint the blue colour of the saints’ hoods. The mordant for gilding was prepared of drying oil, resin and siccative metal oxides as evidenced by SEM-EDX, ATR-FTIR and pyrolysis GC-MS analysis. The use of azurite is related to Zahari Zograph’s works as it was not found in any of the previously studied murals in the church painted by other artists

Sparse-grid Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for the Vlasov-Poisson-Lenard-Bernstein Model

Sparse-grid methods have recently gained interest in reducing the computational cost of solving high-dimensional kinetic equations. In this paper, we construct adaptive and hybrid sparse-grid methods for the Vlasov-Poisson-Lenard-Bernstein (VPLB) model. This model has applications to plasma physics and is simulated in two reduced geometries: a 0x3v space homogeneous geometry and a 1x3v slab geometry. We use the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method as a base discretization due to its high-order accuracy and ability to preserve important structural properties of partial differential equations. We utilize a multiwavelet basis expansion to determine the sparse-grid basis and the adaptive mesh criteria. We analyze the proposed sparse-grid methods on a suite of three test problems by computing the savings afforded by sparse-grids in comparison to standard solutions of the DG method. The results are obtained using the adaptive sparse-grid discretization library ASGarD

An evaluation framework for data competitions in TEL

This paper presents a study describing the development of an Evaluation Framework (EF) for data competitions in TEL. The study applies the Group Concept Method (GCM) to empirically depict criteria and their indicators for evaluating software applications in TEL. A statistical analysis including multidimensional scaling and hierarchical clustering on the GCM data identified the following six evaluation criteria: 1.Educational Innovation, 2.Usability, 3.Data, 4.Performance, 5.Privacy, and 6.Audience. Each of them was operationalized through a set of indicators. The resulting Evaluation Framework (EF) incorporating these criteria was applied to the first data competition of the LinkedUp project. The EF was consequently improved using the results from reviewers' interviews, which were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The outcome of these efforts is a comprehensive EF that can be used for TEL data competitions and for the evaluation of TEL tools in general. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11200-8_6.EC/FP7/LinkedUpEC/FP7/DURAAR

Specific effects of Ca2+ ions and molecular structure of β-lactoglobulin interfacial layers that drive macroscopic foam stability

β-Lactoglobulin (BLG) adsorption layers at air–water interfaces were studied in situ with vibrational sum-frequency generation (SFG), tensiometry, surface dilatational rheology and ellipsometry as a function of bulk Ca2+ concentration. The relation between the interfacial molecular structure of adsorbed BLG and the interactions with the supporting electrolyte is additionally addressed on higher length scales along the foam hierarchy – from the ubiquitous air–water interface through thin foam films to macroscopic foam. For concentrations 30 mM Ca2+, micrographs of foam films show clear signatures of aggregates which tend to increase the stability of foam films. Here, the interfacial layers have a higher surface dilatational elasticity. In fact, macroscopic foams formed from BLG dilutions with high Ca2+ concentrations where aggregates and interfacial layers with higher elasticity are found, showed the highest stability with much smaller bubble sizes

D7.4 Validation 4

Armitt, G., Stoyanov, S., Hensgens, J., Smithies, A., Braidman, I., Mauerhofer, C., Osenova, P., Simov, K., Berlanga, A. J., Van Bruggen, J., Greller, W., Rebedea, T., Posea, V., Trausan-Matu, S., Dupre, D., Salem, H., Dessus, P., Loiseau, M., Westerhout, E., Monachesi, P., Koblische, R., Hoisl, B., Haley, D., & Wild, F. (2011). D7.4 Validation 4. LTfLL-project.This deliverable describes the objectives, approach, planning and results of the third pilot round, in which both individual and threaded services underwent validation. The two goals of this round were to provide input to the LTfLL exploitation plan and roadmap (deliverable 2.5). 531 participants (316 learners) took part in the pilots, which used LTfLL services based on five different languages. The average timespan of the pilots was three weeks and involved learners, tutors, teaching managers, the LTfLL team and Technology Enhanced Learning experts. The validation approach was based on Prototypical Validation Topics derived from the Round 2 validation topics, which refocused the validation topics on exploitation and allowed conclusions to be drawn across all services. Results demonstrated the areas of strength and weakness of each service, informing the selling points and barriers to adoption within the exploitation strategy, as well as suggesting possible further contexts of use. All services were noted to have high relevance in addressing burning issues for organizations, but further improvements to accuracy from a user viewpoint are required. Results on future enhancements to improve likelihood of adoption contribute to the roadmap. Results also provide an indication of each service's current readiness for adoption and provided insights into transferability issues. The overall conclusion is that some LTfLL services are more ready than others for adoption now, with some being currently more suited to sustainability in research settings.The work on this publication has been sponsored by the LTfLL STREP that is funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme. Contract 212578 [http://www.ltfll-project.org