Wild vascular plants gathered for consumption in the Polish countryside: a review

BACKGROUND: This paper is an ethnobotanical review of wild edible plants gathered for consumption from the end of the 18(th )century to the present day, within the present borders of Poland. METHODS: 42 ethnographic and botanical sources documenting the culinary use of wild plants were analyzed. RESULTS: The use of 112 species (3.7% of the flora) has been recorded. Only half of them have been used since the 1960s. Three species: Cirsium rivulare, Euphorbia peplus and Scirpus sylvaticus have never before been reported as edible by ethnobotanical literature. The list of wild edible plants which are still commonly gathered includes only two green vegetables (Rumex acetosa leaves for soups and Oxalis acetosella as children's snack), 15 folk species of fruits and seeds (Crataegus spp., Corylus avellana, Fagus sylvatica, Fragaria vesca, Malus domestica, Prunus spinosa, Pyrus spp., Rosa canina, Rubus idaeus, Rubus sect. Rubus, Sambucus nigra, Vaccinium myrtillus, V. oxycoccos, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea) and four taxa used for seasoning or as preservatives (Armoracia rusticana root and leaves, Carum carvi seeds, Juniperus communis pseudo-fruits and Quercus spp. leaves). The use of other species is either forgotten or very rare. In the past, several species were used for food in times of scarcity, most commonly Chenopodium album, Urtica dioica, U. urens, Elymus repens, Oxalis acetosella and Cirsium spp., but now the use of wild plants is mainly restricted to raw consumption or making juices, jams, wines and other preserves. The history of the gradual disappearance of the original barszcz, Heracleum sphondylium soup, from Polish cuisine has been researched in detail and two, previously unpublished, instances of its use in the 20(th )century have been found in the Carpathians. An increase in the culinary use of some wild plants due to media publications can be observed. CONCLUSION: Poland can be characterized as a country where the traditions of culinary use of wild plants became impoverished very early, compared to some parts of southern Europe. The present use of wild plants, even among the oldest generation, has been almost entirely restricted to fruits

Impact of nonlinear standing waves underneath a deck

A theoretical approach was applied to investigate the impact of nonlinear standing waves underneath a horizontal deck. A solution was achieved by applying a boundary element method. The model was applied to predict impact pressure underneath a deck. The results show that the wave impact is a very complex momentary process. The influence of initial boundary conditions, wave parameters and deck clearance on impact pressure are analysed. The analysis shows that purely sinusoidal waves of very small amplitude may cause an impact pressure several orders of magnitude higher than a pressure arising from typical applications of a linear wave theory. The analysis shows that all these non-intuitive outcomes arise from the complexity of a wave impact process and its enormous sensitivity to initial conditions what indicates serious difficulties in a reliable prediction of a wave impact for complex wave fields or other structures. Laboratory experiments were conducted to validate theoretical results.Zbadano proces uderzenia nieliniowych, stojących fal wodnych w spód poziomego pokładu. Wykorzystano podejście teoretyczne, którego rozwiązanie opiera się na Metodzie Elementów Brzegowych. Za pomocą modelu wyznaczono ciśnienia generowane uderzeniem fal wodnych. Wyniki wskazują na to, że proces jest bardzo złożony i ma charakter impulsowy. Analizowano wpływ początkowych warunków brzegowych, parametrów fali oraz wysokości zawieszenia pokładu nad powierzchnią spokoju na generowane ciśnienia. Wyniki pokazują, że nawet fale sinusoidalne, o małej amplitudzie mogą wywołać ciśnienia kilkukrotnie większe niż ciśnienia wynikające z typowych zastosowań teorii liniowej falowania. Pokazują również, że często nieintuicyjne wnioski wynikają ze złożoności procesu uderzenia fali i jego dużej czułości na początkowe warunki brzegowe. Wskazuje to na poważne trudności w wiarygodnym modelowaniu procesu uderzenia dla złożonych pól falowych oraz skomplikowanych układów geometrycznych budowli. Przeprowadzono również pomiary laboratoryjne w celu uzyskania danych do walidacji modelu numerycznego. Opracowany model zapewnia wyniki z dokładnością umożliwiającą zastosowanie go w zadaniach inżynierskich

Impact pressure distribution on a monopile structure excited by irregular breaking wave

The problem of impact pressure distribution on a monopole structure excited by irregular breaking waves is investigated. The analysis is performed by applying a numerical model that combines potential flow model with a Navier-Stokes/VOF solution. The temporal pressure distribution is analysed for two breaking wave cases characterized by the significant difference in the steepness of the wave front. The peak impact pressures are observed in the region below the overturning wave jet where the pressure increases rapidly resulting in a peak value of the slamming coefficient equal to Cs=2π. The vertical load distribution provided by the derived model is more realistic than a rectangular shape distribution applied in engineering practice. This is because the vertical load distribution strongly depends on breaking wave shape and it is difficult to uniquely approximate such a load distribution by a rectangle

Generating and propagation of moored ship screw race jet

Paper on the propeller jet behind ships describing a theoretical model and experimental verification

Application of statistical methods for the prediction of extreme wave events

A statistically-based model is applied to forecast sea states for severe storms. The model is based on the application of a neural network and predicts extreme sea state parameters at specified locations. The results show that the neural network can be applied to forecast extreme sea state parameters. This requires a special treatment of the input data. The analysis shows that different types of input data and training data sets should be considered and the representativity of the training data set must be improved. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis should be conducted to remove excess information from the input data. The processing of data sets significantly reduces the number of parameters applied in the model and improves the prediction for most severe storms. The analysis indicates that this neural network model may be helpful in the selection of a measurement system for the forecasting of extreme sea state parameters. This is important because typical installations of wave buoys along the coast have a limited forecasting applicability range