Polish banking system during the global financial crisis

Lasting for over a year the global crisis in financial markets, affected individual countries’ banking systems to a different degree. The present article discusses the phenomenon and its effects on the Polish banking system. The aim of the article is to present trends, the scale of the crisis and the current level of danger to stability of domestic financial market. The result of the research is a synthetic estimation of the level of the financial sector stability, taking into account the risks to solvency, liquidity, profitability, and quality loan portfolio and changes in deposits.Banking, financial crisis, financial stability., Financial Economics, G32,

Age-related Changes in Auditory Cortex Without Detectable Peripheral Alterations: A Multi-level Study in Sprague–Dawley Rats

International audienceAging is often considered to affect both the peripheral (i.e. the cochlea) and central (brainstem and thalamus-cortex) auditory systems. We investigated the effects of aging on the cochlea, brainstem and cortex of female Sprague-Dawley rats. The auditory nerve threshold remained stable between the ages of nine and 21 months, as did distortion product otoa-coustic emissions and the number of ribbon synapses between inner hair cells and nerve fibers. The first clear signs of aging appeared in the brainstem, in which response amplitude decreased, with thresholds remaining stable until the age of 15 months, and increasing slightly thereafter. The responses of primary auditory cortex neurons revealed specific effects of aging: at 21 months, receptive fields were spectrally narrower and the temporal reliability of responses to communication sounds was lower. However, aging had a null or even positive effect on neuronal responses in the presence of background noise, responses to amplitude-modulated sounds, and responses in gap-detection protocols. Overall, inter-animal variability remained high relative to the variability across groups of different ages, for all parameters tested. Beha-vioral performance for the modulation depth of amplitude modulation noise was worse in 21-month old animals than in other animals. Age-related alterations of cortical and behavioral responses were thus observed in animals displaying no signs of aging at the peripheral level. These results suggest that intrinsic, central aging effects can affect the perception of acoustic stimuli independently of the effects of aging on peripheral receptors

Seismic rotation waves: basic elements of theory and recording

Returning to the old problem of observed rotation effects, we present the recording system and basic elements of the theory related to the rotation fi eld and its association with seismic waves. There can be many different causes leading to observed/recorded rotation effects; we can group them as follows: generation of micro-displacement motion due to asymmetry of source processes and/or due to interaction between seismic body/surface waves and medium structure; interaction between incident seismic waves and objects situated on the ground surface. New recording techniques and advanced theory of deformation in media with defects and internal (e.g., granular) structure make it possible to focus our attention on the fi rst group, related to microdisplacement motion recording, which includes both rotation and twist motions. Surface rotations and twists caused directly by the action of emerging seismic waves on some objects situated on the ground surface are considered here only in the historical aspects of the problem. We present some examples of experimental results related to recording of rotation and twist components at the Ojcow Observatory, Poland, and L'Aquila Observatory, Italy, and we discuss some prospects for further research

Posttreatment of olive mill wastewater by immobilized TiO2 photocatalysis

A photocatalytic reactor with UV/TiO2 was used for the post-treatment of olive mill wastewater after anaerobic digestion. A factorial experimental design was adopted to determine the statistical significance of each parameter tested, namely initial COD, pH, treatment time and recirculation flow, and possible interactions, in three response variables: phenols, colour, and COD removals. Removal efficiencies of 90.8 ± 2.7 %, 79.3 ± 1.9 %, and 50.3 ± 6.3 % were obtained for total phenols (TPh), colour, and COD, respectively. TPh and colour were almost completely removed after 24 h of treatment, while the COD removal was partial. Because increasing the treatment time is economically unfeasible a recirculation to the anaerobic reactor should be considered. Regarding the most significant variables, the TPh removal efficiency is dependent of the initial COD concentration; the colour removal efficiency decreased with increasing COD concentration and pH; and, the COD removal efficiency is directly linked with the treatment time. The interaction between the initial COD and treatment time affect negatively the response variables tested because of the inactivation of some active sites of the TiO2 paper.The Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and the European Social Fund (ESF, POPH-QREN) gave financial support through the Post-Doctoral grant attributed to Jose Carlos Costa (SFRH/BDP/48 962/2008) and through the project PTDC/ENR/69 755/2006. The authors thank Dr. M.N. Pons and Dr. O. Zahraa the offer of the reactor and Mr Ing. J. Dussaud from Alstrohm (Pont-Eveque, France) for the TiO2 paper

Assessment and modelling of the effect of precipitated ferric chloride addition on the activated sludge settling properties

[EN] This research studies the effect of the widely used coagulant ferric chloride on the activated sludge sedimentability through a vast array of hindered settling tests considering different application modes and a wide range of reagent doses. Direct application of ferric chloride improved the hindered settling velocity (up to twice the settling velocity of the activated sludge with no coagulant addition), but sharply decreased the pH to levels where the biological process was unfeasible (pH < 4). When the pH was adjusted during coagulation to avoid biological inhibition, the impact on the settling velocity depended on the adjusted pH value. When the added coagulant was previously precipitated and neutralized, no pH inhibition occurred and the hindered settling velocity increased linearly with the dose (up to 8 times). This velocity improvement was caused by the increase in flocs density due to the capture within the flocs of the formed precipitates. Based on these experimental results, the usefulness and reliability of the standard hindered settling velocity mathematical models used for the secondary settler design and optimization (Richardson & Zaki model and the Vesilind's exponential model), was expanded to situations in which precipitated ferric chloride is used in wastewater treatment plants. Two empirical equations were proposed and fitted to relate these mathematical models¿ parameters with the dose of coagulant.Asensi Dasí, EJ.; Alemany Martínez, E.; Duque-Sarango, P.; Aguado García, D. (2019). Assessment and modelling of the effect of precipitated ferric chloride addition on the activated sludge settling properties. Chemical Engineering Research and Design. 150:14-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2019.07.018S142515

Comparison between mixed liquors of two side-stream membrane bioreactors treating wastewaters from waste management plants with high and low solids anaerobic digestion

In the last years, biological treatment plants for the previously separated organic fraction from municipal solid wastes (OFMSW) have gained importance. In these processes a liquid effluent (liquid fraction from the digestate and leachate from composting piles), which has to be treated previously to its discharge, is produced. In this paper, the characteristics of the mixed liquor from two full-scale membrane bioreactors treating the effluents of two OFMSW treatment plants have been evaluated in view to study their influence on membrane fouling in terms of filterability. For that, the mixed liquor samples have been ultrafiltrated in an OF laboratory plant. Besides, the effect of the influent characteristics to MBRs and the values of the chemical and physical parameters of the mixed liquors on the filterability have been studied. Results showed that the filterability of the mixed liquor was strongly influenced by the soluble microbial products in the mixed liquors and the influent characteristics to MBR. Permeate flux of MBR mixed liquor treating the most polluted wastewater was considerable the lowest (around 20 L/m(2) h for some samples), what was explained by viscosity and soluble microbial products concentration higher than those measured in other MBR mixed liquor. (c) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was supported by the URBASER Company. Authors thank personnel of the full-scale MBR plants for providing samples.Zuriaga Agusti, E.; Mendoza Roca, JA.; Bes Piá, MA.; Alonso Molina, JL.; Fernández-Giménez, E.; Alvarez-Requena, C.; Munagorri-Manueco, F.... (2016). Comparison between mixed liquors of two side-stream membrane bioreactors treating wastewaters from waste management plants with high and low solids anaerobic digestion. Water Research. 100:517-525. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2016.05.053S51752510