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Gdańsk University of Technology

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Publications from the year 2023

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  • Enhancement of photocatalytic-based processes by mono- and bimetallic (CuPd) rutile loaded nanoparticles for antibiotic resistance genes and facultative pathogenic bacteria removal
    • Marta Gmurek
    • Johannes Alexander
    • Paweł Mazierski
    • Magdalena Miodyńska
    • Maciej Fronczak
    • Tomasz Klimczuk
    • Adriana Zaleska-Medynska
    • Harald Horn
    • Thomas Schwartz
    2023 Full text CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL

    The aim of the study was the strong reduction of facultative pathogenic bacteria (FPB), and clinically relevant antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) from secondary effluent. To evaluate the ARGs removal efficiency comparative study of individual unit processes and combined AOPs has been performed. The present work investigated: i) removal of selected ARGs, namely blaTEM, ermB, qnrS, tetM, five FPB as well as 16S rDNA and the integrase gene intl1 involved in horizontal gene transfer; ii) bacterial regrowth potential after treatment; (iii) the removal of the total genomic DNA content, by mono- and bimetallic TiO2-CuPd rutile photocatalysts under visible light radiation in real secondary effluent. The nanoparticles were characterized by UV–vis, XRD, HRTEM, Raman and XPS. TiO2-CuPd/VIS inactivation gives the highest (more than 2 log units removal) efficiency for almost all targets (blaTEM, ermB, tetM, intl 1, and 16S rRNA) compared to monometallic catalysts. The highest efficiency toward blaTEM was achieved after ozonation and TiO2-CuPd/O3/VIS (3.22 and 3.23 LRV, respectively). It was found that despite similar FPB inactivation, lower DNA destruction was found after O3 compared to TiO2-CuPd/O3/VIS treatment. The blaTEM and enterococci were completely removed during TiO2-CuPd/O3/Vis and TiO2-Cu/O3/Vis. While, catalytic ozonation leads to only slightly blaTEM removal (0.64 and 0.44 LRV for TiO2-CuPd/O3 and TiO2- Cu/O3, respectively). Photocatalytic ozonation with the application of TiO2-CuPd leads to significant removal of FPB and ARGs due to synergistic effect between Pd and Cu, which leads to acceleration of ozone – catalysts reaction. Photocatalytic ozonation has the greatest potential giving promising possibilities for eliminating AMR.

  • Enhancement of the Magnetoresistance in the Mobility‐Engineered Compensated Metal Pt 5 P 2
    • Alex H. Mayo
    • Hidefumi Takahashi
    • Shintaro Ishiwata
    • Jan Jaroszynski
    • Robert J. Cava
    • Weiwei Xie
    • Tomasz Klimczuk
    • Karolina Górnicka
    • Michał Winiarski
    2023 Full text Advanced Electronic Materials

    The magnetoresistance (MR) in nonmagnetic materials continues to be a fertile research area in materials science. The search for giant, positive MR has been limited to a rather small window of materials such as high-mobility semimetals in single-crystalline form. Here, the observation of a very large positive MR in metallic Pt5P2 in polycrystalline form is reported. The observations reveal that improvement of the crystallinity results in a significant enhancement of the positive MR, exceeding 10 000% at 9 T, comparable to high-mobility semimetals. Based on first-principles calculations combined with magnetotransport and thermoelectric measurements, the Fermi surface of Pt5P2 is found to consist of a collection of multiple electron and hole pockets compensating one another, along with a characteristic pocket continuously connected to the adjacent Brillouin zone, together with possible topologically protected band crossings. This work extends the landscape of high MR candidate materials to polycrystalline metals, which demonstrates the importance of crystallinity and purity of the samples for the optimization of the MR.

  • Enhancing Economic Development Through ICT-Based Governance: Evidence for Developing Countries
    • Ewa Lechman
    2023

    his shows novel empirical evidence on how e-government solutions enhance the emergence of inclusive societies, increase institutional quality, and through that channels dynamize economic development in developing countries. With this aim we examine digital development inequalities adopting 2 core ICT indicators: mobile cellular telephony and Internet users; and gross per capita income and Human Development Index to show the level of economic development, and these indicators are then with e-governments developments. Adopted empirical strategy involves graphical identification of changes in digital and economic development as well as it aims to identify changes in e-governance development, using kernel densities functions, time trends analysis, and panel regression approach. Our empirical sample combines 40 developing economies, and the time span for the analysis is 1990–2019. Statistical data are entirely extracted from World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 2020 and World Band Development Indicators 2021. Our major conclusions unveil that e-government solutions are positively associated with economic growth and development. We claim that these results are poorly robust and massive cross-country disparities exist in regard to the state of deployment of electronic government mainly due to uneven diffusion of digital technologies in developing economies.

  • Enhancing Renal Tumor Detection: Leveraging Artificial Neural Networks in Computed Tomography Analysis
    • Mateusz Glembin
    • Aleksander Obuchowski
    • Barbara Klaudel
    • Bartosz Rydziński
    • Roman Karski
    • Paweł Syty
    • Patryk Jasik
    • Wojciech Józef Narożański
    2023 Full text Medical Science Monitor

    Renal cell carcinoma is one of the most common cancers in Europe, with a total incidence rate of 18.4 cases per 100 000 population. There is currently significant overdiagnosis (11% to 30.9%) at times of planned surgery based on radiological studies. The purpose of this study was to create an artificial neural network (ANN) solution based on computed tomography (CT) images as an additional tool to improve the differentiation of malignant and benign renal tumors and to aid active surveillance. A retrospective study based on CT images was conducted. Axial CT images of 357 renal tumor cases were collected. There were 265 (74.2%) cases histologically proven to be malignant, while 34 (9.5%) cases were benign. Radiologists diagnosed 58 (16.3%) cases as angiomyolipoma (AML), based on characteristic appearance, not confirmed histopathologically. For ANN training, the arterial CT phase images were used. A total of 7207 arterial-phase images were collected, then cropped and added to the database with the associated diagnosis. For the test dataset (ANN validation), 38 cases (10 benign, 28 malignant) were chosen by subgroup randomization to correspond to statistical tumor type distribution. The VGG-16 ANN architecture was used in this study. Trained ANN correctly classified 23 out of 28 malignant tumors and 8 out of 10 benign tumors. Accuracy was 81.6% (95% confidence interval, 65.7-92.3%), sensitivity was 82.1% (63.1-93.9%), specificity was 80.0% (44.4-97.5%), and F1 score was 86.8% (74.7-94.5%). The created ANN achieved promising accuracy in differentiating benign vs malignant renal tumors.

  • Enhancing seismic performance of buckling-restrained brace frames equipped with innovative bracing systems
    • Benyamin Mohebi
    • Mohammad Sartipi
    • Farzin Kazemi
    2023 Full text Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering

    Nowadays, to improve the performance of conventional bracing systems, in which, buckling in the pressure loads is the main disadvantage, the buckling-restrained brace (BRB) is introduced as a solution. In this study, the performance of the BRB system was improved with innovative lateral-resisting systems of double-stage yield buckling-restrained brace (DYB), and a combination of DYB improved with shape memory alloy (SMA) materials (DYBSMA). The proposed systems have been verified and implemented in the 2- to 12-story elevation steel buckling-restrained brace frames (BRBFs). To evaluate their effects on the seismic performance, two types of analysis including nonlinear dynamic analysis (NDA) and incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) were performed considering design-based earthquakes (DBE) and maximum considered earthquakes (MCE) levels for far-field ground motions. The results showed that the BRB system in all BRBFs had the highest values of residual drift ratio (RDRMed) demands, while implementing innovative DYBSMA can considerably reduce the values of RDRMed compared to other lateral-resisting systems. In addition, under MCE level, the BRB-DYBSMA system had lower values of the interstory drift ratio (IDRMed) and RDRMed demands (e.g., the IDRMed reduced by 79.67% and 18.5% compared to BRB and DYB systems, respectively), and can be introduced as the best lateral-resisting system. Therefore, the proposed BRB-DYBSMA system can effectively reduce the IDRMed and RDRMed demands, as result, higher performance levels can be achieved, as well as, the collapse probability occurrence over 1 and 50 years impressively decreased.

  • Enhancing seismic performance of rigid and semi-rigid connections equipped with SMA bolts incorporating nonlinear soil-structure interaction
    • Farzin Kazemi
    • Robert Jankowski
    2023 ENGINEERING STRUCTURES

    Nowadays, using smart connections can improve the performance of buildings with some recentering features that are from the superelastic behavior of Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs). It seems that there is different rigidity between the designed connection and the real one in Steel Moment-Resisting Frames (SMRFs), which can be considered as a problematic issue due to the importance of connections in seismic performance assessment. This paper aims to investigate the seismic limit-state capacities of rigid and semi-rigid connections implemented in the 3-Story, 5-Story, 7-Story, and 9-Story SMRFs considering the nonlinear Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) effects. A Tcl programming code was developed to model semi-rigid connection and SSI effects using Opensees. Incremental Dynamic Analyses (IDAs) were employed to assess the seismic performance levels of SMRFs considering Near- Fault Pulse-Like (NF-PL) and Near-Fault No-Pulse (NF-NP) records suggested by FEMA-P695. The results showed that assuming semi-rigid connections with rigidity of 80%, 70%, and 60%, significantly decreased the median values of IDA curves compared to rigid connection. Considering the SSI effects can considerably decrease the Sa (T1) values of IDA curves and seismic collapse probability in all soil types; therefore, it is suggested to assume the real condition of the structure by modeling the connection rigidity and the SSI effects. It can be concluded that SMA bolts have the ability to improve the seismic performance of connection to compensate the lack of rigidity in semi-rigid connections of SMRFs; as well as, they can be used as a retrofitting strategy for existing buildings.

  • Enhancing Seismic Performance of Semi-rigid Connection Using Shape Memory Alloy Bolts Considering Nonlinear Soil–Structure Interaction
    • Benyamin Mohebi
    • Farzin Kazemi
    • Atefeh Yousefi
    2023

    Steel Moment-Resisting Frames (SMRFs) have their lateral resistance for their rigid connections, while real conditions have shown that the rigidity of a connection depends on the bolts and the end-plate thickness, which may not provide the assumed rigidity in design process. In this research, the main goal is to enhance the semi-rigid connections using shape memory alloy (SMA) bolts and explore their effects on the seismic limit-state capacities of the 3-Story, 5-Story, and 7-Story SMRFs considering the effects of nonlinear Soil–Structure Interaction (SSI). To model the 3-Story, 5-Story, and 7-Story SMRFs, ETABS software was used; then, 2D models were developed in Opensees and the SSI effects were added using Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation (BNWF) model. To achieve the seismic limit-state capacities of SMRFs, Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) was performed and three rigidities of 80%, 70%, and 60% were considered. In each model, the SMA bolts were used to find out the improvements of semi-rigid connections. The results showed that assuming different rigidities as well as the SSI effects could reduce the performance levels. In addition, the results confirmed that SMA bolts could increase the seismic limit-state capacities of SMRFs and this approach can be used for retrofitting of existing buildings.

  • Ensembling noisy segmentation masks of blurred sperm images
    • Emilia Lewandowska
    • Daniel Węsierski
    • Magdalena Mazur-Milecka
    • Joanna Liss
    • Anna Węsierska
    2023 Full text COMPUTERS IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

    Background: Sperm tail morphology and motility have been demonstrated to be important factors in determining sperm quality for in vitro fertilization. However, many existing computer-aided sperm analysis systems leave the sperm tail out of the analysis, as detecting a few tail pixels is challenging. Moreover, some publicly available datasets for classifying morphological defects contain images limited only to the sperm head. This study focuses on the segmentation of full sperm, which consists of the head and tail parts, and appear alone and in groups. Methods: We re-purpose the Feature Pyramid Network to ensemble an input image with multiple masks from state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms using a scale-specific cross-attention module. We normalize homogeneous backgrounds for improved training. The low field depth of microscopes blurs the images, easily confusing human raters in discerning minuscule sperm from large backgrounds. We thus propose evaluation protocols for scoring segmentation models trained on imbalanced data and noisy ground truth. Results: The neural ensembling of noisy segmentation masks outperforms all single, state-of-the-art segmen- tation algorithms in full sperm segmentation. Human raters agree more on the head than tail masks. The algorithms also segment the head better than the tail. Conclusions: The extensive evaluation of state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms shows that full sperm segmentation is challenging. We release the SegSperm dataset of images from Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection procedures to spur further progress on full sperm segmentation with noisy and imbalanced ground truth. The dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.34808/6wm7-1159

  • Entangled rendezvous: a possible application of Bell non-locality for mobile agents on networks
    • Piotr Mironowicz
    2023 Full text NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS

    Rendezvous is an old problem of assuring that two or more parties, initially separated, not knowing the position of each other, and not allowed to communicate, are striving to meet without pre-agreement on the meeting point. This problem has been extensively studied in classical computer science and has vivid importance to modern and future applications. Quantum non-locality, like Bell inequality violation, has shown that in many cases quantum entanglement allows for improved coordination of two, or more, separated parties compared to classical sources. The non-signaling correlations in many cases even strengthened such phenomena. In this work, we analyze, how Bell non-locality can be used by asymmetric location-aware agents trying to rendezvous on a finite network with a limited number of steps. We provide the optimal solution to this problem for both agents using quantum resources, and agents with only 'classical' computing power. Our results show that for cubic graphs and cycles it is possible to gain an advantage by allowing the agents to use the assistance of entangled quantum states.

  • ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF SOLAR CELL MATERIALS
    • Ewa Klugmann-Radziemska
    2023 Full text Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S - Chemia i Inżynieria Ekologiczna S

    In today’s world, fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and gas, are the primary energy sources from which electricity is obtained. As they are exhaustible and their exploitation has a negative impact on the natural environment, they should be, at least partially, replaced by renewable energy sources. One of these sources is solar energy. The use of solar energy releases no CO2, SO2, or NO2 gases, and does not contribute to global warming. Photovoltaics is one of the technologies that makes it possible to generate electricity in an environmentally friendly manner. By using the energy of solar radiation, a photovoltaic cell converts energy without emitting harmful substances to the atmosphere, noise, and waste. Photovoltaics is the cleanest technology among all the technologies that use renewable energy. Considering the shorter and shorter times needed to generate energy equal to that required by the module production process, during its lifetime it will produce much more electricity than was used to produce it. This results in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Although the technologies for the production of photovoltaic cells and modules entail a lower environmental burden compared to other sources of electricity, it is necessary to remember about the risks associated with the use of chemicals at the stage of module production, which threatens their release to groundwater or air, and the need to recycle modules after their disassembly. Also, the energy consumption in the production phase of PV systems significantly worsens the ecological balance. This article presents an analysis of the impact of the materials and technologies used on the result of the environmental analysis of PV installations. In the article a detailed energybalance analysis of the EPBT value has been carried out. The values of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of the solar module were determined. Methods of limiting the impact of photovoltaic technologies on thenatural environment were indicated.

  • Environmental exposure to cadmium in breast cancer – association with the Warburg effect and sensitivity to tamoxifen
    • Kateryna Tarhonska
    • Beata Janasik
    • Joanna Roszak
    • Kornelia Kowalczyk
    • Monika Lesicka
    • Edyta Reszka
    • Edyta Wieczorek
    • Marcin Braun
    • Agnieszka Kolacinska-Wow
    • Jaroslaw Skokowski
    • Leszek Kalinowski
    • Ewa Jablonska
    2023 Full text BIOMEDICINE & PHARMACOTHERAPY

    The association between cadmium and breast cancer remains unexplained due to inconsistent epidemiological data and unknown underlying mechanisms. This study aimed to assess the relationship between environmental exposure to cadmium and the Warburg effect in breast cancer and, thus, its possible interference with breast cancer treatment. The observational study in two groups of breast cancer patients indicated a positive correlation between urinary cadmium concentration and tumor expression of HIF1A (a master regulator of the Warburg effect). Further explanatory research in MCF-7 cells showed no impact of cadmium exposure on molecular and biochemical markers of the Warburg effect. However, long-term exposure to a low and environmentally relevant concentration of cadmium led to the accumulation of the metal in MCF-7 cells and decreased their sensitivity to tamoxifen. To conclude, the association between cadmium and the Warburg effect was suggested in the observational study, although not confirmed in vitro. Nevertheless, cadmium seems to interfere with tamoxifen treatment which deserves further investigation in terms of its possible implication in intrinsic resistance to hormone therapy.

  • Environmentally acceptable lubricants (EAL) compared with a reference mineral oil as marine stern tube bearing lubricant – Experimental and theoretical investigations
    • Jacek Frost
    • Marcin Frycz
    • Jerzy Kowalski
    • Michał Wodtke
    • Wojciech Litwin
    2023 TRIBOLOGY INTERNATIONAL

    The purpose of this research is to indicate the potential differences in bearing characteristics resulting from the application of different lubricant types with the same viscosity grade. The effect of different environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) on hydrodynamic journal bearing properties is studied experimentally and compared to the properties obtained after lubrication with a reference mineral oil. The results of the studies proved that a bearing lubricated with EALs had practically the same properties as one lubricated with mineral oil. The calculations for the tested bearing system showed that the variations of selected lubricant parameters, such as specific heat or thermal conductivity, do not significantly affect the properties of the bearing, i.e. the minimum film thickness or power losses.

  • Enzyme-conjugated MXene nanocomposites for biosensing and biocatalysis acuities
    • Muhammad Bilal
    • Anil Kumar Singh
    • Hafiz M.N. Iqbal
    • Grzegorz Boczkaj
    2023 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL

    Engineered two-dimensional (2-D) MXenes-based materials with tunable characteristics and multi-functionalities have brought up new paradigms in the biosensing and catalysis of chemical compounds. The profusion of electroactive functional moieties on the surface of few/multi-layer MXenes facilitates their ability to retain biomolecules such as enzymes resulting in unique dimensions for bioanalytical and biosensing applications. As a result, the biosensing phenomenon of enzyme-linked MXenes incorporates both counterparts' electro-catalytic potential behavior and characteristics. Enzyme-linked MXenes are equipped with several noteworthy and essential features, including a large and functional surface area, tunable surface chemistry, a high capacity for anchoring biomolecules, metallic conductivity, hydrophilicity, ion transport potential, accessible diffusion barrier, excellent fluorescent and optical properties rendered MXene as appealing candidate nanocomposites to deploy and detect a variety of organic and inorganic molecules of emerging concerns. The application of enzyme-linked nanocomposites based on MXenes in biosensing platforms is expected to effectively address the unresolved challenges encountered by conventional analytical and sensing techniques in various practical settings. Considering the above-mentioned critiques and potentialities, we reviewed enzyme-linked MXenes as a fascinating interface to design, develop and deploy a new generation of monitoring systems to aid bioanalytical applications. More precisely, various challenges and obstacles connected to the synthesis processes, surface functionalization, influencing properties (such as mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and optical), and enzyme immobilization chemistry of MXenes have been highlighted with relevant examples, emphasizing their significant role in bioanalytical sensing applications. In the end, concluding remarks and future expectations have been outlined to document modern expansions in this area.

  • Epitope Mapping of BmpA and BBK32 Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Stricto Antigens for the Design of Chimeric Proteins with Potential Diagnostic Value
    • Weronika Grąźlewska
    • Lucyna Holec-Gąsior
    • Karolina Sołowińska
    • Tomasz Chmielewski
    • Beata Fiecek
    • Marinela Contreras Rojo
    2023 Full text ACS Infectious Diseases

    Lyme disease is a tick-borne zoonosis caused by Gramnegative bacteria belonging to the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) group. In this study, IgM- and IgG-specific linear epitopes of two B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.) antigens BmpA and BBK32 were mapped using a polypeptide array. Subsequently, two chimeric proteins BmpABBK32-M and BmpA-BBK32-G were designed to validate the construction of chimeras using the identified epitopes for the detection of IgM and IgG, respectively, by ELISA. IgG-ELISA based on the BmpABBK32-G antigen showed 71% sensitivity and 95% specificity, whereas a slightly lower diagnostic utility was obtained for IgM-ELISA based on BmpA-BBK32-M, where the sensitivity was also 71% but the specificity decreased to 89%. The reactivity of chimeric proteins with nondedicated antibodies was much lower. These results suggest that the identified epitopes may be useful in the design of new forms of antigens to increase the effectiveness of Lyme disease serodiagnosis. It has also been proven that appropriate selection of epitopes enables the construction of chimeric proteins exhibiting reactivity with a specific antibody isotype.

  • Equivalence scales for continuous distributions of expenditure
    • Stanisław Maciej Kot
    2023 Full text EQUILIBRIUM Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy

    Research background: In the actual sizable populations of households, the standard microeconomic concept of equivalence scales is intractable since its necessary condition of equality of household welfare levels is unlikely to be fulfilled. Purpose of the article: This paper aims to develop a concept of an equivalence scale, which can be suitable for continuous distributions of expenditures in the population. Methods: Using household welfare intervals, we get the random equivalence scale (RES) as the ratio of expenditure distributions of the compared populations of households. Findings & value added: We derive the parametric distribution of RES for the lognormal distributions of expenditures. The truncated distribution of RES is applied to account for possible economies of scale in the household size. A society’s inequality aversion can be helpful when selecting a single equivalence scale. We estimate RES for Poland using microdata on expenditures and subjective assessments of household welfare intervals. The estimated equivalence scales turned out to be very flat and dependent on welfare.

  • ESG investing during the Covid-19 crisis. Evidence from Central European Stock Exchanges
    • Agnieszka Wałachowska
    2023

    As COVID-19 turned into a global pandemic, world markets gradually began to recover after initial dynamic declines. Restrictions, and their subsequent loosening, were, and are, not without significance for the financial markets. These particular circumstances provide a unique opportunity to contribute to the literature by focusing on the potential resilience of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing in an era of crisis. This article analyses selected socially responsible investments from the Central Europe region during the two-year pandemic period. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the performance of the WIG-ESG, VÖNIX and CECE SRI indices by comparing their main risk and return characteristics with typical stock exchange benchmarks. A comparative analysis of the indices in a period of uncertainty that is a pandemic shows that Austrian ESG investments have an advantage in profitability and efficiency over the other indices of the region. The Polish WIG-ESG index, despite its growing popularity and positive returns, failed to conquer the market in the period under review.

  • Estimation of Screw Displacement Pile-Bearing Capacity Based on Drilling Resistances
    • Adam Krasiński
    2023 Full text Studia Geotechnica et Mechanica

    This article presents an engineering, empiricalmethod of estimating the bearing capacity and settlementcharacteristics Q-s of screw displacement piles andcolumns, based on soil resistance encountered during thedrilling to form piles/columns in the ground. The methodwas developed on the basis of correlation analyses of thetest results of 24 piles made during the “DPDT-Auger”research project (Krasiński et al., 2022a). In the proposedmethod, the load capacity of a screw displacement pile isestimated using two main parameters of auger screwingresistance: torque MT and the number of auger rotationsper depth unit nR. The method applies to piles andcolumns made with a standard screw displacement pile(SDP) auger and with the proprietary, prototype DPDT(displacement pile drilling tool) aguer, patented in Poland(2020). Based on the estimated ultimate capacities of thepile shaft and base, an approximate method of predictingthe pile settlement characteristics Q-s was also proposed,using the transfer function method. This article describesa correlation procedure of field test results togetherwith their statistical analysis and presents a method ofestimating the pile-bearing capacity based on correlationresults. A calculation example is also provided. Theconclusion looks at the useful practical applications thatcould be found for the proposed method.

  • Estimation of smokers' exposure to mercury from combustible tobacco products, based on the approach used in food consumers’ exposure estimation
    • Paweł Hać
    • Małgorzata Rutkowska
    • Bartłomiej Cieślik
    • Piotr Konieczka
    2023 Full text FOOD AND CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGY

    Smoking has been known to mankind for centuries, but it is only in recent decades that much attention has been paid to the harmfulness of this habit. Mercury inhalation is particularly dangerous in this respect and smoking creates extremely favorable conditions for the emission and targeted delivery of this element into the lungs. Despite this fact, a lack of a clear method for estimating the exposure of tobacco consumers to mercury was identified. This work shows justification to transfer the approach of estimating food product consumers' exposure to estimate the exposure of combustible tobacco product consumers to this element. In addition, it was noted that researchers' attention is mainly focused on cigarettes, while the tobacco market has a wide range of combustible products. Therefore, in this work, the mercury content of cigars (8.45 ± 0.18–41.02 ± 0.20 μg/kg), pipe tobaccos (8.03 ± 0.52–25.48 ± 0.50 μg/kg), bidis (14.93 ± 0.47–31.79 ± 0.26 μg/kg) and cigarette tobaccos (14.22 ± 0.71–34.5 ± 1.4 μg/kg) was analyzed. This study demonstrates that smoking can contribute significant total mercury exposure to consumers', although it is unlikely to cause mercury poisoning regardless of other exposure sources.

  • Estimation of Synchronous Generator and AVR Parameters Based on Gradient and Genetic Methods
    • Krzysztof Dobrzyński
    2023 Full text Przegląd Elektrotechniczny

    The author present a method for the estimation of selected synchronous generator model and AVR parameters using a gradient and a genetic algorithm. The paper shows an example of model parameter estimation for a turbogenerator, based on the generator voltage time responses obtained during an active and reactive power rejection test

  • Estimation of the Maximum Permissible PV Power to be Connected to the MV Grid
    • Agata Szultka
    • Seweryn Szultka
    • Stanisław Czapp
    • Kamil Makowski
    • Peter Sedlacek
    2023

    In recent decades, a significant increase in the share of renewable energy sources in power grids at various voltage levels has been observed. A number of articles have been published highlighting emerging problems in low-voltage grids with a large share of prosumers and in medium- and high-voltage grids to which photovoltaic (PV) plants are connected. The article analyzes the medium-voltage grid in terms of the possibility of connecting maximum PV power to it, while maintaining the criterion of the proper voltage level in the whole grid. The selection of suitable locations for PV power plants is analyzed, as well as the expected effect of the possible modernization of the grid – replacement of the main line with lines having a larger cross-section. As a result of the analysis, the percentage profits from both presented solutions (PV power plants optimal locations and main power line modernization) have been compared.