AbstractFlocculation performance of three chitosan samples with different viscosities (?§ = 400, 800 and 1000 mPas) and two strong synthetic polycations of integral type (PDADMAC and PCA5) on two model aqueous suspensions (kaolin and bentonite) was investigated. The flocculation results indicated that all the polycation samples were efficient in the kaolin flocculation, the turbidity being completely removed at approximately the same polycation dose; the flocculation window ranged between 2.7 an...
Autori: Ecaterina Stela Dragan, Luminita Ghimici, Marcela Mihai
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25201

Abstract The presence of heavy metals in the environment is a major concern due to their non-biodegradability, bioaccumulation tendency, persistence in nature and toxicity to many life forms. Different treatment techniques for wastewater laden with copper have been developed in recent years to decrease the amount of wastewater produced and to improve the quality of the treated effluent. All techniques have their advantages and limitations in application. One of the most used techniques to rem...
Autori: Petru Bulai, Catalin Balan, Camelia Scripcariu, Matei Macoveanu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=25531

AbstractThe present study was focused to classify various advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to degrade sixteen commonpharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). The classification was based on the degradation rate constant (h-1).Chemometric techniques like principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to classify AOPs whichcan efficiently degrade a certain class of PPCPs. The bipolt based on first two principal components (PCs) of PCA modelidentified two distin...
Autori:
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26085

AbstractEight species of macromycetes which grow in phytocoenosis from “Călimani National Park” (Eastern Carpathians, Romania)have been analysed using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Among the analysed species, five species are beingconsidered edible (Clitopilus prunulus, Pleurotus eryngii, Macrolepiota rhacodes, Lacaria laccata and Suillus luteus) and threespecies are being considered toxic (Lyophyllum connatum, Paxillus involutus şi Gyromitra infula). The results of f...
Autori: Aurel Pui
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26091

Abstract Large amount of radioactive sources generate gamma rays of various energies and intensities. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is applied for the quantitative study of the energy spectra of gamma-ray sources. In the present paper, a statistical analysis of the energy spectra of gamma-ray spectroscopy monitored during 4 years at the “Dosimetry and Radioprotection” Laboratory from ”Vasile Alecsandri” University of Bacău is provided. Several new mathematical parameters were calcula...
Autori: Marius Stamate
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26144

AbstractThe changes caused by windthrows regarding spruce stand lead to significant environmental modifications. In this article aspectsregarding the detection of environmental changes caused by windthrows in Sanmartin Forest Division within Miercurea CiucForest District of National Forest Administration are covered using Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite images. Two pre and post-eventsatellite images, from 2001 when massive windthrows occurred, were used in this study. The techniques used in changesdete...
Autori: Iosif Vorovencii
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26311

AbstractThe optimizing transformation of our country’s energy structure relies on the improvement of production efficiencies of domesticEnergy Companies. The efficiency improvement, in turn, is theoretically based on a set of scientific evaluation approaches. DataEnvelopment Analysis, a nonparametric method to evaluate the relative effectiveness of decision-making units, has a strongdiscriminating power to exclude invalid factors. However, DEA is sensitive to the number of evaluated decision-mak...
Autori: Lei Li, Mingyue Li
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26367

Abstract To assess the pollutants input of acid mine drainage (AMD) and domestic activities in Aries River, the water was monitored monthly, during one year, in 15 sampling points along the River. The dissolved metals (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn), anions (SO42-, NO3- and Cl-), pH and electrical conductivity were analyzed. The obtained data were assessed against the water quality standards, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. The results revealed the water...
Autori: Erika Andrea Levei
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26881

Biomass is a very important source for the production of biofuels. During the hydrolysis step of the process for obtaining biofuels the rate of decomposition of biomass is strictly related to its organic matter content and the operating mode of the facilities. This paper highlights the effect of different pretreatments on the composition of biomass at the molecular level using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). For this experiment, a mixture...
Autori: Andreea Cocarcea Rusei
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=26986

A few variants of hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) as tool of assessment of multidimensional similarity in environmental dataset are compared. The dataset consisted of analytical results of determination of metals (Na, K, Ca, Sc, Fe, Co, Zn, As, Br, Rb, Mo, Sb, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Sm, Hf and Th) in ambient air dried and kept alive, by the means of hydroponics, moss baskets collected in 12 locations on the area of Tricity (Poland). The selected urban locations covered sites of various anthropoge...
Autori: Aleksander Astel
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27046

The paper deals with the amounts of total and plant available forms of heavy metals (Pb, Cr and Cu) and relation between soil properties in three catenas in postglacial area of the Łyna River valley, NE Poland. The results were presented on the background of four geochemical landscapes distinguished within the study area: eluvial or trans-eluvial, eluvial accumulative, trans-superaqual and super-aqual. The average total content of heavy metals amounted to: Pb – 14.05 mg kg-1 d.m., ...
Autori: Paweł Sowiński
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27058

Intensive agriculture has become an indispensable practice because it has to meet the needs of increasingly large yields to feed the population of the planet. In recent years, tough challenges to increase the efficiency of bioconversion were performed, since the conventional system has negative impacts on the environment, especially on health products by low intake in nutrients. In this context, the aim of this study is to show the effects of fertilization measures, which improve the quality ...
Autori: Daniela Cristina Dimitriu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27110

Mining activity implies a series of environmental issues that can have short or long term consequences: deterioration of natural landscape, air, water and soil pollution, negative impact on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and on human health. The present study was performed on a mine dump from the Giumalau Mountains, Eastern Carpathians, Romania. A number of 28 samples were collected and analysed by ICP-MS for 9 minor elements (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) and also by XRD for the m...
Autori: Madalina Paiu
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27330

The paper evaluates the effect of selected socio-economic parameters on the generation of municipal waste in Podlasie Province of north-eastern Poland. The study was made over the eight year period (2001-2008) and seventeen separate counties were analyzed. Principal component analysis (PCA) as a multivariate statistical method was used for filtering the data so that only the significant independent variables could be determined. The first component explained over the 54% of waste production v...
Autori: Izabela Anna Talalaj
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27431

Eutrophication is water pollution initiated by high amounts of plant nutrients. With the excess influx of nutrients from human activities, the eutrophication process begins and causes a breeding ground for algae. The amount of nutrients present in any given cycle will be higher than the levels present in previous cycles. Therefore, it is very important to manage water quality in lakes and dams to prevent and to slow or to reverse the eutrophication process. This can be ensured by using effect...
Autori: Saeed Bashiri
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27442

The particulate matter samples were studied in the surrounding of the different mills in Penang and Kedah State, Malaysia. Multivariate statistical techniques such as multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant analysis (DA) and principal components analysis (PCA) were applied in analyzing the air quality data. MANOVA showed a strong significant difference between the five palm oil mills. DA identified two functions responsible for discriminating the mills and it showed that the...
Autori: Nik Norulaini Nik Abd. Rahman
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27484

This paper presents the research on the temporal variability of water quality parameters for the most important river system in Romania and Europe – Danube River. The data on the river water quality had been obtained during ten years. The investigation was systematic and complex. Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and traditional statistical methods based on correlation matrix - Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis (FA), and ANOVA all the samples data sets were classified...
Autori: Paula Popa
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27601

Water sea pollution is influenced mainly by anthropogenic causes due to industrial and municipal activities which affect the quality of sea water, sediments and the whole ecosystem. In this paper, the correlation between contamination sources and the environmental quality of marine sediments was analyzed through multivariate analysis, in particular Principal Components Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA) and Correlation Analysis. Considering the case study of Mar Piccolo in Taranto (Ionian Sea...
Autori: Claudia Labianca
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27793

Activated sludge (AS) is the mainly used biological process in water treatment; therefore, assessing the influence of various operating conditions on this process is relevant. This study aimed to evaluate at laboratory-scale the influence of the gas-to-liquid volume ratio (RG/L) and the stirring speed (SS) on the biodegradation of carbamazepine (CBZ) by activated sludge. For this purpose, a central composite design (CCD) was used in association with response surface methodology (RSM). Batch cult...
Autori: Samer Semrany
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=27869

After the recent global financial and economic crises, unemployment, especially among young people have become a particularly serious problem. Fostering young entrepreneurship represent not only a tool to combat young unemployment and social exclusion but also a way to encourage innovation and a country’s economic growth. Education and training can contribute in building an entrepreneurial society and may shape individuals attitudes versus risk-taking. Risk taken ability is an important...
Autori: Ana Iolanda Vodă
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28038

The increase of population and the bad management of municipal solid waste (MSW) lead to a spectacular increase of the landfill leachates volume. These effluents represent a very harmful threat that can affect the environment and the ecosystems, their control and treatment became the first occupation of the authorities. In this context, this study contributes to characterize the landfill leachate composition and how its changes over different seasons. The results have shown an intermediate leac...
Autori: Soukayna Rhouat
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28100

The study attempted to identify the best suited models to determine the kinetics of chlorine decay and trihalomethanes (THMs) formation in drinking water supplies. Batch experiments were conducted on synthetic water samples to simulate the characteristics of raw water collected from Maithon water treatment plant (MWTP), Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India. Influence of various parameters like total organic carbon (TOC), reaction time, pH and chlorine dose on the rate of THMs formation were analysed. The s...
Autori: Minashree Kumari
ISSN: 1843 - 3707
http://www.ecozone.ro/reviste.php?RID=28171