Most industrial wastes contain different organic mixtures, making important the investigation on the microbial destruction of composite substrates. The capability of microbes to remove harmful chemicals from polluted environments strongly depends on the presence of other carbon and energy substrates. The effect of mixtures of phenol- and methyl-substituted phenols (o-, m-, p-cresol) on the growth behaviour and degradation capacity of Trichosporon cutaneum strain was investigated. The cell-free supernatants were analysed by HPLC. It was established that the presence of o-, m- and p- cresol has not prevented complete phenol assimilation but had significant delaying effect on the phenol degradation dynamics. The mutual influence of phenol and p-cresol was investigated. We developed the kinetic model on the basis of Haldane kinetics, which used model parameters from single-substrate experiments to predict the outcome of the two-substrate mixture experiment. The interaction coefficients indicating the degree to which phenol affects the biodegradation of p-cresol and vice versa were estimated. Quantitative estimation of interaction parameters is essential to facilitate the application of single or mixed cultures to the bio-treatment of hazardous compounds.

Natural and man-made disasters can severely destroy environments and they make conditions difficult to access the affected areas and to provide assistance. The conditions on-site could be dangerous and unstable and there is an increasing need for life-saving decisions to be taken quickly to minimize evolving hazards and to start relief operations. The accurate and timely data gathering is important to produce a full information about the calamity. In recent disasters drones are deployed extensively to help find people quickly, provide imminent reliable imagery and data by flying closer to the ground. They are used to create disaster maps and assess damage after earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, etc. The fast transition into the digital age makes new technologies become available to enhance and expand drone capabilities in disaster risk management, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The paper tries to analyze how VR can be used to plan operations in a controlled manner before deadly events strike by creating disaster simulations in digital environments, enabling the rescuers to practice as many times as necessary until they are able to achieve mastery of the life-saving techniques. The paper also analyzes how drones, equipped with cameras, devices and AR, can be used to create different types of maps that help rescuers locate critical spots. These can also facilitate the location of people in need, and can survey constructions to find critical damages.