The efficient use of municipal waste is becoming increasingly important for sustainable environmental quality. An integral part of the process of recycling waste material is its quality sorting. Nowadays, both manual and automated sorting methods, especially optical sorting, are used worldwide for sorting mixed waste. This article presents the application of the NIR/VIS optical sorting system through a description of this processing equipment integrated into a specific plastic waste processing line. The aim of the article was to select the optimal mode of operation generally applicable to mixed waste, and, specifically, to compare the quality of sorting of plastic waste in automated and manual sorting modes. In order to compare the efficiency of the sorting system, significant parameters of the sorting process were proposed. The measurement of the plastic waste sorting purity parameter was based on data obtained by weighing selected control samples, and the evaluation of the results of these measurements showed, in particular, the dependence of the concerned parameter not only on the sorting mode, i.e., automated and manual, but also on the conveyor belt speed/waste material flow, on the pre-sorting methods and, in the case of manual sorting, on the operating shift. The subsequent economic assessment of both sorting processes clearly declared the investment in automated sorting systems in the optical system operation mode not only as profitable, but also as extremely advantageous both for the production economy and the environment.

This paper from the field of environmental chemistry offers an innovative use of sorbents in the treatment of waste industrial water. Various industrial activities, especially the use of technological fluids in machining, surface treatment of materials, ore extraction, pesticide use in agriculture, etc., create wastewater containing dangerous metals that cause serious health problems. This paper presents the results of studies of the natural zeolite clinoptilolite as a sorbent of copper cations. These results provide the measurement of the sorption kinetics as well as the observed parameters of sorption of copper cations from the aquatic environment to the clinoptilolite from a promising Slovak site. The effectiveness of the natural sorbent is also compared with that of certain known synthetic sorbents.

In this study, a new generalized regression neural network model for predicting the curing characteristics of rubber blends with different contents of carbon black filler cured at various temperatures is proposed for the first time The carbon black contents in the rubber blend and cure temperature were used as input parameters, while the minimum and maximum elastic torque, scorch time, and optimal cure time, obtained from the analysis of 11 rheological cure curves registered at 10 various temperatures, were considered as output parameters of the model. A special pre-processing procedure of the experimental input and target data and the training algorithm is described. Less than 55% of the experimental data were used to significantly reduce the total number of input and target data points needed for training the model. Satisfactory agreement between the predicted and experimental data, with a maximum error in the prediction not exceeding 5%, was found. It is concluded that the generalized regression neural network is a powerful tool for intelligently modelling the curing process of rubber blends even in the case of a small dataset, and it can find a wide range of practical applications in the rubber industry.

The paper deals with the innovative ways of nonstandard, simplifying applications of the valid method for evaluating uncertainties in measurement results and with the definition of conditions of their usability. The evaluation of a substitute criterion for measurement accuracy by means of a relative difference between the measurand and its reference value is proposed. This nonstandard relative uncertainty is comparable with the overall relative standard uncertainty in the measurement result, and thus the evaluation of it enables other simplifications in the calculations of measurement result uncertainties. The use of the simplified evaluation of measurement results is illustrated in two experiments in measurement of the coefficient of thermal conductivity of an insulating material newly developed for the needs of building practice, namely measurement using commercial instruments, and measurement using a newly developed original measuring instrument.Web of Science1316

Virtual Reality (VR) represents a computer technology to create a simulated three-dimensional (3D) environment. Compared to the traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. This research aimed to implement and examine modern learning strategies and activities with the VR for teaching crime scene investigation. The target group of this piloting study consisted of all students who enrolled in a crime scene investigation course at Al-Istiqlal University during the Spring semester of 2021. An online item-based questionnaire has been developed. It is used to assess students’ perceptions towards using cooperative, discussion, field trip and problem-solving learning strategies and activities implemented with the VR technology. This study showed that VR is a helpful tool to practice modern learning strategies and skills in learning forensic science and crime scene investigation. We can conclude that using VR technology for educational purposes supports the learning process.