scholarly journals Valuable Secondary Habitats or Hazardous Ecological Traps? Environmental Risk Assessment of Minor and Trace Elements in Fly Ash Deposits across the Czech Republic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10385
Author(s):  
Eliška Chmelová ◽  
Vojtech Kolar ◽  
Jiří Jan ◽  
Bruno M. Carreira ◽  
Andrea Landeira-Dabarca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Minor And Trace Elements ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
Risk Indices ◽  
High Concentrations

Deposits of coal combustion wastes, especially fly ash, are sources of environmental and health risks in industrial regions. Recently, fly ash deposits have been reported as habitat surrogates for some threatened arthropods in Central Europe. However, the potential environmental risks of fly ash have not yet been assessed in the region. We analysed concentrations of 19 minor and trace elements in 19 lignite combustion waste deposits in the Czech Republic. We assessed their environmental risks by comparison with the national and EU legislation limits, and with several commonly used indices. Over 50% of the samples exceeded the Czech national limits for As, Cu, V, or Zn, whilst only V exceeded the EU limits. For some studied elements, the high-risk indices were detected in several localities. Nevertheless, the measured water characteristics, the long-term presence of fly ash, previous leaching by acid rains, and the low amount of organic matter altogether can infer low biological availability of these elements. We presume the revealed high concentrations of some heavy metals at some studied sites can be harmful for some colonising species. Nevertheless, more ecotoxicological research on particular species is needed for final decision on their conservation potential for terrestrial and freshwater biota.

Adversary Voting in the Czech Chamber of Deputies (1993–2013)

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Petr Dvořák
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Success Rate ◽  
Major Change ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Discrimination Capacity ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chamber Of Deputies

AbstractThe paper explores the legislative unity of government and opposition blocs in the Czech Chamber of Deputies over a period of 20 years. As voting unity is usually rather low in the Czech Republic, temporarily high concentrations of votes by these blocs are linked to higher rates of conflict between the government and opposition. I use the Rice and UNITY indices to compare average unity scores of individual cabinets and also explorative time series of unity vectors in order to analyse bloc concentration, success rate, and increased conflict. The outcomes are relevant both as comprising a case study and methodological observations: (1) Broad differences in the logic of interaction are confirmed (e.g. caretaker cabinets show less conflict than standard cabinets). Although no universal trend (e.g. no transition from consensual to conflictual practice) is found, the Czech opposition became more concentrated and resorted to serial blocking tactics in the second decade; thus, a major change of behavior occurred after all. (2) The Rice and UNITY indices correlate considerably; UNITY’s discrimination capacity is not distorted significantly despite the nature of equilibria in the Chamber. Moreover; the UNITY index is able to easily distinguish contested votes not detectable by the Rice index alone.

Trace elements in the blood of institutionalized elderly in the Czech Republic

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolana Rambousková ◽  
Andrea Krsková ◽  
Miroslava Slavíková ◽  
Mája Čejchanová ◽  
Kateřina Wranová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Institutionalized Elderly

Concrete with High Content of Fly Ash Intended for Constructions with Long Durability

2016 ◽  
Vol 249 ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hubáček ◽  
Rudolf Hela
Keyword(s):  
Compressive Strength ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Fly Ash ◽  
Fresh Concrete ◽  
Ash Content ◽  
Hardened Concrete ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Concrete Properties ◽  
Pressure Water ◽  
Long Life

The article deals with theme of high fly ash content concretes intended for long life constructions. Considering the still growing consumption of fly ash in construction concretes it is a live theme in the Czech Republic and abroad as well. The emphasis will be laid namely on characteristics and requirements for fresh concrete intended for construction of these specific concrete constructions. They are for instance waterproof constructions, tunnel linings, concretes for bridge and road constructions etc. Also the hardened concrete properties like compressive strength, resistance to pressure water, durability and further necessary parameters for obtainment of required properties of these concretes will be monitored.

scholarly journals POSSIBILITIES OF THE USE OF WORKING SELF-CONTAINED BREATHING APPARATUSES FILTRATING CARBON MONOXIDE IN THE PRACTICE OF MINE RESCUE SERVICES

2017 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Zdeněk Pavelek
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Rescue Service ◽  
Rescue Services ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Higher Temperature ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Mine Rescue

Abstract In the current practice of the Mining Rescue Service of the Czech Republic, since 2005, the insulated overpressure regenerative breathing apparatuses with a closed circuit and supply of medicinal oxygen are used as the backbone working breathing apparatuses. At the end of the year 2010, the compressed-air breathing apparatuses were introduced into the practice of the Mining Rescue Service of the Czech Republic, which, in precisely defined types of mine rescue service interventions and under precisely defined conditions, can replace the aforementioned backbone working insulated overpressure regenerative breathing apparatuses. Recently, mining rescue services in deep coal mines have been more and more often conducted under conditions of an irrespirable mine atmosphere containing high concentrations of carbon monoxide, but at the same time containing sufficient oxygen for the breathing physiology of mine rescuer (for example, interventions dealing with the disposal of machinery under conditions of occurrence of endogenous mining fire of coal). This fact, after a long time, has resumed again the discussion of miners' rescue experts about whether it would be possible to implement the use of breathing apparatuses filtrating carbon monoxide into practice by the Mining Rescue Services of the Czech Republic in order to ensure a sufficient level of safety for mining rescuers even in an unexpected and rapid decline of the oxygen amount in the mine air at the site of the mine rescue service. The benefit of the breathing apparatuses filtrating carbon monoxide is their significantly lower weight, long protection period and also significantly smaller dimensions and design variability of the device. The disadvantages are higher breathing resistances and a higher temperature of the air mass inhaled from the breathing apparatus filtrating carbon monoxide.

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