Management and Production Engineering Review (MPER) is a peer-refereed, international, multidisciplinary journal covering a broad spectrum of topics in production engineering and management. Production engineering is a currently developing stream of science encompassing planning, design, implementation and management of production and logistic systems. Orientation towards human resources factor differentiates production engineering from other technical disciplines. The journal aims to advance the theoretical and applied knowledge of this rapidly evolving field, with a special focus on production management, organisation of production processes, management of production knowledge, computer integrated management of production flow, enterprise effectiveness, maintainability and sustainable manufacturing, productivity and organisation, forecasting, modelling and simulation, decision making systems, project management, innovation management and technology transfer, quality engineering and safety at work, supply chain optimization and logistics. Management and Production Engineering Review is published under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee on Production Engineering and Polish Association for Production Management. The main purpose of Management and Production Engineering Review is to publish the results of cutting-edge research advancing the concepts, theories and implementation of novel solutions in modern manufacturing. Papers presenting original research results related to production engineering and management education are also welcomed. We welcome original papers written in English. The Journal also publishes technical briefs, discussions of previously published papers, book reviews, and editorials. Letters to the Editor-in-Chief are highly encouraged.

A new genus and species of heteronemertean from the Antarctic (Bellingshausen Sea), Oligodendrorhynchus hesperides , is described and illustrated. Some morphological features with major systematic significance are following: the mode of branching of the proboscis and its low number of terminal branches; the lack of horizontal lateral cephalic slits but in their place a pair of shallow epidermal depressions; a gelatinous amorphous connective stratum between the outer longitudinal and circular muscle layers; the presence of a rhynchocoelic nerve; isolated fibres of the rhynchocoel circular muscle layer interwoven with bundles of the adjacent body−wall inner longitudinal muscle fibres in the intestinal region. Other anatomical characters which can also be used to distinguish the new taxon from existing heteronemertean species that have a branched proboscis are also discussed.

Housing resources as an element of material infrastructure determine socio-economic development on a local, regional and national scale. Their economic and physical accessibility affects the development of human, social and relational capital, determines the competitiveness of the territory and can be seen as a generator of income both in the individual sense and in relation to the whole society. The article has a theoretical character and its aim is to identify the relationship between satisfying the housing needs of local communities and the development of territorial capital. The article also analyzes factors that allow the qualification of housing resources as a strategic resource for the development of a territory.

The whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, an insect of the order Hemiptera which attacks more than 600 species of plants, is one of the most important agricultural pests around the world. The insecticidal Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are useful biological pesticides, and some are toxic to Hemipteran insects. In this study, Colombian native isolates of Bt were functionally characterized at molecular and biological levels. The strains contained between one and five different crystal shapes: round, triangular, amorphous, bipyramidal and squared. The strains presented between three to seven bands of proteins in their electrophoretic pattern that were organized into six groups according to their possible biological activity on insect pests. Cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cry1Ac, cry1B and cry1C genes were identified for PCR in the different Bt isolates. Bioassays were performed on tomato leaves whose surface was spread with 3 μg · ml−1 crude extract of Bt toxins. Second instar larvae of whitefly, which were placed on top of leaves and exposed to the toxins for 7 days, exhibited mortalities from 18 to 69%. The lethal concentration 50 (LC50) of ZBUJTL39, Bt kurstaki HD1 and ZCUJTL9 strains were 1.83, 1.85 and 2.16 μg · ml−1, respectively (p < 0.05). These results show that the native Bt strain ZBUJTL39, which contained the genes cry1Aa, cry1Ab, cryCa and cryBa could eventually be used for the development of an integrated management program together with other tools for the control of B. tabaci.

Sound localization problems are usually tackled by the acquisition of data from phased microphone arrays and the application of acoustic holography or beamforming algorithms. However, the number of sensors required to achieve reliable results is often prohibitive, particularly if the frequency range of interest is wide. It is shown that the number of sensors required can be reduced dramatically providing the sound field is time stationary. The use of scanning techniques such as “Scan & Paint” allows for the gathering of data across a sound field in a fast and efficient way, using a single sensor and webcam only. It is also possible to characterize the relative phase field by including an additional static microphone during the acquisition process. This paper presents the theoretical and experimental basis of the proposed method to localise sound sources using only one fixed microphone and one moving acoustic sensor. The accuracy and resolution of the method have been proven to be comparable to large microphone arrays, thus constituting the so called “virtual phased arrays”.

Geographical Information Systems have become essential tools for land analysis and the subsequent decision making in many fields of human activity. In the field of mining, GIS applications have appeared in ore deposit modelling, environmental pollution, or planning of mining spaces. In this research, the powerful multicriteria tools of GIS platforms have been applied for the determination of an index that has been called “Exploitability Index”. This index allows analyzing a series of outcrops of industrial aggregates, to help in the selection of the most adequate one to be enhanced from a mining approach. The multicriteria analysis has been applied for its determination, and as a result of this research, a model is proposed. The main criteria that condition the decision have been established in this model, along with their subsequent hierarchization and their weighting. The proposed model is applied to a specific case: the analysis of a series of outcrops of industrial aggregates (ophites) in Cantabria, Spain. After defining the Exploitability Index for those ophitic outcrops, it has been observed that the only deposit that has been classified as very suitable for its exploitation is the only one that has been really exploited, supporting the proposed methodology.

Spectroscopy has become one of the most used non-invasive methods to detect plant diseases before symptoms are visible. In this study it was possible to characterize the spectral variation in leaves of Solanum lycopersicum L. infected with Fusarium oxysporum during the incubation period. It was also possible to identify the relevant specific wavelengths in the range of 380–1000 nm that can be used as spectral signatures for the detection and discrimination of vascular wilt in S. lycopersicum. It was observed that inoculated tomato plants increased their reflectance in the visible range (Vis) and decreased slowly in the near infrared range (NIR) measured during incubation, showing marked differences with plants subjected to water stress in the Vis/NIR. Additionally, three ranges were found in the spectrum related to infection by F. oxysporum (510–520 nm, 650–670 nm, 700–750 nm). Linear discriminant models on spectral reflectance data were able to differentiate between tomato varieties inoculated with F. oxysporum from healthy ones with accuracies higher than 70% 9 days after inoculation. The results showed the potential of reflectance spectroscopy to discriminate plants inoculated with F. oxysporum from healthy ones as well as those subjected to water stress in the incubation period of the disease.

In this work, the support of two general galleries located in poor quality rock mass and subjected to the influence of high thickness coal layer exploitations is designed and optimized. The process is carried out in four phases:

A first preliminary support is defined employing different geomechanical classifications and applying the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) using bolts and shotcrete.

An instrumentation campaign is carried out with the goal of analysing the behaviour of the support. The study noticed the failure of the support due to the time of placement of the different elements.

A back-analysis using the Flac and Phases software has allowed the evaluation of the properties of the rock mass and the support, the study of the influence of the time of placement on the component elements (bolts and shotcrete), and the redefinition of that support.

Subsequently, a new support is designed and optimized through numerical modeling after the start of mining without experience in these sizes of sublevel caving that caused the failure of the previously designed support. The new support is formed by yieldable steel arches that are more suitable to withstand the stresses generated by nearby mining work.

This paper shows the possibility that the mineral coal existing in the mining basins of northern Spain have a high added value. This would facilitate its future use in different fields such as new materials, nanotechnology, energy use in situ, coal bed methane, enhanced coal bed methane and coalmine methane.

An analytical study of mineral coal samples is carried out. The samples come from two deposits located in coal basins of the Cantabrian Mountains. The duly prepared samples are subjected to an activation process. Within this transformation, different treatments are applied to different sub-samples. Some of the sub-samples suffer a previous demineralization by successive attacks with acids, followed by oxidation and pyrolysis. Finally, all of them are activated with CO2 and H2O(steam).

The carbonaceous products resulting from each treatment are characterised. The results show that all the pre-treatments used were positive for the textural development of the materials. Likewise, proper management of the processes and of the different operating variables allows the procurement of carbonaceous materials with a “tailor-made” structural development of the coal type. This material receives the name “activated” and can be employed in specific processes.

This study focuses on the problem of mapping impervious surfaces in urban areas and aims to use remote sensing data and orthophotos to accurately classify and map these surfaces. Impervious surface indices and green space assessments are widely used in land use and urban planning to evaluate the urban environment. Local governments also rely on impervious surface mapping to calculate stormwater fees and effectively manage stormwater runoff. However, accurately determining the size of impervious surfaces is a significant challenge. This study proposes the use of the Support Vector Machines (SVM) method, a pattern recognition approach that is increasingly used in solving engineering problems, to classify impervious surfaces. The research results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SVM method in accurately estimating impervious surfaces, as evidenced by a high overall accuracy of over 90% (indicated by the Cohen’s Kappa coefficient). A case study of the “Parkowo-Lesne” housing estate in Warsaw, which covers an area of 200,000 m², shows the successful application of the method. In practice, the remote sensing imagery and SVM method allowed accurate calculation of the area of the surface classes studied. The permeable surface represented about 67.4% of the total complex and the impervious surface corresponded to the remaining 32.6%. These results have implications for stormwater management, pollutant control, flood control, emergency management, and the establishment of stormwater fees for individual properties. The use of remote sensing data and the SVM method provides a valuable approach for mapping impervious surfaces and improving urban land use management.

The need for a dwelling is one of the basic needs of every human being. The housing policy, which belongs to one of the pillars of the social policy of the state, is responsible for satisfying this need. It is carried both at the central and local level. The report aims to show the evolution of this policy in Poland from 1989, when the burden of providing housing to the society was largely shifted to the private sector, to the present times, when the state is starting to take action to solve the problem of housing shortages for the less prosperous part of society. First, housing resources are characterized in terms of their ownership and function. Then, the housing policy, its objectives and instruments are described in theoretical terms. The competences of communes in the fi eld of housing economy are characterised in further part. The diagnosis of housing condition in Poland is presented in the regional context and compared to other countries. The last parts of the report deal with the assessment of housing policy in Poland after 1989 on the national and local level. Based on this assessment, recommendations have been made regarding the directions of activities at the local and supra-local level in the area of improving the condition of housing in Poland. Special emphasis in recommendations is placed on the need for an integrated approach to the implementation of housing policy.