The aim of the study was to assess the profile of EC (elemental carbon) and OC (organic carbon) temperature fractions in PM1 and PM2.5 samples and in wet deposition samples (material collected on a filter). The research was conducted at the urban background station in Zabrze (southern Poland) in the period of Oct 2020–Oct 2021. PM samples were collected with high-volume samplers; the automatic precipitation collector NSA 181 by Eigenbrodt was used to collect the deposition samples. Concentrations of EC and OC were determined using thermal-optical method (carbon analyzer from Sunset Laboratory Inc., “eusaar_2” protocol). Regardless of the type of research material, organic carbon constituted the dominant part of the carbonaceous matter, and this dominance was more visible in the non-heating season. The profile of temperature fractions of OC and EC was clearly different for dust washed out by precipitation. Noteworthy is a much lower content of pyrolytic carbon (PC) in OC, which can be explained by the fact that PC is most often combined with the water soluble organic carbon. In addition, a high proportion of the OC3 fraction was observed, followed by OC4, which may indicate that these fractions are of a more regional origin. With regard to the EC fractions, the differences are less visible and concern, in particular, the higher share of EC4 and the lower EC2. The obtained results may be a valuable source of information about the actual status of the carbonaceous matter and its transformation in the atmosphere.

Knowledge on the physicochemical properties of PM emitted from industrial installations is necessary for assessing current state of ambient air and selecting proper methods for preventing suspended PM from degrading the air quality. Similar to many other industries, fast developing ceramic tile industry releases some amounts of PM to the atmosphere. Samples of PM were taken from main technological operations of three tile manufacturing installations, located in three various plants. The collected PM was examined for granular composition, morphology, phase composition and heavy metal content by using instrumental methods.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAI-ls) are persistent organic pollutants, ubiquitous in the whole environment. They are relatively well known and are still of interest due to their well documented carcinogenic and mutagenie properties. In ambient air of urban regions they mostly occur as adsorbed to particles of suspended dust. The richest in these compounds and therefore most hazardous to humans, fraction of dust is the fraction of the finest particles. The paper presents results of investigations of dust sampled with use of an impactor Dekati PM10 in Zabrze, a site typical of Upper Silesian conditions. While sampling, the impactor segregates sampled particles into four fractions by their aerodynamic diameters. Sixteen PAHs were determined in each fraction chromatographically. PAH content in the fraction of the finest particles, i.e. in PM1, was of particular interest.

In our article the ordinary kriging interpolation method was used for a spatial presentation of PM2.5 concentrations. The data used in the research was obtained from the unique PM2.5 measuring system, based on low-cost optical sensors for PM2.5 concentration measurements, working on Wroclaw University of Science and Technology campus area. The data from this system was used as an input for the interpolations that were made for three different days characterized by the highest measured values of PM2.5 – 20.01.2019, 17.02.2019 and 30.03.2019. For each of the selected days, variants with the maximum and minimum PM2.5 values recorded on a given measurement day were presented. In the analyses performed, the ordinary kriging technique and cross-validation, was used as the interpolation and the validation method, respectively. Parameters determining the quality of performed interpolation were Mean Error, Mean Standardized Error, Root Mean Square Error, and Average Standard Error. As the main indicator of quality of interpolation RMSE parameter was used. Analysis of that parameter shows that the higher variability of the data used for interpolation affects its quality. The Root Mean Square Error parameter reached 0.64, 0.94 and 1.71 for the lowest concentrations variants characterized by low spatial variability, and 6.53, 7.51, 11.28 for the highest one, which were characterized by high spatial variability. The obtained results of the research with the use of GIS tools shows that the ordinary kriging method allowed for the correct spatial presentation of the PM2.5 concentration variability in areas not covered by the measurement system.

The paper presents new ensemble solutions, which can forecast the average level of particulate matters PM10 and PM2.5 with increased accuracy. The proposed network is composed of weak predictors integrated into a final expert system. The members of the ensemble are built based on deep multilayer perceptron and decision tree and use bagging and boosting principle in elaborating common decisions. The numerical experiments have been carried out for prediction of daily average pollution of PM10 and PM2.5 for the next day. The results of experiments have shown, that bagging and boosting ensembles employing these weak predictors improve greatly the quality of results. The mean absolute errors have been reduced by more than 30% in the case of PM10 and 20% in the case of PM2.5 in comparison to individually acting predictors.

Powdery mildew, caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most important foliar diseases of cereals. Infection by this pathogen on triticale has intensified in Poland in the last few years. In this study we examined resistance to powdery mildew in triticale hybrids possessing resistance genes Pm4b and Pm6 introduced from common wheat. The materials tested were hybrids derived from triticale crosses with common wheat cultivars carrying the desired resistance genes. The presence of the transferred genes was reflected in increased field resistance and shown by the use of molecular markers. The paper discusses the potential introduction of the genes to improve powdery mildew resistance.

Background: Air pollution is a severe problem in Poland, with Kraków area being among the regions with the worse air quality. Viral croup or pseudocroup is a common childhood disease that may manifest with severe upper respiratory tract obstruction. Our aim was to evaluate the associations between incidence and severity of viral croup symptoms among children living in Kraków area, Poland, and air pollution. Methods: Th e retrospective cross-sectional study included Kraków area residents <18 years of age admitted to the Emergency Department of St. Louis Children Hospital in Kraków, Poland over 2-year period. Daily mean concentrations of air pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitric oxides (NOx), carbon oxide (CO), sulfur dioxide, ozone, and benzene were retrieved from public database of measurements performed at three local stations. Numbers of cases of viral croup per week were correlated with weekly mean concentrations of air pollutants. Mean air temperature was treated as a cofactor. Results: During the studied period, mean concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, and NOx exceeded the allowable levels (yearly means) specifi ed by Polish law regulations. Signifi cant positive correlations of moderate strength were observed between weekly mean concentrations of most air pollutants, especially PM10, PM2.5, CO and benzene, and numbers of cases of viral croup recorded per week, confi rmed in the analysis restricted to non-holiday period and to winter months only. Th e correlations between NOx, CO, benzene and croup prevalence were independent of temperature in non-holiday period. Conclusions: Our results support adverse impact of air pollution on children’s respiratory health.

The: PM2.5/PM10 ratio expresses the anthropogenic share in atmospheric dusl. Very high values or this ratio, i.e. high contribution or PM2.5 to PM10. have occurred recently in atmospheric air within European indusuializcd areas. The paper compiles results of three year pair wise measuring ofconcentrations or PM2.5 and PM2.5-PM10 and compares shares or PMM2.5 in PM10 al three urban background sites in Upper Silesia Poland I towns or Zabrze. Katowice and Częstochowa). At all the three local ions, the PM2.5/PM10 ratio nr daily conccntrations nr dust only occasionally differed considerably from the PM2.5/PM10 ratios for the seasonal and yearly concentrations that, in turn. did not differ from the PM2.5/PM10 ratios al urban sites in Europe.

Froin January 2006 on, a continuous experiment consisting in determinations of granulometrie composition of the airborne dust has been performed in the Institute of Environmental Engineering of PAS, Zabrze. The investigations include measurements of concentrations of PM1 - the suspended in ambient air particles of the aerodynamic diameter not grater than I μm - by using the PM10 Dekali impactor. The results of twelve month measurements (January - December 2006) arc presented in the paper: the granulometrie composition of total suspended dust (PM10, PM2.5, PM1) in winter and summer at an urban background site in the Silcsian Agglomeration. Monthly and seasonal average concentrations of PM I O, PM2.5 and PM1 were computed.

Presented study aimed to determine metals distribution on the quartz fiber filters surface coated with particulate matter by using high and low-volume samplers. The distribution pattern was tested using two different sub-sampling schemes. Each sub-sample was mineralized in the nitric acid in a microwave oven. An analysis was performed by means of atomic absorption spectroscopy with electrothermal atomization GF-AAS technique, and the determined elements were: As, Cd, Pb and Ni. A validation of the analytical procedure was carried out using NIES 28 Urban Aerosols standard reference material.

It was assumed that metal is distributed uniformly if its normalized concentrations on a single sub-sample is within ±15% of the mean concentration over the whole filter. The normalized concentrations values exceed this range, indicating a non-homogenous metals distribution. There were no statistically significant differences in metals concentrations between particular sub-samples in the function of its position along the filters diameter.

This paper presents simulation and experimental results obtained with a Dead-Beat predictive current controller for a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) drive system. With means of combined field and circuit simulations, an efficiency map and required current in a direct- and quadrature-axis are defined. A control algorithm was implemented within an open-interface inverter from Texas Instruments. Dynamic response for both axis currents was defined and verified as well as current ripples for different set currents in the quadrature axis.

This study presents the dependence of the level and harmonic structure of the cogging torque in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) to imperfections of permanent magnet (PM) dimensions and positions, which can not be avoided in massproduction. Slightly diverse dimensions and misplacements of PMs are introducing asymmetries in magnetic field distribution which cause additional harmonic components. A finite element method (FEM) and Fast Fourier transform (FFT) were used to calculate cogging torque harmonic components with regard to several combinations of PM assembly imperfections. It has been established and proved that unequal PMs cause magnetic asymmetries which give rise to additional cogging torque harmonic components and consequently increase the total cogging torque. It is also shown that in some particular combinations the influence of an individual PM imprecision could compensate with others due to different phase shifts which can result even in the decrease of cogging torque. Considering presented results it is possible to foresee which additional harmonic components will comprise the cogging torque of mass-produced PMSMs due to PM imperfections. In this way the designers are able to predetermine required manufacturing tolerances to keep the level of cogging torque in a admissible level. Simulation results were verified and confirmed by laboratory tests.

This paper presents a position sensorless drive of non salient pole PM synchronous motors for all speeds including zero speed. Using adaptive Lyapunov design a new approach for the design of an observer is developed. The resulting scheme leads to a nonlinear full order observer for the motor states including the rotor speed. Assuming motor parameters known the design achieves stability with guaranteed region of attraction even at zero speed. The control method is made robust at zero and low speed by changing the direct vector current component to a value different from zero. In order to verify the applicability of the method the controller has been implemented and tested on a 800 W motor.

Thirteen fractions of ambient dust were investigated in Zabrze, a typical urban area in the central part of Upper Silesia (Poland), during a heating season. Fifteen PAH and Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, As, Se, Cd, Pb contents of each fraction were determined. The dust was sampled with use of a cascade impactor and chemically analyzed with an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (PANalytical Epsilon 5) and a gas chromatograph with a flame ionisation detector (Perkin Elmer Clarus 500). The concentrations of PM1 and the PM1-related PAH and elements were much higher than the ones of the coarse dust (PM2.5-10) and the substances contained in it. The concentrations of total PAH and carcinogenic PAH were very high (the concentrations of PM1-, PM2.5-, and PM10-related BaP were 16.08, 19.19, 19.32 ng m-3, respectively). The municipal emission, resulted mainly from hard coal combustion processes, appeared to be the main factor affecting the air quality in Zabrze in winter.

The accession of Poland to the European Union involved the need or regional air quality assessment and brought radical change in requirements towards the sottware tools used for assessment purposes. According to Polish law, a zone is an agglomeration o rover 250 000 inhabitants, or a poviat (second level or local government administration in Poland), or a group of poviats, and assessment should consider both global and regional inllow or pollutants as well as the impact of local emission sources and significant sources in a voivodeship. These requirements have imposed a model range of over 250 km. Following an analysis or different models operating all over the world, the CALPUFF model together with the CALMET meteorological processor was chosen to be implemented in air quality assessment systems in Polish zones. This paper presents the results or model calculations performed within the air quality assessment in Mazowieckie voivodeship as well as compares them with the measurements obtained at automatic air monitoring stations.

The prediction of PM2.5 is important for environmental forecasting and air pollution control. In this study, four machine learning methods, ground-based LiDAR data and meteorological data were used to predict the ground-level PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing. Among the four methods, the random forest (RF) method was the most effective in predicting ground-level PM2.5 concentrations. Compared with BP neural network, support vector machine (SVM), and various linear fitting methods, the accuracy of the RF method was superior by 10%. The method can describe the spatial and temporal variation in PM2.5 concentrations under different meteorological conditions, with low root mean square error (RMSE) and mean square deviation (MD), and the consistency index (IA) reached 99.69%. Under different weather conditions, the hourly variation in PM2.5 concentrations has a good descriptive ability. In this paper, we analyzed the weights of input variables in the RF method, constructed a pollution case to correspond to the relationship between input variables and PM2.5, and analyzed the sources of pollutants via HYSPLIT backward trajectory. This method can study the interaction between PM2.5 and air pollution variables, and provide new ideas for preventing and forecasting air pollution.

Ambient concentrations of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), adsorbed on particles of PM2.5, were measured at 4 points located in Silesia and Małopolska Regions during 2004 through 2005 period. The fine dust was collected on filters at locations representing conditions of urban background, communication artery and industrial area. Distinctive differences between heating and summer season PAH concentrations were observed. The highest PM2.5 related PAH concentrations were observed in Krakow, within the effect of industrial and traffic sources, equally in summer and heating seasons. For selected cities, relations between the particular PM2.5 related PAHs were determined. The results show that contamination of the investigated PM2.5 with PAHs is considerable and comparable with that in other areas of similar degree of urbanization and industrialization.

The paper presents results of investigations carried out in 2005 at six crossroads in Zabrze. The investigations comprised determinations of vehicular traffic intensity, observations of meteorological conditions and, as a main subject, determinations of concentrations of PM2.5 and PM 10 at all observed sites. Structure of ambient aerosol in the vicinity of crossroads was compared with the structure of aerosol at a reference measuring point, located beyond effects of vehicular traffic, by determining a share of PM2.5 in PM 10 for cach site. At a selected crossroad the measurements lasted 11 days and the sampled dust was analyzed for chemical composition of surface of its particles with the use of the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Both the most abundant and trace elements in the surface layer of dust sampled at the crossroads were identified.

Air Pollution in Poland – Condition, Causes and Effects. In the recent years the air in Poland seems to be the most polluted in Europe (it is worse only in a few times smaller Bulgaria). The concentration of particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), represented by benzo(a)pyrene are among the highest in European Union countries. They are highly toxic, especially PAHS, which damage the hematopoietic system, accumulate in living organisms leading to a cancerous process, they cause damages to the central nervous system and infertility. It is estimated that high air pollution causes 45-47 thousands premature deaths in Poland every year, as well as growth frequency of allergies and chronic diseases. Polish society loses about 520,000 potential years of life, and the economy of 18.5 million work days. It’s a very high price. The weather determines to a large extent the air pollution. The smog episode is usually accompanied by low wind speed or atmospheric silence, reduction of visibility and thermal inversions. However, the biggest problem is low emission, which is mainly related to individual heating of buildings (78-87% of the total emission of benzo(a)pyrene. The reasons for such poor sanitary condition of the air in Poland are complex and to a large extent they result from spatial chaos and lack of spatial planning, but also from general policy country. The most important reasons are i.a.: the lack of a planning policy and a sustainable transport policy, persistent subsidies for unprofitable coal mines, the lack of a policy promoting renewable energy sources and “clean” technologies, high gas price (the highest in Europe) and no subsidies for the poorest, scattered buildings which hinders access to system heat, inefficient and unsuitable transport based on road transport road and individual cars (often old, Diesel) etc.

The paper presents a method of identifying distant emission sources of fine particulate matter PM2.5 affecting significantly PM2.5 concentrations at a given location. The method involves spatial analysis of aggregate information about PM2.5 concentrations measured at the location and air masses backward trajectories calculated by HYSPLIT model. The method was examined for three locations of PM2.5 measurement stations (Diabla Góra, Gdańsk, and Katowice) which represented different environmental conditions. The backward trajectories were calculated starting from different heights (30, 50, 100 and 150 m a. g. l.). All points of a single backward trajectory were assigned to the PM2.5 concentration corresponding to the date and the site of the beginning of trajectory calculation. Daily average concentrations of PM2.5 were used, and in the case of Gdańsk also hourly ones. It enabled to assess the effectiveness of the presented method using daily averages if hourly ones were not available. Locations of distant sources of fine particulate matter emission were determined by assigning to each grid node a mean value of PM2.5 concentrations associated with the trajectories points located within the so-called search ellipse. Nearby sources of fine particulate matter emission were eliminated by filtering the trajectories points located close to each other (so-called duplicates). The analyses covered the period of January-March 2010. The results indicated the different origin of air masses in the northern and southern Poland. In Diabla Góra and Gdańsk the distant sources of fine particulate matter emission are identified in Belarus and Russia. In Katowice the impact of the Belarusian PM2.5 emission sources was also noted but as the most important fine particulate matter emission sources were considered those located in the area of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine.

In order to develop a PM BLDC motor control system, which will be tolerant of selected faults, simulation work was first performed and then verified on a universal test stand. The results were published in earlier works. The next stage of works was the implementation of previously developed algorithms on the target research test stand – in this case, the prototype vehicle. This last stage of the laboratory work has been presented in this article, i.e. it has been presented the results of experimental research related to the reproduction of rotor angle position, used after the detection of a rotor position sensor fault. A new test stand with the laboratory prototype of a vehicle with two PM BLDC motors is presented. A zeroth-order algorithm (ZOA) was used as a fault compensation method. The effectiveness and usefulness of the previously proposed methods have been confirmed.

The paper presents selected simulation and experimental results of a hybrid ECPMS-machine (Electric Controlled Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine). This permanent magnets (PMs) excited machine offers an extended magnetic field control capability which makes it suitable for battery electric vehicle (BEV) drives. Rotor, stator and the additional direct current control coil of the machine are analyzed in detail. The control system and strategy, the diagram of power supply system and an equivalent circuit model of the ECPMS-machine are presented. Influence of the additional excitation on the performance parameters of the machine, such as: torque, efficiency, speed limits and back-EMF have also been discussed.