Material suppliers typically recommend different additive amounts and applications for foundry practices. Therefore, even in the production of the same standard materials, different results may be obtained from various production processes on different foundry floors. In this study, the liquid metal prepared with the addition of different proportions of a FeSi-based inoculation, which is most commonly used in foundries in the production of a cast iron material with EN-GJL-250 lamellar graphite cast iron, was cast into sand molds prepared with a model designed to provide different solidification times. In this way, the optimization of the inoculation amounts on the casting structure for different solidification times was investigated. In addition, hardness values were determined depending on solidification time in varying amounts of inoculation additions. SolidCast casting simulation software was used to determine the casting model geometry and solidification time. In the scope of the study, sand casting, modeling, microstructure analysis, image analysis, microstructure analysis, and hardness tests techniques were used. When the results are examined, the required amount of inoculation for the optimal structure is optimized for the application procedure depending on the casting module and the solidification time.

The population of vendace ( Coregonus albula L., 1758) in many European lakes, especially in Central Europe, have declined recently as a result of lake eutrophication. The aim of the study was to (i) determine many years’ changes in the volume of vendace catches and specific physicochemical parameters of water, (ii) determine correlations between particular physicochemical parameters, and (iii) indicate hydrochemical parameters which show the greatest impact on the volume of vendace catches on the example of Lake Ińsko located in the European Central Plains Ecoregion. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to indicate the most important hydrochemical variables impact on vendace fisheries. Among them, after redundancy analysis, 6 were taken into account (total nitrogen, N-NO3, N-NO2, total phosphorus, oxygen concentration, temperature). Time series analysis revealed an increasing trend in nutrients concentration in lake. Analyses showed that fish catches were mostly negatively connected to nitrogen and phosphorus concentration. Trend analysis, based on the above-mentioned parameters, can provide prediction of vendace catches for further years with the predictability at the level of around 60% accuracy. The results of this study are very crucial to the vendace fisheries and for formulating fisheries management policies in the future in the changing hydrochemical condition of lakes.

The increasing demand for noble metals boosts their price. In order to meet the increasing demand for elements, a number of technologies are being developed to recover elements already present in the environment.Traffic-related metal pollution is a serious worldwide concern. Roadside soils are constantly subjected to the deposition of metals released by tailpipe gases, vehicle parts, and road infrastructure components. These metals,especially platinum group elements from catalytic converters, accumulating in the soil pose a risk both for agricultural and residential areas. Phytomining is suggested as a novel technology to obtain platinum group metals from plants grown on the contaminated soil, rock, or on mine wastes. Interest in this method is growing as interest in the recovery of rare metals is also increasing. Based on the research of many authors, the sources and amounts of noble metals that accumulate in soil along communication routes have been presented. The paper presents also plants that can be used for phytomining.