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Bridges in Ukraine are one of the most important components of the infrastructure, requiring attention from government agencies and constant funding. The object of the study was the methodology for quantifying the condition of bridge components. The Artificial Neural Network-based (ANN) tool was developed to quantify the technical condition of bridge components. The literature analysis showed that in most cases the datasets were obtained during the inspection of bridges to solve the problems of assessing the current technical condition. The lack of such a database prompted the creation of a dataset on the basis of the Classification Tables of the Operating Conditions of the Bridge Components (CT). Based on CTs, five datasets were formed to assess the condition of the bridge components: bridge span, bridge deck, pier caps beam, piers and abutments, approaches. The next step of this study was creating, training, validating and testing ANN models. The network with ADAM loss function and softmax activation showed the best results. The optimal values of MAPE and R2 were achieved at the 100th epoch with 64 neurons in the hidden layer and were equal to 0.1% and 0.99998, respectively. The practical application of the ANN models was carried out on the most common type of bridge in Ukraine, namely, a road beam bridge of small length, made of precast concrete. The novelty of this study consists of the development of a tool based on the use of ANN model, and the proposal to modify the methodology for quantifying the condition of bridge components. This will allow minimizing the uncertainties associated with the subjective judgments of experts, as well as increasing the accuracy of the assessment.

The geography of Kazakhstan is characterized by a diverse landscape and a small population. Therefore, certain automobile roads pass through unpopulated mountain regions, where physical road diagnostics are rare or almost absent, while landscape factors continue to affect the road. However, modern geo-information approaches and remote sensing could effectively provide the road diagnostics necessary to make timely control decisions regarding a road’s design, construction, and maintenance. To justify this assumption, we researched the deformation of a mountain road near Almaty city. Open access satellite images of and meteorological archival data for the region were processed. The resulting data were compared to validate the road’s deformation triggers. Extreme weather conditions’ impacts could be identified via road destruction (nearly 40 m longitudinal cracks, 15 m short transversal cracks, and two crack networks along a 50 m road section). The remotely sensed parameters (vertical displacement velocity, slope exposure, dissections, topographic wetness index, aspect, solar radiation, SAVI, and snow melting) show the complexity of triggers of extensive road deformations. The article focuses only on open access data from remote sensing images and meteorological archives. All the resulting data are available and open for all interested parties to use.

This study aimed to (a) identify the differences in the preferred, practiced, and organized physical activity (PA) between high and low physically active Czech and Polish boys and girls and to (b) identify which types of PA are likely to be recommended by low active boys and girls. The research was carried out between 2010 and 2019 in the Czech Republic and Poland and included 6619 participants aged 15 to 19 years. The preferences and practices of the different types of PA and participation in organized PA were identified using a PA preference questionnaire and weekly PA was identified using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-long form. Czech and Polish boys and girls who were low active preferred less physically demanding and more health-oriented PA compared with high active individuals. Power exercises and participation in organized PA are the most significant predictors of achieving at least 3 × 20 min of vigorous PA per week among low active individuals in both countries. Monitoring the trends in the preferred and practiced types of PA among boys and girls is crucial for the effective promotion of PA to low active boys and girls and positive changes in physical education and school health policy.

We propose an ethical analysis as a method to reflect on how companies’ decisions promote sustainable development. The method proceeds by first identifying the choice according to financial business interests, and by then scrutinizing this choice according to consequentialist and deontological ethics. The paper applies the method to the choice of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that a consortium of Brazilian companies (EGASUR) delivered as part of their project proposal for the realization of the Inambari hydropower dam in the Peruvian Amazon. We show that if an EIA is chosen based on the attempt to maximize the financial bottom line, it raises ethical issues both from a consequentialist perspective by involving negative consequences for various stakeholder groups, and from a deontological perspective by not complying with relevant rules, guidelines, and principles. The two ethical perspectives hence reveal where the consortium faces impediments to a genuine commitment to sustainability. Building on stakeholder interviews, observations of the project developments, and the executive summary of the actual EIA, we provide indications that EGASUR has indeed made a choice that resembles a decision based on financial interests.

Under the global water crisis, utilizing low-quality water sources in agriculture for irrigation has offered an effective solution to address the shortage of water. Using an excess of low-quality water sources may cause serious risks to the environment, which threaten crop safety and human health. Three kinds of irrigation water (0.413, 1.44, and 2.84 dS m−1) were selected under foliar-applied bio-nanofertilizers of selenium (100 mg L−1) and copper (100 mg L−1) in individual and/or combined application. The nanofertilizers were tested on the production of tomato under greenhouse. After harvesting, the quality of tomato yield and soil biology was evaluated. Using saline water for irrigation caused many main features in this study such as increasing the accumulation of salts, soil organic matter, and CaCO3 in soil by 84.6, 32.3, and 18.4%, respectively, compared to control. The highest tomato yield (2.07 kg plant−1) and soluble solids content (9.24%) were recorded after irrigation with low water quality (2.84 dS m−1) and nano-Cu fertilization. The plant enzymatic antioxidants and soil biological activity were decreased in general due to the salinity stress of irrigation water. After 30 days from transplanting, all studied soil biological parameters (soil microbial counts and enzymes) were higher than the same parameters at harvesting (80 days) under different categories of water quality. The values of all soil biological parameters were decreased by increasing water salinity. This study was carried out to answer the question of whether the combined nanofertilizers of selenium and copper can promote tomato production under saline water irrigation. Further investigations are still needed concerning different applied doses of these nanofertilizers.

In this study, the characterization of several bacterial diseases affecting silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.), common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), white poplar (Populus alba L.), and white willow (Salix alba L.) in Ukraine were described. The typical symptoms, features of pathogenesis, and characteristics of the causative agents of the most common bacterial diseases of these tree species were shown. The following types of bacterioses were noted to be especially dangerous, namely, bacterial wetwood, fire blight, bacterial canker, and tuberculosis. Bacterial necrosis of the bark was a less dangerous disease. At the same time, all of the listed types of bacterioses were registered within the forest areas of the investigated region. The study revealed that bacterial wetwood of birch and poplar was caused by Lelliottia nimipressuralis; the bacterial canker of poplar is Pseudomonas syringae (Pseudomonas syringae f. populi and Pseudomonas cerasi); the fire poplar blight is caused by Pseudomonas cerasi (P. syringae); the common ash tuberculosis is caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. savastanoi; and the bacterial wilt of the willow is caused by Brenneria salicis. The phenomenon of the introduction of microorganisms of different functional orientations as well as the formation of conditions for their activity in the rhizosphere of plants have been studied. In the future, it will provide the development of effective methods for the rapid identification of causative agents of bacterioses and plant protection measures based on multi-functional microbiological preparations based on highly effective strains of microorganisms.

A first-time common cross-border assessment of observed climatic changes in the Saxon–Bohemian region was the aim of the German–Czech climate cooperation INTERKLIM. This paper focuses on the observed changes of temperature and precipitation averages and extremes within the period 1961–2010, investigating how variations of a range of climate indices were regionally shaped by changes in frequency and character of weather types. This investigation serves to enhance our understanding of the regional climate characteristics to develop transboundary adaptation strategies and focuses on the classification of the “Grosswetterlagen” using the parameters of air temperature and precipitation. Climate data were quality controlled and homogenized by a wide range of methods using the ProClimDB software with a subsequent comprehensive regional visualization based on Geographical Information Systems. Trends for the temperature averages showed increasing trend values mainly from January to August, especially for high temperature extremes. Precipitation trends displayed regionally varying signals, but a strong spatially uniform decrease from April to June (early growing season) and a distinctive increase from July to September (late growing season). Climatic changes were supported by frequency changes of weather types, e.g., the drying from April to June was related to a decrease/increase in patterns causing rather wet/dry conditions, while from July to September opposite trends were observed. Our results represent regional climatic changes in a complex topography and their dependency on variations in atmospheric circulation peculiarities.

International Potato Center (CIP), -bred potato genotypes produce various yields under heat stress conditions due to being sown late. To explore options for achieving this, a replicated experiment was conducted at the field of Tuber Crops Research Sub-Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bogura, Bangladesh to evaluate the performance of fourteen CIP-bred potato genotypes with two controls (Asterix and Granola). The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Several indices were applied to find out the suitable genotypes under heat stress. The plant height increased by 34.61% under heat stress, which was common in all the potato genotypes. Similarly, other yield-participating characters like stem per hill, canopy coverage (%), plant vigor, and tuber number per plant were also increased under heat stress conditions. However, the tuber yield was decreased by 6.30% and 11.41%, respectively when harvested at 70 and 90 days after plantation. Moreover, “CIP-203” yielded the highest (40.66 t ha−1) in non-stressed whereas, “CIP-118” yielded the highest (32.89 t/ha) in stressed conditions. Likewise, the bred “CIP-218” and “CIP-118” performed better under both growing conditions and yielded >35.00 t ha−1. According to a rank-sum test, among the fourteen potato genotypes, “CIP-218”, “LB-7”, “CIP-118”, “CIP-232”, and “CIP-112” were selected as heat-tolerant potatoes and can grow in both growing conditions with higher yield potential.