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The effect of Zeolux use as soil amendment on the yield and some of the agronomic traits of a home garden plant, Sage (Salvia officinalis), irrigated by either fresh or RO reject waters was studied. Clay and different combinations of clay-Jordanian zeolux were compared for that purpose. Each combination was divided into two subgroups at randomized experiment and irrigated with either fresh or RO reject waters. The combination of 75% clay and 25% zeolux irrigated with fresh water produced the best results in terms of plant height, number of branches, fresh weight, dry weight and root dry weight of sage plant. The results indicate that the use of RO reject water causes significant reduction in all the studied parameters above. The use of zeolux did not reduce the harmful effects of the saline water used for irrigation on the yield of sage.

Adsorption is one of the methods that can be used for metal removal. In this study five metals were used cadmium, chromium, lead, copper and Nickel (Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, and Ni) over a concentration range from 0.8 to about 7 mg l^-1 for each metal. Adsorbents were prepared with increasing chitosan to bentonite ratio from 0 to 0.67 g chitosan/g bentonite. The study showed that adsorption of metals on plain bentonite and chitosan modified bentonite can fit well with Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. Furthermore, the bentonite adsorption capacity will decrease with the increase of chitosan/bentonite ratio. This study concluded that bentonite is a good adsorbent. However, the applicability of bentonite as potential adsorbent may be limited by its physical properties such as slow settling rate and difficulty to use it as an adsorbent in adsorption columns. Despite the decrease of maximum theoretical adsorption capacity as a result of chitosan modification, the addition of small amount of chitosan can improve the physical characteristics of bentonite clay to be used as an adsorbent. 

In this work, diesel soot has been characterized chemically using a diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) technique. Diesel soot samples were generated under combustion conditions reproducing the typical urban operating mode of a diesel engine. Initial experiments performed to ensure the repeatability of the Drifts analysis and the sample preparation method showed that the standard deviations were always lower than 20% for the DRIFTS analysis itself, and lower than 25% when sample preparation was included. This is of special interest as regards application of the DRIFTS technique for quantitative analysis. The functional groups on the soot surface were identified on the basis of the infrared bands observed in the spectra at room temperature, indicating that the diesel soot analyzed comprises a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons, carboxylic compounds, hydroxyl species, ether groups, and methylene and methyl groups. Analyses were also carried out at different temperatures in the interval of 298-858 K in order to analyze the thermal stability of the functional groups, with carbonyl groups, lactones and ethers appearing to be the most thermally stable compounds. 

This paper proposes one new attempt to formulate a mathematical approach to climate parameters in the context of their complex implications for tourist activities through the tourism climate comfort index (TCCI). This paper also aims to formulate an original and optimal mathematical correlation between readily obtainable climate parameters (mean monthly air temperature, monthly amplitude of air temperatures, monthly insolation, average monthly relative air humidity and the number of rainy days), which results in values of the TCCI. Simultaneously, this index will provide the values correspondent to the values of air temperatures (°C), which represents a comparative baseline understandable equally for tourists, tourism planners and managers. The example of Serbia as a mainland country in the south-east of Europe was used to apply the proposed methodology. The spatial-temporal variability of TCCI is formulated on basis of data for the period 1961-2000 while for testing model was used selected period 2001-2010 on the sample of 26 meteorological stations distributed all around Serbia. For this purpose a standard statistical techniques were applied and ArcGIS software was used for analyze of the variability of the TCCI in relation to the altitude, which is of particular importance for the development of tourism in the mountains. Checking variability of the index was carried out in relation to statistical data about number of tourists on the three most visited tourist destinations which are of importance for the development of urban, mountain and spa tourism, the leading forms of tourism activities on the territory of Serbia. The obtained results correspond with the fact of the pronounced seasonality of tourism market and thus may represent a good basis for future tourism planning and management.