The scientific backgrounds of technologies involved in the production of headlamps for the automotive industry are elaborated in this thesis. The experimental work was performed using an industrial plasma reactor with a volume of approximately 5 m3. The reactor enables three different operations, i.e., plasma pretreatment of workpieces made from …
U and Th isotopic composition have been proven to be a valuable tool in environmental science, oceanography, hydrology, geology, nuclear forensics, and science-based archaeology. These applications require simultaneous detection of both minor and major isotopes at high accuracy. Often, the amount of sample or concentration of U and Th are …
This work focuses on a group of diatoms, belonging to the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, which is a globally important phytoplankton genus. Some species of the genus produce the toxin domoic acid, which is responsible for shellfish intoxication known as the amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). These diatoms have few morphological features that …
Contaminants of emerging concern (CEC) are organic pollutants occurring in wastewater and consequently enter the environment. An alternative to conventional wastewater treatment are algal photobioreactors, which treat wastewater with low energy input while producing nutrient- and energy-rich algal biomass and treated water, which both have the potential to be reused. …
The P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is responsible for the elimination of a wide variety of substances from the cell, thus it is thought to play an important role in detoxification functions. The P-gp also affects the ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity in pharmacokinetics) properties of drugs. It is involved in …
Access to clean water is a key requirement for a good quality of life. However, due to climate change, population growth and lack of proper water treatment, the availability of clean water is in constant decline. Among the many waterborne contaminants, viruses present an increasing concern. Human waterborne viruses infect …
Bisphenols are a group of industrial chemicals increasingly recognized as contaminants of emerging concern because of their presence in the environment and endocrine disrupting effects. They are used in the production of polycarbonate plastic, epoxy resins and thermal paper, in most cases without restriction. The global exception is bisphenol A, …
Recycling and reuse of waste by-products from steel industry is a common practice worldwide, which is in the last decade becoming more and more established also in Slovenia. Wastes from steel-making industry can be reused as alternative materials to successfully replace natural raw materials in asphalt mixes and in numerous …
A 3-year systematic investigation (2007–2010) of water chemistry using conventional and stable isotope tracers helped us delineate hydro-biogeochemical processes in the karstic Krka River watershed. By mineralogical and stable isotopic examination of tufa deposits and combining the results with water chemistry, we were able to evaluate the suitability of tufa …
The process of protein folding describes the transition by which an unordered polypeptide chain attains its functional native three-dimensional structure. A detailed understanding of the principles which govern the protein folding, such as conformational preferences of amino acid residues, the neighbour residue effect and the solvent effects, remains an important …