Groundwater quality monitoring in the vicinity of drilling sites is crucial for the protection of water resources. Selected physicochemical parameters of waters were marked in the study. The water was collected from 19 wells located close to a shale gas extraction site. The water quality index was determined from the obtained parameters. A secondary objective of the study was to test the capacity of the artificial neural network (ANN) methods to model the water quality index in groundwater. The number of ANN input parameters was optimized and limited to seven, which was derived using a multiple regression model. Subsequently, using the stepwise regression method, models with ever fewer variables were tested. The best parameters were obtained for a network with five input neurons (electrical conductivity, pH as well as calcium, magnesium and sodium ions), in addition to five neurons in the hidden layer. The results showed that the use of the parameters is a convenient approach to modeling water quality index with satisfactory and appropriate accuracy. Artificial neural network methods exhibited the capacity to predict water quality index at the desirable level of accuracy (RMSE = 0.651258, R = 0.9992 and R2 = 0.9984). Neural network models can thus be used to directly predict the quality of groundwater, particularly in industrial areas. This proposed method, using advanced artificial intelligence, can aid in water treatment and management. The novelty of these studies is the use of the ANN network to forecast WQI groundwater in an area in eastern Poland that was not previously studied—in Lublin.

Assessment of several noise indicators are determined by the logarithmic mean10 0.1L i , from the sum of independent random results L1, L2, . . . , Ln of the sound level, being under testing. The estimation of uncertainty of such averaging requires knowledge of probability distribution of the function form of their calculations. The developed solution, leading to the recurrent determination of the probability distribution function for the estimation of the mean value of noise levels and its variance, is shown in this paper.

The paper formulates some objections to the methods of evaluation of uncertainty in noise measurement which are presented in two standards : ISO 9612 (2009) and DIN 45641 (1990). In particular, it focuses on approximation of an equivalent sound level by a function which depends on the arithmetic average of sound levels. Depending on the nature of a random sample the exact value of the equivalent sound level may be significantly different from an approximate one, which might lead to erroneous estimation of the uncertainty of noise indicators. The article presents an analysis of this problem and the adequacy of the solution depending on the type of a random sample.

This study is dedicated to the problem of estimating uncertainties of long-term noise indicators, when differences in the sound level emission at various time periods of the calendar year are taken into consideration. This task is defined by referring their influence values -in the determined time intervals -to the year period. Due to the limited possibilities of a total monitoring of parameters necessary for the precise estimation of the long-term sound levels, this estimation process is often limited (in accordance with the EU environmental recommendations) to two condition classes. They are defined by two sound levels occurring with probabilities (frequencies) p and 1 − p, in the analyzed reference period. In this paper we present a method of calculating uncertainties of this procedure assuming that frequency of determined events are known. The probability distribution for the estimated value was assessed. The developed model formalism of the estimation of uncertainties of long-term sound levels together with algorithms assigned to it, was analyzed. The proposed solution was illustrated by examples of uncertainty calculations of the averaged sound levels in acoustic assessments of environmental hazards.

The fault diagnosis for maintenance of machines operating in variable conditions requires special dedicated methods. Variable load or temperature conditions affect the vibration signal values. The article presents a new approach to diagnosing rotating machines using an artificial neural network, the training of which does not require data from the damaged machine. This is a new approach not previously found in the literature. Until now, neural networks have been used for machine diagnosis in the form of classifiers, where data from individual faults were required. A new diagnostic parameter rDPNS (Relative Differences Product of Network Statistics) as a function of the machine's shaft order was proposed as a kind of new order spectrum independent of the machine's operating conditions. The presented work analyses the use of the proposed method to diagnose misalignment and unbalance. The results of an experiment carried out in the laboratory demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.