No abstract

In sugar beet production, weed control is one of the most important and most expensive practices to ensure yield. Since glyphosate-resistant sugar beets are not yet approved for cultivation in the EU, little commercial experience exists with these sugar beets in Europe. Experimental field trials were conducted at five environments (Germany, Poland, 2010, 2011) to compare the effects of glyphosate with the effects of conventional weed control programs on the development of weeds, weed control efficiency and yield. The results show that the glyphosate weed control programs compared to the conventional methods decreased not only the number of herbicide applications but equally in magnitude decreased the dosage of active ingredients. The results also showed effective weed control with glyphosate when the weed covering was greater and sugar beets had a later growth stage of four true leaves. Glyphosate-resistant sugar beets applied with the glyphosate herbicide two or three times had an increase in white sugar yield from 4 to 18 % in comparison to the high dosage conventional herbicide systems. In summary, under glyphosate management sugar beets can positively contribute to the increasingly demanding requirements regarding efficient sugar beet cultivation and to the demands by society and politics to reduce the use of chemical plant protection products in the environment.

Abstract:The research concerned the elaborate of non-waste biogas production technology based on the development of digestate from anaerobic digestion. In the anaerobic digestion process, the substrates of plant origin in the form of silage were used. The digestate obtained after biogas production was processed using the ORTWED method into a valuable granulated organic-mineral fertilizer, which contains a solid fraction of digestate, calcium and biogenic elements. This method can be successfully applied in agriculture in the context of its sustainable development due to the growing problem of utilization of digestate forming in agricultural biogas plants.

The effectiveness of reclamation activities in a tailing pond has been evaluated by the application of mineral and organic substances and remediation plants with water absorbing geocomposites. The research was conducted on the tailing pond of the former copper mine in Iwiny, Poland, basing on a strict, trifactorial experiment set up with the use of the split-split-plot method with 4 replications. The main experimental factors were the variants of substrate modification, various species (or mixtures) of reclamation plants and the presence of water absorbing geocomposites. The conducted experiments did not demonstrate a significant influence of various types of tailing additives. The usability of individual species of reclamation grass or their mixtures for the reclamation was similar. Water absorbing geocomposites contributed to the improvement of difficult vegetation conditions that occur in tailing ponds.

The electrical and structural properties of defects in epitaxial Si/SiGe with Ge content from 5 to 41% are investigated using electron-beam-induced current contrast measurements and bevel polishing with preferential defect etching. At room temperature, no electrical activity of misfit and threading dislocations is evident for wafers with 14, 21, and 41% Ge, while at 105 K a crossgrid array of misfit dislocations is observed on all these wafers and shallow level traps from threading dislocation defects are seen on the 41% Ge wafer. Thermal treatments reduce the electrical activity of the defects. Bevel polishing and preferential chemical etching with the Wright and Secco etches are utilized to analyze the dislocation density and distribution throughout the heterostructure. The etch chemistry difference between Si and SiGe is characterized as a function of Ge content to correctly interpret results. The etch rate increases with increasing Ge concentration up to 15% Ge, then saturates at a rate of ϳ3 m/min for higher Ge values, which is about 3 times that for an unstrained Si substrate. The etch rate is strongly dependent on the defect concentration, stress, and defect density in the layers.