This article proposes a method for quantitative assessment of a multilayer material interaction with a solvent. It is proposed to assess the effect of solvents on the material by the value of its surface's maximum swelling. The advantage of this method is that the determined value of the outer layer's maximum surface swelling does not depend on the time of swelling and is least influenced by the properties of lower layers.

The problem of the composition optimization of concrete mixes seems to be quite urgent as errors at the composition design stage can lead to problems of concrete at the stage of exploitation such as delamination, cracking etc. Reasonable selection of concrete mix components guarantees the required strength of concrete and reinforced concrete structures in the future. This paper investigates the influence of the concrete mix composition on the strength of concrete. Firstly, typical risks that can occur on the composition design stage have been identified through the experts' interviews. Secondly, this risks were associated with indicators and characteristics that can be tested experimentally. Running of several mathematical models has allowed to outline concrete mix parameters of highest importance and formulate an empirical equation for the dependence of the strength of the concrete mixture on the values of the coarse aggregate quality factor, the fine aggregate fraction and the consumption of the Portland cement has been proposed. As a result, a methodology for controlling the quality of concrete at the stage of the composition design has been formulated. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091732 Full Text: PDF

The article covers the research on the changing of flexo plates' deformation properties during swelling in various solvents that are used in the printing industry. The acquired data was processed with the equation from the Kelvin-Voigt model, the constant models and times of relaxation of the initial and swelled photopolymer have been determined.

Digital transformation is gaining its momentum in all industries. On the one hand, agriculture is usually considered as an outsider industry in terms of digitalization. On the other hand, during the last decade several countries have managed to improve the quality of agricultural industry and solve many of its problems with the use of modern information and digital technologies. In Russian Federation the Ministry of Agriculture announced the national project “Digital agriculture”, however the Projects is hard to release due to the lack of employees with decent soft and digital skills which are essential to the process of digital transformation. There are several models and frameworks of digital competences management, but none of them considers the specifics of agricultural sector. Thus, authors in this pre-research article justify the necessity to develop adaptable methodology for innovation management via various types competencies (hard, soft, digital ones) based on preliminary investigation of problem and solutions used in other countries.

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