INTERNSHIP REPORT Number 1
Samos – Greece, 01.09.2013 – 01.10.2013

TEPMUS JP 510985-2010

Laboratory assesment of Environmental Impacts

student: Marija Vasic, Faculty of Science and Mathamatics, University if Nis, [email protected]
company/supervizor: Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation, Samos, Greece, [email protected], Anastasia Miliou
mentor of practice: Prof. dr Aleksandra Zarubica, Faculty of Science and Mathamatics, University of Nis, [email protected]

 

1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction Microplastics:
The most ubiquitous type of anthropogenic pollution at the marine environment is of the plastic origin [1]. Plastic is a synthetic organic polymer obtained by polymerization of monomers extracted from oil or gas [2]. It is considered that more than 240 million of tones of plastic is produced worldwide [3]. Plastic pollution enters the marine environment via rivers, beaches, maritime activities, and illegal dumping at sea. Under UV light and hydrolysis, plastics gradually break into smaller particles [1], size from 1 m to 10-6 m microplastics fibres.
Larger microplastic particles (>1 mm) can be visually identified from other materials, such as organic fibres, according to the following criteria:
- No cellular or organic structures are visible,
- Fibres equally thick throughout their entire length,
- Clear and homogeneous colours (transparent or white) [4].
Microplastic have a long resistance in the marine environment dye to a very slow degradation process [4], and can be ingested by marine organisms, such as marine mammals, turtles, sea birds and invertebrates. There is a significant concern that, if ingested, small items of microplastic debris might facilitate the transfer of persistent organic and/or toxic pollutants that sorb onto plastic to organisms [5]. In this way microplastics might have physical and chemical effects on these and other organisms through the food chain [2].
Introduction water:
The quality and quantity of the water resources represent one of the major problem in modern era, worldwide. Safe drinking water is essential for existence of humans and other life forms on Earth [6] even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. Most living things are made up mostly of water, for example, the human body contains from 55% to 78% water, depending on body size. Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling, transportation and many other purposes.
Water is the most prevalent compound at the Earth and covers 71 % of the Earth's surface [7]. It is estimated that only 2.5 % of this is freshwater, and even smaller percentage is usable and easy accessible [8]. The need for the clear water additionally increases with world population growth and humans activities. Chemical analysis of water consist examination of pH, conductivity, presence of different Ions etc.

 

2. DESCRIPTION OF REALISED ACTIVITIES
Analysis of soil samples for microplastics content
Samples of sediment were collected (by different participants in project) from the beach at Island Oinousses, along the shore line, in the shallow (2m) and in the deep sea (6m). Three samples of each were collected at approximately 25 meters apart.
Student had a task to prepare collected samples and to analyse them for presence of microplastics fibre content using microscope.
First, samples were dried, then 75 g of each was measured. To each sample was added saturated salt solution, then shaken and left for 30 minutes to settle. After that solution was measured using glass syringe, and filtered through Whatman GF/C filter paper using a vacuum pump. After that the saturated salt solution was replaced and the process was repeated twice more.
Filter papers were analysed under a light microscope “OMAX” with magnification of 4 and 10 if needed. The microplastic fibres found were counted and identified by the colour (black/dark, blue, red, transparent, other).
Analysis of fish stomachs samples for microplastics fibre content
Samples of fish stomach were collected from Samos marked and stored in the fridge. Fish were dissected and the stomach content removed, weighed and prepared for analysis. The fish were analysed using the same procedure described above.
Once filtered, the samples were examined under the microscope and analysed for the presence, amount and colour of microplastics fibres. In this research, three species of fish were analysed, namely, Scombar Japonacus, Lakerda, Sarpe Salpe where, 36, 18, and 6 were tested for each species, respectively.
Student contributed by improving the method for preparing samples for analysing of microplastics. (In the original method the salt was added directly to samples, than the water for mixing). Improvement of sample preparation method was to double filter saturated salt solution. This improvement helped in a significant reduction of the contamination in the process of the samples preparation.

Chemical analysis of water samples
Samples of water were collected from different locations on Samos Island (Rema of Mytilini, potable water at Pythagorio, potable water at Vathy, filtered water at locations Pythagorio and Vathy). Samples were analysed for the presence of nitrates, nitrites, free chlorine, phosphates, pH and conductivity. For the nitrate, nitrite, free chlorine, and phosphates determination samples were prepared using specific reagent for each determination, and then measured on HANNA C99 Multiparameter Bench Photometer. For conductivity of water samples it was used C62 Milwaukee Conductivity Tester, and pH was measured using Milwaukee SM102 pH meter.

 

3. CONCLUSION
Future work recommendations for microplastics investigations:
New equipment could improve the method:
- Centrifuge could make the process of the samples preparation faster
- FTIR spectrometer could help in the identification of the MP and the source of the MP fibres
Analysis of the age and gender impact could provide information about whether the plastic is gathered over time or passed through the digestive system of examined organism.
Based on the results of chemical analyzes of water the following conclusions can be made:
• Filtered water at Pythagorio had less nitrates and phosphates than tap water, but more free chlorine.
• The amount of nitrites is below detection limit for tap and filtered water at Pythagorio.
• Filtered and tap water at location of Vathy city had nitrates and nitrites below detection limit.
• It is shown that filtered water at Vathy has less phosphates and free chlorine than tap water from the same location.
• All examined parameters are within allowed limits.
• According to gathered results from different locations on Samos-island, the quality of drinking water is good.
• Nevertheless, due to the fact that the resources of drinking water are limited, it is very important to save and preserve clean drinking water.

 

REFERENCES
[1] Marcus Eriksen, Nikolai Maximenko, Martin Thiel, Anna Cummins, Gwen Lattin, Stiv Wilson, Jan Hafner, Ann Zellers, Samuel Rifman, Plastic pollution in the South Pacific subtropical gyre, Mar. Pollut. Bull. 68 (2013) 71–76
[2] Matthew Cole, Pennie Lindeque, Claudia Halsband, Tamara S. Galloway, Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: A review, Mar. Pollut. Bull. 62 (2011) 2588–2597
[3] Anthony L. Andrady, Microplastics in the marine environment, Mar. Pollut. Bull. 62 (2011) 1596–1605
[4] Valeria Hidalgo-Ruz, Lars Gutow, Richard C. Thompson, Martin Thiel, Microplastics in the Marine Environment: A Review of the Methods Used for Identification and Quantification, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2012, 46, 3060−3075
[5] A.L. Lusher, M. McHugh, R.C. Thompson, Occurrence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract of pelagic and demersal fish from the English Channel, Mar. Pollut. Bull. 67 (2013) 94–99
[6] Sotirios Karavoltsos, Aikaterini Sakellari, Nikolaos Mihopoulos, Manos Dassenakis, Michael J. Scoullos, Evaluation of the quality of drinking water in regions of Greece, Desalination 224 (2008) 317–329
[7] "The world fact book." https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the‐worldfactbook/geos/xx.html#Geo, CIA. July 2013
[8] Gleick, P.H., ed. (1993). Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Freshwater Resources. Oxford University Press. p. 13, Table 2.1 "Water reserves on the Earth".

INTERNSHIP REPORT Number 2

TITAN Group

student: Marija Mamlic, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad, [email protected]
company/supervizor: Titan Cement Company S.A, Thessaloniki Plant, Greece,
Tachatou Glykeria, [email protected]
mentor of practice: Prof. dr Ivan Beker, Faculty of Technical Sciences , Novi Sad, [email protected]

TASK : Preparation of preventive maintenance task list, organization of drawings, warehouse stock strategy for structural elements

INTRODUCTION:
TITAN Group is an independent multi-regional producer of cement and other related building materials. TITAN produces portland cement, masonry cement and other cement materials, such as processed fly ash. Through extensive R&D the Group is able to offer various types of blended cements for specific applications.
Cement is a substance with the ability to harden upon contact with water (hydration reaction). It is made by grinding clinker, gypsum and/or other cement materials into a fine powder. This fine powder consists of hydraulic calcium silicates and aluminates that when mixed with mineral aggregates (like sand, gravel or crushed stone) and water, act as the binding agent to form concrete.

The internship (practice) lasted for a month, from June 3 till June 28, 2013. It implied both field work and office work.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTED:
During this month I worked mostly on two main projects.
The first and more important one concerns the organization of preventive maintenance of coal mill department, while the second one is about the organization of old mechanical drawing.

The projects implied first becoming familiar with multiple processes in the company, machinery functioning and safety and general conditions of all the equipment.

Week one: Learning about the procedures in company work, tour of the company, meeting with engineers of different profiles, reading the documents about various processes for cement production, attending a lecture on work safety.

Week two: Learning about machine drafts, drafts of plants and processes in the company. Looking through all old drawings, sorting and scanning them. All the drawings had to be put in electronic data base, in order to be found more easily and efficiently. The drawings of the machines not used any longer were taken out and the drawings of new machines and elements were put in.

Weeks three and four: Detailed overview of documents referring to the functioning of machines and plants. Special attention given to details on maintenance of machines, parts and elements. Next, creating a list of check recommendation that need to be regularly done, such as: operating temperature, reading the individual manometers, clean filter elements, and other.
Then, selecting those important elements in routine, daily maintenance and sorting them into special tables. Those tables were made in Excel program in order for the engineers to have a better overview on all that needs to be regularly controlled and in regular periods. This was done to provide a more efficient maintenance, to avoid machine failure and stopping the process.

CONCLUSION:
This internship helped me to use my knowledge acquired at Faculty of Technical Sciences in practice, at work and also to become familiar with the functioning of a big company, such as Titan, learn about the skills of responsible engineers and managers, duties, to get to know new processes and participate in work and apply the knowledge obtained at my Faculty, acquire new experience and also improve my own skills. In addition, I was able to meet a lot of professionals, engineers and get some new contacts.
 

INTERNSHIP REPORT Number 3

Maintenance of the website www.wildlife-archipelago.gr

student: Marijana Lazarevic, Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Nish, [email protected]
company/supervizor: Archipelagos IMC, Phitagorio, Anastasia Miliou, Research Director Hydrobiologist, [email protected]
mentor of practice: Prof. dr Zoran Jovanovic, Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Nish, [email protected]

Assignment: Alter the organization and improve site graphics of the web site http://www.wildlife-archipelago.gr/ . It was necessary to designe a new appearance to the site to make it with better overview. Reviewing the site led to the conclusion that it is necessary to change the following: main page manu with boxes corresponding to different categories,add link to Archipelagos web site, alphabetical index links. Give the proposal for further development of the site.
 

1. INTRODUCTION
Archipelagos is an institute of marine conservation mainly, but there are several different projects included, that covers almost every life form that inhabits Greece. Archipelagos has main website with all relevant informations about it`s work and dedications http://archipelago.gr/en/kentriki-selida-archipelagos/, and also web pages on social networks.They also, keep a web library of species that inhabits Greece and share they knowledge with everyone who is interested. The idea of “Wildlife library” is that if potentially interested people learn more about any species they would be also interested in preserving it. So, in that spirit the website of “Wildlife library” has to be easy to access and use, and to have an interesting material about requested species ( pictures, drawings, and reliable text on Greek and English, with references ). In this purposes is used WordPress, which is a free and open source blogging tool and a content-management system ( CMS ). It is based on PHP and MySQL which runs on a web hosting service.

2. DESCRIPTION OF IMPLEMENTED ACTIVITIES
Very popular and easy to handle feature of wordpress is its plugin architecture, each plugin allows user to shape website by it’s needs. WordPress themes allow user to change the functionality and looks without any affect to information content or structure of the website. This customization range allows the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to enhance content displaying features, such as the addition of widgets and navigation bars. Themes can be installed using the WordPress "Appearance" administration tool or theme folders can be uploaded via FTP.
PHP is a server scripting language, used to manage WordPress. Used editor is WordPress 3.6 . Dashboard is the interface for website. The sidebar menus gives quick access to posts, pages, media library and theme options.

SEO (Search engine optimization ) is search engine’s optimization of the Web page or website that is made in non artificial way (not by paying for it ) but by choosing the right parameters of search. In this way, your website can be appearing frequently and with higher rank in any search.
Every of the functions in All in One SEO Pack Plugin can be activated or deactivated, depends on needed. In this case it is chosen that when searching , search will be made by canonical URLs which means that , for example, if you make a typing mistake searching, the search will continue by the right name, and display needed web page.
The problem that encounters are meta tags. In a simple web site you can build it on every page, but when we have our pages incorporated in a system such is WordPress it is not so easy. That is why All in One SEO Pack give us an opportunity to set META keyword tags into the coding on header of each page.
 

For the better overview of the categories of the species it was decided to use an alphabetical indexes. For that purposes is used AZIndex plugin version 0.8. which gives an alphabetical order of links to corresponding species.

3. ACHIEVED RESULTS
Result of this work is current website of www.wildlife-library.com, which has a good design and a good layout.

Show9 Current view of www.wildlife-library.com Home page

Basically, WordPress is a platform that provides easy manipulation with your multimedia and texts, it is an open platform which gives an opportunity to build your web site according to wishes of the user. The web site is looking like on previous show. For an organization like Archipelagos it is very important to be in the media as much as it can, because of their work in preserving species and needed help with it. The best way to show what it wants to conserve is that show the world the rich nature of Samos wilderness. This web site is the best way for that, and that is why it is one of theirs most important projects and as such, it must be easy for using, not confusing for orientation, and to have attractive appearance.

4. CONCLUSION
Results of this work is current website that needs more improvement. And on the last meeting with my mentor in Archipelagos, during my presentation I also talked about further plan for the web site.
Teams in Archipelagos are distributed by their professions, so my suggestion was that teams work together and show fruits of their efforts on this web site. For example the team which studies some species has to write its findings ( data, sounds of some animals… ) and put it on the site in the section for corresponding species, also team which, using advanced software, can mark the places inhabited in Samos by some species. These projects are challenging, but not unrealistic, and were adopted by Archipelagos.

REFERENCES
[1] WordPress [ online ] Available: http://wordpress.org/plugins/, http://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/widget
[2] Wildlife library [ online ] Available: http://wildlife-archipelago.gr/
[3] Archipelagos IMC [ online ] Available: http://archipelago.gr/en/
 

INTERNSHIP REPORT Number 4

student: Dušan Medin / [email protected]
company/supervizor: Greek Ministry of Culture / Miss. Cornilia Daifa, archaeologist, Assistant to Director of Excavation
mentor of practice: PhD Staša Babić (Headmaster of Department of Archaeology– Faculty of Philosophy)

ASSIGNMENT:
Archaeological site Mandra (island Despotiko) is a locality from ancient Greek period. Archaeological finds from the site are dating from ancient Greek periods BC (Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic), but there also exists some artifacts and objects dated in medieval time. Most interesting finds are remains from the Apollo and Artemis Temple complex dated in VI century BC. Beside this architectural remains, parts of marble statues (Kouros and Koras), ceramic pottery (often painted), metal and glass vessels, small metal objects, clay figurines, clay objects such as roof bricks, human and animal bones, seashells and snails shells were found there. Participating in this project was excellent archaeological experience.

1. INTRODUCTION
I have spent my summer practice in Greece this year. I was chosen from all the students from my Department by Prof. PhD Staša Babić (Headmaster of Department of Archaeology– Faculty of Philosophy (University in Belgrade)) to go on this specific summer practice. I came in Greece on the 24th of May and I was accommodated in Athens were I have spent two days I used my time in Athens to visit some of the most famous historical and archaeological sites such as Acropolis, Hadrian’s Library, Greek Agora, Roman Agora and also to explore the spirit of the city itself. On the 26th of May, early in the morning, I took a ferryboat from Piraeus to Paros (island Paros) where the director of excavation had organized a small welcome meeting for the participants. Later, we traveled from Paros to Pounta (other side of the island Paros) to the port of Antiparos (island Antiparos). Finally, from there we came in Aghios Georghios where we were located during excavation. While in Antipasos we were accommodated in hotel “Dolphin”, located in beautiful coastal village Aghios Georghios.
2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES
As mentioned, summer practice took place in Greece (archaeological site Mandra, island Despotiko, near island Antiparos, Cyclades) from the 27th of May till the 16th of June. Archaeological excavation was realized by 21st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities (Greek Ministry of Culture). Director of Excavation was Mr. PhD Yannos Kourayos, an archaeologist of the 21st Ephorate. Director’s assistant was Miss. Cornilia Daifa, archaeologist. Whole team was international and made by Greeks, Italians, Norwegians, Americans and me. Our working day started before 8:00AM when we traveled by a little boat from Antiparos island to Despotiko island and finished about 2:00PM. In small groups of usually 3-5 we would get the place – archaeological trench and excavate there whole day or two. Because the work was difficult and responsible, it sometimes took more days. It was interesting to see curious tourists from all over the world who were spending hours observing the Mandra archaeological site and old remains during extremely hot sunny days. During weekend we did not have to work but we spent the time traveling around Cyclades and visiting interesting sites and places. We visited local Museum in Paros (Paros island) twice where all the archaeological material from Despotiko island is placed. We also visited islands Delos, Myconos, Santorini…
3. RESULTS
Working on this project I participated in, a lot of different activities usual for archaeological job: digging, excavating, cleaning the site, washing the pottery, keeping a diary and writing daily reports. Results of this archaeological excavation are: new archaeological finds, new discovered architectural elements from the temple and auxiliary rooms (foundations, timbers, entrances, etc)… generally – excavation provides us better knowledge about archaeological site and its historical and social context.
 

4. CONCLUSION
This summer practice was very useful for me and an excellent experience as well. I met a lot of colleagues from other European and American faculties of archaeology. It also helped me to improve my English and Italian, because almost all the colleagues (except Americans and Norwegians) were speaking both languages. Excavating in Greece was very interesting especially because it helped me compare the manner the archeology is treated abroad with the ways in Serbia. Considering the facts that I did well during my summer practice, they invited me to come next year.

REFERENCES
[1] Kourayos, Yannos, Despotiko Mandra: a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo. In: M. Yeroulanou and M. Stamatopoulou (eds.), Architecture and Archaeology in the Cyclades, Papers from a colloquium held at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, 17 April 2004, BAR International Series, 1455, Archaeopress, Oxford, 105–133, 2006.

[2] Google images