Building capacity of the Baltic States to meet the EU Water Framework Directive through watershed demonstration projects.

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), in cooperation with the United States EPA, is completing it role in assisting the Baltic Countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia with watershed management capacity building demonstration projects under the Great Lakes/Baltic Sea Partnership Program. The Countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania view the skills gained through this program as important to their objective of complying with the European Union's Water Framework Directive and thus facilitating accession into the European Union. The program also addressed Kaliningrad's desire to work cooperatively with their neighboring countries concerning shared waters. Three watershed demonstration projects were designed and implemented, two of which involved joint country efforts: Parnu River (Estonia) modeling for nutrients and bacteria survey; river basin assessment and management planning for the Lielupe Basin (Latvia and Lithuania); and data base development and cooperative water quality survey and analysis for the Sesupe River (Lithuania and Kaliningrad). The benefits of the projects include enhancing the country's technical skills and the forging of relationships, without which achieving effective watershed management will be difficult to achieve.

A measuring system for biotechnical processes based on discrete methods of estimation.

An adaptive measuring system of the main variables of biotechnical processes based on the theory of estimation is elaborated upon here. All stages of system synthesis are considered. It is shown that for an adaptive measuring system all a priori information on modelling and measurement noise and process mathematical models must be used. The data of direct and indirect measurements are used for estimating the main variables. The performance of the proposed measuring system was checked using imitative modelling.

Optimization of batch fermentation processes by graphical method.

A graphical method is proposed for batch fermentation process optimization. Its objective function is the maximum output of the product when the time of process is fixed or free. The technique of optimization is based on Bellman's dynamic programming concepts and the assumption that the process can be described by mathematical models of generalized structure. An example of the proposed technique's application is presented.