In the process of biological wastewater treatment, P-removal is efficient enough when the concentration of organic pollutants according to BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand) is no higher than 190 mg lE-1 of O2 and its relationship with phosphorus does not exceed 20. Having studied the composition of wastewater from dairy farms it was determined that wastewater pollution according to BOD5 is from 800 to 900 mg lE-1 of O2 and the ratio of BOD5/Ptotal is 30-36. The paper gives the results of the tests on P-removal from wastewater carried out in a laboratory model. During investigations wastewater was flowing via mineral filters (filtralite P (FLP), zeolite (CE), and shulgite (SG)). Total amount of Ca, Fe and Al oxides contained in those filters were 23.0, 16.1 and 7.9% respectively. The rates of P-removal from wastewater in the filters were as follows: 88.5% (FLP), 45.5% (CE), and 96.3% (SG). Considering different hydraulic load, P-mass balance was calculated. The calculation results showed the following P absorption amounts: FLP - 5.08 g dE-1, CE - 1.76 g dE-1, and SG - 3.91 g dE-1 (calculated for 1 m**3 of each filter). Wastewater filtration through mineral media resulted in the removal of other pollutants, too: organic pollutants removal (according to BOD5) was 30.8 to 72.5%, and the removal of nitrogen compounds (more than 90% of which were in the form of ammonium salts) was even 93.2% in CE filter.

In the paper there are described problems of sewerage system in Riga which essentially impede its normal functioning. There are analyzed operation regimes of two principal pumping stations which pump all wastewater of Riga to the purification plants (2001-2005). The main focus is on implementing different measures that would improve collection and pumping of wastewater. It is offered to build a third penstock from the Voleru chamber to the purification plants. It is suggested to separate the rainwater from the household wastewater. There are analyzed 11 different versions of pump operation. In the conclusions and recommendations the formation of the possible dangerous situation during heavy downpours is demonstrated. It is recommended to build a regulation reservoir near the purification plants which could essentially protect the Daugava from unpurified wastewater during the downpours.

The paper discusses the peculiarities of hydrological and hydro-chemical regime of ground water in shallow wells and boreholes in moraine soils of active karts zone. It was determined that the fluctuations in water levels in boreholes and wells have the same tendencies: water was closest to the ground surface when the air temperature was increasing in the cold period (November-March) and decreasing in the warm period (April-October) pf the year. Chemical composition of water in boreholes (sum of ions) was up to 1.2 times lower than that in well water. This was determined by higher sodium, sulphates, and chlorine and nitrates amounts. When water level is decreasing, water chemical composition is increasing in water of wells and boreholes. It was determined that water in wells was contaminated with nitrate nitrogen; water in boreholes was polluted with ammonia nitrogen.

The paper presents the analysis of legal acts and normative documents regulating the management of surface (rain) wastewater in Lithuania. On the basis of the results, the investigations on treatment efficiency of pollution of surface wastewater accumulated in the territory of the cattle and pigs slaughterhouse of Krekenavos mesa Ltd were carried out. Having applied differentiated runoff coefficients calculations of the dependence of wastewater amount territory of the company were suggested. According to the monitoring program, wastewater pollution indices and investigation frequency were determined in respect of the requirements of surface water monitoring. Wastewater pollution dynamics in treatment facilities of the company was estimated. As it was determined, the main index specifying treatment necessity of subsurface wastewater accumulated in company's territory is suspended solids. Considering this index it was determined that maximum wastewater pollution exceeded the determined rate of environmental requirements 2.13 times within the study period. After treatment in the facilities, the average wastewater pollution with suspended solids decreased from 31.44 mg lE-1 to 8.67 mg lE-1. Other pollutants concentrations contained in wastewater were insignificant and did not exceed the rate determined in the environmental requirements, thus they may be released into open water bodies. It was also determined that the average amount of suspended solids contained in the Upyte stream reached 17.55 mg lE-1. Considering this index, pollution of wastewater outlet is 50.6% lower than the background pollution of the stream.

The paper presents the test results of studies on the treatment of wastewater in experimental treatment facilities in a milk collecting station. The treatment process of wastewater was a follows: aeration-flocculation device -sedimentation pond - two-stage constructed wetlands. The laboratory investigations have shown that the primary treatment with quicklime (1 kg mE-3) reduces wastewater pollution by 54%, while the treatment with coagulant 'ZETAG 8660' (4 g mE-3) reduces it by even 68%. Such results were not obtained in the primary wastewater treatment stage under industrial conditions: biological oxygen demand (BOD5) in wastewater was reduced 27.2%, the amount of suspended sediment was reduced by 48.1%, the amounts of Ntotal and Ptotal decreased by 15.8% and 27% respectively. Such results much depended on the air temperature, inaccurate dosage of chemicals as well as on insufficient capacity of reaction and sedimentation reservoirs for 2.5 times higher amount of wastewater. However, despite such unfavourable conditions, this stage of treatment process was rather efficient: the pollution of wastewater with organic matter flowing into the stream did not exceed the maximum allowable rates. The average value according to BOD5 was 4 mg O2 lE-1, the highest BOD5 value was 9.6 mg O2 lE-1. From the environment protection point of view, it is particularly important that the removal of biogenic pollutants is quite sufficient in the wastewater treatment facilities. After the treatment process in wastewater treatment facilities, the amount of Ntotal decreased by 82.4% and the amount of Ptotal was reduced by even 97.3%.

This article analyzes the experience of economic clustering of Finnish industry. This experience is described in the report of the fundamental investigation which was carried out by the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) - Advantage Finland - The Future of the Finnish industries. The study deals with the competitiveness and future growth prospects of the Finnish industry on the basis of Michael E. Porter's theory of the competitive advantage of nations. The comparative advantage of Finnish industries has been moving from capital-and resource-intensive branches to those driven by know-how and technology. The author recommends to study this experience and to use it in Latvia. The finding of the real and potential business-groups in the economy of Latvia may be realized with the algorithm of clustering described by the professor of Colombian University (USA) David Stark on the base of Lursoft data of the Latvian enterprises.

The efficiency of solving of the state environmental protection policy and implementation of the environmental problems are closely related to identification of the existing problems of the environmental protection in a definite territory. In the rural territories this process depends on the process of agricultural production. In the society, alongside with the opinion about necessity of sustainable development there is also an opinion that the primary goal is to attain total economic increase even if it can damage the environment itself. Analyzing definite indices of the effect of agriculture on the environment, it is possible to evaluate changes in the development of the branch and the environmental condition as well as their mutual interrelation.

The article is meant to analyze the methodological qualitative characteristics of the creation of employees' motivation. These characteristics help to measure the reliability of research instruments. In accordance with Kendal ranking correlation (Henning, 1997) there are identified motivation indicators of managing employees and executives. The main attention is paid to the importance of motivation models' shaping and the essential principles by giving the results of model shaping and their interpretations.

Fermentation of milk with probiotics and prebiotics has been shown to increase the concentration of B group vitamins in fermented milk products. The task of the study was to investigate the influence of prebiotics on the increasing of thiamin and riboflavin concentrations in milk during fermentation by Bifidobacterium lactis. Lactulose (Duphilac, Netherlands) and inulin (Raftiline, Belgium) were added (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5%) into 100 g of milk. The milk samples were inoculated with Bifidobacterium lactis (BB-12, Chr. Hansen, Denmark) and incubated at 38 deg C for 16 hours. The amount of thiamine and riboflavin was determined by fluorometric method. Laboratory studies have shown that the increasing of thiamin and riboflavin concentrations in milk depends on the concentration of lactulose and inulin. Data on the final thiamin and riboflavin concentrations in fermented milk indicates that increasing the lactulose concentration from 1% to 3% enhanced the production of thiamin and riboflavin. The similar data was obtained with inulin. Increasing of inulin concentration from 1% to 4% enhanced the production of vitamins thiamin and riboflavin. The present results furthermore indicate that finding optimal combination of prebiotics and probiotic pairs where the prebiotic would benefit the specific probiotic strain, e.g. during production and formulation into foods, is one of the research priority for functional foods.

Selenium (Se) is an essential microelement for human health; it is not synthesized in human body and cannot be substituted by any other element. Many health problems have a link with Se deficiency. People need to obtain all necessary amounts of selenium with food. Cereal products are important components of our diets and can contribute comparatively large part of the total dietary intake of Se. The wheat grains growing in Latvia contain comparatively small amount of selenium - on average 0.04 mg kgE-1. The objective of this study was to investigate the possibilities of fortifying wheat grains with microelement selenium during soaking grains in selenium containing solutions. Wheat grain was soaked in sodium selenite and sodium selenate solutions with selenium concentration from 10 to 200 mg lE-1. Sprouting activity was determined after 24, 72 and 120 hours, the influence of selenium valence in compound was observed. Comparing the influence of Se**+4 and Se**+6, it can be concluded that Se**+4 does not promote sprouting activity of wheat grains position to Se**+6 which increases sprouting activity till selenium concentration 100 mg lE-1. Uptake of selenium in grains was studied by determination of total Se using atomic absorption spectroscopy method. Linear correlation between Se concentrations in applied soaking solutions and Se concentration in grains was observed. The content of total protein did not change significantly - it varied from 13.64% in the control sample to 13.87% in the wheat sample with the highest applied selenium concentration (200 mg lE-1).