Krystian Heffner, Arkadiusz Halama, Agnieszka Majorek-Gdula
et al.
The aim of the paper is to assess the use of RES, i.e. solar energy (through investment in PV installations) in selected regional cities in Poland. We focused on the area of five regional capital cities, selected in terms of representativeness and fulfilling regional administrative or administrative and self-governmental functions. The research hypothesis is that installations are mainly mounted on new buildings, while income is a factor that determines the choice of PV. The methodological part features an analysis of the literature in the selected area. This was followed by an analysis of the statistical data available in the public statistics (Statistics Poland's data) and on the basis of primary data collected from the main electricity distributors (Tauron Dystrybucja S.A. and ENEA). The data for the analysis comes from before the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as these were characterised by a relative stabilisation of electricity prices and consumption in Poland. A correlation analysis based on the Pearson coefficient was carried out to investigate a possible relationship between the number of micro-installations in the cities reviewed and the other variables. An econometric model was built to analyse the variables studied, which have a significant impact on the number of PV micro-installations in the urban areas studied. The article fills a gap in the literature concerning the identification of conditions responsible for location preferences for renewable energy in the existing settlement patterns of fast-growing cities, dispersed in external zones, as well as in the urbanising rural environment. Research on prosumer energy in these areas is completely new. An in-depth analysis of the behaviour of prosumers and their preferences regarding photovoltaic installations may be the basis for optimising the economic instruments used in Poland to encourage investment in renewable energy sources.
Jakub Grabowski, Jarosław Ropęga, Anna Walecka
et al.
The aim of the article was to evaluate the extent to which green competencies are featured in recruitment and personnel selection processes as criteria for assessing and verifying candidates' suitability for job opportunities. The method applied in the study was existing data analysis, which involved a literature review and an analysis of job advertisements on the job portals pracuj.pl and doinggood.pl (N=3617). To complement the analysis with qualitative data, individual unstructured interviews with the management and staff of recruitment firms (N=55) were conducted. As a result, an original catalogue of green competencies sought by employers in various industries was developed. The study further revealed that green competencies, although emerging in the economy as it progresses towards "greening", are not yet commonly recognised. While they are well described in the literature, business practitioners often understand them in terms of generalised statements indicating skills in reducing negative environmental impact. Consequently, they are not always treated as an objective factor in assessing a job candidate’s suitability for a position at the company.
This article is an attempt to contribute to the discussion on the potential of (transformative) innovation for the design and implementation of climate change adaptation solutions and strategies. The aim of this study is to examine how climate change adaptation issues are addressed in the strategic documents of Poland and its regions, and whether and to what extent cohesion policy funds promote the use of innovation in climate change adaptation activities. The author reviews the most important strategic documents at the national and regional level and analyses cohesion policy expenditure (implemented in 2014-2020 and planned for 2021-2027). Based on the analyses carried out, the author concludes that although the level of integration of climate change adaptation issues into development strategies in Poland and its regions is increasing, the innovative potential is hardly being used in this regard, and the concrete actions under the cohesion policy in the areas of climate change adaptation and innovation take separate directions and are only to a limited extent linked.
The main objective of the research was to recognise the importance of apps in the implementation of sustainable lifestyles of representatives of Generation Z. The specific objectives were to identify: sustainable behaviors, the relationship between areas of behavior and the use of apps correlating with the area, and their determinants. The main stages of the research process included: critical analysis of the literature on the subject, development of research assumptions, selection of the method and research tool, and development of research results. Empirical research using a survey technique CAWI was conducted among 838 respondents in 2023. Factor analysis, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient were used. Hypotheses were confirmed that behaviors in particular areas are positively correlated with the use of applications whose scope correlates with a particular area of behavior, and that economic conditions have the greatest impact on the sustainable lifestyle of representatives of generation Z. The conclusion identifies research limitations and implications, as well as directions for future research.
Angeliki Xenaki, Peter Gerstoft, Ethan Williams
et al.
Extensive monitoring of acoustic activities is important for many fields, including biology, security, oceanography, and Earth science. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is an evolving technique for continuous, wide-coverage measurements of mechanical vibrations, which is suited to ocean applications. DAS illuminates an optical fiber with laser pulses and measures the backscattered wave due to small random variations in the refractive index of the material. External stimuli, such as mechanical strain due to acoustic wavefields impinging on the fiber-optic cable, modulate the backscattered wave. Continuous measurement of the backscattered signal provides a distributed sensing modality of the impinging wavefield. Considering the potential use of existing telecommunication fiber-optic cables deployed across the oceans, DAS has emerged as a promising technology for monitoring the underwater soundscape. This review presents advances in DAS in the last decade and details the underlying physics from electromagnetic to mechanical and eventually acoustic quantities. To guide the use of DAS for ocean applications, the effect of DAS acquisition parameters in signal processing is explained. Finally, DAS is demonstrated on data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array for the detection of sound sources, such as whales, ships, and earthquakes.
Kaustubh Hakim, Dan J. Bower, Fabian L. Seidler
et al.
The James Webb Space Telescope is characterising the atmospheres of sub-Neptunes. The presence of magma oceans on sub-Neptunes is expected to strongly alter the chemistry of their envelopes and observable atmospheres. At the magma ocean-envelope boundary (MEB, $>$10 kbar), gas properties deviate from ideality, yet the effects of real gas behaviour on chemical equilibria remain underexplored. Here, we compute equilibrium between magma-gas and gas-gas reactions using real gas equations of state in the H-He-C-N-O-Si system for TOI-421b, a canonical hot sub-Neptune potentially hosting a magma ocean. We find that H and N are the most soluble in magma, followed by He and C. We fit real gas equations of state to experimental data on SiH$_4$, and show that, for a fully molten mantle, SiH$_4$ dominates at the MEB under accreted gas metallicity of 1$\times$ solar, but is supplanted by CH$_4$ at 100$\times$ solar. Lower mantle melt fractions lower both magma-derived Si abundances in the envelope and the solubility of H and He in magma, yielding H$_2$- and He-rich envelopes. Projecting equilibrium chemistry through the observable atmosphere (1 mbar-100 bar), we find that `clouds' of Si-bearing condensates strongly deplete Si-bearing gases, although SiH$_4$ remains key, especially when a solar gas is accreted. SiH$_4$/CH$_4$ and Si/C ratios increase with mantle melt fraction and decrease with accreted gas metallicity. The competition between SiH$_4$ and CH$_4$ is therefore diagnostic of metallicity and presence of magma oceans on sub-Neptunes with equilibrium temperatures below 1000 K. The corollary is that H$_2$- and He-rich, SiH$_4$-deficient and CH$_4$-bearing observable atmospheres may indicate a limited role or absence of magma oceans on sub-Neptunes.
Paul X. McCarthy, Xian Gong, Marieth Coetzer
et al.
This study explores the relationship between personality diversity and national economic performance, introducing the Global Personality Diversity Index ($Ψ$-GPDI) as a novel metric. Leveraging a dataset of 760,242 individuals across 135 countries, we quantify within-country diversity based on the Big Five personality traits. Our findings reveal that personality diversity accounts for 19.9% of the variance in GDP per capita and provides an additional 2.8% explanatory power beyond institutional quality and immigration, underscoring its unique contribution to economic vitality. Through multi-factor analysis, we demonstrate how personality diversity complements existing economic frameworks, offering actionable insights for policymakers seeking to enhance innovation, productivity, and resilience. This research positions psychological diversity as a critical yet under explored factor in driving economic growth, bridging the fields of psychology and economics.
Tatsuya Yoshida, Kirara Arima, Takeshi Kuroda
et al.
The thermal evolution of magma oceans formed by giant impacts is strongly influenced by a proto-atmosphere through its blanketing effect, which suppresses outgoing planetary radiation. While both radiative absorption and Rayleigh scattering by atmospheric species can contribute to this effect, the role of the scattering in suppressing thermal radiation from magma oceans remains unclear. In this study, we developed a 1-D radiative transfer model for planetary and solar radiation in a proto-atmosphere composed of H2O and H2, and a coupled thermal evolution model of a planetary interior and proto-atmosphere, to investigate the scattering blanketing effect on planetary radiation and magma ocean cooling. Our results show that Rayleigh scattering significantly reduces outgoing planetary radiation at wavelengths below ~1 micrometer, particularly in hot, thick atmospheres where scattering is highly effective. Consequently, the planetary outgoing radiation flux decreases by up to about one to two orders of magnitude, and the magma ocean lifetime is prolonged by up to about three times due to the scattering blanketing effect when the total amounts of H2O and H2 are equivalent to or greater than the present-day terrestrial seawater. These findings suggest that the prolonged magma ocean phase facilitated efficient differentiation between compatible and incompatible elements, even in the lower mantle. Furthermore, they imply that sustained magma oceans likely persisted throughout much of the giant impact phase, supporting a magma ocean origin of the Moon consistent with its observed chemical characteristics.
Paweł Dziekański, Łukasz Popławski, Adam Wyszkowski
et al.
The development of a green economy in a situation of resource scarcity, global climate change, and environmental degradation means entering a new path of socio-economic development that will more effectively implement the goals of sustainable development. The level of its regional polarisation is stimulated by demographic, natural and technological, economic and social factors. The aim of the research was to identify and assess the level of regional polarisation in terms of the development of the green economy in voivodeships in Poland using a synthetic measure. The basis for the analysis was a set of substantively and statistically analysed diagnostic variables from 2010-2020 available in Statistics Poland. The result of the analysis was the presentation of regional polarisation and the ordering of voivodeships in Poland in 2010-2020 in terms of the synthetic measure - green economy. The green economy of voivodeships should be built based on available endogenous resources and planning and organisational solutions specific to the voivodeship. Using a synthetic measure to assess activities in the area of the green economy makes it possible to evaluate the effects and take corrective measures of the voivodeships' in this area.
Bartosz Zegardlo, Natalia Pogonowska, Antoni Bombik
This paper addresses the construction of large-scale photovoltaic farms. The paper describes the issues of the current overconsumption of energy from traditional sources and the associated overuse of fossil fuels. Alternatives to these processes are presented based on literature sources, and the use of renewable energy sources, focusing on solar energy, is recommended here. In the research section, attention was focused on the economic and environmental aspects of ventures involving the construction of large-scale farms by manufacturing companies with high monthly energy consumption. In the first stage of the work, economic analyses were carried out based on data obtained from photovoltaic installation companies. For the simulation, an assessment of the costs and benefits of building a photovoltaic farm for a steel construction company located in eastern Poland was used. Another element of the research part of the study was an analysis of the results of a questionnaire survey, which was conducted among people living in the vicinity of such farms. On this basis, the environmental impact of neighbouring areas of this type of investment was estimated. Positive conclusions from the analyses made it possible to recommend the construction of this type of facility, especially for manufacturing plants with high electricity consumption.
Tadeusz Borys, Marek Bugdol, Daniel Puciato
et al.
The cognitive objective of this paper is to assess the motives driving hotel owners and managers to implement environmentally friendly actions from the perspective of hotel guests. The empirical aim of the study materialises through investigations conducted on a sample of 1317 hotel guests in four provincial cities in Poland: Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw, and Opole. The study encompassed guests of six hotels classified as three-star establishments. The research methodology employed herein is a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire designed by the authors of this study. The survey was conducted between June and September 2021. In the concluding section of the paper, the analysis of the research allows for the formulation of conclusions. Among these conclusions, a notable observation is the assertion that guests have a remarkably low awareness regarding the impact of hotels on the natural environment. This finding contradicts the more optimistic assessments of such awareness that are found in various works within the field of hospitality. According to the authors, this conclusion could form the basis for educational initiatives and the initiation of mechanisms, including economic ones, aimed at elevating the knowledge level in this domain, not solely among hotel guests but also, perhaps predominantly, among hotel proprietors and managers. Nevertheless, the authors of this paper are cognizant of the exploratory nature of the conducted study, which may serve as a convenient foundation for subsequent, more in-depth investigations, particularly focusing on expanding the array of applied methodologies, significantly increasing the research sample size, and considering a broader range of respondent characteristics in the research.
It has been proposed that the flat rotation curves observed at large radii in disk galaxies can be interpreted as an effect of General Relativity (GR) instead of the presence of dark matter (DM) halos in Newtonian gravity. In Ciotti (2022) the problem is rigorously explored in the special setting of the weak-field, low-velocity gravitomagnetic limit of GR. The rotation curves are obtained for purely baryonic disk models with realistic density profiles, and compared with the predictions of Newtonian gravity for the same disks, in absence of DM. The rotation curves are indistinguishable, with percentual GR corrections at all radii of the order of $\approx 10^{-6}$ or less, so that DM halos are required in gravitomagnetism as in Newtonian gravity. From a more general point of view, a list of the most urgent problems that must be addressed by any proposed GR-based alternative to the existence of DM, is given.
Let $α$ be a map from the set of all knot types ${\mathcal K}$ to a set $X$. Let $β$ be a map from ${\mathcal K}$ to a set $Y$. We define the relation between $α$ and $β$ to be the image of a map $(α,β)$ from ${\mathcal K}$ to $X\times Y$ sending an element $K$ of ${\mathcal K}$ to $(α(K),β(K))$. We determine the relations between $α$ and $β$ for certain $α$ and $β$ such as crossing number, unknotting number, bridge number, braid index, genus and canonical genus. This is a study of geography problem in knot theory.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are widely used for writing economic analysis reports or providing financial advice, but their ability to understand economic knowledge and reason about potential results of specific economic events lacks systematic evaluation. To address this gap, we propose a new dataset, natural language inference on economic events (EconNLI), to evaluate LLMs' knowledge and reasoning abilities in the economic domain. We evaluate LLMs on (1) their ability to correctly classify whether a premise event will cause a hypothesis event and (2) their ability to generate reasonable events resulting from a given premise. Our experiments reveal that LLMs are not sophisticated in economic reasoning and may generate wrong or hallucinated answers. Our study raises awareness of the limitations of using LLMs for critical decision-making involving economic reasoning and analysis. The dataset and codes are available at https://github.com/Irenehere/EconNLI.
The purpose of this study is to attempt answering a question about the impact that the agreement reached by the Regional Director for Environmental Protection has on decisions regarding environmental dependencies in Poland. So far, two positions have been expressed in the literature on the subject. According to the first one, such an agreement is binding for the authority issuing the decision. The opponents of such an approach, on the other hand, argue that the administrative body is independent in that respect. The author, although attempting an in-depth analysis of both approaches, is in favour of the first one, additionally taking into account arguments of a juridical, functional and teleological nature. The case study concerned the construction of five buildings for breeding chicken broilers or turkeys along with the accompanying infrastructure on a property located within Solniki, municipality of Zabłudów.
Forest areas are not only limited to the sale of timber (the economic side), but have many other advantages, such as: influence on climate, humidity, soil protection, health, harvesting of undergrowth, development of tourism and recreation (Gołos & Janeczko, 2001). The aim of the study is to analyse and evaluate the development of tourism and recreation infrastructure in forest districts belonging to the RDSF in Białystok in terms of its accessibility, construction and modernisation. Tourists are reluctant to visit places where such infrastructure does not exist or is neglected (Bański, 2014). This also serves as the main motivation for undertaking this kind of a study. The research used the method of observation, a diagnostic survey with a research questionnaire and a face-to-face interview. Forestry literature and financial and economic reports for the years 2020-2021 were also used. When analysing tourist and recreational infrastructure, it is worth mentioning the source of funds for its construction and modernization since, without financial support, its development would be impossible.
A study conducted for the purposes of the article aimed at assessing the degree of sustainable development achieved in the urban regeneration processes carried out in Poland. It covered a study of urban regeneration programmes adopted in the cities with poviat rights, where these processes are regularly monitored. Based on the analysis and interpretation of these documents, on the grounds of a methodology created for the purpose, the conducted processes were assessed in the context of the sustainable development principles. The aim of the article is to answer following questions: (1) to what extent the implemented projects fit into this paradigm, (2) to what extent they contribute to its achievement, and, more generally, (3) how to examine the issue of sustainable development in regeneration processes – as the current study is the first such research in Poland. The study which proves that, for the moment, the revitalisation activities are not too advanced, nor too harmonious, should lead to further, more in-depth research on the subject.
We investigate the effectiveness of different machine learning methodologies in predicting economic cycles. We identify the deep learning methodology of Bi-LSTM with Autoencoder as the most accurate model to forecast the beginning and end of economic recessions in the U.S. We adopt commonly-available macro and market-condition features to compare the ability of different machine learning models to generate good predictions both in-sample and out-of-sample. The proposed model is flexible and dynamic when both predictive variables and model coefficients vary over time. It provided good out-of-sample predictions for the past two recessions and early warning about the COVID-19 recession.