Search results for " Index"
showing 10 items of 4978 documents
A proposed equation of correlation for the study of thermodynamic properties (density, viscosity, surface tension and refractive index) of liquid bin…
2009
Abstract The literature on the physicochemical properties of liquid binary mixtures shows that most such systems exhibit nonlinear behavior. As a result, rigorous data and equations capable of affording a reliable estimate of the behavior of such mixtures are needed. The present study offers an equation of correlation providing a reliable estimation of the properties (density, viscosity, surface tension and refractive index) of binary mixtures of liquids as a function of mole fraction. In order to assess the validity of the proposed equation, the latter has been applied to reference binary mixtures, and comparisons have been made of the experimental values of the studied magnitudes versus t…
Hidradenitis suppurativa in surgeons' practice: Prevalence and treatment approach according to the Hurley stage in Latvia
2020
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, recurrent, debilitating, and frequently misdiagnosed inflammatory skin disease that often requires surgical intervention. To assess the prevalence of HS patients in surgeons' practice and surgeons' approach to treating HS patients, we created a self-administered, Hurley stage-based questionnaire that was distributed during the Latvian Association of Surgeons meeting. Of the total 60 questionnaires distributed, 56 (93%) were collected and 53 (88%) of them were considered valid. Overall, 73.6% of the surgeons confirmed having seen patients with chronic inflamed suppurative lesions in the skin folds during their practice. Median reported number of HS…
Environmental education in Latvia
2012
This paper discusses the development of environmental education and education for sustainable development in Latvia since 1991. The article highlights best practices of environmental education in Latvia, which include curriculum and study materials development, active participation of various business enterprises in providing informal education, eco-school activities, etc. The objective of this paper is to share our experience with the international community and to promote a global dialogue in sustainable development.
Environmental sustainability – aspects and criteria in forest biorefineries
2012
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine what the most significant aspects of environmental sustainability in the forest biorefinery sector are and what kind of criteria should be applied to an evaluation of environmental sustainability in the forest biorefinery context.Design/methodology/approachThe topic is approached by themed interviews in Scandinavia and North America with 23 representatives from the forest and bioproducts sectors. The interviews were examined using the thematic analysis method.FindingsThe study indicates that environmental sustainability may be an important driver for the forest biorefinery business. From the perspective of environmental sustainability, harvesti…
Social Responsibility Initiative Implementation in the Public Sector in Latvia
2014
The public sector provides many different jobs in Latvia; however, the number of people employed in the public sector is small. Sometimes private sector organisations with a socially responsible culture are more attractive for specialists. The authors propose to evaluate Social Responsibility’s (SR) importance, benefits, and ways of possible implementation for several types of public sector organisations.
 The objective of this paper is to enquire what kind of activities organisations need to carry out to be included in the Sustainability Index rating and overview the possible reasons of difficulties encountered by public organisations.
 The authors describe the structure of the p…
Sustainable Development and Assurance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Published by Ibex-35 Companies
2012
Spain is the world's leading country as regards corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting (KPMG, 2011). In addition, Spain is taking new initiatives with regard to environmental policy, sustainable development, and stakeholder engagement in accordance with Law 2/2011.This is why we choose Spain as the setting to analyze whether the determinants for external assurance posited by existing literature (industry, size, profitability, leverage) have an impact on the decision of companies to assure their CSR reports. Our study is a pioneer in the sense that it investigates the possible links between the auditor of the annual report and the provider of assurance. The results of this study ind…
Network design for surface water quality monitoring in a road construction project using Gamma Test theory
2021
Road construction has a negative environmental impact on the surrounding aquatic environment, requiring the continuous monitoring of surface water quality. Here, optimization of the water quality monitoring network (WQMN) is an essential step in supporting the sustainable development of road construction projects. This study introduces Gamma Test theory (GTT) as a practical method for optimizing the WQMN of surface waters during road construction. The water quality index (WQI) was computed in 48 monitoring stations for six monitoring periods from 2017 to 2019; data was acquired from a primary monitoring network over a new highway in southern Norway. Based on the results, it is possible to r…
Fusing optical and SAR time series for LAI gap filling with multioutput Gaussian processes
2019
The availability of satellite optical information is often hampered by the natural presence of clouds, which can be problematic for many applications. Persistent clouds over agricultural fields can mask key stages of crop growth, leading to unreliable yield predictions. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) provides all-weather imagery which can potentially overcome this limitation, but given its high and distinct sensitivity to different surface properties, the fusion of SAR and optical data still remains an open challenge. In this work, we propose the use of Multi-Output Gaussian Process (MOGP) regression, a machine learning technique that learns automatically the statistical relationships among…
Coupling SAR X-band and optical data for NDVI retrieval: model calibration and validation on two test areas
2013
Sustainability of modern agro-hydrology requires the knowledge of spatial and temporal variability of vegetation biomass to optimize management of land and water resources. Diversely from optical imaging, temporal resolution of active sensors, such as SAR, is not limited by sky cloudiness; thus, they may be combined with optical imageries to provide a more continuous monitoring of land surfaces. Several new SAR missions (e.g., ALOS-PALSAR, COSMO-SkyMed 1 and 2, TerraSAR-X, TerraSAR-X2, Sentinel 1) acquiring at X-, C- and L-bands and dual polarization capability, are characterized by a short revisit time (from 12 h to ~10 days) and high spatial resolution (<20 m). These satellites could prov…
Vegetation index retrieval by coupling optical and SAR images
2012
Monitoring spatial and temporal variability of Vegetation Indices (VIs) is important to manage land and water resources, with significant impact on the sustainability of modern agriculture Although algorithms based on optical data give accurate products, cloud cover dramatically reduces the temporal resolution of these outputs. The launch of new Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellations such as COSMO-Skymed opened new opportunities to develop agro-hydrological applications. Indeed, these satellites may represent a suitable source of data for operational applications due to their high spatial and temporal resolutions (10 m in StripMap PingPong acquisition mode, best revisit time with 4 s…