Search results for " energy."

Developing Students Well-Being and Engagement in Higher Education during COVID-19—A Case Study of Web-Based Learning in Finland

2023

COVID-19 rapidly and extensively changed the normal everyday practices of societies, and there is no going back to the past. Universities also had to adapt and re-establish their normal routines, from policies to practices. In this article, we explore university students’ experiences of web-based learning, their well-being, and engagement during the pandemic. As a theoretical framework, we use the concept of the university student engagement inventory (USEI), which includes behavioral, cognitive, and emotional dimensions. The data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic from university students (N = 35) via an online survey and analyzed using a thematic content analysis. According to th…

Protective and Educational Effects of Physical Activity Practice on Mental Health in Young Age during COVID-19 Lockdown

2022

Background: The restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic have modified the lifestyle of young people, worsening their mental health. Although some countries were allowed to practice outdoor physical activity (PA) in cases of lockdown, the PA level in the general population decreased. The current study aims to assess the differences in fear of COVID-19, anxiety, neuroticism, and general self-efficacy between university students who practiced PA during the second wave of lockdown and those who did not practice any PA. Methods: The sample consisted of 276 university students (176 females, 63.8%; mean age: 22.13, SD: ±3.94) who answered an online questionnaire detecting life habits …

IEA EBC Annex83 Positive Energy Districts

2021

At a global level, the need for energy efficiency and an increased share of renewable energy sources is evident, as is the crucial role of cities due to the rapid urbanization rate. As a consequence of this, the research work related to Positive Energy Districts (PED) has accelerated in recent years. A common shared definition, as well as technological approaches or methodological issues related to PEDs are still unclear in this development and a global scientific discussion is needed. The International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme (IEA EBC) Annex 83 is the main platform for this international scientific debate and research. This paper describes the challeng…

Pathways for the amplification of agroecology in African sustainable urban agriculture

2020

A growing awareness that highly intensified agricultural systems have made a substantial worldwide contribution to the worsening of the resilience capacity of natural ecosystems has, over the last twenty years, brought general attention to agroecological management models. This aspect is even more evident in industrial agriculture, which is based on the use of multiple chemical products derived from non-natural synthesis. In more developed countries, a new idea of ecology linked to agricultural production has been increasingly developed and, for this reason, there has been a greater diffusion of differentiated agricultural models taking into consideration the environmental impact of product…

Water and Energy Saving in Urban Water Systems: The ALADIN Project

2016

The ALADIN project was aimed at contributing to environmental and energy sustainability of the urban water system by means of a decision support tool able to allow an evaluation of the energy impact related to each different macro-sectors of urban water cycle highlighting the main energy flows and to assess the system energy balance and identify the possible energy-efficient solutions. Moreover the tool suggests the most efficient actions in reducing water losses. In the present paper the main features of the developed tool are presented. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

Begripligheten av finskspråkiga gymnasisters svenska uttal: lyssnarvärderingar

2018


 
 
 The aim of this study is to investigate how comprehensible L1 Finnish speakers’ L2 Swedish is considered to be and whether any listener- or speaker-specific background factors relating to the comprehensibility judgements can be found. The research material consists of Swedish read-aloud texts by 21 Finnish-speaking upper secondary school students. Judgements are given by 64 native Swedish-speakers (Finland-Swedish n = 35, Sweden-Swedish n = 29) using a verbalized scale from 1 to 7. The study shows that L2 Swedish, pronounced by L1 Finnish speakers, is on average considered to be comprehensible but the listener has to concentrate closely. Both Finland-Swedish and Sweden-…

Biogas production from high-yielding energy crops in boreal conditions

2013

An Economic Assessment of Micro-Scale Use of Renewable Energy Sources: Two Case Studies

2015

During recent times, renewable energy technologies have shown a relative fast growth in the global energy investment, global energy capacity and their integration within multiple sectors, particularly in the electricity sector. Renewable energy technologies have also experienced notorious declining costs on their manufacturing production. Nevertheless, while this growth is widely acknowledged, the share of renewables with respect total energy production has been moderate. Technological advancements in renewable energy have demonstrated the potential of renewables in energy generation and also that renewables can provide direct and indirect advantages over their counterparts. This thesis inv…

Applicability of hybrid aspen (Populus tremula L. × P. tremuloides Michx.) bark extract as a precursor of rigid carbon foam and activated carbon

2023

Hybrid aspens have long attracted scientific interest, but the research on their use as feedstocks for chemical applications are still very limited. The bark biomass of the poplar species contains many valuable extractives that can be utilized as value-added products. This paper examines the applicability of hybrid aspen (Populus tremula L. × P. tremuloides Michx.) bark extract as a precursor of rigid carbon foam and activated carbon. To explore this, the study considers 1) the basic chemical composition of the bark in terms of added value potential, 2) the basic chemical composition of the bark extract and the effect of its pretreatment on the extract composition, 3) the production of rigi…

Roczna wydajność instalacji PV zamontowanej na dachu budynku dydaktycznego Uniwersytetu Opolskiego

2018

Celem badań była analiza i ocena sprawności pracy instalacji fotowoltaicznej zamontowanej na dachu budynku dydaktycznego Uniwersytetu Opolskiego mieszczącego się przy ul. Kominka 6 w Opolu. Zakres pracy obejmował ocenę: energetyczną - uzysku energetycznego (ilość wyprodukowanego prądu a położenie geograficzne paneli fotowoltaicznych) i ekologiczną - redukcja emisji szkodliwych substancji niewyemitowanych do aerozolu atmosferycznego z powodu produkcji prądu przez instalację PV, a niedostarczonej przez elektrownię opalaną węglem. Badania wykazały dobry wynik uzysku energetycznego w ciągu roku - 5,30 MWh energii z tego systemu oraz znaczną redukcję emisji CO2 do atmosfery - 4,27 Mg/rok, co pot…