Search results for "INDEX"
showing 10 items of 5395 documents
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…
Smartness, Sustainability and Resilience: Are They Related?
2019
In the imminent future, cities have to face not only an increasing urbanization but also the negative consequences of natural and human disasters. From this point of view, a city should be considered as vulnerable to climate change and other natural negative events. Thus, the challenge of a city consists in remaining on a sustainable development path. To reach this object the concepts of smartness, sustainability and resilience for a city should be intertwined. Starting from the analysis of a bright city as an integrated approach, the aim of this study consists in propose a first framework of an index which should include sustainable, smartness and resilient indicators. Integrating and meas…
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 Model of EU Cities Compliant with UN Settings
2021
Nowadays, the globally accepted UN concept of sustainable development (SD) is gradu®ally transferred to the city level, including small and medium-sized cities. The implementation of SD settings requires regular measurement of developmental progress to monitor the level achieved in statics and dynamics, and to make strategic decisions for the next period. The existing urban SD indicator systems and indices are not well-suited for the monitoring of specific cities. Benchmarking algorithms and mathematical modelling procedures were applied to create a methodology and mathematical model for measuring the achieved urban SD level and to ensure the most objective selection and proportions of key …
An Overview on European Union Sustainable Competitiveness
2014
Abstract The last few years have emphasized a continuing concern of many institutions, nations, companies for sustainable development. The recent literature brings into attention the concept of sustainable competitiveness beyond sustainable development. The main idea of sustainable competitiveness is reflected by the searching of a model that could balance economic prosperity, environmental issues and social sustainability. In this context, is shaping the sustainability-adjusted global competitiveness index that take into consideration two new dimensions – environmental and social. Practically, the triple bottom line concept will be extrapolated from the microeconomic level to the macroecon…
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…
Strategic planning and management of national development processes in Latvia
2009
Thanks to achieved productive collaboration of the highest level government institutions with the academic community experts, a national strategic planning system is shaping that is very significant for further development of Latvia. General principles of the system have been approved by the Law on Development Planning System. The conceptual document A Growth Model for Latvia: People First defines a knowledge‐based human‐centred development scenario. The National Development Plan has been approved as a mid‐term programme for implementation of the Model. To monitor progress towards the goal an integrated quantified quality of life index was developed; the index includes priorities essential …