Search results for "RESOURCES"
showing 10 items of 1614 documents
Rural futures in developed economies: The case of Finland
2015
Abstract This study presents four possible images of rural futures in Finland: decentralized bio-economy, colonial countryside, museum countryside and rural business islets. They are distilled through literature reviews, futures workshops and futures tables. Alternative specifications of structures, contents and agencies result in highly divergent states of key dimensions and, consequently, divergent rural futures. This diversity challenges the conventional public wisdom or intellectual monoculture that considers decay as the only future for rural areas. Key challenges in crafting plausible but divergent futures images are finding an appropriate level of abstraction or “flight altitude”, es…
Special Issue: Enhancing Sustainable Performance in Organizational and Inter-Institutional Systems
2013
Sustainability is not just for Christmas… it’s for life. Sustainable solutions, whether sought in terms of business strategies, social policies, or the exploitation of natural resources have to serve organizations and communities in the long term, sometimes very long term, as well as the short term. Static analysis is unlikely to be able to evaluate candidate solutions fully, and is more likely to focus on the short-term future to the detriment of the longer-term. Sustainable solutions are more likely to be developed from studies based on deep analysis using systems approaches, and from system dynamics (SD) approaches in particular.
Special issue on Trends and challenges of sustainable irrigated agriculture
2014
In the twenty-first century, the shortage of freshwater is one of the most important environmental concerns facing several regions of the world because of the growing demand of increasing population, agricultural intensification, and economic growth. Global climate change will contribute to exacerbate the problem, generating new drought-prone areas and increasing those already characterized by severe aridity. Worldwide it is estimated that, on average, agriculture accounts for 70% of the total water consumption, compared with 10% for domestic consume and the remaining used by industry. Moreover, according to FAO estimates, by 2050 agricultural production has to increase by 60% to satisfy th…
Correlates and Predictors of L2 Willingness to Communicate in Polish Adolescents
2014
The concept of willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 denotes “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using a L2” (MacIntyre et al. 1998, p. 547). In the early model of L2 WTC, there are two main variables influencing its levels: perceived communication competence and communication anxiety (MacIntyre 1994). WTC is now considered a fundamental goal of second language education (MacIntyre et al. 2003) because it offers L2 learners “greater chances for L2 practice and authentic L2 usage” (MacIntyre et al. 2001, p. 382). Students taking the risk of initiating communication in a language they do not know well are likely to become more proficie…
Formative assessment in higher education: analysis of the experience
2015
<p>Currently the learning is in the center of the education therefore the methods and techniques that promote learning become topical, inter alia higher education. Formative assessment is a significant part of the study process as a factor for promotion of the learning. The article analyzes the experience of formative assessment at the study course aimed at the development of writing competence and ensuring appropriate skills development.</p>
Cogeneration from thermal treatment of selected municipal solid wastes. A stoichiometric model building for the case study on Palermo
2003
This paper aims to calculate the energetic and environmental effects of an integrated solid waste management system in Palermo, Italy. In particular, the thermal treatment of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) with energy recovery is assessed. The current characterization at the local scale is taken into account. Two different options of collection are taken into account: (1) unselected wastes; and (2) sorted collection, according to the current Italian regulation. Combustion process is analyzed and the following features are calculated: (1) stoichiometric content of air and air excess; and (2) temperature and enthalpy of flue gases. Energy recovery is performed in the hypothesis of Hirn cycle bot…
Organizational commitment and its effects on organizational citizenship behavior in a high-unemployment environment
2016
[EN] Organizational commitment is an important concept in management and a construct on which extensive research exists. This study considers the relationship of the three dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, normative, and continuance commitment) with employees' organizational citizenship behavior in a high-unemployment environment. By analyzing the effect of high unemployment on the displacement of the self-concept from individual toward relational and collective levels, this work predicts differences in the effect of unemployment on each of the organizational-commitment dimensions. The results show that in a high-unemployment environment the affective and normative dimensi…
PROMOTION OF ADULT EDUCATION IN THE INNOVATIVE BUSINESS
2015
The notions of adult education and innovative entrepreneurship have been described and analysed in the article. According to the characterization of the essence of notions, conditions of innovative entrepreneurship have been analysed. The emphasis has been put on the main problem concerning sustainable community development related to the contributions made to human resources and adult education, enabling innovative entrepreneurship oriented on the human ability to create and use their knowledge in constantly changing environmental conditions, responsible for work organisation satisfying current people’s social and economical needs, thought at the same time not endangering next generations.…
READING COMPETENCE AND ENGAGEMENT OF LATVIAN STUDENTS IN THE VIEW OF OECD PISA 2018 RESULTS
2020
Students' reading competence determines the achievements of learners in all areas of school education as well as in their further education, professional activity and life. The results of the OECD Program for International Student Assessment - OECD PISA 2018 confirm the need to improve reading competence in Latvia (OECD, 2019).The aim of the study is to analyze the achievement of Latvia's fifteen-year-old students in OECD PISA 2018 and the previous international program cycles in relation to students' reading engagement and its changes. Reading engagement significantly influences not only students' reading competence but are in themselves one of the goals of modern education (Guthrie & …
Barriers to open e-learning in public administrations
2016
Abstract This article presents a comparative study of the barriers to open e-learning in public administrations in Luxembourg, Germany, Montenegro and Ireland. It discusses the current state of open e-learning of public administration employees at the local government level and derives the barriers to such learning. This paper's main contribution is its presentation of an empirical set of barriers in the four European countries. The results allow informed assumptions about which barriers will arise in the forthcoming use of open-source e-learning technology, particularly open educational resources as means of learning. Furthermore, this study offers a contextualised barrier framework that a…