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Search results for: LIGHT AND HEALTH
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Light Symposium. Connecting health research with lighting practice
PublicationThanks to state-of-the-art medical and environmental research, our current understanding about the impact of light and lighting is improving at a rapid rate. While the evolution of lighting technologies offers promising design possibilities, it also poses new challenges to planners and the general public. This is further complicated by the fact that today’s modern indoor lifestyle means we can be completely disconnected from nature...
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Reducing nighttime light exposure in the urban environment to benefit human health and society
PublicationNocturnal light pollution can have profound effects on humans and other organisms. Recent research indicates that nighttime outdoor lighting is increasing rapidly. Evidence from controlled laboratory studies demonstrates that nocturnal light exposure can strain the visual system, disrupt circadian physiology, suppress melatonin secretion, and impair sleep. There is a growing body of work pointing to adverse effects of outdoor lighting...
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IMPLEMENTING THE QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM AND ASSURING HEALTH SAFETY IN THE LIGHT OF INCREASING BREAD QUALITY
PublicationThe article presents rules, requirements, and norms for quality management and health safety assurance systems among small and medium bakeries. This group of businesses does not have the obligation of implementing or certifying specific systems. They are, however, implemented in order to increase the quality of the bread or reach a better market position. Also, the results of a 2022 study of 53 bakeries’ implementation of individual...
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Influence of the Spectral Quality of Light on Daytime Alertness Levels in Humans
PublicationExposure to light is very important for human health. However, the characteristics of the light stimulus and the appropriate timing of such exposure are essential. Studies that have used monochromatic light exposure have shown no systematic patterns for the effects of blue light compared to longer wavelengths. Previous studies have shown that red light exposure increases objective and subjective measures of alertness at night without...
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Protect our right to light
Publication“The struggle for light” is how the Swiss architect Le Corbusier described the history of architecture in 1935. Today, with the skies crowded out by buildings in modern cities, those words should ring in the ears of policymakers and planners. Skyscraper construction is booming. China is the leader, last year completing 88 of the 143 buildings around the world that are taller than 200 metres (see ‘Vertical growth’). As the nation’s...
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Health by Art: the Remedial Role of Artistic Installations in Public Space
PublicationDesigning public spaces has become one of the most relevant issues in contemporary cities thanks to their integrating and inclusionary character. Public spaces are playing a far more important role in promoting a healthy lifestyle and encouraging us to do different activities. Therefore, contemporary public spaces should enhance creativity, stimulate physical activity and influence mental health. The methodology used in the research...
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Assessment of Citizens’ Actions against Light Pollution with Guidelines for Future Initiatives
PublicationDue to the wide reach of media reports about scientific research and technological tools such as the world wide web (WWW), the Internet, and web browsers, citizens today have access to factual information about the negative impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on their dark skies, and their health and well-being. This means they can now make educated decisions and take the necessary steps to help protect themselves and their...
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Light4Health eLearning Course: health research for interior lighting design. Re-thinking design approaches based on science
PublicationThis paper presents the results of 'Light4Health' (L4H), a three-year EU Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership grant project (2019-2021), which investigated, systematized and taught health-related research on the impact of natural and artificial light on human health and well-being relevant to indoor lighting design. The objective was to re-think evidence-based lighting design approaches for residential, working/educational, and healthcare...
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Three Principles for Healthy Living with Light and Lighting
PublicationThe lockdown measures applied to cities and towns during the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic have had a widespread impact on people’s lives. Some have found themselves confined to their homes, with limited social contact and a reduced quality of life. Others have found that the lockdown improved their wellbeing, as more time was spent outside, instead of commuting and working in an office building, plus the benefits of spending increased...
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LED Light Sources and Their Complex Set-Up for Visually and Biologically Effective Illumination for Ornamental Indoor Plants
PublicationOrnamental plants are often used in indoor environments as part of biophilic design to improve the health and wellbeing of occupants, and to support sustainable, green architecture. Unfortunately, many plants do not thrive and need to be continuously replaced, which is economically unsustainable. The wavelengths and spectrum ratio of commonly used light sources such as light emitting diode (LED), and the lack of an appropriate...
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Design of a Distributed System using Mobile Devices and Workflow Management for Measurement and Control of a Smart Home and Health
PublicationThe paper presents design of a distributed system for measurements and control of a smart home including temper- atures, light, fire danger, health problems of inhabitants such as increased body temperature, a person falling etc. This is done by integration of mobile devices and standards, distributed service based middleware BeesyCluster and a workflow management system. Mobile devices are used to measure the parameters and are...
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White light thermoplasmonic activated gold nanorod arrays enable the photo-thermal disinfection of medical tools from bacterial contamination
PublicationThe outspread of bacterial pathogens causing severe infections and spreading rapidly, especially among hospitalized patients, is worrying and represents a global public health issue. Current disinfection techniques are becoming insufficient to counteract the spread of these pathogens because they carry multiple antibiotic-resistance genes. For this reason, a constant need exists for new technological solutions that rely on physical...
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Home Sweet Home. Connecting the dots for healthy evening residential illumination
PublicationDuring the twentieth century, lighting designers would commonly use incandescent light sources for residential homes as they provided a visual comfort, with high quality colour rendering properties, along with relaxing ambient atmosphere. Unfortunately, it’s now difficult to buy incandescent light sources because they have been banned in many countries (https://bit.ly/2GwN2Wv). This article addresses some of the challenges in regards...
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Od postawy prozdrowotnej w stoczni jachtowej do ograniczania zagrożeń na stanowisku pracy formierza-laminiarza
PublicationTematyka zdrowia i bezpieczeństwa pracowników, coraz częściej popularyzowana w świecie biznesu, nadal stanowi dość mało rozpoznany obszar działalności polskich przedsiębiorstw. Niniejszy artykuł porusza ważką kwestię promocji zdrowia w miejscu pracy jako czynnika zwiększającego efektywność pracy oraz jego wpływ na osiąganie wysokiej jakości produktu. Publikacja omawia znaczenie postawy prozdrowotnej i sposobów jej kształtowania...
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THE ROLE OF DAYLIGHT IN ARCHITECTURAL CREATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL FACILITIES
PublicationThe paper studies the role of light in architectural creations of contemporary buildings of representative function. Based on the selected projects and completed buildings dedicated to culture and art, it analyzes and systematizes the examples of using light to obtain visual effects that mark the architecture with a universal and timeless message. The method of research is case study and critical analysis of literature. Light plays...
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Urban city lights. Light pollution as one of the effects of incorrectly designed external illumination. How can a successful lighting masterplan diminish its impact?
PublicationIn the modern world, artificial lighting brings many tangible benefits such as the ability to extend working hours and so increase production, recreational use of the city after dark, or the possibility to travel regardless of the time of day. However, this flexibility comes at a price and negatively impacts on the environment. One such negative phenomenon is Light Pollution ‐ a term used to describe excessive nighttime artificial...
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Photolytic and Photocatalytic Recreational Water Treatment
PublicationDisinfection is one of the most important steps during recreational water treatment. Nevertheless, disinfection by-products are formed by conventional disinfectants, which pose several health threats. The concentration of disinfection by-products can be decreased by photolytic and photocatalytic treatment. Medium-pressure mercury lamp, UV-LEDs and solar irradiation were investigated and evaluated considering emitted wavelength,...
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Thermal Images Analysis Methods using Deep Learning Techniques for the Needs of Remote Medical Diagnostics
PublicationRemote medical diagnostic solutions have recently gained more importance due to global demographic shifts and play a key role in evaluation of health status during epidemic. Contactless estimation of vital signs with image processing techniques is especially important since it allows for obtaining health status without the use of additional sensors. Thermography enables us to reveal additional details, imperceptible in images acquired...
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Accessibility to urban green spaces: A critical review of WHO recommendations in the light of tree-covered areas assessment
PublicationEasy accessibility of Urban Green Spaces (UGSs) is essential to the quality of life in urban areas. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations focus on spatial access to UGSs, define as accessible those larger than 0.5 ha situated up to 300 m of residential areas, and disregard the social significance of smaller green spaces. This paper assesses the extent to which the WHO recommendations permit the identification of locations...
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Literature review of user needs, toward user requirements
PublicationThis report has been developed in the frame of the IEA SHC Task 61 Subtask A “User requirements”. The main objective was to rethink and reformulate user requirements to lighting (daylighting and electric lighting) in public buildings on the basis of a thorough literature study. The work is a joint effort of a number of scientists and represents collective knowledge in this topic. The concept of Lighting quality is the one, among...
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An overview of the cognitive and biological effects of city nighttime illumination including a London case study
PublicationCurrent scientific research demonstrates how critical the effects of city nighttime illumination are upon cognitive and biological health1 – which needs to be adequately acknowledged, understood and addressed by conscious cities and the plans they develop. Until recent decades, the design of nighttime lighting was determined mostly by electrical engineers who often applied technical standards to meet the requirements of vehicle-focused...
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Evaluation of the Greenness of Analytical Procedures
PublicationThis contributions introduces the need to develop the methods to evaluate analytical procedures in the light of green analytical chemistry. Green chemistry metrics are not applicable in analytical chemistry because they refer to the mass of product and no product with mass is generated during analytical determination. Analytical greenness evaluations are based on scoring - such as NEMI or Eco-scale or comparative analysis as it...
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Healthier and Environmentally Responsible Sustainable Cities and Communities. A New Design Framework and Planning Approach for Urban Illumination
PublicationAlthough sustainability and sustainable development are both considered necessary practices in various fields today, a recent analysis showed that the Sustainable Development Goal SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities established by the United Nations does not address urban illumination and its impact. This oversight is of concern because research carried out in the last 20+ years indicates artificial light at night (ALAN)...
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Face with Mask Detection in Thermal Images Using Deep Neural Networks
PublicationAs the interest in facial detection grows, especially during a pandemic, solutions are sought that will be effective and bring more benefits. This is the case with the use of thermal imaging, which is resistant to environmental factors and makes it possible, for example, to determine the temperature based on the detected face, which brings new perspectives and opportunities to use such an approach for health control purposes. The...
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Chronic Rhinosinusitis—Microbiological Etiology, Potential Genetic Markers, and Diagnosis
PublicationChronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a significant public health problem. Bacterial colonization and impaired mucociliary clearance play a significant role in the inflammatory process. Several inflammatory pathways and host defense elements are altered in CRS, which may contribute to observed differences in the microbiome. To date, researching CRS has been difficult due to limited access to the studied tissue and a lack of available...
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Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Exposure, Health Effects, and Analysis
PublicationTobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, and 44 compoundshave been classified as human carcinogens. Toxicity can beboth mainstream smoke as well as the constituents of environmentaltobacco smoke. In the light of this evidence, work is intensifyingon assessing exposure on the basis of the results of tests performedto quantify the amounts of suitable environmental tobacco smokeconstituent biomarkers in samples of biological...
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Urban Lighting Research Transdisciplinary Framework—A Collaborative Process with Lighting Professionals
PublicationOver the past decades, lighting professionals have influenced the experience of the night by brightly illuminating streets, buildings, skylines, and landscapes 24/7. When this became the accepted norm, a dual perspective on night-time was shaped and the visual enjoyment of visitors after dusk was prioritized over natural nightscapes (nocturnal landscapes). During this time, researchers of artificial light at night (ALAN) observed...
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Bezzałogowe środki latające (BSL) w układzie czterowirnikowego helikoptera
PublicationRozwój układów sterowania, kamer pracujących w świetle widzialnym oraz w podczerwieni doprowadził do wzrostu znaczenia bezpilotowych środków latających. Bezpilotowe środki latające wykorzystywane są do realizacji celów zarówno wojskowych, jak i cywilnych. Podstawowymi zaletami bezpilotowych środków latających są: małe wymiary, duża mobilność, niskie koszty wytworzenia i eksploatacji. Użytkowanie bezpilotowych środków latających...
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A new method and equipment for the detection of presence and estimation of the content of the petroleum-based fraction in lubricating oils, especially those emitted to the atmosphere
PublicationLubricating oil, used in cutting equipment, works in the so-called open lubrication system and is entirely emitted to the environment. When such an oil contains even a small portion of the crude oil-derived fraction, which is still very common, the oil is a serious environmental pollution. In addition, the oil mist poses a serious threat to the health of employees. Current legal regulations require users of saws and harvesters...
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Sense of safety and opinions about COVID-19 vaccinations in Polish school teachers: The role of conspiracy theories belief and fear of COVID-19
PublicationThe co-occurrence of COVID-19 conspiracy theories (CCT) and fear of the coronavirus (FCV) can be linked to how safe people feel and how much they endorse vaccinations. School teachers were one of the vaccination priority groups in Poland. We conducted three cross-sectional studies (N1 = 1006; N2 = 1689; N3 = 627) to find out the potential interactive effects of CCT belief and FCV in predicting sense of safety (SoS; Studies 1-3),...
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Improving the prediction of biochar production from various biomass sources through the implementation of eXplainable machine learning approaches
PublicationExamining the game-changing possibilities of explainable machine learning techniques, this study explores the fast-growing area of biochar production prediction. The paper demonstrates how recent advances in sensitivity analysis methodology, optimization of training hyperparameters, and state-of-the-art ensemble techniques have greatly simplified and enhanced the forecasting of biochar output and composition from various biomass...
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Detection of People Swimming in Water Reservoirs with the Use of Multimodal Imaging and Machine Learning
PublicationEvery year in many countries, there are fatal unintentional drownings in different water reservoirs like swimming pools, lakes, seas, or oceans. The existing threats of this type require creating a method that could automatically supervise such places to increase the safety of bathers. This work aimed to create methods and prototype solutions for detecting people bathing in water reservoirs using a multimodal imaging system and...
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The importance of trust and altruistic social orientation for COVID-19 distress
PublicationBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest global health crisis in decades, has been a difficult experience for nations all over the world. In the present study we wanted to assess to what extent a positive attitude towards others, expressed in altruistic social orientation and a high level of trust, would be linked to lower levels of COVID-19 distress in infected and non-infected individuals. Participants and procedure:...
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How ethics combine with big data: a bibliometric analysis
PublicationThe term Big Data is becoming increasingly widespread throughout the world, and its use is no longer limited to the IT industry, quantitative scientific research, and entrepreneurship, but entered as well everyday media and conversations. The prevalence of Big Data is simply a result of its usefulness in searching, downloading, collecting and processing massive datasets. It is therefore not surprising that the number of scientific...
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Fully Automated AI-powered Contactless Cough Detection based on Pixel Value Dynamics Occurring within Facial Regions
PublicationIncreased interest in non-contact evaluation of the health state has led to higher expectations for delivering automated and reliable solutions that can be conveniently used during daily activities. Although some solutions for cough detection exist, they suffer from a series of limitations. Some of them rely on gesture or body pose recognition, which might not be possible in cases of occlusions, closer camera distances or impediments...
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Quality of graphical markers for the needs of eyewear devices
Publicationin this paper we propose to cast the problem of identification of people, objects or places into an application for smart glasses that decodes information from graphical markers. We focus on analyzing different factors that can have influence on the processes of the automatic recognition of information from a code. The research we present aims at reviewing recognition performances in function of: size of a marker, distance from/to...
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The New Test Procedure for Group-Type Composition of Base Oils of Lubricating Oils, Especially Emitted into the Environment
PublicationMineral base oil, a product of multistep fine refining of the relevant fractions from vacuum distillation of crude oil, is a main component of so-called mineral lubricating oils containing aliphatic and alicyclic substituted aromatic hydrocarbons, i.e., derivatives of benzene and biphenyl. Mineral lubricating oil is composed mostly of mineral base oil and a low amount of enriching additives, most often products of advanced organic...
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Olfactory receptor-based biosensors as potential future tools in medical diagnosis
PublicationThe detection of biomarkers is the future of non-invasive medical diagnosis and screening. Discovery and identification of reliable disease specific volatile organic compounds is dependent on repeatable, accurate analysis of trace level gaseous analytes mainly in breath samples. Natural variety of the olfactory systems and the compounds capable of gas molecules binding creates wide possibilities of acquisition and implementation...
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Phototransformation of Amlodipine: Degradation Kinetics and Identification of Its Photoproducts
PublicationNowadays, monitoring focuses on the primary compounds and does not include degradation products formed during various biological and chemical processes. Transformation products may have the same effects to human health and the environment or sometimes they can be more toxic than the parent compound. Unfortunately, knowledge about the formation of degradation products is still limited, however, can be very important for the environmental...
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Honey antibacterial activity: A neglected aspect of honey quality assurance as functional food
PublicationBackground Honey is considered as a functional food with health-promoting properties. Its potent antibacterial and antibiofilm effects are the major attributes of so called ‘medical-grade honey’ which is topically used for the treatment of burns, wounds and skin disorders. Nevertheless, the current set of honey quality parameters adopted in the European Union do not include its biological properties. Furthermore, in light of the...
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Treated wasetewater as a source of humic substances in surface waters
PublicationHumic substances impose substantial effect on the aquatic environment as well as the water organisms and human health. Among other features, the humic acids determine organoleptic properties of surface waters. Therefore explanation of the origin and properties of humic acids in surface waters is one of the priorities of water technology.Recently it was pointed out that in the wastewater treatment process organic compounds characterized...
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Polypropylene structure alterations after 5 years of natural degradation in a waste landfill
PublicationUp to 25% of plastic waste in Europe is still disposed of in landfills, despite recycling efforts. The plastic waste in the landfill plot may be exposed both to abiotic and biotic degradation processes, although it is thought that most of the plastic materials tend to be resistant to biodegradation or biodeterioration even after a long time. To verify if polypropylene (PP) can undergo the process of short-term biodegradation and...
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An Impact Analysis of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on Bats. A Case Study of the Historic Monument and Natura 2000 Wisłoujście Fortress in Gdansk, Poland
PublicationThe artificial light at night (ALAN) present in many cities and towns has a negative impact on numerous organisms that live alongside humans, including bats. Therefore, we investigated if the artificial illumination of the historic Wisłoujście Fortress in Gdańsk, Poland (part of the Natura 2000 network), during nighttime events, which included an outdoor electronic dance music (EDM) festival, might be responsible for increased...
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Comparison of the Effectiveness of Health Systems in The European Countries-Two-Stage DEA Model
PublicationThis article compares the efficiency of health systems in selected European countries using two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA), based on data from the EUROSTAT database. In the first step, DEA efficiency scores were calculated for health care systems and, subsequently, the external variables describing lifestyle were used to calculate the truncated regression. Health care resources (physicians, nurses, hospital beds, financial...
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HEALTH-AFFIRMING EVERYDAY LANDSCAPES IN SUSTAINABLE CITY. THEORIES AND TOOLS
PublicationAs cities and urban population continue to grow, causing serious threats to public health, the development of health-affirming urban landscapes becomes even more important topic than ever before. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question which qualities of urban landscape make it the health-affirming landscape. In the first part of the paper, a concept of health-affirming landscapes and a modern approach to sustainable...
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HEALTH-AFFIRMING EVERYDAY LANDSCAPES IN SUSTAINABLE CITY. THEORIES AND TOOLS
PublicationAs cities and urban population continue to grow, causing serious threats to public health, the development of health-affirming urban landscapes becomes even more important topic than ever before. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question which qualities of urban landscape make it the health-affirming landscape. In the first part of the paper, a concept of health-affirming landscapes and a modern approach to sustainable...
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The Efficiency of Post‐Communist Countries’ Health Systems
PublicationHealth‐care costs are a major financial burden for the transition economies, which have experienced rapidly increasing demand for health‐care services. The former communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia needed to reform the financing of their health‐care systems and make efforts to strengthen the role of primary care while limiting the role of hospital care. The growing health needs and, consequently,...
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Teams tools. Leading high-performance teams with different types of intelligence
PublicationThe subject of this paper is the analysis of necessary tools for global teams, image of the team leader, styles of leadership in global teams. The analysis is based on selected examples from high-performance teams with visible results. The purpose of the work is to answer for the following questions: What are the characteristics of the leading global teams? Which style of leadership use the global teams? Is a female leader different...
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Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Health Behaviours and Literacy of Future Healthcare Professionals
PublicationOur everyday behaviours in life can positively and negatively impact our health, thus cumulatively shaping our lifestyles as more or less healthy. These behaviours are often determined by our knowledge, literacy, motivations and socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors aimed to assess health behaviours and explore variables that may affect persons studying to become future healthcare professionals in Poland. This study was conducted...
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Health System Efficiency in European Countries: Network Data Envelopment Analysis Approach
PublicationPurpose: The article's main aim is to investigate the effectiveness of health systems in European countries based on EUROSTAT data. A comparative analysis of the health systems' effectiveness in different countries is based on their improvement (reform), using the best practices approach. Design/Methodology/Approach: The network DEA model and a slack-based model (NDEA – SBM) are used. A non-oriented model is used. The research...