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The main objective of the paper was to determine the significance of particular methods of supporting women's entrepreneurship in Greater Poland. Five groups of such support have been identified: socio-cultural, promotional and informational, financial, institutional, consulting and training. This led to identifying gaps in existing support and to finding the most significant support for entrepreneurial women. The study revealed a discrepancy between the assessment carried out by experts, students and women entrepreneurs. Owners of enterprises’ opinions show that the available forms of support are not as useful as it might seem from the perspective of researchers and potential owners. There are also forms of support that are not used by the female owners.

ABSTRACT: Charging infrastructure supports the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle industry. It not only plays a decisive role in providing accessible and convenient services for electric vehicle (EV) users but also, in one of the seven new infrastructure areas, plays an important role in stabilizing growth and unleashing economic potential during the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, impacting China's economy. In this study, the system dynamics model was used to predict the development of the EV industry and the demand for charging infrastructure, while considering the influence of policy, increase in EV mileage, and consumer purchase intention index. Furthermore, using the matching of EVs and charging infrastructure in Beijing and policy-oriented sensitivity analysis, a simulation of the construction of battery swap taxis and power stations under three policy scenarios was conducted. This research shows that with policies implemented to support charging infrastructure and swapping compatible taxis, Beijing can achieve its goal of replacing all EVs with fast-swap batteries and fast-charging functions within three years.

Abstract The present paper examines the phenomenon of energy poverty in Greece. Specifically, energy poverty concerns a growing number of households that have limited access to energy or are unable to pay for this energy, mainly due to insufficient thermal insulation, low income and high energy costs. The continuing economic crisis in Greece has increased the rate of energy poverty as incomes have fallen, the price of oil and PPC tariffs have risen, more households are asked to pay more than 20% of their energy bill income. Excessive energy poverty in turn has an impact on the environment (illegal logging, smog, etc.), but also to the physical and mental health of people exposed to it. The paper includes a case study which provides information and data collected from a sample of 384 households using the questionnaire method in four areas of northern Greece, which is the Edessa area in Central Macedonia, the area of Drama in Eastern Macedonia, the area of Xanthi and the Municipality of Myki (Pomakohoria) in Thrace. Initially, personal data, housing characteristics and household health status are presented. The types of heating system of the examined households and the extent to which they meet the required levels of thermal comfort are presented below. In addition, the aforementioned data is associated with the energy accounts. The findings, show that energy poverty has affected a significant proportion of households in Greece. This is due to the fact that there are households that do not meet the energy needs of their home.

Editorial Complex Optimization and Simulation in Power Systems

This paper evaluated the environmental effects of socially responsible investments (SRIs) in European countries and analyzed the differentiation between them in terms of SRIs and selected features in the environmental dimension. The first section of the paper discusses contemporary trends in Europe and in certain European countries, whilst the second compares SR environmental investments and environmental factors in selected European countries from a multidimensional perspective. The aim of the study was to identify and evaluate these trends as well as to find similarities and differences between European countries, and subsequently to indicate groups of countries with similar approaches to pro-ecological investments. In order to solve the problem, descriptive and multidimensional statistical methods were used, namely correspondence analysis (CA). Although the research results clearly revealed upward tendencies in the volume of SR environmental investments in the analyzed period, they nonetheless represent a relatively low share in the total number of socially responsible investments. The overall growth in SRIs in Europe may have resulted from the more intense activities of policymakers in some countries as a consequence of concluding agreements reached during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in 2015. The results of the study also revealed no significant correlations between SR environmental investments and environmental variables among the European countries analyzed; hence, there is no substantial evidence that investors’ assets contribute to the improvement of the environment.

With the extensive growth in technology, healthcare sector has benefitted a lot recently. Looking into the academic research and validation in the area of medical image processing and visualization, many platforms and the open-source resources are available. Insight toolkit (ITK) and visualization toolkit (VTK) are extensively used for medical image processing and 3D visualization respectively. Resources used to develop an application using ITK-VTK and same resources be used to deliver it to the users such as, clinicians, doctors etc. This can be achieved by using respective hardware and the infrastructure. In the proposed article, the infrastructure and resource used to build and deploy the application and remote access given to the users are elucidated.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that to limit warming to 1.5 °C, Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is required. Integrated assessment models (IAMS) predict that a land area between the size of Argentina and Australia is required for bioenergy crops, a 3–7 time increase in the current bioenergy planting area globally. The authors pose the question of whether vertical farming (VF) technology can enable BECCS deployment, either via land sparing or supply. VF involves indoor controlled environment cultivation, and can increase productivity per unit land area by 5–10 times. VF is predominantly being used to grow small, high value leafy greens with rapid growth cycles. Capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and sustainability are challenges in current VF industries, and will affect the ability to utilise this technology for other crops. The authors argue that, whilst challenging, VF could help reach wider climate goals. Application of VF for bioenergy crops could be a game changer in delivering BECCS technologies and may reduce the land footprint required as well as the subsequent associated negative environmental impacts. VF bioenergy could allow us to cultivate the future demand for bioenergy for BECCS on the same, or less, land area than is currently used globally.