• Energy Research
• University of Szczecin close

Nowadays, sustainability is one of the strategic goals of smart cities. They are the essential solution to creating the sustainable future. On the other hand, the smart city is intended to deal with the problems of energy management. This paper examines the influence of the smart sustainable cities concept on energy management from the labor market perspective. The paper fulfills the research gap about energy manager profession transformation considering smart sustainable city concept. The aim of the paper is to create an up-to-date holistic energy manager skill model with a focus on emerging technologies. The skill model reflects the synergy of two methodological approaches: the theoretical and practical approaches. Descriptive statistics are used to present the labor market research results. It is concluded that the core elements of the smart sustainable city concept have an impact on energy management are sustainability and big data. The labor market research also draws differences in the amount and structure of demand on energy manager skills by countries, but at the same time similar skills requirements are found. The skill model of the energy manager profession is built around several main groups associated with specific knowledge, social skills, and behavior skills. The findings of the present research can contribute to knowledge and practice by applying it in the process of developing energy manager competency models in commercial and non-commercial enterprises as well as in education programs and training courses.

The aim of the study was to determine the contents of microelements in Boletus edulis, Imleria badia and Leccinum scabrum, taking into account the soil conditions in selected forest areas of Northwest Poland and the bioaccumulation capacity of these fungi and their role in the human diet. Se, Cu, Zn, Mn and Fe contents were determined in the soil (organic and mineral layers) and mushrooms. The study showed that the soils on which fruiting bodies grew did not differ significantly in the contents of these trace elements. The concentrations of microelements in mushrooms in NW Poland were mostly at the lower range of the contents reported for these species in other regions of Poland and Europe. The uptake of microelements by the studied mushrooms was influenced by soil reaction, organic matter content, and bioavailable and total forms of the elements. B. edulis contained significantly more Se than other mushroom species and, together with I. badia, was much more abundant in Cu and Zn than L. scabrum. Fruiting bodies bioaccumulated Se (most strongly by B. edulis; BCF = 120.6), Cu and Zn. The contents of microelements in the tested mushrooms may be supplementary elements in the human diet.

AbstractThe electron density distributions in crystals of five previously studied DMAN complexes and five Schiff bases (two new ones) have been analysed in terms of various properties of bond critical points (BCPs) found in the pair‐wise interactions in their lattices. We analysed the continua of interactions including covalent/ionic bonds as well as hydrogen bonds and all other types of weak interactions for all pairs of interacting atoms. The charge density at BCPs and local kinetic and potential energy densities vary exponentially with internuclear distance (or other measures of separation). The parameters of the dependences appear to be characteristics of particular pairs of atom types. The Laplacian and the total (sum of kinetic and potential) energy density at BCPs show similar behaviour with the dependence being of the Morse type. The componentsλ1,λ2,λ3of the Laplacian at BCPs vary systematically with internuclear distance according to the type of atom pair. Forλ1andλ2the distribution is of the exponential type, whereasλ3does not seem to follow any simple functional form, consistent with previous theoretical findings. Analytical nonlinear dependences of Laplacian on charge density have been found. They agree reasonably well with those obtained by least square fit of the Laplacian to charge density data. There are four distinct regions of the ∇2ρBCP/ρBCPspace, generated byEBCP=0 andGBCP/ρBCP=1 conditions. Two regions clearly correspond to the shared‐shell and closed‐shell interactions and the other two to some intermediate situation.

According to the European Commission, the smart specialization strategy is intended as a response to complex development challenges and a tool for stimulating innovation at the regional level. At the same time, it is known that the conditions in which businesses operate, including institutional framework, socio-economic aspects, infrastructure and forms of business support, do not always meet their needs. The research and analyses carried out in this study were aimed at testing the relationships mainly between the external activities that most create/develop innovation in enterprises, networking within the innovation ecosystem, and barriers inhibiting innovation development. For this purpose, 250 survey interviews were conducted with representatives of innovative enterprises from five regions in Poland. Our research and analyses have shown that regions make considerable efforts to comprehensively define rather complex RIS3 (Research and Innovation Smart Specialization Strategy) policy priorities, while in reality these priorities often do not coincide with the expectations of entrepreneurs.

Safety of road users is one of the priority tasks of state institutions and local government authorities. Compared to other EU member states, Poland is characterized by a low level of road safety. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than half of road fatalities affect vulnerable road users (VRU). Most interactions in the vehicle–VRU relationship occur in built-up areas. Limiting the public’s mobility related to the spread of the COVID-19 virus led to changes in road traffic, which was reflected in the level of safety of individual road users. As part of a clear emphasis on the issue of VRU protection, the aim of this article is to examine the level of pedestrian safety in urban space at the time of restrictions on the public’s mobility in Poland during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and after lifting the limitations, based on the example of Szczecin. The authors put forward two research hypotheses: (1) the level of road safety is influenced by the intensity and saturation of the transport network; (2) the intensity of road traffic determines the occurrence of a greater number of road accident consequences. This study analyses traffic accident data over three periods—2017–2018, 2019–2020, and 2021—to identify pedestrian safety trends. The research shows that the intensity of road traffic has a significant impact on the occurrence of road accidents. The reduced road traffic due to the movement restrictions has kept the severity of road accidents moderate. In the post-pandemic period and the gradual lifting of the mobility restrictions, the number of road accidents increased while their consequences decreased.

Epilobium angustifolium L. is applied as an antiseptic agent in the treatment of skin diseases. However, there is a lack of information on human skin penetration of active ingredients with antioxidative potential. It seems crucial because bacterial infections of skin and subcutaneous tissue are common and partly depend on oxidative stress. Therefore, we evaluated in vitro human skin penetration of fireweed ethanol-water extracts (FEEs) by determining antioxidant activity of these extracts before and after penetration study using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and Folin–Ciocalteu methods. Microbiological tests of extracts were done. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation was performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC-UV) methods. The in vitro human skin penetration using the Franz diffusion chamber was assessed. The high antioxidant activity of FEEs was found. Gallic acid (GA), chlorogenic acid (ChA), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-DHB), 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HB), and caffeic acid (CA) were identified in the extracts. The antibacterial activities were found against Serratia lutea, S. marcescens, Bacillus subtilis, B. pseudomycoides, and B. thuringiensis and next Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and P. fluorescens strains. In vitro penetration studies showed the penetration of some phenolic acids and their accumulation in the skin. Our results confirm the importance of skin penetration studies to guarantee the efficacy of formulations containing E. angustifolium extracts.

The Polish economy is facing a huge challenge regarding the future of energy in Poland. The current energy system is very inefficient, it consumes huge resources that, like countries with high energy efficiency, could be allocated to the development of low-carbon and renewable energy networks. At the moment, the Polish energy sector, related to the coal monoculture, lacks electricity and the entire transmission system is obsolete. The solution may be distributed energy, which can ultimately satisfy energy supplies in less urbanized areas and in rural areas, while guaranteeing the sustainable development of these areas. In order to take up the challenge of better understanding and explaining such a complex reality, it was decided that the research framework of this article will be distributed energy in the region. The aim of the article is to ensure energy security in the conditions of innovative, ecological and open to competition regional energy using local energy resources. Currently, it is believed that distributed energy can be an effective solution to the problem of conventional energy operation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new Pythagorean fuzzy entropy for Pythagorean fuzzy sets, which is a continuation of the Pythagorean fuzzy entropy of intuitionistic sets. The Pythagorean fuzzy set continues the intuitionistic fuzzy set with the additional advantage that it is well equipped to overcome its imperfections. Its entropy determines the quantity of information in the Pythagorean fuzzy set. Thus, the proposed entropy provides a new flexible tool that is particularly useful in complex multi-criteria problems where uncertain data and inaccurate information are considered. The performance of the introduced method is illustrated in a real-life case study, including a multi-criteria company selection problem. In this example, we provide a numerical illustration to distinguish the entropy measure proposed from some existing entropies used for Pythagorean fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets. Statistical illustrations show that the proposed entropy measures are reliable for demonstrating the degree of fuzziness of both Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) and intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS). In addition, a multi-criteria decision-making method complex proportional assessment (COPRAS) was also proposed with weights calculated based on the proposed new entropy measure. Finally, to validate the reliability of the results obtained using the proposed entropy, a comparative analysis was performed with a set of carefully selected reference methods containing other generally used entropy measurement methods. The illustrated numerical example proves that the calculation results of the proposed new method are similar to those of several other up-to-date methods.