Browsing by Type "Journal Article"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Publication
    Assessment of the present and future offshore wind power potential: a case study in a target territory of the Baltic Sea near the Latvian coast.
    (2013)
    Lizuma, Lita
    ;
    Avotniece, Zanita
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    Rupainis, Sergejs
    ;
    Teilāns, Artis 
    Offshore wind energy development promises to be a significant domestic renewable energy source in Latvia. The reliable prediction of present and future wind resources at offshore sites is crucial for planning and selecting the location for wind farms. The overall goal of this paper is the assessment of offshore wind power potential in a target territory of the Baltic Sea near the Latvian coast as well as the identification of a trend in the future wind energy potential for the study territory. The regional climate model CLM and High Resolution Limited Area Model (Hirlam) simulations were used to obtain the wind climatology data for the study area. The results indicated that offshore wind energy is promising for expanding the national electricity generation and will continue to be a stable resource for electricity generation in the region over the 21st century.
    Scopus© Citations 14
  • Publication
    Atmospheric light air ion concentrations and related meteorologic factors in Rezekne city, Latvia.
    (2012-04-01T00:00:00Z)
    Skromulis, Andris
    ;
    Noviks, Gotfrids
    The well-minded impact of light negative air ions on human organism is still under discussion. The measurements of air ions are not widespread in Latvia yet. The paper presents new results of air pollution evaluation in Rezekne city. Measurements of positive and negative air ion concentrations in Rezekne city were taken during the spring, summer and autumn 2009 and during the winter 2010. Measurements were taken by portative air ions counter "Sapfir-3M" in eight different points of Rezekne city thrice a day. The concentrations of positive and negative air ions with mobility factor k > or = 0.4 cm2 V(-1) s(-1) were measured. Temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, direction, etc., were also taken into account. The approximate interconnection between ionization and chemical and mechanical air pollution in relation with meteorological conditions was analyzed. The highest level of air ion concentration was observed in mornings, whereas in afternoons this concentration level decreased due to the growth of anthropogenic air pollution in the city, as light air ions, because of their charge, promoted the coagulation and the settlement of pollution particles. This regularity is typical for summer, whereas in spring, autumn and winter it is not characteristic. The unipolarity factor was usually less than 1 in mornings, but usually larger than 1 in afternoons especially in the most polluted city areas where minor concentration of air ions was detected. The ionization level is an original indicator of energetic saturation and aerosol pollution of atmospheric air.
  • Publication
    Reasons for Low Protection of Vulnerable Workers from COVID-19-Results from the Quantitative and Qualitative Study on Working Life in Latvia
    (2021)
    Matisāne, Linda
    ;
    Paegle, Linda
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    Eglīte, Maija
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    Akūlova, Lāsma
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    Linde, Asnate Anna
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    Vanadziņš, Ivars
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    Mietule, Iveta
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    Lonska, Jeļena 
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    Rozentāle, Sarmīte
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    Arbidāne, Iluta
    ;
    Litavniece, Lienīte
    ;
    Grīntāle, Ieva
    Several individual factors like older age and chronic diseases have been linked with more severe symptoms often leading to hospitalization and higher mortality from COVID-19. Part of adults with such factors is still active in the workforce. The objective of the study was to identify measures taken by the employer to protect them and to investigate reasons for low protection of vulnerable workers during the 1st wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Answers from 1000 workers collected via web-survey and results from 10 focus group discussions were analyzed. Only 31.5% of respondents mentioned that their employer had identified existing vulnerable groups and offered specific measures to protect them. Moving vulnerable workers away from the workplace was the most frequent measure (e.g., transfer to the back-office without contact with clients, telework, paid vacations, paid downtime). Most employers do not see elderly workers and workers with chronic diseases as risk groups, thus are not specifically protecting them. Instead, several employers have included workers critical for business continuity in their risk group. Others had not taken measures because of the lack of information due to general data protection regulation. Poor communication and lack of interest of employers to ask their workers if they need special protection is the topic to be addressed at the national level.
    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    Some Reflections on Designing Effective Social Telerehabilitation Services for Older Adults.
    (2016)
    Marzano, Gilberto
    ;
    Stafeckis, Gatis
    ;
    Lubkina, Velta
    The share of the population aged 65 years and over is increasing in every EU Member State, candidate country, and EFTA Member State. WHO/Europe has established a Subnetwork on Healthy Ageing within the European Healthy Cities Network and provides guidance to Member States in developing profiles of healthy ageing, since, given the increasing number of older adults, maintaining their health status is a crucial issue. This article, which is part of the Latvian national scientific program VPP INOSOCTEREHI, focuses on the issues related to the design, implementation, and assessment of user interfaces that can maximize usability in social telerehabilitation systems for older adult users. This is a very real challenge, since older adults don't form a homogeneous class. Investigating older adults' skills and their attitudes towards the perceived usefulness of computer applications could be helpful in identifying some sub-sets of older adult users and their typical behaviours.
  • Publication
    Transition to the forced telework - a challenge for trade unions identified by the study on working life with COVID-19 in Latvia
    (2022)
    Matisāne, Linda
    ;
    Paegle, Linda
    ;
    Vanadziņš, Ivars
    ;
    Rozentāle, Sarmīte
    ;
    Grīntāle, Ieva
    ;
    Mietule, Iveta
    ;
    Lonska, Jeļena 
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    Litavniece, Lienīte
    ;
    Arbidāne, Iluta
    BACKGROUND: In general, companies with trade unions perform better in occupational health and safety, therefore, we assume that these companies should have performed better in transition to healthy and safe telework if compared with other companies. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess the role of company trade unions on the implementation of telework arrangements in Latvia during the 1st emergency state in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A web-based survey based on snowball sampling method and social media advertisements was used to gather information from teleworkers. After data cleaning, answers from 422 teleworkers reporting having (wTU) or not having trade unions (nTU) in their companies were included in the analysis. RESULTS: There was a significantly higher percentage of workers with teleworking experience in companies with no trade unions (37.4% nTU versus 18.1% wTU). More respondents from companies with trade unions reported buying a new computer and headphones which means that more persons had to invest their finances to be able to perform their work. Workers from companies with no trade unions were more often advised on home office ergonomics (21.2% wTU versus 28.1% nTU). The odds of all analyzed health problems (pain, sore eyes, and anxiety) were increased in workers who reported having trade unions. CONCLUSION: Companies with trade unions were less ready for the forced transition to teleworking. These results contradict the traditional understanding of trade unions as a promoting factor for a healthy and safe working environment.
  • Publication
    Usability in social telerehabilitation systems for elderly users
    (2017)
    Marzano, G
    ;
    Lubkina, V
    Healthy ageing has been conceptualized from a number of different perspectives, both biomedical and social, and encompasses well-being, capacity for independent activity, meaningful involvement, supportive environments and positive attitudes. There is a general consensus that technology can reduce the decline of functions in elderly persons and support their rehabilitation activity, helping them to cope with daily life in a way more similar to their original lifestyles. On this purpose, we report on a literature review (from January 1998 to June 2016), which is part of the Latvian national science program VPP INOSOCTEREHI, a new three-year multidisciplinary project in the field of social telerehabilitation focused on social inclusion. The review was conducted in the Medline database that contains over 22 million records and is a subset both of PubMed and Embase databases. We decided to limit our review to Medline since its records are from about 5600 mainly from US journals and this would provide a certain homogeneity. However, in the near future, we plan to improve our investigation including others databases, such as Embase, that contains over 29 million records from journals from at least 90 countries, and SAGE that encloses a wide range of records about computer-based applications.
    Scopus© Citations 8
  • Publication
    Work-Life Balance of the Employed Population During the Emergency Situation of COVID-19 in Latvia
    (2021)
    Lonska, Jeļena 
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    Mietule, Iveta
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    Litavniece, Lienīte
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    Arbidāne, Iluta
    ;
    Vanadziņš, Ivars
    ;
    Matisane, Linda
    ;
    Paegle, Linda
    All the employees face the challenge of finding the right work-life balance. The ability of employees to deal with the successful combining of work, family responsibilities, and personal life is crucial for both employers and family members of employees. During the COVID-19 emergency situation, many people around the world were forced to work remotely. Initially, there were observed some certain expectations about the possibility of working from home as a positive factor that will promote work-life balance. However, over time, negative tendencies were also revealed, as employees were only one call or message away from the employer, and uncertainty and leisure time with family often created more stress. As many organizations and individuals were not ready for this sudden change, many mistakes were made, which further raised the issue of work-life balance. The aim of the research was to evaluate the flexibility of reconciling work and private life of Latvian employees in various socio-demographic groups during the COVID-19 emergency situation in spring 2020, to investigate how family life influenced employees' ability to perform work duties, to find out if employees had any additional housework responsibilities and how their workload changed concerning housework amount during the COVID-19 emergency situation. The research is based on the data obtained in the survey of the Latvian employed population, which was conducted within the framework of the Latvian National Research Programme Project "CoLife" in the second half of 2020. As a result, the hypothesis of the research that all groups of employees experienced work-life balance difficulties during the COVID-19 emergency situation has been partially confirmed, i.e., women in the 18-44 age group and respondents with minor children in the household more likely faced difficulties of work-life balance. The scientific research methods that were used in the research are the monographic method, content analysis, survey, data processing with SPSS to determine the mutual independence of the data from the questionnaires.
    Scopus© Citations 35