The present research presents an effective segmentation of visitors to Polish spa resorts and thereby provides useful insights contributing to the understanding of the attributes determining the perceived spa resort’s image and nature of the delineated segments. The research is based on the findings from a self-administered questionnaire, an instrument consisting of 11 pull-motivational items, developed and used in a survey of 2050 Polish spa resort visitors. Based on destination attributes and relevant socio-demographic characteristics, a clustering method identified three distinct segments of visitors to Polish spa resorts. Abbreviations: ANOVA: analysis of variance; NFZ: National Health Fund, ZUS Polish Social Insurance Institution; PCA: principal component analysis; WHO: World Health Organization
Poland, as a member of the European Union (EU), has to fulfill the obligations resulting from its membership in it. It is necessary to comply with numerous directives and other legal provisions adopted by the European Commission in the field of the energy market and production. Meeting the demands of the European Green Deal, as well as the solutions presented in the Fit for 55 package, is very difficult. In Poland, coal is still used in over 67% of electricity production. This article presents an attempt to join the multi-threaded discussion on renewable energy sources (RES) and the possibility of increasing their share in Poland’s energy mix. This article defines the RES support mechanisms in Poland, presents the support systems and instruments functioning within them, and also provides a statistical prediction of trends in energy production from RES for upcoming years. Research utilized the Brown, Holt, and Winters models and the cause-and-effect model. The research conducted in this article shows that Poland must make significant efforts to decarbonize the economy; in addition, the too quickly changing RES support system is not conducive to the development of these sources.
From among many studies observing the walking pattern throughout pregnancy, only two items monitor the influence of pregnancy on the movement system during gait considering the period before gestation. Does the women’s gait pattern at the end of the first trimester undergo changes in comparison to body movement pattern before pregnancy? All subjects who met the inclusion criteria gave signed and informed consent before the study. Two experimental sessions were arranged according to the same protocol: (P0) before pregnancy and (P1) at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy (12th week of gestation). At first the anthropometric measures were taken. Then, walking trials at a self-selected speed along a walkway were registered with Vicon 250 (Oxford Metrics Ltd.; Oxford, UK) and FreeMED force platform (Sensor Medica, Italy). An analysis of anthropometric parameters in 12th pregnancy week demonstrated significant changes in mean values of waist circumference and waist to hip ratio as well as waist to height ratio indexes compared to the results before pregnancy. No significant differences were found in the basic kinematic gait parameters between experimental conditions. Significant increase of mean inter—ankle distance during double support phase occurred during the first trimester of pregnancy. Also, the ratio of the ankle separation width to the pelvic width was noticeably higher in gestation. Then, angular changes of the pelvis in coronal and transverse planes throughout gait cycle during pregnancy demonstrated significant differences compared to those measured before pregnancy. At the same time in the first trimester of pregnancy no adaptive changes in the pattern of feet loading take place. Since our study is of longitudinal character, in the course of pregnancy we expect compensatory mechanisms more clearly demonstrated. Therefore, we hope to identify a strategy of the gravid body progression in space.
1 January 2023 in Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review