bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bartonella henselae Endocarditis and Glomerulonephritis with Dominant C3 Deposition in a 21-Year-Old Male with a Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve: Case Report and Review of the Literature
Authors: Georgievskaya Zhanna , Nowalk Andrew J. , Randhawa Parmjeet , Picarsic Jennifer
Published: June 2014

We report a case of a 21-year-old young man with underlying congenital heart disease who developed Bartonella henselae endocarditis of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) conduit of his Melody transcatheter (percutaneous) pulmonary valve (TPV), with an initial presentation of glomerulonephritis with a dominant C3 pattern, with renal failure and circulating cryoglobulins. There are few reports of a glomerulonephritis with a dominant C3 pattern presenting as a manifestation of B. henselae endocarditis. While most cases of B. henselae endocarditis affect the aortic valve, in this case the valve damage was to the RVOT of the Melody TPV, a percutaneous transcatheter valve delivery system that had previously replaced his pulmonary homograft, which had become dysfunctional as a result of prior Streptococcus viridans endocarditis. The pulmonary homograft had been in place since childhood as a result of a Ross procedure to repair his congenital aortic stenosis. The patient's renal failure significantly improved after surgical resection of the infected RVOT and institution of appropriate antibiotic therapy.
Ornamental plants as climatic indicators of arthropod vectors
Authors: Bede-Fazekas Àkos , Tràjer Attila Jànos
Published: June 2014

The importance and risk of vector-borne diseases (e.g., leishmaniasis, West Nile Virus, Lyme borreliosis) is going to increase in the European temperate areas due to climate change. Our previous studies have shown that the potential distribution of Leishmania infantum and some Phlebotomus (sand fly) species - a parasite of leishmaniasis, and its vectors - may be expanded even to the southern coastline of the Baltic Sea by the end of the 21st century. The lowland areas of the Carpathian Basin and the main part of Hungary are projected to be suitable for the studied sand fly vectors in the near future. It is important to find some indicator plants to examine whether the sand flies are able to live in a certain climate at a certain time. We studied several Mediterranean and Sub-Mediterranean plant species, and we found that the aggregated distribution of three ligneous species (Juniperus oxycedrus L., Quercus ilex L. and Pinus brutia Ten.) shows high correlation with the union distribution of five sand flies (Phlebotomus ariasi Tonn., Ph. neglectus Tonn., Ph. perfiliewi Parrot, Ph. perniciosus Newst. and Ph. tobbi Adler, Theodor et Lourie). Since these Mediterranean species are highly tolerant of the edaphic characteristics of the planting site, they may prove to be good indicators. The present and upcoming climate of Hungary is seen to be suitable for the selected indicator plant species, and it draws attention to and verifies the potential of the expansion of sand flies, which has been proved by some recent observations of the vectors in Southern Hungary.
Evaluation of freezing pre-treatments for the lyophilisation of apple
Authors: Antal Tamás , Sikolya László , Kerekes Benedek
Published: June 2014

The effect of freezing rate on the quality of dried Jonagold and Idared (Malus domestica Borkh.) was studied. Apple slices underwent various pre-treatments, i.e. freezing in household freezer (freezing speed/rate: 0,5◦C/min), contact plate freezing (2◦C/min) and vacuumfreezing (3◦C/min). The quality of the freeze-dried product was then evaluated in terms of water activity (aw), hardness, color and rehydration. The texture and color experiments were carried out with texture analyser and colorimeter. The aw of apple slices was measured by aw apparatus. It was found that drying time was influenced by freezing rate. The freezing in household freezer (slow freezing rate) significantly reduces the duration of the freeze-drying process and consequently the process costs. The slow freezing rate allows the growth of large ice crystals at the beginning of the freeze-drying process; this fact should consequently lead to larger pores and injured cell walls and thus to shorter freeze-drying time. Quality of the freezing in household freezer product was assessed as higher than the quality of the other freezing pre-treated material. Slow freezing rate resulted softer texture and higher rehydration capacity than that of other pre-treated samples. In all cases, slow freezing speed lead to lower final moisture content, total color difference and water activity. Freeze-dried samples prepared with higher freezing rates (3◦C/min) were the most white in color because small pores, originated by sublimation of small ice crystals formed by fast freezing.
Climate and pedological factors of slump development on a Transylvanian example
Authors: Fazakas Csaba
Published: June 2014

Areas endangered by slump formation in the M˘agherani Basin, part of the Nirajului Hills (Romania), are studied in the present paper. Time periods considered dangerous regarding the development of slumps and the degree of risk were determined. Pedological conditions of the model area are assessed based on field and laboratory measurements, self-constructed maps and literature data. These factors could have contributed to the formation of slump phenomena in the model area.
Application of molecular markers in medicinal plant studies
Authors: Pourmohammad Alireza
Published: June 2014

The World Health Organization has estimated that more than 80% of the world’s population in developing countries depends primarily on herbal medicine for basic healthcare needs. Approximately two thirds of the 50 000 different medicinal plant species in use are collected from the wild and only 10% of medicinal species used commercially are cultivated. DNA-based molecular markers have utility in the fields like taxonomy, physiology, embryology, genetics, etc. DNA-based techniques have been widely used for authentication of plant species of medicinal importance. The geographical conditions affect the active constituents of the medicinal plant and hence their activity profiles. Many researchers have studied geographical variation at the genetic level. Estimates of genetic diversity are also important in designing crop improvement programmes for the management of germplasm and evolving conservation strategies. The DNA-based molecular marker helps in the improvement of medicinal plant species. DNA markers are more reliable because the genetic information is unique for each species and is independent of age, physiological conditions and environmental factors.
On the Pro-competitive Effects of Regional Trading Agreements
Authors: Viaene Jean-Marie , Moraga-González José L.
Published: June 2014

We explore the pro-competitive effects of trade policies in a model where a competitive fringe of domestic firms compete with a foreign duopoly exporting vertically differentiated goods. We show that discriminatory nonuniform tariff policies are preferred over the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause because, besides extracting rents from foreign firms, they foster competition in the market. Regional Trading Agreements (RTAs), which favor members relative to non-members, are examples of such nonuniform tariff policies.
Constructivist Views of Cooperation along the Border
Authors: Fábiàn Attila
Published: June 2014

The present essay makes an attempt to examine the sociocultural field with a constructivist approach, which gives an opportunity to interpret the concept of “border” in a discursive way. This approach emphasises the importance of the role of the ideas and values related to the creation and the development of cross-border regions. The essay places great emphasis on security and cultural communities that are necessary for cross-border cooperation and sustainable regionalism. According to constructivism, security means the communities are in a mutual multi-level connection and people try to avoid conflicts with dialogue, cooperation and socialization. A cultural community along a border is a community created by border societies whose members mutually influence each other. Because of these two aspects, a good neighbourly relation can develop along the border, which may have beneficial effects on the economy of the whole country
Revisiting Michael Snow’s Wavelength, after Deleuze’s Time-Image
Authors: Potempski Jacob
Published: June 2014

Michael Snow’s Wavelength (1967) is one of the most written about avant-garde films. It has served as “a blue screen in front of which a range of ideological and intellectual dramas have been played out,” as Elizabeth Legge put it in a book-length study of the film, whose recent publication testifies to the continuing relevance of the film (Legge 2009). This paper takes Annette Michelson’s article, Toward Snow, one of the first and most often cited encounters with Snow’s cinema, as its point of departure (Michelson 1978). Michelson sees the film as a reflection which reveals the cinema as a temporal narrative medium. Drawing on Husserl’s phenomenology of time-consciousness, she argues that this reflection on the medium is at the same time a reflection on the structures of consciousness. However, the paper also draws on the work of Gilles Deleuze, whose two-volume study of the cinema has opened up new possibilities for thinking about time and the cinema (Deleuze 1983, 1985). The paper is not an interpretation of Deleuze. It appropriates and puts to work his idea that the cinema is not essentially a narrative medium; but a medium that disrupts linear time, making visible a non-chronological dimension of time, which fragments the subject and exposes it to liminal situations. Wavelength, I argue, reverses the flow of time, to make visible an abyss at the heart of time, which shatters the unity of the subject
From a Tactile Epistemology to the Ontology of Affect: Two Readings of Deleuze’s Time-Image in Film and New Media Theory
Authors: Bak Árpád
Published: June 2014

The paper compares how two theorists of media arts, Mark B. N. Hansen and Laura U. Marks, interpret the relation of Deleuze’s time-image to corporeality. Both argue that some novel types of images - in film and media art - engage the body in new and also more intensive ways than traditional cinema did. While they remain committed to Bergson’s theory of perception, their works offer different readings of how the Bergsonian concepts of Deleuze’s film philosophy can be applied to new media: on the one hand, to the non-signifying, affective properties of Hansen’s digital image in contemporary media arts, and on the other, to Marks’s - in the last instance, memory-signifying - haptic image, which she discussed initially in connection with video art and experimental film. In New Philosophy for New Media (2004), Hansen asserts that “Deleuze’s neo-Bergsonist account of the cinema carries out the progressive disembodying of the [body]”, which “reaches its culmination in […] what he calls the ‘time-image,’” and calls for “a rehabilitation of Bergson’s embodied concept of affection.” While Marks also offers some criticism on Deleuze, she suggests that his “theory of timeimage cinema permits a discussion of the multisensory quality of cinema,” and undertakes to examine “how the body may be involved in the inauguration of time-image cinema.” Besides arguing that both tendencies are present in Deleuze to varying degrees, I attempt to contextualize the divergences in their lines of thought by looking at the types of media and selection of works they examine, as well as the possible theoretical commitments that might guide these selective strategies
(Re)framing Movement in Stan Brakhage’s Visions in Meditation N°1
Authors: Simon Emőke
Published: June 2014

Considered as one of the main figures of the avant-garde lyrical cinema, Stan Brakhage questions perception. His language of inquiry constantly confronts the spectator with the limits of visual experience of the world and the multiple possibilities of their transgression. Critically addressing one of his short films, Visions in Meditation n°l (1989),1 this analysis aims to discuss the way movement may become a principle of perception, that is to say, according to Gilles Deleuze’s definition - a mode of transgressing the frame of representation. Reappropriating the cinematographic grammar and submitting it to a vibrating movement, Brakhage invents a rhythm which paves the way for a transcendental experience, meanwhile proposing a reflection on the meditative possibilities of the film in terms of the image in meditation. Gilles Deleuze’s way of thinking of cinema in Cinema 1: Movement-image, as well as Slavoj Žižek’s writings on cinema, allows one to consider movement in its cinematographic and philosophical meaning, a project which in Brakhage’s case seems to be primordial
The Never-ending Disaster: 9/11 Conspiracy Theory and the Integration of Activist Documentary on Video Websites
Authors: Pedersen Peter Ole
Published: June 2014

The article examines how documentary film is transformed when distributed through video sharing web sites. The conspiracy-theoretical production Loose Change (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009) is used as a case study of how the mediation process connected with net-based distribution affects the materiality of film and alters our conception of both visual evidence and genre. With a point of departure in the media theory of Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin and their twin concepts of immediacy and hypermediacy it is discussed how the film culture on the internet develops new media institutions and establishes what could be described as “live” archives. A concluding reflection illustrates how this type of film is part of an ongoing media-determined and cultural transformation of the documentary genre, a process that places its historical and political content halfway between fact and fiction
The Vertigo of the Single Image: From the Classic Narrative “Glitch” to the Post-Cinematic Adaptations of Paintings
Authors: Pethő Ágnes
Published: June 2014

As a possible cross section of cinematic narratology and the theory of intermediality the following essay assesses some of the effects of foregrounding the single, intermedial image within film. Specific figurations of intermediality that are experienced via the consciousness of single images, or some kind of “imageness” (i.e. as “intermedial references”) are presented as well as the modes in which they can interact with the narrative structure of a film. This interaction ranges from a momentary interference with the narrative structure of a film to disrupting it altogether; it may consist in constituting the gravity centre of a plot, or even in becoming the “canvas” for a palimpsest of narrative modes and narratives
Michael Powell’s The Thief of Bagdad and Abbas Kiarostami’s A Taste of Cherry: Two Faces of Orientalism
Authors: Weber Alan S.
Published: June 2014

British director Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (1940-) share several technical similarities in their filmmaking, most notably an interest in the visual language of still photography, painting and other visual arts, specifically light and colour. They also often comment on the art of film-making and the subject position of the audience as voyeur within their films. With respect to Orientalism - the philosophical and cultural construction that the West overlaid on the East - Powell and Kiarostami can be profitably compared. Powell appears to have accepted uncritically the notion that the East could be characterized by exotic and sensuous otherness, an attitude that is revealed in his approach to The Thief of Bagdad (1940) as escapist fantasy and Black Narcissus (1946) as a farewell to India. Kiarostami, on the other hand, a “real Oriental,” not only rejected the Orientalist paradigm (while simultaneously drawing on its original language and symbols), but also refused to respond to it in the way that other Muslim artists, particularly in the post-Iranian Revolution period, consciously attempted to build a nonwestern cinematic art. His Taste of Cherry (1997), however, does draw on some of the same cultural elements that were borrowed and distorted by the European intellectuals who promulgated the Orientalist and postcolonial world-view
The “Deep Focus Construction” of Selected Characters within Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1923 & 1956) and Elsewhere
Authors: Kozlovic Anton Karl
Published: June 2014

Legendary producer-director Cecil B. DeMille was a progenitor of Paramount Pictures, a seminal cofounder of Hollywood, and the master of the American biblical epic; but whose pioneering achievements and filmic practices still remain grossly unappreciated today. One of his aesthetic trade secrets was the “deep focus construction” of his on-screen characters, that is, the engineering of pertinent correspondences between his characterizations and the actors’ idiosyncratic traits and/or previous roles to deepen the naturalistic resonance of authenticity. A brief review of the critical literature and an examination of selected DeMille films, particularly The Ten Commandments (1923 & 1956), was performed to illustrate this casting principle; utilizing humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens. It was concluded that DeMille was a far defter biblical filmmaker than hitherto appreciated. Further research into DeMille Studies is highly warranted, warmly recommended and already long overdue
Halloween and the Limits of Cinematic Meaning
Authors: Kalmár György
Published: June 2014

The article reads John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) from the perspective of the (im)possibilities of cinematic meaning. The horror film seems to be an especially fruitful field for such studies, since its aestheticpsychological mechanism usually aims at destroying the kind of spectatorial position necessary, at least according to semiotic and postsemiotic theory, for the generation and reading of meaningful signs. Placing the film in the theoretical context of such scholars as Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan, Kaja Silverman, Steven Shaviro and Todd McGowan, I attempt to analyse the ways the film disables the production of semiotic meaning and rewrites some of the well-established concepts of film theory. I call into play Barthes’s concept of the punctum, McGowan’s cinema of intersection, Lacan’s later theory of the sinthome, Silverman’s post-Lacanian ideas about the cinematic gaze and the spaces of spectatorship, and Shaviro’s provocative insights about affective cinema so as to indicate how a film may prove its quality precisely at the points where it does not make sense
Arts and Advertising: Aesthetics of Early Commercial Television in Finland
Authors: Keinonen Heidi
Published: June 2014

Finnish television was launched by a commercial company in 1956. TES-TV, the first television station, was later followed by a programming company called Tesvisio and joined by the television channel of YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. The TES-TV/Tesvisio years are a unique period in television history, since they witnessed the creation of a connection between commercial television and the arts. In this article I aim to study early Finnish television aesthetics by analyzing television as art and also the relations between television and other art forms. My focus is on the representations of high and low culture and the search for a television style. TES-TV aired both popular programmes and high culture, like ballet, while on Tesvisio, these cultural extremities were gradually replaced by a middle-brow culture. The early programming included both filmed and live material, which had a contribution to the evolution of Finnish television aesthetics. The television style was further developed by Tesvisio’s first professional set designer and his experimental work. Therefore I claim that in these commercial companies television was seen as an art form in its own right, not only as a mediator of art
Seeing to Believe – Sensing to Know From Film Form to Perceptual Environment
Authors: Spielmann Yvonne
Published: June 2014

Keynote talk given at the “Cinema of Sensations” International Conference organized by the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, between the 25th and 27th of May, 2012. (The photos of Yvonne Spielmann illustrating the article were taken by Ágnes Pethő and Ferenc Boné, and are reproduced here with their permission.)
Visuality and Narration in Monsters, Inc.
Authors: Schröter Jens
Published: June 2014

The overblown rhetoric concerning the “digital revolution” conceals deep continuities between traditional and new forms. As the example Monsters, Inc. shows established forms of narration can be used together with new forms of computer generated images. The complexities of this constellation are described by an analysis of the film.
Avoid Contact with the Eyes and Skin, May Cause Irritation: Agnès Varda’s La Pointe courte (1954)
Authors: Hardy Francesca Minnie
Published: June 2014

When, through highly atypical financial and creative means, French filmmaker Agnès Varda’s first feature film The Pointe Courte (La Pointe courte, 1954) first appeared on cinema screens, a fragment of contemporary commentators thought it hampered by “defects,” “blunders,” and “follies.” Its perceived infirmity compounded further by a “rather irritating intellectual dryness,” implying contact with the film may cause itching. A more material, rather than intellectual engagement with the film, then, may offer a means to overcome such reservations; a piste this article pursues. In doing so, I draw on the thought of contemporary French thinker Jean-Luc Nancy and his proposition that all images are flowers and the mobilised look such thinking engenders which oscillates between an optical gaze and a haptic graze. A look mobilized thanks to the contact it makes with wood’s textured, internal ornament and which undoes the material myopia by which the film’s existing critical landscape has itself been hampered.
The New Realistic Trend in Contemporary World Cinema: Ramin Bahrani’s Chop Shop as a Case Study
Authors: Canet Fernando
Published: June 2014

In the last two decades there has been an international resurgence of realistic films, i.e., films directed by filmmakers who believe in the ontological power of reality and, at the same time, in the capacity of the medium’s expressive scope for building a story without undermining the viewer’s impression of reality. On the one hand, this new movement is a rehabilitation of the cinematic Realism that throughout the history of film has touted cinema as an open window to the real world, a view particularly exemplified by Italian Neo-Realism. On the other hand, this new trend has given new life to the Realist film theories championed mainly by André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer. Bazin defines the Realist style as “all narratives means tending to bring an added measure of reality to the screen” (1971, 27). In the article titled Neo-Neo Realism (2009), A. O. Scott discusses a number of filmmakers whom he categorizes within the new Realist trend in contemporary American independent cinema. Among these is Ramin Bahrani, director of the film Chop Shop (2007). Bahrani is a USborn filmmaker of Iranian origin, based in New York. Abbas Kiarostami is one of his main points of reference. Kiarostami, as Scott notes, “refined the old Neorealist spirit through the 1990s and into the next decade.” Bahrani himself acknowledges this influence with his desire to make “an Iranianstyle movie here in New York.”
Unsettling Melodies: a Cognitive Approach to Incongruent Film Music
Authors: Willemsen Steven , Kiss Miklós
Published: June 2014

Incongruent film music is a soundtrack, either diegetic or nondiegetic, which expresses qualities that stand in contrast to the emotions evoked by the events seen. The present article aims at covering two interconnected areas; the first is comprised of a critical recapitulation of available theoretical accounts of incongruent film music, whilst the second part of the paper offers an alternative, embodied-cognitive explanation of the audio-visual conflict which arises from this particular type of incongruence. Rather than regarding it as a phenomenon that works through disrupting conventions, we stress a perceptual-cognitive reason behind incongruence’s emotional strangeness.
Online data clustering algorithms in an RTLS system
Authors: Németh Tamás , Nagy Sándor , Imreh Csanád
Published: June 2014

This paper proposes and evaluates solutions for an online clustering problem and gives a mathematical model for it. The problem at hand occurs often in the fusion of data streams for example in real time locating systems. The goal is to gather as much incoming information from several sources as possible but also minimize the delay before the next processing step can be executed. The key characteristic is that the data is available in a bursty fashion, in the special case of an RTLS according to the locating cycles. After an introduction of the background a general mathematical model for the problem is given, and then two basic algorithms referred to as NWT and CWT are analyzed by the method of competitive analysis. Each turning out to deliver an optimal solution under different constraints. Then an experimental evaluation follows based on a simulation involving the CWT and the algorithm referred to as VWT. The later is giving a configuration free solution for the problem.
The s-monotone index selection rule for criss-cross algorithms of linear complementarity problems
Authors: Csizmadia Zsolt , Illés Tibor , Fico Adrienn
Published: June 2014

In this paper we introduce the s-monotone index selection rules for the well-known criss-cross method for solving the linear complementarity problem (LCP). Most LCP solution methods require a priori information about the properties of the input matrix. One of the most general matrix properties often required for finiteness of the pivot algorithms (or polynomial complexity of interior point algorithms) is sufficiency. However, there is no known polynomial time method for checking the sufficiency of a matrix (classification of column sufficiency of a matrix is co-NP-complete).

Following the ideas of Fukuda, Namiki and Tamura, using Existentially Polynomial (EP)-type theorems, a simple extension of the crisscross algorithm is introduced for LCPs with general matrices. Computational results obtained using the extended version of the criss-cross algorithm for bi-matrix games and for the Arrow-Debreu market equilibrium problem with different market size is presented.
Yang-Mills lattice on CUDA
Authors: Forster Richárd , Fülöp Ágnes
Published: June 2014

The Yang-Mills fields have an important role in the non- Abelian gauge field theory which describes the properties of the quarkgluon plasma. The real time evolution of the classical fields is given by the equations of motion which are derived from the Hamiltonians to contain the term of the SU(2) gauge field tensor. The dynamics of the classical lattice Yang-Mills equations are studied on a 3 dimensional regular lattice. During the solution of this system we keep the total energy on constant values and it satisfies the Gauss law. The physical quantities are desired to be calculated in the thermodynamic limit. The broadly available computers can handle only a small amount of values, while the GPUs provide enough performance to reach out for higher volumes of lattice vertices which approximates the aforementioned limit.
Some more on the basis finite automaton
Authors: Melnikov Boris , Melnikova Aleksandra
Published: June 2014

We consider in this paper the basis finite automaton and its some properties. We shall also consider some properties of special binary relation defined on the sets of states of canonical automata for the given language and for its mirror image. We shall also consider an algorithm of constructing the basis automaton defining the language which has a priory given variant of this relation.
Feminity – An Image of Alterity in The Girl from the Forest by Ioan Slavici
Authors: Petre Andreea
Published: June 2014

The short-story The Girl from the Forest by Ioan Slavici emphasises, from a modern perspective, the encounter with the Other, represented here by the feminine character, Simina. The Girl from the Forest can be read as a drama of excessive beauty, taking into account the fact that, in Romanian literature, the beauty of the positive feminine character was a datum, harmonised with a matching character, until Slavici; with Simina from The Girl from the Forest, feminine beauty becomes, first of all, a source of selfconfedence, it confers self-awareness and helps the woman to overcome the traditional condition of a passive individual. A complex character, Simina transfigures her maternal vocation in an attempt to save the man she loves. This is the moment when the relationship with the Other (Man, Master, Father) reaches the point of conflict. Simina is a figure of otherness because, although all the characters belong to the same environment, the rural country, the economic and social status differences are obvious, and, in the encounters with the Other, the feminine character refuses to behave submissively; she is an active protagonist, who takes full responsibility for her desire to valorise her subjectivity.
Inventing the Enemy. When Propaganda Becomes History
Authors: Andriescu Garcia Anca
Published: June 2014

Umberto Eco’s latest novel. The Prague Cemetery, has a complicated metatextual plot in which, as the writer himself stated, he attempts to create the most repugnant of all literary characters, in other words, some sort of “perfect loather" who detests everyone, including himself. I will discuss the various stereotypes of otherness, the way these stereotypical images interact, and how the author weaves the prejudices related to almost every European nationality, but mostly to the Jews, into the image of the “supreme enemy," an image divested of any ornament and so presumptuous that it becomes almost dense. Moreover, in relation to the image I mentioned above. I analyse the mechanisms language uses as a vehicle of deception especially when it describes what is familiar in propagandist texts. I also focus on the different fictional filters applied to real historical events (and texts) in order to entice the reader into trying to decipher a complex and factitious labyrinth in which the barrier between truth and fiction no longer matters, it is purely accidental, and has only one purpose-to generate conspiracies.
Appeal to the Witness. The Role of Romanian Post-Communist Witness Literature in Outlining National (Self-)Images
Authors: Sasu Laura
Published: June 2014

The purpose of this paper is to identify and investigate the role of Romanian post-communist witness literature for contemporary historiography in outlining national and social (self-)images. This type of literature, written mostly by former political detainees, is perceived by literary criticism as a specific borderline segment partly relevant as historical documents and partly as literary texts. Applying the conceptual pattern coined by Giorgio Agamben. in his analysis based upon the national socialist concentration camp, to post-communist depositional literature reveals two focal directions of imagological relevance: on the one hand, the points of similarity and difference of totalitarian practices in creating stereotypes, cultivating the sense of absolute antagonist otherness and promoting distorted ethnic, social and national images and. on the other hand, the particular contributions and limitations posed by the post-totalitarian depositional discourse in (re)-creating national and social (self-)images.
Post-Medium Literature? Two Examples of Contemporary Scandinavian
Authors: Bruhn Jørgen
Published: June 2014

This article discusses two contemporary Scandinavian literary texts: Ursula Andkjaer Olsen’s Danish book of poetry called Havet er en scene [The Sea Is a Stage], and Abo Rasul’s (pseudonym for Matias Faldbakken) Norwegian novel Unfun. I intend to show that these texts exemplify two very different but nevertheless comparable positions in contemporary Scandinavian literature. Despite the differences, they resemble each other in that they actively mix medial constellations to offer social critique, and the aim of this article is thus to investigate the specific relation between medial mixture and social critique.
Numerical Analysis of Wave Phenomena in Hyperelastic Mooney-Rivlin and Zahorski Materials
Authors: Major Izabela
Published: June 2014

This paper focuses on presentation of waves phenomena that occur during propagation of disturbance in continuous incompressible hyperelastic structures, described with elastic potential. Numerical analysis demonstrated differences during the propagation of disturbances in the commonly used model of Mooney-Rivlin material compared to less popular Zahorski material. The obtained result is also likely to contribute to development of new forms of practical application of nonlinear rubber and rubber-like materials for technological solutions, including those used in the broadly understood construction sector.
Characteristic-Based Split Meshless Solution for Couette Flow
Authors: Mužík Juraj
Published: June 2014

The paper deals with use of the meshless method for incompressible fluid flow analysis. There are many formulations of the meshless methods. The article presents the Meshless Local Petrov-Galerkin method (MLPG) - local weak formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The shape function construction is the crucial part of the meshless numerical analysis in the construction of shape functions. The article presents the radial point interpolation method (RPIM) for the shape functions construction
Standardized regulations for the analysis of tobacco and tobacco smoke / Einheitliche Vorschriften für die Analyse von Tabak und Tabakrauch
Authors: Wissenschaftliche Forschungsstelle im Verband der Cigaretten
Published: June 2014

1. Vorschrift für das maschinelle Abrauchen von Cigaretten 2. Vorschrift für die Bestimmung der Gesamtkondensate von Cigarettenrauch 3. Vorschrift für die Abtrennung und Bestimmung einzelner Fraktionen der Gesamtkondensate
The post-crisis strategies of exchange banks in Poland in the context of their operating effectiveness
Authors: Włodarczyk Bogdan
Published: June 2014

The global financial crisis changed the customers’ approach to the banking sector. Nowadays, banks are often perceived not as public trust institutions, but enterprises operating with a huge risk on a highly competitive market and set on a short-term profit. Such an approach and the financial results of the global financial crisis influence the banking sector in a direct and indirect way. As a result, banks in the post-crisis period had to adopt such operating strategies, which allowed them to rebuild the trust and successfully and effectively function on the financial service market. The aim of the article is the analysis of the management strategy adopted by banks and the evaluation of their effectiveness in the postcrisis period. The author presents a thesis that the change in the strategies of managing a bank after the crisis in 2008 resulted in limiting the risk and increasing the effectiveness of bank operating. In order to verify the thesis, the available materials on the strategies adopted by the exchange banks were compared and their effectiveness in the years 2009-2012 was analyzed.
Analysis of Selected Investment Fund Type Ranking Position – PROMETHEE Method Application
Authors: Kucharski Adam
Published: June 2014

We decided to use the PROMETHEE method to rank selected types of investment funds offered on the Polish market. In our deliberations, we took an interest in the investor with a certain aversion to risk who chooses from among treasury securities or stable growth funds. We took into consideration whole ranking lists made for half-yearly periods from 2010 to 2012 instead of the specific objects pointed by model. We decided to check whether, among investment products of interest to us, there are stable relationships over time arising from their ranking positions that allow to identify regular groups of leaders and outsiders. Moreover, we checked the influence of the fund size measured by the value of its assets on its ranking position.
Financial situation of insurance sector for example, a Stock – Exchange Company PZU
Authors: Trippner Paweł
Published: June 2014

The insurance system is a very important element of the financial system of a country. As institutions of public trust, insurance companies play a crucial role in the process of transforming savings into investments, which directly affects the country’s economic development. Maintaining the insurance sector in a good financial condition guarantees stability of the financial system and economic development of Poland.

The article aims to present the essence of operations of insurance companies as financial institutions, present their role in the economy, and describe various methods of appraising their financial condition.

In order to fulfil the above goals, a research hypothesis is put forward stating that the financial condition of the insurance sector in Poland deteriorated in the analysed period as a result of an adverse impact of turbulence in financial markets and problems in financial systems in the European Union countries.
Options in Corporate Finance Management
Authors: Kamińska Barbara
Published: June 2014

Although there are many opinions critical of options, especially after the 2008 scandal, they are becoming increasingly popular in Poland again. Therefore, issues connected with options are not only the subject of interest in academic circles again but also arouse interest of economic entities, allowing enterprises to assess a variety of action strategies. Those instruments enable planning safeguards to protect against various negative future scenarios. Hence, it comes as no surprise that there has been an increase in the number and variety of enterprises that have accepted options as a way to plan for their future. The article provides a brief presentation of options. It also describes one of their pricing methods. Light of the foregoing has been hypothesized that 'valuation of options using mathematical calculators using the binomial model is an effective tool for supporting management positions in futures instruments’.
Disease Fund Management on the example of the Social Insurance Institution for the period between 2008–2012
Authors: Olszewska Małgorzata
Published: June 2014

In Poland, after the economic transformation a lot of fields of business lines required adaptation, also in social security. On last years performed some changes in the insurances.

The sick insurance in the common social insurance has been defined as obligatory for the employees, and voluntary at the request of the person. The cash expenditures for benefits from sick insurance of the contribution charges only the employee insured, also employers incur cost connected with the sickness of employees to pay the remuneration for inability for work.

The unfavorable demographic conditions which determine making the decisions also in the past years, modification of rights and levels of benefits from sick insurance was introduced, which did not reduce, but quite contrary, increased expenses, especially for sick and maternity benefits. It means lack for balancing the sick fund and necessity to search an answer in the foreseeable future to the question whether the level of the contribution should not be reviewed and updated.
Young people in the labor market. Improvement or stagnation?
Authors: Sobocka–Szczapa Halina
Published: June 2014

The aim of the study is that evaluate the situation of young people on the labor market in Poland and the European Union, as well as to identify the main determinants have an impact That on it. As is clear from the study, in comparison to the average in the countries of European Union, the situation of young people in Poland is even more difficult, as evidenced by Analyzed in this elaboration parameters characterizing both economic activity and unemployment. In Celui improve the competitive position of young people, it is necessary to implement a series of actions, especially those that enable them to acquire skills in line with the expectations of employers. In the analyzes Assumed ages 15-24 years. The lower limit of age is specified to polish law of so-called the minimum age at Which you can hire an employee, and the upper limit-is consistent with international findings.
Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC™) as a Tool of Performance Measurement
Authors: Fijałkowska Justyna
Published: June 2014

Measurement of the performance of organization is crucial for proper economic decisions. Traditionally, it was focused mainly on financial indicators, that in the Information and Knowledge Era are no longer sufficient and do not reflect in a transparent, complete and cohesive way the multi-dimensional outcomes of business units activities. With the increase of knowledge and other intangibles as the sources of competitive advantage and future viabilities of business units, the performance measurement process must be enlarged by new approaches and new indicators.

This aim of this article is to outline the evolution of the concept of measuring the companies’ performance and to present one of the methods for evaluation of enterprises’ performance - VAIC ™ - which by the definition of its author should satisfy the requirements of the New Economy [Pulic 2000, pp. 702-771]. This article focuses on highlighting the characteristics of this method and the algorithm of its calculation. It also attempts to assess the VAIC™ method, indicating its validity and usefulness. The practical example of VAIC™ calculation and interpretation in Polish media sector companies is used, covering the period of analysis of 2007-2011.
The Usefulness of Integrated Reports for Stock Market Investors
Authors: Sobczyk Monika
Published: June 2014

The huge risks associated with decisions made by key players in the capital market, i.e. investors, encourage them to explore any useful information. Therefore, stock market investors have an increasing interest in expenditures and achievements in all aspects of business activities of any corporation in which they may invest. Traditionally, they look for financial information, and increasingly for non-financial information as well, that all are about activities which are determined by and have implications to the natural environment, the society, and corporate governance (ESG). As a result, this information creates the image of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and investors, who in the construction of investment portfolios take into account non-economic criteria, create Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) market.

The aim of the paper is to highlight the need to satisfy market investors' expectations of CSR information by the companies listed on the stock exchange. Secondly, the aim of this paper is to indicate characteristics that make financial and non-financial information presented in Integrated Reports useful for stock market investors.

As a result it has been confirmed that there is a need to produce business reports in which corporate approach to social responsibility is taken into account. Moreover, characteristics of non-financial information which are about their usefulness for investors in the process of decision-making have been identified and whether market regulators show an interest in integrated reporting has been established.
Causes and Scale of Winter Flights in Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera Carnica ) Colonies
Authors: Węgrzynowicz Paweł , Gerula Dariusz , Bieńkowska Małgorzata , Panasiuk Beata
Published: June 2014

Winter honey bee losses were evaluated during the two overwintering periods of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. The research included dead bee workers that fell on the hive bottom board (debris) and the ones that flew out of the hive. Differences were observed in the number of bees fallen as debris between the two periods, whereas the number of bees flying out was similar in both years. No differences were found between the numbers of dead bees in strong and weak colonies. The percentage of bees flying out of the colony increased in the presence of Nosema spores, Varroa infestation, increased average air temperature, and insolation during the day. In addition, both the presence of Nosema and insolation during the day had an impact on the number of bees that died and fell on the hive board.
Use and Limitations of the Reserve Requirement Policy in Montenegro
Authors: Milošević Velibor
Published: June 2014

Since reserve requirement is the only monetary policy instrument used in Montenegro, it has been subject to frequent amendments since the global crisis outbreak. The analysis of the monetary demand model showed that there is an active transmission mechanism of change in the reserve requirement rate on the deposits trend reflects on lending activity. Also, there is a significant impact of FDIs on deposits trending in the banking system, as well as the positive impact of turnover on stock exchange on the deposits and loans trend. Finally, it was found that the financial crisis has caused negative trends in loans and deposits. On the other hand, the impact of changes in the reserve requirement on the economic activity in Montenegro could not be determined. This is primarily due to the fact that the transmission mechanism of the effect of reserve requirement on economic activity is too long to be able to estimate the model that does not allow the dynamics of the independent variables. The second reason is that industrial output index is only an indirect indicator of the economic activity.
Distribution of Sceliphron curvatum Smith, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae) in Poland
Authors: Bilański Piotr , Kołodziej Zbigniew , Bury Jarosław
Published: June 2014

In Poland, 31 new localities of Sceliphron curvatum (SMITH, 1870) have been found, including 23 documented localities and 8 undocumented localities requiring confirmation. Based on the locations of the new localities of S. curvatum as well as those already known from the literature, it has been possible to map where in Poland this species appears as well as the northern limits of its range.
Food of adult diving beetles Colymbetes fuscus (Linnaeus, 1758) and C. striatus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) in the Zehlau Peatbog and in oxbow lakes and fens (the Biebrza Marshes)
Authors: Frelik Anna
Published: June 2014

The study involved the analysis of the foregut content of 120 adult specimens of Colymbetes fuscus and C. striatus collected in aquatic habitats in the Biebrza Marshes (Poland) and the Zehlau Peatbog (Russia). The gut content comprised animals (including eggs of aquatic invertebrates), plants and detritus. Larvae of Ephemeroptera were common in beetles from the Biebrza Marshes. The gut content also included Dytiscidae, Cladocera, Chironomidae and other Diptera, Copepoda, other insects, other Coleoptera aquatica, Heteroptera, Acari, Ostracoda, Culicidae and Asellus aquaticus. In the Zehlau Peatbog, both of the beetle species fed predominantly on the larval stages of Chironomidae (Diptera). The gut content also included adult terrestrial insects and spiders.
Dye decolorisation by laccase immobilised in lens-shaped poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel capsules
Authors: Stloukal Radek , Watzková Jarmila , Gregušová Barbora
Published: June 2014

In this study, laccase (from Trametes versicolor, 8.3 U mgenz−1) was used for the decolorisation of Saturn Blue L4G (10 mg L−1). The efficiency of the decolorisation (ratio between the amount of decolorised dye and initial amount of dye) by a free enzyme was 48 % and the decolorisation rate was determined at 2.11 × 10−3 mgdye mgenz−1 min−1. After immobilisation in lens-shaped poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel capsules LentiKats® Biocatalyst (LB) (concentration of immobilised enzyme: 4 mg per g of particles; volume-loading rate of LB: 10 g per 100 mL of medium), the enzyme retained 16.1 % of its original activity (1.34 U mgenz−1). Immobilised laccase was used for the dye decolorisation in 130 repeated batch tests with 71 % efficiency (LB activity: 7 × 10−3 mgdye min−1 gLB−1). In continuous mode (after 716.5 h), the efficiency of the dye decolorisation was 48 % (LB activity: 3.3 × 10−4 mgdye min/−1 gLB−1).