Us and them : the image of the others in the Swedish-American periodicals for youth (1890-1920)

Between 1890 and 19201 Swedish immigrants to America established a well-organized and dynamically working ethnic community. With the increase in their number and the development of ethnic institutions, the question of ethnic identity emerged. It became especially pressing when immigrants’ children started growing up and looking for their own, unique space - both within their ethnic group and American society. Ethnic leaders attempted to respond to this situation with creating an ideology which would correspond with the complex cultural background of young generations. Ethnic press and literature were of crucial importance in this process. The literary leaders strove to present what it meant to be Swedish-American, but also - what it did not mean. The latter was easiest to explain through the useful category of Others. Thus, the focus of this chapter is the image of the Others as presented in the Swedish-American writings for youth. Drawing on the material published by the Lutheran publishing house Augustana Book Concern within the years 1890 - 1920, it examines the stereotypes, values and features attributed to Them, as contrasted to Us, ‘real’ Swedish-Americans. Since Augustana leaders made Lutheranism the very core of their message, the Others will be analyzed within the context of religion

Exotic otherlands, headquarters of death : sub-tropical land - and cityscapes in The Southern Vampire Mysteries

The landscapes and cityscapes of the sub-tropical Southern United States, with their opulent nature, exuberant cities, boisterous cultural diversity and troubled history of conflict and violence have long offered an alluring locale for Gothic narratives. This article explores the ways in which The Southern Vampire Mysteries (2001-2013) - the best-selling literary series by Charlaine Harris and the basis for the HBO TV series True Blood-construct the Gothicised imageries of the American South as the terrain of confusing ambivalences; of glamour and exoticism, death and the uncanny. Informed by the discourses of tropicality, Tropical and Urban Gothic and exotic tourism - and the ways they interweave with the concept of Otherness - the paper seeks to illuminate the process of interrelating and consequently exoticising the figure of the Other and Southern sub-tropical land-and cityscapes. It also examines the tropes of urban inter-species relations articulated in the series as a metaphor for the Southern racial/ethnic heritage with its anxieties of miscegenation, transgression and "excessive" heterogeneity. A particular emphasis is placed on the accounts of New Orleans as the liminal space of cultural blending and touristic exploration of the figure o the Other

Lęk - cecha i reaktywność emocjonalna a przesadność uczniów

Anxiety-trait, emotional reactivity and superstitiousness of primary school pupilsThe aim of the research was to find relationship between anxiety-trait, emotional reactivity and superstitiousness. There were 75 six-class pupils chosen as research participants (33 girls and 42 boys) recruited from one of primary schools near Warsaw. Statistical analysis show statistically significant positive correlation between anxiety-trait and superstitiousness (r = 0,33;p<0,01)andnearly statistically significant positive correlation between emotional reactivity and superstitions (r = 0,22; p < 0,06). In result of the research it also turned out that as far as superstitions arę concerned, there arę gender differences: girls arę morę superstitious thanboys (F = 23,81 (1; 73); p < 0,001)

Information technology reliability influence on controlling excellence

Controlling solutions implemented in the organization evolve in a continuous manner. They are becoming more "mature" - expanding the scope and depth of implemented solutions in striving for excellence. Nowadays, meeting controlling demands (in case of information requirements) is impossible without information technology (IT) support. Hence, IT reliability seems to play a special role in this maturation process. The notion of IT reliability is discussed in the paper as a prerequisite for the implementation of this management support method. Potential factor favoring the process of maturation of controlling solutions are also discussed. The aim of the paper is to identify what is the influence of IT reliability on controlling maturity (and excellence). The analysis will cover relations between the time of use of controlling (as an expression of maturity and excellence), the quality of its outputs, the results obtained due to its implementation in the organization and IT reliability, considered as a moderator of changes in controlling in the organization. The proposed theoretical framework is verified empirically on the sample of 557 organizations operating in Poland

Tropical Gothic : arts, humanities and social sciences

The Gothic is undergoing a pronounced resurgence in academic and popular cultures. Propelled by fears associated with massive social transformations produced by globalisation, the neoliberal order and environmental uncertainty - tropes of the Gothic resonate. The gothic allows us to delve into the unknown, the liminal, the unseen; into hidden histories and feelings. It calls up unspoken truths and secret desires. In the tropics, the gothic manifests in specific ways according to spaces, places, cultures and their encounters. Within the fraught geographies and histories of colonisation and aggression that have been especially acute across the tropical regions of the world, the tropical gothic engages with orientalism and postcolonialism. The tropics, as the region of the greatest biodiversity in the world, is under enormous stress, hence tropical gothic also engages with gothic ecocriticism, senses of space, landscape and place. Globalisation and neoliberalism likewise impact the tropics, and the gothic imagery of these ‘vampiric’ capitalist forces - which impinge upon the livelihoods, traditions and the very survival of peoples of the tropics - is explored through urban gothic, popular culture, posthumanism and queer theory. As the papers in this special issue demonstrate, a gothic sensibility enables humans to respond to the seemingly dark, nebulous forces that threaten existence. These papers engage with specific instances of Tropical Gothic in West Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Southeast Asia, northern Australia, and the American Deep South

Coexistence of Controlling and Other Management Methods

The effects of the coexistence of Controlling and other management methods (benchmarking, BPM, BPR, BSC, Competency-based Management, CRM, ERP, KM, LM, Outsourcing, Six Sigma, TQM) have been analysed. The complexity and dynamics of modern management systems in fact require simultaneous and/or sequential application of many concepts and methods of management. Controlling is a comprehensive method with an interdisciplinary character, which acts as an integrating plane for many methods and techniques. The coexistence of controlling with other management methods depends on the type of relationship between controlling and these methods. In the main, however, coexistence should be beneficial for an organization. Theoretical concepts on the relations between controlling and other methods are thus empirically tested by analysing the effect of using selected management methods, both in conjunction with controlling, as well as separately (business, efficiency, management, social and environmental effects). One-Way ANOVA was used based on a sample of 167 Polish organizations. (original abstract

Tropical Gothic : literary and creative works

The eTropic special issue on the theme Tropical Gothic was first conceived in 2017. From the beginning there was a sense of how the theme had a certain resonance. By 2018, the term had appeared as a hashtag in social media for new music album entitled Tropical Gothic. These resonances are important as they reveal the build up of an idea at a particular time. This paper follows a rhizomatic path as it traces Tropical Gothic through the creative works of a music album, its cover art, and further to other influences including film and literature. These literary and creative works likewise resonate with the papers brought together in this second issue on the theme Tropical Gothic

Graphical Presentation of a Measure of an Employee's Competence for a Job Position

The main objective of this paper was to develop a graphical presentation of a measure of an employee's competence (ECVM) for a job position. In this context, the essence and formula for measuring the value of an employee's competences have been presented. This formula makes it possible to provide a definition of the method for determining the total value of all the competences in the competence profile and the value of an employee's competences. With regard to the graphical presentation of the measure, it was assumed that the most appropriate form will be a pie chart. The key assumption was such that each competence in the profile would be a segment (slice) of the pie chart. An example of the graphical presentation of the measure of the employee competencies has been presented. (original abstract

Country-Wide qPCR Based Assessment of Plasmodiophora brassicae Spread in Agricultural Soils and Recommendations for the Cultivation of Brassicaceae Crops in Poland

Clubroot is a damaging disease of oilseed rape and vegetable brassicas worldwide, caused by the soil-borne protist Plasmodiophora brassicae Wor. Due to the long life of resting spores, the assessment of the pathogen abundance in agricultural fields can serve as a guideline for disease control at the country-wide level or the regional scale. Between 2013 and 2019, we collected 431 soil samples from fields cultivated with Brassicaceae crops throughout 16 provinces of Poland. The samples were subjected to qPCR based analysis of P. brassicae DNA concentration. From these data, the spore loads and gene copies g−1 soil were calculated and used to produce an assessment of the current clubroot risk potential at a country-wide and regional scale. The country-wide map, showing the spread of the pathogen in agricultural soils, was made using ArcGis software package implementing the interpolation with the Inverse Distance Weight method. The calculation of gene copies specific to P. brassicae helped to formulate the recommendations for farmers in respect to the cultivation guidelines. It showed a high risk of yield losses in defined regions of north, south-west and central Poland and an urgent need to undertake intensive preventative measures