Port Lotniczy Łódź im. Władysława Reymonta – kierunki rozwoju

Prezentowana publikacja „Wybrane problemy zarządzania i finansów - studia przypadków” zawiera 14 studiów przypadku (case study) z zarządzania i finansów. Studium przypadku jest to opis badanego obiektu (zjawiska, procesów) w określonych warunkach, miejscu i czasie. Współcześnie jedną z głównych metod wykorzystywanych w naukach o zarządzaniu jest właśnie metoda case study, a w USA i Wielkiej Brytanii jest to metoda wręcz dominująca. Polega ona na analizowaniu i omawianiu prawdziwych (lub prawdopodobnych) sytuacji, uczy podejmowania decyzji gospodarczych w konkretnych uwarunkowaniach i konsekwencji tych decyzji dla przedsiębiorstwa. Głównym celem stawianym publikacji jest uzupełnienie luki na rynku wydawniczym w zakresie zwartych pozycji zawierających studia przypadków z obszaru nauk o zarządzaniu i finansach. W literaturze fachowej możemy spotkać się tylko z kilkoma publikacjami o zasięgu ogólnokrajowym, a także z nielicznymi publikacjami wydanymi przez wydawnictwa o zasięgu lokalnym przed prawie dziesięcioma laty. Zaprezentowane przypadki można pogrupować według problemów, jakich dotyczą. Pierwsza grupa odnosi się do zagadnień zarządzania strategicznego i marketingowego. Kolejne dotyczą zarządzania i rachunkowości w przedsiębiorstwie. Następna grupa omawia problemy zarządzania personelem, a ostatnia koncentruje się na problemach zarządzania miastem, regionem i w administracji publicznej. Autorzy wyrażają przekonanie, że prezentowana publikacja, zawierająca studia przypadków opisujące rzeczywiste sytuacje gospodarcze i przedsiębiorstwa, będzie wykorzystywana w procesie nauczania w wyższych szkołach w Polsce na kierunkach ekonomicznych i zarządzania

Odd-even effects in the structure and properties of aryl-substituted aliphatic self-assembled monolayers

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) represent an important tool in context of nanofabrication and molecular engineering of surfaces and interfaces. The properties of functional SAMs depend not only on the character of the tail groups at the SAM-ambient interface, but are also largely defined by their structure. In its turn, the latter parameter results from a complex interplay of the structural forces and a variety of other factors, including so called odd-even effects, viz. dependence of the SAM structure and properties on the parity of the number (odd or even) of individual building blocks in the backbone of the SAM constituents. The most impressive manifestation of the odd-even effects is the structure of aryl-substituted alkanethiolate SAMs on Au(111) and Ag(111), in which, in spite of the fact that the intermolecular interaction is mostly determined by the aryl part of the monolayers, one observes a pronounced dependence of molecular inclination and, consequently, the packing density of the SAM-forming molecules on the parity of number of methylene units in the alkyl linker. Here we review the properties of the above systems as well as address fundamental reasons behind the odd-even effects, including the existence of a so-called bending potential, which is frequently disregarded in analysis of the structure-building forces. The generality of the odd-even effects in SAMs is additionally supported by the recent data for SAMs on GaAs, scanning tunneling microscopy data for SAMs on Ag(111), and the data for the monolayers with selenolate and carboxyl anchoring groups on Au(111) and Ag(111). The implications of these effects in terms of the control over the packing density and orientation of the tail groups at the SAM-ambient interface, structural perfection, polymorphism, temperature-driven phase transitions, and SAM stability toward such factors as ionizing radiation, exchange reaction, and electrochemical desorption are discussed. These implications place the odd-even effects as an important tool for the design of functional SAMs in context of specific applications

Kwestia palestyńska w polityce zagranicznej Islamskiej Republiki Iranu

Artykuł ma na celu udowodnienie, że Islamska Republika Iranu od powstania wykorzystywała tzw. kwestię palestyńską do wzmocnienia swojej pozycji na Bliskim Wschodzie Islamska Republika Iranu i intensyfikowała swoje zaangażowanie, kiedy sytuacja międzynarodowa stawała się niekorzystna dla Iranu. W interesie władz Iranu po 1979 r. nie leżało i nie leży – wbrew powtarzanym deklaracjom – zakończenie konfliktu bliskowschodniego, lecz jego przedłużanie i eskalacja. Stając na czele wspólnego frontu państw muzułmańskich przeciwko Izraelowi, Iran pragnie kreować się w regionie na głównego obrońcę interesów i wartości świata islamu. Postawa Teheranu wobec Palestyńczyków i Izraela jest przykładem niezwykłej metamorfozy irańskiej polityki zagranicznej, która była wynikiem zmian zachodzących w samym Iranie. Iran pragmatycznie i utylitarnie wykorzystuje kwestię palestyńską do realizacji swoich partykularnych celów politycznych. W opozycji do swojej własnej propagandy władze irańskie same wielokrotnie podjęły tajne rozmowy z Izraelem. Dodatkowo niejednokrotnie sugerowały amerykańskiej administracji, że są w stanie ograniczyć wsparcie dla Palestyńczyków, jeżeli zostaną zrealizowane ich żądania. Słowa kluczowe: Iran, Palestyna, Hamas, konflikt izraelsko-palestyński, Bliski WschódThe main objective of the article is to prove that the Islamic Republic of Iran from its beginning pragmatically used the so-called the Palestinian issue to strengthen its position in the Middle East and intensifi ed its involvement when the international situation became disadvantageous for it. The facts showed that the Iranian authorities after 1979 were not interested in – despite of repeated declarations – ending the Middle East conflict, but its extension and escalation. Spearheading a common front against Israel Muslim countries, Iran wants to present itself in the region as the main defender of the interests and values of the Islamic world. Tehran’s attitude towards the Palestinians and Israel is an example of an extraordinary metamorphosis of Iran’s foreign policy, which was the result of changes taking place in Iran itself. It consisted in the transition from a „silent alliance” with Israel to recognize the Jewish state as one of the major – apart from the United States – enemies of the Islamic Republic. In opposition to its own propaganda, the Iranian authorities have repeatedly taken secret talks with Israel. Additionally, they have suggested USA that they are able to reduce support for the Palestinians if their demands will be met. Iran pragmatic and utilitarian uses of the Palestinian question to pursue their particular political objectives. Key words: Iran, Palestine, Hamas, israeli-palestinian conflict, Middle Eas

Effects of seawater ingestion on lactate response to exercise in runners

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of microfiltered and sterilized seawater ingestion on running performance in a hot environment. This cross-over, double-blind randomized trial included 12 experienced male runners. The subjects randomly consumed seawater (SW) or pure water (placebo) in an equivalent amount of 50 ml five minutes prior to running at 40% of their VO2 max for 95.0 ± 18.5 min, at 30°C, until they lost 3% of body weight. Every 20 minutes, a measurement of their body weight was taken and a blood lactate analysis was performed. The concentration of lactate was significantly lower after the running exercise in the SW condition compared to placebo. The results of this study suggest the ergogenic effects of microfiltered and sterilized seawater ingestion on running performance and lactate production

Quantitative AFM analysis of phase separated borosilicate glass surfaces

Phase separated borosilicate glass samples were prepared by applying various heat treatments. Using selective chemical etching we performed AFM measurement on the phase separated glass surfaces. A quantitative roughness analysis allowed us to measure precisely the dependence of the characteristic size of the phase domains on heating time and temperature. The experimental measurements are very well described by the theoretically expected scaling laws. Interdiffusion coefficients and activation energy are estimated from this analysis and are consistent with literature data

Prediction of Young's modulus of trabeculae in microscale using macro-scale's relationships between bone density and mechanical properties

According to the literature, there are many mathematical relationships between density of the trabecular bone and mechanical properties obtained in macro-scale testing. In micro-scale, the measurements provide only the ranges of Young's modulus of trabeculae, but there are no experimentally tested relationships allowing the calculation of the distribution of Young's modulus of trabeculae within these experimental ranges. This study examined the applicability of relationships between bone density and mechanical properties obtained in macro-scale testing for the calculation of Young's modulus distribution in micro-scale. Twelve cubic specimens from eleven femoral heads were cut out and micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scanned. A mechanical compression test and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) measurements were performed to obtain the experimental displacement and strain full-field evaluation for each specimen. Five relationships between bone density and Young's modulus were selected for the test; those were given by Carter and Hayes (1977), Ciarelli et al. (2000), Kaneko et al. (2004), Keller (1994) for the human femur, and Li and Aspden, 1997. Using these relationships, five separate finite element (FE) models were prepared, with different distribution of Young's modulus of trabeculae for each specimen. In total, 60 FE analyses were carried out. The obtained displacement and strain full-field measurements from numerical calculations and experiment were compared. The results indicate that the highest accuracy of the numerical calculation was obtained for the Ciarelli et al. (2000) relationship, where the relative error was 17.87% for displacements and 50.94 % for strains. Therefore, the application of the Ciarelli et al. (2000) relationship in the microscale linear FE analysis is possible, but mainly to determine bone displacement

First-principles investigation of electron-induced cross-linking of aromatic self-assembled monolayers on Au(111)

We have performed a density functional theory study of the possible layered geometries occurring after dehydrogenation of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of biphenyl-thiol molecules (BPTs) adsorbed on a Au(111), as it has been experimentally observed for low energy electron irradiated SAMs of 4'-nitro-1,1'-biphenyl-thiol adsorbed on a Au(111) surface. [Eck, W. et al., Advanced Materials 2000, 12, 805] Cross-link formation between the BPT molecules has been analyzed using different models with different degrees of complexity. We start by analyzing the bonding between biphenyl (BP) molecules in a lineal dimer and their characteristic vibration frequencies. Next, we consider the most stable cross-linked structures formed in an extended free-standing monolayer of fully dehydrogenated BP molecules. Finally, we analyze a more realistic model where the role of the Au(111) substrate and sulphur head groups is explicitly taken into account. In this more complex model, the dehydrogenated BPT molecules are found to interact covalently to spontaneously form "graphene-like" nanoflakes. We propose that these nanographenes provide plausible building-blocks for the structure of the carbon layers formed by electron irradiation of BPT-SAMs. In particular, it is quite tempting to visualize those structures as the result of the cross-link and entanglement of such graphene nanoflakes.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

LAESI: Leaf Area Estimation with Synthetic Imagery

We introduce LAESI, a Synthetic Leaf Dataset of 100,000 synthetic leaf images on millimeter paper, each with semantic masks and surface area labels. This dataset provides a resource for leaf morphology analysis primarily aimed at beech and oak leaves. We evaluate the applicability of the dataset by training machine learning models for leaf surface area prediction and semantic segmentation, using real images for validation. Our validation shows that these models can be trained to predict leaf surface area with a relative error not greater than an average human annotator. LAESI also provides an efficient framework based on 3D procedural models and generative AI for the large-scale, controllable generation of data with potential further applications in agriculture and biology. We evaluate the inclusion of generative AI in our procedural data generation pipeline and show how data filtering based on annotation consistency results in datasets which allow training the highest performing vision models.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 1 tabl

Stress fractures in uncommon location : six case reports and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Individuals’ interest in sports activities has been increasing, contributing to more stress fracture occurrences in uncommon locations on the skeleton. In this study, several cases of stress fractures in atypical locations are presented, and the possibility of combining diagnostic methods to make accurate and quick diagnoses is explored. Additionally, different causes of stress fractures, as well as various modalities of treatment, are highlighted. Other potential factors of stress fractures were identified by a literature review.CASE SUMMARY: Six cases of stress fractures in the calcaneus, intermediate cuneiform bone, sacrum, tibia (bilateral), navicular bone and femoral neck are presented, with different types of diagnostic imaging and treatments. All of the cases were associated with an aspect of mobility because all of the patients were physically active in various sport disciplines.CONCLUSION:The type of therapeutic procedure selected should depend on the specific clinical case, i.e., the patient’s condition and level of physical activity

Formation of Highly Ordered Self-Assembled Monolayers of Alkynes on Au(111) Substrate

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), prepared by reaction of terminal n-alkynes (HC≡C(CH2)nCH3, n = 5, 7, 9, and 11) with Au(111) at 60 °C were characterized using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angles of water. In contrast to previous spectroscopic studies of this type of SAMs, these combined microscopic and spectroscopic experiments confirm formation of highly ordered SAMs having packing densities and molecular chain orientations very similar to those of alkanethiolates on Au(111). Physical properties, hydrophobicity, high surface order, and packing density, also suggest that SAMs of alkynes are similar to SAMs of alkanethiols. The formation of high-quality SAMs from alkynes requires careful preparation and manipulation of reactants in an oxygen-free environment; trace quantities of O2 lead to oxidized contaminants and disordered surface films. The oxidation process occurs during formation of the SAM by oxidation of the −C≡C– group (most likely catalyzed by the gold substrate in the presence of O2).Chemistry and Chemical Biolog