System rządów parlamentarnych na obszarze poradzieckim: casus Mołdawii i Łotwy

The fundamental problem faced by the states that have emerged in the area of the former USSR involved the definition of the desired form of their own political regime. The choices made in this respect in the first stage of political transformation were frequently limited only to the formal stipulation of model legal and constitutional solutions. The post-communist elite wielding power in the new states was characterized by a desire to form a one-man organ of state in the form of a strong president. The absence of democratic traditions and the negative legacy of the USSR have profoundly influenced the processes of shaping the political regimes in the post-Soviet area, and have actually become the predominant reason to legitimize authoritarianism. Only a few states of the former USSR have decided to adopt a model of governance other than a strong presidential system. Latvia deserves attention in this respect, as it has decided to reinstate the tested political principles of the interwar period. In the process of political transformation, the Latvian political elite has opted for the parliamentary system of governance and chose a weak presidency and the primacy of parliament. The transformation process was quickly completed allowing Latvia to be classified today as a non-consolidated democracy. Moldova’s adopting the system of parliamentary governance in 2000 was, in turn, an unintentional result of a political conflict caused by the President’s endeavors to form a strong presidential system. Moldovan parliamentarianism is a product of a protracted shaping of the institutional foundations of the political system and a byproduct of political competition between the legislative and executive powers. The domination of Communists on the Moldovan political stage, however, resulted in the state’s appropriation by one group and President Vladimir Voronin, who enjoyed a great influence exerted both on the parliamentary majority (as the leader of the ruling party) and the government, despite the formal system providing for a parliamentary republic. There emerged a dangerous precedent of the President exceeding his rights and thus becoming the actual leader of a formally parliamentary republic. In the period from 2001–2009, Moldova was a system of controlled democracy where apparently democratic institutions were in fact a cover for undivided, informal power wielded by a small circle. This triggered a social revolution in 2009 and early parliamentary elections, which resulted in a transfer of power and the establishment of a coalition of liberal and democratic parties clearly expressing their intention to implement market reforms and European integration. Despite political obstruction in Moldova’s shaping of its political system, the country stands out among the former post-Soviet republics. It is the only state in the Commonwealth of Independent States where a continuous and uninterrupted cycle of the transfer of power by means of elections can be observed to conform to the law and constitution since the country declared independence in 1991.The fundamental problem faced by the states that have emerged in the area of the former USSR involved the definition of the desired form of their own political regime. The choices made in this respect in the first stage of political transformation were frequently limited only to the formal stipulation of model legal and constitutional solutions. The post-communist elite wielding power in the new states was characterized by a desire to form a one-man organ of state in the form of a strong president. The absence of democratic traditions and the negative legacy of the USSR have profoundly influenced the processes of shaping the political regimes in the post-Soviet area, and have actually become the predominant reason to legitimize authoritarianism. Only a few states of the former USSR have decided to adopt a model of governance other than a strong presidential system. Latvia deserves attention in this respect, as it has decided to reinstate the tested political principles of the interwar period. In the process of political transformation, the Latvian political elite has opted for the parliamentary system of governance and chose a weak presidency and the primacy of parliament. The transformation process was quickly completed allowing Latvia to be classified today as a non-consolidated democracy. Moldova’s adopting the system of parliamentary governance in 2000 was, in turn, an unintentional result of a political conflict caused by the President’s endeavors to form a strong presidential system. Moldovan parliamentarianism is a product of a protracted shaping of the institutional foundations of the political system and a byproduct of political competition between the legislative and executive powers. The domination of Communists on the Moldovan political stage, however, resulted in the state’s appropriation by one group and President Vladimir Voronin, who enjoyed a great influence exerted both on the parliamentary majority (as the leader of the ruling party) and the government, despite the formal system providing for a parliamentary republic. There emerged a dangerous precedent of the President exceeding his rights and thus becoming the actual leader of a formally parliamentary republic. In the period from 2001–2009, Moldova was a system of controlled democracy where apparently democratic institutions were in fact a cover for undivided, informal power wielded by a small circle. This triggered a social revolution in 2009 and early parliamentary elections, which resulted in a transfer of power and the establishment of a coalition of liberal and democratic parties clearly expressing their intention to implement market reforms and European integration. Despite political obstruction in Moldova’s shaping of its political system, the country stands out among the former post-Soviet republics. It is the only state in the Commonwealth of Independent States where a continuous and uninterrupted cycle of the transfer of power by means of elections can be observed to conform to the law and constitution since the country declared independence in 1991

Towards Gonzo Anthropology : Ethnography as Cultural Performance

This essay provides an" ethnography of ethnography" through investigating and advocating certain research methodologies referred to as "Gonzo Anthropology." Ethnography is viewed as a process entailing both actual research, especially participant observation, and discourse, i.e. some form of cultural representation. In this way the ethnographic process can be seen as a form of cultural performance; the ethnographer is an actor, director, recorder of events, writer, artist and audience all in one. These ideas will be explored through an analysis of the work ofHunter S. Thompson, the founder of gonzo methods. The application of performance theory will be illustrated through brief cultural descriptions of Hare Krishnas and deaf people in Japan. This essay is a product of years of study, application, consideration and reconsiderations ofethnographic research that aims to provide important, relevant and interestingdialogue for multiple and multivocal actors and audiences

The role of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in the new European architecture of supervision over the financial market

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main provisions of the regulation of European financial supervision from the perspective of the competencies and functions of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). It was also considered necessary by the Authors to present the current tasks, aims and competencies of the KNF. The implementation of a new supervisory structure in the EU brought about changes to the functioning of the KNF. These changes are particularly visible in the regulatory functions as domestic supervisory authorities are obliged to introduce uniform supervisory standards defined on a European level. The current reform of the European financial markets has shown that the role of national supervisors in the financial safety net requires a new approach. It is obvious that in these times of financial crisis, national supervisors must incur significant costs, namely the functional reduction of regulatory independence in some matters. This paper is a contribution to the discussion on the course of the development of Polish and EU financial markets supervision

The legal concept of privity in the financial market law (general assumptions)

Celem artykułu jest pokazanie interferencji, zazębiania się wątków publicznych i prywatnych w ramach prawa rynku finansowego na przykładzie tworzonej konstrukcji finansowego stosunku prawnorynkowego. Dla realizacji tego celu w opracowaniu zebrano i poddano analizie argumenty za zasadnością tworzenia konstrukcji stosunku prawnorynkowego, zaproponowano analizę struktury prawnej stosunku prawnorynkowego, jako charakteryzującego się tak znacznymi odrębnościami od stosunku cywilnoprawnego i stosunku administracyjnoprawnego oraz wykazującego tak dalece idącą specyfikę prawną, że wymagającego autonomicznego ujęcia, z uwagi na potrzeby doktrynalne, orzecznicze oraz dydaktyczne. Taka propozycja doktrynalnego ujęcia stosunków prawnych na rynku finansowym – zdaniem autorki – wydaje się wierniej odzwierciedlać założenia prawodawcy i nadzorców krajowego i unijnego oraz pozwala również od razu dostrzegać wewnątrzsystemowe uwarunkowana i powiązania natury podmiotowej i funkcjonalnej oraz zwłaszcza – lepiej i w ekonomiczno-gospodarczym kontekście – zrozumieć finansowe treści prawnorynkowe.The aim of the paper is to explain the interference of public and private norms in the financial market on the example of legal relationships created under financial market law. This paper shows the reasons and opinions regarding the doctrinal need to create such a concept and recognises the urgent need of its institutionalisation in the doctrine. Privity in financial market law that arises between parties is significantly different from the civil and administrative law relations and due to doctrinal, judicial and didactic reasons requires an autonomous approach. The analysis conducted in this paper presents the views and ideas of how to better evolve and explain the legal relationships existing in the financial market law, also theoretically, and is expected to ignite a serious doctrinal discussion on this subject

A structural analysis of the A5/1 state transition graph

We describe efficient algorithms to analyze the cycle structure of the graph induced by the state transition function of the A5/1 stream cipher used in GSM mobile phones and report on the results of the implementation. The analysis is performed in five steps utilizing HPC clusters, GPGPU and external memory computation. A great reduction of this huge state transition graph of 2^64 nodes is achieved by focusing on special nodes in the first step and removing leaf nodes that can be detected with limited effort in the second step. This step does not break the overall structure of the graph and keeps at least one node on every cycle. In the third step the nodes of the reduced graph are connected by weighted edges. Since the number of nodes is still huge an efficient bitslice approach is presented that is implemented with NVIDIA's CUDA framework and executed on several GPUs concurrently. An external memory algorithm based on the STXXL library and its parallel pipelining feature further reduces the graph in the fourth step. The result is a graph containing only cycles that can be further analyzed in internal memory to count the number and size of the cycles. This full analysis which previously would take months can now be completed within a few days and allows to present structural results for the full graph for the first time. The structure of the A5/1 graph deviates notably from the theoretical results for random mappings.Comment: In Proceedings GRAPHITE 2012, arXiv:1210.611

Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews in leading orthodontic journals: a quality paradigm?

The aims of this study were to assess and compare the methodological quality of Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews (SRs) published in leading orthodontic journals and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) using AMSTAR and to compare the prevalence of meta-analysis in both review types. A literature search was undertaken to identify SRs that consisted of hand-searching five major orthodontic journals [American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Angle Orthodontist, European Journal of Orthodontics, Journal of Orthodontics and Orthodontics and Craniofacial Research (February 2002 to July 2011)] and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from January 2000 to July 2011. Methodological quality of the included reviews was gauged using the AMSTAR tool involving 11 key methodological criteria with a score of 0 or 1 given for each criterion. A cumulative grade was given for the paper overall (0-11); an overall score of 4 or less represented poor methodological quality, 5-8 was considered fair and 9 or greater was deemed to be good. In total, 109 SRs were identified in the five major journals and on the CDSR. Of these, 26 (23.9%) were in the CDSR. The mean overall AMSTAR score was 6.2 with 21.1% of reviews satisfying 9 or more of the 11 criteria; a similar prevalence of poor reviews (22%) was also noted. Multiple linear regression indicated that reviews published in the CDSR (P < 0.01); and involving meta-analysis (β = 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.72, 2.07, P < 0.001) showed greater concordance with AMSTA

Resorbable versus titanium plates for orthognathic surgery.

BACKGROUND: Recognition of some of the limitations of titanium plates and screws used for the fixation of bones has led to the development of plates manufactured from bioresorbable materials. Whilst resorbable plates appear to offer clinical advantages over metal plates in orthognathic surgery, concerns remain about the stability of fixation and the length of time required for their degradation and the possibility of foreign body reactions. This review compares the use of titanium versus bioresorbable plates in orthognathic surgery and is an update of the Cochrane Review first published in 2007. OBJECTIVES: To compare the effects of bioresorbable fixation systems with titanium systems used during orthognathic surgery. SEARCH METHODS: Cochrane Oral Health's Information Specialist searched the following databases: Cochrane Oral Health's Trials Register (to 20 January 2017); the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2016, Issue 11) in the Cochrane Library (searched 20 January 2017); MEDLINE Ovid (1946 to 20 January 2017); and Embase Ovid (1980 to 20 January 2017). We searched the US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trials Register ClinicalTrials.gov (clinicaltrials.gov; searched 20 January 2017), and the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (searched 20 January 2017) for ongoing trials. No restrictions were placed on the language or date of publication when searching the electronic databases. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials comparing bioresorbable versus titanium fixation systems used for orthognathic surgery in adults. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently screened the results of the electronic searches, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies. We resolved disagreement by discussion. Clinical heterogeneity between the included trials precluded pooling of data, and only a descriptive summary is presented. MAIN RESULTS: This review included two trials, involving 103 participants, one comparing titanium with resorbable plates and screws and the other titanium with resorbable screws. Both studies were at high risk of bias and provided very limited data for the primary outcomes of this review. All participants in one trial suffered mild to moderate postoperative discomfort with no statistically significant difference between the two plating groups at different follow-up times. Mean scores of patient satisfaction were 7.43 to 8.63 (range 0 to 10) with no statistically significant difference between the two groups throughout follow-up. Adverse effects reported in one study were two plate exposures in each group occurring between the third and ninth months. Plate exposures occurred mainly in the posterior maxillary region, except for one titanium plate exposure in the mandibular premolar region. Known causes of infection were associated with loosened screws and wound dehiscence with no statistically significant difference in the infection rate between titanium (3/196), and resorbable (3/165) plates. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: We do not have sufficient evidence to determine if titanium plates or resorbable plates are superior for fixation of bones after orthognathic surgery. This review provides insufficient evidence to show any difference in postoperative pain and discomfort, level of patient satisfaction, plate exposure or infection for plate and screw fixation using either titanium or resorbable materials

THE ECOLOGY OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SHARING

Increasingly, companies use interorganizational information systems to support business process partnerships, such as automatic replenishment systems and other supply chain initiatives, invoicing and payments, and insurance claims processing. Inter-firm networking in turn can increase the visibility of information generated and used by business partners. These business partners may experience intended and unintended impacts from the changes in the partnering relationship, in effect altering the ecology of the organization. Yet IT researchers rarely study an organization’s ecology, focusing instead on impacts upon internal processes. Our goal in this paper is to propose a definition of interorganizational information ecology, to provide IT researchers with a lens through which interorganizational information sharing should be studied. We begin by reviewing principles of ecology from the natural and social sciences and then discuss the emergence of principles of organizational ecology and information ecology within the management literature. We then argue that advances in information technology have been a primary enabler for companies’ focus on interorganizational business processes and that field research on IT-enabled business partnerships must include the impacts upon each partner and the information shared among them. An example from health care demonstrates the usefulness of the concept, and we conclude with suggestions for field-based research on the ecology of interorganizational information sharing

Genome-wide identification, characterisation and expression profiles of calcium-dependent protein kinase genes in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

In plant cells, calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are important sensors of Ca(2+) flux resulting from various environmental stresses like cold, drought or salt stress. Previous genome sequence analysis and comparative studies in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) defined a multi-gene family of CDPKs. Here, we identified and characterised the CDPK gene complement of the model plant, barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Comparative analysis encompassed phylogeny reconstruction based on newly available barley genome sequence, as well as established model genomes (e.g. O. sativa, A. thaliana, Brachypodium distachyon). Functional gene copies possessed characteristic CDPK domain architecture, including a serine/threonine kinase domain and four regulatory EF-hand motifs. In silico verification was followed by measurements of transcript abundance via real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The relative expression of CDPK genes was determined in the vegetative growth stage under intensifying drought stress conditions. The majority of barley CDPK genes showed distinct changes in patterns of expression during exposure to stress. Our study constitutes evidence for involvement of the barley CDPK gene complement in signal transduction pathways relating to adaptation to drought. Our bioinformatics and transcriptomic analyses will provide an important foundation for further functional dissection of the barley CDPK gene family. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13353-016-0357-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users