The financing of SMEs in Poland with particular reference to the role of banks

The development of a SME sector is widely recognised as being essential to overcome the problems countries face as they are transformed from centrally planned into market economies. Therefore sustaining the growth of the private SME sector is important. The shortage of external finance is reported to be one of the main constraints SMEs are facing and opportunities for SMEs to access credit facilities from banks and financial support programs are still limited, especially for long-term credit. The creation of an efficient working financial market in Poland therefore is a very important part in the transition to a market economy. However, if such a financial market is to be established successfully, the needs and motivations of both small business owner-manager and banks have to be taken into accomlt. In other words, government programmes and policies as well as support programmes by other organisations should consider these needs and motivation to contribute effectively to the development of the financial market and thus to the development of the SME sector in Poland. The thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the operation of the financial market with respect to SMEs in Poland, focusing on the role of banks. This includes considering the factors influencing the demand for finance by fimls, factors influencing the practices of banks with respect to supplying finance to these finns and the relationship between the two. The main findings in this respect are that owner-managers have to focus on their relationship to banks, whereas banks need to recognise the small business sector as an important fragment of the lending market, and, if they want to penetrate this market, they have to adjust their lending policies accordingly. With regard to policy makers it appears that they need to improve their understanding of the small business sector in order to realise the effect general regulations have on small firms and in order to provide suitable support programmes to eliminate size related disadvantages experienced by SMEs. Moreover, policy makers should consider the low level of interest that currently exists among commercial banks in dealing with SME when choosing channels for their support schemes

Elucidating the Role of Oxygen and Biotype in the Environmental Persistence of Vibrio Cholerae

Vibrio cholerae is a natural inhabitant of aquatic environments and serves as the etiological agent for the severe diarrheal disease, cholera. Cholera epidemics follow a regular seasonal pattern, which account for tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths in a given year. V. choleraenaturally persist between epidemics through entry into a dormant state known as viable but nonculturable (VBNC). Research has shown that V. choleraein this VBNC state experience drastic morphological and metabolic changes, which serve as survival mechanisms until environmental conditions become suitable again. The natural marine ecosystem that V. cholerae inhabitis comprised of a complex combination of biotic and abiotic factors, which influence their growth and survival. Some of these factors include interactions with other marine dwellers and environmental pressures, such as fluctuations in temperature and oxygen concentration. Of great interest, we have currently elucidated the role of oxygen on the classical O395 biotype of V. cholerae. Through this discovery, we are especially interested in the role of oxygen and biotype on V. cholerae persistence and how these variables can influence entry into the VBNC dormant state. Specifically, in this study we will compare culturability between the O395 and N16961 biotypes in both aeration and static (non-aeration environments) at 4°C and 30°C. It is of crucial importance to elucidate the role of abiotic environmental factors involved with entry into this dormant state and to understand how V. cholerae have evolved their genetic mechanisms to persist in their natural environments through comparison of biotypes. Understanding entry into the VBNC state is significant because V. cholerae found in this dormant state remain a threat to the human population due their ability to resuscitate and infect the human host under the appropriate environmental conditions

Asymmetry in the Qy Fluorescence and Absorption Spectra of Chlorophyll <i>a</i> Pertaining to Exciton Dynamics.

Significant asymmetry found between the high-resolution Q y emission and absorption spectra of chlorophyll-a is herein explained, providing basic information needed to understand photosynthetic exciton transport and photochemical reactions. The Q y spectral asymmetry in chlorophyll has previously been masked by interference in absorption from the nearby Q x transition, but this effect has recently been removed using extensive quantum spectral simulations or else by analytical inversion of absorption and magnetic circular dichroism data, allowing high-resolution absorption information to be accurately determined from fluorescence-excitation spectra. To compliment this, here, we measure and thoroughly analyze the high-resolution differential fluorescence line narrowing spectra of chlorophyll-a in trimethylamine and in 1-propanol. The results show that vibrational frequencies often change little between absorption and emission, yet large changes in line intensities are found, this effect also being strongly solvent dependent. Among other effects, the analysis in terms of four basic patterns of Duschinsky-rotation matrix elements, obtained using CAM-B3LYP calculations, predicts that a chlorophyll-a molecule excited into a specific vibrational level, may, without phase loss or energy relaxation, reemit the light over a spectral bandwidth exceeding 1,000 cm-1 (0.13 eV) to influence exciton-transport dynamics

Hydrodynamic limit of gradient exclusion processes with conductances

Fix a strictly increasing right continuous with left limits function W: \bb R \to \bb R and a smooth function \Phi : [l,r] \to \bb R, defined on some interval $[l,r]$ of \bb R, such that $0<b \le \Phi'\le b^{-1}$. We prove that the evolution, on the diffusive scale, of the empirical density of exclusion processes, with conductances given by $W$, is described by the weak solutions of the non-linear differential equation $\partial_t \rho = (d/dx)(d/dW) \Phi(\rho)$. We derive some properties of the operator $(d/dx)(d/dW)$ and prove uniqueness of weak solutions of the previous non-linear differential equation

Absorption-emission symmetry breaking and the different origins of vibrational structures of the 1Qy and 1Qx electronic transitions of pheophytin a

© 2019 Author(s). The vibrational structure of the optical absorption and fluorescence spectra of the two lowest-energy singlet electronic states (Qy and Qx) of pheophytin a were carefully studied by combining low-resolution and high-resolution spectroscopy with quantum chemical analysis and spectral modeling. Large asymmetry was revealed between the vibrational structures of the Qy absorption and fluorescence spectra, integrally characterized by the total Huang-Rhys factor and reorganization energy in absorption of SvibA = 0.43 ± 0.06, λA = 395 cm-1 and in emission of SvibE = 0.35 ± 0.06, λE = 317 cm-1. Time-dependent density-functional theory using the CAM-B3LYP, ωB97XD, and MN15 functionals could predict and interpret this asymmetry, with the exception of one vibrational mode per model, which was badly misrepresented in predicted absorption spectra; for CAM-B3LYP and ωB97XD, this mode was a Kekulé-type mode depicting aromaticity. Other computational methods were also considered but performed very poorly. The Qx absorption spectrum is broad and could not be interpreted in terms of a single set of Huang-Rhys factors depicting Franck-Condon allowed absorption, with Herzberg-Teller contributions to the intensity being critical. For it, CAM-B3LYP calculations predict that SvibA (for modes >100 cm-1) = 0.87 and λA = 780 cm-1, with effective x and y polarized Herzberg-Teller reorganization energies of 460 cm-1 and 210 cm-1, respectively, delivering 15% y-polarized intensity. However, no method was found to quantitatively determine the observed y-polarized contribution, with contributions of up to 50% being feasible

The role of high-level calculations in the assignment of the Q-band spectra of chlorophyll

© 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. We recently established a novel assignment of the visible absorption spectrum of chlorophyll-a that sees the two components Qx and Qy of the low-energy Q band as being intrinsically mixed by non-adiabatic coupling. This ended 50 years debate as to the nature of the Q bands, with prior discussion poised only in the language of the Born-Oppenheimer and Condon approximations. The new assignment presents significant ramifications for exciton transport and quantum coherence effects in photosystems. Results from state of the art electronic structure calculations have always been used to justify assignments, but quantitative inaccuracies and systematic failures have historically limited usefulness. We examine the role of CAM-B3LYP time-dependent density-functional theory (TD-DFT) and Symmetry Adapted Cluster-Configuration Interaction (SAC-CI) calculations in first showing that all previous assignments were untenable, in justifying the new assignment, in making some extraordinary predictions that were vindicated by the new assignment, and in then identifying small but significant anomalies in the extensive experimental data record

What America means to sixth grade children.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Coxsackie and adenovirus receptor is a modifier of cardiac conduction and arrhythmia vulnerability in the setting of myocardial ischemia.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the modulatory effect of the coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) on ventricular conduction and arrhythmia vulnerability in the setting of myocardial ischemia. BACKGROUND: A heritable component in the risk of ventricular fibrillation during myocardial infarction has been well established. A recent genome-wide association study of ventricular fibrillation during acute myocardial infarction led to the identification of a locus on chromosome 21q21 (rs2824292) in the vicinity of the CXADR gene. CXADR encodes the CAR, a cell adhesion molecule predominantly located at the intercalated disks of the cardiomyocyte. METHODS: The correlation between CAR transcript levels and rs2824292 genotype was investigated in human left ventricular samples. Electrophysiological studies and molecular analyses were performed using CAR haploinsufficient (CAR(+/-)) mice. RESULTS: In human left ventricular samples, the risk allele at the chr21q21 genome-wide association study locus was associated with lower CXADR messenger ribonucleic acid levels, suggesting that decreased cardiac levels of CAR predispose to ischemia-induced ventricular fibrillation. Hearts from CAR(+/-) mice displayed slowing of ventricular conduction in addition to an earlier onset of ventricular arrhythmias during the early phase of acute myocardial ischemia after ligation of the left anterior descending artery. Expression and distribution of connexin 43 were unaffected, but CAR(+/-) hearts displayed increased arrhythmia susceptibility on pharmacological electrical uncoupling. Patch-clamp analysis of isolated CAR(+/-) myocytes showed reduced sodium current magnitude specifically at the intercalated disk. Moreover, CAR coprecipitated with NaV1.5 in vitro, suggesting that CAR affects sodium channel function through a physical interaction with NaV1.5. CONCLUSIONS: CAR is a novel modifier of ventricular conduction and arrhythmia vulnerability in the setting of myocardial ischemia. Genetic determinants of arrhythmia susceptibility (such as CAR) may constitute future targets for risk stratification of potentially lethal ventricular arrhythmias in patients with coronary artery disease