The future of e-commerce payments

On June 19, 2002, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Electronic Funds Transfer Association's Electronic Commerce Payments Council (eCPC) sponsored a joint conference. This meeting was part of the regularly scheduled quarterly council meetings that bring together stakeholders interested in developing or enhancing e-commerce payment alternatives. The session included both Federal Reserve staff and industry leaders discussing how electronic payments are becoming an alternative to paper-based payment products and the adoption of electronic payments by consumers and merchants.Electronic commerce

Moisture processes accompanying convective activity

A moisture budget analysis was performed on data collected during the AVE 7 (May 2 to 3, 1978) and AVE-SESAME1 (April 10 to 11, 1979) experiments. Local rates-of-change of moisture were compared with average moisture divergence in the same time period. Results were presented as contoured plots in the horizontal and as vertical cross sections. These results were used to develop models of the distribution of moisture processes in the vicinity of convective areas in two layers representing lower and middle tropospheric conditions. Good correspondence was found between the residual term of the moisture budget and actual precipitation

Statistical analysis of 22 public transport networks in Poland

Public transport systems in 22 Polish cities have been analyzed. Sizes of these networks range from N=152 to N=2881. Depending on the assumed definition of network topology the degree distribution can follow a power law or can be described by an exponential function. Distributions of paths in all considered networks are given by asymmetric, unimodal functions. Clustering, assortativity and betweenness are studied. All considered networks exhibit small world behavior and are hierarchically organized. A transition between dissortative small networks N=500 is observed.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, REVTEX4 forma

Social Aspects of New Technologies - the CCTV and Biometric (Framing Privacy and Data Protection) in the Case of Poland

The purpose of this paper is to review the institution responsible for the protection of personal data within the European Union and national example - Polish as a country representing the new Member States. The analysis of institutional system - providing legal security of communication and information institutions, companies and citizens against the dangers arising from the ongoing development of innovative new technologies in the European Union and Poland. This article is an attempt to analyze the possibility of using security systems and Biometry CTTV in Poland in terms of legislation. The results of the analysis indicate that, in terms of institutions Poland did not do badly in relation to the risks arising from the implementation of technology. The situation is not as good when it comes to the awareness of citizens and small businesses. This requires that facilitate greater access to free security software companies from data leakage or uncontrolled cyber-terrorist attacks. With regard to the use of security systems, CCTV and biometrics, Poland in legal terms is still early in the process of adapting to EU Directive. The continuous development of technology should force the legislature to establish clear standards and regulations for the application of CCTV technology and biometrics, as it is of great importance in ensuring the fundamental rights and freedoms of every citizen of the Polish Republic.Wyniki analizy wskazują, że pod względem instytucji Polska nie wypada źle w odniesieniu do zagrożeń wynikających z wdrożenia technologii. Sytuacja nie jest tak dobra, jeśli chodzi o świadomość obywateli i mniejszych firm. Wymaga to ułatwiania szerszego dostępu do darmowych programów zabezpieczających firmy przed wyciekiem danych lub niekontrolowanych cyber-ataków terrorystycznych. W odniesieniu do stosowania systemów zabezpieczeń CCTV oraz biometrii, Polska pod względem prawnym jest wciąż na początku procesu dostosowania do dyrektywy UE. Ciągły rozwój technologii powinien zmusić ustawodawcę do stworzenia jednoznacznych standardów i przepisów obowiązujących w zakresie stosowania technologii CCTV oraz biometrii, gdyż ma to ogromne znaczenie w zapewnieniu podstawowych praw i wolności każdego obywatela Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej

Electronic structure and time-dependent description of rotational predissociation of LiH

Adiabatic potential energy curves of the $^1\Sigma^+$ and $^1\Pi$ states of the LiH molecule have been calculated. They correlate asymptotically to atomic states, like 2s+1s, 2p+1s, 3s+1s, 3p+1s, 3d+1s, 4s+1s, 4p+1s and 4d+1s. Very good agreement is found between our calculated spectroscopic parameters and experimental ones. The dynamics of the rotational predissociation process of the $1^1\Pi$ state has been studied by solving the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation. The classical experiment of Velasco [Can. J. Phys. {35}, 1204 (1957)] on dissociation in the $1^1\Pi$ state is explained in detail

Do you always get what you give? A mixed-methods approach to reciprocity within the informal (trans)national social protection networks of migrants

This study focuses on the importance of reciprocity in migrants’ protective social networks. It uses Marshall Sahlins’ concepts of generalized, balanced, and unbalanced (negative) reciprocity for empirical analysis of different logics of distribution of social protection. The findings are based on a sample of migrants from Kazakhstan and Poland who are living in Germany. The study was conducted using a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach that involves different types of data (from interviews and egocentric networks) and different methods of data analysis. The results indicate a variety of different logics of reciprocity and show the crucial role of reciprocity in the distribution of informal social protection. In addition, this paper shows that the transnationality of a network does not influence this general norm of reciprocity, although quantitative and qualitative findings indicate the prevalence and favoritism, respectively, of certain allocation types of protection across borders

Universal scaling of distances in complex networks

Universal scaling of distances between vertices of Erdos-Renyi random graphs, scale-free Barabasi-Albert models, science collaboration networks, biological networks, Internet Autonomous Systems and public transport networks are observed. A mean distance between two nodes of degrees k_i and k_j equals to =A-B log(k_i k_j). The scaling is valid over several decades. A simple theory for the appearance of this scaling is presented. Parameters A and B depend on the mean value of a node degree _nn calculated for the nearest neighbors and on network clustering coefficients.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Electronic structure and rovibrational predissociation of the 2sPi state in KLi

Adiabatic potential energy curves of the 3sSigma+, 3tSigma+, 2sPi and 2tPi states correlating for large internuclear distance with the K(4s) + Li(2p) atomic asymptote were calculated. Very good agreement between the calculated and the experimental curve of the 2sPi state allowed for a reliable description of the dissociation process through a small (20 cm-1 for J = 0) potential energy barrier. The barrier supports several rovibrational quasi-bound states and explicit time evolution of these states via the time-dependent nuclear Schroedinger equation, showed that the state populations decay exponentially in time. We were able to precisely describe the time-dependent dissociation process of several rovibrational levels and found that our calculated spectrum match very well with the assigned experimental spectrum. Moreover, our approach is able to predict the positions of previously unassigned lines despite their low intensit

External bias in the model of isolation of communities

We extend a model of community isolation in the d-dimensional lattice onto the case with an imposed imbalance between birth rates of competing communities. We give analytical and numerical evidences that in the asymmetric two-specie model there exists a well defined value of the asymmetry parameter when the emergence of the isolated (blocked) subgroups is the fastest, i.e. the characteristic time tc is minimal. This critical value of the parameter depends only on the lattice dimensionality and is independent from the system size. Similar phenomenon was observed in the multi-specie case with a geometric distribution of the birth rates. We also show that blocked subgroups in the multi-specie case are absent or very rare when either there is a strictly dominant specie that outnumbers the others or when there is a large diversity of species. The number of blocked species of different kinds decreases with the dimension of the multi-specie system.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure