Node counting in wireless ad-hoc networks

We study wireless ad-hoc networks consisting of small microprocessors with limited memory, where the wireless communication between the processors can be highly unreliable. For this setting, we propose a number of algorithms to estimate the number of nodes in the network, and the number of direct neighbors of each node. The algorithms are simulated, allowing comparison of their performance

Hubs and Spokes, and Free Trade in the Americas

This paper compares two possible formats for free trade in the Americas: a system of spokes surrounding a U.S. hub, and a free trade area. The paper identifies the sources of welfare change, and it argues that a country's attitude towards a system depends on whether the arrangement is a complement or a substitute trading club. The paper argues also that rent-seeking activities, and costs of administration and transportation, are likely to be higher in a hub-and-spoke system than in a free trade area.

Reporting on sustainable development and the integration of financial and non-financial data: legal conditions in Poland and worldwide

Rozwój idei zrównoważonego rozwoju jest obecnie szeroko propagowany nie tylko w biznesie, lecz także w sektorze non profit. Wraz z wbudowaniem tej idei w strategię rozwoju organizacji sprawozdawczość z tego zakresu wydaje się naturalną konsekwencją, podobnie jak przy raportowaniu danych finansowych. Potrzeba rozwijania sprawozdawczości na rzecz rozwoju zrównoważonego znajduje także swoje udokumentowanie w Agendzie 21. W dokumencie tym zaleca się opracowywanie zintegrowanych systemów rachunkowości środowiskowej (ekologicznej) i gospodarczej (IEEA), które winny stanowić uzupełnienie tradycyjnych zasad rachunkowości. Jedyną formą realizacji tej rekomendacji jest publikowanie przez organizacje raportów zintegrowanych. Wiele z nich upowszechnia takie raporty z własnej inicjatywy, mając świadomość wymiernych korzyści takich działań. Niemniej większość organizacji nie podejmuje tej aktywności, czego przyczyną jest prawdopodobnie brak wiedzy na temat wszystkich istotnych zależności między wynikami finansowymi a niefinansowymi oraz niedostatecznie rozwinięte ustawodawstwo w tym zakresie. Zarówno Unia Europejska, jak i kraje wysoko rozwinięte dostrzegają potrzebę i korzyści płynące z kompleksowego uregulowania prawnego tego obszaru. Stąd też Unia Europejska, a także Dania, Francja czy Brazylia dają temu wyraz w konkretnych aktach prawnych, których podstawowym celem jest zobligowanie do sporządzania raportów zintegrowanych dużych organizacji oraz spółek giełdowych, a także wdrożenie zewnętrznej weryfikacji spójności ujawnianych danych w formie audytów. W Polsce istnieją regulacje w tym zakresie, jednak ciągle niski odsetek podmiotów publikujących raporty zrównoważonego rozwoju oraz raporty zintegrowane skłania do refleksji. Niniejsze opracowanie stanowi przegląd regulacji prawnych obowiązujących w Polsce, w Unii Europejskiej, a także w wybranych krajach Europy i świata, na tle, których autorzy dokonali próby sformułowania uwag de lege ferenda.The idea of sustainable development is reflected in nearly all economic sectors which, along with the global advancement of new technologies, are developing at a very quick pace. Sustainable development is not an obstacle to this continued progress, but rather a call to maintain reason and moderation in order to reconcile areas of key importance to the humanity, that is economic growth and balanced distribution of profits. Owing to the widespread reach of this idea and to its presence in the development strategies of organisations in the business and non-profit sector, sanctioning reporting within this field, similarly to reporting financial data, seems like the natural consequence. Although reporting non-financial data and publication of integrated reports is becoming an increasingly common practice, undertaken by a growing number of organisations, the scale of this phenomenon invites the conclusion that it is still in its early stages. Numerous organisations publish such reports on their own initiative, as they are aware of the tangible advantages brought by such conduct. Still, many do not do it, probably due to lack of knowledge regarding all the important interrelations between financial and non-financial results, as well as due to insufficiently developed legal regulations pertaining to this area. Both the European Union and highly developed countries see the need and the advantages stemming from the complex legal regulation of this sphere, which is manifested in concrete legal acts. Although Poland too has regulations pertaining to this issue, the still low percentage of entities which publish reports on sustainable development and integrated reports, inspires reflections. Owing to this, the authors have reviewed legal regulations binding in Poland, in the European Union and in some selected countries in Europe and worldwide, based on which they have attempted to formulate a few de lege ferenda postulates

Part-time Employment, Gender and Employee Participation in the Workplace: An Illawarra Reconnaissance

The growth in non-standard forms of employment has major implications for the effectiveness of employee participation mechanisms in the workplace, whether direct or indirect (representative). This seems to be especially the case with representative forms, such as consultative committees, because they effectively assume permanent or long-term employment and are not as easily accessible to part-time employees. However, the literature on participation rarely addresses this major contextual aspect. The issue is of further significance since the majority of part-time and casual employees are female. Consequently, to the extent that non-standard employees do not have the same access to participatory mechanisms in the workplace that their full- time permanent colleagues enjoy, then women also are disproportionately excluded from participation. This paper begins to redress the insularity in the literature by analysing survey data from the Illawarra Regional Industrial Relations Survey (IRWIRS). It tests the hypothesis that the growth of non-standard forms of employment diminishes the access to participation in the workplace enjoyed by part-time workers in comparison with their full-time colleagues.Illawarra Regional Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, workplace employee relations, Australia

Gender, Part-time Employment and Employee Participation in the Workplace: Comparing Australia and the European Union

The international trend in the growth and incidence of 'no n-standard employment', and its highly gendered nature, is well documented. For ease of definition, and because of the nature of the available data, we focus upon part-time employment in this paper. Employee participation may be defined as any workplace process which 'allows employees to exert some influence over their work and the conditions under which they work' (Strauss 1998). It may be divided into two main approaches, direct participation and indirect or representative participation. Direct participation involves the employee in job or task-oriented decision-making in the production process at the shop or office floor level. Indirect or representative forms of participation include joint consultative committees, works councils, and employee members of boards of directors or management. In the EU context statutory works councils are the most common expression of representative participation, but in Australia, consultative committees resulting from union/employer agreement or unilateral management initiative are the more common form. All of these forms of employee participation raise important issues concerning part time employees. Effective participation has two further major requirements which also may disadvantage part timers. First, there is a ge neral consensus in the participation literature that training is required for effective direct or representative participation. Secondly, effective communication between management and employees is required for participation, preferably involving a two-way information flow. The issue is of further significance since it has decided gender implications. This paper seeks to redress this relative insularity in the literature by examining some broad trends in this area in Australia and the EU. It analyses survey data at a national level in Australia and compares with some survey data generated in the EU by the EPOC project and analysed by Juliet Webster along the lines which we suggest here. It tests the hypothesis that the growth of one non-standard form of employment, part-time employment, diminishes the access to participation in the workplace enjoyed by female workers in comparison with their male colleagues, and finds that the hypothesis is strongly confirmed. This has major implications for workplace equity, and for organisational efficiency.gender, part-time employment, employee participation, Australia, European Union

Stream Gauging: Investigating the Flow Rate and Residence Time in Laguna Bacalar, Mexico

Stream gauging is a standard tool used to measure the flow rate of various bodies of water. Knowing the flow rate of a body of water allows for the residence time of a body of water to be calculated. Currently, there is very little information regarding the flow rate and residence times of Laguna Bacalar. This system has been observed hydrologically consistently only in the past 6 years. In this study, 13 stream-gauging locations of interest were identified and gauged for their respective flow rates using the midsection method. Once the flow rates were acquired, maps depicting the Laguna Bacalar flow rate for November 2022, summer 2023, and the overall average were created. Following this, the residence time for the main four basins found in Laguna Bacalar was calculated. Understanding the overall system is vital to understanding the hydrological ecosystem, which depends on these factors

Small-scale instabilities in dynamical systems with sliding

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena , Vol. 239 Issues 1-2 (2010), DOI: 10.1016/j.physd.2009.10.003We demonstrate with a minimal example that in Filippov systems (dynamical systems governed by discontinuous but piecewise smooth vector fields) stable periodic motion with sliding is not robust with respect to stable singular perturbations. We consider a simple dynamical system that we assume to be a quasi-static approximation of a higher-dimensional system containing a fast stable subsystem. We tune a system parameter such that a stable periodic orbit of the simple system touches the discontinuity surface: this is the so-called grazing-sliding bifurcation. The periodic orbit remains stable, and its local return map becomes piecewise linear. However, when we take into account the fast dynamics the local return map of the periodic orbit changes qualitatively, giving rise to, for example, period-adding cascades or small-scale chaos

Influence of coating application parameters on selected properties

In this paper, titanium coatings were deposited on steel using the plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) process. These coatings were deposited at the same gas flow and power parameters, but at different times. This resulted in the creation of coatings with different properties. Increasing the time by half increased the thickness of the coating by about 78 %