Application of activity - based costing in companies in Poland

Findings of the research have both practical and theoretical implications. First, from the practical point of view, future implementers of ABC systems should be aware of factors actually influencing ABC implementation as well as problems which can be encountered during the implementation process. Managers considering activity-based costing implementation may see level of detail and methods of construction of an ABC information model. They may also benefit from the knowledge of how information generated by an ABC systems is actually used by companies. All this may help to make better decision about ABC implementation and if the decision is to implement ABC, it may help to implement it successfully. From the theoretical point of view the research carried out makes it possible to establish a general tendency: modifications in costing systems applied in Polish enterprises and development of management accounting practice such as ABC follows the same general direction as management accounting practice in the world.Wnioski z przeprowadzonych badań mają znaczenie zarówno teoretyczne jak i praktyczne. Z praktycznego punktu widzenia, przedsiębiorstwa rozważające implementację ABC w przyszłości powinny mieć świadomość czynników wpływających na implementację ABC jak również problemów, które mogą się w procesie implementacji pojawić. Menedżerowie rozważający implementację ABC muszą zdawać sobie sprawę z poziomu szczegółowości i sposobów budowy systemu informacyjnego rachunku kosztów działań. Mogą oni również skorzystać z wiedzy o sposobach wykorzystania informacji z systemów rachunku kosztów działań. Wiedza ta może sprzyjać podejmowaniu lepszych decyzji odnośnie implementacji systemów ABC, a jeżeli decyzja o implementacji zostanie podjęta, może się przyczynić do zwiększenia prawdopodobieństwa zakończenia procesu wdrożenia sukcesem. Z teoretycznego punktu widzenia, przeprowadzone badania mogą się przyczynić do określenia ogólnej tendencji: modyfikacje systemów rachunku kosztów w przedsiębiorstwach w Polsce oraz wdrażanie nowoczesnych metod rachunkowości zarządczej takich jak ABC, zmierza w podobnym kierunku jak praktyka rachunkowości zarządczej na świecie

Observations of classical cepheids

The observations of classical Cepheids are reviewed. The main progress that has been made is summarized and some of the problems yet to be solved are discussed. The problems include color excesses, calibration of color, duplicity, ultraviolet colors, temperature-color relations, mass discrepancies, and radius determination

Mapping, isolation and characterization of genes responsible for late blight resistance in potato

Late blight (LB), caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, is one of the most devastating diseases on potato. Resistance (R) genes from the wild species Solanum demissum have been used by breeders to generate late blight resistant cultivars, but resistance was soon overcome by the pathogen. A more recent screening of a large number of wild species has led to the identification of novel sources of resistance, many of which are currently being characterized. R-gene based resistance to any plant pathogen has been conceptualized according to a model known as gene-for-gene interaction. When matching avirulence (Avr) and resistance (R) proteins are produced by the pathogen and the plant respectively, a resistance response is triggered resulting in a hyper-sensitive response (HR) causing necrosis and cell death at the infection site. If one of these components is missing the plant-pathogen interaction is compatible and will result in completion of the life cycle of the pathogen. This thesis describes the cloning and the characterization of the resistant alleles Rpi-vnt1.1, Rpivnt1.2 and Rpi-vnt1.3 from Solanum venturii and their counterpart Avr-vnt1 from Phytophthora infestans. The Rpi-/Avr- genes pair Rpi-vnt1/Avr-vnt1 along with R3a/Avr3a and Rpi-blb3/Avr2 have been used to study the genetic and molecular mechanisms behind tuber blight resistance. The cloning of Rpi-vnt1 alleles (Rpi-vnt1.1, Rpi-vnt1.2 and Rpi-vnt1.3) was achieved by the combination of long range PCR (Chapter 2) and a classical map based cloning strategy (Chapter 3). The long range PCR made use of Tm2 homologous PCR primers, upon identification of Tm2 sequence homology in associated markers generated with an NBStargeted fingerprinting technique. Rpi-vnt1 alleles belong to the CC-NBS-LRR class of plant R genes and encode predicted peptides of 891 and 905 amino acids, respectively, which share 75% amino acid (a.a.) identity with the ToMV resistance protein Tm-22 from tomato. Compared to Rpi-vnt1.1, the allele Rpi-vnt1.3 harbors a 14 amino acid insertion in the Nterminal region of the protein and two different amino acids in the LRR domain. Despite these differences, Rpi-vnt1.1 and Rpi-vnt1.3 genes have the same resistance spectrum. An allele mining study of Rpi-vnt1 alleles across Solanum section Petota showed that the three functional alleles were confined within S. venturii as only two accessions from the closely related species S. weberbaueri and S. mochiquense carried Rpi-vnt1.1 (Chapter 4). Subsequent alignment of Rpi-vnt1-like homologs with Rpi-vnt1 alleles revealed the presence of illegitimate recombination (IR) signatures suggesting that two successive deletion events might have occurred in the CC domain. Meanwhile, the construction of a Neighbor Joining tree, based on AFLP data from all the accessions carrying Rpi-vnt1 alleles or Rpi-vnt1-like homologs showed that Rpi-vnt1.1, Rpi-vnt1.2 and Rpi-vnt1.3 alleles belong to a monophyletic clade. Signatures of illegitimate recombination and the monophyletic grouping of Rpi-vnt1 alleles suggested how Rpi-vnt1.1, Rpi-vnt1.2 and Rpi-vnt1.3 could have evolved. Extensive phenotyping with various Phytophthora isolates identified another Rpi gene in S. venturii named Rpi-vnt2, complementing the Rpi-vnt1 allelic resistance spectrum. The genetic position of this second independent locus is not yet identified. The identification of the matching avirulence factor from the pathogen, Avr-vnt1, was achieved by using an efficient and high throughput effector screen of resistant wild potato species (Chapter 5). Avr-vnt1 encodes a typical RXLR-EER effector which expression is induced 2 days post inoculation. Avr-vnt1 is located on a single locus in the reference strain T30-4. Among nine isolates, four alleles were identified. The virulent strain EC1 carries a functional coding sequence of Avr-vnt1 but fails to express the gene. In Chapter 6, the genetic and molecular mechanisms of tuber late blight have been investigated. Using transgenic cv. Desiree plants transformed with Rpi-vnt1.1, R3a or Rpiblb3 tuber blight resistance could be studied in an identical genetic background. First, we demonstrated that transient co-expression of the matching Avr- genes in these transgenic tuber slices trigger a hypersensitive responses (HR), showing that the presence and interaction of both proteins is sufficient to establish tuber blight resistance. Second, phenotypic and molecular analysis of a panel of transformants for Rpi-vnt1.1, R3a and Rpi-blb3, and transcriptional analysis of the corresponding effectors (Avr-vnt1, Avr3a and Avr2 respectively) during leaf and tuber infection showed that the expression level of a given Rgene should equal or exceed the expression level of the matching effector in order to trigger an efficient resistance response in the tuber. Therefore, foliar and tuber late blight resistance are controlled by similar genetic mechanisms. The perceived lack of phenotypic correlation between foliage and tuber blight resistance is thus solely due to the tissue specific expression level of the Rpi-gene. In the general discussion (Chapter 7), results from the experimental chapters are discussed in a broader perspective. <br/

Interactive Metal Fatigue; A critical lens for the assessment of socio-technical reconfigurations in traffic

Interactive metal fatigue (IMF) is an elegant re-appreciation of the concept of ‘interpassivity’, describing how it develops through minifractures in subjects’ attempts to keep up with societal demands for interactivity. Other than the original art-philosophical and psychoanalytical understandings, this rather historical conceptualization opens up the ‘interpassivity’ notion to sociological and political research. Particularly promising, it will be argued, is its aptitude to diagnose and articulate the often so elusive (side-) effects of socio-technical ‘system innovations’. Currently these tend to be evaluated in terms of ‘sustainability’, but this notion seems insufficient to capture the multi-sidedness of the reconfigurations involved. Socio-technical innovations are known to be contested social changes. Yet what is it that makes them contested? How can their societal relevance be appreciated? And considering that assessment in terms of ‘sustainability impacts’ leaves certain problematic aspects underexposed, how could the notion of ‘interactive metal fatigue’ enrich our understanding of socio-technical innovations

Trojan horses in System Innovation; A dialectical perspective on the paradox of acceptable novelty

Current and future sustainability challenges are increasingly acknowledged to be of a persistent and systemic nature. This gives rise to calls for likewise systemic solution strategies: Transformative system innovations instead of incremental system improvements, and societal transitions rather than procrastination on current locked-in trajectories. On these accounts, incremental change will not do. Still it proves difficult to achieve truly radical transformations. Insights from innovation theory, governance, sociology and critical theory help understand why radical transformation is unlikely to occur: Novelty, if it is to spread at all, should be acceptable to potential ‘adopters’, and should not be overly disruptive to existing practices. Initiatives should be radical enough to constitute transformative potential, but also shallow enough to be acceptable in current institutional constellations: This contradiction between transformation and non-disruption, the ‘paradox of acceptable novelty’, can be considered a key system innovation challenge. It is only paradoxical in its idealized form, however. System-innovative practices bring out various ways of dealing with the contradiction and its tradeoffs. This paper returns to the archetypical example of the more favorable case: The Trojan horse, the seemingly innocuous innovation with latent transformative force. Addressing its ambiguities, the concept’s practical relevance is elicited. Clever levers to systemic change may be devised, but inversely they may become ‘domesticated’ and neutralized. Based on a comparative case study on innovation attempts in the Dutch traffic management field, it is shown how these two faces can even alternate. The ‘incremental’ turn towards ‘network-oriented’ traffic management and the ‘radical’ call for the social sharing of space display an intriguing mixture of transformative and non-disruptive faces. Analyzed as sequences of ‘translations’, these cases help understand and deal with the ambiguities of Trojan horses. A dialectical approach to ‘acceptable novelty’ helps combine system-innovative idealism with Machiavellian agility