EU Funds Provided to the New Member States: Relevance for ODA and Achieving the Monterrey Consensus

The EU transfers provided to the New Member States and candidate countries are generally viewed as having been efficiently used in promoting development in these economies. This paper examines the conditionality and institutional arrangements used to manage these transfers, and asks if there are lessons to be learned that could be applied to improve the absorptive capacity of assistance provided to developing countries.New Member States, Cohesion Funds, Economic Assistance, Official development Assistance, Conditionality, Economic integration, European Union Enlargement

Influence of geometry, elasticity properties and boundary conditions on the Mode I purity in sandwich composites

The present work addresses the problem of skin/core debonding in sandwich materials. The main goal is to carry out parametric analyses for studying the influence of various materials, geometrical parameters and boundary conditions of sandwich fracture specimens such as a Single Cantilever Beam and a Double Cantilever Beam on the skin/core opening (KI ) and shearing (KII ) modes. The analyses have been performed by means of fracture mechanics tools implemented into the commercial finite element code ABAQUS™. A two-dimensional model of the fracture specimens has been developed with plane strain finite elements. The dependence of the stress intensity factors in the sandwich specimens on the skin thickness, ratio between the Young’s moduli of the skin and core materials and boundary conditions imposed on the specimens has been examined under quasi-static loading by using the interaction integral method

Cenowe instrumenty realizacji polityki społecznej

Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Zarządzanie ryzykiem w komercjalizacji działalności B+R – analiza złych praktyk

Publikacja współfinansowana w ramach projektu: „SCOUTING – aktywny system monitoringu i oceny potencjału rynkowego prac badawczych kluczem do współpracy nauki i przedsiębiorców” współfinansowanego ze środków Unii Europejskiej w ramach Europejskiego Funduszu Społeczneg

Ochrona interesu pracodawcy w świetle przepisów prawa pracy i ustawy o zwalczaniu nieuczciwej konkurencji

W publikacji omówiono powiązania prawa pracy z prawem handlowym, choć obie te dziedziny, jak mogłoby się wydawać, stawiają sobie zupełnie inne cele. W obrębie tego zagadnienia podjęto wiele wątków szczegółowych, dotyczących: problematyki przedsiębiorcy jako pracodawcy, jego pozycji prawnej i ochrony jego interesu; podstaw zatrudnienia członków zarządu spółek kapitałowych oraz wpływu restrukturyzacji i likwidacji na stosunki pracy w spółkach handlowych. Podczas prezentacji aspektów łączących prawo handlowe z prawem pracy pojawiły się też kwestie sporne i wymagające pogłębionej dyskusji

Pulse shape and voltage-dependent synchronization in spiking neuron networks

Pulse-coupled spiking neural networks are a powerful tool to gain mechanistic insights into how neurons self-organize to produce coherent collective behavior. These networks use simple spiking neuron models, such as the $\theta$-neuron or the quadratic integrate-and-fire (QIF) neuron, that replicate the essential features of real neural dynamics. Interactions between neurons are modeled with infinitely narrow pulses, or spikes, rather than the more complex dynamics of real synapses. To make these networks biologically more plausible, it has been proposed that they must also account for the finite width of the pulses, which can have a significant impact on the network dynamics. However, the derivation and interpretation of these pulses is contradictory and the impact of the pulse shape on the network dynamics is largely unexplored. Here, I take a comprehensive approach to pulse-coupling in networks of QIF and $\theta$-neurons. I argue that narrow pulses activate voltage-dependent synaptic conductances and show how to implement them in QIF neurons such that their effect can last through the phase after the spike. Using an exact low-dimensional description for networks of globally coupled spiking neurons, I prove for instantaneous interactions that collective oscillations emerge due to an effective coupling through the mean voltage. I analyze the impact of the pulse shape by means of a family of smooth pulse functions with arbitrary finite width and symmetric or asymmetric shapes. For symmetric pulses, the resulting voltage-coupling is little effective in synchronizing neurons, but pulses that are slightly skewed to the phase after the spike readily generate collective oscillations. The results unveil a voltage-dependent spike synchronization mechanism in neural networks, which is facilitated by pulses of finite width and complementary to traditional synaptic transmission.Comment: 38 pages, 11 figure

Hans Wagner jako neoneokantysta

The aim of the paper is to briefly present the philosophy of Hans Wagner (1917-2000) as belonging to the last phase of the development of the German transcendental philosophy. Hans Wagner’s philosophy is presented as an attempt to synthesize earlier positions developed on the basis of this tradition, namely the synthesis of (a) neo-Kantianism with post-neo-Kantianism, (b) Kant's philosophy with Hegel's philosophy, (c) neo-Kantian transcendentalism with Husserl's transcendentalism, (d) the philosophy of transcendental subject (Kant, neo-Kantianism, phenomenology) with the philosophy of empirical subject (Hönigswald, Heidegger, Sartre). The main theoretical figure of Hans Wagner’s philosophy is the problem of two aspects of human thinking: its absoluteness and finiteness. According to Wagner development of the philosophical reflection, which we can observe on the example of the evolution of - originating from Kant - transcendental philosophy, leads to an explanation of the possibility to reconcile these two aspects of human thinking, and thus to answer the very question: how is it possible that our thinking can be both absolute and finished, and what are the consequences of this fact for the status of all cultural products of human thinking, such as science, morality or law

Typology of the Reality Status Category in Selected Languages. Is the Habitual in Polish an Instance of (Ir)realis or Modality?

The present article is aimed at examining the category of the reality status by discussing the dichotomy “realis / irrealis” in the context of the categories of modality, habituality and futurity. Prototype analysis is juxtaposed with scope analysis, and the category of the habitual is discussed from the typological perspective as well as from the perspective of its connection with the category of futurity. The paper presents aspect diversity of habituals (perfective and imperfective aspect and its contextual implications) as well as the differentiation between the habitual and modality. A special focus is on the prototype analysis and its application instances in Polish, English and Hebrew. The primary objective of the paper is to show that, although it is possible to treat irrealis as notional category, the habituals in Polish and many other Slavic languages (e.g. Czech) should be identified with the modality domain rather than irrealis category. The paper is also an attempt to provide an insight into the distinction between (ir)realis and encoding systems of modalities as the habitual aspect displays modal category features in many languages (including Polish)

East German and Polish opposition during the last decade of the Cold War

The transition from communism to democracy in Eastern and Central Europe would not have been possible without the activities of several dissident movements. We will compare two presumably opposite anti-communist dissident circles: the Polish and the East-German oppositions. Indeed, before the collapse of communism in the Eastern block, the oppositional movements in these countries showed many differences. The opposition in East Germany developed slowly and differed profoundly from the Polish one. But after 1989 these two movements made similar mistakes and, ultimately, their fates converged. This paper analyzes their situation and their contacts before 1989, as well their successes and mistakes following the transition. Such problematic as the increasing disappointment of the population in both countries, declining enthusiasm for the economic and social changes taking place, and, in the Polish case, the rising power of the Catholic Church and the complicated situation of women will be discussed, as well as the causes of the missed chance for a real social transformation in Eastern and Central Europe. Still, we should not forget that thanks to the activity of these movements a nonviolent transformation was possible. The truth is that the dissident movements after 1989 succeeded politically but failed socially. The members of “Solidarnosc” and the civic movements in former East Germany were not prepared to deal with all social and political changes after the fall of communism