Consumer‘s behaviour regarding cashless payments during the Covid-19 pandemic

PURPOSE: The objective of the paper was to define the current attitudes of Poles vs. cashless transactions and their perception of the related risk of Covid-19 infection.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The research method involved a survey, and the research tool was a survey questionnaire distributed by a research agency. The target-amount selection procedure was applied and the sample structure corresponds to the structure of the Polish population with respect to the studied features. The survey sample included 1000 respondents.FINDINGS: The studied population (of Polish consumers) were less willing to pay with cash during the pandemic than beforehand. This is related with avoiding contact with cash, as well as easy documentation of transactions, increasing their transparency. During the pandemic Polish consumers were more willing to shop at Polish online shops or retail services (e.g. Allegro) than foreign ones (e.g., AliExpress). However, the study shows that Polish customers are more cautious in their shopping decisions during the pandemic, being afraid to lose financial liquidity.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The pandemic led to landslide changes in consumer behaviours and habits. Identification of the current shape of Polish customers’ attitudes to cashless transactions and their perception of the associated risk of Covid-19 infection is important for all market entities related directly or indirectly to such transactions. Nowadays, it is difficult to even think of a business with no such needs.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study presented in the paper is original because there was no research on cashless payments in relation to shopping risk. The article displays an original approach to the subject. The 2020 pandemic itself allows for observation of customers in a completely new situation and development of an entirely new area of consumer behaviour research.peer-reviewe

Brazilian model of economy – from neoliberalism to third way

Brazylia jest przykładem kraju, który w ciągu dwóch dekad zupełnie zmienił spojrzenie na rolę państwa w kształtowaniu polityki gospodarczej. W latach 90. XX w. rządzący starali się wprowadzać reformy rynkowe zgodnie z zasadami konsensusu waszyngtońskiego. Dziesięć lat później zasady wolnego rynku zostały połączone z aktywną działalnością państwa. W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono zmiany, jakie dokonały się w systemie społeczno- gospodarczym Brazylii, a także scharakteryzowano działania podejmowane przez państwo od początku lat 90. XX w. aż do końca prezydentury Luiza Inácio Luli da Silvy. W opracowaniu zaprezentowano również przyczyny zmiany sposobu prowadzenia polityki gospodarczej.Brazil is an interesting example of a country that has changed its view of the role of the state in creating economic policy in last two decades. In the 1990s, the rulers tried to introduce market reforms in accordance with principles of the Washington Consensus. Ten years later, principles of the free market were combined with the active activity of the state. This article presents changes that have taken place in the socioeconomic system of Brazil and characterized actions taken by the state from the beginning of the 1990s until the end of the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The following considerations also present reasons for changing the way of conducting economic policy

The state’s role in the formation of an economic policy according to the Cambridge school

Aktywność gospodarcza państwa niezmiennie wzbudza wiele kontrowersji. Jest to wciąż ważny i aktualny temat. W artykule został przeanalizowany wkład A. Marshalla i A.C. Pigou w tę dyskusję. Ekonomiści ci, jako przedstawiciele neoklasycznego nurtu szkoły z Cambridge, nawiązują do dorobku naukowego klasyków. Mimo to, nie popierają bezwzględnie braku zaangażowania państwa w politykę gospodarczą, dopuszczając interwencje państwa w przypadku, gdy zawodzi rynek.The economic activity of a state is invariably a controversial issue. It is still an important and a current topic. This article presents an analysis of a contribution of A. Marshall and A.C. Pigou to this topic. The said economists, as representatives of a neoclassical movement of Cambridge School, hark back to scientific ideas of classical thinkers. However, they do not stand for the lack of the state’s engagement in an economic policy, they accept state interventionism when the market fails

The motives of reverse acquisitions and rules of their settlement

W ostatnich latach coraz częściej w procesach koncentracji kapitału mówimy o przejęciach odwrotnych. Sytuacje te związane są z wykorzystaniem pewnych przywilejów ekonomicznych, podatkowych i innych przez spółki będące często inicjatorem takiego przedsięwzięcia. Celem artykułu jest między innymi przedstawienie przesłanek, jakimi kierują się podmioty gospodarcze podejmując decyzje o przeprowadzeniu przejęcia odwrotnego (reverse acquisitions). Jest to proces, w którym występuje specyficzny rodzaj przejęcia kontroli nad jedną jednostką przez inną jednostkę. W tych przypadkach następuje odwrócenie typowych relacji między podmiotami uczestniczącymi w procesie połączenia, gdyż przedmiotem przejęcia stają się jednostki posiadające kontrolę nad jednostkami, które je przejmują. Bardzo ważną rolę w rozliczaniu tych procesów mają regulacje Międzynarodowego Standardu Sprawozdawczości Finansowej (MSSF) nr 3 „Połączenia jednostekˮ. Pozwalają one na właściwe ujęcie tych relacji. Autorki opierając się na przykładach liczbowych przedstawiły zasady rozliczania takiego połączenia. Tym samym potwierdziły rolę rachunkowości, która realizuje zasadę wiernego i rzetelnego przedstawienia tego procesu. Zastosowana analiza literatury i regulacji prawnych oraz wnioskowanie dedukcyjne pozwoliły na wskazanie najważniejszych motywów tego typu połączeń.In recent years, there has been increasing talk about reverse acquisitions in capital concentration processes. These situations are associated with the use of certain economic, tax, and other privileges by companies that are often the initiator of such undertakings. The purpose of the article is, among others, to present the premises that guide economic entities when making decisions about reverse acquisitions. It is a process in which there is a specific type of acquisition of control of one entity by another. In these cases, there is a reversal of typical relationships between entities involved in the merger, because the entities that have control over the entities that acquire them are taken over. The regulations of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) No. 3 "Business Combinations" have a very important role in accounting for these processes. They allow for the proper recognition of these relationships. Based on numerical examples, the authors present the rules for accounting for such a combination. Thus, they confirm the role of accounting, which implements the principle of faithful and reliable presentation of this process. A critical analysis of the literature and legal regulations, as well as deductive reasoning, made it possible to determine the most important motives of this type of connection

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) as a new method of signal obtainment in magnetic resonance molecular imaging in clinical and research practice

The work describes the physical basis of the chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) technique; it presents the beginnings of the implementation of the method and its possible applications. The principles of correct data acquisition and possible solutions used during the design of the CEST sequence are shown. The main problems related to data analysis are indicated, and an example Z-spectrum from in vivo study of the rat brain is introduced. Furthermore, the parameters related to spectrum analyses such as magnetisation transfer asymmetry (MTRasym) and amide proton transfer asymmetry (APTasym) are presented. In the following part, different types of the CEST method often mentioned in the literature are discussed. Subsequently, the possible applications of the CEST method in both clinical and experimental practice are described

Physical activity reduces anxiety and regulates brain fatty acid synthesis

Physical activity impacts brain functions, but the direct mechanisms of this effect are not fully recognized or understood. Among multidimensional changes induced by physical activity, brain fatty acids (FA) appear to play an important role; however, the knowledge in this area is particularly scarce. Here we performed global metabolomics profiling of the hippocampus and the frontal cortex (FC) in a model of voluntary running in mice. Examined brain structures responded differentially to physical activity. Specifically, the markers of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle were downregulated in the FC, whereas glycolysis was enhanced in the hippocampus. Physical activity stimulated production of myristic, palmitic and stearic FA; i.e., the primary end products of de novo lipogenesis in the brain, which was accompanied by increased expression of hippocampal fatty acid synthase (FASN), suggesting stimulation of lipid synthesis. The changes in the brain fatty acid profile were associated with reduced anxiety level in the running mice. Overall, the study examines exercise-related metabolic changes in the brain and links them to behavioral outcomes

Aberrant Structural Network Architecture in Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy. Minimum Spanning Tree Graph Analysis Application into Diffusion 7T MRI

•Brain structural network in the LHON is less centralized with path-like organization•Prominent network hubs in LHON participants occurred to be within the basal ganglia•Global network measures in LHON subjects change with the disease’s progression•Optic chiasm nodal parameters connect with clinical data of LHON subjects Examining individuals with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) provides a rare opportunity to understand how changes in mitochondrial DNA and loss of vision can be related to changes in organization of the whole-brain structural network architecture. In comparison with the previous neuroimaging studies with LHON participants, which were focused mainly on analyzing changes which occur in different areas of the patient’s brain, network analysis not only makes it possible to observe single white matter fibers’ aberrations but also the whole-brain nature of these changes. The purpose of our study was to better understand whole-brain neural network changes in LHON participants and see the correlation between the clinical data and the changes. To achieve this, we examined fifteen LHON patients and seventeen age-matched healthy subjects with the usage of ultra-high filed 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Basing on the analysis on MRI diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, whole-brain structural neural networks were reconstructed with the use of the minimum spanning tree algorithm (MST) for every participant. Our results revealed that the structural network in LHON participants was altered at both the local and the global level. The global network structures of LHON subjects were less centralized with path-like organization and there was an imbalance in the main hub centrality. Moreover, the inspection of nodes and hubs in terms of their anatomical placement revealed that in the LHON participants the prominent hubs were located within the basal ganglia (i.e. bilateral caudate, left pallidum), which differed them from healthy controls. An analysis of the relationships between the global MST metrics and LHON participants’ clinical characteristics revealed significant correlations between the global network metrics and the duration of illness. Furthermore, the nodal parameters of the optic chiasm were significantly correlated with the duration of illness and the averaged thickness of the right retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL). These findings clearly showed that the progression of the disease is accompanied by alterations within the brain network structure and its efficiency