321 research outputs found

    Disclosure requirements and their assessment by SMEs traded on alternative markets in Poland (NewConnect) and Germany (m:access)

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    Motivation: Financial access limitations are a main barrier to the development of SMEs. One of the methods of bridging the capital gap is SME access to the stock markets, in particular to an alternative market (MTF). Compared to regulated markets, MTFs offer more liberal entry conditions and in many cases prior to MAR implementation they proposed more liberal disclosure requirements. Aim: The aim of the article is to analyze the disclosure requirements resulting from MAR directive and to test their perception by issuers listed on the alternative markets in Poland (NewConnect) and Germany (m:access). The research focused on the assessment of difficulties in performing disclosure requirements and checking whether there is a difference in perceiving the scale of difficulties in fulfilling disclosure duties in both countries. Results: Analysed markets are subject to MAR, so as a rule, there are no differences in the reporting requirements. There is, however, a difference in perceiving them in both countries. The analysis of German issuers shows that, unlike Polish companies, most of them defined their disclosure obligations as simple. This may result from higher knowledge of the regulations than in Poland. The opinion on disclosure requirements by NewConnect issuers had an impact on the amount of time and human resources devoted to disclosure obligations. The research has also shown that issuers in both markets generally assess well the cooperation with authorized advisers who help them, inter alia, in disclosure obligations

    Smart Kitchens for People with Cognitive Impairments: A Qualitative Study of Design Requirements

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    Individuals with cognitive impairments currently leverage extensive human resources during their transitions from assisted living to independent living. In Western Europe, many government-supported volunteer organizations provide sheltered living facilities; supervised environments in which people with cognitive impairments collaboratively learn daily living skills. In this paper, we describe communal cooking practices in sheltered living facilities and identify opportunities for supporting these with interactive technology to reduce volunteer workload. We conducted two contextual observations of twelve people with cognitive impairments cooking in sheltered living facilities and supplemented this data through interviews with four employees and volunteers who supervise them. Through thematic analysis, we identified four themes to inform design requirements for communal cooking activities: Work organization, community, supervision, and practicalities. Based on these, we present five design implications for assistive systems in kitchens for people with cognitive deficiencies

    The Development and Validation of the Technology-Supported Reflection Inventory

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    Reflection is an often addressed design goal in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. An increasing number of artefacts for reflection have been developed in recent years. However, evaluating if and how an interactive technology helps a user reflect is still complex. This makes it difficult to compare artefacts (or prototypes) for reflection, impeding future design efforts. To address this issue, we developed the \emph{Technology-Supported Reflection Inventory} (TSRI), which is a scale that evaluates how effectively a system supports reflection. We first created a list of possible scale items based on past work in defining reflection. The items were then reviewed by experts. Next, we performed exploratory factor analysis to reduce the scale to its final length of nine items. Subsequently, we confirmed test-retest validity of our instrument, as well as its construct validity. The TSRI enables researchers and practitioners to compare prototypes designed to support reflection.Comment: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21), May 8--13, 2021, Yokohama, Japa

    Unveiling the optical properties of a metamaterial synthesized by electron-beam-induced deposition

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    The direct writing using a focused electron beam allows for fabricating truly three-dimensional structures of sub-wavelength dimensions in the visible spectral regime. The resulting sophisticated geometries are perfectly suited for studying light-matter interaction at the nanoscale. Their overall optical response will strongly depend not only on geometry but also on the optical properties of the deposited material. In case of the typically used metal-organic precursors, the deposits show a substructure of metallic nanocrystals embedded in a carbonaceous matrix. Since gold-containing precursor media are especially interesting for optical applications, we experimentally determine the effective permittivity of such an effective material. Our experiment is based on spectroscopic measurements of planar deposits. The retrieved permittivity shows a systematic dependence on the gold particle density and cannot be sufficiently described using the common Maxwell-Garnett approach for effective medium.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
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