Direct and Indirect Complementarity between Workplace Reorganization and New Technology

We link survey and balance sheet data to investigate the extent of complementarity between the introduction of new technology and changes in workplace practices. Across all firms, we find that new technology is complementary with higher work intensity. Similarly, changes in work techniques yield diffuse complementarity gains, particularly in firms undergoing extensive restructuring. Changes in work organization yield, on average, complementarity gains in terms of productivity growth. Substitutability between new technology and specific workplace changes is sometimes found, consistently with the presence of costs associated to learning functions or resistance to changes.workplace practices, ICT investments, complementarity.

VizRank: Data Visualization Guided by Machine Learning

Data visualization plays a crucial role in identifying interesting patterns in exploratory data analysis. Its use is, however, made difficult by the large number of possible data projections showing different attribute subsets that must be evaluated by the data analyst. In this paper, we introduce a method called VizRank, which is applied on classified data to automatically select the most useful data projections. VizRank can be used with any visualization method that maps attribute values to points in a two-dimensional visualization space. It assesses possible data projections and ranks them by their ability to visually discriminate between classes. The quality of class separation is estimated by computing the predictive accuracy of k-nearest neighbor classifier on the data set consisting of x and y positions of the projected data points and their class information. The paper introduces the method and presents experimental results which show that VizRank's ranking of projections highly agrees with subjective rankings by data analysts. The practical use of VizRank is also demonstrated by an application in the field of functional genomics

Using Facebook for Image Steganography

Because Facebook is available on hundreds of millions of desktop and mobile computing platforms around the world and because it is available on many different kinds of platforms (from desktops and laptops running Windows, Unix, or OS X to hand held devices running iOS, Android, or Windows Phone), it would seem to be the perfect place to conduct steganography. On Facebook, information hidden in image files will be further obscured within the millions of pictures and other images posted and transmitted daily. Facebook is known to alter and compress uploaded images so they use minimum space and bandwidth when displayed on Facebook pages. The compression process generally disrupts attempts to use Facebook for image steganography. This paper explores a method to minimize the disruption so JPEG images can be used as steganography carriers on Facebook.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to Fourth International Workshop on Cyber Crime (IWCC 2015), co-located with 10th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2015), Toulouse, France, 24-28 August 201

Genethliacon Barbarae Bogołębskiej, czyli o potrzebie świętowania urodzin i jubileuszy

W najpopularniejszych polskich słownikach terminów literackich, które opisują nawet gatunki dawno wymarłe i jednostkowe np. dramatu japońskiego czy indyjskiego, nie ma podstawowych informacji o gatunku obecnym w literaturze europejskiej (i nie tylko) przez co najmniej 23 wieki aż po dziś dzień. Genethliakon jest gatunkiem potwierdzonym od czasów Kallimacha (III w. p.n.e), który uświetnia narodziny lub rocznicę urodzin; czasami o charakterze lirycznym, dramatycznym lub retorycznym, obecnie nadal uprawianym w wielu językach świata (zgodnie z prastarą tradycją również po łacinie). Artykuł opisuje zarys rozwoju tego gatunku w tradycji europejskiej. Pierwsze piosenki urodzinowe, najczęściej odwołując się do konotacji Apollińskich, łączyły narodziny człowieka ze światłem i poezją. Co jest szczególnie interesujące, podstawowe cechy „genów” genethliakonu nie uległy w ciągu wieków znaczącym zmianom. Świętowanie narodzin, rocznic lub innych jubileuszy wciąż kojarzy się z życzeniami, ofiarowaniem prezentów, w tym tworzonej na tę okoliczność poezji. Być może warto zachować tak piękne tradycje, dając komuś taki samodzielnie napisany genethliakon jak np. ... Genetliacon Barbarae Bogołębskae dedicatum.The majority of popular Polish dictionaries of literary terms, which define even long-extinct and specific genres, ex. Japanese or Indian drama, probably do not contain any basic information on the genre, appearing in European (and not only) literature for at least 23 centuries until this day. Genethliakon is a confirmed genre since the times of Kallimach (3rd century B.C.), which honors the birth or anniversary of birth, sometimes of a lyrical, dramatized or rhetoric-epic nature. Nowadays, it is still cultivated in many languages of the world (also in Latin, accordingly to its tradition). This article shows progression of this genre in the European tradition. First birthday songs (most often by recalling the Apollonian connotations), connected the birth of man with light and poetry. What is particularly interesting, the basic features of genethliacon’s „genes” have not undergone significant changes over the centuries. Celebrating birth, anniversaries or other jubilees is still associated with wishes, offering gifts – including the creation of poetry. Perhaps such beautiful tradition is worth maintaining by giving someone a self-written song like… Genetliacon Barbarae Bogołębskae dedicatum

"Partisans and Chetniks in occupied Yugoslavia" by Heather Williams – A Commentary by Gaj Trifković

Being a historian of the region, I naturally welcomed the publishing of The Routledge Handbook of Balkan and Southeast European History in October 2020 (for more information on this edited volume see https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge- Handbook-of-Balkan-and-Southeast-European-History/Lampe-Brunnbauer/p/ book/9781138613089). Whereas the vast majority of the contributions contained in the volume fall outside my area of expertise, I feel there are a number of points in Heather Williams’ piece „Partisans And Chetniks in occupied Yugoslavia“ that need to be addressed in some detail

The scientific relevance of an individual factor needs more than a case presentation

Recently on this journal, Alaqeel and Assalian reported a successful psychodynamic interpretation at the very beginning of a treatment of a 22-year-old male suffering from sexual dysfunction. In the critical analysis of the essay, Trafimow maintains that several alternative explanations can be detected in order to account for Alaqeel and Assalian’s positive outcomes

Comparison of sevoflurane and propofol anaesthetic regimes in respect to the release of troponin I and cystatin C in off-pump myocardial revascularisation: a randomised controlled trial

Objective. Sevoflurane has been used in cardiac surgery because of its protective effects on the myocardium from ischaemic injury. We wanted to test the hypothesis that sevoflurane has beneficial effects on the heart and kidneys in comparison to propofol. Methods. We conducted a randomised controlled study, with balanced randomization blocked by sex. The participants were 62 patients undergoing off-pump myocardial revascularization (44 men and 18 women), who did not have a myocardial infarction less than 24 hours before the start of the operation and who had normal serum values of troponin I preoperatively. The surgery and the measurements were conducted according to the same protocol for both groups. Propofol was used for the induction of anaesthesia in both groups; anaesthesia was continued with either propofol or sevoflurane. Troponin I and cystatin C plasma concentrations were determined in eight consecutive blood samples, starting before induction of anaesthesia and ending 48 hours after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). The data were log-transformed and analysed using analysis of variance. Results. We observed a clear and highly statistically significant effect of time for troponin I (p<0.001) without statistically significant differences between the groups (either main or interaction effects). For the majority of patients, the measurements rose quickly upon reperfusion and reached a peak 12 hours after admission to the ICU, descending approximately back to the reperfusion level 48 hours after admission to the ICU. Similar inferences were reached for cystatin C, for which the time-course was approximately bath-shaped. Conclusion. We observed no clear superiority of either sevoflurane or propofol anaesthetic regime in off-pump myocardial revascularisation