Search results

Rosa Luxemburg is not an under-consumptionist stressing the tendency to stagnation, it is rather an under-investment perspective: the effective demand crisis results from the disequilibria determined by a vibrant capitalist accumulation, and stems from production rather than circulation. To show this, the chapter deals with three dimensions of Rosa Luxemburg's economic thought. First, how Luxemburg's approach in her 1913 book is related with some of her prior writings, especially Social Reform or Revolution? and the Introduction to Political Economy. Second, the re-reading that Luxemburg herself provided of her own argument in terms of a macro-monetary circuit model like the one we read in her Anti-Critique. Third and last, in which sense Marx's monetary labour theory of value was for her the essential starting point, which cannot be just set aside. This last point will be preceded by a détour, the critical consideration of some key papers by Kalecki on capitalism and reform, including his late paper with Kowalik on the ‘crucial reform’. The chapter concludes with some hints pointing towards an interpretation of capitalism and its recurring crises where exploitation and effective demand are both essential in accounting for the ascent and collapses of different forms of capitalism itself.

The chapter presents a short biography of Kalecki, from his early years in Łódź, through his economics research and development of his theory of business cycles, participation in the Keynesian Revolution and work after the Second World War on the economics of socialism and the developing countries. The key role of capital accumulation (investment) in determining levels of employment and total output is put forward as Kalecki's main innovation. There are evident similarities between Kalecki's theory of the business cycle and that of the Austro-Marxist Emil Lederer, as well as in the distributional analysis of Rudolf Hilferding. Kalecki's analysis of monetary circulation, and the centrality of his theory of profits was anticipated by Rosa Luxemburg in her Anti-Critique. But that monetary theory is rooted in a Marxian understanding of money as a means of settlement between capitalists.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the role of spirituality, understood as a personal relationship with God, in missionary intercultural experience.

We conducted narrative interviews with eight Polish consecrated missionaries in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay. We used thematic analysis to establish spirituality in missionary experience and narrative analysis to examine sensemaking processes.

Missionary spirituality was defined by a personal relationship with God as a source of consolation, psychological comfort, strength to cope with distressing experiences, and Grace promoting self-improvement. It compensated for the lack of family and psychological support and enhanced psychological adjustment to the environment perceived as dangerous. Spirituality helped missionaries deal with cultural challenges, traumatic and life-threatening events. Traumatic experiences furthered their understanding of the mission and triggered a spiritual transition that entailed a change in their life, attitudes and behavior.

Comparative research into religious vs nonreligious individual spirituality in the experience across various types of expats in various locations could capture the professional and cultural specificity of individual spirituality. Research is also needed to link spirituality with expat failure.

Catholic agencies and institutions that dispatch missionaries to dangerous locations should consider providing professional psychological assistance. Narrative interviewing could be used to enhance missionaries' cultural and professional self-awareness, to better serve the local community. Their stories of intercultural encounters could be incorporated into cross-cultural training and the ethical and spiritual formation of students and future expats.

This study captures a spiritual aspect of intercultural experience of under-researched expats. It offers a model of the involvement of individual spirituality in coping in mission.

The combined numerical-experimental approach has been presented. The purpose of this paper is to determine the critical rupture load of the notched components based on the cohesive zone modeling (CZM).

The 42CrMo4 steel (in normalized state) state has been tested and modeled using an eXtended finite element method (xFEM) philosophy with the CZM approach. In order to validate the numerically obtained critical load forces the experimental verification was performed.

The critical loads were determined for various notch configurations. The numerical and experimental values were compared. Based on this, a good agreement between experimental and numerical data is achieved. The relative error does not exceed 7 percent.

The presented procedure and approach is effective and simple for engineering applications. It is worth to underline that the obtained critical load values for notched components require only the static tensile test results and implementation of the presented route in numerical FEM, xFEM environment.

The presented methodology is actual and still developed. The scientific and engineering value of the presented numerical procedure is high.

For almost half a decade, after World War II, capitalism and socialism coexisted on the European continent. Some believed that these systems would converge, with state intervention stabilising capitalism in the west and socialism became more democratic in the east. Michał Kalecki, in his last published article, co-written with Tadeusz Kowalik, wrote about how governments had implemented a crucial reform in the developed capitalist economies. State investment had filled the demand gap, which could potentially result in the long-term mitigation of capitalism's slumps and crises. Tadeusz Kowalik later extended this notion of the crucial reform, to the troubled socialist systems in Eastern Europe during the 1980s. He argued that previous economic reforms had failed in the socialist countries as they had not been accompanied by sufficient democratic political reforms, which needed to be extended in order to fully revitalise the socialist economies. Ultimately the proposals for a crucial reform of capitalism and socialism were not realised and these systems did not converge economically or politically. This chapter examines the theses of Kalecki and Kowalik within the historical and intellectual tradition of Polish socialist and Marxist thought.

The purpose of this study is to examine in what type of scenarios of daily life assistive technology such as the INSENSION system would provide considerable benefit for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD).

A series of focus group workshops were held with relatives of people with PIMD and direct support professionals (DSPs), as well as experts in information and communications technology (ICT). They were oriented towards the design thinking approach and moderated as per the Disney method.

The participants identified transitions from known to unknown caregivers, provision of care during the night and the impact of external factors on a person’s mood as challenging situations within the PIMD context.

Solving these problems would lead to considerable benefits to the affected people. Based on the ideas gathered in workshops, three technological applications for the INSENSION system were derived, i.e. communication application, multimedia player and smart room devices, all of which will provide remedies in specific usage scenarios.

Methods drawing on the participant’s creativity in combination with the workshops’ multi-perspectivity facilitated a direct reference to the daily life of the target group. In this manner, the innovative ICT system INSENSION can be oriented towards the requirements of this vulnerable group.

The purpose of this study is to develop a reconstruction and measurement system for data analysis using ultrasonic transmission tomography. The problem of reconstruction from the projection is encountered in practical implementation, which consists in reconstructing an image that is an estimation of an unknown object from a finite set of projection data. Reconstructive algorithms used in transmission tomography are based on linear mathematical models, which makes it necessary to process non-linear data into estimates for a finite number of projections. The application of transformation methods requires building a mathematical model in which the projection data forming the known and unknown quantities are functions with arguments from a continuous set of real numbers, determining the function describing the unknown quantities sought in the form of inverse relation and adapting it to operate on discrete and noisy data. This was done by designing a tomographic device and proprietary algorithms capable of reconstructing two-dimensional images regardless of the size, shape, location or number of inclusions hidden in the examined object.

The application consists of a device and measuring sensors, as well as proprietary algorithms for image reconstruction. Ultrasonic transmission tomography makes it possible to analyse processes occurring in an object without interfering with the examined object. The proposed solution uses algorithms based on ray integration, the Fermat principle and deterministic methods. Two applications were developed, one based on C and implemented on the embedded device, while the other application was made in Matlab.

Research shows that ultrasonic transmission tomography provides an effective analysis of tested objects in closed tanks.

In the presented technique, the use of ultrasonic absorption wave has been limited. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of such a solution has been confirmed.

The presented solution can be used for research and monitoring of technological processes.

Author’s tomographic system consisting of a measuring system and image reconstruction algorithms.

The purpose of this study is to identify a novel methodology for direct calculation of steady-state periodic solutions for electrical circuits described by nonlinear differential equations, in the time domain.

An iterative algorithm was created to determine periodic steady-state solutions for circuits with nonlinear elements in a chosen set of time instants.

This study found a novel differential operator for periodic functions and its application in the steady-state analysis.

This approach can be extended to the determination of two- or multi-periodic solutions of nonlinear dynamic systems.

The complexity of the steady-state analysis can be reduced in comparison with the frequency-domain approach.

This study identified novel difference equations for direct steady-state analysis of nonlinear electrical circuits.

To identify the properties of novel discrete differential operators of the first- and the second-order for periodic and two-periodic time functions.

The development of relations between the values of first and second derivatives of periodic and two-periodic functions, as well as the values of the functions themselves for a set of time instants. Numerical tests of discrete operators for selected periodic and two-periodic functions.

Novel discrete differential operators for periodic and two-periodic time functions determining their first and the second derivatives at very high accuracy basing on relatively low number of points per highest harmonic.

Reduce the complexity of creation difference equations for ordinary non-linear differential equations used to find periodic or two-periodic solutions, when they exist.

Application to steady-state analysis of non-linear dynamic systems for solutions predicted as periodic or two-periodic in time.

Identify novel discrete differential operators for periodic and two-periodic time functions engaging a large set of time instants that determine the first and second derivatives with very high accuracy.

This paper surveys the intellectual trajectory of the Polish political economist Włodzimierz Brus, who took up the arguments for use of the ‘price mechanism’ in socialism from the pre-War work of Oskar Lange. Brus advanced the idea that a ‘Law of Value’ applied under socialism, which would allow prices and appropriate material incentives to bring the socialist economy into equilibrium. Kalecki, however, opposed the use of cost-minimising incentives, and Brus never fully resolved the problem of how investment is to be guided in a decentralised way. A lively discussion of ‘market socialism’ did not survive the 1960s. In exile from 1972, Brus participated in China's post-Mao discussions on economic reform. But his interest in prices and markets under socialism ceased effectively with the fall of Communism at the end of the 1980s.