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It is shown that location of objects (in the field of vision of “robot's eye”) with simple centre of gravity method (proposed by some authors) leads to severe errors in positioning. In the paper detailed quantitative analysis of two main types of these errors is carried out, as well as some methods of decreasing them are proposed, as applied in application programs for the computer image processing system CPO‐2.

The purpose of this paper is to determine an extension of the MIN and MAX general analytical expression for triangular fuzzy intervals to trapezoidal ones when Zadeh's extension principle is considered.

In order to determine the MIN and MAX analytical expressions, the paper exhibits the conventional interval relations and their extension in fuzzy case where trapezoidal fuzzy intervals are assumed. The formalization and the justification of the so‐built analytical expressions are then detailed where mathematical mappings are proposed. The potential use of these operators in the framework of uncertain aggregation operators and ranking fuzzy intervals is shown with illustrative examples.

It is discovered that the MIN and MAX operations for fuzzy intervals can be formulated by a general analytical form.

The proposed methodology can be directly applied for ranking fuzzy intervals and implementing a large class of uncertain aggregation operators, especially for two‐additive Choquet integral.

The originality of the proposed technique resides in exploiting the interval relations between supports and kernels to express a general and compact analytical MIN and MAX expressions for fuzzy intervals.

Discrimination against the elderly people is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. Despite the obvious fact of the aging of societies, everlasting youth, fitness, and thus usefulness of a person are promoted. Discrimination also extends to the field of healthcare. It can be concluded that a sick and weak person is more exposed to it. Manifestations of such behaviors are regulations that do not give equal rights to all age groups and limit access to selected services for the elderly people. Such actions also include the attitudes of the medical staff, which, often imbued with stereotypes about old age, approaches the elderly patient with disregard.

The aim of this chapter is to show the problem of discrimination against elderly patients in the Polish healthcare system, and to indicate possible measures to improve the situation of such people. An attempt will also be made to answer the question about the causes of discriminatory behavior. On the one hand, it is connected with the attitude of the medical personnel, who often treat such patients with superiority. On the other hand, the cause of limited access to some treatments and medical procedures are systemic solutions. Systemic solutions cause that such patients have limited access to some treatments and medical procedures. It is important to consider how these two issues are related. Do social attitudes, stereotypes, influence regulations, or regulations limiting the rights of the elderly cause a change in the reactions of medical staff? To answer this question, an appropriate solution can be proposed. Should the actions fighting discrimination be actions aimed at changing legal regulations or should the burden be shifted to education and social campaigns?

The purpose of this study is to capture the perception of the IT support service practitioners regarding the applicability of the lean practices and prioritize them after analyzing the gaps with respect to current usage and importance from practitioners’ perspective.

It involved development of an instrument to capture the perceptions of the IT support service practitioners. The data collected was quantitatively analyzed by using statistical techniques and it involved testing of the hypotheses.

The study conducted a gap analysis on the perceived current usage of the lean practices versus the perceived ideal usages of the lean practices from practitioners’ perspective. The gap analysis report revealed that gaps of all practices are not same from the practitioners’ viewpoint. This gap analysis was useful for prioritizing of the practices and resource allocation.

This study was conducted in a relatively new domain, where mature empirically based studies are scarce. This study set out to determine the practitioners’ perception of the applicability of lean practices in IT support service organizations. It provides a sound basis for further research on lean implementation in IT support service area.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems provide a comprehensive way to understand the complexity of sport entrepreneurship. Due to the competitiveness inherent in the sport system taking a biological metaphor to understand the development of entrepreneurship is useful. This is helpful in understanding the way diverse entities in the sport industry interact in terms of pursuing entrepreneurial activity. As there are various entities in sport, it helps to take an ecosystem point of view in terms of how they interact. This chapter focuses on how an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective of sport entrepreneurship is needed to understand the role of stakeholders in the sport industry. Thereby linking the literature on practice theory with entrepreneurship and more specifically entrepreneurial ecosystems.

This study aims to examine the effect of Saudi bank’s financial stability on risk management.

Different ordinary least square models have been used to study the significant effect of banks’ financial stability indicators on different types of risks in Saudi banks. Financial statements were collected of all Saudi banks (12 banks) from 2011 to 2014 from TADAWL website.

The results indicate a negative and significant effect of capital adequacy ratio on credit risk. Also, there is a significant and positive effect of leverage ratio on credit risk. Moreover, the results indicate negative and significant effect of provisions, leverage, ratio of loans to deposits and bank size on liquidity risk. Finally, results indicate a positive and significant effect of capital adequacy, provisions, leverage and asset utilization ratio on operational risk and indicate a negative and significant effect of loan-to-deposits ratio on operational risk. A robustness check was used to confirm the results. No differences between small and large Saudi banks was found. All banks are committed to apply Basel accord and Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) regulations. But there is a significant difference in applying SAMA toolkits regulations between 2011 and 2014. The 2014 results reflect very high degree of financial stability in Saudi banks when compared with that of 2011, also greater ability to mitigate risk exposure using different types of macroprudential toolkits stated by SAMA.

The study is limited to Saudi Banks from 2011 to 2014.

This is the first paper to use the macroprudential toolkits, suggested by SAMA as financial stability measurements, to examine their effect on different types of risks in Saudi banks. SAMA suggested this group of toolkits to comply with Basel III new regulations and to minimize the degree of risk exposure of Saudi banks.

This paper aims to the problem of building an environment to support scientific research in connection with the development of Open Science in Ukraine.

An overview of modern portals for aggregating scientific data was conducted. Analysis of available tools and identifying problems that arise when collecting data from digital libraries and journals was conducted. The validity of choosing VuFind as a tool that allows building an extraction–transformation–loading (ETL) approach for data aggregation and bringing the format and values of metadata fields to one view was experimentally verified.

During the experimental verification, problems related to the fact that the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) protocol does not have strict requirements for the data structure, which lead to the complexity of integration, despite the fact that this protocol occupied a leading position, were noted. To simplify these problems, an ETL approach that allowed for the use of ontological methods (e.g. data mapping, linked data and dictionaries to improve the semantics of data for integration processes) was considered. A review of the possibilities of modern tools for OAI-PMH integration, which were actively supported and developed, was conducted.

This paper was an attempt to outline the problems that arose in integrating resources, with the aim of developing future integration protocols that would have simple means of semantic data validation and built-in ETL mechanism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelations between the evolution of industrial relations (IR) and IR research in Poland in the historical context. Two questions are put forward: How was the evolution of the IR system in Poland influenced by the re-constitution of a particular model of the capitalism and the strategies and struggle of IR actors? How were the ways of approaching and theorizing IR influenced by the aforementioned evolution?

The paper draws upon academic literature, secondary data on actors and processes of IR as well as four expert interviews with the representatives of the first generation of IR scholars in Poland.

The paper suggests that the development of the IR system and the related scholarship can be divided into three phases: the pre-1989 period characterised by the lack of autonomous interests representation and rather limited IR research; the early development of the post-1989 IR system marked by the debates on the integrative role of IR as peacekeeping mechanism in the period of deep economic and political changes (1989-2004); the post-EU accession consolidation of the IR system characterised by the weakness of the IR actors vis-à-vis the state and increasing neo-etatist tendencies.

This paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the relationships between the emergent models of Eastern European capitalism and the evolution of IR systems. It critically analyses the state of the discussion on the IR field Poland emphasising the relevance of political-economic factors as well as the ideology of “social peace” for both the evolution of the IR system in the country and the state of the IR debate.

This paper aims to determine why so many banks do not recognize in a timely manner the inherent risks and imbalances with their risk/reward decision trade-offs, to elevate the risk conversation by embracing a more strategic and adaptive behavioral perspective and to show how an effective risk management organizational mindset is a definite solution for mitigating risk.

A direct-mail questionnaire survey was designed with the unit of analysis US community bank (under US$1.5bn in assets) and its risk performance. We used quantitative methods using previously tested scales for main constructs and FDIC bank data for performance measures. To gauge the models capacity for determining discriminatory value, results were also measured against relative peer financial performance.

The findings established that an effective risk management process that assimilates risk tolerance, risk propensity and risk practices into a managerial mindset offers a sound solution for mitigating risk. By envisioning risk as a “conceptual model of thinking” and interpreting it as a “predictable business process”, and by offering specific “decision enablers” that complement the corporate mindset, it creates a safety net against unsafe risk practices. As a result, it allows for an appreciation that current financial performance is a direct measure of management’s risk decision capabilities.

The sample size (n = 151), although adequate for our purpose was relatively small, was restricted to US community banks (less than US$1.5bn in assets) and single-informants (CEOs), thereby providing a somewhat narrow focus. Also, the survey was conducted during a slow economic period, and results may be different during a growth period. We see ripe opportunity for further research, especially related to money-center and regional banks and the next level of management as well as the behavioral influences that frame the risk/reward opportunity. Research on other industries, small businesses, etc., would be valuable because risk permeates all decisioning.

From a practitioner perspective, providing guidance on risk oversight allows for improved financial performance. The findings should be of interest to financial industry leaders, policy makers and regulators as understanding how an active orientation of risk tolerance, risk propensity and risk practices are coordinated across the organization is vital. Also, managers need to understand how characteristics of risk management manifest itself within their organization in terms of productivity and financial performance.

This paper is the first comprehensive empirical study that incorporates a conceptual approach that uses outcome history, behavioral influences and operational dimensions to identify risk management capabilities in community banks designed to increase risk/reward awareness.