The study aims at showing the organizational and task-oriented aspects of competency in local government units. Within the theoretical part the authors deal with issues related to the organization of promotional activities and the impact of marketing communication on local development. In the research part the results of the analysis of organizational rules of county authorities and municipal authorities with county rights of the Lodz region were presented, displaying some practical ways to organize promotional activities. Common types of organizational units appointed in order to conduct promotions, their place in the structure of offices and the scope of their assigned competence were investigated. Among the units covered by the study there were in particular those responsible for marketing communication. Units of local government assign promotional competencies to organizational units resulting from the regulations of the law or the specifics of marketing communications. For all those activities that are not mandatory, significant differences which stem from having more discretionary powers of local governments can be observed, as well as the possibility of impact related to the level of development of a given unit. These possibilities are related to the type of unit (rural district, a town with a county status) population size and the level of income per capita. Only such units that achieve a high level of development can use a relatively broad and versatile range of tasks and promotional competencies.
The second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy is an important element of support for Polish rural areas, due to the need to improve the competitiveness of agricultural producers, to transform the employment structure, to boost infrastructure development and to implement tasks related to the protection of the environment. Thus, the size of the funds of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) for 2014–2020 and their allocation to different tasks is essential for the future of rural areas. The aim of the article was to evaluate the RDP for 2014–2020 from the point of view of the potential economic consequences of its implementation. This rating was made in two areas: the budget, and the construction of selected activities. Data on the budget and the allocation of funds in the new financial period indicate that the RDP limits expenditures on some of the objectives, primarily related to infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The priority actions are, however, pro-investment and modernization, and improving the position of farmers in the food chain. There are also programs of a social nature, aimed at small farms and activities with low added value (e.g. less favored areas, or LFA). Reducing the budget of the RDP forced implementation of some solutions, e.g. degressive payments and limits on the area and economic size of farms; thereby both the smallest and larger farms could be excluded from part of the support.
Verbal phonological and semantic fluencies were investigated in 24 patients with unilateral prefrontal lesions and 10 normal control subjects. Lesions were limited to small areas within either the dorsolateral (Brodmann's area 46/9) or ventromedial (posterior part of the gyrus rectus) cortices. In a phonological fluency task, patients with lesions to the left dorsolateral region were impaired. In semantic fluency, not only the left dorsolateral group but also the two right frontal damaged groups performed worse than the control group. In agreement with previous studies, our results show that the phonological fluency is mediated by the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast to this, performance on the semantic fluency task depends on a wider portion of the prefrontal cortex involving the left and right dorsolateral and the right ventromedial areas.
Objectives. The airborne contaminant exposure levels experienced by poultry farmers have raised concerns about the possible health hazards associated with them. Thus, a longitudinal project was instituted in France to monitor these exposures in poultry workers and to evaluate the long-term effect on health. Method. Sixty-three workers in two different poultry housing systems were included (33 from floor-based systems and 30 from cage-based systems). Personal dust concentrations (over 2 days) and activity patterns (over 14 days) were collected and then modeled to obtain average long-term estimates. Health data were collected by questionnaire. Results. The mean daily time spent in the cage system was more than 2 hours longer than in the floor system. Two main common tasks accounted for ~70% of this time. Dust concentrations were higher in the floor system than in the cage system. The concentrations for the 14 days of known activity patterns estimated using the statistical model agreed well with the measured values. Several chronic respiratory symptoms were significantly associated with the high levels of long-term exposure estimated by the model. The highest risk was for chronic bronchitis symptoms (>4-fold higher for exposures of 0.1 mg/m3 of respirable dust). Conclusion. The presented modeling strategy can be used to estimate the long-term average personal exposure to respirable dust, and to study the association between dust exposure and chronic respiratory symptoms. This population of workers will be followed-up in subsequent examinations (3 years later) to determine whether the predictive model is valid, and whether long-term dust exposure is related to the incidence of respiratory symptoms and changes in pulmonary functions.
Recognizing objects from the past is a vitally important ability for everyday live. The studies of brain mechanisms responsible for visual recognition memory suggest that the modulation of single unit activity in the inferotemporal and perirhinal cortices could be an important part of the neuronal substrate of recognition memory. In this review, I will describe Stimulus Specific Adaptation (SSA) - the reduction in neuronal response to previously viewed objects. The experimental tasks in which SSA is observed will be presented, along with the possibility that SSA may be enhanced by saccadic exploration of visual scene. Next, I will demonstrate that under special circumstances (partially split-brain preparation) monkeys could recognize the re-presentation of visual images without the concomitant appearance of SSA. The most promising alternative candidate for neuronal mechanism involved in recognition memory is delay activity - an increased frequency of cell firing in the time between the initial presentation of an image and its subsequent re-presentation. In order to determine if delay activity is important for recognition we have started to investigate the effects on recognition memory of disrupting delay activity by electrical stimulation. Preliminary results indicate a positive correlation between a reduction in delay activity and a decrease in recognition performance.