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Territorial changes in Greece and postage stamps. A case of applied international law since 1830
No full textSince its foundation, in 1830, and up until 1947, the Greek stateexpanded dramatically. Greek borders often remained secure andstable, yet there were times were marked with failure of sovereignty.Expansion, in relation to the state’s national integrationand homogenization agendas, created new zones of contact andnovel relations at the borderlines of each new territorial area,namely those belonging to Greece and her neighbors. This articleattempts to offer a taxonomy of the changes of the Greek territorialsovereignty and the political exertion of power with territorialcharacteristics and envisages to shed light on the bonds betweenpolitical power and territory. Postage stamps can be seen as evidence-markers of the genealogy of the territorial changes inGreece, based on the violent or peaceful ways of acquiring land,the occupation of Greek territory or failure thereof, non-statepower, the occupation of foreign territories, the Greek militarypresence abroad or the foreign military presence in Greece.22222524
The Impact of Brand Awareness and Country of Origin in the Advertising Effectiveness of Greek Food Products in the United Kingdom: The Case of Greek Yogurt
No full textThe present study aims to investigate the country-of-origin effect and the branding process on the brand equity of Greek yogurt abroad, specifically in the United Kingdom. The research was carried out as a 2 × 2 experiment using a closed-ended questionnaire with the participation of a total of 400 consumers, using two Greek yogurts (branded and non-branded) as the product under study, with or without country-of-origin insignia (viz. the Greek flag) on the packaging. According to the research results, brand equity was found to be higher for the branded Greek yogurt with country-of-origin insignia among the four product categories, as reflected in its three sub-dimensions (brand awareness, loyalty, and perceived quality). It was also found that country of origin influences brand equity regardless of branding, a finding that confirms the significant effect of this factor on consumers’ perceptions. This highlights the distinction between perceived quality and the specific image of the country in terms of its production experience for a specific product category. Based on these findings, Greek yogurt companies exporting abroad should lay great emphasis on developing branding strategies to strengthen their product brand, while at the same time incorporate country of origin as an indicator of the quality of their brand. The latter finding applies in particular to less well-known brands, since geographical indication (insignia) or other strategies that promote the country of origin are perceived as important informational cues for consumers.1124401
The impact of margin trading and short selling on the investment-to-price sensitivity. Evidence from China
No full textEmploying a database of seven successive short-selling and margin trading ban lifts in the Chinese stock markets during the period 2010–2020, I investigate the impact of leveraged trading transactions on the investment-to-price sensitivity. I also examine whether stock liquidity and institutional shareholdings affect the investment sensitivity subsequent to the lift of short-selling and margin trading constraints. The results from the panel data regression analysis show that lifting bans lead to less corporate investment and a decrease of the investment-to-price sensitivity between 0.29% and 0.44%. Moreover, the regression results reveal that the investment-to-price sensitivity is stronger for more liquid stocks, while the proportion of institutional shareholdings does not affect significantly the corporate investment sensitivity.8410241
The Use of Educational Games in Programming Assignments: SQL Island as a Case Study
No full textEducational games have attracted the interest of instructors and researchers in various fields of knowledge since they seem to motivate students, engage them in the educational process, and improve their performance. Computer programming is, without a doubt, cognitively demanding, and this has resulted in extended utilization of educational games. An important limitation of the relevant research lies in the fact that it is based on volunteer participants, while it is carried out as a side activity in programming courses and not in real-world course settings. In this article, a study investigating the utilization of the educational game SQL Island in the context of an assignment on the Structured Query Language (SQL) in a compulsory undergraduate course on Web programming is presented. Fifty-six students attending the course evaluated the player experience and perceived short-term learning through a questionnaire based on the MEEGA+ model for evaluating educationalgames targeted to computing education. The results both on player experience and perceived shorttermlearning were rather positive. Students’ performance in the programming tasks of the game was very good, and the overall intervention proved to be effective. Moreover, conclusions were drawn on the constituent features of educational games that can be effectively used in the context of programming assignments.1213656
Towards an event-centric knowledge graph approach for public administration
No full textPublic administrations (PA) around the globe produce and handle a vast amount of data that are mainly the outcome of interactions of end-users. By evaluating the focus of PA one finds that most interactions involve only a few core entities such as the citizen or business. Usually, this information involving the core entities are scattered in numerous siloed databases developed by different departments and divisions, thus hindering PA to provide a comprehensive overview of their core entities and their interactions. Recently, knowledge graphs have been proposed for structuring large collections of data in a meaningful way, however they tend to represent a static state of the world and do not focus on the dynamics and changes over time. To address this, a new approach of event-centric knowledge graphs has been introduced that captures the dynamics of knowledge considering events as first-class entities for knowledge representation. The aim of this paper is to apply an event-centric knowledge graph approach for a holistic data governance of all data repositories in PA which models all interactions of PA related actors. We anticipate that the proposed approach will also facilitate PAs to adopt a data-centic orientation that can facilitate ubiquitous AI and data analytics.25322022 IEEE 24th Conference on Business Informatics (CBI
Using data envelopment analysis in markovian decision making
No full textThis paper introduces a modelling framework which combines Data Envelopment Analysis and Markov Chains into an integrated decision aid. Markov Chains are typically used in contexts where a system (e.g. staff profile in a large organisation) is at the start of the planning horizon in a given state, and the aim is to transform the system to a new state by the end of the horizon. The planning horizon can involve several steps and the system transits to a new state after each step. The transition probabilities from one step to the next are influenced by both organisational and external (non-organisational) factors. We develop our generic methodology using as a vehicle the homogeneous Markov manpower planning system. The paper recognizes a gap in existing Markovian manpower planning methods to handle stochasticity and optimization in a more tractable manner and puts forward an approach to harness the power of DEA to fill this gap. In this context, the Decision Maker (DM) can specify potential anticipated future outcomes (e.g. personnel flows) and then use DEA to identify additional feasible courses of action through convexity. These feasible strategies can be evaluated according to the DM's judgement over potential future states of nature and then employed to guide the organisation in making interventions that would affect transition probabilities to improve the probability of attaining the ultimate state desired for the system. The paper includes a numerical illustration of the suggested approach, including data from a manpower planning model previously addressed using classical Markov modelling.298127629
Why Do Young Adults Retreat from Marriage? An Easterlin Relative Income Approach
No full textEasterlin’s relative income hypothesis refers to the current income of young adults compared to the level of material aspirations acquired during childhood. The hypothesis implies that young individuals are expected to reduce fertility if their material aspirations grοw at a higher rate than their incomes. This paper examines whether the same hypothesis holds true for marriage. A higher (lower) level of income combined with a lower (higher) level of material aspirations would increase (decrease) relative income and consequently could affect marriage rates. Thus, relative income might be one explanation for the "marriage paradox" which indicates that young adults in the United States retreat from marriage despite perceiving it as a milestone of their lives. One might also expect relative income to be a better predictor of marriage than absolute income. This is because, according to the Easterlin hypothesis, the behaviour of young adults reflects not only their response to changes in external conditions (e.g. absolute income), but also to past events they have experienced. We employ panel dynamic methods and causality tests for the United States that span the period from 1981 to 2016. Empirical analysis supports the relative income hypothesis. Causality tests indicate that the relationship runs mostly from relative income to marriage rather than the other way round. Relative income emerges as a stronger predictor than absolute income in all of the methods employed.4
"Automatic" interpretation of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) results for nonexpert users, using R programming
No full textPurposeThe purpose of this paper is to create an automatic interpretation of the results of the method of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) for categorical variables, so that the nonexpert user can immediately and safely interpret the results, which concern, as the authors know, the categories of variables that strongly interact and determine the trends of the subject under investigation.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a novel theoretical approach to interpreting the results of the MCA method. The classical interpretation of MCA results is based on three indicators: the projection (F) of the category points of the variables in factorial axes, the point contribution to axis creation (CTR) and the correlation (COR) of a point with an axis. The synthetic use of the aforementioned indicators is arduous, particularly for nonexpert users, and frequently results in misinterpretations. The current study has achieved a synthesis of the aforementioned indicators, so that the interpretation of the results is based on a new indicator, as correspondingly on an index, the well-known method principal component analysis (PCA) for continuous variables is based.FindingsTwo (2) concepts were proposed in the new theoretical approach. The interpretative axis corresponding to the classical factorial axis and the interpretative plane corresponding to the factorial plane that as it will be seen offer clear and safe interpretative results in MCA.Research limitations/implicationsIt is obvious that in the development of the proposed automatic interpretation of the MCA results, the authors do not have in the interpretative axes the actual projections of the points as is the case in the original factorial axes, but this is not of interest to the simple user who is only interested in being able to distinguish the categories of variables that determine the interpretation of the most pronounced trends of the phenomenon being examined.Practical implicationsThe results of this research can have positive implications for the dissemination of MCA as a method and its use as an integrated exploratory data analysis approach.Originality/valueInterpreting the MCA results presents difficulties for the nonexpert user and sometimes lead to misinterpretations. The interpretative difficulty persists in the MCA's other interpretative proposals. The proposed method of interpreting the MCA results clearly and accurately allows for the interpretation of its results and thus contributes to the dissemination of the MCA as an integrated method of categorical data analysis and exploration
A Comparative Evaluation of Edge Cloud Virtualization Technologies
No full textEdge cloud computing is a crucial enabler for applications or network services with stringent communication requirements in the 5G networks and beyond era. Although edge compute resources contribute to a significant portion of end-to-end performance (e.g., delay), the involved performance trade-offs in relation to the utilized virtualization technologies and application functions are not yet thoroughly investigated. In this context, we study the performance dynamics of alternative edge cloud technologies, including different unikernel flavors, container builds, and implementations of exemplary Web services. Our experiments do not target identifying a single best option, rather than the involved performance trade-offs with respect to both service and infrastructure viewpoints as well as realistic edge cloud tasks, including on service operation, cloud resource or service elasticity, dynamic resource allocation and removal. We provide insights gained from a relevant extensive comparative evaluation based on a novel edge cloud experimentation infrastructure. Our experimental results inspired a conceptual edge cloud orchestration platform and its basic design guidelines, i.e., mixing and matching heterogeneous edge cloud virtual entities with particular operational or performance requirements.1921351136
A review of ontologies for augmented reality cultural heritage applications
No full textPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to review ontologies and data models currently in use for augmented reality applications, in the cultural heritage domain, specifically in an urban environment. The aim is to see the current trends in ontologies and data models used and investigate their applications in real world scenarios. Some special cases of applications or ontologies are also discussed, as being interesting enough to merit special consideration.Design/methodology/approach – A search using google scholar and scopus was done, for articles that describe ontologies and data models in urban environment augmented reality applications. We identified the articles that analyze the use of ontologies and/or data models, as well as articles that were deemed to be of special interest.Findings - The work shows that a combination of current ontologies seems to be the most complete way to fully describe a cultural heritage object or site. A layered ontology model is suggested, which can be expanded according to the project. Originality - This study is aimed at reviewing the ontologies and data models in a very narrow field of augmented reality applications. There are many ontologies currently in use in the cultural heritage domain, with none having been universally adopted, while new ontologies or extensions to existing ones are being created, in the attempt to fully describe a cultural heritage object or site. Reviewing and discussing the combinations of these ontologies, and suggesting a model can be very impactful in the design of such applications