Matej Bel University

About: Matej Bel University is a education organization based out in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Tourism & Fuzzy set. The organization has 721 authors who have published 1497 publications receiving 11573 citations. The organization is also known as: Matej Bel & Univerzita Mateja Bela.

Performance management in the Slovak higher education system: preliminary evaluation

Abstract: The aim of our paper is a preliminary evaluation of the introduction of performance management and performance financing arrangements in the Slovak higher education system – accreditation and formula based performance financing. This evaluation will be mainly based on the assessment of short-term impacts of the above mentioned instruments and is expected to invite further professional discussion. We feel that the data and brief analysis included are sufficient enough to show that the Slovak system represents a typical example of the potential of performance management and performance financing being significantly limited, if not destroyed. Not only because of improperly defined indicators, which are too much input and quantity orientated, but very much also due to a lack of resources (the ratio of public expenditures for higher education to the GDP in Slovakia is significantly below EU average), as well as the politicization of the system.

Stepwise clockwise rotation of the Cenozoic stress field in the Western Carpathians as revealed by kinematic analysis of minor faults in the Manín Unit (western Slovakia)

Abstract: This study aims at quantitative kinematic analysis of fault-slip data and palaeostress reconstruction of polyphase brittle structures developed in the Manin Unit cropping out in the Middle Vah River Valley of western Slovakia. The Manin Unit neighbours the Pieniny Klippen Belt that follows the boundary between the Paleogene accretionary wedge of the Outer Carpathians and the Cretaceous nappe system of the Central Western Carpathians. After the nappe emplacement during mid-Cretaceous times, the Manin Unit was incorporated into the Pieniny Klippen Belt and attained its complex tectonic style. Based on kinematic analysis of meso-scale faults with slickensides, six (D 1 –D 6 ) brittle deformation stages have been discerned. The relative succession of individual palaeostress states was derived from field structural relationships; their stratigraphic age was estimated primarily by comparison with other published data. Palaeostress analysis in the Manin Unit revealed the existence of six different palaeostress fields acting from the Middle Eocene to the Quaternary. The first three generations of meso-scale brittle structures were formed under a transpressional tectonic regime during the pre-Late Eocene–Early Miocene D 1 –D 3 deformation. Generally, the maximum horizontal stress axis rotated clockwise from a W–E to an approximately N–S direction. Thereafter, a transtensional tectonic regime was characterized by a WNW–ESE to NNW–SSE oriented minimum horizontal stress axis during Middle and Late Miocene D 4 –D 5 deformation. A general extensional tectonic regime influenced the structural evolution of the area in the Pliocene to Quaternary, when a gradual reorientation of the palaeostress field resulted in the development of variable, often reactivated, fault structures.

Catalytic phi meson production in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract: The phi meson production on hyperons πY → Y and anti-kaons is argued to be a new efficient source of phi mesons in a nucleus–nucleus collision. These reactions are not suppressed according to the Okubo–Zweig–Izuka rule in contrast to the processes with non-strange particles in the entrance channels, πB and BB with B = N, Δ. A rough estimate of the cross sections within a simple hadronic model shows that the cross sections of πY → Y and reactions can exceed that of the πN → N reaction by factors 50 and 60, respectively. In the hadrochemical model for nucleus–nucleus collisions at SIS and lower AGS energies, we calculate the evolution of strange particle populations and the meson production rate due to the new processes. It is found that the catalytic reactions can be operative if the maximal temperature in nucleus–nucleus collisions is larger than 130 MeV and the collision time is larger than 10 fm. A possible influence of the catalytic reactions on the centrality dependence of the yield at AGS energies and the rapidity distributions at SPS energies is discussed.

Small and Medium Enterprises in the New World of Globalization

Abstract: Small and medium enterprises are faced with the critical question of how to react to the changes caused by the process of globalization. Globalization creates new business environment with new challenges, but also with new threats. In the article are presented crucial attributes which will determine future success of small and medium enterprises in the new world of globalization: SMEs networking, information and communication technologies (ICT), developing innovation and implementation of strategic small business management.