Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia

About: Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Symplectic geometry. The organization has 291 authors who have published 522 publications receiving 7682 citations. The organization is also known as: TEI of West Macedonia & TEI of Western Macedonia.

Modeling and Forecasting of British Pound/US Dollar Exchange Rate: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop and examine the characteristics of volatility of exchange rate on British pound/US dollar, using symmetric and asymmetric GARCH(p,q) models. Given that there are ARCH effects on exchange rate returns, we estimated ARCH(q), GARCH(p,q), and EGARCH(p,q) including these effects on mean equation. These models were estimated with maximum likelihood method using the following distributions: normal, t-Student, and generalized error distribution. The log-likelihood function was maximized using Marquardt’s algorithm (1963) in order to search for optimal parameters. The results showed that ARIMA(0,0,1)-EGARCH(1,1) model with t-Student distribution is the best in order to describe exchange rate returns and also captures the leverage effect. Finally, for the forecasting of ARIMA(0,0,1)-EGARCH(1,1) model, both the dynamic and static procedures are used. The static procedure provides better results on the forecasting rather than the dynamic.

Mapping and Identifying Features of e-Learning Technology through Indexes and Metrics.

Abstract: People' s educational needs and requirements change. At the same time, educational technologies and tools also evolve. Therefore, contemporary educational methods are obliged to adapt to both. E-learning is the mode of learning which serves the former while exploits the latter. As e-learning capabilities are moving into the third decade of their implementation (Kulik et al., 1990), the necessity of thorough assessment is imminent. Moreover, the adoption to e-learning of assessment features which were successfully used by ecommerce is also a challenging issue. In this study, a novel approach is presented and put to test. The approach tries to utilize applicable features of e-commerce technology to e-learning in an effort to measure usage, user trends and knowledge affiliations. To the extent, some already tested indexes and metrics are used for the quantification of qualitative features of e-learning. These indexes and metrics contribute to the assessment of both educational content exposed by the educators and content usage by the learners. In this paper the identified features are classified. Finally, an experimental case scenario that took place in a Greek university e-learning platform is presented. From the revealed results there is evidence that these corresponding to features variables can be used for the measurement of reach, richness and information density of an e-learning platform system.

A framework for the evaluation of multilayer web based learning

Abstract: Web based courses are already in their third decade. From the first simplistic web pages of the courses, which had usually supplementary role to existing traditional learning, we have moved since 2008 to the era of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). TEI of Western Macedonia, offers free most of its courses online including presentations, notes, exercises and video lectures.This paper proposes a framework for the evaluation of web-based courses adopting of two evaluation stages by analysing on one hand the results of a questionnaire and on the other hand of the log files of an Learning Management System (LMS). The former uses two attributes Usage and Richness and the latter Activity and Access.

Organic contaminants in the groundwaters of a lignite-bearing basin from northern Greece

Abstract: The aim of this study is to identify potential toxic or environmentally relevant organic compounds in the aquifers of the Amynteo hydrogeological basin and to investigate a possible link of the identified organic contaminants with the Pliocene Amynteo lignites. For these purposes, 10 groundwater samples were collected from this area. A sequential liquid–liquid extraction procedure was applied and all extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) by means of a non-target screening approach. The results of the GC–MS analyses of the extracts are presented and discussed in this work. The identified organic compounds with a potential environmental relevance are: 2,2,4-trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol diisobutyrate, triacetine, isopropyl palminate, isopropyl myristate, tributyl-, triethyl- and trioctylphosphates, N,N-dibutyl formamide, methyl dihydrojasmonate, nonylphenols and bumetrizole. However, all these organic micropollutants can derive either by anthropoge...

Endogenous rural development: evidence from a typical greek region

Abstract: The current financial and institutional crisis in Greece has brought far-reaching consequences for the whole economy including rural development. Nevertheless, farmers and rural residents can profit from the opportunities and synergies offered by other activi-ties that are complementary and alternative to agriculture and thus they can liberate themselves from the unique role of producers. Rural residents, farmers and entrepreneurs in less favored Greek areas play an essential role in the valorization of endogenous re-sources of the area where they are operating. This paper aims to examine the willingness of the residents of a typical Greek region to accept and support a local factor such as a union of agricultural cooperatives and to reveal the foremost reasons thereof. To that ef-fect, a survey of 500 rural residents was performed using both summary statistics and multivariate analysis while a categorical re-gression analysis was applied to determine the relation between the respondents' socioeconomic characteristics and their willingness to adopt the endogenous potential. The survey findings indicate the success of the Union investment project and the confidence of the local community in a local cooperative organization. Thus, this local business initiative can significantly reduce the impact of the economic crisis on Greek rural residents by generating additional income from indigenous resources.