Showing papers by "University of Cyprus published in 2000"

Firm-level export performance assessment: Review, evaluation, and development

Abstract: Export performance is one of the most widely researched but least understood and most contentious areas of international marketing. To some extent, this problem can be ascribed to difficulties in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring the export performance construct, often leading to inconsistent and conflicting results. This study reviews and evaluates more than 100 articles of pertinent empirical studies to assess and critique export performance measurements. Based on gaps identified in this evluation, guidelines for export performance measure development are advanced, suggesting, however, a contingency approach in their application. Several conclusions and implications for export strategy and future research are derived from this analysis.

Intertemporal Output and Employment Effects of Public Infrastructure Capital: Evidence from 12 OECD Economies

Abstract: This paper utilises an intertemporal optimisation framework to study the effects of public infrastructure capital on output supply and input demands in 12 OECD countries. We find that in all 12 countries: (i) public capital has positive long-run effects on both output supply and input demands (ii) its mean short-run rates of return are fairly low, while the corresponding long-run rates are much higher but declining over time. These findings underscore important under-investment gaps in infrastructure during the 1970s and 1980s; these gaps however narrowed down significantly (in a few cases completely) by the early 1990s.

On the place of 'phrase accents' in intonational phonology

Abstract: Many theories of intonational phonology have granted some special status to pitch features that occur at the edges of prosodic domains, contrasting them with prominence-lending pitch configurations. The standard American structuralist theory that flourished in the 1950s (Trager & Smith 1951) drew a clear distinction between PITCH PHONEMES and JUNCTURE PHONEMES, the former constituting the body of a contour and the latter describing the movements at the contour’s end. Parallel to this development, a distinction was also drawn within the Prague School between the cumulative and delimitative functions of tonal phenomena (Trubetzkoy 1958), the former including prominence, the latter domainedge marking. Bolinger (especially 1970) distinguished ‘accent’ from ‘intonation’: ACCENT referred to the distinctive pitch shapes that accompany prominent stressed syllables (now generally known, following Bolinger, as pitch accents), while INTONATION included, among other things, distinctive pitch movements at the ends of contours. A distinction very similar, but not identical, to Bolinger’s is made in the theory of intonation developed at the Institute for Perception Research (IPO) in the Netherlands (Cohen & ’t Hart 1967, ’t Hart et al. 1990), namely between PROMINENCE-LENDING and NON-PROMINENCE-LENDING pitch movements.

Infrastructure, specialization, and economic growth

Abstract: We introduce infrastructure as a cost-reducing technology in Romer's (1987) model of endogenous growth. We show that infrastructure can promote specialization and long-run growth, even though its effect on the latter is non-monotonic, reflecting its resource costs. We provide evidence using data from the U.S. Census of Manufactures that suggests that the degree of specialization is positively correlated with core infrastructure, as predicted by the model. We also provide evidence from cross-country regressions, using physical measures of infrastructure provision, that shows a robust non-monotonic relationship between infrastructure and growth.

Preparing teachers to teach physics and physical science by inquiry

Abstract: In physics, neither courses for majors nor for non-majors provide the kind of preparation required for teaching physics or physical science by inquiry. Science methods courses cannot help teachers develop the depth of understanding needed for this type of teaching. Since appropriate preparation is not available through the standard curriculum, a practical alternative is to offer special physics courses for teachers.

The General Flexibility to Switch: Real Options Revisited

Abstract: We present a simple analysis of the generic flexibility to switch between alternative technologies or operating "modes." The firm can select between alternative projects based on inflexible (rigid) technologies, or a flexible project that allows for switching the operating mode, possibly at some cost. Without switching costs, the value of the flexible project can be seen as the value of a rigid project plus the sum of the values of the options to switch in future periods. The presence of switching costs, however, creates a compoundness effect that may make option value additivity break down. The resulting decision rule reflects a persistence or hysteresis effect where, even though immediate switching may seem attractive, it may be long-term optimal to wait. This general framework subsumes as special cases most other known real options. The option to defer investments, expand or contract production, temporarily shut down and restart operations, abandon for salvage, and default during construction are revisited. The framework also finds applications in flexible manufacturing systems and other capital investments.

Organization and development of self-understanding and self-regulation: Toward a general theory.

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter proposes a general model of the organization and development of self-understanding and self-regulation. This model integrates research and theories advanced in traditionally separate fields within psychology, mainly cognitive, developmental, personality, and self psychology. According to this model, humans are capable of self-understanding and self-regulation because evolution has provided them with self-oriented processes that specialize on the representation and manipulation of the processes oriented to the understanding of and interaction with the environment. These self-oriented processes provide a huge adaptational advantage to humans as compared to other species because they enable them, as a species, to cope with practically every variation in the world. Practically, this is effected because each individual can construct his or her own profile of abilities and skills for interrelating and interacting with the world.

Weak Bisimulation for Probabilistic Systems

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce weak bisimulation in the framework of Labeled Concurrent Markov Chains, that is, probabilistic transition systems which exhibit both probabilistic and nondeterministic behavior. By resolving the nondeterminism present, these models can be decomposed into a possibly infinite number of computation trees. We show that in order to compute weak bisimulation it is sufficient to restrict attention to only a finite number of these computations. Finally, we present an algorithm for deciding weak bisimulation which has polynomial-time complexity in the number of states of the transition system.

ACLP: Abductive Constraint Logic Programming

Abstract: This paper presents the framework of Abductive Constraint Logic Programming (ACLP), which integrates Abductive Logic Programming (ALP) and Constraint Logic Programming (CLP). In ACLP, the task of abduction is supported and enhanced by its non-trivial integration with constraint solving. This integration of constraint solving into abductive reasoning facilitates a general form of constructive abduction and enables the application of abduction to computationally demanding problems. The paper studies the formal declarative and operational semantics of the ACLP framework together with its application to various problems. The general characteristics of the computation of ACLP and of its application to problems are also discussed. Empirical results based on an implementation of the ACLP framework on top of the CLP language of ECLiPSe show that ACLP is computationally viable, with performance comparable to the underlying CLP framework on which it is built. In addition, our experiments show the natural ability for ACLP to accommodate easily and in a robust way new or changing requirements of the original problem. ACLP thus combines the advantages of modularity and flexibility of the high-level representation afforded by abduction together with the computational effectiveness of low-level specialised constraint solving.

Primary student teachers’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter and its transformations during dissolving

Abstract: One-to-one interviews were administered to a sample of twenty female primary student teachers (PST), who were studying at the University of Cyprus. They were asked to describe the changes in macroscopic (colour, taste, volume, density, flammability) and microscopic (kind and movement of molecules) properties of substances when dissolving salt or sugar in water, when mixing water and alcohol, or when filtering or heating the respective water solutions. Analysis of the transcribed interviews showed that the majority of the PST exhibited perceptual rather than conceptual understanding of the particulate nature of matter and had difficulties to relate the observable macroscopic changes to the invisible molecular events (arrangement and movement of molecules). They stated instead that molecules share in observable properties of matter and combine together to give new molecules, without realising the changes in the structure and the properties of matter or without being able to distinguish physical from chemical changes. The prevalence and the diversity of the observed conceptions among PST indicate that the molecular constitution of matter is not adequately understood and that teaching materials and instructional interventions based on conceptual change should be designed and implemented both for teachers’ pre-service and in-service training, to avoid ‘diffusion’ of misconceptions within the primary classrooms. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 249-262]

On the left periphery: Modal particles and complementisers

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a unified account of the particles þa, na and as in Greek, and second, to refine the articulated CP structure of Rizzi (1997). To this end, it is argued that þa, na, and as occupy the lower C head, which is specified for modality. The particles na and as further raise to a higher C head (partly similar to Rizzi’s Force), thus differing from þa. The distribution of topic and focus in relation to the particles and the typical complementisers oti and an is used as evidence for the postulation of an additional C head characterised as a subordinator/connector, typically occupied by the complementiser pu and optionally by oti and an. The resulting structure differs from Rizzi’s (1997) in that it provides a tripartite C structure and places FocusP/TopicP between the two higher C heads. In the light of this analysis we also consider the position of negation, as well as the position of the verb in imperatives and gerunds.

Comparative Analysis of Artificial Neural Network Models: Application in Bankruptcy Prediction

Abstract: This study compares the predictive performance of three neural network methods, namely the learning vector quantization, the radial basis function, and the feedforward network that uses the conjugate gradient optimization algorithm, with the performance of the logistic regression and the backpropagation algorithm. All these methods are applied to a dataset of 139 matched-pairs of bankrupt and non-bankrupt US firms for the period 1983–1994. The results of this study indicate that the contemporary neural network methods applied in the present study provide superior results to those obtained from the logistic regression method and the backpropagation algorithm.

Mpi-ft: portable fault tolerance scheme for mpi

Abstract: In this paper, we propose the design and development of a fault tolerant and recovery scheme for the Message Passing Interface (MPI). The proposed scheme consists of a detection mechanism for detec...

Spectral Density Based Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Time Series Models

Abstract: A new goodness-of-fit test for time series models is proposed. The test statistic is based on the distance between a kernel estimator of the ratio between the true and the hypothesized spectral density and the expected value of the estimator under the null. It provides a quantification of how well a parametric spectral density model fits the sample spectral density (periodogram). The asymptotic distribution of the statistic proposed is derived and its power properties are discussed. To improve upon the large sample (Gaussian) approximation of the distribution of the test statistic under the null, a bootstrap procedure is presented and justified theoretically. The finite sample performance of the test is investigated through a simulation experiment and applications to real data sets are given.

Dynamic analysis of British demand for tourism abroad

Abstract: This paper investigates how preference endogeneity, in the form of habit persistence, can affect short-run and long-run tourism expenditure decisions. The proposed model is applied to British quarterly data over the period 1979–91 and the empirical results suggest that preference endogeneity appears to have an important effect. This has policy implications for countries competing for British tourist arrivals. The differences between the short-run and long-run price and budget elasticities which are implied by habit persistence are also investigated.

A non‐linear sensitivity analysis of cross‐country growth regressions

Abstract: We extend the sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions of Levine and Renelt (1992) by introducing a semi-parametric formulation of their regression function. Our results differ from theirs in how certain policy variables affect growth rates. We find that distortion variables, such as the standard deviation of gross domestic credit and inflation and real exchange rate distortions, have a robust negative effect on growth. JEL Classification: O47, C14 Une analyse de sensibilite non-lineaire des regressions de croissance pour divers pays. Les auteurs utilisent une formulation semi-parametrique des equations de croissance de Levine et Renelt (1992) pour divers pays afin de rendre leur analyse de sensibilite plus comprehensive. Les resultats different de ceux de Levine et Renelt en ce que certaines variables de politique affectent les taux de croissance. On decouvre que certains facteurs comme l'ecart type du credit interieur brut et de l'inflation, et des distorsions des taux de change reels, ont un effet negatif important sur la croissance.

The local bootstrap for kernel estimators under general dependence conditions

Abstract: We consider the problem of estimating the distribution of a nonparametric (kernel) estimator of the conditional expectation g(x; φ) = E(φ(X t+1) | Y t,m = x) of a strictly stationary stochastic process {X t , t ≥ 1}. In this notation φ(·) is a real-valued Borel function and Y t,m a segment of lagged values, i.e., Yt,m=(Xt-i 1,Xt-i 2,...,Xt-i m), where the integers i i , satisfy 0 ≤ i1 . We show that under a fairly weak set of conditions on {X t , t ≥ 1}, an appropriately designed and simple bootstrap procedure that correctly imitates the conditional distribution of X t+1 given the selective past Y t,m , approximates correctly the distribution of the class of nonparametric estimators considered. The procedure proposed is entirely nonparametric, its main dependence assumption refers to a strongly mixing process with a polynomial decrease of the mixing rate and it is not based on any particular assumptions on the model structure generating the observations.

The Value Relevance of Earnings and Cash Flows: Empirical Evidence for Japan

Abstract: The Japanese equity market is one of the largest in the world. In recent years, fund managers worldwide have substantially increased their exposure to the Japanese capital markets. In spite of the Japanese capital market's rapid growth and its increasing importance in the international financial world, there has been limited empirical evidence linking security returns to earnings and cash flows. This study extends the growing empirical literature on the association of earnings and cash flows with security returns by using a Japanese dataset consisting of 6,662 firm-year observations for the period 1984–93. We hypothesize that (i) earnings and cash flows are jointly associated with stock returns, and (ii) the association between cash flows (earnings) and security returns increases (decreases) when earnings are transitory. This study provides empirical evidence (i) that cash flows (earnings) have information content beyond earnings (cash flows) in explaining security returns, and (ii) that cash flows (earnings) play a more (less) important role in the marketplace when earnings are transitory. Moreover, results show that the explanatory power of our Japanese models is similar to the evidence provided in prior US studies, indicating that Japanese investors utilize earnings and cash flows in their pricing of equities as their US counterparts.

The Method of Fundamental Solutions for axisymmetric elasticity problems

Abstract: We investigate the use of the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS) for the approximate solution of certain problems of three-dimensional elastostatics in isotropic materials. Specifically, we consider problems in which the geometry is axisymmetric and the boundary conditions are either axisymmetric or arbitrary. In each case, the problem reduces to one of solving a two-dimensional problem or a set of such problems in the radial and axial coordinates. As in axisymmetric problems in potential theory and in acoustic scattering and radiation, the fundamental solutions of the governing equations and their normal derivatives required in the formulation of the MFS are expressible in terms of complete elliptic integrals. We present the results of numerical experiments which demonstrate the efficacy of the MFS approach.

Measurements of cross sections and forward-backward asymmetries at the Z resonance and determination of electroweak parameters

Abstract: We report on measurements of hadronic and leptonic cross sections and leptonic forward-backward asymmetries performed with the L3 detector in the years $1993-95$.A total luminosity of 103 pb$^{-1}$ was collected at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} \approx m_\mathrm{Z}$ and $\sqrt{s} \approx m_\mathrm{Z} \pm 1.8$ GeVwhich corresponds to 2.5 million hadronic and 245 thousand leptonic events selected.These data lead to a significantly improved determination of Z parameters.From the total cross sections, combined with our measurements in $1990-92$,we obtain the final results:%%%\begin{eqnarr ay*} m_\mathrm{Z} = 91189.8 \pm 3.1\ \mathrm{MeV} \, , & & \Gamma_\mathrm{Z} = 2502.4 \pm 4.2\ \mathrm{MeV} \, , \\ \Gamma_\mathrm{had} = 1741.1 \pm 3.8\ \mathrm{MeV} \, , & & \Gamma_\ell = 84.14 \pm 0.17\ \mathrm{MeV} \,. \label{eq:Zpara_abstract}\end{eqnarray*}%%%An invisible width of $\Gamma_\mathrm{inv} = 499.1 \pm 2.9$ MeV is derived which in the Standard Model yields for the numberof light neutrino species $N_ u = 2.978 \pm 0.014$.Adding our results on the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries and thetau polarisation, the effective vector and axial-vector coupling constants of the neutral weak current to charged leptons are determined to be $\bar{g}_{\mathrm{V}}^\ell = -0.0397\pm 0.0017$ and $\bar{g}_{\mathrm{A}}^\ell = -0.50153 \pm 0.00053$.Including our measurements of the Z $\rightarrow \mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ forward-backward and quark charge asymmetries a value for the effective electroweakmixing angle of $\sin^2\!\overline{\theta}_{\mathrm{W}} = 0.23093 \pm 0.00066$ is derived. All these measurements are in good agreement with the Standard Modelof electroweak interactions.Using all our measurements of electroweak observables an upper limit on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson of $m_\mathrm{H} 133 $ GeV is set at 95\% confidence level.