Showing papers by "University of Piraeus published in 2023"

The Value of Cultural Diversity as a Language Curriculum Resource for Promoting Internationalization at Home

Abstract: This chapter discusses the importance of the concept of cultural diversity in language teaching. Internationalization at Home (IaH) practices in the literature illuminated the gap in putting internationalization crossways with intercultural learning, indicating the need to examine ways of integrating intercultural aspects such as cultural diversity in the internationalization of teaching and learning. Within this context, the chapter suggests the development of seminars based on a studied reading strategy entitled survey, question, read, recite, and review (SQ3R) in order to help Greeks comprehend the concept of cultural diversity by discussing the variation within a larger cultural group sharing a common basis. A lesson plan of such a seminar highlighting how the steps of implementing the SQ3R strategy could facilitate students' understanding and enhance their IaH experience is described. Recommendations for future research on the effectiveness of such seminars are offered suggesting their possible potential in becoming part of a language curriculum resource which could promote IaH.

Exploring the asymmetric cost behaviour in the context of European non-listed firms

Abstract: This study provides international empirical evidence for the asymmetric cost behaviour of operating expenses in the context of the European non-listed firms. We employed a data sample of 4,177,625 firm years observations from Amadeus Database for the period 2009–2017 to explore the asymmetric cost behaviour phenomenon at the EU-28 countries pool and country level. Substantial variation in the direction of the asymmetric cost behaviour, across countries and firm size clusters, has been observed. However, in a considerable number of cases operating expenses exhibit symmetric cost behaviour. We conjecture that the reasons behind the observed pattern of asymmetric cost behaviour in the organizational setting of non-listed firms are the relative low availability of entrepreneurial economic resources and the presence of entrepreneur which might affect the resource allocation decision-making process.

Spherical Random Arrays With Application to Aerial Collaborative Beamforming

Abstract: Spherical volumetric arrays with randomly distributed elements are studied using geometrical probability theory. The array elements are considered as points of an isotropic homogeneous binomial point process (BPP), randomly located within a 3-D ball. The presented results are based on the distance distribution of the $k$ th nearest element from the center of the ball. These elements are assumed to be the randomly distributed nodes of a wireless aerial network that cooperate to produce a beam toward a desired distant receiver. An alternative array elements’ distribution is also examined by placing a constraint to the distance of the farthest element and providing novel results on the average array factor, the average power pattern, and the directivity of the array. The half power beamwidth (HPBW), the peak sidelobe level (SLL), and the location of the peaks and nulls of the power pattern are examined in terms of the number of the array elements and the radius of the sphere. Finally, the impact of the location estimation errors on the performance of open-loop collaborative beamforming is examined both theoretically and using empirical simulation results.