The study of conceptual metaphors in ESAP L2 writing: range and variability

The article presents the study of the influence of professional competence of EFL learners on their academic writing. The task was approached through analyzing learners’ competence in specific knowledge domains - knowledge of terms and specific concepts, represented as conceptual metaphors. Conceptual metaphor models were analyzed in the English written texts produced by Russian students with different competences in economics – at both non-professional and professional levels of academic discourse (NPAD and PAD respectively). Metaphor Identification Procedure VU University Amsterdam (MIPVU) was applied to metaphor identification, and alternative metaphor and preferential conceptualization analysis was performed to compare the scope of source and the range of target in NPAD and PAD. Findings highlight the areas of commonality as well as divergence in terms of students’ professional competence represented in conceptual metaphors in L2 writing. The main differences in the scope of the source analysis are quantitative rather than qualitative. The range of target comparison between NPAD and PAD indicates a significantly larger range of targets for the professional level students, a lower level of metaphorization for the non-professional level, and inclusive strategies across the two levels. Practical recommendations suggest an improved research methodology for studying metaphor production in EAP and ESP as well as a deeper understanding of ESP content and its structure

Redefining Industrial Maintenance Activity in the Modern Organization of Industrial Companies

The maintenance activity isn’t a purpose in itself, it’s a necessity of which “the production suffers” and the financial agent “considers too expensive”. It often exists a conflict between the production units and the maintenance department, not only for a short term, but, sometimes, for a long term, imposing a rigorous definition of each person’s responsibilities. Considering the mutations in the industrial equipments’ technical complexity and the accidental failures’ catastrophic consequences from the economic and/or social point of view, it should be assigned a new dimension to the maintenance activity. One of the imperatives imposed to this action is represented by modern means of informing through the maintenance’s operational computerization.maintenance’s progress; total productive maintenance; cooperation in maintenance; the maintenance’s costs minimization; maintenance’s operational computerization.

Foreign Subsidiaries in the East German Innovation System – Evidence from Manufacturing Industries

This paper analyses the extent of technological capability of foreign subsidiaries located in East Germany, and looks at the determinants of foreign subsidiaries’ technological sourcing behaviour. The theory of international production underlines the importance of strategic and regional level variables. However, existing empirical approaches omit by and large regional level factors. We employ survey evidence from the “FDI micro data- base” of the IWH, that was only recently made available, to conduct our analyses. We find that foreign subsidiaries are above average technologically active in comparison to the whole East German manufacturing. This can be partially explained by the industrial structure of foreign direct investment. However, only a limited share of foreign subsidiaries with R&D and/or innovation activity source technological knowledge from the East German innovation system. If a subsidiary follows a competence augmenting strategy or does local trade, it is more likely to source technological knowledge locally. The endowment of a region with human capital and a scientific infrastructure has a positive effect too. The findings suggest that foreign subsidiaries in East Germany are only partially linked with the regional innovation system. Policy implications are discussed.east germany, regional innovation system, foreign direct investment

Ambiguity in Individual Choice and Market Environments: On the Importance of Comparative Ignorance

After Ellsberg’s thought experiments brought focus to the relevance of missing information for choice, extensive efforts have been made to understand ambiguity theoretically and empirically (Ellsberg 1961). Fox and Tversky (1995) make an important contribution to understanding behavioral responses to ambiguity. In an individual choice setting they demonstrate that an aversion to ambiguous lotteries arises only when a comparison to unambiguous lotteries is available. The current study advances this literature by exploring the importance of Fox and Tversky’s finding for market outcomes and finds support for their Comparative Ignorance Hypothesis in the market setting.ambiguity, asset market experiment, comparitive ignorance

The Economic Effects of Federalism and Decentralization – A Cross-Country Assessment

This paper is based on the conjecture that institutional details matter and that attempts to estimate the economic effects of federalism by drawing on a simple dummy variable neglect potentially important institutional details. Based on a principal component analysis, seven aspects of both federalism and decentralization are used as variables for explaining differences in (1) fiscal policy, (2) government effectiveness, (3) economic productivity, and (4) happiness. The results show that institutional details do, indeed, matter. Different aspects of federalism impact on the outcome variables in different degrees. This study adds to our knowledge on the transmission mechanisms of federalism and decentralization.Federalism, Federalism, decentralization, Fiscal federalism, Economic Effects of constitutions, constitutional economics.

The Economic Effects of Federalism and Decentralization - A Cross-Country Assessment

This paper explores the idea that institutional details matter and that attempts to estimate the economic effects of federalism by employing a simple dummy variable neglect potentially important institutional details. Based on a principal component analysis, seven aspects of both federalism and decentralization are used as variables for explaining differences in (1) fiscal policy, (2) government effectiveness, (3) economic productivity, and (4) happiness. The results show that institutional details do, indeed, matter. Different aspects of federalism impact on the outcome variables to different degrees. This study adds to our knowledge on the transmission mechanisms of federalism and decentralization.federalism, decentralization, fiscal federalism, economic effects of constitutions, constitutional economics

Indices that capture creative destruction: questions and implications

The paper argues that micro and macro economists interested in the dynamics of creative destruction can gain important insights by using indices that capture the effect of innovation on the relative position of firms. This is due to the uneven and 'destructive' effect that radical innovation has on firm rankings. One such index is the market share instability index. On the financial side, the excess volatility of stock prices and idiosyncratic risk also appear to capture the uneven dynamics of creative destruction. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these propositions for economy-wide growth during periods of radical innovation (e.g. GPTs)

Similarity Structure Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling in Studying Latent Structures: An Application to the Attitudes towards Portuguese Language Questionnaire

Several international studies such as PISA and PILRS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), have stressed the importance of positive attitudes and behaviours as facilitators of individuals reading literacy during the school years and throughout their lives. Considering that there are not available instruments for assessing attitudes Towards Portuguese Language, it was proposed the development of the Attitudes towards Portuguese Language Questionnaire – ATPLQ (Questionário de Atitudes Face à Língua Portuguesa: QAFLP, Neto et al., 2011; Rebelo, 2012). The questionnaire has 22 Likert-type items, with four levels of response (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree), spread, through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), over three attitudinal dimensions: Behavioural, Affective, and Motivational.In this study we aimed to analyse the ATPLQ’s latent structure with a pooled sample data of 1441 participants, applying similarity structure analysis (SSA) and confirmatory factor analysis of ordinal data (CFA). The SSA was carried out with Hudap in order to identify the structural properties of the questionnaire and to assess its adequacy in a Portuguese population. The CFA was carried out with LISREL in order to assure structural validity, i.e., accounting for factorial validity, but also for factors’ convergent and discriminant validity, and composite reliability. These psychometric features allowed the comparison of both the EFA derived model and the SSA derived model. We justify the selection of the SSA’s model, and we discuss the similarities between the results generated by SSA and LISREL procedures, highlighting their use in modeling constructs with ordinal indicators

Multi-Armed Bandits for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

We present an approach to Intelligent Tutoring Systems which adaptively personalizes sequences of learning activities to maximize skills acquired by students, taking into account the limited time and motivational resources. At a given point in time, the system proposes to the students the activity which makes them progress faster. We introduce two algorithms that rely on the empirical estimation of the learning progress, RiARiT that uses information about the difficulty of each exercise and ZPDES that uses much less knowledge about the problem. The system is based on the combination of three approaches. First, it leverages recent models of intrinsically motivated learning by transposing them to active teaching, relying on empirical estimation of learning progress provided by specific activities to particular students. Second, it uses state-of-the-art Multi-Arm Bandit (MAB) techniques to efficiently manage the exploration/exploitation challenge of this optimization process. Third, it leverages expert knowledge to constrain and bootstrap initial exploration of the MAB, while requiring only coarse guidance information of the expert and allowing the system to deal with didactic gaps in its knowledge. The system is evaluated in a scenario where 7-8 year old schoolchildren learn how to decompose numbers while manipulating money. Systematic experiments are presented with simulated students, followed by results of a user study across a population of 400 school children

Performance appraisal and career opportunities: A case study

,Performance; Career