Sodelovalne ucne oblike pri jezikovnem delu pouka slovenscine v osnovni soli

In the Slovenian language syllabus, teachers are recommended to provide a greater share of group work during class. During types of learning such as cooperative learning in smaller groups or pairs, students actively develop communicative competence. The present article presents a survey that attempted to determine whether teachers from the first to the fifth grade execute cooperative learning in language classes. The purpose of the article is to raise teachers’ awareness and encourage them to design and execute cooperative learning more frequently. (DIPF/Orig.

Language and Culture in International Legal Communication

In the contemporary business world, partners belonging to different nations, and hence different cultures, conduct business operations in either the language of one of the parties involved or in a third, neutral language, serving as lingua franca. Thus, language skills, as an essential component of the communicative competence, imply a certain extent of implicit or explicit translating and interpreting. The functionalist approaches in translation science, and most of all the Skopos theory by J. H. Vermeer, view translation as an intercultural transfer, which inevitably entails taking into account intercultural differences. As intercultural business communication is directly affected by the legal systems of the cultures involved, the communicating parties need to be acquainted with both the source and target legal systems. This is especially the case with English, as the Anglo-American legal system, based essentially on common law, differs substantially from continental law, to which most of the European countries belong. English as the world’s most commonly used lingua franca will have to be adapted to its new function by adopting terms and concepts from other cultures and, within the EU, take into consideration the existing discrepancies between the continental and the Anglo-American legal systems. In this paper, cases of non-equivalence regarding legal terms are illustrated with examples from company law. In conclusion, some linguistic and cultural implications of the use of English as lingua franca, as well as their impact on teaching and learning practices are presented.translation, lingua franca, Skopos, cultural embeddedness

Optimization of a Call Centre Performance Using the Stochastic Queueing Models

Background: A call centre usually represents the first contact of a customer with a given company. Therefore, the quality of its service is of key importance. An essential factor of the call centre optimization is the determination of the proper number of operators considering the selected performance measure. Results of previous research show that this can be done using the queueing theory approach. Objectives: The paper presents the practical application of the stochastic queueing models aimed at optimizing a Slovenian telecommunication provider’s call centre. Methods/Approach: The arrival and the service patterns were analysed, and it was concluded that the call centre under consideration can be described using the M/M/r {infinity/infinity/FIFO} queueing model. Results: An appropriate number of operators were determined for different peak periods of the working day, taking into consideration the following four performance measures: the expected waiting time, the expected number of waiting customers, the probability that a calling customer will have to wait, and the call centre service level. Conclusions: The obtained results prove the usefulness and applicability of the queueing models as a tool for a call centre performance optimization. In practice, all the data needed for such a mathematical analysis are usually provided. This paper is aimed at illustrating how such data can be efficiently exploited

Duration of Regional Unemployment Spells in Slovenia

The paper begins with an overview of the unemployment rate in Slovenia and focuses on duration of unemployment and regional characteristics of the unemployment rates. It is shown that the dispersion of regional unemployment rate is gradually decreasing and is also slightly below European average on NUTS 3 level. The analysis of the duration of regional unemployment spells is based on the data obtained from the Employment Office of the Republic of Slovenia, which consists of the unemployment spells between January 1st, 2002 and November 18th, 2005 with more than 450,000 entries. The Kaplan-Meier estimates of the survival function are presented and the effects of region on the duration of unemployment spells are discussed.unemployment, regions, survival analysis, Kaplan-Meier estimator, Slovenia

The Trade Deficit and Banking Sector Results in Romania and Bulgaria

We tested for the significance of macroeconomic variables that condition non-performing loan ratios. Our estimates for Bulgaria and Romania support the hypothesis that the growth of available finance might harm banking performance and deteriorate NPL dynamics, most probably due to the overheating of economies. Since we confirmed that the dynamics of net exports of these economies deteriorated the NPL ratio, the weakening of growth in export-oriented industries could lead to economic contraction with a direct impact on the sustainability of banking-sector results in these countries. Large current account deficits are typical for emerging markets and do not pose a problem as long as they are caused by the importing of capital goods, and, if future export growth is strong enough to reimburse foreign debt. Structural dependence on external financing - which is in part a by-product of the effect of low levels of internal saving - have led to large current account deficits and financial instability.cyclicality, non-performing loans, systemic risk, asset quality, economic growth

Human Resource Management Challenges in a Slovenian Social Enterprise: A Case Study

There is a growing number of studies exploring social enterprise in order to increase the understanding of business sustainability and resilience in the social economy. However, little is known about how social enterprises or social entrepreneurs emerging from not-for-profit sectors have faced human resource management (HRM) challenges in practice. In this study, we focus on a hospitality social enterprise founded by social workers in Slovenia as a single case study. Through a series of combined interview and observation methods, we investigate the HRM challenges this social entrepreneur faced when pursuing sustainable social business. We uncovered four strategic and HRM challenges that contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the social enterprise literature. This study paves the way for future studies to focus on HRM in social enterprise

Challenges in a Social Enterprise from the Case of a Social Enterprise in Slovenia

There are a growing number of studies exploring the capacity building and business aspects of social enterprise in an attempt to increase the understanding of business sustainability and resilience in the social economy. However, little is known about how social enterprises or social entrepreneurs emerging from notfor-profit sectors have faced challenges. In this study, we focus on a hospitality social enterprise founded by NGO workers in Slovenia as a single case study. We investigated challenges that a social entrepreneur and her team faced when pursuing sustainable social business. We uncovered several challenges at different levels, which existing studies have neglected. We found two organisational level challenges, such as managing the dual purpose of a social enterprise and absence of a business strategy, and two HRM level challenges, such as people management and leadership issue. This study can pave a path for future studies to focus on various challenges and even some resolutions

Technology and manufacturing in the seventh district

Technology ; Federal Reserve District, 7th ; Manufactures - North Central states

Economic development efforts in the seventh district

Economic development - North Central states ; Federal Reserve District, 7th

Electrokinetic flow of aqueous electrolyte in amorphous silica nanotubes

We study the pressure-driven flow of aqueous NaCl in amorphous silica nanotubes using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations featuring both polarizable and non-polarizable molecular models. Different pressures, electrolyte concentrations and pore sizes are examined. Our results indicate a flow that deviates considerably from the predictions of Poiseuille fluid mechanics. Due to preferential adsorption of the different ionic species by surface SiO! or SiOH groups, we find that a significant electric current is generated, but with opposite polarities using polarizable vs. fixed charge models for water and ions, emphasizing the need for careful parameterization in such complex systems. We also examine the influence of partial deprotonation of the silica surface, and we find that much more current is generated in a dehydrogenated nanopore, even though the overall efficiency remains low. These findings indicate that different methods of nanopore preparation, which can produce a range of surface properties, should be examined more closely in the related experimental methods to generate electrokinetic current