Regional Specialization of Greek Prefectures for the Time Period 1981-2001

Intense regional inequalities are considered to be widespread in Greece. Indeed, Athens mainly, and Thessaloniki consist the two poles in Greece, Thessaloniki in a lower degree though. In these two cities the larger part of industrial activity, as well as, tertiary sector activities, is assembled. On the contrary, in the other Greek regions not only the economic activities but also the infrastructures have been developed in smaller degree. Moreover, as it is well known, two Greek regions (Northern Aegean, Epirus) are among the poorest in the European Union. This fact constitutes a reluctant factor to the effort of Greece to increase the standard of living of the citizens. In addition, the last two decades, a significant decrease of the contribution of primary sector to the GDP with simultaneous increase of the contribution of the tertiary sector is observed. The particular change involves significant repercussions to the national economy. The aim of this paper is the study of the specialization of Greek prefectures as well as spatial distribution of 13 sectors of economic activity using employment data and methods of regional analysis such as Gini – Hirschman coefficient, Location Quotient Coefficient (LQ), Coefficient of Location (CL), Coefficient of Specialization (CS) and analysis of variation – participation.

EMPIRICAL DEMAND ANALYSIS FOR LONG - LENGTH ROUNDWOOD (SAWLOGS) IN GREECE

In Greece and internationally, the roundwood is one of the most important forest products as it is used widely in construction and building sector. In this study the process of wholesale long-length roundwood (>2m) price determination is depicted in the form of an inverse demand system. The empirical application based on five species of long-length roundwood using yearly data for auctions providing reasonable and promising results. The own-quantity flexibilities suggest that the responses of prices to own-quantity changes are inelastic while Allais coefficients suggest substitutability between the different species of log-length roundwood.Inverse Almost Ideal Demand System, demand analysis, flexibilities, long-length roundwood, wood sector, Greece

The Byzantine world and conceptual history

Please note: This article is in Greek. The Byzantine World and Conceptual History: The article examines the idea of the Byzantine world through the methodologies of conceptual history and socio-history. A criticism of the positivist stand and its scientific segmentation offers the starting point and the analytical tools provided by the postmodern literature are briefly overviewed. The concept of the Byzantine Ego appears to be central in the related research because it permits to empathize with this Ego’s life-world. The notions of “power”, “meta-narration”, “normativity”, “post-structuralism”, “modernism” and others are central for this study if we wish to escape the narrowing positivist imperative and approach the Byzantine world with a fresh look. The cultural logic of the Byzantine world is seen through a processual approach that combines the ideas of critique, structure and, to some degree, postcolonialism with the purpose to understand alternatively the cultural entities that populated the Byzantine sphere

Pornography and Stress

Pornography, especially in its compulsive form of viewing, is closely linked to ways of managing and reducing stress. Pornographic realism, which is the contemporary form of pornographic representation, is based on technological innovations such as photographic and digital recording of sexual reality. The description of the character of the two forms of recording demonstrates the historical development of pornographic realism. Moving away from pure psychology, we can discern in the field of human sciences the specificity of the relations between pornography and stress reduction through the distinction between the Principle of Pleasure (Lustprinzip) and the Principle of Reality (Realitätsprinzip) at the collective level or otherwise in the space of the co-being (Mitsein). On the other hand, the distance of sexual need from hunger and the plasticity of the former makes pornography a practicable way of dealing with the contradictions of ordinary existence. In sum, the above articulation explains how pornography makes the world of sexual satisfaction go hand in hand with coping with and managing stress

Putting Humanity Back in Medicine

This is a short essay about my reflections on how we treat one another in medicine, and especially how we treat trainees

Hidden Entities and Experimental Practice: Towards a Two-way Traffic Between History and Philosophy of Science

In this paper I investigate the prospects of integrated history and philosophy of science, by examining how philosophical issues concerning experimental practice and scientific realism can enrich the historical investigation of the careers of "hidden entities", entities that are not accessible to unmediated observation. Conversely, I suggest that the history of those entities has important lessons to teach to the philosophy of science. My overall aim is to illustrate the possibility of a fruitful two-way traffic between history and philosophy of science

An evaluation of forestry journals using bibliometric indices

The increasing number of scientific journals, especially over the last 20 years, created the need for methodologies based on simple metrics, to accurately capture the “quality” of those journals and their impact on the scientific community. Especially in the case of journals from the field of forestry, relatively little work has been conducted on providing valid journal classifications. In this paper we attempt to assess the impact of journals from this field in terms of bibliometric data. In addition to the already proposed metrics (complementary to the journal h-index), we also apply a new measure to rank journals, that provides a more balanced evaluation of the journal performance, by adjusting for various biases affecting the h-index. We examined the relationships between various bibliometric indicators proposed for assessing the journal impact and wo found high correlations between most indices, with only few exceptions. According to citation analysis, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, Journal of Vegetation Science, Forest Science, Tree Physiology, International Journal of Wildland Fire, Holzforschung, Trees-Structure and Function, Silva Fennica, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and Wood and Fiber Science are the top forestry journals. These publish articles related to all the domains of forestry science. More specialized journals are also included, dealing with specific issues of scientific interest and also of major importance to the scientific community

The Problem of Modern Greek Identity: from the Εcumene to the Nation-State

The question of Modern Greek identity is certainly timely. The political events of the previous years have once more brought up such questions as: What does it actually mean to be a Greek today? What is Modern Greece, apart from and beyond the bulk of information that one would find in an encyclopaedia and the established stereotypes? This volume delves into the timely nature of these questions and provides answers not by referring to often-cited classical Antiquity, nor by treating Greece as merely and exclusively a modern nation-state. Rather, it approaches the subject in a kaleidoscopic way, by tracing the line from the Byzantine Empire to Modern Greek culture, society, philosophy, literature and politics. In presenting the diverse and certainly non-dominant approaches of a multitude of Greek scholars, it provides new insights into a diachronic problem, and will encourage new arguments and counterarguments. Despite commonly held views among Greek intelligentsia or the worldwide community, Modern Greek identity remains an open question – and wound