Business Startups: Cultural-Economic Controversy

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether national cultural differences and/or economic, macroeconomic indicators are dominant in explaining business startups in selected EU countries. Among Hofstede’s national cultural differences, we have used the individualismcollectiveness indexmeasuring preference behavior that promotes one’s self interest, while the power distance index measures tolerance of citizens in terms of social inequality in terms of superiors or subordinates; the uncertainty avoidance index reflects tolerance towards uncertainty and ambiguity among citizens, while the masculinity index measures whether the society is male centered (Hofstede 2003). The last variable in the model related to culture is the corruption index (Transparency International 2008), which reflects how sensitive the nation is towards corruption. Among the macroeconomic indicators we have looked at whether the firm birth rate in an economy is strongly influenced by the given average wage rate, overall productivity level among nations, index for profitability and real per capita GDP growth. Findings show that with some exclusion, cultural factors are as important as economic indicators in explaining national business startups. Towards this end we have used factor and principle component analysis towards explaining the strength of the relationship among the variables.business startups, Hoftstede’s model

Implicit Argument Prediction as Reading Comprehension

Implicit arguments, which cannot be detected solely through syntactic cues, make it harder to extract predicate-argument tuples. We present a new model for implicit argument prediction that draws on reading comprehension, casting the predicate-argument tuple with the missing argument as a query. We also draw on pointer networks and multi-hop computation. Our model shows good performance on an argument cloze task as well as on a nominal implicit argument prediction task.Comment: Accepted at AAAI 201

Oil prices and emerging market exchange rates

This paper investigates the role of oil prices in explaining the dynamics of selected emerging countries exchange rates. Using daily data series, the study concludes that a rise in oil price is leading to a significant appreciation in emerging economies currencies against the US dollar. In our study, we divide daily returns from 03/01/2003 to 02/06/2010 into 3 subsamples and test the role of oil price changes on exchange rate movements. We employ generalized impulse response functions to trace out the dynamic response of each exchange rate in three different time periods. Our findings suggest that oil price dynamics are changing significantly in the sample period and the relation between oil prices and exchange rates becomes more relevant after the 2008 financial crisis.oil prices; emerging market exchange rates; international financial markets; financial crisis

Mediamania? Contemporary German Poetry in the Age of New Information Technologies: Thomas Kling and Durs Grünbein

The essay examines the preoccupation with information technologies as a dominant theme of German poetry in the 1980s and 1990s. Outlining the historical shift from a critique of mass media to the ironic affirmation of hi-tech media, the investigation seeks an understanding of its driving forces. The analysis of Enzensberger\u27s polemical essays on the culture industry shows the parallels and the difference in attitude between him and younger poets of the 1980s. A concise account of their publications illuminates the development of an aesthetically demanding poetry that kept aloof from the mass media. In their rejection of a common quotidian or sentimental tone, poets such as Thomas Kling and Durs Grunbein created new idioms and challenging forms while concentrating on hi-tech media as an epochal phenomenon. The sober reflection and technical terminology originate in a materialistic attitude, driven by the desire to regain the power of sophisticated aesthetic expression and to compensate for the loss of experience caused by the simulation of the past.The essay closes with a critical interpretation of the mediamania of the 1990s by giving heed to the fashionable remixing of poetic idioms that leaves the false impression of a new school of media poets

Low-temperature formation of cubic beta-PbF(2): precursor-based synthesis and first-principles phase stability study

A precursor-based approach to the cubic beta-phase of PbF(2) was developed and allowed the preparation of this high-temperature phase well below the temperature for transition from the orthorhombic alpha- to the cubic beta-phase. The formation of beta-PbF(2) from the molecular precursors Pb[Se(C(6)H(2)(CF(3))(3))](2) and Pb(C(6)H(2)(CF(3))(3))(2) is facilitated by the presence of several short Pb center dot center dot center dot F contacts in these molecules. The cubic form of PbF(2) was obtained as macroscopic crystals as well as nanoparticulate powder. Its formation at relatively low temperature suggested a theoretical re-investigation of the phase stabilities of the two polymorphs. The theoretical results from the Kohn-Sham density functional theory indicate that the energy content for the beta-phase is slightly lower than the one for the alpha-phase, by 0.5-1.7 kJ mol(-1) depending on the density functional used (zero-point vibrational energy correction included)

English language instructors’ beliefs about the role of L1 in English language development and formal instruction in Croatia: A survey

Current understanding of second language acquisition processes is based on the position that second language learners rely and depend on their L1 as well as on all of their language-related experience. This paper presents results of a questionnaire study aimed to explore Croatian EFL instructors’ beliefs about the role of L1 in English language development and formal instruction. Data was further analysed in order to explore variables most likely to impact instructors’ belief systems (participants’ age and academic degree, students’ language level, learning setting). The findings point to a lack of professional consensus with regard to L1 use which is discussed and followed by practical implications