The European Union in the 90’s. Fiscal conditions and concerns

This article is referred to the general direction of the economic policy adopted by the member states in year 1999. It is considered in the mixture of measures mainly aimed at contributing to growth, employment and stability, on the basis of a monetary policy. These policies, that are referred in the article, are aimed at a preserved price stability, according to the convention, continuous efforts to get individual budgets balanced or with surpluses in a medium-term perspective, whilst, at the same time, the developments in the labor markets and salaries will be consistent with the objective for price stability and increased employment.peer-reviewe

The impact of EU enlargement on current and new member states. An assessment from the economic and political point of view

The fifth enlargement of the European Union, apart from the most demanding in terms of preparation for the candidates and EU institutions has been the most ambiguous in terms of potential impacts both on economic and political spheres. In this paper we try to identify the directions of potential consequences based on the performance of the new countries during the pre-accession period and the degree of preparation by the time of the first part of accession. The preliminary assessments show that EU and newcomers economies shall face a series of positive impacts in terms of growth, productivity, employment and competitiveness, though to different degrees, while political and social conditions will continue to improve. The greatest challenge for EU policy makers, will continue being the assurance of socio-economic stability during the biggest enlargement ever in EU, yet, with less intervention through an adjusted to the new needs decision making process.peer-reviewe

Can social microblogging be used to forecast intraday exchange rates?

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is widely accepted to hold true under certain assumptions. One of its implications is that the prediction of stock prices at least in the short run cannot outperform the random walk model. Yet, recently many studies stressing the psychological and social dimension of financial behavior have challenged the validity of the EMH. Towards this aim, over the last few years, internet-based communication platforms and search engines have been used to extract early indicators of social and economic trends. Here, we used Twitter's social networking platform to model and forecast the EUR/USD exchange rate in a high-frequency intradaily trading scale. Using time series and trading simulations analysis, we provide some evidence that the information provided in social microblogging platforms such as Twitter can in certain cases enhance the forecasting efficiency regarding the very short (intradaily) forex.Comment: This is a prior version of the paper published at NETNOMICS. The final publication is available at http://www.springer.com/economics/economic+theory/journal/1106

A finite element method for calculating stress intensity factors and its application to composites

A concept which allows the development of efficient finite element techniques for the analysis of plane elastic structures containing cracks is discussed. It consists in combining a special finite element covering a small area around each crack tip, with conventional CST elements in the rest of the region

Charge Collection Mechanism in MEMS Capacitive Switches

The present paper investigates the effect of stressing bias magnitude and stressing time on the discharging process in MEMS capacitive switches. The calculation of discharge current through the dielectric film is based on monitoring the rate of shift of bias for up-state minimum capacitance. The data analysis shows that the discharge current lies in the range of femto-Amperes and the calculated discharge time constant depends directly on the time window of observation and on the stressing conditions. Moreover the analysis reveals an increase of trapped charge that remains in the bulk of the dielectric film for very long time as the stressing bias increases. The dominant discharge process, taking place under an intrinsic field of about 10^3 V/cm, is found to be the hopping effect

Enhancing Decision Support for Secondary Education with OLAP

Decision-making is one of the most critical processes taking place in a modern school. It is a necessary competence for school administrators and managerial staff especially in Education Directorates who often have to make decisions regarding the implementation of education strategies and policies. It is also important for teaching staff and school curriculum designers in order to plan teaching methods and monitor student performance. Nowadays many school functions are supported by dedicated information systems. Business Intelligence (BI) is a widely used set of techniques and tools for the transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes. They include Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) in order to provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Schools in secondary education can be viewed as small organizations where effective decision making is required at many areas and levels. The aim of this project is the research of feasibility of applying OLAP Decision Support Systems in Education and Education Management, any possible benefits as well as possible enhancements. The outcome is the design and implementation of an enhanced OLAP system applied in a specific educational setting based on our case study

Fiber Optic-Based Pressure Sensing Surface for Skin Health Management in Prosthetic and Rehabilitation Interventions

Applied physic