The determinants of foreign direct investment in the Greek regions

This study investigates the determinants of FDI in the Greek regions. The aim of the study is to understand whether and to what extent the presence of localization economies in the Greek regions, has an impact on FDI locational decisions. We use a pooled cross-section dataset of FDI stock and we study the effect of localization economies and of other basic determinants, on the attraction of FDI. We find the most significant influences to be market size, human capital, geographic position and the presence of localization economies

Integrated care in the daily work: coordination beyond organisational boundaries

Objectives: In this paper, integrated care in an inter-organisational cooperative setting of in-home elderly care is studied. The aim is to explore how home care workers coordinate their daily work, identify coordination issues in situ and discuss possible actions for supporting seamless and integrated elderly care at home. <br><br> Method: The empirical findings are drawn from an ethnographic workplace study of the cooperation and coordination taking place between home care workers in a Swedish county. Data were collected through observational studies, interviews and group discussions. <br><br> Findings: The paper identifies a need to support two core issues. Firstly, it must be made clear how the care interventions that are currently defined as ‘self-treatment’ by the home health care should be divided. Secondly, the distributed and asynchronous coordination between all care workers involved, regardless of organisational belonging must be better supported. <br><br> Conclusion: Integrated care needs to be developed between organisations as well as within each organisation. As a matter of fact, integrated care needs to be built up beyond organisational boundaries. Organisational boundaries affect the planning of the division of care interventions, but not the coordination during the home care process. During the home care process, the main challenge is the coordination difficulties that arise from the fact that workers are distributed in time and/or space, regardless of organisational belonging. A core subject for future practice and research is to develop IT tools that reach beyond formal organisational boundaries and processes while remaining adaptable in view of future structure changes

Little Higgs Model and Top-like Heavy Quark at CMS

The Little Higgs model gives an alternative solution to the fine-tuning problem present in the Standard Model (SM) of strong and electroweak interactions. The model invokes several new particles of TeV mass range, the lightest among them being a heavy quark (T) of charge +2/3. The CMS potential to discover this particle during intial years of LHC running is investigated

Η αξιοποίηση των ιστορικών πηγών στο μάθημα της ιστορίας: Επιστημολογικές αντιλήψεις και διδακτικές πρακτικές εκπαιδευτικών δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης.

Στην παρούσα εργασία διερευνήσαμε τις αντιλήψεις και τις διδακτικές πρακτικές εκπαιδευτικών δευτεροβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης, σχετικά με την αξιοποίηση των ιστορικών πηγών. Συγκεκριμένα, διερευνήσαμε τις αντιλήψεις των εκπαιδευτικών για τη φύση της ιστορικής γνώσης και τους σκοπούς διδασκαλίας της ιστορίας στη δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση, τα κριτήρια με τα οποία επιλέγουν και τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αξιοποιούν τα διάφορα είδη πηγών καθώς και τον βαθμό στον οποίο φαίνεται να συγκλίνουν ή να αποκλίνουν οι αντιλήψεις τους με τις διδακτικές τους πρακτικές. Χρησιμοποιήσαμε την ποιοτική προσέγγιση και συγκεκριμένα τον τύπο της μελέτης περίπτωσης. Συγκεντρώσαμε δεδομένα μέσα από συστηματικές παρατηρήσεις διδασκαλιών, σημειώσεις πεδίου και προσωπικές συνεντεύξεις με τους εκπαιδευτικούς. Φάνηκε ότι και οι δύο εκπαιδευτικοί που συμμετείχαν στην έρευνά μας συνειδητοποιούν την ερμηνευτική φύση της ιστορικής γνώσης και ότι θέτουν ανάλογους σκοπούς διδασκαλίας, όπως η καλλιέργεια της κριτικής σκέψης των μαθητών και η υιοθέτηση διαφορετικών οπτικών. Ως βασικά κριτήρια επιλογής των ιστορικών πηγών, θέτουν την προσέλκυση του ενδιαφέροντος των μαθητών, τη διαθεσιμότητα της πηγής και τη συνάφεια της πηγής με την εκάστοτε ενότητα του σχολικού εγχειριδίου. Φάνηκε, ακόμα, να υπάρχει συσχέτιση ανάμεσα στις σπουδές των εκπαιδευτικών και τον τρόπο με τον οποίο προσεγγίζουν τις πηγές στη διδασκαλία τους, δίνοντας αντίστοιχα έμφαση στις οπτικές ή τις γραπτές πηγές. Η απουσία του σχολικού εγχειριδίου στις διδασκαλίες που παρακολουθήσαμε και το φιλικό μαθησιακό κλίμα που έχουν καλλιεργήσει οι εκπαιδευτικοί στις τάξεις τους, βρίσκονται σε αντιστοιχία με τις αντιλήψεις και τις διδακτικές τους επιδιώξεις. Ωστόσο, άλλες αναντιστοιχίες μεταξύ αντιλήψεων και πρακτικών, μας οδήγησαν στο συμπέρασμα ότι, ενδεχομένως, οι εκπαιδευτικοί της έρευνάς μας, σε κάποιες περιπτώσεις, δεν γνωρίζουν πώς να επεξεργαστούν τις πηγές με τρόπο επιστημονικά κατάλληλο ή πώς να αξιοποιήσουν πλήρως και γόνιμα τον διάλογο στην τάξη, ώστε να επιτύχουν τους σκοπούς τους.In this study we explored secondary teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices about the use of historical sources. Specifically, we explored teachers’ perceptions about the nature of historical knowledge and the aims of history teaching in secondary education, the criteria by which they choose and the way they utilize different kinds of historical sources, as well as the extent of convergence or divergence of their perceptions with their teaching practices. We used the quality research approach and more specifically the type of case study. We gathered our data through systematic classroom observations, field notes and personal interviews with the teachers. It seemed that both teachers that took part in our study realize the interpretative nature of historical knowledge and they set corresponding teaching goals, such as the development of students’ critical thinking and the adoption of different perspectives. Students’ interests, availability of the source in addition to the source’s relativity with the textbook, consist main criteria, by which the participant teachers select historical sources for their instruction. Furthermore, we noticed a correlation between teachers’ studies and the way they approach sources during their teaching, showing special interest either on visual or text sources. The absence of the textbook and the friendly classroom climate that we noticed in the classes we attended, seemed consistent with participants’ perceptions and teaching goals. However, other inconsistencies between their perceptions and practices, led us to the conclusion that maybe, in some cases, the teachers of our study don’t know how to work with the sources in a scientifically appropriate way or how to make the most of the discussion in the classroom, in order to meet their teaching goals

Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres