Alternative options for the monetary integration of Central and Eastern European EU accession countries

The final destination of monetary policy and integration for the Central and Eastern European EU accession countries is the joining of the euro area. The European union has affirmed that, according to the EC treaty, this will be possible, at the earliest, two years after EU accession. Against this background, the most important issue for the accession countries to decide whether to aim for an early introduction of the euro a few years after EU accession or to adopt for a more gradual strategy of monetary integration. This paper reviews the main arguments for and against either of this approaches. Thus the focus is on the question of how speedily to introduce the euro in the accession countries, within the standard path laid down in the EU accession regulations

Bulk Dynamics in Heavy Ion Collisions

The features of heavy ion collisions that suggest the relevance of collective dynamics, as opposed to mere superpositions of nucleon-nucleon or even parton-parton collisions, are reviewed. The surprise of these studies is that bulk observables are far simpler than typical dynamical models of nucleus-nucleus collisions would imply. These features are shown to have a natural interpretation in terms of statistical-hydrodynamical models. The relevance of hydrodynamics to heavy ion collisions, coupled with the various similarities of the heavy ion data with that of more elementary collisions, raises very basic questions about its relevance to smaller systems.Comment: 10 Pages, 13 Figures, invited parallel talk at the International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2004), Goteborg, Sweden, June 27 - July 2, 200

A Taxonomic Framework on Prevalent Collaborative Innovation Options between Corporations and Startups

Collaborative open innovation with technology startups is attracting considerable interest among large corporations around the world. Despite this practical relevance, an extensive and comparative analysis on collaborative open innovation options and its characteristics has not yet been a focus of research. This paper characterizes and contrasts nine prevalent operational contexts in which large corporations engage in collaborative open innovation with tech startups to facilitate and benefit from innovation. Specifically, this paper proposes a taxonomic framework for corporate venture capital mergers & acquisitions, procurement, business incubators, corporate accelerators, corporate company builders, co-working spaces and startup platform programs and innovation labs. It then delimitates their characteristics based on a predefined set of traits (strategy, financing, startup target, structure, culture, resources, performance measurement and ecosystem-leverage). The study that forms the focus of this thesis involved conducting design science research following a literature review. The findings of this thesis provide a theoretical foundation for further studies and offers terminological clarifications for researchers as well as for innovation managers. Furthermore, it is anticipated that this research will form the basis for future research on the subject particularly in the validation and development of the framework’s general applicability

COMBINING VISUAL CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION AND RESPONSE MODELING

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a central part of Business Intelligence and sales campaigns are often used for improving customer relationships. This paper explores customer behavior during sales campaigns. We provide a visual, data-driven and efficient framework for customer segmentation and campaign-response modeling. First, the customers are grouped by purchasing behavior characteristics using a self-organizing map. To this behavioral segmentation model, we link segment migration patterns using feature plane representations. This enables visual monitoring of the customer base and tracking customer behavior before and during sales campaigns. In addition to the general segment migration patterns, this method provides the capability to drill down into each segment to visually explore the dynamics. The framework is applied to a department store chain with more than one million customers

Self-Organizing Time Map: An Abstraction of Temporal Multivariate Patterns

This paper adopts and adapts Kohonen's standard Self-Organizing Map (SOM) for exploratory temporal structure analysis. The Self-Organizing Time Map (SOTM) implements SOM-type learning to one-dimensional arrays for individual time units, preserves the orientation with short-term memory and arranges the arrays in an ascending order of time. The two-dimensional representation of the SOTM attempts thus twofold topology preservation, where the horizontal direction preserves time topology and the vertical direction data topology. This enables discovering the occurrence and exploring the properties of temporal structural changes in data. For representing qualities and properties of SOTMs, we adapt measures and visualizations from the standard SOM paradigm, as well as introduce a measure of temporal structural changes. The functioning of the SOTM, and its visualizations and quality and property measures, are illustrated on artificial toy data. The usefulness of the SOTM in a real-world setting is shown on poverty, welfare and development indicators

Automated Generation of User Guidance by Combining Computation and Deduction

Herewith, a fairly old concept is published for the first time and named "Lucas Interpretation". This has been implemented in a prototype, which has been proved useful in educational practice and has gained academic relevance with an emerging generation of educational mathematics assistants (EMA) based on Computer Theorem Proving (CTP). Automated Theorem Proving (ATP), i.e. deduction, is the most reliable technology used to check user input. However ATP is inherently weak in automatically generating solutions for arbitrary problems in applied mathematics. This weakness is crucial for EMAs: when ATP checks user input as incorrect and the learner gets stuck then the system should be able to suggest possible next steps. The key idea of Lucas Interpretation is to compute the steps of a calculation following a program written in a novel CTP-based programming language, i.e. computation provides the next steps. User guidance is generated by combining deduction and computation: the latter is performed by a specific language interpreter, which works like a debugger and hands over control to the learner at breakpoints, i.e. tactics generating the steps of calculation. The interpreter also builds up logical contexts providing ATP with the data required for checking user input, thus combining computation and deduction. The paper describes the concepts underlying Lucas Interpretation so that open questions can adequately be addressed, and prerequisites for further work are provided.Comment: In Proceedings THedu'11, arXiv:1202.453

Interactions and magnetotransport through spin-valley coupled Landau levels in monolayer MoS2_{2}

The strong spin-orbit coupling and the broken inversion symmetry in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) results in spin-valley coupled band structures. Such a band structure leads to novel applications in the fields of electronics and optoelectronics. Density functional theory calculations as well as optical experiments have focused on spin-valley coupling in the valence band. Here we present magnetotransport experiments on high-quality n-type monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS$_{2}$) samples, displaying highly resolved Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations at magnetic fields as low as $2~T$. We find the effective mass $0.7~m_{e}$, about twice as large as theoretically predicted and almost independent of magnetic field and carrier density. We further detect the occupation of the second spin-orbit split band at an energy of about $15~meV$, i.e. about a factor $5$ larger than predicted. In addition, we demonstrate an intricate Landau level spectrum arising from a complex interplay between a density-dependent Zeeman splitting and spin and valley-split Landau levels. These observations, enabled by the high electronic quality of our samples, testify to the importance of interaction effects in the conduction band of monolayer MoS$_{2}$.Comment: Phys.Rev.Lett. (2018

Effect of Grazing Frequency by Dairy Cows on Herb Based Pastures

Herbage production and quality of perennial ryegrass pastures is often limited over the summer months (Powell et al. 2007). Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) and narrow-leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata L.) are perennial herbs that accumulate high herbage masses during late spring and summer (Powell et al 2007; Li and Kemp 2005). These perennial herbs are being used by farmers to supplement dairy cows over summer. However, there have been many cases of poor plant persistence with current management practices. The aim of this research was to determine the effect of two grazing frequencies (GF; 2 weeks and 4 weeks) on the herbage production and persistence of pure swards of chicory, plantain and a herb-clover mix (chicory, plantain, red and white clover) over a single growing season