PRODUCT INNOVATION AS THE CAUSE OF EXPORT PROPENSITY IN THE CAUCASUS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 090-100
Author(s):  
Krystian BIGOS ◽  
Krzysztof WACH
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transition ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
General Level ◽  
The South ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Product Innovations ◽  
Southern Caucasus ◽  
Enterprise Survey

Despite the extensiveness and abundance of empirical research in the existing literature, there is no clear view or position with respect to the role of innovation in exporting, especially regarding the heterogeneous impacts of different types of innovations (product, process, organizational and marketing innovations) on exporting. The objective of this article is the empirical verification of innovation as the cause of export propensity in firms from the South Caucasian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). The empirical investigation is based on the data collected by the Enterprise Survey (World Bank Microdata), conducted among companies located in the Southern Caucasus. Seven hundred and seventy-six firms were selected through an appropriate procedure, including 279 from Armenia, 236 from Azerbaijan, and 261 from Georgia. Logit regression models were applied to determine the chances of exporting, depending on the type of innovations implemented by each company. The results of binomial logistic regression analysis demonstrate that product innovations play an important role in explaining SMEs’ export propensity in the South Caucasian countries. Moreover, the likelihood of export is seen to be positively related to the share of foreign capital in company structure. The general level of economy innovativeness in the Caucasus is low, but the share of foreign ownership in companies under consideration was relatively high, so the foreign investors probably played a key role in the innovations implemented by local ventures. It is most likely due to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia going through an early stage in economic transition, in which soft innovations (organizational and marketing innovations) lag behind hard innovations. There is an evident lack of empirical studies of the role of innovation in the development of export in emerging countries, including the South Caucasian countries, and it still remains largely underexplored; therefore, the novelty of this research lies in the exploration of the Caucasian countries as emerging markets.

Fluid Multilingual Practices among Youth in Cameroon and Mozambique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torun Reite ◽  
Francis Badiang Oloko ◽  
Manuel Armando Guissemo
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
The South ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Social

Inspired by recent epistemological and ontological debates aimed at unsettling and reshaping conceptions of language, this essay discusses how mainstream sociolinguistics offers notions meaningful for studying contexts of the South. Based on empirical studies of youth in two African cities, Yaoundé in Cameroon and Maputo in Mozambique, the essay engages with “fluid modernity” and “enregisterment” to unravel the role that fluid multilingual practices play in the social lives of urban youth. The empirically grounded theoretical discussion shows how recent epistemologies and ontologies offer inroads to more pluriversal knowledge production. The essay foregrounds: i) the role of language in the sociopolitical battles of control over resources, and ii) speakers’ reflexivity and metapragmatic awareness of register formations of fluid multilingual practices. Moreover, it shows how bundles of localized meanings construct belongings and counterhegemonic discourses, as well as demonstrating speakers’ differential valuations and perceptions of boundaries and transgressions across social space.

SOUTH CAUCASIAN ETHNIC COMMUNITIES IN RUSSIA: SPECIFICS OF FORMATION AND ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION TO THEIR HOMELANDS

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 047-060
Author(s):  
Sergey Ryazantsev ◽  
Elena Pismennaya ◽  
Maria Apanovich ◽  
Dzerassa Dzusova
Keyword(s):  
Labor Migration ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Labor Migrants ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Southern Caucasus

This study has been suggested by the huge importance of labor migration for the social and economic development of the South Caucasian post-Soviet space. Confronted with an unprecedented outflow of their citizens and acutely aware of the problems associated with migration of able-bodied population to other countries, Russia among them, these countries have arrived at a conclusion that their migration policies need reforms. The article analyzes the trends of labor migration from the South Caucasian countries to Russia and other equally popular destinations. The migration trends up to and including Russia’s regions with the maximum numbers of labor migrants from the Southern Caucasus and the structure of their employment by industry are also analyzed. The paper contains statistics on the amounts of remittances sent by labor migrants from Russia to their homelands and assesses their impact on the economies of corresponding states. The cultural and economic contacts between the diasporas and the countries of their origin suggested a comparative analysis of their emergence and development. We have identified the typical industries preferred by representatives of each of the South Caucasian states in Russia, and the documents required of migrants to be employed in Russia. Conclusions related to the specifics of influence and the role of the diasporas in the structure of their employment are contained in the final part of our article along with the identified patterns and trends of these processes. Today, the situation on the market is unbalanced when it comes to job availability and the positions of members of these diasporas. The situation will remain the same as long as diasporas preserve their influence and the migration flows, their proportions. We have identified the most attractive regions in terms of job availability, the spread of migrants from the Southern Caucasus across the regions of the Russian Federation and the rivalry between Azeris, Armenians, and Georgians for jobs in various employment spheres.

scholarly journals A comparison of glacier melt on debris-covered glaciers in the northern and southern Caucasus

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lambrecht ◽  
C. Mayer ◽  
W. Hagg ◽  
V. Popovnin ◽  
A. Rezepkin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiments ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
European Alps ◽  
The South ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Ice Melt ◽  
The North ◽  
Debris Cover ◽  
Southern Caucasus

Abstract. The glacier coverage in the Caucasus Mountains underwent considerable changes during the last decades. Besides a reduction in glacier area which in some areas is comparable to area changes in the European Alps, also the concentration of supra-glacial debris increased on many glaciers. Only a few glaciers in the Caucasus are monitored on a regular basis, while for most areas no field measurements are available on a continuous basis. In this study the regional differences between the well studied Adyl-su basin on the northern slope of the Caucasus is compared with a similar basin in the South (Zopkhito basin). Special focus is laid on the effect of supra-glacial debris cover on the melt conditions during the ablation season. Systematic differences can be shown for the distribution and temporal increase of the debris cover on the glaciers. While in the Adyl-su basin an extensive debris cover on the glacier tongues is common, only some low lying glacier tongues in the Zopkhito basin show considerable supra-glacial debris. Also the temporal increase in debris cover is decidedly stronger in the North. Field experiments show that the thermal resistance of the debris cover is somewhat higher than in other glacerised regions in the world. A simple ablation model which includes the effect of the debris cover on ice melt indicates considerably stronger melt rates in the northern basin, despite the much more widespread debris distribution. This is due to the different meteorological conditions with more frequent cloud cover and precipitation in the South. Still ablation is strongly influenced in both basins by the occurrence of supra-glacial debris cover, reducing the total amount of melt on the glacier by about 20%. Especially in the lower tongue areas this effect mitigates the area loss of the glaciers considerably.

Volunteer Army in the Don and North Caucasus (November 1917 — December 1918)

Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10 (108)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Puchenkov
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The Political ◽  
First Year ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The South ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Political Field ◽  
Personal Contribution ◽  
The Military

The article is devoted to the actions of the Volunteer Army in the Don and the Caucasus in the first period of its existence. The combat path of the army was reconstructed and the political component of the anti-Bolshevik forces was presented. Much attention is paid to the historiography of the problem. The personal contribution of the leaders of the White movement to the successes and failures at the early stage of the struggle against the Bolsheviks is underlined. The author comes to the conclusion that during the entire first year of its existence - from the birth of the “Alekseev organization” in November 1917 and until Denikin and Krasnov reached an agreement on the creation of the Armed Forces in the South of Russia under the united high command of A. I. Denikin in December 1918 the leaders of the army made no major mistakes either in the military or in the political field; on the contrary, their firm and consistent position, supported by the army masses, made it possible by the end of 1918 to achieve obvious successes in the field of both military and state building and turn into the main anti-Soviet force in the South.

Mathematics Textbook as an Object of Research/Matematički udžbenik kao predmet istraživanja

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dubravka Glasnović Gracin
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Mathematics Textbooks ◽  
Mathematics Textbook ◽  
Mathematics Book

AbstractA mathematics textbook can be described as an officially authorized and pedagogically designed mathematics book written to provide mathematical knowledge to students. This description suggests the authority of the textbook - because it has been authorized by an administrative source and because it deals with authorized knowledge. This paper provides an overview of research on mathematics textbooks. The emphasis is on questions concerning the extent to which and how textbooks are used in mathematics education in Croatia and in the world.Research results show that mathematics textbooks are widely used in mathematics education worldwide. This finding points to the need for research on the content and structure of textbooks. Such studies are combined with the associated results on how textbooks are used in the classroom and which methods teachers apply in using textbooks in mathematics education. The results of the empirical studies show that teachers use textbooks for lesson preparation and pupils use mathematics textbooks for exercises to a great extent. These results imply that such an important role of textbooks in mathematics education deserves additional attention, with the goal of understanding and improving mathematics education.Key words: mathematics education; overview; research on textbook---SažetakMatematički udžbenik može se opisati kao službeno autorizirana i pedagoki osmiljena matematička knjiga napisana s ciljem da učenicima ponudi matematičke sadržaje. Taj opis sugerira autoritet udžbenika jer ga je autorizirao administrativni izvor i jer sadrži autorizirano znanje. Ovaj članak daje pregled istraživanja matematičkih udžbenika, a naglasak je na pitanjima u kojoj mjeri i kako se udžbenici koriste u nastavi matematike u Hrvatskoj i u svijetu.Rezultati raznih istraživanja pokazuju da se udžbenici u velikoj mjeri koriste u nastavi matematike irom svijeta. Taj nalaz ukazuje na potrebu za istraživanjem sadržaja i strukture matematičkih udžbenika. Uz to, prikazani su rezultati istraživanja o tome na koji se način udžbenici koriste u razredu i koje metode nastavnici prakticiraju prilikom upotrebe udžbenika na nastavi. Rezultati empirijskih studija pokazuju da nastavnici udžbenike većinom koriste za pripremu nastavnog sata, a učenici udžbenike koriste u najvećoj mjeri za vježbanje. Ti rezultati ukazuju na to da tako važna uloga udžbenika u matematičkom obrazovanju zaslužuje dodatnu pažnju s ciljem razumijevanja i poboljanja nastave matematike.Ključne riječi: istraživanje udžbenika; nastava matematike; pregled.

The Role of Theories of Embodied Cognition in Research and Modeling of Emotions

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 124-138
Author(s):  
Alexandra V. Shiller
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Embodied Cognition ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Unknown Quantity ◽  
Emotional Processes ◽  
Strong Artificial Intelligence ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Postmodern Philosophy

The article analyzes the role of theories of embodied cognition for the development of emotion research. The role and position of emotions changed as philosophy developed. In classical and modern European philosophy, the idea of the “primacy of reason” prevailed over emotions and physicality, emotions and affective life were described as low-ranking phenomena regarding cognitive processes or were completely eliminated as an unknown quantity. In postmodern philosophy, attention focuses on physicality and sensuality, which are rated higher than rational principle, mind and intelligence. Within the framework of this approach, there is a recently emerged theory of embodied cognition, which allows to take a fresh look at the place of emotions in the architecture of mental processes – thinking, perception, memory, imagination, speech. The article describes and analyzes a number of empirical studies showing the impossibility of excluding emotional processes and the significance of their research for understanding the architecture of embodied cognition. However, the features of the architecture of embodied cognition remain unclear, and some of the discoveries of recent years (mirror neurons or neurons of simulation) rather raise new questions and require further research. The rigorously described and clear architecture of the embodied cognition can grow the theoretical basis that will allow to advance the studies of learning processes, language understanding, psychotherapy techniques, social attitudes and stereotypes, highlight the riddle of consciousness and create new theories of consciousness or even create an anthropomorphic artificial intelligence that is close to “strong artificial intelligence.”

Sphagnum mosses (Sphagnaceae, Bryophyta) of South Ossetia (Caucasus)

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 232-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Ya. Doroshina ◽  
E. Yu. Kuzmina ◽  
I. A. Nikolajev
Keyword(s):  
The South ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
South Ossetia ◽  
Sphagnum Mosses ◽  
Botanical Institute ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
Komarov Botanical Institute ◽  
The World ◽  
First Time

Information on the Sphagnum mosses of the South Ossetia is generalized, the resulted list is presented. Nine species of Sphagnum are included in the list, whereabouts data and references to the publications are given, and the presence of a sample in the Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (LE) is noted. The species Sphagnum platyphyllum (Lindb. ex Braithw.) Warnst. rarely occurring in the Caucasus is reported in the South Ossetia for the first time. The species was found in the Caucasus, South Ossetia, at the side of the Ertso Lake (42°28ʹN, 43°45ʹE), 1720 m a. s. l., among sedge thickets at the margin of the overgrowing lake. The peculiarities of its occurrence and ecological conditions are considered. Its distribution in the Caucasus and in the world is discussed.

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