Limiting distribution of the number of clumps of palindromes in DNA

An important aspect in the analysis of long DNA sequences is to identify whether palindromes are over- or under-represented. The essential step in that direction is the analysis of the limiting distribution of the number of clumps of palindromes where clump is defined as the overlapping occurrence of palindromes. Using the Chen–Stein method, it is shown in this paper that the limiting distribution, under suitable conditions and a type of heterogeneous sequence, is the Poisson distribution. Moreover, error bounds and the rate of convergence are derived in terms of total variation distance between two probability distributions.     

Post-communist lavender menace: lesbians in mainstream East European film

The article examines four films-Károly Makk's Egymásra nézve (Another Way, Hungary, 1982), Maja Weiss's Varuh meje (Guardian of the Frontier, Slovenia 2002), Dalibor Matani?'s Fine mrtve djevojke (Fine Dead Girls, Croatia, 2002), and Dragan Marinkovi?'s Di?i duboko (Take a Deep Breath, Serbia, 2004)-as post-communist or dissident national allegories. In all of these films by straight directors the lesbians represent a metaphorical threat to the hetero/sexist national order, but they are unfortunately little more than simulacra. They can be emotionally real (and fun for the straight male audience to ogle), but that ultimately works against them, because instead of representing real lesbian communities, they still have to affirm the stereotype of tragic lesbian destiny straight audiences find comforting.     

On the radius of centrality in evolving communication networks

In this article, we investigate how the choice of the attenuation factor in an extended version of Katz centrality influences the centrality of the nodes in evolving communication networks. For given snapshots of a network, observed over a period of time, recently developed communicability indices aim to identify the best broadcasters and listeners (receivers) in the network. Here we explore the attenuation factor constraint, in relation to the spectral radius (the largest eigenvalue) of the network at any point in time and its computation in the case of large networks. We compare three different communicability measures: standard, exponential, and relaxed (where the spectral radius bound on the attenuation factor is relaxed and the adjacency matrix is normalised, in order to maintain the convergence of the measure). Furthermore, using a vitality-based measure of both standard and relaxed communicability indices, we look at the ways of establishing the most important individuals for broadcasting and receiving of messages related to community bridging roles. We compare those measures with the scores produced by an iterative version of the PageRank algorithm and illustrate our findings with three examples of real-life evolving networks: the MIT reality mining data set, consisting of daily communications between 106 individuals over the period of 1 year, a UK Twitter mentions network, constructed from the direct tweets between \(12.4\) k individuals during 1 week, and a subset of the Enron email data set.     

Main Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the Southeast European Countries

The growth of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the world has been significant in recent years. Between 1990 and 2000 worldwide FDI inflows increased more than five times, and since 2000 they have declined. During the period of FDI expansion, growth was especially strong from 1997 onward. However, most of the FDI transactions were between the developed countries. The distribution of FDI is unequal and less-developing countries face difficulties in attracting FDI. Despite the fact that FDI is increasingly important to developing countries, over the past few years the share of the developing countries in worldwide FDI inflows has been declining. The paper analyses geographical and sector distribution of FDI in the Southeast European countries (SEEC) and compares its amount with that in Central East European countries. According to economic theory, FDI towards developing countries flows for labor-intensive and low-technology production, while towards developed states, it flows for high-technology production. Identification of determining factors of FDI is a complex problem which depends on several characteristics specific for each country, sectors, and companies. All those factors could be grouped in three broad categories: economic policy of host country, economic performance, and attractiveness of national economy. On the desegregated level, FDI depends on size and growth potential of a national economy, natural resources endowments and quality of workforce, openness to international trade and access to international markets, and quality of physical, financial, and technological infrastructure. An important question is how SEEC can attract more foreign investment. To find the answer, this paper uses data on FDI inflows to SEEC to determine the main host country determinants of FDI and provides regression-based estimation of determinants of FDI. Using a sample of SEEC and panel data techniques, the determinants of FDI in this part of Europe are investigated. The paper researches the relationship between FDI, GDP, GDP per capita, number of inhabitants, trade openness, inflation, external debt, and information and communication technology sectors. For SEEC, FDI inflows are largely dependent on the completion of the privatization process and in this paper we include the level of private sector and privatization as explanatory variables. Our findings suggest that certain variables such as privatization and trade regime, as well as the density of infrastructure, appear to be robust under different specifications. A positive significance of the agglomeration factor is also observed, confirming the relevant theoretical propositions. However, certain differential variables, such as the privatization, could not be fully captured due to the statistical homogeneity of the sample.     

Is Transition Heading the Wrong Way?

Even after a 15-year-long transition experience the question can be asked whether the transition is heading the wrong way. This question originates from practice and personal experience of the author of this paper. The background of this question consists of four dilemmas. (1) Is transition a constructivist project or a project based on evolution? (2) Is transition a problem to be solved by several generations? (3) What were the expectations from transition? (4) Which social groups needed transition? Do transition countries want to develop a capitalistic system or do they just want to introduce capitalism constructively? What has been achieved till these days in most transition countries is a state of so-called political capitalism. It means a system with strong relations between politics and business. Does political capitalism per se have to turn into entrepreneurial capitalism? No! The current transition paradigm leads us into that trap of belief!     

Economic Freedom and Economic Growth in South East Europe

Economic freedom, understood as absence of barriers for business entry, business operations and business exit, is a source of economic development. Its impact is indirect: through institutions framework creation and environment that encourages economic development. Primarily, economic freedoms are a reflection of institutional arrangement, which makes business operations and the realization of business ideas easier for entrepreneurs and managers, who are two extremely important groups for economic development. The aim of the paper is to present empirical analysis of interrelation between economic freedom and economic development, expressed through several indicators, such as gross domestic product, income per capita, foreign direct investment per capita.     

In and out from the European margins: reshuffling mobilities and legal statuses of Romani minorities between the Post-Yugoslav space and the European Union

ABSTRACT

This paper traces the mobilities of Romani minorities between the ‘old’ EU Member States and the non-EU Post-Yugoslav space. It unravels how the mobilities of Romani individuals, who are Non-EU Post-Yugoslav citizens, were different from the mobilities of Roma coming from other post-socialist spaces, now EU Member States. Instead of focusing on motivations for mobility of Romani individuals as some previous work has done, this paper investigates the treatment of these mobilities by different states and the legal statuses these states ascribe to those labelled as Romani migrants. By using the combination historical and socio-legal analysis, this paper diachronically examines the precarious migrant statuses of Post-Yugoslav Romani minorities in the old EU, such as Yugoslav labour migrants, Post-Yugoslav forced migrants and subsequently the ‘bogus’ asylum seekers. The paper points to the interconnectedness of these statuses, but also to their interminable liminality: they are constantly on the verge of being rendered ‘illegal’ and are hence subject to deportability. I claim that while their legal statuses are being reshuffled, their liminality and interconnectedness also contribute to circular mobilities between the Post-Yugoslav space and the EU. I investigate how these mobilities are not only socially produced, but are also legally and politically conditioned by the hierarchical relationship between the Post-Yugoslav space and the EU. As a side effect of this relationship, Roma are positioned as a racialized minority, treated only as temporary migrants in their ‘host country’ and without prospects of inclusion in their ‘country of origin’ as minority citizens.     

Foreign policy priorities and ethnic return migration policies: group-level variation in Greece and Serbia

ABSTRACT

Why do ethnoculturally defined states pursue favourable policies to integrate some returnees from their historical diasporas while neglecting or excluding others? We study this question by looking at members of two historical diasporas that, in the 1990s, returned to their respective ethnic homelands, Greece and Serbia, but were not treated uniformly by their respective governments. Utilising a wide range of primary sources, we consider evidence for a number of plausible explanations for such policy variation, including the economic profile of an ethnic returnee group, its status in internal ethnic hierarchies, its lobbying power, and dynamics of party politics. We find, instead, that the observed variation is best explained by the role that each particular group played in the ruling elites’ ex ante foreign policy objectives. Elites discouraged the repatriation of co-ethnics from parts of the world they still had claims over, by pursuing unfavourable repatriation policies. Conversely, absent a revisionist claim, states adopted favourable repatriation policies to encourage their repatriation and facilitate their integration upon return. Methodologically, the article illustrates the importance of focused comparisons across dyads of states and particular sub-diaspora groups.