SWOT Analysis of Serbia and Montenegro’s Accession to the EU

The first generation of reforms in Serbia, especially in 2001–2002, was carried out “by the book” but the initial successful results blurred and concealed numerous problems that, especially in 2003, were becoming more evident and, finally, caused a delay in, and the blockade of, the further reform processes. It turned out that the political élite failed to reach a consensus on the second generation of reforms which, above all, refers to the rounding-off and functioning of the institutions of a market economy and the rule of law in full. After the October 2000 changes, relations between the FRY/SM and the European Union have altered dramatically. Joining the EU became strategic priority of our foreign policy, as well as reintegration of the SM in the international community. Nevertheless, these processes have their strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities and threats, which are summarized in this paper.     

Between a rock and a hard place: the role of relatives in protecting children from the effects of parental drug problems

Using qualitative data gathered from 62 problem drug using parents in Glasgow, Scotland, this paper explores the role played by the extended family in protecting children from some of the negative effects of parental drug use. However, the data also indicated that the intervention of the extended family, whilst often critical, was not without its tensions and difficulties for parents, for the extended family and for the children too. What seemed to obtain in most cases was a complex and volatile mix of practical and emotional concerns over children's appropriate care and issues of responsibility and obligation to the child. These in turn were overlaid by expressions of anxiety, worry, anger and disappointment over both the parent's drug problem and its profound effect on the family. Strained family dynamics and a lack of a supportive welfare infrastructure can all compromise the ability of kin to provide a stable, nurturing environment for children over time. In a worst case scenario it can lead to a breakdown of these care arrangements, leaving these already vulnerable children exposed to further rupture, emotional damage and instability. If we are to avoid such outcomes it is crucial that we first identify and then work to rectify those factors that compromise the abilities of extended family carers to look after these children both in the short and the longer term.     

Sovereign Cat Bonds and Infrastructure Project Financing

We examine the opportunities for using catastrophe‐linked securities (or equivalent forms of nondebt contingent capital) to reduce the total costs of funding infrastructure projects in emerging economies. Our objective is to elaborate on methods to reduce the necessity for unanticipated (emergency) project funding immediately after a natural disaster. We also place the existing explanations of sovereign‐level contingent capital into a catastrophic risk management framework. In doing so, we address the following questions. (1) Why might catastrophe‐linked securities be useful to a sovereign nation, over and above their usefulness for insurers and reinsurers? (2) Why are such financial instruments ideally suited for protecting infrastructure projects in emerging economies, under third‐party sponsorship, from low‐probability, high‐consequence events that occur as a result of natural disasters? (3) How can the willingness to pay of a sovereign government in an emerging economy (or its external project sponsor), who values timely completion of infrastructure projects, for such instruments be calculated? To supplement our treatment of these questions, we use a multilayer spreadsheet‐based model (in Microsoft Excel format) to calculate the overall cost reductions possible through the judicious use of catastrophe‐based financial tools. We also report on numerical comparative statics on the value of contingent‐capital financing to avoid project disruption based on varying costs of capital, probability and consequences of disasters, the feasibility of strategies for mid‐stage project abandonment, and the timing of capital commitments to the infrastructure investment. We use these results to identify high‐priority applications of catastrophe‐linked securities so that maximal protection can be realized if the total number of catastrophe instruments is initially limited. The article concludes with potential extensions to our model and opportunities for future research.     

Peer Support Groups for Child Welfare–Involved Families

Studies on risk factors and circumstances related to child maltreatment have continuously emphasized the important role of social support. As a result, peer support groups have been gaining attention and recognition in recent years in the field of child maltreatment prevention. However, little is known about the benefits that child welfare–involved parents receive in peer support groups, as well as the distinctive service elements that make these groups successful. By examining child welfare–involved parents’ experiences participating in peer support groups, this study provided a better understanding of the perceived beneficial aspects of peer support groups, specific types of supports offered to and by peers, and unique characteristics of these groups.     

MARRYING A ‘FOE’: JOINT SCRIPTS AND REWRITTEN HISTORIES OF GREEK-TURKISH COUPLES

Addressing the notion of “mixture” in marriages between individuals with diverse ethnic and religious identity as well as ambiguous historical relations, this article investigates the conjugal life and relations of Greek-Turkish couples living in Athens. It explores the meanings such unions take on in modern Greek society where nationalist discourse underlines issues of cultural and biological “purity” and shows how alternative versions of history intersect with gender and ethnicity in “mixed” family settings. Although crossing ethnic and historical boundaries does not transform dominant ideas, these mixed marriages allow their participants to maintain flexible lines of distinction and construct meaningful commonalities between themselves and their nations. What is more, by rephrasing stereotypical imageries and orienting themselves toward modern, Westernised ideas, Greek-Turkish couples have built up an ideological platform embracing diversity and historical ambivalence in new, enriched ways.     

The Crisis of the Russian Avant-Garde in Iurii Olesha’s Envy

In this essay 1 will analyze lurii Olesha’s novel Envy (1927) as a reflex of the crisis within the Russian avant-garde. 1 will argue that Olesha’s work can be viewed as the author’s perception of the destruction of the avant-garde in the mid-twenties and its replacement by a radically different aesthetic system, i.e., Socialist Realism.

In Envy, the fatal clash between the pragmatic productivism and the earlier constructivism finds its representation in the struggle of the three machines (or constructions—postroeniia—to use the avant-garde term). These constructions are: the communal kitchen Chetvertak’; a mysterious machine, Ophelia; and Anechka Prokopovich’s bed. I argue that all the power struggles among the main characters of the novel are connected to these three machines. The main feature common to these three machines and their design is control over human life. However, if the first two—Chetvertak and Ophelia—are involved in the active struggle for power, the third—the bed—epitomizes passive aggression. The bed mocks their struggle and lies in waiting and finally devours the future discourse, because it is in the bed that the action of Envycomes to its end. Thus, 1 suggest that Chetvertak be seen as a later productionist creation, while Ophelia represents an earlier constructivist avant-garde conception. In relation to the first two machines, the bed represents socialist realism as a stagnating aesthetic vision and the dystopian pretense of paradise attained.     

Unternehmenserfolg, Wechsel im Vorstandsvorsitz und Disziplinierung von Finanzvorständen

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is often referred to as a company’s No. 2 on contemporary management boards; yet corresponding empirical evidence is scarce. As a result, academic literature has not yet investigated whether CFOs—like CEOs—are dismissed more frequently if corporate performance is poor and to what extent forced Chief Executive Officer (CEO) turnover also influences disciplinary action towards CFOs. Therefore, in this paper we examine the antecedents of forced CFO departures in the largest German corporations between 1999 and 2006. Building on principal-agent theory, we expect respective relationships between the board of directors, the CEO, and the CFO. Moreover, we propose that principals also take team-specific and firm-specific human capital into consideration when disciplining agents. We find that poor corporate performance and forced CEO turnover both independently increase the likelihood of CFO dismissal. In addition, we find indications for a close team relationship between CFOs and CEOs. In summary, our results support the prominent role of CFOs alongside CEOs on contemporary management boards and suggest a more detailed consideration of CFOs in future research on performance consequences of managerial successions.     

Skewed Sex Ratios at Birth in Italian Migrant Populations: Evidence from a Longitudinal Register 1999–2017

European Journal of Population - Many studies in different settings have suggested that migrants from countries with skewed sex ratios at birth tend to adjust the sex of their offspring to ensure...     

A DIRICHLET PROCESS MIXTURE OF HIDDEN MARKOV MODELS FOR PROTEIN STRUCTURE PREDICTION

By providing new insights into the distribution of a protein's torsion angles, recent statistical models for this data have pointed the way to more efficient methods for protein structure prediction. Most current approaches have concentrated on bivariate models at a single sequence position. There is, however, considerable value in simultaneously modeling angle pairs at multiple sequence positions in a protein. One area of application for such models is in structure prediction for the highly variable loop and turn regions. Such modeling is difficult due to the fact that the number of known protein structures available to estimate these torsion angle distributions is typically small. Furthermore, the data is "sparse" in that not all proteins have angle pairs at each sequence position. We propose a new semiparametric model for the joint distributions of angle pairs at multiple sequence positions. Our model accommodates sparse data by leveraging known information about the behavior of protein secondary structure. We demonstrate our technique by predicting the torsion angles in a loop from the globin fold family. Our results show that a template-based approach can now be successfully extended to modeling the notoriously difficult loop and turn regions.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN JOB AUTONOMY:

This research investigates the impact of gender, occupational segregation, and authority position on various forms of job autonomy. The empirical analysis was guided by theoretical concerns over the relevance of occupational characteristics and authority position in explaining the gender gap in job autonomy. Ordinary Least Squares regression results show that after taking various individual and employment-related factors into account, authority position, but not female-dominated occupation, explains a large portion of the gender gap in the degree of job autonomy. Furthermore, logistic regressions indicate that no gender differences in the likelihood of having any of five components of job autonomy remain, after taking all other factors in the model into account. It is concluded that authority position at work is more instrumental in explaining the gender gap in job autonomy than the gender composition of occupations.