Cyprus Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 3.4 (2003)

List of Abstracts

N. Paleologou, E. Papanis

“Defensive Attribution According to the Severity of an Accident: Empirical Research in Greece”

A research was conducted in order to examine the relationship between the amount of responsibility assigned to a single individual or a variety of factors as the severity of an accident's consequences increase (defensive attribution).

One hundred ninety two (192) people from different age groups, genders and educational levels from Athens area were presented with three fictional accidents of increasing severity and their defensive attributions were rated with a questionnaire and personal interview.

Contrary to the findings of the relevant literature, the results of the current study suggested that Greek people do not personalize responsibility according to the severity of the accident but they tend to attribute responsibility to personal and broader factors such as education, the state and social structure.

No gender, age or educational differences were observed (α=0.911;0.613;0.511 respectively).

A. Alexopoulos, A. Mavranezoulis

“Oil Spills in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: The Case of Single Hull Tankers”

Oil pollution from maritime transportation is a long standing issue that cannoe be ignored by the shipping community, notably the international marine organizations, the coastal states, the flag states and the shipping companies. Tanker accidents attract the media and usually create a public pressure for immediate actions. Particularly in regional seas, the problem grows bigger on account of a limited exchange of water masses and the concentration of other pollutants mainly from land. This study purports to examine in brief the oil spills that have occurred in the eastern Mediterranean region, both accidental and operational, and to present the problems encountered from the legal and techno-economic view. Furthermore, it will attempt to analyze the gradual phasing-out scheme of existing single hull tankers since they fall within the center of criticism and consequently there is a strong requirement for their rapid replacement with the double hull tankers.

E. Sambracos, H. Harissis

“Advanced Transport Telematics Systems and User Requirements: An Approach Based on the Experience Gained in the Port of Piraeus from the Euroscope Project”

The article refers to the results of a survey that was conducted during the EUROSCOPE project in the port of Piraeus. The market research revealed the trends and needs of the port users and the drivers of the trucks, for proper information diffusion and application of special advanced transport telematics systems. These results are presented after being elaborated and also the system architecture that resulted from the survey. These results were presented in the E.U. within the framework of EUROSCOPE project.

G. Vlachos

“Competition and Competitiveness of the E.U. Shipbuilding Sector, Against South East Asia”

The present paper intends to analyze the International situation in the shipbuilding sector with regard to South Korean competition. In conjunction with an International Market analysis, the effectiveness of the up to this day EU policy, for countering conditions resulting in unfair competition behavior and mainly for countering the shrinkage of the ship-repair sector, is recorded.

In this paper, macroeconomic figures, that have shaped till this day the current status, are analyzed, while presenting modern statistics that confirm our conclusions.

In our analysis, great importance has been given to proposed action that will have to be taken by EU so as to preserve the ship-repair sector. Bearing in mind that it constitutes a substantial industrial sector, able to function consumately with the already developed and of strenuous importance shipbuilding industry of the Community.

John Mylonakis

“Bank Market Positioning Maps: Customer Perceptions of Hellenic Financial Services”

Perceptual mapping has been used to satisfy marketing and advertising information needs related to product positioning, competitive market structure, consumer preferences and brand perceptions. A perceptual map gives useful insights for brand positioning and for introducing new products. This paper investigates perceptual mapping practices used in the Greek banking sector to present and understand perceived differences between bank products and services in the Greek financial market. This paper, also, reveals important business implications concerning the attempted merger between the two biggest Greek banks, destined to fail because of differences in their customers’ perceptions, preferences and service requirements, as well as, in social contribution factors, making rather impossible a vital and successful marketing strategy for the merged bank.

V. Hadjisavvas

“Guarantee Bandwidth and Balancing Mechanism for High Speed Networks”

The Guarantee Bandwidth and Balancing Mechanism for high speed Networks was design to minimize the delay characteristics produce by Bandwidth Balancing Mechanism *BBM_DQDB) and Guarantee Bandwidth Mechanism (GBW_DQDB) and at the same time guarantees the throughput requested by high priority stations and evenly distribute the available remaining bandwidth among themselves. Also, whenever high priority stations are idle or they do not use all the given bandwidth, the lower priority stations share this bandwidth evenly among themselves.

Ioanna Keramidou

“The Debate on the Long-Term Dynamics of the Greek Economy”

The paper surveys some approaches, which are considered to be “representative” of the debate on the post-World War II growth of the Greek economy. In particular, it focuses on the theories that interpret the evolution of the Greek economy giving priority either to the “internal” social relations or to the international economic relations. The purpose of this research is to track down the probable causes of major crisis. The paper leads to the conclusion that the distinction between “internal” and “external” factors of growth is not compatible with the “nature” of capital accumulation. The comprehension of the long-term dynamics of an economy presupposes an approach in terms of “universality”, in which the international as far as the domestic relations play a crucial role. The long-term growth rates in a country depend primarily on the probable viability of a world accumulation regime, that is on the international trends of the profit rate and the consumer demand. According to this approach, an economy enters into a phase of structural crisis only when the contradictions generated by the accumulation of capital emerge on a worldwide scale. The social relations and the institutional forms at the national level determine the national regime of productivity and competitiveness and thus explain the causes of national differences in growth rates.

Christidis Ioannis, Trakhanas Constantinos

“The Globalisation of Firms”

Globalisation is a phenomenon witnessed during the last two decades; it involves, in essence, the acceleration, deepening and transformation of internationalisation in the context of the capitalist way of production. Taking the lead in this process are multinational firms, by making direct foreign investment, chiefly in the form of new business units being established abroad. At the same time, globalisation has serious implications for the profile and operation of multinational companies, which, in becoming global, have to differentiate their strategy and management to fit the global “logic”. The harmonisation of the internal market and the economic and monetary integration of the European Union through the introduction of the euro as a single currency further support globalisation, primarily that of "European" multinational firms.

Fani Sakellariadou, Loukas Haralambides

“Metal Partitioning in Rafina and Lavrio Port Sediments”

The metal partitioning among the geochemical phases of sediment samples from the Rafina and Lavrio ports was studied. It shows that in Lavrio port sediments the percentages of Pb, Fe, Cu, Zn associated with the non-residual fraction are significantly higher than those of the Rafina port. The high non-residual metal enrichment along with the high total metal content in Lavrio port sediments show that Lavrio port can be considered as a hot spot in trace metal pollution acting as a source of metals for the neighboring coastal zone. As far as Rafina port sediments are concerned, a Cu enrichment in the exchangeable fraction in the northern part of the port and adjacent to the coast, was found as well as a high Pb enrichment in the reducible fraction and significant Cu and Fe percentages in the organic/sulphide fraction in all samples. As far as Lavrio port sediments are concerned, significant Cu enrichment in the exchangeable fraction and significant percentages of Pb, Fe and Zn in the reducible fraction are found. Lead shows significant percentages present in the carbonate hosted fraction due to the presence of mineralization at the contact between the schists and the marbles, at the Lavrio area. Mainly, Cu and to a lesser extent Fe show significant percentages in the organic/sulphide fraction. Due to the high non-residual metal percentages in Lavrio sediments it could be concluded that their management and disposal during dredging works should be carefully studied and planned in order to avoid the pollution of the neighboring areas. Lavrio port may be considered as a hot spot acting as a source of metals for the neighboring coastal zone. This is not applied for Rafina port.