Development of the textile industry in selected transition countries of Europe in 1995-2018

The paper examines the development of the textile industry in nine selected European countries in transition (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia) in the period from 1995 to 2018. The aim is to review the basic trends in the development of the textile industry in these countries by achieving the transition to a market model of business with varying degrees of success, which, among other things, is accompanied by a strong wave of deindustrialization. The interdependence of Textiles and clothing industry value added in manufacturing and GDP pc levels in individual countries was calculated by the exponential correlation procedure. It was stated that these countries based their development in the transition period largely on strengthening trade competitiveness, with the textile industry (Textile fibers, yarn, fabrics and clothing) contributing to a significant export expansion. It turned out that the contribution of the textile industry to the economic growth of the analyzed economies was higher in the earlier stages of their economic development. Also, the results of the research confirmed that the textile industry in these countries has maximized its export potential at lower levels of their GDP pc.

Learning English from Home during the Covid-19: Investigating Learners’ Experience for Online and Autonomous Learning

Albeit the covid-19 pandemic impacts on education have been extensively discussed, little empirical evidence addresses students’ experience of autonomy. The present study investigates and obtains information about the experience that the students encountered during online English learning, their perception about it, and how their experience shapes their autonomous learning potentiality. The study was conducted in a quantitative approach adopting survey design and correlation procedure. Data was collected through an online form questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using both descriptive and inferential statistic to look for trends and correlation between the variables. The result of the study indicated that the students participating in the study seemed to have a quite good online English learning experience. They received various learning instructions and were engaged in different types of language learning activity. The majority of students perceived online English learning as fairly enjoyable, yet many of them displayed considerable potential to act as autonomous learners. Furthermore, the correlational analysis indicated a positive correlation (r=.312; sig=.008) demonstrating that students’ potentiality to learn autonomously to some extent, was influenced by their experience of online English learning. This study implies that both teachers and students gradually become more accustomed to online and autonomous learning.

Type I Error Is Inflated in the Two-Phase Reverse Correlation Procedure

Mental images of social categories are highly consequential: They can reveal biases and help elucidate the factors that contribute to those biases. One strategy frequently used to evaluate the properties of mental images is reverse correlation, which is a data-driven method that allows researchers to visualize a person’s mental representation of individuals or groups. In social psychology, this technique often employs a unique two-phase structure. This approach, however, has not yet been carefully validated, and its structure may alter the properties of the statistical tests used to evaluate differences between conditions. Using computer simulations to evaluate the Type I error rate in a typical two-phase reverse correlation procedure, we find that it is inflated in a nontrivial set of circumstances.

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Race-Based Differences in Mental Representations of Police

The current work investigates race-based biases in conceptualization of the facial appearance of police. We employ a reverse correlation procedure to demonstrate that Black Americans, relative to White Americans, conceptualize police officers’ faces as more negative, less positive, and more dominant. We further find that these differential representations have implications for interactions with police. When naïve participants (of various races) viewed images of police officers generated by Black Americans (relative to those generated by White Americans), they responded with greater anticipated anxiety and reported more fight-or-flight behavioral intentions. Across four studies, findings suggest Black and White Americans conceptualize police and police–citizen interactions fundamentally differently. These findings have important theoretical (e.g., using reverse correlation to document the mental representations held by minority group members) and practical implications (e.g., identifying race-based differences in representations of police that may affect community–police relations).

Resolving VLBI correlator ambiguity in the time delay model improves precision of geodetic measurements

The modern Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) relativistic delay model, as documented in the IERS Conventions, refers to the time epoch when the signal passes one of two stations of an interferometer baseline (selected arbitrarily from the pair of stations and called the ‘reference station’ or ‘station 1’). This model consists of the previous correlation procedure used before the year 2002. However, since 2002 a new correlation procedure that produces the VLBI group delays referring to the time epoch of signal passage at the geocenter has been used. A corresponding correction to the conventional VLBI model delay has to be introduced. However, this correction has not been thoroughly presented in peer reviewed journals, and different approaches are used at the correlators to calculate the final group delays officially published in the IVS database. This may cause an inconsistency up to 6 ps for ground-based VLBI experiments between the group delay obtained by the correlator and the geometrical model delay from the IERS Conventions used in data analysis software. Moreover, a miscalculation of the signal arrival moment to the ‘reference station’ could result in a larger modelling error (up to 50 ps). The paper presents the justification of the correction due to transition between two epochs elaborated from the Lorentz transformation and the approach to model the uncertainty of the calculation of the signal arrival moment. Both changes are particularly essential for upcoming broadband technology geodetic VLBI observations.

Assessment of Regional and Historical Climate Records for a Water Budget Approach in Eastern Colombia

Regions located on the eastern side of Colombia are vulnerable to climate change due to the high diversity of fauna and flora located there, the potentially direct impact on agricultural activities, as well as the pressure on water resources. Limited research and work have been conducted to accurately create a description of the climate of these specific regions. The characteristics of the available records, which is valuable information, together with complementary data can be used to simulate the impacts of climate change and the effects it has on the water cycle. A description of the climate for the eastern region of Colombia was made and historical daily records from 669 hydrometeorological stations were considered in order to analyze the robustness and spatial distribution of the data. According to the available data, four of the water districts that compose the eastern region of the country were selected to show both a representative analysis of the climate variability and a consistency analysis using a cross-correlation procedure. A high percentage of missing values was found in the available records; however, with regards to the climatological analysis for the period from 1980 to 2015, 40% of missing values or less seems to be a good threshold for the datasets to be used. Temperature records show monthly small variations and a decreasing average rate from lower to higher elevations, i.e., 5 °C every 1000 m. Precipitation shows different patterns according to the region with monomodal and bimodal patterns. Correlations between datasets of the same region are positive and a significant correlation is obtained with temperature for stations at similar elevations or those located close to each other, and low correlations of precipitation are found. These data records are considered a good source of input data which could be used to perform further analysis such as a climate downscaling procedure, as well as a potential water budget approach for the four studied regions.

Geometric and statistical interpretation of correlation between fault tests in integrated GPS/INS systems

Fault detection and identification (FDI) in either a stand-alone GPS or in integrated GPS/INS systems is essential for improving the quality of positioning, navigation, and many other applications. The assumption that the observations include a single fault has been considered intensively in literature. However, this assumption may not necessarily be valid due to the fact that multiple faults may exist simultaneously. In this study, separability of multiple faults in GPS/INS integration systems has been analysed geometrically and statistically. This has been achieved through testing how large correlation coefficient between any pair of fault tests statistics increases the probability of faults misidentification. In addition, a new calculation procedure of correlation coefficient when four faults appear in the observations has been developed. This procedure considers calculation the correlation between a single and a punch of measurements combined together. The results show that there is a strong relationship between the value of correlation coefficient and the probability of misidentification. Furthermore, a significant relationship between the correlation and the fault test values can be found when splitting the measurements combinations into groups based on the combination similarity. Nevertheless, this relationship can be defined without splitting the measurements into groups when using a new correlation procedure for four faults case. The geometric representation shows that large correlation coefficient reflects small angle between the correlation and the x-axis; whereas the angle between the fault-test vectors and the x-axis becomes wider when a tiny correlation exist.

Utility of radiation-free imaging for initial evaluation of pectus excavatum

OBJECTIVES The OrtenBodyOne scanner is a radiation-free, 3-dimensional imaging system recently developed for evaluation of the severity of pectus excavatum (PE). The goal of this study was to evaluate the utility of this new imaging system compared with that of computed tomography (CT) for the evaluation of the severity of PE. METHODS Patients treated for PE from April 2015 to January 2017 with available CT and OrtenBodyOne data were included. Correlations between indexes calculated from CT and from OrtenBodyOne were determined by applying the non-parametric Spearman correlation procedure with a Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple comparisons. RESULTS Forty men (90.9%) and 4 women (9.1%), 20 with symmetrical (45.5%) and 24 with asymmetrical PE (54.5%), were included. The median age was 16.1 years (range 4.3–63.5 years). The following measures and indexes acquired using OrtenBodyOne and CT were significantly correlated: pectus depth (r = 0.84; P = 0.002), anthropometric index (r = 0.81; P = 0.002) and asymmetry index (r = 0.67; P = 0.002). The correlation between the CT Haller index and the external Haller index was only significant for symmetrical PE (r = 0.57; P = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS The OrtenBodyOne imaging system can be used to evaluate the severity of symmetrical PE using the external Haller index. Asymmetry and anthropometric indexes are more reliable for the evaluation of asymmetrical PE. Measures can be repeated throughout treatment while avoiding unnecessary irradiation.