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PurposeEarlier studies on employee turnover have invested enormous scholarly mileage to understand and address human resource challenges. Considering the substantial evidence on the negative and non-linear relationship between employee turnover and firms' performance, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of employee turnover on the social outreach (e.g. breadth of outreach) of microfinance institutions (MFIs), also known as the financial inclusion agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the study objective, the authors collected unbalanced panel data of 1,391 MFIs, covering a total of 96 economies and a period of 2010–2018. The organizational and macroeconomic data were obtained from the World Bank's Mix Market and World Development Indicators databases, respectively, and subsequently analysed using the pooled ordinary least squares, random effects model, fixed effects model and generalized method of moments.FindingsOverall, the authors found that employee turnover has a positive impact on the social outreach of MFIs, which suggests that employee turnover reduces organizational blindness and groupthink, potentiates efficiency gains and minimizes retention costs. On the contrary, this study does not find evidence of a non-linear effect of employee turnover on the outreach objectives of MFIs. Meanwhile, these effects were observed to vary depending on the proxy, sub-samples and techniques used in the analysis.Originality/valueMotivated by the paucity of literature, the study has uniquely investigated the effect of employee turnover on the social outreach objective of MFIs by using relatively recent and global-level data. The study findings can help managers and the human resource departments to make optimum decisions about employee turnover management.

The recent years have witnessed numerous studies that analyze the influence of different factors on the probability of revolutionary events. At the same time, an important set of modernization variables (GDP, urbanization, education, democratization) still remains understudied. Moreover, the results of the contemporary quantitative studies show significant discrepancies in how wealth (operationalized through GDP per capita) affects the risks of revolutionary events. Herewith scholars usually consider such events in the aggregate, without dividing them into armed and non-armed rebellions. This paper attempts to shed light on the impact of wealth on revolutionary instability, taking into account the distinguishing features of its armed and non-armed versions. On the basis of the analysis of 425 revolutionary episodes of various types over the period of 1900—2019, the authors document a strong linear negative relationship between armed revolutions and the level of GDP per capita, while the relationship between unarmed revolutions and wealth has a curvilinear nature. At first, as GDP per capita increases, the risks of unarmed revolutions increase, but after reaching a certain threshold they begin to fall. The inflection point, when the risk of unarmed revolutionary instability is the greatest, corresponds to the level of GDP per capita in the middle-income countries, which currently face the middle-income trap. In other words, their wealth stagnates at the level that is most risky for the emergence of unarmed revolutions. According to the authors' conclusion, in addition to the obvious economic problems associated with the middle-income trap, the latter also leads to the increased probability of unarmed revolutionary instability.

The electrical energy industry depends, among other things, on the ability of networks to deal with uncertainties from several directions. Smart-grid systems in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) networks, being an application of artificial intelligence (AI), are a reliable way to achieve this goal as they solve complex problems in power system engineering using AI algorithms. Due to their distinctive characteristics, they are usually effective approaches for optimization problems. They have been successfully applied to HVDC systems. This paper presents a number of issues in HVDC transmission systems. It reviews AI applications such as HVDC transmission system controllers and power flow control within DC grids in multi-terminal HVDC systems. Advancements in HVDC systems enable better performance under varying conditions to obtain the optimal dynamic response in practical settings. However, they also pose difficulties in mathematical modeling as they are non-linear and complex. ANN-based controllers have replaced traditional PI controllers in the rectifier of the HVDC link. Moreover, the combination of ANN and fuzzy logic has proven to be a powerful strategy for controlling excessively non-linear loads. Future research can focus on developing AI algorithms for an advanced control scheme for UPFC devices. Also, there is a need for a comprehensive analysis of power fluctuations or steady-state errors that can be eliminated by the quick response of this control scheme. This survey was informed by the need to develop adaptive AI controllers to enhance the performance of HVDC systems based on their promising results in the control of power systems. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-024 Full Text: PDF

The capital structure has been extensively analysed in the empirical literature. Despite of the great contribution of the technological industry to the global economy, little research has been conducted regarding corporate finance of ICT firms. Moreover, the previous literature barely considers the effect of macroeconomic variables on financial decisions, focusing much more on internal determinants, such as cash flow, firm's size or growth opportunities. The objective of this work is to reduce this gap by disentangling the reasons behind the financial decisions of technological firms. The sample included 1,510 public ICT firms from 23 countries over the period 2004 – 2019 (17,342 observations). The variables used in this study are obtained from S&P Capital IQ, World Development Indicators, Main Science and Technology Indicators from OECD, and FMI dataset. The two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) was used as methodology. Consistent with the extant literature, more profitable and liquid ICT firms and those with an increased non-debt tax shields are less leveraged. However, the companies which present higher risk, measured as volatility of EBIT, increase their use of debt financing. Contrary to the findings of many other studies, the analysis of a firm's size and tangible assets shows non-conclusive results. Regarding macroeconomic determinants, only economic growth and foreign direct investment inflows were found to generate a positive effect on financial decisions of ICT firms. The findings of this work can be used to design and develop policies, measures, and facilitate mechanisms for optimal management of the financing decisions of ICT firms.

Le foreste italiane esprimono polifunzionalità e, secondo autorevoli opinioni, sono da esplorare nuo[1]ve forme giuridiche anche nella prospettiva del bene comune. Il Testo unico delle foreste e delle filiere fo[1]restali ed i suoi numerosi decreti attuativi, nonché il percorso di intensa condivisione che ha portato alla loro emanazione, costituiscono un tratto dell'innova[1]tivo percorso, nel tentativo di superare parcellizzazio[1]ne di competenze e difformità di visioni. La Strategia forestale nazionale è da più parti riconosciuta come l'esempio più riuscito. Le disposizioni a tutela del pae[1]saggio contenute nel Decreto legislativo n. 42 del 2004 hanno trovato prima nelle definizioni del Decreto le[1]gislativo 227 del 2001 e poi in quelle contenute nel D.lgs. 34 del 2018 il completamento tecnico-giuridico che mancava. I vincoli provvedimentali ex art. 136 del D.lgs. 42 sui beni paesaggistici invece risultano ancora di difficile comprensione per gli addetti del settore, in quanto non proporzionali alle effettive necessità di tu[1]tela, atteso che si applicano le medesime procedure e si debbono presentare i medesimi documenti sia in caso di semplici interventi di gestione forestale coerenti con le disposizioni regionali sia in caso di procedure per la trasformazione permanente dei boschi in altra destina[1]zione d'uso. Un'opportunità per discutere di semplifi[1]cazioni in campo forestale, senza andare a detrimento del capitale naturale e del paesaggio, si profila grazie alle deleghe ricevute dal Governo nell'agosto 2022 con la proposta di ampliare le casistiche per le procedure autorizzative contenute nel DPR 31 del 2017, che fu elaborato all'epoca in cui il percorso del TUFF non era ancora stato avviato.

Purpose
This study aims to explore how the boundary between science and society can be addressed to support the transformation of higher education towards sustainable development (HESD) in the sense of the whole institution approach. It analyses students' learning experiences in self-led sustainability projects conducted outside formal curricula to highlight their potential contribution to HESD. The students' projects are conceived as learning spaces in "sustainability-oriented ecologies of learning" (Wals, 2020) in which five learning dimensions can be examined.


Design/methodology/approach
Using an iterative, grounded-theory-inspired qualitative approach and sensitising concepts, 13 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted exploring students' learning experiences. Interviews were categorised in MAXQDA and analysed against a literature review.


Findings
Results revealed that students' experiences of non-formal learning in self-led projects triggered deep learning and change agency. Trust, social cohesion, empowerment and self-efficacy were both results and conditions of learning. Students' learnings are classified according to higher education institutions' (HEIs) sustainability agendas, providing systematised insights for HEIs regarding their accommodative, reformative or transformative (Sterling, 2021) path to sustainable development.


Originality/value
The education for sustainable development (ESD) debate focuses mainly on ESD competences in formal settings. Few studies explore students' learnings where formal and non-formal learning meet. This article investigates a space where students interact with different actors from society while remaining rooted in their HEIs. When acting as "change agents" in this hybrid context, students can also become "boundary agents" helping their HEIs move the sustainability agenda forward towards a whole institution approach. Learning from students' learnings is thus proposed as a lever for transformation.

The article discusses in detail thepossibilities for lexicographic description of nonstandard mineral vocabulary, i.e. those names of minerals, colloid minerals, geological materials and related objects and phenomena that do not fall under official international mineralogical terminology.The author is develop-ing a project of an explanatory dictionary based on field materials from the card index on stone vocabulary, toponymy and ethnography (the index is created by the staff of the Department of Russian Language, Gen-eral Linguistics and Verbal Communication, Ural Federal University).The material was collected in2019–2023 during expeditions in the Middle and South Urals. It was gathered through interviews with geologists, stonecutters, jewellers, and other groups of stone lovers. The article describes the advantages of the explana-tory dictionary as the type of dictionary appropriate for the vocabulary in question, explains the objectives of the dictionary and special aspects of material selection, describes the dictionary contents and the structure of dictionary entries, provides sample entries. These are devoted to the following thematic groups: 'low-quality mineral, non-precious mineral', 'imitative, artificial mineral', 'non-productive, barren lode'. Special atten-tion in the dictionary entries is paid to motivational and etymological data. The article appears to be an im-portant contribution to lexicography and to the study of the new, little-explored vocabulary layer. The card index will further be supplemented. It is hoped that the nonstandard mineral vocabulary dictionary will be published and prove to be useful both for specialists (linguists and geologists) and for the general reader, cur-rently having poor access to verified academic information on stone vocabulary.

The article discusses the functioning of accentuators (means of emphasis) in political tele-vision discourse and their core-periphery distinction. Accentuators are defined as language, speech, and non-verbal means that accentuate fragments of speech being the most significant from the author's point of view. An accentuator is recognized as core or peripheral depending on two factors: its being intended for semantic emphasis and the frequency of its use in a specific type of speech. Core accentuators are divided into three groups. The center of the core of the accentuation category includes the most emphasis-targeted and frequent means of emphasis –logical and emphatic sentence stress as well as gestural stress (baton gestures). Less emphasis-targeted core units are represented by lexical-semantic emphasis, hypophora, a performative utter-ance, inversion, an emblematic gesture 'attention', and expressive vocabulary. Core units that are least in-tended for emphasis include lexical repetitions, some modal particles, and adverbs of degree and measure. Peripheral means of emphasis are language, speech, and non-verbal units that are contextual and occasional. They are divided into two groups: the close periphery (introductory and parenthetical constructions, illustra-tive gestures, some modal particles, emblematic gestures, parallel syntax, direct and free indirect speech, some facial expressions, etc.) and the far periphery (comparatives, pauses, interjections, some structures of a complex sentence and supra-phrasal units, etc.). The research reveals some significant regularities in the use of accentuators: there are patterns of compatibility of their certain types; the usage frequency of accentuators depends on functional and semantic types of speech or the personal characteristics of communicants.

The international (non)recognition of governments is a composite macro practice that has grown in visibility in recent years in response to contentious domestic political processes such as coups d'état, revolutions, and civil wars, yet it remains understudied in international relations. Doctrinal debates in international law and foreign policy reveal the normative vacuum and normative competition that have long surrounded this phenomenon, but say little about its specific operation and effects. This article brings together insights from recognition theory and international practice theory, and uses post-2011 Libya as an in-depth case study, drawing on elite interviews with diplomats, international officials, and other practitioners. The aim is to sketch a new research agenda by building a generalizable typology of smaller-scale government recognition micro practices (declaratory, diplomatic, informal engagement, intergovernmental cooperation, and support practices), and uncovering their guiding logics and consequences. I argue that, first, the international (non)recognition of governments is endowed with a distinct generative power, as it produces its own creatures through a range of micro practices that have identity formation and change, material empowerment, political legitimation, and sovereignty line-drawing effects. Secondly, it is geopolitically inevitable, as external actors involved in a country cannot ultimately avoid engaging with territorially grounded domestic political actors. Thirdly, it is not a black-and-white situation, as it involves a broad variety of practices guided by different, often contradictory logics. Finally, international government recognition practices are likely to run into three dilemmas stemming from three tensions: international versus domestic recognition, legitimacy versus effectiveness, and coherence versus inclusivity in conflict mediation.

This paper studies female "singleness", which is defined as the status of being non-married, in the cities of Perm Province. Emphasis is placed on the two largest cities — Perm and Ekaterinburg — compared with the entire urban and rural population. The authors refer to aggregates from the city censuses taken in Perm and Ekaterinburg as well as the national censuses of 1897 and 1926 as the main sources. The study quantitatively analyses women's marital status in relation to age, place of residence, ethno-religious, and social affiliation, and calculates the rate of women who never married and singulate mean age at marriage. During the second half of the nineteenth century, in Perm and Ekaterinburg, the authors observe stability in the marriage structure among the female population. Over 50% of urban women and 33.6% of rural women aged 15 and older were not married: in the group under 30 years old, female "singleness" was determined by the fact that some girls were unable to marry. By the age of 40, a significant part of those "single" women were widows, and in the age group of 40–49, they made up the majority. Divorce was significantly less likely to be the cause of female "singleness" than non-marriage while still fertile. The differences in the level of female "singleness" in the Perm cities were influenced by the in-migration of female servants, whose background was often rooted in the peasant class, and the presence of a large monastery. During the new Soviet reality, renunciation of marriage as a life trajectory became infrequent, while the proportion of divorced people among those "single" increased noticeably.

This article analyses non-calendar Karelian anthroponyms identified in archival documents from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on the Zaonezhye Peninsula and testifying to the Karelian heritage of this marker for the culture of the Russian North. The analysis draws upon materials of written books, as well as sources of Zaonezhye Volost self-government, which rarely come to the attention of philologists. The sources were compiled on the site with the support of information from residents, consequently, in them, more often than in written books, there are names that used to be found in the national environment. Among them, there are so-called family patronymics and nicknames. At the same time, in accordance with the universal pattern characteristic of nicknames, they reflect the negative characteristics of a person, i.e. laziness, silliness, talkativeness, etc. Many new etymologies of Karelian non-calendar anthroponyms are proposed in the analysis. For etymology, the author extensively uses data of modern Karelian anthroponyms. The value of this anthroponymy is that it significantly expands the fragmentary knowledge of traditional Karelian nouns, especially existing outside Ladoga Karelia. Additionally, it contributes to the reconstruction of the Karelian page in the history of Zaonezhye, as it contains the names of the Karelians who lived there. For the history of the Karelian language, it is significant that in the situation of almost complete absence of Karelian writing dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this material contains some features of the language of that time, albeit blurred by Russian adaptation. Some structural markers for distinguishing Finnic anthroponyms by their roots are also proposed.

Abstract Purpose: This study aims to measure the religio-spiritual insights of consumers during religious festivals and compare the results considering the stimuli of two advertisements, i.e., religious and irritating advertisements. When the religio-spiritual insights of the consumers are neglected in the designing of a TV advertisement for a religious festival, in particular, it can lead to irritation and affect the consumers' attitude toward advertising. Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights was measured between consumers' attitude toward advertising and independent variables (irritation, credibility, information, good for the economy, and entertainment). Originality/value: This study uses the newly developed instrument of religio-spiritual insights to measure their influence on consumers' attitudes toward advertising and confirms the mediating effect of religio-spiritual insights between the consumers' attitude and other constructs, such as credibility, entertainment, information, irritation, and good for the economy. Design/methodology/approach: Two hundred and fifty-five household consumers were selected using the non-probability convenience sampling techniques to collect the responses using the survey method. Each respondent was asked to fill out two questionnaires after watching the attached stimulus advertisement, i.e., one religious and one irritating advertisement. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to test the hypothesis based on the bootstrapping test. Findings: The results show that religio-spiritual insights significantly mediate attitude toward advertising and other constructs when there was a religious advertisement that depicted religious cues, symbols, and visuals. Contrarily, a non-significant effect of irritation was identified on religio-spiritual insights when there was an irritating advertisement.

Since 1949, NATO's membership has increased from 12 to 31 countries through nine rounds of enlargement. Allegedly, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization door remains open to any European country in a position to undertake the commitments and obligations of membership, and contribute to security in the Euro-Atlantic area. Yet, any decision to invite a country to join the bloc is taken by the North Atlantic Council on the basis of consensus among all Allies. This dichotomy has attracted particular attention following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which 'encouraged' historically non-aligned Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO membership. Apparently, the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of both Nordic countries have immediately encountered strong Turkey's antagonism. While Finland is now a NATO Ally as of 4 April 2023, Sweden has got merely an official Invitee status. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has highlighted that NATO's priority is for Sweden's accession to be completed as soon as possible as well. Although President Erdogan submitted Sweden's accession protocol to the Turkish parliament for ratification in October 2023, there is an ongoing discussion on the reasons why the process has been held up by official Ankara. This article aims at exploring the genuine motives behind Turkey's reluctance to clear the way for the country to become part of the Western military-political bloc. It argues that self-positioning of Turkey as a non-conventional NATO Ally pursuing an autonomous policy, trying to have its own national security concerns better accommodated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been a critical factor.

Health is a fundamental aspect of many scientific disciplines and its definition and measurement is the analytical core of many empirical studies. Comprehensive measures of health, however, are typically precluded in survey research due to financial and temporal restrictions. Self-rated health (SRH) as a single indicator of health, on the other hand, exhibits a lack of measurement invariance by age and is biased due to non-health influences. In the three-item Minimum European Health Module (MEHM), SRH is complemented with questions on chronic health conditions and activity limitations, thus providing a compromise between single indicators and comprehensive measures.
Methods: Using data from the German Ageing Survey (2008 & 2014; n = 12,037), I investigated the feasibility to combine the MEHM into a generic health indicator and judged its utility in comparison to SRH as a benchmark. Additionally, I explored the option of an extended version of the MEHM by adding information on multimorbidity and the presence and intensity of chronic pain.
Results: The analyses showed that both versions of the MEHM had a good internal consistency and each represented a single latent variable that can be computed using generalized structural equation modeling. The utility of this approach showed great promise as it significantly reduced age-specific reporting behavior and some non-health biases present in SRH.
Conclusion: Using the MEHM to measure generic (physical) health is a promising approach with a wide array of applications. Further research could extend these analyses to additional age groups, other countries, and establish standardized weights for greater comparability.

Gourguen Mahari (1903–1969) est l'un des écrivains les plus marquants de la littérature de l'Arménie soviétique. Dans sa jeunesse, il participa activement aux mouvements intellectuels de la capitale, brièvement présentés dans ce travail, avant de tomber en disgrâce, en 1936, et d'être déporté dans les camps du Goulag, d'où il ne put rentrer qu'après la mort de Staline. Cet article porte sur Barbelés en fleurs, une œuvre écrite en 1965 et issue des longues années passées par l'écrivain dans les camps. Censurée en Arménie soviétique, elle fut publiée pour la première fois en diaspora (Beyrouth et Paris), en 1971–1973, et seulement en 1988 en Arménie, dans le contexte de la perestroïka. Cet article analyse les plans narratifs de Barbelés en fleurs et les procédés d'écriture employés par Mahari en les comparant avec les choix d'écriture adoptés par d'autres écrivains, non arméniens, pour « écrire les camps ». Une lecture croisée avec une deuxième œuvre majeure de Mahari, Vergers en feu, sur l'autodéfense de la ville de Van en 1915, s'est révélée fondamentale. Dans les deux ouvrages, l'auteur fait recours au dialogisme et à la réfraction pour faire entendre une pluralité de voix et de perspectives. L'article rappelle aussi quelques aspects des interdictions qui ont frappé la littérature arméno-soviétique, non seulement au nom de l'idéologie du Parti, mais aussi du discours officiel arménien sur l'histoire de la libération des Arméniens de l'Empire ottoman. La censure arménienne ne pardonna pas à Mahari d'avoir montré le mouvement révolutionnaire arménien, dans Vergers en feu, sous l'angle de la déshéroïsation et de la désacralisation.