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Company information is of considerable importance to the business community, but finding the right information is not easy. There are many possible information sources in a variety of formats which are often difficult to identify and control. Accurate and current guides to information sources are important and a prototype hypertext guide to sources of company information has been developed to examine the feasibility of utilising this technology to overcome some of the limitations of paper‐based guides. COMPInfo has been developed using GUIDE software. The structure of the system and the way in which this attempts to fulfil the requirements of a good company information guide are discussed. The advantages and problems of the prototype are considered, along with areas in which further development of the structure would be beneficial. In spite of its limitations, COMPInfo indicates that hypertext technology could provide a viable solution to the problems of producing an effective guide to the complex field of company information.

INTRODUCTION The history of computer applications to the problems of Neuro‐Cybernetics is a chequered one. Certainly, some problems that would have taken literally months—even to define—ten years ago, can now be solved in seconds; but other difficulties have emerged.

This contribution explores intergenerational relations and negotiations in Viet-German families. Due to family members' diverging socialization experiences in Vietnam and Germany as well as social ties in both societies, we assume that different ideas of intergenerational relations and mutual obligations may be found in Viet-German families. We distinguish between interdependent and independent intergenerational patterns of solidarity. Based on interviews with young adults – the descendants of Vietnamese migrants – four thematic areas are identified, in and through the shaping of which intergenerational relations are continuously negotiated at the face of migration-related challenges. These are (1) a childhood for the future, (2) reciprocal support, (3) individualization of family members and intimization of the family and (4) boundaries against kinship and the Vietnamese community. Our analysis reveals the emergence of a new, hybrid pattern of intergenerational solidarity, for which we suggest the term “individualized interdependence.” The role of young adults in the elaboration of this new family order stands out.

This paper attempts to apply an organizational adaptation model to Russian firms in order to assess whether Western strategic models can be used to understand the behavior of firms in transition economies. A modification of Miles and Snow strategic postures was used to assess the relationship between environmental uncertainty and strategic adaptation. Support was found for the environment‐strategy relationship; the direction of the relationship was similar to that found in Western free‐market economies. In this application, the Reactor appeared to be a viable strategy. The linkage to performance, however, was not confirmed.

There is nothing like a baptism of fire to really find out about an organisation and, in the five months since I become Secretary General, I have certainly been baptised. When I wrote my first message for the April Supplement I little thought that before my next contribution I should have undertaken an extensive tour of the Far East, accompanying the Chairman for part of it, that included Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore and involved 72 meetings in 16 days.

Databases New STN databases. In conjunction with the opening of an STN service centre in Japan, STN introduced a new English‐language file on the STN network: JICST‐E (JICST File on Science, Technology and Medicine in Japan). The database contains English citations and abstracts and covers the literature published in Japan on all fields of science, technology and medicine. References are drawn from approximately 4,500 journals and other serials as well as conference proceedings and technical reports. The file contains over 400,000 citations from 1985. Updates will increase this number by 16,000 citations each month.

This paper explored the new features of emerging stock markets, in order to point out the most associated indicators of increasing stock return volatility, which may lead to instability of emerging markets. The study covers a sample of five geographical areas of emerging economies, including Mexico, Korea, South Africa, Turkey, and Malaysia. It used the backward multiple‐regression technique to examine the relationship between monthly changes of stock price indices as dependent variable and the associated predicting local as well as international variables, which represent possible causes of increasing price volatility and initiating crises in emerging stock markets. The study covered monthly data for a period of forty‐eight months from January 1997 to December 2000. The study revealed that stock trading volume and currency exchange rate respectively represent the highest positive correlation to the emerging stock price changes; thus represent the most predicting variables of increasing price volatility. International stock price index, deposit interest rate, and bond trading volume were moderate predicting variables for emerging stock price volatility. While changes in inflation rate showed the least positive correlation to stock price volatility, thus represents the least predicting variable.

Until very recently an immense USSR comprised fifteen republics. Now the three Baltic states are free of Moscow's direction, and an independent Ukraine has joined Belarus and the former Russian Soviet Federated Republic (RSFSR) as the hub in a commonwealth of former republics that have declared themselves independent or “sovereign,” but federated through agreements based on economics or defense considerations. Whether one concentrates on the story of Baltic freedom following the abortive 1991 coup, the subsequent dissolution of central governmental power, or the lasting enmities among some of the peoples in Central Asia and the Caucasus, the pivot around which this new interest or heightened curiosity turns is the recent great change within the late Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

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