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The purpose of this article is to discuss whether there is any connection between the understanding of a metaphorical concept which emerged in a foreign language and the linguistic means, e.g. loan-translation, loanword, etc., through which this concept is verbalized in other linguistic communities. It is argued that website cannot be translated into German as Netzort (website), because website as it is understood by speakers of German is not a place on the Internet, as the English metaphor seems to suggest, but a collection of connected web-pages. Similarly, firewall is not a wall designed to prevent the spread of fire, but a software product that protects against hackers and other malicious intruders.

The article deals with innovation management in the conditions of a manufacturing company whose aim is to reduce the working time fund that directly determines productivity or efficiency of the company in competitive market conditions. Based on explicit quantification of time frames based on an analytical – chronometric method applicable to production operations in the process. The results of observation, time measurement, research and evaluation of time consumption during the implementation of a repeated production operation, or its complex part within defined production site are presented. Based on explicitly performed quantitative analysis, introducing of innovative technology, innovative solutions in the field of production technology management that support sustainable development with an emphasis on the development of environmental quality are presented including an explicit quantification of working time fund savings through the implementation of innovative machinery and equipment in critical production operations of the analysed production process.

In order to address labor shortages, starting April 2019 the Japanese government introduced two new visa categories, and it can be expected that the growing number of foreign residents living and working in Japan will be increasing further in the foreseeable future. Within this context, the notion of Yasashii Nihongo or Simplified Japanese has been gaining attention over recent years. Originally designed as a tool for transmitting information in disaster-related situations and proposed for disaster mitigation purposes, at present it is being advocated as a means of communication to be used in non-disaster situations as well. The authors argue that ultimately Yasashii Nihongo for non-disaster situations may be just a means to an end. Seen from the perspective of “reasonable accommodation”, a concept prevalent in the domain of disability studies, they assert that by de facto creating a new linguistic category making it a tacit prerequisite to communicate in “Japanese only”, Yasashii Nihongo is but a concept geared towards the language majority (speakers using Japanese as their first language) and is potentially serving no other purpose than to alleviate the psychological burden of having to speak in a language other than Japanese, thus potentially leading to a new form of discrimination towards language minorities. Offering an alternative approach for improving multicultural communication aimed at establishing a communicative space based on openness, equality, and mutual respect for each other’s cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities, the authors propose the introduction of language education based on the notion of plurilingualism, as outlined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) by the Council of Europe.

This paper focuses on the issue of energy efficiency management in the region of Prešov self-governing region (PSR), Slovakia, as the energy market is liberalized and the behavior of electricity consumers is influenced not only by conventional but also by alternative suppliers of this type of energy. Based on the statistical evaluation of a questionnaire survey focused on the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive behavior of consumers, a model of optimization of system processes of energy efficiency management at the regional level is presented. A one-way ANOVA and t-test were used to determine statistically significant differences, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to determine a statistically significant relationship. Based on the obtained results, a suitable candidate for efficient electricity management is an employee aged 36 to 50 with a technical focus. The proposed model of optimizing the processes of energy management efficiency at the regional level can also be applied to the supraregional level in the understanding of the geographical division of the European Union, where the same legislative regulations are applied within the liberalized electricity market.

The interactions between the indicators of sustainable regional development due to the exploitation of raw material deposits in the Slovak Republic are the starting point for effective raw material management. The primary objective of the study is to point out the interactions of explicitly defined indicators of raw material deposits exploitation, which have an overall impact on sustainable development in the Slovak Republic. Based on the development tendencies of selected social, economic, and environmental indicators, the article defines individual indicators that create the potential for further sustainable development. For an effective evaluation of all the indicators, the analytic hierarchy process was used for the identification of the priorities of the indicators. Based on all the relevant factors and previous experience, and results of the conducted analysis, 14 positive and 14 negative indicators were identified. Based on the complex evaluation of raw material in the process of sustainable development in the Slovak Republic, negative factors were prevailing over the positive ones by a scoring rate of 0.90, and the total impact was identified as average profitability of sustainable development support. Accepting all the principles of sustainable development, a model of effective evaluation of raw material deposits and management of raw material exploitation in regional sustainable development of the Slovak Republic based on the quantification of their interactions was developed.