Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
The Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
No. 6/ June 2015 ISSN 2360-5499 ISSN-L 2360-5499
EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief: Nicolae Bulz
The Journal of Economics and Knowledge Technologies is a publication officially registered ISSN 2360-5499 / ISSN- L 2360-5499 in Romania / Bucharest by Free Mind Publishing in collaboration with FDBC-KBDF, Knowledge-based Development Foundation.
• JETK International Indexing: ECONIS-ZBW/EconBiz, (http://www.zbw.eu/); RePEc (http://ideas.repec.org/stepbystep.html); EconBiz (www.econbiz.de) • ZBW–German National Library of Economics, Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, (http://www.zbw.eu/), Düsternbrooker Weg 120, 24105 Kiel, Germany • Service of SSRN indexing individual items through SSRN's eLibrary and abstracts for publication in SSRN's electronic journals. • http://issuu.com, Electronic publishing –Issuu
The main areas of analysis in JETK are: Theory and Practice for Economy, Technology, Knowledge Based Economy, Interdisciplinary and Inovative Studies.
KBDF, Knowledge-based Development Foundation
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 1 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Subject Coverage
JETK is an international scientific journal, which focuses on the intersection of Knowledge Technology, Knowledge Business and Knowledge Economics.
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Knowledge production processes and research Risk management, activities, Financing sources of entrepreneurial ventures, Knowledge practices, memory practices, Business performance, Collaboration, coordination, cooperation, partnerships Entrepreneurial intentions, in knowledge production, Entrepreneurship and business education, New forms of research conduct, Entrepreneurship and business and economic growth, New modes of knowledge production with knowledge Social entrepreneurship, infrastructures, Ethics and social responsibility, Design, development, and uses of knowledge Methodologies for e-government, infrastructures, Enterprise architectures, Sustainability of knowledge infrastructures, Business-IT alignment modeling, Global operations management, Governance and policy modeling, The impact of managing disruptive technologies, Technologies for e-government, The diffusion of new technologies, Cloud computing, Managing changing business models and ecosystems Interoperability and standards, in emerging industries, Knowledge management and decision process support, Strategic management of disruptive technologies and Business processes management, industries, Data and network security, Intellectual property rights management of Emerging technologies, technologies and industries, Workflow management systems, Managing new business models, Open source applications, Applied macroeconomics, The shale oil and gas revolution, Applied microeconomics, Energy use and environmental impacts, Service operations and performance, Alternative sources of energy, Product development, New products/process and innovation for Performance management, sustainability, Modeling and simulation, Multi-criteria decision methods for sustainability Quality control and management, assessment, Production and material flows, Innovative business models for sustainable Knowledge R&D management, development, Inventory management and co-ordination, Natural resources management, Multi-objective optimization, Sustainability, Business process outsourcing, Corporate social and environmental responsibility, Aggregate planning, Industrial ecology and eco-clusters. Performance measurement,
Notes for Prospective Authors All papers must be submitted online, via e-mail, as word document attachments. ([email protected])
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 2 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Managing Editor: Ioan Gâf-Deac, PhD. (Professor Management & Technologies, International Fellow University of Canberra, Australia) & Nicolae Bulz, PhD. (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia)
The mission of The Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge - JETK is to publish original, high quality, economics and technologies knowledge empirical research that will have a significant impact on new Knowledge-based Economy theory and practice. Regular articles accepted for publication in JETK must have implications for new economy operations managers based on one or more of a variety of research methodologies. JETK also publishes insightful meta-analyses of the economics and technologies knowledge literature, conceptual/theoretical studies with implications for practice, comments on past articles, studies concerning the economics and technologies knowledge field itself, and other such relevant matters. The primary audience includes researchers who are interested in advancing the economics and technologies knowledge field, academics, Ph.D. students and practitioners who have a concern for keeping abreast of the state of the art in Knowledge-based Economy. The journal presents to this audience the concepts, theories, economics and technologies knowledge perspectives that address current cutting-edge issues in Knowledge-based Economy. Accordingly, the aim of JETK is to enhance the field of economics and technologies knowledge and develop general theory, typically through the identification, analysis, and theorization of real Knowledge-based Economy problems. JETK seeks research that can help the audience develop a better conceptual base for understanding Knowledge based Economy. The focus of articles for JETK should be on the economics and technologies situation or the theory being studied, the techniques solution being developed or used. The journal is not exclusive and covers related general topics.
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 3 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Consulting Editors: Theodor Damian, Metropolitan College of New York, USA (PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Metropolitan College of New York; President of the American Branch of the Academy of Romanian Scientists; President of the Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality, New York). Ion Ciucă, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania Nicolae Bulz, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia (Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies - External research associate) Mihai Pascu Coloja, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania
Academic Editorial Review Board: Carsten Drebenstedt, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany Raul S. Turmanidze, Georgian Technical University of Tbilisi, Georgia Monika Hardigora, Technical University of Wroclaw, Poland Flaviu William Ritziu, John Jay College, West University of New York, USA Juliana Popova, Angel Kanchev University of Ruse, Bulgaria Nicolae Țâu, ULIM University of Chișinău, Republic of Moldova Alexandru Stratan, NIER Chișinău, Republic of Moldova Ion Petru Roșca, ULIM University of Chișinău, Republic of Moldova Hana Lorencova, Envir. Ostrava Univ. St., Czech Republic Sorin Mihai Cîmpeanu, USMAV Bucharest, Romania Remus Pricopie, NUPSPA Bucharest, Romania Călin D. Oros, Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania Aron Poantă, University of Petrosani, Romania Ion Nicolae, Bioterra University, Bucharest, Romania Nicolaie Georgescu, Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania Alexandru T. Bogdan, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania Dorel Zugrăvescu, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania Paul Dobrescu, NUPSPA Bucharest, Romania Constantin Bungău, University of Oradea, Romania Sever-Irin Spânulescu, Hyperion University, Bucharest, Romania Nicolae Tiberiu Iliaş, University of Petrosani, Romania Marin Andreica, Academy of Economics Studies, Bucharest, Romania Mihai Aristotel Ungureanu, R.-American University of Bucharest, Romania Ioan Curtu, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania Wilhelm Kecs, University of Petrosani, Romania Nicolae Paraschiv, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania Maria Gâf-Deac, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Ioan Copaci, Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania Ion Iulian Hurloiu, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Marian Nicolae, Bioterra University, Bucharest, Romania Andrei Nicolae, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Mirela Nicoleta Craiu, ISMB, Bucharest, Romania Silviu Marin Nan, University of Petrosani, Romania Nicolae Cicerone Marinescu, University of Pitesti, Romania Achim Ioan Moise, 1 Dec. 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania Vasilica Ciucă, Institute of NCSMPS, Bucharest, Romania Iosif Andraş, University of Petrosani, Romania Lucian Curtu, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania Aronel-Ovidiu-Corneliu Matei, University of Petroşani, Romania Gelu Uglean, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Ioana Andreea Marinescu, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Antonela Toma, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania Lăcrămioara Rodica Hurloiu, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 4 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Sorin Pavăl, Dynamic Comp.- University of Petrosani, Romania Antonio Silviu Mutulescu, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Sorin Mihai Radu, University of Petrosani, Romania Diana Anca Artene, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Constanţa Chiţiba, D. Cantemir University of Bucharest, Romania Marinică Dobrin, S. Haret University of Bucharest, Romania Nicușor Marcel Udrea, Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania Ildiko Tulbure, 1 Dec. 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Board Members, Techno-Executive Officers: Eliza-Cristina Bulz, Institute of Chartered Accoutance, Edinburg, Scotland, UK Roxana Herbei, PhD., University of Petrosani, Romania
Guide for authors: www.e-editura.ro/jetk Ethics in publishing: www.e-editura.ro/jetk
Conflict of interest: All authors are requested to disclose any actual or potential conflict of interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations.
Submission declaration and verification: Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. Changes to authorship: This policy concerns the addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship of accepted manuscripts. Copyright: The electronic version of JETK (www.e-editura.ro/jetk) is an open access journal. The authors are legally and totally liable for the copyright content of published articles in JETK. Language (usage and editing services): Please write your text in good English (American or British usage is accepted). The English language manuscript may require editing to eliminate possible grammatical or spelling errors and to conform to correct scientific English. Submission The submission process to JETK is done totally online ([email protected]) and you will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of your files. All correspondence, including notification of the Editor's decision and requests for revision, takes place by e-mail removing the need for a paper trail. Referees Please submit the names and institutional e-mail addresses of several potential referees. Note that the editor retains the “sole right” to decide whether or not the suggested reviewers are used.
Impact factor Intent: Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports
Abstracting and indexing Intent: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Executive Sciences Institute, INSPEC, Social Sciences Citation Index, SciSearch/Science Citation Index Expanded, Information Access Company
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 5 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement
The Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge (JETK) published by the Free Mind Publishing in partnership with The Knowledge Based Development Foundation endeavors to adhere to the highest standard of ethical publication of scholarly research work. JETK's Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement adheres COPE's (Committee on Publication Ethics) Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors, reviewers and authors.
Publication process. The submission process of an article is electronic (e-form). It is fundamental that the authors are kept fully informed about the status of their paper at all stages. Although these are detailed in the journal's guidelines to authors, the editors feel that the authors would like to see them in practice. Thus, the process starts off with the acknowledgement of receipt of papers as they are received. This reminds the authors that their papers will go through a series of steps and that they will be briefed about the developments throughout. Most importantly, the objective is to give the authors confidence by telling them in no uncertain terms that they need not worry about any lapses taking place on the journal side. The editorial team comprising the chief editor, managing editor and the editors/associate editors, with their collective wisdom and experience, first screen the papers to make sure that the papers fully comply with the journal's focus and look to be of an acceptable standard overall to warrant further processing – reviewing etc. If not, the paper may be returned to the author, and the editors may advise them that, for better exposure, it should be sent to some other journal expressly more dedicated to the theme. From an ethical point of view, this aspect is deemed highly important and is considered as an USP of the journal. The papers, once through this screening, will then be sent to the reviewers (see below). In case the review yields positive results, the paper will be accepted for publication subject to any other conditions being met in that the publication process is subject to the Journal abiding by the legal requirements in force regarding libel, breaches of copyright, plagiarism amongst others.
Duties and responsibilities of authors. It is well specified in the journal policy that only scientific works would be considered for potential publication. The authors are requested to go through the pages detailing submission procedures and note that their work is obliged to go through a peer review process prior to any consideration for publication. They themselves should satisfy that the work is objective and original enough, that there is application of theory to practice wherever warranted, conclusions are supported by evidence and it adds to the body of knowledge already in existence. Where there is more than one author all authors are expected to significantly contribute to the research. These are all hall marks of being scholarly. It needs to be emphasized that there is a conscious effort to avoid plagiarism. The works must be well referenced. Poor referencing, or very old references is often a cause for refusal of a paper because of the possible interpretation that ideas have been borrowed from other researchers without acknowledging them. All authors must agree to submit a statement that all data in the article is real and authentic and fully complies with the guidance and sections of the journal. It is also a requirement of submission for consideration that the author(s) declare any financial support received with a view to undertaking or commissioning the said research. The same research work should not be submitted to another journal when it is under consideration by one. Should authors feel that the time being taken by a journal, JETK for instance, is unacceptable to them, they should ask to withdraw their paper from consideration. Once an article has been peer reviewed and approved for publication it will be sent back to the authors for a final check and it is imperative that the article is thoroughly appraised and that notification is sent of any retraction and any mistakes or errors that have be corrected prior to publication. For now there are No Fees for this Process. Duties of Reviewers. Contribution to Editorial Decisions. The journal uses double-blind review process. The reviewers advise the editors as to whether the paper is of publishable material or not. If it is not, sufficient reasons should be provided so that the author(s) can go back to the drawing board and improve upon what they had already done. Reviewers must also accept only those papers where they would feel competent enough to perform the duties expected of them. To facilitate this process, JETK has a competency data base of all its reviewers which are updated periodically. As business environment changes, there will be emerging areas of research. The journal proactively considers inviting new reviewers to smoothen the review process so that the authors are not inconvenienced. Reviewers must endeavor to be objective at all times and should declare any conflict of interest with regards to the research, the authors and or any institutions or bodies that have provided funding for the said research. Diligence is important and reviewers should make sure to point out relevant published work not yet cited. All articles should be treated with confidentiality at all times. Editor's responsibilities. Responsibility. From the outset it must be understood that the Editor has complete responsibility and authority to reject/accept an article. They will only accept an article once it has undergone the Journal's established processes and when as certain as is reasonably possible that the paper meets accepted academic standards and the sections as set out by the Journal. The Editor is ever mindful of the issue of conflict of interest with regard to the acceptance or rejection of an article. Rapid response. The journal editors are committed to provide timely review to the authors. If a reviewer does not submit his/her report in a timely manner, the paper is immediately sent to another qualified reviewer. The Editor-in-Chief or the other editors would communicate with the authors, as required, briefing them why the paper, in its present shape could not be published. Confidentiality. The Editor, reviewers, and editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, editorial team, and the publisher, as appropriate. The Editorial team will take all reasonable steps to protect and preserve the anonymity of the reviewers. Transparency. When errors are found the Editor commits to ensure the publication of a correction or retraction. Disclosure and conflicts of interest. Unpublished materials disclosed in a submitted manuscript must not be used by any of the editorial board members and reviewers in their own research.
DISCLAIMER 1. The Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge (JETK), the Editorial Board and the editors are not responsible for authors' expressed opinions, views, and the contents of the published manuscripts in the JETK. The originality, proofreading of manuscripts and errors are the sole responsibility of the individual authors. All manuscripts submitted for review and publication in the JETK go under double-blind reviews for authenticity, ethical issues, and useful contributions. Decisions of the reviewers are the only tool for publication in the JETK. Final decision, as noted above, is, however, taken by the editorial team at JETK. 2. JETK reserve the rights to add, amend, modify, or delete its rules, policies, and procedures affecting its relationship with contributors as deemed necessary by the administration. 3. Free Mind Publishing and JETK reviewers will make every effort to ensure that no paper submitted contains any plagiarized material, it must be stressed that this is ultimately the responsibility of the author.
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 6 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge– JETK. (www.e-editura.ro/jetk)
General Call for papers
For authors: The language of the Journal is exclusively English. The manuscripts must be submitted only in word electronic form ([email protected]). The manuscripts are subjected to preliminary evaluation by the Editorial Board. The period for evaluation by the referees is two months. Manuscript preparation: Authors are requested to prepare the manuscripts considering the following options: The length of manuscripts should be as follows: articles – max. 10 pages (not more than 15 standard pages including references, tables and figures), single-space, 3.0-2.5-cm margins, Arial font. Use an English keyboard layout and the Symbol Font for mathematical symbols. Organisation: The title page should include the title, authors and their affiliations, e-mail address of the authors to whom correspondence should be sent and an Abstract. Abstract – should not exceed 200 words and should give the subjects and conclusions of the article and all results of general interest. Maximum ten keywords should follow the Abstract. Aims – should include brief and clear remarks outlining the specific purpose of the work. Background/ Introduction – a short summary of the background material. Experimental – should be sufficiently detailed, but concise, to guarantee reproducibility. Results and Discussion – should indicate the logic used for the interpretation of data without lengthy speculations. Conclusions – short summary of the main achievements of the research. References –They should be indicated by superscript Arabic numerical in the text. Figures and captions –figures must be numbered consecutively together with captions. Illustrations must fit the format of the Journal and should not exceed 12 × 18 cm. For best results, illustrations are to be black and white, and submitted in the actual size at which they will appear in the Journal. Tables – each bearing a brief title should be numbered in Arabic numerals and placed in order of their appearance in the text. All papers should be submitted via e-mail, as word document attachments. Submission not in elec- tronic form may face a delay in publication. Manuscripts in PDF are not accepted. Particular attention is drawn to the use of SI system of units, and IUPAC recommendations regarding symbols, units, and terminology.
Submission of manuscripts: Manuscripts should be sent to the following e-mail address, as word document attachments: E-mail: [email protected] http://www.e-editura.ro/jetk
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 7 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
CONTENT
Call for Papers: JETK (Volume 1/2015)
Ipate N., Trandafir M., Bogdan A.T., Ipate I., David G., Pipirigeanu M., - Approaches of the health management, based on economic analyses for the realization of ecosanogenesis…/ 10 Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Nicolae A., Hurloiu I.I., Herbei R., - Microcal dedicated software origin for polynomial interpolation in rhythm of accumulation a dry matter of vine…/ 16 Gâf-Deac I.I., - Logic normality of equal chances in the european cultural area…/ 21 Lewoc J.B., Leitgeb E., Izworski A., Kieleczawa A., Hersh M.A., Bulz N., - Cultural aspects of computer networks in music.../ 26 Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Nicolae A., Craiu M.N., - Simulate the development of the vine’s growth stages using the MATLAB software.../ 32 Gâf-Deac I.I., Gâf-Deac M., Bulz E-C., Nicolae A., Popa I.F., Marinescu I.A., Nedelea M.M., - Models for the evaluation of efficiency of knowledge resources…/ 39 Page K., Page I., - On the question “What is truth?”…/ 57 Nicolae A., Nicolae I., Nicolae M., Turcu S.L., - Phases of vine’s increase and development in view of the elaboration the viticulture fenocalendar…/ 60 Gâf-Deac I., Gâf-Deac I.I., Nicolae A., - About competitive advantage in the field of knowledge resources…/ 65 Gâf-Deac I., Gâf-Deac M., Marinescu C.N., Popa I.F., Nicolae A., Bărbulescu A., - Ensuring a quasi-constant level of cutting forces and energy to improve performance of cup-holders rotor excavators in open-pit technology…/ 69 Nicolae I., Nicolae M., Turcu S.L., Nicolae A., Constantinescu D.G., - A model of ecoturism implemented within Comorova forest- Neptun, Romania.../ 73 Kilgour R., Bulz N., - International and interdenominational clergy/ congregational dialogue: Scotland (I)…/ 80 Gâf-Deac I., Gâf-Deac I.I., Bulz N., Nicolae A., - New analytical and predictive statistics for the selection of knowledge resources…/ 93 Nicolae M., Constantinescu D.G., Nicolae A., Craiu M.N., Ceaușu D.M., Hurloiu L.R., - Communicating issues for reform the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Romania…/ 100
Conference Alerts − Scientific Events…/ 106 News & Information…/ 112
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 8 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Call for Papers: JETK (Volume 1)
The Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge is a publication officially registered ISSN 2360-5499 / ISSN 2360-5499 L in Romania / Bucharest by Free Mind Publishing in collaboration with FDBC-KBDF, Knowledge-Based Development Foundation.
Call for Papers We welcome all kinds of the papers, reports and articles which can give meaningful information to other authors or members
Since 2015 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge www.e-editura.ro/jetk ([email protected]) ISSN:2360-5499 ISSN-L: 2360-5499 Publication: Monthly Next Issue: July, August 2015
Publication and Review Information Track Type General / Special Issue's Publication Review Period 4-6 weeks, by 2-3 reviewers in 1-2 months after completing the publication process Publication for Accepted Paper (according to publication schedule) JETK are peer reviewed by 3 Reviewers [1Managing Editor (Prescreening), 1Editors (General Review), 1Invited Reviewer (General Review)] and every review process is controlled according to the journal's guideline.
Paper Types We welcome all kinds of papers, reports, and articles which can give meaningful information to other authors/members. (Original research papers, Economic &Technical Articles, Surveys and/ or Analysis of the New trends in knowledge) Submission Authors are cordially invited to submit papers at the journal's e-mail address. Please follow the designated format for journal. To download the template file click www.e-editura.ro/jetk
Call for Editors We are inviting specialists interested to serve the journal as editors. If you want to be an editor, please visit the website and submit your information.
Copyright (c) 2015. JETK, Free Mind Publishing, KBDF All rights reserved.
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 9 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
APPROACHES OF THE HEALTH MANAGEMENT, BASED ON ECONOMIC ANALYSES FOR THE REALIZATION OF ECOSANOGENESIS
Nicolae IPATE1, Mariana TRANDAFIR2, Alexandru T. BOGDAN3, Iudith IPATE4, Gabriela DAVID5, Mariana PIPIRIGEANU6
Abstract The human health is influenced by ecosanogenesis. The more polluting the environment, the more affected man’s health is. The reports between economy and ecosanogenesis constitute an aspect of maximum importance, being in antagonist relation, the economic being the winner. Thus, if the state of health depends on the relation man – product – nature, the health’s promotion and consolidation will depend on the optimal functionality of this relation. Bio-resources’ exhaustion and pollution have repercussions over the human health. This work aims at analyzing the health management levels and the way health financing is achieved as well as the possibility of growing the financing sources. We need to pass from economic activities to eco-economic activities by changing the behavior of the consumers as well as of the producers, a long-term process which must be motivated by national and regional strategies, based on durable development type clear concepts. The realization of the economic ecosanogenetic balance requires an efficient administration of the ecologic system, which may be achieved by the application of eco-systems’ management principles and methodologies.
Keywords and phrases: health management, ecosanogenesis, social protection
1. Introduction The state of health of a nation correlates with multiple dimensions of life quality: income, job, equity and quality of health and education services and many others. According to the definitions of the World’ Health Organization, adopted during the last 30 years, man’s health should not be resumed only to a lack of disease but also to a state of prosperity, physical as well as mental and social. The synthetic index of innovation has a direct correlation with the GDP percentage granted to research-development and innovation. (Figure 1).
Source: UE. Union Innovation, 2015
Fig.1. Index of innovation and direct correlation with the GDP percentage granted to research-development and innovation
1 PhD. Researcher I Degree – CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania,/ i.e. [email protected] 2 PhD., Danubius University of Galați, Romania, / i.e. [email protected] 3 C.Member of Romanian Academy, PhD. Professor – Director of CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 4 PhD. Researcher I Degree – CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania, / i.e. [email protected] 5 PhD., Economics Faculty of UVVG-Arad, Romania, / i.e. [email protected] 6 PhD., Economics Faculty of UVVG-Arad, Romania, / i.e. [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 10 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
By this more complex definition, the individual’s health is closely related to the concept of life quality. In the modern age, the health of a community has become much more vulnerable and dependent on the health of other communities, due to border opening and the possibilities of rapid transportation to any part of the world. The transportation of men and goods, as well as increased migration, presents a risk which can be only partially controlled by the sanitary authorities, despite the efficiency of the national policies adopted in the field. Thus, the development and health issues of a less developed nation can indirectly affect also the developed societies. These types of issues have generated common strategies of regional co-operation between the countries, supported by certain global organizations, such as the World’ Health Organization, or regional organizations, such as forums of the European Union, with the purpose of finding solutions for the improvement of the global or community issues related to health and living standards. According to the last sources the synthetic index of innovation is quite modest in our country, being at the level of the modest innovators’ cluster. In 2014, Romania advanced two more places in this classification.
2. Material and Methods In the course of the work’s elaboration, we used the systematic study by transversal methods, following-up aspects, phenomena and processes at a given time as well as longitudinal methods, which followed-up processes and aspects in time. According to the number of units worked on, statistics as well as causative methods were used. The data collection method was quantitative in particular, as it is an objective, deductive and generalizable method. These quantitative approaches were performed within the causative methods. We used both sequential methods, where each method (quantitative or qualitative) was approached in the same research by turns. For an idea to be innovative, it must be replicated at an economic cost and must satisfy a need. The need of balance within the health systems from the perspective of social protection by proposing organizational innovation ideas helps in creating new methods for solving certain social issued regarding the population’s health. We will analyze the integration of the concept of ecosanogenesis as an organizational and process innovation. The concept of ecosanogenesis is imposed as an objective requirement, as man can only survive in a healthy environment. If the state of health depends on the relation man- product – nature, the health’s promotion and consolidation will depend on the relation’s optimal functionality. This concept involves man with his major problems, human actions and their results, nature and society, material and spiritual culture within a global relational context. The ecosanogenesis field refers both to the health of the work, to consumers’ health and also to the environmental health. The wide preoccupations of this field are firstly related to the implication of technology and various products over health, as their effects are nowadays more extended and generalized. The concept’s targets aim at eco-systems’ management and a qualitative production, correlated to the consumers’ interests, as well as to the producers and environment’s interests, aspects highlighted through the principle of advanced bio-technology and eco-economy. By the implications it can generate, the realization of a product does no longer represent an issue for the producers, but becomes a concern for society. The achievement of the bio-ecosanogenetic balance requires an efficient administration of the ecologic system, which may be achieved by the application of principles and methodologies of the management of anthropic eco-systems. At the level of all the health systems, discussions lay on the development direction in a profitable, nation efficient way, of the health services, in the sense of a durable social development. The tax pressures make the developed countries worry about new financial sources, over a management as efficient as possible of such resources or other alternative ways of organizing services.
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 11 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
3. Results and Discussions The United Nations established, for the period 1990–2015, a world action plan, in order to improve certain global indicators involved in the social development. We will further refer to proposed targets, related to the improvement of the health indicators: • target no. 4: refers to the reduction of infantile mortality, at a global level (the target is the reduction, by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, of the number of deaths under 5 years old); • target no. 5: the improvement of mothers’ health (the reduction, by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, of the maternal mortality rate); • target no. 6: the control of HIV, malaria and other diseases, such as tuberculosis, for example. Each of the health models face difficulties; unfortunately, none of these systems can achieve simultaneously all the proposed targets at a maximal level. Most of the European countries prioritize one or another of the following objectives, for their sanitary services: universal and equitable access to a package of services; freedom of options for consumers and suppliers; efficient use of available resources. It is each country’s election to establish the importance and priority of one or another of these objectives, depending on the economic, ideological, social factors existing at their level. Nevertheless, a high freedom of choice from the beneficiaries, as well as from the suppliers’ part often determine high costs and accessibility limitation, as patients must bear high costs. The United States of America have such a system which puts accent on the freedom of choices. This type of sanitary system results, in spite of the state’s high investments in health (14% expenses from the GDP for health), in the existence of 35 million citizens without social security and, therefore, without benefiting from these services. Health systems are big resource consumers, the last 30 years recording a continuous increase of the level of necessary resources, due mainly to: the population’s ageing, the discovery of more efficient drugs and more advanced technologies, but also more expensive, the increase of the number of persons benefiting from medical assistance. Theoretically, the financial support can be improved by a series of measures: the limitation of access to services, the reduction of the quality of services or the increase of the private financing share (which, at its turn, has consequences related to the access to services). None of these is socially desirable. From the perspective of social protection, the most indicated way of improving the financial support is the increase of efficiency of the health system: efficientization refers here to costs’ decrease, maintaining quantity and quality at the same levels, achieved by the prevention of overconsumption (which may be related to over-supplying) of medical services and by the allocation of sufficient resources intended for prevention programs and health maintenance programs, with the purpose of reducing potential future expenses. The comparisons made between various international experiences on the basis of the costs/result ratio may constitute an efficient guide referring to efficientization. The international data reveal the fact that the GDP percentage dedicated to health in Romania, even if on the same line with other countries with the same development level, is much smaller than those from most of the EU member states. The experience of most of the European Union states shows that the GDP ratio spent for health tends to increase, as a result of the GDP increase. The estimations regarding the GDP place Romania among the countries with a high GDP percentage per inhabitant, if we refer to those which adhere to the EU in 2004 (such as Slovenia) and among those with low income per inhabitant, if we refer to older member states of the EU (Greece, Portugal). The results of the implementation of various payment systems were below expectations, given the fact that some countries tried to adopt the international experience without taking into consideration the specific internal factors. One of the greatest expectations, after the introduction of the new payment systems, was for the payment, depending on the services provided (resolved cases) to highlight the excessive capacities of hospitals and the high costs for their maintenance, so as the hospitals could respond to changes by the reduction of their physical and human resources. The way of collecting resources determines the type of the health systems, namely: national health systems financed from direct and indirect taxes, health systems financed from mandatory contributions of insured persons, private insurance systems financed by voluntary insurance premiums, free market systems financed by direct payment by the consumer. Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 12 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
The health expenses present an increase trend, due to certain factors, such as: amplification of health protection needs as an effect of the increase of the population and the modification of its structure; the increase of the risk factors; the increase of the medical provisions’ costs, following the introduction, in the medical practice, of investigation means, treatments, drugs, the increase of the number of medical staff etc. The general effect of the increase of these public health expenses has been manifested by a progress of the health state, an increase of the living expectancy at birth, in most of the countries, even in some developing countries. This progress has also led to the acknowledgment of an important ageing of the population, in particular in the developed countries, where we speak about “the fourth age”, respectively those over 80 years old. Another aspect to be mentioned refers to the relation between the level of health costs and the indicators of the health state, in various countries. For example, the USA has the highest level of health expenses, but medium level health state; alternatively, Japan has modest expenses, but the indicators of the state of health are appreciated to be very good.
Fig. 2. Public expenses share from the total of health expenses [1]
During the last ten years, all the countries – rich or poor – have had difficulties in elaborating efficient policies for the improvement of the health systems’ functioning. Many countries have performed sectorial reforms to improve the health system and the health policy. The increase of health expenses has required a stronger “mastery” of their evolution, an improvement of these expenses’ management, a better knowledge of health care activities, of their quality evaluation according to specific information, the accurate establishment of objectives and their achievement. The health investment includes expenses directed to insuring medical assistance for the society’s members, as well as those aimed at preventive actions and preservation of the state of health. It insures the satisfaction of the man’s primary need to be healthy and, at the same time, of the society’s need to have a healthy population. Contributing in the preservation and improvement of the general health state of the population, the investment in health represents a factor of the economic and social development, leading also to the increase of the work capacity by eradicating certain diseases, by reducing the number of days of temporary work incapacity and the reemployment of those who were temporarily ill. The investment character of health expenses claims their treatment also from the point of view of efficiency obtained following their use. The health actions are, on one hand, consumption goods satisfying the individual needs and, on the other hand, have an important economic role, represented by the contribution of health to the growth of the national income. The health protection activity is materialized in several categories of effects, namely: action specific effects, medical effects respectively, social effects and economic effects. Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 13 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
The medical effects aim at the concrete results of actions regarding health protection (consultations, analyses, diagnostic, treatments) and are reflected in recovery of improvement, i.e. in the recovery and preservation of health of persons benefiting from medical assistance. These effects have, in general, an individual character. The social efficiency reflects the effects of the health protection actions at the level of the entire society and upon the state of health of the entire population; they are represented by a series of statistical indicators, such as: the average living expectancy at birth, birth rate, morbidity, infantile morbidity, general mortality etc. The economic efficiency is materialized in the reduction of periods of work incapacity due to diseases and accidents, the eradication of certain diseases, the limitation of others’ extension; the preservation of the state of health leads to the increase of the average living duration and of the active life, to the increase of the work capacity, to saving important financial funds and, as a whole, to the increase of the gross domestic product.
4. Conclusions The conditions which a health care system should fulfill appropriately are: general coverage; timely accessibility; pertinence as to the needs; equity; possibility of choice; effectiveness; high efficiency; wide social acceptability; state’s responsibility as to public health. A critical issue is represented by the inadequacy of the material base of the health services to the essential needs of the current morbidity model, the inefficiency of preventive services and gaps in the provision of drugs and sanitary dispensable materials, the inappropriate distribution and use of the sanitary staff. We can notice the financial gaps and distortions in the health care systems: sub-financing, internal inefficiency, bureaucratic budgetary practices, wrongly oriented expenses, difficulties in transforming the financing sector, uncontrolled development of the private medicine sector. The priorities in the reformation of the health care systems in Central and Eastern Europe are: decentralization of health care systems; modification of planning and management methods; maintenance of a wide accessibility; development of community health systems; development of preventive services, based on prevalent risk factors; improvement of health care staff formation system. Also, it is very important to equilibrate the allocation of financial resources (territorial and between categories of services) and control costs; to reduce inequities in offers and in the access to services; to improve the satisfaction degree of suppliers and users of health care; to reduce the inappropriate use of modern technologies. It is necessary to introduce controlled competition (between public and/ or private suppliers, insurance organizations etc.); to establish contractual relations between service suppliers and buyers; the remuneration of doctors and institutions on the basis of performance criteria; to introduce quality insurance mechanisms in health care; to introduce modern managerial methods in running health care services. The decentralization of the health care systems by defocusing, devolution and delegation of authority represents one of the main challenges of the reform in the health care system. We must achieve the dissemination of information regarding ecosanogenesis, the education of population in the spirit of requiring quality goods, which are not produced in disadvantage of the environment and man’s health. The state’s powers and institutions must be educated and correctly informed in the elaboration of ecologic, economic and health policies. This is the only way ecosanogenesis can fulfill one of its most important targets, that of imposing an appropriate management and to have a preventive role, to avoid spasms and irreversible evolutions regarding human and environmental health. We need to pass from economic activities to eco-economic activities by changing the behavior of the consumers as well as of the producers, a long-term process which must be motivated by national and regional strategies, based on durable development type clear concepts. The realization of the economic ecosanogenetic balance requires an efficient administration of the ecologic system, which may be achieved by the application of eco-systems’ management principles and methodologies.
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Acknowledgment This paper has been financially supported within the project entitled „SOCERT. Knowledge society, dynamism through research”, contract number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132406. This project is co-financed by European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013. Investing in people!”
Reference 1. Bogdan A.T., Ipate I.,- Ecoeconomy and ecosanogenesis in Romania based on agrifood green power, Romanian Academy Editor, Bucharest, 2012, ISBN 978-973-27- 2264-0, 2012 2. Ciutacu C., Chivu L., – Economic evaluations and analyses of state aids – Definition. Policies. Results, Expert PH, Bucharest, 2008 3. Dediu I., - Ecology and Economy — two complementary sciences. Bioeconomy Prolegomena / I. Dediu // Noosfera: scientific magazine of education, spirituality and ecological culture, Bucharest, No. 2, 2009, p.4-12 4. Ioan-Franc V. (edt)., -Durable development and institutional responsibility, Expert PH, Bucharest, 2006 5. * * *, -Union Innovation Scoreboard, 2014 6. Vlădescu C., (edt)., – Public health and sanitary management. Health systems, CPSS PH, Bucharest, 2004
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MICROCAL DEDICATED SOFTWARE ORIGIN FOR POLYNOMIAL INTERPOLATION IN RHYTHM OF ACCUMULATION A DRY MATTER OF VINE
Marian NICOLAE1, Elena NICOLAE2, Andrei NICOLAE3, Ion Iulian HURLOIU4, Roxana HERBEI5
Abstract The dedicated software having in background a powerful matematichal apparat (specially numerical methods with informathical saucer) was revolution experimental research, having the posibility important anticipation, completing the colection rare data which obtain occasionally with difficulty.Using numerical simulation can find formulas for calculating (based on a collection of experimental data) using the media as a powerful Matlab programming, LabVIEW, Microcal Origin eliminating many experimental calculations difficult to get. If we compare the results between the two modes of working (and experimental data) shows that the interpolation methods used: spline, cubic, linear, polynomial (on different degrees until 10 degree) have very small errors, the degree pof fidelity is almost 100% (95% and 98%). By getting expression of mathematical functions and values with average temperatures during certain periods of time (for example, the average for the past 60 years) we can predict the development of biorithm by predictions of the accumulation of dry matter without further recourse to dense experimental calculations.
Keywords and phrases: numerical methods, anticipation, colection data, approximation, interpolation, simulation, process phases
1. Introduction By numerical simulation we can find calculating formulas (on abide by a collection of experimental data) by using strong programming surroundings like Matlab, LabView, Microcal Origin and by elimination of many determinations difficultly to get [7]. If we compare the results of both way of work (exprimental and by computer) [5]. In breeding efforts to develop small-fruited bush strains of C. maxima winter squash, Deborah Evans and Brent Loy have encountered problems in obtaining strains with consistently high dry matter in the pericarp of fruit. Preliminary observations suggested that this variability occurred among fruit on the same plant as well as resulting from year to year differences among plants. In the summer of 1982 Deborah Evans and Brent Loy compared dry matter content in fruits of a bush and a vine cultivar of C. maxima to ascertain if there were differences among fruit in accumulation of dry matter according to position and time of pollination. (Deborah Evans and Brent Loy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 6:72-73, article 36, 1983). A number of approaches have been used to analyse the effects of environmental variables on crop growth. In statistical approaches regressions were obtained correlat in environmental variables and yield (review: Reynolds and Acocx, 1985). The main problems with statistical approaches are that yield estimation is more complex than growth simulation and that there is little confidence in extrapolating the results beyond the original limits of the data sets. Since the 1970s, mechanistic models have been developed (review: Whisler et al. 1986). Usually, difficulties in using these complex models arise from the numerous assumptions. An intermediate approach between the statistical and the complex methods is to use simplified mechanistic models which define crop behaviour by only a few relationships. (M. Bindi, F. Migliettaz, B. Gozzini, S. Orlandini and L. Segi, Vitis 36 /2, 67-7,1997), A simple model for simulation of growth and development in grapevine, Vitis vinifera L, Model description).
2. Material and Methods All entry data should be identified and later synoptically presented in a table, all graphics should be made and the formulae should be identified by employing various numerical methods. Interpolations shall be made for xi data, which are necesary to anticipation and they shall be compared to the experimental ones (table 1) [1], [4].
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 2 Assist. Teacher, PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 4 Lecturer, PhD., SH University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 5 Lecturer PhD. Eng., University of Petrosani, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 16 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Table 1. Evolution of dry substance accumulation depending on the active temperature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Date - 12 20 - 6 10 20 - 5 - 5 21 23 - - No of - - - - 6 10 20 - 65 - 126 172 205 - - day Phase RR SF Vl - B U DI - BI - R M LF RR RR Active - 21 42 - 183 250 346 - 1060 - 2430 3320 3740 - - ∑°C Dry - - - - 1 6 250 875 - 1600 2380 2685 - - Subst(g) - - - - - Active period - -
where: RR – relative repose; SF – physiologic start; Vl – vine lachrymal or vine tear; B – buddind; U – unfolding; DI – devolpment of inflorescence; Bl – blossoming; R – ripe; M- complete maturation; LF – leaf fall.
The active degrees accumulated in time are as Figure 1.
Fig.1. The evolution of ∑°C(active) [8]
The function that best reflects the evolution of temperature was determined by polynomial approximation, obtaining a IVth degree polynom that is employed to determine the accumulation of daily active degrees [6], [8].
Y(X)=-4*10-9 X4-0,0005 X-3+0,1599 X-2+5,7166 X+161,93
Specialized software shall be used, like Matlab, LabView, Origin, Excel, Mathematica, while the results shall be compared and formulae which best approximate reality shall be found.
3. Results The software allows the graphic to be achieved by points depending on xi, yi pairs which were experimentally determined. Only then the polynomial approximation is performed (95%-98% approximation degree, various degree polynomials – Table 2 and 3). The approximation shall result in determining a function, namely a polynomial of Vth order, which shall be compared to the one determined through differents means (Figure 2).
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Fig. 2. Polynomial approximation degree 5 [8]
Afterwards the interpolation is performed in order to quantify the Dry Substance (g) values that were not determined with an experimental method [2], [3].
Y = A + B1*X + B2*X^2 + B3*X^3 + B4*X^4 + B5*X^5
Y = A + B1*X + B2*X2 + B3*X3 + B4*X4 + B5*X5
The function is expressed as:
Y = -367,893 + 1,99773*X + -9,53*10-4*X2 + 1,14*10-7*X3 + 6,34*10-11*X4 – 1,3*10-14*X5
Table 2. Approximation 95% Polynomial Regression for Data1_B: Y = A + B1*X + B2*X^2 + B3*X^3 + B4*X^4 + B5*X^5 Parameter Value Error t-Value Prob>|t| A -367,893 328,9294 -1,11846 0,46444 B1 1,99773 1,95999 1,01926 0,49393 B2 -9,53E-04 0,00305 -0,3129 0,80694 B3 1,14E-07 1,86E-06 0,06105 0,96118 B4 6,34E-11 4,91E-10 0,12901 0,91832 B5 -1,30E-14 4,71E-14 -0,27562 0,82878
R-Square(COD) Adj. R- Root- N Square MSE(SD) 0,99904 0,99425 83,98796 7 ANOVA Table: Degrees of Sum of Mean Item Freedom Squares Square F Statistic Model 5 7,35E+06 1,47E+06 208,513 Error 1 7053,977 7053,977 Total 6 7,36E+06
Y = A + B1*X + B2*X^2 + B3*X^3 + B4*X^4 + B5*X^5
Y =-367,893+1,997*X-9,53*10-4 *X2+1,14*10-7 *X3 + 6,34*10-11 *X4 –1,3*10-14 *X5
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Table 3. Approximation 98% Y = A + B1*X + B2*X^2 + B3*X^3 + B4*X^4 + B5*X^5 Parameter Value Error t-Value Prob>|t| A -367,893 1,54E-12 -2,38E+14 <0.0001 B1 1,99773 7,90E-15 2,53E+14 <0.0001 B2 -9,53E-04 1,46E-17 -6,55E+13 <0.0001 B3 1,14E-07 1,01E-20 1,13E+13 <0.0001 B4 6,34E-11 1,00E-20 6,34E+09 <0.0001 B5 -1,30E-14 1,00E-20 -1,30E+06 <0.0001 R- Adj. R- Square(COD) Square Root-MSE(SD) N 1 1 3,85E-12 50 ANOVA Table: Degrees of Sum of Mean Item Freedom Squares Square F Statistic Model 5 4,15E+07 8,30E+06 8,30E+26 Error 44 6,51E-22 1,00E-20 Total 49 4,15E+07
The interpolated values are presented in the following Table 4 and 5. The experimentally determined values are compared to the ones resulted through interpolation, thus pointing out to the fact that a large number of iterations is possible, in this case 50.
Table 4. Approximation 95% T Dry Subst. T Interpolated Item Measured experimental Iterated Dry Subst. 1 346 250 349,9612 220,2829 2 1060 875 1046,843 869,2726 3 2430 1600 2440,606 1607,505 4 3320 2380 3311,708 2373,559 5 3740 2685 3747,259 2616,215
Table 5. Approximation 98% T Dry Subst. Dry Subst. Dry Subst. Item Measured experimental Interated Value 1 346 250 214,7944 35,20558 2 1060 875 876,966 -1,96595 3 2430 1600 1599,493 0,50743 4 3320 2380 2380,342 -0,34196 5 3740 2615 2614,867 0,13318
The correspondence between the values of the Dry Substance and values of the temperature is obvious and comparable in the two situations (experimental and by interpolation).
4. Conclusions Numerical simulation may help in finding calculus formulae (the richer the experimental data set is, the better the numerical determinations shall reflect reality) by employing powerful programming media, like Matlab, LabView, Microcal Origin, which may be used thus eliminating many experimental. The comparison between the two work methods (informatical and experimental) points out to the fact that the employed interpolation methods, cubic, linear, polynomial, (in various degrees up to the Xth degree) have very small errors, the approximation degree being of almost 100 % (95% şi 98%). After mathematically expressing the functions with the average temperature values during certain periods of time (for example the average for the past 60 years), the evolution of the biorhytm may be anticipated by predicting the dry substance accumulations without employing experimental determinations.
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References 1. Atkinson K.,- Numerical Analysis, Wiley, New York, 1995 2. Berbente C., Mitran S., Zancu S., Tătăran C., - Numerical methods for calculating, Publishing House UPB Bucharest, 1992 3. Ciarlet P.G., - Introduction to Digital Matrix Analysis and Optimization, Masson, Paris – France, 1990 4. Coman Gh., - Numerical Analysis, UP Press, Cluj Napoca, 1995 5. Condei Gh., Ionescu P., Cătănescu V., Ciolacu M., Seiculescu M.,- Contributions to the study of the rate of accumulation of dry vine and plastic compounds and energetic, involved in the formation of crops in viticulture (grape cuttings, rootstocks, grafts), Anale ICVV, XII, pp.109-128, Bucharest, 1992 6. Dinca AL., Ebanca D., Tandareanu N.,- Numerical Calculus and Applications, University of Craiova, 1995 7. Leonard N.E., Levine W.S., - Using MATLAB to analyze and design Control System, Addison- Wesley Publ., 1995 8. Nicolae M., - Applications of informatics in stimulating vegetative growth and formation biorhythm harvest the vines, PhD Thesis, USAMV Bucharest, 2006 9. Nicolae M., – Applications of computer simulation and training biorhythm vegetative growth to harvest vine-vine / Aplicaţii ale informaticii în simularea bioritmului creşterii vegetative şi formării recoltei la viţa-de-vie, Ed. Sitech, Craiova, 2008 10. Nicolae M., – Applications of computer simulation vegetative growth on vines vine / Aplicaţii ale informaticii în simularea creşterii vegetative la viţa-de-vie, Ed. Bioterra, Bucharest, 2008 11. Nicolae M., – Aplicaţii ale informaticii în agricultură, Ed. Bioterra, Bucharest, 2006 12. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Soare M., Soare R., Dulugeac A., Manolache C., - IT aplications for interpolating experimental data in view of simulating phases in process of growth and development in vine, Bulletin of scientific information no 17, Ed. Bioterra, Bucharest, 2007 13. Nicolae M., Marica M., Atudosiei N., Dulugeac A., Nicolae E., – Dedicated Software – Microcal Origin for Polynomial Interpolation in Rhythm of Accumulation a Dry Matter of Vine, University of Craiova - The Scientific Conference with International Participation, “Durable Agriculture – Agriculture of the Future”, 2009 14. Nicolae M., Dulugeac A., – Dedicated Software for Polynomial Interpolation in Rhythm of Accumulation a Dry Matter of Vine, Academy of Romanian Scientists and Bioterra University of Bucharest, International Conference – Global Strategies in Agriculture, Agrioturism, Nutrition and Environment Protection, Bucharest, 2009 15. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Atudosiei N. L., - Mathematics and Computer Science at the service of viticulture,/ Matematica şi informatica în slujba viticulturii, Romanian Wine Art, no 25, Bucharest, Oct 2008 16. Nicolae M., Nicolae I., Nicolae E., Iovici V., Dulugeac A.,- / Growth and development phases of grape-vine vineyard fenocalendar compilation. The experimental method, Fazele de creştere şi dezvoltare a viţei-de-vie în vederea întocmirii fenocalendarului viticol. Metoda experimentală, Annals Review of Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, vol. 7, 2006
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 20 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
LOGIC NORMALITY OF EQUAL CHANCES IN THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL AREA
Ioan I. GÂF-DEAC1
Abstract The paper shows that the equal opportunities approach to articulating senses of people in countries in the European cultural space, can be effectively integrated in cultural structures. The suggestion is that cultural formation of the new "European nation" could "learn" from the early formation history of past nations or nation- states in Europe. In essence, they assist in materializing factual participatory approach to equality in the European cultural space, which means that they can mitigate the traditional and customary intellectual differences between the people of Europe.
Keyword and phrases: normal logic, Gender, Culture, European cultural space, management
1. Introduction. "Not acceptable (wrong/incorrect)", "normal" and "plausible" equal opportunities for participation in the European cultural space The complex cultural systems dynamics is not correlative or cooperative (available) in relation to know/ knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is affected by the cultural dynamic. Participation with equal opportunities in the European cultural space can be found, in this view, between the states of belief / confidence achieved and conventional "incorrect" information when conflicts arise amid the struggle for survival of the concepts themselves and their manifestation through trends. Participatory concepts are alive, including one relating to gender equality, and they self- manifest to appear, especially in content and form of states. The operational and managerial cultural systems in European space are distinguished by: a) syntactic judgments and b) semantic judgments. We appreciate that quantitative probabilistic networks of European cultural sub-systems of the above mentioned judgments are divided into "core intervals" or "higher orders". Such a situation suggests a certain guarantee for the being of equal opportunities in the European cultural space of creators and alike, of the national cultural consumers. Taking into question the potential spacings between national peculiarities of present cultures in the integrator area of a United Europe, it is inferred that certain qualitative probabilistic calculations lead to sentences expressing the epistemic order of preference of those who support and create the framework for decisional commitment in management and organization of the undifferentiated process of equality opportunities in the European cultural space. Between 1) "unacceptable (wrong / incorrect)", 2) "normal" and 3) "plausible" relations which give rise to possible axiomatic checks regarding the participation of equal opportunities are established in the European cultural space. Order measurement induces consistency and quantified / determined plausibility in the content and form of cultural states in the cultural community space. Addressing meanings articulating equality of opportunity for people in countries in the European cultural space, based on the above assertions, can be more effectively done in integrated cultural structures. A set of cultural measures gathered (combined) in the same nonempty crowd, characterized by algebra, means formalizing cultural structures, and it can be a European one. In such a structure we meet people (developers, consumers of cultural acts, "those living" culturally, but also human and organizational cultural agencies) with / on levels of trust / cultural beliefs integrated but non-homogenized, specific for various types of national judgments. Normality logic for equality in the European cultural space has reflections on pre-logical normalcy area (on the border between reality and projection) and in the post-conceptual logic zone, related to the cultural space won methodical and methodological advances in the construction / development of European culture in a new model born in present times.
2. Endogenous modeling/introspective belief/confidence in the equal access of people from the European countries in European culture Meetings of finite conceptions and atomized national cultural mentalities quasi-close semantic judgments of the new European cultural space, and the opportunity being seized, the logic chance,
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SHU Bucharest, National Institute of Economic Research "Costin C. Kiriţescu" (INCE), Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 21 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge equal to everyone, is that of quasi-complete characterization of personal axiomatic approaches in the great human community of united Europe . On the other hand, European cultural structures can be considered standardized tools for modeling intentions of endogenous / total introspective conviction / management confidence of access to the people in the countries of the European culture. Normality logic is encoded in a cultural topic of finite elements of cultural logic, as always in substance to any topic is latently expandable or available to added / joints. Propositional connectivity usual to Europeans to the organization and management of European integration and the cultural object always leaves room for the enunciative extension, which is a normal signal activity coming from the national cultures. Not always, however, can they count on a certain expected level of plausibility of equality among those who wake up included in the new "European nation". We advance the suggestion that cultural formation of the new "European nation" could "learn" from the early formation history of past nations or nation-states. Between a) normal and b) plausible it is necessary for iterative reporting to identify logic and relational qualitative magnitude, exactly that measure of cultural semantic interpretations. What is considered conditional error of those who feel the lack of equal opportunities, is received in parametric sense and is used as an advanced descriptor of European cultural integration algorithm. This gives metrics strings of measuring levels of equal opportunity that predict new actions in assimilated cultural states, based on beliefs-confidence. So, the logic normality principle of equal opportunities of access of people in European countries, is emerging as given by the joint: "A dweller convinced of the managerial S state (having conviction in S), using a new conviction {NS} is satisfied that the state (S) is most epistemologically likely among all other possible beliefs that arise or may arise ". Qualitative measurement of the above inter-relationship means removing indeterminacy between real culture and meta-culture. In essence, they assist in materializing factual participatory approach for equality in the European cultural space, which means that they can mitigate the traditional and customary intellectual differences between the people of Europe. If a language L is expressing cultural judgments coming from the European cultural integrators, then it is considered that regardless of the quality and quantity of expression a implicit, intrinsic satisfaction is advanced, related to reaching an acceptable or unacceptable conventional image accessed by people in countries of European culture, already now considered their own. Such a "fulfillment" can be considered as the guide of classical cultural satisfaction, due to judgment issued with language L. It can produce distinct patterns for the multitude of elements of "conventionally accepted European cultural satisfaction" and for those of "European cultural conventionally accepted dissatisfaction". On this occasion the possibility of ordering and the hierarchical iterative measurement / measures aimed at equal opportunities for access to people in countries of the European culture are met again. We thus obtain a grade of "cultural compaction" or "more reinforced European cultural density "of the approaches of equal access to new culture in Europe. In this way, the role of meta-national culture is reduced (transferred) actionably / reflective in the sphere of European culture, as evidenced by the steps suggesting operability of real cultural world. Even when using national cultural images, they become real instruments of sub-cultural mechanism, expanded in the European cultural area. It follows that over the national cultural zone operation with elements of pure meta-culture to reach a new culture, the European one, is predictable. Propositional tautologies suggest rules for implications embodied in the schemes and axioms of participatory approach for equal opportunities of everyone in the European cultural space. Schematic and axiomatic arguments support and facilitate cultural connectivity. The points made above shows that in essence, the construction of a European cultural model must always be based on normality logic of equality of access to people in countries of European culture. This comes equally from the application of national cultural imports axiomatic content related to general logic, but also from a wide algebra, when the cultural declarative density reaches saturation.
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It basically uses 1) induction convergence lines (alignments) that slides national cultural approaches towards regional culture; 2) capture qualitative probabilistic considerations of objects, processes and national cultural phenomena in European culture infrastructure and 3) suggestion / formalization of the intuitive adequacy from decision makers and people with equal access in the New Culture of Europe. European Cultural Thought must, however, tend to assume the "national cultural righteous, true, real-accurate considered systems" by clearly denoting conventional erroneous, conditionality (the process is called de-conectivity). Instead, the conditionalities of logical cultural normality of equality cannot exist without "mirroring" their own, respectively without abnormal conditionalities, conventionally considered erroneous.
3. Organizational consistency for ensuring equal opportunities for access to the New Culture of Europe Using national cultural structures looms the possibility of retaining/ consideration of plausibility to a certain level of belief/ European cultural confidence which assumes the introduction of paradigm links in an attempt/ temptation of integrators to find themselves reflected in a certain cultural formalism. In turn, the structure of the New Culture of Europe can gain compactness if it is characterized by logical normality of equal opportunities for the access of people in countries of the European culture. European cultural integrators are those who by their logical actions update national cultural compact structures, taking into account the links between national cultural value of national and European social value. (Figure 1).
Fig. 1. Links between national cultural and European social value
The valuation of equal opportunities in the European cultural space stated above are potential characteristics and subsequent evolutionary circumstances and situational in global culture.
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Therefore, it is handy to formalize situational culture which can benefit from national cultural quasi-objective judgments,oriented towards the process of obtaining plausibility of equal opportunities in the global culture. However, the essence of national cultural acceptance in the structures for New Culture of Europe is related to their involvement in the organizational coherence principle generating equal opportunities in the European cultural space, which has fundamental significance conditioned in the conception regarding the belief/ cultural confidence based on the logical normality general for equality of opportunity. Among the objectives of national cultural and European cultural modal judgments contextual distribution occurs. So doxastic logical normality of equal opportunities in the European cultural space is the infinitesimal derivability /quasi-continuous relationship between temptation/ tentative decision of European integrators and tautological propositions validated by complex process elements for the emergence of European cultural novelties based on compromise, cultural tolerance and partial acculturation (Figure 2).
Fig. 2. Complex elements for the emergence of European cultural novelties based on compromise, cultural tolerance and partial acculturation
In essence, the normality logic of equal opportunities in the European cultural area approximates the compact cultural semantic structures, including those nationally dense and updated. In this context, we have to deal with an epistemic relationship involved in cultural chaining, from national to European level. Mainly a cultural belief (C1) is considered epistemically lost in a cultural linkage, if and only if another cultural belief (C2) is lost and this loss (C2) is validated as long as (C1) should be revised (revised, amended) in order to be accepted. Similarly, in the logic of equality in the European cultural space, cultural epistemic relations involved in cultural chaining are retained in integrative judgments that benefit from logical preferences of their integrators. The intuitive correspondence suggests that if it identifies a way of cultural linkage, this is compatible with another way of preference logic of the European integrator, which leads inevitably to ignoring or losing some cultural judgments or to outlining or removing them from the set of variants / alternatives actionable in the construction / development of the New Cultures of United Europe.
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2. Conclusions • Complete axiomatization of cultural approaches is not appropriate practically, since it demonstrates that the commitment ambiguity of the European integrator in any cultural situation is not completely eliminated. `• Participation with equal opportunities in the European cultural space can be found, in our view, between the states of belief /confidence achieved and "incorrect" conventional information when conflicts arise amid the struggle for survival of the concepts themselves and their manifestation through trends. • The New Structure of European Culture may acquire compactness if it is characterized by logical normality of access to equal opportunities for people from the countries of the European culture. • European cultural structures can be considered standardized tools for endogenous modeling intentions / total introspective conviction / management confidence of access to the people in the countries of the European culture.
References 1. Chivu L., - Assessment of human capital in Romania, Ed. Sorec, Bucharest, 1997 2. Ciutacu C.,- Reform and meta-reform, Ed. Expert, Bucharest, 2001 3. Gâf-Deac I.I., - New Economy between knowledge and risk - Ed. Infomin, Deva, 2010 4. Gâf-Deac, I.I.,- Macroeconomics - FMP Publishing, Bucharest, 2013 5. Gâf-Deac I.I.,- Revise the role of human resources in contemporary social environment. Intellectual capital in the new economy - Mining Magazine, Bucharest, no. 12/2010, p.30-37 6. Gâf-Deac I.I.,- Maximizing the legal value added in the new economy managed networking, - Rev. Mining, Bucharest, no. 12/2010, p.12-17 7. Gâf-Deac, I.I.,- Legal and economic bases of resources system in the New Economy – Pbl. Infomin, Deva, 2007 8. Gâf-Deac I.I.,- New legal horizons and globalization – Pbl. Infomin, Deva, 2002 9. Valeriu I.-F.N., - Marketing and Culture, Ed. Expert, Bucharest, 1997
„This paper is suported by the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development (SOP HRD), financed from the European Social Fund and by the Romanian Government under the contract number SOP HRD/159/1.5/S/136077”
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CULTURAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTER NETWORKS IN MUSIC
Józef B. LEWOC1, Erich LEITGEB2, Antoni IZWORSKI3, Antonina KIELECZAWA4, Marion A. HERSH5, Nicolae BULZ6
Abstract This paper describes a proposed way to design and develop computer networks intended for application in culture, in particular, in music. Music was chosen because this culture is, most probably, the one of the most important impacts on the popular culture of the World. The impacts are roughly considered. Cultural aspects are mentioned. This leads to the basic goal of a computer network: to develop an efficient system of music. The basic design criterion is: Maximisation of the network operating services for the worst served User. The optimum network topology (three-partite) is proposed. The approach to design and development, starting of the first thread, is depicted. Some earlier research work on the network topology (performance and robustness evaluation) is referred to. The basic cultural aspects of computer networks in music are summarised in the final remarks.
Key words: computer network, goal, criterion, topology, performance, robustness, music, culture.
1. Background From the very beginning of its existence, the Working Group 03 Nota (Non-technological aspects of ICT (Information and Communication Theory) and automation), the Technical Committee 9.5 Tecis (Technology, ethics, culture and international stability) of IFAC (the International Federation for Automatic Control) has been involved in on off-technology aspects of various ICT and automation systems and networks. The ethical, social, political and, generally speaking, the cultural aspects of such systems and networks are of the upmost significance since these are the ones that make it possible for the researchers and practitioners involved to understand for whom and for what purpose their work has been really devoted and if the valid ethical or cultural standards have not been violated. The issues are very important in the general evaluation of the technical solutions and the proceeding of the design and development staff. In opinion of Nota, the off-technology aspects of large-scale ICT & automation systems and networks shall be taken into consideration, seriously, from the very beginning of the design and implementation process. In the other case, there are so many technological aspects of the design and implementation that the ethical social, political and cultural aspects disappear from the scope of vision of the designers, implementers, financers and other people involved in the design, implementation and useful operation process. A very important thing is that the off-technology aspects of computer networks are taken into consideration from the instant of commencing of the design and development process, or even earlier, prior commencing such process. Usually, they are considered neither at the beginning nor at the final stage of such process. Since the off-technology aspects need major modifications of the approaches and solutions assumed, taking them into account at the later design and development stages of the projects involved would require major financial outlays, if it were feasible at all. Therefore, Nota together with the Wrocław Branch of SEP (Polish Electricians’ Society), who are involved in development of the conceptual bases for design and development of emerging computer systems and networks, decided to do some work on the cultural aspects of computer networks in various domains of the life of the society, namely: tennis, cross country skiing, music, culture and politics. The results of this work are planned to be published in the Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge since the topics published in this Journal match well to this work. The rationale for the possible publications is given in the first publication of the series [1]. The present publication is devoted to the domain of music.
1 Single Member, PhD., BPBIT Leader LLC, Newark DE, USA. First author, [email protected] 2 Professor, PhD., Graz University of Technology, Austria, [email protected] 3 Lecturer, PhG., Wrocław University of Technology, Poland, [email protected] 4 Commissioning Engineer, MSc. Eng., IASE, Wrocław, Poland, [email protected] 5 Senior Lecturer, PhD., University of Glasgow, Scotland, [email protected] 6 Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 26 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Perhaps the most important role of the prospective User of any computer network is played by the first User. The team of the authors of the present paper (the Team) believes that any large-scale emerging system may not be designed and developed basing on the detailed needs of all prospective users. The needs are often in contrary one with another and the design and development team can not decide whose needs have got a higher priority. The first User, who knows exactly the domain of the application, has got the knowledge of needed to make such decisions and to help in successive implementation of the system or network. Therefore, as mentioned in [1], it is very important to select correctly the first user of a computer network who will control the work of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists during the design, implementation and useful operation process and will help in proliferation of the network services among further users. The Team believes that, in the case of the computer network proposed for the domain of music, the best candidate for the first User is Justyna Steczkowska (Justyna), a singer, composer and text writer. The big carrier of Justyna began from the Polish contest, Szansa na Sukces (The Chance for a Success), in 1994, won by her. From this time, she has won many prestigious prizes and festivals. She is recognised as one of the best Polish singers of the last 2 decades. She writes, sometimes, the music and the texts to her songs. Therefore, she has got a good enough practical knowledge of the music domain. In addition, Justyna is involved in proliferation of her music experience among younger singers. For instance, she is a trainer in a very popular TV program, Voice of Poland and helps her sisters in their singer carriers. Therefore, she has got the experience needed for effective proliferation of the computer network for music.
2. Introduction Why the music (the Music)? As Justyna says, it is the most important part of the culture (Culture) presently. It expresses this what the people of this World (the People); their dreams, their thoughts, their souls. We, as the system of Culture should answer their requests. That means that we, as the system of Culture should respond them as soon as needed, and they should be able to do what they wish, what they need, what they request. But, there are many users (the Users) of my songs and I should answer them in time constraints that everyone could listen me in such extent that is really needed. Therefore, as the server of the People (the Server), I should put on me, the Server, the possibly strict constraints, I can’t answer to their requests. And they should be able to receive my Music within time, scale of voice and other constraints limited as much as feasible, and they must be free to send another request after some thinking time they need to understand my answers. I know, they are the People and I should answer their requests fast and I need a system, a computer network (the Network) that finds who is a real human being and not, e.g., a stock exchange computer (a stupid computer) that wants to deprive my actual Users of my songs, my voice, my soul, my heart. Bogdan (the leading author of this paper) says that he can propose a computer network (the Network), of the highest performance, effectiveness and robustness. Surely, I need such Network. But I do agree that I may put some constraints on the Music, he proposes, hopefully, the best network, but my users should have the freedom of sending to me next requests after hearing my response. What do You think about that, Bogdan? Well, Justyna, I think that you need a computer network like that described earlier, organised like I propose, but – with the most sever time constraint put on the stupid computers, as you call them, and the least put on the individual Users. That is, if thinking about the Internet, the single User’s requests should be sent on the at the highest priority, the stupid computers’ demands should be served on the lowest one. That’s just the opposite arrangement that that employed in Internet where the so called file transfers where given the highest priority and the normal Users – the lowest. Do you think that I am right? Surely, Bogdan.
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So let’s start from the general system structure, the system topology.
3. The Topology For me, the general structure of the Music (the Topology) should be the same as the Computer Network (the Network, he describes). The two basic types for the Topology, that are popular in the art, are the star topology and the ring topology depicted in Figure 1.
Fig. 1. Basic topologies for the music. Upper: the ring, lower: the star.
The Topology should feature, first of all, with high robustness (feasibility of work at disturbances); the reliability being the normal prerequisite at the current state of the art. Assuming the µ function [2], defined by Doyle as the robustness measure, it was proved that the Star is much more robust than the Ring [3]. Another characteristic that is needed for the Network is its efficiency (performance) in order that the needed resources are transferred from one User to another as soon as possible, at least within some given time constraints. Such topology (the Butterfly; ref. Figure 2) has not worse µ value than the Star.
Fig. 2. The Butterfly for the Music (the Butterfly)
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For the Butterfly, there is still a question, how to arrange the nodes of the Star. Here, the basic optimisation objective function should be governing, i.e. the maximisation of the service quality among all Users of the Network. In [4], it was proven that, for the Butterfly, due to the Network performance reasons, and the above objective function, the three-partite arrangement of Figure 3 is optimal.
Fig. 3. Detailed Butterfly structure for the Music
Feasible and Effective Implementation For the Music systems (the System-s), the first thread, i.e. limited as much as possible, a cut- through the system, from the first user to the application serving the user, should be implemented first. When designing and implementing the first thread, general solutions, methods and standards are to be worked out, thus facilitating much more easy and fast design and implementation of next threads through the system for Music.
4. Basic Research Work Needed for the Computer Network 4.1. General To develop, investigate, implement and operate the Computer Network useful research work is of vital importance. By useful, we mean, here, proven. And the only verification for any research work is its application in the Music. Below, exemplary research tools applied successfully are mentioned after Bogdan [1]. 4.2. Robustness Evaluation The µ function as a measure of robustness may be rather easily applied for investigation of systems similar to the Network. This is due to that the Network may be mutually univocally mapped into the System consisting of time delays only and calculation of µ is simple and straightforward. 4.3. Performance Evaluation The Network may and should be studied as a collection of closed loops of the scheme shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4. A closed loop for the Network
4.4. Network Measuring Tools For good working characteristics needed for investigation of the Network (for the Music) performance, the general scheme of Figure 5 (Sitwa from Polish System Intensywnego Testowania Węzła – Intensive Node Testing System) may and should be applied.
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Legend: Uk – the k-th Network User; N – number of network users; k – network user index; A Sk – the server of the k-th user; U – number of Sitwa users; SL – the server of the L-th Sitwa user.
Fig. 5. The Network with an internal measuring tool Sitwa
This system was successively applied in various network applications and described, first, in the paper [5] presented during the INRIA and ACM Conference in Paris. This article is intentionally mentioned here as it was the very first description the ideas mentioned here, in this short paper. The basis was Sitwa designed and developed by a three students under supervision of the leading designer (the Leader) of the MSK – Międzyuczelniana Sieć Komputerowa (the Inter-university Computer Network), the first successful Polish Wide Area Network.
5. Final Remarks The Network, robust, efficient and feasible, is capable of helping the Music to gain its basic goal: to make possible for any and each Musician to live in dignity, i.e. to sing fair; efficiently, effectively, robustly – in other words: with the Culture. If the general structure of the Culture is the same as that of the Network, the positive properties of the design, investigation, implementation and operating processes for the Network will be possible for rather straightforward achievement in the Culture. Any and all beings who want to live in the Culture aimed towards meeting the goal that each Human Being should be able to live in dignity, should participate in creation and operation of such system and, consequently, the Network. In particular, this refers to research workers who may and should solve the basic problems existing in the Culture practice. Theoretical studies on models of not existing objects of the Culture will not make it possible to get the great satisfaction or even fun of the usefulness for the Culture; on the contrary, they will lead to frustration and discouragement implied by purposeful waste of the Culture resources. Irrespectively of the model of the Culture that is actually accepted, the save and effective bottom up design, investigation, implementation and operation (including expansion) method, is the only reasonable alternative for objects of similar complexity and the number of unknown variables in the information needed for that each tennis player can live in dignity. The team of authors (the Team), in no way, wants to force anybody to proceed as described in the present paper; the choice is up and any and each Human Being. For the Culture, the node/ circle just below the X node / circle of the Butterfly (Figure 3) should be occupied by the Culture person who has proven that, currently, has the biggest and widest knowledge and skill in the Culture. She should be the Lady Singer on the very top of the Culture, Justyna Steczkowska; consequently, She should be the singing coach teaching less wise and experienced Lady Singers like Maryla Rodowicz; then it may and should be possible that all Singers can live in dignity, play fair; the Network for the Music can make it possible, in an efficient, effective and robust way. What do you think about that, Justyna?
Acknowledgements This paper was written with the substantial support of the Working Group for Non-Technological Aspects of Automation of the Technical Committee TC 9.5 of the International Federation for Automation.
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References 1. Lewoc J.B., et al.- Cultural Aspects of Computer Networks in Tennis. In: TECIS / IFAC Conference in Sozopol (Accepted), 2015, 6p. 2. Doyle J.C., - Analysis of feedback systems with structured uncertainties. In Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Part D, 129, 1982 42-50 3. Izworski A., Lewoc J.B., Skowronski S., - Robust Performance Case Study: Topology of System Media. In: The proceeding volume from the 12th IFAC Workshop, Visegrad, Elsevier, 2003, pp. 63-68 4. Lewoc J.B., et al. - In: Optimal Management Network Topology in a CIMM System. The General Case, in IFAC World Congress 2014, Cape Town, (in print) 5. Czajkowski W., et al. - In: A communication subnetwork simulation and performace evaluation tool. Modelling Techniques and Tools for Performance Analysis (INRIA, ACM), Paris 1985, p. 6
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SIMULATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VINE’S GROWTH STAGES USING THE MATLAB SOFTWARE
Marian NICOLAE1, Elena NICOLAE2, Andrei NICOLAE3, Mirela Nicoleta CRAIU4
Abstract Starting from the experimental data, the accumulation of the dry substance like a function of active temperature (∑°C) and time (t), the software gets a function which brings the increase of vine SU(∑°C, t), through interpolations with a very little step; so, this evolution can be determined empiric. For mathematical thoroughness in the approximation of function - accumulation of dry matter (SU) depending on the temperature have used a variety of functions: exponential, logarithmic, polynomial depending on the type curve nonlinear sometimes fragmenting the diagram on parts. MATLAB is a programming language likewise a developing system which integrates the calculation, the visualisation and the programming in an easy way. The problems and their solution are concurred in an available mathematical language. Simultaneous we can choose the function that proximate the best the experimental data by using dedicated software and we can get the values y=f(x) by interpolation -6 yi=f(xi), the interpolation step being very small, 10 . We can make such calculations of the value of dry matter (SU) not by experimental way, but by using the applied sciences on computer. Where experimental data collection are a disparate values we can complete, however small it would be intervening Variation Δx, can learn at any time variant ΔSU.
Keywords and phrases: approximation, interpolation,”MATLAB“software, process stages, simulation, substance.
1. Introduction MATLAB is an inter-active system based on the frame which allows solving the numeric calculation problems, especially those ones that need vectors or matrix processing [3]. This programme allows both the estimation of calculation sequences with a data kit introduced directly by the user with immediate results and the elaboration and the repeated use of calculation programmes for solving similar problems using a different initial data kit, like application in simulate the development of the vine’s growth stages. Therefore, the programme was developed as a tool aiding the integrate and simultaneous performance of these activities. Although MATLAB is intended primarily for numerical computing, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine, allowing access to symbolic computing capabilities. Additional package, Simulink, adds graphical multi-domain simulation and model-based design for dynamic and embedded systems. In field of scientific development of the vine’s growth stages MATLAB is a matrix laboratory, a multi-paradigm numericalcomputing environmentand fourth-generation programming language. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages, including C, C++,Java, Fortran and Python. MATLAB supports developing applications with graphical user interface features. MATLAB includes GUIDE, GUI development environment. It has tightly integrated graph-plotting features. The function plot can be used to produce a graph from two vectors x and y. MATLAB users are not just software engineers, but rather technical specialists from some other discipline, be it science, environment, biology or engineering. MATLAB is a high-performance language for technical computing, like application in simulate the development of the vine’s growth stages. It integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment where problems and solutions are expressed in familiar mathematical notation. MATLAB is an interactive system whose basic data element is an array that does not require dimensioning. Typical uses include: math and computation; algorithm development; modeling, simulation, and prototyping; data analysis, exploration, and visualization; scientific and engineering graphics; application development, including graphical user interface building.
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 2 Assistant Teacher PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 4 Professor, ISMB Bucharest, Romania, [email protected]
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This allows you to solve many technical computing problems, especially those with matrix and vector formulations, in a fraction of the time it would take to write a program in a scalar noninteractive language such as C or Fortran. The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory and was originally written to provide easy access to matrix software which represent the state-of-the-art in software for matrix computation. MATLAB has evolved over a period of years with input from many users. In biology, agriculture etc. and environments, it is the standard instructional tool for introductory and advanced mathematics, engineering, and science. In bio-industry, MATLAB is the tool of choice for high-productivity research, development, and analysis. MATLAB features a family of application-specific solutions called toolboxes. Areas in which toolboxes are available include signal processing, control systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, wavelets, simulation, and many others. Very important to most users of MATLAB, toolboxes allow you to learn and apply specialized technology. Toolboxes are comprehensive collections of MATLAB functions (M-files) that extend the MATLAB environment to solve particular classes of problems. The MATLAB system consists of five main parts: 1) The MATLAB language (is a high-level matrix/array language with control flow statements, functions, data structures, input/output, and object-oriented programming features. It allows both "programming in the small" to rapidly create quick and dirty throw-away programs, and "programming in the large" to create complete large and complex application programs). 2) The MATLAB working environment (is the set of tools and facilities that you work with as the MATLAB user or programmer. It includes facilities for managing the variables in your workspace and importing and exporting data. It also includes tools for developing, managing, debugging, and profiling M-files, MATLAB's applications). 3) Handle Graphics (is the MATLAB graphics system. It includes high-level commands for two- dimensional and three-dimensional data visualization, image processing, animation, and presentation graphics. It also includes low-level commands that allow you to fully customize the appearance of graphics as well as to build complete Graphical User Interfaces on your MATLAB applications). 4) The MATLAB mathematical function library (is a vast collection of computational algorithms ranging from elementary functions like sum, sine, cosine, and complex arithmetic, to more sophisticated functions like matrix inverse, matrix eigenvalues, Bessel functions, and fast Fourier transforms). 5) The MATLAB Application Program Interface (API) (is a library that allows you to write C and Fortran programs that interact with MATLAB. It include facilities for calling routines from MATLAB (dynamic linking), calling MATLAB as a computational engine, and for reading and writing MAT-files). Most of what constitutes "good programming practice" is simply a matter of good administration and organisation. When creating a MATLAB function, the name of the file should match the name of the first function in the file. Valid function names begin with an alphabetic character, and can contain letters, numbers, or underscores.
2. Material and methods Wine Classification is example illustrates how a pattern recognition neural network. A neural network can classify any data with arbitrary accuracy.That can classify wines by winery based on its chemical characteristics. Neural networks are good at pattern recognition problems. The example attempt to build a neural network that can classify wines from a number of wineries by attributes: Alcohol; Malic acid; Ash; Alcalinity of ash; Magnesium; Total phenols; Flavanoids; Nonflavanoid phenols; Proanthocyanins; Color intensity; Hue; OD280/OD315 of diluted wines; Proline etc. This pattern recognition problem, where inputs are associated with different classes, to create a neural network that classifies the known wines properly and can generalize to accurately classify wines solution. According http://www.mathworks.com/, data for classification problems are set up for a neural network by organizing the data into two matrices, the input matrix X and the target matrix T.
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Each ith column of the input matrix will have elements representing a wine whose winery is already known. Each corresponding column of the target matrix will have elements, consisting of zeros and a 1 in the location of the associated winery.
[x,t] = wine_dataset;
It is a opportunity to view the sizes of inputs X and targets T. Input matrix X has some rows, for the some attributes. Target matrix T has some rows, as for each example that have some possible wineries. „The next step is to create a neural network that will learn to classify the wines. Since the neural network starts with random initial weights, the results of this example will differ slightly every time it is run. The random seed is set to avoid this randomness. However this is not necessary for your own applications”. Clive Jones (http://businessforecastblog.com/, january 24, 2014) are some notes and insights relating to clustering or segmentation. Clustering is inherently an ill-posed problem where the goal is to partition the data into some unknown number of clusters based on intrinsic information alone. Cluster analysis does not use category labels that tag objects with prior identifiers, i.e., class labels. The absence of category information distinguishes data clustering (unsupervised learning) from classification or discriminant analysis (supervised learning). K-means clustering in the sub-space defined by the first several principal components can boost a cluster analysis. Clive Jones offer an example based on the University of California at Irving (UCI) Machine Learning Depository, where it is possible to find the Wine database. The Wine database dates from 1996 and involves 14 variables based on a chemical analysis of wines grown in the same region of Italy, but derived from three different cultivars. Dataset variables include (1) alcohol, (2) Malic acid, (3) Ash, (4) Alcalinity of ash, (5) Magnesium, (6) Total phenols, (7) Flavanoids, (8) Nonflavanoid phenols, (9) Proanthocyanins, (10) Color intensity, (11) Hue, (12) OD280/OD315 of diluted wines, and (13) Proline. The dataset also includes, in the first column, a 1, 2, or 3 for the cultivar whose chemical properties follow. A total of 178 wines are listed in the dataset. To develop the example, Clive Jones first run k- means clustering on the original wine dataset – without the first column designating the cultivars. The assumption is that cluster analysis ought to provide a guide as to which cultivar the chemical data come from. He ran a search for three segments. The best match he got was in predicting membership of wines from the first cultivar. He get an approximately 78 percent hit rate – 77.9 percent of the first cultivar are correctly identified by a k-means cluster analysis of all 13 variables in the Wine dataset. Clive Jones achieve a 92 percent score in predicting association with the first cultivar, and higher scores in predicting the next two cultivars. According the author, the Matlab code for this is straight-forward. After importing the wine data from a spreadsheet with x= xlsread (“Wine”), he execute IDX=kmeans (y,3), where the data matrix y is just the original data x stripped of its first column. The result matrix IDX gives the segment numbers of the data, organized by row. These segment values can be compared with the cultivar number to see how accurate the segmentation is. The second run involved using [COEFF, SCORE, latent] = princomp (zscore (y)) grabbing the first three SCORE’s and then segmenting them with the kmeans (3SCORE,3) command. It is not always this easy, but this example, which is readily replicated, shows that in some cases, radical improvements in segmentation can be achieved by working just with a subspace determined by the first several principal components. Two metrics for assessing the number of clusters in k-means clustering employ the “within- cluster sum of squares” W(k) and the “between-cluster sum of squares” B(k) – where k indicates the number of clusters. Our research activity has run within Vineyard Experiment Station of Dragasani, Romania, using “Cranposie selectionata” vine variety during 2006.
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We started from separate experiment data (SU (∑°C, t), accumulation of dry matter according to the active temperature) and afterwards we tried by interpolation (polynomial, cubic methods) to determine which is the function that approximates best the real evolution [1]. What counts most is that “MATLAB “performs both one variable –interpolations and two variables SU (∑°C, t) interpolations. Types of approximations that use MATLAB for finding the accumulation of dry matter according to temperature and time (Table 1). MATLAB enables the direct type work and the programme-type work (by using the m. source files). For the illustration of the processes, we edited the data in a m. data text file, with the following contents:
6 10 20 65 126 172 205 days 183 250 346 1060 2430 3320 3740 temperature 1 6 250 875 1600 2380 2615 dry matter DM
Table 1. Acumulation dry of substance
Mont 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 h Jan Febr March April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Date - 12 20 - 6 10 20 - 5 - 5 21 23 - - No.of - - - - 6 10 20 - 65 - 126 172 205 - - days Stage RP PS VT - SH BO FO - FLO - ME FM LF RP RP ∑°C - 21 42 - 183 250 346 - 1060 - 2430 3320 3740 - - active DM(g) - - - - 1 6 250 875 - 1600 2380 2685 - -
- - - - - Active period - - where: RP – relative pause; PS – Physiological start; VT – Vine Teardrops; SH – Shooting; BO – Buds Opening; FO – Flower Outburst; FLO – Flowering; ME – Mellow; FM- Full Maturation; LF – Leaves Fall; DM – Dry matter.
All these data are loaded using the following enter-order: “load date .m”. The point drawing of the graphic is saved in the m. graphic drawing file. x=[183 250 346 1060 2430 3320 3740]; experimentally determined xi, yi pairs y=[1 6 250 875 1600 2380 2615]; p=polyfit (x,y,4) graphic is drawn by 4 degree polynomial approximation x1=180:.1:4000; y1=poly-val (p,x1); plot (x,y,'o',x1,y1); a=[183 250 346]; experimentally determined xi, yi pairs b=[1 6 250]; r=polyfit (a,b,4) graphic is drawn by 4-degree polynomial approximation a1=0:.1:350; b1=polyval (r,a1); plot (a,b,'o',a1,b1); m=[1060 2430 3320 3740]; experimentally determined xi, yi pairs n=[875 1600 2380 2615]; t=polyfit (m,n,4) graphic is drawn by 4-degree polynomial approximation
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m1=350:.1:4000; t1=polyval (t,m1); plot(m,t,'o',m1,t1); plot(x1,y1,'o', a1,b1,'x',m1,t1,'*') The running order is: run m. graphic drawing.
3. Results Using the Polynomial method: We will approximate the experiment curve using a 5-degree polynomial, as the other 2 –degree, or 3-degree or 4-degree polynomial approximation or higher than 5 \-degree approximation (by this variant) produce high errors [2]. The 5-degree polynomial function is expressed by (Figure 1):
y = 2*10-27*X5 – 7,2*10-11*X4 + 6,2*10-7*X3 – 0,0018*X2 + 2,5*X – 450
The calculation procedure of a p(x) value: we find in the calculation file the m. value which has the following contents: x=180:1:350; p=[p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6]; polyval (p,346) r=roots(p)
Fig. 1. Accumulation of dry matter
where: “p1…6“ are the polynomial coefficients and the “root” function determines the respective polynomial root. Interpolation helps us find in an easy way the yi (xi) values, with a very small variation step (1, 0.1, 0.1., 0.01, 0.001); the m. interpolation file has the following contents (we draw the graphic by means of the “plot” function after having achieved the interpolation): x=0:10; y=x.^2+5.355*x-8.145; xi=0:.25:10; yi=interp1(x,y,xi) plot(x,y,'o',xi,yi) or we can use a “ spline” interpolation that we can find in the “interp. m. spline” file : x = 0:10; y = 2.235*x.^3+2*x.^2-55.2687*x-8.56; xx = 0:.25:10; yy = spline(x,y,xx)
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 36 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge plot(x,y,'o',xx,yy) {fplot ('2.235*x.^3+2*x.^2-55.2687*x-8.56', [2 8])} 100 Step Spline Interpolation
We will compare the interpolated values to the experimentally determined ones and we notice that in any xi moment we may find the yi value (Table 2) [4].
Table 2. Compare interpolated determined experimentally values T T Experimentally Experiment Dry Interpolated Step Interpolated measured Matter Dry Matter Item 5∑°C active ∑°C active
1 346 350 250 236,51 2 Non-determined 1050 Non-determined 863,96 3 1060 1060 875 869,09 4 Non-determined 2425 Non-determined 1601,1 5 2430 2430 1600 1605 6 Non-determined 3315 Non-determined 2371,2 7 3320 3320 2380 2375,1 8 Non-determined 3735 Non-determined 2615,6 9 3740 3740 2685 2617,2
We may notice close values of the dry matter as related to the active temperature. An example of two-variables multiple interpolation (with experiment data using “MATLAB”): x=[6,10,20,65,126,172,205] → day no,. y=[183,250,346,1060,2430,3320,3740] → temperature z=[1,0,0,0,0,0,0;0,6,0,0,0,0,0;0,0,250,0,0,0,0;0,0,0,875,0,0,0;0,0,0,0,1600,0,0;0,0,0,0,0,2380,0;0,0,0,0, 0,0,2615] → DM z = 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 250 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 875 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2380 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2615
zic=interp2(x,y,z,172,3320,'cubic') zic =2380 zic=interp2(x,y,z,170,3315,'cubic') zic =2352.
According http://en.pudn.com/, Matlab code for SVM, classifing types of wine, with original data. File list: wine\test1.m ....\wine.asv ....\wine.data ....\wine.m....\wine.mat....\wine.names ....\wine.xls [wine.rar] - pca-kmeans clustering use the data of uci:wine. [SVM-neural-network-prediction.rar] – SVM neural network prediction data classification- identifying wines [classification.rar] - several methods(LMS,MSE,HK) to achieve classification of data set). [SEO-SE.rar] - SEO search engine [SVM.rar] – SVM neural network prediction wines identification data classification [hongjiu.rar] - Wine sites, good whole station system, suitable in the wine industry show [pso-SVM.rar] - this is good method of pso optimizing parameters of SVM
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[wine.rar] - pca-kmeans clustering use the data of uci: wine. [SVM.rar] - wine data classification based on support vector machine matlab [UCI.rar] - Using the k- means cluster analysis was carried out on the UCI dataset, listed in the program data collection of wine and heart of data sets.
4. Conclusions The active temperature and especially the useful (≥ 10°C) temperature control in a visible manner the daily growth rhythm of the vine and prove once again the meteo-sensitivity of the vine. We also notice the multitude of the interpolation methods and the libraries rich in approximation (logarithmic, exponential, polynomial) functions. The result scored by using the same interpolation method (for instance the 5-degree polynomial method) within different softwares (Microcal Origin, Matlab, Microsoft) shows that the differences are extremely low, and the coefficients differ very few. Analysing the programme facilities, we note the superiority of the MathSoft product – i.e. MATLAB – thanks to the graphic expression possibilities and the very efficient calculation power. We must point out that many times the curves (the enter/exit data kit) must be treated sectional and we must find the function type that approximates best reality. We scored fin results using polynomial interpolations – i.e. 5-degree polynomial interpolations, n k where “n “is the P(x) polynomial degree =anx + akx + … + a0. We got 6 experimental values, and consequently 6 coefficients i ak, and therefore we got n=5, the optimum degree of the interpolation polynomial. To approximate the dry matter accumulation function according to temperature, we used different functions: exponential, logarithmic, polynomial ones, in conformity with the type of the nonlinear curve, and we sometimes fragmented the graphic by sections. After the selection of the function which approximates best the experiment data by using target soft wares, we may find out the y=f(x) values by y=f(x) interpolation, and the interpolation step is very small, like 10-6. This way we can determine the dry matter values, not experimentally but using applied IT. And therefore, wherever the experiment data collection has disparate values, we can fill it in, no matter how small the Δx, variation interval might be, and we can find any moment the Δ Dry Matter var. Significantly we may make predictions not only in y=f(x) form, a single-variable function (the accumulation of dry matter according to temperature- DM = f (T), but also in z=f(x,y) form, 2-variables function (the accumulation fo dry matter according to temperature T and evolution in time – t, DM = f(T,t) By analysing the synoptic tables reporting the dry matter values (DM), both experimentally determined and interpolation determined according to a numeric analysis with IT aid, according to temperature (T), we find out residual values which tend to zero, and therefore, the values of the measured dry matter are very next to the dry matter determined with the computer aid (for instance: at a T=3320∑°C we have DMexp=2380g and DM int=2375,1g).
References 1. Condei Gh., Ionescu P., Cătănescu V., Ciolacu M., Seiculescu M.,- Contributions to the study of the rate of accumulation of dry vine and plastic compounds and energetic, involved in the formation of crops in viticulture (grape cuttings, rootstocks, grafts), Anale ICVV, XII, pp.109-128, Bucharest, Romania, 1992 2. Dinca AL., Ebanca D., Tandareanu N.,- Numerical Calculus and Applications, University of Craiova, Romania, 1995 3. Leonard N.E., Levine W.S., - Using MATLAB to analyze and design Control System, Addison-Wesley Publ., SUA, 1995 , pp 23-63 4. Nicolae M., - Applications of informatics in stimulating vegetative growth and formation biorhythm harvest the vines, PhD Thesis, USAMV Bucharest, Romania, 2006 5. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Atudosiei N., Florescu G., - Computer Aided Research Approximations and Interpolations Using the „Matlab” Software in order to Simulate the Development of the Vine’s Growth Stages, Bioterra Bulletin of Scientific Information, Bucharest, nr. 16, 2008 6. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Soare M., Soare R., Dulugeac A., Clapa L., - Research assisted by computer. Approximations and interpolations using the Matlab software in view of simulating phases in process of growth and development in vine, Bulletin of scientific information no 17, Ed. Bioterra, Bucureşti, 2007 7. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Dulugeac A., - The research assist by computer. Approximations and interpolations using the software Matlab inview of simulation in process phases of wine’s increase and developement, Annales of University of Craiova, vol 38/B, Ed. Universitaria, Craiova, 2008
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 38 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
MODELS FOR THE EVALUATION OF EFFICIENCY OF KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES
Ioan I. GÂF-DEAC1, Maria GÂF-DEAC2, Eliza-Cristina BULZ3 , Andrei NICOLAE4, Ion Florin POPA5, Ioana Andreea MARINESCU6, Mihai Marius NEDELEA7
Abstract This paper is an extension of the theses advanced in the book "Fundamentals of the legal and economic resource systems in the New Economy", by I.I. Gaf-Deac, Ed.Infomin, Deva, 2007, in terms of extrapolation for knowledge resources issues. The article uses data to highlight influences given by resource utilization indicators for knowledge resources, the preliminaries being advanced are regarding indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of the exploitation and processing of natural resources in Romania.
Keywords and phrases: knowledge resources, the New Economy, efficiency, natural resources
1. Introduction. Global issues on indicators in the field of knowledge resources Establishing the opportunity for using knowledge resources in terms of economic efficiency can be achieved through assessment, evaluation, quantification or representative determination of effective efficiency measurements that have the desired effect. The relevance of quantification depends on the decision maker's ability to select factors, parameters and indicators that express qualitative and quantitative activity of capitalization of knowledge. In technical and economic practice, including in the field of knowledge resources, the indicators are usually scalar measurements. With the help of some numeric expressions a characterization and quantification of technical and economic phenomena is being performed. Synthetically, technical and economic indicators in the knowledge resources field are classified by usage of the technologies and transformations taking place in their streams, namely: a) for consumption, b) use, c) for quality and d) of mechanization etc. (Figure 1).
Fig.1 Classification of indicators in the resources of knowledge field to substantiate the investments and pursuing technical and economic activities in the production process
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SHU Bucharest, National Institute of Economic Research "Costin C. Kiriţescu" (INCE), Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 2 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SHU Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 Resch Account., Institute of Chartered Accoutance, Edinburg, Scotland, UK, [email protected] 4 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 5Senior Lecturer, PhD., Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania, [email protected] / [email protected] 6 Lecturer PhD., fiz-chim., SH University of Bucharest, Veterinary Medicine Faculty, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 7 PhD. Student, University of Petrosani, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 39 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Indicators deliver qualitative dimensional-quantitative results (visions), dependent on other processes, showing comparisons between the results of the stage or the overall economic activity in an exploiting entity and using knowledge resources in a given timeframe. The economic efficiency of resources exploitation of knowledge lies in comparisons between intensive and extensive indicators (Figure 2).
Fig. 2 Highlighting data influences given by usage indicators in the field of knowledge resources
Equally, in the knowledge resources field, nowadays, quality technical-economic indicators acquire fundamental practical importance (Figure 3).
Fig. 3. Influences of qualitative characteristics through the levels imposed on certain indicators in the field of knowledge resources
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Unfolding consumer indicators highlights comparisons between specific consumptions, yields, conversions and quantitative knowledge.
2. Aspects regarding technological balances in the natural resources field Entries in system exploitation and utilization of natural resources must be the same as the total amount of technological outputs.
Fig. 4 Expression of the technological balance in the natural resources field
Technological balances mainly relate to: a) material; b) energy; c) thermal balance (related to energy balance). (Figure 4) In all phases it is attempted to optimize factors that determine influences in analyzing technological processes, namely the industrial production using natural resources.
3. Preliminaries on indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of the exploitation and processing of natural resources in Romania So far, in Romania in all sectors exploiting and utilizing the natural resources indicators used in analyzing whether activities are limited to the highest degree of relevance considered the likeliest in relation to the possibilities of formalizing the time factor and the influence of expressing equivalent unit charges . Commensurate effort results in different stages to attract in the economic cycle of some natural resource reserves, from quantification of the two factors (parameters) remembered with the generally accepted alternative that for actualized relevance expression of expenditures to date may be used. In practice it appears that mining exploitations do not have the same production capacity as the reserves of the same resources differ qualitatively and quantitatively. Simultaneously, the differentiation is based on the reality that attracted exploitation resources are varied and different by type. It is concluded that the reduction of input stages (attraction) in the economic cycle reserve has positive influences on economic efficiency. Equally, shortening the immobilization time or stopping or reducing the growth of immobilized funds is positively reflected in the efficiency of exploitation, processing and usage of natural resources (Figure 5).
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Fig.5. Reduction of attracting stages in the economic cycle and immobilizing funds for natural resources accumulation
e1, e2,. . . , en = stages of attraction; t1, t2, ..., ti = time related sequence of steps; Tif = time for attracting in the economic cycle; T = total time attracting the economic cycle
The time parameter, quantified during the integrated processing of reserves in the economic cycle reserve depicts the moment when the activity becomes ineffective. This parameter, in both synthetic and scalar expression, generates influences on operational scale efforts for exploitation. However, the time factor is delimiting (formalizing) income from the operation. (Figure 6).
Fig.6. influence the time factor on the exploitation efforts and the revenue size to attract in the economic cycle of natural resources
Essentially, the effective effort spent (made) and the income level are those that indicate the time when the accumulation of resource exploitation becomes ineffective.
In this context, the following situations are possible: n n ≥ → E fi Vi stop (i) i=1 i=1 n n < → E fi Vi proceed (ii) i=1 i=1 (1)
In the (i) case, operational stoppages can be countered by: - The allocation of new investment funds for a streamlined and potentiated effort that will be reduced proportionally after the stopping time, so as to record an income dimensional return;
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- Introducing new methods, techniques, technologies and processes that are more economical for exploitation; - The decision to permanently close the mining activity, which is considered as irretrievably lost in the circuit and unable to return to its projected feasible state. The technique of actualization involves dynamic analysis of the business. Dispersed values re-aggregate and can be restored to a landmark moment using an actualization factor. The new moment serves for operative-decisional actions in relation to the situation in the (ii) case when it is possible to intervene to ensure that conditions to continue operating.
4. The aggregate model of indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of the utilization and exploitation of natural resources in mineral extraction activities, preparation and processing (knowledge case study) 4.1. Qualifying the concept of efficiency assessment of knowledge/mining activities The private or state holder (owner) of the accumulation of useful minerals initializes exploitation by establishing a program aimed at timely extraction. It is possible that this program will refer to exploit of the whole stock or some parts of the reservoir that are considered cost-effective in relation to the purpose, in terms of planned efficiency. Programming this operation has similar features to programs found in the intermediate goods sector, or in the processing sector. Instead, differentiation proves to be essential when establishing the production level consistent with profit-maximization. Periods (steps) of operation are accompanied by specific levels of output. Exhaustion the accumulation of useful mineral deposits represents the ultimate horizon of exploitation. In such a situation, marginal revenue (VM) must reach at least the marginal cost (CM) based on opportunity costs (CO) accepted operationally. In fact, the opportunity cost for the production from a useful substance stock is identical to the cost for operating reserve (Cer) until its expiration. By extension, Hartwick I.M. and Oleweiler N.D. (1986) [1] show that "to maximize profits the cost of resource depletion must be calculated." In this case it results:
Profit (Vm) = Cm (2) Profit = Vm + Co (the case of exhaustible resources)
The investment made for opening the deposit and operating expenses for preparing the ground, offer at some well defined point, a certain production capacity. Realizing the extraction, the production capacity is impaired (reduced) and basic infrastructure (galleries, suites, trenches, speed, space stripping etc.) is being consumed irreversibly. In some cases the opening infrastructure is also affected.
So:
(3)
Where Id and Ip are opening facilities or training infrastructures, Cp represents production
capacity at t (1) and t (2) with negative impairments, at most unaffected by the opening provision. The industrial operator relies on a certain production capacity to be in service to achieve the volumes scheduled for extraction. Typically, production capacity Cp is quasi-constant, its size variation being in relation to the volume of which is scheduled for extraction and according to the investment resources available to each stage of mining. A regulatory course of required proportionality is always shown between the size and production capacity of opening and training infrastructure. Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 43 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
For an imposed production capacity comes the need to introduce maintenance expenditure required to introduce maintenance (CMP) or development (CDP) expenses. In such a situation, the relationships are:
Equally, there is the issue of recovery of investment costs, a cost element that enters into the calculation of depletion of reserves. 4.2 The original model of efficiency indicators from operating activities (Meiji) Analyzing the economic practice in Romania's mining basins for the main useful minerals, it follows that the indicators for assessing the effectiveness of exploitation are found in sub-systemic "phases" through expressions, calculus relationships and emphasis of the efficiency criteria by maximizing and minimizing. For extracting pit type coal from the Jiu Valley basin (h), lignite type of coal from the Oltenia basin (l), non-ferrous ores from the Deva and Baia Mare pools (m) and of uranium within SNMRP Bucharest (u ), the research conducted by the author (analysis, synthesis, and statistical simulations) shows that it is possible to systematize a number of six indicators of economic efficiency for the assessment of the aggregated phase targeting extraction activities. Stages of development of the resulting iterative integrated model for assessing its effectiveness were set to be: I - Delimitation of exploitation, processing and utilization phases; II - Identifying indicators; III - Establishment of the expression mode; IV - Formalization of calculus relations; V - Identifying the criterion of efficiency; VI - The composition of the matrix phase or of the matrix composed of efficiency assessment indicators; VII - General expression of the model; VIII - Expressing the analytical model; IX - Composition and obtaining a state of resulting iterative integration Additional superior algorithmic steps to generalize the iterative resulting integrated model cover: X - Composition of phase indicators; XI - Additional composition of useful substance indicators (additions specificity) in composite phases; XII - the composition of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the main natural resources and articulation pathways of utilizing in the resulting integrated general iterative model for Romania, quantifying the economic efficiency of use of natural resources by hierarchies and weights. Following the above steps, next to pit coal (h), lignite (l), minerals (m) and uranium (u) a number of elements, sub-sequences, sequences and sub-systems of assessing economic efficiency for exploitation are formalized in a system with a large degree of relevance. The six core indicators identified by the research are: (E1) = Specific investment Isp expressed in [lei / ton of extracted rock mass]; (E2) = Efect economic efficiency of fixed assets, expressed in [ton / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (E3) = Cup unit costs of production, expressed in [lei / ton]; (E4) = Increasing energy consumption, expressed in [toe / ton]; (E5) = Efect energy efficiency of fixed assets, expressed in [toe / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (E6) = Labor productivity W, expressed in [ton / manpower] or where natural gas is expressed in [mc / manpower]. Matrix of the identified indicators constitutes the premise of formalizing sub-model s (Meiji) to assess the efficiency of the operation:
6 6 * Ε = Μ (5) ij Eij i=1 j =1
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The calculation formulas depend on the mode of expression for the indicators identified also marking the criterion of efficiency, for exploited substances mentioned there are:
Notations in the model above (6) have the following meanings:
s Le =investments consumed for mineral resource; s qmec = The concentrated quantity of ore or raw coal, respectively; s f fab = Fixed assets in the core extraction activity (average annual value); Ls = Production costs for extraction activity; p s qmecc = Consumption of energy resources for extraction; N s = Number of workers employed in mining activities; me (hlmu) = Pit coal, lignite, ore minerals and uranium substances; (i = 1,2) = max and min. e Integrated expression of economic efficiency in operating activities (Eiee ) results from the composition of assessment indicators results as follows:
The marked original contribution is shown above on the one hand by formalizing the model/ sub-model (6) with their relationships and on the other by advancing the thesis of iterative integration of its elements to obtain continuous complete assessments of efficiency in exploitation operations. 4.3. Comparisons between the Gray and Hotelling models and their original extensions for natural resources in Romania Worldwide, concern for formalizing systems to portray complex models of action, is manifested multivalent and varied in exploiting useful natural resources. I.) Gray L.C. (reed. 1966) [2] acknowledges through his model the following elements, principles, criteria for action and assessment of the economic efficiency of the exploitation of an accumulation of useful minerals:
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- In relation to the time horizon that may mark the depletion of existing resources in a deposit, the mine operator (with private or state ownership) admits the practice, namely the existence of a constant price. The premises to meet the above thesis as admitted are based on three conditions: a) to know for certain the amount of existing useful resource accumulation; b) the useful deposit resource to have fully (quasi-fully) the same quality; c) in real terms, the sale price (market price) to remain constant (quasi-constant) throughout its lifespan. It is expected that meeting the conditions above (a, b, c) should determine the exclusive dependency of the cost of service exploitation on the amount of extracted useful resource. Insofar as the useful resource stock is increased dimensionally (such as in the case of copper deposits in Rosia Poeni and Moldova Noua and for the lignite deposits in the basin of Oltenia), the price per ton being constant (quasi-steady) we notice that, in the main, the marginal cost for the extraction of a distinct block proportionally increases with the number of these distinct portions being exploited. In the above context, the current problem is more accurately determining the amount to be extracted, corresponding to each period (as explained in Figure 5 and 6). In this way it is sought to identify an order to maximize profit present value obtainable with reference to the total quantity of resources exploitation of the deposit. L.C. Gray emphasizes that virtually income is calculated in relation to the cost of production (over the operating period). Income is the one that gives the maximum feature (maximized) for profit, which in turn is calculated according to the interest rate. According to the author of the model, "the basis for efficient mining activities is that the growth of the annuity is to be at least equal to the pace of interest rate in each period." [3] Basically, the most common aspect for deposits of useful minerals in Romania is the change of quality of exploited resources, in the sense of its decrease as long as that accumulation is more deeply exploited. Thus, increases in costs per unit of resource extraction displaced (obtained) are recorded and marginal costs vary, being affected by negative trends. II.) Hotelling H. (1931), [4] by his model extends the role of useful resources by a single productive unit, but the optimality of the extraction result is examined and socially, the stated purpose is that of maximizing social welfare . The elements, principles, criteria for action and assessment of the economic efficiency of the exploitation of this model are mainly the following: - Operational activity relates to one production (quarrying) unit, with the subsequent possibility of aggregation or composition of units for an entire mining industry; - Updated values of homogenous units from the finite reservoir of useful minerals should provide foundation elements of the operating model; thus an optimal operating plan is developed under wide-ranging conditions, depending on the size of the deposit. - It is considered that the 'evolution of competitive, extractive industry has the same trend with the demand for mineral resources "if the official authorities have market intelligence and lead price dynamics; - The price of mining products is to be considered constant for a certain period; - In the mining industry the demand curve is almost always an upwards trend (positive slope); following a low price in the market it is likely that a lower price is possible to manifest on the market for each mineral (to appear) if the supply balance is similar (equal) with demand. - In relation to changing geo-mining conditions of the deposit, the model provides for the respective unit changes of alternative exploitations; -it is expected that the evolution of exploitation alternatives and of the price to be influenced by: 1) increasing costs of extraction; 2) increase of the interest rate; 3) the emergence of new taxes and levies; 4) lower quality ore resources; 5) changes in volume of investment needed. The original research of the author follows in the timely, formalizing graphics sequences and comparable terms of both models whose requirements are applied to Romania and can become important insofar strategic assessment of the exploitation of natural resources in general and those minerals in particular require new approaches, explanations and solutions (Figure 7 and 8).
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Fig.7. Original explanatory extensions of the Gray model on exploiting mineral substances useful deposits in Romania
In the same context, it appears that on a global scale, the deposits with high useful content and especially those that fulfill or continue to fulfill the condition of optimal quality and size are reducing in numerical and volumetric size.
Fig. 8 Original explanatory extensions to the Hotelling model on the exploitation of useful mineral deposits in Romania
q1, q2, q3, ... .qn = Qt = known (certain) quantities and the total certain quantity extracted over periods with a single unit; α = Angle of decline
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The two models, although they were formulated in the first part of the twentieth century through their objective lines of operational synthesis keep current characteristics as a whole. Technological development, technical multidisciplinary progress have instead generated status changes of parameters in the two models, from these we remember the introduction of quasi- continuity, differentiation and iterative integration, significant changes in content and in the manifestation of the markets. For example, in Romania, the perimeters with favorable operating conditions in mining areas are in permanent restriction. Areas with high content of useful deposits or areas with favorable geo-mining conditions (quality, favorable geometry, lack of tectonic fractures, accepted hydrological conditions etc.) are being exhausted. Moreover there is the expression of at least two major trends in restructuring of the mining of natural resources in Romania, understanding and including the solid mineral resources system and hydrocarbons as follows: - Technical (technological) progress in the mining system does not have the lead rate comparable to the achievements of other more competitive industries, which shows maintenance difficulties in attracting in economic circuit of poorer mineral deposits, at conventionally accepted cost; - Geo-mining perimeters with favorable conditions are in exhaustion. Focusing operation (increasing the intensity) on favorable productive areas is accompanied by practical restrictions of reserves and lack of insight in the geological research for discovering new deposits of useful substances. Moreover, the fact that in Romania the overall geological research, throughout the country, is completed to an average depth of 400-500m, some extensions are possible at larger depths only in the hydrocarbon and geothermal water fields. 4.4. Qualifying the concept of assessment of efficiency in the preparation activity After obtaining useful quantities of ore resources, they usually cannot be generally used in the rough state, but must undergo processing by intermediate processes to achieve net status (Figure 9).
Fig. 9. Obtaining net mining production for the main categories of useful minerals deposits in Romania
Gross extraction units deliver brute production to the preparation units. They draw up preparation programs aimed at working the raw mining mass for obtaining net production (net coal and concentrates). Stages of preparation are accompanied by specific levels of prepared production. Preparation plants do not consume their production capacity, as these are falling under just physical and moral depreciation of technical infrastructure and supplied technologies.
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Preparation operators rest on certain production capacities to be in operation to prove gross production capacity of brute production derived from mining operators. Ideally, the integrated manufacturing operation is the quasi-quantitative compatibility between exploitive-processing, when both areas are not affected by stock shortage or power goals. Stages of development of the integrated iterative model for assessing effectiveness are similar to those established in the original model of efficiency indicators from operating activities, underlining that in this case they refer to the preparation stage. 4.5. The original model of efficiency indicators from the preparation activity (MPij) Elements, sub-sequences and sub-systems for assessing the economic efficiency of the preparation in a system with a high degree of relevance are a number of 11 (basic indicators) of which one, the recovery of the useful yield of the concentrate is adjacent to the specific activity of preparing the minerals: (P1) = specific investment phase ISF expressed in [lei / ton]; (P2) = cumulative specific investment phase Isfc expressed in [lei / ton]; (P3) = economic efficiency of fixed assets phase Eff expressed in [ton / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (P4) = economic efficiency of fixed assets of accumulated phase EFFc expressed in [ton / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (P5) = turnover in the core business fixed funds Cab expressed in [lei turnover / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (P6) = production costs Cupp expressed in [lei / ton]; (P7) = energy consumption phase CREF expressed [toe / ton]; (P8) = cumulated consumption of energy resources CCRE expressed [toe / ton]; (P9) = energy efficiency of fixed assets Eefp expressed in [TCC / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; (P10) = labor productivity phase Wf expressed in [ton]; (P11) = yield recovery of concentrated utility Ruc expressed as a percentage [%]. The matrix of identified indicators is a prerequisite for quantifying the sub-model (MPij) for assessing the effectiveness of preparation, namely:
11 11 * P = M (8) ij Pij ij==1 1
Notations from the (9) model are as follows : P L S = the specific investment for the preparation phase; p qmcp = the quantity of ore or coal prepared; P f fb = fixed assets in core business; P C mcp = turnover of preparation work; P L up = unit cost of production costs; P q cc = consumption of conventional energy resources for the consumption stage; P q ccc = accumulated consumption of conventional energy resources;
Nmp = number of workers used to work for the preparation; P q co = quantity of concentrate produced from the mineral preparation; q P = quantity of ore subject to preparation for obtaining concentrate; mp (mc)=p = mineral substances, mainly coal subject to preparation.
It follows that the above system of indicators refers to the coal substance, to which was added m the (R uc ) indicator which is specific to the process of preparing the ore. Essentially preparation work is found in the larger flow of the industrial system, manufacturer of intermediate (concentrated) goods which are obtained from mineral resources. Analysis of economic efficiency in this sector is performed according to the type of resource base incorporated into the product.
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For the above indicators the original calculus relations regarding efficiency criteria for useful minerals in amounts subject to the preparation process is as follows:
So, the model / sub-model ( Μ ) specifically contains a particular structure of yield-related PIJ indicators in terms of useful substance recovery, thereby measuring the effectiveness of primary processing activities of mineral resources as follows: P () (R1) = R uc c = recovery yield of the useful substance from concentrate (c), expressed as a percentage [%]; P () (R2) = R uc me = recovery yield of useful substance from extracted minerals (Me) expressed as a percentage [%]; P () (R3) = R uc ccfm = yield recovery in relation to cumulative consumption of work force (ccfm), expressed in [man-hours / ton of primary product];
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P () (R4) = R uc W f = yield recovery in relation to labor productivity phase (wf) expressed in [ton of primary product / person]; P () (R5) = R uc Wt = yield recovery in relation to cumulative labor productivity (wt) expressed in [ton of primary product / person]; P () (R6) = R uc ccre = yield recovery in relation to cumulative consumption of energy resources (ccre) expressed in [toe / ton of primary product]; P () (R7)=R uc cup = yield of recovery in relation to unit production costs (cup) expressed in [lei / ton of primary product]; P () (R8)=R uc eeff = yield recovery in relation to economic efficiency of fixed funds (eeff) expressed in [ton primary product / 1000 lei fixed funds from the basic activity]; P () (R9)= R uc ca = yield recovery in relation to turnover (ca) as expressed in [Lei turnover / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; P () (R10)= R uc eegff = yield of recovery in relation to energy efficiency of fixed funds (eegff) expressed in [TCC / 1000 lei fixed assets in core business]; P The matrix of particular sub-structure indicators for assessing recovery efficiency S(R uc ) consists of relational elements found in the following expression:
10 10 p p = p Ruc * Ruc S(Ruc ) (10) 1 1
And calculus relations regarding efficiency criteria are as follows: 2 i=2 q [0,1] q mp qmin R p (c) = mp → i=1 → mp ; [%] uc 2 max quc i=1 quc quc i=1
2 i=2 [0,1] qmpm min qmpm = qmpm R p (me) = → i 1 → ; [%] uc 2 max qucm i=1 qucm qucm i=1 2 p(i) [0) (1] p (nh) max min (nh) = (nh) (nh) R p (ccfm) = → i 1 → * ; [man/h/tpp] uc p 2 max min q pp p(i) p pp q pp q pp i=1 2 = qi 1 [0,1] q pp qmax p = pp → i=1 → pp W f 2 min ; [tpp/man] n = n ni 2 i=1 2 i=1 [0,1] q ppc max q ppc = q ppc W p = → i 1 → ; [tpp/man] (11) t 2 min nc i=2 nc nc i=1
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2 p(i) [0) (1] p qcc max min q = q q R p (ccre) = cc → i 1 → cc * cc ; [tcc/tpp] uc p 2 max min q pp p(i) q pp q pp q pp i=1 2 p(i) [0) (1] p Lc max min L = L L R p (cup) = c → i 1 → C * C ; [lei/tpp] uc p 2 max min q pp p(i) q pp q pp q pp i=1 2 p(i) [0) (1] p q pp max min q pp = q pp q pp R p (eeff ) = → i 1 → * ; [tpp/1000 lei ffab] uc p 2 max min f fb p(i) f fb q fb f fb i=1 2 = C i 1 [0,1] C a C max R p (ca) = a → i=1 → a ; [lei ca / 1000 lei ffab] uc 2 min f fb i=2 f fb f fb i=1 2 p(i) [0) (1] p qcp max min qcp = qcp qcp R p (eegff ) = → i 1 → * [tcc/1000 lei ffab] uc p 2 max min f fba p(i) f fba f fba f fba i=1
The notations in the structure of indicators (11) have the following meanings: qmp= quantity of raw materials obtained from the primary processing; quc= the useful substance in concentrate; qmpm= quantity of extracted mineral representing raw materials or materials from raw processing; qucm =the quantity of material extracted representing from useful substance concentrates; (nh) = cumulative man-hours of labor consumption; qpp= primary product quantity; n = number of people in the primary processing activity; qppc= cumulative amount of primary product; nc= cumulative number of people in the primary processing activity; p Lc = production cost; p qcp = The amount of conventional fuel consumed in primary processing; p f fba = Average annual value of fixed assets from the primary processing activity. P Integrated expression of economic efficiency in the preparation work (E iee ) is obtained by composing the results of assessment indicators in the following manner:
P P P P P P P P P P m P { I sf * I sfc * E ff * E ffc * C ab * C upp * C ref * C cr * E efp * W f * R uc } E iee (12)
Equally, this mathematical expression is the author's original contribution which relates to the formulation of the model / sub-model (9) and maintaining an iterative integration thesis of its elements to highlight the continuing complete efficiency in preparation activities. 4.6.Completely continuous and intensive appreciation of economic efficiency in mining and processing activities The models (6) and (9) are sub-models of assessment completely composed, continuous and iterative for economic efficiency of mining and processing activities (MEP). Based on the above original thesis it follows that:
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{}→ []1 M Eij * M pij M EP 0 (minmax) (13) which corresponds to the generalized overall composition as follows:
in which: EErm = economic efficiency of the exploitation of mineral resources; EPrm = economic efficiency of the preparation of mineral resources; (R) Eern = Economic efficiency resulting (R) of exploitation and preparation of natural resources.
Practical application of the general model and sub-models above can be found in replacements with concrete values registered or projected in mining basins in Romania, on mining and processing alignments of defined distinct substances, which can be assigned weights of importance and hierarchy within the [0,1] range. 4.7. Differences on the availability of data and original formalized indicators in the completely continuous and iterative model of economic efficiency from operating activities, preparation and primary processing of mineral resources for intermediate supplies The formulation of indicators in the general completely continuous and iterative model of economic efficiency is closely linked to the data needed to calculate assessments. In this context, based on research conducted by the authors (i.e, .I.I.Gaf-Deac) at CNL Oltenia, CNN Petrosani, Minvest Deva, Remin Baia Mare, CNMRR Bucharest and Petrom Bucharest analyzing heritage-resource reserves, geo-mining conditions, production systems (technologies) and financial and economic statements for the years 2000-2014, the following results are noted: a) In the extraction field: i) Indicators for which data are available: (a1) - Specific investment; (a2) - Economic efficiency of fixed assets; (a3) - Energy efficacy of fixed assets. ii) Indicators used in the analysis: (a1) - Labor productivity; (a2) - Consumption of energy resources.
b) The preparation (of ore and coal) and primary processing (of crude oil): i) Indicators for which data is not available: (b1) - Specific investment phase; (b2) - Cumulative specific investment phase; (b3) - Economic efficiency of fixed assets phase; (b4) - Cumulative economic efficiency phase of fixed assets; (b5) - Energy efficiency of fixed assets.
(ii) Indicators used in the analysis: (b’1) – Recovery return in usefulness from concentrate; (b’2) - Phase labor productivity; (b’3) - phase energy consumption; (b’4) - accumulated consumption of energy resources; (b’5) - Unit costs of production;
From the data obtained from the research results mainly the following: In economic structures that have the object of exploitation mineral resources in Romania, namely in major national companies, the available data needed to calculate the indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of exploitation and usage (mining and quarrying, preparation and primary processing) is deficient. Thus, there is a shortage in this field calculated by availability and representation of efficiency indicators. It is 46.7% compared to the total number of possible used indicators for assessment out of all potential indicators, assured only up to 53.3%.
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The above results were obtained from the originally highlighted proportions by the following system of equations:
In comparative terms it appears that concerns for highlighting economic efficiency are the most significant, namely the most complex in preparation and processing in relation to exploitation. Based on the results, given the models / sub-models of indicators developed originally through the present paper, the proposal is advanced that the whole potential indicators are recommended for general application. These must be reflected in national companies’ financial and economic annual reports and in all Romanian entities that exploit and subject the preparation, primary processing and adequate usage of natural resources.
5. Conclusions This article is based on research content of the books entitled Gaf-Deac I.I. - Legal and economic bases of resources system in the New Economy – Infomin Ed., Deva, 2007 and Gaf-Deac I.I. - New Economy Between knowledge and risk – Infomin Ed., Deva, 2010, and creating conceptual extensions for knowledge. a) The efficiency proposed and achieved, in the field of exploitation of natural resources signifies the economic view of exploitation and recovery. The relevance of expressing economic efficiency is dependent on the decision maker's ability to quantify operating activities, preparation and / or primary processing by the selection of assessment factors, parameters and representative indicators. In the economic environment of Romania it can be concluded that the main expression of efficient exploitation of natural resources is resumed only to expressions through indicators, criteria and formulas of the periodic or cumulative reporting system. Parametric extensions are being avoided as well as derivations, differentiation and quasi - continuous integration that can iteratively highlight actual levels of efficiency. Under the same incidence there is the maintenance of traditional formulas for classification of techno-economic indicators only by the criterion of technologies usage and of transformations taking place in these flows. In this paper relational deployment of natural resources indicators for consumption or for use and quality, under the proposed integrated system approach, are shown for the first time in an original form. b) The paper presents a scheme for expressing technological balance sheets in the natural resources domain, the proposed generalization being that searching for optimality factors may cause unbalanced technology flows. c) Furthermore, it is proposed, in a personal manner, that in measuring the effort to attract in different stages of the economic cycle of natural resources to consider the actualized relevance of updated costs, as these are used in formalization. It is recommended that the active design to reduce the attracting stages (introduction) into the economic useful resources circuit, shortening the immobilizer period, stopping or reducing the growth of available funds, establishing precise and operational methods by which to identify the time and moment when the activity becomes ineffective. The plan is developed ; that to reduce the attracting stages, to which is added the time factor influence on exploitative efforts and the size of revenue to attract natural resources in the economic cycle, an equation system unique to the mentioned situations is formulated. d) The paper puts through a completely original contribution, particular to the foundations of formalizing an aggregate model of indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of the operation and exploitation of natural resources in mining preparation and processing activities. It is elaborated in mathematical format the equation for maximizing profit by reducing the cost of resource depletion, the specified condition being that marginal revenue is to be at least marginal cost based on opportunity costs.
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Also, is formulated as an equation based model the costs of maintaining or developing through original relationships. e) In this paper, we highlight the author's own contribution, (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.), the model of efficiency indicators for exploitation operating activity. For the open pit coal type basin in the Jiu Valley, the lignite from the Oltenia Coal Basin, the non-ferrous ores at Baia Mare and Deva basins and for uranium (radioactive ores) at CNMRR Bucharest, from research conducted by the authors (analysis, summaries, statistics and simulations) the conclusion is that it is possible to systematize a number of six indicators of assessing economic efficiency for the extraction phase. An algorithm is formulated regarding the stages of developing the iterative integrated model; the matrix of the identified indicators is expressed mathematically. The calculus system developed by the authors (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.) according to the expression of indicators identified, marking the criterion of efficiency for the mentioned exploited substances, proves to be of original expressiveness. Integrated expression of economic efficiency for exploiting operating activities results from the composition of assessing indicators results. The significant original contribution stems from formalizing the model / sub-model and also from advancing the thesis of iterative integration of its elements, to obtain continuous complete assessments of efficiency in exploitation operations. f) Researching the global concern for developing types of described models to depict the complex system of action, multivalent and varied for exploitation of natural resources, this work is carried out based on comparisons so that original conclusions yield, these are applicable to the Gray and Hotelling models on admission of certain basic conditions related to mining developments and imposing physical materials to reach desired levels of efficiency. For the first time the author (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.) elaborate in an original manner two schemes with related extensions to the Gray and Hotelling models that can be find topicality and applicability in the Romanian productive economic environment and in exploration and exploitation of natural resources. g) Obtaining net mining production for the main categories of useful minerals related to deposits in Romania is also expressed in this original paper. h) The model of efficiency indicators in the work of preparation completes the author's contribution to elucidating the issues in the field. Through research it is concluded that the elements, sub-sequences and sub-systems for assessing the economic efficiency of the preparation, in a system with a high degree of relevance are eleven in number. These are the main indicators, from which only one is separately distinguished, the yield of recovery of use from concentrate, for the nonferrous mineral sector. The matrix of indicators identified is formulated as a prerequisite for quantifying the appreciation sub-model for assessing the effectiveness of preparation. In this context, for the first time in literature the sub-model recalled is composed, through original calculus relations, aiming for the integrated efficiency criterion. i) It is also concluded that, in context, preparation work is found in the larger flow of the industrial system, manufacturer of intermediate (concentrated) goods obtained from natural resources. Economic efficiency analysis is recommended to be performed in relation to the basic resource type incorporated in the product, as the most representative estimate of the level of recovery yield of useful substance is being targeted. In this way, we find the measurement for the effectiveness of primary processing activities of mineral resources. A total of 10 indicators are identified originally by the author (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.) in the present research content, these being found in a particular sub-structure for assessing recovery yield, expressed mathematically, also original, in a matrix of relationships. Original expressions for calculations regarding efficiency criteria are found in sub-specific, sub-structure model for assessing the efficiency of recovery. These are accompanied by mathematical relationships developed as original concepts of whole expression of economic efficiency in the preparation work, by composing the results of assessment indicators. Equally, these elaborations show the author's original contribution (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.) to the final formalization of the model / sub-model characterized by iterative integration elements to highlight its fully continuous efficiency of operation, preparation and primary processing of natural resources. Under the original thesis constructed by the author, (i.e., Gaf-Deac I.I.) the work is done also on the generalized composition as an overview of the types of efficiency, by activities and substances.
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Explanatory recommendation of the generalized model is resorted to by allocating versus the practical values recorded in mining-exploitative basins, with weights of importance and hierarchy within the narrow [0,1] interval. j) In making distinctions on the availability of data and formalized indicators in the complete continuous and iterative model of economic efficiency, the author notes that from the analyzes conducted during 2004-2014 at six large main national companies that extract pit coal, lignite, ferrous ore and uranium from Romania, the economic and financial situations that were found are: 1) indicators for which there is no data are available; and 2) indicators used in the analysis. This leads to the conclusion that in the economic structures which have the object of exploitation resources in Romania, namely in major national companies, the availability of data required to calculate economic indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the operation and exploitation (mining and quarrying, preparation and primary processing) is defective. This lack of representativeness and availability of efficiency ratios is estimated at 46.7%, while compared to total number of possibly useful indicators with potential for evaluations, the relative volume is provided only in proportion of 53.3%. The percentage data that are reached in this work from the original expression of a functional equation system of informative availability for calculating the economic efficiency in the large companies examined in order to clarify and formalize some action models. Compared to the above conclusion, the motion for reconsideration of the system to highlight the economic efficiency of these entities at national level is advanced in the spirit of novel approaches advanced by models developed and presented herein.
References 1. Hartwick, J.M; (col.) - The Economics of Natural Resource Use, - Harper & Row, New York, 1986; 2. Gray, L.C. - Rent Under the Assumption of Exthaustibility, - Quarterly Journal of Economics no 28 1916 (reed) 1966; 3. Bulearcă, M.(col.) - Natural resource efficiency in the industry - Romanian Academy,/ Eficienţa utilizării resurselor naturale în industrie, - Academia Română, INCE,- Bucharest, CIDE , vol 3-4-5/2002; 4. Hotelling,H. - The Economics of Exhaustible Resources, - Journal of Political Economy, no 39/1931 (reed 1996) 5. Gâf-Deac, I.I.,- Legal and economic bases of resources system in the New Economy – Pbl. Infomin, Deva, 2007 6. Gâf-Deac I.I., - New Economy between knowledge and risk - Ed. Infomin, Deva, 2010
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ON THE QUESTION “WHAT IS TRUTH?”
Ken PAGE1, Ingrid PAGE2
Abstract There is an "affrimation of faith within Science-Religion Dialogue"; this would be the synthetic outlook for this dual parts study. It is brief, direct, sincere and (re)presents two individual points of view – interrelated as within the authors’ family; each part has an autonomous expression regarding the author’s faith and contemporary reflection. But this study has its intrinsic flow – as a real “Science-Religion Dialogue” within the both individual contributions. Both as a remarkable expression & sincere contribution; the milestones of the study could be perceived as: {“science and religion are in conflict with each other”; "conflict first appeared in Galileo’s time"; "great distress to many Victorian"; "Mathew Arnolds lamentation <
Keywords and phrases: belief, faith, Galileo, God, historical Jesus, Jesus, Mathew Arnold, science and religion, truth, we may have found the truth
This study is predicated on the common view science and religion are in conflict with each other. This conflict first appeared in Galileo’s time, but became infinitely stronger in the mid nineteenth century following the publication of Darwin’s book on “The Origin of the Species by Natural Selection”. The conflict centred on what is meant by “truth”. The word ‘truth’ according to the Wikipedia “is most often used to mean being in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal”. In our present case the root of this apparent conflict arose from the historical attitude of the church’s authorities to the Holy Bible. Up to the time of Darwin the predominant view of these authorities was that the bible was ‘true’ in all respects; it was the word of God and so was above human questioning. The scientific method on the other hand takes nothing on trust; everything has to be explained in material terms and cross tested. In a sense there is no such thing as a scientific truth, instead any explanation of a phenomena is conditional and may be rejected in the light of a further advance in knowledge. Given these observations it is easy to see how science and religion came into conflict in the nineteenth century. Taking geology as an example the seven days of creation as described in Genesis simply did not fit the material facts of the earth’s history. This caused great distress to many Victorians especially as the evidence for the great age of the earth and the fossil record for the evolution of life accumulated, and sadly quite a few lost their faith as a consequence of these developments. Mathew Arnolds lamentation “Dover Beach” provides an example of this.
“The sea of faith. Was once too, at the full, and round earth’s shore. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Of the night wind down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.”
Although this account is a simplification of what happened in the 19th century I think it does summarise why there appears to be a conflict between religion and science even today despite the fact that most Christians now have a very different understanding of the bible compared to their forebears.
1 Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Physiology, corresponding author is a member of the community of St. James the Less – and joining the team of the project <
The problem is that the general public has to a large degree inherited the late Victorian attitudes and is not so aware of our changes in understanding regarding biblical truth. In consequence many today view religious faith as an anachronism that is no longer relevant to life in the modern world. Indeed sadly many now even regard religion as evil and responsible for the many civil conflicts that afflict mankind at the present time. It is now very important that the current understanding of the bible held by many Christians is fed in to the dialogue between science and religion and that this fact is publicised widely. Most Christians today would accept that the bible is subject to the methods of modern literary criticism. The appreciation of the Old Testament as a history of the Jewish race drawn from many sources and subject to the social mores of ancient times enriches our understanding of the bible narrative. It is a document written by human hand and thus subject to human frailties and yet it also demonstrates the growing understanding of the nature of God over the centuries. Likewise our appreciation of the New Testament as a document again written by many human hands and subject to ancient ways of thinking also enriches our understanding of holy write and importantly by doing so actually strengthens our faith. Modern biblical truth centres on our Lord’s injunction that we should love God and love our neighbour as ourselves. This leads us to the true dynamic of the Christian church and emphasises that this dynamic is a faith based on the person of Jesus Christ. This is something that comes both from within and also through interaction with our fellow man. It is accepted that we can only know the historical Jesus imperfectly, but by personal experience we see him both in ourselves and in others. This is the ‘Truth’ as I understand it.
Ken Page 26th June 2015.
WHAT IS TRUTH?
At the beginning of this course we were reading from the study leaflet that truth can have different meaning to different people depending upon their background and experiences. If I have to give a personal account of what truth means to me, I have to go back to my roots. The family I was born in to had a belief that Jesus’s teaching was well worth getting to know and based their lives and opinions on that. The older I get the more I believe that the people I loved and trusted were right to base their lives on that philosophy. If some people question some aspects of Jesus’s life such as his conception, that does not matter to me. If he was the son of Joseph that makes no difference to me. The importance is what he taught us and if we try to live our lives based on that as well as we can, and try to ask for the ability and will to do so, I think we may have found the truth.
Ingrid Page 24th June 2015.
Acknowledgements The first author belongs to the St James-the-Less Scottish Episcopal Church community, Aberdeen. He joined and actively participated to the Saturday debates of the community from St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen , Scotland, UK / http://www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org/ - supported by the grant received [April 2014] from the program “Scientists in Congregations Scotland” / University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. The program from St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen was started on the July 1, 2014. Also the second author actively participated to the Saturday debates of the community from St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. The authors – as a family – are firmly supporters of this interdisciplinary and interactive activity supported by the members of the team of the project <
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References 1. *** St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen / http://www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org/ 2. *** http://www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org/Recitals-Feb-May-15.html 3. *** http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/scientistsincongregationsscotland/ 4. *** http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/scientistsincongregationsscotland/saint-andrews-cathedral-aberdeen/ 5. Bulz N. - On a Form of 'Freedom of Religion': Religious Community's Acts Onto the Contemporary 'Science-Religion Dialogue' Versus a ‘What is Truth?’ Inter/Trans-Disciplinary, Intercultural and Ecumenical Inquiry / http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2597367 6. Kilgour, R., Bulz, N. - 'What Is Truth?' An Inter/Trans-Disciplinary, Intercultural and Ecumenical Attempt within the Contemporary 'Science-Religion Dialogue' / http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2593183 7. Arnolds M. - “Dover Beach” - http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html 8. Pascal B., - The Physical Treatises of Pascal, I. H. B. and A. G. H. Spiers (trans.), New York: Octagon Books, 1973. 9. Pascal B., - Pensées and other writings, H. Levi (trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
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PHASES OF VINE’S INCREASE AND DEVELOPMENT IN VIEW OF THE ELABORATION THE VITICULTURE FENOCALENDAR
Andrei NICOLAE1, Ion NICOLAE2, Marian NICOLAE3, Simona Laura TURCU4
Abstract The researchs insided in the Viticol Research Center of Drăgăşani, since the 1977-1998 folowed up a sequencetial knowing of daily bioritm of the dried substance accumulationon the trunk which depends on thermal radiation (observations, remarks, determinantions, analyses: the ussualy temperature, the active temperature and the operative temperature) for the main fenophases, stades and the fenologichal microstades on a side and the elaboration techological viticol optimized fenocalendar (FTVO). Phenological phases and stages milestone as micro or macroscopic morphological indices vegetative or fertile bodies takes place under the direct influence of climatic factors, temperature having a major role.
Keywords and phrases: daily bioritm, dried substance’s accumulation, active temperature, fenophase, techological viticol optimized fenocalendar (FTVO).
1. Introduction The stages of the annual growth cycle usually become observable within the first year of a vine's life. The annual growth cycle of grapevines is the process that takes place in the vineyard each year, beginning with bud break in the spring and culminating in leaf fall in autumn, followed by winter dormancy. The stages of the annual growth cycle usually become observable within the first year of a vine's life. Viticulturalists and vineyard managers monitor the effect of climate, vine diseaseand pests in facilitating or impeding the vines progression from bud break, flowering, fruit set, veraison, harvesting, leaf fall and dormancy-reacting. The grape starts its annual growth cycle in the spring with bud break. In Romania, this stage begins around March when daily temperatures begin to surpass 10°C. If the vine had been pruned during the winter, the start of this cycle is signaled by a "bleeding" of the vine. During this period a single vine can "bleed" up to 5 litres of water. Depending on temperatures, 40–80 days after bud break the process of flowering begins with small flower clusters appearing on the tips of the young shoots looking like buttons. Flowering occurs when average daily temperatures stay between 15–20°C which in the Romanian wine regions is generally around May. A few weeks after the initial clusters appear, the flowers start to grow in size with individual flowers becoming observable. The stage of fruit set follows flowering almost immediately, when the fertilized flower begins to develop a seed and grape berry to protect the seed. In the Romania, this normally takes place in May. Climate and the health of the vine play an important role with low humidity, high temperatures and water stress having the potential of severely reducing the amount flowers that get fertilized. The ante-penultimate event is the harvest in which the grapes are removed from the vine and transported to the winery to begin the wine making process. In Romania this is generally between September and October. The time of harvest depends on a variety of factors-most notably the subjective determination of ripeness. As the grape ripens on the vines, sugars and pH increase as acids (such as malic acid) decrease. Tannins and other phenolics also develop which can affect the flavors and aromas in the resulting wine. Deepening the knowledge processes of vegetative growth and training in viticulture crops has been in the last half-century target of intense research specialist in the world (Kondo, 1955, 1958, Lazarevski, 1961, Black, in 1964, Pouget, 1963, 1965, Julliard, 1966, Bouard, Pouget 1971, Conde, Ciolacu, 1992) to achieve their conduct through modeling and simulation (Conde and collaborators in 1992, Cazacu, 1992) in order to numerical modeling and simulation and optimization technology
1 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 2 Professor Ph.D, Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 Senior Lecturer, PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 4 Assistant Teacher, PhD St., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 60 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge culture vine by applying sequences agrofitotehnice at moments fenoclimatice optimal (Baggiolini 1952, Eichhorn, Lorenz 1977, Lancashire in 1991, Erez, Dejeu, 1995 and summoned Fregoni 1998).
2. Material and methods Optimizing technology culture of grape-vines in fenoclimatic concept has become a viticulture biological components. Phenological phases and stages milestone as micro or macroscopic morphological indices vegetative or fertile bodies takes place under the direct influence of climatic factors, temperature having a major role. Results vegetative growth processes and training vineyards were carried by their behavior, modeling and simulation in order to achieve numerical modeling and simulation of crops and vines optimization technology through the application of optimal sequences fenoclimatice agrophytotechnical at times [2].
3. Results The interpretation in a new vision of experimental data older or newer from Drăgăşani resort- Romania, on accumulation by vine nutritional substance with a major role in nutrisam, allowed developing conceptual model of growth and vine-by productive -setting pace of life and daily storage in the clump substance dried, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium [1], [3]. Exerting a permanent exchange of substances with natural or technological change through fizilogical and metabolic processes, vine appears as "ecological subsystem" integrated ecosystem in the vineyard, but also as "bioenergetic system" open with "input-output" Energy (Table 1). Variety vinifera/ stock is: Crâmpoşie selected/Kober 5BB, Victoria (Figure1), Calin, Italy; Leadership semihigh: Lenz Moser, the stem Guyot; Plantation Age: 20 years (1978); The type of soil: eumezobazic brown and brown argiloiluvial pseudorendzinic; An vineyard in 1997/ 1998.
Fig.1. The ripening grape variety Victoria
Temperature daily average (7°°, 13°°, 19°°, 24°°): Annual average temperature: 11,3°C; Mimimal absolute temperature: -16,0°C; Absolute maximum temperature: 37,7°C; Annual Temperature: 1995 ore; Annual Precipitation: 664 mm.
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Table 1. Technology phases
Phase / stage Morphophysiological Dominant biochemical Item Period calendar phenology dominant process process
1 Bud Summer May to October Organogenesis germ Biosynthesis substances primary (active, latent) bioregulatoare growth Differentiation germ of (auxine or inhibitors) the rod 2 Bud winter November-December Differentiation of germ to March rod Vital slowly process 3 Preantheza April to June Vegetative growth of Biosynthesis plastic undergrowth and substances and energy blooming Differentiation of florist 4 Antheza June Blooming flowers and Biosynthesis (florid) related 5 Postantheza June-July to August Growth grapes and Biosynthesis organic grains acids (protein substances) 6 Maturation of July/August- Ripe grapes and aging Biosynthesis grapes and October/November Aging wood carbohydrate wood
In result of steps the present study was compiled Fenocalendar of Viticultural Optimized Technology (FTVO) comprising six phenological stages, in correlation with calendar period, the morpho-physiological and biochemical process dominant dominant as follows: 1. Buds of summer (May-October); 2. Buds winter (November-December-March); 3. Preantheza-period April-June (Figure 2); 4. Antheza (June); 5. Postantheza (June-July / August); 6. Ripening grapes and wood (July / August to October / November).
Fig. 2. Des-shrout process during vegetation
Results include: Bioclimatograma vineyard year 1997/1998; Distribution and evolution of cumulative growth sprout; Cumulative distribution and evolution of the substance stored in the dried- grape inflorescenses. The relationship between biophysics heat rate asset or phenology evolution and accumulation of dried substance on the scion (wood, leaves, grapes). (Table 2)
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Table 2. Evolution relationship fenoclimatice during vegetation Average daily rate of Phase and Morpho-physiological processes Thermal threshold Item accumulation SU (limits interphase prevailing (limits Σ°C aggregate) mg/ twig) 1 Crying Start physiological, beginning 42-90 1-2 movement seve 2 Bud Growth intra-bud 90-250 2-18 3 Unbud Beginning extra-start growth bud 250-287 18-30 4 Unbud-florid The annual growth (phase I) 287-842 30-1040 5 Florid Antheza 842-1217 1040-2080 6 Florid-mellow The annual growth (phase II) 1217-1382 3100-980 7 Mellow- Maturation of grapes and wood 1382-3614 2940-200 maturation 8 Fall leaves Migration reserve substances in 3614-3660 200-100 the many years
The evolution of the vine published on cycles, period, phase and stage phenology; Original scoring systems and encoding stages and microstages phenology contained in Fenocalendar Technology Viticol Optimize (FTVO)[4]. During vegetation, fenoclimatic relationship changes is based on phenological phases and interphases that exemplify the morphological and physiological processes correlated with dominant: • Crying, with the dominant process physiological start by entering the sap circulation (thermal threshold 42-90 Σ°C, SU gained 1.2 mg / sprout); • Ram, which corresponds to growth intramugurală dominant process, with thermal threshold 90-250 Σ°C and 2-18 SU gained mg / sprout; • Des-sprout represented the dominant process by starting extra-sprout growth in a heat threshold of 250-287 Σ°C and SU gained 18 to 30 mg / sprout; • Blooming-sprout which corresponds to the dominant process increasing annual organs, with 287-842 Σ°C thermal threshold and gained SU 30-1040 mg / sprout; • Flowering antheza defined as the dominant process in a thermal threshold 842-1217 Σ°C and SU accumulated 1040-2080 mg /sprout; • Blooming-ripening, with the dominant process bodies annual growth by entering the sap movement (1217-1382 Σ°C thermal threshold, SU gained 3100-980 mg / sprout); • Maturing, with the dominant grape maturation process and wood thermal threshold 1382- 3614 Σ°C, SU gained 2940-200 mg / sprout (Figure 3);
Fig. 3. The ripening grapes
• Fall leaves, which corresponds to the migration of backup dominant process in multi bodies having 3614-3660Σ°C thermal threshold and gained SU 200-100 mg/sprout.
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4. Conclusions Active temperature and especially useful (≥ 10°C) seems to fly visibly daily rhythm of growth and development of calves, confirming once again its meteosensibilitatea. The experimental method is to limit the accumulation unable to calculate dry matter daily measurements of temperature relative to assets. Fenoclimatice studies and research have been conducted mainly on selected variety Crâmposie / Kober 5BB, and other vinifera varieties, aiming to accumulation of dried substance on the stump and developing technology fenocalendary wine optimized (FTVO). Processor pace of growth and development in-bud and extra-bud was made across the biological cycle vegetative and reproductive periods, phases and stage phenology, as the research methodology established biofizical.
References 1. Cazacu S., – Model-based simulation training physiological processes grape harvest grape-vine to according to topoclimate Călugărească Valley viticultural center, PhD Thesis, ASAS – Bucharest, Romania, 1992 2. Condei Gh., Ionescu P., Cătănescu V., Ciolacu M., Seiculescu M.,- Contributions to the study of the rate of accumulation of dry vine and plastic compounds and energetic, involved in the formation of crops in viticulture (grape cuttings, rootstocks, grafts), Anale ICVV, XII, pp.109-128, Bucharest, Romania, 1992 3. Condei Gh., Ionescu P., Cătănescu V., Ciolacu M., Seiculescu M., - Evolution of major chemical elements in vine bodies, in relation to the accumulation of dry substance during a vegetative cycle, Symp. Phys. Vit., San Michele, Italy, 103-108, 1992 4. Nicolae M.,– Applications of informatics in stimulating vegetative growth and formation biorhythm harvest the vines, PhD Thesis, USAMV Bucharest, Romania, 2006 5. Marica M., Nicolae M., Dulugeac A., –Elaboration the viticulture Fenocalendar, Bioterra Bulletin of Scientific Information, nr. 18, 2009 6. Nicolae M., Marica M., Atudosiei N., Dulugeac A., Nicolae E., – Tehnological Optimized Viticol Phenocalendar (T.O.V.P.) of Vine, University of Craiova - The Scientific Conference with International Participation, “Durable Agriculture – Agriculture of the Future”, 2009 7. Nicolae M., Nicolae E., Dulugeac A., - Phases of wine’s increase and development in view of the elaboration the viticulture fenocalendar. Method experimental, Annales of University of Craiova, vol 38/A, Editura Universitaria Craiova, 2008 8. Nicolae M., Dulugeac A., – Elaboration the Viticulture Fenocalendar, Academy of Romanian Scientists and Bioterra University of Bucharest, International Conference – Global Strategies in Agriculture, Agrioturism, Nutrition and Environment Protection, 2009 9. Nicolae M., Dulugeac A., Atudosiei N.L., Mamiu M., – Phenological Microphases Included in Tehnological Viticol Optimized Calendar, Academy of Romanian Scientists and Bioterra University of Bucharest, International Confe rence – Global Strategies in Agriculture, Agrioturism, Nutrition and Environment Protection, 2009 10. Nicolae M., Nicolae I., Nicolae E., Iovici V., Dulugeac A., - Stadiile şi microstadiile fenologice cuprinse în fenocalendarul tehnologic viticol optimizat (FTVO), Analele Universităţii Bioterra Bucureşti, vol. 7, 2006
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ABOUT COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES
Ioan GÂF-DEAC1, Ioan I. GÂF-DEAC2, Andrei NICOLAE3
Abstract The article shows that in Romania operationalization of clusters aimed at creating a sustainable competitive advantage is possible. To achieve this objective cluster development models are required that through the quasi- infinite knowledge resources used to stabilize producers and consumers, including those of knowledge resources on a required level of controlled performance. For Romania is it proposed for formalization and the introduction of a sustainable competitive advantage for companies whose business is mainly based on knowledge resources, including natural resources. The materially expressive fund of sustainable competitive advantage lies in the multitude of goods, products and services whose origin is in the cluster, where it influences the performance of firms in the complex.
Keywords and phrases: sustainable competitive advantage, clusters, knowledge resources, co-location, economic growth, clustering complex
1. Introduction In relation to the industrial leadership in a complex, the cluster is ranked logically with a comparative higher chance of success in the quasi-totality of cases in its existence and operation. The central principle of the cluster phenomenon, found in specialized literature on a global scale is also related to the opportunity of creating closeness between industry and innovative firms. However, in a complex cluster of economical agglomerations, it is no longer operational to function exclusively under traditional imperatives of efficiency, such as inputs of low costs, forming distribution chains, polarization or labor specialization, the search for know-how in a so-called "common industrial atmosphere". In fact, another phenomenon of maximum attention and importance takes place i.e. globalization that increasingly reduces the role and importance of proximity in its commercial interdependencies. Clusters will continue to operate new performing competencies, especially within the sphere of non commercial interdependencies through the sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, the proximity factor favoring the objective manifestation of the two categories (commercial or noncommercial) of interdependence remains.
2. Co-location and economic growth in areas of clustering knowledge Co-location of subsystems from the knowledge resources with productive subsystems, social and infrastructural aerials lead to a new economic report, measured by indicators of economic prosperity. A.Marshall (1980) [1] found significant links between co-location and prosperity rate. The preoccupations for economic growth - considered to be a legitimate objective required for the advance of human society - M.Potter (1990) [2] underlines that both practitioners and policy- strategists must observe the new contributive potential new of co-location, as a prerequisite for local, national, zonal, regional and global clustering. On this occasion the conceptual repositioning between the co-location as a new trend and the established classically recognized industry leaders in the area of general resources holder is identified. Further, in the same spirit, M.S. Gertler and D.A. Wolfe (2004) [3] stressed that for clustering quantification, at the use of knowledge resources conceptual and practical immersion is split into at least three streams projects, namely: a) flow of elements of creating sectorial addictions, which highlight how to build a cluster to acquire the main characteristic of "dynamic"; b) flow of knowledge elements and of assimilation of the opportunities within a cluster; c) flow of analytical elements at different scales and in different levels of comparison to the corresponding operationality of the cluster.
1 Professor, PhD., USH Bucharest/ University of Petrosani, Romania, [email protected] 2 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SHU Bucharest, National Institute of Economic Research "Costin C. Kiriţescu" (INCE), Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 65 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Being considered as the "higher level" in relation to the industrial leadership in a complex, the cluster is ranked logically with a comparatively higher chance of success in almost all cases of its existence and operation. In its fundamental expression, the cluster phenomenon can be included in the evolutionary steps of the "new economy" towards "knowledge economy". Martin, R. and Sunley, P. (2004) [4] expressed the observation that "confidence in the cluster phenomenon applied in a national economy is on the rise", although structural operationalization of clusters starts to break down the productive economy in industrial-distinct geographic areas. Entities resulting from decomposition are designed to stand and accommodate the new competitiveness and innovation through knowledge.
3. Introducing sustainable competitive advantage in Romania for knowledge resources In practice the empirical application can meet – the experimental cluster theory. The central principle of the cluster phenomenon, found in specialist literature on a global scale is related to the opportunity of creating closeness between industry and innovative firms. The proximity of reference becomes the common place of knowledge dissemination facilities and efficient practices in production processes. Identifying the sources of competitive advantage can be achieved by using strategic management, both in terms of the exogenous and endogenous firms (Tallman, S, & al. 2004). Extending the research, it can be concluded that operationalization of clusters is possible as it is aimed at creating the sustainable competitive advantage. To achieve this objective requires cluster development models that the quasi-infinite knowledge resources use to lead to the stabilization of producers and consumers, including natural resources, on the required level of controlled performance. Since clusters involve delimitation of areas, it is also believed that the knowledge resources become strongly appropriate to geographical zoning, of mentality, from the very differentiated and varied natural distribution of each type of resource in the ecosystem. In this context, innovation is a necessary critical component of ensuring long-term economic growth. Expanding this research and considerations in the field, the advancing conclusion is that public role in designing and enforcing economic growth, based on knowledge resources must be found primarily through the following conceptual strategic alignments: - Declare innovative processes, as among the priorities of national importance; - New governmental implications in the facilitator context of harnessing the resources of knowledge; - Induction in the content of the information non-redundant wide economy, and eradication of incomplete or imperfect information statements in economic productive processes; - Oligopolistic market development based on the circulation effects of technical progress of the novelties in general knowledge, namely in the field of advanced technologies; - Recognition and introduction of systemic innovative behavior in general; complex multi- criteria approach of innovation; - Assessing the competitive level reached and the reclassification of enterprises (companies) at national and at regional level; - Formalizing the process of organizational literacy through the creation and dissemination of knowledge and best industrial-productive practices; - Promoting distinctive, highlighted phenomenon of proximity (formalization of proximity in clustering areas); - Developing strategic managerial discipline; - Identifying imbalances from monopolistic advantages practiced by companies in the context of utilizing resources involving quantitative and qualitative input-output differentials. Therefore, it is proposed to be addressed for the formalization and introduction of the sustainable competitive advantage in companies whose business is mainly based on resources, including natural resources. The expressive material fund of sustainable competitive advantage lies in the multitude of goods, products and services whose origin is in the cluster, where it influences the measurable performance of firms in the area. The conclusion is apparent that the innovative process plays an important role in achieving the sustainability horizon in the cluster areal. Schumpeter, J. (1989) [6] describes five types of innovation which, by extension, can be found in the industrial-productive clustering climate, namely: 1) acquiring new products or superior qualitative change among existing products;
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2) innovative new processes to formalize at least an industry capable of being generalized; 3) the opening of new markets; 4) the development of new sources of raw materials or other material inputs in the industrial- productive transformations process, and 5) changes in the organizational structure of the company. From scientific investigation conducted on the competitive edge with possible application here it follows that as a rule it is found and measured within the company (enterprise), it being derived from all the resources and capabilities of that entity. After Mathews, JA (2003) [7] resources may be entirely tangible (e.g. technology, capital goods, raw materials etc.) or non-tangible (in this category can be found know-how, intellectual property rights, patents, trademarks, etc). It is noted that globalization causes a rising accessibility of companies to a greater number of resources. In this context, the capability as a defining element of the sustainable competitive advantage refers to the ability of the entity (company) to use the resources at its disposal, namely those to which it has even broader access. Certain types of processes, procedures, routines, or hypertext communication and knowledge must be created and mastered by the firm given the quasi-continuous increase of its performance in its operating environment (Figure 1).
Fig.1. Obtaining the competitive advantage from the multitude of the performance competencies (resources and capabilities) of a company in the field of natural resources
Competitiveness can be based on at least two kinds of advantages are derived from: a) interdependencies of commercial nature, as found in the real economy, when formal values are exchanged (licensing, alliances, acquisitions and sales that change values from producers to consumers); in this case competitiveness results from the differences of various efforts to maximize the efficient allocation of resources. b) interdependencies of non commercial nature, according to Storper, M (1993) [8], on the "Shared knowledge not covered by their movement in a market" so they are non-tradable or retained in the company as a parameter reserved for its competitiveness. Noncommercial interdependencies are outside the economic sphere of transformation that resources undergo. Among them are rules, practices, conventions and institutions that process related flows from the sphere of actual production.
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This type of interdependence induces a degree of uncertainty attached to the firm, which, however, provides for a competitive differentiation dynamism. Tallman S. (col. 2004) [5] generically defines non commercial group interdependencies as “knowledge in the air” and Marshall (1980), [1] advances the phrase "industrial atmosphere".
4. Conclusions It concludes that the sustainable competitive advantage is the concept introduced in the economy of knowledge resources, from an industrial productive vision based on resources in general and natural resources in particular. The concept is operational only when accompanied by the pre-existence of a type of economic system, namely one based on the market economy. This functional parallelism virtually transformed in the binomial "system of economically sustainable competitive advantage" helps to reduce costs and therefore to streamline transactional activities, mostly related to business operations of commercial interdependencies. However, economic agglomerations in a clustering areal, they can no longer operate exclusively under traditional imperatives of efficiency, as inputs of low cost, forming chains of distribution, polarization or labor specialization, the search for know- how in a so-called "common industrial atmosphere". In fact, another phenomenon of maximum attention and importance for its consequences occurs, i.e. globalization that increasingly reduces the role and importance of proximity in the commercial interdependencies. Clusters will continue to operate new performance skills, especially within the sphere of non commercial interdependencies through the sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, the proximity factor remains; it is favoring the objective manifestation of the two categories of interdependence (commercial or noncommercial). Therefore, the sustainable competitive advantage found in predominantly non commercial interdependencies subsystem is in objective connection with the group of commercial interdependencies. The conclusion here is that the introduction of the sustainable competitive advantage must follow algorithmic logic steps such as: a) understanding the concept, b) establishing the advantage in thinking and economic practice of the competitive advantage and c) the transition to sustainable competitive advantage in most quasi-industrial-productive and economic entities.
References 1. Marshall A. -Principles of Economics, - MacMillan, London, 1980/ reed.2001 2. Porter M. -The Comparative Advantage of Nations, - Free Press, New York, 1990 3. Wolfe D.A.; Gertler, M.S. -Clusters from the Inside and Out: Local Dinamics and Global Linkages; - Urban Studies, WD, 2004 4. Martin R; Sunley, P. -Deconstructing Cluster: Chaotic Concept or Policy Panacea, - Journal of Economic Geography, 3:1, 2002 5. Tallman S, col. - Knowledge, Clusters and Competitive Advantage, - Academy of Management Review, vol. 29, 2:258, 2004 6. Padmore T; Gibson, H. -Modeling Regional Innovation and Competitiveness, - Local and Regional Systems of Innovation, ed. J.De la Mothe and Paquet, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1998 7. Mathews J.A. - Competitive Dynamics and Economic Learning: An Extended Resource- Based View, - Industrial and Corporate Change, 12,1: 115-145, 2003 8. Storper M., - Regional „Worlds” of Production: Learning and Innovation in Tehnology Districts of France, Italy and the USA, Regional Studies, no 27/1993
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ENSURING A QUASI-CONSTANT LEVEL OF CUTTING FORCES AND ENERGY TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF CUP-HOLDERS ROTOR EXCAVATORS IN OPEN-PIT TECHNOLOGY
Ioan GÂF-DEAC1, Maria GÂF-DEAC2, Cicerone Nicolae MARINESCU3, Ion Florin POPA4, Andrei NICOLAE5, Adrian BĂRBULESCU6
Abstract Cutting forces and power required for the operational deployment are provided as "technical resources" in the configuration or functional capacity of projected excavators. On the basis of practical tests performed in large quarries in the Romanian Oltenia region at Lignite Basin, processing the information relating to technological cutting technologies in order to evaluate performance of daily lignite extraction, situations that often have inadequate records, the damage cycles cutting wheel positioning due to port-cups variable angles and grooves strips in front of it. Empirical Research (random observations from experience) shows that the dependencies mentioned are complex and the regularities that shape the cutting drive operability "for the best" are not sharply defined. In different circumstances, it appears that at the design of rotor excavators, some particular requirement technological behavior, considered necessary for a wide variability of geological-mining conditions, was not taken into account.
Keyword and phrases: cutting forces, energy, lignite, mining exploitation, cutting operation
1. Introduction The operational content of cutting mining technology is distinct formalized, occupying a 20- 35% share of total specific economic-complex production. In some technologies in underground "continuous cutting" occupies the most significant share, becoming "the leading operation", the other productive phases being resumed to support evacuation and sustaining the proper rhythm of progress made. Fundamentally, in the major coal mining quarries the cutting operation is a "strong leader". The premise of this event derives from the objective necessity of a mass displacement of rock (overburden) and useful (coal layers) very voluminous and with varying physical and mechanical properties, which require high energy cutting. As such, large excavators with bucket rotor port cups from the great quarries of lignite in Romania, in the context of the critical study regarding the ongoing assessment of cutting schemes will ensure compatibility of the technological performance requirements imposed with constructive- functional features of the above mentioned functional equipment. Cutting forces and the power required to for the operational deployment are provided as "technical resources" in the configuration or functional capacity projected for excavators. On the basis of practical tests performed in large quarries in the Romanian region of Oltenia at Lignite Basin, processing the information relating to technological cutting technologies in order to evaluate performance of daily lignite extraction, results in situations that often are inadequate, that damage cycles of cutting as a result of wheel positioning due to the port-cups variable angles and the grooves strips in front of it. Typically, cutting forces (Ft) and related energy (Et) developed by the excavator bucket port should - as an objective requirement as far as possible to fulfill - to be manifested constantly: Theoretical (Ft) * (Et) ct = (c) (1)
Constant of the event (c) may not be considered "absolute", whereas the cutting environment (the geological formation in which is stationed the useful substance, namely the lignite layer) is not constant in terms of its physic-mechanical morphological, tectonic etc properties. As such, the term which tends to compare the size and energy of cutting forces is actually the expression of a period with a multitude of accepted values, which allow the application of the excavator operation in a quasi-constant manner:
1 Professor PhD., Member of Doctoral School, University of Petrosani, Romania, [email protected] 2 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SH University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 Lecturer PhD., University of Pitesti, Romania, [email protected] 4 Senior Lecturer, PhD., Valahia University of Targoviste, Romania, [email protected] / [email protected] 5 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 6 PhD. Student, E.M. Lupeni, University of Petrosani, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 69 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
C= {[(ci; ci+1; ci+2;…,ci+n)÷(cs-n; cs-n-1;…,cs)]} (2)
The notations ci; cs represent the lower and upper end of the range acceptable for operation of quasi - constant rotor excavator cup holder- shedder cutting forces and energies to ensure the effective deployment of the material on work fronts.
2. Original Functional Optimization Model for cutting traces through selection of the powerful performing technological attack Cutting forces used in the dislocation operation are found as practical expressions in the cutting system through: 1) Cutters (number, shape, location); 2) Cutting parameters (width, depth, length of chip); 3) Physical and mechanical characteristics of the mountain and cut coal layers; 4) Cutting schemes adopted. Leading the cut is dependent on the cutting forces exerted on the geometric configuration of the track and the cut strip in close connection with mining geological features of the area. Empirical Research (random observations from experience) shows that the dependencies mentioned are complex and the regularities that shape the cutting drive operability "for the best" are not sharply defined. In different circumstances, it appears that at the design of rotor excavators, some particular requirement technological behavior, considered necessary for a wide variability of geological-mining conditions, was not taken into account. In such cases there is recourse to: a) rationalization of instructional technology (formulating new schemes tailored to the work) or b) intervention for constructive and functional improvement of the excavator, to meet operational requirements newly arising in the extraction activity. Undoubtedly, the first intervention alternative is more inexpensive, as creating new technological instructions and procedures is related to the innovative managerial effort and to the technical potential of the operating unit. In the second case, it is necessary to design and reengineer the subassemblies, the various bodies of work (cutting, stepping, shifting, slipping, rotation etc.) which are subject to approval before incorporating in the constructivism functional configuration of the excavator. This option (b), may occur when the limit of "saturation technological function" of the excavator is reached, reported at the level of technological performance achieved, which is kept constant, as it is impossible to increase, given that the mining technology is subject to the growth objectives within the overall global, comparative and competitive performance, which have to be met regularly. On the other hand, the study of the real state of the geological-mining pit situation always provides premises for improvement of work schemes, including the cutting schemes. Fractures and cracks and also inclusions, layer fractures and consistency (strength, internal friction angle, hydrostatic regime etc.) of the geological formation subject to erosion induces influences and contributions needed to make technological decisions most suitable for cutting. From systematic observations for the Oltenia Lignite Basin quarries, we note the frequent trace attack by the wheel of excavator port cups are not covered by the maximum likelihood of reaching the geometric compatibility between the cutting angle and front cutting angle. In fact, the fundamental aspect does not fundamentally influence the technological course of layer exploiting, but in terms of ensuring reduced variability of conditions that determine variations in cutting forces and energy, geometrical incompatibilities that determine operational dysfunctions affecting the overall performance of technology. There have been identified at least three forms of track attack at cutting grooves in the fronts of large lignite quarries, namely (Figure 1).
a) Reverse angle of attack for short track In this case the reverse angle of the track attack determines the volumes of waste rock and good front cut to the front of the hearth.
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Fig.1. Formulas of attack by knives track wheel excavators port of big cups of lignite quarries/open pit
αs; αv; αl = attack angles (short, vertical, long) of the cutting trace; F = trace height; T = level height; ∆(T-F) (s,v,l) = dislocating zone outside the cutting trace; (s) (v) (l) ct ; ct ; ct = cutting circles by the port cup wheel.
b) Vertical attack angle of the inside track Depth path in this case is comparatively lower than in other cases and the strip feed rate is the lowest compared to the other cases studied.
c) Long-angle attack inside track for the outer circle. It records the highest speed of advance at the front, provided dislocation keeping active line at the top of the alignment step ahead of the current track in cutting out. The original relational model is presented in this article for the above mentioned situations and it takes into account volumes Max, Med and Min of rock or coal in top gear targeted to be cut, amid the inverse I(αs) of the track angle of attack toward the orientations to normal angles αv and αl. Also, the dimensional hierarchies are envisaged for uncut volumes of grooves in the three cases registered according to the shape of the wheel trajectory of port-related cups in related cutting schemes. As a corollary, we can establish production (Q) and the amount of rock or useful corps work front, as the objective function, taking into account production volumes achieved in absolute ⏐P⏐ in T T T layers, in comparable terms for each of three cases analyzed (⏐Ps⏐ ; ⏐Pv⏐ and ⏐Pl⏐ ).
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The original formalization of this model is:
with the target function: T Q = f{Pl } = Max (4)
It follows that the optimum cutting plan can be generalized to provide quasi-continuous conditions for erosion without affecting the forces and energy standard (designed) by cutting, at the same time obtaining the maximum yield as is recorded for the case c). The most important objective aspect, necessary to solve the practical implementation of optimal cutting scheme in the case elected (c) comes down to the management of cutting on the same alignment of the upper stage, thus facilitating the "long" attack of the trace.
3. Conclusions and Recommendations For the first time in specialist literature in Romania, the content of this article originally reports a model of functional optimization for cutting with large excavators with bucket rotor port cups by choosing the type of attack of track operational performance of the gear in use. So far track attack was considered "sub-operational" in the main operation of cutting ruling, and as such, the settlement of dysfunctions generated by skewed attacks was left to the operator/excavator, whom through a process of correction (feedback) arranged the final area of advance of the front. This practice led to immediate results s expected in terms of technology, however, it is found that in incremental system grooves attack errors will minimize operating performance to modern exploration technologies. The main recommendation derived from the research above is the fact that the developers of schemes and work instructions during exploitation must streamline grooves attack formulas from the front, avoiding variations in cutting forces and energy, thus ensuring quasi operational continuity functions at the optimal regimen of large excavators with bucket rotor port cups.
References 1. Prinz H., - Abriβ der Ingineieur geologie mit Grundlugen der Boden-und Felsmechanik, - Ferdinand Enke Verlag, Stuttgart, 1997 2. Raaz V., - Assessment of the Digging Force and Selection of the According BWE, - Krupp Főrdertechnik GmbH, Essen, 2001 3. Rodenberg I.F., - Contribution to the Assessment of the Specific Cutting Force for Bucket Wheel Excavators. Continous Surface Mining,-Trans Tech Publications, Vol. 1, No. 1 - 3/87, Clausthal, 1987 4. Eskikaya S., (col) - A Model to Predict the Cutting Performance of Rapid Excavation Systems, - MPES, Balkema, Calgary, 1998 5. Balci C., (col) - Estimating the Specific Energy from Rock Properties for Selection of Rapid Excavation System, - Istanbul Tehnical University, Mining Engineering Department, Istanbul, 2001
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A MODEL OF ECOTURISM IMPLEMENTED WITHIN COMOROVA FOREST- NEPTUN, ROMANIA
Ion NICOLAE1, Marian NICOLAE2, Simona Laura TURCU3, Andrei NICOLAE4, Dana Gabriela CONSTANTINESCU5
Abstract Ecotourism represents any form of sustainable tourism having the main motivation in observing, using and conservation of nature, of its biodiversity, of local traditions regarding also the use of human resources in the areas of interest. Nowadays, when environment pollution level triggered alarming quota for the planet health, the ecological tourism based on personal and direct experience within the nature has the aim of its protection having as a priority the educative feature of the man, seeing as a main moderator of the environment’s components. With this purpose, the professors and researches of Bioterra University of Bucharest, have initiated and transposed the activity of sustainable ecotourism, created to provide the best tourism practices in order to preserve the nature and its sustainability. The ecotourism centre of Bioterra University ‘’Comorova’’ in Neptun resort represents the experience transposed into reality of a modern concept of total tourism ‘’all in one’’ which means various offers touristic services within the same zone, such as: ecological, rest and recreation, cultural, sportive, scientific, creation and medical ecotourism features.
Keywords and phrases: ecological, ecotourism, cultural, sporting, entertainment, scientific, medical, responsible, green energy, all-in-one.
1. Introduction The responsible tourism is not another form of tourism, but a different approach of how to travel and leisure, and also a different way to provide travel services "all in one". The Responsible tourism in its purest sense represents a minimal impact on the environment and local culture. Moreover its goal is not only to generate incomes and jobs for the local community but also to contribute to the conservation of local ecosystems. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is a program of the International Tourism Collective, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting ecotourism. Founded in 1990, TIES has been on the forefront of the development of ecotourism, providing guidelines and standards, training, technical assistance, and educational resources. TIES' global network of ecotourism professionals and travelers is leading the efforts to make tourism a viable tool for conservation, protection of bio-cultural diversity, and sustainable community development. Through membership services, industry outreach and educational programs, TIES is committed to helping organizations, communities and individuals promote and practice the principles of ecotourism. TIES currently has members in more than 120 countries, representing various professional fields and industry segments including: academics, consultants, conservation professionals and organizations, governments, architects, tour operators, lodge owners and managers, general development experts, and ecotourists. According http://www.ecotourism.org/, “Ecotourism is now defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education" (TIES, 2015). Education is meant to be inclusive of both staff and guests. Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel. This means that those who implement, participate in and market ecotourism activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles: - Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts; - Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect; - Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts; - Provide direct financial benefits for conservation; - Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry;
1Professor Ph.D, Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 2 Senior Lecturer, PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 Assistant Teacher Ph.D St., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 4 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 5 Lecturer Prof. PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania,. [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 73 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
- Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climates; - Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities; - Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment”. The Eco-Tourism is any form of sustainable and sustainable tourism where the main aim is the observation, use and conservation of: nature, biodiversity and local traditions-related to the use of human resources in the areas of import (of interest) [3]. According http://www.nature.org/, “The Nature Conservancy adopts the definition articulated by the World Conservation Union (IUCN): "Environmentally responsible travel to natural areas, in order to enjoy and appreciate nature (and accompanying cultural features, both past and present) that promote conservation, have a low visitor impact and provide for beneficially active socio-economic involvement of local peoples." Most tourism in natural areas today is not ecotourism and is not, therefore, sustainable. Ecotourism is distinguished by its emphasis on conservation, education, traveler responsibility and active community participation. Specifically, ecotourism possesses the following characteristics: - Conscientious, low-impact visitor behavior; - Sensitivity towards, and appreciation of, local cultures and biodiversity; - Support for local conservation efforts; - Sustainable benefits to local communities; - Local participation in decision-making; - Educational components for both the traveler and local communities. Increased tourism to sensitive natural areas without appropriate planning and management can threaten the integrity of ecosystems and local cultures. The increase of visitors to ecologically sensitive areas can lead to significant environmental degradation. Likewise, local communities and indigenous cultures can be harmed in numerous ways by an influx of foreign visitors and wealth. Additionally, fluctuations in climate, currency exchange rates, and political and social conditions can make over-dependence upon tourism a risky business. However, this same growth creates significant opportunities for both conservation and local communities. Ecotourism can provide much-needed revenues for the protection of national parks and other natural areas -- revenues that might not be available from other sources. Additionally, ecotourism can provide a viable economic development alternative for local communities with few other income-generating options. Moreover, ecotourism can increase the level of education and activism among travelers, making them more enthusiastic and effective agents of conservation”. To this end, teachers and researchers from the Bioterra University of Bucharest initiated and implemented sustainable ecotourism activities designed to provide best tourism practices for nature conservation and steadfast development. The existence of an eco-tourism center in the Comorova woods in the Romanian coast, was and is an ideal and sustainable framework for the development of eco-tourism. Every year thousands of students, pupils and young people from other social groups are taking advantage of the center and its remarkable facilities in camps organized at national level. All of these makes from Comorova center an European standard in the practice of general tourism [2].
2. Materials and methods. Overview of the tourist complex Comorova Forest - Neptune Lup Aurel and Miron Liliana in Drought management in the agriculture of Dobrogea province, published in: Agrarian economy and rural development - realities and perspectives for Romania, Vol. 4, 21. November 2013, pp. 65-70, say: “According to climate data Dobrogea is the warmest and the driest region of Romania. Due to climate, the productive potential of soils is poorly capitalized; productions depend mostly of the precipitations regime. The phenomenon is known for a long time, but the first steps to combat drought took just in the mid twentieth century when there was planted windbreak forest in the area Comorova and Ciocarlia - Cobadin. In the 50s of the twentieth century windbreak forest was planted on about 3,800 hectares that protected an agricultural area of over 75,000 ha.
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The latter these were cleared during 1962-1965, when work began planning for irrigation. In the period 1967-1989, were equipped more than 420 thousand hectares representing over 82 % of the arable land of the county of Constanta and close to 160 thousand ha - about 48 % of the arable land of the county Tulcea. Due to improper operation yields were much lower than those projected. After1990, facilities were destroyed and abandoned, so that in the recent years have been irrigated between10,000-20,000 ha, although meanwhile were performed numerous analyzes and studies of rehabilitation. The lack of a clear strategy in the field, lack of funding for rehabilitation and sometimes of the interest of farmers to irrigate - in years of abundant precipitation - lead to the conclusion of an uncertain future while irrigation in Dobrogea is the main factor that depends on achieving high and safe yields”. Comorova resort known under this name in the local region, is located in the heart of the forest Comorova and it spread on an area of about 5 ha. The resort is owned by Bioterra University and during the summer it provides facilities like:accommodation, meals, local transport (beach or neighborhoods), leisure activities and spa treatments that can satisfy the current requirements of a high-quality tourism. The main attraction is considered to be the Black Sea but what makes this resort unique is its location within a secular forests of oaks, along with pine trees and many species of shrubs. Therefore Comorova forest can be considered an "ecological niche" - a bridge between the seaside and forest area. The primary features of this modern tourist complex are quality and elegance, which are reflected into: the villas (with a capacity of 500 beds), pools with sulfur water, saline facilities, sports, bars, disco, restaurant, terrace, cellar, rustic lounge, landscaped barbecue places, etc. and also the catering services offered. Comorova agritourism complex is open to tourists in all seasons having central heating and available staff. The movment between resorts is ensured by Comorova – Neptune Complex with friendly means of transport using two electric minibuses (supplied by electric batteries and photovoltaics). The trips are linking Comorova Center to: beach, Mangalia and Neptun-Olimp, the south of our sea-side, and the tour of the Mamaia resort.
3. Results Due to the rich and varied tourism potential and the extensive range of the provided travel services different types of tourism can be practiced, the most popular being: tourism for rest and treatment; business tourism; mixed tourism for banting and leisure summer activities (due to ozone air offered by Forest Comorova); recreational and curative tourism in other seasons; cultural tourism (related to visiting neighboring areas where there are monuments of art and architecture, museums and memorial houses); festival tourism related to the major cities on the coast Constanta (Tomis) and Mangalia (Callatis) with cultural festivals - national or international; trade and exhibition tourism, sport tourism, hunting tourism; cure climating spa tourism (air ozone in forest Comorova) in the neighborhoods resorts area for heliotherapy. Also we can organize trips to the Danube Delta and to the Romanian and Bulgarian seaside. This tourist resort promotes the concept ,,all in one,, (the total tourism in which ecotourism can be found along with other tourism concepts namely: classic tourism, cultural, spa, sports, entertainment, business, academic and formative activities - applied all brought together in the same area that discerning travelers everywhere to the highest standards).
4. Types of tourism in Forest Complex Comorova 1. Eco-tourism – represents the subject of this communication and it is justified by the existence of natural elements and human contributions such as: - Forest Comorova representing the Green Gold of the Romanian coast; - The representative symbol of the area is the oak (with copies of more than 300 years protected by law) with whom were intercalated species of fir, spruce, cedar and white cedar in a landscape of exceptional harmony; - Moreover there is a mini plantation of fruit trees (apricot, peach, apple, pear) and vegetable crops grown under ecological conditions for the tourist needs of food. - The food is provided in special hygienic conditions and the products which are going to the costumer are controlled in accordance with the legislation in force. - The existence of a modern kitchen, fully equipped and divided in accordance with the rules of the Health Authority-Veterinary and legislation.
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- Food preparation equipment consists of ovens and induction hobs,with high energy efficiency supplied by batteries solar cells and wind generators. The menus offers are based on traditional cuisine without forgetting the fish preparations specific to the coast. The renewable energy resources (Figure 1 and 2) is used in the complex energy management, as follows: - The heating of the housing space and domestic water it is mad eusing only renewable electricity from wind and solar sources, obtained directlty heated by solar panels and indirectly through photovoltaic panels batteries. - The Housing space it is heated by IR devices with high energy frequency. - The using of ecological means of transport (minibuses electric power through photovoltaic panels, Secquoia. ATV and scooters with electric propulsion) in ensuring both tourists traveling in the area, the beach and leisure activities. - In this way were completely removed the polluting energy sources, vey intensive electrical devices with low energy efficiency and a high degree of operational hazard.
Fig.1. Wind turbine in Comorova – Neptune Complex
Fig. 2. Photovoltaic panels and solar panels for hot water in Comorova – Neptune Complex
2. Tourism leisure and entertainment Includes travel packages within are offered both leisure and recreation services and resulted in an exceptional material base with educational content and specific actions for this type of tourism (Figure 3 and 4). The material basis associated with leisure and entertainment tourism include [1]: • 3 terraces associated wth kitchens, 2 restaurants eight rustically furnished towers and suspended terraces serviced by qualified personnel 3 bars with permanent program; • Wine cellar with tasting program; • 12 Barbecue grills which can operate simultaneously;
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• Accommodation, different in architecture and comfort, igenios integrated in the complex space respecting the environment; • The complex has an accommodation capacity of 500 seats, equivalent to a 3 star comfort category; • 3 hotels with a capacity of 500 seats; • 32 rustic cabins with two studios; • 14 family villas (P + 1) - one living room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs with terraces; • pavilions with studios and apartments protocol; • traditional-style wine cellar; • 160sqm club with associated facilities; • heliport fot the access of the utility helicopter; • well of sulphurous waters, laboratory certified as having curative properties; • teraces and paths for walking, environmentally friendly lighting at night;
Fig. 3. Swimming pool in Comorova – Neptune Complex
Fig. 4. Reception – green transport in Comorova – Neptune Complex
• daily excursions organized with electrical buses and the decker bus with a capcity of 80 seats.
3. Cultural tourism It is linked to the visit of surrounding areas and to the development of cultural and educational activities: • organizes sightseeing of art and architecture monuments, museums and memorials above; • folk performances are organized with art students at the University of Bucharest in the Bioterra natural stage offered within the pool and multimedia auditorium of 300 seats; • evening entertainment (competitions, concerts, literary circles, traditional and modern dances, disco overtime); Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 77 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
• folk with seasonal contract; • disco with extended hours.
4. Sports tourism It is very well represented in the complex by highly-equipped base with modern equipment and night facilities, including: • multifunctional sports grounds with synthetic carpet from Spain, guaranteed 10 years; • football, tennis, basketball, handball, volleyball; • specific paintball field perimeter arranged in compliance with environmental standards; • table tennis, billiards, darts, chess and rummy; • contests and competitions of the season; • swimming courses organized within the three pools; tennis courses; • Electronic Secquoia, ATV, scooter electronics.
5. Scientific and creative tourism Takes place in dedicated facilities, which allow national and international actions and activities. These include: • two multimedia lecture of 300-500 seats; • WIFI coverage with broadband internet, wired by optical fiber; • In such spaces, have already occurred prestigious events such as: • International Congress for compiling new maps planet's climate - 2009; • The scientific session of the Academy of Scientists in Romania in 2009 and 2010; • Interuniversity scientific sessions, national and international, with participants from more than 15 countries; • international student mobility, symposia and student circles (Italy, Canada, Egypt, France); • intensive training courses courses for students with low frequency classes.
6. Medical tourism Starting this year it is organized medical tourism based on: natural procedures like sulfur water treatments; diagnoses and treatments center with bioresonance; treatments arranged in areas where unprocessed salt is used (salt crystals are active), uncontaminated by toxins or pollution, being extracted from Salina Slanic - Prahova. The air is rich in saline aerosols, negative ions and minerals (natural elements vital to the body). The air purifies and has disinfectant qualities, an the antioxidant and detoxifying and microbial load is 10 times lower than outside (100 germs / m3 of air to 1,000 germs/m3 in urban area). The air humidity is sustained by a fountain which contributes to achieving a good air using a circular current of air which is in permanent contact with the walls of saline. The concentration reach 20 mg/ m3, much higher than in natural mines, so it shortens the time required for treatment, hydromassage, targeted therapies made after Oriental traditions, medical rehabilitation techniques, etc.
7. Other actions in favor of responsible tourism To maintain control of the environment, biodiversity conservation, and pollution grade the creation of laboratories was considered appropriate and imperative, as follows: • National Laboratory of physico-chemical, cf. RENAR Accreditation Certificate no. Ll 946 / 23.01.2012 • Laboratory environment, equipped with the latest generation equipment and technology; • Laboratory for the study of renewable energy. For work done in the complex, it was considered appropriate also the existence of network for specialisation training, reflected in the establishment and authorization of a unique specialization in Romania, as well as study program called "consumer and environmental protection", which had visit RQAAHE authorization 8-10 March 2012, obtaining a favorable operating. The development and ecological rehabilitation of infrastructure Comorova Complex Neptune, Department of European Projects, developed by applying the competition and winning grants / European projects with EU funds, such as: • "Together for green horizons", part of "education and public awareness program aimed at environmental protection", financed from the Environment Fund, registered with AFM, no. 75174 / 21.09.2010, the financier Environment Fund Administration.
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Curricula project is circumscribed logo: "The earth is life for all" and concepts "Eco", or in other words: • "Inspired future breathable expirat.Inspira future!" • "People eco eco think, feel eco, eco act!" • "Take atitudine.Pedaleaza green" • "Comorova - Forest seaside" - project approved Source of funding: Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 (Nr. Registration: SV / 2/5 / 5.3 / B / 579 / 20.10.2010) Priority 5 - Sustainable development and promotion of tourism Area of Intervention 5.3 – Promoting of the potential tourism and creating the necessary infrastructure to increase Romania's attractiveness as a tourist destination. Operation - Development and consolidation of domestic tourism by supporting specific products and specific marketing activities. • A project POSDRU approximately EUR 800 000, the stage of development - project implementation.
5. Conclusions The existence of an eco-tourism center in the Comorova woods in the Romanian coast, was and is an ideal and sustainable framework for the development of eco-tourism. The tourist resort promotes the concept ,,all in one,, (the total tourism in which ecotourism can be found along with other tourism concepts namely: classic tourism, cultural, spa, sports, entertainment, business, academic and formative activities - applied all brought together in the same area that discerning travelers everywhere to the highest standards). From the above it can be seen that the concept of total tourism - "all in one" has found fertile ground in the complex expression "Forest Comorova - Neptune", giving every tourist a comprehensive framework to integrate all the tourist type activities in a unique location provides psychological comfort, physical, cultural diversity, and sport specific knowledge of the area and exploring in particular the activities of spa tourism.
References 1. * * * , - Bioterra University Bases and tourist complexes, no. 1/2011, Ed. Euro Academia, ISSN 1582- 0254 2. Cooper C., Fletcher J., Gilbert D., Wanhill S. - Tourism, Principles and Practice, Longman, Harlow, 1998 3. Weaver D.,- Ecotourism, Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons., 2001 4. * * * ,- www.bioterraturism.ro 5. Honey M.,- Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise?,(2th ed.).Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008 6. Stabler M.J. (eds.),- Tourism and Sustainability: Principles to Practice. CAB International: Wallingford, 1997 7. Wight P.A.,- Ecotourism: Ethics or Eco-sell. Journal of Travel Research. p.31(3):3–9., 1993 8. Eadington W.R., Smith V.L.,- The emergence of alternative forms of tourism, in Tourism Alternatives: Potentials and Problems in the Development of Tourism. Pennsylvania, USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992 9. David B.W.,- The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism, Cabi Publishing, 2001, 10. Wheeller B.,- Ego tourism, sustainable tourism and the environment: A symbiotic, symbolic or shambolic relationship?, in Seaton, A.V., ed. 1994, Tourism: The state of the art, Wiley, pp. 647–654, 1994 11. Cater E., Lowman G., - Ecotourism in the third world—problems and prospects for sustainability, in Ecotourism: a sustainable option?. United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons, 1994 12. Barkin D., - Eco tourism for sustainable regional development. Current Issues in Tourism. pp.5(3– 4):245–253, 2002 13. Isaacs J.C., - The limited potential of ecotourism to contribute to wildlife conservation. The Ecologist. pp. 28(1):61–69, 2000 14. Fennell D. A., -Ecotourism: An Introduction. London, England: Routledge, 1999 15. Nowaczek A., - Ecotourism: Principles and Practices, Annals of Tourism Research 37.1:270–27, 2010
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INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDENOMINATIONAL CLERGY/ CONGREGATIONAL DIALOGUE: SCOTLAND (I)
Richard KILGOUR 1, Nicolae BULZ2,
Abstract [19 parishes in Scotland have been selected to make submissions to the Faculty of Theology of St. Andrew’s University, which is presiding over this exercise. St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral in Aberdeen is one of these parishes.] Purpose: to reconcile the biblical account of creation in genesis with the proven science of evolution, and in the process suggest a method of proving scientifically the existence of God. Guideline: co-directors, the provost of the said episcopalian cathedral, the very reverend Richard Kilgour and professor Nicholae Bulz, have authorized the examination of the philosophy of Eric Fromm, which is an advance on that of Freud and of Jung, as to its applicability in the context of the present time. Compiler: D. F. Johnstone-Butcher, B Iuris LLB, JP.
Keywords and phrases: genesis, existence of God, science of evolution, method of proving, philosophy
1. Introduction to theological science This exercise, which seeks to resolve the so-called “conflict” between creationism and evolution, which concepts are perfectly compatible if intelligently applied, is based upon the works of Erich Fromm, sociologist, psychiatrist and political scientist, whose seminal ideas have formed the basis of several significant developing philosophies since. The writer, particularly as he is not trained specifically in these disciplines, has relied on others’ summaries and perceptions of the tenor of his books, particularly “To Have or To Be”. A perusal of this latter erudite work indicates the complexity of the subject and the depth of it. Any summary will inevitably render generalisations which may amount to oversimplification, with the inevitable distortions to a greater or lesser degree. Nevertheless, as a basis for the debate, it is of immense value, in order to arrive at what are hopefully the truths relating to the makeup of human society, and show that for every new scientific discovery, whether it be concerning evolution, quantum physics, the origins of the cosmic universe, or whatever it might be, the wonders of God’s creation are being revealed to us. Regrettably, a communal system as suggested by Fromm at some stage, such as “Christian Communism”, or as practised in Jewish kibbutzim, while partially successful on a small scale in isolated communities, is not practical on a large scale. Even these small communes depend heavily on outside materials and expertise, for example even the Amish, who live near subsistence level. Also the population of the world at large is such that any substantial reduction of the international commercial/industrial complex would cause severe disruption to the world economy, and even its collapse. Japan, for example, consumes seven times the value of what the nation itself could produce on its own from its own indigenous resources, and Britain four times its own indigenous resources. Other countries depend on this demand for their own economic survival and progress. As will appear, Fromm is very ambivalent about the need for religion, initially saying it is unnecessary and oppressive, then later saying it could be useful if incorporating his own devised principles to enhance spirituality, which h he calls the “inner being”. He advocates the abandonment of consumerism in favour of a much simpler lifestyle, and latterly with a small acknowledgment of reality, suggests a society with a much lower level of industrialisation. As this exercise emphasises the importance of Christianity, one could possibly imagine that Fromm might approve the kind of society in Palestine during Christ’s time, although he certainly does not use that as an example. As mentioned, any reduction in industrialisation would be just as impractical as every person living Jesus’ wandering type of mendicant existence in this modern age. One of Fromm’s main themes is the importance of the restoration of spirituality to cure society’s ills, which in itself is quite beyond criticism.
1 Faculty of Theology of St. Andrew’s University, St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral in Aberdeen, i.e. coauthor// [email protected]// 2 Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 80 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Recently some prominent scientists in England have called on religious leaders to put pressure, through congregations and whatever influence they have themselves, on political and business leaders to do much more about the ever looming dangers of global warming. Fromm himself did warn in 1976 of the dangers of pollution to human civilisation, but he could never have anticipated then the kind of pollution we now face.
2. Theological science. Assumed background to the philosophy of Eric Fromm He was a humanist with a positive approach to life based on reason and common humanity, in which moral values are considered founded on human nature and experience alone. Rational thinking applied to human experience of life and the world that sustains it is the only source of knowledge and the appropriate moral code that will enable humans to have a happy and productive existence. Moral values are acquired by reason, and not imposed by a superior intelligible being or religious texts. Although he became a secular Jew from a line of Rabbis, possibly because of the influence of the two world wars upon him, his ideas of free will and individual choice directed by personal experience, [for good or ill!], independent of any belief in a deity and related dictatorial religious texts, were nevertheless based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve. The story goes that God created Adam and Eve to live together in an Earthly paradise, Eden, where all they had to do to live in an ideal state of plenty and happiness with minimum effort to preserve it was to obey his commands. In fact there was only one command, not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which seem simple enough. The Serpent, being the personification of all that is evil and ungodly, persuaded Eve to tempt Adam to pick and share the fruit with her. She ate first and he followed, the talking Serpent having told her that they would be equal to God, not having to obey his commands, in that they could thereafter be able to know what was good and what was evil, just like God, as his equal, also in everlasting life. Because of this blatant disobedience, and their clearly indicated contemptuous presumption that they could become His equal with as much power over creation, life and death as He had, God had to punish them. Yet He was still merciful. He had threatened that the penalty for disobedience would be death, but He imposed the lesser punishment of ejectment from the Garden of Eden. They would now have to toil to stay alive by tilling the soil and herding livestock. Moreover, Eve was to be punished additionally by suffering pain on giving birth to children and no longer be equal in status to Adam, but be subordinated to his authority. [Fromm took this tale as a didactic allegory. Every intelligent human would like to know how the world and humans came into existence and why. This myth attempts to provide an answer which was likely to satisfy the people with the level of knowledge and understanding of that age. That is, it is to be taken strictly in terms of its historical and cultural context. Indeed it has not been seriously challenged until modern times, when science has empirically proved the incredibly and miraculously complex stages with which the universe and life on Earth was formed. At the time, the biblical story was the most amazingly logical explanation compared to what was on offer from cultures other than Abrahamic. Assuming Moses was the writer, even if he knew of the Big Bang and evolution, his primitive ex-slave followers could hardly be expected to understand that.] For Fromm, the myth symbolised a certain stage in human biological evolution, whereby humans became conscious, in an existentialist manner, of their existence apart from Nature, yet still being part of it and therefore subject to one’s own personal responsibility as an individual with free will, to decide, in the light of his own knowledge and experience, how to deal with the forces of Nature and society, and develop his own value system. Having moved from a pre-human instinctive world of being animals, Adam and Eve became “naked and ashamed”, becoming conscious that they were vulnerable in their social and natural environment, and, with their newly acquired power of distinguishing between good and evil, would have developed their own modus vivendi and value systems to survive. Fromm sharply departed from the “lesson” taught by the allegory, in that the authoritarianism of God and the religious text was wrong, and that it was in effect a denial of free will, Adam and Eve’s attempt at exercising it being disobedience and therefore a sin, was unjustified oppression.
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Contrary to being the” Fall of Man”, the exercise of free will based on reason derived from experience was to be encouraged. Submission to authoritarianism exhibited by the story, by Eve’s resultant enforced obedience to Adam, and their enforced obedience to God was a negation of free will, and if such a regime was assumed voluntarily, this Fromm described as “Escape from Freedom” [the title of one of his works]. By giving control to someone else in authoritarianism, this voluntary abrogation becomes “automaton conformity”, in which the individual gives up his decision-making autonomy in favour of conformity with general society and the ultimate authority itself. Fromm must have gathered this almost sheep like behaviour from his observance of the Germans, with whom he lived, before and during the two world wars, when the propagandas of the Foreign Minister to Kaiser Wilhelm, then of Goebbels for Hitler, prepared and sustained their attempts to conquer Europe for no logical and justifiable reason, causing the deaths of millions. The Germans literally went like lambs to the slaughter, dragging the rest of Europe into the catastrophic melee. Thus, being able to distinguish between good and evil for one’s own self and act accordingly was the epitome of good in itself, and not to be denied by a deity or other religious authority. Each person should reason his own value system according to his own knowledge and experience. However Fromm also believed that human beings generally lacked care and responsibility in most of their relationships; that few people in modern society had respect for the autonomy of their fellows; and that even less did they know what other people truly wanted and needed. In this view, he seems to observe society as atomistic, a mass of isolated individuals, as opposed to holistic, whereby people relate, co-ordinate and understand one another’s feelings and needs, and act accordingly. Again, perhaps his views are coloured by his experiences from the two world wars in Germany. He says that human beings have developed two main ways of dealing with their existence, in varying proportions according to the individual, to replace animal instincts: an acquisitive instinct he describes as “assimilation” and a socialization one, i.e. forming and communicating through relationships. [This latter impliedly contradicts his atomistic view of society].
3. Synthesis of biblical creation with scientific evolution by a critique of Eric Fromm 1. His acceptance of creation and Adam and Eve as an allegory is correct. The empirical evidence of scientific research as to the origins of the universe which includes the Big Bang and biological evolution is irrefutable. Primitive humans, as their intelligence developed, in their struggle for survival, invented anthropomorphic gods who controlled the weather, fertility, success in wars, and any other otherwise unexplainable natural phenomena. Before this phase and overlapping it was the belief in spirits within and behind inanimate objects like trees, stones, hills and rivers, often coupled with ancestor worship, known as animism. Shamans, witchdoctors, oracles and pagan priests controlled and manipulated belief systems for their own benefit and that of individuals or cliques holding power or authority by force or tradition, if these masters of the occult were not the wielders of power over their community themselves. They also had the job of foretelling the future and interpreting purported omens. As science advanced, so superstition receded. Irrespective of the motives of its organisers, apart from attempting to explain the unknown, religion also served to develop cohesion and order in society as it developed from family based groups to clans and tribes, to larger communities. Discipline was required to control those individuals whose conduct was perceived as likely to cause disruption and disorder, and the authority of the gods and/or spirits was invoked to justify punitive action to preserve the social order and hence the society itself. Leaders of social groups, whether created by mutual consent or by deceit and/or force, used religion to maintain their authority and often appointed themselves as arbiters and enforcers of that religion by persuasion and outright domination. Genesis would seem to have been the result of oral and possibly partially written tradition dating from Abraham. That it is a constructed tale is apparent from its inherent contradictions and improbabilities, quite apart from the scientific discoveries rebutting the literal accounts of creation rendering the world only six and a half thousand years old and Adam and Eve the very first humans.
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Moses, or whoever did write Genesis, obviously never bothered to try to amend the stories, which action might have tended to undermine the beliefs of a largely uneducated and unsophisticated people. Typical anomalies are that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, and then they were created together within a matter of a few verses. Jesus accepted the latter. Then they had three sons only, and after Cain murdered Abel, there were two sons left who managed to find wives for themselves from amongst other humans, so Adam and Eve could not have been the first. Then the animals were created before Adam, then afterwards. We have a talking snake, then Eden was supposed to have been a paradise in which no animal ever ate another, so Adam and Eve were safe. Then Eve was able to give birth without pain, not that she had yet conceived before the punishment of eviction. Despite these examples of anomalies, the story still follows an amazing degree of logicality for formulation by relatively unsophisticated minds, compared to the superstitious myths current at the time, typically as expressed in the Epic of Gilgamesh and related cuneiform writings extant at the time Abraham left the area of this culture in Ur of the Chaldees in southern Sumer or Mesopotamia, as it is better known. This particular version of creation stipulated the perpetual feuding of an anthropomorphic family of gods, amongst whom were a brother and sister. They fought and the brother overcame his sibling and ripped her apart. Her upper body formed the heavens and her lower parts the Earth. Her dying tears formed the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Thus for such a comparatively intelligent account in Genesis to emerge from such a cultural background is a miracle in itself. In elaboration of the allegorical nature of the creation story, the input of Dr. Ernest Lucas is pertinent, Research Fellow in Theology and Religious studies at Bristol University. The ancient Hebrews understood the firmament to be solid [firm], in fact a dome with windows through which the rain fell. This is clear from the language used in the Old Testament [Job 37:18 and Genesis 7:11]. This is the way in which the weather system was explained in Genesis 1:6-8. The cosmos is shapeless and empty, and God somehow “separates” it into portions as if rooms in a building, and fills each with different creatures. This is a picture for the understanding of the people living in the same cultural and historical context. Again showing it cannot be taken literally, there are three days of creation with evening and morning, yet the sun and moon are created only after that in the following days. They are not even mentioned as such, but as like oil lamps, giving off their own light, despite the moon in reality being reflective of the sun. These celestial objects are not mentioned by name because in some proximate cultures at the time these attributes of the firmament were objects of worship as pagan gods. To confirm Dr. Lucas’ advice to read the Bible intelligently and circumspectly, realising the time and for whom the texts were written, he adverts to the New Testament, in Matthew 18:8-9. Jesus reportedly said that if one’s hand or foot sin, one should cut it off, or if the eye sin, the latter should be plucked out. This is obviously an exaggeration for emphasis. One should be so horrified at offending God’s laws, that we must expend maximum energy in cutting off even the thought, should the temptation arise. If Jesus had the compassion to say “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” regarding his persecutors from the cross, and to cure the arresting Roman soldier’s ear after injury by Peter’s sword, he would hardly wish to be taken literally. Indeed, he rescued the woman about to be stoned to death for adultery, which was the punishment according to the law of Moses.
2. Fromm necessarily implies that at least by the time of Moses, human beings should have discounted authoritative religion in favour of atomistic individualism, and even discarded religion itself as being an unnecessary instrument of oppression. However in all but name he invites anarchy, whereby society would fall apart. For society to exist there must be order and cohesion, or every individual would live at a subsistence level.
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With no centralised order, it would be impossible to store food or goods against theft, to co- operate to develop wealth, culture and any form of secure and enjoyable life. According to Genesis, Moses was only a few days away fetching the Ten Commandments, when his people, six hundred and forty thousand strong, reverted to worshipping the golden calf, apparently made largely of wood. Hence it is counterproductive to expect to maintain any viable social organisation without some kind of order and a hierarchy to conserve it for the benefit of every individual comprising it. Hence the individual has to sacrifice some of his independence in favour of a basic value system by which every member is expected to conform. Some form of religion throughout most of human existence has provided that basic value system, the means to preserve society and allow it to progress, despite its numerous intermittent and destructive evils from time to time. It is too much to expect the average human being to develop his own individual value system from scratch, as Fromm suggests. It has to be introduced by socialisation in upbringing, and for this is needed some form of authority, beginning with parents and then the hierarchy of the social organisation, nowadays importantly influential teachers at schools, but formerly in religious groups or institutions. In more complex societies, other hierarchical organisations propagate and enforce the advanced value systems appropriate, however formed, democratically, by force or by accepted tradition. The dividing line between forced Jesuit-like indoctrination and the unrestrained expression of self-will in inculcating value systems from childhood is a difficult one to draw, as the disparate views on the last Education Secretary’s policies are witness. Historically, one of the most prominent successes was that of George Buchanan, head of the Presbyterian Church, in tutoring King James VI of Scotland and I of England, whose superb general knowledge and competence in Greek, Latin and Hebrew gave rise to one of the greatest achievements in the English language, his version of the Bible. While he did have flaws, such as witch-hunts and his reliance on the divine right of kings, they may have been minimised by the example of his tutor, [who presaged John Locke’s view that sovereignty lay in the people and not the ruler], and he was an exemplary King compared to his immediate Stewart successors, who’s untrammelled egos and lack of diplomacy lost them their thrones seriatim. Religious education used to predominate, but as western society has become more secularised, state supported or approved institutions have increasingly assumed the function of inculcating norms for relationships horizontally with other members of society and vertically with employers and layers of government. With increasing social complexity, norms have become legislated for and criminal courts established to enforce them. Crimes considered “evil” or antisocial tending towards the undermining of order are mala per se [wrong in themselves], while administrative rules are mala prohibita [not inherently evil but contrary to regulation]. In fact not all schools teach civics and sex and relationships to the same extent, but unfortunately the House of Lords has blocked obligatory tutoring in these matters. It bears repeating that for Fromm to imply that such socialisation and tuition are an unnecessary obstruction to the development of each individual’s free choice of values is to invite chaos. A prime example of what could happen is the novel” Lord of the Flies”, where a group of shipwrecked schoolboys formed two separate tribes and fought one another over the island’s resources. A real example is the formation of co-operative farms after the Zimbabwean liberation war. War veterans were given basic agricultural training and settled on productive farms with all appropriate infrastructure such as wells, pumps, irrigation tractors, planters, cultivators etc. They elected amongst their number a committee including chairman and treasurer, for each farm Within five years every one had failed. One particular one was assisted by the Canadian government, who sent out an agricultural specialist for three months for three years. This was in addition to the normal government agricultural extension officers. By the second year most veterans were ignoring the decisions of their committee and were failing to pay the proceeds of their crops to the treasurer, so all electricity was cut off for non-payment. They could not afford to pay for the repairs to the tractor, so the Canadian adviser paid for them out of her own pocket.
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With the women she established a highly successful chicken co-operative. When she returned in the third year the men had reverted to attempting to cultivate their own separate plots now in dry land farming. The women, according to tradition, bore the brunt of the manual labour in these fields. Far worse was the fact that the men had taken over the women’s chicken co-operative and embezzled its funds so that also collapsed. The women could do nothing about it because by custom they were under the tutelage of their menfolk. The adviser gave up. The cultural background imbued in some veterans, with little conventional military discipline, having operated in small bands, mostly living off the local civilian population by force, rendered them resentful of any authority, even elected by themselves, often ignoring their own “commanders”. They had been taught by the Chinese and Russians to despise religion. One group, which had murdered eight civil servants and chief’s assistants, turned against their own “sectorial commander”, leaving him for dead. The women of the exemplified co-operative were mostly regular church goers, responsible and highly co-ordinated. [To balance the record, there were many good veterans who believed honestly in their cause, tried to act honourably, but there were also many who were or became criminals].
3. Fromm was partly correct to say that the “Tree of Knowledge” story represented the development of human consciousness away from pure animal instinct, and therefore capable of self- will. In fact it represented co-incidentally the development of abstract reasoning and language. Some anthropologists estimate this as occurring over a period of fifty thousand to one hundred thousand years, which is a blink of an eye compared to the age of the universe at fourteen point eight billion years. Some have said it took longer, but with humans two hundred thousand years old and Neanderthals at three hundred, who also seem to have had reasoning and language, the timescale seems little less miraculous. It has been mooted that there was an unprecedented mutation in the genome which caused this sudden advance. Comparisons with the Neanderthal genome when recovered will shed further light on this, no doubt. The biblical story emphasized the difference between men and animals and purported to explain why the “natural order“ of human society dictated that women be subordinated to men. In fact as a matter of convenience and often necessity in primitive times, men being through evolution physically stronger, were best capable of fulfilling the roles of hunters and warriors, whose task was to find meat and fend off hostile competing groups and wild animals, and so were the natural protectors and major providers for women and children. It fell therefore to the men to make the major decisions relating to the sustenance and survival of their group. As Thomas Hobbes remarked in a famous dictum, the life of primitive Man was “nasty, brutish and short”. Men were expected to sacrifice their own lives if necessary, so barring death in childbirth which was frequent, women tended to outlive their menfolk, keeping closer to home, whether permanent or temporary, where they kept those home fires burning and nurtured their children. This evolutionary history explains why men tend to be greater risk takers, including regarding their own safety, while women are instinctively more cautious and geared to their personal safety and security in the interests of their children, and thus tend to have a greater sense of social responsibility. In Roman times, the rationale for the subordination was increasingly recognised as lacking validity, and Jesus confirmed this in holding no distinction between male and female and Jew and gentile.
4. Fromm claimed all the primitive instincts of Man were replaced when he became aware of his separateness from Nature by new instincts: acquisitive [“assimilation”] and gregarious [“socialisation”]. In fact Man never lost his primitive instincts, but now had his reasoning power to regulate them and control their excesses, hopefully with the aid of socialisation. If one accepts God as Creator, then he created the laws of Nature, which provided Man with his natural instincts for survival, just like animals. The instincts for individual survival were hunger, thirst, desire for shelter from the elements, and physical self-preservation [fight or flight response to danger].
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For the survival of the species as a whole, there was the instinct of association starting with the bonding with parents, first with the mother, then family, then extended family, then the group in a herding instinct familiar in our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. Thus contrary to Fromm’s suggestion humans are not naturally atomistic. Absolute proof of this is the disproportionate number of elderly people in Britain who are a drain on the NHS from psychosomatic illnesses borne from loneliness due to the breakdown of the extended family system. It will be noticed that Fromm has considered humans as atomistic, yet also acknowledging their instinct for “socialisation”, meaning gregariousness or the herding instinct as above described. These opposing opinions seem irreconcilable. Fromm has excluded the existence in humans of the basic species survival instinct of sex for Nature’s purpose of propagation inherited from our anthropoid ancestors, otherwise we would not exist. He has acknowledged the acquisitive or “assimilation” instinct, which has the effect of enhancing well-being, comfort, self-esteem, and respect [status] within the community, and thus securing the benefits of group co-operation. Possessions are of clear benefit, therefore, but our chimpanzee relatives’ stage of evolution and itinerant lifestyle do not allow of such capacity. To acquire possessions and retain them requires social order, and even chimpanzees, without any possessions at all, have a hierarchy provided by Nature to preserve it.
5. Fromm disagreed with Genesis as to the acquisition of free will being portrayed as a sin, saying that it was a highly desirable trait, blind instinctive obedience being anathema to him. In effect, placed in its social historical context, in this respect this part of the story also had an important function. The Israelites, just released from slavery, their sojourn in Egypt lasting four hundred years, or twenty generations, were so primitive that as already mentioned, they required firm authority to ensure cohesion. Their disobedience in reverting to the worship of the golden calf was punished by wandering through the desert for forty years before finally returning to the “land of milk and honey” of their ancestors in Canaan. Their starvation and dehydration were relieved by manna “from heaven” and quail in from the sea, and twice water struck from a rock by Moses. Thus their dependence on the one God was to be drummed in, and the legacy of two generations of pagan perversion removed. The Ten Commandments had become the cornerstone of social cohesion. Despite this, however, the Israelites still continued to periodically display their irresponsibility and capriciousness, as Genesis and Numbers indicate. Even Moses’ closest lieutenants, such as Aaron, occasionally strayed from the wayside, and there were repeated irrational hankerings for a return to Egypt, which was considered as being better than being interminably in the desert, despite their recent sufferings in Egypt and God’s saving them from the deaths of their firstborn children in the Passover. A reading of these texts shows beyond any shadow of doubt that if it was not for Moses repeatedly resorting to the authority and power of God and his commandments, the Israelites would have dispersed as a nation and become absorbed, those who survived, in the neighbouring scattered tribes, and lost their identity completely. Finally, even Moses disobeyed in a minor very technical way in the manner he obtained water on one occasion, and was punished by being caused to die just before he would have seen Canaan. Thus Fromm, with his Rabbinic background, ignored the essential role that religion played in the preservation of that society, without which his own ancestors could not have survived, and he certainly would not have been born a Jew, if he would have ever been born at all. He ignored the manifestly beneficial influence of religion in creating a value system to which individuals could conform for the benefit of themselves and their society in which they could maintain and advance their well-being . One is reminded of the American constitution, the preamble of which gives the purpose of society as being life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is no mention of the corresponding responsibilities and obligations to respect the rights of others essential to the social order. Perhaps that influenced the “Wild West” to be so wild. The concept of sin, the commission of which had the potential to attract punishment, was essential in the attempt to promote cohesion.
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It must be repeated that for every individual to develop his own value system without any parameters at all will bring on the total destruction of society. In modern parlance, sin equates to antisocial conduct, that is to say any conduct that can be construed as tending to undermine the social order if unchecked. That is not to say that value systems have not changed, and there are differences between cultures and nations. Adultery is no longer a crime in the West but a civil offence, but it is still considered a crime in many eastern countries. Ethnic cleansing was approved for the conquest of Canaan, but is now an international war crime. Slavery was still condoned in Jesus’ time, but now internationally banned since the 19th Century. In commercial industrial society, basic value systems have been expanded by a plethora of laws which are impossible for everyone to know, covering both mala per se [inherently evil] and mala prohibita [administrative regulation] as already described. To abolish all this for Fromm in favour of a completely laissez-faire regime would result in the collapse of civilisation.
6. Fromm adverts to Adam and Eve finding themselves “naked and ashamed”, suddenly vulnerable and exposed, and so having to deal with their natural and social environment in a way not apparent before. In this, they would have become also conscious of their biological differences and mutual attraction in a way they were not conscious of before. Sex was therefore part of God’s creation as part of the laws of Nature through evolution, being one of the instincts essential for the survival of the species. Like any other instinct, it could be carried to excess or perverted, and applied in situations which were inappropriate. Obviously, socialisation and reason would have to be applied to keep this natural instinct within acceptable cultural bounds. This instinct is so fundamental to the psyche of most men that it is a driving force, especially in teenage years, so to follow Fromm’s philosophy in this instance, and let teenage boys choose their own value systems by purportedly applying their own version of reason to any experience they might have is to invite universal rape. About half of younger women state that their first penetrative experience was without proper consent, being induced by force, threats such as termination of a relationship or some form of harm or emotional blackmail concerning property or relatives, or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Over eighty-five per cent of victims are raped by relatives or close associates, which helps to render only one in four rapes being reported to the police. Sexual harassment is a problem in both American and British armed forces, and recently has caused prominent scandals in the British Parliament, where last year there were thirty thousand hits on porn websites. The writer was treated to the most unedifying spectacle of a teenage son remonstrating with his parents at a cocktail party, who had had a fallout with his girlfriend. The parents were the hosts, a managing-director of a multinational company and his wife a prominent RADA trained theatre director. The boy publicly proclaimed that “a stiff cock has no conscience”. There is a growing trend for schoolboys to persuade girls to indulge in “sexting”, including the portrayal of their nude bodies purportedly for the gratification of the one boyfriend, but inevitably distributed amongst all his mates, then going viral, so giving the impression that the girl is freely available. It is manifestly obvious that socialisation including direct education is essential to counter this constant abuse of a huge proportion of our female population. Reverting to Eve, assuming she and Adam were mature intelligent adults, reason would have to intervene to modify his natural libido. She might be ill, indisposed, or may not wish to risk pregnancy. Force obviously being out of the question, being a sin, even though she was supposed to be subordinate to him, they might agree postponement or a method of gratification suitable to both. The main point of all this is that the disproportionate incidences of sexual abuse arise because perpetrators follow their own value systems, as advocated by Fromm, which are contrary to the social and legal norms laid down by legislation, religion, and a common sense of decency. By the same token, are serial thieves and murderers supposed to be allowed to follow their own value systems with impunity?
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Covering their newly discovered nakedness with clothing would allow Adam and Eve to go about their business of survival, not only to resist the vagaries of the weather which presumably was not supposed to have affected them in Eden, but to inhibit Adam’s physical attraction for her and so she would be less of a distraction until appropriate times. The evolutionary rationale for the subjugation of women was explained as Eve’s punishment for inducing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, but by Roman times this evolutionary rationale of the protection of women by stronger men from marauding tribes and wild animals and hunting for meat was past. As stated, equality of free women was being established and Jesus endorsed this. To the chagrin of his disciples, he confided in Mary Magdalen far more than in them. To revert to Eve’s “seduction” of Adam into partaking of the forbidden fruit, Church doctrine evolved its theology from about the end of the first century until the Council of Nicaea in the fourth AD, and the concept of the “Fall of Man” into sin by his initial disobedience began to place the blame squarely on Eve. Her attractiveness had been the cause, and children were taken as being “conceived in sin”, women being continually punished by the pain of labour as a perpetual reminder of the fact. It followed that sex was an evil necessity for the sole purpose of propagation, to be endured without any pleasure. Reminiscent of this kind of belief is the criminal and dangerous practice of female genital mutilation to remove any pleasure from the act, also incidentally being a convenient means of reinforcing male domination in certain cultures. As far as Christianity was concerned, the belief took hold that true followers of Christ, to maintain their sinless purity, had to take vows of chastity and celibacy as priests, monks and nuns. For most men, this has always been difficult as a denial of a basic instinct. Hence we have encountered gross abuses of children and supplicants, epitomised in the disgraceful “Man Loves Boy” phenomenon, the priests concerned yielding to the psychological and emotional pressures. That the phrase “naked and ashamed” had strong sexual overtones is confirmed by the reference to the prohibition of incest in Leviticus chapter 18. These relationships are described in detail in the repeated terms “uncover the nakedness” of the relative concerned. The unstated purpose is to prevent the deformities and mental subnormalities of inbreeding and preserve the institution of faithful marriage to maintain the secure nurture of children, and also minimise the incidence of sexual jealousy and potential violence. Thus nakedness is a euphemism for sexual activity, so a major purpose of clothing was to limit and regulate it. Indeed, all adultery was punished by death, and the Torah also prohibits sex during daylight hours. One must assume that much was performed in the dark in those days. No doubt through the millennia women must have wondered why they had to suffer pain in childbirth, and the Judeo-Christian tradition purported to explain this as punishment for the primal sin of disobedience. In fact, our anthropoid ancestors used to have their jaw muscles inside the cheek bone, which inhibited the enlargement of their skulls to house their developing brains. As soon as these structures mutated to allow the increased size of the brain, evolution was slow in widening the female pelvic aperture and strengthening the accompanying labour muscles. Hence often baby’s head has to be rotated inside the birth canal to suit the shape of the aperture, and ignorance or mismanipulation often results in tragedy. If sex was inherently evil, having evolved by the laws of Nature to ensure the survival of the species, one wonders how in that case women were gifted with over eight thousand nerve endings for purpose of pleasure and correspondingly over four thousand for men. When Jesus telepathically established that a woman had had several husbands and was living with a partner, he never condemned the act of sex itself, nor when he saved another woman from stoning for adultery. Thus sex is to be considered a beneficial experience in the right context, forming a spiritual union as well as a physical one as “one flesh”, the hormone oxytocin binding the woman to the one man who she has regular relations with. The man, knowing that she is available to him and not to any other, is more likely to remain faithfully attached to her and the children, preserving the nuclear family for the stable upbringing of the said offspring. Thus Nature reinforces human survival in this way.
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Just as socialisation and reason are needed to modify the instinct of sex, so the instincts of hunger and thirst need to be modified by a common value system. Jesus fed the masses with bread, fishes and wine on two occasions, with baskets of excess collected afterwards. Hence these instincts were not evil, everyone eating their fill. However, regular gourmandising and drunkenness is obviously excess, a sin against the duty to preserve the “Temple of God”, the human body, and in modern times is causing widespread problems for our NHS. One third of expense is on problems caused by overweight and obesity, mainly to do with diabetes. Even a third of our children fall within these categories. The fight or flight instinct uncontrolled can lead to gratuitous violence and murder. The above illustrates clearly that, left to one’s own, one’s value system can develop in any direction whatsoever, partly because people have different levels of ability in various spheres and intelligence, and the lessons taken from experience will differ from person to person, depending on their background. The culture of the pseudo-Islamic State is an example of mass murder and slavery, the product of a value system which is clearly evil, contrary to the norms of any civilised society. The latter, to continue to exist, requires appropriate norms to be established with a hierarchy tasked with the maintenance of them, enforced by the power of sanction under an ultimate authority. Throughout the ages until modern times, religion has supplied the hierarchy and authority to an essential degree, the secular authority, where distinguishable, being heavily reliant upon it to reinforce its power. It has mostly needed religion to hold its subjects in some awe to foster obedience and therefore maintain order.
7. It is pertinent to emphasise a basic contradiction in Fromm’s philosophy. On the one side, he says that each person should be left to develop his own value system according to his own knowledge and experience, applying his reason. As pointed out, this gives validity to the primitive mentality of an habitual criminal who succeeds in life by dint of psychological and physical domination, as exemplified in gang leaders and many domestic violence situations, two wives or partners being murdered in England every week. One in three women between ten and eighty has been subjected to a criminal sexual offence or domestic violence in Britain at least once in their lives. On the other hand, he also believes: [a] people generally lack care and responsibility in their relationships; [b] they lack respect for the autonomy of their fellows; [c] they have little idea what others wanted and needed. Here Fromm is stating that in effect, individuals are egocentric and so relate badly to others and pursue their own personal interests, even if that acts to the disadvantage of others, whose opinions, if expressed, they are quite happy to ignore. This perspective on society cries out for a solution to prevent potential collapse by every individual going his own way, like the war veteran’s co-operatives in Zimbabwe. This solution, dictated by history, is for norms of behaviour to be inculcated and applied by a hierarchy and ultimate authority. Thus Fromm has paradoxically put paid to his own theory of untrammelled individualism.
* * * Note: David Johnstone-Bucher’s ”Theological Science” seeks to resolve perceived conflicts “between evolution and science” by examining the views of Erich Fromm, the humanist author of “To Have or To Be” ( Johnstone-Butcher, 2014). Fromm takes the Bible story of Adam and Eve as an allegory which explains the origins of life in ways suited to people at the time of writing, or rather of being handed down orally &, indeed for thousands of years thereafter. Dr. Ernest Lucas of Bristol University concurs with this idea of the Bible as being allegorical and emphasises the importance of taking into account the time and people for whom it was written. Indeed he cites the fact that light from oil lamps is mentioned but not light or reflected light from the sun or moon as these were reminiscent of nearby pagan forms of worship. Fromm interprets the allegorical Bible story as stages in man’s existential evolution; progressing away from following an authoritarian God towards using reason & logic in the exercise of free will (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS2). He perceives adherence to the will of God as relinquishing control with blind obedience to authority.
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Fromm compares this with the conformity of sheep, much as many Germans seemed to behave during his lifetime, which encompassed not only two world wars but abjection of personal responsibility for distinguishing good from evil. Fromm saw society as individuals, lacking basic responsibility and empathy for other people. He regarded religion as a means of ensuring societal cohesion and a means of controlling unruly individuals. As human society developed Fromm regarded it as moving away from superstition and from anthropomorphic gods and spirits of woods and water towards scientific rational and larger communities which still required authoritative control (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS3). Man’s development is seen by Fromm as becoming separate from Nature and also from basic instincts. However Johnstone-Butcher points out that the latter assumption is incorrect as these instincts are vital for survival of individuals and the species (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS7). The author takes issue with Fromm again when Johnstone-Butcher says that Man is not naturally atomistic but tends, in fact needs to associate with others. Here the author gives the example of high numbers of lonely, old people who “drain” the NHS by reason of their psychosomatic illnesses. (Personally I wonder if some of the loss of social capital in the elderly might be alleviated if physical disabilities, such as mobility problems were promptly addressed before the person became isolated). However there is no getting away from the fact that Fromm holds conflicting opinions on Man’s “socialisation” and “atomistic” tendencies (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS7). Furthermore, although Fromm contends Man should, from the time of Moses have been able to discard religion as an unnecessary, authoritarian force, yet the examples in Genesis show that anarchy would have ensued had not Moses upheld strong leadership. Johnstone-Butcher gives examples from his own experience such as the situation in Zimbabwe after the “liberation war” where war veterans were given productive farmland, appropriate agricultural machinery and extensive government and other assistance yet advice was ignored and within three years disrepair and debt ensued. Local women on the other hand, were church-goers, behaved responsibly and had established a viable chicken co-operative. The men took the chicken co-operative proceeds and abused their position of being regarded as above the women so the chicken business also failed (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS5). Social cohesion requires strictures against sins or antisocial conduct otherwise Man falls into situations such as William Golding depicts in his book, “Lord of the Flies”. Perceptions of wrongful conduct may vary according to different laws in different times and places, e.g. Slavery was accepted in Jesus’s time and continued well into the C19 in the Southern United States. Nevertheless it is necessary to have laws and regulations which draw boundaries between acceptable & unacceptable behaviours, whether mala prohibita (administrative regulation) or mala per se (inherently evil) or civilisation would collapse (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS8). Contrary to Fromm’s contentions, murderers, thieves and most perpetrators of sexual abuse are not deterred by their own sense of right or wrong but require legislation to address their behaviour. Johnstone-Butcher draws readers’ attention to the preamble to the American Constitution which despite stating liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness as the purpose of society makes no mention of obligations and responsibilities to respect the rights of others (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS8). Women’s sexuality is discussed as Jesus clearly did not condemn women who have had several partners. Scientifically oxytocin hormone produced when women nurse their babies or when they have regular relations with one man imply that in the right context sexual relations are beneficial. Until recently religion served to uphold boundaries rather than as Fromm apparently would have it, each person deciding for themselves. Yet at the same time Fromm contends that individuals fail to care and take responsibility for each other. Although religion has caused some terrible harm, nevertheless it has also done much to facilitate and preserve knowledge including medicine, crop hybridisation, engineering and animal husbandry. Additionally Benedictine monasteries in particular provided hospices for the sick, shelter for travellers and schools and universities.
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Additionally, John Knox in Scotland believed that every Scottish parish should have a school so that the population could learn to read the Bible for themselves. This led to Scottish literacy and numeracy becoming far superior to that in England and the adoption of modern English rather than the Middle English of Chaucer’s time infused with Norse as had been previously used in Scots language. This led to Scotland out-pacing the rest of the British Islands in education and enlightenment & the English universities modernising their admission and tuition methods. The poet, Robert Burns was able to rise from a poor background to Edinburgh academic society (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS12). Gregor Mendel, an Augustine monk, discovered the principles of genetic evolution by his experiments with peas. In fact the wild auroch cow which has been extinct for four and a half thousand years, gave rise to all our breeds of cow. These things indicate to the author that Man himself evolved rather than appearing perfectly formed. Johnstone-Butcher goes on to describe various vestigial bodily parts which are deemed no longer necessary. Eg bony tailed coccyx at the base of our spines with which he writes a hundred modern people in are known to have been born and which were “surgically removed”. As a student, long ago on secondment to a mental hospital I was sent to bath an old lady who had a tail (Manby, 2014). The tail was about nine inches long and I could not help wondering if the tail was the cause of her incarceration in a mental hospital. There could well have been a superstitious attitude when the lady was a child. Thirteen other vestigial body parts are described which makes interesting reading and are undoubtedly correct, as is the statement that some babies are born with “body hair which soon falls off”. These tend to be premature babies and the downy “lanugo” is an indicator of premature birth. (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001562.htm). Babies who are premature cannot manufacture their own body heat so lanugo may after all still be beneficial (Manby, 2014). Science is not immutable and as new knowledge becomes available views may alter. Tonsils were indeed considered simply a nuisance but routine tonsillectomies on young UK children were quietly phased out about thirty years ago when it was discovered that the anaesthetic commonly used for those operations caused measurable retardation of about 5% in a fair proportion of children. Tonsils may indeed trap “germs” that might otherwise have caused more problems further down the respiratory tract. I understand that nowadays in older children, if abscesses develop in the tonsils then the tonsils may be removed (Manby, 2014). The author states that in the Theological Science dialogue it is important to discard anything that is to be taken literally in scripture that is contrary to scientific facts (Johnstone-Butcher, 2014, TS14). However we must bear in mind that early biblical writings came from a culture where pictorial rather than written words were the norm. The illustrative concept of parables was retained as writing developed. Anomalies and contradictions are human rather than divine failings. The ultimate confirmation of a higher power as creator may be obtained if we look to science. The survival of the human species is indeed miraculous. There is a precision in Earth’s rotation which creates the Earth’s electromagnetic field. There is perfection in the one thousand and one positive particles that exist for every thousand negative particles. The exactness with which the Earth’s placed from the Sun allows water to be available without boiling off or freezing. The Moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides of the seas, the movement of tectonic plates and the provision of nutrition and oxygen to marine life. How could such exquisite, interlinked precision have happened without divine intervention? This does not indicate a division between science and religion. Quite the contrary it shows close links. Ironically, fundamental Christianity such as denial that human activity affects climate change, the belief that it took only six and a half thousand years for the Earth’s creation and the belief that Adam and Eve were the first human beings is a force detrimental to both science and Christianity.
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It is illogical and tends to ignore the very beliefs it claims to espouse. There need be no division between faith and science. We need to respect the Earth we have been given and look after the animal and plant life with respect for the divine higher power that brought this about.
Catriona Manby, 24 November 2014
References 1. ***,- St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Aberdeen / http://www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org/ 2. ***,- http://www.cathedral.aberdeen.anglican.org/Recitals-Feb-May-15.html 3. ***,- http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/scientistsincongregationsscotland/ 4. ***, - http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/scientistsincongregationsscotland/saint-andrews-cathedral- aberdeen/ 5. Bulz N., - On a Form of 'Freedom of Religion': Religious Community's Acts Onto the Contemporary 'Science-Religion Dialogue' Versus a ‘What is Truth?’ Inter/Trans-Disciplinary, Intercultural and Ecumenical Inquiry / http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2597367 6. Kilgour R., Bulz N., -'What Is Truth?', An Inter/Trans-Disciplinary, Intercultural and Ecumenical Attempt within the Contemporary 'Science-Religion Dialogue' / http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2593183 7. ***,- http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9676.pdf - The Cultural Evolution of Storytelling and Fairy Tales: Human Communication and Memetics, 2015 8. Pascal B., -The Physical Treatises of Pascal, I.H.B. and A. G.H. Spiers (trans.), New York: Octagon Books, 1973. 9. Pascal B., -Pensées and other writings, Ed. The Cultural Evolution (comp.2015) 10. Taylor Sites, Ann Marie Rasmussen, - Fairy tales and Folklore: Medieval to Present, /http://program2. duke.edu/uploads/media_items/ taylor-sites-application-as-sample-application.original.pdf. 2010
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NEW ANALYTICAL AND PREDICTIVE STATISTICS FOR THE SELECTION OF KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES
Ioan GÂF-DEAC1, Ioan I. GÂF-DEAC2, Nicolae BULZ3, Andrei NICOLAE4
Abstract Economic systems, and by inclusion the knowledge resources system, exist under restrictions based on the laws of thermodynamics, since these systems are not endless, but only cyclical. Resources available from any system, including the knowledge resources are finite. In this context there is the unavoidable trend of degradation through exploitation and utilization and the operation of showcasing increased entropy. Researching resources of knowledge in general through networking between entropy, order, information and meaning is achieved for the first time in the field by the current paper, in the new original way. In this article the conclusion is obtained that a system like that of knowledge resources will reduce its available energy (resource), thus increasing its entropy, to the extent that it applies at a given time under the influence of a relatively orderly condition, and thus becomes marked by an increased quantity of energy and a lower degree of entropy.
Keywords and phrases: knowledge, resources, statistics, entropy, order, information, respect
1. Introduction Fundamental relations between entropy, order, information and meaning are potentially operable in the field of knowledge resources. By applicative extension it is proposed to extrapolate developments e.g. in quantifiable sciences regarding similarity with study alignments that develop knowledge. Conceptual focus on fundamental relationships between knowledge and science are thus performed in the general resources system entered into the perceptive flow of human knowledge. In a closed system, as is conventional in a science / discipline, the knowledge resources sub- system is considered isolated from other sources of another disciplinary nature. By extension, - the universe in general - each operation to use a resource of knowledge leads to less knowledge available within the system. Entropy, in this situation, is the quantity of resource of knowledge that is not available for useful disciplinary works. It is possible to issue other various reformulations of the set lawfulness. All reformulations, however, include the observation that a system such as the general knowledge resources will reduce the resource available, thus increasing the entropy of that system to the extent that under a scientific disciplinary ordered state, if in the system there is at one time being labeled the content of a high quantity of the resource with a low degree of entropy. The probability of a certain state of the knowledge resources system, denoted [PS(RC)] is obtained from the different possible states (Si):
= (1)
and, according to L. Boltzmann, the entropy E can be expressed by the formula:
E = K ln PS (RC); (k = const.) (2)
Formulation statistics (2) is therefore based on the measure of the probability of achieving various different states by the system knowledge resources. L. Brillouin (1953) [2] proposes equalization of "information" with "negative entropy" which is defined as the sum of information needed to change a system (e.g. the knowledge resource system, presented here) from a state to another, more orderly, state.
1 Professor PhD., SH University of Bucharest, Romania, International Fellow University of Canberra, Australia, [email protected] 2 Senior Lecturer, PhD., SHU Bucharest, National Institute of Economic Research "Costin C. Kiriţescu" (INCE), Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 Professor PhD., External research associate, Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia /Associate Professor at National Defence College, Bucharest, Romania/ Honorary Researcher at World Economy Institute, INCE, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, /Vice-President of Socio- Economic Cybernetics Commission of the structure of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 4 St. Rech., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 93 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Claude Shannon (1964) [2] was the first to link the concepts of entropy to the notion of information. Warren Weaver (1964) [2] shows that if a state is superiorly organized, this is not characterized by a high degree of "randomness" or "options". Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1971) [2] limits the concept of translating the notion of entropy in broad areas, based solely on statistical formulation. It is therefore confirmed, that the observation that it is possible for a new method of expression or research of disciplinary issues to find possible application in other studied disciplines, such as the resources of knowledge field. Similar expansions of important ideas are visible in the overall understanding of the relativity of the knowledge resources system. The theory of relativity led to amplifying the first law of thermodynamics, confirming that total energy and matter (resources) in the universe is a constant. Economic systems and by inclusion the knowledge resources system, function under the restrictions given by the laws of thermodynamics, since these systems are not endless, but cyclical. Resources available from any system, including those from the knowledge resources one are finite. In this context the trend of degradation through exploitation and utilization as well as showcasing an increased entropy is unavoidable. It is considered that in the analysis of spheres of knowledge regarded as separate systems or subsystems operating in the system of knowledge resources there can be applied the concept of "entropy as a measure of disorder or disruption" by exploiting and capitalizing on "science". Volume organization of a system, such as that of knowledge resources can be measured by comparing the entropies inputs and outputs. In turn, those who exploit and capitalize knowledge elements are open systems that interact with the environment of knowledge resources, so that absolute similarity is not assured between information theory (entropy) and their possible structural and organizational duplicates in the general system of human knowledge.
2. Some statistical regularities in the spheres of knowledge resources Research of a database with relevant information to knowledge resources is the fundamental stage of the decision making process for efficient exploitation and management of "sciences". The increased multitude of data about a particular type of resource for knowledge, degree of structuring, respectively data grouping lead to the hypothesis of identifying certain statistical regularities of the results. Conventional statistical methods allow for organizing and analyzing experimental data, specific levels of relevance being thus obtained. Instead, new statistical regularities can elude conventional expressions in statistical terms, influencing relevancies mentioned and their levels. For example, in the case of resource accumulation of knowledge conventionally recoverable, for their determination it would be possible to express them as an ordered distribution in which the sciences, classified by the types of discipline, should be arranged in decreasing order of their ultimate productivity in real disciplinary systems. A first original application for the analytical expression of an ordered distribution law stems from the reversal of the law of Bradford (F.F. Leimkuhler, 1967) [3] formulated for documentary activities. To the knowledge resources field, the authors of this paper suggest the following extrapolative notations:
x = ratio of the order (Or) of a general system of knowledge resources science and the total number of sciences (N) representing all disciplines in the field of knowledge resources; p = multiplier parameter.
ln(1+ px) f ()x = (3) ln(1+ p) where: O x = r N
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and f(x) represents the analytical form of an ordered distribution that contributes in some way to clarifying the specific statistical expression in a field. Orders (Or) are ordinal numbers of sciences; therefore it is clear that the ordered formulations are completely unconventional. The relationship is potentially applicative to peripheral sciences stated of a "core" nucleus, especially in the configuration and nominative content of knowledge. It reaches a more visible conclusion namely that the equation (3) cannot still be considered exclusive, as no exact expression manifests as a conventional frequency distribution. As such, the lawfulness mentioned cannot be deducted from the consideration of the classical theory of probabilities. However, operationalization of the equation (3) may be of interest in the context of searching and finding information about resources defined from the general knowledge, global resources falling under changes in scientific knowledge systems. The conclusion is that, in the context of these investigations, the same consistent data pooling of knowledge resources, it is possible to induce conditions of formalizing the frequency distribution, the statistical approach known as conventional, even when using empirical actions of collection, processing and evaluation of data or appeals to reason to obtain the necessary estimates. The judgment emitted here is that if quasi-totality of empirical distributions meets relative to: 1) sciences (Z); 2) disciplinary contents (SU); 3) Conventional knowledge useful content (CS) and 4) players exploiting and optimizing useful conventional knowledge (FEV), all found in the global knowledge resource system (SRC), critical comparisons can be made with the distributions of the modern statistical theory. The above findings are based on the concept that the statistical empirical distributions are outside the scope of conventional statistical theory as knowledge resources are characterized by different infinite signals in their intrinsic physical constitution. It is possible, however, that recourse is made to homeostasis as a quantifier element of form that is associated with an immutable state reached by every type of resource of knowledge, at some point in the cyclical trans-generational evolution. So far, however, the basic analytic expressions objectified of homeostasis are not resolved, resulting in the pending analytical approaches in this regard. Also, it is noted that all the examples of conventional distributions are expressed in relation to certain physical contexts and relevant consolidated moments or of levels of relevance. For distributions without frequency – of those just entering the scope of cardinal ordering – there are still no fundamental moments of relevance identified. So modern statistical theory can be considered essentially a theory of distribution moments and it is considered that it is almost unworkable to distributions with no relevant moments. The issue is highlighted so that it is necessary to formalize a specific statistic for knowledge resources, as decisional operationality of exploitation and utilization without throughout knowledge by particular statistical regularities occasions irrational exhaustion and attacking the human cognitive environment.
3. Statistics for the knowledge resources system Knowledge resources in a global context of world events present manifestations of an infinite multitude of signals with significant meanings. Quantitative and qualitative diversity of forms and contents as well as the unrestricted field of knowledge alternatives complicates possible statistics in the field. We appreciate that as a whole it is not possible to draw a finite statistic or define borders of resources of knowledge. Instead, it is viable to make a probabilistic approach to the limits of formalizing convergence of the multitude of conditions and their manifestations. In the same context, complete classification of knowledge resources is not possible, due to the inability of auto-enrollment into the values of variables, quality and size. Also, the origination process or the cyclical evolutionary transformation of knowledge resources is limiting in its formalization. Based on the above observations in this paper a new model of transformation is being elaborated from the hypothetical statistics to those in the perceived knowledge resources field (Figure 1).
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Fig. 1. The transformation model from hypothetical statistics to perceived knowledge resources statistics
We believe that the path to be traveled is from without moments distributions (F) to the Poissoniene (P) and Gaussian (G) distributions. Currently, in the science of knowledge resources the need to operate with (P-G) distributions is noticeable, especially as the perceived probability field area should provide more accurate data about the sufficiency of accumulation of knowledge in science. Calculating the (P-G) distributions becomes comparable as analytical power as that of elaborating (G) type distributions in the physical sciences, which can lead to widespread operating capacity in the field of modern statistics. Based on the above assertion we can see that mainly in the field of knowledge resources there are no hypothetical infinities in operation. All activities with knowledge resources remain finite. As such, operational distributions are finite, with appropriate moments (with n terms, as great as n can be, but always finite). The attempt to allocate a relationship for the (F) type distribution can be expressed as:
k f (x) = (4) x a
where the parameter a> 1 (typically a is between 1.5 - 2.5).
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For finite sums of such series there should be formalized a representative equation, but attempts so far have not led to a favorable settlement of such requirements. Therefore, these amounts must be calculated component by component. But it is handy to adopt an unconventional distribution ordered by frequency based on the fact that in the resources of knowledge field, they are distinguished and identified by their names. It appears that in all that relates to sciences (Z), found in disciplinary areas (SU), which serves the utility (Csmu), meets the difficulties in allocating names that decision makers should take note when they must identify a resource of knowledge, by a multitude of quasi-infinite cognitive signals, connected to the perceived system of knowledge resources. The identification elements lead to accessibility and remove "noise of the lack of connection". Using search and information technology it is implicitly articulated with indication power (names, words, values, size, condition, etc.) to induce research relevance to help decision making. Therefore, the statistical calculation of resources of knowledge is conditioned by the prior formulation that identities sciences, which by not ignoring peculiarities removes the perceived anonymity in the field of perception and contributes to quantifying files for one resource or other. If frequency distributions gradually exclude pure empirical data, distributions ordered by frequency divide data in this multitude into categories of frequencies that can be used in a particular analytical operational phase. It is possible that such an approach will erode some features of data that are placed in the mentioned frequency categories. Distributions as those frequently reported to order are more relevant from a theoretical point of view than are the simple frequency distributions. Later, however, the loss of some empirical knowledge resources regarding knowledge resources cannot be instrumentally compensated. It is also noted that in the scope of knowledge resources if frequency distribution is applied, it focuses on elements from the set of data (information) about Z, SU and Csmu which are the least frequently occurring and its relevance is directed towards the furthest extremity where are the most sought after items located. In this context, priority is given to resources of knowledge considered the most active. Log of the equation (5) is:
log f (x) = log k − a log x (5)
which means that in a referential system log / log the graph of a straight line can be obtained with the a slope. The theoretical analysis of such a straight line is insoluble while at the same time it is ssociated with the disposal of empirical data, which as noted are irreversible to recover. Such a situation leads to new methodological requirements, for new solutions of imaging quantification of the generally perceived system, the overall domain of knowledge resources.
4. The "statistic nucleus" for resources of knowledge Accepting for the sciences the precision of peripheral situating to a "nucleus" that specializes in configuration and nominative content, it may be found that spaces between nominalization elements of the accumulations of knowledge resources by a central area of classification implies discontinuity. This causes separation of the nucleus and the periphery. Equation (3), according to [3], is:
k1 ln (1+ r1 /w) ; r1 = 1,2,3,…, n (nucleus) F(r) = (6)
k2 ln (1+ r2 /w) ; r2 = 1,2,3,…, m (periphery)
where r2 = r – r1.
It is recognized that the multitude of knowledge resources classifications is not homogeneous, because it applies to different categorizations of science, both for those in the "nucleus" and those in the "peripheral" statistical area ("the periphery"). We appreciate that the accumulation of knowledge resources are multiple heterogeneous and, as such, they can be found in families or in separate groups. It is important to make an effort to identify a particular distribution that can be used to classify all possible variants of accumulation of knowledge resources.
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In this way, having systematized information distinctly visible favorable conditions are created for a field operating decision as utilized among those who exploit and use knowledge resources. In essence, the laws of statistical distribution should be characterized by "the telescopic" or, by analogy with the processes in cyberspace, by the "hypertext". Basically, the multitude of data for a feature (W) of the accumulation of knowledge resources should be consistent (compatible) and to ensure continuity of expression and for a characteristic (W ') in a number of consecutive terms, summed for (r) values. “Telescopical” properties, i.e. "hypertext" in the accumulation of knowledge resources offers opportunities for preliminary exploration, faster for a conventional useful set of knowledge, gaps being identified in characterization and intrinsic knowledge discontinuities may be signaled. In other words, the thesis of "solution cultivating solution" is emitted in the identification, exploitation and utilization of any kind of useful knowledge relating to a resource of knowledge. So far as a type of knowledge resource proves strong, statistically dominant in its statistical core, so it becomes- by deploying exploitation and utilization - "stronger", more "dominant" in the human cognitive field. By extension, it is possible to express the similarity of this approach to the so-called "Darwinian competition" for the survival of a resource type of knowledge in relation to another, in the context of manifesting interest for the exploitation and efficient usage. Some types of knowledge resources, in such a process, are situated in the possible extremities of the distribution chart, remaining in the position of uninteresting elements at an interest disadvantage. However, the conclusion is that, overall, all kinds of knowledge resources are engaged in a measurable scientific activity, in their turn, in the "nuclear vision", some are being engaged operationally and competitively at a given time. It is important that the full integral classification be charged, quasi-full of all kinds of useful knowledge provided by general knowledge and all multitudes of accumulation (sciences) are to be highlighted and potentially offered for adding value. Focusing on operational making use of those resources of knowledge from "the nucleus" induces "operational intensity." However, it is not possible to assist to an entropic weakening of the global knowledge resources fund, as the non regeneration is preponderant in relation to regeneration in the field. As such, the entropy of the perceptual system of knowledge resources becomes a statistical measure of its static disorder. It is noted that in the scope of knowledge resources at the beginning of XXI Century knowledge resources classifications are being formalized and efforts are made to maintain (accept) these against physical flow disturbances in continual growth in the field, thanks to reconsidering almost all sciences as potentially useful in the present and especially the future. Such an approach could give rise to very large systems of related information to the general system of knowledge resources, which complicates the decisional approaches concrete for making the best use of the pragmatic science systems. The most important step in such systemic research proves to be "identifying dependencies" and thus to be able to make quantitative rules in the sphere of knowledge resources. It is useful to recognize operation with so-called "transactional information," which in the knowledge resources field should be characterized by operational knowledge (methodology, methods, procedures) and qualitative recognition (what informational useful content are in the transaction flows). The process of knowledge of the knowledge resources is based on a different entropic characterization from the above, it being even its opposite (of opposite sign). Therefore, knowledge resource classification can be considered a process that, from a methodological perspective, has the advantage of a formalizing autonomy (quantification). For the first time it appears that knowable space, relative to knowledge resources is different from the physical space of their realization. c In fact, the multidimensional space of knowledge resource classification (SM ) exceeds their ev recovery multidimensional space configuration (Sm ):
c ev { Sm } > { Sm } (7)
It is being concluded that, in such a context there is a need for creation and application in the knowledge resources field as operative as possible, of intelligent systems based on knowledge. This goal must be preceded by expression of associated specific logic on which to base intelligent systems operation.
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As such, it is necessary to discover the form of relevance, considered a descriptor in knowledge resource classification.
4. Conclusions This article is based on research content of the books entitled Gaf-Deac I, Doxastic Management, FMP Ed, Bucharest, 2013; Gaf-Deac I.I. - Legal and economic bases of resources system in the New Economy – Infomin Ed., Deva, 2007 and Gaf-Deac I.I. - New Economy Between knowledge and risk – Infomin Ed., Deva, 2010, creating conceptual extensions for knowledge. 1. Research knowledge resources, in general, through the networks between entropy, order, information and meaning is achieved for the first time in the field by the current paper, in a new original way. It is concluded that a system such as the knowledge of resources will reduce its energy (resource) available, thereby increasing entropy, to the extent that it manifests at a given time under the influence of a relatively ordered state, and thus becomes marked by a new increased level of energy and by a low degree of entropy. 2. For the knowledge resources as investigated in the paper it was researched how to identify statistical regularities of results, aiming at achieving specific levels of relevance of solutions to utilization problems. The original, remarkable conclusion is that in the case of knowledge resources ordered formulations are completely unconventional. The consistent data aggregation of knowledge resources is recommended and thus almost all empirical distributions may come under critical comparisons with distributions of the modern statistical theory. For each type of resource of knowledge it is possible to recourse to homeostasis, as a quantified indicator of form, which is to be associated with an immutable state reached by a resource or another in their cyclical trans-generative developments. A new thesis is that all examples of conventional distribution of knowledge resources are highlighted in relation to certain physical contexts and have consolidated moments of relevance. As such, it is necessary to formalize a specific statistic, intended for knowledge resources, as the decisional operationalization of their efficient use, without complete knowledge, is strengthened by particular statistical regularities, leading to its irrational exhaustion. 3. The thesis of formalization and use of the analytical instrument of "nucleus statistics" for the knowledge resources field is being introduced here. If we identify the peripheral locations to the "nucleus", it appears that the space between elements of nomination of accumulations of knowledge resources from the central area of classification implies the existence of discontinuities. This conclusion confirms, justifiably, the maintenance and use of a multitude of heterogeneous knowledge resources classifications, since it applies to different characterizations of the sciences, both for those in the "nucleus" and those in the peripheral statistical area (of 'periphery'). It follows that "the accumulation of knowledge resources are multiple heterogeneous" and as such they can be found in groups / distinct groupings. Accordingly, it is recommended to identify a certain distribution, which is to serve classification of all possible variants of accumulation of knowledge resources. In this way, policy makers have information that creates favorable conditions for operating field decision as utility in the best usage process.
References 1. Georgescu-Roegen N. – The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, - Harvard University Press, 1971; 2. Leinkuhler F.F. – The Bradford Distribution; -Journal of Documentation, no 23, 1967; 3. Brainerd B – On the Relation Between the Type-Token and Speciens-Area Problems, - Journal of Applied Probability, no 19/1982; 4. Buzzell P.D. – Are There Natural Market Structures, - Journal of Marketing, no. 45(1)/1981; 5. Leinkuhler, F.F. (col.) – Analysis and Application of Information Productivity Models, - Purdue University, 1983; 6. Pao M.L., – An Empirical Examination of Litka’s Law, - Journal of the American Society for Information Science,- vol. 37, no. 1/1986. 5. Gâf-Deac I.I.,- Legal and economic bases of resources system in the New Economy – Pbl. Infomin, Deva, 2007 6. Gâf-Deac I.I., - New Economy between knowledge and risk - Ed. Infomin, Deva, 2010
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COMMUNICATING ISSUES FOR REFORM THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY (CAP) IN ROMANIA
Marian NICOLAE1, Dana Gabriela CONSTANTINESCU2, Andrei NICOLAE3, Mirela Nicoleta CRAIU4, Daian Mihai CEAUȘU5, Lăcrămioara Rodica HURLOIU6
Abstract It is very important to communicate to the general public the multifunctional role of EU farmers which goes beyond food production. Farmers play an important role in conserving our common natural heritage and in many rural areas they continue to be the economic heartbeat. This must be done for the following purposes: the need to better respond to market opportunities; emphasizing that the reformed CAP has strengthened the EU farmers' ability to respond to market signals, thereby giving the EU an opportunity to strengthen its supply of food at a time of higher food prices and help to alleviate the concerns about food security in some parts of the World; the simplification and better targeting of the direct support to farmers; the strengthening of the rural development policy to respond to new challenges, mainly related to climate change, water management, renewable energy and biodiversity.
Keywords and phrases: CAP – Common Agricultural Policies, CROSSCAP/2010 Italy-Romanian Project, rural, renewable energy and biodiversity
1. Introduction A study by the MCM Institute of the University of St. Gallen in cooperation with AXA Insurance, Swisscom, Grayling and the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management, by James Suchan and Ron Dulek, on Institute for Media and Communications Management (http://www.mcm.unisg.ch/), it show that Clarity in Corporate Communication is the most serious communication problem in business. In Introduction: The High Cost of Unclear Communication Clarity, “according to another dictionary definition, designates a freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity. Making something clear, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is equivalent to making it understood and reducing what is unwanted. In its original sense, clarity is the state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye. In order for something to be transparent, the obstacles and elements that are not in the right place must be removed. In a communication context, this typically means obstacles to understanding. What are these obstacles? In many corporate communication contexts, obstacles to understanding are created by complexity. This complexity can be inherent in a topic or brought about by the (inter)actions of the communicators dealing with a topic. Therefore, it is important to examine the issue of complexity more closely and to distinguish between different types of complexity, as they can lead to unclear communication but require different remedies.” In this context, for more than 40 years, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been the European Union's (EU) most important common policy. Agriculture is one of the main activities of the Romanian economy. In comparison with other economic activities, agriculture and food industry has one of the greatest growth potential, because Romania is holding a privileged position in terms of natural agricultural resources. The arable land represents 39.5% of the total territory of the country. The Common Agricultural Policy after 2013 is a challenge for Romania. After a wide-ranging public debate the Commission presented on 18 November 2010 a Communication on "The CAP towards 2020", which outlines options for the future CAP and launched the debate with the other institutions and with stakeholders. On 12 October 2011 the Commission presented a set of legal proposals designed to make the CAP a more effective policy for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture and vibrant rural areas.
1 Assoc. Prof. PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 2 Lecturer PhD., Bioterra University of Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 3 St. Rch., Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, [email protected] 4 Professor, ISMB Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 5 PhD. Student, Valahia University of Targoviste, National Institute of Economic Research "Costin C. Kiriţescu" (INCE), Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] 6 Senior Lecturer, Ph.D., SH University, M.F.A. Faculty Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 100 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
On 26 June 2013 a political agreement on the reform of the CAP has been reached between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council. On 16 December 2013 the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers formally adopted the four Basic Regulations for the reformed CAP as well as the Transition Rules for 2014. This follows on the approval of these Regulations by the European Parliament in November. On 20 December 2013 the four Basic Regulations and the Transition Rules were published in the Official Journal. (Overview of the CAP reform 2014-2020). Since its creation, the CAP has always been adapted to respond to the challenges of its time. Significant reforms have been made in recent years, notably in 2003 and during the CAP Health check in 2008, to modernise the sector and make it more market-oriented. The Europe 2020 strategy offers a new perspective. In this context, through its response to the new economic, social, environmental, climate- related and technological challenges facing our society, the CAP can contribute more to developing intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth. The CAP must also take greater account of the wealth and diversity of agriculture in the EU Member States. Before setting down any initial policy guidelines for this strategic sector, Commissioner launched on 12 April 2010 a public debate on the Common Agricultural Policy’s future, objectives, principles and contribution to the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy to inform the preparatory work for the decision-making process. In addition to how the CAP can contribute to developing the Europe 2020 strategy, the public debate centred around four main questions: Why do we need a European Common Agricultural Policy? What are society’s objectives for agriculture in all its diversity? Why should we reform the CAP and how can we make it meet society’s expectations? What tools do we need for tomorrow’s CAP? Based on the outcome of the public debate and exchanges with the Council and the European Parliament, the Commission presented on 18 November 2010 a Communication on "The CAP towards 2020" which outlines options for the future CAP and launches the debate with the other institutions and with stakeholders. On 12 October 2011 the Commission presented a set of legal proposals designed to make the CAP a more effective policy for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture and vibrant rural areas. After almost two years of negotiations between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council, a political agreement on the reform of the Common Agricultural policy (CAP) has been reached on 26 June 2013. On 16 December 2013 the Council of EU Agriculture Ministers formally adopted the four Basic Regulations for the reformed CAP as well as the Transition Rules for 2014. This follows on the approval of these Regulations by the European Parliament in November. On 20 December 2013 the four Basic Regulations and the Transition Rules were published in the Official Journal. In order to fully implement the political agreement on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy reached in June and September by the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission, the European Commission services have drafted delegated acts. These delegated aim at supplementing non-essential elements of the basic acts covered by the political agreement. On 11 March 2014 the European Commission adopted the first package of delegated acts. Nevertheless it has been going trough continuous adjustment processes every 5 years. In particular, the new reforms lie under the pressure of the world agricultural markets changes and on the new political framework as a result of EU enlargement as well [1]. Romania has 14.7 million hectares agricultural land and retained huge quantity of local traditional products, being one of the European countries with the best resources for agriculture. In addition, the stability of the Romanian economy is mostly based on the stability of agricultural market (the share of the Romanian population employed in agriculture is around the 32% of the total population). Nevertheless, Romania as new Member State of Europe (since 2007) mostly lacks of information about the application of the CAP measures.
2. Material and methods Agriculture remains an important economic sector in rural areas in Romania because of the potential in natural resources and labor involved in this activity.
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To have a competitive agriculture, Romania must implement appropriate agricultural policies that require an efficient and rational labor force and available agricultural potential. Appropriate use of available labor in rural areas requires a competitive agriculture, organized into viable economic structures with appropriate technical equipment and appropriate financial strength. Agriculture is the economic sector which employs a significant part of the population in rural areas and has a major importance in the present and future European policies On this perspective, trough the implementation of the Italy-Romanian CROSSCAP/2010 Project activities, the Romanian agricultural farmers and general public will be able to take advantage from the economic benefits of the CAP in a short and long-term period, and will be sustainable exploit the natural resources of the Country. According Staicu Mara Monica – National Agency for Agricultural Advisory, (Romanian agricultural research and extension systems and their linkages, Building Partnerships for Technology Generation, Assessment and Sharing among West Balkan countries Skopje, TFYR of Macedonia, 27 to 29 June 2007), “information and communication strategy to support agricultural development. At present, at CLCA level consultants work as individuals rather then in teams. With the increasing of the complexity of farming, it can no longer be expected that one or two persons can adequately cover all themes: technical, economic, EU subsidies and compliance, diversification, and legal and social issues). Only larger teams of experts with complementary expertise working from the same office (the “one stop-shop”) will be able to offer the full range of information, knowledge and support services farmers need to cope with an increasingly complex environment. This will be one of the goal of the future ANCA’s strategy. The current information and communication channels and tools a. to improve, identify, sort and match information needs and knowledge of farmers, extensionists, agricultural researchers and policy makers within the country; Consultants from the communal and county level have the main role in defining the farmers’ information needs. As result, every year, the program of activity at the national level is established based on the proposals coming from the field. In the recent years, some surveys have been organized in the county in order to establish the training according to farmers’ needs. On the other hand, the yearly program of activity takes into consideration the priorities of Romanian agriculture based on the MARD policies and strategies. According to the knowledge needs, consultants make a list of the training courses necessary. The current and basic information and communication channels are: personal contact – face to face, phone and low extent e-mail; group contact – workshops, seminars, training events; mass - press, radio & television, internet, big events. The current and basically information and communication tools are as follows: Internal 1. Mass media Compartment (as part of ANCA, National Agency for Agricultural Advisory) and of the “communicators-network” (at the CJCA’s levels, County Offices for Agricultural Advisory) provides disseminations of the consultancy and extension activities, permanent communications with the mass-media, at the local and national level. Results obtained: Own publications of the county agricultural consulting office, delivered free of charge to the target groups; Obtaining of the weekly, bimonthly, and monthly spaces as part of the local and national publications in the field; Obtaining of the weekly emission spaces at the local and national radio and TV broadcast 1 (Antena satelor, Viata satului, Radio România 1). As a result, the advices of the agricultural advisor arrive at the beneficiaries, a continuum informational flow being assured. Publications and specialty headings also assure informational feed-back. 2. Internet connections, available for ANCA consultants; 3. Specific information delivering to ANCA’s consultants are realized through “training of trainers” activities on the priorities domains; 4. Developing of the international programs of collaboration with the similar institutions from UE, Japan, s.o. External: a) Informational flow developing through continuum delivering to agricultural producers of the technical, knowledge, economical, managerial, legislative and marketing based on: conception activities, projections, publication, multiplying and delivering of the specialized: 1. Broadcast had the main weight, so far, having in view the full covering at the national level and the rural population receptivity at this delivering way of information. 9 materials, films making, TV/broadcasts, and other audio-video materials and communication; organizing of the vocational training courses 1;
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b) Technical assistance provided to farmers concerning applying of the modern agricultural technologies, and new farm management methods; c) Informational flow developing, improvement of the communication channels and agro food products promotion, as part of the relation ANCA-farmers and among farmers, through fairs, competitions, exhibitions organized at the local or national level; d) Realizing of the information transfer, research results, and connections between agricultural producers, input suppliers, research institutes, and agricultural education through seminars, debates, round tables organizing; e) Partnership with different national and international partners with the aim to develop proper technologies, model agricultural farms, and experience exchange; f) Setting up of the ANCA own web site and providing of the links with county offices, to link farmers to markets; 1. Data basis setting up at the central level of ANCA focused on the market information from each county of Romania and for the main crops and animals; 2. Data basis setting up focused on the main agricultural inputs suppliers; 3. Farmers support in associative forms setting up (cooperatives, producers groups, cooperatives); 4. Farmers support in EU funds access for measures related with investments in farms and activities diversification in the rural areas; 5. Farmers support in EU funds access. c. to collaborate within the region on technology generation, assessment and sharing; Ideas and suggestions for improved regional partnerships in technology generation, assessment and sharing a. Potential benefits and constraints; - real improvement of research and extension following the sharing of experience and knowledge; - identification of topics of neutral interest; - different stages or research development and extension within the region; b. Potential partners and promoters;- similar institutions and persons with same concerns from neighboring countries and especially border countries (cost reduction reasons); - importers of agricultural inputs and products, because they know very well the market and farmer’s needs and possibilities”. On this regard the general identified need for the targeted countries is to receive detailed information on the development of the CAP measures. This is mainly relevant for the Romanian farmers who nowadays do not have a direct perception of the CAP implementation. Even though the traditional agriculture measures are linked to those funded by the CAP (i.e. implementing organic agriculture) farmers lack information on possible benefits they may receive by implementing the CAP. On the other hand, the specific need for Italy relies on the fact that, since agricultural subsidies are financed by public money, taxpayers rightfully expect that these are correctly spent. It is therefore of paramount importance that information reach both the stakeholders and the general public.
3. Results The expected results are: - On an overall level: the increased knowledge and awareness on the benefits deriving by the CAP implementation; - On a specific level: the possibility by the stakeholders, to be informed on how to fine-tune those measures depending on their local needs. This papers presents the goals and the partially results of our Italy-Romanian Project CROSSCAP/2010/2011 in which Bioterra University is a partner [1]. The project’s action seen as an important information campaign deserves to be supported by the European Union for the following reasons: - the type and the methodology of the proposed action are consistent with call requirements; - the applicant and the associates can mobilise high level experts on the specific topic to be treated during the information events; - the work schedule allows proper implementation of action activities; - places of implementation allow proper visibility to the information events and guarantee the reaching of target audience. The project is run by a well-balanced group of co-organisers; tasks assigned to the co- organisers are consistent with their specific field of expertise and cover complementary sectors of
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 103 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge expertise, which are necessary to the correct implementation of the project activities either in Italy or in Romania. The CROSSCAP project’s aims to which the information’s measure contributes are the following: - helping, on the one hand, to explain and, on the other hand, to implement and develop the CAP; - promoting the European model of agriculture and helping people understand it; - informing farmers and other parties active in rural areas; - raising public awareness of the issues and objectives of the CAP. Communicating the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) means: - a better respond to market opportunities; - emphasizing that the reformed CAP has strengthened the EU farmers' ability to respond to market signals, thereby giving the EU an opportunity to strengthen its supply of food at a time of higher food prices and help to alleviate the concerns about food security in some parts of the World; - the simplification and better targeting of the direct support to farmers; - the strengthening of the rural development policy to respond to new challenges, mainly related to climate change, water management, renewable energy and biodiversity. - The project’s action consists of a set of integrated information measures to be implemented in the 2 partner countries Italy and Romania, namely: - Production of a 1 hour long documentary on meaning, level of implementation and perspectives of new CAP in Italy and Romania. Audio and video materials for documentary will be collected on Italian and Romanian territories (visits to representative farms on which CAP is expected to significantly impact and to farms being examples of good practices, interviews to Italian and Romanian experts on agriculture and CAP). The documentary will consist of a unique bilingual deliverable to be diffused over the 2 countries. Organization of symposia. One thematic symposia will take place in Italy and one in Romania in the framework of the two local main agriculture exhibitions: AGRIFIERA in Pisa and INDAGRA in Bucharest Agrifiera is the largest exhibitions of equipment and products in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry and food production held in Pisa province. The exhibition is held in Comune di San Giuliano Terme, and the Municipality takes responsibility over the whole organization and management. It lasts one week. In particular the last editions have been focusing on high-quality food, local traditional products and sustainable agricultural practices. It normally hosts around 200 local exhibiting companies, 80 public events such as symposia and filming shows on an area of 20.000 sqm. A total of 120.000 visitors usually attends the fair, 56% of which are common people from urban and rural areas, 43% are professionals (farmers and managers of cooperatives) and 1% are students from Universities which are mainly attracted by the symposia. There is also a strong interest showed by local Authorities (such as Regional administrations and Municipalities) which support the implementation of the Agrifiera by co-funding it. All farmer organisation and the co-organiser CIA among them are involved in public events and have stand at the exhibition. Local press and TVs are invited to attend the fair in order to spread news and inform people living in remote areas and not attending the fair. AGRIFIERA takes place every year in Comune di San Giuliano Terme- Pisa, Italy, from the 25th of April to the 1st of May. INDAGRA is the most important international exhibition of equipment and products in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry and food production, held in Romania and lasting 4 days. During the 12 editions (the first one was in 1996), the exhibition has continuously developed. In 2007 INDAGRA gathered 800 prestigious domestic and international companies, from 26 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, South Korea, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Great Britain, Moldavia, The Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, United States, Sweden, Turkey and Hungary) on an exhibiting area of 46.000 sqm. INDAGRA has attracted in 2007 a total number of 34.553 visitors: 49,8% of them were common visitors such as people from urban and rural areas (17.225 people), and 50,2% were professionals such as farmers and managers of cooperatives (17.328); moreover during the last years more and more students from Romanian Universities have been attracted by the fair public events.
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The INDAGRA fair is also a suitable means for exchanging new approach to agricultural measures and products among stakeholders because it hosts numerous symposia and filming shows. Moreover, thanks to the presence of the National and International Press, the Event reaches people from the remote areas not attending the fair. INDAGRA take place every year at the beginning of November. The symposia represent the main communication events of the project, and in their framework the documentary will be officially released to the public and shown non stop to reach the maximum audience. International experts will take part to the symposia, illustrating CAP concept and strategies. Speaker’s contributions are tailored on the specific information needs identified for Italy and Romania by the stakeholders: - TV Special. The Italian symposium will be filmed and edited to become TV special to be diffused on local television [2]; - The information campaign will be complemented by an extensive dissemination of project activities and deliverables in the form of public shows, press conferences, press release, setting up of advertising stands at agriculture exhibitions both in Italy and Romania.
4. Conclusions The symposia, traditionally addressed to a more targeted audience (professionals and students), are expected to attract a larger audience of visitors during the show of the documentary (general public). The involvement of speakers coming from the Italian and Romanian Universities (Bioterra University and Pisa University), the documentary will be additionally shown in the framework of lectures, thus amplifying the numbers of students targeted. Moreover through the involvement of press and TV journalists the event will be reported on the regional and specialist press, so reaching a larger audience of general public and professionals. The direct involvement in the organisation and implementation of the events of representatives of farmer associations will multiply the impact of the information measure over the rural citizens. Also, the main indirect beneficiaries of the information measures are represented by the press readers (estimated 50.000 people in the 2 countries on the basis of local and specialist press diffusion) as well as farmers (estimated in 3.000 people). This last will be reached by information spread by other farmers and professionals targeted by the information event.
References 1. * * *, - CROSSCAP/2010 Italy-Romanian Project 2010/2011 2. * * * , - www.crosscap-webtv.eu 3. Baldwin R., Wyplosz C., - The Economics of European Integration, McGraw Hill, 2006 4. Ciupagea C., - The Evaluation of the Cost and the Benefits Generated by the Romania’s Ascension at the European Union, Romanian European Institute Publishing House, Impact Studies PAIS II, Bucharest, 2004 5. Giurca D., Luca L., Hurduseu G.,- Scenarios Regarding the Impact of the Rural Development Measures on the Romanian Agricultural Structures after the European Union, Romanian European Institute Publishing House, 2006 6. Goschin Z., Constantin D.L., Roman M., Ileanu B., - Regional Specialisation and Geographic Concentration of Industries in Romania, South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Vol.7, No.1, pp. 61-76, 2009 7. Marelli E., - Specialization and Convergence of European Regions, The European Journal of Comparative Economics, no. 2, 2006 8. Vataman D., David I.,- Romania and European Union. History and Present, ProUniversitaria Publishing House, Bucharest, p. 137, 2008 9. * * *, - Council Decision of 20 February 2006 on Community strategic guidelines for rural development (programming period: from 2007 to 2013), (2006/144/EC), Official Journal of the European Union, 2006 10. * * *, - Regulation no. 1258/1999 regarding the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy, Council of the European Union, 1999
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CONFERENCE ALERTS − SCIENTIFIC EVENTS
YEAR of LIGHT 2015 / UNESCO. International Interdisciplinary Conference and stream of Workshops “LIGHT AND KNOWLEDGE BASED DEVELOPMENT”, Sibiu-Bucharest-Ruse-Aberdeen, EVENT 1: 23 October 2015, Location: Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania. Events to promote Science, Education and Culture organized in the context of International Year of Light 2015 and Celebrations of the 70th anniversary of UNESCO/ „Lights of the World” The open list for Organizers (alphabetical ordered): Knowledge-based Development Foundation – http://www.fdbc.eu, International Consortium Generosity_Creativity_Solidarity, International Law and International Relations Association (ADIRI) / European Foundation “Nicolae Titulescu” – Sibiu Branch, Socio-Economic Cybernetics Commission / from Romanian Academy structures – Sibiu Branch, <
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Knowledge Based Development”, rounded flow Sibiu-Bucharest-Ruse-Aberdeen-Sibiu cities, around November 20, 2015 It proposes that the work / articles to be published in future issues of Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge. For these studies and / or practical activities described / documented in English and typed electronic, publication and indexing operations Internationals, already approved, will be free (0 fee). The open list for Program Committee/Organizing Committee (firstly city-alphabetical ordered + alphabetical ordered by names): Aberdeen: David Atkinson Professor and Very Reverend, St. Anne Church, Kemney, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK; David Johnstone-Butcher, Judge, Zimbabwe – Scotland, UK; Richard Kilgour Very Reverend, General Secretary – International Christian Maritime Association, Glasgow-London, UK; Ken and Ingrid Page – Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; Catriona Manby – Aberdeen, Scotland, UK; Sylvia Sympson – Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. Bucharest: Alexandru T. Bogdan, c.m. of Romanian Academy, PhD. Professor – Director of CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania; Ioan I. Gâf-Deac, PhD., Senior Lecturer, Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Economics and Knowledge Technologies, General manager Free Mind Publishing House; Ioan Gâf-Deac, PhD. (Professor Management & Technologies, International Fellow University of Canberra, Australia), Vice- President FDBC-KBDF, Knowledge-based Development Foundation; Iudith Ipate PhD. Researcher I degree – CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania. New York: Theodor Damian, Director of Gracious Light, Metropolitan College of New York, USA (PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Metropolitan College of New York; President of the American Branch of the Academy of Romanian Scientists; President of the Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality, New York). Ruse: Juliana Popova, PhD., Professor, Angel Kanchev University of Ruse, Bulgaria, Vice Rector of International Cooperation and European Integration. Sibiu: Constantin Chiriac, PhD., Professor, Director of The National Theatre Radu Stanca, Sibiu, Romania, Nicolaie Georgescu, PhD., Professor, President and Rector of Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania; Marcel Nicusor Udrea, PhD., Assoc. Professor, Dean of Alma Mater Sibiu – Bucharest: Nicolae Bulz, PhD. (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia). Registration: 25st July – 15th October. Registration fee: there is not any fee. Central Event Venue: 23 October 2015. Location: Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania. LIGHTS OF THE WORLD. Seminar International /Workshops dedicat promovării știinţei, culturii și educaţiei/ Workshops dedicated to promoting the science, culture and education. Scientific communications session: „Evoking the ”light” as vector for societal sustainable development”. Invited papers: Senior lecturer PhD. Ioan I. Gâf-Deac (The Journal of Economics and Knowledge Technologies, KDBF) Co- Invited papers:Prof.univ.dr. Nicolaie Georgescu (Alma Mater University, Sibiu, Romania),, Prof.univ.dr. Marin Andreica, (Academy of Economics Studies, Bucharest, Romania), Conf.univ.dr. Marcel Nicusor Udrea (Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania). Invited e-papers: Prof.univ.dr. Nicolae Bulz (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia). Co- Invited e-papers: Prof.univ.dr. Ioan Gâf-Deac (International Fellow University of Canberra, Australia, Knowledge-based Development Foundation, Bucharest, Romania). Evoking the ”light”_- Session_1 Chairperson: Prof.univ.dr. Constantin Chiriac,- Director of The National Theatre Radu Stanca, Sibiu, Romania. Regular papers: Prof.univ.dr. Nicolae Bulz (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia). Societal sustainable development - Session_2 Chairperson: Prof.univ.dr. Ioan Gâf-Deac (International Fellow University of Canberra, Australia, Knowledge-based Development Foundation, Bucharest, Romania). Regular papers: Alexandru T. Bogdan, c.m. of Romanian Academy, PhD. Professor – Director of CSBAS / INCE / Romanian Academy Bucharest, Romania. Radial Events Venue: 24 - 31 October 2015 . Location: Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania . Evoking the ”light”_2: Exhibition space and frame for the dialog / e-dialog: Books Exhibition (Publisher within a general expression of interes); Stand Books Exhibition Free Mind Publishing House, Romania; Stand Books Exhibition Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania; Stand Publications Exhibition: (The Journal of Economics and Knowledge Technologies; Revista pentru Dezvoltare bazată pe Cunoaștere; publications Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania); Stand Publications Exhibition: Gracious Light, New York; Presentation Stand Alma Mater University of Sibiu, Romania; Presentation Stand Angel Kanchev University of Ruse, Bulgaria Presentation Stand The National Theatre Radu Stanca, Sibiu, Romania; Presentation Stand Knowledge-based Development Foundation, Bucharest, Romania; Presentation Stand International Consortium Generosity_Creativity_Solidarity; Presentation Stand <
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 107 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge within the BIODIVERSITY-CULTURE-EDUCATION-JUSTICE - and the KNOWLEDGE BASED DEVELOPMENT. Chairpersons: David Johnstone-Butcher, Judge, Zimbabwe – Scotland, UK. Workshop_4: The LIGHT / DARK within ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS, Chairperson: Dipl.Ing.(FH) Arch.Werner Keul - President WK GROUP Srl Initially enrolled communications: An original ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM Dipl.Ing.(FH) Arch.Werner Keul - President WK GROUP SRL Nicolae Bulz, PhD. (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia).Workshop_5: The LIGHT within the contemporary SCIENCE-RELIGION DIALOGUE. Chairpersons: David Atkinson Professor and Very Reverend, St. Anne Church, Kemney, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK. Initially enrolled communications: Mrs. Sylvia Simpson; Ph.D. Ken Page and Ingrid Page; Mrs.Catriona Manby; "WHY ARE WE HERE & WHAT PURPOSE IS OUR EXISTENCE"? Mrs. Sylvia Simpson, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, ON THE QUESTION “WHAT IS TRUTH?” Ph.D. Ken Page and Ingrid Page , Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, ON THE ”THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE” / “TO BE AND TO HAVE” David Johnstone- Butcher, Zimbabwe – Scotland, UK, Comments addressing the study << ON THE ”THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE” / “TO BE AND TO HAVE”>> Mrs.Catriona Manby. (Co-Directors) Richard Kilgour, David Atkinson, Nicolae Bulz. Workshop_6: The LIGHT within the contemporary BIODIVERSITY-SPIRITUALITY nexus of the urban and rural populations’ interests, emotions, bound rationality and enlighten dreams. Chairpersons: Dumitru Grigore, Doctorant, Physicists, Priest, Bucharest, Initially enrolled communications:„Spirituality-Biodiversity” – Heritage, Challenge, Perspectives; Quo Vadis Homine_2050? Nicolae Bulz, PhD. (Associate Professor, National Defence College, Romania - Honorary Researcher, Institute of World Economy/ NERI/ Romanian Academy - Research Associate External, Center for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia). Workshop_7: The LIGHT within the contemporary ideas and proposal; coherent and cohesive collection of Conference proposals addressing Heritage, Challenge, Perspective. October 29 - 31, 2015, Other proposed activities: Peripatetic Debate: Rural and Urban Populations’ Balance – A New Ethnology – Ethnography / Popular Technique Museum, Dumbrava Sibiului, Sibiu, Romania. Concert stage – Bucharest Philharmonic Quartet. Closing Session – Conclusions; new projects; near and next activities.
Website: www.fdbc.eu
EcoSummit 2016. Ecological Sustainability: Engineering Change. 29 August – 1 September 2016, Montpellier, France, Organization: Elsevier. Disciplines: Earth Science, Life Science, Engineering, Chemistry, Subdisciplines: Environmental Science, Biology, Ecology, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Chemistry, Toxicology, Toxicology, Agriculture. The 5th International EcoSummit Congress, EcoSummit 2016, will centre on the ecology of terrestrial ecosystems and all habitats that are integrated within those ecosystems, including river networks, wetlands and coastlines. EcoSummit 2016 will bring together the world’s most respected minds in ecological science. The central and fundamental topics of EcoSummit 2016 are: Agro-ecology; Anthropogenic pressure; Arid lands and desertification; Biodiversity and biological conservation; Biological invasions; Climate change; Disturbance ecology; Ecohydrology; Ecological complexity; Ecological economics; Ecological engineering; Ecological indicators; Ecological intensification; Ecological modeling; Ecosystem creation and restoration; Ecosystem health; Ecosystem services; Ecotoxicology; Environmental policy; Fragile ecosystems and hotspot management; Integrating socio-economics and ecology; Sustainability and resilience; Watershed/River catchment management. This conference series was founded in 1996 in Copenhagen, as a forum to meet the demands of scientists working in several new ecological disciplines, and who required a better understanding of the concepts and methods for a holistic use of ecology in environmental management. Since 1996, EcoSummit has been taken around the world (Canada and China), with EcoSummit 2012 hosting 1600 participants from 75 countries in Columbus, Ohio, USA. EcoSummit 2016 will centre on the ecology of terrestrial ecosystems and all habitats that are integrated within those ecosystems, including river networks, wetlands and coastlines. Focus will be placed on fragile ecosystems that are more likely to suffer the consequences of climate change and anthropogenic pressure. However, in the current context of an increasing world population, changes in social habit (increasing world consumerism) and climate change, it is evident that agriculture is being intensified but with a growing awareness of the need to preserve and use sustainably world resources. Therefore, we will also address how terrestrial restoration can be carried out when
Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 108 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge the massive demand for food results in fragile ecosystems, forests and marginal lands being turned over to agriculture.
Website: http://www.ecosummit2016.org/
ICONN 2016- International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 7-11 Feb 2016. National Convention Centre, Canberra, Australia. The aim of the 2016 International Conference On Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN 2016) is to bring together Australian and International communities (students, scientists, engineers and stake holders from academia, government laboratories, industry and other organisations) working in the field of nanoscale science and technology to discuss new and exciting advances in the field. ICONN will cover nanostructure growth, synthesis, fabrication, characterization, device design, theory, modeling, testing, applications, commercialisation, and health and safety aspects of nanotechnology. The conference will feature plenary talks followed by technical symposia (parallel sessions) consisting of invited talks, oral and poster presentations: Nanomaterials; Nanobiotechnology; Nanoelectronics; Nanophotonics; Computational Nanotechnology; Nanocharacterisation; Nanotechnology for Energy and Environment; Commercialisation, Safety and Societal Issues of Nanotechnology.
Website: http://www.ausnano.net/; www.ausnano.net
Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC), 4–8 April 2016, Pisa, Italy. Organization: ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing (SIGAPP), University of Pisa, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna University. Disciplines: Computer Science, Life Science. Subdisciplines: Programming Languages, Hardware & Architecture, Software Engineering, Security & Privacy, Operating Systems, Networks & Communications, Distributed & Parallel Computing, Cloud Computing, Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Applied Computing. Tracks: Computational Biology and Bioinformatics; Cloud Computing; Computational Intelligence and Video & Image Analysis; Coordination Models, Languages and Applications; Dependable and Adaptive Distributed Systems; Deep Learning and Continuous-Time Computing; Data Mining; Data Streams; Database Theory, Technology, and Applications; Enterprise Application Development and Design; Embedded Systems; Smart Human Computer Interaction; HealthCare; Information Access and Retrieval; Intelligent Information Fusion; Intelligent and Interactive Learning Environments; Intelligent Robotics and Multi-Agent Systems; Mobile Computing and Applications; Multicore Software Engineering, Performance, Applications, and Tools; NeuroComputing; Networking; Object Oriented Programming Languages and Systems; Operating Systems; Practical Aspects of High-Level Parallel Programming; Programming Languages; Requirement Engineering; Reliable Software Technologies and Communication Middleware; Software Architecture: Theory, Technology, and Applications; Computer Security; Software Engineering; Smart Grid and Smart Technologies SGST; Service-Oriented Architecture and Programming; Social Network and Media Analysis; Software Platforms; Software Verification and Testing; Semantic Web and Applications; Trust, Reputation, Evidence and other Collaboration Know-how; Wireless Communications and Networking; Web Technologies.
Website: www.acm.org/conferences/sac/sac2016
The International Society for Ecological Modelling Global Conference 2016, 8-12 May 2016, Towson University, MD, USA. Exchange of ideas, scientific results, and general knowledge in the area of the application of systems analysis and simulation in ecology and natural resources management. The Society was formed in Denmark in 1978—following the journal Ecological Modelling, which was formed in 1975—and today has chapters in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. ISEM sponsors conferences, symposia, and workshops that promote the systems philosophy in ecological research and teaching, and in the management of natural resources. This global conference is the 20th biennial conference of the Society and looks to bring together scientists from all professions and applications that deal with the use of ecological models and systems ecology. The conference will feature prominent keynote speakers, special symposia arranged by leading scientists, general oral and posters sessions, as well as preceding short courses and opportunities for field excursions following the conference. Delegates will have the choice to submit abstracts to the special symposia or the general sessions. Conference papers will be considered for a special issue in the journal Ecological Modelling.
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Themes: Dynamic Ecological Simulation Models (aquatic, terrestrial, energetics, biogeochemical, etc.); Ecological Modelling and Environmental Management (Risk assessment, Flow Analysis, Sustainability, Ecotoxicology, Monitoring and Planning); Modelling Coupled Natural and Social Systems (Socio-Ecological, Urban, Integrated Assessment); Modelling of Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity and Conservation Modelling; Ecological Landscape and Land Use Change Modelling; Ecological Modelling for Climate Change; Network Modelling; Systems Ecology. Symposia: Dynamic energy budgets - relating individual to ecological processes; Eco-hydrological modeling; Ecological modelling and environmental management ISEM 2016 symposium; Environmental accounting using emergy modeling; Forest ecosystem models as decision support systems for ecological forest management; Integrating ecosystem information into population dynamics models; Modelling lakes and wetlands; Modeling ecological dynamics in temporally variable, spatially heterogeneous environments; Modeling human behaviors/decisions and their impacts on the environment; Modeling of ecosystem services for improved decision making; Multimedia environmental modeling for complex environmental systems; Network ecology symposium; Species distribution modelling; Surface modelling of ecosystem services and driving forces of ecosystem changes; Symposium on the AQUATOX ecotoxicologic risk assessment model; Symposium on SLAMM—the maturation of a landscape-ecologic model; Urban system modelling and global change.
Website: http://www.isemconference.com/
Microtubules: From Atoms to Complex Systems. European Molecular Biology Organization. EMBL Course and Conference Office. European Molecular Biology Laboratory. EMBL., Heidelberg, Germany. (M. Dogterom, C. Janke, A. Musacchio, M. Steinmetz). Sunday 29 May - Wednesday 1 June 2016. The Microtubule field is broad and has progressively branched out into many different subdomains that only rarely enjoy occasions to communicate. Bringing together researchers from these different domains creates novel opportunities for interactions and collaborations, and is expected to catalyse new groundbreaking ideas that could significantly advance our understanding of the microtubule cytoskeleton in health and disease. The 2016 Microtubule Symposium coincides with the 50th anniversary of the discovery of tubulin. With an eye to history and one to the future, we will bring together representative members of the main domains of the microtubule field, ranging from structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics to cell biology, genetics and chemical biology. Each session will include a Landmark lectures, main talks and short talks selected from poster abstracts. The Landmark lectures will provide a historical perspective on each domain, thus building a bridge between initial discoveries and current research. The main talks as well as the selected short talks will present the most exciting state-of-the-art advances in the field, ideally including unpublished work. A round table discussion will also take place, in which we will explore the field’s future perspectives. Topics: Tubulin pharmacology; Microtubule dynamic instability; Tubulin post-translational modifications and isotypes; Tubulin and microtubule structure; Microtubules in disease; Microtubules in neurons; Microtubule motors; Microtubules in cell division; Microtubules in centrosomes, cilia, flagella; Evolutionary divergence of tubulin and microtubules; Non-motile microtubule-associated proteins; Microtubule biophysics and modeling.
Website: http://www.embo-embl-symposia.org/
International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena, 17–22 July 2016, Santa Fe, United States. Organization: Optical Society (OSA). Disciplines: Life Science, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science. Subdisciplines: Biology, Medicine, Optics & Photonics, Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, Materials Science. Venue: Santa Fe Community Convention Center. The Ultrafast Phenomena Conference is part of a series on advances in research on ultrafast science and technology. This meeting is widely recognized as the main international forum for the discussion of progress in this rapidly moving field. The conference will bring together a multidisciplinary group of scientists and engineers sharing a common interest in the generation of ultrashort pulses in the picosecond, femtosecond, and attosecond regimes and their use for studies of ultrafast phenomena in physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, electronics, engineering, and medicine. In addition, submissions involving real world applications of ultrafast technology are encouraged. A tabletop exhibit featuring leading companies will be held in conjunction with the meeting.
Website: http://www.osa.org/
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International Conference on E-Business and Supply Chain Competitiveness (EBSCC 2016). Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. February 12-14, 2016. Conference Objectives: The objective of the conference is to provide a platform for academicians, researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs who are interested in cutting edge technology of e-Business and its current applications to exchange knowledge, experiences and share innovative ideas to improve business processes, includes managing internal processes such as human resources, financial and administration systems, as well as external processes such as sales and marketing, supply of goods and services, and customer relationships. Conference Tracks: ICT for managing value chain and supply chain operations; Supply chain integration, inter-operability and enterprise computing; Service computing, mobile computing, cloud and Internet of things in supply chain; Supply chain collaboration and coordination; Supply chain traceability and visualization; Supply chain data analytics; Supply chain issues in SMEs and role of ICT; ICT for supply chain sustainability; Innovative E-Business models, applications, implementations and case studies.
Website: http://www.iem.iitkgp.ernet.in/
The Third Conference on Auctions, Market Mechanisms and Their Applications (AMMA 2015). Will be held August 8-9, 2015 at the University of Chicago's Becker Friedman Institute and Booth School of Business, Chicago, Illinois, United States. AMMA focuses on the economic, algorithmic, technical, and practical issues that arise in developing and deploying market mechanisms. This includes, but is not limited to, theoretical and empirical examination of questions like: Is a market the right mechanism for the problem? What are the externalities involved? What are the issues with central planning? How should novel markets be organized? What is the "right" micro-structure for a given setting? What is the best way to provide incentives? Is (real) money necessary? How do markets function in artificial economies (cf. bank runs in Second Life and similar games)? What protocols maximize the social value of market intermediaries? Is there a need for new mechanisms for specific applications? In addition to more traditional academic papers, we are especially interested in papers presenting experiences from the real world (case studies and new applications). Below are some potential areas, but the list is illustrative rather than exhaustive -- we welcome papers in all areas of market design. Sample areas include: Content delivery networks; Resource allocation in networks and distributed computing; Online auctions and exchanges; Markets and incentives in crowdsourcing; Entrepreneurial market design; Prediction markets; Airport landing slot allocation; Road congestion pricing; School choice matching; Organ exchange; Social networks; Financial market design; Combinatorial auctions and exchanges.
Website: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=amma2015
2015 MIT Research and Development Conference. Leading Disruption. November 18-19, 2015. Kresge Auditorium, Building W16. The pace of technological innovation continues accelerating, disrupting industries as diverse as healthcare, transportation, education, finance, mining, food, and retail, challenging companies to reinvent themselves to stay relevant and productive. What are leading sources of disruption to our status quo, and how can we be better prepared to turn challenge and disruption into opportunity and advantage? The 2015 MIT Research and Development Conference explore some of the latest disruptions emerging from MIT labs and hear from the researchers, entrepreneurs, and executives leading disruption today. Themes: Food; Advanced Manufacturing; Cybersecurity; Urban Mobility; Energy and Materials; LABi / Innovation Initiative.
Website: http://ilp.mit.edu/
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NEWS & INFORMATION
NCC Education is a global provider and awarding body of British education. The company provides students with the opportunity to gain internationally recognized British qualifications by studying at one of its global network of Accredited Partner Centres, either through the classroom or online. NCC Education is a global provider of education and assessment solutions. For over 35 years NCC Education have given students the opportunity to get internationally recognised qualifications by studying at one of our Accredited Partner Centres around the world. In partnership with over 350 education centres in more than 45 countries, NCC Education help students develop the skills and knowledge required to access rewarding career. (www.nccedu.com, www.trainingpressreleases.com/ news/ ncc-education). Originally part of the National Computing Centre, NCC Education was initially established as an IT initiative by the British Government in 1966. NCC Education started offering IT qualifications in 1976 and from 1997 developed its Higher Education portfolio to include Business programmes and a range of foundation programmes. From early 2002, NCC Education started offering Information Communication Technology (ICT) programmes for schools. Today, NCC Education has an extensive network of Accredited Partner Centres in over 50 countries, international offices situated in the UK (Manchester), Nepal (Kathmandu), China (Beijing), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and South Africa (Cape Town) and employs academic managers worldwide. NCC Education is accredited by Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and regulated by Ofqual. Recognised by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) in the UK. The company's qualifications are articulated by a number of UK universities or for entry onto years one, two and three of specific degree programmes. NCC Education works in close partnership with University of Wales, University of Greenwich, offeringBachelor's Degrees as well as a Master's programme with the University of Hertfordshire. (wiki /NCC_Education). According to statistics released by The Times Higher Education Supplement Good University Guide 2006, UK, NCC Education has formal university articulation agreements with one in four of the top 100 universities and over 15% of the top 20 universities accept NCC Education successful graduates. Of the Universities that formally accept NCC Education graduates almost half received a teaching ranking above the average. These Universities include Bath, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes, and York. Many of these universities also scored highly in terms of graduates prospects on degree completion, with graduates having 60% or higher success rate. The University of Huddersfield, who have recently formalised a new partnership with NCC Education to offer the final year of their BSc (Hons) Computing and Internet Systems degree at selected NCC Education Accredited Partner Centres, saw their ranking move up eight places, the third highest increase in the rankings. Other universities featured on the list that accepts NCC Education graduates include the RAE 6 Star Research rated Information Systems Institute at the University of Salford and the University of Portsmouth. The University of Portsmouth have worked in collaboration with NCC Education since 2002 to offer the Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Business IT awarded by NCC Education leading to the MSc in Strategic Business IT awarded by the University. NCC Education is a UK Awarding Body which delivers a range of high quality, recognised IT and business examinations in the UK and globally.(Manchester, United Kingdom, nccedu.com). Accredited Partner Centres have full access to our portfolio of qualifications and teaching programmes plus bespoke academic and marketing support. NCC Education’s teaching programmes provide your teachers with everything that they need to start delivering the qualification to students with ease. By becoming an Accredited Partner Centre it will receive access to: Extensive teaching materials and comprehensive teaching guides, provide all resources and full programmes of study right down to suggested individual lesson Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 112 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge plans, Bespoke Academic Support and Teacher Training, Examination and Moderation Support, Staff and student access to our online Digital Library, Free access to anti-plagiarism software, Turnitin. Pre-inspection Support, Marketing Support, Business development support as well as an assigned Academic Manager, Centre Support Executive and Marketing Support. The agreements include universities which recognise NCC Education qualification for entry on to various subjects as well as Advanced Standing and Exemption agreements to enable students to advance on to a particular year of a degree course. Guaranteed Entry refers to an agreement with a university that allows NCC Education candidates, upon successful completion of their qualification, to apply for guaranteed entry on to university level courses, subject to specific entry requirements. Recognised for Entry refers to an agreement with a university that allows NCC Education candidates with qualifications such as the International Foundation Year (IFY) or Pre-Master’s entry on to year 1 of a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, as the NCC Education qualification satisfies the university entry requirements. Advanced Standing refers to an agreement with a university that allows NCC Education candidates to enter Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with credit, for example: an NCC Education candidate who holds a Level 4 Diploma in Business can enter on to year 2 of a relevant Bachelor’s degree.
With over 200 centres in more than 45 countries, NCC Education offers a worldwide network of places to study. In Romania NCC Education offer places to study at Universitatea Bioterra, Str. Garlei, Nr. 81, Sector 1, Bucharest, www.bioterra.ro.
Website: ncc education uk; www.bioterra.ro
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Valahia University of Târgoviște, Romania. Rector: Professor PhD. Călin D. OROS. Valahia University of Târgoviște it is a state university, founded in 1992, with the qualifier "High Degree of Confidence" granted by the Council of ARACIS (The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education). The university is evaluated by the European University Association through Institutional Evaluation Programme. Multidisciplinary Scientific and Technologic Research Institute (ICSTM) of Valahia University of Târgoviște (VUT) represent a professional and independent organization, apolitical and non-governmental, legally dependent of UVT, created to attend the university personnel and the other specialized collaborators of the university in realizing research projects, financed by national and international programs and trough contracts with businesses. The ICSTM mission is to provide, coordinate, monitor and support scientific research, experimental development, innovation and technological transfer, consultancy, expertise, training and professional development in the areas of scientific competence of UVT. ICSTM reunites all the research centres accredited institutional in UVT. Now, ICSTM is composed of 15 research centres where operates the active staff and associated holders of VUT. As an essential part of its strategy Valahia University of Târgoviște offer a variety of support services for students, being constantly concerned about their improvement and about the creation of new services, as it is aware of the fact that good quality of the educational environment attracts superior results along the two main activity axes: education and research. Currently, all forms of education, about 11,000 students studying under the competent guidance of over 320 teachers, organized in academic departments benefiting from the corresponding material. Besides teaching and research activity, Valahia University of Targoviste includes in its structure, training centers continue in accordance with the requirements of socio-economic environment in which it works. The Valahia University of Targoviste considers its students to be its main objective and, for this reason and with its European vocation in mind, it has adapted its studies to the creation of the European Higher Education Area. In this sense and convinced of the need for a reform to bring about a real comparison among the degrees of different European universities and to facilitate greater mobility among students and graduates, our university is firmly committed to continuing an all-rounded education and to quality teaching and research. Numerous student exchange programs and research collaborations with Romanian and non-Romanian universities are an everyday part of life at the Valahia University of Targoviste. As a research institution, the University must make its contribution to scientific and intellectual progress and educate the next generation of scientists. As an educational institution, the University is responsible for academic career modelling and thus for educating an academic elite. It is about men and women who have gained an understanding of the values of freedom, justice, equality and pluralism, capable and prepared for life and to face the challenges that the future holds. As a public institution, the Valahia University of Targoviste must heighten public awareness for its capabilities and achievements, and become a full and active member of the surrounding community. Apart from didactic and scientific research activities, Valahia University Targoviste comprises Centres of lifelong learning, catering for the needs of the social and economic community it serves. VUT has a wide European experience gained mostly in the frame of Socrates-Comenius Programmes. The obtained results encouraged the projects teams to continue and assume roles and tasks in other projects. The project teams has a great expertise in the area of project management, pedagogical use of ICT, designing ICT tools for educational purposes, multimediatic communication, educational and e-learning platforms, web-tools for on-line assessment etc. The main European projects carried on were: a. 106469-CP-1-2002-1-ES-Comenius-C21: “Think, Construct and Communicate: ICT as a Virtual Learning Environment” (2002 - 2005) – VUT as partner –; b. 118766-CP-1-2004-1-RO-Comenius-C21: “FISTE – A Future Way for In-Service Teacher Training Across Europe” (2004-2007) – VUT as coordinator; c. 128989-CP-1-2006-1-RO-Comenius-C21: “VccSSe – Virtual Community Collaborating Space for Science Education” (2006 - 2009) – VUT as coordinator–; d. 134405-LLP-1-2007-1-TR-Comenius-CMP: “BSI - Broad Sweeps Of Imagination - A New Method to Teach a Foreign Language” (2007 - 2009) – VUT as partner. Valahia University of Targoviste - UVT (Project Coordinator) - will carry out activities related to the database population and implementation, Rokidair geoportal development based on a web-based GIS solution together with software applications interfacing within the geoportal. The activities will focus on thematic maps development, attribute data and corresponding layers processing, monitoring information and laboratory analysis georeferencing and their integration into the GIS environment. Based on paediatric specialists, UVT team will insure an important task, namely the medical database population and criteria selection to rank vulnerability of our target groups. Furthermore, UVT will provide the analysis of compounds and elements carried by PM2.5 and will help the improvement of mathematical modelling. Studies opportunity: Faculty of Economics. Dean: Univ. Prof. Dr. Ion Stegaroiu. Bachelor programs: Accountancy and Bookkeeping Information Systems; Management; Marketing; Finances and banks; Economy of Trade, Tourism and Services; Economy of Trade, Tourism and Services – Alexandria. Master programs: Audit for Public and Private Entities; Accountancy; Management for Tourist and Service Companies; Corporate Management; Information Management; Banking and Financial Management; Marketing; Corporate management (études en français: La gestion de l'entreprise). Doctoral programs: Accountancy; Management. Faculty of Materials Engineering and Mechanics. Dean: Dr. Eng. Vasile Bratu. Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 114 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
Bachelor programs: Materials Engineering; Mechanical Engineering. Master programs: Advanced Materials; Industrial Equipments and Installations. Doctoral programs: Materials Engineering; Mechanical Engineering. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology. Dean: Dr. Eng. Henri George Coanda. Bachelor programs: Automatics and Applied Informatics; Applied Electronics /Technologies and Telecommunication Systems; Electrotechnics; Industrial Energetics. Master programs: Advanced Telecommunications, Information Processing and Transmission Systems; Advances Automatics, Production Systems and Applied Informatics; Audit of Energetic Systems; Modern Systems and Equipments for Energy Production and Use; Advanced Command for Complex Systems (études en français: Commandes Avancées des Systèmes Complexes). Doctoral programs: Electrical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering. Faculty of Political Sciences, Letters and Communication. Dean: Professor dr. Petre Mareș. Bachelor Programmes: Romanian Language and Literature – English/French Language and Literature; Journalism; Political Sciences. Master Programmes: Journalism and European Cultural Studies. Faculty of Humanities. Dean: Univ. Prof. Dr. Constantin Pehoiu. Bachelor programs: History; Romanian Language and Literature – English/French Language and Literature; Geography; Physical and Sportive Education. Master programs: Physical Education, Tourism and Leisure-Time Activities; Environmental Quality and Geographic Risk Phenomena; Museology and Patrimony Conservation in the Contemporary Society; Unity of the European History. Faculty of Sciences and Arts. Dean: Prof. dr. habil. Cristinel Mortici. Bachelor programs: Mathematics – Informatics; Physics; Chemistry; Musical Pedagogy. Master programs: Didactic Mathematics; Applied Physics; Physico-Chemical Analysis Methods for Life and Environment Quality Control; Musical Education. Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences. Dean: Ph.D. Associate Professor Livia Mocanu. Bachelor programs: Law (day-studies and distance learning); Public administration (day-studies and distance learning). Master programs: Business Law; European Public Administration.
Website: http://www.valahia.ro/ E-mail: [email protected]
Economic’s View
• USA will continue to dominate the Global Economy. 1) The U.S. economy is the largest and most productive in the world (The U.S. accounts for one-fifth of global GDP with only 4.5% of the world's population); 2) The U.S. leads the world in manufactured goods (Nominal manufacturing output totaled $1.9 trillion in 2012, a rise of 27% from 2009); 3) The U.S. is among the largest exporters of goods and services (Exports since the recession have taken off. In 2012, total exports totaled $2.2 trillion, nearly a 40% rise from 2009 levels); 4) Foreign investors still love the U.S. (U.S. Foreign Direct Investment inflows in the post-crisis years racked up $736 billion. That's 15% of the global total); 5) America has the top global brands (Eight out of 10 of the world's top brands were American); 6) The U.S. is the world leader in technology (People still flock to America to become tech innovators); 7) America has the world's best colleges (Six out of the top 10 universities in the 2012 Quacquarelli Symonds World Rankings’ were American); 8) The U.S. dollar is king (It's the world's reserve currency); 9) The U.S. has one of the most competitive economies. (Steven Perlberg, Jun. 22, 2013, Business Insider). • What is a circular economy? Since the industrial revolution, waste has constantly grown. This is because our economies have used a “take-make-consume and dispose” pattern of growth – a linear model which assumes that resources are abundant, available and cheap to dispose of. What we need is a more circular economy. This means re-using, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products. What used to be regarded as ‘waste’ can be turned into a resource. The aim is to look beyond waste and to close the loop of the circular economy. All resources need to be managed more efficiently throughout their life cycle. Using resources more efficiently will also bring new growth and job opportunities. Better eco-design, waste prevention and reuse can bring net savings for EU businesses of up to EUR 600 billion, while also reducing total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Additional measures to increase resource productivity by 30% by 2030 could boost GDP by nearly 1%, while creating 2 million additional jobs. Moving towards a circular economy is at the heart of the resource efficiency agenda established under the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The main ideas on how to do more with less are being taken further in the EU's Environment Action Programme to 2020. • European Commission will present an ambitious circular economy strategy in late 2015. The Commission is aiming to present a new, more ambitious circular economy strategy late in 2015, to transform Europe into a more competitive resource-efficient economy, addressing a range of economic sectors, including waste. The proposal will be fully aligned with the priorities of the new Commission. The Commission is engaged in a thorough reflection on how the objective of circular economy can be reached in an efficient way that is fully compatible with the jobs and growth agenda. The new strategy will include a new legislative proposal on waste targets, taking into account the input already given to us during public consultations, and by Council and in Parliament, in particular the comments made by
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many that the previous proposals needed to be more country-specific. (www http://ec.europa.eu/ environment, May 2015). • Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes. (Business white paper | Security operations. hp.com/go/getupdated, 2013) • The reasons why inequality is bad for society. 1. Economic inequality can give wealthier people an unacceptable degree of control over the lives of others. 2. Economic inequality can undermine the fairness of political institutions. 3. Economic inequality undermines the fairness of the economic system itself. 4. Workers, as participants in a scheme of cooperation that produces national income, have a claim to a fair share of what they have helped to produce. (T. M. Scanlon, Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity at Harvard University, The 4 biggest reasons why inequality is bad for society, http://ideas.ted.com/, 06/03/2014). • Most macro models lump all consumers into one giant superconsumer, all companies into one giant supercompany and so forth. Even the models that differentiate people and companies tend to do so only in a limited way - limiting the economy to two types of people, for example, or having people differ only in their level of wealth. (Noah Smith, Assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, A Little Disruption, Big Economic Shocks, May 1, 2015, Bloomberg View, http://www.bloombergview.com). • When supply exceeds demand, prices fall. But in the world of content marketing, the prices cannot fall because the “price” of the content is already zero — we give it away for free. So, to get people to consume our content, we actually have to pay them to do it, and as the supply of content explodes, we will have to pay our customers increasing amounts to the point where it is not feasible any more. (Content Shock: Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy, www.businessesgrow.com/ 2014/01/06/, 2015 Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}) • Important sources of new economic thinking (Barry Eichengreen): 1. “Big data”–the use of computers to handle more than just a few aggregate indicators. 2. “New data”–the use of communications technologies to free economists from reliance on a near-exclusive government’s-eye view of the economy. 3. “Policy history”–precisely because this time is not (very) different, what policies were used last time and how they worked is valuable information. 4. “Institutional history”–it is no longer John Maynard Keynes’s 1925 but our 2015. We have 90 years to add to the 50 he had to try to assess the performance of global post-agricultural market economies. The longer baseline and more institutional variation allows us to move from theory to empirics in studying institutions and the emergent patterns to which they give rise. (Brief Thoughts on Barry Eichengreen on New Economic Thinking, by Brad DeLong, June 1, 2015, The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, http://equitablegrowth.org) • The problem with macroeconomics is not that it has become overly mathematical – it is not the tools and techniques we use to answer questions. The problem is the sociology within the economics profession that prevents some questions from being asked. (Mark Thoma, September 16, 2014, The Fiscal Times.com, www.thefiscaltimes.com) • To be considered scientific a discipline must be falsifiable through clear independent experiments, a condition that it is absent in economics (particularly in macroeconomics). We also maintain that founding a discipline on mathematics does not automatically confer to the discipline in question a scientific status: only an experimental attitude can do so. This is not to say that non scientific disciplines are not useful: humanities and social sciences, though not strictly scientific per se, undoubtedly contribute to progress in human knowledge. (Non-scientific disciplines alone need to distinguish between orthodoxy and heterodoxy – part II, ECONplexity¸www.e-complex.it/, 26 May 2015)
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2015 (MIT Technology Review).
1. Magic Leap (A startup is betting more than half a billion dollars that it will dazzle you with its approach to creating 3-D imagery. Availability: 1-3 years). 2. Nano-Architecture (A Caltech scientist creates tiny lattices with enormous potential. Availability: 3-5 years) 3. Car-to-Car Communication (A simple wireless technology promises to make driving much safer. Availability: 1-2 years).
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4. Project Loon (Billions of people could get online for the first time thanks to helium balloons that Google will soon send over many places cell towers don’t reach. Availability: 1-2 years). 5. Liquid Biopsy (Fast DNA-sequencing machines are leading to simple blood tests for cancer. Availability: now) 6. Megascale Desalination (The world’s largest and cheapest reverse-osmosis desalination plant is up and running in Israel. Availability: now). 7. Apple Pay (A clever combination of technologies makes it faster and more secure to buy things with a wave of your phone. Availability: now). 8. Brain Organoids (A new method for growing human brain cells could unlock the mysteries of dementia, mental illness, and other neurological disorders. Availability: now). 9. Supercharged Photosynthesis (Advanced genetic tools could help boost crop yields and feed billions more people. Availability: 10-15 years). 10. Internet of DNA (A global network of millions of genomes could be medicine’s next great advance. Availability: 1-2 years).
Website: www.technologyreview.com
About 10 upcoming, real-life products that is set to revolutionize the world as we know it. 1. Google Glass. (able to view social media feeds, text, Google Maps, as well as navigate with GPS and take photos). 2. Form 1. (Just as the term suggests, 3D printing is the technology that could forge digital design into a solid real-life product. Imagine a future where every individual professional has the capability to mass produce their own creative physical products without limitation. This is the future where personal productivity and creativity are maximized). 3. Oculus Rift. (In the Rift’s virtual world, could turn head around with ultra-low latency to view the world in high resolution display. The timing is perfect as the world is currently bombarded with the virtual reality topic that could also be attributed to Sword Art Online). 4. Leap Motion. (Leap Motion wants to challenge dark area again with a more advanced idea. It lets control the desktop with fingers, but without touching the screen). 5. Eye Tribe. (It’s basically taking the common eye-tracking technology and combining it with a front-facing camera plus some serious computer-vision algorithm, and voila, fruit slicing done with the eyes). 6. SmartThings. (With SmartThings can get smoke alarms, humidity, pressure and vibration sensors to detect changes in your house and alert you through your smartphone) 7. Firefox OS. (Developers can create and debut web apps without the blockade of requirements set by app stores, and users could even customize the OS based on their needs). 8. Project Fiona. (This beast features next generation Intel® Core i7 processor. Crowned as the best gaming accessories manufacturer, Razer clearly knows how to build user experience straight into the tablet, and that means 3-axis gyro, magnetometer, accelerometer and full-screen user interface supporting multi-touch). 9. Parallella. Parallella it’s a supercomputer. Basically, an energy-efficient computer built for processing complex software simultaneously and effectively. Real-time object tracking, holographic heads-up display, speech recognition will become even stronger and smarter with Parallella. 10. Google Driverless Car. While the data source is still a secret recipe, the Google driverless car is powered by artificial intelligence that utilizes the input from the video cameras inside the car, a sensor on the vehicle’s top, and some radar and position sensors attached to different positions of the car. Sounds like a lot of effort to mimic the human intelligence in a car, but so far the system has successfully driven 1609 kilometres without human commands. (Technology Design Inspiration, http://www.hongkiat.com/, June 2015)
Technological Inspirations
• Technological paternalism: on how medicine has reformed ethics and how technology can refine moral theory. (Hofmann B., Center for Medical Ethics, University of Oslo, Norway. Sci. Eng Ethics. 2003 Jul; 9/3: 343-52) • Hybrid cars recapture some of the energy usually lost in braking but the dissipation of vibration energy by shock absorbers in the vehicle suspension remains an untapped source of potential energy. To harvest this lost energy the researchers have designed and tested a shock absorber that can be retrofitted to cars to convert the kinetic energy of suspension vibration between the wheel and sprung mass into useful electrical power. (Regenerative shock absorber to bump up car energy capture capabilities, Darren Quick - March 19, 2010, /www.gizmag.com) • Nanotechnology is one of the most prominent emerging technologies. It is heralded as a key technology for the 21st century that will contribute to economic prosperity and sustainable development by a broad alliance of policy-makers, scientists and industry representatives. But despite these strong claims, it remains still under question, whether nanotechnology can be made sustainable and how its potential can Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 117 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
be assessed and realised. (Torsten Fleischer, Armin Grunwald, Making nanotechnology developments sustainable. A role for technology assessment? Journal of Cleaner Production 16 (2008) 889e898) • qPCR vs. Digital PCR vs. Traditional PCR. Real-Time PCR—also called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)—is one of the most powerful and sensitive gene analysis techniques available and is used for a broad range of applications including quantitative gene expression analysis, genotyping, SNP analysis, pathogen detection, drug target validation, and for measuring RNA interference. Frequently, real-time polymerase chain reaction is combined with reverse transcription to quantify messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) in cells or tissues. (www.lifetechnologies.com, 2015)
Current Ideas
• The concepts of justified, warranted, and epistemically rational belief, along with the notion of knowledge, form the core subject matter of epistemology. Despite their centrality, these concepts are used in the literature in strikingly different ways and often with little regard for how they interrelate. (Richard Foley, Justified Belief as Responsible Belief, //philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/, 2015). • The idea of Europe has rarely appealed to unity. Rather, it is the diversity of a large number of very different jurisdictions, and their geographical proximity, that is often evoked. In the past, many have thought of Europe as “more” precisely because it was “more diverse”. Diversity was often seen not as a liability but the core fact that allowed for change and progress. Integration, economic or political, is accompanied by certain unifying myths. In the case of Europe, we should not take these seriously unless they intelligently accommodate diversity. The “unity in diversity” motto is but a starting point, which urgently needs new incarnations. The ideas of Europeanism, federalism, and even “post-material” politics appeal, albeit in different ways, to new possibilities for political, cultural, and social cohesion. (On The Future of European Integration: Idea, Economics, and Political Economy by Dr. José A. Tavares, Dahrendorf Symposia Series - Working Paper 2012 – 13,p.1) • In the context of herding analysis, psychological analyses can explain the impacts of personality traits, moods and emotions on herding behaviour. From the perspective of cognitive psychology, the Bayesian theories outlined above focus on the cognitive processes of social learning as a way to acquire information and knowledge but the underlying dependence on an assumption of rationality limits these analyses. (Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, Tversky A, Kahneman D., Science. 1974 Sept. 27; 185(4157):1124-31., Herding, social influence and economic decision-making: socio- psychological and neuroscientific analyses, Michelle Baddeley, Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sciv. 365(1538); 2010 Jan 27) • Neuroeconomics seeks to gain a greater understanding of decision making by combining theoretical and methodological principles from the fields of psychology, economics, and neuroscience. Initial studies using this multidisciplinary approach have found evidence suggesting that the brain may be employing multiple levels of processing when making decisions, and this notion is consistent with dual-processing theories that have received extensive theoretical consideration in the field of cognitive psychology, with these theories arguing for the dissociation between automatic and controlled components of processing. (Sanfey AG, Chang LJ., Multiple systems in decision making, Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 2008 Apr; 1128:53-62) • Towards a Comparative Epistemology of Divergent Knowledge Forms. Epistemology as a philosophical discipline is devoted to answering questions such as What is knowledge? How to assess the reliability and truthfulness of various knowledge forms? In this book, knowledge will be regarded as a process in the course of which nature as ϕσις, i.e. as something which initially presents itself to us as incomprehensible, inaccessible, unpredictable and diffuse, becomes increasingly transparent and discrete: objectified and accountable nature. (Hub Zwart, Understanding Nature. Case Studies in Comparative Epistemology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, http:// www.filosofie.science.ru.nl /) • The neuronal and psychological mechanisms that allow guidance of decisions based on more internally oriented criteria in the absence of external ones remain unclear. The meta-analysis revealed that the neural network used predominantly for internally guided decision-making differs from that for externally guided decision-making under uncertainty. This result suggests that studying only externally guided decision-making under uncertainty is insufficient to account for decision-making processes in the brain. (Nakao T., Ohira H., Northoff G., - Distinction between Externally vs. Internally Guided Decision-Making: Operational Differences, Meta-Analytical Comparisons and Their Theoretical Implications, Front Neurosci. 2012 Mar 5; 6:31) • Affective Computing and Interaction: Psychological, Cognitive and Neuroscientific Perspectives examines the current state and the future prospects of affect in computing within the context of interactions. Uniting several aspects of affective interactions and topics in affective computing, this reference reviews basic foundations of emotions, furthers an understanding of the contribution of affect to our lives and concludes by revealing current trends and promising technologies for reducing the Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 118 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
emotional gap between humans and machines, all within the context of interactions.( Didem Gökçay, Middle Eastern Technical University and Gülsen Yildirim, Middle Eastern Technical University, Turkey, 2010., http://www.igi-global.com/) • A recent review of nanoscale sciences and technologies in the social and human sciences (SHS) points out that the issues of what is about to become a research field on the ethical and social implications of nano will remain too vague as long as (Kjølberg & Wickson 2007): • significant applications of nano are still largely hypothetical and futuristic, • there is no consensus on the definition of nano, • there is no consensus on how to distinguish (or not) between nanoscience(s) and nanotechnology, • there is no consensus on the dimension of novelty in the concerned practices, • only 10% of nano-based literature directly concerns ‘science’, i.e. analysis of practice and knowledge, • even without directly dealing with it, only 20% of the literature shows any concern on the matter. (About a Definition of Nano: How to Articulate Nano and Technology? Sacha Loeve, HYLE – International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry, Vol. 16 (2010), No. 1, 3-18.)
Definitions
• Ethnocomputing – Computers as Cultural Systems. Apart from the general software studies research programme, an important research, called ethnocomputing, is being conducted on the cultural conditions of computer science. Ethnocomputing is defined as “the study of computational phenomena within a culture” (Tedre 2002: 43). The main areas of ethnocomputing are defined as: “(a) data structures: organized structures and models that are used to represent information; (b) algorithms: ways of manipulating organized information; and (c) physical and linguistic realizations of data structures and algorithms: devices, tools, games, art, or other kinds of realizations of computational processes” (Tedre & Eglash 2008). The focus of ethnocomputing until now has been largely on how computational concepts affect cultural practices, but less on how cultural practices influence the designs of computer based systems. (Thor Magnusson, Epistemic Tools, The Phenomenology of Digital Musical Instruments, University of Sussex July, 2009) • Hyperreality is closely related to the concept of the simulacrum: a copy or image without reference to an original. In postmodernism, hyperreality is the result of the technological mediation of experience, where what passes for reality is a network of images and signs without an external referent, such that what is represented is representation itself. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://plato.stanford.edu/, 2015) • Notions of tacit or embodied knowledge, of knowledge by acquaintance, of engineering or thing knowledge, and reconstructions of ability or skill take us only part of the way towards answering such questions. The epistemology of technoscience needs to account for the acquisition and demonstration of a public knowledge of control that does not consist in the holding of propositions, even though it is usually communicated in writing: Technoscientific knowledge is, firstly, objective and public insofar as it is exhibited and documented. Secondly, it presupposes a specific context of technology and expertise. Thirdly, it is communicable, even where the achieved capability itself is not. Knowledge of control entails, fourthly, a knowledge of causal relationships, and it sediments itself, fifthly, as a habit of action in the sense proposed by Charles Sanders Peirce. (Alfred NordmannProfessor, Institute of Philosophy Darmstadt Technical University, Germany. http://www.scielo.br/, 2015) • (…) Non-epistemic values are as important as epistemic ones when engineers seek to develop the best model of a process or problem. The upshot of all this is that models are neither value-free, nor depend exclusively on epistemic values or use non-epistemic values only as tie-breakers. By bringing attention to the role of non-epistemic values we hope to show that engineers have a non-trivial and morally relevant influence on the construction and application of models. (Sci Eng Ethics. 2013 Mar; 19(1): 207–218. 2011 Aug 7. doi: 10.1007/s11948-011-9300-4. The Role of Non-Epistemic Values in Engineering Models, Sven Diekmann, Martin Peterson) • Cybernetics takes as its domain the design or discovery and application of principles of regulation and communication. Cybernetics treats not things but ways of behaving. It does not ask "what is this thing?" but "what does it do?" and "what can it do?" Because numerous systems in the living, social and technological world may be understood in this way, cybernetics cuts across many traditional disciplinary boundaries. The concepts which cyberneticians develop thus form a metadisciplinary language by which we may better understand and modify our world. (ASC, The George Washington University, American Society for Cybernetics, Definitions of Cybernetics, http://www.gwu.edu/) • Knowledge is defined as facts and concept of engineering education. The skills are those used by engineers in managing and applying their knowledge in solving problems. Whilst, attitude is how people use their skill and knowledge through personal values, concerns, preferences and biases toward their professional goal. (Epistemology of Knowledge for Technical and Engineering Education, Rohana Hamzah, Sarimah Ismail Kamarudzaman Md Isa, http://www.sciencedirect.com/) Vol. 1. No. 6, 2015 119 Journal of Economics and Technologies Knowledge
• Epistemic cognition is a slippery concept that is difficult to discuss in concrete terms. It is, broadly, defined as people’s ideas about the nature of knowledge and knowing [9]. It is, typically, conceived of as deriving from philosophical epistemology, which is concerned with the nature of knowledge, its sources and limits. (Towards the Design of A Representational Tool To Scaffold Students’ Epistemic Understanding of Psychology in Higher Education Katerina Avramides and Rose Luckin, http://people.cs.pitt.edu/) • Ideal decision theories ascribe special philosophical importance to the moral decisions of idealized persons who decide under idealized circumstances. Only some ideal decision theories are moral epistemic theories (others are non-epistemic, for example, ethical or metaethical theories), and only some of those offer whole approaches to moral epistemology. (Moral Epistemology, http://www.iep.utm.edu/) • Knowledge Norm of Action. Knowledge seems intimately connected to our reasons for, and our evaluations of, action. Recently many philosophers have endorsed normative connections between knowledge and action, and have deployed principles according to which knowledge is either necessary, sufficient, or both necessary and sufficient for appropriate action. Some of these discussions are focused on action as the result of practical reasoning, or on the connection between knowledge and reasons, or on knowledge as a sufficient epistemic position for acting on a proposition. We will consider these in turn. (Knowledge Norms, http://www.iep.utm.edu/)
Notes for Prospective Authors All papers must be submitted online, via e-mail, as word document attachments. ([email protected])
KBDF, Knowledge-based Development Foundation
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