The telecommunication sector in Romania

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2010.With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms in order to move from a centralized socialist economy to an economy based on market relations. Romania's transition to a market economy had been protracted and painful due to its legacy of the communist regime, extreme centralization and a high degree of bureaucracy and corruption.Comparing the Romanian and EU telecommunication infrastructure one could find significant differences, which are due to general economic conditions and delayed reforms. The liberalization of telecommunications seems to have had an inappropriate timing in Romania. First of all, it occurred too late, when the mobile telephony boom strongly decreased the interest for fixed line business. Also, liberalization appeared in the context of world telecommunication crisis, which strongly reduced telecom investments and made financing a difficult task. From the beginning of the transition period, Romania has engaged in a rapid opening-up process of its economy, which has resulted, among others, in attracting significant foreign direct investment (FDI). The presence of foreign firms has grown significantly, which is a sign of increasing economic integration

Conflict in Cooperation: Crossborder Infrastructures in Europe Facing the Second World War

Der Band befasst sich mit der grenzüberschreitenden infrastrukturellen Kooperation während des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Er vergleicht die Entwicklung bei Post, Telekommunikation, Eisenbahn und Schifffahrt und ordnet die Ergebnisse in die langfristigen Entwicklungen der Europäischen Integration ein. Damit wird die bislang dominierende These vom Zweiten Weltkrieg als Zäsur in der internationalen Kooperation in Frage gestellt. Zugleich wird gezeigt, dass grenzüberschreitende Initiativen nicht nur trotz, sondern mitunter gerade wegen des Kriegs unternommen wurden. Die einzelnen Beiträge greifen damit auch in die Debatte um das "Neue Europa" ein.This volume deals with cross-border infrastructural cooperation during the Second World War. It compares the development of postal services, telecommunications, railways and shipping, and places its findings in the context of the long-term developments of European integration. It therefore calls into question the hitherto dominant assumption that the Second World War signalled a caesura in international cooperation. At the same time, the study shows that cross-border initiatives were undertaken not only in spite of the war, but sometimes precisely because of it. The individual contributions thus also intervene in the debate on 'New Europe'

Destination Earth: Survey on “Digital Twins” technologies and activities, in the Green Deal area

Digital Twins have been around for decades, especially in industrial processes. However, with the recent advent of transformative digital technologies (i.e. IoT, AI, ML, Big Data analytics, and ubiquitous connectivity) Digital Twins are changing most of the society sectors, providing the most advance pattern to make the physical and the digital worlds interact. Naturally, this is also true for the scientific sector, and in particular those disciplines that are engaged in understanding and addressing the Global Change effects. Thanks to the Digital Twins growing development, for the first time, it is possible to envision a digital replica of important natural and social phenomena and processes, trying to anticipate their behaviour. There exist diverse definitions of Digital Twins, reflecting the diverse concerns of the industrial, scientific, and standardization sectors (in particular IEEE and ISO/IEC), which have been working on their description and realization. The main interaction features characterizing a Digital Twin are: - Interoperability; - Information Model; - Data Exchange; - Administration; - Synchronization; - Push mode (Publish Subscribe). According the scientific research, there is still the need to address the following challenges to push Digital Twins implementation and effective use: - Unify data and model standards; - Share data and models; - Innovate on services; - Establish forums. In industry, Digital Twins are well used in “vertical” sectors/application areas, including: manufacturing, energy, smart cities, farming, building, healthcare. For the applied scientific and research areas, this preliminary study recognized several areas.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom