ICT DETERMINING FACTORS IN INCREASING THE INNOVATION IN ROMANIA

In order to develop competitiveness, to strengthen the economic position in front of the social challenges of the 21st century (which include: climate changes, energy resources, health and aging), large and sustained efforts are made at the European Union level regarding the innovation. This paper investigates how the frequency of computer use by individuals can be linked to the innovation level, in order to establish an ICT determining factor for growing the innovation. The results show that the encouragement of ICT absorption by the individuals can yield to a growth in the innovation level, thus minimizing the gap between Romania and the European Union developed countries.innovation, ICT, correlation, UE 2020 initiative

Some "Lessons Learned" on Social Software for Professional Learning

Research report of the ProLearn Network of Excellence (IST 507310), Deliverable 15.5This deliverable's Conclusion lists some lessons learnt regarding the use of social software for professional learning. The conclusion is based upon experiences and insights reported by PROLEARN members, and also the following three recent items: A report about a workshop conducted at the European conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in Limerick, Ireland tackling the gap between CSCW and Social Software; a report about a track at the Professional Training Facts in Stuttgart, Germany; a questionnaire designed and distributed to get data on the impact of social software on European technology enhanced learning industries

Application of Percolation Theory to Current Transfer in Granular Superconductors

We investigate the description of current transfer in polycrystalline superconductors by percolation theory and its limitations. Various computer models that have been proposed are reviewed and related to the experimental and theoretical framework. While some conductor properties can be well described by percolation theory and models, we argue that a conceptual gap exists between experiment and theory. This gap has to be bridged by finding relations between electromagnetic and statistical parameters. We derive various such relations and compare them with recent simulation data. In particular, we suggest a new scaling law between the two fundamental variables current and probability.Comment: submitted to European Physical Journal B, April 2002, 18 pages revised and re-submitted June 2002; added remarks and references [15-18] on Correlated Percolation; corrected minor errors; updated some reference

Development of information society in Poland in the light of its accession to the European Union

Celem tego artykułu jest analiza procesu budowy społeczeństwa informacyjnego w Polsce na tle działań podejmowanych w Unii Europejskiej i na tle zaawansowania tego procesu w pozostałych krajach UE.The aim of this paper is to analyze the process of information society creation in Poland. A comparative analysis is made against other European Union countries. In the first part of the paper the EU actions in the field of information society creation are presented. Against this background such actions in Poland are discussed. In further work the statistical data concerning the use of ICT in Poland are analyzed, among companies and among households. And finally the situation in Poland is compared with other European Union countries. At the end the author presents some conclusions: - despite of increase in the use of ICT in Poland during last years, the level of development of information infrastructure and services is still lower in Poland than on average in the EU; - this gap is specially visible in the case of households with low income (relatively high percentage of households), in rural areas and in small towns; - the cost of Internet use and computer equipment are main barriers to the development of wider Internet access, however very important and alarming barrier is also low information consciousness among Polish society; - the poor use of European Union funds for information society creation can’t help Polish economy in reducing the gap between Poland and more advanced EU countries

EU-NICE, Eurasian University Network for International Cooperation in Earthquakes

Despite the remarkable scientific advancements of earthquake engineering and seismology in many countries, seismic risk is still growing at a high rate in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Successful practices have shown that a community’s capacity to manage and reduce its seismic risk relies on capitalization on policies, on technology and research results. An important role is played by education, than contribute to strengthening technical curricula of future practitioners and researchers through university and higher education programmes. In recent years an increasing number of initiatives have been launched in this field at the international and global cooperation level. Cooperative international academic research and training is key to reducing the gap between advanced and more vulnerable regions. EU-NICE is a European Commission funded higher education partnership for international development cooperation with the objective to build capacity of individuals who will operate at institutions located in seismic prone Asian Countries. The project involves five European Universities, eight Asian universities and four associations and NGOs active in advanced research on seismic mitigation, disaster risk management and international development. The project consists of a comprehensive mobility scheme open to nationals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, North Korea, Philippines, and Sri Lanka who plan to enrol in school or conduct research at one of five European partner universities in Italy, Greece and Portugal. During the 2010-14 time span a total number of 104 mobilities are being involved in scientific activities at the undergraduate, masters, PhD, postdoctoral and academic-staff exchange levels. This high number of mobilities and activities is selected and designed so as to produce an overall increase of knowledge that can result in an impact on earthquake mitigation. Researchers, future policymakers and practitioners build up their curricula over a range of disciplines in the fields of engineering, seismology, disaster risk management and urban planning. Specific educational and research activities focus on earthquake risk mitigation related topics such as: anti-seismic structural design, structural engineering, advanced computer structural collapse analysis, seismology, experimental laboratory studies, international and development issues in disaster risk management, social-economical impact studies, international relations and conflict resolution

Addressing the Gender Gap in Computer Programming Through the Design and Development of Serious Games

The gap between male and female participation in computer science education and careers is a worldwide issue that must be addressed by introducing early methodological learning interventions that make computer science attractive to all, that is by answering the following issues: a) misperception among educators, learners, parents and youngsters on the suitability of computer science careers to girls and b) a wrong assumption of an insufficient preparedness to do it successfully. This article presents a European initiative - CODING4GIRLS - that proposes to teach coding through a game design and development process based on a design thinking methodological approach that is linked to creativity and human-centered solutions. In this methodology, students address increasingly complex real-life challenges by designing and developing awareness raising serious games for which they need to learn specific coding concepts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The digital skills divide: evidence from the European tourism industry

Purpose: This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria). Findings: The most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents’ answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them. Originality/value: The paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future

Transverse phase matching of high-order harmonic generation in single-layer graphene

[EN]The efficiency of high-harmonic generation (HHG) from a macroscopic sample is strongly linked to the proper phase matching of the contributions from the microscopic emitters. We develop a combined micro+macroscopic theoretical model that allows us to distinguish the relevance of high-order harmonic phase matching in single-layer graphene. For a Gaussian driving beam, our simulations show that the relevant HHG emission is spatially constrained to a phase-matched ring around the beam axis. This remarkable finding is a direct consequence of the non-perturbative behavior of HHG in graphene—whose harmonic efficiency scaling is similar to that already observed in gases— and bridges the gap between the microscopic and macroscopic HHG in single-layer graphene.This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 851201). We thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (FI-2020-3-0013). Junta de Castilla y León and FEDER (SA287P18); European Research Council (851201); Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (FIS2016-75652-P, RYC-2017-22745, PID2019-106910GB-I00)

Guide Me in Analysis: A Framework for Guidance Designers

Guidance is an emerging topic in the field of visual analytics. Guidance can support users in pursuing their analytical goals more efficiently and help in making the analysis successful. However, it is not clear how guidance approaches should be designed and what specific factors should be considered for effective support. In this paper, we approach this problem from the perspective of guidance designers. We present a framework comprising requirements and a set of specific phases designers should go through when designing guidance for visual analytics. We relate this process with a set of quality criteria we aim to support with our framework, that are necessary for obtaining a suitable and effective guidance solution. To demonstrate the practical usability of our methodology, we apply our framework to the design of guidance in three analysis scenarios and a design walk-through session. Moreover, we list the emerging challenges and report how the framework can be used to design guidance solutions that mitigate these issues