A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas : the PERSEUS experience

PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES. 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.peer-reviewe

European Funds in Tourism Sustainability—A Case Study of Beneficiaries’ Satisfaction Regarding the Process of Accessing

The scope of this research was to identify the degree of satisfaction experienced by beneficiaries as a result of accessing and implementing a project using European funds in tourism. The whole research identified more than 1000 projects that were financed from European funds in tourism in the period 2007–2013 through the operational programs. The survey was conducted on a sample of 312 respondents, and the method used was a quantitative, research-based survey. This research aims to collect the necessary data for understanding how the process of accessing European funds in tourism is perceived. A few important objectives, such as the effect of the benefits perceived by beneficiaries as a result of accessing projects using European funds in tourism on the degree of satisfaction experienced by them as a result of their development and the effect of risks perceived by beneficiaries as a result of accessing European funded projects in tourism on the degree of satisfaction experienced by them as a result of their development, were highlighted in this research. The most important objective proposed in this research is strategic planning, which is the main way in which the beneficiaries can be fulfilled in regards to the process of accessing European Funds

A Better Integration of Industrial Robots in Romanian Enterprises and the Labour Market

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the opportunities for adopting robotic applications, through a marketing mix perspective, as well as depicting the current state of industrial robot integration in Romanian enterprises and the labor market, in contrast to other economies of the European Union. In this research, we highlight the impact of industrial robots within enterprises, while also considering the perceived standard of living through GDP per capita. For this, we conducted exploratory research based on secondary data regarding the evolution of the robotics sector in Romania, in connection to the dynamics of the global and European Union robotics market. We also performed a principal components analysis, which revealed the main factors that contributed to the dynamics of nation-level enterprise statistics. Our analysis revealed that a higher integration of industrial robots contributed to the reduction of employment rates amongst all six EU countries considered, while also having positive correlations with the GDP per capita and apparent labor productivity. Mixed results were only observed for the impact of industrial robots on remuneration growth, suggesting the potential adverse effects automation could have on incomes

The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mortality of Patients Hospitalized in Surgical Services in Romania: A Cross-Sectional Study of a National Survey

Surgical practice worldwide has changed rapidly in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The study aimed to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, in hospitalized patients, in Romanian surgical services. We have developed our research on a national survey of the consecutive records of hospitalizations, surgical interventions and deaths performed in Romania between March and August 2020. Results show that 47 surgical departments responded to the request. The admissions in the period March–August 2020 represented 52% of that from the similar period of 2019. In the studied period, the share of surgical interventions in patients admitted to non-COVID-19 centres was 98.7%, respectively 78.2% in COVID-19 support hospitals (p < 0.05), and emergency interventions of 43.4% in non-COVID-19 hospitals, respectively 84.8% in COVID-19 support hospitals (p < 0.05). Overall mortality in this period was 5.82%, compared to 3.28% in a similar period in 2019, (p < 0.05). Postoperative mortality in COVID-19-positive patients was 19%. In conclusion, in the hospitals in Romania included in the survey, the overall mortality in the studied period was higher than in a similar period in 2019. In patients with COVID-19 positive, the recorded postoperative mortality was higher than overall mortality