Innovation Performance in Romania and EU’s Member States - A Comparative Approach

Romania’s innovation performance did not improve in the last years. Consequently, the country remained in the Modest/Emerging innovators category in the European Innovation Scoreboard. Considering the importance of innovation for the economic development and recovery after Covid-19 pandemic, the present research aims to compare the development of the RD&I systems in five Member States- Romania and other four states with better performance in EIS. The main objective of the study is to investigate Romania’s situation regarding the RD&I system development compared with EU’s average and other Member States in order to identify the existing problems and the causes that led to its low performance in the EIS. The research methodology consists of an exploratory study conducted using secondary data analysis collected from the European Innovation Scoreboard database. The results of the analysis revealed that Romania registered upward trends only regarding four indicators: exports of knowledge- intensive services, high-tech exports, presence of venture capital funds and broadband penetration. The analysis of innovation activities revealed a constant underfunding of the research and innovation field, which also has repercussions on the quality of scientific activity, the attractiveness of the academic environment and on the number of applications for patents, brands and design

A journey on plate tectonics sheds light on European crayfish phylogeography

Abstract Crayfish can be used as model organisms in phylogeographic and divergence time studies if reliable calibrations are available. This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the phylogeography of the European stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) and includes samples from previously unstudied sites. Two mitochondrial markers were used to reveal evolutionary relationships among haplogroups throughout the species? distributional range and to estimate the divergence time by employing both substitution rates and geological calibration methods. Our haplotype network reconstruction and phylogenetic analyses revealed the existence of a previously unknown haplogroup distributed in Romania's Apuseni Mountains. This haplogroup is closely related to others that are endemic in the Dinarides, despite their vast geographical separation (~600 km). The separation is best explained by the well-dated tectonic displacement of the Tisza?Dacia microplate, which started in the Miocene (~16 Ma) and possibly carried part of the A. torrentium population to the current location of the Apuseni Mountains. This population may thus have been isolated from the Dinarides for a period of ca. 11 m.y. by marine and lacustrine phases of the Pannonian Basin. The inclusion of this geological event as a calibration point in divergence time analyses challenges currently accepted crayfish evolutionary time frames for the region, constraining the evolution of this area's crayfish to a much earlier date. We discuss why molecular clock calibrations previously employed to date European crayfish species divergences should therefore be reconsidered

Formarea profesională în administrația publică din România în timpul pandemiei de COVID-19

The article aims to conduct an analysis regard­ing the professional training process of the public personnel from the Romanian public administration, in the 2020-2022 period. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of professional train­ing has experienced a series of emerging changes, that had a major impact on the management of the professional training, in general, and training pro­cesses, in particular.The research method used consists of an opin­ion survey, conducted with the self-administered questionnaire, designed by the authors, based on the main studies and researches in the field. The ques­tionnaire was sent to public institutions in the cen­tral public administration, under the subordination/coordination of ministries. 239 respondents agreed to participate in the study.The research revealed that the public personnel from public administration prefers the professional training process to be conducted in the classical and mixed systems (blended learning). In addition, benefits of the training process in the online system which can be developed, in order to optimize this type of training, were identified.</p

Nexus and partitionfinder

These are the nexus files for the 16S and COI data along with partitionfinder results

Crayfish Geological Calibration

These are the file associated with the geological time calibration analysis including the BEAST XML files

Data from: A journey on plate tectonics sheds light on European crayfish phylogeography

Crayfish can be used as model organisms in phylogeographic and divergence time studies if reliable calibrations are available. This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the phylogeography of the European stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) and includes samples from previously unstudied sites. Two mitochondrial markers were used to reveal evolutionary relationships among haplogroups throughout the species’ distributional range and to estimate the divergence time by employing both substitution rates and geological calibration methods. Our haplotype network reconstruction and phylogenetic analyses revealed the existence of a previously unknown haplogroup distributed in Romania's Apuseni Mountains. This haplogroup is closely related to others that are endemic in the Dinarides, despite their vast geographical separation (~600 km). The separation is best explained by the well-dated tectonic displacement of the Tisza-Dacia microplate, which started in the Miocene (~16 Ma) and possibly carried part of the A. torrentium population to the current location of the Apuseni Mountains. This population may thus have been isolated from the Dinarides for a period of ca. 11 m.y. by marine and lacustrine phases of the Pannonian Basin. The inclusion of this geological event as a calibration point in divergence time analyses challenges currently accepted crayfish evolutionary time frames for the region, constraining the evolution of this area’s crayfish to a much earlier date. We discuss why molecular clock calibrations previously employed to date European crayfish species divergences should therefore be reconsidered

Strict Clock Files

These are the files associated with the strict molecular clock analyses including the BEAST XML files

A journey on plate tectonics sheds light on European crayfish phylogeography

Abstract Crayfish can be used as model organisms in phylogeographic and divergence time studies if reliable calibrations are available. This study presents a comprehensive investigation into the phylogeography of the European stone crayfish (Austropotamobius torrentium) and includes samples from previously unstudied sites. Two mitochondrial markers were used to reveal evolutionary relationships among haplogroups throughout the species? distributional range and to estimate the divergence time by employing both substitution rates and geological calibration methods. Our haplotype network reconstruction and phylogenetic analyses revealed the existence of a previously unknown haplogroup distributed in Romania's Apuseni Mountains. This haplogroup is closely related to others that are endemic in the Dinarides, despite their vast geographical separation (~600 km). The separation is best explained by the well-dated tectonic displacement of the Tisza?Dacia microplate, which started in the Miocene (~16 Ma) and possibly carried part of the A. torrentium population to the current location of the Apuseni Mountains. This population may thus have been isolated from the Dinarides for a period of ca. 11 m.y. by marine and lacustrine phases of the Pannonian Basin. The inclusion of this geological event as a calibration point in divergence time analyses challenges currently accepted crayfish evolutionary time frames for the region, constraining the evolution of this area's crayfish to a much earlier date. We discuss why molecular clock calibrations previously employed to date European crayfish species divergences should therefore be reconsidered