Perception of Romanian banking system by the beneficiaries of rural development projects

European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development of the EU for funding economic activities in the rural area. As the payments for the Community projects are settlement payments (i.e. the payments are settled in installments after being made, the entrepreneurs need forward funding for their investments, and, therefore, the banks play an important role in forwarding the funds for the projects, as well as in co-funding the eligible expenses. This paper analyzes the way in which the beneficiaries of rural development projects perceive the assistance given by the Romanian banking institutions regarding the steps they must make in order to obtain a loan or to benefit of other necessary banking products or services for the implementation of their projects. The research was carried out in Timiș County, between May and September 2016, on a sample of 96 interviewees, beneficiaries of rural development projects by the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013. The data collection methods consisted of the survey made on the basis of a standardized questionnaire, using the “face-to-face” technique and the data collection interview method using the “face-to-face” interview

EDUCATION AS BASIS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The main objective of the article is to present the level of education in some selected countries, and to explain how education determines a sustainable growth. Education is the main factor to achieve both economic and employment growth. At the same time, education plays an important role for a sustainable improvement of the standard of living in the world. Supporting education is also one of the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 4), but education appears in a number of other SDG targets too. The countries that allocate the most capital for education are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland (over 6.7% of GDP). The share of GDP allocated for education in Romania is only 2.7. This directly affects both the physical conditions for carrying out educational and research activities in school units and the qualitative level of the educational act. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the real GDP/capita (VAR01) and share of GDP for education (VAR02) for our study is 0.694, which again underlines the close correlation between the allocation of funds for education and research and the level of development from a country. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between supporting education from GDP and top 100 universities is relatively low (r = 0.287), reflecting an insufficient correlation between the two variables. As a result, the education system in a country must be adjusted and supported both financially and through the adoption of viable policy decisions that will ensure increased performance in the educational system

Analyses of business development at the level of Timis county

Business is the main component that defines antreprenorial behaviour. Micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in a country’s economy, representing a source of entrepreneurial skills and innovation. SMEs contributes greatly to gross domestic product and employs a large population of the workforce. The paper analyzes the dynamics of the business environment in the county of Timis given the evolution of the number of companies registered and de-registered, the number of active enterprises, the situation of companies with foreign capital in number and value of invested capital, distribution enterprises by economic sectors and classes sizes, and capture the gross value adde

Food security in a changing climate world

The purpose of this article is to analyze the potential impact of climate change on food security. Global environmental changes coupled with socio-economic changes are a major food security issue and challenge. The main findings show that all four key elements of food security, namely availability, stability, use and access are significantly affected by changes in the environment. The most vulnerable segment of the population is those whose living conditions and livelihoods are strictly dependent on climate change and their ability to adapt is the lowest due to household income. This category includes children and women, poor people, the elderly and all those who depend on agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and other natural resources. Climate change and its impact on demographic patterns, urbanization, population movements, and changes in food consumption patterns are intensifying food system risks globally

Education as basis of sustainable development

The main objective of the article is to present the level of education in some selected countries, and to explain how education determines a sustainable growth. Education is the main factor to achieve both economic and employment growth. At the same time, education plays an important role for a sustainable improvement of the standard of living in the world. Supporting education is also one of the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 4), but education appears in a number of other SDG targets too. The countries that allocate the most capital for education are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland (over 6.7% of GDP). The share of GDP allocated for education in Romania is only 2.7. This directly affects both the physical conditions for carrying out educational and research activities in school units and the qualitative level of the educational act. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the real GDP/capita (VAR01) and share of GDP for education (VAR02) for our study is 0.694, which again underlines the close correlation between the allocation of funds for education and research and the level of development from a country. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between supporting education from GDP and top 100 universities is relatively low (r = 0.287), reflecting an insufficient correlation between the two variables. As a result, the education system in a country must be adjusted and supported both financially and through the adoption of viable policy decisions that will ensure increased performance in the educational system

Searching for the correlations between the use of different groups of pharmaceuticals from wastewaters

Wastewater contains a wealth of information about the inhabitants of cities. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has become an effective tool for monitoring public health by analyzing various biomarkers (e.g., chemicals and microorganisms) in wastewater. This way, the estimation of pharmaceuticals' consumption behavior and/or illicit drugs can be calculated. However, monitoring consumption alone is not the only option. If we consider wastewater as a statistical representation of the population's health, medical information can be derived. In this work, we used data from 15 different wastewater treatment plants in Slovak Republic to explore correlations between the use of typical pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs. The analysis was based on the wastewater monitoring data from four years (2016–2019), and 68 different compounds were taken into account. One of the strongest correlations found was between Antihyperlipidemics and Antihypertensives, with Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.82. This type of analysis within the WBE represents a new potential as an additional source of information for the pharmaceutical, medical and government sectors in assessing health risk factors in the population. Such an evaluation method has even a great potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning for calculating health risk factors together with other sources of data.ISSN:0147-6513ISSN:1090-241