ANALIZA STRATEGICA A INDUSTRIEI MONDIALE DE AUTOVEHICULE

This paper shows global automotive industry present characteristics and presents one model to analyse this matter. Based on the context influences and on the ideea that this industry action as a network system, the main point is that the individual producer possibilities to react are very few.strategic analysis, automotive industry, ecopolitics

IMAGINEA COMPLEXULUI COMERCIAL "ELIANA MALL" IN RANDUL POPULATIEI MUNICIPIULUI BRASOV, IN VARSTA DE PESTE 14 ANI

"Eliana Mall" Top Management (the only shopping centre in Brasov) and the biggest mass media trusts in the area were asking for this marketing research. The object was to quantify respondents’ suggestions and opinions (aged over 14 years old) considering: the local mass media consumption and the attitude towards consumption in Brasov, in the period time 28th of January - 6th of February 2005. The market research was conducted in the period time 28th of February - 6th of February (the canvassing). The direct interview was based on a questionnaire with 64 direct questions and there were 1723 respondents aged over 14 years old. The market research was performed with Multi Consulting Group Company from Brasov.marketing research, public acceptance

A Comprehensive Review of the Quality Approach in Tourism

This study summarizes the evolution of the quality approach in tourism. Environmental issues are also addressed, as there are strong interdependencies between these two areas. Especially in tourism, the quality-environment integration is essential. The study reveals the diversity of quality and environmental models currently used worldwide, including general models for quality assessment and management, applied in all areas, and also the tourism-specific models. The objectives of this synthesis are to achieve a systematization of the information on the quality and environment approach in tourism, and to highlight the main axes of changes. The conclusions formulated illustrate the future directions to improve the quality approach in tourism, concerning both the quality models and their implementation. The results of this comprehensive review are useful to the tourism coordination structures at national and regional level, and also to academics and researchers, to better understanding the trends in quality approach and optimizing their quality-related actions. The workpaper is based on the reports of World Tourism Organization and other tourism professional structures, as well as studies and researches published in specialized journals related to quality and environment approach in tourism

The relationship between family memory and children's history learning about the recent troubled past in the conflict setting of Cyprus

This study explores how family memory relates to children's history learning in conflict-ridden societies. It focuses on how survivors of the traumatic events of 1974, make meaning of 1974 while negotiating their role in their children’s history learning about sensitive issues in Cyprus. Additionally, it provides insights on students’ and their teachers’ approaches towards the recent past in their schools. Memory and narrative permeate this research as concepts for understanding how the past influences the memories and beliefs of people and how they remember the past, construct self-narratives, and mediate these to their youngsters. This study adopts a qualitative research approach. Research data were collected via one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 5 history educators, 23 parents or grandparents and 10 joint interviews with (grand) parents and their children, through the methods of document analysis on the history textbook and observing classes about recent Cypriot history. Content analysis was applied to textual data. Narratives were explored as an experience and a construct, drawing on Labovian structural narrative analysis. (Grand) parents narrate personal and vicarious experiences conveying their memories and attitudes about 1974. They make meaning of this past in six ways namely survival, loss, pursuit, rivalry, victimization and truth and seem resilient in processing 1974. They regard the history textbook and teachers as vehicles transferring the State’s approach to 1974 and claim their own share when talking about the past. They attend funerals of missing persons or visit places with certain meanings for their family histories, initiatives enabling them to link their past to their children’s present. These memory-sites stage adults’ stories and enable youngsters to inherit the family history and values while acknowledging their positionality in society. These findings indicate the need to enhance our knowledge about family-intergenerational memory and emotional issues in history learning in Cyprus and other conflict-ridden societies

Characterizing Stomatin-like Protein 2 and its Role in Neuron Survival

Stomatin-like Protein 2 (SLP-2) has been identified as a stress-inducible transcript and has been shown to interact with and stabilize mitochondrial proteins. Since mitochondria are critical for neuronal function, we hypothesized that SLP-2 regulates neuron survival in response to stressful stimuli. A conditional SLP-2 knockout mouse (deletion) and the SN56 cell line (upregulation) were employed to study the role of SLP-2 in mitochondrial dynamics and neuron survival. SLP-2 deficient primary cortical neurons displayed significantly decreased levels of various mitochondrial respiratory chain proteins, indicating SLP-2 contributes to maintenance of mitochondrial membrane integrity. SLP-2 was up-regulated in response to oxidative stress and DNA damage, but was not required for stress-induced mitochondrial biogenesis. The level of SLP-2 expression had a significantly different effect on neuron survival, depending on the target of the insult. The results of this study improve our understanding of the role of SLP-2 in mitochondrial stress responses, bioenergetics, and survival in neurons

Market research on Brasov community issues

The article is based on a quantitative market research of the opinion poll type which quantified the opinions and attitudes of the adult population of Brasov on some major issues: "the quantification of the mass-media market", "the main community issues", "the voting preferences" - organized in 3 stages: October 2005, March 2006 and June 2006. The opinion poll for the first stage was carried out between the 7th and the 16th of October and focused on the direct interviewing based on a questionnaire containing 61 direct questions, a number of 1051 subjects aged no less than 18, the second stage was scheduled for March 15th-26th and involved the use of a questionnaire of 78 questions, with a number of 1998 subjects having been interviewed. The final stage took place in the second half of June 2006 and focused on quantifying the opinions of nearly 1802 interview subjects. We should also mention the fact that, for the second and the third stage of the "opinion gauge", the questionnaire also had an additional section with questions which aimed at quantifying the opinions of the adult citizens of Brasov on their interest towards "loisir".market research, opinion poll, local mass-media market, the priorities of the local community

Human Visual System Models in Digital Image Watermarking

In this paper some Human Visual System (HVS) models used in digital image watermarking are presented. Four different HVS models, which exploit various properties of human eye, are described. Two of them operate in transform domain of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). HVS model in DCT domain consists of Just Noticeable Difference thresholds for corresponding DCT basis functions corrected by luminance sensitivity and self- or neighborhood contrast masking. HVS model in DWT domain is based on different HVS sensitivity in various DWT subbands. The third presented HVS model is composed of contrast thresholds as a function of spatial frequency and eye's eccentricity. We present also a way of combining these three basic models to get better tradeoff between conflicting requirements of digital watermarks. The fourth HVS model is based on noise visibility in an image and is described by so called Noise Visibility Function (NVF). The possible ways of exploiting of the described HVS models in digital image watermarking are also briefly discussed

Implementations of HVS Models in Digital Image Watermarking

In the paper two possible implementations of Human Visual System (HVS) models in digital watermarking of still images are presented. The first method performs watermark embedding in transform domain of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and the second method is based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). Both methods use HVS models to select perceptually significant transform coefficients and at the same time to determine the bounds of modification of selected coefficients in watermark embedding process. The HVS models in DCT and DWT domains consist of three parts which exploit various properties of human eye. The first part is the HVS model in DCT (DWT) domain based on three basic properties of human vision: frequency sensitivity, luminance sensitivity and masking effects. The second part is the HVS model based on Region of Interest (ROI). It is composed of contrast thresholds as a function of spatial frequency and eye\'s eccentricity. The third part is the HVS model based on noise visibility in an image and is described by so called Noise Visibility Function (NVF). Watermark detection is performed without use of original image and watermarks have a form of real number sequences with normal distribution zero mean and unit variance. The robustness of presented perceptual watermarking methods against various types of attacks is also briefly discussed