The Role of Tourism in Rural Development Through a Comparative Analysis of a Greek and a Hungarian Rural Tourism Area

The rural regions occupy a largely extended part of the European Union and they are characterized as vital for economic growth and social cohesion. Agriculture and forestry represent activities which occupy large fields of land and play a primary role in the managing of the rich natural resources and in the formation of the landscape in the rural regions, where they constitute an essential part of the natural environment and cultural heritage. Rural development is a crucial tool for the redevelopment of the agricultural sector and the promotion of differentiation and innovation in the rural regions. The enlargement of the European Union has changed the map of agriculture and an appropriate redevelopment procedure is essential for the development. The rural development policy can contribute decisively to the proper orientation of this process towards a more flexible economy of higher value added, taking always into consideration the cultural, social and environmental singularities of the rural regions. An integrated policy on countryside development should always consider the potential that each region, has the needs and the potentials of the rural sector for increase in value added, as well as the productive singularities regarding the cooperation and the sustainability of operations, and finally the rural families strategies as expressed through the liveliness in the search for complementary activities and for the ensuring of essential social services. Actually, the rural community has already proceeded towards a union of the rural and the non-rural activities in a way that ensures a worthy primary production, as well as simultaneous business action in commerce and gradually in the industrial sector and in the services. At the same time, the small country town becomes the centre of these developments constituting thus, an unquestionable social, cultural and economic centre. However, this role is not institutionalized nor reinforced by supportive mechanisms. Although spatially the organization of the supportive mechanisms at the level of a prefecture’s capital seems to be right, their operation does not highlight nor support the potential and the advantages of their regional economies which are organized around the town. This results from the inadequate operation of the unions, the lack of specialized executives and also from the contrasting interests which are developed between the capital of the prefecture and the town, regarding the claim of the local commercial market and the investments for the formation of employment posts. The present study begins with the need for new ideas and complementary activities in the rural sector, which will suggest methods that will lead to sustainable development and also the formation of the necessary conditions for the fulfillment of the needs and prospects of the residents of the rural regions, so that extended urbanization will be suspended or limited. In this study we present the importance of marketing and management as a strategic procedure contributing to rural tourism development and competitiveness. Our aim is to recommend the appropriate strategies and techniques that need to be implemented for successful solutions to the problems. We examine Greek and Hungarian villages that display different levels of rural tourism development, where with the help of personal field research, questionnaires and interviews of the local citizens and entrepreneurs working in rural tourism, we could answer some questions. Moreover, we evaluate the similarities and differences that we discovered during our research and we recommend the positive and negative steps for each country. We investigate, in an extensive bibliography, the way in which rural tourism is developed in each country and which good practices are followed. The analysis of these points proves that the two countries are full of natural beauty, mountain areas, rivers, lakes, biotopes and cultural traditions that may even derive from the ancient times. The planning and development of rural tourism depends on the geographical location and the existence of the previously mentioned characteristics, the architectural infrastructure of the region, the natural, cultural and traditional heritage. After the selection of the appropriate region, the status of the infrastructures and settlements is examined in order to ensure that they are environmentally-friendly, they offer comfort and cleanliness and are specialized in quality services. It is very important for the success of rural tourism that the internal structure is based on the continual training of the owners and their specialization in the offering of qualitative services. The services offered include accommodation and food, the sports and tourism facilities, as well as the participation in rural activities and the informing of the visitors on issues of rural life. An essential specification is the offering of qualitative services which will be certified by qualified organizations, which will determine the quality criteria. In conclusion, the use of technology contributes to the saving of time for the materialization operators and for the general public. The use of the internet, the reservation system, even the tourism agents contribute to the promotion of rural tourism in both countries and its wider expansion, too

3-D Registration on Carotid Artery imaging data: MRI for different timesteps

A common problem which is faced by the researchers when dealing with arterial carotid imaging data is the registration of the geometrical structures between different imaging modalities or different timesteps. The use of the "Patient Position" DICOM field is not adequate to achieve accurate results due to the fact that the carotid artery is a relatively small structure and even imperceptible changes in patient position and/or direction make it difficult. While there is a wide range of simple/advanced registration techniques in the literature, there is a considerable number of studies which address the geometrical structure of the carotid artery without using any registration technique. On the other hand the existence of various registration techniques prohibits an objective comparison of the results using different registration techniques. In this paper we present a method for estimating the statistical significance that the choice of the registration technique has on the carotid geometry. One-Way Analysis of Variance(ANOVA) showed that the p-values were <0.0001 for the distances of the lumen from the centerline for both right and left carotids of the patient case that was studied.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, preprint submitted to IEEE-EMBC 201

Artificial Neural Network Methods in Quantum Mechanics

In a previous article we have shown how one can employ Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in order to solve non-homogeneous ordinary and partial differential equations. In the present work we consider the solution of eigenvalue problems for differential and integrodifferential operators, using ANNs. We start by considering the Schr\"odinger equation for the Morse potential that has an analytically known solution, to test the accuracy of the method. We then proceed with the Schr\"odinger and the Dirac equations for a muonic atom, as well as with a non-local Schr\"odinger integrodifferential equation that models the $n+\alpha$ system in the framework of the resonating group method. In two dimensions we consider the well studied Henon-Heiles Hamiltonian and in three dimensions the model problem of three coupled anharmonic oscillators. The method in all of the treated cases proved to be highly accurate, robust and efficient. Hence it is a promising tool for tackling problems of higher complexity and dimensionality.Comment: Latex file, 29pages, 11 psfigs, submitted in CP

Bodies Folded in Migrant Crypts:Dis/Ability and the Material Culture of Border-Crossing

This article considers media narratives that suggest that hiding in trucks, buses, and other vehicles to cross borders has, in fact, been a common practice in the context of migration to, and within, Europe. We aim to problematize how the tension between the materiality of bordering practices and human migrants generates a dis/abled subject. In this context, dis/ability may be a cause or consequence of migration, both in physical/material (the folding of bodies in the crypt) and cultural/semiotic terms, and may become a barrier to accessing protection, to entering and/or crossing a country, and to performing mobility in general. Dis/ability and migration have not been associated in the literature. We adopt an analytical symmetry between humans and non-humans, in this case between bodies and crypts. By suggesting an infected, ambivalent, and hybrid approach to the human subject, the body-crypt traveling border challenges the essentialist dichotomies between technology and biology, disability and impairment. The articles and reports upon which we rely were collected through extensive searches of databases/archives of online newspapers and news websites