THE ROMANIAN RESPONSE TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

The importance of financial linkages among countries in the crisis spread, is currently a highly debated topic. Small shocks caused by the collapse of the financial system of a country can easily turn into a crisis, of dimensions that can be hardly imagined. There are several channels which could play an important role in transmitting the initial shock. Focusing exclusively on rational explanations, the financial crisis in one country could provide negative information about other countries with similar characteristics.financial crisis, monetary policy, real economy

RISK MANAGEMENT, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Financial management implies a complex and extensive area of interest with deep connections with financial analysis, corporate finance and risk management. Thus, risk management is an integrative part of the financial management, referring to the set of actions and strategies performed in order to cover the risks incurred by various dimensions of the company activity. Financial management and, implicitly, risk management, involves an oversight responsibility of the Board. In fact, the Board is in charge with the monitoring of the effectiveness implied by risk management strategies and practices, resulting that the connector between financial management and corporate governance consists of the corporate risk management. The paper starts with general aspects on corporate risk management as support to company’s value, which sets forth the scope of the issues the paper discusses. It briefly describes why Board of Directors involvement in the company strategies is directly related with firm performance. Next, by reviewing the general evidence, the paper explores why corporate governance may matter for sustainable development

ROMANIA'S REAL CONVERGENCE TO THE EUROPEAN UNION Dragos Mihai Ungureanu , Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union Ruxandra Dana Vilag, Romanian-American University Bucharest George Horia Ionescu, Romanian-American University Bucharest Florian Bogdan Stoian, “Lucian Blaga†University of Sibiu

In the process of European integration, switching in 1999 to the third stageof Economic and Monetary Union, has intensified the need to coordinate economic andsectoral policies of the Member States. The process of coordination is necessary toharmonize national economic policy objectives in order to minimize the negative impactof economic policy measures taken by some member countries to other member countriesand reduce the temptation for Member States to have behavior riders. Real Convergenceis an essential goal of Romanian integration into the European Union. Attenuation of thedevelopment gaps maintained between Romania and the EU can not be achieved solelythrough the use of market forces. Economic transformations occurring globally andincreased risk aversion contributed to a signifiant reduction of capital flows to Romania,increased pressures upon exchange rate.Real convergence, nominal convergence, integration, European Union

FINANCIAL CONTAGION AND INVESTORS BEHAVIOR

International capital markets, in general, seem to be volatile markets, influenced bymany factors, a phenomenon that affects both developed markets, as well as least developed, withemerging market economies suffering most because of this. It is clear, however, that volatility willremain for as long as it is delayed the adoption of specific measures at national and internationalfinancial architecture level, measures that may be necessary to reduce these risks, to limit theirimpact, and that the question financial market can relapse in a manner as efficiently as possible.investor behaviour, financial crisis, rational investor, irational investor, financial contagion

Whole Body Bone Tissue and Cardiovascular Risk in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Introduction. Atherosclerosis and osteoporosis share an age-independent bidirectional correlation. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) represents a risk factor for both conditions. Objectives. The study aims to evaluate the connection between the estimated cardiovascular risk (CVR) and the loss of bone tissue in RA patients. Methods. The study has a prospective cross-sectional design and it includes female in-patients with RA or without autoimmune diseases; bone tissue was measured using whole body dual X-ray absorptiometry (wbDXA); CVR was estimated using SCORE charts and PROCAM applications. Results. There were 75 RA women and 66 normal women of similar age. The wbDXA bone indices correlate significantly, negatively, and age-independently with the estimated CVR. The whole body bone percent (wbBP) was a significant predictor of estimated CVR, explaining 26% of SCORE variation along with low density lipoprotein (P < 0.001) and 49.7% of PROCAM variation along with glycemia and menopause duration (P < 0.001). Although obese patients had less bone relative to body composition (wbBP), in terms of quantity their bone content was significantly higher than that of nonobese patients. Conclusions. Female patients with RA and female patients with cardiovascular morbidity have a lower whole body bone percent. Obese female individuals have higher whole body bone mass than nonobese patients

ASSESING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF REAL CONVERGENCE IN ROMANIA

The convergence is an essential objective of the integration process of Romania in the European Union. Minimizing gaps in the level of development that arise between Romania and the average European Union can not be achieved solely through the use of marconvergence, European Union, real convergence

BENEFITS OF MULTIMODAL THERAPY FOR PATIENTS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to underline the benefits of the complex, multimodal therapy, composed of the pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment of patients suffering from osteoarthritis (OA) with different localizations, namely pain and functioning relief and the increase of the quality of life. Methods. The study included 246 patients with osteoarthritis diagnosed at the clinical examination and confirmed by radiological investigations. All the patients were pharmacologically treated and 127 of them also followed non-pharmacological treatment consisting of a recuperation program kinesiotherapy and electrotherapy. Results. Patients who achieved a significant decrease in pain were those treated with multimodal therapy (pharmacologically, kinesiotherapy and electrotherapy) 27.3%, followed by patients treated only pharmacologically 20%, and patients treated pharmacologically plus kinesiotherapy (without electrotherapy) 10.7%. Patients who achieved moderate improvement in 2 out of 3 (pain, function / mobility, global assessment), according to OARSI also responded to treatment, that means 85.7% who combined pharmacological treatment and kinesiotherapy (without electrotherapy) and only 67% subjects who received only pharmacological treatment. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that multimodal therapy, which consists of the combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, brings important benefits to the management of patients with OA

Clinical Study Statins Do Not Influence Long-Term Rituximab Clinical Efficiency in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Objective. This longitudinal study aims to determine if statins inhibit the response to rituximab in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Methods. 41 patients initiating rituximab were included; 17 patients were exposed to the combination of statins and rituximab. The total cholesterol, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and C-reactive protein (CRP) were assessed. The clinical response was evaluated using Disease Activity Score (DAS28) and European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) response at 6 and 18 months. Results. A tendency of increasing in DAS28 was observed in statin-exposed group but the correlation was very weak (at 18 months: = 0.013, = 0.952). The statin-exposed status was negatively and very weakly correlated with EULAR response at 6 months ( = −0.073, = 0.661) and 18 months ( = −0.197, = 0.244). There was a negative correlation between statin-exposed status and inflammatory markers values (ESR and CRP); however, the correlation was very weak. The use of statin did not influence the cardiovascular risk measured by modified Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (mSCORE). Conclusions. Long-term significant inhibitory effects of statins on rituximab treatment in RA have not been proved using clinical response scores or biologic markers

On Using Perceptual Loss within the U-Net Architecture for the Semantic Inpainting of Textile Artefacts with Traditional Motifs

It is impressive when one gets to see a hundreds or thousands years old artefact exhibited in the museum, whose appearance seems to have been untouched by centuries. Its restoration had been in the hands of a multidisciplinary team of experts and it had undergone a series of complex procedures. To this end, computational approaches that can support in deciding the most visually appropriate inpainting for very degraded historical items would be helpful as a second objective opinion for the restorers. The present paper thus attempts to put forward a U-Net approach with a perceptual loss for the semantic inpainting of traditional Romanian vests. Images taken of pieces from the collection of the Oltenia Museum in Craiova, along with such images with garments from the Internet, have been given to the deep learning model. The resulting numerical error for inpainting the corrupted parts is adequately low, however the visual similarity still has to be improved by considering further possibilities for finer tuning.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

OSTEOPOROSIS IS ASSOCIATED WITH A LOWER PREVALENCE OF BODY MASS INDEX-DEFINED OBESITY IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Objective. The objective of this initial phase of the study is to retrospectively screen rheumatoid arthritis (RA) phenotype characteristics associated with osteoporosis. Methods. The study included all RA patients who randomly came to the university rheumatology department between January and July 2018. Demographic data, anthropometric data, RA-specific variables, osteoporosis data and comorbidities were collected retrospectively and cross-sectionally from the first (and most frequently the only) observation sheet of each patient within the study timeframe. Correlations and comparison were analyzed using appropriate non-parametric tests, all of the reported being significant (p<0.05). Results. The sample included 149 RA patients (60.8 years mean age; 81.2% women), 40 (26.8%) of which had osteoporosis and 31 (20.8%) were obese. Compared to RA patients without osteoporosis, RA patients with osteoporosis were significantly older (56.0 respectively 71.0 years) and had: lower body mass index (BMI; 23.8 kg/m2 respectively 29.6 kg/m2 ), longer disease duration (11.0 respectively 17.0 years), higher prevalence of rural dwelling (prevalence ratio – PR=2.46), smoking (PR=3.71), inflammation (PR=1.35), anti-citrullinated protein antibody positivity (PR=1.51), glucocorticoids (PR=1.85) and carotid artery disease (PR=3.01), but a lower prevalence of obesity (PR=3.43). Lumbar bone mineral density was significantly correlated with BMI (rho=0.294) and with rheumatoid factor titers (rho=0.311), controlling for age, gender and disease duration. Conclusions. BMI-defined obesity seems to be associated with a lower prevalence of osteoporosis among RA patients, while disease severity (treatment with glucocorticoids, inflammation and ACPA positivity) is associated with a higher prevalence of osteoporosis. Gain of adipose tissue and loss of bone tissue seem to be antagonistic and parallel body composition alterations in RA