Transition, Integration and Convergence. The Case of Romania

This volume comprises several studies and papers published in the last decades. They have been selected and ranged so that to provide a minimum of coherence concerning the phases which Romania has crossed in her way to the advanced socio-economic system of European type: transition to the market economy, accession to the EU, the economic convergence in the three fundamental domains: institutions, real economy, and nominal economy. The readers may find in this volume a description of debates, difficulties and solutions adopted for building-up the market economy by a state being in a profound transformation from weak transition institutions towards hard democratic institutions. Because the transition to the market economy and the association of Romania with the EU and then the integration presenting strategic political decisions, I have included in this work two studies devoted to the political forces state and political parties that elaborated and applied these strategic decisions underlining their structure, role and function and their transformation. Integration into the EU of a country like Romania, which emerged from a different system comparing with the West-European one, has proved to be difficult and lasting many years because of the structural transformations. In five chapters I am referring to the essential characteristics of the integration process, such as: market liberalization, competitiveness of the local (national) firms on the national and EU markets, institutional reforms so that the institutions of candidate countries have to become compatible with those of the EU and finally the perspective assessment to find out the real and nominal convergence. Putting into practice the EU competitivity and cohesion principles, Romania has good prospects to close, in a reasonable time, the economic gap and to be admitted into the Euro Zone. Although the real convergence of Romania with the EU requires higher growth rates for the former, a new approach is compulsory to take into consideration the environment quality, the natural resources and the equity between the present and the future generations as natural resource consumers. Just these problems have determined me to include in this volume the last two chapters which, on the one hand, try to prove the necessity of the economy growth harmonization with the environment evolution as well as the saving of the energy resources, and, on the other hand, to point out the main ways to be followed and instruments to be used

Passenger Presence and Turning Direction

This study investigated how drivers react in the event of a car accident at a T intersection when there is a passenger present in the vehicle. We want to determine if the presence of a passenger will affect the driver’s choice to take over the automated vehicles performance and either turn left or right to avoid a crash. The driver would be presented with this situation due to the silent failure of the automated vehicle. We hypothesize that the presence of a passenger and the non-presence of a passenger will affect which way drivers will turn to avoid a potential crash. Specifically, we hypothesized that participants would favor turning left when no passenger is present and turning right when a passenger is present. To test this hypothesis, we had participants avoid a crash at a T-intersection of a self-driving car in a driving simulator. We had participants drive with conditions that mimic passenger presence and use both hands when driving so the turning direction would be primarily determined by passenger presence. As a result, Placeholder sentence regarding findings, participants steered to the XX when the presence of a passenger was mimicked. Keywords: automated vehicles, take–over performance, silent failur

Feasibility of ultra-rapid exome sequencing in critically ill infants and children with suspected monogenic conditions in the Australian public health care system

Importance: Widespread adoption of rapid genomic testing in pediatric critical care requires robust clinical and laboratory pathways that provide equitable and consistent service across health care systems. Objective: To prospectively evaluate the performance of a multicenter network for ultra-rapid genomic diagnosis in a public health care system. Design, Setting, and Participants: Descriptive feasibility study of critically ill pediatric patients with suspected monogenic conditions treated at 12 Australian hospitals between March 2018 and February 2019, with data collected to May 2019. A formal implementation strategy emphasizing communication and feedback, standardized processes, coordination, distributed leadership, and collective learning was used to facilitate adoption. Exposures: Ultra-rapid exome sequencing. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was time from sample receipt to ultra-rapid exome sequencing report. The secondary outcomes were the molecular diagnostic yield, the change in clinical management after the ultra-rapid exome sequencing report, the time from hospital admission to the laboratory report, and the proportion of laboratory reports returned prior to death or hospital discharge. Results: The study population included 108 patients with a median age of 28 days (range, 0 days to 17 years); 34% were female; and 57% were from neonatal intensive care units, 33% were from pediatric intensive care units, and 9% were from other hospital wards. The mean time from sample receipt to ultra-rapid exome sequencing report was 3.3 days (95% CI, 3.2-3.5 days) and the median time was 3 days (range, 2-7 days). The mean time from hospital admission to ultra-rapid exome sequencing report was 17.5 days (95% CI, 14.6-21.1 days) and 93 reports (86%) were issued prior to death or hospital discharge. A molecular diagnosis was established in 55 patients (51%). Eleven diagnoses (20%) resulted from using the following approaches to augment standard exome sequencing analysis: mitochondrial genome sequencing analysis, exome sequencing-based copy number analysis, use of international databases to identify novel gene-disease associations, and additional phenotyping and RNA analysis. In 42 of 55 patients (76%) with a molecular diagnosis and 6 of 53 patients (11%) without a molecular diagnosis, the ultra-rapid exome sequencing result was considered as having influenced clinical management. Targeted treatments were initiated in 12 patients (11%), treatment was redirected toward palliative care in 14 patients (13%), and surveillance for specific complications was initiated in 19 patients (18%). Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests feasibility of ultra-rapid genomic testing in critically ill pediatric patients with suspected monogenic conditions in the Australian public health care system. However, further research is needed to understand the clinical value of such testing, and the generalizability of the findings to other health care settings.

Turning Themselves In: Why Companies Disclose Regulatory Violations

As part of a recent trend toward more cooperative relations between regulators and industry, novel government programs are encouraging firms to monitor their own regulatory compliance and voluntarily report their own violations. In this study, we examine how enforcement activities, statutory protections, community pressure, and organizational characteristics influence organizations ’ decisions to self-police. We created a comprehensive dataset for the “Audit Policy”, a United States Environmental Protection Agency program that encourages companies to self-disclose violations of environmental laws and regulations in exchange for reduced sanctions. We find that facilities were more likely to self-disclose if they were recently inspected or subjected to an enforcement action, were narrowly targeted for heightened scrutiny by a US EPA initiative, and were larger and thus more prominent in their environment. While we find some evidence that state-level statutory immunity facilitates self-disclosure, we find no evidence that statutory audit privilege does so. The pitched political battles over regulation in the 1970s and 1980s, from deregulation to Reagan’s vow to get government “off the backs ” of industry, have given way in recent years to a ne