ACCOUNTING – A SEMIOTIC PROCESS

The final product of accounting which is intended towards satisfying the informational needs of the various users is a component part of a semiotic communication process whose outcome is that the transmitted messages “bear” in themselves knowledge/ informfinancial reporting, accounting communication, semiotic process

Romanian farm support: has European Union membership made a difference?

This paper provides an insight into the major policy measures that influenced Romanian agriculture before and after the country’s accession to the European Union (EU) in January 2007. It analyses the volume and composition of national and EU agricultural financial support between 2002 and 2012, and assesses how much has been transferred between agricultural farm support (Pillar 1) and rural development (Pillar 2). The findings show that, as membership drew near, Romania increased its efforts to provide farm support. The level of support has continued to rise (in nominal terms) year on year, from EUR 242 million in 2002 to almost EUR 600 million in 2005. By 2007, over EUR 1 billion (10 per cent of the Gross Value Added of the sector) was allocated to agriculture. Moreover, preparation for accession meant also significant changes in the structure of subsidies. This was redesigned so to emulate the Common Agricultural Policy, shifting the emphasis of support on to direct farm income. Overall, Romanian agriculture benefited from EUR 16.4 billion in subsidies between 2002 and 2012, of which almost half (EUR 7.8 billion) came from the EU. With accession, the share of EU financial support has increased, particularly in the form of direct payments, whilst the national contribution has decreased. However, the latter remains much higher than prior to accession. Of EUR 13.6 billion allocated for agriculture following EU accession (2007-2012), 46 per cent was funded from the national budget. Overall, there is a rather limited volume of investment subsidies, as compared to production and income support, which may partially explain the low economic performance of the sector. EU membership has not necessarily led to farm consolidation and a gradual disappearance of small-scale (semi-subsistence) farms, which remain a dominant characteristic of Romanian agriculture

Giant Spin-splitting in the Bi/Ag(111) Surface Alloy

Surface alloying is shown to produce electronic states with a very large spin-splitting. We discuss the long range ordered bismuth/silver(111) surface alloy where an energy bands separation of up to one eV is achieved. Such strong spin-splitting enables angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly observe the region close to the band edge, where the density of states shows quasi-one dimensional behavior. The associated singularity in the local density of states has been measured by low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The implications of this new class of materials for potential spintronics applications as well as fundamental issues are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Is the Tax Burden a Generating Factor of Fiscal Evasion in South-East Europe?

Tax evasion is a pernicious phenomenon, very widespread in the world, which is closely linked to the system of taxes and fees. This is considered to be a response to the excessive fiscal pressure exerted on taxpayers. Bypassing the law is also closely related to the phenomenon of corruption and its removal is a difficult target, under the existing conditions. The main purpose of this paper is to study the influence of corruption and fiscal pressure on the phenomenon of tax evasion, materialized by the shadow economy indicator. The analysis is carried out over a period of 18 years, namely 1999-2016, for six countries of South-Eastern Europe, member states of the European Union, divided into two categories, namely developed and emerging states. The research methodology requires a comparative analysis of existing situations in the research countries. Also, we will use the econometric analysis, with the help of statistical package for social sciences, of the relationship between the underground economy and corruption, as well as the correlation between tax burden exerted by the budget revenues and tax evasion. Being difficult to quantify, the level of shadow economy has been taken from Friedrich Schneider’s studies, through which he measured underground economy in 157 countries over the period 1999-2013; but also in 36 states, between 2003 and 2016. The level of corruption is measured using the corruption perception index at the international level and the tax burden is calculated as the ratio between tax revenue and gross domestic product. Keywords: tax burden, shadow economy, corruption, South-East Europe

Studii şi cercetări privind poluarea mediului de către depozitele de deşeuri industriale

The Moldovan area has a large number of industrial waste deposits containing mine waste, slag, ash, technological waste etc. The presence of the deposit causes the air, soil, subsoil, surface and underground waters, flora and fauna and the mental state of the people to be polluted. The case study made at a landfill site highlights the multiple forms of induced pollution and their serious consequences on the environment. The deposit consists of a mixture of slag, foundry residues,industrial liquids, etc., which are extremely aggressive in air, soil, surface and underground waters. Physical and chemical indicators analyzed for soil in the area adjacent to the landfill were pH, Cd (cadmium), Mn (manganese), P (lead), SO4 (sulphate),etc. The pollution phenomenon affects all forms of environment in a serious form and the impact is indefinite

Timely Event Detection by Networked Learners

Abstract-We consider a set of distributed learners that are interconnected via an exogenously-determined network. The learners observe different data streams that are related to common events of interest, which need to be detected in a timely manner. Each learner is equipped with a set of local classifiers, which generate local predictions about the common event based on the locally observed data streams. In this work, we address the following key questions: (1) Can the learners improve their detection accuracy by exchanging and aggregating information? (2) Can the learners improve the timeliness of their detections by forming clusters, i.e., by collecting information only from surrounding learners? (3) Given a specific tradeoff between detection accuracy and detection delay, is it desirable to aggregate a large amount of information, or is it better to focus on the most recent and relevant information? To address these questions, we propose a cooperative online learning scheme in which each learner maintains a set of weight vectors (one for each possible cluster), selects a cluster and the corresponding weight vector, generates a local prediction, disseminates it through the network, and combines all the received local predictions from the learners belonging to the selected cluster by using a weighted majority rule. The optimal cluster and weight vector that a learner should adopt depend on the specific network topology, on the location of the learner in the network, and on the characteristics of the data streams. To learn such optimal values, we propose a general online learning rule that exploits only the feedbacks that the learners receive. We determine an upper bound for the worstcase mis-detection probability and for the worst-case prediction delay of our scheme in the realizable case. Numerical simulations show that the proposed scheme is able to successfully adapt to the unknown characteristics of the data streams and can achieve substantial performance gains with respect to a scheme in which the learners act individually or a scheme in which the learners always aggregate all available local predictions. We numerically evaluate the impact that different network topologies have on the final performance. Finally, we discuss several surprising existing trade-offs

Poluarea mediului riveran pe cursul superior al râului Tazlăul Sărat

The paper presents an analysis of the pollution phenomenon in the Tazlăul Sărat River basin. The studies and researches were carried out on the upper course of the river, in the area of Zemeş locality, where there are a series of wells for oil extraction. The floods have morphologically altered the minor river bed, which has influenced the stability of the banks and river basins. Crude oil pipelines are located in the river bank. Field research has analyzed the river sector between "Toderaş" and "Canton of Maxim", which administratively belongs to the commune of Zemeş, Bacău County. The flood of June 2016 had an excessive impact on the stability of oil pipelines, a situation that caused the scrapping and suspension of the pipeline

Analysis of the Floods Effects in June 2016 in the Voronet River Hydrographic Basin

The paper presents an analysis of the hydrological risk parameters registered in the Voroneţ river basin. The studies and researches took place on the Voroneţ River after the June 2016 floods. The research has taken into account the hydrological risk parameters of the last 20 years recorded in the Siret River Basin. The river basin of the Siret River has been affected by multiple floods in recent years. The floods have morphologically modified the minor and the major river Voroneţ, a situation that influenced the floodplain areas in the urban environment and outside. The research analyzed the precipitation, the liquid flows (minimum, average and maximum), the way of formation and evolution of the floods, the volume of the damage produced, etc. The investigation of the precipitation volume indicated a number of factors that have prevailed over the last 20 years. The precipitation value was 71.6 l/m2 in two days. The flow recorded in the downstream section of the river was 118.12 m3/s (the probability of calculation is 1%). The processing of liquid flow data revealed more flood flows in the same year. The effects of the floods have brought about the excessive degradation of shore defense works (about 2600 m) on the Voroneţ River located in the town of Gura Humorului, Voronet neighborhood and outside the city. The county road DJ 177D was degraded on 1600 m and two bridges were destroyed. Floods have resulted in the destruction of some economic and social objectives in the coastal area. The parameters of hydroclimatic risk highlighted by this research require special conditions for the design of works in the riverbed and the riparian area