THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE ROMANIAN TOURISM – A GHOST OR SUSTAINABLE REALITY?

The integration of Romanian tourism into the European Union means making the economic activity more efficient in concordance with the natural and social environment. The tourism has the chance to develop freely without constraint from the limits imposed bcompetitiveness, tourism, destination, economy, project, globalisation, sustainable

EXCELLENCY OR CHAOTIC GLOBALIZATION IN TOURISM?

The globalization, new destinations proliferation and new technologies have changed the competitive environment of the European countries. In the present, the most powerful tool in tourism's promotion is represented by the image of a country or region or touristic product. If we focus our attention on the international dimension, the strategies of defining an image or touristic promotion are: to create a new touristic image, re-position a traditional touristic destination, create a degree of awareness in a competitive environment, create brands (a brand for a region/state).tourism, globalisation, strategy

THE QUALITY OF THE TOURISM SERVICES UNDER THE SIGN OF SUSTAINABILITY

The intensive development of tourism represents a unique challenge in history. That is why we have to be prepared that in the 21st century we should cope with the \\\"avalanche\\\" represented by the quality of life, especially related to the food quantity and quality needs and the greater need of people to recover rapidly and pleasantly through holidays and tourist travels. A first step in this sense, which we assume, is the superior educational effort to train real professionals with certain competences for solving the complexity of these realities that we live. The society becomes more and more aware of all these realities. The activity of the international organisations shows that their efforts for the development of food and tourism are more and more appreciated by the population. Urgent actions based on the mature thinking and quality scientific interpretations are necessary, in order to stop, on the one hand, the food decline in certain areas of the world, and on the other part, for the proportional and harmonious development of food and tourism on more expanded areas, and to reconcile man with nature, to focus on agriculture and on the ecological and biologic food and eco-tourism, to leave future generations an environment at least as favourable as the one we inherited. All these wishes mean important changes in the economy and of everyday life, request large investments and sacrifices, a new mentality. It is not easy to fulfil these tasks, but we must think about what would happen if we did not solve these problems. In a short while we would block the normal evolution of the contemporary human society.tourism services, quality, sustainable

THE MANAGEMENT OF THE OPTIMAL CONDITIONS OF STORAGE - TRANSPORT - TRADING OF THE FOOD PRODUCTS

A product cannot fulfil its role, its calling, unless it enters the final consumption, satisfying the need of the consumer who has bought it. But, the road from the producer to the consumer, in the contemporary conditions is not general, nor simple, nor short, nor cheap. The processes of globalisation, the internationalisation of the markets have lead to the intensification of the distribution of products, and, at the same time, to the amplification of the distances they travel. All these have determined the awarding of greater attention on the maintenance of the quality of the food products on the entire technical-economical circuit.storage, transport, trading, food products, quality

EXCELLENCY OR CHAOTIC GLOBALIZATION IN TOURISM?

The globalization, new destinations proliferation and new technologies have changed the competitive environment of the European countries. In the present, the most powerful tool in tourism's promotion is represented by the image of a country or region or touristic product. If we focus our attention on the international dimension, the strategies of defining an image or touristic promotion are: to create a new touristic image, re-position a traditional touristic destination, create a degree of awareness in a competitive environment, create brands (a brand for a region/state)

REPRESENTING GENDER IN COMMUNIST AND POSTCOMMUNIST ROMANIA

This article examines various representations of gender in communist and postcommunist Romania, with a focus on how women and men were both led towards and sometimes forced into gender roles better suited to the state policies of the respective contexts rather than to their own interests. Over the years, the state and/or party(ies) public agenda, from women’s liberation through gender equality to equal opportunities, has met real Romanian women’s and men’s needs to different extents and with variable success

PRELIMINARY CHROMATOGRAPHICRESEARCH ON SOME SALVIA SPP. (LAMIACEAE)

Salvia genus, representative for the Lamiaceae family as it comprises approximately one thousand different species, is considered for a wide plethora of therapeutic actions, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antitumoral and antidiabetic activity. The paper presents the preliminary chromatographic investigations of the polyphenols in the aerial parts of some Salvia spp. Using high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) coupled with photodensitometry, caffeic acid was identified and quantified in the 20% methanolic extracts of Salviaeherba, in descending order, as follows: S. nemorosa (3.096%) > S. verticillata (3.041%) > S. sclarea (2.663%) > S. glutinosa (1.962%) > S. aethiopis (0.926%)

Improvement of acromegaly control with multimodal therapy in Romania

Introduction: In Romania, there is no acromegaly national register and there are no nationwide data available. However, some studies have reported the control rates in the country’s main referral centres. Our aim was to assess the overall control rate in our tertiary referral centre. Also, we assessed the control rate in the last three years, and we compared the results with our previous reports. Material and methods: We reviewed the charts of 186 patients with acromegaly assessed in our department between January 1st, 2012 and May 31st, 2019. We also compared the control rates for patients treated between April 1st, 2016 and May 31st, 2019 with historical controls (assessed between January 1st, 2012 and March 31st, 2016). Results: Primary analysis: There were 19 untreated and 167 treated patients, mean age 52.46 years, surgery being the most commonly used treatment. The surgical cure rate was 14.8%, and disease control with medical treatment was 35.3%. Secondary analysis: In the first group there were 45 patients, surgery also being the most commonly used treatment. The surgical cure rate was 26.9%, and disease control was 30.4%. In the second group (historical controls) there were 42 patients, surgery being the most commonly used treatment. The surgical cure rate was 9.7%, and disease control with medical treatment was 15.4%. Random GH and IGF-1 after surgery were lower in the first group (p < 0.05) Conclusions: Changes in the Romanian protocol and highly specialised pituitary centres has improved the cure rate and disease control in patients with acromegaly.

Translation of the Fugl-Meyer assessment into Romanian: Transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptations and clinical validation

PurposeThe Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) scale, which is widely used and highly recommended, is an appropriate tool for evaluating poststroke sensorimotor and other possible somatic deficits. It is also well-suited for capturing a dynamic rehabilitation process. The aim of this study was to first translate the entire sensorimotor FMA scale into Romanian using the transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptations of its official afferent protocols and to then validate it using the preliminary clinical evaluation of inter- and intra-rater reliability and relevant concurrent validity.MethodsThrough three main steps, we completed a standardized procedure for translating FMA's official afferent evaluation protocols into Romanian and their transcultural and semantic-linguistic adaptation for both the upper and lower extremities. For relevant clinical validation, we evaluated 10 patients after a stroke two times: on days 1 and 2. All patients were evaluated simultaneously by two kinesi-physiotherapists (generically referred to as KFT1 and KFT2) over the course of 2 consecutive days, taking turns in the roles of an examiner and observer, and vice versa (inter-rater). Two scores were therefore obtained and compared for the same patient, i.e., being afferent to an inter-rater assay by comparing the assessment outcomes obtained by the two kinesi-physiotherapists, in between, and respectively, to the intra-rater assay: based on the evaluations of the same kinesi-physiotherapist, in two consecutive days, using a rank-based method (Svensson) for statistical analysis. We also compared our final Romanian version of FMA's official protocols for concurrent validity (Spearman's rank correlation statistical method) to both of the widely available assessment instruments: the Barthel Index (BI) and the modified Rankin scale (mRS).ResultsSvensson's method confirmed overall good inter- and intra-rater results for the main parts of the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols, regarding the percentage of agreement (≥80% on average) and for disagreement: relative position [RP; values outside the interval of (−0.1, 0.1) in only two measurements out of the 56 comparisons we did], relative concentration [RC; values outside the interval of (−0.1, 0.1) in only nine measurements out of the same 56 comparisons done], and relative rank variation [RV; all values within an interval of (0, 0.1) in only five measurements out of the 56 comparisons done]. High correlation values were obtained between the final Romanian version of FMA's evaluation protocols and the BI (ρ = 0.9167; p = 0.0002) for FMA–upper extremity (FMA-UE) total A-D (motor function) with ρ = 0.6319 and for FMA-lower extremity (FMA-LE) total E-F (motor function) with p = 0.0499, and close to the limit, with the mRS (ρ = −0.5937; p = 0.0704) for FMA-UE total A-D (motor function) and (ρ = −0.6615; p = 0.0372) for FMA-LE total E-F (motor function).ConclusionsThe final Romanian version of FMA's official evaluation protocols showed good preliminary reliability and validity, which could be thus recommended for use and expected to help improve the standardization of this assessment scale for patients after a stroke in Romania. Furthermore, this endeavor could be added to similar international translation and cross-cultural adaptations, thereby facilitating a more appropriate comparison of the evaluation and outcomes in the management of stroke worldwide

ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM THROUGH CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

In tourism, hotels play an important role and contribute to the economic growth in cities and other places endowed with attractions which are universally recognized. Two elements are essential in the tourism industry system: product quality and human resources. In terms of quality of the hotel services, that is the one that allows to the tourist enterprise to own a competitive advantage, gain competitive differentiation and reputation among customers by achieving a high degree of customer satisfaction. Hotel customer satisfaction would be impossible if the hotel management does not perform periodic evaluations on customer satisfaction and quality, which are the focus of this paper. Therefore, this paper focuses on customer satisfaction measured by the SERVQUAL model