USING ONLINE ASSESSMENT AS A TOOL FOR LEARNING

The use of information and communication technologies in education offers new means of evaluation and examination. e-Testing is a valuable evaluation tool that teachers can use during final exams and students can exploit for self-assessment, in order to ge-Learning, online assessment, e-assessment, web based learning

ASPECTS ABOUT SIMULATED MODEL TRUSTINESS

Nowadays, grace of computing possibilities that electronic computers offer and namely, big memory volume and computing speed, there is the improving of modeling methods, an important role having complex system modeling using simulation techniques. These osimulation model, validation, sensitivity analysis

E-GOVERNMENT: A DRIVING FACTOR FOR STIMULATING INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN ROMANIA?

The development of public services is one of the priorities on the agendas of all policies, both national and European. One of the most recent concerns of the European Commission, as shown in the 2010 Innobarometer, is to find ways and develop strategies to support the innovation in the public administration sector, in the context of the continuously changing economic background. In this paper, we'll investigate the relationship between e-Government, and the overall innovation performance at national level, for some European Union countries. e-Government is already a known concept, widespread in the world, promoting the implementation of information and communication technologies in the public administration, in order to provide better public services to citizens and businesses. A main component of the e-Government concept is the "counter reform", aimed to streamlining administrative act quickly in order to respond to the demands of citizens, businesses and government structures. Innovation in e-Government will be measured with two Eurostat indicators - "e-Government on-line availability" and "e-Government usage by individuals" - while for the overall innovation performance we'll use a composite indicator - the Summary Innovation Index (SII) - from the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS). In Romania, even if the values of these indicators are not at the level of other EU countries, we can say that the situation has improved and electronic public services are being used increasingly often. The study also includes a comparison between two "modest innovators": Romania and Bulgaria. Regarding the overall innovation performance, according to the 2010 Innovation Union Scoreboard ranking, Romania is the leader of the "modest innovators" countries, overcoming Latvia, Bulgaria and Lithuania. However, in the field of e-Government our country has major shortcomings. Romania has registered a significant progress in the years after the EU integration, followed by a setback in 2009, still having values below those of other EU countries, including Bulgaria.innovation, e-Government, public sector, SII, correlation

ICT DETERMINING FACTORS IN INCREASING THE INNOVATION IN ROMANIA

In order to develop competitiveness, to strengthen the economic position in front of the social challenges of the 21st century (which include: climate changes, energy resources, health and aging), large and sustained efforts are made at the European Union level regarding the innovation. This paper investigates how the frequency of computer use by individuals can be linked to the innovation level, in order to establish an ICT determining factor for growing the innovation. The results show that the encouragement of ICT absorption by the individuals can yield to a growth in the innovation level, thus minimizing the gap between Romania and the European Union developed countries.innovation, ICT, correlation, UE 2020 initiative

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

A STUDY ON THE STAGE OF E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT IN ROMANIA

This paper evaluates the stage of development of the e-learning system in Romania compared to other EU Member States, in the perspective of the newly proposed Europe 2020 strategy for a “smart, sustainable and inclusive growth”. Official statistics are essential in order to monitor these comparisons. Although Romania’s analyzed indicators are not at the level of other EU countries, a modest but increasing uptake of e-Learning services over the past few years can be observed. However, Romania still has major shortcomings in the field of e-Learning, our country being placed at the lower end of the EU-27 ranking in almost all statistics. As an EU Member State since 2007, Romania has to reduce its gap in the shortest possible time. The first steps were taken through implementing e-Learning projects and defining the barriers that stand in the way of an information society for everyone

E-GOVERNMENT: A DRIVING FACTOR FOR STIMULATING INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN ROMANIA?

The development of public services is one of the priorities on the agendas of all policies, both national and European. One of the most recent concerns of the European Commission, as shown in the 2010 Innobarometer, is to find ways and develop strategies to support the innovation in the public administration sector, in the context of the continuously changing economic background. In this paper, we'll investigate the relationship between e-Government, and the overall innovation performance at national level, for some European Union countries. e-Government is already a known concept, widespread in the world, promoting the implementation of information and communication technologies in the public administration, in order to provide better public services to citizens and businesses. A main component of the e-Government concept is the 'counter reform', aimed to streamlining administrative act quickly in order to respond to the demands of citizens, businesses and government structures. Innovation in e-Government will be measured with two Eurostat indicators e-Government on-line availability and e-Government usage by individuals while for the overall innovation performance we'll use a composite indicator the Summary Innovation Index (SII) - from the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS). In Romania, even if the values of these indicators are not at the level of other EU countries, we can say that the situation has improved and electronic public services are being used increasingly often. The study also includes a comparison between two modest innovators: Romania and Bulgaria. Regarding the overall innovation performance, according to the 2010 Innovation Union Scoreboard ranking, Romania is the leader of the modest innovators countries, overcoming Latvia, Bulgaria and Lithuania. However, in the field of e-Government our country has major shortcomings. Romania has registered a significant progress in the years after the EU integration, followed by a setback in 2009, still having values below those of other EU countries, including Bulgaria

SOME ASPECTS CONCERNING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN ICT AND INNOVATION IN EUROPE

In the context of the entire worlds efforts to start recovering from one of the worst economic crisis, finding the main drivers of growth is increasingly important. The European Commissions new proposal Europe 2020 states innovation as one of these main drivers, and promotes the development of a smart economy based on knowledge and innovation. But how innovation can be fostered? The present study focuses on the relationship between innovation and Information and Communications Technology (ICT), a supporting pillar of the smart economy. This relationship has been studied at country level using two composite indicators: one for ICT the Networked Readiness Index(NRI) published by World Economic Forum and another for Innovation the Summary Innovation Index(SII) from the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). The results represent a first step towards finding the best driving factors that can stimulate innovation

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)