BARRIERS IN THE MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF DECISION-MAKING

Decision-making is becoming increasingly complex as the number of stakeholders rises,the number of decision-makers rises as well, the implications to consider are various and far-reaching,risks and uncertainties abound and the regulatory framework is growing increasingly complex.Decision-making is caught between the need to thoroughly document and substantiate a choice in frontof oneself and others, on one hand, and the potential traps that increase in number and impact as thecomplexity of the decision-making process increases, on the other hand. The present paper sought topresent critically the main types of downfalls that a decision-making model may face at the level of anindividual decision-maker. Our approach was to put into relation some of the most notablecontributions from various perspectives in order to obtain an integrated overview of the challengesfaced by decision sciences in formulating a both thorough and life-like decision-making model. Weidentified with this occasion three main potential weaknesses in formal decision modeling:unquantifiable factors, such as feelings or morals, excessive formalism and simplification of modelsthat make them vulnerable to paradoxes, and finally cognitive biases that deviate models from anobjective path. Though scientific literature on each of these topics abounds, it is time to integrate it andset the basis for comprehensive and multi-perspective modeling of decisions.decision, decision-making, decision theory, game theory, economic modeling

The Development of Touristic Services through Individual and Organizational Learning. Study Case: Romania and Spain

The present research aims to establish and to design the development strategies for services in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that activate in the tourism field of activity (hotels and other accommodation establishments, restaurants, passenger transport, travel agencies, cultural tourism agencies). Organizational learning is focused on the learning process in the organization which has direct influence on the goods and services produced. Learning activities, carried out individually, are not easily transferred at the organizational level. Moreover, in order to better highlight the weaknesses and the strengths of touristic services management approaches and to define recommendations, our research theme is developed as comparative study: similarities and differences within SMEs touristic services and learning organization practices in Romania and other European Union’s country members (the example of Spain was considered).services, tourism, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), organizational learning, human resources

HUMAN RESOURCES MOTIVATION - A CHALLENGE FOR SMES ECONOMIC PERFORMANCES

The present research aims to establish and configurate human resources development strategies for the employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that activate in the tourism field of activity (hotels and other accomodation establishments, restaurants, passenger trasnport, travel agencies, cultural turism agencies). As knowledge role in the contemporany economy is increasing and defining the economical and social context as knowledge-based ones, we shall consider the research frame as the knowledge-based economy. Moreover, in order to better highlight weaknesses and strenghts of the human resources management approaches and to define recommendations, our research theme is developped as comparative study: similarities and differences within SMEs human resources management practices in Romania and other European Union's country members (the example of Spain was considered).human resources, motivation, profitability, SMEs, tourism

Bodily Textures : Generic Inscriptions And Ideological Markings In Russian And Romanian Fantastic Literature

The body of the text—the body in the text. The relationship of reality with fiction and of fiction with its generic embodiments creates a space for inquiring into the way in which the body of the text - the genre - affects and effects the shapes of the body in the text (the embodied characters, the body politic, etc.) after responding to a "genre" of reality: ideology. As Ihab Hassan wrote, ideology, utopia and fantasy are present both as agents of change and as forms of literature, my thesis examining the ways in which these three elements interact. Studying the genre in which the critique of ideology chooses to embody itself is meaningful as 'the limits of ideology are made visible when ideology is forced into a form not of its choosing as when it must conform to the generic requirements of a particular literary mode.' I will mainly use the analysis of ideology provided by John Thompson, Fredric Jameson and Clifford Geertz, who consider ideology within a larger cultural, social and historical framework. Mikhail Bulgakov, Andrei Platonov in the 40s, and Mircea Cărtărescu in the 80s; wrote in times when socialist realism was the literary norm. Their works inhabit this norm as the starting point of their critique upon it, by ridiculing its language and its types of characters (Platonov) or creating alternative spaces through magic or introspection (Bulgakov and Cărtărescu). While Bulgakov's and Platonov's works are full-fledged novels dealing with the everyday reality of Russian life in Moscow and respectively, Chevengur, Cărtărescu's book Nostalgia is a collection of five stories linked by common characters and the same preoccupation with the inner space and its potential for transformation. In fantastic literature the negotiations between reality and fiction are important as the "real" acquires multiple meanings which arc present mainly in political and literary shapes. These shapes—like the "new man" figure, the doctrine of socialist realism are the ones to which the texts react, reversing or distorting their rules, which become instrumental in creating both the body of and the body in the text. The textual negotiation among the different, even divergent, types of bodily norms (the fantastic/realist body, the bourgeois/communist body, the female/male body) leads to the creation of the fantastic body. This is the specific body that appears in fantastic texts as the product of distortion and rearrangement, the critical body which discloses the absurdities and the gaps in ideologies. My thesis is provisionally structured in two main chapters. The first is considering the body of the text by providing a working contextual definition of the fantastic and a discussion of the relationship among imagination, fantasy and ideology. Here I consider the main theorists of the genre - Tvetan Todorov, Erik Rabkin, Christine Brooke-Rose and Rosemary Jackson. I also analyse the relationship of fantasy with different notions of reality—in literary terms (considering literary currents like modernism, symbolism, futurism and, in Cărtărescu's case, postmodernism) and social terms aiming at disclosing the mechanism of producing the fantastic topoi. In the second chapter, "The body in the text”, I will use Elisabeth Grosz's distinction between the lived and the inscribed body to discuss the result of the overlappings between different inscriptions and the positioning of bodies in space and time and the emergence of the grotesque as instrument and result of fantastic reactions. I will argue for a contextual non-escapist definition of fantasy, a definition I will use to examine the effects of the dominant ideological discourse and socialist realistic aesthetic and the way these are overturned by fantastic texts. Finally, my research aims at disclosing the mechanisms by which the fantastic body is constructed as a reaction to a specific reality context and the way it acquires its subversive potential

HOW TO TRANSFORM SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) INTO LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most dynamic and vital factor of progress in the contemporary society, main generator of economic performance and substance in any country, employment opportunity provider for most of population, major contributor to the national budget, and engine to improve the living standard of the population. SMEs represent 99% from all enterprises, drawing up the main human resource agglomeration. In Romania and other countries from The European Union, SMEs play an essential role in economic life, having special features that make adaptation process to the knowledge-based economy easier. In a knowledge-based economy context, SMEs should act as learning entities, by developing the most important resources they own: the human resources.learning organization, knowledge-based economy, small and medium enterprises, Romania

Differences Between Men and Women with Total Laryngectomy

The larynx is one of the organs that is usually involved in the tumor growth in the head and neck region and it is the second site of malignant neoplasia of the respiratory tract after the lungs. It is a well-known fact that larynx cancer is more often present in male population, with a ratio of 3:1 male/female because of the higher rate of tobacco and alcohol use. The issues related to total laryngectomy are the loss of voice, swallowing rehabilitation, reeducation of breathing through the tracheostomy, psychological alterations and social pressure. Women tend to be more affected by the presence of the tracheostomy, since general physical aspect is a major concern for modern women. Also, the emotional status of women is a plays a major role for the adherence to the therapy plan. The response to total laryngectomy by men and women is similar with slight differences in physical aspect and social reinsertion

End-stage head and neck cancer: coping mechanism

Coping mechanisms are patients’ means of adapting to stressful situations and involve psychological and physical changes in behavior. Patients adapt to head and neck cancer in a variety of ways. Head and neck cancers are extremely debilitating, especially in advanced stages of the disease or in end-of-life situations. While an oncology team needs to address the needs of all oncology patients, the advanced terminal patients require special attention. Most of these patients do not cope well with their situation and have a tendency to cease social interactions. Pain is the most frequentlyexperienced medical disability in patients having an end-stage illness experience, and thus an important medical endeavor is to afford dignity to the dying patient facingan incurable disease. In such cases, the medical community should never refuse therapy or to assist a dying patient.In some instances, the patient and family may derive benefit from their religious beliefs

PCR: A Powerful Method in Food Safety Field

In this chapter, application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in food safety, considering all the branches of this concept, is presented. The area of interest contains important analysis for both human health and the identification of food adulteration. PCR techniques used for detection of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in different matrices, identification of different animal species in meat and dairy products, as well as the detection of food infection with food-borne pathogens and toxicogenic fungi are described. The working methods and result analysis are exemplified, starting with DNA isolation adjusted to different matrices, detection of target genes, and validation for all of these methods. Techniques of simplex PCR, primer multiplexing, primer design, validation of the laboratory methods, optimization of the PCR results, and result interpretation through the analysis of the electrophoresis gels and sequencing data are studied. At the same time, the obtained results, the obstacles encountered, and how they were overcome could be an example for specific analysis developed with less resources and also for adapting the existent validated methods to the new laboratory conditions. The practical applicability and the consumer’s demands are of great importance and always must be considered in developing and validating those methods

GIS for the Valorization of Hardly Accessible Alpine Areas with Complex Potentials for Tourism, with a View to Their Inclusion in Tourist Routes. Development of the Valleys of Lotru and Olteţ

VALOT originates in the experience of European countries from the Alpine Space that succeeded to establish three top priorities for hardly accessible mountain areas based on communitarian programs (Natura 2000, Interreg IIIB – AlpNa Tour, VIADVENTURE, RegioMarket, etc.): competitiveness and attractiveness of the Alpine Space, accessibility and connectivity between high altitude settlements, environmental protection and prevention of natural hazards and disasters (snow falls, land slides, etc.). Starting from the project of Law on Approving the National Spatial Plan – Section VI – Tourism, the project aims at evaluating the current resources of hardly accessible mountain areas with complex potentials for tourism according to the experience of the European Union. GIS analysis will underline national/regional disparities of these areas, leading to conclusions on their typology and intervention proposals. The second part will focus on a case study of a hardly accessible area with a high landscape value and still un-valorized potentials for tourism. The existing situation of the area between the Lotru and Parâng mountains, consisting of the territories of four communes and a city, belonging to the counties of Vâlcea and Gorj, will be analyzed. Based on a spatial development scenario using selected statistical and geographic indicators, intervention priorities will be analyzed with the SPATIAL ANALYST, as well as funding possibilities for the creation of a cluster of mountain resorts (Rânca, Vidra, Voineasa) in order to valorize the recreational and balneary patrimony of the area, observing principles and objectives of sustainable development in mountain areas. The project will create a methodology for diagnosing problems and dysfunctions of such areas, development possibilities based on the experience of the pilot study, proposals for improving the institutional framework for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the results and (last but not least) funding sources

Psychological profile of laryngectomized patients

Larynx cancer is one of the most susceptible form of cancer susceptible to induce alteration of the patient’s psychological profile due to the social role that the larynx has in communication. Oral communication is severely impaired even after voice rehabilitation of the laryngectomized patients, so that the social rehabilitation is somewhat not only a medical but also a social problem. The psychological profile of these patients is altered in a way that dealing with the disease is sometimes neglected and the interaction with the outside world in terms of oral communication is totally abandoned. The starting point for depression in these cases is the acknowledgement of the disease and is, in some cases, the entire medical environment. Facial scarring, the inability to verbally interact with other human, as well as the presence of the tracheostoma, are all deciding factors in the presence of a low self-esteem for these particular patients. Psychological counseling is a mandatory approach for laryngectomized patients, in order to improve their ability to cope with cancer and providing better recovery chances