EU Funded Projects: from Financial to Economic Analysis

Investment projects represent the basis of economic and social development of our country. The investment is a cost that will most influence the future, but it is necessary that this influence should be not only positive, but also should exceed the investment efforts. There could be different sources of financing the investment, but lately, European grants are more and more accessed by various economic agents or institutions. To obtain European financing, the project must fulfill certain conditions and must follow certain economic, social and environmental indicators. Also, for some financing lines, is required the economic analysis preparation, in order to demonstrate that the project benefits to society are important and cover the investments efforts. Thus, economic analysis studies the project influence on macro-economic or regional level, and evaluates its contribution to the welfare of the region or local community. The present paper aims to analyze the most important and available theoretical resources and to provide practical examples for carrying out the economic analysis. In conclusion, economic analysis is an useful tool for each project evaluation, but the biggest barriers to its development are the lack of valid data and the reduced Romanian experience. Under these conditions, input data can be incorrectly estimated, resulting illusory and subjective project data. For a proper projects selection based on indicators of economic assessment, it must be developed a national, complete and complex guide.performance Cost-benefit analysis, European funds, externalities, investments, shadow prices.

Specific Features in Accessing European Funding

European Funds are the European Union financial instruments in order to assist Member States in reducing the existing disparities between regions and between countries, and for harmonization with the economic, social and cultural European standards. This paper intends to present some general characteristics applicable to the most important financing programs, and also to outline certain features of the main financing lines, referring to investment projects development and their implementation, based on the Applicant Guides analysis. The paper treats institutional, legal, financial, technical, social and environmental aspects and outlines proposals and recommendations to achieve a better EU funds absorption and also a higher success rate of initiated projects. In knowledge-based economy circumstances, training consultancy specialists, that represent the intellectual capital in this area, will ensure the professional management of the developing process, submission and ongoing competitive projects, and will help enhance the funds absorption at national level. Thus, the European support for investments in ensuring sustainable growth will help overcoming the difficulties encountered by our country, and will sustain the Romanian economy recovery.eligible costs, European funds, investment, knowledge economy, sustainable development.

Scoring Method Applied to Financing Programmes in the Context of Sustainable Development

AbstractAt present, Romania is benefiting of its first post-accession programming period, having the possibility to access significant funding allocated for development and reducing disparities to other Member States, but at the same time, it is required a considerable effort not only to meet the national objectives, but also the additional ones imposed at the Community level. EU utilizes several financial support instruments, which in our country, are materialized in seven main operational programmes and two complementary actions. On the other hand, by developing and implementing the Europe 2020 Strategy, EU require each Member State to meet several clear objectives, through a sustainable, smart and inclusive development. In this paper, we analyze the influence and contribution of each EU financing programme on promoting and supporting the sustainable development in Romania. Therefore, we are applying and adapting the Scoring method, in order to evaluate and prioritize the importance of the financing programmes in terms of specific investments for sustainable development, taking into account all three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and ecological

ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE SECURITY â€" VULNERABLE PUBLIC GOOD IN THE CONTEXT OF A NONPOLAR SECURITY ENVIRONMENT. SHIFTS IN THE CONCEPT OF SECURITY

It is important to start our assumptions from the fact that, from some economistsâ€(tm) point of view, most of the cases which were considered examples of actual public goods were found to be wrong. So, what we want to find out is whether, considering the fact that security must not be provided only through private means, we can still talk about an equal distribution of it, or it has shifted to a selective distribution of security. In order to answer the question whether security can still be provided by the state in an equal distributional system, we will use it as a premise and try to prove it. Beginning with the theoretical characteristics of a public good and with the definitions of the present concept of security we will try to find out if one can still speak of security as a public good, and moreover, as a global public good.public goods, global public good, security

Current Approaches Regarding the Knowledge Management Impact on SMEs Performance

Managing knowledge is a critical capability for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to master because it helps them leverage their most critical resource. Organizational knowledge is the most salient resource at the disposal of SMEs in terms of availability, access, and depth. Successful SMEs are those who can leverage their knowledge in an effective and efficient manner, so as to make up for deficiencies in traditional resources, like land, labor, and capital. The purpose of this article is to identify the knowledge management impact on SMEs performance and to compare knowledge management in SMEs with knowledge management in large companies. The research discovered that SMEs do not manage knowledge the same way as larger organizations.knowledge management, performance, SMEs.

IMPORTANCE AND OPPORTUNITIES OF SENTIMENT ANALYSIS IN DEVELOPING E-LEARNING SYSTEMS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

The means of communication and interaction have benefited from incredible changes over the past decade, Social Media increasingly replacing traditional environments. Considering the collaborative nature of the learning sector and consequently the importance of communication and interaction within it, we intuitively realize that Social Media represents the future of educational systems, the research in this field pointing towards the integration of e-Learning with Social Media. However, in order to deliver efficient educational systems, it is not enough to identify the technological means that are conducive to their development, but is also important to shape these means depending on the needs of the target group. When we discuss about Social Media and learning, it is noticed that individuals are the direct beneficiaries and the main force of these environments. Therefore, it is important to understand their behavior, their needs and wants. Analyzing students\u27 attitudes, identifying their positive or negative reactions, or even the refined emotions they have towards learning, can be an extremely difficult task due to their diversity in countless ways. In this regard, an increasingly used tool whose accuracy cannot be challenged is the Sentiment Analysis. The inherent nature of Social Media tools offers multiple areas of application of Sentiment Analysis. Therefore, this paper will discuss the importance of Sentiment Analysis towards e-Learning development through Social Media, considering current evidence. Secondly, the paper aims to identify the opportunities offered by Social Media with regards to Sentiment Analysis implementation and how feedback on educational data can be collected via such online environments to help improve educational processes in an e-Learning context

IMPORTANCE AND OPPORTUNITIES OF SENTIMENT ANALYSIS IN DEVELOPING E-LEARNING SYSTEMS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

The means of communication and interaction have benefited from incredible changes over the past decade, Social Media increasingly replacing traditional environments. Considering the collaborative nature of the learning sector and consequently the importance of communication and interaction within it, we intuitively realize that Social Media represents the future of educational systems, the research in this field pointing towards the integration of e-Learning with Social Media. However, in order to deliver efficient educational systems, it is not enough to identify the technological means that are conducive to their development, but is also important to shape these means depending on the needs of the target group. When we discuss about Social Media and learning, it is noticed that individuals are the direct beneficiaries and the main force of these environments. Therefore, it is important to understand their behavior, their needs and wants. Analyzing students\u27 attitudes, identifying their positive or negative reactions, or even the refined emotions they have towards learning, can be an extremely difficult task due to their diversity in countless ways. In this regard, an increasingly used tool whose accuracy cannot be challenged is the Sentiment Analysis. The inherent nature of Social Media tools offers multiple areas of application of Sentiment Analysis. Therefore, this paper will discuss the importance of Sentiment Analysis towards e-Learning development through Social Media, considering current evidence. Secondly, the paper aims to identify the opportunities offered by Social Media with regards to Sentiment Analysis implementation and how feedback on educational data can be collected via such online environments to help improve educational processes in an e-Learning context

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL INVESTMENT, KEY FACTOR IN ACHIEVING ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

In knowledge-based economy, intangible assets such as knowledge and intellectual capital are becoming the new core competencies. Intellectual capital is an asset that increases its value as it is used; therefore investments in intellectual capital and knowledge represent power and profitability. This paper proposes to highlight the synergy between investments in intellectual capital, a valuable and strategic asset, and achieving and sustaining competitive advantage and organizational performance in knowledge-based society. Intellectual capital becomes the essential part of the system of contemporary economic and sustainable development, the company is seen as a means to create, integrate, store and apply knowledge. Every organization holds a specific intellectual capital characterized by a potential of knowledge and, respectively by a capacity to use it in a creative manner. Expansion of intellectual capital can be achieved if innovation and creativity are present in an organization, but also through the dissemination of innovation and the convergence of top technologies. Intellectual capital, an important source of an organization’s economic, sustainable development is crucial to manage the intellectual resources and capabilities, needs to be taken seriously into account in formulating business strategy. Holding superior intellectual resources, organizations must exploit and develop resources in a competitive manner, meaning that the intellectual capital value exist with the knowledge of individuals, but can be institutionalized as part of systems and organization structure. Pharmaceutical companies should invest in developing creative skills for R&D professionals, and strengthening of management skills to demonstrate that intellectual capital achieves the strategic objectives for health therapiesintellectual capital, investment, knowledge, knowledge management, pharmaceutical industry.

Securing the in-vehicle network

Recent research into automotive security has shown that once a single electronic vehicle component is compromised, it is possible to take control of the vehicle. These components, called Electronic Control Units, are embedded systems which manage a significant part of the functionality of a modern car. They communicate with each other via the in-vehicle network, known as the Controller Area Network, which is the most widely used automotive bus. In this thesis, we introduce a series of novel proposals to improve the security of both the Controller Area Network bus and the Electronic Control Units. The Controller Area Network suffers from a number of shortfalls, one of which is the lack of source authentication. We propose a protocol that mitigates this fundamental shortcoming in the Controller Area Network bus design, and protects against a number of high profile media attacks that have been published. We derive a set of desirable security and compatibility properties which an authentication protocol for the Controller Area Network bus should possess. We evaluate our protocol, along with other proposed protocols in the literature, with respect to the defined properties. Our systematic analysis of the protocols allows the automotive industry to make an informed choice regarding the adoption suitability of these solutions. However, it is not only the communication of Electronic Control Units that needs to be secure, but the firmware running on them as well. The growing number of Electronic Control Units in a vehicle, together with their increasing complexity, prompts the need for automated tools to test their security. Part of the challenge in designing such a tool is the diversity of Electronic Control Unit architectures. To this end, this thesis presents a methodology for extracting the Control Flow Graph from the Electronic Control Unit firmware. The Control Flow Graph is a platform independent representation of the firmware control flow, allowing us to abstract from the underlying architecture. We present a fuzzer for Electronic Control Unit firmware fuzz-testing via Controller Area Network. The extracted Control Flow Graph is tagged with static data used in instructions which influence the control flow of the firmware. It is then used to create a set of input seeds for the fuzzer, and in altering the inputs during the fuzzing process. This approach represents a step towards an efficient fuzzing methodology for Electronic Control Units. To our knowledge, this is the first proposal that uses static analysis to guide the fuzzing of Electronic Control Units

PRELIMINARY STUDY REGARDING POSSIBILITY TO USE UV-C RADIATION ON MEET PRODUCTS

In a world where food safety not only can no longer be ignored but new rules appear, experts in the field are looking for new and new solutions. Sometimes we return to the ideas that were abandoned in the past due to the economic efficiency. Given that the production of electricity is becoming cheaper due to renewable resources, the pasteurization of meat products through UV-C radiation can be one of the solutions