The European Union and the Alternative Sources of Energy

The paper presents a detailed analysis of the alternative sources of energy and aspects related to the efficient use of these sources.Energy; Alternative sources of energy; Renewable energy.

Communist heritage representation gaps and disputes

Abstract Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore how different stakeholders represent communist and revolution heritage for tourism, with a case-study on Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. The research attempts to identify gaps and tensions between representation makers on communist heritage tourism. Design/methodology/approach – The research employs a range of qualitative methods in order to explore communist heritage tourism representation from different perspectives: content analysis of secondary data in the form of government, industry and media destination promotional material; interviews with a range of representation producers (government, industry and media); focus groups with potential tourists; and content analysis of user generated content under the form of blogs by actual visitors to Bucharest. Findings – Findings reveal that there are gaps between the “official” or government representations of communism and revolution heritage and “unofficial” or industry, media and tourists’ representations. The research confirms and builds on Light’s (2000a, b) views that communist heritage is perceived as “problematic” by government officials and that attempts have been made to reinterpret it in a different light. The process of representation is made difficult by recent trends such as the increase in popularity of communism heritage tourism in countries such as Germany or Hungary. The potential of communist and revolution heritage to generate tourism is increasingly being acknowledged. However, reconciliation with “an unwanted” past is made difficult because of the legacy of communism and the difficulties of transition, EU-integration, economic crisis or countless political and social crisis and challenges. The “official” and “unofficial” representations successfully coexist and form part of the communism and revolution heritage product. Research limitations/implications – The research attempts to look at the representation of communism heritage from different angles, however, it does not exhaust the number of views and perspectives that exist on the topic. The research only records the British and Romanian perspectives on the topic. The topic is still in its infancy and more research is needed on communism heritage tourism and representation. Originality/value – The research identifies and explores gaps, agreements and disagreements over the representation of communist and revolution heritage in Bucharest, Romania

Enabling Complex Semantic Queries to Bioinformatics Databases through Intuitive Search Over Data

Data integration promises to be one of the main catalysts in enabling new insights to be drawn from the wealth of biological data already available publicly. However, the heterogene- ity of the existing data sources still poses significant challenges for achieving interoperability among biological databases. Furthermore, merely solving the technical challenges of data in- tegration, for example through the use of common data representation formats, leaves open the larger problem. Namely, the steep learning curve required for understanding the data models of each public source, as well as the technical language through which the sources can be queried and joined. As a consequence, most of the available biological data remain practically unexplored today. In this thesis, we address these problems jointly, by first introducing an ontology-based data integration solution in order to mitigate the data source heterogeneity problem. We illustrate through the concrete example of Bgee, a gene expression data source, how relational databases can be exposed as virtual Resource Description Framework (RDF) graphs, through relational-to-RDF mappings. This has the important advantage that the original data source can remain unmodified, while still becoming interoperable with external RDF sources. We complement our methods with applied case studies designed to guide domain experts in formulating expressive federated queries targeting the integrated data across the domains of evolutionary relationships and gene expression. More precisely, we introduce two com- parative analyses, first within the same domain (using orthology data from multiple, inter- operable, data sources) and second across domains, in order to study the relation between expression change and evolution rate following a duplication event. Finally, in order to bridge the semantic gap between users and data, we design and im- plement Bio-SODA, a question answering system over domain knowledge graphs, that does not require training data for translating user questions to SPARQL. Bio-SODA uses a novel ranking approach that combines syntactic and semantic similarity, while also incorporating node centrality metrics to rank candidate matches for a given user question. Our results in testing Bio-SODA across several real-world databases that span multiple domains (both within and outside bioinformatics) show that it can answer complex, multi-fact queries, be- yond the current state-of-the-art in the more well-studied open-domain question answering. -- L’intégration des données promet d’être l’un des principaux catalyseurs permettant d’extraire des nouveaux aperçus de la richesse des données biologiques déjà disponibles publiquement. Cependant, l’hétérogénéité des sources de données existantes pose encore des défis importants pour parvenir à l’interopérabilité des bases de données biologiques. De plus, en surmontant seulement les défis techniques de l’intégration des données, par exemple grâce à l’utilisation de formats standard de représentation de données, on laisse ouvert un problème encore plus grand. À savoir, la courbe d’apprentissage abrupte nécessaire pour comprendre la modéli- sation des données choisie par chaque source publique, ainsi que le langage technique par lequel les sources peuvent être interrogés et jointes. Par conséquent, la plupart des données biologiques publiquement disponibles restent pratiquement inexplorés aujourd’hui. Dans cette thèse, nous abordons l’ensemble des deux problèmes, en introduisant d’abord une solution d’intégration de données basée sur ontologies, afin d’atténuer le problème d’hété- rogénéité des sources de données. Nous montrons, à travers l’exemple de Bgee, une base de données d’expression de gènes, une approche permettant les bases de données relationnelles d’être publiés sous forme de graphes RDF (Resource Description Framework) virtuels, via des correspondances relationnel-vers-RDF (« relational-to-RDF mappings »). Cela présente l’important avantage que la source de données d’origine peut rester inchangé, tout en de- venant interopérable avec les sources RDF externes. Nous complétons nos méthodes avec des études de cas appliquées, conçues pour guider les experts du domaine dans la formulation de requêtes fédérées expressives, ciblant les don- nées intégrées dans les domaines des relations évolutionnaires et de l’expression des gènes. Plus précisément, nous introduisons deux analyses comparatives, d’abord dans le même do- maine (en utilisant des données d’orthologie provenant de plusieurs sources de données in- teropérables) et ensuite à travers des domaines interconnectés, afin d’étudier la relation entre le changement d’expression et le taux d’évolution suite à une duplication de gène. Enfin, afin de mitiger le décalage sémantique entre les utilisateurs et les données, nous concevons et implémentons Bio-SODA, un système de réponse aux questions sur des graphes de connaissances domaine-spécifique, qui ne nécessite pas de données de formation pour traduire les questions des utilisateurs vers SPARQL. Bio-SODA utilise une nouvelle ap- proche de classement qui combine la similarité syntactique et sémantique, tout en incorporant des métriques de centralité des nœuds, pour classer les possibles candidats en réponse à une question utilisateur donnée. Nos résultats suite aux tests effectués en utilisant Bio-SODA sur plusieurs bases de données à travers plusieurs domaines (tantôt liés à la bioinformatique qu’extérieurs) montrent que Bio-SODA réussit à répondre à des questions complexes, en- gendrant multiples entités, au-delà de l’état actuel de la technique en matière de systèmes de réponses aux questions sur les données structures, en particulier graphes de connaissances

Aspects of the tourism market development within the European rural space

The paper makes an analysis of rural tourism market development with the presentation of the main players in the European rural tourism. The methodology used is based on the synthesis of information from articles and studies published in specialty journals, in Government documents as well as in other development strategies on tourism and rural space. The results of this scientific research study reconfirm that rural tourism promotion and development are based on the existing tourism potential and also on the involvement of governmental and non governmental institutions

Bucharest and Environment Protection

In the current document we are referring to the existing data concerning the impact that benzene - which is one of the most important components of different types of fuels - has on Bucharest and on its inhabitants. We are also trying to present possible solutions to this serious problem which is affecting our lives. We have to take into account that the level of pollution is directly related with cancer mortality. And one of the most common causes for cancer, especially for professional cancers, is benzene – the most important aromatic hydrocarbons.environment protection, pollution, industrial ecology

The Impact of some Fuels on the Environment

The present study wishes to bring to the attention of the reader the alarming impact that the common benzene molecule has on the environment, with unimaginable implications on the human being. Although it has a great economic importance, being used in many industries, specialists are underlining the fact that benzene is extremely toxic, even in small quantities. In this document there are mentioned, under the form of case studies, the risks that those working in the presence of benzene fumes have to face.benzene fumes, air pollution, environmental effects

Book Review - Tourism and memories of home: migrants, displaced people, ex-iles and diasporic communities, S. Marschall (Ed.). Channel ViewPublications, Bristol (2017).

Book revie

Technology and events: how to create engaging events [V. Martin and L. Cazarré]

V. Martin and L. Cazarré, Technology and events: how to create engaging events ,2016,Goodfellow Publishers Limited; Oxford, 256pp., (Pbk.), £34.99 ISBN: 978-1-910158-25-8, (Hbk), £85.00 ISBN 978-1-910158-19-7 Whilst technology has for sometime now been acknowledged as a major force in the events industry, shaping and reshaping every aspect of it, very few dedicated textbooks exist on the subject (for example Lee, Boshnakova, & Goldblatt, 2015). The authors, Vanessa Martin and Luiz Cazarré, have acknowledged this critical gap and produced a highly comprehensive, relevant and informative guide for events management students and industry practitioners alike. Bridging the gap between academic text books and practitioner ‘how to’ manuals, this new addition to the events management library constitutes a valuable resource for those wishing to understand the potential of technology to create, plan and deliver better, more engaging event experiences

Brexit impacts on British tourism

The paper examines current debates on the impacts of Brexit on tourism in Britain. Brexit is a source of much concern and anxiety for British government, industry and tourists alike. The paper outlines and analyses some of the major impacts expected from the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on the British inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. The methodology used is content analysis of secondary data in the form of government and industry surveys and reports and media articles on the expected and projected short and long-term impacts of Brexit. Results argue that although reducing EU-based regulations could have some positive implications for the British tourism industry, major areas of concern exit. Reduced access to EU programmes and funding is likely to impact domestic tourism heavily and limit participation and collaboration in international projects. Withdrawal of the UK from EU travel agreements is expected to have major consequences especially in terms of freedom of movement and security. As UK British hospitality and catering industries employ a considerable amount of EU nationals, a potential staff shortage is likely to impact service quality. Britain’s tourism destination image is also likely to be negatively impacted requiring increased marketing efforts

On the Potential of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots for Data Exploration of Federated Bioinformatics Knowledge Graphs

In this paper, we present work in progress on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, such as ChatGPT, in facilitating data access to federated knowledge graphs. In particular, we provide examples from the field of bioinformatics, to illustrate the potential use of Conversational AI to describe datasets, as well as generate and explain (federated) queries across datasets for the benefit of domain experts