Analyzing markets for electronic communications services in emerging economies - the case of Romania

Despite the rapid and complex development of the Romanian electronic communications markets after the full sector liberalization in 2003, local literature often evaluates the development of the Romanian markets in a simplistic manner, by solely comparing the penetration of electronic communication services in Romania with the penetration rates in other European Union countries. The widespread appeal of this assessment method is explained by the availability and accuracy of penetration data in the official statistics as well as by the traditional use of this method before liberalization. This paper argues that assessing the development of electronic communications markets solely by comparing penetration rates entails a number of deficiencies, especially when this method is used to compare emerging economies (such as Romania) against developed economies (such as mature EU 15 countries). In such cases the use of the penetration rates comparison method could lead the regulator into designing ineffecte competitive remedies and service providers into making ineffective strategic investments. Starting from this critical analysis, the paper proposes an alternative method for the evaluation of the development of electronic communications markets in emerging economies, using Romania as a case-study. The proposed method complements the penetration rates comparison by two additional qualitative criteria: intensity of competition, measured by the number of competitors and structure of market shares, and the consumer welfare generated by markets, measured by the indicators of service quality and price levels. In the case of Romania, the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative market indicators recommended by our method yields a different conclusion than the one obtained using the penetration comparison method. While the penetration comparison method labels the electronic communications markets in Romania as underdeveloped in comparison with mature European Union markets, the alternative method proposed by tis paper proves that in the last 7 years of competition, Romanian markets have largely recovered their extensive development handicap, while they are more advanced than most European Union mature markets in terms of competition quality and market dynamicsElectronic communications, penetration rates, service bundles, competitive markets, extensive market development, qualitative market development

Knowledge Representation and WordNets

Knowledge itself is a representation of “real facts”. Knowledge is a logical model that presents facts from “the real world” witch can be expressed in a formal language. Representation means the construction of a model of some part of reality. Knowledge representation is contingent to both cognitive science and artificial intelligence. In cognitive science it expresses the way people store and process the information. In the AI field the goal is to store knowledge in such way that permits intelligent programs to represent information as nearly as possible to human intelligence. Knowledge Representation is referred to the formal representation of knowledge intended to be processed and stored by computers and to draw conclusions from this knowledge. Examples of applications are expert systems, machine translation systems, computer-aided maintenance systems and information retrieval systems (including database front-ends).knowledge, representation, ai models, databases, cams

TECHNIQUES OF ANALYSIS AND DIAGNOSTICS OF THE COMPANIES ON THE BASIS OF FINANCIAL INDEX

Not only banks do that and all the non-financial firms who want to check the solvability of a company. In this way there were created the scoring models. These models help the decided factors from a company to classify the companies and, depending of the score, to give or not the loan.techniques

DATA MINING AND THE PROCESS OF TAKING DECISIONS IN EBUSINESS

Data mining software allows users to analyze large databases to solve business decision problems. Data mining is, in some ways, an extension of statistics, with a few artificial intelligence and machine learning twists thrown in. Like statistics, data mining is not a business solution, it is just a technology. For example, consider a catalog retailer who needs to decide who should receive information about a new product. The information operated on by the data mining process is contained in a historical database of previous interactions with customers and the features associated with the customers, such as age, zip code, their responses. The data mining software would use this historical information to build a model of customer behavior that could be used to predict which customers would be likely to respond to the new product. By using this information a marketing manager can select only the customers who are most likely to respond. The operational business software can then feed the results of the decision to the appropriate touch point systems (call centers, direct mail, web servers, email systems, etc.) so that the right customers receive the right offers.data mining, business decisions, data analysis, cluster analysis, decision strategy

Neurocognitive Impairment as Systemic Effects of COPD

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), also known as incipient dementia, is characterized by the decline of cognitive function greater than expected for a certain age and educational level of the individual but not severe enough to interfere with their daily activities. However, this mild cognitive impairment affects several areas: visuospatial, memory, attention and fluency and it is a significant concern because it decreases the quality of life and treatment adherence of these patients. On the other hand, evidence suggests that individuals with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also present an important risk of falls: 46% of these patients experience a fall/year, sometimes with fatal consequences. Standard clinical balance measures can predict the risk of falls in this population. Moreover, increased inflammatory biomarkers are associated with the decrease of cognitive functions and a higher risk of falls in this population. Patients with COPD have a higher balance and cognitive impairment than their healthy peers Therefore, it is important to identify, assess and understand the relevance of these comorbidities in order to characterize the full clinical spectrum of COPD and adjust prevention strategies, given the devastating consequences of these problems

SMART CARDS - UTILITY, APPLICATIONS AND VULNERABILITIES

The Internet has taken its place beside the telephone and television as an important part of people’s lives. Consumers use the Internet to shop, bank and invest online. Most consumers use credit or debit cards to pay for online purchases, but other payment methods, like “e-wallets,” are becoming more common. But not all the payments are safe there are a lot of fake sites, hackers, viruses.smart cards, e-payment, vulnerabilities, security

The evolution of galaxies in the context of the cosmic web

Traditionally, studies of the cosmic web in observations are done using optical/near-infrared data. However, there is a plethora of information hidden in the other wavelengths - especially in radio. In this thesis, I discuss how observations of neutral hydrogen (HI) can be used to understand the flow of gas in the intergalactic medium and how it links to the filaments of the cosmic web. Specifically, I investigate how the filaments of the cosmic web have an effect on the spin of the filaments and the physical processes that could be involved. Additionally, I explore how star formation histories (SFHs) derived from photometric bands and spectroscopy can be used to elucidate the relationship between neutral gas fraction and spin-filament alignment. Furthermore, I investigate the utilisation of SFH-derived parameters within an HI-selected sample to establish correlations between star formation, stellar mass, and HI mass. Moreover, I delve into the use of photometric redshifts, despite their inherent uncertainties, to probe the cosmic web at higher redshifts and draw insights into their impact on galaxy properties. Lastly, I discuss preliminary findings regarding an elongated Hi structure comprising 14 dwarf galaxies discovered in the local Universe, which appears to trace the cosmic web, and its implications for models of galaxy evolution

The Rent Seeking Society Revisited: An extensive overview

This article aims to serve as an introduction to the main theoretical framework concerning the economic and political phenomena of rent-seeking, which entails a dynamic ensemble of market entities that wish to alter its configuration by institutional means such as lobbying or import tariffs. The main contribution of this theoretical approach is that it has resurged the research interests of economists regarding the true social costs of this type of activity, which, prior to Tullock’s (1967) insights, have been widely considered as uncontrollable side effects of market failures and externalities, while simultaneously diminishing the role government plays in this complex institutional exchange

AN ECONOMETRICAL MODEL FOR CALCULATING THE ROMANIAN GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

This article analyzes the possibility of determining the Romanian Gross Domestic Product on the basis of a linear model, based on macroeconomic indicators such as unemployment, inflation, exchange rate. The proposed solution allows forecasting the Gross Domestic Product for the following period of time based on equation determined from the model in order to develop scenarios for improving the macroeconomic situation of Romania. The article also can be a starting point in the field of strategic investments, both at macro and micro level. Any foreign investor, before starting a business in another country, calculated and also made predictions about the economic situation of that country, in order not to lose the investment made.regression, GDP, inflation, unemployment, forecast