bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The role of internet and social media in recruitment in certain Islamic terrorist organizations. Cases of Al Qaeda and ISIS
Authors: Grosu Ruslana , Bubuioc Vasile
Published: July 2020

This research is an attempt to resume and elucidate the practical valence of the academic works, published in the Western countries and Russia. The main goal of this study was to substantiate, in terms of theoretical and methodological aspect, the contents of publications, which reflect a wide range of topics, such as the propaganda, manipulation and recruitment in the terrorist organizations through the social media and the Internet, accentuating the psychosocial components, and highlighting the practices to combat this phenomenon.
The paper focuses on the issue that the Internet and global networks significantly increased the potential for terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and ISIS to carry out their criminal plans. The authors based their research on the thesis that global network represents a new virtual environment, favourable for the online criminal acts, including the recruitment in the terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. They use the Internet as means of psychological warfare through the dissemination of disinformation and horror, for recruitment of new members.
The researchers underlined the amplification of the recruitment through various social networks. The anonymity and a large audience allow different interest groups, regardless of their place of residence, an uncontrollable and secret communication. The recruitment in the cyber terrorist communities has been conducted in online form by identifying and attracting people interested to support the approach and actions of the terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.
How is technology changing the world landscape? A view over the European continent
Authors: Vrabie Catalin , Tirziu Andreea-Maria
Published: July 2020

We are used to look at geographical, economic, political or even religious maps of our planet. Cybernetics, which is a relatively new science that forcedly makes its way through already existing sciences, it is creating its own map. Obviously, despite the young age, its complexity does not permit detailing of each component. This article focuses on the digital divide on the European continent. Starting from an analysis on local communities in Romania from 2010 up till now, the intention to extend the study to the entire region and then to the whole continent did not take long to appear, but unfortunately the complexity and lack of resources are proving to be a great barrier. In spite of this, we analysed at a national level (using a series of criteria proposed by the ECDL Foundation, together with those proposed by UNESCO and adapted according to the literature studied) all European countries, which possess as we know, important similarities and differences related to their political, social, and economic contexts. As a result, we created a map of the level of information technology's adoption amongst population. The research question this study investigates is how contextual features serve to influence the adoption of technology among different countries in Europe – focusing in particular at Romania. Due to the fact that high dispersion of results for indicators within the same country raises many questions, we conclude saying that the success of IT&C projects is to a large extent contingent upon political and economic contexts, while being less related to social contexts. The article also wants to be a scientific debates initiator, whose purpose is to present, in a formal framework: university courses, conferences, seminars, solutions and strategies of increasing the value of the indicators in question.
Civic Engagement in a digital time - Is there a divide in terms of social civic behavior?
Authors: Zait Adriana , Andrei Andreia Gabriela , Horodnic Ioana Alexandra
Published: July 2020

ICT’s and social media dramatically reshape the way citizens communicate and get involved into the civic life of a city and country. As a consequence of these developments, we would expect people to be more engaged citizens, active participants in both their online and offline communities. However, two questions arise: do people actually become more civic minded due to the digital evolution? Does social involvement in online virtual communities translate into real life actions? Answering these questions is the aim of the present study, which intends to analyze if there is a divide in terms of social civic behavior on two axes – attitude towards civic engagement and stated civic participation, online and offline behavior. We used survey as main research method in order to answer our research questions, and the study is a descriptive one. The investigated population consisted of a purposive sample of internet users from cities with possible different degrees of civic attitude (measured through a classical Civic Engagement Scale).
Openness in higher education
Authors: Chiriac Tatiana
Published: July 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of openness in higher education and its trends and technologies of expanding educational opportunities in the digital information society of Moldovan universities. The main concepts of openness in education are associated with the practice of online learning and constructivist approaches, technical optimization of delivering information, continuous professional development and globalization of higher education. Since skilled knowledge becomes the main value of the market, then higher education perspective as a tool of knowledge reproduction is transformed into the basic space of openness and accommodation to innovative use of educational resources. The key issues related to openness in order to impact higher education target the development of Open Educational Resources (OER), as well as implication of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), relatively new online learning trend. There are institutional practices of the adoption and use of open education technologies in some international universities and organizations, which could be extended as well to create an open learning system in the Republic of Moldova, focusing on national practices of education. Openness of Moldovan HEIs is a strategic choice for the future in a rapidly changing educational market that should proliferate.
The role of information instruments in ensuring transparency in scientific research (the case of the Rep. of Moldova)
Authors: Ion Holban , Gheorghe Cuciureanu , Vitalie Minciuna
Published: July 2020

The present paper shows several information instruments created in the Republic of Moldova for the purpose of ensuring transparency in science, innovation and scientific staff training. Their evolution, the way in which they could help enhancing transparency in Moldovan researchdevelopment- innovation system, shortcomings in ensuring greater visibility, have been investigated. Three information instruments developed (or under preparation) by the Information Society Development Institute have been examined in detail: i) National Bibliometric Instrument – a digital information system which is a database for collecting, classifying and processing public data on scientific publications in Moldovan scientific journals; ii) EXPERT online – an online information system for applying and assessment of draft programs and projects in the area of science and innovation; iii) Digital Map of Science – a platform in which the functions of existing systems are to be integrated under a common roof in order to provide one-stop-shop services.
Corruption in the extractive industry sector reinventing trusted governance "Iraqi Case"
Authors: Ahmad Paiman
Published: July 2020

In the natural resource governance, corruption and transparency both got high attraction from the public and worldwide institutions, which focus on transparency, corruption and good governance. Tackling corruption in extractive industry in countries endowed with natural resources is the core concern for the people, yet governments in most developing countries are not concerned about being prepared for the transparency and accountability initiatives for creating open governments. This study offers a review existing literature aiming at evaluating the impact of E-Government for transparency and accountability in the extractive industry sector in Iraq since 2003. In fact, the natural resource governance needs good governance principles to be enforced for improving transparency and accountability between the government and the companies during, licensing, exploration, contracting, extraction, revenue generation and the allocation process of the revenues. While, E- Governance has got international attention from developed and developing countries, the initiative started with Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), followed by the Global Witness/ Publish What You Pay Coalition (PWYP), with the recent emergence of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Many resource abundant countries such as Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, Angola, etc, underperform in terms of socio-economic development, those countries face the ‘the resource curse’ as an economic phenomenon, which is interlinked to the politics of resource governance. Indeed, corruption and transparency as the main principles of pure governance in natural resources set the picture of government for being accountable for his populations. This study aims in answering this thesis:
In the absence of E-Government, corruption hampered the revenues in Iraq similarly as many other rentier states
Open legislative data: From Ukrainian perspective
Authors: Babynska (Virna) Nadiia
Published: July 2020

Structured, open by default, accessible, timely data are important source for understanding the parliament, engaging citizens to legislation processes, political analysis and prognosis. Data about voting, MPs, finance and legislation-flow in the parliament are vital and having access to the whole bulk of data – is the main source of information for researchers, journalists, think tanks, parliament itself.
Parliaments all around the world produce terabytes of information each year. These are voting records, drafts of laws, legislation, amendments, information about plenary session meetings, speeches, videos, photos, financial information etc. Is this information used by parliament, think tanks, other stakeholders? Or is it hidden in the shelf in offices of parliamentarian clerks?
In this article author tries to explain the importance of open legislative data, how they can be used by and for society. Nadiia Babynska describes her path on opening parliament data in Ukraine, failures and successes in this process. Nadiia Babynska shows the initial need of open legislative data for good governance, engagement citizens, transparency and anti-corruption in parliament. She proposes the main steps to make parliament data open.
Open access policy to research outputs in the Republic of Moldova. State of the art and perspectives
Authors: Turcan Nelly , Cujba Rodica
Published: July 2020

According to the Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP) only 8 research institutions from the Republic of Moldova (12%) approved an Open Access Policy (OAP). All these institutions are universities and none is a research institute or research funder, although research and development activities in the Republic of Moldova are funded basically from the state budget.
The paper contains analysis of the situation regarding Open Access Institutional Policies in the Republic of Moldova. Results of a study regarding the attitude of Moldovan academia to open access to research outputs and identified problems on this issue are presented in this work. Emphasis is given to tools and information systems like Institutional Repositories (IRs) that promote open access for research outputs. The paper reveals the barriers for adoption and / or implementation of an open access policy in a research organization and provides ways for their overcoming.
Securitizing the Internet: The case of Turkey
Authors: Gessler Helin Alagöz
Published: July 2020

The rapid digital development in the last two decades has brought the cyberspace to national security agenda in Turkey as one of the significant challenges of the 21st century. Increasing regulation of the Internet and, in particular, online social networks by the state through digital controls and surveillance is being justified addressing the maelstrom of potential cyber threats. Nonetheless, increasing control of cyberspace contrasts with the commitment to the protection of the individual rights and liberties. This paper maps the Internet freedom in Turkey and asks to what extent Turkey is able to strike a balance between providing the security in cyberspace and protecting the Internet freedom in the country.
In order to analyze how digitization and the Internet have developed into a security issue in Turkey, the paper builds on the theoretical framework of securitization formulated by the Copenhagen School, which deals with the construction of the image of security threats. The paper argues that the perception of networked nature of cyberspace to create dissidence which may result in the destruction of state authority leads to hyper-securitization while neglecting the freedom of expression as well as freedom to access information.
The paper follows the methodology of qualitative case study mainly based on document analysis, assessment of the official internet regulations and media analysis.
The limits of transparency in administrative proceedings - The Hungarian approach
Authors: Szőke Gergely László
Published: July 2020

For both the functioning of the state and in a broader sense, that of society it is a key question to determine who has access to the public data, for what purposes, to what extent and on what conditions. The questions of disposal of, access to and public disclosure related to the data processed by the state concern several fields of law, and the coherency of the legal provisions is far not obvious. The aim of this study is to discuss a few aspects of this comprehensive issue. Since some of the public data are processed in public administration proceedings, the question of how public disclosure is enforced in the specific administrative proceedings, and more specifically, how compliant the Hungarian regulation of the freedom of information is with the right of inspection regarding concrete cases is examined. Although the research is focusing mainly on the Hungarian legislation, the findings of this essay may be also used in the international discourse.
Digital governance: Research design of a comprehensive research program to analyse ICT driven transformation
Authors: Nemeslaki András
Published: July 2020

The paper presents the theoretical foundations and research design of a comprehensive research program initiated at the National University of Public Service for exploring the complex dynamics of digital transformation of governance and government. In alignment with the Danube Region Strategy the initiative is based on two main pillars: a) concepts of territorial and cross-border governance especially exploring the process from whole-of-government to social participation, and b) information management focusing on ICT ecosystems and project management. Based on these two pillars three drivers of digital transformation are defined which are very tightly intertwined in the research design. The first is what we collectively address as e-services including legaltechnical-organizational solutions, citizens´ acceptance and the complex notion of accessibility with trust. The second driver in our model is the appearance of “smartness” in governance both centrally and locally – spanning from knowledge management to smart communities in symbiosis with smart technologies. Finally, the third set of drivers for digital transition is the capability for innovation and change including management and organizations, social impacts of industry 4.0., and a modified Balanced Scorecard system for administration. The paper presents the key research questions in each pillar and maps how institutional collaborations (amongst 7 Hungarian, 3 European and 2 North-American universities) address them methodologically.
E-Cohesion maturity: How to measure the efficiency of digital cohesion policy
Authors: Laposa Tamás
Published: July 2020

This paper focuses on the maturity of e-government services on the domain of European fund management, to explore the measurability of potential efficiency gains.
The practical relevance of the topic is that the current European legislation prescribes that Member States shall offer electronic fund management services to beneficiaries to foment the efficient use of European Structural and Investment Funds. The main driver of this concept is the reduction of administrative burdens which can be achieved by the Europe-wide utilization of paperless fund management tools and by harnessing the interoperability of information systems. In the scientific discourse, the above concept is labelled as “e-Cohesion”. However, the legislation sets quite broad requirements for its implementation, so the e-Cohesion landscape and the intended efficiency gains may appreciably differ from country to country. The exploration of this “digital efficiency divide” offers a new relevant research opportunity. Therefore, this article is dealing with the measurability of efficiency of e-tools to methodologically support Member States in the realization and fine-tuning of their national e-Cohesion concepts.
It is presented in this paper that the level of potential efficiency gains is connected to e-government readiness, i.e. the maturity of e-Cohesion systems. The paper, therefore, systematically reviews the relevant e-Government literature on the issue of maturity. Based on this, it aims to identify the most important models and methodological elements which address the main attributes of e-Cohesion to pave the way for further empirical research and the creation of an e-Cohesion-specific maturity model.
Methodology and algorithm of information security risk management for local infrastructure
Authors: Rodica Bulai , Dumitru Ciorbă , Andrei Poştaru , Călin Rostislav
Published: July 2020

The complexity of information security does not resume to mere technicality, transferring significant liability to proper management. Risk analysis in information security is a powerful tool that comes in handy for managers in making decisions about the implementation of efficient information management systems, in order to achieve the organization's mission.
As a part of risk management, risk analysis is the systematic implementation of methods, techniques and management practices to assess the context, identify, analyze, evaluate, treat, monitor and communicate the risks for the information security and systems through which they are processed, stored or transmitted.
The ISO/IEC 27005:2011 – Information security risk management, does not specify any particular method for managing the risks associated with information security, but a general approach. It is up to the organization to devise control objectives that would reflect specific approaches to risk management and the degree of assurance required.
There are several models, methodologies and tools amongst which those like CRAMM (United Kingdom, Insight Consulting), Risicare/Mehari (France, Clusif), GSTool (Germany, ITGrundschutz). The theoretical model of the mentioned methodologies is hard to put in practice without experience required from the members of the risk analysis team. Using the appropriate risk assessment solution, an organization can devise its own security requirements.
Factors Influencing Declining Voter Turnout - A Case Study in Neu-Ulm
Authors: Bullinger Anton , Prosser Alexander , Schenk Birgit
Published: July 2020

This paper is a continuation of a contribution published [1] by the same authors analysing possible reasons for low voter turnout in the City of Neu-Ulm. This paper operated under the limitation that only summary voter participation data from past elections was available which could be matched with demographic data from the city constituencies. Data that could be used to derive individual motivation was not available. To remedy this limitation, a questionnaire was sent to 3,000 inhabitants of Neu-Ulm to relate their voter participation to several possible factors influencing the propensity to vote and to derive recommendations for the City Council how to improve on voter participation in future elections. This contribution presents some preliminary results from the study.
Limitations of the e-Participation
Authors: Pinterič Uroš
Published: July 2020

e-Participation was considered to be proper solution for the long term decline of political participation at different levels. However, recent events show that there is very limited space for the political participation, which is considered to be functional. The paper explores the changes in citizens' participation after the introduction of different e-Participation/ e-Democracy tools. Based on the results we want to justify the need to redefine the idea of ICT-supported participation and critically assess it, since no systematic change is visible in the patterns as well as in the actions of individuals. The basic observation can be formulated in the sense, that the ICT tools predominantly facilitate the participation of those who would actively participate in the first place, but they do not increase activation of those people, who are refusing to participate.
Rules for eID management in the Public Sector (Hungary, 2018)
Authors: Zámbó Alexandra Erzsébet
Published: July 2020

The scope of the bodies providing e-governance services has significantly expanded in the past decade. Electronic identification has become an elementary obligation of the clients in eprocedures, as this is the starting point of any legal electronic transaction.
In Hungary, this legal issue is generally regulated by the Act CCXXII of 2015 on the General Rules for Trust Services and Electronic Transactions, and the related Government Decree 451/2016. (XII. 19.) on the details of electronic administration procedures. These national rules have been adjusted to the provisions of the Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC (hereinafter: eIDAS Regulation).
The aim of the presentation is to summarize the legal possibilities and to evaluate their practical implementation.
Which barriers hinder a successful digital transformation in small and medium-sized municipalities in a federal system?
Authors: Jakob Markus , Krcmar Helmut
Published: July 2020

This paper presents a proposal for reconciliation between the warehouse of legal documents created during legislation and Knowledge Warehouse that is dedicated to assisting both citizens and public officers in the procedural legal rules of Public Administration in Hungary. The Knowledge Warehouse contains several thousand detailed rules that describe how to manage and handle life events of citizens. This description can be considered as generic legal cases within legal procedures of authorities. The citizens trigger specific instances of the generic ones. The evolving Knowledge Warehouse main purpose is to enable citizens to get their specific legal cases started either through Web on the Government Portal or with the help of public officers. The Knowledge Warehouse will be extended by ontologies and semantic search capabilities. An Integrated System for Supporting of Codification will be created in an on-going project that will serve as sound basis for the National Warehouse of Legal Rules. The National Warehouse pursues the prescription of MetaLex legal standards in the case of representation of electronic legal documents. The two Warehouse are strongly coupled to each other. However, the syntactic and semantic structure of both differs profoundly. The representation of e-documents within the National Warehouse is in line with ELI, the European Legislation Identifier, even the ontologies and attached semantic description concentrates on the legal documents structural elements and their interpretation. The Knowledge Warehouse focuses on ontologies of life events and procedures of authorities to leverage semantic searching. The proposed solution tries to reconcile and integrate the two differing approaches.
What the Smart City in the Danube Region Can Learn From Industry 4.0
Authors: Prosser Alexander
Published: July 2020

The Smart City Concept throughout all its current definitions is essentially a system that uses state-of-the-art ICT to provide and process information, to adapt and learn. The Internet of Things and advances in affordable sensor technology play an additional important role. The net result of the “smartification” of a city is the creation of a living, networked system of assets, devices and infrastructure. This living system continuously collects data that enables the system to learn and evolve.
This is nothing new or path-breaking. In logistics and the manufacturing industry, this concept has been widely implemented to optimise supply chains, from predictive maintenance, to dynamic route optimisation and online business intelligence (BI). “Industry 4.0” has evolved from a buzzword to everyday reality. Moreover, these technologies do not just “electrify” existing processes – they enable new processes and beyond that even completely new business models that would not have been feasible with the pre-Industry-4.0 technology. Particularly the advent of in-memory business analytics that enables BI from the original transaction data in an on-demand/online fashion has facilitated this development. Now, the public sector is discovering these technologies for its own purposes.
This contribution attempts to show the parallelism, but also differences between smart cities and Industry 4.0, where learning effects may occur and known pitfalls may be avoided.
Revisiting open data research through the Lens of the Data Value Chain
Authors: Csáki Csaba , Kὄ Andrea
Published: July 2020

While the idea of open government data is not new, there appears to be a constant shift in leading research objectives guiding the field. This is because the reasons behind the increased research interest keep changing. The latest motivation stems from economic arguments, namely the reuse of public sector information) – which in turn creates a market for open-data based value added services. Although over the last decade many research topics have been identified and various research agendas have been proposed, most of them either focus on specific areas or are rooted in the popular approach of the time. Using the idea of the data value chain, this paper provides an integrated view of open government data research – which then allows a systematic and consistent identification of research topics and clarification of corresponding open questions in the area of open data quality. Research areas proposed are context/environment (policy and regulations), supply side (government organizations), consumer side (service providers and users), (societal or economic) impact, and technology (supporting the DSC, including the data). In addition – and what is regularly missing from most reviews – theory (providing definitions and a sound base) is considered as the sixth area.
E-Citizens Web Portal - Case of Croatia
Authors: Furjan Martina Tomiči´c , Hrustek Nikolina Žajdela , Pihir Igor
Published: July 2020

Electronic government implies the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for improving the way public services are provided to all citizens. In order to create an interface, through which citizens can use these services, web portals are developed. The web portal that represents the interface for the use of services intended for citizens in the Republic of Croatia, as key users, was developed in the frame of e-citizens project, initiated by the Croatian government in year 2013. Since its inception, the portal has been continuously upgraded and complemented by new electronic services. The usage of the e-citizens portal however, despite the availability of services, does not follow the developing trends according to researches by the local Ministry of Administration and the Eurostat data. Citizens access the portal, but mostly to collect information and do not use its advanced additional functionalities. This paper analyses Croatian government web portal, its functionalities, attitudes toward it and its use by citizens. Finally, based on data analysis improvement of the accessibility/usage of Croatian government portal will be proposed.
Cybersecurity Authorities and Related Policies in the EU and Hungary
Authors: Szádeczky Tamás
Published: July 2020

Parallel with the evolving of cyber conflicts, the need for appropriate handling of the public administration tasks also appeared. Governmental tasks were necessary, which includes defense (military), diplomatic, law enforcement and public administrative factors also.
This paper shows an analysis of the institutional background of cybersecurity administration in the European Union and Hungary in parallel. This includes the regulations about ENISA, the European Union Cybersecurity Agency, the Hungarian cybersecurity authorities, and the cybersecurity strategies for both entities, namely Regulation (EC) No 460/2004, Cybersecurity Strategy of the European Union of 2017, Regulation (EU) 526/2013, COM/2016/0410 final, 2017/0225 (COD) Proposal, Hungarian Government decree no. 223/2009, Government Decision no. 1139/2013, Act L of 2013, and Government Decree 187/2015.
The research has been supported by the ÚNKP-17-4-III-NKE-26 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities.
Cybersecurity in the European Union
Authors: Düll Andreas , Schoch Anja , Straub Matthias
Published: July 2020

The coordinated Denial of Service attacks in Estonia 2007, the successful hacker attacks against the German Bundestag 2015 and the increasing number of cyber-crimes challenge the European Union (EU). In order to overcome these challenges the EU initiated a cyber security strategy in 2013. This paper follows up the question, whether the measures of this strategy are adequate in order to tackle the challenges of the cyberspace in modern times and which improvements can be done. The focus will rely on the analysis of the EU’s cyber security strategy 2013 as well as its advancement of 2017. The three issues ‘cyber resilience‘, ‘reducing cybercrime’ and ‘cyber defence policy and capabilities’ shall be analyzed. The unlimited sphere of the cyberspace, the invisible and barely identifiable opponents and the focus on national regulations seem to be an unsolved dilemma in the EU. After analyzing the current state, the paper shall formulate future recommendations for action to postulate an improved ‘pooling and sharing’ as well as the coordination and involvement of existing member states’ cyber capabilities. The devolution of responsibilities regarding cyber security to the EU stage is desirable in order to increase the European potency, because a divided EU will have great difficulties enforcing its interests over attacking opponents.
A self-reflection of municipal IT professionals in small Romanian city administrations
Authors: Urs Nicolae
Published: July 2020

E-government usually studies focus on outcomes or user opinion. Our attempt is to see this also from the point of view of IT professionals that work in public institutions. Big cities will always be on the forefront of using new technologies in their day-to-day work and, because of that, they are usually the subject of researchers wanting to study this field. But most Romanians live in small cities, towns and villages. We are also interested in the pace of e-government development in these municipalities.
After the 2017 study that focused on big Romanian cities, this year we follow up with a more comprehensive research, which aims to find out how e-government is implemented in small urban municipalities in Romania. Our research aims to learn how successful the implementation of egovernment services in Romanian local government is in the eyes of those tasked with rolling out these services. E-government is no longer a new development in the public institutions’ continuing search for better service. The interaction between citizens and companies, as well as the government, are constantly evolving, and new ways of doing things are regularly tested and adopted or discarded.
State of Digital Literacy: Preparedness of Higher Education Students for E-Administration in Hungary
Authors: Berényi László , Sasvári Péter László
Published: July 2020

Taking the advantages of electronic administration requires a comprehensive development program. Beyond the technical background, databases and user interfaces, it is necessary to consider personal aspects including preparedness of users and administrators. Increasing the confidence in e-administration is difficult to reach without their advanced IT and ICT competencies. The main challenge can be formulated as improving digital literacy. If receptiveness for novel technological solutions fails, efforts may become redundant. Successful actions in this field are not available without the thorough analysis of present state and critical knowledge elements. The paper summarizes some results of a diagnostic analysis about the ICT utilization in order to establish further research actions about task-technology fit in the field. Research sample consists of public administration students who will play an important role in realizing e-governance. Results show that technical background, as well as general utilization of ICT tools, are no more bottlenecks of success; however, there are relevant education challenges on developing digital literacy.
Interoperability: how to improve the management of public financial resources
Authors: Nyikos Györgyi , Szablics Bálint , Laposa Tomás
Published: July 2020

The article deals with the application of interoperable digital solutions in the domain of public financial management in order to improve the effectiveness of administrative procedures.
The practical relevance of the topic is derived from the Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe which promotes the interconnection of public portals to elevate the added value of the digitisation of public services. The interconnection of portals and electronic registers can notably facilitate the reduction of administrative burdens, foment the creation of new digital services and contribute to the creation of the Digital State. Nonetheless, there has been little research on how it works in practice and on its impact on the efficiency of public financial management.
The paper systematically reviews the main concepts of public financial management and the relevant strategies on the interoperability of public services. Based on this, it aims to analyse a series of Hungarian practices on interoperability to identify success factors that could support the design of new digital solutions to improve the management of public financial resources.
Effects of digitalization on the labor market in Baden-Wuerttemberg
Authors: Sievering Oliver
Published: July 2020

The technological change is constantly progressing. Digitalization opens up great opportunities for a higher quality of life. It enables more efficient business models and it also has a significant impact on the labor market. More and more tasks, which could be done only by humans so far, will be taken over by computers or robots in the future. It is controversial whether digitalization will lead to a higher unemployment or to a growth in employment because digitalization also creates new kind of jobs. While the impact on labor markets can not be clearly predicted, the fear of digitalization is huge. Many employees in Germany have jobs with a high potential of substitutability. The proportion of employees affected by severe effects of digitalization is estimated to range from 8.1% to 20.4% - depending on the federal-state. In Baden-Wuerttemberg, a very high substitution potential is assumed. Will unemployment significantly rise in the southwest part of Germany?
eCohesion: How to measure the main drivers of administrative burden reduction
Authors: Laposa Tamás
Published: July 2020

This paper presents a new approach to measure the effects of e-government concepts on the reduction of administrative burdens, in the domain of European fund management.
The topic may receive considerable interest since the present European legislation specifies that Member States shall provide online portal services and offer paperless fund management possibilities for beneficiaries in order to reduce the administrative burdens of cohesion policy. This concept is marked with the term “eCohesion” in the scientific discourse. Based on former studies, the concept has several micro- and macro-level attributes that leverage its effectiveness and impact on burden reduction. Nevertheless the level of their influence has not been underpinned by evidence based research yet. Consequently this paper outlines a research design for the measurability and impact assessment of the above attributes.
The development of the research design is based on the Standard Cost Model, the widely-used methodology for the measurement of administrative burdens. The present paper applies the model to the attributes of eCohesion by formulating research hypotheses in order to make them measurable and to assess their relevance. The design created paves the way for a further quantitative research and methodologically supports Member States in developing a deeper understanding of the nature of eCohesion.
Emergency Communications and Alerting Systems for Fire Brigades in Baden-Württemberg – Much Room for Improvement?
Authors: Gräßle Eva , Müller-Török Robert
Published: July 2020

Most of the fire brigades in Baden-Württemberg are volunteer forces, hence creating the need for readily available and reliable alerting and communication systems for these forces as well. Digital Pagers are the standard means of alerting but, due to their limited reliability, alternative and complementary methods like Apps, SMS, etc. are also used by these volunteer forces. Regarding communication at the scene, the transition from open analogue to encrypted digital radio systems has been on its way for nearly 20 years. As of today, new technology is available for police forces whilst fire brigades still have to use analogue systems. This contribution analyses the situation, past and present, planning and attempts at improvement.
Elements of Local Autonomy and New Technology in Urban Revitalization Process
Authors: Stefanita Anastasia
Published: July 2020

The article aims to present the concept of the urban revitalization in relation with the new information technologies. The actuality of the topic relates from the importance of information tools in all processes of human activity, including the administrative and participatory one. The urban revitalization is presented as a dimension of the decisional local autonomy of public authorities of the cities/municipalities. The paper is based on the on-going activities of the bilateral Polish - Moldavian ”Revitalization Project”. The e-tools become a new dimension of the classical ”renewal” concept, transforming in this way the revitalization process in a modern one and upgrading it to a higher level. Because of the rapid development of the information society, the revitalization processes undergo changes and gains new meaning. The expectations of citizens as well as the activities of local public authorities imply new standards, especially in terms of information technologies.
Three Major Cities of Baden-Württemberg - Are They Really Smart Cities?
Authors: Schenk Birgit , Laue Thomas
Published: July 2020

In this paper we discuss the term Smart City and its components, to design a framework to compare three major municipalities of Baden-Württemberg who declared themselves Smart Cities. The theoretical framework is based on scientific definitions for the different terms related to Smart Cities. To compare the cities we gathered open and public data to guarantee transparency of the evaluation. Hence this is only possible when cities are “smart” so that this method is an indicator itself of a Smart City. We focused on three major cities of Baden-Württemberg who already advertise for being a smart city in comparing different studies.
Molecular Comparison of Free -Living Amoeba Isolated From Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish Waters
Authors: Karyagdi Turkan K. , Mohammed Shihab A. , Hassan Husain F.
Published: July 2020

Amoebas live freely in different climates and parts of the world. Several species of Free Living Amoeba (FLA) are capable of causing serious as well as fatal infections in human beings. The aim of this study was to identify and compare genotypes of water-polluting FLA in major rivers and lakes of Iraq and compare them with FLA isolates from Iran and Turkey. For this purpose, the study included 20 water samples from the Tigris River, Euphrates River , Najaf Sea and Dukan lake in Iraq, 20 water samples from  Marivan, Velasht, and Soleimanshah lakes and Caspian sea in Iran, and 20 water samples from Sabanca, Seyfi , Hazar and Yay lakes in Turkey. The samples were studied by culture methods, invert microscope, and molecular methods.

    After inoculation and microscopic examination, cysts and trophozoites were detected in 18 cultured specimens. Overall, out of 60 water samples, 30 cases (30%) were found to be contiminated in the three countries. The highest pollution was in Turkish waters (40%), while the rate in the Iraqi and Iranian water samples was the same (25%). Because of the various species of FLA , it may be difficult to distinguish pathogenic from non-pathogenic species by culture on non-nutrient agar. Therefore, the molecular technology was applied in this study. Only a specific band of Acanthamoeba Rns genes which ranged from 423 to 551 nucleotides was observed. The isolates belonged to the T3 genotype . In addition, it was a new isolate that differs from what exists in other neighboring countries , registered in the GenBank under accession number MN462973 as the Acanthamoeba genotype T3 isolate T3 Iraq . This is  the first study to detect pathogenic FLA in Iraq by PCR and Sequencing techniques. Given the high prevalence of Acanthamoeba potential pathogenic genotypes in various environmental sources and the evidence of T3 genotype in Iraqi specimens , more studies about Acanthamoeba and other pathogenic FLA for various environmental sources in Iraq are required.
Spectroscopic Analysis of CdO1-X: SnX Plasma Produced by Nd:YAG Laser
Authors: Khalaf Madyan A. , Ahmed Baida M. , Aadim Kadhim A.
Published: July 2020

In this work, the optical emission spectrum technique was used to analyze the spectrum resulting from the CdO:Sn plasma produced by laser Nd:YAG with a wavelength of (1064) nm, duration of (9) ns, and a focal length of (10) cm in the range of energy of 500-800 mJ. The electron temperature (Te) was calculated using the in ratio line intensities method, while the electron density (ne) was calculated using Saha-Boltzmann equation. Also, other plasma parameters were calculated, such as plasma (fp), Debye length (Î»D) and Debye number (ND). At mixing ratios of X=0.1, 0.3 and 0.5, the CdO1-X :SnX plasma spectrum was recorded for different energies. The changes in electron temperature and the densities were studied as a function of the laser energies. Outcome measure value of the electron temperature at the ratio of  X = 0.1 was (1.079-1.054) eV, while at  X=0.3 the Te range was (0.952- 0.921) eV and at X=0.5 it was (0.928-0.906) eV.
Seismotectonics and Seismic Source Parameters of the Mid-Eastern Iraq - Western Iran Using Moment Tensor Inversion Technique
Authors: Mohammed Hasanain Jasim , Al-Rahim Ali M.
Published: July 2020

The study area is encompassed by the 33.59-34.93Â°N latitudes and 45.44-46.39Â°E longitudes and divided into four groups with respect to earthquake event locations. We determined fault plane solutions, moment magnitudes, focal depths, and trend of slip with the direction of the moment stress axes (P, N, and T) for 102 earthquakes. These earthquakes had a local magnitude in the range between 4.0 and 6.4 for the time period from January 2018 to the end of August 2019, with focal depths ranged between 6 and 17 km. Waveform moment tensor inversion technique was used to analyze the database constructed from seismic stations on local and neighboring country networks (Iraq, Iran, and Turkey). We separated the studied events into four regional subsets (circles). The types of the obtained fault plane solutions are predominantly thrust fault and strike-slip, with the focal depths ranging from 8 to 21 km.

     A new scaling relation between local magnitude (Ml) and the estimated moment magnitude (Mw) has been developed utilizing a linear regression. Good match results obtained in the present research good match with both seismic trends concluded from earthquake locations and mapped faults. Generally, direction shows NWâ€“SE striking focal planes corresponding with the tectonic framework of the Arabianâ€“Eurasian continental collision zone. The anticlockwise rotation of the Arabian plate that appears accountable for strike-slip displacements on fault surfaces.
Antibacterial Activity of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized from Plant Latex
Authors: Saleh Ghada Mohammed , Najim Shaymaa Suhail
Published: July 2020

Nanoparticles produced by plants are preferred in the medical field for its safe and unpolluted product; it is also accepted as an ecofriendly, non-expensive, and non-toxic nanomaterial. In this study, silver nitrate was successfully used to produce silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by the use extractsof 4 different latex-producing plants which belong to 2 families (Moraceae and Euphorbiaceae). The synthesis was proved by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).The sizes of the AgNP grains were estimated by Granularity Cumulating Distribution (GCD). The results revealed the production of AgNPs in different sizes of 103 and 82 nm using the Moraceae family and 77 and74nm using the Euphorbiaceae family.Antibacterial activity was also detected against both Gram positive and Gram negative pathogenic bacteria using the well diffusion assay. In conclusion, this source of nanoparticles can be a very useful industrial project in a goal to find new safe and economic alternatives to antibiotics.
PENGARUH APLIKASI BIOCOCOTIN TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN DAN HASIL TANAMAN SAWI PADA TANAH PASIR PESISIR PANTAI
Authors: Anandyawati Anandyawati , Zikri Merlian , Sumartono Eko , Novanda Ridha Rizki , Amrullah Amir Husaini Karim , Anggoro Ari
Published: July 2020

The great potential in coastal sandy lands is followed by various problems and limiting factors that cause the acceleration of land use for agricultural purpose run very slowly. To overcome these limiting factors, appropriate modification and implementation of innovation is needed, namely the providing of soil conditioning materials, such as organic matter. One source of organic material that is still very rarely used, affordable, easy and cheap and simple in its application is the waste of coconut powder and human waste which we call biococotin. Providing of biococotin in coastal sandy lands decreases basic pH near neutral, increasing levels of N, P, K, C-Organic and cation exchange capacity has decreased from 7.20 to 6.40%. N levels increased from 0.021% to 0.17%, P-available increased from 2.52 ppm to 20.13 ppm, K levels increased from 2.52 cmol (+) to 9.35 cmol (+) and CEC increased from 4, 04 cmol (+) / kg becomes 7.07 cmol (+) / kg. The best growth parameters (plant height, number of leaves, longest leaf length and longest leaf width) are shown by treatment 2 which is half the dose of NPK and biococotin. The best average planting weight and yield per ha is shown by treatment 2, which is half the dose of NPK and biococotin, which is 44.03 grams / plant and 26.41 tons / ha bicocotin. Keywords : Biococotin, Coastal area, Cocopeat