bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Co-innovation Bingo: An Object-Oriented Networking Mechanism to Foster Coupled Open Business Innovation
Authors: Grèzes Vincent , Bonazzi Riccardo , Grèzes-Bürcher Sandra
Published: April 2022

Background: A firm’s cooperative strategies are a fundamental issue in the search for business growth avenues, but a system that eases the emergence of coupled open innovation appears to be missing.

Objectives: This paper describes a business networking tool to foster coupled open innovation emergence.

Methods/Approach: We adopted a methodology based on design science comparable to grounded theory because solutions emerged by testing a design artefact with companies.

Results: We designed and tested an artefact designed as a game to encourage participants to meet as many partners as possible. It is based on collaborative innovation mechanisms and gets inspiration from fields such as organization design, service design, and prospective design. The proposed artefact comes as prescriptive rules that support managers’ open innovation opportunity elicitation.

Conclusions: From a practical point of view, we contribute by helping companies find emergent open innovation opportunities. From a theoretical point of view, this artefact is part of an emergent theory of object-oriented coupled open innovation mechanisms.
The Intertwined Functions of Advanced Information Systems and Management Control Practice in a Municipal Context
Authors: Bredmar Krister , Melin Ulrika
Published: April 2022

Background: Advanced, integrated information systems such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system have nowadays come to play such a crucial role for organizations and functions such as management accounting and control that in many cases, they would not function without the support of these systems. Public sector operations in general and municipal operations, in particular, are complex and require a lot of resources. Because of this, the managers working within this context need the support of advanced information systems to a large extent.

Objectives: This paper aims at understanding how these new systems and their users, accountants, and controllers, perceive the opportunities they bring in a municipal setting.

Methods/Approach: Out of 290 Swedish municipalities, 97 participated in the survey.

Results: The results show that these systems have come to play an important part in working with management accounting and control issues.

Conclusions: One conclusion that could be drawn from this study is that information supported by advanced information systems has become such an important necessity that management accounting as a function or phenomenon would not work without it. Therefore, the interdependency between information systems and management accounting and control practice could be described as intertwined.
Market Structure Development in a Regulated Market: The Case of the EU Rating Agencies
Authors: Meeh-Bunse Gunther , Schomaker Stefan
Published: April 2022

Background: The motivation for this article is the observation of political and private efforts to establish an EU-based rating agency as a counterweight to the three major agencies and observe other approaches to increase competition in the rating market.

Objectives: This article aims to analyse the potential regulatory impact of the oligopo-listic situation on the European Union (EU) rating market in the regulation imposed on the agencies.

Methods/Approach: Selected key figures are applied to observe if and how the dominance has changed. The different rating service range offered by the registered rating agencies in the EU is also considered in the analysis.

Results: The re-search results show that new agencies potentially impact the EU rating market. While the three major rating agencies still dominate the market, they do so within a chang-ing environment.

Conclusions: The employment of external ratings is significant in the financial sector. Ratings provide relevant information on the default risk of financial instruments and assess the solvency of issuers. The market for external ratings thereby can be classified as oligopolistic. Turbulences during the financial crisis of 2008 trig-gered stricter regulation of the credit rating agencies. Such regulation has now been in force for a good decade.
Motivational Factors and Retention of Talented Managers
Authors: Ahmić Azra , Čizmić Elvir
Published: April 2022

Background: In a contemporary fast-changing world, companies are facing growing global competition, volatile markets, altered workforce structure, and another technological reshifting, which generates enormous pressure on them to improve their business performance and imposes the necessity to highlight practices of talent management more seriously.

Objectives: In this study we explore interrelations between attraction/work motivational factors and talent retention, observed through talent engagement.

Methods/Approach: The methodology in this research focuses on the comprehensive resource-based view and encompasses quantitative analysis based on data gathered from talented managers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Results: The research results unveiled that talents were attracted to work for current companies primarily because of: good salary and company goodwill. The top three prevalent work motivational factors for talents included: (1) comfortable work environment, (2) enough autonomy and creativity in working and deciding, and (3) work-life balance. Furthermore, talent motivational factors related to talent retention in a statistically significant positive way.

Conclusions: This study furnishes available talent research and theory by relating attraction/work motivational factors to talent engagement; and by introducing the fundamental motivational factors which are of monumental importance for retaining talented managers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Citizen Observatory: Enabling Next Generation Citizen Science
Authors: O’Grady Michael , O’Hare Gregory , Ties Stephanie , Williams Jamie
Published: April 2022

Background: Citizen science offers an attractive paradigm for addressing some of the complex problems facing society. However, translating the paradigm’s potential into meaningful action and sustainable impact remains a formidable challenge. Historically, the citizen science landscape was fractured into silos of activities; nonetheless, it has demonstrably delivered credible results. An innovative concept of the Citizen Observatory offers a tractable means of mitigating many of the recurring issues that historically afflicted citizen science initiatives, thus empowering a new generation of citizen scientists. Citizen Observatories may be regarded as open, standardised software platforms for community-based monitoring of any phenomenon of interest.

Objectives: This paper seeks to validate a Citizen Observatory in a traditional citizen science context, that of butterfly recording.

Methods/Approach: A case study was undertaken in a UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve.

Results: A community of citizen scientists successfully recorded various observations concerning butterflies, their feeding behaviours, and their habitat. The resultant dataset was made available to the local government environmental agency.

Conclusions: The Citizen Observatory model offers a realistic basis for enabling more sustainable participatory science activities. Such developments have implications for non-government organisations, businesses, and local governments.
Capital Market Returns and Inflation Nexus in Croatia: Wavelet Coherence Analysis
Authors: Bošnjak Mile , Novak Ivan , Bašić Maja
Published: April 2022

Background: Hedging against inflation assumes instruments such as gold, stocks, fixed income securities, and real estate. There still exists a lack of appropriate strategy to hedge against inflation.

Objectives: This paper examines the possibilities for hedging against inflation in Croatia offered by the Zagreb Stock Exchange indices.

Methods/Approach: Based on monthly data from January 2000 to September 2019 and using a wavelet coherence approach, this paper brings the results across time and frequency domains.

Results: Empirical results suggest that inflation was a leading variable in a statistically significant positive correlation between the inflation rate and Crobex returns in 2007-2011. The relationship between Crobex10, Crobis, and Crobistr returns on one side, and the inflation rate on the other side has statistically significant correlations only in specific and different periods, in which respective returns are a leading variable.

Conclusions: The results imply that hedging against inflation is rather problematic under current Croatian capital markets conditions. Zagreb Stock Exchange indices could serve as a hedge against inflation for some periods but not during the whole observation period.
Innovativeness of Family Businesses in Slovenia: Do Heirs follow the Founders?
Authors: Letonja Marina , Skok Marjana Merkač , Vrdoljak Ivana
Published: April 2022

Background: The innovativeness of founders and their heirs and family businesses (FBs) is a relatively unexplored field of research, and its understanding is incomplete and inconsistent.

Objectives: The goal is to compare the founders’ innovativeness and investigate the relationship of life-long learning with the innovativeness of heirs in FBs.

Methods/Approach: The paper is based on research, including a survey on FBs in Slovenia. The differences in the innovativeness of the two groups – founders and heirs are compared, and the strength of the dependence of the life-long learning and innovativeness through the external training of heirs determined.

Results: The innovativeness of founders and heirs in FBs, measured by the number of new product and service lines and by the number of new processes that founders and heirs in FBs have developed or started marketing in the last five years, shows higher results for the founders. Life-long learning through external training correlates positively with the innovativeness of heirs.

Conclusions: An appropriate culture for innovation needs to be created in FBs to foster innovativeness among heirs, which can be supported by life-long learning.
Hiding Sensitive High Utility and Frequent Itemsets Based on Constrained Intersection Lattice
Authors: Vy Huynh Trieu , Hai Le Quoc , Long Nguyen Thanh , Chau Truong Ngoc , Hieu Le Quoc
Published: April 2022

Hiding high utility and frequent itemset is the method used to preserve sensitive knowledge from being revealed by pattern mining process. Its goal is to remove sensitive high utility and frequent itemsets from a database before sharing it for data mining purposes while minimizing the side effects. The current methods succeed in the hiding goal but they cause high side effects. This paper proposes a novel algorithm, named HSUFIBL, that applies a heuristic for finding victim item based on the constrained intersection lattice theory. This algorithm specifies exactly the condition that allows the application of utility reduction or support reduction method, the victim item, and the victim transaction for the hiding process so that the process needs the fewest data modifications and gives the lowest number of lost non-sensitive itemsets. The experimental results indicate that the HSUFIBL algorithm achieves better performance than previous works in minimizing the side effect.
Deterministic Centroid Localization for Improving Energy Efficiency in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Vijayan Sneha , Munusamy Nagarajan
Published: April 2022

Wireless sensor networks are an enthralling field of study with numerous applications. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is used to monitor real-time scenarios such as weather, temperature, humidity, and military surveillance. A WSN is composed of several sensor nodes that are responsible for sensing, aggregating, and transmitting data in the system, in which it has been deployed. These sensors are powered by small batteries because they are small. Managing power consumption and extending network life is a common challenge in WSNs. Data transmission is a critical process in a WSN that consumes the majority of the network’s resources. Since the cluster heads in the network are in charge of data transmission, they require more energy. We need to know where these CHs are deployed in order to calculate how much energy they use. The deployment of a WSN can be either static or random. Although most researchers focus on random deployment, this paper applies the proposed Deterministic Centroid algorithm for static deployment. Based on the coverage of the deployment area, this algorithm places the sensors in a predetermined location. The simulation results show how this algorithm generates balanced clusters, improves coverage, and saves energy.
A Proposal for Honeyword Generation via Meerkat Clan Algorithm
Authors: Yasser Yasser A. , Sadiq Ahmed T. , AlHamdani Wasim
Published: April 2022

An effective password cracking detection system is the honeyword system. The Honeyword method attempts to increase the security of hashed passwords by making password cracking easier to detect. Each user in the system has many honeywords in the password database. If the attacker logs in using a honeyword, a quiet alert trigger indicates that the password database has been hacked. Many honeyword generation methods have been proposed, they have a weakness in generating process, do not support all honeyword properties, and have many honeyword issues. This article proposes a novel method to generate honeyword using the meerkat clan intelligence algorithm, a metaheuristic swarm intelligence algorithm. The proposed generation methods will improve the honeyword generating process, enhance the honeyword properties, and solve the issues of previous methods. This work will show some previous generation methods, explain the proposed method, discuss the experimental results and compare the new one with the prior ones.
Enhancеd Analysis Approach to Detect Phishing Attacks During COVID-19 Crisis
Authors: Jafar Mousa Tayseer , Al-Fawa’reh Mohammad , Barhoush Malek , Alshira’H Mohammad H.
Published: April 2022

Public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020 have led to lockdowns and social distancing in most countries around the world, with a shift from the traditional work environment to virtual one. Employees have been encouraged to work from home where possible to slow down the viral infection. The massive increase in the volume of professional activities executed online has posed a new context for cybercrime, with the increase in the number of emails and phishing websites. Phishing attacks have been broadened and extended through years of pandemics COVID-19. This paper presents a novel approach for detecting phishing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) applying the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), a fast and highly accurate phishing classifier system. Comparative analysis of the GRU classification system indicates better accuracy (98.30%) than other classifier systems.
Data Fusion and the Impact of Group Mobility on Load Distribution on MRHOF and OF0
Authors: Al-Qassas Raad S. , Qasaimeh Malik
Published: April 2022

Many routing algorithms proposed for IoT are based on modifications on RPL objective functions and trickle algorithms. However, there is a lack of an in-depth study to examine the impact of mobility on routing protocols based on MRHOF and OF0 algorithms. This paper examines the impact of group mobility on these algorithms, also examines their ability in distributing the load and the impact of varying traffic with the aid of simulations using the well-known Cooja simulator. The two algorithms exhibit similar performance for various metrics for low traffic rates and low mobility speed. However, when the traffic rate becomes relatively high, OF0 performance merits appear, in terms of throughput, packet load deviation, power deviation, and CPU power deviation. The mobility with higher speeds helps MRHOF to enhance its throughput and load deviation. The mobility allowed MRHOF to demonstrate better packets load deviation.
Citation and Similarity in Academic Texts: Colombian Engineering Case
Authors: Aguilera-Prado Marco , Salcedo Octavio , Fernández Eduardo Avendaño
Published: April 2022

This article provides the results of a citation determinants model for a set of academic engineering texts from Colombia. The model establishes the determinants of the probability that a text receives at least one citation through the relationship among previous citations, journal characteristics, the author and the text. Through a similarity matrix constructed by Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a similarity variable has been constructed to capture the fact that the texts have similar titles, abstracts and keywords to the most cited texts. The results show: i) joint significance of the variables selected to characterize the text; ii) direct relationship of the citation with similarity of keywords, published in an IEEE journal, research article, more than one author; and authored by at least one foreign author; and iii) inverse relationship between the probability of citation with the similarity of abstracts, published in 2016 or 2017, and published in a Colombian journal.
Combination of Resnet and Spatial Pyramid Pooling for Musical Instrument Identification
Authors: Dewi Christine , Chen Rung-Ching
Published: April 2022

Identifying similar objects is one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision image recognition. The following musical instruments will be recognized in this study: French horn, harp, recorder, bassoon, cello, clarinet, erhu, guitar saxophone, trumpet, and violin. Numerous musical instruments are identical in size, form, and sound. Further, our works combine Resnet 50 with Spatial Pyramid Pooling (SPP) to identify musical instruments that are similar to one another. Next, the Resnet 50 and Resnet 50 SPP model evaluation performance includes the Floating-Point Operations (FLOPS), detection time, mAP, and IoU. Our work can increase the detection performance of musical instruments similar to one another. The method we propose, Resnet 50 SPP, shows the highest average accuracy of 84.64% compared to the results of previous studies.
Hy-MOM: Hybrid Recommender System Framework Using Memory-Based and Model-Based Collaborative Filtering Framework
Authors: George Gina , Lal Anisha M.
Published: April 2022

Lack of personalization, rating sparsity, and cold start are commonly seen in e-Learning based recommender systems. The proposed work here suggests a personalized fused recommendation framework for e-Learning. The framework consists of a two-fold approach to generate recommendations. Firstly, it attempts to find the neighbourhood of similar learners based on certain learner characteristics by applying a user-based collaborative filtering approach. Secondly, it generates a matrix of ratings given by the learners. The outcome of the first stage is merged with the second stage to generate recommendations for the learner. Learner characteristics, namely knowledge level, learning style, and learner preference, have been considered to bring in the personalization factor on the recommendations. As the stochastic gradient approach predicts the learner-course rating matrix, it helps overcome the rating sparsity and cold-start issues. The fused model is compared with traditional stand-alone methods and shows performance improvement.
Long Short Term Memory Neural Network-Based Model Construction and Fne-Tuning for Air Quality Parameters Prediction
Authors: Barot Virendra , Kapadia Viral
Published: April 2022

Air pollution has increased worries regarding health and ecosystems. Precise prediction of air quality parameters can assist in the effective action of air pollution control and prevention. In this work, a deep learning framework is proposed to predict parameters such as fine particulate matter and carbon monoxide. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) neural network-based model that processes sequences in forward and backward direction to consider the influence of timesteps in both directions is employed. For further learning, unidirectional layers’ stacking is implemented. The performance of the model is optimized by fine-tuning hyperparameters, regularization techniques for overfitting resolution, and various merging options for the bidirectional input layer. The proposed model achieves good optimization and performs better than the simple LSTM and a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based model. Moreover, an attention-based mechanism is adopted to focus on more significant timesteps for prediction. The self-attention approach improves performance further and works well especially for longer sequences and extended time horizons. Experiments are conducted using real-world data collected, and results are evaluated using the mean square error loss function.
ESAR, An Expert Shoplifting Activity Recognition System
Authors: Ansari Mohd. Aquib , Singh Dushyant Kumar
Published: April 2022

Shoplifting is a troubling and pervasive aspect of consumers, causing great losses to retailers. It is the theft of goods from the stores/shops, usually by hiding the store item either in the pocket or in carrier bag and leaving without any payment. Revenue loss is the most direct financial effect of shoplifting. Therefore, this article introduces an Expert Shoplifting Activity Recognition (ESAR) system to reduce shoplifting incidents in stores/shops. The system being proposed seamlessly examines each frame in video footage and alerts security personnel when shoplifting occurs. It uses dual-stream convolutional neural network to extract appearance and salient motion features in the video sequences. Here, optical flow and gradient components are used to extract salient motion features related to shoplifting movement in the video sequence. Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) based deep learner is modeled to learn the extracted features in the time domain for distinguishing person actions (i.e., normal and shoplifting). Analyzing the model behavior for diverse modeling environments is an added contribution of this paper. A synthesized shoplifting dataset is used here for experimentations. The experimental outcomes show that the proposed approach attains better consequences up to 90.26% detection accuracy compared to the other prevalent approaches.
Videoconferencing and Virtual Worlds in Tourism Language Education – Practical Evaluation of the Systematic Approach in the Czech Context
Authors: Zejda David , Lasisi Taiwo Temitope , Managuelod Jenniefer , Breitenbach Shemie , Canoy Ellery
Published: April 2022

Language learning in tourism is increasingly embracing digital technologies for both synchronous and asynchronous content delivery and interaction. Blended learning combining online and traditional face-to-face forms as well as immersive forms such as 3D virtual worlds, where participants may travel as they learn from the comfort of their sofa, offer promising benefits, namely in times of pandemic and other turbulent events. Involving culturally and geographically distant tutors in the learning process may increase learners’ motivation as well as satisfaction, provided that the course curricula and lesson plans utilize the potential by appropriate selection of activities. Despite all the potential benefits, however, troubles caused by the increased complexity of digitally enhanced courses may ruin learners’ experience. The paper provides a conceptual basis for a systemic approach in planning, creating, and delivering courses, considering both technical and psychological aspects, which may assist in the prevention or mitigation of the challenges. To provide a relevant context, presentations of several language schools are briefly examined. The study of changes in their presentations between 2014 and 2021, in the light of web search trends, provides an additional glimpse into the evolution of the adoption and perception of relevant forms of education and technologies, further supporting the necessity of a systematic approach. Experience from three separate projects implementing innovative language courses collected both qualitatively and quantitatively via questionnaires is summarized, pointing out both successes and challenges.
Economic Motives and Problems of Health Tourism in Asia Pacific
Authors: Khoa Nguyen Duc , Nhu Y Dang Thi
Published: April 2022

Nowadays, health tourism has emerged as a multi-billion-dollar industry due to the fact that people have frequently traveled in order to improve their wellbeing. The internationalization of health tourism has also motivated production and consumption of healthcare services as well as increased variety of intermediaries and ancillary goods and services to support this sector. Although the significant benefits of health tourism, its actual contribution to economic growth and related issues have remained ambiguous. Therefore, this paper aims to: (i) Discuss the potential economic aspects of health tourism based on the published figures of major destinations in Asia Pacific with an international focus and (ii) Examine the economic risks related to health tourism that either directly or indirectly harm the process of economic growth. The results indicate that development of health tourism satisfies patients’ demand for high quality healthcare at competitive prices, boosts the value of foreign exchange inflow and expands job opportunities. Health tourism services have become the subject of international earnings which has elevated economic opportunities of potential destinations. Besides that, increasing international health tourist flows with high income could evaluate costs of healthcare services, brain drain of healthcare professionals, inequitable health care access. Additionally, increases in international traveling might produce a new economic burden of communicable diseases, environmental degradation; brokers and organ transplants associated with black-market in some destinations. Hence, sustainability and responsibility have been considered as key criteria in the health tourism industry in order to improve tourists’ health performance and maximize benefits for local communities. Such economic analysis also enables us to evaluate benefits and losses from health tourism development and track the balance of trade around this economic sector.
Travel Motivation and Barriers to Travel for People with Visual Impairments
Authors: Šintáková Olga , Lasisi Taiwo Temitope
Published: April 2022

In recent years, social tourism has been strongly promoted in the EU, including the travel of people with various types of disabilities. The present study analyses travel motivation and barriers to travel for visually impaired people. This analysis is based on several years of research at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, then on the personal travel experience of a visually impaired person and the practice of a rehabilitation instructor at Tyfloservis, o.p.s (charitable trust), Hradec Králové, an organization supporting independent living of visually impaired people. The study is also based on interviews with ten visually impaired respondents and their travel experience. SARS-COV-2 is also included as a current barrier to travel.
Possibilities of Sustainable Mobility and Tourism Management in Large Environmentally Sensitive Areas in the Czech Republic
Authors: Timoftej Radek , Foltýnová Hana Brůhová
Published: April 2022

Growing tourism in environmentally protected areas brings pressure not only on nature and ecosystems, but also on their management. This paper focuses on main conflicts connected with transport and mobility of tourists and environment protection in these areas, and tools to solve the identified problems. The research is based on data obtained from structured interviews with representatives of administrations of 26 PLAs (protected landscape areas) and 4 NPs (national parks) in the Czech Republic. Another 45 key stakeholders were interviewed in three case study areas (PLA Jizerské hory, PLA Moravský kras, and NP České Švýcarsko together with PLA Labské pískovce). Our results indicate that sustainable mobility of visitors and sustainable tourism have a high potential, but that a system supporting relevant economic activities, together with good information and promotion, should be created. The paper also suggests mobility plans for these areas as a promising strategic tool.
The Contribution of Leader to the Empowerment of Rural Areas: The Case of the Brkini Region, Slovenia
Authors: Slavič Irma Potočnik
Published: April 2022

The paper focuses on the local delivery process of the LEADER programme over two programming periods (2007–2013 and 2014–2020). We tried to find out whether the LEADER method and projects implemented have contributed to the empowerment of the Brkini region (Slovenia), which has characteristics of a lagging and structurally weak region influenced by peripheralization processes. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of LEADER projects underlined that the Brkini region was quite successful in integrating different actors and sectors in joint projects and establishing cooperation between stakeholders. Cooperation is reflected in (1) partnerships and networking between existing and new actors and stakeholders, (2) LEADER funds being mostly used for “smaller projects” and networking within the region, (3) the synergies between LEADER and existing local aspirations as it supports several areas of the multi-sectoral approach (i.e., tourism promotion, agricultural production and processing), (4) enhanced recognisability and promotion of the Brkini region at sub-regional, regional, national and cross-border levels. In the context of empowerment, we were able to identify some incentives, but also some bottlenecks (local clubs/societies/associations lack institutional, administrative and financial capacity, etc.). Decision-makers should pay special attention to this and also promote a culture of reflexivity when preparing new animation strategies for the next programming period.
Local Horizons of Governance. Social Conditions for Good Governance in Rural Development in Poland
Authors: Knieć Wojciech , Goszczyński Wojciech
Published: April 2022

The last thirty years have radically changed the nature of local resource management in rural communities throughout Poland (as well as in some other Central and Eastern European countries). New metamorphosis, policy, and funding mechanisms related to Poland’s political transformation and accession to the European Union have radically changed the character of institutions and tools available in rural development. Local communities have evolved along with improved education levels, decline in agricultural employment rates, and increased migrations to cities and Western Europe. This article presents the social conditions for the good governance processes in a selected region of Poland. Based on their extended quantitative and qualitative research, the authors discuss a number of phenomena such as the low effectiveness of collective actions, dense networks of informal relations, and the lack of trust in public service institutions despite the deregulation of certain powers. The ethnographic study reveals that while their overall picture may seem quite uniform, local rural communities in Poland tend to differ depending on the economic structure, history, and cultural identity of their inhabitants. Finally, the article analyses difficulties in the implementation of the good governance mechanisms within the country’s local rural communities.
The Major Relationships in the Economic Growth of the Rural Space
Authors: Káposzta József , Nagy Henrietta
Published: April 2022

In this study, we aimed to overview the relationships of the most significant international theories dealing with the spatial economy, with special regard to the endogenous resources. We examined the effects and the development trends of economic and social capital because we believe that they may determine the future directions of strategic planning. Spatial capital (being the focus of our research) is proven to have outstanding influence on the society. In this study, we compare the development paths deriving from international models with the endogenous resources of rural space, considering the new development paths deriving from new paradigms. Based on all this, related to the most important international spatial economic theories, we define the strategic directions that are built on local endogenous resources, including the relations between tourism, infrastructure and environment.
Changes in (Sustainable) Development of Slovenian Small Towns
Authors: Mally Katja Vintar , Bobovnik Nejc , Kimovec Lea , Lampič Barbara
Published: April 2022

Considering the settlement pattern in Slovenia, small towns with a population of 5,000 to 15,000 are very important for balanced regional and local development, especially for the achievement of sustainable development goals. This paper presents findings from a study of the level of sustainability in 32 Slovenian small towns, as assessed using a set of twelve economic, social, and environmental indicators of sustainable development. A comparison of the results for the years 2002 and 2018 shows that over the past two decades, Slovenian small towns have for the most part successfully advanced towards the goals of sustainable development. The small towns that lag behind in these efforts were identified, as were the development areas where sustainability trends are less favorable.
Challenges in Assessing the Level of Plant-Based Food Self-Sufficiency Using Publicly Available Data in the Regional Context of Slovenia
Authors: Trobec Anja
Published: April 2022

Methods for assessing regional food self-sufficiency are poorly developed worldwide, while knowledge of the characteristics of regional food self-sufficiency could help in designing more sustainable and resilient regional food systems. This paper addresses the challenge of defining and assessing food self-sufficiency at different geographical levels and provides a detailed presentation of the method for assessing the regional plant-based food self-sufficiency rate using publicly available data from administrative sources, taking the Slovenian development regions as an example. The results indicate the need to improve the reliability of the data used to identify the characteristics of regional food self-sufficiency and to a more effective coordination between existing agricultural databases.
Food Self-Sufficiency in Slovakia from the Perspective of Land Use and Production Approach
Authors: Škamlová Lucia
Published: April 2022

If a country cannot secure a sufficient amount of quality food from the domestic market for various reasons, it is necessary to import it from abroad. This is the case in Slovakia, which lags behind the EU average in food self-sufficiency. Therefore, this contribution aims to point out the development of Slovakia’s food self-sufficiency in basic agro-commodities in the past two decades. We strive to do this by applying two approaches to self-sufficiency research – the land use approach and the production approach. While the first is based on assessing the availability of resources where agricultural production can be implemented, the second approach considers agricultural production, consumption and the foreign trade balance. The results show that although a few decades ago, Slovakia was a self-sufficient country in most agri-food commodities, at present, it is not self-sufficient even in the basic ones (such as vegetables, fruits, pork and poultry). The indicated trend of agro sector development conflicts with the Concept of Agricultural Development of the Slovak Republic for 2013–2020, the goal of which was to achieve food self-sufficiency at an 80% level by 2020. Later, therefore, we discuss what lies behind the success or failure of attaining food self-sufficiency in Slovakia and point to the complementarity of self-sufficiency goals at the EU and national levels.
Tourism in a Peripheral Setting: A Case Study of Farm Tourism Development in Lika, Croatia
Authors: Žafran Ivana , Kaufmann Petra Radeljak
Published: April 2022

Considering the multi-layered issues of rural peripheries and tourism development, we explore actors’ views regarding farm tourism development in the historical/geographical region of Lika. In spite of the fact that important flows of goods and services pass through Lika, it is largely regarded as a peripheral area. Via semi-structured interviews with tourist farm owners and institutional actors involved with farm and rural tourism, we examine how their views relate to characteristics associated with peripherality. In a setting with very few family farms that have developed a farm tourism product, the regional actors see both potential and limitations in characteristics linked to peripherality, general development trends, and local specificities.
New York City on Stage: (De)Constructing Urban Space in John Guare’s Plays: 1
Authors: Martanovschi Ludmila
Published: April 2022

John Guare distinguishes himself as a playwright who has represented New York City’s various neighborhoods and has fought realist conventions throughout his work. By relying on considerations advanced by Robert Bennett in his study of the literature, art, jazz and architecture of New York City after World War II, the current analysis shows that Guare approaches the discourse of the global capital of the world deconstructively, just like the post-war avant-garde he is probably familiar with. Moreover, Guare’s own search for experimental strategies reflects that of his predecessors and of the shape-shifting city itself. Included in a volume which is part of the Contemporary Dramatists series published by Methuen Drama, the four plays under discussion are: “The House of Blue Leaves” (1971), “Landscape of the Body” (1977), “Bosoms and Neglect” (1979, 1986) and “Six Degrees of Separation” (1990). Exploring the main characters’ experiences in New York City and their encounters with recognizable (or easily legible) sites of this quintessentially American metropolis, such as Greenwich Village and Central Park, the essay examines how Guare deconstructs urban space, advancing a most original and coherent reading of the city.
A Gay New York City in Mart Crowley’s “The Boys in the Band”
Authors: Pereira Renato Barreto
Published: April 2022

“The Boys in the Band,” a play by American playwright Mart Crowley (1935-2020), represents a milestone in the representation of urban gay men in theater. By exploring on stage the lives of a group of male gay friends in the late 1960s, Crowley challenged social and dramaturgical norms and conventions. As an integral part of the narrative, New York City, specifically Manhattan Island, makes itself present in the text through direct and indirect references, whether on the level of plot, character construction, or the setting of the play itself. As a paradigmatic play in a moment of special prominence of the Gay Movement in the United States, soon after its premiere in 1968 and before the release of its first film adaptation, “The Boys in the Band” came to be seen differently by critics and activists under the influence of a historical event that also occurred in Manhattan, the Stonewall Riots. This article explores the various instances in which the play, especially in its first Off-Broadway staging, represents not only a gay New York City, but also how this same place made possible the existence of this story and these characters.
Representations of Pre- and Post-9/11 New York City in Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin
Authors: Mitrea Alexandra
Published: April 2022

The article sets out to investigate the way in which Colum McCann depicts New York City in his 2009 novel, Let the Great World Spin. While starting from the idea that the novel falls in the category of 9/11 fiction, the article will argue that it makes clever use of the technique of deterritorialization in order to look at the USA from an external point of view, interrogating in this way American international relations and extraterritorial citizenship, both before and after 9/11. The article will also argue that by starting from the trauma of 9/11, which is, however, circuitously tackled in the novel, McCann questions the myth of American exceptionalism, pointing at unresolved US domestic affairs, as well as harrowing external affairs, which have resulted in countless traumas.
Bridging the Gap between Cultures: The Translation of Cockney and Slang in G. B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion”
Authors: Rusu Iris
Published: April 2022

This article analyses the main drama translation strategies pertaining to the rendering of dialect and slang from English into Romanian with practical emphasis on “Pygmalion” (1914; 1941) by George Bernard Shaw. Moreover, it aims to review translation techniques and strategies which facilitate the translation of slang and dialect, more precisely Cockney, from English into Romanian. Amongst the strategies discussed here are: the application of a cultural filter and of local adaptation, the use of dialect compilation, pseudo-dialect translation, parallel dialect translation, dialect localization, and standardisation. The second half of this article scrutinises a selection of lines extracted from G. B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” comparing and contrasting the existing Romanian translations and suggesting new solutions to rendering culture-specific terms into Romanian.
“Always Symmetrize!: Forging Bonds in Heart of Darkness”
Authors: Cousineau Thomas J.
Published: April 2022

“Always Symmetrize!,” the title of this essay – which echoes Fredric Jameson’s better-known admonition to “always historicize” – alludes to a type of literary analysis, inspired by the Chilean psychoanalyst Ignacio Matte Blanco’s concept of “symmetric logic,” which I have been working on for several years. Briefly, it treats the makers of literary monuments as engaged – like the alchemists discussed by Mircea Eliade in The Forge and The Crucible – in the task of perfecting the work of nature, a project that they pursue under the guidance of what I call the “symmetrical imperative.” The “unsurpassable horizon” of this literary endeavor is Homer’s Iliad, whose perfectly achieved, albeit covert, bilateral symmetry (magisterially detailed by Cedric Whitman in his classic Homer and The Heroic Tradition) is made overt in the undisputed masterpiece of Greek geometrical pottery – Exekias’s amphora, “Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice,” which I discuss briefly at the outset of my essay.

The greater part of this essay is devoted to an analysis of the similarly covert workings of the symmetrical imperative in Joseph Conrad’s modernist masterpiece Heart of Darkness. In the initial phases of this “alchemical process,” Conrad treats as symmetrical the two otherwise asymmetrical stages of Marlow’s journey (first to the Central Station and then to the Inner Station). In its second phase, he creates a container within which to contain this pairing of symmetrized episodes in the form of a narrative whose covert bilateral symmetry achieves, as Fernando Pessoa recommends in The Book of Disquiet, “a realization freed from the taint of reality” (30). Having completed my analysis of this twofold alchemical process in Heart of Darkness, I then devote a few concluding pages to its return in “The Secret Sharer,” a short-story which Conrad wrote several years after publishing Heart of Darkness, and in which he may well have “perfected the work of nature” even more impressively.
A Clinical Trial of the Relationship Between Anxiety and Lung Function and Respiratory Symptoms in Patients with Asthma, Copd and Copd-Asthma. Assessment of Life Quality
Authors: Ţîrcă Simona Maria , Ciontea Marius Sorin , Vlad Elena , Mihălţan Florin Dumitru
Published: April 2022

Anxiety is a comorbidity among patients with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD and COPD-asthma. Anxiety disorders in this population have a considerable influence on asthma management, because they influence the perception of symptoms, and anxiety related to treatment can influence compliance. Patient noncompliance with treatment for chronic respiratory diseases compromises the success of treatment and the patient’s quality of life, while increasing medical costs. Therefore, the aim of our study was to provide patient-centered care and determine which dimension of anxiety is associated with asthma, COPD and COPD-asthma in the general population after controlling age, background and sex. In order to obtain information on the response to treatment, questionnaires on symptom control (Asthma Control Test (ACT), COPD Assessment Test (CAT)) and asses anxiety using the ASQ questionnaire. The result obtained indicates that no compliant person presented a high score of the dimensions (somatic, behavioral and cognitive dimension.) and predominates of anxiety a low overall score. The symptoms associated with anxiety have a low, medium overall score but also a high score on the first visit. The first and second age categories have a low score in both the behavioral and somatic dimensions. In the age category 3 and 4 are people with low score and medium score behavioral dimension and cognitive dimension. In conclusion we can say that through repetitive control we obtained increased treatment compliance was achieved, leading to improved lung function, symptoms control and therefore reduced anxiety in the case of patients with asthma, COPD and COPD-asthma.
The Role of Physical Deconditioning in Cardiological and Pulmonological Medical Practice
Authors: Bivolaru Sorin
Published: April 2022

The examination of the patient with a recent episode of C19 and residual cardiorespiratory symptoms requires a complete two-line assessment of previously undiagnosed chronic pathology. As conventional investigations were insufficient in clarifying the remaining symptomatology, it was necessary to broaden the range of investigations and to take a different approach to this category of patients.

Depending on the symptoms and the patient’s general condition at the beginning of the examination, the attending physician should not disregard the period of restrictions involving significant limitations regarding exercise imposed during the pandemic. Physical exertion minimization and isolation at home have led to a series of functional disorders throughout the body, particularly cardio-respiratory, musculo-articular and neuro-psychiatric disorders.

The effects of a sedentary lifestyle or the lack of physical exertion are not limited to elderly individuals, nor to a single system or apparatus, but have undesirable consequences for the whole body. In this context, the pulmonologist was obliged to answer the question “does the patient have a previously undiagnosed chronic respiratory disease before COVID19 or is the patient physically deconditioned?”. This is how the cardio-respiratory exercise test - the stair-climbing exercise test - came into play in assessing this category of patients. As the medical rehabilitation units could not cope with all the patients, it was necessary to create a home-based rehabilitation programme that was cheap, fast, and allowing telephone monitoring and quantifiable results.
The Evolution of Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Viral C Infection Post Oral Antiviral Treatment
Authors: Gavril Oana Irina , Mitu Radu Sebastian Gavril Florin
Published: April 2022

Hepatitis C virus infection has been for several decades the major cause of cirrhosis and its complications worldwide. However, an arsenal of new and highly effective oral direct-acting antiviral drugs has changed the course of HCV treatment. The effects of HCV elimination are broad and include an overall reduction in mortality in patients with advanced fibrosis, a reduction of the risk of HCC in patients with advanced fibrosis and a reduction in extrahepatic manifestations including HCV-related non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, other lymphoproliferative disorders and cryoglobulinemic vasculitis. Fibrosis regression is associated with a broad clinical benefit and remains an important therapeutic target in HCV patients who have obtained RSV.