bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prescriptive vs. Developmental: Academic Advising at a Historically Black University in South Carolina
Authors: Harris Twaina A.
Published: July 2018

Many academic support programs promote the academic success of first-year students, and research has shown the importance of effective academic advising to first-year student retention. Among the numerous approaches to academic advising, the strategy used by advisors at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) remains relatively unknown. This quantitative study is based on the most prevalent academic advising approach used at a HBCU in South Carolina. A well-documented survey was administered to 77 first-year students attending this institution to measure their experiences with prescriptive and developmental advising and their satisfaction with these advising approaches. The results showed that the most prevalent advising approach was developmental advising, and students were satisfied with aspects of both strategies.
First-Generation Students With Undecided Majors: A Qualitative Study of University Reacculturation
Authors: Glaessgen Tracey A. , MacGregor Cynthia J. , Cornelius-White Jeffrey H. D. , Hornberger Robert S. , Baumann Denise M.
Published: July 2018

When they enter institutions of higher education, students typically leave behind one culture to join another. Despite the higher rates of attrition for first-generation students over continuing-generation students and undecided students over declared students, little research has been focused on undeclared first-generation students. To understand the challenges and experiences of first-generation undecided students transitioning to a new and unfamiliar academic environment, we applied a reacculturation process to this qualitative exploratory case study of 35 students. Data came from interviews, focus group interactions, observations, and written responses to open-ended questions, which were subsequently triangulated. Findings revealed heightened feelings of stress, desire to become comfortable on campus, reliance upon continuing-generation friends, helpfulness of a specialized first-year seminar course, and uncertainty about advisors' roles.
Dinámica exportadora en mipymes manufactureras y de servicio: Un estudio exploratorio de determinantes
Authors: Mora Esquivel Ronald , Rodríguez Barquero Rony , Víquez Paniagua Ana Gabriela
Published: July 2018

El objetivo del presente estudio es explorar posibles vínculos directos e indirectos de variables propias de la gestión y del contexto de Mipymes manufactureras y de servicios que podrían incidir en la continuidad de su actividad exportadora. Se recurrió a un diseño cualitativo, procesando datos verbales provenientes de nueve entrevistas a exportadores, mediante el software NVIVO 10.0. Los resultados del estudio destacan el papel que desempeñan la experiencia y el aprendizaje de la alta dirección de las Mipymes en la continuidad exportadora, pudiendo esta incidir en otras variables intermedias. Asimismo, se reconoce el papel del compromiso y el involucramiento de la alta dirección de la Mipyme como posible alineador de otras actividades y procesos que impulsen la actividad exportadora.
El estereotipo de los colombianos frente al consumo socialmente responsable*
Authors: Peñalosa Otero Monica Eugenia , López Celis Diana María
Published: July 2018

El propósito de este artículo es determinar la actitud de los colombianos frente al consumo socialmente responsable, para lo cual se realizó una investigación descriptiva a nivel nacional. Esta tomó como referencia las principales ciudades de Colombia: Bogotá, Cali, Medellín y Barranquilla, con una muestra de 400 sujetos distribuidos homogéneamente, en la cual se evaluaron las actitudes respecto de cuatro grandes dimensiones: 1) la compra racional, 2) la ética, 3) el consumo responsable 4) y temas medioambientales, con preguntas medidas en una escala de Likert. El análisis de los datos se realizó mediante la técnica estadística multivariante análisis de conglomerados (clúster). Dentro de los principales resultados, se pudo identificar que para los colombianos es importante la temática abordada, lo cual se evidencia con la actitud positiva respecto del consumo responsable, específicamente con la responsabilidad social empresarial.
Caracterización temática de treinta y siete revistas académicas en las ciencias administrativas publicadas en América Latina
Authors: Ruiz Torres Alex Jesus , Villafañe Rodríguez Camille , Peña Hevia Juan Antonio
Published: July 2018

Esta investigación define ciertas características, accidentales o decididas, de un grupo de revistas académicas latinoamericanas en el campo de las ciencias administrativas que publican artículos mayormente en español. Se caracterizan las revistas desde una perspectiva individual y luego como grupo. Desde el punto de vista individual, se clasifican las revistas por su volumen y por la variedad de temas. Desde la perspectiva integrada, se analizan cuáles son los temas de mayor y menor relevancia y su relación con la categoría de revista. Aunque ninguna clasificación puede ser exhaustiva, este trabajo intenta reflejar la conveniencia de determinadas revistas según el interés del investigador y los temas tratados. Este estudio ayudará a los investigadores en administración de empresas a determinar qué revistas son más pertinentes para sus trabajos de investigación.
Competencias directivas del empresario agroindustrial
Authors: Camacho Gómez Manuela
Published: July 2018

El artículo analiza los rasgos directivos de los propietarios administradores de las haciendas del cacao y el chocolate ubicados en Comalcalco y Cunduacán Tabasco (México), quienes tienen ante sí el reto del gerenciamiento comercial, la fabricación y el manejo agrícola. La gestión se complejiza porque participan en dos sectores: agroindustria y turismo; en el primero, con productos físicos, y en el segundo, con intangibles (servicio). Su propósito es añadir valor al estado actual del conocimiento del perfil del empresario agroindustrial mexicano. Se siguió el método cualitativo con enfoque fenomenológico sistémico. Los principales hallazgos muestran que, en el modelo de competencias directivas de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE), los empresarios muestran acentuadascompetencias intelectuales, de adaptabilidad y orientación a resultados, así como competencias estratégicas. Sin embargo, aún están pendientes de consolidar las relativas al manejo del ambiente interno.
Leveraging similarity joins for signal reconstruction
Authors: Asudeh Abolfazl , Nazi Azade , Augustine Jees , Thirumuruganathan Saravanan , Zhang Nan , Das Gautam , Srivastava Divesh
Published: July 2018

Signal reconstruction problem (SRP) is an important optimization problem where the objective is to identify a solution to an underdetermined system of linear equations that is closest to a given prior. It has a substantial number of applications in diverse areas including network traffic engineering, medical image reconstruction, acoustics, astronomy and many more. Most common approaches for SRP do not scale to large problem sizes. In this paper, we propose a dual formulation of this problem and show how adapting database techniques developed for scalable similarity joins provides a significant speedup. Extensive experiments on real-world and synthetic data show that our approach produces a significant speedup of up to 20x over competing approaches.
ChronosDB
Authors: Zalipynis Ramon Antonio Rodriges
Published: July 2018

An array DBMS streamlines large
N
-d array management. A large portion of such arrays originates from the geospatial domain. The arrays often natively come as raster files while standalone command line tools are one of the most popular ways for processing these files. Decades of development and feedback resulted in numerous feature-rich, elaborate, free and quality-assured tools optimized mostly for a single machine. ChronosDB partially delegates in situ data processing to such tools and offers a formal
N
-d array data model to abstract from the files and the tools. ChronosDB readily provides a rich collection of array operations at scale and outperforms SciDB by up to 75× on average.
CERES
Authors: Lockard Colin , Dong Xin Luna , Einolghozati Arash , Shiralkar Prashant
Published: July 2018

The web contains countless semi-structured websites, which can be a rich source of information for populating knowledge bases. Existing methods for extracting relations from the DOM trees of semi-structured webpages can achieve high precision and recall only when manual annotations for each website are available. Although there have been efforts to learn extractors from automatically generated labels, these methods are not sufficiently robust to succeed in settings with complex schemas and information-rich websites.

In this paper we present a new method for automatic extraction from semi-structured websites based on distant supervision. We automatically generate training labels by aligning an existing knowledge base with a website and leveraging the unique structural characteristics of semi-structured websites. We then train a classifier based on the potentially noisy and incomplete labels to predict new relation instances. Our method can compete with annotation-based techniques in the literature in terms of extraction quality. A large-scale experiment on over 400,000 pages from dozens of multi-lingual long-tail websites harvested 1.25 million facts at a precision of 90%.
Plan stitch
Authors: Ding Bailu , Das Sudipto , Wu Wentao , Chaudhuri Surajit , Narasayya Vivek
Published: July 2018

Query performance regression due to the query optimizer selecting a bad query execution plan is a major pain point in production workloads. Commercial DBMSs today can automatically detect and correct such query plan regressions by storing previously-executed plans and reverting to a previous plan which is still valid and has the least execution cost. Such reversion-based plan correction has relatively low risk of plan regression since the decision is based on observed execution costs. However, this approach ignores potentially valuable information of efficient
subplans
collected from
other
previously-executed plans. In this paper, we propose a novel technique, Plan Stitch, that automatically and opportunistically combines efficient subplans of previously-executed plans into a valid new plan, which can be cheaper than any individual previously-executed plan. We implement Plan Stitch on top of Microsoft SQL Server. Our experiments on TPC-DS benchmark and three real-world customer workloads show that plans obtained via Plan Stitch can reduce execution cost significantly, with a reduction of up to two orders of magnitude in execution cost when compared to reverting to the cheapest previously-executed plan.
Experimental analysis of distributed graph systems
Authors: Ammar Khaled , Özsu M. Tamer
Published: July 2018

This paper evaluates eight parallel graph processing systems: Hadoop, HaLoop, Vertica, Giraph, GraphLab (PowerGraph), Blogel, Flink Gelly, and GraphX (SPARK) over four very large datasets (Twitter, World Road Network, UK 200705, and ClueWeb) using four workloads (PageRank, WCC, SSSP and K-hop). The main objective is to perform an independent scale-out study by experimentally analyzing the performance, usability, and scalability (using up to 128 machines) of these systems. In addition to performance results, we discuss our experiences in using these systems and suggest some system tuning heuristics that lead to better performance.
Two-Stage Discrete Mechanical Modelin Three-Dimensional Spacefor Garmentsimulation
Authors: Luo Xuan , Jiang Gaoming , Cong Honglian
Published: July 2018

This paper focuses on the better performance between the garment simulation result and the simulation speed. For simplicity and clarity, a notation “PART” is defined to indicate the areas between the garment and the human body satisfying some constraints. The discrete mechanical model can be achieved by the two-stage process. In the first stage, the garment can be divided into several PARTs constrained by the distance. In the second stage, the mechanical model of each PART is formulated with a mathematical expression. Thus, the mechanical model of the garment can be obtained. Through changing the constrained distance, the simulation result and the simulation speed can be observed. From the variable distance, a desired value can be chosen for an optimal value. The results of simulations and experiments demonstrate that the better performance can be achieved at a higher speed by saving runtime with the acceptable simulation results and the efficiency of the proposed scheme can be verified as well.
Analysis of the Attractiveness of the Polish Market for Venture Capital Funds
Authors: Wierzbicka Katarzyna , Gardocka-Jałowiec Anna
Published: July 2018

The purpose of this article is to present the factors and phenomena resulting from the interaction of economic entities (entrepreneurs and consumers), which determine the level of investment attractiveness for venture capital funds. The activities are aimed at identifying which sectors and sectors of the economy in Poland may in future draw a growing interest of venture capital investors. They conclude that in the long run, consumer values and expectations will have a far greater impact than the technological change itself, on the process of building a market position and on the management of an enterprise. It is concluded that the Polish economy, as a result of demographic change, globalization and technology, will appear as an attractive area for venture capital investment. The basis of the discussion is Polish and foreign literature on the subject, current reports and statistical data.
Impact of a Company’s Dividend Policy on the Liquidity of Shares Listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange
Authors: Gniadkowska-Szymańska Agata
Published: July 2018

This study investigates the informational effect of stock liquidity on dividend payouts. Using a sample of Polish listed companies during 2000 - 2012, I do not find a relation between stock liquidity and dividend payouts. This result is robust to the use of alternative measures of liquidity, and holds after we control for endogeneity concerns. In accord with my hypothesis that stock liquidity provides information and increases insiders’ incentive to pay out dividends, I do not find that the relation between stock liquidity and dividend payouts is more pronounced when the information environment is opaque, and when conflict between controlling shareholders and minority investors is severe.

The aim of this study is to show the dependencies occurring between dividend policy and the liquidity of shares of a company. The basic thesis of this study is that decisions on dividend payments positively affect the liquidity of the shares of a company.
Time-dependent ammonia emissions from fumed oak wood determined by micro-chamber/thermal extractor (μCTE) and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy
Authors: Hogger Elfriede , Bauer Klaus , Höllbacher Eva , Gierlinger Notburga , Konnerth Johannes , van Herwijnen Hendrikus W.G.
Published: July 2018

The ongoing preference for dark colours in parquet and furniture is a driving force for colour modification of bright wood species. The treatment of oak wood with gaseous ammonia (fuming) leads to dark colours, but residual ammonia in the wood may lead to bonding failures with resins, odour nuisance and thus customer complaints. The focus of the present paper is the determination and emission of remaining ammonia in fumed oak. A fast and convenient approach based on Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy was developed to replace the currently applied time-consuming and complex determination procedures. The integrated area of the infrared (IR) region between 1575 and 1535 cm−1shows a relationship with the coefficient of determination (R2=0.76) to the residual ammonia content determined by the micro-chamber/thermal extractor (μCTE) method. The prediction accuracy was further improved by partial least square regression calculations. Promising models with high R2(0.85), low root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSE-CV=1.08%) with five principal components were established and already integrated successfully into the production as input control. FTIR-ATR spectroscopy proved to be a simple and fast predictive method to estimate residual ammonia in fumed oak.
Comparative study of the differential cell death protecting effect of various ROS scavengers
Authors: Kavčič Nežka , Pegan Katarina , Vandenabeele Peter , Turk Boris
Published: July 2018

Oxidative stress has for a long time been associated with cell death, especially classical necrosis, however, its role in other cell death pathways is less clear. Here, we evaluated in a comparative way, the effect of four different reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), α-tocopherol and two superoxide dismutase mimetics, n(III)tetrakis(4-benzoic acid)porphyrin chloride, and 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (Tempol), in four different cell death models, including menadione-triggered necrosis, staurosporine-induced apoptosis and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced apoptosis and necroptosis. While menadione-triggered necrosis was completely prevented by the classical ROS scavenger NAC and to a substantial amount by the other scavengers, ROS targeting was found to have a marginal effect on the other cell death modalities investigated. Despite its side-effects at higher concentrations, Tempol was able to substantially prevent TNF-induced apoptosis and to a somewhat lesser extent TNF-induced necroptosis. However, this seems to be separated from its ROS-scavenging function.
Mining human cancer datasets for kallikrein expression in cancer: the ‘KLK-CANMAP’ Shiny web tool
Authors: Wang Chenwei , Moya Leire , Clements Judith A. , Nelson Colleen C. , Batra Jyotsna
Published: July 2018

The dysregulation of the serine-protease family kallikreins (KLKs), comprising 15 genes, has been reportedly associated with cancer. Their expression in several tissues and physiological fluids makes them potential candidates as biomarkers and therapeutic targets. There are several databases available to mine gene expression in cancer, which often include clinical and pathological data. However, these platforms present some limitations when comparing a specific set of genes and can generate considerable unwanted data. Here, several datasets that showed significant differential expression (p<0.01) in cancer vs. normal (n=118), metastasis vs. primary (n=15) and association with cancer survival (n=21) have been compiled in a user-friendly format from two open and/or publicly available databases Oncomine and OncoLnc for the 15 KLKs. The data have been included in a free web application tool: the KLK-CANMAP https://cancerbioinformatics.shinyapps.io/klk-canmap/. This tool integrates, analyses and visualises data and it was developed with the R Shiny framework. Using KLK-CANMAP box-plots, heatmaps and Kaplan-Meier graphs can be generated for the KLKs of interest. We believe this new cancer KLK focused web tool will benefit the KLK community by narrowing the data visualisation to only the genes of interest.
Nonlinear Computational Treatment for Couple Stress Fluid Flow with Cattaneo-Christov Double Diffusion and Homogeneous-Heterogeneous Reactions
Authors: Hayat Tasawar , Ayub Tayyaba , Muhammad Taseer , Ahmad Bashir
Published: July 2018

This paper addresses three-dimensional (3D) flow of couple stress material with Cattaneo-Christov double diffusion and homogeneous-heterogeneous reactions. A linear bi-directional stretchable surface is used to generate the flow. Thermal and concentration diffusions are considered by introducing Cattaneo-Christov heat and mass fluxes. Equal diffusion coefficients are considered for both auto catalyst and reactants. Boundary layer approach is used to simplify the governing system of partial differential equations. Suitable relations are used to nondimensionalize the boundary layer expressions. The valid convergent series solution are established by means of optimal homotopy analysis method (OHAM). The role of various pertinent parameters on the solutions are investigated through graphs. Moreover skin friction coefficients and heat and mass transfer rates are computed and analyzed. It is observed that heat and mass transfer rates are higher for larger thermal and concentration relaxation parameters.
Förderung, aber welchen Inhalts? Didaktische Perspektiven auf Bildungssprache im DaF-Unterricht
Authors: Marx Nicole
Published: July 2018

Im gegenwärtigen bildungspolitischen Diskurs wird die Förderung der Bildungssprache als ein prioritäres Ziel verstanden. Die didaktische Umsetzung leidet jedoch an der anhaltenden konzeptionellen Unklarheit des Konstrukts, das einerseits stark von seinen beabsichtigten Funktionen im Bildungssektor geprägt ist, für das andererseits ein zufriedenstellender empirischer Zugang noch aussteht. Hintergrund und Funktionen des Konstrukts in unterschiedlichen Diskursen werden zunächst zusammengefasst, um eine möglichst konsensfähige Operationalisierung im Kontext des Faches Deutsch als Fremdsprache zu erzielen. Auf dieser Basis wird die Didaktisierung von Bildungssprache exemplarisch aufgegriffen und Perspektiven für deren Konkretisierung und Lehre werden aufgezeigt. Anschließend wird das Potenzial des Faches DaF für die Weiterentwicklung des Konstrukts diskutiert.
Sprache und Studienerfolg von Bildungsausländerinnen und -ausländern: Eine Längsschnittstudie an den Universitäten Leipzig und Würzburg
Authors: Wisniewski Katrin
Published: July 2018

Während die Zahl ausländischer Studierender in Deutschland stetig zunimmt, beklagt diese Gruppe gleichzeitig hohe Abbruchzahlen. Die Gründe dafür sind kaum erforscht; allerdings werden häufig mangelnde Sprachkenntnisse mit verantwortlich gemacht. Das Projekt „Sprache und Studienerfolg bei Bildungsausländer/-innen“ (SpraStu) untersucht Sprache als Einflussfaktor auf den Studienerfolg von ca. 500 Bildungsausländern multimethodisch im Längsschnitt. Zusätzlich werden Aspekte der Selbstregulierung und anderer potenzieller Bedingungsfaktoren analysiert.
Resistance exercise alone improves muscle strength in growth hormone deficient males in the transition phase
Authors: Amer Nadia Mohamad , Modesto Marilza J. , Dos Santos Cláudia Duarte , Erichsen Oscar , Mascarenhas Luis P.G. , Nesi-França Suzana , Marques-Pereira Rosana , De Lacerda Luiz
Published: July 2018

Background

During the transition phase (TP), patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD) exhibit decreased muscle strength. Studies assessing the effects of resistance exercise alone on muscle strength in these individuals are scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a program of resistance exercise (PRE) on parameters of muscle strength in subjects in the TP and with childhood-onset GHD treated with recombinant GH (rGH).

Methods

Sixteen male patients were enrolled and divided into two groups: GHD (n=9) and GH sufficiency (GHS, n=7). Patients with GHD underwent a 12-week PRE followed by another 12-week PRE plus rGH, while GHS patients underwent a 12-week PRE alone. Dynamic knee muscle strength was evaluated using an isokinetic dynamometer.

Results

Before PRE, there were significant differences between the groups regarding the results of flexor peak torque (FPT) normalized to body weight (BW-FPT) in the dominant (DO, p=0.008) and non-dominant (ND, p=0.01) limbs, and in the agonist/antagonist (A/A) ratio in the DO (p=0.02) and ND (p=0.006) limbs. After PRE in the GHD group, values of FPT and BW-FPT in both limbs increased significantly (p<0.001) and independently of rGH, while the A/A ratio value improved significantly (p<0.001) in the ND limb.

Conclusions

A short period of PRE alone was sufficient to improve parameters of muscle strength in young male adults with childhood-onset GHD.
The Search for Classified Information – The Real Fight in the Cold War
Authors: Bojor Laviniu
Published: July 2018

The effort to get classified information from inside the adverse camp was the main objective of both super powers involved in the Cold War. Both the USA and the USSR tried, by all means at their disposal, to be one step ahead of the opponent by knowing their capabilities and adverse plans. This paper approaches the manner in which intelligence-gathering specialized structures from both camps were involved in collecting data and intelligence to win the information battle during the Cold War
A2AD Concept in the Modern Security Environment
Authors: Cirdei Ionuț Alin
Published: July 2018

In the 21st century, the international scene witnesses major changes in the security environment. There are many actions aimed at redefining spheres of influence and reaffirming states as great powers. The international scene is dominated by two entities that were antagonistic during the Cold War: Russia and NATO. In recent years, Russia is trying to impose itself again as a global actor and is therefore trying to consolidate its power in Europe and the world, both by reforming its armed forces and by participating in various conflicts in the hot zones of the world. Russia perceives NATO as its main adversary, which is trying to get closer to its vital space, reduce its spheres of influence and isolate it. As a reaction, Russia initiated a series of complex actions aimed at both maintaining buffer zones and banning access and limiting NATO's freedom of movement in the immediate vicinity of its borders. To this end, Russia has developed a series of capabilities to prevent the opponent from entering a certain area and to reduce or even forbid him any freedom of action once he has entered the area, this approach of Russia being part of the A2AD (Anti-access, Area Denial) policy
The Renewable Sources of Energy and the Romanian Energy Security
Authors: Cirdei Ionuț Alin
Published: July 2018

Energy security is a matter of particular importance to all the world's states, whether they are producers or consumers of energy resources. For a long time, fossil energy resources have been the only source of energy used on a planetary scale. When mankind realized that fossil energy resources are a finite source of energy and that their intensive use causes many environmental problems, the most important of which is related to global warming, they have tried to find alternative sources of energy. Thus, concerns have arisen about the use of renewable energy on a wider scale, with both individual concerns of states that have potential in this area and collective concerns, such as at EU level, which has proposed by 2020, the share of energy from renewable sources used by the Union states is at least 20% of total consumption. Renewable energy resources may be an alternative to fossil fuels, but at the same time it has a number of limitations and vulnerabilities. Ensuring energy security means a comprehensive approach, understanding of limitations and reducing vulnerabilities
The Counter Insurgency Operating Environment
Authors: Hrnčiar Michal
Published: July 2018

The basis for the successful use of the relevant power tools that produce the effects needed to accomplish the end state is to understand the operating environment. Operating environment represents a composite of the conditions, circumstances and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of the commander. This is an environment directly affected by the crisis. Each operating environment has its own character, a number of specific features resulting from a particular crisis. The intent of the article is by the analysis of the operational variables (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information, Infrastructure, Physical, Time - PMESII-PT) to present the specifics of the operating environment that is affected by the insurgency
North Atlantic Early Warning (Naεw) Εvolution in Maјor Сonflicts
Authors: Iordache Mihai
Published: July 2018

The security of the regional and global environment is an issue of major concern for the political and military deciding factors, especially in the current security environment marked by profound and surprising changes at geopolitical and geostrategical level. In the early 1970s, different studies of NATO indicated that a system of airborne early warning (AEW) would considerably increase the defense of the air space of the Alliance. The Committee of Planning Defense of NATO (СΡD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the acquisition and operational use of an Airborne Early Warning system. The Airbornе Warning & Сontrol Systеm (AWAСS) is a developed and well-organized system, which can be permanently improved and adapted to the present realities generated by the dynamics of regional and global security. The paper presents its evolution and benefits
Woman Integration in the Military Service. The Case of Bulgaria
Authors: Karadzhova-Manova Militsa Ivanova
Published: July 2018

According to most of the research papers there are good social psychological conditions, which influence the smooth integration of women into the military. Furthermore, the opinion of military men to women integration in it, is generally well accepted. Most of them except women as equal and treat them with respect. A considerable percentage of women in the army share that it is not necessary for them being privilege, compare to men. Additional studies suggest that higher ranking officials in the military, know well their subordinate’s issues and it is not their gender that defines their capabilities, but their experience and qualities
Key Performance Indicators for the Nato Centres of Excellence
Authors: Kis Alexandru , Theodoridis Evangelos
Published: July 2018

The NATO Centres of Excellence (COEs), entities involved in various fields of transformation in support of the Alliance, are subject of different levels of accreditation performed by NATO. An important aspect of such recognition comes with the NATO institutional accreditation for Quality Assurance (QA) in the case of the COEs involved in education and training delivery (alongside other NATO, National and Partner Education and Training Centres). The NATO QA seal is the trustworthy mark that a COE fulfils the expected quality requirements (based on a solid Quality Management System) in the educational process, and provides deliverables „fit for purpose” as solutions for the NATO education and training requirements. While the individual strategies of the COEs are pretty much different in this endeavour, we would outline the commonality of the standards they rely on. This paper focuses on institutional performance measurement as reference in the Quality Management System, trying to identify benchmarks for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on the current experience at the COEs level - extended to the wider NATO Transformation Network - and shared best practice. DISCLAIMER: This paper expresses the views, interpretations, and independent position of the authors. It should not be regarded as an official document, nor expressing formal opinions or policies, of NATO or the HUMINT Centre of Excellence (HCOE)
Cyprus, an Unresolved Issue of the European Union
Authors: Metea Ileana-Gentilia
Published: July 2018

The Republic of Cyprus is an island from the extreme north of the Mediterranean Sea, is situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa, 75 km south of Turkey, 105 km west of Syria, 300 km north of Egypt and 800 km east of Greece. As a state form, it is a presidential republic, and is part of the European Union (since May 2004) the Euro Zone (2008), the World Trade Organization - WTO (1995), the International Monetary Fund (1962) 1962), the Council of Europe (1961), the Commonwealth (1961). Cyprus has an unresolved internal situation for a long time
Physiognomy of Military Operations Answer to Hybrid Threats
Authors: Neag Mihai Marcel
Published: July 2018

The widening of the spectrum, the diversity of forms of manifestation of hybrid threats, the influence of economic, political, diplomatic, informational and psychological aspects, now occupy, more than ever, a very important place in the architecture of military operations, but also the fact that the evolution of technology in the field of communications, informatics and cyber defense led to an exponential increase in the power of information. The timely and pertinent threat analysis of the hybrid warfare allows military decision-makers to identify, through an elaborate and pragmatic approach, the best solutions for preparing the armed forces for military response operations
One Belt, One Road Initiative and Its Geostrategic Significance for Eastern Europe
Authors: Pantea Ana
Published: July 2018

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it was formally announced by President Xi Jinping in 2013, it is an engine for foreign policy, but it represents as well the driver force of China’s economic growth - and as such, it plays an important role in the domestic policy. China's foreign policy aims to support domestic growth and employment, must be aligned with the narratives of ‘rejuvenation’ and the ‘China Dream’. As such, the present paper discusses the origins and development of BRI; it analyses the mechanism in which BRI promotes China’s domestic agenda; as well as it regards at the geostrategic aims and difficulties of such an ambitions global project
France’s Military Importance for the European Union
Authors: Pricopi Marius , Motriuc Alexandru Ioan
Published: July 2018

A founding member of the European Union, France is nowadays still considered, alongside Germany, as one of the two „engines” of European integration. And this applies not only for the economic or social sphere, as France has also played a preeminent role in the historical process of European defence integration. Acknowledging the French contributions to the European defence project, in this paper we subject to analysis the military importance of France for the Union. Using the analysis of social documents and the case study method, we argue that this country’s high level of military integration in the European Union is not at all fortuitous, as is not due to impermanent favourable evolutions
Comprehensive Approach in the Full Spectrum of Conflict
Authors: Ratiu Aurelian
Published: July 2018

The present paper identifies relevant issues and challenges connected to the comprehensive approach/holistic approach in the full spectrum of conflict. The Comprehensive Approach (CA) concept implemented by NATO, EU, UN and even state actors is to satisfy the need for proactive engagement, to foster cooperation, coordination and contribution of all actors, before and during a confrontation or crisis. Conflictuality management requires good governance, economic development, rule of law and local ownership, all this in addition to military security
Romania’s Role in the Management of Security Organizations
Authors: Rapan Florian , Gologach Ioana Raluca
Published: July 2018

The disappearance of bipolarity causes essential mutations in the international security environment, which highlights the need to rethink the defence concept. The analysis of new risks and threats to international security has led to a new perception of it and has imposed a new orientation in the field of defence. The formation of new partnerships and alliances greatly reduces the likelihood of a conflict between members, which contributes to supporting the common interest of countries to maintain and strengthen international peace and security. All countries of the world are, in principle, members of at least one regional or intergovernmental organization. Although traditionally regional organizations have been set up on the basis of political, economical or environmental objectives, they have also entered security in recent decades and have started to develop their own capabilities to prevent conflicts and support peacekeeping operations or post-conflict construction of states
Termination of Collective Defense Treties – Procedures, Consequences and Modern State Practice
Authors: Serafimov Victor
Published: July 2018

State practice has showed that geopolitical interests of nations are usually engaged either through diplomatic or military means. The mutual desire to avoid armed conflicts led to concluding multiple multilateral and bilateral international security and defence treaties. This process formed the basis of two major concepts -the Collective security and the collective defense. Both of them require a solid international legal basis, namely - a treaty that settles all forms of interpretations, disputes and actions. Since these treaties define international relations for a certain period, their eventual termination would have a major impact on the relations between different nations as seen numerously in the past decades. The contemporary world has completely different challenges to ensure collective security in the framework of international organizations. Currently major military actors are guarding the national sovereignty and aerospace borders of smaller states, thus making air policing a real diplomatic issue that should face an international legal framework. The institutional interaction between NATO and the EU as international organizations could lead to complete integration in terms of defense of the EU Member states in the near future. These issues could and should be met with the means of the main sources of the Law of treaties
Nato-Eu Cooperation
Authors: Simion Eduard
Published: July 2018

The current security situation is marked an increasing competition for power at global scale, the use of power politics, and the growth of the influence of the non-state actors in a changed resource and demographic landscape. NATO and EU seem to be out of sync with the developments in the world, situation which puts their very existence into questioning. However, a closer look shows that both organisations have displayed a very high degree of versatility, re-inventing themselves to adapt to the changing environment, and surviving all the evolution so far, while other peer organisations have become history. Therefore, the main question is whether NATO and EU will overcome the existing and future challenges and continue the current positive trend in their cooperation? When considering the common history, the trend and the most recent evolutions, one can only draw a positive answer. The most significant areas of recent cooperation which indicate a definite positive trend are the adaptation of the NATO Command Structure, the development of military capabilities, and the definition of the cyberspace as an operational domain
Cybercrime Evolution
Authors: Şcheau Mircea Constantin , Pop Ştefan Zaharie
Published: July 2018

Information as a structure has changed. Database architectures can hide executive models or constitute simple, manipulable packets form. The transmission of information has undergone mutations dictated by technological evolution, and intercepting methods have proven the capacity of adaptability and penetration. The term "cybercrime" may appear to be abused, but if we look more closely at the global phenomenon, we will understand that all levels of human society are affected without distinction. Starting from the environmental conditions that can be improved, the energy, industrial and transport sectors that can be much better coordinated and reaching the missile fields that can be hijacked, we understand that all depend to a greater extent or less of the aggressor's ability, the preventive and reactive measures implemented, and the degree of resilience that can be provided by defensive or offensive defense structures
The Determinant Role of Misinformation in the Manifestation of the Principle of Operational Surprise
Authors: Udeanu Gheorghe
Published: July 2018

Surprising the opponent in the main areas of strategic confrontation - information, political, economic, technological, ideological, psychological, espionage/counter-intelligence, military - was a priority objective of the general policy of the states, regardless of the analyzed historical age. In this framework, the most active and effective component of taking by surprise - misinformation- has always been in the attention of decision-makers in order to determine a distorted perception of reality, diminishing alertness and reducing the ability of an opponent to act or react [1]
Leading a Project Team when Developing a New Academic Programme
Authors: Babos Alexandru , Manescu Gabriel
Published: July 2018

Within the transformation and modernization process of the Romanian Army the need for a better connection between the university specialization of the graduates and their military one emerged. In order to satisfy that need, a new programme is needed for the logistics officers and accountants. The new programme, the Accounting and Management Information Systems, is to develop a new category of professionals able to integrate much more easily on the work market, and also to exercise the officer position in a more performing manner
Organisational Learning Improvement by Using Knowledge Management System
Authors: Bucata George , Rizescu Marius Alexandru
Published: July 2018

The only sustainable advantage an organization will have in the future is its ability to learn faster than its competitors. In the current environment characterized by globalization, competition and dynamism, the success of a firm depends on its ability to learn from its interactions with the environment, its internal dynamics and the experience of other firms, the knowledge and skills of its employees. Companies must provide the necessary conditions for creating and continuously updating knowledge and putting it into practice. The success of a company is therefore conditioned by the ability to acquire, encode and translate the knowledge as quickly as possible
Competitiveness of Companies in the Competitive Environment - The Essential Question of Performance Management
Authors: Comanescu Elena Loredana , Ponea-Radu Ioana Antoaneta , Petre-Stan Cornelia , Ponea Maria Georgiana
Published: July 2018

Competitiveness is the ability of the company to compete with commodities that meet the needs of customers in terms of price, quality and diversity. It is possible to the extent that the firm has a competitive advantage and whose affirmation has its source in the internal conditions of the firm and which the economic environment, first of all the competitive one, can favor. In the field of management, the strategy is the art of conducting a set of devices in order to achieve a goal. M. Porter argues that the strategy is "the art of building competitive advantages that can be defended over a long period of time."
Human Resources - Important Resources of the Contemporary Organization
Authors: Halmaghi Elisabeta-Emilia , Bacila Lidia-Marinela
Published: July 2018

In this paper we started from the idea that the most important strategic resource of an organization is people. Without people, the organization's other resources could not be operational, and the organization could not fulfill its established goals. Therefore, in order for an organization to grow and become competitive in the long run, it must invest in training the employees. It is true that this investment has high costs, but well-trained, creative, adaptable, motivated and involved employees in achieving the organization's goals generate positive changes in all its structures. Taken into consideration all the analyzed theories, we tried to demonstrate that an organization will become stronger, more adaptable to changes in both its internal and external environment and will meet its established goals becoming a successful organization
Opportunities for Achieving Effective Management in Season Tourist Sites
Authors: Mancheva-Ali Olga , Lilov Iliyan
Published: July 2018

This study presents the specificity of season destinations and how to put into practice traditional and flexible opportunities for managing tourist sites in them. A distinction has been made between “hired” management and “timeshare” in tourism, as two of the main forms of flexible management. An online market survey was conducted to offer new flexible forms of management in the tourism business. Their advantages and disadvantages for the tourist sites are analyzed
A Comprehensive Approach to Education and Management in the System of Security
Authors: Marinov Rumen , Stoykov Stoyko
Published: July 2018

This report discusses the sensitive issue of the quality of decision-making in the security system, facing inevitable transition towards greater professionalism and technological maturity. While applying the basic principle of situational analysis in terms of „environmental scanning”, realized through a process of „breaking down” of the environment into certain factors, and gleaning information about their interplay in the direction of their impact, the authors elaborate on the formulation and the applicability of a novel, science-based, long-term state security and defense policy as well as a pertinent strategy for its implementation
Risk Management in Major Acquisition Programs
Authors: Plesanu Toma , Mosteanu Dănuţ-Eugeniu , Mosteanu Ruxandra , Mosteanu Dana
Published: July 2018

The paper analyses the particularities of risk management in major acquisition programs (acquisition of complex defence systems) and identifies technical risks. In the framework of risk management in major acquisition programs, the following elements were analysed: the relation between risk and the process of military acquisition; the acquisition process in the military acquisition and risk management phases; the risk and the characteristics of the acquisition process
New Proposal on Reporting Intangible Resources on the Organizational Level
Authors: Stan Sebastian Emanuel , Oprean-Stan Camelia , Țitu Mihail Aurel
Published: July 2018

In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that existing information systems at the level of organizations do not allow for a performing management because they fail to capture a wide range of intangible resources, which represent one of the most important variables for the success and progress of any organization. As a result of the fact that the annual financial reporting cannot give a real basis for making accurate estimates of future cash flows that can be made by organizations, or of their associated risk, this article states the need to report intangible resources at the organizational level. The concept, content and advantages of an Intangible Resources Report (IRR) are presented, and in the final part of the article it is presented an example of IRR, detailed in a specific case for an intangible resource. This Intangible Resources Report has the advantage of providing a generous and documented framework for managing and disclosing intangible resource information for any type of organization. Through its implementation, it is possible to compare strengths and weaknesses in intangible resources for different organizations, becoming a good benchmark tool, thus facilitating the exchange of experience and learning in different areas of intangible resource management at the level organizations
Conceptual Model for Evaluation of the Quality of Outsourcing Services
Authors: Stefanov Nikolay
Published: July 2018

Increasing the effectivenss of outsourcing processes in military structures is part of their creation and use. The broadly popular perception of enhancing the effectivenss of a process as a whole is to increase its capabilities in some of its directions in order to make it more effective and to reduce costs. This is the reason for the focus on increasing the effectivenss of the outsourcing processes used in the Bulgarian Armed Forces. They should be considered not only as a transfer of certain services, but also as a process of management, control, constant monitoring and coordination with the modern, dynamic market that needs permanent optimisation in order to increase the effectivenss. This article studies and analyses the possibilities of evaluating the effectivenss of an outsourcing service and compiling a conceptual model for quality assessment