Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Open Access Publishing
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Dynamics of technological readiness competitiveness of the Moldovan economy
Telecommunications infrastructure can effectively reduce trade costs due to the interaction of innovations caused by human and technological resources, thereby contributing to the development of international trade. In the economic literature is mentioned that trade and IT dissemination provide the way to development for the economy of the country when it can use existing opportunities. Our research provides the measurement of the ability of the economy of Moldova adopts existing technologies. The purpose of research is to study the most problematic factors that affecting the technological readiness competitiveness of the Moldovan economy. In our study, we analyzed the Republic of Moldova\u27s score and position in international indicators and rankings in correlation with the methodology of the World Economic Forum. We examined the rank of Moldova relative to other Southeast Europe countries, so our research may be interesting for the countries from the whole region. Our research found that technological readiness competitiveness of Moldova is higher than the global competitiveness and the gap between them has a tendency to increase in the last years. The research showed also that Technological readiness pillar has a significant contribution to the competitiveness of Efficiency enhancers subindex and through him on the global competitiveness of the Moldovan economy.Our research found that the Republic of Moldova has a competitive advantage in the Internet bandwidth kb/s/user, but in other six factors of the Technological readiness pillar, the country has critical values, in comparison with Southeast Europe countries. In plus, Moldova is a country with the most problematic factors between countries. The research identified that the Republic of Moldova has critically low- level indicators of the innovation and sophistication pillars, associated with Technological readiness pillar. The results of our study can be used in the elaboration of appropriate education, R&D, labour market, industrial and service sectors policies by decision-makers and the private sector of country
Improving risk management in (SMEs) insurance companies and adapting them to the Corona crisis
The organizations\u27 interest is to avoid the failure and collapse by keeping up with technological Improving risk management is important for insurance companies (SMEs) because it improves technology recognition, measurement, and risk handling, even with the continuous development in technology, risk management has become a state of uncertainty that we can measure through knowing the potential losses and gains, trying to reduce losses and trying to increase the gains, Which leads to more adaptation to technological development. Through “The Impact of Uncertainty on Objectives” that illustrates the lack of future information [1]. The SMEs insurers companies face many risks as the continued survival of small enterprises with low financial and non-financial resources are highly vulnerable to threats [2]. The use of a scientifically descriptive-analytical approach shows how insurance companies (SMEs) deal with the threat of the Coronavirus and how their risk management has evolved to confront Virus Corona using technology. The results show a statistically significant relationship, whether between risk management and keeping pace with technological development or between applying risk management steps. The results are expected to help increase the SMEs insurance companies\u27 knowledge of the concepts of risk, risk management, and insurance industries, and increase business performance, evaluate and discuss the concepts and steps of risk management and link them to the sector practical results.The conclusion is that applying risk management steps and keeping pace with technological development reduces all risks, helps the institution to sustain itself, and helps the economy to develop
Intelligent safety and emergency lighting solutions in disaster situations
Disasters. They always happen, with a probability of occurrence that is almost independent of the high-speed development of our technology, economy and society as a whole. The most important measure humanity can take is to focus on reducing the loss of human lives and to plan intelligently the measures that need to be taken in order to reach a high level of overall disaster resilience. We will bring into discussion some of the challenges that can appear when people need to find their way out from interior spaces in case of disaster. Some of those disasters can cause electric power outage in the building, leaving the evacuation routes visibility relying only on the electrical emergency lighting systems and we will see that those systems are not always infallible. Case study: the “ice storm” phenomenon that impacted Canada in December 2013. At the height of the storm over 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers had no electricity or heating.[1] Unexpected problem: Basements and other interior areas without natural light in multiple high-rise buildings in Toronto have been left in complete darkness due to the failure of the safety lighting systems, endangering the evacuation of the people inside. A new problem arose : can there be an alternative solution for visually signaling the escape routes? Objectives: Technological solutions for this impasse exist, but are being used in other applications: interior decorations, entertainment industry, exploration research and military industry. Those possible alternative solutions are: phosphorescent elements and chemical light tubes. We will analyze how and if we can implement these technologies through smart design on a large scale for the emergency evacuation paths. Case study solution: project (Toronto - Arc Condominiums) emergency escape route signaling through design and innovative use of phosphorescent mosaic. [1] "Ice storm: Toronto Hydro CEO promises power within hours to remaining customers | Toronto Star". Thestar.com. 29 December 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2014
Pandemic drive for synchronized smart political atmospheres
The etymology of the word atmosphere connects in our view the COVID-19 with the “airquake” concept of Peter Sloterdijk, materialized as consecutive to gas warfare and media-curated order of the postmodern era. This new “airquake \u27\u27 overlaps the invasion of social networks power anddeliberately sought globalization. In order to prepare our plead for synchronizing smart atmospheres, we explore the concepts of smart limit and smart place as derived from interdisciplinary architectural and technological approach, together with the new concept of smart political atmospheres, exploring further C. Borch’s statement that “atmospheric design is intimately related to power”. We will complete in contradistinction the spherical trilogy proposed by Sloterdijk. E-governance is an aspect of a recently emerged sphere of the technological smart leap. This might be the ultimate one and we will define it as a meta-sphere, because it combines all the features of the sphere trilogy. This meta-sphere shares characteristics with the binomial user- technology bubble, the plurispheres of interdependent but self-sufficient modern environments, and with the broad ideological sheltering macrosphere of belonging-together that the internet offers. The foam of smart atmospheres is no longer vague, but shaped by the meta-sphere of technology control. Atmospheres defined by visual, acoustic, aromatic, haptic, political, informational and architectural characteristics, will suffer a shift as a response to the pandemic, from collective to individual, from hierarchical to distributed (Elmer). This will limit it’s architectural and multisensory sides to those related to homes, but will expunge politics and technology to a paradoxical familiar-remote field. We see necessary synchronizing e-governance with these pandemic segregated immunity fields; synchronize is the generic word that correlates e-governance persuasion, decrease of the technology gap, andragogy and architectural staging in order to attain the larger objectives of efficient "management of possibilities"(Foucault)
Sustainable architecture for smart people - a topic for lobbying activities
Sustainable architecture is a trans-disciplinary subject comprising a wide range of ideas and topics and has a multidimensional nature. The principles of sustainability propose a development that is more profitable in economic and social terms and bring a lot of benefits to the environment and to people who are living in this environment in the long term. We intend to analyze and explain the three pillars of sustainability: economy, equity and environment. Lobbying is a part of a healthy democracy and allows for various interest groups to present their views on public decisions that may come to affect them. Lobbying for sustainable architecture promotes the health of the building’s occupants at the same time as reducing the negative effects of the construction process on the environment. Society must need and want development for it to be inclusive, but at the same time it must have cultural and historical relevance. In essence, all we need as humans is that balance given by more conductive environment and a more healthy democratic society. The real danger is not the fragility of the planet, but our own vulnerability resulting from our own actions or inactions in the environment. The paper’s structure is three-folded: on one hand, the theoretical framework provides us with a holistic view of how sustainable architecture is understood, on the other hand, the mechanism of interference between sustainable architecture and how it can be more promoted through lobbying activities, and last but not least, the paper presents an analysis of the perspectives that sustainable architecture is no longer just a debated notion in the academic environment, but represent a need of the smart society. In terms of methodology, the paper uses qualitative research for the theoretical background needed to substantiate the argument of the entire research
Blockchain applications in smart grid
The rising demand for electrical energy, the vast expansion in sources of renewable energy, and the emergence of cyber-physical security threats are some of the issues and risks that modern power systems face. These difficulties highlight how crucial it is to create a method for the power system to run securely and consistently. With the introduction of blockchain, innovative concepts for smart grid solutions have been invented and implemented. As one of the most secure technologies of recent years, blockchain can be adapted in different applications such as smart grid. Blockchain technology has numerous potential applications and solutions for the issues that smart grids are currently experiencing and will face in the future. Some of these issues stem from the lack of security and privacy of data collected by smart meters. This article will present some of the advantages and drawbacks of the blockchain-controlled smart grid as well as energy trading
Algorithms weighing lives and freedoms: The case of China’s health code
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the beginning of 2020, Chinese local governments created a software extension on existing mobile applications to monitor citizens’ movement and collect their health data. Very quickly China’s health code became a key resource for the country’s governments to track and contain COVID-19 cases using time, location, and personal interactions. China’s health code system represents an unprecedented form of “biological” governance, which demonstrates and supports the transformation empowered by digital technologies, enhancing the access to healthcare and fusing together mass surveillance and fundamental public service provision. Digital contact tracing has attracted enormous interest among academics and legislators since the outbreak of COVID-19, which resulted in several policy papers and research works, discussing issues, such as the effectiveness and accuracy of virus detection, as well concerns in regard to discrimination and data privacy. However, most of the articles refers to technologies and its implications in the West, and less to the peculiarities and problems related to the use of Chinese health code. Present research analysis the issues related to difficulties to achieve a balance between China’s “zero-COVID policy” and freedom of movement, as well those regarding multiple health code’s proliferation, health code abuses and misuses by officials who do not want to miss any cases for fear of outbreak or being fired. Since China’s health code system is still far from being centralized and uniform across the country, the mutual recognition system has resulted in considerable problems for those who find themselves in high-risk areas
Patrimoniul construit si realitatea virtuala
Lucrarea isi propune sa evidentieze rolul realitatii virtuale si a noilor tehnologii in promovarea patrimoniului construit. In contextul globalizarii, cand spatiul fizic, geografic inceteaza sa mai fie un obstacol deoarece distanta nu mai conteaza, orasele se lupta pentru a- si castiga un anumit renume (brand) legat de un tip particular de experienta pe care o ofera pe piata internationala a turismului urban. Intr-adevar, persoanele care circula in jurul lumii in cautare de divertisment si experiente inedite au devenit o parte esentiala a economiei globale. Orasele depind tot mai mult de veniturile si taxele rezultate din valorificarea patrimoniului cultural de interes local, national sau international. Acesta poate fi promovat si online, prin transpunerea sa in format digital. Patrimoniul construit, ca produs social si cultural, va trebui sa se impace astfel cu societatea virtuala si comunitatile sale. In aceste conditii, prezentul articol exploreaza modul in care patrimoniul construit poate fi prezervat si accesat prin exploatarea realitatii virtuale si a noilor tehnologii
Clusters and smart cities as innovative partnerships for economic growth and new jobs in Romania
Clusters play an important role in driving competitiveness, innovation and jobs creation in the EU. All clusters are unique, differing in scope, number of SMEs, composition, size, trajectories of development and adjustment to external circumstances. The cluster policy in Romania was launched in 2009 as component of the industrial policy. Clusters have emerged naturally and “bottom?up” from the regional level being mainly industry driven ones. Today, in Romania there are 92 regional clusters and poles of competitiveness out of which 70 were benchmarked by CLUSTERO? Romanian Clusters Association founded in July 2011. Romania has 10 clusters with silver label and 32 clusters with bronze label based on a benchmarking exercise lead by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis. Cooperation, innovation and internationalization are the main challenges for the Romanian clusters. Clustering and smart cities are team activities and need a common approach in the regional innovation system. Clusters and smart cities are well aligned with the modern approach of “Open innovation” which depends on the strong interaction between RDI entities, the dynamic entrepreneurship, public administration and the civil society. The paper is focused on clusters as innovative partnerships for the smart cities of the Romanian regions
Rolul economiei circulare in dezvoltarea orasului inteligent
Unul din obiectivele UE 2050, urmareste sa isi reduca emisiile in mod semnificativ (reducerea emisiilor cu 80% pana in 2050, fata de nivelul din 1990). Ca urmare, in perspectiva unei dezvoltari ecologice si a imbunatatirii conditiilor de viata ale cetatenilor sai, municipalitatile vor avea in vedere achizitionarea unor solutii smart, menite a elimina utilizarea combustibililor fosili in favoarea imbunatatirii climatului si a reducerii noxele. Prezentul studiu isi propune realizarea unei analize empirice asupra beneficiilor ce pot fi aduse prin implementarea principiilor unei economii circulare atunci cand se doreste modernizarea infrastructurii specifice unui oras inteligent. Trecerea la o economie circulara, foarte eficienta din punct de vedere energetic, cu emisii scazute de dioxid de carbon, va stimula economia, va crea locuri de munca si va consolida competitivitatea Europei. Altfel, pe masura ce numarul populatiei va creste, iar economiile se vor baza tot mai mult pe consumul de resurse pentru a?si satisface cererea de energie, apa si alimente, comunitatile se vor confrunta cu o presiune enorma pentru a identifica noi resurse si a gestiona deseurile rezultate (inclusiv emisiile). Pana in prezent au fost intreprinse o serie de studii in cadrul carora a fost analizat conceptul de economie circulara, concept asociat in anumite lucrari cu notiunile de dezvoltare durabila, sau economie ecologica, sau gandire bazata pe ciclul de viata, etc. Indiferent de termenul utilizat, concluzia a fost unanima si anume faptul ca reprezinta o alternativa atractiva si viabila pentru orasele inteligente. Articolul se adreseaza deopotriva mediului universitar, academic, cat mai ales reprezentantilor municipalitatilor, factorilor cu putere de decizie in realizarea investitiilor inteligente, prin ilustrare obiectivelor Uniunii Europene in domeniu, coroborat cu instrumentele financiare puse la dispozitie de acestea si cu particularitatile acelor proceduri de achizitie publica care contribuie la luarea unei decizii mai echilibrate in vederea maximizarii beneficiilor aduse comunitatii