Suchergebnisse

In the year 2015 the European Union has reached the halfway of implementation of Europe 2020 strategy, which is aimed at forming the conditions for sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. In this context the aim of the paper is to analyze the level of fulfillment its aims with special concentration on diversity between New Member States that joined European Union in 2004 and 2007 (EU-10) and Old European Union Members (EU-15). The empirical part of the paper is based on the taxonomic research with application of zero-unitarization method. In order to make the dynamic analysis for the years 2004-2013 the constant reference point for the whole period was used. The evaluation was based on the Eurostat Europe 2020 indicators. The analysis showed significant diversity between New and Old Member States. However, in the years 2004-2013 EU-10 had made an important progress in the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy.

In the year 2015 the European Union reaches the five year period of Europe 2020 strategy implementation. Thus, the aim of the research is to group the European countries based on the level of fulfillment aims of the strategy with the application of natural breaks method. Special consideration was given to the results of New Member States of European Union. As a result in the first part of empirical research a ranking of EU countries with application of zero unitarization method for the year 2004, 2008 and 2013 was made. Based on the rankings the countries were grouped in five classes with natural breaks method. The analysis showed that in spite of economic difficulties in Europe after global financial crisis, from the year 2004 till the year 2013 New Member States had made an important progress in the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy.

In the year 2015 the European Union has reached the halfway of implementation of Europe 2020 strategy, which is aimed at forming the conditions for sustainable and inclusive economy delivering high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. In this context the aim of the paper is to analyze the level of fulfillment its aims with special concentration on diversity between New Member States that joined European Union in 2004 and 2007 (EU-10) and Old European Union Members (EU-15). The empirical part of the paper is based on the taxonomic research with application of zero-unitarization method. In order to make the dynamic analysis for the years 2004-2013 the constant reference point for the whole period was used. The evaluation was based on the Eurostat Europe 2020 indicators. The analysis showed significant diversity between New and Old Member States. However, in the years 2004-2013 EU-10 had made an important progress in the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy.

In the year 2015 the European Union reaches the five year period of Europe 2020 strategy implementation. Thus, the aim of the research is to group the European countries based on the level of fulfillment aims of the strategy with the application of natural breaks method. Special consideration was given to the results of New Member States of European Union. As a result in the first part of empirical research a ranking of EU countries with application of zero unitarization method for the year 2004, 2008 and 2013 was made. Based on the rankings the countries were grouped in five classes with natural breaks method. The analysis showed that in spite of economic difficulties in Europe after global financial crisis, from the year 2004 till the year 2013 New Member States had made an important progress in the implementation of Europe 2020 strategy.

The article deals with differentiation of living standard of population in the European Union countries. The study was based on the data collected by the Central Statistical Office of Poland, the Statistical Office of the EU and the OECD. In order to estimate level of living methods of multivariate statistical analysis were applied. On the basis of the synthetic variable, created during the study, a ranking of countries was constructed.

The aim of the paper is to present the level of technical equipment of Polish agriculture in voivodship arrangement. The research was based on the data collected in Agricultural Census 2010. Multicriterial estimate of technical equipment of farms in particular voivodships was used. The normalization of diagnostic features was carried out by the zero unitarization method. Then values of synthetic variable were calculated for each voivodship. Finally, ranking of voivodships with respect to the level of the phenomenon under investigation was constructed. Voivodships were divided into three groups: of high, moderate and low level of technical equipment of farms. The group of high level of farm equipment included 7 voivodships, the group of moderate level contained 5 voivodships and the last group – of low level of farm equipment consisted of only 4 voivodships.

Purpose: The subject of interest in the work is social goals, the importance of which was increased in relation to the previously binding Lisbon Strategy when it turned out that they were too underdeveloped in it. The main aim of the paper is to assess the implementation of the social goals of the Europe 2020 strategy by the EU Member States in the period 2010-2019, i.e. a year before its expiry, as well as to compare the results achieved by them. Design/Methodology/Approach: The article proposes an effective and easy-to-use measure of ranking and monitoring member states in terms of their results using a procedure based on the taxonomic research with application of zero-unitarization method (min-max normalization). This method allows the integration of 10 indicators - 7 main statistical indicators provided for this purpose and 3 additionally selected by the authors - which is an extension of the previously used set of variables serving this purpose. Findings: The obtained results allow not only to assess the implementation of the social goals of Strategy 2020, but also to use the knowledge gained on this subject when planning future strategic goals and their indicators. Practical Implications: The practical advantage of the analytical method used in the article is not only the possibility of using taxonomic research using the zero unitarization method to evaluate individual objects in terms of the implementation of multidimensional goals, but also obtaining additional information about the internal structure and characteristics of this implementation. Originality/value: The added value of the applied research method, apart from the aforementioned extension of the set of variables, is the fact that the level of achieving the social goal of each object is assessed on the basis of the results obtained in each group of indicators taken into account for this purpose. It is also worth emphasizing that this work focuses solely on the implementation of social goals, while other researchers deal with the synthetic (general) evaluation of the Strategy. ; peer-reviewed

Zero valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) have already proven their efficacy in the reductive disposal of a wide array of environmental contaminants in numerous laboratory and field trials. However, their large-scale application in remediation applications is hindered by the high costs and the legislative issues associated with the conventional nZVI synthesis method that relies on NaBH4 as a reducing agent. The two common strategies to replace sodium borohydride are (i) totally ?green? nZVI syntheses based on plant extracts, and (ii) ?semi-green? nZVI synthesis based on less toxic and more cost-effective industrial chemical reducing agents. In this paper we present a comparative evaluation of green and semi-green synthesis methods. The former utilized coffee, green tea and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) leave extracts, the latters were based on sodium dithionite and sodium borohydride. nZVI synthesis was done in untreated tap water at room temperature to reduce the environmental footprint of the process. nZVI performance was assessed on the basis of time-dependent oxidation/reduction potential measurements and also by the reductive dehalogenation of volatile chlorinated organics in groundwater samples from an actual field test.

Overall quality of human capital of a country is currently considered as one of the most important determinant of competitive position of economy. As a result the differences in that factor influence economic potential of a country. In order to form effective public policies and propose some strategies for improving this factor one needs to point some leaders in the field to learn from them and to know the countries whose mistakes should be avoided. Thus the subject of the article is to assess the differences in quality of human capital in European Union countries. Due to the fact that the quality of human capital is considered as ambiguous and multi-definable phenomena, some tools of statistical multivariate analysis were applied in the research. In this case, zero unitarization method was used. The statistical material needed to complete the study was obtained from a Eurostat database.

The paper presents a new method for solving the 0–1 linear programming problems (LPs). The general 0–1 LPs are believed to be NP-hard and a consistent, efficient general-purpose algorithm for these models has not been found so far. Cutting planes and branch and bound approaches were the earliest exact methods for the 0–1 LP. Unfortunately, these methods on their own failed to solve the 0–1 LP model consistently and efficiently. The hybrids that are a combination of heuristics, cuts, branch and bound and pricing have been used successfully for some 0–1 models. The main challenge with these hybrids is that these hybrids cannot completely eliminate the threat of combinatorial explosion for very large practical 0–1 LPs. In this paper, a technique to reduce the complexity of 0–1 LPs is proposed. The given problem is used to generate a simpler version of the problem, which is then solved in stages in such a way that the solution obtained is tested for feasibility and improved at every stage until an optimal solution is found. The new problem generated has a coefficient matrix of 0 s and 1 s only. From this study, it can be concluded that for every 0–1 LP with a feasible optimal solution, there exists another 0–1 LP (called a double in this paper) with exactly the same optimal solution but different constraints. The constraints of the double are made up of only 0 s and 1 s. It is not easy to determine this double 0–1 LP by mere inspection but can be obtained in stages as given in the numerical illustration presented in this paper. The 0–1 integer programming models have applications in so many areas of business. These include large economic/financial models, marketing strategy models, production scheduling and labor force planning models, computer design and networking models, military operations, agriculture, wild fire fighting, vehicle routing and health care and medical models