Volume 22 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Demographic changes that currently affect the planet are not fully new, they have continued throughout history, managing to influence geographical areas and making changes to individuals’ lifestyle. The phenomenon of international migration has become a topical issue in 2015 with the increasing number of asylum seekers on the territory of the European Union. This special event raised new questions about the socio-economic evolution of the European continent, with problems being signaled both from the perspective of newcomers and permanent residents of this space. The main task that the political authorities of the member states of the community block have over the next years is to identify a solution through which to achieve appropriate and long-term integration of newcomers, many of them belonging to different cultures of the majority population.

The fixed point theory is essential to various theoretical and applied fields, such as variational and linear inequalities, the approximation theory, nonlinear analysis, integral and differential equations and inclusions, the dynamic systems theory, mathematics of fractals, mathematical economics (game theory, equilibrium problems, and optimisation problems) and mathematical modelling. This paper presents a few benchmarks regarding the applications of the fixed point theory. This paper also debates if the results of the fixed point theory can be applied to the mathematical modelling of quality.

This article is analyzing the meanings of the micro-learning trend, as they have emerged and developed over the last few years. Exploring how the term micro-learning is used to organize and order a set of pedagogical and technological phenomena and concepts in new and interesting ways, it is brought into focus the most popular and widely used learning management platforms that embrace this concept.

The integrated approach to current security issues requires the study of human society by adopting the principle of sustainability for policies to be developed and applied according to economic, social and environmental impacts. The internationalization of economies raises a number of requirements for the application of this principle not only in domestic policies but also in external cooperation relations. Sustainability is thus a catalyst for internal and external political decisions, economic actions and public opinion to promote both new structural, institutional reforms and changes in production and consumption behaviours. The energy resources have permanently and overwhelmingly influenced the evolution of human society and its economic development, representing both a reason for cooperation and confrontation and disputes among the actors of the international system, while also shaping the economy, security, foreign policy and states priorities.

Regulating documents of the Bulgarian Army considered norms for support classic combat operations and in fact Bulgarian Army has no planning methods to be used for planning of humanitarian operations. Solving this problem can be achieved through the use of planning factors. Planning factors are generally based on experience or data on the use of resources from previous operations. The participation of units of the Bulgarian Army in humanitarian operations have failed to bring to the accumulation of data needed to create a suitable planning factors. The purpose of the study is to develop a model by which to bring out planning factors in determining the the consumption of machinery, tableware, fuel, oils and lubricants with the participation of units from the Bulgarian Army in humanitarian operations.

Education has to constantly adapt and renew itself in order to be compatible with the technology-dominated world we live in. There has been heated debate over the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) in the educational process. The ICT, especially in foreign language teaching, has become the researchers’ focus of attention in the last two decades. Today’s armed forces require highly-skilled military personnel to be digitally literate and to have well-developed cultural awareness, intercultural communication ability and critical thinking competence. In this context, foreign language classes in the military higher education system should become an environment in which language, culture and civilisation encounters may be facilitated and enhanced by ICT, promoting the acquisition of knowledge and skills demanded by the exercise of roles that the armed forces have in the international theatres of operations. This paper aims at examining the necessity of introducing ICT in foreign language teaching, pointing to the numerous advantages of using these new technologies. The paper also discusses the new role and skills of the teacher in the context of exploiting the various resources provided by the ICT. In addition, we mention some of the modalities in which ICT can be put to good use in developing the cadets’ foreign language skills.

The importance of sports activities nowadays is showing their effects on the future development of children, extracurricular activities come in the help of the physical education teacher with benefits on children's development. Our study focuses on revealing the importance of extracurricular sports activities in the process of children's socialization and integration. The research sample was formed from two different groups, the experimental group was formed by 25 students (age 10 ± 2.1 years, 13 boys, and 12 girls), that practiced 2 hours a week physical education and other 2 hours a week extracurricular activities like basketball and volleyball; and the sample group formed by 24 students (age 10 ± 1.8 years, 12 boys and 12 girls), that practiced 2 hours a week classic physical education. The results showed us that extracurricular activities have a good impact on children's socialization and integration, the experimental group improved their coefficient of group cohesion from 0.04 at the initial testing to 0.06 at the final test, and the index of cohesion from 0.02 at the initial test to 0.05 at the final testing. Significant differences were found within the experimental group both in the initial and in the final tests (p < 0.05), also significant differences were discovered between the experimental and the sample group in the final measurement (p < 0.05). Conclusions of this research presented that the experimental group had good improvements of cohesion and social integration of children, showing that extracurricular sport activities have a positive impact on improving socialization, developing cohesion and integrate the marginalized children in the social group.

Vehicles’ breaking system is one of the basic elements that lead to the maintenance of technical and road safety during transport activities on public roads or other special conditions. Therefore, particular attention is paid to all maintenance work planned or occasionally carried out on such system, as a high coefficient of vehicles availability results in an increased percentage of their productivity. Of course, there is diagnosis equipment for each element, and the brake booths within MOT centres accurately indicate the values of the measured parameters, following repair, adjustment and control operations for troubleshooting. Still, there are certain cases requesting the check of breaking system either analytically or by field experiments, i.e. when vehicles are driven on rough and rugged ground, during military specific missions and activities, where their performance no longer allows specialized equipment or when such equipment does not exist. This works presents alternatives to determine the technical condition of the braking system by means of typical solutions for the general diagnosis type.