Knowledge and attitudes towards dietary fibers - romania vs other european countries

Aim: The aim of our study was to evaluate the Romanian’s knowledge and attitudes regarding dietary fibers compared with other European countries. Materials and methods: We made a cross-sectional survey (part of multinational project from CI&DETS Research Centre, Instituto Politecnico Viseu, Portugal, with reference PROJ/CI&DETS/2014/0001) based on a questionnaire applied in 2015, over 670 Romanian consumers, focused on the attitudes and knowledge towards ingestion of foods rich in fibers. We used the software SPSS for statistics. Results: Our results showed that the knowledge about dietary fibers and also the ingestion of food products rich in fibers were low. The female participants ate more whole grains and fruits than males and pay more attention to food labelling, the Romanian people prefer to stay and eat home than at restaurants especially in rural areas, and the knowledge about fiber’s benefits was significantly related to high education and urban location. Comparing to other European countries, Romania had the highest level of knowledge about dietary fibers definition followed by Portugal, Turkey and Hungary, but the lowest regarding the fibers importance for health after Macedonia, Turkey and Latvia. Conclusion: We sustain the needs for more efficient community interventions and proper information about the importance of dietary fibers for our health and also for the dissemination of the nutritional standards among Romanian population.

Determinants of Terminal Value in the Evaluation of Companies: A Panel Data Approach to the Context of European Companies.

The uncertainty of the future of a firm has to be modelled and incorporated into the evaluation of companies outside their explicit period of analysis, i.e., in the continuing or terminal value considered within valuation models. However, there is a multiplicity of factors that influence the continuing value of businesses which are not currently being considered within valuation models. In fact, ignoring these factors may cause significant errors of judgment, which can lead models to values of goodwill or badwill, far from the substantial value of the inherent assets. Consequently, these results provided will be markedly different from market values. So, why not consider alternative models incorporating life expectancy of companies, as well as the influence of other attributes of the company in order to get a smoother adjustment between market price and valuation methods? This study aims to provide a contribution towards this area, having as its main objective the analysis of potential determinants of firm value in the long term. Using a sample of 714 listed companies, belonging to 15 European countries, and a panel data for the period between 1992 and 2011, our results show that continuing value cannot be regarded as the current value of a constant or growth perpetuity of a particular attribute of the company, but instead be according to a set of attributes such as free cash flow, net income, the average life expectancy of the company, investment in R&D, capabilities and quality of management, liquidity and financing structure.