This article presents a comparative analysis and characteristics of the pension insurance systems of foreign countries, namely Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Poland, France with the aim of implementing their effective and noteworthy experience in Ukraine. The key indicators of the characteristics of the pension systems of these countries and Ukraine (amount of insurance contributions to the public pension fund; retirement age; insurance period; the ratio of the average pension to the average wage) have been studied and analyzed. Having examined these indicators, the authors came to the conclusion that the general trend in most countries of the world is that they guarantee only a minimum pension, which is caused by the increase in the share of pensioners in society. To solve the demographic problems affecting pension provision, the most countries increase the retirement age and provide financial incentives to stimulate citizens to work after the retirement age. To increase the pension, there are pension accumulation tools at the expense of the employer or at the expense of one’s own funds. Following the example of foreign countries, the directions for improving the pension insurance system of Ukraine were allocated.

This paper aims to shed light on community-based disaster mitigation and the challenges encountered by using the Pangandaran coast as a case study, one of Indonesia’s disaster-prone areas. Observations, in-depth interviews, and documentation studies were used to collect data. The findings of this study indicate that community-based disaster mitigation is well realized, as evidenced by community early preparedness forums collaborating with the government to provide socialization and education to the community. However, disaster preparedness still faces challenges, including; since some of the mitigation objects are tourists, mitigation efforts need to be carried out sustainably while not following the budget they have; mitigation support devices and facilities such as damaged or missing signs for evacuation routes, temporary shelters, assembly point locations, and Early Warning System (EWS) devices whose number is still not optimal; lack of participation of hotels or restaurants in disaster mitigation, especially in engaging in preventive actions to minimize disaster risk. This situation is a challenge in itself for disaster mitigation management, moreover, Pangandaran Village must maintain its status as a “Tsunami Ready” village.

The transfer of knowledge and the preservation of traditions is passed down from generation to generation. The main objective of this study was to explore people’s knowledge of the gastronomic heritage of the Kisalföld regions through an analysis of the county’s (attendance to, decision-making and willingness to spend on food and beverages) taking place in the county, such as the Flavours of Szigetköz, the County Wines Festival, the Flavours of Rábaköz or Eszterházy Baroque Food Festival at Fertőd. A quantitative research was used to analyse the topic (N = 666), the sample is not representative and the selection of respondents was random. Data were collected between 1 September 2023 and 31 October 2023 using electronic questionnaires shared on Google Drive. Data were processed using SPSS 25.0 and MS Office Excel in addition to the descriptive statistical data (modus, median, standard deviation), correlation, and crosstabulation analyses. Important research questions of the study were whether the respondents’ place of respondents influences gastronomic awareness whether age determines willingness to travel to attend a gastronomy event, The most popular gastronomic event in the county was the Vegetables of Hanság Region (mean 3.35), and the least popular was the Szigetköz Flavours of Szigetköz festival (mean 3.01). The key finding of the study is that an essential aspect of sustainability for decision-makers is to know the characteristics of tourists (middle-aged female target group), to select and maximize the different program packages in the marketing of the offer, to distribute the traffic and to avoid mass tourism.

Four alloys based on niobium and containing about 33wt.%Cr, 0.4wt.C and, in atomic content equivalent to the carbon one, Ta, Ti, Hf or Zr, were elaborated by classical foundry under inert atmosphere. Their as-cast microstructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, energy dispersion spectrometry and while their room temperature hardness was specified by Vickers indentation. The microstructures are in the four cases composed of a dendritic Nb-based solid solution and of an interdendritic NbCr₂ Laves phase. Despite the MC-former behavior of Ta, Ti, Hf and Zr usually observed in nickel or cobalt-based alloys, none of the four alloys contain MC carbides. Carbon is essentially visible as graphite flakes. These alloys are brittle at room temperature and hard to machine. Indentation shows that the Vickers hardness is very high, close to 1000HV_10kg. Indentation lead to crack propagation through the niobium phase and the Laves areas. Obviously no niobium-based alloys microstructurally similar to high performance MC-strengthened nickel-based and cobalt-based can be expected. However the high temperature mechanical and chemical properties of these alloys remain to be investigated.