A nação é católica: educação e cidadania nas primeiras décadas republicanas (1890 a 1930)

Pós-graduação em História - FCHS

Characterization and optimization of levan production by Bacillus subtilis NATTO

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Health related quality of life measure in systemic pediatric rheumatic diseases and its translation to different languages: an international collaboration

Background: Rheumatic diseases in children are associated with significant morbidity and poor health-related quality of life (HRQOL). There is no health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scale available specifically for children with less common rheumatic diseases. These diseases share several features with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) such as their chronic episodic nature, multi-systemic involvement, and the need for immunosuppressive medications. HRQOL scale developed for pediatric SLE will likely be applicable to children with systemic inflammatory diseases.Findings: We adapted Simple Measure of Impact of Lupus Erythematosus in Youngsters (SMILEY (c)) to Simple Measure of Impact of Illness in Youngsters (SMILY (c)-Illness) and had it reviewed by pediatric rheumatologists for its appropriateness and cultural suitability. We tested SMILY (c)-Illness in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and then translated it into 28 languages. Nineteen children (79% female, n= 15) and 17 parents participated. The mean age was 12 +/- 4 years, with median disease duration of 21 months (1-172 months). We translated SMILY (c)-Illness into the following 28 languages: Danish, Dutch, French (France), English (UK), German (Germany), German (Austria), German (Switzerland), Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Slovene, Spanish (USA and Puerto Rico), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Argentina), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Venezuela), Turkish, Afrikaans, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Arabic (Egypt), Czech, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Romanian, Serbian and Xhosa.Conclusion: SMILY (c)-Illness is a brief, easy to administer and score HRQOL scale for children with systemic rheumatic diseases. It is suitable for use across different age groups and literacy levels. SMILY (c)-Illness with its available translations may be used as useful adjuncts to clinical practice and research.

Experimental evidence for the sensitivity of the air-shower radio signal to the longitudinal shower development

We observe a correlation between the slope of radio lateral distributions and the mean muon pseudorapidity of 59 individual cosmic-ray-air-shower events. The radio lateral distributions are measured with LOPES, a digital radio interferometer colocated with the multidetector-air-shower array KASCADE-Grande, which includes a muon-tracking detector. The result proves experimentally that radio measurements are sensitive to the longitudinal development of cosmic-ray air showers. This is one of the main prerequisites for using radio arrays for ultra-high-energy particle physics and astrophysics.

DNA - novel nanomaterial for applications in photonics and in electronics

Functionalization with surfactants and with active molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), thin film processing as well as their nonlinear optical and electrical properties are reviewed and discussed. On the basis of a quantum three level model, we show that the anomalous concentration variation of cubic susceptibility chi((3))(-3 omega; omega, omega, omega) in thin films of DNA-CTMA complexes doped with Disperse Red 1 chromophore can be explained by the concentration variation of two-photon resonance contribution. We show also that the DNA complexes, plasticized with glycerol and adequately doped can be processed into self standing conducting membranes with a high electrical conductivity. The measured ionic conductivity at room temperature, depending on dopant used and its concentration, is in the range of 3.5 x 10(-4)-10(-5) S/cm and increases linearly as a function of temperature, reaching 10(-3) S/cm at 358 K for the most conducting sample, obeying predominantly the Arrhenius law. Practical applications of DNA complexes are also described and discussed. (C) 2012 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The spectrum of high-energy cosmic rays measured with KASCADE-Grande

The energy spectrum of cosmic rays between 10(16) eV and 10(18) eV, derived from measurements of the shower size (total number of charged particles) and the total muon number of extensive air showers by the KASCADE-Grande experiment, is described. The resulting all-particle energy spectrum exhibits strong hints for a hardening of the spectrum at approximately 2 . 10(16) eV and a significant steepening at approximate to 8 . 10(16) eV. These observations challenge the view that the spectrum is a single power law between knee and ankle. Possible scenarios generating such features are discussed in terms of astrophysical processes that may explain the transition region from galactic to extragalactic origin of cosmic rays. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

LARGE-SCALE DISTRIBUTION OF ARRIVAL DIRECTIONS OF COSMIC RAYS DETECTED ABOVE 10(18) eV AT THE PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY

A thorough search for large-scale anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays detected above 10(18) eV at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented. This search is performed as a function of both declination and right ascension in several energy ranges above 10(18) eV, and reported in terms of dipolar and quadrupolar coefficients. Within the systematic uncertainties, no significant deviation from isotropy is revealed. Assuming that any cosmic-ray anisotropy is dominated by dipole and quadrupole moments in this energy range, upper limits on their amplitudes are derived. These upper limits allow us to test the origin of cosmic rays above 10(18) eV from stationary Galactic sources densely distributed in the Galactic disk and predominantly emitting light particles in all directions.

Minori rumeni tra percorsi migratori e rappresentazioni. Nè soli, nè accompagnati a Bologna

The thesis deals with the heterogenous category of the “unaccompanied minors”, concentrating the scientific work on those who migrate from Romania to the Italian city of Bologna. Between different migratory routes that include Romanian minors, I chose to explore the ones linked with the underground and illegal contexts. In order to analyse the reasons and the morphology of their migratory career, I used the multisituated field research which allowed me to consider the social policies in both the Romanian and the Italian environment. The main debate on the situation of the “unaccompanied children” refers to the extent to which these minors leave their country of origin “accompanied” by different adult figures and it also involves the role played by these adults. The first chapter is dedicated to a brief theoretical and methodological introduction to the main arguments of the thesis such as Romanian migration to Italy, trafficking in human beings, transnationality of migrant’s migration and decentered cooperation as a means of contrasting illegal migration and trafficking. Each field of research is characterized by a specific methodological approach, but they are all linked by the anthropological perspective I adopted throughout the entire work. The Romanian context, analized from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective represents the object of the second chapter. Some aspects of the Regime policies and other characteristics of the Romanian poscomunist period of “transition” are useful frameworks that become a background of the migration flows outside the country. The third chapter focuses on the Romanian patterns of migration. The reconstruction of some past attitudes that Romanians adopted towards migration are relevant in order to reveal the continuity with the present migratory practices. A consistent part is dedicated to a concrete example based on a field research in Bologna on a group of Romanian roma migrating from the south of Romania. The contact with these persons opened a debate on the limits between legal and illegal migration practices among the Romanians. The conclusion is that minors’ migration to Italy follows the adult patterns and flows. The nucleus of the field researches is included in the fourth and the fifth chapter. Before presenting the settings and the itineraries of the field researches, some deconstructive reflections are made on the representations that common sense and social sciences create on concepts as “child”, “minor” and “childhood”. A first perspective on the Romanian migrant minors emerges from a research concentrated on a group of roma teenagers engaged in Bologna in activities like windscreen washing, pocket-picking, begging and street prostitution. The aim of the research was to gain access to their daily life, to observe their relationship with the adults who “accompany” them and the strategies they activate in order to take some material profit out of their migratory experience. A parallel field research focuses on the Romanian minors who are part of the roma group coming from the south of Romania. Most of them are reunited with their family in Bologna, but according to the Italian law, they are all living as illegal migrants. Others are only temporary sheltered by these families and they meanwhile dedicate to illegal survviving practices. An interesting point of my participant observation was to reveal the motivations that these minors give when asked about the refusal to start a legal career inside the local Centres dedicated to the “non accompanied minors”. Their autoreflexivity brings some light on the controversy regarding the adequacy of the local and national care system and the migratory projects the minors have. In this respect, a small part of the research is dedicated to the phenomena of minors’ street prostitution in Bologna, as a useful contribution to the fragmented vision researchers have on the “unaccompanied” or “separated” children. The last chapter focuses on a decentered cooperation project that emerged as an alternative response the local administration from Bologna had chosen for facing the presence of numerous migrants coming from the south of Romania. The group of Romanian roma who was also the object of my field research became the starting point for the cooperation proposals between the city of Bologna and the city of Craiova. Although there are three projects involving the two administrations, throughout a period of stage in the Romanian city of Craiova I chose to analyse, only the one dedicated to the “urgent measures” requested in order to contrast the illegal migration and the trafficking in minors. This final part of the thesis highlightens the possible contribution that such a project might bring to the study of a complex and in some parts contradictory phenomena as that of the “unaccompanied” migrant minors.

Development discourse in Romania: from Socialism to EU Membership

With their accession to the European Union, twelve new countries - Romania among them - (re)entered the international community of international donors. In the history of development aid this can be seen as a unique event: it is for the first time in history that such a large number of countries become international donors, with such short notice and in such a particular context that sees some scholars announcing the ‘death’ of development. But in spite of what might be claimed regarding the ‘end’ of the development era, development discourse seems to be rather vigorous and in good health: it is able to extert an undeniable force of attraction over the twelve countries that, in a matter of years, have already convinced themselves of its validity and adhered to its main tenets. This thesis collects evidence for improving our understanding of this process that sees the co-optation of twelve new countries to the dominant theory and practice of development cooperation. The evidence collected seems to show that one of the tools employed by the promoters of this co-optation process is that of constructing the ‘new’ Member States as ‘new’, inexpert donors that need to learn from the ‘old’ ones. By taking a case-study approach, this thesis gathers data that suggests that conceiving of the ‘twelve’ as ‘new’ donors is both historically inaccurate and value-ladden. On one hand, Romania’s case-study illustrates how in the (socialist) past at least one in the group of the twelve was particularly conversant in the discourse of international development. On the other hand, the process of co-optation, while being presented as a knowledgeproducing process, can also be seen as an ignorance-producing procedure: Romania, along with its fellow new Member States, takes the opportunity of ‘building its capacity’ and ‘raising its awareness’ of development cooperation along the line drawn by the European Union, but at the same time it seems to un-learn and ‘lower’ its awareness of development experience in the (socialist) past. This is one possible reading of this thesis. At a different level, this thesis can also be seen as an attempt to account of almost five decades of international development discourse in one specific country – Romania – in three different socio-political contexts: the socialist years (up to the year 1989), the ‘transition years’ (from 1989 to the pre-accession years) and the membership to the European Union. In this second reading, the thesis seeks to illustrate how – contrary to widespread beliefs – before 1989 Romania’s international development discourse was particularly vivid: in the most varied national and international settings President Ceausescu unfolded an extensive discursive activity on issues pertaining to international development; generous media coverage of affairs concerning the developing countries and their fight for development was the rule rather than the exception; the political leadership wanted the Romanians not only to be familiarized with (or ‘aware of’ to use current terminology) matters of underdevelopment, but also to prove a sense of solidarity with these countries, as well as a sense of pride for the relations of ‘mutual help’ that were being built with them; finally, international development was object of academic attention and the Romanian scholars were able not only to reflect on major developments, but could also formulate critical positions towards the practices of development aid. Very little remains of all this during the transition years, while in the present those who are engaged in matters pertaining to international development do so with a view of building Romania as an EU-compliant donor.

The Effect of Preservative Interventions on the Chemical- Physical and Structural Characteristics of Panel Painting

This work studies the impact of two traditional Romanian treatments, Red Petroleum and Propolis, in terms of real efficiency and consequence on the wooden artifacts. The application of these solutions is still a widely adopted and popular technique in preservative conservation but the impact of these solutions is not well known. It is important to know the effect of treatments on chemical-physical and structural characteristics of the artifacts, not only for understanding the influence on present conditions but also for foreseeing the future behavior. These treatments with Romanian traditional products are compared with a commercial antifungal product, Biotin R, which is utilized as reference to control the effectiveness of Red Petroleum and Propolis. Red Petroleum and Propolis are not active against mould while Biotin R is very active. Mould attack is mostly concentrated in the painted layer, where the tempera, containing glue and egg, enhance nutrition availability for moulds. Biotin R, even if is not a real insecticide but a fungicide, was the most active product against insect attack of the three products, followed by Red Petroleum, Propolis and untreated reference. As for colour, it did not change so much after the application of Red Petroleum and Biotin R and the colour difference was almost not perceptible. On the contrary, Propolis affected the colour a lot. During the exposure at different RH, the colour changes significantly at 100% RH at equilibrium and this is mainly due to the mould attack. Red Petroleum penetrates deeply into wood, while Propolis does not penetrate and remains only on the surface. However, Red Petroleum does not interact chemically with wood substance and it is easy volatilized in oven-dry condition. On the contrary Propolis interacts chemically with wood substance and hardly volatilized, even in oven-dry condition and consequently Propolis remains where it penetrated, mostly on the surface. Treatment by immersion has impact on wood physical parameters while treatment by brushing does not have significant impact. Especially Red Petroleum has an apparent impact on moisture content (MC) due to the penetration of solution, while Propolis does not penetrate so much and remains only on surface therefore Propolis does not have so much impact as Red Petroleum. However, if the weight of the solution penetrated in wood is eliminated, there is not significant difference in MC between treated and untreated samples. Considering physical parameters, dimensional stability is an important parameter. The variation of wood moisture content causes shrinkages/swelling of the wood that polychrome layer can only partially follow. The dimension of wooden supports varied under different moisture conditioning; the painted layer cannot completely follow this deformation, and consequently a degradation and deterioration caused by detachment, occurs. That detachment affects the polychrome stratification of the panel painting and eventually the connections between the different layer compositions of the panel painting.

L'invention de l'Orthodoxie. Religion et Modernité dans le discours nationaliste roumain du XIX-ème et du XX-ème siècles

Our thesis entitled The Invention of Orthodoxy. Religion and Modernity in Romanian nationalist discourse from the XIXth to the XXth century is intended to be a history of the idea of “Romanianess” which brings together, in a structural as well as in a conceptual dimension, three major themes: Romanian Orthodoxy, Modernity and the Political. Having as premise for the study of the Romanian case the simultaneous genesis of the religious and political communities, from the Middle Ages to Modernity, the purpose of our inquiry is to formulate a theologico-political definition of ‘’Romanian Orthodoxy’’. Thus, within a main theoretical framework that values the contributions of Carl Schmitt, Michel Foucault and Reinhart Koselleck, our analysis of selected texts that go from the 1860’s to the 1940’s tries to answer the question regarding the relationship between Romanian Orthodoxy and Modernity, as well as its reflection upon the political identity and organisation of the Romanian society. Considering the political context of the events that underline our conceptual focus, we consider that the proper answer to our investigation lies within the logic of multiplicity; namely, we refer to a plural Romania which is divided, at the beginning of the XXth century, between Traditionalism and Modernity, between a massive rural, agrarian society and an urban minority elite, striving to single out, in an phenomenological approach, the “Romanian way”. Secondly, we refer to a plural Modernity, which is at the same time social, cultural, religious and political. Thirdly, the logic of multiplicity applies as well in the interpretation of the fractures present within the religious nationalist discourse; namely, the rejection of Orthodoxy during the XIXth century, as it was considered an impediment in Romania’s path to adopting western modernity and later on, starting with the 1930, the restoration of the “Orthodox ethos” as a source of cultural and political values of the Romanian nation.

Bridging innovation, nature and tradition: assessment of strategies for rural tourism development in Maramureş (Romania)

In the frame of EU rural policy, always more oriented towards environmental concerns and green livelihoods, Romania stands out for the predominance of rural areas and high nature value farming. The country has to face the challenge of joining the modernization process of rural farming systems with the valorization of local assets. Tourism has emerged as one of the main drivers of change and contributors for a sustainable exploitation of local resources. Rural tourism (RT) can foster the enhancement of the territorial capital (TC), the preservation of public goods (PGs) and the promotion of a more environmental oriented livelihood. The research focuses on a case study area, two valleys from Maramureş, where environmental approaches as diversification strategies are partially explored. The work investigates the role of tourism initiatives for the promotion of green oriented practices. The first part of the work is based on a literature review and interdisciplinary analysis of secondary data to identify the key issues: from rural development policy, to the concept of TC, of PGs and RT. The Romanian development programmes and related strategies are investigated; afterwards the characteristics of the County and the role of RT as diversification and valorisation policies is considered. The second part is based on the collection of primary data through interviews to different local stakeholders (farmers owners of rural guesthouses, local administrators, networks and artisans). The main frequencies are analyzed, a cluster analysis is computed to evaluate the similarities within the most representative groups and a comparative analysis is carried out between the two Valleys. The frame of the analysis is based on a set of indicators following the dimensions of the TC, to assess the characteristics of the local stakeholders and to outline the perception about the local PGs and on the adopted strategies to manage the territory. Final considerations are elaborated and few scenarios are outlined, giving relevance to the importance of improving awareness and creating embeddedness among public-private local stakeholders and resources as a tool for a socio-economic and environmental development of the area.

Seismic tomographic full-waveform inversion for the Vrancea sinking lithosphere structure using the adjoint method.

The Vrancea region, at the south-eastern bend of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, represents one of the most puzzling seismically active zones of Europe. Beside some shallow seismicity spread across the whole Romanian territory, Vrancea is the place of an intense seismicity with the presence of a cluster of intermediate-depth foci placed in a narrow nearly vertical volume. Although large-scale mantle seismic tomographic studies have revealed the presence of a narrow, almost vertical, high-velocity body in the upper mantle, the nature and the geodynamic of this deep intra-continental seismicity is still questioned. High-resolution seismic tomography could help to reveal more details in the subcrustal structure of Vrancea. Recent developments in computational seismology as well as the availability of parallel computing now allow to potentially retrieve more information out of seismic waveforms and to reach such high-resolution models. This study was aimed to evaluate the application of a full waveform inversion tomography at regional scale for the Vrancea lithosphere using data from the 1999 six months temporary local network CALIXTO. Starting from a detailed 3D Vp, Vs and density model, built on classical travel-time tomography together with gravity data, I evaluated the improvements obtained with the full waveform inversion approach. The latter proved to be highly problem dependent and highly computational expensive. The model retrieved after the first two iterations does not show large variations with respect to the initial model but remains in agreement with previous tomographic models. It presents a well-defined downgoing slab shape high velocity anomaly, composed of a N-S horizontal anomaly in the depths between 40 and 70km linked to a nearly vertical NE-SW anomaly from 70 to 180km.

A Comparative Study of Central and Eastern European Social Policy Concernig Mental Disability

The main goal of this project was to identity whether an imported system of social policy can be suitable for a host country, and if not why not. Romanian social policy concerning the mentally disabled represents a paradoxical situation in that while social policy is designed to ensure both an institutional structure and a juridical environment, in practice it is far from successful. The central question which Ms. Ciumageanu asked therefore was whether this failure was due to systemic factors, or whether the problem lay in reworking an imported social policy system to meet local needs. She took a comparative approach, also considering both the Scandinavian model of social policy, particularly the Danish model which has been adopted in Romania, and the Hungarian system, which has inherited a similar universal welfare system and perpetuated it to some extent. In order to verify her hypothesis, she also studied the transformation of the welfare system in Great Britain, which meant a shift from state responsibility towards community care. In all these she concentrated on two major aspects: the structural design within the different countries and, at a micro level, the societal response. Following her analyses of the various in the other countries concerned, Ms. Ciumageanu concluded that the major differences lie first in the difference between the stages of policy design. Here Denmark is the most advanced and Romania the most backwards. Denmark has a fairly elaborate infrastructure, Britain a system with may gaps to bridge, and Hungary and Romania are struggling with severe difficulties owing both to the inherited structure and the limits imposed by an inadequate GDP. While in Denmark and Britain, mental patients are integrated into an elaborate system of care, designed and administered by the state (in Denmark) or communities (in Britain), in Hungary and Romania, the state designs and fails to implement the policy and community support is minimal, partly due to the lack of a fully developed civil society. At the micro level the differences are similar. While in Denmark and Britain there is a consensus about the roles of the state and of civil societies (although at different levels in the two countries, with the state being more supportive in Denmark), in Romania and to a considerable extent in Hungary, civil society tends to expect too much from the state, which in its turn is withdrawing faster from its social roles than from its economic ones, generating a gap between the welfare state and the market economy and disadvantaging the expected transition from a welfare state to a welfare society and, implicitly, the societal response towards those mentally disabled persons in it. On an intermediate level, the factors influencing social policy as a whole were much the same for Hungary and Romania. Economic factors include the accumulated economic resources of both state and citizens, and the inherited pattern of redistribution, as well as the infrastructure; institutional resources include the role of the state and the efficiency of the state bureaucracy, the strength and efficiency of the state apparatus, political stability and the complexity of political democratisation, the introduction of market institutions, the strength of civil society and civic sector institutions. From the standpoint of the societal response, some factors were common to all countries, particularly the historical context, the collective and institutional memories and established patterns of behaviour. In the specific case of Romania, general structural and environmental factors - industrialisation and forced urbanisation - have had a definite influence on family structure, values and behavioural patterns. The analysis of Romanian social policy revealed several causes for failure to date. The first was the instability of the policy and the failure to consider the structural network involved in developing it, rather than just the results obtained. The second was the failure to take into account the relationship between the individual and the group in all its aspects, followed by the lack of active assistance for prevention, re-socialisation or professional integration of persons with mental disabilities. Finally, the state fails to recognise its inability to support an expensive psychiatric enterprise and does not provide any incentive to the private sector. This creates tremendous social costs for both the state and the individual. NGOs working in the field in Romania have been somewhat more successful but are still limited by their lack of funding and personnel and the idea of a combined system is as yet utopian in the circumstances in the country.