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This paper examines the debates around the "miracle of Maglavit", a shepherd's vision of God that took place in 1935 in Romania and attracted much contemporary popular and intellectual interest. The debates drew in arguments from doctors and theologians, who discussed the psychology of divine revelation and tried to elaborate the implications that such an event could have for the life of the Romanian nation. The paper places these debates in the context of wider contemporary discussions about psychology and religion. I argue that what Maglavit shows is that, in Romania at least, public debates about visionary experience in the 1930s were not only debates about its psychology, but of a psychology thoroughly imbricated with political concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal motivation is a key factor in the service of foster care, impending both on the welfare of the child and on the satisfaction of the carer. This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years. The principal hypothesis concerns whether the benefits, challenges and dilemmas identified by foster carers are influenced by the factors that led to their taking up this kind of work. Quantitative research was conducted using a questionnaire as the main tool. The paper takes a descriptive, cross-sectional and multifactorial approach. Sampling was carried out by self-selecting method, and the study involved 51 participants. The research project identified a statistically significant variation in the challenges and dilemmas reported by foster carers. Thus, the results of the study show that the majority of the carers indicate a primarily intrinsic motivation for their work. By way of conclusion, it is argued that social workers, operating in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, can offer carers support in managing more difficult periods in the child–carer relationship, thus enhancing the sustainability of the foster care service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The topic of this paper is to investigate whether a solar signal can be identified in the variation of climatic parameters at regional scale. This was done using eight climate parameters recorded in Romania during 1961–2013 which corresponds with four cycles of solar activity. The methodology is based on trend, composite and wavelet analysis. A weak solar influence with a clear spatial pattern was identified, especially during the cold season, on temperature and cloud cover. During the warm season, the influence seems to be spurious. A clear difference between the north-eastern Romania and the rest of the country was found in the response of local climate to solar trigger. The mountain chain induces persistent disparities in the distribution of the most parameters, which supports the fact that orography is an important feature to be considered when analysing solar imprint at regional scale. Possible mechanisms for the solar influence on climate at regional and local scale are proposed. Highlights • Solar imprint on 8 climate parameters on the regional of Romania is explored. • Possible mechanisms for the solar influence on climate at regional scale are proposed. • Higher temperature during high sun in northeastern Romania are observed. • The influence of solar activity on climate parameters is higher during the cold season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Romania, older people are more interested in politics than the younger generation. For them, talking about politics is a leisure activity; it is simply recreational for them to exchange opinions as they can easily integrate into any group. Old people are equally interested in the elections and the voting process, participating in a significant number at the elections. Thus, our paper tries to analyse the way seniors get information about politics in general and about the elections in particular, by comparing the communist system with the democratic one. During the campaign, politicians are trying to attract as many senior citizens as possible into the electorate, by approaching specific topics of interest to this segment of voters. Our investigation emphasises the way older people perceive the election process as well as their engagement into the process. Based on 10 semi-structured interviews with Romanian people aged between 65 and 75, our paper studies the elderly opinion and the motivation behind their vote with reference to the last presidential elections in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The research attempts to aim to evaluate the perception that different stakeholder groups have of one of the largest and most important Romanian university with respect to its sustainability orientation. The exploratory empirical research reveals some important aspects which must be closely pursued and properly implemented by the management of the university to further develop sustainability strategies. The paper offers a novel approach regarding the way a university can and must focus on different specific measures on sustainability to gain a better position on the educational market, to attract new students and lifelong learning (LLL) programme participants, as well as to become a trend setter for defining and transferring good practices within the society.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected by questionnaires and in-depth-interview guides which were distributed to different stakeholder groups: bachelor (undergraduate) and master’s students versus LLL programme participants coming from different high schools across the country enrolled on a training course organized by the university and high school principals versus staff members of the university holding coordination and/or management positions. The collected data were then analyzed by means of econometric analysis. Data validity, reliability and internal consistency were checked (Cronbach’s α coefficient, “item-to-total” correlation, the KMO criterion (>0.7) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity). With the help of exploratory factor analysis, the way in which different stakeholders value and perceive the specific measures and efforts undertaken by the university has been extracted.Findings Students, LLL participants and members of the university staff perceived the university’s positive orientation towards sustainability and the measures taken in this respect. All stakeholders expressed highly favourable opinions of the university’s dealings with different sustainability aspects, such as its attitude towards its employees, its performance within the higher education market and its establishment of an attractive and innovative educational programme, in compliance with sustainability principles, environmental protection and modern attitudes towards society.Research limitations/implications The research has been conducted on a sample of students of bachelor and master level, belonging to the biggest faculty of the university (as to number of students and staff). In a more comprising study, the focus should also be on bachelor, master and PhD students of the other faculties of the university, as well as on citizens of the community or in general on people from Transylvania and/or Romania. The university under investigation is one of the most important employers of the region. Further dimensions of sustainable development could also be pursued in a future study.Social implications The university shows an orientation towards civil society by means of specific actions and programs. The university supports and takes part in the organization of cultural and artistic events in cooperation with local authorities and other cultural and/or social institutions and organizations. Respondents also refer to some examples of best practices that might be applied by education institutions to educate young people towards developing a proper sustainable mentality.Originality/value There exist almost no comparative empirical studies of sustainability on Romanian universities that take account of the perspectives of students, LLL participants and staff members. The findings have a high potential in developing a proper strategy for the university involved but could also be used by the government if designing a national wide policy regarding this issue. Different authors argue that young people are more conscious about sustainability, organic stuff, environmental protection, green marketing, etc. Taking into consideration the sensitivity of young peoples (students, staff members, etc.), as well as the fact that the university establishes social trends, the idea of studying sustainability in a university could be regarded as a novelty approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature in cultural geography, history, and sociology has discussed the different, constantly shifting, and mutually defining constructions of 'Europe,' 'Eastern Europe,' and more recently the 'New Europe,' focusing mostly on examples from the media, politics, and sometimes the arts. However, the literature has done little to analyze the construction of notions of Europe, and the role they play, in the realm of business. This paper begins to explore the connection between cultural understandings of Europe and investment decisions. Specifically, it follows a group of investors from Italy, showing the 'cultural clashes' they encountered in setting up business operations in Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine. The paper is developed in three steps. First, the relevant cultural and economic geographical literatures are reviewed. Second, the historical progression of Italian investment since the 1990s is discussed in relation to broader economic changes in Italy and the New Europe. Third, investors' changing perceptions of the 'New Europe' are discussed in the framework of the consolidation of Italian investments in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research results we present in this paper reveal that properly calibrated e-learning tools have potential to effectively promote the algorithmic thinking of both science-oriented and humanities-oriented students. After students had watched an illustration (by a folk dance choreography) and an animation of the studied sorting algorithm (bubble sort), they were invited to predict and perform [(1) to reconstruct on the same input; (2) to orchestrate on a random sequence stored in a white array; (3) to orchestrate on a black-box sequence] the entire step sequence of the algorithm (using the interactive visual learning environment we developed). The results of the experiment show that while science-oriented students' performance proved superior to those of their humanities-oriented colleagues, the differences were observed to diminish as both groups advanced with their e-learning tasks. Although drawing general conclusions would be premature, we can conclude that there are no unbridgeable differences in the way these two groups relate to e-learning processes that aim to promote algorithmic thinking. Our findings also emphasize the key importance of some motivational principles in facilitating algorithmic thinking: the principle of moderate and progressive challenge, the principle of gradual shift from concrete to abstract and the principle of genuine active involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cremation in Romania is shaped by several distinctive issues in comparison to Western societies, not least the existence of a single operating crematorium for 20 million inhabitants (in 2011). The most critical problem of the Romanian death system is the lack of available burial places in urban areas, a crisis that could be solved through the acceptance and expansion of cremation as an alternative solution. The goal of this paper is to analyse attitudes towards death in Romania, particularly focusing on the issue of cremation. The main conclusion is that the position of the Romanian Orthodox Church and its influence in Romanian society is the major explanation for the current situation. The lower degree of secularisation in Romanian society compared to other European countries is an important factor in shaping the specificity of Romanian practices in relation to death and cremation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Bullying" is generally considered to be a specific form of aggressive behaviour. The aim of this paper is the investigation of gender and age-related bully and victim incidence in Cluj-Napoca secondary schools. A survey on bullying was completed by 264 students (141 girls and 123 boys; 112 students from grades 5-6 and 152 students from grades 7-8) with an age range between 10 and 14 years old. From the entire sample, results showed that 3.8% of the students bullied others once a week or more during the previous 3 months and 40.5% had been frequently bullied by other students once a week or more often during the previous 3 months. Considering the gender differences, girls showed a bullying behaviour more frequently than boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]