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This study presents, based on novel documents, the teaching activity carried out in Dobrogea for various periods of time by the teachers Stelian Sterescu (1875-1917), Constantin Motomancea (1874-1955) and Vasile Cărăbiş (1909-2001). Teachers Stelian Sterescu and Constantin Motomancea taught the "Prince Charles" high school from Tulcea, while Vasile Cărăbiş taught, for a short while in the period between the two world wars, in the primary school from the village of Arabagi, Durostor County. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the settlement of Tulcea came under Ottoman rule at the beginning of the 15th century. In the seventeenth century, it was already a kaza. Its strategic location and proximity to the river brought the port of the settlement to the forefront and its development was mostly economic. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, a direct academic study on the city of Tulcea under Ottoman rule has not yet been conducted in Turkey and has not received the attention it deserves. The city was repeatedly subjected to Cossack attacks and looting, and in wars it was overrun and destroyed by Russian armies. During each war, the inhabitants of the city were partially displaced and returned to their settlements after each war. This situation disrupted the demographic and economic structure of the city, as well as the Ottoman financial resources. Nevertheless, the central government tried not to offend both the Muslim and non-Muslim inhabitants and facilitated the payment of taxes by developing various formulas. This article attempts to understand the historical development of the city of Tulcea under Ottoman rule by directly referring to official sources and to studying the history of this historical city with a monographic method. In this sense, tahrir and jizya registers, contemporary documents, and especially the population and dividend registers of the nineteenth century, which allow us to analyze the demographic and socio-economic structure of the city, have been evaluated together to a great extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archival materials brought to attention a fragmentary marble votive relief found near Tulcea depicting the so-called Thracian horseman as a hunter with the prey in his raised right hand. This iconographic variant is very rare outside Thracia and the Balkans region. The evidence of the votive reliefs of the Thracian horseman in the northern Moesia Inferior is not rich but features a great iconographical variety, hinting at an intended choice from the part of the dedicants of the votives and great awareness of the iconographical composition. The material (imported marble) and the dimensions of several of the reliefs uncovered up to now in the region are quite large and make plausible the idea of votives intended for cult places/sanctuaries. The relief discussed is singular among the similar finds in the region, for it bears also an inscription on its upper border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of global warming, the change in the biological cycle of vectors and the increase in intercontinental travels, we are now facing an increase in the number of cases of vector-borne diseases. Among these, heartworm disease has escalated in recent years in Romania, with cases increasing in many parts of our country. Our study was carried out in the South-Eastern part of Romania, with the aim of establishing the prevalence of heartworm disease in dogs, with the identification of the two species Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens. Blood samples were collected during the period May - July 2022 and January - July 2023, from 220 dogs with and without an owner from Tulcea county, from places such as Tulcea, Murighiol, Somova, Mineri, Niculițel. The blood samples were tested through the Knott method, which is considered as the reference method in the diagnosis of dirofilariosis in dogs. The results show a prevalence of Dirofilaria spp. infection of 11.36% in dogs. Of the 220 samples examined by the Knott test, 25 were positive for circulating microfilariae, of which 21 showed infestations with Dirofilaria immitis and 4 with co-infection with Dirofilaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens. The study underlines the importance of introducing monitoring and control programs for heartworm disease in dogs in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluvial floods are frequent phenomena in Romania occurring during torrential rainfall, causing significant damage. Pluvial floods occur due to extreme rainfall when the natural infiltration of excess water into the ground is artificially reduced and when runoff into urban areas exceeds the capacity of existing drainage systems. In urban areas, pluvial flooding is more frequent due to extended impermeable areas, buildings, and undersized drainage systems. Tulcea municipality is characterized by periodic rainfall flooding events with consequences on properties and communities, infrastructure, and on the economic activities. In the second cycle of implementation of the Floods Directive 2007/60/EC, 17 Areas of Potential Significant Flood Risk (APFSR) pluvial source areas were identified, covering 19 municipalities and towns, for which pluvial hydraulic models were carried out. Tulcea municipality was one of the cities designated as having areas of potential significant pluvial flood risk. Hydraulic modelling results have been used for the construction of pluvial flood hazard and risk maps, these being the first pluvial maps reported by Romania to the European Commission. Based on these maps, critical drainage areas have been identified at the level of Tulcea Municipality and some potential flood risk reduction measures have been recommended.

FLOOD-serv Horizon 2020 project developed a pro-active and personalized citizencentric public service application that enhances the involvement of the citizen and harnesses the collaborative power of ICT networks (networks of people, of knowledge, of sensors) to raise awareness on flood risks and to enable collective risk mitigation solutions and response actions. For this, the project team implemented pilots, verified and validated the project solutions in different conditions and different areas of Europe. The activities implemented by the team of the project enhanced the role of the user (the citizen) in the society. DDNI team members tested the Flood-Serv System using attractive participatory approaches by involving existing communities of people, public authorities, water management officials, planners, emergency services but also regular citizens and academia institutions. Close collaboration with the end-users plays an important role in the transformation of public services. Given the high availability of data, through the knowledge base of Danube Delta National Institute (DDNI), users were provided more pro-active, higher quality and valuable flood risk management services. This made services more attractive and increased collaboration between all the parties, speeding up the information flow from citizen to public administrations in case of a flood event. The activities presented in the study enhanced also societal resilience towards an improved cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders: government, private sector, NGOs and other civil society organizations as well as citizens.

This paper presents a sample of early and late Roman amphorae fragments discovered during several excavations performed at Aegyssus–Tulcea-Colnicul Hora in the 1959-1996 period, with the purpose of bringing a small contribution to the study of the economic history of the Roman Empire. The sample consists of 458 fragments. Typologically, 17 amphora types were identified, some of which have different versions: Dressel 43, Dressel 2-5, Dressel 24, Zeest 72, Zeest 94 (Šelov B and C), Berenice Middle Roman Amphora 5, Kapitän II, Agora M273, Kuzmanov XV-XVI, Spatheion, Opaiț D II, Opaiț D III, Opaiț E I – c, Carthage Late Roman Amphora 1, Carthage Late Roman Amphora 2, Carthage Late Roman Amphora 3 and Carthage Late Roman Amphora 4. Furthermore, out of these 17 types, it was determined, based on macroscopic fabric comparison, that 5 types were of Aegean origin, 3 types from the Eastern Mediteranean Coast, 7 types of Black Sea origin, one type from North Africa, while the LRA 1 and even LRA 2 types were produced in various centres in the Eastern part of the Empire. Chronologically, 5 types were distributed during the Early Roman Period, 10 types during the Late Roman Period and 2 types have been traced to the period between the 3rd and 4th century AD. Last but not least, the paper also proposes a method of calculating quantities of imported wine and olive oil during the two time periods of the Roman Empire.

The find in Tulcea, close to the ancient settlement of Aegyssus, of a Dionysian bas-relief fragment dated to the Roman period, enables the author to digress briefly into Dionysian mythology. The bas-relief represents Dionysus as a child, symbolizing regeneration and renewal. Given the few plastic representations of the Divine Child myth, this find contributes to better understanding of the cult of Dionysus during the Roman period. The author deems the find one of a kind. Despite clumsy artistic expression, the bas-relief synthesizes the most dramatic episode in the Dionysian myth – the rebirth, the victory on death, the new beginning, the cyclical renewal of the world.

Hunting has been always an important activity in Romania, not only due to the presence of high numbers of game species, but also for their variety. Tulcea County has a total of 54 hunting funds that account for 580.701 hectares, being one of the counties with high potential in terms of hunting. Amongst the main hunting species from Tulcea County (red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, European hare, pheasant, partridge, badger, fox, raccoon dog, jackal, ferret, weasel, stoat, musk, ducks, gooses) eight were chosen and prioritized based on nineteen criteria established within COST Action FP 1203. An analytical hierarchic process (AHP) was used and the analysis were performed by the aid of Expert Choice Desktop software package. The most important game species were the wild boar and the roe deer, while the least important were the golden jackal and the red fox. Specific game management measures were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The military retreat to Tulcea, during the first weeks after the invasion and extinction of Poland, in the autumn of 1939, is a theme unknown to the Romanian historiography and minimally addressed by Polish studies. There was part of Bureau of Military Historical Studies (Wojskowo Biuro Historyczne) officers, from Polish Minister of Defence, amongst them, General Leon Berbecki, one of the most important commanders of the army or Captain Wiktor Brummer. It was not the last time the city at the Danube Delta gate has provided temporary dwelling for refugees from the war. Eight decades later, after on February 24th 2022 Russia has started the aggression against Ukraine, Tulcea has become again a pole of hope for the escapees. „Wiarus na Obczyźnie" was issued in Tulcea on September 28th 1939 and it was another exceptional aspect of the Tulcea refuge memory is that in September 1939. In this area, with rudimentary means, was initiated the printing of the first publication in Polish during the refuge period, immediately after the occupation of the country by Germany and USSR and after the arrival of elite troops and of their collaborators in the city on the Danube shore. The military retreat to Tulcea, during the first weeks after the invasion and extinction of Poland, in the autumn of 1939, is a theme unknown to the Romanian historiography and minimally addressed by Polish studies. Elite units were placed in the city from the Danube Delta gates, amongst which officers in charge with the military archives, or those organizing the actions in exile. Tulcea was the first action centre of the Polish Resistance in 1939 in Romania, and largely, the first in the entire South-European space, before the appearance of some better known camps as those from Târgu-Jiu, for instance. Another exceptional aspect of the Tulcea refuge memory is that in September 1939, in this area, with rudimentary means, was initiated the printing of the first publication in Polish during the refuge period, immediately after the occupation of the country by Germany and USSR and after the arrival of elite troops and of their collaborators in the city on the Danube shore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to introduce in the scientific circuit two volumes of rare foreign books, printed in the 17th and 18th centuries, identified in the collections of ”Gavrilă Simion” Eco-Museum Research Institute of Tulcea, which belonged to the Romanian poet and ambassador Scarlat Cantacuzino (1874-1949), also known by his pen name Charles-Adolphe Cantacuzène. He is also known as a great collector of old books as his Cantacuzino forefathers. His first book (Ph. Desportes, ”Les Oeuvres”, Lyon, 1606), along with the owner’s signature carries an ex-libris seal with one of the Cantacuzino Family emblem. The second book (M. de Bachaumont, ”Mémoires secrets pour servir a l'histoire de la République des lettres en France, depuis 1762 jusqu'a nos jours”, tome 7, A Londres, 1777) has an ex-libris affixed on both covers, an ex-libris stamp and Charles-Adolphe Cantacuzène’s signature. We may therefore say that these books are part of the great collections of the Cantacuzino royal or princely rank generations, as well as of our national cultural heritage collections.

This work presents a review of hydrological data known as water levels and volume flows that have been recorded and then processed to render a contour about the hydrological situation of the Danube River near Tulcea. Onsile measurements have generated daily data on river flows and levels over a 3-year period (2003, 2004, 2006). their interpretation being important tor knowing the water drainage regime. Moreover, the characteristic values can have a practical interest in some river design works, such as hydrotechnical flood defense constructions that may occur as a result of elevated levels above a certain threshold or may be beneficial during works or exploitation of river bed resources. In order to accurately present the importance of knowing the river level variation, it is necessary to process, verify and interpret all data on the levels and flows, establish links and graphical correlations, and determine the characteristic values over the multiannual period. The results obtained from the measurements are described in the four periods of the year, and the conclusion shows that each period is manifested both in climatic and hydrological terms by specific characteristics and phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ciuperca Lake, located in the floodplain area of the lower Danube, suffered a lot of interventions over time due to human activity. Man-made interventions started in 1830 and during the time changes have been made in shape, functions and role of the lake and the surrounding wetlands. Drainage, cleaning the lake, concrete banks on the lake shores transformed Ciuperca Lake from natural lake into a flood-protection area for the city and later into a recreational area for the citizens. Since 2011 the lake has been used as a recreational bathing area of Tulcea city. Due to these aspects two problem arise: the lack of information for the local authorities on water quality and on the dangers for exposing the population to the blooming of algae (if these later ones would take place). The phytoplankton of Ciuperca Lake is dominated by cyanobacteria having a wide range of temperature tolerance, their presence in water being recorded even under the ice coverage and has a great development-potential. The author’s assessment on hazard status and alert level could provide a pertinent analysis of the results of the rehabilitation program for improving the water quality of Ciuperca Lake and a better understanding of the necessity to include the inland water used for recreational purpose into a national monitoring program.

Evolution of the Romanian literary phenomenon, viewed both in its completeness and at province level, described in the new cultural press, developed immediately after December 1989, coincided with the first ample and real manifestation of the freedom of expression, materialized in the appearance of new means of media communication: one one side - the social-political, on the other - the literary press. As known, immediately after 1989, the Romanian literary life witnessed a tempestuous restructuration process, the new paradigm involving in itself a whole series of contradictions, conflictual situations, controversies, polarization of various theories, models and tendencies, some of them extremely virulent and impetuous, such as, for example, the war of cultural reconsiderations. In December 1989, few of the writers of Galaţi were recognized as really important at national level, each of them having succeeded, until then, in publishing one or more of books at Publishing Houses of Iaşi and Bucureşti. What happened immediately after the abolition of the restrictive and drastic mechanisms of ideological censorship may be considered as an authentic local literary revolution, manifested at all levels of expression, starting with literary productions up to various complementary, yet stimulating forms of publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The find in Tulcea, close to the ancient settlement of Aegyssus, of a Dionysian basrelief fragment dated to the Roman period, enables the author to digress briefly into Dionysian mythology. The bas-relief represents Dionysus as a child, symbolizing regeneration and renewal. Given the few plastic representations of the Divine Child myth, this find contributes to better understanding of the cult of Dionysus during the Roman period. The author deems the find one of a kind. Despite clumsy artistic expression, the bas-relief synthesizes the most dramatic episode in the Dionysian myth - the rebirth, the victory on death, the new beginning, the cyclical renewal of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies / Revista Română de Studii Eurasiatice is the property of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Air quality is assessed according to the presence of gases (CO2, NOx, SO2), liquid hydrocarbons, solids (powders, pesticides), the content of chemical elements (As, Sb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Fe, etc.), chemical moieties (sulphates, nitrates) and even some organic or radioactive compounds. Expression is in different units of measure, or quality indices and general pollution index. Among the components of air, oxygen is indispensable for breathing, oxidation being the main source of energy for life processes. Air pollution was defined because of the potentially harmful effects of these substances. In reality we are dealing with a mostly normal composition, with foreign substances being found almost everywhere in the atmosphere and foreign matter (soil dust, pollen, bacteria, fungi), producing insignificant effects in terms of health. Exceptions are certain components responsible for allergic phenomena (pollen, spores, fungi, plant fragments) that cannot be classified as pollutants because they are natural products that are found commonly in nature. Normal air comprises (volume % in dry atmosphere) 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.92% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide. This gas mixture comprises over 99.99% of the atmosphere. The remaining approximately 0.01% is made up of neon, helium, methane, krypton, xenon, ozone, hydrogen, radon. To this are added varying proportions of water vapour (average 0.2-3%). In this paper we present an analysis of daily temporal evolution of the main pollutant factor concentrations and the relative correlations between them. In the last section we propose an explanatory mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy gained by an organism is used for maintenance, growth and reproduction. In habitats with limited resources, these processes compete for available energy and may induce intraspecific variation in body condition, growth trajectories and reproductive output. We tested the hypothesis that populations exposed to higher food availability are able to grow faster, and attain larger body sizes in the viperine snake (Natrix maura). We estimated snake age by counting growth lines in the skull's ectopterygoid bone, and compared body size growth curves from three Iberian populations exposed to temporal variation of food resources availability. In the three localities, and in males and females, the growth curves followed a quadratic function that tended to an asymptotic value as growth slowed down. Growth curves showed slower growth rates and an early asymptote for males, in agreement with the reverse sexual dimorphism in body size of this species. We also detected interpopulational differences, with the Ebro Delta population exhibiting slower growth rates and smaller asymptotic body size in both sexes. This population inhabits rice fields with an artificial waterflow cycle, a condition that implies a shorter period of prey availability for snakes, compared to the other two populations, where prey is available for longer periods of time. Moreover, high proportion of snakes with tail breakage in this population indicated high predation pressure. These environmental conditions suggest that food availability and predation pressure may be concurrently acting to produce smaller N. maura at the Ebro Delta than at the other two populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometrical shape discrimination has been shown to play an important role in the spatial orientation of a wide variety of mammals and birds, while the study of this ability in particular and of cognitive processes in general has been rather neglected in reptiles. The present experiment aims to investigate the ability of wild Greek tortoises Testudo graeca from Topolog forest, Tulcea County, Romania, to discriminate between simple geometrical shapes. Forty-two adult tortoises were subjected to a task consisting of escaping from a square arena through one of the four available doors, each with a geometrical shape attached. Thirty-one individuals completed 10 consecutive trials, requiring significantly less time for the last trial than for the first. This trend suggests that Greek tortoises developed and used an escape strategy, most likely relying on the geometrical shapes provided as cues. This experiment is the first to explore the cognitive processes of this species and further work should expand on the ecological significance of this ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some of the research conducted on the Lower Danube Press. In its development it was intended to reveal important elements of the publication, in the economic domain, but also the contributions of the newspapers to the Romanian literature. The economic activity particularly intense in the Lower Danube area resulted in the release of a large number of magazines that supported this activity. The first magazine in Galati was published in 1846, called the Dunărea/Danube. Its content came in the support of the merchants, who dealt with trade, agriculture and navigation as Mercur/Mercury in Braila, following another publication in 1849 of economic from Galati, Jurnalul de Galaţi/Galati Journal. These first publications have in common their release in several European languages of interest to traders: Italian, it was preferred as it used the Latin alphabet and it was easier to print the publication, Greek or French. In this category of papers there were released newspapers of scholarships, commercial clubs, as an expression of the concerns of such members, among whom there were also the cultural ones. It was also highlighted the fact that these publications have contributed to the evolution of the Romanian language but also of literature, of course at a lower level than the literary publications. There have been discovered also publications that had nothing to do with literature or economic, financial or literary phenomena, their purpose being only publishing documents regulating the economic activities, one example being the Semaphore de Brăila/Semaphore of Braila. It was also noted the involvement of the authorities in the promotional activities of the economy through various publications with the title of calendars, monitors, or daily newspapers, which had a modest cultural contribution. Compared with other types of publications, the economic ones are the most numerous, as the ones from the political domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies / Revista Română de Studii Eurasiatice is the property of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies / Revista Română de Studii Eurasiatice is the property of Romanian Review of Eurasian Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper describes a project carried on during 2007-2010 carried on by Crescendo International – head of the project, with NRI URBAN-INCERC, URBANPROIECT branch, the Institute for Eco-Museum Research în Archeology Tulcea and ELECTROVÂLCEA S.R.L. The aim of the project was to elaborate a methodology of geospatial localization, electronic marking and coding of historical sites în order to protect and introduce them în tours. The methodology was applied through case studies to some archeological sites în Tulcea County.