Search

In this opinion paper we investigate the effects of forest management on animal and plant biodiversity by comparing protected areas with intensively and extensively managed forests in Germany and in Romania. We want to know the extent to which differences in diversity of Romanian compared to German forests are based on management. The number of tree species was not different in protected and managed forests ranging between 1.8 and 2.6 species per plot in Germany and 1.3 and 4.0 in Romania. Also herbaceous species were independent of management, ranging between 13 species per plot in protected forests of Romania and 38 species per plot in German coniferous forest. Coarse woody debris was generally low, also in protected forests (14 to 39m³ ha-1). The main difference between Romania and Germany was the volume of standing dead trees (9 to 28m³ ha-1 for Romania), which resulted in larger numbers of forest relict saproxylic beetles independent of management. Large predators (wolves, bears and lynxes) are only found in regions with low human intervention. Thus, we identified a "cut and leave" type of management in Romania, in which clear-felling of forest are followed by long periods of no human intervention. Forests managed in the "cut and leave" mode contained the highest diversity, due to a natural succession of plant species and due to habitat continuity for animals. In Germany intensive management eliminates poorly formed tree individual and species of low market value during stand development. Forest protection does not ensure the maintenance of more light demanding key species of earlier stages of succession unless competition by shade-tolerant competitors is reduced through disturbances. We compare the economics of intensive and extensive management. The "cut and leave" mode delivers less wood to the wood market, but saves expenses of tending, thinning and administration. Thus the net income could be quite similar to intensive management at a higher level of biodiversity. Our analysis suggests that forest protection per se does not yet ensure the maintenance of species. Clear-felling followed by natural succession may even be superior to the protection of old growth forests, regarding biodiversity. Further research is needed to substantiate this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses an extremely current phenomenon: migration in opposite directions of FDI and labour, in context with the permanent need for economic growth and welfare. The analysis is carried out over a period of 12 years, in the context of setting objectives and working hypotheses regarding the realization of a correlation model of phenomena and optimization of migration flows in order to obtain welfare through economic development. The results of the research will reflect the relevance of the aggregation of the two migratory flows (FDI and labour) in order to obtain the financial leverage effect and the economic welfare in the analysed regions (EU, Germany and Romania).The conclusions of the study reflect the relevance of the method, the validity of the model and its relevance for the decision forums interested in the economic development and in increasing the population welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors reviewed the empirical augmented reality (AR) and online education studies, and those focused on designing or development of AR to help students learn, published in SSCI, SCI-EXPANDED, and A&HCI journals from 2003 to 2012. The authors in this study found that the number of AR and online education studies has significantly increased since 2009. Based on this review, it is found that contributors from Spain, Romania, Taiwan, and Germany had the most publications on AR and online education during 2003 to 2012. Moreover, the analysis of these selected papers reveals that most empirical AR and online education studies were conducted at universities, as well as in computer science courses. Furthermore, the quantitative research method was used more in the reviewed papers. The findings and analysis from this review may provide potential directions and insights for future AR and online education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrant minority (IM) languages have a significant presence in certain European regions. Nonetheless, these languages are not usually included in the school curriculum. This paper aims to analyse the studies published between 2010 and 2020 considering IM languages in multilingual European education contexts. The method included a search of academic papers published in the databases ERIC, Web of Science and Scopus, which yielded 42 studies. The studies were analysed by considering: (1) the demographic characteristics of the countries where the studies were conducted, (2) the sociolinguistic or psycholinguistic focus of the papers in relation to the European country, and (3) the characteristics of the bi-multilingual education programme including IM languages. The results indicate that: (1) the demographic characteristics of the country are not strictly related to the number of studies published, (2) most studies have a sociolinguistic approach even though many studies analyse both sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors, and (3) only seven multilingual education programmes including IM languages were described in these papers. We conclude that there is a lack of research focusing on IM languages in educational settings and discuss how addressing these gaps could create opportunities for building equitable multilingual communities in Europe.

Tens of thousands of Romanian migrants work in the German construction sector. Their work is often characterized by unpaid wages, long workdays and by the withholding of sick or holiday payments. The risky and exploitative nature of the conditions under which Romanian migrants work on German construction sites is reflected in their negative evaluation of their engagements as “slave labor” by Romanian workers. Starting from such a clearly negative evaluation, the paper asks how Romanian construction workers in Germany classify their work and what role such classifications have within the context of labor exploitation. Based on qualitative interviews with and participant observation among Romanian construction site workers in Germany and in Romania, the article reconstructs four work classifications. Work may be interpreted as the fulfillment of obligations or as necessary for economic revenue; hard work itself can be a symbolic contribution to one’s own sense of identity or it can have the meaning of being part of everyday normalcy. Each of the work classifications offers a different reason to make hard work plausible in the eyes of the workers and employers actively turn such interpretations into a mechanism of vulnerability. Without direct physical coercion, these ideas motivate workers to take on work that they themselves criticize as ‘slave labor.’ The paper concludes by arguing that the recognition of such classifications and their social effects are crucial for an understanding of labor exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since European Union (EU) enlargement in 2003, labour migration from East to West and South to North has increased. It is to be expected that a share of these workers will want to retire in their host countries. According to the academic literature, EU legislation protects such mobility well by allowing the transfer of rights accrued in any EU country to another. However, such research has focused on legislation, not outcomes. We know little about how migration will affect the financial status of retired migrants in their host country and their ability to sustain a life there, should they stay after retirement. Using migration, wage and pension policy data (Eurostat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), this paper projects the post-retirement incomes of a range of hypothetical EU migrants, selected in relation to the most common migratory flows since 2003. After having worked in their home countries (Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy) for at least ten years, these people move to richer countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom) and work there for at least 30 years. To determine whether they can remain settled after decades of labour force participation in the host country, the paper adds their pension entitlements from home and host countries and compares this income with the relative poverty line of the host countries. This shows that good portability of entitlements matters little when these are very low because of a large wage gap between home and host country. Thus, after at least 30 years of enjoying all citizenship rights as workers, most of these individuals are projected to receive incomes below the relative poverty line of their host countries and thus experience a sharp drop in this status. Their citizenship is diminished. The paper concludes by considering policies that could avoid such an outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attention to the healthcare workforce has increased, yet comprehensive information on migrant healthcare workers is missing. This study focuses on migrant healthcare workers' experiences and mobility patterns in the middle of a global health crisis, aiming to explore the capacity for circular migration and support effective and equitable healthcare workforce policy., Methods: Romanian physicians working in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic served as an empirical case study. We applied a qualitative explorative approach; interviews (n = 21) were collected from mid of September to early November 2022 and content analysis was performed., Results and Discussion: Migrant physicians showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 crisis and rarely complained. Commitment to high professional standards and career development were major pull factors towards Germany, while perceptions of limited career choices, nepotism and corruption in Romania caused strong push mechanisms. We identified two major mobility patterns that may support circular migration policies: well-integrated physicians with a wish to give something back to their home country, and mobile cosmopolitan physicians who flexibly balance career opportunities and personal/family interests. Health policy must establish systematic monitoring of the migrant healthcare workforce including actor-centred approaches, support integration in destination countries as well as health system development in sending countries, and invest in evidence-based circular migration policy., (© 2024 The Authors. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Food and nutrition are topics constantly covered, in various forms, in the media, both in fiction and non-fiction areas. New approaches and associations have recently emerged in the media coverage of this broad issue, with topics such as healthy eating, sustainable nutrition, various dietary trends, risks associated with nutrition or, general speaking, lifestyles, treatment and attitudes towards animals intended for consumption, environmental damage, etc. currently representing themes addressed in the media as frequently as recipes, dietary recommendations, plant cultivation and animal husbandry, as well as traditional dishes and culinary habits. This paper presents the results of a comparative study on the media coverage of nutrition in Romania and Germany. The research, based on a content analysis of online thematic press articles from the two countries, covers a period of three years (2014--2016). The main research objectives pursued in the study are identifying the most relevant aspects regarding both the content and the form of media coverage of the topic of nutrition, and making comparisons in these respects. The paper particularly discusses the similarities and differences between the two countries as regards the media construction of the issue of food as a general concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although aspects of sustainability in communication such as nonviolence are discussed from time to time, hardly any theoretical basement with an empirical validation can be found. In the broadest sense, sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time. This paper asks for the theoretical approach that helps to understand the challenges of teaching in schools of diverse societies (2) and explains some core aspects of the ongoing research on sustainability and communication (3). After that, this paper presents the research question this project tried to answer (4) and explains the used instruments, the data, and some of the most relevant outcomes of this study (5). Finally, some conclusions describe the opportunities and threats of sustainable communication for teacher education. The outcome of this paper is that a specific theory of sustainable communication is missing. Furthermore, the results of the empirical investigation show that intercultural communication, nonviolent communication, cooperation, problem solving and, reflection are statistically related as constructs and predictors of sustainable communication. Also, the teaching experience of the participants in the sample is a significant predictor of the sustainable communication.

The present paper relies on special works and collections of recently published documents and highlights the importance of the date of 28 June 1940, starting from the entire evolution of the Romanian-Soviet relations, before and after World War II. The underlying idea of the paper is that the occupation of north-eastern Romania, in June 1940, was only a part of a more complex plan of the USSR to gain control over the entire Balkan-Pontic space. As a result of this conduct, Romania's hostility legitimately grew, our country seeking Germany's protection in the face of the Soviet danger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During voluntary work, volunteers acquire valuable new knowledge and skills, but they often do not recognize these newly developed competencies, cannot apply them in further education, and fail to make others, including potential employers, aware of them. The classification and validation of these competencies can help to facilitate the transfer of volunteers' competencies within the volunteer and labor markets; however, the required steps for validation of the acquired competencies are frequently complicated or unclear for volunteers. Additionally, accepted ways of validating are lacking in labor market. This paper starts by presenting the value and benefits of volunteering, especially in a business education context. Thereafter, the authors present a European partnership project--the Grundtvig Learning Partnership's Volunteering Validation Highway (VVH). The partnership aimed to facilitate the validation and transfer of volunteers' experience. The following paper discuss volunteering as important part of society and a business education approach integrating volunteering. To support the idea of integration, the authors present a study concerning volunteers' competencies, the benefits of volunteering, and the usefulness in business education of competencies gained through volunteering. The study used data from a questionnaire and group discussions. Regarding different countries, the partners expected different understandings of volunteering; therefore, the researchers conducted mixed-nationality group discussions to develop a mutual understanding of volunteering. The researchers also developed a questionnaire according to the group discussion categories (inductive) and included both open-ended and multiple-choice questions. The results support the idea of integrating volunteering experiences in business education. First, the results showed benefits for society and for the volunteers themselves. Second, the volunteers gain on the one hand professional competencies that were relevant to the labor market, like delegating tasks to other people. On the other hand, the volunteers mentioned social and process-oriented competencies, including communication and technical skills. Third, the researchers identified two major advantages of volunteering: volunteers learn networking and communicating, and volunteers experience opened new occupational fields. The authors presented in a fourth step opportunities to integrate volunteering into business education. Business education can therefore be a service learning or a social entrepreneurship education course.

The paper deals with the topic of eugenics ("Erbgesundheitslehre" or "Rassenhygiene") among the Germans in Romania, which was mainly carried by Transylvanian Saxon actors. Based on Tudor Georgescu's monograph The Eugenic Fortress: The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in Interwar Romania (2016), the topic is analyzed in depth for the 1920s. Using Heinrich Siegmund's Sächsisches Wehr- und Mehrbuch, which was published in 1914 and in a revised form in 1922, as well as other source examples, it is shown that the eugenic discourse was not only a transfer from the "West" to Transylvanian Saxony, but took on a specific form. The central actors of the biopolitical discourse among the Transylvanian Saxons, especially Heinrich Siegmund and later Alfred Csallner, acted in an interpersonal and intertextual network, especially one supported by institutions, that was primarily connected to Germany--the exchange on eugenics was thus a reciprocal process, not an exclusively one-sided "import" from the "West." However, it is further noted that there was relatively little demonstrable exchange with Romanian and Hungarian eugenicists. The implementation of the teachings of eugenics was intended to counter a demographically induced decrease in the population of the German minority. The main target was the younger generation, especially in rural areas--this milieu was seen as having the best chances of resisting the "decline" by means of biopolitical measures. On the one hand, the analyzed discourse reveals the intertwining of traditional and contemporary topoi; on the other hand, a radicalization of biopolitical concepts can be seen parallel to political developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Codrul Cosminului is the property of Codrul Cosminului 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.)

This paper explores the social connectedness experiences among older migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia. Data were collected via two rounds of semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic and cluster analysis. Participants were 40 migrants aged 66-91 years, of German, Dutch, Romanian, Chinese, and Vietnamese origin. They identified a range of factors affecting their social connectedness experiences: personal preferences, individual efforts to connect with others, English language proficiency, driving ability, and length of residence. Data analysis also revealed four groupings of experience: the isolated, family, ethnic community, and multicultural cluster. These patterns of connectedness were experienced differently across the ethnic groups. The findings suggest the benefits of providing culture-specific social connection opportunities to help older migrants to stay socially connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On December 12, 2015, 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement, including Germany and also Romania which has the purpose to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1,5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this goal, countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century. One of the goals is to encourage states with a low level of development, to grow economicaly from green power or green hydrogen, like will show in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to present the effects of the abolition of the milk quota system who was in force for more than 30 years, to analyse the new milk packake introduced by the European Union (since October 3, 2012, it is in full force). This package was prepared in 2015 with a view to the long term future of the dairy sector after the quota system expired. Also, we have analyzed and produced a study case for Germany, in respect of the two systems who were in force in EU, taking in consideration the role, position and place of the German milk market at European level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first passive house (PH) was built in Germany in 1991. Since then several empirical design solutions have been developed, meeting the requirements of the PH standard proposed by the Passive House Institute (PHI) of Darmstadt, Germany. These design solutions have spread throughout central and western Europe and tend to be implemented in areas with a quite different climate than Germany's, such as southeastern Europe. This paper focuses on the question of whether the German design solutions would ensure the fulfillment of PH standard requirements in the latitudes of Romania. The paper compares general climate conditions for 22 towns in Germany and Romania. Further analysis is performed by estimating the energetic performance of a prototype passive building located in any of those 22 towns. The prototype passive building is AMVIC PH built in 2008 in Bragadiru (near Bucharest, Romania). It appears that the design solutions developed in Germany may be relaxed (for example, the thermal insulation may be reduced) when implemented for latitudes lower than 45°N. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania, along with other members of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), has adopted a so-called 'hybrid corporate governance model', which draws inspiration from both the insider-oriented system as exemplified in Germany, and the outsider-oriented system as exemplified in the UK. The paper aims to assess the corporate governance framework in Romania through national level comparison with the German corporate governance framework. At the same time, the research approach relies on cross-case analysis, drawing data primarily from the annual reports of two companies from the pharmaceutical industry from Germany and Romania. The study focuses on particular corporate governance issues like corporate compliance, corporate transparency, role and duties of Board of Directors, and compensation. The findings of the research allow us to conclude that companies from transition economies of CEE, like Romania, require the practice of sound corporate governance to ensure more efficient disclosure practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the shadow economy within a coherent Structural Equation Model using a data set of 11 latent variables with 58 indicators from 35 countries. The shadow economy is closely connected to its determinants; a higher wealth and development level, a better administrative system, lower taxes and social security payments and the extent of labor market regulations determine the level of shadow economy. Germany ranks 16th of 35 countries by shadow economy, with a score of 3.6, with the best being New Zealand, 1.0, and the worst Romania, 10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the variables having impact on the student motivation have been analyzed based on the articles, conference papers, master's theses and doctoral dissertations published in the years 2000-2017. A total of 165 research papers were selected for the research material and the data were collected through qualitative research techniques through document review and content analysis. According to the research results, the most important factors affecting student motivation are the fields of teacher, teachers' classroom management skills and their teaching methods. In this research, factors having less influence on the student motivation are parental communication, student characteristics and study fields. In addition, relational search type was used more than others, mostly students were selected as the study group and most researches were conducted in USA and Turkey.

This paper explores the importance of different parameters influencing young people's Early Leaving of school or training (EL) in applying a five-category research framework, which includes: personal challenges, family circumstances, institutional risks, social relationships and structural risk factors. This paper compares the German and the Romanian cases of Early Leaving, focusing on personal challenges and family circumstances which are particularly salient in both countries. Despite this commonality, countries differ in terms of the national shares of youth EL. Drawn from 43 interviews and focus groups with 111 teachers and 203 young people, carried out as part of a broader European project, the identified risk factors are analysed in their interrelationships. By taking a comparative approach to considering the importance of personal and family factors for EL, the paper analyses the subcategories of risks that are important in both countries. The specific national characteristics of the school systems are taken into account in reflecting on the national rates of EL. This requires consideration of the interactions between personal challenges and family circumstances, as well as between personal and family factors and other categories of the framework. In addition, other cultural, social and political contexts are taken into account.

The paper aims at presenting some aspects regarding the way in which German and Romanian cultural identity is represented in the field of journalistic communication in Romania, as it is reflected in the linguistic constructions employed in pre- and post-revolutionary written press (namely before and after 1989). Generally speaking, the definition of the concept of " hybrid identity" implies taking into account the specificity of the various historical periods in the coexistence of the ethnic groups considered (in this case, we refer to the communist and postcommunist period reflected in the written press). For this study, the authors adopt the theoretical viewpoint of cross-cultural pragmatics (Wierzbicka 1991) in assessing the language facts. The investigation is based on selective materials extracted from the German newspapers existing in Romania - "Neuer Weg" (NW) 1948-1992) / "Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien" (ADZ) (1993-2008), and the Romanian newspapers "Scînteia" (S) (1948-1989) / "Adevărul" (A) (1990-2014). In presenting the linguistic facts that mirror the hybridisation of the linguistic identity of the German community in Romania (Manu Magda 2012) on the level of journalistic language (Dănilă 2016) we take into consideration the two aforementioned periods: the ("early" and "late")" communist period", when there prevailed the "marked" forms of the "wooden language", which is characterised, in general, by the elimination of specific actualisations of linguistic identity and the adoption of Russian clichés; the "post-communist period", defined by two parallel directions: "reevaluation of linguistic identity" (indicated by convergence towards the core linguistic identity, i.e., the one from Germany), "linguistic globalisation" (indicated by convergence towards the international linguistic community, dominated by the "imperialism of the English language"; this direction can be noticed in relation to both languages explored - Romanian and German). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of nutrition as a research topic is linked not only to healthy eating and different types of medical conditions, such as obesity, allergies, malnutrition, but also to the relationship between nutrition and physical activity, to state's and large food companies' commercial activities, as well as to the sustainability of food production. On that basis, numerous studies have analyzed media content related to food and nutrition, their basic assumption being that (new and old) media have the ability to change the audience's perceptions, behaviors and attitudes towards various values which are accepted in contemporary societies. This paper presents the results of a comparative study of the way in which Romanian and German media cover the topic of nutrition. The research method used was the content analysis, applied to a sample of articles published on online media from the two countries between 2014 and 2016. Having as research objective the identification of the most relevant aspects regarding the content and shape of nutrition's coverage in media, this article discusses the similarities and differences recorded in the online press of the two countries on the topic of interest. According to the findings, the similarities are mainly related to some topics and subjects addressed, as well as to the ways of covering them, in particular through analysis articles, while the differences could instead be ascertained regarding the content of the articles, including the ways in which the journalists assume social roles in approaching, informing, debating, and educating concerning issues of public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has received increasing attention. Due to the close affinity that geography as a school subject shares with both theoretical constructs and methodologies of ESD, geography has assumed a key position in the implementation of ESD in formal education. Still, little attention has so far been paid to the specific geographical understanding of (E)SD as implemented in geography curricula as the official frameworks of formal education. Twenty years after the Earth Summit and five years after the Lucerne Declaration, this paper now takes a closer look at three approaches of conceptualizing sustainable development (SD) and implementing ESD in lower secondary geography curricula by means of mixed methods. The sample consisted of lower secondary geography curricula from Bavaria (Germany), Romania, and Mexico. The results show that despite the existence of both the Agenda 21 as a general guideline and various subject-specific ESD frameworks such as the Lucerne Declaration, national geography curricula construct different SD concepts. Elements of ESD are subject to neoliberal, Marxist-materialistic, or post-colonial ideological interpretation. In spite of geography's close affinity to theoretical constructs of (E)SD, lower secondary geography curricula not always foster ESD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Revista Română de Drept al Afacerilor is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania 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 Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Philologia is the property of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 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 purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate, based on a special digital program containing the lists of telephonic customers from 2005 in Germany, that the family names and ethnonyms Sass/Saß in German, the Romanian Sas, Sas(s)u, Sascu, the Hungarian S(z)asz, whose origin is first of all the name of the old tribe of Northern Saxons (Nieder)sachsen (old German sahso, middle German sachse, northern German sasse), based on this, the German colonists who came in Transylvania in the 12th century were called in Latin Saxones, in German Siebenbüger Sachsen, in Romanian saşi, their geographic spreading in Germany is different due to the fact that, in the case of names such as Sass/Saß, we can speak about indigenous names, formed on the territory of Germany, especially in northern lands Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein (see Map 1), while in the second case, we are dealing with names having a foreign origin (Romanian or Hungarian) that appeared in Transylvania and then reached Germany due to the phenomenon of migration from east to west, specific to the 20th and the 21st centuries for political-economic reasons (spreading in the richly industrialized lands of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Hessen and Nordrhein-Westfalen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the 1970s, the literature in German language from Romania went through a radical process of change that transformed a largely epigonic and obedient literature into a dynamic, original and subversive one. The following paper analyses the context, the causes, and the mechanisms of this innovative period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passive house (PH) concept has been developed in Germany since 1991. In the following years, the concept spread out successfully in other Western and Central European countries with similar climate. Do the design solutions developed in Germany ensure the fulfillment of PH standard requirements when implemented in areas with different climates, such as South-Eastern Europe? This paper provides a preliminary answer. First, general climate conditions are compared for 22 towns in Germany and Romania, respectively. The main conclusion is that climate data cannot provide enough information to decide whether the existing German PH design solutions will perform similarly well in Romania. Further analysis is done to estimate the energetic performance of a prototype passive building when located in any of the 22 towns of Germany and Romania. The energetic performance is computed by using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software developed by the Passive House Institute of Darmstadt. The prototype passive building is AMVIC PH built in 2009 in Bragadiru (near Bucharest, Romania). It appears that the empirical design solutions developed in Germany may be relaxed (for example, the thermal insulation of the envelope may be reduced) when implemented for latitudes lower than 45° North. This is mainly due to the more abundant solar radiation in winter at these latitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Romanian Journal for Baltic & Nordic Studies/Revista Romana de Studii Baltice si Nordice is the property of Sciendo 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.)

TAYLOR G., PAPADOPOULOS I., DUDAU V., MAERTEN M., PELTEGOVA A. & ZIEGLER M. (2011) Intercultural education of nurses and health professionals in Europe (IENE). International Nursing Review, 188-195 This paper presents the results of a needs analysis carried out during a 2-year European Union-funded project titled 'Intercultural education of nurses and health professionals in Europe'. The study aimed to explore the perceived learning and teaching needs of students and practitioners of health-care professions in relation to preparation for working in another European country and/or in a multicultural environment. The participating countries were: Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Romania and the UK. Questionnaires, consisting of open questions, were completed by a total of 118 participants. Data analysis adopted both a priori and inductive approaches. The predetermined constructs of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural sensitivity and cultural competence were used to structure suggestions for theoretical input and practical activities and experiences. Inductive analysis revealed other emergent themes that underpin all four of these constructs. Practical experiences form a fundamental part of preparation for labour mobility and/or for practice within a multicultural environment. However, health-care practitioners need to be adequately prepared for such experiences and value the opportunity to learn about culture, to explore values and beliefs, and to practise intercultural skills within the safe environment of an educational establishment, facilitated by skilled teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is part of an ample research in a field, which was so far mainly in the limelight of the historical analysis. It relates about the dignities and titles in the Romanian Principalities in the Middle Ages and focuses on the linguistic, etymological and historical point of view of the topic. The denominations borrowed from German are particularly highlighted in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts at outlining some aspects of experienced intercultural phenomena in Transsylvania starting with the late 50ies and deals with the question of cultural and linguistic choice of an individual born into a multilinguistic and multicultural family. The close connection between mother tongue and identity is analysed under the particular circumstances of the author's biographical background. The paper should be read as an autobiographical statement which the author considers necessary for the understanding of her legitimate status within present day German literature written in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION Surveillance of tobacco consumption in public places is an important measure to evaluate the impact of tobacco control interventions over time. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of smoking as seen by smokers and their smoking behaviour in public places, in six European countries. METHODS We used baseline data of the International Tobacco Control Six European countries (ITC 6E) Survey, part of the EUREST-PLUS Project, conducted in 2016 in national representative samples of about 1000 adult smokers aged 18 years and older in Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain. For each setting (workplaces, restaurants, bars/pubs and discos) participants were asked whether they had seen someone smoking during their last visit there and whether they too had smoked there. We report the overall and by-country weighted prevalence of seeing someone smoking and the smokers' own smoking behaviour at each setting. We also assess the relationship between seeing someone smoking and smoking themselves at these settings. RESULTS The prevalence of smoking as seen by smokers was 18.8% at workplaces, with high variability among countries (from 4.7% in Hungary to 40.8% in Greece). Among smokers visiting leisure facilities in the last year, during their last visit 22.7% had seen someone smoking inside restaurants and 12.2% had smoked themselves there, while for bars/pubs the corresponding prevalences were 33.9% and 20.4%, and inside discos 44.8% and 34.8%. CONCLUSIONS Smoking is still prevalent at leisure facilities, particularly at discos in Europe, with high variability among countries. More extensive awareness campaigns and stricter enforcement are needed to increase the compliance of smokefree regulations, especially in leisure facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION The availability of lower-cost cigarettes in neighboring countries provides price-sensitive smokers with incentives to purchase cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This study estimates the prevalence of and factors associated with cross-border purchasing of cheaper cigarettes among smokers from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The prevalence of cross-border purchasing was estimated by residential location, defined as living in regions bordering a lower-price country (where prices were at least €1/pack lower), regions bordering a similar- or higher-price country, and internal non-border regions. METHODS Data were from a survey of nationally representative samples of adult smokers (n=6011) from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Spain. The primary outcome was purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Residential location was defined using The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS2 in Germany and NUTS3 in the other countries). Multivariable logistic regression tested differences in purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes by country and residential location. RESULTS Residential location was associated with purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in Germany and Poland (p<0.05): 31% of German and 11% of Polish smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries reported purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes in the previous six months. Smokers living in regions bordering lower-price countries had 4.21 times greater odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes compared to smokers living in non-border regions. CONCLUSIONS Overall, only a minority of smokers in the six countries purchased cheaper cigarettes outside their country. However, smokers living in regions bordering countries where cigarettes were at least €1/pack lower than their home country had significantly higher odds of purchasing cheaper out-of-country cigarettes. This effect was especially prominent among German smokers. Tax harmonization policies designed to minimize crossborder price differentials can eliminate lower-priced alternatives for price-sensitive smokers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is dedicated to the place that the Christian democracy occupies in the political life of the countries from the Central and Eastern Europe today. While in the Western Europe a considerable number of Christian democrat parties continue to play important roles in the political infrastructure, the Christian democrat parties from the postcommunist countries became, almost without exception, political actors of second order. The author of this paper considers as being very interesting to look back in time at the contribution of the Christian democracy to the German process of rebuilding after the Second World War and, also, at its contribution to the political modernization process in the Central and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the efforts of the Romanian authorities in the late nineteenth century to improve the quality of training the Romanian officer corps by creating an official framework of relations with the allies -- within the Triple Alliance -- Germany and Austria-Hungary. The negotiations conducted by the Liberal government led by Dimitrie A. Sturdza ended in 1898, with a conclusion of an agreement. According to this document, German and Austro-Hungarian armies agreed to accept a number of Romanian officers in both schools and in different military units and headquarters in order to train them. The Convention was in force for ten years. About 200 Romanian officers attended schools, courses and internships in German and Austro-Hungarian armies during this period. Though these officers contributed on some level to the improvement of the state of preparedness of the Romanian army, it continued to have shortcomings. These came out during the Second Balkan War (1913) and especially during the Autumn Campaign in 1916. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a globalizing society. The development of communication and transportation technology has shrunk the world in which the global interdependence for people and cultures becomes a norm of life. Therefore, intercultural communication competence becomes a critical ability for adjusting people to the demands of the 21st century. The aim of this article is to emphasize the necessity to develop intercultural/global communication competence, in order to function effectively and successfully in our everyday and particularly in our professional lives. The paper is divided into three parts. The first one offers a brief overview of the concepts of HC/LC cultures. The second part highlights the relevance of the HC/LC dimension for the Human Resource management. The fourth part presents instances from literature on the German and Romanian cultural models in an attempt to classify them as HC/LC cultures respectively. Finally the article provides instances from a research I conducted to identify cultural differences between Germans and Romanians, illustrated by excerpts on HC/LC communication from job interviews held with German and Romanian Human Resource Managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In which ways does the pursuit for objectivity influence the quality of news reporting? The present paper presents a content analysis of news starting from this particular research question and focussing on the relationship between journalistic theory and praxis in two distinct cultural areas, that is Germany and Romania. Texts belonging to the text category 'news' found in issues of "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on one hand and "Evenimentul Zilei" and "Jurnalul Natiional" on the other are discussed in contrast to each other. An interesting case, which is also investigated, is that of the hybrid newspaper "Allgemeine deutsche Zeitung für Rumänien", published in Romania but in the German language. The contrastive analysis reveals that the Romanian texts belonging to a cultural area in which objectivity is mainly interpreted as intersubjectivity lack rather of factuality, whereas the German texts belonging to a cultural area in which objectivity is mainly interpreted as factuality contain complete information, thus assuring the autonomy of the texts and consequently guaranteeing the autonomy of the readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is aiming at analyzing the artistic life of the Germans from the city of Brasov in the years 1949 and 1950, as it is mirrored in the newspaper "Neuer Weg". Before WW II the Germans constituted a group of their own and practiced mainly a kind of expressionism. As most of the artist contributed works to exhibitions in Nazi Germany, after the end of the war they became vulnerable. Therefore they had to accept the collaboration with the communist regime and adopt the doctrine of socialist realism, a paradigm which was legally enforced in the soviet controlled countries from 1949 to 1956. Some artists were committed to the new doctrine, while others were more cautious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The used car market has a high global economic importance, with more than 35 million cars sold yearly. Accurately predicting prices is a crucial task for both buyers and sellers to facilitate informed decisions in terms of opportunities or potential problems. Although various machine learning techniques have been applied to create robust prediction models, a comprehensive approach has yet to be studied. This research introduced two datasets from different markets, one with over 300,000 entries from Germany to serve as a training basis for deep prediction models and a second dataset from Romania containing more than 15,000 car quotes used mainly to observe local traits. As such, we included extensive cross-market analyses by comparing the emerging Romanian market versus one of the world's largest and most developed car markets, Germany. Our study used several neural network architectures that captured complex relationships between car model features, individual add-ons, and visual features to predict used car prices accurately. Our models achieved a high R2 score exceeding 0.95 on both datasets, indicating their effectiveness in estimating used car prices. Moreover, we experimented with advanced convolutional architectures to predict car prices based solely on visual features extracted from car images. This approach exhibited transfer-learning capabilities, leading to improved prediction accuracy, especially since the Romanian training dataset was limited. Our experiments highlighted the most important factors influencing the price, while our findings have practical implications for buyers and sellers in assessing the value of vehicles. At the same time, the insights gained from this study enable informed decision making and provide valuable guidance in the used car market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]