Rhetorical Critic's Role and Mission in Communication

AbstractThe Classical Greco-Roman rhetoric is considered to be the humanist basis of the Western cultures. This study aims to highlight the importance of the rhetorical tradition in the study of human communication. Rhetorical criticism of the communication sciences is one of the main approaches to qualitative textual analysis. In a meta-theoretic approach our work tries to establish the specific rhetorical criticism as a qualitative, interpretative and subjective discourse research method in our contemporary communicative society. We argue that the teacher who teaches his students rhetorical criticism provides a range of methodological and educational clues such as: understanding other people, clarification of the values, aesthetic appeal, community consensus and changing of the society. After all, the rhetorical critic's role is to internalize and propose a humanist alternative opposed to the dominant objective paradigm. Rhetorical critic's mission is to come up with his own discursive voice which is meant to communicate about the contemporary social and political challenges. In the spirit of the methodological pluralism we consider that in the field of communication, the practitioners of quantitative and qualitative methods should enjoy recognition and mutual respect

ECONOMIC ELEMENTS REGARDING THE STEEL COST PRODUCTION COUNTING

Our article features the elements that make up the cost of production. The economic activity implies a consumption of factors followed-up by products expressed in goods or services. In the first part of the article, we have defined and detailed the cost of production. In the second part we have calculated the cost of the production of one tone of low alloyed steel with vanadium. The prices for the components of cost production have been established within, Tenaris site, located in Calarasi county, Romania

How to Teach Paragraph Writing in a Foreign Language

AbstractWriting paragraphs in a foreign language is a very complex exercise, which implies not only knowledge from various fields, but also written expression abilities, as well as intellectual qualities. This exercise has many advantages: it allows the teacher and/or the students to treat all kinds of subjects, forces the students to enrich their cultural background, to improve their written expression abilities, to treat the subject in a rational way in order to obtain a logical paragraph. This work aims to present the advantages this exercise has in the professional development of future translators (1st year students studying Romanian-French/French-Romanian translation), as well as the methods they are taught to use in order to obtain coherent and cohesive paragraphs

The EntreComp certificate project – a bridge between school education and the world of work

The article is based on the EntreComp Certificate project (Erasmus+ Programme - 2019-UK01-KA201-062076) as it is being developed within a partnership of educational (universities and schools) and IT institutions and organizations from the United Kingdom, Romania, France, Italy and Cyprus. The EntreComp Certificate project focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship in social and economic development and individual growth nowadays. The project relies on the EntreComp Framework established by the European Union; it aims to enhance Europe’s entrepreneurial potential by supporting individuals to acquire and develop the skills and the key competencies detailed in the EntreComp Framework. The article presents the project’s objectives, methodology and main outputs. The study gives insights into how the partnership adapted the EntreComp Framework to meet teachers’ needs and enable them to use the EntreComp Framework in their school contexts. To this end, an e-learning platform was created. Its suggested activities and guidance curriculum are meant to enable educators to develop and then assess the fifteen competences of the EntreComp Framework that their students acquired in their activities at Intermediate and Advanced Levels

Cortisol and Oxytocin Could Predict Covert Aggression in Some Psychotic Patients

Background: The covert or indirect type of aggression has a risk of converting in violent acts and, considering that, it is very important to identify it in order to apply effective preventive measures. In cases of psychotic patients, the risk of becoming violent is harder to predict, as even neuter stimuli may be perceived as threat and trigger aggression. Treating all the psychiatric patients as potential aggressive subjects is not the best preventive measure as only a few of them are aggressive and this measure may further enhance the stigma on mentally ill patients. There is a current need for better understanding of covert aggression and to find objective measures, such as biological markers, that could be indicative of potential violent behavior. In this work, we try to investigate the role of cortisol and oxytocin as potential biomarkers of aggression in patients with psychosis. Material and Methods: We analyzed the level of peripheral oxytocin (pg/mL) and cortisol level (ng/mL) in 28 psychotic patients (they were not on psychotropic treatment at the moment of admission and those with substance abuse or personality disorder were excluded from the study) and correlated it with the intensity of aggression reported by the patient (overt and covert type) using the Overt Covert Aggression Inventory and the level of observed aggression of the patient in the past 7 days (rated by the health care provider) using the Modified Overt Aggression Scale. Results: We found that psychotic patients with a higher level of covert aggression had a lower level of cortisol (61.05 ± 8.04 ng/mL vs. 216.33 ± 12.6.9 ng/mL, p ˂ 0.01) and a higher level of oxytocin (102.87 ± 39.26 vs. 70.01 ± 25.07, p = 0.01) when compared with patients with a lower level of covert aggression. Furthermore, we observed significant negative correlation between cortisol and covert aggression (r = −0.676, p < 0.001) and between oxytocin and covert type of aggression (r = 0.382, p = 0.04). Moreover, we found that a lower level of cortisol together with a higher level of oxytocin are significant predictors of a style of internalized manifestation of aggression, with the predictive model explaining 55% of the variant of the internalized manifestation of aggression (F (2.25) = 17.6, p < 0.001, β = 0.35, R2 = 55.2). We did not find significant correlations between cortisol and overt aggression, and neither between oxytocin and overt aggression. Positive correlations were also found between the overt type of self-reported aggression and overt aggression reported by the rater (r = 0.459, p = 0.01). Conclusions: The importance of a predictive model in understanding covert aggression is imperative and the results of our study show that oxytocin and cortisol warrant to be further investigated in establishing a definitive predictive model for covert aggression

Particularities regarding Clinical-biological and Evolutive Parameters of Immune-mediated Rheumatic Diseases in Patients with COVID-19 – systematic literature review

Background: Since its outbreak in 2019, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)/Severe Acu-te Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was a serious medical threat and was declared Global Pandemic, triggering fear, panic and uncertainty for people around the Globe. Among those individuals, there is a specific category of patients – the ones with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases (IMIDs) – whose mantra from the diagnosis was to avoid infections at all costs because of the additional negative impact on the immune sys-tem and overall reactivity. Objective: Considering the aforementioned, our objective is to understand the in-depth relation of the immune system of patients with IMIDs in the set-ting of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the real bur-den of the disease and vaccination against COVID-19. Materials and Methods: In this res-pect, we have conducted a thoroughly systematic literature review according to the “Prefer-red Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)” concept. Following its five-steps algorithm, we first selected 745 articles that were published in re-putable international medical databases, ISI-indexed, for the period 1 January, 2021–31 December, 2022. After consequent elimination of duplicates, of articles that were not En-glish-written and “open access” and then applying PEDro classification/scoring-inspired, only 58 articles were selected for in-depth full qualitative reading. In the last stage,20 arti-cles were “excluded with reasons”, because they didn’t offer significant information. The-refore, in our systematic literature review, 38 articles were included.Results: In the data gathered in this review we described the molecular pathways of activation of the immune system triggered by COVID-19, with significance on the clinical and paraclinical aspects of IMID patients infected with the new Coronavirus. Patients with IMIDs are at higher risk for hospitalization if diagnosed with SARS-CoV2 and more prone to severe outcomes and death. Risk factors associated with severe outcomes and death are: age, comorbidities, un-derlying disease activity, therapies used (“the good” being anti-tumor necrosis factor α, “the bad” – Methotrexate, Sulfasalazine, Azathioprine and “the ugly” – anti CD20 mono-clonal antibodies). There were several reports of flares and new-onset of IMIDs after CO-VID-19 and after vaccination against this disease, but data from larger studies and registri-es do not confirm higher incidence of flare-ups or new-onset IMIDs. Regarding vaccination, of mounting importance is the timing between immunomodulatory and immunosuppres-sive agents and the administration of the vaccine. And last but not the least, we discussed about Long COVID and the role of artificial intelligence in the pandemic and related-drug development. Discussion and Conclusion: The data in our systematic literature review is consistent with the expertise from our clinical practice. This article is the first part of the doctoral study that is centralized on the same topics, with the current objective of deepe-ning the knowledge about the intersection of COVID-19/SARS-CoV2 and immune-mediated rheumatic diseases and a future objective: to compare information we have synthetized here with our database of almost 170 Romanian patients with a IMID and COVID-19/SARS-CoV2. The next objective is to extend the study to a multicenter control one

Perinatal and 2-year neurodevelopmental outcome in late preterm fetal compromise: the TRUFFLE 2 randomised trial protocol

Introduction: Following the detection of fetal growth restriction, there is no consensus about the criteria that should trigger delivery in the late preterm period. The consequences of inappropriate early or late delivery are potentially important yet practice varies widely around the world, with abnormal findings from fetal heart rate monitoring invariably leading to delivery. Indices derived from fetal cerebral Doppler examination may guide such decisions although there are few studies in this area. We propose a randomised, controlled trial to establish the optimum method of timing delivery between 32 weeks and 36 weeks 6 days of gestation. We hypothesise that delivery on evidence of cerebral blood flow redistribution reduces a composite of perinatal poor outcome, death and short-term hypoxia-related morbidity, with no worsening of neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years. Methods and analysis: Women with non-anomalous singleton pregnancies 32+0 to 36+6 weeks of gestation in whom the estimated fetal weight or abdominal circumference is &lt;10th percentile or has decreased by 50 percentiles since 18-32 weeks will be included for observational data collection. Participants will be randomised if cerebral blood flow redistribution is identified, based on umbilical to middle cerebral artery pulsatility index ratio values. Computerised cardiotocography (cCTG) must show normal fetal heart rate short term variation (≥4.5 msec) and absence of decelerations at randomisation. Randomisation will be 1:1 to immediate delivery or delayed delivery (based on cCTG abnormalities or other worsening fetal condition). The primary outcome is poor condition at birth and/or fetal or neonatal death and/or major neonatal morbidity, the secondary non-inferiority outcome is 2-year infant general health and neurodevelopmental outcome based on the Parent Report of Children's Abilities-Revised questionnaire. Ethics and dissemination: The Study Coordination Centre has obtained approval from London-Riverside Research Ethics Committee (REC) and Health Regulatory Authority (HRA). Publication will be in line with NIHR Open Access policy. Trial registration number: Main sponsor: Imperial College London, Reference: 19QC5491. Funders: NIHR HTA, Reference: 127 976. Study coordination centre: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS with Centre for Trials Research, College of Biomedical &amp; Life Sciences, Cardiff University. IRAS Project ID: 266 400. REC reference: 20/LO/0031. ISRCTN registry: 76 016 200

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049