An End to Manels: Closing the Gender Gap at Europes Top Policy Events

The number of women who speak at key policy-shaping conferences across Europe is far below that of their male peers. Looking at five years of high-level conferences in Europe, this report finds that a woman has only one opportunity to speak for every three times a man speaks.The situation is not improving, but it can. Two conferences of the 23 conferences included in the report have shown that, with a concerted effort, they can drastically increase the number of female speakers and move toward gender parity. The onus is now on governments, businesses, and conference organizers to ensure they are sending and receiving representative delegations at these events.Conference organizers are the gatekeepers to the stage. This is a big responsibility. They make decisions about who will have the opportunity to share their views with heads of state, policymakers, and business leaders. Journalists report the statements of these speakers to audiences around the world. Prioritizing gender balance over seniority can stop help counter inequality in our societies by allowing women a fair say on policy and allowing female role models to come to the fore

Romanian Aromatic and Medicinal Plants: From Tradition to Science

From ancient times, plants have been used by humans for food, fodder, fibre and medicinal purposes. Several plants were empirically considered as treatments for a large array of illness and medical conditions. Each community had specific natural remedies, based on the geographical area, environmental conditions and other factors. Thus, the use of plants can be considered as part of the intangible cultural heritage of each community. In the geographical area of today’s Romania, the ancient inhabitants, Dacians, had very good knowledge regarding the use of plants for medicinal purposes, as presented by several historical sources. The present work describes protocols for the extraction and purification of natural extracts, analytical characterisation, in vitro and in vivo evaluation of their potential applications as well as some practical examples of their application on selected Romanian native medicinal and aromatic plants. The presented results offer scientific support to their traditional use, suggesting in the same time some modern applications, for example in the nanotechnology field

A NEW APPROACH FOR THE REMEDIATION OF BIODETERIORATED MOBILE AND IMMOBILE CULTURAL ARTEFACTS

Abstract Mould affects mobile and immobile cultural artefacts often causing irreparable damage. Fungi (particularly Aspergillus sp. that was found to be the most common and harmful species) affects a large variety of support materials, from buildings, ceramics, wood and paper to textile, paintings (mural or on canvas) and even metals. In order to preserve the cultural heritage objects, adequate conservation treatments are required. In the last decades, the main objective of the scientist working in this domain was the development of new treatments for the remediation of biodeterioration using either synthetic nanostructured, microstructured materials or natural extracts. The present paper objective is to show our own vision regarding the remediation of biodeteriorated mobile and immobile cultural artefacts. Based on our previous experience and on the results that will be presented the most promising synthetic materials are the hydroxides of alkaline earth metals as well as hydroxyapatite and its derivative compounds (the antibacterial and antifungal effect of hydroxyapatite being well-known). These preliminary results allow us to hope that in the near future some well defined methods involving the above materials will be applied for the remediation of artefacts biodeterioration

ON QUALITY IN THE PREUNIVERSITY EDUCATION - A PREREQUISITE FOR IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF FUTURE GENERATIONS

Regarding „Quality in education”, respectively about ARACIP a lot of misconceptions are circulating: that entangles the educational process, that is „form without substance”, „it buries us in papers” (opinions of teachers, school managers and, sometimes, local representatives). It is often overlooked the fact that the institution mentioned above does not claims from schools any documents, just checks compliance and enforcement of the current legislation, by measuring in the same time the satisfaction of direct and indirect beneficiaries of education. Quality in education (whit its complex principles and practices crossing the entire educational environment) it is mainly oriented towards achieving results, reference to standards and meeting the needs and the expectations of education beneficiaries. Thus, quality in education represents a desideratum, necessary not only for alignment to national and European standards, but also to provide a fair start in life for young student, contributing to the increase of the quality of life of our future generations

Analytical Methods Helping the Archaeologists: Archaeometry

Very important objects of cultural heritage are material objects and objects of art produced by all communities. The physical and mechanical properties of material culture are always of prime concern to archaeometry and science-based archaeology. The preservation of material culture for future generations with the best possible fidelity requires in-depth knowledge, to aid the most suitable restoration, conservation, storage, and eventual museum display. A wise utilization of modern methods of chemical analysis is a significant element of research studies into such objects providing information on the most suitable methods of their restoration and conservation. There is wide enthusiasm among conservators and curators for the application of analytical tools to enhance the management of collections. Modern chemical analysis offers numerous methods and measuring techniques which can be employed for archaeometric purposes. This paper is a short overlook to the analytical methods currently applied in archaeometry, as well as our own group experience concerning this subject

Archaeometrical Characterization of Romanian Late Bronze Age Ceramic Fragments

Knowledge of the past can provide information to protect the future and the potential of the technological development in the analytical sciences can be successfully applied for the study and conservation of cultural objects. In this context, in the present paper we propose an analytical methodology to characterize seven samples of ancient ceramic objects (dating to the Late Bronze Age). The samples were analyzed using optical microscopy, and all the samples presented a strong inhomogeneity on the surface, as suggested by the different colors of the ceramics. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) results reveal a relatively heterogenous composition of the samples, as well as strong differences between the different surfaces of each sample. By comparative analysis of the diffractograms recorded for both sides of the same samples were observed some differences, especially in terms of relative concentration of the component minerals, and, in lesser content, in terms of new phases present in the samples. Corroborated results obtained by XRF and X-ray diffraction (XRD) offered information regarding mineralogical composition of the samples: for some of them illite/muscovite and plagioclase phases are present in higher quantities or a lower quartz content. The presence of these components was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The thermal analysis completes the analytical investigation of the ceramic samples. The thermal behavior of the sample conducted to some explanation regarding the observed differences, due to the raw materials (that the major clay mineral in the samples is represented by illite) or to environmental factors during their burial in the soil

TITANIUM FUNCTIONALIZING AND DERIVATIZING FOR IMPLANTABLE MATERIALS OSSEOINTEGRATION PROPERTIES ENHANCING

The article focuses on titanium functionalizing and derivatizing reactions for implantable materials osseointegration properties enhancing. Thus, the titanium dioxide was activated to the titanium hydroxide (functionalization), being further immobilized on the titanium surface by ethanolamine covalent reactions and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTS) for the osseointegration membranes reactive coating. The derivatizing was based on ether forming reactions between hydroxyl group from the titanium hydroxide surface and the ethanolamine hydroxyl groups and hydrolyzed APTS respectively. The obtained materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, FT-IR infrared spectroscopy, contact angle and X-Ray fluorescence

Selected Aspects Regarding the Restoration/Conservation of Traditional Wood and Masonry Building Materials: A Short Overview of the Last Decade Findings

Vernacular buildings are usually constructed using materials at hand, including wood, natural stone and bricks (either clay or mud bricks). All those materials are exposed to a series of environmental factors, affecting their structure and integrity. The literature review was conducted using different databases (Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink) using as keywords the historical material, “heritage” and the terms regarding the desired effect, within the envisaged time period (2010–2019). The assessment of the results was performed by manual inspection (reading the entire article) and the selection of the works to be inserted in the current review was made by evaluating the contribution to the field. This review summarizes different aspects related to the restoration and conservation of wooden and masonry elements of traditional buildings, including materials used for biocidal interventions, protection against abiotic factors, cleaning and consolidation agents. Finally, a critical discussion regarding the current limitations and future perspectives concludes the review work, envisaging the role of researchers specialized in materials science in the context of cultural heritage conservation