SOME NOTES ON BALKAN ROMANI

The paper presents the formation of some grammatical categories in Romani, spoken by some Roma groups in Balkan countries. Romani, belonging to Indo-Arian languages, preserves some of the grammatical system form Indian languages, however there are grammatical categories which are developed throughout the centuries due to the contacts of Romani with European languages. A group of dialects, being in contact with Romanian language developed grammatical features which the other dialects of Romani do not have. These categories are developed by the use of old suffixes and prefixes in new combinations. From other side there are certain verbs which developed through the case system of Romani, which show how these verbs function in different cases

Knowledge of Romani language grammar

Objective. The paper examines knowledge of Romani grammatical categories among Roma children from Bulgaria and Slovakia between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Design. Roma children from Bulgaria and from Slovakia completed a psycholinguistic test in the Romani language. The test was developed for the first time in Europe to measure an individual’s knowledge of the Romani language (comprehension and production). The newly developed test measured comprehension of categories such as wh questions, wh complements, passive verbs and possessiveness. Results and discussion. The children’s knowledge is associated with two theories: the ecological theory of Ogbu (1978) and the integrative theory of child development (García Coll et al. 1996). Ogbu’s theory stresses the importance of children’s home culture in their development. According to the theory of García Coll and her collaborators, the family’s home environment and SES are important predictors of language development

Impact of Air Pollution and Outdoor Temperature on the Rate of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations

Background: Environmental pollution can be one of the main risk factors for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Aim: To study the relationship between air pollution, outdoor temperature and exacerbations of COPD. Materials and methods: COPD patients (n=1432) were followed up for one year. The levels of particulate matter up to 10 μm (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and outside temperatures were collected from the Environmental Agency database. Results: A total of 309 acute COPD exacerbations (AECOPD) were recorded in the analysis. The daily mean concentrations of PM10 were found to correlate significantly with the daily mean concentrations of NO2 and SO2 (ρ 0.34 and ρ 0.49, respectively; p=0.0001). The negative correlations between the daily mean temperature and the daily mean levels of PM10, NO2 and SO2 were also significant (ρ -0.44, ρ -0.11, and ρ -0.37, respectively; p=0.0001). The daily number of AECOPD correlated with the mean levels of PM10 in the previous six days (ρ 0.14; p=0.02) and the lower outdoor temperature (ρ -0.2; p=0.001). The negative correlation between the daily number of AECOPD and the mean daily temperature was stronger in days with levels of PM10 above 50 μg/m3 (ρ -0.3 p=0.02 vs. ρ -0.18 p= 0.01). Conclusion: Lower daily mean temperatures were associated with the levels of air pollutants. The level of PM10 correlated with the levels of the other air pollutants. The daily number of AECOPD was found to correlate weakly, but signifi cantly with the mean level of PM10 in the previous six days

Roma Undergraduates’ Personal Network in the Process of College Transition. A Social Capital Approach

Roma university students’ personal networks become unstable in the process of college transition. We describe the personal networks of these students using the model set up by Brandes et al. (in: Proceedings of the IEEE pacific visualization symposium (Pacific Vis’08), IEEE Computer Society Press, 2008) and analyse the identified groups utilizing the social capital approach. We mapped seventy-six students’ networks applying contact diary. Origin, host and fellow groups significantly differ in their composition; they provide different (‘bonding’ or ‘bridging’) type of resources, and their availability to the Roma students is also different. We found significant differences between the students in their tendency to rely on certain groups in the process of academic adjustment