Ecotourism as a community industry. Case study: Transylvanian Saxon communities with fortified churches

L’écotourisme comme une industrie communautaire. Etude de cas: les villages allemands de Transylvanie avec des églises fortifiées. Il y a plus de 700 ans Transylvanie possède une grande civilisation allemande qui a amélioré la vie et la technologie des communautés autochtones. Ils sont ceux qui construisent le plus grand territoire du monde avec des églises fortifiées, plus de 200 dans un habitat relativement petit (notamment les collines de Hârtibaciu). Les activités touristiques sont là au début et les communautés des Saxons sont très sensibles, voici pourquoi il faut construire un tourisme durable qui met en évidence les caractéristiques des villages saxons. Une réponse pour cette démarche est l’écotourisme qui, avec ses caractéristiques intrinsèques, peut bien aider les communautés allemandes de Transylvanie en croissant notamment leur niveau de vie

Contributions to geosites perception in the Iron Gates touristic area based on some in situ analyses

Geosites are relief forms with a scientific, aesthetical, ecological, economical, and cultural value, in respect of human perception, that completes the total heritage of a given territory. In the last decade, those geosites were strongly related with the touristic phenomenon. This paper presents an empirical study about some most important geosites of the Danube defile in Romania. The point of view from which the analyze is made concerns the opinions of the tourists presented here in the summer of 2011. Consequently, we have made practically 105 questionnaires in situ and we have extracted some of the special questions among them. The results indicate the tourists’ opinions about the actual touristic phenomenon in the Danube defile

Une proposition de circuit géotouristique avec un guide des Gorges du Danube en Roumanie

In the previous issue of this journal we published a research on the geo(morpho)logic characteristics of the Iron Gates in Romania and the existing issues regarding a study of geosites. This time we tried to develop a geotourism circuit comprising some high value geosites. It should be mentioned that the proposed circuit is not part of any touristic offer, so it can be integrated immediately into local geotourism programs. This circuit is created to ameliorate the geotourism and to increase the overall tourist offer of Romanian Danube Gorges

En géographie, comme en science, l'original est lié avec l'originaire

De nos jours, les scientifiques doivent garder un relativisme intellectuel, combiné avec une plus forte relation des idées. On ne doit pas s’accrocher { une définition, { une terminologie sèche. Kierkegaard disait que le désir d’éviter les définitions c’est une preuve de tact. On ne doit pas s’esquiver de créer de nouvelles dimensions et nouvelles perspectives ; et, surtout, on ne doit pas oublier que l’original provient, indubitablement, de l’originaire aussi. La revue Cinq Continents encourage de telles perspectives et représente un lieu de la liberté de la pensée géographique

La recherche geographique des geosites: quelles perspectives?

The geographic research of geosites: what perspectives? The paper does not discuses about the term of geosite or its definitions. Those aspects are already well known for the scientific researchers. In the last years, some intense scientific activity was concerned to releasing papers which the main subject was the geosite and his derived terms: geomorphosite, geo-archeological sites etc. We can see a scientific boom around this notion. In those conditions it is necessarily to make a theoretical work with the scope to introduce the lecturer in the complexity and interdisciplinary properties of this research field. The paper starts with a short history of the development of the field and continues with his most important component: the geomorphologic site and some perspectives to valuing. Finally, we note that the anthropic monument can be analyzed as geosites too, and the best way to make a cartographic representation of geosites is to use the GIS solutions

Conception d'un prototype de machine Ultra-Haute Température (500°C)

International audienceLe papier présente les problématiques et les solutions adoptées pour construire le premier prototype d'un moteur électrique très compact doté de bobinages inorganiques capables de travailler en permanence à une température interne de l'ordre de 500°C. L'analyse des verrous technologiques qui empêchent de faire des machines très compactes à fort gradient de température interne montre que le principal verrou technologique est lié à la nature organique du Système d'Isolation Electrique (SIE). Le prototype de machine synchrone est construit autour de bobines inorganiques rigides montées sur les dents du stator. Ces bobines, testées à 500°C sont capables de résister aux surtensions provoquées par les fronts raides des convertisseurs MLI actuels

Clinical Evaluation of 11C-Met-Avid Pituitary Lesions Using a ZTE-Based AC Method

Pituitary tumours account for ~16% of central nervous system tumors and they are the second most frequently reported histology in this group. Due to their small size, pituitary surgery is challenging and precise lesion localization through imaging is therefore a critical factor for a successful outcome. Simultaneous positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging is well suited for lesion identification and localization but it requires accurate attenuation correction (AC) to ensure optimal positron emission imaging (PET) imaging. Atlas-based AC methods are often used for this purpose, as they overcome the difficulty of estimating bone tissue density with conventional MR sequences. However, atlas methods can only partially account for interpatient variability. The goal of this paper was to investigate whether direct bone measurement, by means of a zero echo time MR sequence, can significantly improve the accuracy of pituitary tumor imaging with PET

Effect of severe corrosion upon natural frequencies of beam-like structures

Corrosion, as the spontaneous process of material degradation produced by the environment, affects the reliability and safety of structures, both by reducing the section of the components, due to material loss and by diminution of the materials mechanical strength. The authors have found a mathematical relation between discontinuities in beams and changes of its natural frequencies and developed a method to identify these discontinuities. The present paper considers the more complex case of damage determined by corrosion, where beam thinning is accompanied by mass decrease. These impose considering natural frequency changes in both directions: decrease due damage and increase because of mass loss. FEM simulations and analytical investigations were carried out, in order to find the relation between mass change in different positions along the beam and the frequency increase. The results were correlated with the “classical” relation describing frequency decrease because of discontinuities. Finally, the authors developed a new relation, proper to be used for damage produced by severe corrosion, which was validated by laboratory experiments