The Position of Father Dumitru Staniloae on the Theophanies and Marian Apparitions of His Times

During the interwar period, as well as the communist dictatorship, a number of miraculous apparitions occurred in Romania "“ both theophanies and Marian apparitions. They generated "spiritual awakening" movements among the members of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Such instances were the visions of shepherd Petre Lupu of Maglavit (1935), the visions of Mother Veronica of Vladimirești Monastery (1937), and those of sister Virginia, respectively, which resulted in the establishment of the "New Jerusalem" Monastery at Pucioasa (1955). Like similar phenomena within the Roman-Catholic world, theophanies and Marian apparitions in Romania divided the lay and ecclesiastic elites by generating divergent opinions. This study presents the position of Father Dumitru Stăniloae on these unusual phenomena and their adherents. It is a very difficult issue, generally avoided by theological research as it presupposes a nuanced interpretation, like the one offered by the great theologian on the grounds of his vast erudition and deep theological insights, as well as his personal religious experience. Keywords: Dumitru Staniloae, Theophanies, Marian Apparitions, Romanian Orthodox

Saint Basil the Great, Master of Philanthropy

The present study aims to highlight the concept of philanthropy in the writings of the Saint Basil the Great, the manner in which it was materialized during the lifetime of the Great Cappadocian Father and its relevance for the mission of the Orthodox Church in the contemporary society. Man as a social being and philanthropy as a result of the communion in love, following the Trinitarian model, are the main themes of Saint Basil"™s sermons. The study shows that the philanthropy-centered discourse of Saint Basil would not have any impact if it weren"™t reinforced by the personal example, when he shared to the poor all his wealth inherited from his parents and built a whole philanthropic complex on the outskirts of Caesarea. Regarding the importance of St. Basil's writings for the current life of the Church, the study points out that St. Basil was actively involved in the life of society and tried, with audacity and perseverance, to denounce and correct its inequalities. In so doing, he proved to be a leader of the Church whose spiritual, administrative, and moral authority was so great that it could no longer be ignored or challenged by the authority of the state.  Keywords: Saint Basil the Great, Christian philanthropy, social welfare, history of the Christian Churc

MANAGEMENTUL DE PROIECT IN DOMENIUL CONSTRUCTIILOR, IN CONTEXTUL ECONOMIEI BAZATE PE CUNOSTINTE

Natura specifica a proiectelor de constructii determina necesitatea acumularii de experienta si cunostinte pentru membrii echipelor de proiect din cadrul oricarei organizatii din acest sector. De cele mai multe ori esecuri sau probleme aparute in proiectele Incheiate sunt "lectii invatate" pentru proiecte curente si viitoare . Un rol important in schimbul de cunostinte intre membrii echipei de proiect il au sedintele de monitorizare a proiectului.proiecte de constructii, schimb de cunostinte, echipa de proiect

e-Participation Platform for Facilitating Citizens Involvement in Smart City Initiatives

The increase in the world population and the massive migration of the population to the urban area give rise to new problems difficult to manage by the government and local authorities. In order to maintain or enhance the quality of life while increasing the number of residents, ITC technologies can be used to implement Smart City projects for the benefit of communities. A large number of citizens feel a sense of commitment to their local area and have the desire to engage in activities to improve the quality of life. E-Participation refers to the involvement of citizens in e-government processes. This paper presents the design and development of a platform for citizen participation in Smart City initiatives, whose primary purpose is to facilitate interaction between the citizen and the authority to identify and establish Smart City projects of priority interest to the community

Prenatal Diagnosis of Bovine Aortic Arch Anatomic Variant

Fetal aortic arch development is an early and complex process that depends on many genetic and environmental factors. The final aortic arch varies greatly; it may take the form of a normal arch, anatomic variant (AAAV) with a common origin to that of the innominate artery and left common carotid artery (formerly known as “bovine aortic arch” (with an incidence of up to 27%)) or one of multiple pathological conditions. The present study aimed to establish the feasibility and impact of prenatal anatomic arch variants’ diagnosis. A retrospective study of 271 fetal second- and third-trimester anomaly scans was performed in our tertiary center. Examinations that evaluated the sagittal aortic arch were included and the branching pattern was assessed. Additionally, a literature data search based on the terms “common origin of innominate artery and left common carotid artery”, “bovine arch”, “bovine aortic” and “aortic arch anomalies” was performed. Results that referred to prenatal AAAV were retained and the papers evaluated. In our study, the AAA incidence was 1.93%, with 4 out of 5 cases being arch type B. All cases had minor associated conditions but a good postnatal outcome. An anatomic aortic variant with a common IA and LCCa prenatal diagnosis was found in a small number of studies; most of the cases described in pediatric and adult series were related to cardiac surgery for stenting, aneurysm or thoracic-associated diseases. The incidence of AAAV varied from 6 to 27% depending on the population studied (highest incidence in African individuals). The variant was highly associated with aortic dissection, pulmonary and cerebral embolism and increased risks of incidents during surgery. Diagnosing AAAV during a routine anatomic scan is feasible and diagnoses can be made when anomaly scans are performed. Awareness of the condition is important for postnatal surgery when other cardiac anomalies are found; this can prevent accidents with simple changes to the patient’s lifestyle, and, in the case of surgery, means we can adopt the correct surgical approach

Automated Code Testing System for Bug Prevention in Web-based User Interfaces

Automation in testing user interfaces is a prerequisite for overcoming the major weaknesses of manual testing, such as time consumption, not being able to reproduce the sequence that generates a bug or the tendency to repeat only the successful steps. Continuous testing represents an important step in the agile software development cycle because any features and changes added to the code need to be checked before their propagation to production environment. Manually testing is a resource and time-consuming process thus the solution would be to make the entire workflow from committing a change to publishing a new release completely automated. The solution proposed within this paper is a framework for automated code testing and bug prevention that relies on Selenium, a framework supporting also headless testing, integrated with a Continuous Integration (CI) server such as Jenkins

Endoscopic treatment in carpal tunnel syndrome: a case study in Bucharest – Romania

Background. Carpal tunnel syndrome is currently the most common peripheral nerve compression neuropathy that affects approximately 1% of the population. The incidence of CTS seems to be increasing. The diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms and electrodiagnostic studies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of the endoscopic technique on patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. In addition, we want to demonstrate if this condition occurs more in men than in women. Methods. In a group of 53 patients we used the endoscopic technique for the treatment of carpal syndrome, and as a measure of its effectiveness we used the Phalen, Durken and Tinel tests. Also, for the qualitative analysis of the data, the clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients were taken into account. Results. We identified statistically significant differences between men and women regarding the occurrence of carpal syndrome, women having significantly lower results than men in the Phalen, Durken and Tinel tests (X2Phalen(2) =17.33, X2Durken(2) =15.94, X2Tinel(2) =10.76, p<0.05). There are statistically significant differences between the results of the Phalen, Durken and Tinel tests before and after surgery (WPhalen=111.24, WDurken=139.91, WTinel=102.46, p<0.05)

Aspects Regarding the Atmosphere Pollution Monitoring

This paper presents information regarding the variation of aerosols concentration in a central area in Galati city. For a period of time of 2 years and 5 months, there have been done correlations between aerosols concentrations with grading classes and the dominant wind directions (E-W, N-NW~S-SE, S~N, N~NE~S-SW). The results of the measurements are particular for only a point in time, being influenced by random variables (traffic intensity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, humidity etc.)