Giving meaning to identities. A case-study for the Romanian Banat region

This research is focussed on the ethnic identities from Banat maintained till nowadays under different cultural forms. Identity starts from the feeling of ‘social space’, with a specific language for each ethnic group and a specific culture evolving through time. These local ethnic identities have determined the appearance of a regional identity. A questionnaire was launched among over 500 students and many interviews were conducted, reaching the conclusion that the spirit of ‘banaţean’native of Banat) is still alive among young people, albeit with a lower. Politically, local actors participate in projects to maintain regional identity, while at the central government level seem to embrace the Banat cultural identity.ethnic and regional identity, cultural symbols, Banat, Romania

Designing the Garden of Geddes: The master gardener and the profession of landscape architecture

The influence of Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) on the landscape architecture profession has been widely acknowledged, but there is no critical review of the nature of this influence on theory and practice. Geddes appears to have been the first person in Britain to adopt the term landscape architect to denote a profession in the American sense as someone who dealt with city planning, civic design and parks systems. This profession seemed to encompass his wide ranging interests, providing a suitable vehicle for his transdisciplinary approaches, but which he later transferred to that of town and regional planning. His approach to understanding landscapes was to study towns and regions from a cultural, ecological and economic perspective in a systematic way of survey, analysis and design. Geddes’s methods were gradually adopted by the landscape architecture profession, and purely Beaux Arts-architectural approaches phased out. By tracing contemporary references, this paper highlights key individuals who helped to promote his ideas in the landscape architecture profession then and now, and shows how his enduring influence and longstanding impact have to do with the systematic approach and methods he set forth. Today similar approaches are being promoted by other professions, but with a different perspective, and suggests that rather than various disciplines setting up silos, trying to defend their territories, with climate change and food security looming it is timely to promote more integrated approaches. This is well in line with Geddes’s ideas who not only encouraged interdisciplinarity, but also warned against inadvertent specialisation

Computer Math Games vs. Paper-based Intervention Games: Effects on Addition Fact Fluency for Second Grade Students

The purpose of this action research project is to investigate the ability of computer math games versus paper-based intervention games for improving addition fact fluency. Fact fluency is the ability to answer math facts quickly and accurately. The participants were twenty-one second grade students in a transitional kindergarten through eighth grade private school in a rural setting. Of the twenty-one students, two instructional groups were created through stratified sampling and random selection. One group used computer math games to improve addition fact fluency. The other group played paper-based intervention games to increase their addition fact fluency. The two groups participated ten minutes each day for four weeks in addition to their regular whole group math instruction. The study will use quantitative methods. After the four weeks intervention, the results indicated that students who utilized paper-based games demonstrated the most growth in fact fluency

Risk stratification in transposition of the great arteries

This thesis focused on multiple markers to predict clinical complications in adults with transposition of the great arteries after an atrial switch operation. These adults are at high risk of late complications including heart failure, arrhythmias, and premature mortality. In this thesis, we presented the first risk model that provides estimates of absolute risk of these major clinical events. Second, we showed that the use of novel markers, such as myocardial deformation and common genetic variants, can improve risk stratification over the use of basic clinical risk factors alone. Third, studies into the use of medication in adults with congenital heart disease showed that many patients use a multitude of cardiovascular drugs, even though the evidence that supports the use of these drugs is low. Lastly, studies into the genetic architecture of transposition of the great arteries and its late clinical complications provide insights in the molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms that are potentially involved in the occurrence of the congenital defect and its clinical course

Truth, history and representation in Margaret Atwoods' Alias Grace

Bibliography: leaves 53.In the Introduction of this minor dissertation, Margaret Atwood as a post-modern writer and her interest in fictional autobiographies are considered, particularly with regard to memory, the formation of self-identity and amnesia. Parallels are drawn between Surfacing and Cat's Eye as fictional works. and Alias Grace, which is based on the life of a historical person. The novel Alias Grace alternates between first- and third-person accounts, and reflects Atwood's preoccupation with narrative techniques. The definition of post-modernism is regarded, as well as Atwood's own acknowledgements in her ""Author's Afterword"" on how she proceeds to write this fictional autobiography. Her focus on mental illnesses is given perspective in a brief discussion on different sorts of memory loss. These manifestations affect the concept of truth, which is explored in the first section of the dissertation. This section draws on the unreliability of Grace's first-person accounts and the question of whether she is fabricating the truth or has simply forgotten crucial moments of her past. The reader is also constantly made aware that Grace attempts to ensure better conditions for herself in the penitentiary, and she will therefore not disclose any information that might be damaging to her character. That which she discloses partly depends on her relationship in terms of trust with Doctor Jordan. A few episodes where Grace loses consciousness are reviewed, as well as instances where she exposes her literary background and her ability to change words or ideas in texts that she has read. It is concluded at the end of the first section that the truth eludes the reader. With this in mind, it is examined in the second section that the issue of truth is complicated, and even undermined, by the gender and class inequity of the patriarchal society in which Grace, Mary and Nancy are instrumentalised and exploited. The relationship between Grace and Mary is explored in order to demonstrate the happy memories that are relevant in Grace's present, where her past remains illusive. The reader is also drawn into these cheerful experiences, and takes Mary's presence for granted until the neuro-hypnotic seance, during which Grace's double consciousness is revealed. Her 'friend' Mary is exposed as a facet of Grace's own personality. Class oppression is explored further through the characters of Nancy and Mrs Humphrey, who are trapped in a vicious circle that Grace escapes by engaging in the creative activity of quilt-making. In this way she is able to express her solidarity with Mary and Nancy as victims of patriarchal injustice. In the Conclusion an overview of the question of truth is given and it is demonstrated how truth is inseparable from the issues of class and gender relations. The lack of traditional closure in Alias Grace is explored briefly. Grace's camaraderie and solidarity with her two friends, as well as her retelling of the Biblical account of the Garden of Eden through her tapestry work, is shown to be a transgressive agency that marks the greater significance of the novel