Romanian Employees’ Folk Theory on Work: A Qualitative Study

AbstractThe study explores folk theory on work culture as seen by Romanian employees (N=146). Semi-structured interviews have been conducted to find answers to the following questions: 1) Which are the main qualities and flaws of Romanian workers? 2) What distinguishes the Romanians by others in terms of working style? The results show that the main categories describing qualities of Romanian working style are hardworking, cleverness, multitasking and creativity, while the main flaws are: “sloppy work”, lack of discipline, laziness and multi-qualification. The findings are discussed in the light of within-culture approach, along with limitations and directions for future research

How a Book Changed a Nation [2022]

“We don’t believe in vampires.” I didn’t bother to turn away from the TV to look at my parents. On screen, a crew of young men were interviewing an old woman. She spoke only Romanian, and a too-perfect female voice spoke for her in English. I could see the confident fear in her expression as she exclaimed that vampires were indeed real and that she was always scared of them. She wasn’t alone. All of Transylvania were aware of the existence of vampires. Truly, these young men— ghost hunters and cryptologists—were right to come here to this haunted nation. The crew moved to Bran Castle, home of the infamous Count Dracula. It was time to look for vampiric activity. If they were lucky, perhaps they would even find the ghost of cruel Dracula himself. They stumbled down the halls at night with candles to guide them. “Vlad Ţepeş (a.k.a. Dracul) was a king of a different Romanian kingdom. He stayed no more than three days in Bran Castle, if any,” my mother said. At that, my attention was split. What did my parents mean by saying that Dracula—the Dracula—didn’t actually live at Bran Castle (or, as I and so many lovingly called it, “Dracula’s Castle”)? “Vampires are not even Romanian.” My worldview on what I thought vampires were ended at that moment. As a first generation American to two Romanian-born immigrants (Transylvanian ones to boot), I thought I knew enough about “real” vampires even without being a vampire aficionado. I knew that Bram Stoker’s Dracula is what made Transylvania so memorable. Was it all a lie

c-axis Raman Scattering in MgB2: Observation of a Dirty-Limit Gap in the pi-bands

Raman scattering spectra from the ac-face of thick MgB2 single crystals were measured in zz, xz and xx polarisations. In zz and xz polarisations a threshold at around 29 cm^{-1} forms in the below Tc continuum but no pair-breaking peak is seen, in contrast to the sharp pair-breaking peak at around 100 cm^{-1} seen in xx polarisation. The zz and xz spectra are consistent with Raman scattering from a dirty superconductor while the sharp peak in the xx spectra argues for a clean system. Analysis of the spectra resolves this contradiction, placing the larger and smaller gap magnitudes in the sigma and pi bands, and indicating that relatively strong impurity scattering is restricted to the pi bands.Comment: Revised manuscript accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Dynamics of Biostructures on a Fractal/Multifractal Space-Time Manifold

A theory of space-time is built on a fractal/multifractal variety. Thus, considering that both the spatial coordinates and the time are fractal/multifractal, it is shown that both the energy and the non-differentiable mass of any biostructure depend on both the “state” of the biostructure and a speed limit of constant value. For the dynamics on Peano fractal/multifractal curves and Compton scale resolutions, it is shown that our results are reduced to those of Einstein relativity. In such a context, it has been shown that the “chameleon effect” of cholesterol corresponds to the HDL-LDL state transfer dictated by the spontaneous symmetry breaking through a fractal/multifractal tunnel effect. Then both HDL and LDL become distinct states of the same biostructure as in nuclear physics where proton and neutron are distinct states of the same nucleon

Ratchet Cellular Automata

In this work we propose a ratchet effect which provides a general means of performing clocked logic operations on discrete particles, such as single electrons or vortices. The states are propagated through the device by the use of an applied AC drive. We numerically demonstrate that a complete logic architecture is realizable using this ratchet. We consider specific nanostructured superconducting geometries using superconducting materials under an applied magnetic field, with the positions of the individual vortices in samples acting as the logic states. These devices can be used as the building blocks for an alternative microelectronic architecture.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure