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"Wikigender" and "Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation": Digital genres countering inequality and discrimination

Author(s): Michela Giordano / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2016

Launched on ‘International Women’s Day’ on 7 March 2008, Wikigender is a project created by the OECD Development Centre that aims to facilitate the exchange and improvement of knowledge on gender-related issues around the world. Girls: A No Ceilings Conversation was an event hosted on 17 April 2014 by the Clinton Foundation ‘No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project’, was designed to foster and advance progress for women and girls worldwide. The two projects are investigated here as new types of communication on the World Wide Web. The analysis tries to ascertain whether and to what extent the generic features and discursive strategies of the two new collaborative platforms contribute to the co-construction of information, the dissemination of knowledge and awareness, and the development of a participatory agenda (Jones 2008; Campagna, Garzone, Ilie and Rowley-Jolivet 2012) on themes related to gender as well as resistance to inequality and otherness. An examination of these two examples of on-line communication will entail a scrutiny of new digital genres (Yates, Orlikowski and Renneker 1997), of the genre-specific features of web communication (Gruber 2008), and of the democratizing impetus embedded in their discourse. Promoting the exchange and creation of information and increasing citizens’ access to it enables readers to simultaneously become users, writers and critics; it seems to be the new trend of new web-mediated forms of communication that is resulting in the ‘democratization’ (Fairclough 1992; 1995a; 1995b; 1998) of several types of discourse.

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"Young" Heart in "Old" Body. Experiences of Ageing from Older Persons' Perspective

Author(s): Zdenko Zeman,Marija Geiger Zeman / Language(s): English / Issue: 38/2015

Age is a social construct that should be analysed as a flexible, contextual category, while old age is subject to coding and interpreting that create different formal and informal concepts of old age. As a micro-social universe, a home for old and infirm persons functions as socio-cultural framework within which, by analysing the experiences of its beneficiaries, we established the existence of four dominant interpretations of old age: fatalist, affirmative, stoical and relativistic. This work is focused on the authentic voices of old persons and personal experiences of old age and ageing. Contextuality and variability (of the feeling) of age, articulately testified by those experiences, show that perceptions of old age and feeling of getting old decisively depend on a personal vision and interpretation of the experience, that need not be compatible with the actual chronological age.

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"Ковачница за мъже" или ... задължителната наборна казарма в представите на българина през Социализма

Author(s): Iliya Valev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 2/2014

One widespread proverb in Bulgaria, knowing some different versions, says that “Man, who did not passed conscription is not a man”, “A boy, who failed to enter military service is second-hand man”, “A man, who has not walked as a soldier knows nothing”. What exactly is conscription according to public understanding of Bulgarians? What attitudes have the society to compulsory conscription? Frontier of what is the portal on the military unit? These and other issues related to conscription during socialism will be explored.

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"Работа на себя": использование ресурсов промышленного предприятия в личных целях в позднюю советскую эпоху

Author(s): Olga Smolyak / Language(s): / Issue: 2/2014

This article focuses on the practice of "working for yourself" (rabota na sebia), which was common in the Soviet Union in the 1970s-1980s and entailed manufacturing and repairing household items during work hours, using factory resources.

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"Сибиряк": общность, национальность или "состояние души"?

Author(s): Alla Anisimova,Olga Echevskaya / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 3/2012

The concept of social identity is being reconsidered in the social sciences due to transformations undergone by (post)modern societites, such as globalization, localization, and the intensification of global migration. In the context, the Siberian identity (being "Sibiriak") is an interesting object of research for it reflects the cultural, political, and economic effects of globalization and localization, as well as transformations in individual self-perception. This paper demonstrates that Siberian identity is not only a personal matter but also a new type of social solidarity and political claim. In Russian, extended summary in English.

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#BreakingNews: konflikty bliskowschodnie w polskich mediach

Author(s): Katarzyna Prokopowicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 4/2018

The author studied the manner of depicting conflicts in the Middle East in articles published on Polish information portals in 2015-201; she also analysed photographs used in those articles and the contemporary technologies of portraying war.

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(Dia)logiczny horyzont doświadczenia edukacyjnego, społecznego i kulturowego

Author(s): Jaroslaw Gara / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2 (23)/2018

The category of educational, social and cultural experience is inseparably linked to the spaces of interpersonal contact. Such experience always finally finds its actual frame of reference in a space that is public (open). Public space, as the reverse of private space, implies direct contact between what is known and close and what is unknown and foreign. Thus the open character of public space by very definition requires recognition of what is expressed by the notions of inter-subjectivity and transparency of thought and action. In this context, the author discusses the dialogical attitudes through the category of Unquantifiability, while in turn the categories of intersubjectivity and transparency are considered from the perspective of Non-obviousness. Kategoria doświadczenia edukacyjnego, społecznego i kulturowego odsyła nas do międzyludzkiej przestrzeni styczności. Doświadczenie takie zawsze ostatecznie odnajduje swe rzeczywiste ramy odniesienia w przestrzeni, która ma charakter publiczny (otwarty). Przestrzeń publiczna jako odwrotność przestrzeni prywatnej zakłada zaś bezpośrednią styczność tego, co znane i bliskie z tym, co nieznane i obce. Otwarty charakter przestrzeni publicznej z założenia wymaga więc uznania tego, co wyraża się w racjach intersubiektywności i transparentności myślenia i działania. W tym też kontekście nastawienia dialogiczne rozpatruję przez pryzmat kategorii Niewymierności, z kolei samą intersubiektywność i transparentność rozpatruję przez pryzmat kategorii Nieoczywistości.

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180 години от рождението на Васил Левски – диалози за паметта и модели на иконизация

Липчева-Пранджева, Л. & Гетова, Е. (2018). Васил Левски. Из кривините на литературната иконография. София: Аз-буки

Author(s): Maria Panova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1/2019

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2017 EMERGENCE/DECLINE OF THE AD -TERRORISM PHENOMENON

Author(s): Nicoleta Annemarie MUNTEANU / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The activity of ad-terrorism, taking advantage of too easily influential media, is an active generator of negative feelings among the civilian population. 2017 was introduced on the list of time intervals for the most monstrous terrorist attacks, not because of countries such as Iraq, where 267 1446 dead, 1661 wounded and 12 abducted persons were executed, due to the over-mediation of attacks on the territory of European states such as the United Kingdom, which generated about 4% of the attacks by SI in 2017, but which represented the first media news media. Practically, the media is responsible for the gap created between helping, supporting and building security between the West and the Middle East through ignorance of massacres on the Asian continent and the outlook for the Muslim population in the area.

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A 4-WEEK PILOT STUDY INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING ON PULMONARY FUNCTION AND AEROBIC CAPACITY

Author(s): Gra?iela-Flavia DEAK,Iuliana Boros-Balint / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2017

Suited for both elite athletes and untrained individuals, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is an increasingly popular cardio respiratory training technique that involves repeated bouts of high intensity exercise alternated with short periods of rest. This study was aimed at investigating the effects of a 4-week HIIT program on pulmonary function and aerobic capacity in recreationally trained individuals. Participants were 11 students (8 males and 3 females), aged between 21 and 25 years. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a Control group (5 subjects) and an Experimental group (6 subjects). Participants from the Experimental group trained 3 times per week, for a period of 4 weeks, performing HIIT with their own bodyweight. The exercises chosen for the training sessions were Burpees, squat jumps, push-ups, lunge jumps, mountain climbers, tuck jumps, planks, etc. Prior and post training protocol, all subjects effectuated pulmonary function tests with the Spirobank II® spirometer, manufactured by MIR (Medical International Research), Italy. The software used to process the acquired data was WinspiroPRO PC Software®. Anthropometric measurements and VO2max assessments were also carried out. VO2max was estimated using an online calculator after performing the Three Minute Step Test.After 4 weeks of bodyweight HIIT, the Experimental group showed improvements in VO2max, forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1/VC). HIIT has proved effective in enhancing physical performance. Further research is needed to identify the effects of this particular training method on the cardiorespiratory function of individuals with different levels of physical training.

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A Big Data Analytics Tool for Social Learning Management Systems

Author(s): Maria-Iuliana DASCALU,Bianca TE?ILA,Cristian MUSTATA,Alexandru Gheorghiu,Constanta-Nicoleta BODEA,Ioan Cosmin Radu / Language(s): English / Issue: 14/2018

Recent technologies are an opportunity for creating advanced data analytics tools for various domains. There are diverse methods based on smart technologies for implementing and supporting data analytics in educational environments, e.g. descriptive methods (reports), diagnostic methods (automated analysis), predictive and prescriptive methods (recommendations, alerts). The educational data come from online surveys, biometric sources, but, mostly, from activities in learning management systems (LMS). The current paper presents a new learning analytics instrument - LeProVE - uCluster for Moodle LMS, which creates virtual profiles of the students and aggregates those profiles into clusters which are further used by teachers to optimize the teaching process. The tool is suitable for today's social and cultural values, as the students' performances (reflected in grades, completed assignments) are not analysed only based on a standard a priori settled by the teacher, but considering the colleagues' performances and social interactions as well. Thus, the teacher can use the results obtained by using LeProVE - uCluster to adjust the homework/exams difficulty to the class context and can recommend further useful resources to individual students and clusters of students. The technologies and methods which are used to implement our instrument are modern: Scala, Spark - a general engine for big data processing, Angular JS, data mining algorithms (K-Means) and Big Data Sampling algorithms. To validate the functionality of the proposed tool, we used 2167 anonymised students' profiles which were imported from a Moodle data set freely available for research purposes. Possible interpretations of data and directions to be followed by teachers to improve their teaching skills are also offered.

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A Combination of Hidden Markov Model and Association Analysis for Stock Market Sector Rotation

Author(s): Jiao CHEN,Chi XIE,Zhijian ZENG / Language(s): English / Issue: 63/2018

The use of Hidden Markov Model in stock market sector rotation is not investigated in the past. In this research, we consider an industry sector index portfolio based on the Shenwan first-class classification and propose state transition matrix for investment. In particular, we design an correlation analysis strategy that initialized state probability transition matrix Additionally, we design the observation state sequence which consisting of a series of stocks. Using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient to screen out the 10 stocks with the highest correlation in each industry sector. We put these parameters into the HMM and use the Baum-Welch algorithm to obtain the iterative solution results. Using the solved matrix into the back test program, the results show that the strategy returns well.

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A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMS USED IN ASSESSING LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

Author(s): Catalin BURSUC,Luiza-Maria COSTEA,Orlando Radu / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2017

Linguistic skills are a set or a category of skills that are distinct and of common importance recognized in the linguistic competence. At community level the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages", published by the Council of Europe in 2001 highlights the "way of mastering" a foreign language, a concept that is more appropriate than "the knowledge level" of a foreign language. The subtle difference between the two concepts is based within the generality of language proficiency that describes what you can do in various areas of expertise in a foreign language. CEFR scales that reveal the levels of mastering a foreign language represent a standardized system, applicable to any European language, which was assimilated by national or supra-state actors and allow the evaluation with other national or international instruments. The purpose of the article is to carry out a comparative analysis of European standards and similar linguistic standard within North-Atlantic Alliance. Potential benefits and limitations of STANAG 6001 standard, resulted from this analysis will provide conclusions on the optimization of foreign language learning programs in the Romanian Army.

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A Comparative e-Demonstration of Using Advanced Construction Techniques for Developing Patterns of Flexible Garments for Women

Author(s): Manuela AVADANEI,Emil Constantin LOGHIN,Irina Ionescu,Mariana URSACHE,Savin Dorin IONESI,Ionut DULGHERIU / Language(s): English / Issue: 14/2018

Fashion trends vary year by year and from a season to another. These trends are expressed by different combinations of materials, colours, lines, styles, and finally, all of these lead to new models of garments. Designers must understand and transpose all this information into useful, unique and desirable models of clothes for all consumers. They must also have a good intuition and perception of the lines and shadows (2D/3D geometry for fashion), as well as skills and competencies in patterning and knowledge in technology. By understanding and processing all the data, the designers have to elaborate the proper solution for sizing and shaping the new patterns, by taking into consideration the shape of the human body and the properties of the materials from the structure of the garment. Nowadays, they often have to use advanced construction techniques in developing ready-to-wear products by using tools and functions from two CAD systems. The virtual environments allow the user to define a garment surface in relation with the 3D body model and to verify the dimensional correspondence and balance of the product on the human body. The designer also checks if the virtual prototype looks the same as its picture representation and if there is something to be changed. This paper presents comparative e- demonstrations of how to select and use functions and tools from two CAD systems in order to design a specific model of a garment, in a proper and logical sequence of steps, with a good quality level from the designing stage.

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A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE INDIRECT ASSESSMENT OF LEG EXTENSOR POWER USING SIMULTANEOUSLY THE JUMP-AND-REACH TEST FROM ALPHA-FIT AND THE OPTOJUMP SYSTEM

Author(s): Liliana BECEA,Raluca Anca Pelin,Camelia BRANE?,Iancu RACHITA / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2017

The ALPHA-FIT Project, completed in 2009 and funded by the European Union, aimed at providing a set of validated tools to assess levels of physical activity and fitness. This study seeks to assess indirectly a component of muscular fitness, namely the leg extensor power in young Romanians aged 20-29 years and also to compare the two methods of measurement using the metric band and optical sensors. The research was conducted within the UPB Sports Complex between 15 October and 1 December 2016. There were investigated 493 young people, of which 334 were males and 159 females. Indirect assessment of leg extensor power was achieved simultaneously through two tests: Jump-and-reach, according to instructions specified in the Tester’s Manual for ALPHA-FIT Test Battery for Adults Aged 18-69, and Vertical Jump, using the Optojump system and the Optojump Pro software. To analyze the results in the Jump-and-reach test, they were processed by quartile, according to the analysis used in ALPHA-FIT. Values achieved by male subjects are: 44, 48,5, 54 and 72cm for the first, second, third and fourth quartiles. Female subjects achieved the following results: 27,5, 31,5, 37 and 54 cm for the first, second, third and fourth quartiles. Simultaneously with the application of Jump-and-reach test, it was used the Optojump system, namely the Vertical Jump test. Results for the Vertical jump assessed using the Optojump system are significantly lower than those assessed through the Jump-and-reach test, between 32.18 % (female subjects, first quartile) and 23.71% (male subjects, fourth quartile).Since the ALPHA-FIT Test Battery has no reference values for the population aged 20-29 years, as regards the Jump-and-reach test, the results of this research can represent, due to the specificity and size of the investigated sample, a baseline for both Romania and other European countries.

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A COMPETITIVE SERIOUS GAME FOR POTENTIAL AND YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

Author(s): Eliza-Olivia Lungu / Language(s): / Issue: 01/2014

In this article we present a serious game for potential and young entrepreneurs, developed as part of an ongoing Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project, Entrepreneurship in Serious. The game is an online adaptation of a board game developed in a Grundvig project funded by the European Commission and it aims to help entrepreneurs improve a series of key soft skills though a realistic gaming experience.

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A Comprehensive Analysis of the Students` Perception Referring to the Elearning Platform from Alexandru Ioan Cuza Police Academy

Author(s): Georgica PANFIL / Language(s): English / Issue: 14/2018

Current paper concerns a recent analysis developed within Alexandru Ioan Cuza Police Academy. The study, developed thru 2017 (during three months period) is mainly focused on the questionnaire method and is concentrated on a survey related to the degree of satisfaction linked to the usefulness, degree of usage, positive and negative aspects, as well as the main improvements related to the eLearning platform used by Alexandru Ioan Cuza for the training of students from distance-learning modules. The questions used both "open" and "closed" systems, as they were physically applied to different categories of students. The distance-learning module is of a high interest for the tackled institution, as it is one of the limited ways for constables to become superior police officers directly, following a three-year course. As most of the modules are based on the e-tutoring system and most of the materials are available online (except, for example, the classified contents), this platform represents a very important resource for the students enrolled to such course. The usefulness of such study is mainly related to the identification of the main strengths and minuses of the platform or its administration, contents, usability etc. Furthermore, the study also contains main aspects to be improved, as well as suggestions for further development for this platform, as it is expected that within the near future, the number of enrolled students to be increased (the Ministry of Internal Affairs` development strategy is focused on a superior number of graduates for the distance-learning module, making it the main source of superior officers promoted from constables).

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A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS ON CYBER-THREATS AGAINST ELEARNING SYSTEMS

Author(s): Ioan-Cosmin Mihai,Stefan Pruna,Gabriel Petrica / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2017

The cybercrime phenomenon is becoming more offensive and the number of cyber-attacks against eLearning systems is growing in number and diversity. Cybercrime nowadays represents an industry; the Cybercrime-as-a-Service model offers easy access to illegal products and services. Unexperienced cybercriminals from different states can join together in underground forums and share information and tools for cyber-attacks. They can easily spread dangerous malware or launch big-scale attacks anywhere in the world with less resources and sizeable profits for them. This article analyzes the cyber threats that can affect eLearning systems. Malware represents one of the most important threat areas within cybercrime. There are many kind of malware that can be uploaded on the compromised eLearning systems like viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware, and ransomware, which can infect all the users that have access to the infected files. Compromised eLearning platforms can be used by cybercriminals for malware infections, redirections to malicious websites or for phishing or spamming activities. Social engineering is an attack vector that refers to manipulation of people into performing actions in order to compromise the systems security and can affect the eLearning systems security. Regarding communications, more and more eLearning systems use encryption to protect the traffic between the platform and its users. The benefits of encryption for eLearning systems are clear, but for law enforcement is a big disadvantage, when they have to investigate some encrypted communications. This paper indicates also the importance of the international cooperation in the process of fighting and combating the cyber-threats against eLearning systems, for a safer cyber environment.

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A COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM FOR JUDGING DANCESPORT COMPETITIONS - AN INNOVATIVE APPLICATION

Author(s): Adrian Nicoara,Silvia TEODORESCU,Constanta Urzeala / Language(s): English / Issue: 01/2017

Dancesport involves a variety of body movements performed to the rhythm of a song that is materialized in a choreography piece where the two partners try to convey emotions in a unique and personal way, which leads us to assert that dance has no boundaries, no barriers, it is simply felt and expressed. Dancesport provides the necessary framework to transmit a compositional message, trigger emotions, present an artistic creation, generate a show, that is why assessing the dancers’ performance often has a subjective character as regards technical execution, artistic mastery, plasticity and beauty of movement, shortly, the quality of dance. In this research, we developed and used an evaluation/ judging system which included five criteria: movement to music, posture and coordination, quality of movement and balance, partnered relationship and leading, choreography and presentation, and a larger or smaller number of sub-criteria. The aim was to prove the efficiency of a computerized system intended to reduce subjectivity in the evaluation of dancers’ competitive performance. Transposition of the evaluation/judging system to a computerized application using Web-based technology with extension for tablet ensures effectiveness for the judging panel, reducing the time needed to establish rankings, facilitating the work of the competition Secretariat and removing the possible human errors. The application summarized information on organized competitions, users, couples of dancers, dances, classes, age categories, to which each judge can login to access scoring sheets/per criterion/dance and check each sub-criterion for each component, male and female counterparts. The major difference between the two evaluation systems (one used by the DanceSport Federation, the other developed by us) could be noted in the hierarchy of couples in the mid-ranking, where the value level of dancers was close and their order in the ranking was decided by a few tenths or hundredths of a point.

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A Design-Based Approach to Course Planning and Development

Author(s): Antti RIssanen,Kalle Saastamoinen / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The aim to refine education often leads to changes to curriculums, and the planning and implementation of educational changes can be approached in methodological and process-oriented ways. This study investigated how Bologna process and local needs lead to a new implementation. Case material presents how courses were planned for the Department of Military Technology at the NDU. The data was gathered from three courses related to science and technology, and a design-based research (DBR) concept guided the project. Specifically, work from 2007 to 2017 was examined, including preplanning and educational DBR cycles used to plan six courses, and team of different disciplines worked on the project. The purpose of planning courses was to construct a new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education program for officers’ education; the aim was to offer officers adjustable but well planned, student centred, and interactive instruction. In principle, course planners were aware of the generic skill profile of the officer profession. Knowledge of STEM education from an earlier curriculum was provided to the officers by regular teachers. The use of a modern learning material portal (LMP) was considered for a student-centric teaching approach. Moodle was utilised, and a systematic student evaluation of teaching (SET) was conducted to assess the success of implementing the planned courses. DBR-framed approach gave useful guidance for the project. In the course development feedback from students offers necessary evidence but requires support from other sources for genuine and innovative educational re-engineering.

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