Poecilocampa alpina (Frey & Wullschlegel, 1874) (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae), first record for Romania

Poecilocampa alpina (Frey & Wullschlegel, 1874) is reported for the first time in the Romanian fauna. The specimen was collected from Porumbenii Mari, Harghita County, Romania. According to the distribution area, respectively to the ecological requirements, Romanian population belongs to the subspecies P. alpina canensis. This reported population is currently the easternmost known population of this species.

Preliminary data regarding the influence of the COL1a1 rs2249492 polymorphism on the risk of malocclusion in the Romanian population

Malocclusion is a condition characterized by diverse phenotypic expression patterns, with a complex underlying genetic background. COL1a1 is one of the genes that has been previously associated with malocclusion, with one particular SNP, rs2249492 (C>G, C>T), having been linked with an increased risk of skeletal class II malocclusion. In this paper, making use of DNA sequencing and cephalometric measurements, we present preliminary data regarding the association between the rs2249492 SNP and the risk of malocclusion in the Romanian population, illustrated as continuous, rather than categorical phenotypes. The results show a tendency towards a Class II pattern determined by mandibular retrognathism, rather than maxillary prognathism among the individuals possessing the mutant allele. Subsequent studies on larger sample sizes should include statistical analysis focused on associations between the rs2249492 allele and continuous phenotypic variation inside, but not restricted to Class II malocclusion, in order to acquire a more detailed picture of the interaction between the polymorphism and this complex condition

The 2000 Romanian Presidential Elections – between Populism and Europeanism

"In November 2000, ten years after the fall of the communist regime and the organization of the first free elections, the Romanian population was called to decide on the future president of the country. This was the first poll that took place after the transition between power and opposition, which took place in 1996, but also in the context of a serious economic crisis with considerable effects on living conditions, which marked the activity and political destiny of PNŢCD. The elections, especially the second round, proved to be representative not so much from the perspective of political options, but especially regarding the future of the country: open to Euro-Atlantic structures or isolated, oriented towards the former Soviet space. These visions were personalized by the two candidates, Ion Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor, and the present article analyses the electoral mechanisms the two tried to use in order to promote their platforms within a Romanian society marked by the economic recession, but also by a major moral and identity crisis. Keywords: Elections, Electorate, Presidentialism, Europeanism, Populism, Crisis "

History and Traditions of the Orthodox Ukrainian Community in Maramureș

Maramureș County, located in the north-western part of Romania, has always represented one of the oldest religious centres of the ancient province of Transylvania. The first part of the present essay will illustrate the most relevant moments in the history of the Christian community of Orthodox Ukrainian people, who lived within the historical region of Maramureș, and also the structure and the evolution of the local Ukrainian Church. The second part will present and demonstrate the key role played by the Orthodox faith and beliefs in establishing mutual relations of friendship and collaboration between the smaller Ukrainian community and the larger Romanian population, within the boundaries of Maramureș County. These relations of friendship and mutual understanding must endure in order to fight against the newly emerging Antichristian ideology that has shaken the moral and Christian foundations of our society. By sharing the same faith and the same religious beliefs, members of the Ukrainian community have managed to preserve their customs and traditions, their traditional dress codes, music and dance and kept alive their spiritual heritage.

The Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages Can Be Reduced by Fiscal Means? Study on the Case of Romania

World Health Organization gives great importance to excessive alcohol consumption among the population and its negative effects. It proposes a set of measures to reduce alcohol consumption and its harmful effects. The objective of our study was to estimate the effects of excise tax on alcohol in Romania, from two perspectives. On the one hand, we analyze the effects of alcohol excise on the consumption of alcoholic beverages among the Romanian population. We also consider the relationship between alcohol consumption and the incidence of diseases and deaths caused by it. On the other hand, we analyze the effects of the excise tax on alcohol on the state budget, through the revenues from the sales of alcohol. For achieving the main purpose of the paper, we analyze secondary data using both graphical and statistical methods. The statistical methods imply testing correlation between variables and also a regression model. The obtained results highlight the fact that the excise taxes on alcohol have not a significant effect on alcohol consumption among the population. At the same time, we observed that the revenues from excise taxes in alcohol at the state budget had an increasing trend. These results highlight the fact that the increase of excise duties for alcoholic beverages, in Romania, does not reduce their consumption. So, in order to limit the effects of this harmful habit of a certain part of the Romanian population, the decision-makers must take additional measures, the fiscal ones being relatively inefficient.

Heterogeneity of Antibiotics Multidrug-Resistance Profile of Uropathogens in Romanian Population

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a leading cause of morbidity for both males and females. The overconsumption of antibiotics in general medicine, veterinary, or agriculture has led to a spike in drug-resistant microorganisms; obtaining standardized results is imposed by standard definitions for various categories of drug-resistant bacteria—such as multiple-drug resistant (MDR), extensive drug-resistant (XDR), and pan drug-resistant (PDR). This retrospective study conducted in three university teaching hospitals in Romania has analyzed urine probes from 15,231 patients, of which 698 (4.58%) presented multidrug-resistant strains. Escherichia coli was the leading uropathogen 283 (40.54%), presenting the highest resistance to quinolones (R = 72.08%) and penicillin (R = 66.78%) with the most important patterns of resistance for penicillin, sulfonamides, and quinolones (12.01%) and aminoglycosides, aztreonam, cephalosporins, and quinolones (9,89%). Klebsiella spp. followed—260 (37.24%) with the highest resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanate (R = 94.61%) and cephalosporins (R = 94.23%); the leading patterns were observed for aminoglycosides, aminopenicillins + β-lactams inhibitor, sulfonamides, and cephalosporins (12.69%) and aminoglycosides, aztreonam, cephalosporins, quinolones (9.23%). The insufficient research of MDR strains on the Romanian population is promoting these findings as an important tool for any clinician treating MDR-UTIs.