Significance of studying the petrography and mineralogy of the geological environment of old rupestrian churches to prevent their deterioration. A case study from the South Carpathians

This paper provides new insights into understanding the causes of deterioration of the Corbii de Piatra rupestrian church and shows the significance of studying the geological environment of historical rock-cut settlements when undertaking preservation and restoration actions. The Corbii de Piatra church is one of the few rupestrian churches remaining in Romania and is an important part of the country's heritage. The church is carved in a stratum of polymictic sandstone of Oligocene age, which is part of the Getic Depression, located in the southern part of the South Carpathians. In the 14th century the interior walls of the church were decorated with mural paintings of a high artistic value. Over the centuries, the church's walls and mural paintings have been negatively affected by a series of physicochemical processes. These processes were studied through field investigations and laboratory analyses carried out between October 2007 and November 2010. The investigations revealed that tectonic fissuring and the structural anisotropy of the rock facilitate the infiltration of meteoric water through the walls into the interior of the church, from north to south, maintaining a high-level of humidity in the northern wall and in the interior of the church. The most harmful effects observed were: (i) the partial hydrolysis of the feldspars through reaction with water from the pores, producing a friable mass of phyllosilicates which led to a superficial disaggregation of the rock and to a diminished cohesion between the rock and the mortar of the fresco, (ii) the reprecipitation of the gypsum as efflorescences on the northern wall and ceiling, covering the mural painting in localized areas, as a result of the transportation of the gypsum by water from the upper strata, (iii) the alteration of the cinnabar pigment, as a result of water penetration by diffusion through the fresco from the wet rock to the pictorial layer (the secondary effect observed being the formation of sulfuric acid, which further reacted with the carbonate from the fresco to form gypsum), (iv) the development of biotic crusts, predominately algal, on the interior wet walls, which, facilitated by the permanent high humidity and the semi-obscurity of the interior of the church, have covered large surfaces of the fresco. Compared to the interior, the exterior vertical walls have been exposed to prolonged daily and seasonal variations of temperature and humidity. These variations have caused repeated variations in the volume of the sandstone, leading to contraction fissuring and peeling of the vertical walls. Any future procedures that might be used to conserve the church should strive to reduce the humidity of the sandstone in the interior walls.     

Exploratory factor analysis for the Hirsch index, 17 h-type variants,and some traditional bibliometric indicators

The purpose of this article is to come up with a valid categorization and to examine the performance and properties of a wide range of h-type indices presented recently in the relevant literature. By exploratory factor analysis (EFA) we study the relationship between the h-index, its variants, and some standard bibliometric indicators of 26 physicists compiled from the Science Citation Index in the Web of Science.     

New Perspectives on the Adult: An Argument for Lifelong Education

The article brings into question the issue of regional network strategies aiming at implementing structures of lifelong learning in the local context, the so‐called learning communities. Facing a broad diversity in their implementation all over Europe, one can observe on the other hand much less effort to discuss conceptual frameworks that deal explicitly with this subject as a whole. Yet it seems essential to categorise these colourful patterns of practice and to identify key issues—notably with regards to the aspect of lifelong learning—to develop the discourse further and to render it adaptive to international debate.

For this purpose the paper draws attention to three instrumental case studies of learning communities (a Norwegian one, an English one and a German one) that were conducted within an exploratory research strategy. Designed as a between‐method triangulation, the case studies represent a mixed qualitative‐quantitative approach by means of an anonymous questionnaire and half‐standardised interviews. The members of the network and its key stakeholders from the meta‐level were investigated just as the local framework itself. Hence, the study intends not only to demonstrate exemplarily the European variety of learning communities, their origins and leading structures, but also to propose a further structuring of the topic by introducing a typology of learning communities. This eventually opens up controversial issues about lifelong learning strategies in general; for example the question, if these strategies will possibly rather widen already existing structures of inequality and exclusion than raising participation in lifelong learning.     

Differing Map Construction and Text Organization and Their Effects on Retention

On the basis of Kulhavy's (R. W. Kulhavy, J. B. Lee, & L. C. Caterino, 1985) conjoint retention model of text learning with organized spatial displays, the authors conducted 2 experiments to analyze the effects of different types of maps and a considerate text (i.e., a text that follows the scanning pattern of the map) or an inconsiderate text. In the 1st study, 158 participants viewed an intact or a segmented map and a considerate or a randomized text. Those participants who viewed the intact map and read the considerate text recalled significantly more information than those who viewed the intact map and read the randomized text. In the 2nd study, 179 participants viewed a flat map, a 1-point perspective map, or a 2-point perspective map, and a considerate text formulated on the basis of the predicted scanning pattern of the map. Those participants who viewed the flat map recalled significantly more information than those who viewed the perspective maps.     

Doping – die Züchtung des Übermenschen

Uncovering new doping scandals does not take an end. The exclamation against this practice of the contest distortion becomes ever louder. The anti-doping wave is about to loom up itself to a tsunami. But why? And against what actually? Doping belongs to the modern occidental culture and philosophy history like space flights and the human enhancement. Doping is the expression of our nihilistic postmodernism. The deregulation and legalization of doping would thus correspond to our historical development rather than its prohibition. And a closer look at the anti-doping wave reveals it as a mere symptom of the prevailing nihilism. The question remains whether we achieve an appropriate “Verwindung” (tortion) of the nihilism rather with or without doping.