Agia Varvara Research Articles

Empowering Young Roma Women in matters of health and primary care: an innovative training program

Abstract Background Roma communities are rather diverse groups with different level of knowledge, beliefs and motivations in relation to their health. Raising awareness and self-efficacy of these individuals is a challenging field in the EU public health agenda. Objectives To address this challenge, the program entitled “Empowering Young Roma Women in matters of health, prevention and human rights: a new methodological approach” was developed with the aim to empower Roma women in terms of health and prevention topics pilot testing different educational methods. A two-step co-design approach was performed to determine the training content, tools, methods. The training was implemented in 5 areas throughout Greece (Volos, Chalkida, Thiva, Agia Varvara, Zefyri) in Jan-Oct 2023, including 3 phases: a. Train-the-trainers, b. Training the Roma women and c. Training evaluation. Results The educational material developed for health and prevention included 4 units (gynaecological health issues, vaccinations, smoking and nutrition). Each unit consisted of a theoretical background to develop the material, a presentation for future trainers, a presentation for trainees, a brochure, and a poster. For the training a new methodological approach was tested i.e. a health professional or Roma women (after being trained) to deliver the training. In total, 548 pre-post questionnaires were collected. Most trainees, understood the content of the training, acquired new knowledge and found the information interesting and possible to include in their daily life. 80% trainees expressed their satisfaction with the overall presentation. Regarding knowledge improvement based on the type of trainer only a slightly greater degree of improvement was observed for Roma trainers. Conclusions It is crucial to develop culturally appropriate health interventions by directly working with communities, to understand their particular needs, and to ensure they receive the information needed to make informed decisions. Key messages • Maintaining and promoting health is a decisive factor of social inclusion. • Tailor-made training of ethnic minorities shall be an integral part of the EU public health agenda.

New Technologies to Assess and Map an Urban Riparian Area in Drama, Greece, and Determine Opportunity Sites for Litter Traps

Riparian areas offer many ecosystem services, especially in urban settings. Their conservation can be complex because of the many urban anthropogenic pressures they face. Adopting new technological approaches can provide insights on the most cost-effective and sustainable management for riparian areas. In this study, different new technological approaches were implemented to assess and map environmental variables and find the optimal location of nature-based solutions (e.g., litter traps). The study area was Agia Varvara Park in Drama, Greece, a unique natural urban riparian area. The approaches utilized were categorized as aerial, terrestrial, and surface/underwater. Specifically, these approaches included unmanned aerial vehicles that incorporated high-resolution regular and thermal cameras to capture the surface environmental conditions and unmanned underwater vehicles to capture the underwater environmental conditions. The produced orthomosaics and digital surface models enabled us to estimate the boundaries of the water surface in Agia Varvara Park. A GPS tracker was also used to record the potential movement route of litter. Finally, a sonar device was utilized to estimate the water depth of potential cross-sections of Agia Varvara’s stream where the litter trap could be installed. The above datasets were used to develop spatial datasets and accompanying maps that were utilized to find the optimal opportunity sites for the litter trap. A litter trap is a floating device that gathers and maintains litter, vegetation, and other debris. Two specific locations were proposed based on water presence, water depth, channel’s width, limited vegetation for accessibility, wildlife existence, litter’s water route, and stopping location time. Such traps enable the collection of anthropogenic litter. In one location, a litter trap has been installed and is being tested. Overall, the above approaches could be used to suggest other nature-based solutions and/or their optimal location, thus enhancing the sustainable management of urban riparian areas.

TECTONOSEDIMENTARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MESSINIA CONGLOMERATES (SW PELOPONNESE, GREECE)

The marine fill of the Gavrovo-Tripolis foreland basin in the Messinia area (SW Peloponnese), includes facies and facies associations, deposited by sediment gravity flows in slope and inner fan settings. The above-mentioned gravity-driven sedimentary processes, resulted in the formation of thinning-upward sequences and fining fan facies associations, composed of impressive sheet-conglomerates at the base (Agia Mavra, Agia Varvara and Mali units), presenting mainly normal internal structure, while clay and sand-clay members predominate at the top. These conglomerates advocate a significant sediment supply and extended accommodation space, during periods of dramatic tectonic uplift, associated with the westward propagation of Pindos thrust front. In the prograding fan system, dominate paleo-currents with main flow direction to southwest. The finer fan facies associations show rapid lateral variations, both in lithology and thickness, indicating rapid changes in the inner, incised, part of the foredeep. Nannofossil analyses suggest that the sedimentation took place during Oligocene (NP22 to NP24 biozones). Three NNW-SSE trending thrust fault zones bound the above-mentioned units and they caused an important structural thickening of the fan facies associations. Biostratigraphic analyses date the end of the thrust activity in GavrovoTripolis zone in Late Oligocene (biozone NP24).

OPTIMIZED AQUIFER MANAGEMENT, USING LINEAR PROGRAMMING.AN APPLICATION TO THE AGIA VARVARA AQUIFER, DRAMA, GREECE

The present research analyzes the behavior of Agia Varvara aquifer in Drama, Greece. A comprehensive and complete simulation-management combination model is applied, capable of calculating the water mass balance of the aquifer and defining the optimal management solution. In order to simulate the aquifer, a finite difference model is used. By applying this model and the Response Matrix Method, the management of the aquifer is achieved. Once the simulation of the aquifer is finished, the Linear Programming analysis is performed to obtain the optimal values of piezometric heads and flow rates, imposed to the system on monthly basis, in order to meet the demand of water at the lowest cost. The resulting piezometric heads are compared with the initial ones, enabling scenarios about the maximum and minimum drawdown, and providing the critical months of irrigation. The Linear Programming is used to facilitate the operation of systems, maximizing the total amount of pumped water, under a given set of constraints.

Left Ventricular Long-Axis Function During Dobutamine Stress Echocardiography for the Prediction of Post- Revascularization Recovery: Comparison with SPECT Thallium Scintigraphy

Aim: Το compare echocardiographic left ventricular (LV) long axis function and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) thallium-201 scintigraphy for the prediction of recovery of LV dyssynergies after revascularization. Methods: Thirty patients with a history of previous myocardial infarction and LV dysfunction underwent a transthoracic echocardiographic study before and after successful revascularization (101±14 days), in order to evaluate post-revascularization recovery of asynergic myocardial walls. In these patients and in 25 ageand sex-matched healthy subjects, an additional study during dobutamine infusion was also performed. All subjects also underwent SPECT thallium-201 scintigraphy. Prior and during dobutamine infusion the LV systolic atrioventricular (AV) plane displacement was recorded from the apical four and two chamber views, by M-Mode, at four LV sites, corresponding to the septal, lateral, anterior and inferior walls. Results: Healthy subjects showed a significant increase in AV displacement at all LV sites during dobutamine infusion (p 0.05). Selecting a maximum LV systolic AV displacement increase of >2 mm, the method proved to have a sensitivity of 91%, specificity of 83%, positive predictive value of 88% and negative predictive value of 87%. When SPECT thallium scans were used, the above indices were 86%, 65%, 74% and 79% respectively. Conclusion: The assessment of LV long axis function with the measurement of left systolic AV plane displacement during dobutamine infusion constitutes a simple and accurate method, better than SPECT thalium images, for the prediction of recovery of LV asynergy after revascularization. Euroclinic Hospital, Athens, Greece Nikaia General Hospital, Piraeus, Greece 1 Department of Cardiology, Evagelismos Hospital, Athens, Greece 2 Department of Cardiology, University of Athens, Attikon Hospital, Athens, Greece Agia Varvara Hospital, Athens, Greece

A Glossary of Greek Romany as Spoken in Agia Varvara (Athens) (review)

Reviews Gordon M. Messing, A Glossary of Greek Romany as Spoken in Agia Varvara (Athens). Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers. 1988. Pp. 175. $15.95. The Gypsies, descendants of a group of people that left India in roughly the ninth century a.d. and made their way westward through the Middle East and Turkey to Greece and thence northward, have been a presence in Greece in one form or another for possibly as long as 700 years. They refer to themselves natively as roma (plural of rom, the word for 'man; husband', with feminine form romni 'woman; wife') and their language is generally referred to by outsiders (gadie 'non-Gypsies') as Romani (also Romany, in the older spelling Messing adopts), and by the roma themselves as romani (tjip), literally "(the) roms' language". After the Gypsies passed through the Balkans, great numbers of them moved on to other parts of Europe and elsewhere, but a significant number remained in or returned to Greece. A recent European Community report by M. Siguan concerning minority populations in Spain, Portugal, and Greece (Les minorités linguütiques dans la communauté économique européenne: Espagne, Portugal, Grèce [Luxemburg 1990]) places the number of roma now living in Thrace alone at 22,000. Throughout this time, the roma have almost always been relegated to a low and somewhat marginal social standing within Greece and elsewhere (for a view of the Balkans, see Hugh Poulton's Minorities in the Balkans [Minority Rights Group Report 82,1989] and for a perceptive, sensitive, and occasionally chilling essay on the treatment of Gypsies in Western societies, see Ian Hancock 's The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution [Karoma Publishers, 1987]). As a result, the Greek Gypsies as a group have not attracted much attention among scholars interested in Greece, although there is in general a healthy interest in Gypsy studies focusing on other groups of Gypsies, as evidenced, for example, by the long publication history of the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Sockty. The tradition of a closed and tighdy knit social group somewhat alienated from mainstream Greek culture makes field work among the Gypsies in general rather difficult. Nonetheless, Gordon Messing managed to gain entry amongst the sedentary Gypsies of Agia Varvara, a suburb of Athens, and over a period of some 15 years beginning in 1973 collected an enormous amount of information about the particular form of Romani spoken in this Gypsy community. (Another source is Birgit Igla's Grammatik der Kalderash, an unpublished 1989 dissertation done at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany. Thanks to Professor Ian Hancock of the University of Texas for this inforJoumal of Modem Greek Studies, Volume 9, 1991. 249 250 Reviews mation and also for reading and commenting upon an early draft of this review.) Interestingly, as Messing points out (p. 11), it is likely that "the immediate ancestors of these Gypsies came to Greece from Turkey perhaps not much earlier than die last part of the nineteendi century," for Agia Varvara Romani "bears a markedly close relationship to the Turkish Romani so ably described by Paspati in his magnificent account of 1870." Messing's contribution to Gypsy linguistic and cultural studies is selfevident : in this book are to be found not only a brief grammatical sketch of this dialect of Greek Romani but also some sample texts, an extensive RomaniEnglish glossary covering more than 1200 lexical items, complete with examples of use taken from texts and interviews, and an English-Romani wordlist that can be used as an index to the Romani-English lemmata. Given the significant contribution of this work to Gypsy studies, one might well ask whether it has any relevance for Modern Greek studies. The answer is clearly yes, for at least two reasons. First, while the field of Modern Greek studies has generally concerned itself only with matters Greek, it is possible instead to view the field as including the study of all aspects of modern Greece, and not just the language of the Greeks, the literature of the Greeks, the architecture of the Greeks, the social organization of the Greeks, etc. Under such a view, the non-Greek minority speech communities living in Greece would...

A comparison of the Casagrande and fall cone penetrometer methods for liquid limit determination in marls from Crete, Greece

Marls from three areas in Crete (Chernissos, Agios Vlassis, Agia Varvara) were studied to determine their liquids limits by the Casagrande fall cone penetrometer methods and the results were compared. The first method is the classic one, the second a later proposal for measurements in clays. In addition to these tests, various aspects of the materials were studied, such as: their qualitative and quantitative mineralogy, the specific gravity of their solid particles, their particle size grading, their Atterberg limits (liquid and plastic limits), their plasticity index and their activity. The results were interpreted using statistical methods in order to identify the mathematical expressions and diagrams which represent the interrelationships existing between the above properties. According to the present investigation, the two methods of liquid limit determination give similar results. This similarity was greater in finer soils, especially in pure clays; a more shallow fall cone depth could give better results in soils with lower clay concentrations, expressed by the equation z=6C 0.14 .

A Glossary of Greek Romany: As Spoken in Agia Varvara (Athens)

A Glossary of Greek Romany: As Spoken in Agia Varvara (Athens)

A Greek Gypsy Dialect In Historical Perspective

The scientific study of Romany, the language of the Gypsies, began around the middle of the 19th century with A. F. Pott's pioneering work, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien. ' It is a sobering thought that we are now nearly 150 years down the road from that beginning, and that in the nature of things both the Romany people and their language have suffered radical changes. Wars, migrations, technological progress, the growth of new political divisions in Europe, persecution of the Gypsies and eventually the murder of many thousands of them in the Nazi death camps—all of these factors have exerted a potent influence on both the Gypsies and on Romany. We have meanwhile gathered an immense amount of fresh data, corrected many errors, traced dialect affiliations and engaged in historical linguistic reconstruction. It should be of interest in many of those areas where we have enough material from the earliest periods of scholarship to make a comparison with current data and take note of agreements and disagreements. I believe that a vista on a particular sector of Romany is afforded us by one of the fundamental books about Romany, Alexander Paspati's famous Etudes sur les TchinghianA©s ou BohA©miens de l'Empire Ottoman.2 Paspati was both medical doctor and savant. His profession gave him unusual access to the Gypsies, and he was able to gather material not only from sedentary Gypsies but also from the wildest nomads, the so-called Zapari, who in fact provided him with the greater part of his lexicon. My intention in the present paper is to make some selected comparisons between the dialect described by Paspati and some data of my own which I have collected in the last few years in the Athenian suburb of Agia Varvara. It seems to me that such an attempt is entirely justified, since I am firmly convinced that the Gypsy community in Agia Varvara, not to make larger assumptions for the present about other Greek Gypsies, reached Athens from Turkey. This

Influence of Greek on the Speech of a Greek Gypsy Community

This paper deals with the influence exerted by a host language (Greek) upon a minority language in Greece (Romany). It is based on oral data which I collected in 1973-4 in the suburb of Agia Varvara a few miles north-west of Athens where several hundred Gypsies have long resided. After describing the pertinent sociological factors which regulate the interaction of Greeks and Gypsies in this community, I shall discuss the linguistic evidence which is mainly drawn from convergent vocabulary and idiom but not exclusively; there are at least strong hints that some influence may also have been exerted by Greek on the phonological and the morphological level.