Gypsy Research Articles

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease in Colombia

BackgroundAutosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that requires dialysis. Knowing geographical clusters can be critical for early diagnosis, progression control, and genetic counseling. The objective was to establish the prevalence, geographic location, and ethnic groups of patients with ADPKD who underwent dialysis or kidney transplant in Colombia between 2015 and 2019.MethodsWe did a cross-sectional study with data from the National Registry of Chronic Kidney Disease (NRCKD) managed by the High-Cost Diseases Fund (Cuenta de Alto Costo [CAC] in Spanish) between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2019. We included Colombian population with CKD with or without renal replacement therapy (RRT) due to ADPKD. Crude and adjusted prevalence rates were estimated by state and city.Results3,339 patients with ADPKD were included, period prevalence was 9.81 per 100,000 population; there were 4.35 cases of RRT per 100,000 population, mean age of 52.58 years (± 13.21), and 52.78% women. Seventy-six patients were Afro-Colombians, six were indigenous, and one Roma people. A total of 46.07% began scheduled dialysis. The highest adjusted prevalence rate was in Valle del Cauca (6.55 cases per 100,000 population), followed by Risaralda, and La Guajira. Regarding cities, Cali had the highest prevalence rate (9.38 cases per 100,000 population), followed by Pasto, Medellin, and Bucaramanga.ConclusionsADPKD prevalence is lower compared to Europe and US; some states with higher prevalence could be objective to genetic prevalence study.

Individual Adaptability to Work: Scale Validation on the Romanian Population

Abstract This study aimed to validate the I-ADAPT scale to assess the individual adaptability to work within the Romanian population. Both a pilot study and a main study were conducted on a total sample of 966 Romanians. Following the application of standard scale validation procedures, the results of our study indicated that the I-ADAPT measure of work adaptability has good psychometric properties on the Romanian population. Our findings provide evidence that I-ADAPT continues to explain the unique variance in adaptability to work even if work patterns in the Covid-19 pandemic context moved more and more from a traditional to a virtual work environment. ROa I-ADAPT measure has excellent properties concerning convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. One main finding was that the “Physical” dimension of adaptability to work had no empirical support in the Romanian population. Moreover, our results indicate that the “interpersonal adaptability” and the “cultural adaptability” dimensions cannot be empirically separated in the Romanian population. To our knowledge, this is the first validated instrument that can be used to assess the individual adaptability of Romanians in the context of work. Our study is relevant for decision-makers in Romania and such actors in other EU-member countries where Romanians represent the largest group of working-age EU citizens.

Digital technology for health shows disparities in cancer prevention between digital health technology users and the general population in Romania.

Digital health services and technology are rapidly developing following the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to reveal the differences between users of digital health technology (DHT) and the general population with regard to cancer prevention. This was an observational study on a conventional sample of 270 DHT users with completed data, performed in September 2021. A significant difference was observed in the proportion of DHT users and the general population reporting the screening test results, which was 2-6 times higher in the DHT group. Digital technologies applied to the "self-care" model were more suitable for internet-literate populations. Including digital technologies in a self-care model may be more suitable for internet-literate individuals. Thus, in a preventative health organizational framework, DHT should be integrated and used at the primary care level in the general population to improve disparities in the preventative health domain.

Romanian Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II).

The Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) is a self-report measure comprising 99 items divided into 18 non-overlapping scales that allows for a dimensional assessment of depression, anxiety, and bipolar symptoms. The IDAS-II is currently available in English, Turkish, Spanish, German, and Swedish. This study's major goal was to adapt and validate the IDAS-II to the Romanian population. Participants from a community sample (N = 1,072) completed the IDAS-II (Romanian version) and additional measures assessing depression and anxiety disorders. Item-level factor analyses validated the unidimensionality of the scales, and internal consistency results indicated that most symptom scales had satisfactory alpha coefficient values. Based on previous structural analyses, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the IDAS-II scales confirmed a three-component model of "Distress," "Obsessions/Fear," and "Positive Mood." Convergent and discriminant validity were established by correlational analyses with other symptom measures. This study was conducted using a sample from the general population and several of the employed measures have limitations. Specifically, the current study was unable to employ Romanian versions of the gold-standard instruments that assess well-being, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and claustrophobia. The IDAS-II (Romanian version) is the first clinical measure to assess internalizing dimensions of the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) model that is available for the Romanian population.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

On the occasion of the centennial of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1923: Nicolae C. Paulescu-between scientific creativity and political fanatism.

CHALLENGES IN ACHIEVING THE SDGs IN ROMANIA

This paper aims at identifying the main obstacles that Romania faces in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this, literature review and data collection and analysis were carried out. When it comes to achieving the SDGs, different European countries have made progress to varying degrees, and it can be difficult to compare progress directly because each country faces unique challenges and opportunities. However, Sweden, Denmark and Finland are amongs the countries that have made the most progress towards achieving the SDGs in Europe. These countries are generally considered to have strong social welfare systems, high levels of public engagement, and progressive policies on sustainability and human rights. However, it’s worth noting that even these top-performing countries still have areas where they need to make progress towards achieving the SDGs, particularly in areas such as reducing inequalities, combating climate change, and promoting responsible consumption and production. It’s difficult to estimate when Romania could catch up with these countries as it depends on a variety of factors, but it will require a sustained effort over several decades. Romania faces various obstacles in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Some of the key challenges are: (1) economic disparities (particularly between rural and urban areas), (2) environmental degradation (deforestation, water pollution, and air pollution), (3) corruption, (4) lack of social inclusion (particularly for marginalized groups such as the Roma population, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals), (5) limited institutional capacity. Overall, addressing these challenges will require sustained political will, investment in infrastructure and services, and effective partnerships between government, civil society, and the private sector.

OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE OF POVERTY

The main objective of this paper is to present the relationship between poverty, unemployment and education reaching the occupational structure of poverty. In order to understand the interdependence of the three concepts, I have started with the review of the definitions given by renowned specialists in the study of poverty. Afterwards, I have analysed the causes, determinants and types of poverty. Subsequently, I have brought in the foreground the statistical data regarding the Romanian population in the period between 2018 and 2021, which reflect the extent to which the citizens of our country are exposed and especially the children of the scourge of poverty. I wanted to highlight the interdependence between the level of education, unemployment and poverty rate. I have reviewed the ongoing plans and strategies undertaken by the Romanian Government having as objective the eradication of poverty by ensuring a quality education, which is considered an effective instrument for breaking the vicious circle of poverty.

The Applicability of Machine Learning in Prediabetes Prediction

Abstract In over 60% of patients with prediabetes, the evolution to diabetes can be stopped by changing lifestyle. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus was 11.6% and of prediabetes was 16.5% in the Romanian population aged 20-79 years. The deficiencies are not only at the health system level, but also in the application of prediabetes criteria existing in accredited guidelines. Although these guidelines imposed by the international diabetes federation are constantly updated, many doctors do not apply the recommended steps for diagnosis and treatment. We review, in the first part of the paper, several studies in predicting diabetes, which used different algorithms and techniques. In this second part of the paper, we propose a machine learning approach for prediabetes prediction, which uses kNN (k-Nearest Neighbors), DT (decision tree), SVM (Support Vectors Machines) and Logistic Regression (LR) algorithms. We used a dataset with 125 persons (men and women), with the following features: gender (S), serum glucose (G), serum triglycerides (TG), serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), waist circumference (WC) and systolic blood pressure (SBP). We used standardized medical criterion named Adult Treatment Panel III Guidelines (ATP III), which specifies that prediabetes diagnosis can be established if at least three of five parameters are outside the scale of their normal values. We obtained, for both algorithms, encouraging results in evaluating the models (in terms of confusion matrix, f1_score, accuracy_score).

Assessment of health status and cardiovascular risk factors in a Roma population sample from South Bulgaria.

Roma population is one of the major ethnic groups in the Central and Eastern Europe, having high rates of chronic diseases and associated risk factors related to their poor social conditions, unhealthy lifestyle and low educational level. The purpose of our study was to assess the health status of Roma from South Bulgaria by means of blood indicators and determine the prevalence of some cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in the Roma population sample. The study group consisted of 60 Roma (23 men and 37 women), mean age 53.7 ± 15.9 years, and the control group consisted of 68 non-Roma from the majority population (29 men and 38 women), mean age 45.8 ± 12.2 years. The data were collected via questionnaire, anthropometric measures, and venous blood samples analyses after an overnight fasting. The Roma population subjects were slightly but significantly older compared to the non-Roma group and both study groups included more women. The fasting glucose, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels were significantly higher, and HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were significantly lower in Roma compared to the control non-Roma group. The values of cardiovascular risk markers such as TC/HDL-C and TG/HDL-C ratios, atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) and lipoprotein combine index (LCI) were significantly higher in Roma compared to non-Roma subjects. The prevalence of obesity in Roma was 35%, diabetes mellitus was recorded in 16.7% of the entire Roma sample, and hyperglycaemia in non-diabetics was recorded in 32%. Hypercholesterolaemia was found in 90% and hypertriglyceridaemia was found in 88.3%. The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) was high and was encountered in 71.7% of the Roma participants and most of the subjects (96.7%) reported family history of CVD. The studied population showed high smoking rates with 33.3% active smokers. Our study confirmed high prevalence of CV risk factors among Roma population, such as abnormal lipid profile parameters, obesity and heavy smoking and very high cardiovascular morbidity rate. Therefore, adequate measures and healthcare programmes aiming at the early identification, treatment and prevention of CVD risks among Roma are necessary.

Genetic diversity of the stag beetle, Lucanus cervus (Insecta, Coleoptera) in Romania based on ND1 mitochondrial sequences

Lucanus cervus (Linnaeus, 1758) is one of the largest Coleoptera species in Europe and one of the most recognizable. It is a saproxylic species living in woodlands and wooded urban habitats and spending its larval stages inside tree trunks below or near soil level, feeding on decaying wood. The stag beetle has a wide distribution covering the entire Europe up to the Ural Mountains. In this paper, we attempted to describe the diversity and genetic structure of L. cervus populations in Romania using the NADH mitochondrial molecular marker. We identified 36 haplotypes arranged in a star-shaped structure with a central haplotype shared by many samples and linked by one or two mutational steps with other 35, represented by 1–3 samples. This pattern is frequently attributed to populations that have undergone recent range expansion, a phenomenon which is also sustained by the mismatch analysis. The analyzed populations revealed various degrees of genetic diversity. Many populations with relatively high levels of genetic diversity were found outside the Natura 2000 Network Special Areas of Conservation, while some populations included in protected areas proved to have low values of genetic variability. This underlines the need to review the designated protection sites for this species in Romania.

Social Mobility through Education: Lifelong Learning and the Roma-Minority in Selected Central and Eastern European Countries

Education plays a central role in supporting or impeding social mobility (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1974; Fend, 1980, 2006). The disadvantaged social and economic situation of the biggest part of the Roma minority (not only) in Central and Eastern Europe is usually seen as the main reason for their low educational attainment and success. And vice versa: the poor educational results are considered the main reason for their social deprivations. Therefore, education and lifelong learning have become the main strategy for improving their situation, especially since the ´Europeanization of the Roma issue` (Ram, 2015) through the European Union. Today, Education and lifelong learning are now the centre of EU-policies for achieving political and economic goals, like economic growth and social cohesion (Óhidy, 2008, 2009). This article analyzes the problems faced by and opportunities presented to the Roma people in selected Central and Eastern European countries, problems and opportunities arisen in the years up until 2020, regarding social mobility through education. In its analysis, this paper focused on the similarities. The article is based on 5 country studies from 2019, written by experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia (see Óhidy & Forray, 2019). The study uses the evidence from the country studies from Markéta Levínska, Dana Bittnerová & David Doubek, 2019 (Czech Republic), Julianna Boros & Eszter Gergye, 2019 (Hungary), Agnieszka Swietek & Wiktor Osuch, 2019 (Poland), Aurora Adina Colomeischi, 2019 (Romania) and Rastislav Rosinsky, 2019 (Slovakia) to explore the similarities in challenges, to increase the participation and success of Roma people.

Interfaith Dialogue Reflected in The Irish Times. A Defence of Romanian Immigrants in Ireland

This article draws the portrayal of the church support for Romanians as depicted in articles from the most important Irish newspaper, The Irish Times (1992-2020). The articles analyzed show: the help of the Church of Ireland for the Romanian people in the aftermath of the 1989 fall of the communist regime; the interest that the Irish society showed for the Orthodox Church in the context of an increase in the number of immigrants from Romania, a predominantly Orthodox country; the efforts of the churches in Ireland to establish an interfaith dialogue for the benefit of the Romanian immigrants; the focus that remarkable Orthodox priests, such as Father Irineu Crăciun and Father Godfrey O’Donnell, benefitted from in the Irish press due to their constant work for the benefit of the Romanian community in Ireland.

The Perception of Romanian Athletes in Society During the Communist Period

With the start of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, different countries began to get involved in supporting sport activities, to participate in international competitions and also started to organize international sport events. The aim of the study is to determine the influence of the Romanian communist regime in sport activities in the period 1944-1989. Despite the fact that in Romania there were fine conditions for athletes, many of them remained abroad after competitions or left the country in different circumstances. Thestate’s decision to support sporting activities made these international results and the apparition of these iconic athletes possible. In the communist period (1944-1989) at the Olympic Games and the European and World Championships, Romania won approximately 2,000 medals at senior level. The communist regime was perhaps not the best solution for Romanian people, but in terms of sporting results, this period was indeed "the golden age".

Dir la propria. La prefazione nelle opere dei cronisti moldavi

The essay analyzes the introductions to the Moldavian historical works of the XVI-XVIII centuries. The anonymous Slavonic-language chroniclers of the earlier period say nothing about themselves and the purposes of their creation but enter directly into the heart of the narrative. Instead, Macarie, the first author who signs his work, finds it appropriate to open it with an embryonic preface, in which he talks about himself and the patron, discusses the Moldavian annalistic tradition, clarifies his personal writing experiences and stylistic criteria. Along his lines, the disciples Eftimie and Azarie specify the chronological framework of their exhibitions, glorify the commissioning voivodes and recall the activity of their venerable master. Grigore Ureche, the first historian to use his mother tongue, prefaces his work with brief remarks in which he discusses a theme congenial to him, the educational value of history. In the introduction to De neamul moldovenilor, Miron Costin argues for the need to pierce the darkness around the origins of the Romanian people and expresses himself not only on the uplifting value of literary writing, but also on the aesthetic one. In the joint introduction to his chronicle and collection of legends O samă de cuvinte, Ion Neculce dwells on the late development of the Moldavian historiographical tradition and underlines the edifying value of his commitment. The introductions of the Moldavian historiographers are distinguished by a common trait, a style that is simple and close to the mindset of readers, devoid of the large historical, mythological and literary references that swarm in the writings of fellow Wallachians of those centuries.

Continuities and Discontinuities in a Transnational Social Field: The Case of the Margovany Roma

This article is based on long-term field research in an Eastern Slovak Romani settlement and an English town to which Roma migrated from the settlement. The paper attempts to disrupt the bipolar approach toward the migration of Roma to England and, at the same time, to point out the transnational interconnectedness of the Romani community and the replication of inter-group boundary patterns. This dynamic approach to migration allows the authors to also consider a different phenomenon, namely, the religious conversion of Roma to Pentecostal churches. This leads to an observation of parallels in the narratives of conversion and migration, which are both based on a dichotomy of “new” and “old”, and inclusion of the phenomenon of religious conversion in the analysis of migration alongside the highlighting of transnational social networks, the acquiring of secondary social bonds, and the strengthening of local inter-group boundaries.

Women’s evangelical activities and church growth in Romani communities

Stories about church growth in Romani communities proliferate across Europe but the question of how women contributed to religious mobilization in the interwar period requires further study. The Roma in Bulgaria became an important target group for foreign and local missionaries from various denominations, including, among others, evangelical Methodists, Baptists, and Pentecostals. Their aim was first to correct the laxity of Romani morals, and then to support them to win a religious place of their own in society. Women, in particular, were encouraged to work among children and the female part of their communities and to be collaborative with the male evangelists in advancing common activities. A specific field of action for female believers was women’s associations which were purposely created among both the Bulgarians and the Roma. This article is configured as an ethnographic discussion on the role of women acting as agents of religious change. Thus, I refer in detail to the cases of Boyana (Puncheva), Anka Minkova, and Keva Stefanova, whose activities were mainly related to the Romani church in the village of Golintsi in northwestern Bulgaria. Using a combined ethnological approach, I employ information from different sources: open-ended interviews, hard-to-reach archival sources, and periodicals issued in Bulgaria and abroad.This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0.

The Role of Mass Media in Influencing the Lifestyle of the Elderly during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The elderly represent one of the categories that was most affected by the pandemic period. The purpose of this research was to analyze the ways in which mass media and very often contradictory information flows influenced the lives and personal communications of the Romanian elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to conduct the research, we used a mixed-methods approach. For the quantitative research, we gave a questionnaire to the elderly population of Romania, and for the qualitative research, we conducted interviews. Our quantitative sample included 881 retired persons with an age between 55 and 94 years old; the mean age was 71.48 years old with 6.6 years standard deviation. The elderly described the pandemic period using negative words: fear, loneliness, anxiety, disaster; the channel they mostly watched and trusted was the TV; they were aware of the measures they had to take to protect themselves; they missed most of the meetings with the family and the main problems they had were represented by loneliness, the inability to be with their families or the lack of access to medical services. The elderly’s mass media consumption during the pandemic was mostly represented by TV consumption; the information spread by mass media was sometimes contradictory; it influenced their behavior and may have generated feelings of anxiety among them.

Psychometric properties of Romanian version of The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ)

The objective of the present research is to adapt The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) to the Romanian population. SCSRFQ is a self-assessment questionnaire with two versions, 10-items version (SCSRFQ), and a short version (SCSRFQ-SF) with 5-items used to assess strength of religious faith. A total of 201 participants, aged 18-77 years, completed a socio-demographic data sheet and the SCSRFQ. A high internal consistency was obtained for the scale of the instrument, with a Cronbach's alpha coefficients 0.95. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were also evaluated. The results indicate that the Romanian version of The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) has good psychometric properties, being a suitable instrument for the assessment strength of religious faith.

A complex study of obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in the Hungarian-speaking population of the Carpathian Basin, with a focus on the Roma minority

AbstractObesity and other unhealthy behaviors are behind cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, with the Roma population particularly at risk. The aim of our cross-sectional (questionnaire- and physical measurements-based) study was to compare the prevalence of obesity in Hungarian, Romanian, and Slovakian Hungarian-speaking Roma and non-Roma (N = 1893) in relation to lifestyle-related risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In the total sample, the proportion of extreme obesity was higher in Roma (P < 0.001) than non-Roma. The mean waist circumference was the highest in Hungary (P < 0.001). Visceral fat was higher in the Hungarian Roma sample than in the Slovak (P = 0.006) or Romanian Roma samples (P = 0.005). Hungarian Roma total cholesterol levels were lower than in the Slovak (P < 0.001) or Romanian samples (P < 0.001). Hypertension and cholesterol levels were associated with a higher risk among non-Roma men (P < 0.001), and the presence of smoking increased CVD risk among both men (P = 0.024) and women (P < 0.001) in the Roma minority. The combined presence of several risk factors was found mainly in Roma. Overall, Roma scores were found to be worse, but ethnicity did not provide clear evidence for the questions examined, but rather the level of education, which is associated with socioeconomic status.

Association of CETP Gene Polymorphisms and Haplotypes with Cardiovascular Risk.

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) is known to influence HDL-C levels, potentially altering the profile of HDL subfractions and consequently cardiovascular risk (CVR). This study aimed to investigate the effect of five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs1532624, rs5882, rs708272, rs7499892, and rs9989419) and their haplotypes (H) in the CETP gene on 10-year CVR estimated by the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE), the Framingham Risk Score for Coronary Heart Disease (FRSCHD) and Cardiovascular Disease (FRSCVD) algorithms. Adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the association of SNPs and 10 haplotypes (H1-H10) on 368 samples from the Hungarian general and Roma populations. The T allele of rs7499892 showed a significant association with increased CVR estimated by FRS. H5, H7, and H8 showed a significant association with increased CVR based on at least one of the algorithms. The impact of H5 was due to its effect on TG and HDL-C levels, while H7 showed a significant association with FRSCHD and H8 with FRSCVD mediated by a mechanism affecting neither TG nor HDL-C levels. Our results suggest that polymorphisms in the CETP gene may have a significant effect on CVR and that this is not mediated exclusively by their effect on TG and HDL-C levels but also by presently unknown mechanisms.