The emphasis of systems and synthetic biology on quantitative understanding of biological objects and their eventual re-design has raised the question of whether description and construction standards that are commonplace in electric and mechanical engineering are applicable to live systems. The tuning of genetic devices to deliver a given activity is generally context-dependent, thereby undermining the re-usability of parts, and predictability of function, necessary for manufacturing new biological objects. Tolerance and allowance are key aspects of standardization that need to be (...) brought to biological design. These should endow functional building blocks with a pre-specified level of confidence for bespoke biosystems engineering. However, in the absence of more fundamental knowledge, fine-tuning necessarily relies on evolutionary/combinatorial gravitation toward a fixed objective. (shrink)

Synthetic biology aims at making life easier to an engineer by applying biotechnology engineering principles such as standardization and modularity. I argue that living organisms are inherently non-machine, non-standardized entities and that the current state-of-the-art in SynBio combines pre- and post-standardization efforts, in a scenario without evidence that full standardization in biology is even possible. I finally propose a new view on SynBio based on purpose rather than on technicalities.

This study will focus on the birth of studies related to the domain of religion at the University of Cluj, starting with the interwar period, then following with the communist period. The paper aims to offer an exhaustive depiction of what has been done in the academic milieu from 1919 to 1989, concerning the domain of religion, excluding Theological studies. We tried to make the connection, from a historical perspective, between the changes supervened in the Romanian official, political ideology and (...) its representation in the University curricula, on the basis of the Annual Reports issued by the Rectors’ Office of the University of Cluj in the analyzed period of time. (shrink)

This paper represents a reading of communism from the perspective of corporality. The essay aims at discussing the excessive communization of the human body during communism. This communization brought about a vulgarization of corporality, its uniformization, and hyper-egalitarianism between genders. It also resulted in a mechanical treatment of the human body in order to place it at the disposal of the body politic. This work aims to demonstrate that one of the major mistakes of communist ideology, at least in its (...) Romanian form, was the fact that it tried to control and to interfere with human needs such as nourishment and sexuality. (shrink)

George Voicu, The Evil Gods. The Culture of Conspiracy in post-communist Romania Polirom Publishing House, 2000, 245p.

This article aims at analyzing the relation between what „ghetto“ signifies beginning in the Christian Middle Age (the Jewish Quarter) up to the modern time (the Cen- tral-European Jewish Ghetto, the West-European labor district, the Afro-American neighborhood of North-Ameri- can cities ) and what the “closed area” (any kind of district situated in a contemporary metropolis) signifies. I have tried to analyze this relation in its evolution, ap- proaching both the continuity, the similarity of original types of ghettoes to contemporary (...) ones, and the dis- continuity, the differences existing between the two types of ghetto. The segregation and self-isolation poli- cies define and differentiate the ghetto in its essence. Starting from a contemporary point of view, I try to analyze the ghetto from a theoretical perspective, and from an architectural point of view. (shrink)

This paper proposes a cognitive-semiotic approach to aesthetics to understand aesthetic emotion and its relation to the process of producing and valorizing art. The core argument presented is that the emotional aspects of aesthetic experience are integral to the processes of evaluation and meaning-making and that this interplay significantly influences individuals’ engagement with art, highlighting the importance of these dimensions in the overall experience. Therefore, the initial step in my approach is to illustrate that the process of meaning-making is significantly (...) influenced by our active participation, as well as our interpretation and understanding of our own emotions and those of others. I intend to demonstrate that throughout this process, empathy is a vital component of the reciprocal interaction between the viewer and the artwork. In this regard, I will explore various concepts related to empathy, focusing on aesthetic empathy. Additionally, I will emphasize the correlation between aesthetic experiences and everyday life, explaining how a work of art can effectively mirror the core of daily life through a semiotic narrative practice. I believe that by exploring these narratives more thoroughly, we can achieve a deeper, empathetic understanding of both the artist and the artwork and that this understanding can lead to explicit and implicit responses to the artwork, ultimately shaping our overall attitude toward it. Hence, I will conclude that our aesthetic experiences provide us with opportunities to actively explore aspects of our narrative selves, which might help us understand how these experiences significantly change our relationship with ourselves and the social context we are a part of. Keywords: cognitive semiotics, meaning-making, simulation theory, empathy, narratives. (shrink)

Traducere din limba franceza de Svetlana Cârsteanu [Bucuresti], Editura Trei, 2001, 214 p.

Review of Király V. István, A betegség - az élő létlehetősége / Illness - A Possibility of the Living Being , (Pozsony: Kalligram), 2011.

Nicolae Kallós, A dialogue on Jewish identity, Holocaust, and Communism as personal Experiences Registered and edited by Sandu Frunzã, The Publishing House of the Axis Foundation, Iaoi, 2003.

Întîlniri la Ierusalim organizate si consemnate de Costel Safirman si Leon Volovici, Editura Fundatiei Culturale Romane, Bucuresti, 2001, 415 p.

Review of Márta Bodó (ed.), Women and Religion, (Cluj: Verbum, 2009).

Applying phenomenological philosophy to psychology means to focus on people’s perception of the world. Ultimately, this revolves around people’s lived experiences. My aim is to identify how philosophical phenomenology can contribute to the development of empirical and hermeneutical methods regarding psychological phenomena. I submit that it does so by analysing the existential dimension and the meaning of human experiences, as they spontaneously occur in the flow of daily life. The first step is to think the body in a subjective way, (...) as a phenomenal, lived body, and to see in what way individual experiences can be linked. Subsequently, I investigate how experiencers occur in space, and show that, unlike things, they must obtain access to space and to self-localization in space in order to be experientially in it. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to offer a descriptive and, to some extent, an analitic view of the religious and histori- cal reality in the arabi-israeli area, without the natural utopic tendency of any interreligious dialogue to solve such a conflict. The interreligious dialogue between Ju- daism and Islam, which threatens to remain a conflictual one, can not be separated from Christianity, as they all flow from the Abrahamic origin. Situated at the incicence of the religious and historical fields, (...) the arabi-israeli con- flict is here analized in the perspective of its two major causes: the argue regarding the biblical problem of the Chosen People, and the one regarding the fight over the sacred areas. (shrink)

When talking about the identity of a certain community, we are inclined to appeal to essentialist, almost metaphysical notions. This often results in a unitary, deeply rooted and stable perception of the analyzed community. But this view is not always accurate enough, for it does not offer an account of a specific history. By offering a short history and a structural presentation of the Jewish community from Transylvania, before and shortly after the Second World War, our article’s purpose is to (...) overpass, by questioning, the shortcomings of an essentialist interpretation of the discussed community. Taking into account the long history of pogroms, applied anti-Semitism and persecutions on religious or ethnic grounds that took place along the 20th century, our work aims at depicting whether religion was and remained a major characteristic, i.e. an unique communal specificity in the re(creation) of Jewish identity in Transylvania, before and after the Second World War. (shrink)

Lucian Boia, The Scientific Mythology of Communism Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2005.

Review of Sorina Paula Bolovan (ed.), Ciprian Firea, Nicoleta Marţian, Sorin Marţian, Diana Covaci, Călătorie prin patrimoniul ecleziastic transilvănean. Ghid istoric, artistic şi pastoral (Journey through the Transylvanian Ecclesiastic Heritage. Historical, Artistic and Pastoral Guide), (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2011).

The life we considered normal was disrupted due to measures taken to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Quarantine, isolation, social distancing, and community containment have influenced consumer behavior and contributed to the rapid development of e-commerce. In pandemic times, even those unfamiliar with the online environment have had to adapt and make acquisitions in this new manner. Hence, we focused our research on measuring the perception of consumers on how the restrictive measures imposed to limit the spread of (...) the COVID-19 virus had influenced their decision to buy a product or service from the online environment, given that purchases are highly subjective and influenced by cumulative effects of economic, social, psychological and behavioral factors. Our paper comes with additional insights from the literature. It adds empirical evidence that reveals that the number of transactions and the value per transaction increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights that online purchases will continue as such even after the pandemic. (shrink)

We investigate gender disparities and network linkages among editors of Finance journals at the end of 2022. The role of journal editors in shaping academic disciplines is crucial, yet gender imbalances and the geographic concentration of editors remain poorly understood. Ethical considerations arise when examining the representation of women on editorial boards, as these imbalances can impact academic equity and the diversity of perspectives. We examine the gender composition of editorial boards and uncover the network structures among editors, seeking to (...) shed light on the concentration of editorial power and its implications for diversity and inclusion. Our findings reveal that women account for an average of 20% of all editors, with notable variations across countries. Additionally, editorial affiliations are heavily concentrated in the United States and the United Kingdom. Through typological metrics, we identify highly connected editors with significant board memberships. While gender ratios remain consistent in substructures involving highly central editors or those serving on multiple boards, men consistently outnumber women. (shrink)