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Mariana Cernicova-Buca currently works as an Associate Professor of Communication at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Politehnica University Timisoara. Her main research interests include public communication, leadership and change in higher education, public relations, and recent history. She is also a well-known Romanian publicist, specializing in political and administrative life in the region. Former vice-rector of a Romanian private university, she is currently the president of the Board for Communication Studies at her faculty of affiliation, co-editor of the journal Professional Communication and Translation Studies, and a member of the editorial board of other scientific journals.
The disruptive force of the COVID-19 pandemic is lessening in power and plans are being made for the postcrisis period, among which increasing the sustainability of higher education is of significant importance. The study aims at establishing students’ existing environment-related routines during their home confinement, as a basis for applying green measures to campus living once academic life is resumed with the physical presence of students. The collected data rely on self-reported information provided by 816 students from Politehnica University of Timisoara (Romania), collected via an online, anonymous survey. The novelty of the approach is that household environment-related routines are investigated during a crisis period, with the possibility to build upon the results to implement tailored measures to encourage or diminish environmentally relevant consumption by young, highly skilled individuals. The students display a moderate awareness of environmental issues and indicate consumption routines that may be steered towards an increased sustainability-conscious campus life, through the combined intervention of the university, city administration, and stakeholder involvement. The findings are used to explore the possible directions for action towards increasing or contributing to the territorial sustainability in the socio-ecological context of Timisoara, the largest university city in the western part of Romania via educational, managerial and policy interventions.
Vasile Gherheș; Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Marcela Fărcașiu; Adina Palea. Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2021, 18, 8209 .
AMA StyleVasile Gherheș, Mariana Cernicova-Buca, Marcela Fărcașiu, Adina Palea. Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18 (15):8209.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVasile Gherheș; Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Marcela Fărcașiu; Adina Palea. 2021. "Romanian Students’ Environment-Related Routines during COVID-19 Home Confinement: Water, Plastic, and Paper Consumption." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 15: 8209.
The response of most educational institutions to the health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic was the adoption of emergency remote teaching and assessment. The paper aims to evaluate students’ satisfaction with assessment activities in a Romanian university and to identify elements pertaining to sustainable assessment in the post-pandemic period. A collaborative research strategy was developed with students being invited as co-researchers for data collection by distributing an online questionnaire and for interpretation of the results in a focus group. The factor analysis of the responses to the survey extracted two pillars pertaining to students’ appraisal of remote assessment activities: Knowledge, and leisure and stress. The discussion in the focus group showed that the research helped participants to process and reason their experience with remote assessment activities in the summer of 2020. Students missed their academic rituals and interactions with peers and teachers. Despite their enthusiasm for technological innovation and the benefits brought by computer assisted assessment, students are inclined towards preserving human evaluators, preferably from their familiar teachers, in educational settings resembling pre-pandemic academic life. A sustainable, resilient model of education needs to be based on retaining features identified as acceptable by students as examinees.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir. Romanian Students’ Appraisal of the Emergency Remote Assessment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6110 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca, Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir. Romanian Students’ Appraisal of the Emergency Remote Assessment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):6110.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca; Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir. 2021. "Romanian Students’ Appraisal of the Emergency Remote Assessment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic." Sustainability 13, no. 11: 6110.
In modern times, English has become the lingua franca of science, dominating journal publishing ecologies. Multilingual journals keep up the flag, many researchers arguing that, especially in the case of social sciences and humanities, diversity of languages is an asset. In Romania, in the absence of national databases or repositories, the first task to understand linguistic preferences for scientific communication is to map the ground. The study extracted information on Romanian communication sciences journals from four major databases. Out of the 22 identified journals, only eight are dedicated solely to communication sciences, grouped in two poles of communication sciences schools, where doctoral studies in the field have been established. While English dominates the publication world, multilinguistic journals also appear, prevailing in traditional multicultural regions such as Transylvania–Banat. The future of multilingual journals depends on, among other factors, the capacity of the European Union to promote linguistic diversity for scientific purposes. Meanwhile, Romanian journals in communication sciences work towards increasing their impact. Research findings have practical and policy implications, the core idea being that Romanian editors need to strive for better standards in publication and showcase the journals better on the journal’s webpage.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Language Preferences in Romanian Communication Sciences Journals: A Web-Based Analysis. Publications 2021, 9, 11 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. Language Preferences in Romanian Communication Sciences Journals: A Web-Based Analysis. Publications. 2021; 9 (1):11.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. 2021. "Language Preferences in Romanian Communication Sciences Journals: A Web-Based Analysis." Publications 9, no. 1: 11.
Communication during an ongoing crisis is a challenging task that becomes even more demanding during a public health crisis. Early in the start of the pandemic, global leaders called upon the public to reject infodemics and access official sources. This article focuses on the communicative aspects of health services management, with a particular focus on the communication strategy of the Romanian district public health authorities during the COVID-19 lockdown, as seen on official websites and social networks. The 15 most affected districts were selected, according to the officially reported health cases. The issued press releases and the posts on Facebook pages show an uneven experience on the part of district authorities in dealing with public information campaigns. In addition, the results of the study indicate a lack of sustainable communication approaches as well as the need of professional training and strategy in dealing with the public health crisis. From a communication point of view, a strategic approach on behalf of the public health sector is crucial to enhance the preparedness of appropriate institutions to act during emergencies and to respond to the needs of the media and the public with timely, correct, and meaningful information.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Adina Palea. An Appraisal of Communication Practices Demonstrated by Romanian District Public Health Authorities at the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2500 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca, Adina Palea. An Appraisal of Communication Practices Demonstrated by Romanian District Public Health Authorities at the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (5):2500.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca; Adina Palea. 2021. "An Appraisal of Communication Practices Demonstrated by Romanian District Public Health Authorities at the Outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic." Sustainability 13, no. 5: 2500.
Heavy metal pollution, manifested by the accumulation, toxicity and persistence in soil, water, air, and living organisms, is a major environmental problem that requires energetic resolution. Mining tailing areas contain metal minerals such as Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr and Cd in high concentrations that pollute the environment and pose threats to human health. Phytoremediation represents a sustainable, long-term, and relatively inexpensive strategy, thus proving to be convenient for stabilizing and improving the environment in former heavy metal-polluted mining sites. This study presents the bioremediation potential of Silphium perfoliatum L. plants, in the vegetative stages of leaf rosette formation, grown on soil polluted with heavy metals from mining dumps in Moldova-Noua, in the Western part of Romania. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF), translocation factor (TF), metal uptake (MU) and removal efficiency (RE) of Cu, Zn, Cr and Pb by S. perfoliatum plants were determined in a potted experiment in controlled environmental conditions. The reference quantities of heavy metals have been determined in the studied soil sample. The experiment followed the dynamics of the translocation and accumulation of heavy metals in the soil, in the various organs of the silphium plants, during the formation of the leaf rosette (13-18 BBCH). The determination of the amount of heavy metals in soil and plants was achieved by the method of digestion with hydrochloric and nitric acid 3/1 (v/v) quantified by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The obtained experimental results demonstrate that the substrate has a high heavy metal content being at the alert threshold for Zn (260.01 mg kg-1 in substrate compared with alert threshold 300 mg kg-1) and at intervention thresholds for other metals (Cu -234.66 mg kg-1/200 mg kg-1; 299.08 mg kg-1/300 mg kg-1 and Pb-175.18 mg kg-1/100 mg kg-1). The average concentration of the metals determined in dynamics in the dry biomass of plants varied between roots, petioles, and laminas. The root is the main accumulator for Cu and Cr (Cu – 37.32 mg kg-1 -13 BBCH to 43.89 mg kg-1-15 BBCH and 80.71 mg kg-1 – 18 BBCH; Cr – 57.43 mg kg-1 – 13 BBCH to 93.36 mg kg-1 -18 BBCH), and for Zn and Pb the lamina seems to carry the same function. Preliminary results show that Silphium perfoliatum may be a viable alternative in the bioremediation and treatment of heavy metal-contaminated area.
Radu L. Sumalan; Cornelia Muntean; Ana Kostov; Daniel Kržanović; Noemi L. Jucsor; Sorin I. Ciulca; Renata M. Sumalan; Marius Gheju; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. The cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) – a viable solution for bioremediating soils polluted with heavy metals. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca 2020, 48, 2095 -2113.
AMA StyleRadu L. Sumalan, Cornelia Muntean, Ana Kostov, Daniel Kržanović, Noemi L. Jucsor, Sorin I. Ciulca, Renata M. Sumalan, Marius Gheju, Mariana Cernicova-Buca. The cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) – a viable solution for bioremediating soils polluted with heavy metals. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca. 2020; 48 (4):2095-2113.
Chicago/Turabian StyleRadu L. Sumalan; Cornelia Muntean; Ana Kostov; Daniel Kržanović; Noemi L. Jucsor; Sorin I. Ciulca; Renata M. Sumalan; Marius Gheju; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. 2020. "The cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.) – a viable solution for bioremediating soils polluted with heavy metals." Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca 48, no. 4: 2095-2113.
In 2018, the United Nations Volunteers organization recognized that the governmental support for volunteering is a superior public management practice, offering the much-needed fuel for the integration of volunteering in politics, law-making, and social planning at the government level. The present article analyzes the current situation of governmental support for volunteering at federal, regional, and local levels of public administration in the Russian Federation as a precondition for making coproduction of public services possible. The analysis is based on the scrutiny of documents, a questionnaire survey of Russian volunteers, and an expert poll of public servants and nonprofit organizations (NPO) leaders. The analysis of the state policy of support for volunteering is carried out with respect to the following parameters: the awareness and evaluation of national measures of the governmental support for volunteering, as well as the evaluation of informational, financial, consulting, and organizational measures to support volunteer organizations by regional and municipal civil servants. In a country such as the Russian Federation, where volunteering is a relatively young social phenomenon, public administration needs not only to provide support, but also to administer transformation processes toward sustainable development, relying on the partnership and resources volunteers bring for effectively managing public life.
Maria Pevnaya; Anna Drozdova; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Making Room for Volunteer Participation in Managing Public Affairs: A Russian Experience. Sustainability 2020, 12, 10229 .
AMA StyleMaria Pevnaya, Anna Drozdova, Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Making Room for Volunteer Participation in Managing Public Affairs: A Russian Experience. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (24):10229.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Pevnaya; Anna Drozdova; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. 2020. "Making Room for Volunteer Participation in Managing Public Affairs: A Russian Experience." Sustainability 12, no. 24: 10229.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Dicţionar explicativ poliglot de termeni din domeniul educaţiei: (română, engleză, germană, franceză). Book review. Journal of Educational Sciences 2020, 42, 101 -103.
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. Dicţionar explicativ poliglot de termeni din domeniul educaţiei: (română, engleză, germană, franceză). Book review. Journal of Educational Sciences. 2020; 42 (2):101-103.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. 2020. "Dicţionar explicativ poliglot de termeni din domeniul educaţiei: (română, engleză, germană, franceză). Book review." Journal of Educational Sciences 42, no. 2: 101-103.
In the context of the 2020 public health crisis that discourages exchanges of physical objects in society, university-led publishing needed to rethink its operations. Worldwide the opening of quality scholarly content proved to be a solution. University presses reacted rapidly and offered books according to the open access model. The present research aimed to map the editorial landscape of Romanian university presses, to identify the main features displayed online by the university presses parented by public universities and to highlight the readiness of these players to further open access academic books, especially in the time of the COVID-19 crisis. The quantitative approach investigated the availability of e-books in the university presses’ portfolios, including the alignment to the open access scholarship movement, the use of social media accounts to promote the presses and the response of the presses to the challenges of the health crisis. Out of the 46 active university presses, only six had open book titles in their portfolios and only one genuinely responded actively to the challenges posed by the need for electronic formats in 2020. Unless Romanian university presses modernize and restructure their modus operandi, they can prove irrelevant in the post-crisis period.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Katalin Luzan. Open Academic Book Publishing during COVID-19 Pandemic: A View on Romanian University Presses. Publications 2020, 8, 49 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca, Katalin Luzan. Open Academic Book Publishing during COVID-19 Pandemic: A View on Romanian University Presses. Publications. 2020; 8 (4):49.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca; Katalin Luzan. 2020. "Open Academic Book Publishing during COVID-19 Pandemic: A View on Romanian University Presses." Publications 8, no. 4: 49.
The study reports on research carried out at the five major technical higher institutions in Romania. It views the human values students bring with them to the educational setting as rhizomatic lines, in the Deleuzian sense, and aims at identifying the intensity of each value, respectively, at grasping the correlations between the students’ values and their projection concerning postgraduation life, including nomadic (i.e., migration) intentions. Such an approach is novel in educational research. The 1782 valid responses collected after applying an online questionnaire were subjected to multivariate statistical analyses. The results unfold the research stages, from intensity-identification concerning the 18 values included in the questionnaire to the factor extraction and correlation findings that highlight strata beneath the upper layer of responses. The values boil down to three nodes of the rhizome, anchoring the Romanian engineers-to-be in the present setting and allowing them to grow in a sustainable manner, i.e., to become professionals, socially accepted, and belonging to a group. The findings are useful to professors, who need to constantly check their assumptions about the profile of the young generation, to better ground their partnership relation with students in moral realities that are relevant and help learners face disruption, crisis, incertitude.
Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir; Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Vasile Gherheș; Liliana Cismariu. Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7417 .
AMA StyleGabriel-Mugurel Dragomir, Mariana Cernicova-Buca, Vasile Gherheș, Liliana Cismariu. Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (18):7417.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGabriel-Mugurel Dragomir; Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Vasile Gherheș; Liliana Cismariu. 2020. "Engineering Students’ Human Values as Rhizomatic Lines of Sustainability." Sustainability 12, no. 18: 7417.
This paper aims to diagnose Romanian engineering students in relation to their migration intentions, motivations, and destinations, and to predict the magnitude of migration in the polled population. It presents the results of a quantitative study based on a questionnaire survey consistent in terms of number and structure of variables and responses. The online questionnaire was self-administered by 1782 students from the five major technical Romanian universities, which are the main providers of the highly skilled labor force in the area of engineering. Regression analysis was carried out to correlate the drivers of migration and the potential for real migration. According to the results, Romanian students from technical universities are inclined to migrate in a significant proportion; the economic factor being the main migration driver. The predictive model built on the logistical regression and the collected data accounts only partially for the variations of the variable decision to migrate, so further research is needed. The analysis of the students’ mindset can prove useful to understand the future interactions between the new graduates and the labor market, to develop regional and national policies regarding human capital, and to root development plans towards sustainable economic growth in solid databases concerning the engineering profession.
Vasile Gherheș; Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Migration Intentions of Romanian Engineering Students. Sustainability 2020, 12, 1 .
AMA StyleVasile Gherheș, Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir, Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Migration Intentions of Romanian Engineering Students. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (12):1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleVasile Gherheș; Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. 2020. "Migration Intentions of Romanian Engineering Students." Sustainability 12, no. 12: 1.
The paper focuses on the main features of corporate volunteering in companies from the Sverdlovsk region (Russian Federation), with a population surpassing 4.5 million inhabitants. Corporate volunteering is analyzed in the context of the trend characteristic for the post-Soviet space. The article systematizes approaches to the definition and study of this phenomenon, implemented by researchers from different countries. The main goal of the article is to identify the specific features of corporate volunteering in a large Russian region, considered typical for industrial territories in post-Soviet areas, seen through the social value that local communities attribute to corporate volunteering. The paper is based on the results of a public opinion poll and structured interviews, carried out in the Sverdlovsk region, where there is a concentration of enterprises of “hard” industries. The responses obtained in the poll were further subjected to analysis using statistical methods. The data are supplemented with information collected through the qualitative interviews. Interviewed experts are the top managers of enterprises and the deputy directors for HR, GR, or social issues. The study shows that in Russian industrial cities, where large enterprises are the main employers for most residents, many questions on the implementation of social policy fall under the responsibility of these enterprises, and not of the local government. Researchers argue that corporate volunteering is not widespread in the large Russian regions. It most often develops within the framework of event planning and environmental projects, managed by enterprises in cooperation with social and cultural institutions of local communities and not with the non-profit sector. The traditions of the organization of mass social work formed during the socialist period are still deeply rooted in enterprises, and managers rarely identify volunteering as a new managerial tool, thus being untangled from the global trend of promoting corporate volunteerism as a means of building corporate culture.
Maria Pevnaya; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Corporate volunteering in the large enterprises’ social mission – the case of a post-Soviet Russian industrial region. Central European Journal of Public Policy 2020, 14, 31 -42.
AMA StyleMaria Pevnaya, Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Corporate volunteering in the large enterprises’ social mission – the case of a post-Soviet Russian industrial region. Central European Journal of Public Policy. 2020; 14 (1):31-42.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaria Pevnaya; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. 2020. "Corporate volunteering in the large enterprises’ social mission – the case of a post-Soviet Russian industrial region." Central European Journal of Public Policy 14, no. 1: 31-42.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca. UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR IDENTITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY. 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR IDENTITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY. 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015. 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. 2015. "UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR IDENTITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY." 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015 , no. : 1.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca. STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING SPORT CLUBS IN THE WEB 2.0 ERA. A ROMANIAN VIEW. 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING SPORT CLUBS IN THE WEB 2.0 ERA. A ROMANIAN VIEW. 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015. 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca. 2015. "STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING SPORT CLUBS IN THE WEB 2.0 ERA. A ROMANIAN VIEW." 2nd International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM2015 , no. : 1.
In the age of globalization, a university's brand has a crucial value in facing change, competition and challenges set forth by the sometimes confusing expectations of the society. The current paper discusses the importance of image audit and possibilities to work with the inner stake-holders’ perceptions in order to consolidate and promote the university brand. The authors have relied on sociological surveys and image of organizations as main instruments while carrying out the research in 2011-2012, on a sample of 1099 students and 532 professors from Politehnica University of Timisoara (UPT), determined by probabilistic methods, namely through stratified sampling in the first phase and the second phase sampling group, with a rate of responses of 71%. Among the items measured in the case of students were: reasons for choosing the specialization offered by UPT, students’ information sources when selecting a college, institutional attributes of the university's personality. Professors have been asked to evaluate, among other items: the communication channels and their efficiency in institutional communication, their evaluation of the position of Politehnica University as compared to other universities in Romania and abroad, institutional attributes of the university's personality. The results were then subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. Recommendations and conclusions point at the necessity of communication campaigns and strategic planning for consolidating the image anchors identified through the methods discussed in the paper
Mariana Cernicova; Mugur Dragomir; Adina Palea. A Students’ and Professors’ View on the Image of Their University. Case Study: Politehnica University of Timisoara. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2015, 191, 98 -102.
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova, Mugur Dragomir, Adina Palea. A Students’ and Professors’ View on the Image of Their University. Case Study: Politehnica University of Timisoara. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2015; 191 ():98-102.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova; Mugur Dragomir; Adina Palea. 2015. "A Students’ and Professors’ View on the Image of Their University. Case Study: Politehnica University of Timisoara." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 191, no. : 98-102.
Mariana Cernicova; Adina Palea; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Measuring the Students’ Perception Chosen Profession. Case Study: PR Students in Western Romania. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2014, 116, 2825 -2831.
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova, Adina Palea, Mariana Cernicova-Buca. Measuring the Students’ Perception Chosen Profession. Case Study: PR Students in Western Romania. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2014; 116 ():2825-2831.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova; Adina Palea; Mariana Cernicova-Buca. 2014. "Measuring the Students’ Perception Chosen Profession. Case Study: PR Students in Western Romania." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116, no. : 2825-2831.
Mariana Cernicova-Buca; Adina Palea. Developing Awareness of the Future Profession for Prospective Public Relations Specialists. A Web Based Analysis of Romanian Academic Sites. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2012, 46, 4244 -4248.
AMA StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca, Adina Palea. Developing Awareness of the Future Profession for Prospective Public Relations Specialists. A Web Based Analysis of Romanian Academic Sites. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2012; 46 ():4244-4248.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMariana Cernicova-Buca; Adina Palea. 2012. "Developing Awareness of the Future Profession for Prospective Public Relations Specialists. A Web Based Analysis of Romanian Academic Sites." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46, no. : 4244-4248.