HARVESTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS

In recent years, the people had more and more the tendency to return to remedies offered by nature. Nowadays, according to W.H.O. data, over 80% out of world population is using the medicinal plants for which a great interest was generated by traditional phytotherapy and especially by the fact that they represent an important source of bioactive substances. Therefore, the fields cultivated with medicinal plants have been extended and the relevant culture technologies have been modernized and adapted to current requirements. In general, mechanized harvesting of medicinal and aromatic plants is an important prerequisite in achieving a good production. Lavender is one of the most valuable aromatic species due to its volatile oil obtained by distillation of fresh inflorescences, being widely used in industry of perfume, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, aromatherapy, etc. Harvesting technologies of lavender and medicinal plants require specialized equipment designed according to cultivated field size. This paper presents a lavender harvesting technology, based on the utilization of a low-capacity equipment designed to gather the lavender from rather reduced surfaces. At the same time, a technology of harvesting medicnal plants, from which aerial organs (stems, leaves, flowers) are collected, is presented together with the small capacity equipment used for this purpose. This equipment was designed in order to support small farmers, for whom lavender and other medicinal species cultivation (from which the herb is capitalized) represents a real opportunity for obtaining major incomes

Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Studies of Organotin(IV) Derivatives with o- or p-hydroxybenzoic Acids

Organotin(IV) complexes with o- or p-hydroxybenzoic acids (o-H2BZA or p-H2BZA) of formulae [R2Sn(HL)2] (where H2L = o-H2BZA and R = Me- (1), n-Bu- (2)); [R3Sn(HL)] (where H2L = o-H2BZA and R = n-Bu- (3), Ph- (4) or H2L = p-H2BZA and R = n-Bu- (5), Ph- (6)) were synthesized by reacting a methanolic solution of di- and triorganotin(IV) compounds with an aqueous solution of the ligand (o-H2BZA or p-H2BZA) containing equimolar amounts of potassium hydroxide. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, Far-IR, TGA-DTA, FT-Raman, Mössbauer spectroscopy, 1H, 119Sn-NMR, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and Mass spectroscopy. The X-ray crystal structures of complexes 1 and 2 have also been determined. Finally, the influence of these complexes 1–6 upon the catalytic peroxidation of linoleic acid to hydroperoxylinoleic acid by the enzyme lipoxygenase (LOX) was kinetically studied and the results showed that triorganotin(IV) complex 6 has the lowest IC50 value. Also complexes 1–6 were studied for their in vitro cytotoxicity against sarcoma cancer cells (mesenchymal tissue) from the Wistar rat, and the results showed that the complexes have high activity against these cell lines with triphenyltin((IV) complex 4 to be the most active one

Reconstructia sanului dupa diferitele proceduri chirurgicale adresate cancerului mamar

Spitalul Clinic de Urgenţă “Bagdasar-Arseni” Bucureşti, România, Spitalul Clinic de urgenţă “Sf. Pantelimon” Bucureşti, România, Spitalul Judeţean de Urgenţă Piteşti, România, Al XI-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” din Republica Moldova și cea de-a XXXIII-a Reuniune a Chirurgilor din Moldova „Iacomi-Răzeșu” 27-30 septembrie 2011Introducere. Dintre neoplaziile intalnite la femeie, cancerul mamar o reprezinta pe cea mai frecventa incidenta acestuia fiind in crestere in ultimele decenii. Chirurgia de conservare a sanului este acum larg acceptata drept tratamentul de electie in cancerul mamar.Actualmente, cancerul mamar este abordat in echipe pluridisciplinare, reconstructia dupa diferitele tipuri de interventii de exereza fiind preferata in majoritatea cazurilor. Se are in vedere reconstructia volumului sanului, simetrizarea sanului nou format cu cel controlateral si reconstructia placii areolo-mamare. Material si metoda. Lucrarea de fata are la baza studiul retrospectiv al unui numar de 7 cazuri de cancer mamar tratate in Spitalul Clinic de Urgenta “Bagdasar-Arseni” in intervalul Iunie 2008 – Iunie 2011. Au fost luate in calcul atat cazurile la care s-au facut in cadrul aceleasi interventii chirurgicale, cat si cazurile la care reconstructia s-a facut la un anumit interval distanta.Rezultate. Rezultatele au fost bune in cadrul ambelor tehnici – reconstructie imediata dupa ablatie si reconstructie la distanta – insa procentul complicatiilor asociate a fost mai mare pentru reconstructia la distanta, in mare masura datorita remanierilor tisulare aparute intre cele doua interventii chirurgicale. Mortalitatea a fost 0, iar in cadrul morbiditatii am intalnit un caz cu necroza parcelara ce a necesitat o reinterventie pentru grefare si un caz de limforagie persistenta, care odata devenit cronic, a necesitat indepartarea protezei de silicon. Concluzii.-Tehnica de reconstructie este una dificila si minutioasa, al carui rezultat favorabil este dependent atat de alegerea unei tehnici de ablatie potrivita urmata de una de reconstructie individuala cat si de colaborarea interdisciplinara intre chirurgul de chirurgie generala, chirurgul plastician si medicul oncolog- In urma cazurilor prezentate si a rezultatelor foarte bune obtinute optam pentru reconstructia imediata urmata de tratamentul chimioterapeutic specific.-Din experienta noastra consideram extrem de importante indicatia chirurgicala, tehnica pentru care se opteaza, acordul asupra abordului utilizat al membrilor echipei pluridisciplinare si urmarirea postoperatorie atenta

Tratamentul chirurgical al Hiperplaziei Prostatice Benigne (HPB)

Summary The work is dedicated to comparative analysis of results of surgery treatment in patients with Benign Prostate Hyperplasia. The 543 patients with untreated prostate adenoma (exposed toadenoma removal - 415 patients, and transurethral resection - 128 patients). The analysis of the results demonstrated, that the rate and the character of intra- and post- operation complications depends considerably on rational choice of surgical intervenfion method (transvesical or transurethral) and quality of its realization. In present TUR remains the main method in the treatment of BPH, possessing many advantages and at the same time presenting many possibilities of simultaneous treatment of other diseases, which accompany BPH. Transvesical adenomaectomy remains a method of BPH treatment, having more narrow concrete indications: adenoma of great size and its combination with great or multiple urinary bladder stones

Microsystem Technology for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

AbstractAAL is certainly an application area with sensor as well as actuator needs. Some of the requirements can be fulfilled by state of the art technology; some areas however still need a lot of R&D efforts for potential applications in homes. The contribution describes two areas of interest and actual development: One is the topic of robust fire detection; the other domain is fall detection. For both application areas one has to understand both the state of the art and the drawbacks of the current solutions. One can state clearly that there is a huge potential for the development of new microsystems. Still one has to keep in mind that usage in elderly homes also requires consent and cooperation of the users which is the focus of the user centered design principle

Self-activated ultrahigh chemosensitivity of oxide thin film nanostructures for transparent sensors

One of the top design priorities for semiconductor chemical sensors is developing simple, low-cost, sensitive and reliable sensors to be built in handheld devices. However, the need to implement heating elements in sensor devices, and the resulting high power consumption, remains a major obstacle for the realization of miniaturized and integrated chemoresistive thin film sensors based on metal oxides. Here we demonstrate structurally simple but extremely efficient all oxide chemoresistive sensors with similar to 90% transmittance at visible wavelengths. Highly effective self-activation in anisotropically self-assembled nanocolumnar tungsten oxide thin films on glass substrate with indium-tin oxide electrodes enables ultrahigh response to nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds with detection limits down to parts per trillion levels and power consumption less than 0.2 microwatts. Beyond the sensing performance, high transparency at visible wavelengths creates opportunities for their use in transparent electronic circuitry and optoelectronic devices with avenues for further functional convergence.open181

Experimental analysis of gas-sensitive Braitenberg vehicles

This article addresses the problem of localizing a static gas source in an indoor environment by a mobile robot. In contrast to previous works, the environment is not artificially ventilated to produce a strong unidirectional airflow. Here, the dominant transport mechanisms of gas molecules are turbulence and convection flow rather than diffusion, which results in a patchy, chaotically fluctuating gas distribution. Two Braitenberg-type strategies (positive and negative tropotaxis) based on the instantaneously measured spatial concentration gradient were investigated. Both strategies were shown to be of potential use for gas source localization. As a possible solution to the problem of gas source declaration (the task of determining with certainty that the gas source has been found), an indirect localization strategy based on exploration and concentration peak avoidance is suggested. Here, a gas source is located by exploiting the fact that local concentration maxima occur more frequently near the gas source compared to distant regions