ANALYSIS OF CONVERGENCE WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION - SIGMA AND BETA CONVERGENCE

Real convergence study began with the development of neoclassical models of growth and especially with the passage of econometric applications of these models. In this paper we present applications of indicators and patterns of convergence on the example of European Union member countries and some current economic impact assessments on European convergence process. This analysis is based on the estimated σ- and β convergence and on Markov chains. The study deals with the economic convergence of the European countries and especially the convergence of the EU countries, including Romania. In the end of the study presents several economic scenarios for a faster and easier exit from the current crisis in Romania.real convergence, σ-convergence, β-convergence, Markov chains

Experimental evaluation of dowel-type timber joints with wooden dowels

Dowel-type timber joints made of wood are of particular interest for interventions on built heritage because such heritage buildings often involve timber structures. Wooden dowels offer a lower cost when compared with other connectors and conform to the tendency for using wood-based solutions to retrofit timber structures. However, there is a significant lack of information regarding the modelling of these wooden connectors' responses, in terms of analytical expressions as numerical models. Therefore, this paper presents the results of an extensive experimental campaign of timber-to-timber joints using wooden dowels. Two wood species were considered: chestnut as a hardwood and spruce as a softwood. The wooden dowels were always made of massaranduba, a Brazilian hardwood. The aim of the experimental campaign was to obtain and analyse the response of this type of connection, and then to compare it with the load-carrying capacity accessed through the available analytical expressions to verify its accuracy. The test results highlighted the advantages of using wooden dowels in timber joints. Moreover, it became clear that further analysis and research studies are needed to suggest new expressions that are in accordance with the behaviour of the connection.- (undefined

THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL EDUCATION TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE DIGITAL CONSUMER IN THE ERA OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY

A more sustainable economy and society presume more sustainable behavior in terms of consumption. A change in this behavior could be brought by a change in demand. In other words, a change in the demand could be facilitated by one’s financial and digital education. The circular economy implies the reuse and recycling of products and materials over and over again; thus, the life cycle of products and materials is extended. Engaging in recycling should have future benefits. Recycling behavior and sustainability are interrelated, the recycling process is viewed as a key issue in sustainability and prevails as pro-environmental consumer behavior. It is already known that significant changes in individual behavior are essential for society to move toward sustainability. This paper aims to explore from a quantitative perspective if digital education has an impact on consumer behavior in terms of sustainability in the era of the circular economy. This research is useful for all providers, consumers, and stakeholders involved in different businesse

THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL EDUCATION TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE DIGITAL CONSUMER IN THE ERA OF CIRCULAR ECONOMY

A more sustainable economy and society presume more sustainable behavior in terms of consumption. A change in this behavior could be brought by a change in demand. In other words, a change in the demand could be facilitated by one’s financial and digital education. The circular economy implies the reuse and recycling of products and materials over and over again; thus, the life cycle of products and materials is extended. Engaging in recycling should have future benefits. Recycling behavior and sustainability are interrelated, the recycling process is viewed as a key issue in sustainability and prevails as pro-environmental consumer behavior. It is already known that significant changes in individual behavior are essential for society to move toward sustainability. This paper aims to explore from a quantitative perspective if digital education has an impact on consumer behavior in terms of sustainability in the era of the circular economy. This research is useful for all providers, consumers, and stakeholders involved in different businesse

Management of Apple Scab and Powdery Mildew Using Bicarbonate Salts and Other Alternative Organic Products with Fungicide Effect in Apple Cultivars

The control of apple scab and powdery mildew is a challenge for organic fruit growing. Bicarbonate salts are already consecrate in reducing the attack of scab and powdery mildew in organic apple culture. In the current study the influence of some products accepted in organic apple production to control scab and powdery mildew (potasium bicarbonate, lime sulphur, wettable sulphur, potassium silicate, cooper ammonium-phosphate, potassium bicarbonate + potassium silicate, potassium bicarbonate + wettable sulphur) in comparison with untreated control, were used.  The biological material was represented by three scab resistant cultivars (‘Luna’, ‘Topaz’ and ‘Sirius’) and three scab susceptible cultivars (‘Elstar’, ‘Pinova’ and ‘Golden Delicious’). The experiments were carried out during 2014-2016 at Steluța LTD, Cluj-Napoca, N.W. Romania, as a bifactorial experiment arranged in randomized blocks. The trees were planted in 2011 at a density of 3,175 trees/ha. Depending of the year, a number of 18-22 treatments were made annually after each rain. It can be concluded that the combination of potassium bicarbonate + wettable sulphur significantly reduced the attack degree of scab and powdery mildew on leaves and fruits and increased the yield of the scab-susceptible and scab resistant cultivars. Good results were obtained in the case of treatment with potassium bicarbonate with potassium silicate, potassium bicarbonate and cooper ammonium phosphate. The treatments with the products used in the experiments did not register symptoms of phytotoxicity on leaves or fruits, except lime sulphur and wettable sulphur and cooper ammonium phosphates

Ceramic Materials Based on Clay Minerals in Cultural Heritage Study

The artifacts belonging to the ceramic heritage are mostly based on all clay types used by humans over the ages, because the sources of clays were easily available and people were interested to produce ceramics and pottery. This is the reason why the conservation of cultural heritage is of great concern. Ceramics (Greek κεράμιον Keramion) is a material obtained by shaping and firing clay. In the Romanian history, many ceramic pieces, of great diversity, have been discovered, and most of them are used in traditional households. Ceramic materials based on clay minerals in cultural heritage (ceramic heritage) involve techniques of characterization of raw materials and ceramic objects based on clays, discovered in different archaeological sites, leading to some results about the production technology, provenance, authentication, and historical appartenance on Romanian territory. The chemical composition of ancient ceramics and pigments decorating them, excavated from different Romanian archaeological sites, suggested a chemical composition of ceramic based on clay minerals (kaolinite, illite, and smectite), while the pigments belonging to them contained red pigments (hematite or ocher), manganese oxides (brown pigments), and magnetite or carbon of vegetable origin (black-pigmented layers)

Overview of the Side-Effects of FDA- and/or EMA-Approved Targeted Therapies for the Treatment of Hematological Malignancies.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadIn the last decade there has been tremendous effort in offering better therapeutic management strategies to patients with hematologic malignancies. These efforts have ranged from biological to clinical approaches and resulted in the rapid development of new approaches. The main "problem" that comes with the high influx of newly approved drugs, which not only influences hematologists that frequently work with these drugs but also affects other healthcare professionals that work with hematologists in patient management, including intensive care unit (ICU) physicians, is they have to keep up within their specialty and, in addition, with the side-effects that can occur when encountering hematology-specific therapies. Nonetheless, there are few people that have an in-depth understanding of a specialty outside theirs. Thus, this manuscript offers an overview of the most common side-effects caused by therapies used in hematology nowadays, or that are currently being investigated in clinical trials, with the purpose to serve as an aid to other specialties. Nevertheless, because of the high amount of information on this subject, each chapter will offer an overview of the side-effects of a drug class with each reference of the section being intended as further reading. Keywords: hematological malignancies; life-threatening side-effects; novel therapies.MDPI A

Design and preclinical testing of an anti-CD41 CAR T cell for the treatment of acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia

Funding Information: Adrian Bogdan Tigu and Catalin Constantinescu contributed equally to the current manuscript. Catalin Constantinescu is funded by an internal grant of the Iuliu Hatieganu University – School of Doctoral Studies. David Kegyes is funded by an internal grant of the Iuliu Hatieganu University – School of Medicine. Mareike Peters is funded by a national grant of the Romanian Society for Bone Marrow Transplantation. Ciprian Tomuleasa is also supported by a grant awarded by the Romanian National Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization: PN‐III‐P4‐ID‐PCE‐2020‐1118 within PNCDI IV, Projects for Exploratory Medicine; Projects for Exploratory Medicine—PCE 225/2021; as well as a national grant awarded to Young Research Teams (PN‐III‐PI‐1.1‐TE‐2019‐0271 –‘Supporting a team of young researchers to create an independent research program based on the use of Sleeping Beauty protocol f or the development of CAR T Cells – SEATTLE’). Diana Gulei, Diana Cenariu, Adrian Bogdan Tigu, Jon Thor Bergthorsson and Victor Greiff are supported by an international collaborative grant of the European Economic Space between Romania and Iceland 2021–2023: ‘Cooperation strategy for knowledge transfer, internationalization and curricula innovation in the field of research education at the 3rd level of study –AURORA.’ Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia (AMkL) is a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) representing 5% of all reported cases, and frequently diagnosed in children with Down syndrome. Patients diagnosed with AMkL have low overall survival and have poor outcome to treatment, thus novel therapies such as CAR T cell therapy could represent an alternative in treating AMkL. We investigated the effect of a new CAR T cell which targets CD41, a specific surface antigen for M7-AMkL, against an in vitro model for AMkL, DAMI Luc2 cell line. The performed flow cytometry evaluation highlighted a percentage of 93.8% CAR T cells eGFP-positive and a limited acute effect on lowering the target cell population. However, the interaction between effector and target (E:T) cells, at a low ratio, lowered the cell membrane integrity, and reduced the M7-AMkL cell population after 24 h of co-culture, while the cytotoxic effect was not significant in groups with higher E:T ratio. Our findings suggest that the anti-CD41 CAR T cells are efficient for a limited time spawn and the cytotoxic effect is visible in all experimental groups with low E:T ratio.Peer reviewe

Studies on obtaining active dry wine yeast using different nitrogen sources

Most of research on wine microbiology has concentrated on Saccharomyces yeasts for development of starter cultures, especially on Sacch. cerevisiae. As the importance of the role of S. cerevisiae in winemaking has been established, the number of wine yeast strains available in the world market for use as winemaking starters grew in the last years. The upstream process of producing Sacch. cerevisiae biomass on a culture medium based on sugar was performed by testing different sources of inorganic and organic nitrogen (yeast extract and monoammonium phosphate) in submerged fermentations using a Biostat B plus bioreactor (4L working volume). The upstream parameters have been monitored on-line (oxygen flow; pH around 4.35; temperature 300C; stirring rate 250 rpm) and off-line (total soluble dry matter; pH). The biomass obtained after the downstream process has been dried through freeze-drying. Through the combination of two carbon sources as yeast extract (0.7%) and monoammonium phosphate 10.71 g/L dry cell weight (DCW) has been obtained, compared with 9.6 g/L DCW in the case of the fermentation without monoammonium phosphate. From the economic reasons, the monoammonium phosphate as an inorganic nitrogen form has been excluded from the experiments. Finally, the higher content of dry yeast biomass (14.43 g/L DCW) was obtained when 11% yeast extract as the only nitrogen source has been added at the fermentation media