Promoting e-Learning Educational Programs for Wellness and SPA Therapies

AbstractPromoting lifelong learning in the field of health is the result of continuous professional skills development through accessing the most recent knowledge and large data bases of specialty. Spa treatment is integrated with kinesitherapy and rehabilitation medicine and it is a methodical and therapeutic specialty for studying and applying into practice physical means (warmth, light, electricity, etc) and natural therapeutic factors (climate, mineral waters, mud) combined with physical exercise under its prophylactic, therapeutic and rehabilitation aspects

Preliminary study for optimization of enzymatic hydrolysis of waste cellulosic materials

Lignocellulose is a generic term describing the main constituents in most plants, namely cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Cellulose is a glucose polysaccharide, hemicelluloses are polysaccharides with a backbone of different hexoses (glucose, mannose, galactose) and pentoses (xylan, arabinose), and lignin is a complex network of different phenyl propane units. The cellulosic materials are potential sources of ethanol. Steps of this process are saccharification of cellulose to reduce sugars, under enzymes action and to reduce sugars fermentation by yeast to obtain ethanol.The aim of this study is to examine the influence of substrateconcentration, temperature and pH upon enzymatic saccharification ofwaste cellulosic materials, based on office paper, newspaper andcardboard, in ratio of 1:1:1 (w/w) and reducing sugar accumulationdynamics in optimised conditions. The study has established optimalparameters: the ratio of enzyme:substrate as 0.5 EU/g substrate,temperature 48°C, pH 4.8 and addition of surfactant Tween 80 inproportion of 0.3 %, reported to the total volume of liquid. The reducing sugar yield was 35 mg reducing sugars/ g dry weight cellulosic waste

Granger Causality Test and Chow Breakpoint Test on the Romanian Day Ahead Electricity Market

AbstractIn this paper we will apply the causality Granger test between the closure prices on Romanian day ahead energy markets and different primary energy sources production (coal, hydrocarbons, nuclear, wind and hydro energy). We will apply also the Chow breakpoint test for the prices independently, and for the prices expressed in terms of above energy sources.From practical reasons (because we have obtained seasonal components for the involved time series) we will generalize the Granger causality test such that we take into account the seasonal components

Optimization of biosynthesis conditions and catalitic behavior evaluation of cellulase-free xylanase produced by a new Streptomyces sp. strain

Cellulase-free xylanase by Streptomyces sp.P12-137 was obtained bycultivation on the wheat bran as the sole carbon source. The effect of carbon and nitrogen sources and a ratio of them on the cellulase-free xylanase production was investigated. The new isolate Streptomyces sp. strain was able to grow in submerged system and to produce an increased level of xylanase. Wheat bran induced xylanase biosynthesis yield at a high level (9.27 UA/ml). For economical reasons cultivation was achieved on a cheap fermentative medium represented by agro-industrial wastes. The optima of the pH and temperature of the crude xylanase activity were 5.5 and 70°C,respectively

Megacystis Microcolon Intestinal Hypoperistalsis Syndrome Berdon’s syndrome - First Report in Romania

Megacystis Microcolon Intestinal Hypoperistalsis Syndrome (MMIHS) is a rare motility disorder with high mortality rate described by Berdon in 1976. We present the first case of Berdon’s syndrome (heterozygous pathogenic variant in the ACTG2 gene) reported in Romania, a female newborn admitted in NICU “Marie S. Curie” Emergency Children’s Hospital Bucharest for intestinal obstruction after birth. Total parenteral nutrition, ileostomy, gastrostomy, clean intermittent bladder catheterisation, evaluation for multivisceral transplantation were performed. She was discharged from our NICU ward at the age of 4 years and 2 months with home total parenteral nutrition administered by her mother in sterile condition, clean intermittent catheterisation for bladder evacuation performed by her mother, monitored monthly for about three years, with normal cardio-respiratory function, no signs of thrombosis, she maintained relatively low platelet count without positive blood culture, good liver and renal function test. Normal neurological and psychomotor development according to age. Her course was complicated by multiorgan failure with death ensuing at the age of 7 years and 10 months

Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in the Classroom and on Attitudes toward Physical Activity: A Randomized Controlled Trial among Primary Students from Eight Countries.

peer reviewedClassroom-based physical activity (PA) interventions have received considerable attention due to improvements seen in academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and attitude toward PA. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Brain Breaks® Physical Activity Solutions in changing children's attitudes toward PA. Students (N = 3036) aged 8-11 years from schools in Croatia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, South Africa, and Turkey were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. The experimental group received Brain Breaks® videos during classroom sessions throughout the four months of intervention. Student attitudes toward PA were measured using the Attitudes toward Physical Activity Scale (APAS) before and after the intervention. Repeated measures ANOVA indicated a time interaction effect for all APAS variables except fitness. Time-by-group interaction effects with different effect sizes were found for most APAS variables, with the greatest gain effect noted in the experimental group for self-efficacy, followed by learning from the videos concerning PA benefits, exercise importance, and enjoyment from engaging in PA. This study provides evidence supporting Brain Breaks® in terms of learning experience, attitudes towards PA, and personal motivation. Using exercise videos is recommended as an interactive, technology-based PA solution that can be easily integrated into the school setting

Impact of bio-processing on rice

The usual way of preparing rice is boiling, thermal process that gives it a lower digestibility as compared to instantiation, extrusion or expandation. Having in view this fact, the possibility to biotechnologically improve the boiled rice digestibility was investigated in a laboratory study. In this respect, boiled rice wassolid state fermented using a strain of Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, an amylase producing yeast originating from ragi. Fermented rice was then analyzed from the point of view of its content in easily assimilable sugars, protein, amino-acids, phosphorus and vitamins from B group. Biochemical analyses revealed that the fermented rice has a ten times higher content of reducing sugars than boiled rice, due to starch hydrolysis, while chromatographic studies proved that the fermented rice contains glucose, maltose, maltotriose and maltotetrose that are easily assimilable carbohydrates.Fermented rice has a protein content that is two times higher than that of boiled rice because it contains the yeast biomass, and is enriched in vitamins from B group (B1, B2, and B6) that are synthesized by the yeast. Inorganic phosphorus present in rice doubles its concentration in fermented rice, which means thatphosphorus bioavailability is increased.The sensorial profile of boiled rice is also improved by fermentation.This study proves the possibility to have a processing method which is relatively cheap, practical and of which the resulting product has good nutritive qualities and does not pose safety problems due to pure culture utilization as starter

Optimization of protein production by Geotrichum candidum MIUG 2.15 by cultivation on paper residues, using response surface methodology

Response surface methodology (RSM) based on the 23 factorial central composite design (CCD) was used to optimize the biotechnological conditions for growth and protein production by a selected fungal strain Geotrichum candidum MIUG 2.15, by solid-state cultivation on a semisolid medium based on a mixture of paper residues, i.e. office paper, newspaper, and cardboard, mixed in a ratio of 1:1:1(w/w), supplemented with cheese whey waste and complex manure. Three independent variables, the solid:liquid ratio, the concentration of complex manure, and cultivation time, were evaluated to determine their correlative effect on biomass production and protein biosynthesis. The optimal conditions for obtaining a maximum protein yield of 9.53% w/w dry mass were the following: the complex manure concentration of 0.5%, the solid:liquid ratio of 1:5, and the growth time of 10 days