Reducing the Sludge Quantity Produced from Used Water Purification – A Source of Profit

This paper has its origins in the analysis of a real situation met in the Water Purification Plant from Cluj-Napoca city. The produced dehydrated sludge is about 70 - 80 tonnes / 24 hours, with a density that allows for an equivalence of 1 tonne to 1 m³, 80,000 Kg or 80 m³, i.e. a huge amount and an impressive volume of material. This paper does not propose solutions to valorise or store the huge quantity of sludge, though the present solutions are quite inefficient. The stress is placed upon the sludge production sources, its transportation to the purification plants, the collection of the sludge in the purification plants and the dehydration methods that can be used. The analysis of these stages aims at identifying several measures that could lead to diminishing the amount of sludge produced after the purification of used and dehydrated water in the purification plants without affecting the quality of purified water. The measures identified are to be presented as measures that can be applied in the spirit of sustainable and efficient development. The business feature is given by the savings brought by the mitigation of the sludge amount to be stored and paid for in the ecological storage places in remote areas

Probiotics in treating diseases – short review

In the last 20 years, probiotics have attracted specialists attention being conducted over 50 studies investigating the probiotics use in human diseases treatment. These studies revealed that the probiotics potential is ranging from constipation to hepatic encephalopathy. Probiotics are able to normalize the intestinal microbial ecosystem, to improve the gut barrier function, to inhibit potential pathogens and to modulate the immune and anti-inflammatory activities. Further studies need to clarify the optimal effective dosage for specific diseases, the most effective probiotic for distinctive diseases, to emphasize the interactions with food, and to determine if single-species probiotics would provide helth benefits

TESTUL BRUCKNER LA 4 METRI: UN INSTRUMENT IMPORTANT ÎN SCREENING-UL AMBLIOPIEI LA COPIII CU DIZABILITĂȚI INTELECTUALE

Introducere. Screening-ul ambliopiei la copiii cu nevoi speciale trebuie să fie realizat cu teste rapide și obiective, cum este testul Bruckner. Ipoteza propusă verificării a fost aceea că testul Bruckner la 4 metri, pentru copiii cu dizabilități, ar putea fi cel puțin la fel de util sau chiar superior celui la 1 metru. Scopul studiului a fost să determine sensibilitatea și specificitatea reflexului Bruckner efectuat la 4 metri comparativ cu cel la 1 metru, pentru detecția ametropiilor și a strabismului la copiii cu dizabilități intelectuale. Material și metodă. Au fost luați în studiu un număr de 34 de copii cu dizabilitate intelectuală. 4 studenți au efectuat testul Bruckner la 1 metru și la 4 metri, apoi expertul oftalmolog a efectuat examinarea oftalmologică completă. Compararea statistică a rezultatelor s-a efectuat folosind testele Fischer și Chi pătrat. Rezultate. Sensibilitatea testului la 1 metru a fost între 0 şi 50%, iar la 4 m a fost de 55,6-72% (p < 0,05). Specificitatea testului la 1 metru a fost de 85,7-100%, iar la 4 m a fost de 81,3-93,8% (p <0,05). Concluzii. Extinderea de la 1 metru la 4 metri a distanței de examinare dintre observator și pacient în testul Bruckner crește acuratețea detecției ametropiilor

Entrepreneurship and its Economical Value in a very Dynamic Business Environment

The aim of this article is to enrich the vision regarding the connection between entrepreneurship and economic growth, focusing upon an economy in transition to a market economy. The authors of the present paper have developed an empirical model – based on a constant preoccupation to observe the impact of the entrepreneurial phenomenon on the free, emerging market in Romania – model which uses a number of variables which are believed to influence the critical mass of viable business existing in a dynamic environment. The proposed model identifies the factors that need to be activated in the current context to transfer the theoretical importance of SME’s in the truly complex world of an economy that desires to be prosperous. Then, the model was exposed to the test of the objective statistical and mathematical testing, starting from the results obtained from a survey of 536 entrepreneurs. The methodological approach makes use both of regression models, which use the relevant aspects from the survey, turned into quantitative or qualitative variables, and of the analysis of variance, with the aim of explaining the way in which the considered variables have managed to determine the economic growth, as well as of determining their importance and their influence. Finally, several conclusions have been outlined, regarding the economic policy measures that are needed and feasible in order to make the business environment in Romania more predictable and more friendly and, thus, to encourage entrepreneurship

EMPLOYEES STIMULATION POLICIES FROM ACCOUNTING AND FISCAL PERSPECTIVE

More and more frequently, the negotiation of the said wage of the employees is accompanied by the possibility to get additional bonuses by the nature of food vouchers, distributed profits, rewards granted by various circumstances, advantages in nature of other similar elements. The specialty literature defines the assembly of the elements mentioned through the concept of wage packet. At the level of the entity's management we can find, on one hand, the awareness of the fact that the proposal of some attractive wage packet represents an important factor for the increase of financial performances, but, on the other hand, it can be also noticed a reservation regarding the effective implementation determined, among others, by the fiscal implications related to these.This paper aims the approach of the mentioned aspects both in terms of the accounting treatment applied and in terms of the fiscal implications related

Footprint Reduction of Sensor Control Modules for Remote Portable Laboratories

Following the automation of monitoring systems for pollution levels in cities or protected nature reserves, there comes a need to increase the autonomy of robotic vectors deployed in the field. Thus, it is important to consider the weight that these robots must hold in order to be able to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the environment. A balance must be struck in the size, weight, and complexity of the mobile laboratories used for measurement and the autonomy of robots, especially given that current technology does not allow, in most cases, a completely autonomous battery charging cycle. Thus, in this paper, we consider a microcontroller-based architecture for a mobile laboratory control system that will be used for installation on both an aerial and an aquatic mobile vector. We found that such a system can be repurposed for several sensor types and configurations, thus being able to massively reduce the space allocated when compared to embedded widespread products

New Polymeric Adsorbents Functionalized with Aminobenzoic Groups for the Removal of Residual Antibiotics

In this paper, we present the synthesis of new polymeric adsorbents derived from macroporous chloromethylated styrene&ndash;divinylbenzene (DVB) copolymers with different cross-linking degrees functionalized with the following aminobenzoic groups: styrene&mdash;6.7% DVB (PAB1), styrene&mdash;10% DVB (PAB2), and styrene&mdash;15% DVB (PAB3). The new polymeric products, PAB1, PAB2, and PAB3, were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and EDX, SEM, and BET analysis, respectively. The evolution of the functionalization reaction was followed by FTIR spectroscopy, which revealed a decrease in the intensity of the &gamma;CH2Cl band at 1260 cm&minus;1, and, simultaneously, the appearance of C=O carboxylic bands from 1685&ndash;1695 cm&minus;1 and at 1748 cm&minus;1. The thermal stability increased with the increase in the cross-linking degree. The data obtained from the EDX analysis of the novel cross-linked copolymers confirmed the functionalization with aminobenzoic groups through the presence and content of nitrogen, as follows: PAB1: N% = 0.47; PAB2: N% = 0.85; and PAB3: N% = 1.30. The adsorption performances of the novel polymeric adsorbents, PAB1, PAB2, and PAB3, were tested in the adsorption of three antibiotics, tetracycline, sulfamethoxazole, and amoxicillin, from aqueous solutions, by using extensive kinetic, equilibrium, and thermodynamic studies. The best adsorption capacity was demonstrated by the tetracycline. Amoxicillin adsorption was also attempted, but it did not show positive results

Synthesis and biological evaluation of new 1,3-thiazolidine-4-one derivatives of nitro-l-arginine methyl ester

International audienceBackgroundL-Arginine is a semi-essential aminoacid with important role in regulation of physiological processes in humans. It serves as precursor for the synthesis of proteins and is also substrate for different enzymes such as nitric oxide synthase. This amino-acid act as free radical scavenger, inhibits the activity of pro-oxidant enzymes and thus acts as an antioxidant and has also bactericidal effect against a broad spectrum of bacteria.ResultsNew thiazolidine-4-one derivatives of nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (NO2-Arg-OMe) have been synthesized and biologically evaluated in terms of antioxidant and antibacterial/antifungal activity. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H, 13C NMR, Mass and IR spectral data. The antioxidant potential was investigated using in vitro methods based on ferric/phosphomolybdenum reducing antioxidant power and DPPH/ABTS radical scavenging assay. The antibacterial effect was investigated against Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Sarcina lutea ATCC 9341) and Gram negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853) bacterial strains. The antifungal activity was also investigated against Candida spp. (Candida albicans ATCC 10231, Candida glabrata ATCC MYA 2950, Candida parapsilosis ATCC 22019).ConclusionsSynthesized compounds showed a good antioxidant activity in comparison with the NO2-Arg-OMe. The antimicrobial results support the selectivity of tested compounds especially on P. aeruginosa as bacterial strain and C. parapsilosis as fungal strain. The most proper compounds were 6g (R = 3-OCH3) and 6h (R = 2-OCH3) which showed a high free radical (DPPH, ABTS) scavenging ability and 6j (R = 2-NO2) that was the most active on both bacterial and fungal strains and also it showed the highest ABTS radical scavenging ability

Biological Evaluation of Azetidine-2-One Derivatives of Ferulic Acid as Promising Anti-Inflammatory Agents

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vivo biological potential of new azetidine-2-one derivatives of ferulic acid (6a&ndash;f). First, the in vivo acute toxicity of azetidine-2-one derivatives of ferulic acid on Swiss white mice was investigated and, based on the obtained results, it can be stated that the studied derivatives belong to compounds with moderate toxicity. The in vivo anti-inflammatory potential of these derivatives was determined in a model of acute inflammation induced by carrageenan in rats and in a chronic inflammation model induced in rats using the granuloma test. In the acute inflammation model, all the studied compounds had a maximum anti-inflammatory effect 24 h after administration, which suggests that these compounds may be classified, from a pharmacokinetic point of view, in the category of long-acting compounds. The most active compound in the series was found to be compound 6b. In the case of the chronic inflammation model, it was observed that the studied compounds (6a&ndash;f) reduced the formation of granulation tissue compared to the control group, having an intense effect of inhibiting the proliferative component. The most important inhibitory effect of inhibiting the proliferative component was recorded for compound 6b. Additionally, the investigation of liver function was performed by determining the serum levels of liver enzymes aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and bilirubin (total and direct). The results showed that, in the series of azetidin-2-one derivatives, the liver enzymes concentration values were close to those recorded for the reference anti-inflammatories (diclofenac sodium and indomethacin) and slightly higher compared to the values for the healthy control group. At the end of the experiment, the animals were euthanized and fragments of liver, lung, and kidney tissue were taken from all groups in the study. These were processed for histopathological examination, and we noticed no major changes in the groups treated with the azetidine 2-one derivatives of ferulic acid compared to the healthy groups