A plea for the agrarian law as a distinct and autonomous branch of law

The hereby article aims at proving the necessity of regulating the agrarian law as a distinct and autonomous branch of law, given the specificity of the social and legal relationships in the agricultural field. In this context, we consider that it is necessary to introduce the agrarian law in the academic curricula, as a distinct subject, in the faculties of law, in the light of the importance of agriculture, juxtaposed with the unionist politics of sustainable development

Recent advances in biosorption of heavy metals: support tools for biosorption equilibrium, kinetics and mechanism

Heavy metals are increasingly present in industrial wastes and effluents, which can generate serious concerns for environmental quality and human health. Consequently, there is a continuous expansion of researches for new approaches and developments to guarantee environmental cleaning-up. Although there are some physico-chemical established methods for the removal of heavy metals from various environmental compartments, biosorption gains further confidence as a reliable alternative compared to classical technologies, which are expensive and sometimes unreliable. This paper aims to analyze the biosorption as a biotechnological strategy for the decontamination of aqueous effluents containing heavy metal ions, in terms of its potential for metal immobilization and uptake. The paper also focuses on the most important parameters affecting the removal of heavy metals by various categories of biosorbents both living and non-living forms of biomass and provides new alternatives for modeling and optimization of process equilibrium and kinetics. A special attention was paid to biosorption mechanism, as a factual challenge for process optimization and scale-up. The potential benefits and problems associated to metal removal by biosorption are highlighted.Roumanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0559”, Contract 265/2011

Chromium(VI) removal from aqueous solutions by Trichoderma viride fungal biomass

The bioremoval of Cr(VI) through biosorption and bioaccumulation using dead and living biomass of Trichoderma viride was investigated in batch mode, since a few studies were found in the literature on this subject. The biosorbent is an indigenous fungal strain of Trichoderma viride, isolated from a forest soil in an area from Iasi city, Romania. Effects of pH, biomass dosage, metal concentration in the initial solutions, contact time and temperature were assessed. It was found that the optimum pH for maximum removal efficiency is acidic for dead biomass and near the neutral value for living microorganisms. The biosorption process of total Cr removal by dead T. viride biomass is endothermic. The experimental data modeling and FTIR analysis showed that the mechanism of Cr(VI) removal by T. viride is based on a redox reaction. The linearized Langmuir isotherm had the best fitting compared to the other models applied showing that sorption occurs in monolayer at 25 and 40°C. Kinetic data were evaluated by the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order adsorption kinetic models, together with pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order reduction models. The new fungal strain of T. viride has confirmed high uptakes and removal efficiencies in Chromium(VI) bioremoval

New evidence of model crop Brassica napus L. in soil clean-up: comparison of tolerance and accumulation of lead and cadmium

The potential of the model crop Brassica napus L. (rapeseed) for the phytoremediation of soils polluted with metals was investigated at laboratory scale. The first step consists in the evaluation of the seed germination and growth of the Brassica napus L. plant in a controlled environment, followed by the determination of the photosynthetic pigments content represented by chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids. The degree of metal accumulation in rapeseed has been evaluated by the bioaccumulation factor (BAC), the bioconcentration factor (BCF) and the translocation factor (TF). Phytotoxicity tests were performed in Petri dishes with filter papers moistened with metal solutions in the range of 0 to 300 mg/L Pb(II) or Cd(II). At the highest concentration of the lead and cadmium treatments (300 mg/L), B. napus L. showed the lowest germination degree (56.67% and 43.33%, respectively). According to Tukey test results, Pb(II) concentrations of up to 300 mg/L do not significantly affect the length of the hypocotyls, whereas, in the case of Cd(II), the mean of the radicle and hypocotyl lengths of the seedlings are significantly affected compared to the mean of the control. In soil pot experiments, important changes have been obtained in the pigment content, especially in the case of cadmium. For both metals and for each treatment (100 to 1500 mg/kg Pb(II) and 1 to 30 mg/kg Cd(II)), a TF < 1 indicates an ineffective metal transfer from root to shoot. Finally, rapeseed can be considered a tolerant plant and a suitable candidate for Pb(II) and Cd(II) accumulation and for the phytostabilization of contaminated soil under the experimental conditions adopted in the present study

Comparison of Rhodotorula sp. and Bacillus megaterium in the removal of cadmium ions from liquid effluents

This study compares the capacity of Rhodotorula sp. and Bacillus megaterium for Cd(II) removal considering the influence of operating parameters (pH, biosorbent dosage, contact time, temperature, initial metal concentration in solution). The highest Cd(II) uptake of 14.2 mg/g by Rhodotorula sp. was exhibited at 30°C, when working at pH 6 and with 5 g/l biosorbent dosage, after 48 h of contact time. In these conditions, a removal efficiency of 85% was obtained. Similar outcomes were obtained for B. megaterium (15.1 mg/g, 90%) at 35°C, pH 4 and 3 g/l biosorbent dosage, considered as the optimum set of parameters, equilibrium being achieved for a contact time of 20 min. The possible interaction mechanisms between the biosorbents and Cd(II) were evaluated through point of zero charge (pHpzc), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX). Data were modeled using pseudo-first and pseudo-second order kinetic models and Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms models. Further studies considered a modeling approach based on linear regression with Durbin-Watson statistics, while the accuracy and precision of experiments were evaluated by ANOVA.This work was supported by two grants of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS–UEFISCDI: PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0559, Contract 265/2011 and project number PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2016-1662, Contract 10/2017 within PNCDI III. The Portuguese team input was performed under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Moving forward sustainable solutions for VOCs biotrickling filtration through co-immobilized microorganisms

This study is moving forward some available options for upgrading the biotrickling filters (BTFs) treating volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air, in the light of lowering their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One of such options refers to the addition of the microalgae component to the biological matrix involved in such systems, by (co)immobilization, for the capture of the carbon dioxide issued from the VOCs biodegradation and potentially contributing to the overall VOCs removal performance. Particularly, alginate beads with (co)immobilized microorganisms (microorganisms isolated from commercial compost and microalgae Arthrospira platensis PCC 8005) are for the first time tested for this purpose, as following: beads with encapsulated compost-based microorganisms and attached microalgae (BTF-I); beads with encapsulated mixture of microalgae and compost-based microorganisms (BTF-II). Although the both options provided promising performances in treating air contaminated with ethanol (as a model VOC in this study), the last option exhibited lower CO2 emissions and higher packing bed durability, being more prone to further development and implementation

Interplay of Epigenetics with Gynecological Cancer

Recent data on the cell deregulation that occurs during the progression to cancer underlines the cooperation between genetic and epigenetic alterations leading to a malignant phenotype. Unlike genetic alterations, the epigenetic changes do not affect the DNA sequence of the genes, but determine the regulation of gene expression acting upon the genome. Moreover, unlike genetic changes, epigenetic ones are reversible, making them therapeutic targets in various conditions in general and in cancer disease in particular. The term epigenetics includes a series of covalent modifications that regulate the methylation pattern of DNA and posttranslational modifications of histones. Gene expression can also be regulated at the posttranscriptional level by microRNAs (miRNAs), a family of small noncoding RNAs that inhibit the translation of mRNA to protein. miRNAs can act as ‘oncomiRs’, as tumor suppressors, or both. In this chapter, we will (1) summarize the current literature on the key processes responsible for epigenetic regulation: DNA methylation, histone modifications and posttranscriptional gene regulation by miRNAs; (2) evaluate aberrant epigenetic modifications as essential players in cancer progression; (3) establish the roles of microenvironment-mediated epigenetic perturbations in the development of gynecological neoplasia; (4) evaluate epigenetic factors involved in drug resistance

CURRENT ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS IN EUROPE - RESEARCH FOCUS ON HUMAN HEALTH

The article focuses on a synthetic presentation of environmental legislation and policies at national and European level, based on the analysis of government strategies that aim to improve living standards through education starting from an early level, through the implementation of waste management resulting from industrial and domestic activities, through the modernization of the rural environment as a result of the financing of water supply, access programme to alternative energy and specifically gas

Current aspects of environmental regulations and interventions in Europe - research focus on human health

The article focuses on a synthetic presentation of environmental legislation and policies at national and European level, based on the analysis of government strategies that aim to improve living standards through education starting from an early level, through the implementation of waste management resulting from industrial and domestic activities, through the modernization of the rural environment as a result of the financing of water supply, access programme to alternative energy and specifically gas.The article focuses on a synthetic presentation of environmental legislation and policies at national and European level, based on the analysis of government strategies that aim to improve living standards through education starting from an early level, through the implementation of waste management resulting from industrial and domestic activities, through the modernization of the rural environment as a result of the financing of water supply, access programme to alternative energy and specifically gas.The article focuses on a synthetic presentation of environmental legislation and policies at national and European level, based on the analysis of government strategies that aim to improve living standards through education starting from an early level, through the implementation of waste management resulting from industrial and domestic activities, through the modernization of the rural environment as a result of the financing of water supply, access programme to alternative energy and specifically gas