The myth of urbanization through industrialization

The article explores the future of urbanization in Romania and the links between urbanization and industrialization and their corresponding development policies. It offers an overview regarding the historical process and changes which occurred in the state and approach of planning, discussing the intense socialist urbanization through industrialization, but also today’s situation regarding the stagnating urban development and planning as well as the perspectives regarding the integrated planning approach in a wider EU context. The article concludes that even if today industrialization is no longer equivalent with urbanization, the (national) industrialization strategies must include the debate regarding integrated urban development

Co-axial Printing of Convoluted Proximal Tubule for Kidney Disease Modeling

Despite the increasing incidence of kidney-related diseases, we are still far from understanding the underlying mechanisms of these diseases and their progression. This lack of understanding is partly because of a poor replication of the diseasesin vitro,limited to planar culture. Advancing towards three-dimensional models, hereby we propose coaxial printing to obtain microfibers containing a helical hollow microchannel. These recapitulate the architecture of the proximal tubule (PT), an important nephron segment often affected in kidney disorders. A stable gelatin/alginate-based ink was formulated to allow printability while maintaining structural properties. Fine-tuning of the composition, printing temperature and extrusion rate allowed for optimal ink viscosity that led to coiling of the microfiber's inner channel. The printed microfibers exhibited prolonged structural stability (42 days) and cytocompatibility in culture. Healthy conditionally immortalized PT epithelial cells and a knockout cell model for cystinosis (CTNS-/-) were seeded to mimic two genotypes of PT. Upon culturing for 14 days, engineered PT showed homogenous cytoskeleton organization as indicated by staining for filamentous actin, barrier-formation and polarization with apical markerα-tubulin and basolateral marker Na+/K+-ATPase. Cell viability was slightly decreased upon prolonged culturing for 14 days, which was more pronounced inCTNS-/-microfibers. Finally,CTNS-/-cells showed reduced apical transport activity in the microfibers compared to healthy PT epithelial cells when looking at breast cancer resistance protein and multidrug resistance-associated protein 4. Engineered PT incorporated in a custom-designed microfluidic chip allowed to assess leak-tightness of the epithelium, which appeared less tight inCTNS-/-PT compared to healthy PT, in agreement with itsin vivophenotype. While we are still on the verge of patient-oriented medicine, this system holds great promise for further research in establishing advancedin vitrodisease models

About possible architectural routes and lectures. Bucharest - a short study

Present paper is a study on architectural trails, routes, projects and possible perspectives on future ones in Bucharest. It is a first study from a series of many intended by the author, meant to list the existent cultural studies and interventions and suggest new path and links between tradition and innovation. The article proposes a discussion on Bucharest’s architectural routes and lectures, from a city-view understanding and an architectural-artistic perspective. Observations are noted in the sense of urban space perception, its visibility as a whole but also as landmarks, places, etc. Several referenced professional studies and maps are the base of the present paper, most of which in online space, available for architecture tourists and also for urban-local culture

Magda Stănculescu – Architecture of the theatre’s spaces. Potential foreshadowing at the beginning of the XXI century, EUIM, 2015, ISBN 978-606-638-115-4

No abstract available. This is a book review

Despre inovare. Working paper

Innovation is at the heart of social and economic development. Although an important sector that generates products and services of high social and economic importance, construction sector is considered to be an underachiever in terms of innovation. This working paper briefly explores the state of innovation within construction sector, considering European tendencies, theoretical and practical developments and challenges raised by particular characteristic of construction products. Some preliminary conclusions are underlined as the basis for further extensive research

Alessandra Capanna – Edifici per la scuola, EDIL STAMPA Editrice dell'ANCE, Roma, 2013

Present paper is the review of the architecture book “Edifici per la scuola” by Alessandra Capanna, The book is published by EDIL STAMPA Editrice dell’ANCE, Rome, 2013, with ISBN 978-88-7864-100-6. Professor Dr. Architect Alessandra Capanna is architect and professor of Architectural Design within Faculty of Architecture, Sapienza University Rome, Italy

Co-axial Printing of Convoluted Proximal Tubule for Kidney Disease Modeling

Despite the increasing incidence of kidney-related diseases, we are still far from understanding the underlying mechanisms of these diseases and their progression. This lack of understanding is partly because of a poor replication of the diseasesin vitro,limited to planar culture. Advancing towards three-dimensional models, hereby we propose coaxial printing to obtain microfibers containing a helical hollow microchannel. These recapitulate the architecture of the proximal tubule (PT), an important nephron segment often affected in kidney disorders. A stable gelatin/alginate-based ink was formulated to allow printability while maintaining structural properties. Fine-tuning of the composition, printing temperature and extrusion rate allowed for optimal ink viscosity that led to coiling of the microfiber's inner channel. The printed microfibers exhibited prolonged structural stability (42 days) and cytocompatibility in culture. Healthy conditionally immortalized PT epithelial cells and a knockout cell model for cystinosis (CTNS-/-) were seeded to mimic two genotypes of PT. Upon culturing for 14 days, engineered PT showed homogenous cytoskeleton organization as indicated by staining for filamentous actin, barrier-formation and polarization with apical markerα-tubulin and basolateral marker Na+/K+-ATPase. Cell viability was slightly decreased upon prolonged culturing for 14 days, which was more pronounced inCTNS-/-microfibers. Finally,CTNS-/-cells showed reduced apical transport activity in the microfibers compared to healthy PT epithelial cells when looking at breast cancer resistance protein and multidrug resistance-associated protein 4. Engineered PT incorporated in a custom-designed microfluidic chip allowed to assess leak-tightness of the epithelium, which appeared less tight inCTNS-/-PT compared to healthy PT, in agreement with itsin vivophenotype. While we are still on the verge of patient-oriented medicine, this system holds great promise for further research in establishing advancedin vitrodisease models