Estimating the Importance of Social Media in Consumers’ Education and Information Using New Techniques

The social media is composed of easily accessible web tools through which people converse, participate, create, recommend, valorify information and respond online to everything that happens around them. These web tools offer a dynamic virtual environment where users are engaged in a continuous traffic generated by information and interactivity. Internet development and access to information led to a change in consumer behavior in Romania. In this context, it must be taken into account that the buying decision and the decision to include certain foods in daily diet is significantly influenced by the views and experiences of other consumers, expressed in the virtual environment. Thus a new communication channel provided by the internet through social media (forums, chat, blogs, sites reviews) appeared. In this respect, we conducted a research - using the main search engines – with the aim to analyze the evolution of the number of forums and blogs, and also of the posts on these, related to the words bio-eggs, eggs from battery raised chickens and eggs numbering, during December 2009 – June 2010.Social Media, consumers education, ecological food, forum, blog

Attributes of Online Business in Romania during Economic Crisis

Any business seeks maximum profitability. Especially when the global economic crisis grows, a company must have both maximum profitability by reducing costs, and by finding new markets and new consumers. Due to economic conditions, companies have turned to online business, where operating costs, and marketing costs are much lower. Almost every company in the world, who noticed the trend, they promote, in one way or another, the own business on the Internet.online business, economic crisis, business model, social media

Estimating the Importance of Social Media in Consumers' Education and Information Using New Techniques

The social media is composed of easily accessible web tools through which people converse, participate, create, recommend, valorify information and respond online to everything that happens around them. These web tools offer a dynamic virtual environment where users are engaged in a continuous traffic generated by information and interactivity. Internet development and access to information led to a change in consumer behavior in Romania. In this context, it must be taken into account that the buying decision and the decision to include certain foods in daily diet is significantly influenced by the views and experiences of other consumers, expressed in the virtual environment. Thus a new communication channel provided by the internet through social media (forums, chat, blogs, sites reviews) appeared. In this respect, we conducted a research - using the main search engines – with the aim to analyze the evolution of the number of forums and blogs, and also of the posts on these, related to the words bio-eggs, eggs from battery raised chickens and eggs numbering, during December 2009 – June 2010

Novel sol-gel prepared zinc fluoride: synthesis, characterisation and acid-base sites analysis

The fluorolytic sol-gel route sets a milestone in the development of synthesis methods for nanoscopic fluoride materials. They exhibit fundamentally distinct properties in comparison to classically prepared metal fluorides. To broaden this area, we report in this paper the first fluorolytic sol-gel synthesis of ZnF₂. The obtained sol was studied with dynamic light scattering (DLS). The dried ZnF₂ xerogel was investigated with elemental analysis, thermal analysis, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), solid-state MAS NMR, and N₂ adsorption-desorption measurements. The characterisations revealed a remarkably high surface area of the sol-gel prepared ZnF₂. To determine key parameters deciding its prospects in future catalytic applications, we studied the surface acidity-basicity by using in situ FTIR with different probe molecules. Compared to the previously established MgF₂, weaker Lewis acid sites are predominant on the surface of ZnF2 with some base sites, indicating its potential as a heterogeneous catalyst component. In short, we believe that the successful synthesis and detailed characterisation of nanoscopic ZnF₂ allow follow-up work exploring its applications, and will lead to studies of more metal fluorides with similar methods

VERACITY AS A CORE ETHICAL PRINCIPLE IN DENTAL ETHICS

Veracity (or truth-telling) in healthcare ethics is defined as a comprehensive, accurate, and objective transmission of information, and also as the way the professional augments the understanding of the patient (in clinical/dental practice) or subject (in biomedical research). Veracity, as a moral principle guiding medical (and dental practice) has a long and complicated history; only recently the principle became stable and received a proper definition and differentiation from informed consent. The purposes of this article is to present a short history of veracity in clinical practice, followed by a normative and descriptive analysis of the principle, and finally, to offer some practical applications of the principle in dentistry. REZUMAT. Veracitatea ca unul din principiile fundamentale ale eticii în stomatologie. Veracitatea (sau spunerea adevărului) este definită în etica medicală ca un mod de transmisie exhaustivă, obiectivă și corect științifică, dar reprezintă totodată și un mod prin care profesioniștii din domeniul sanitar augmentează capacitatatea de înțelegere a pacientului (în practica medicală/ stomatologică) sau a subiectului (în cercetarea biomedicală). Veracitatea, ca principiu moral al practicii medicale, are o istorie lungă și complicată;doar recent acest principiu s-a stabilizat normativ și a fost clar diferențiat de consimțământul informat. Scopurile acestui articol sunt: de a prezenta o scurtă istorie a veracității în practica medicală, de a realiza o analiză normativă și descriptivă a acestuia și în final de a prezenta câteva aplicații practice ale veracității în medicina dentară. Cuvinte cheie: veractitate; medicină dentară; etică normativă; amalgam; comercializare

Survival trends and complications in surgical interventions for colorectal cancer: an overview of patients hospitalized in Clinical Emergency Hospital Bucharect

The preoperative imaging diagnosis of rectal cancer lies at the heart of oncological staging and has a crucial influence on patient management and therapy planning. Rectal cancer is common, and accurate preoperative staging of tumors using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a crucial part of modern multidisciplinary team management (MDT). Indeed, rectal MRI has the ability to accurately evaluate a number of important findings that maBay impact patient management, including distance of the tumor to the mesorectal fascia, presence of lymph nodes, presence of extramural vascular invasion (EMVI), and involvement of the anterior peritoneal reflection/peritoneum and the sphincter complex. Many of these findings are difficult to assess in nonexpert hands. In this lecture, we present currently used staging modalities with focus on MRI, including optimization of imaging techniques, tumor staging, interpretation help as well as essentials for reporting

Global, regional, and national burden of chronic kidney disease, 1990–2017 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background Health system planning requires careful assessment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) epidemiology, but data for morbidity and mortality of this disease are scarce or non-existent in many countries. We estimated the global, regional, and national burden of CKD, as well as the burden of cardiovascular disease and gout attributable to impaired kidney function, for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017. We use the term CKD to refer to the morbidity and mortality that can be directly attributed to all stages of CKD, and we use the term impaired kidney function to refer to the additional risk of CKD from cardiovascular disease and gout. Methods The main data sources we used were published literature, vital registration systems, end-stage kidney disease registries, and household surveys. Estimates of CKD burden were produced using a Cause of Death Ensemble model and a Bayesian meta-regression analytical tool, and included incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, mortality, years of life lost, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). A comparative risk assessment approach was used to estimate the proportion of cardiovascular diseases and gout burden attributable to impaired kidney function. Findings Globally, in 2017, 1·2 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1·2 to 1·3) people died from CKD. The global all-age mortality rate from CKD increased 41·5% (95% UI 35·2 to 46·5) between 1990 and 2017, although there was no significant change in the age-standardised mortality rate (2·8%, −1·5 to 6·3). In 2017, 697·5 million (95% UI 649·2 to 752·0) cases of all-stage CKD were recorded, for a global prevalence of 9·1% (8·5 to 9·8). The global all-age prevalence of CKD increased 29·3% (95% UI 26·4 to 32·6) since 1990, whereas the age-standardised prevalence remained stable (1·2%, −1·1 to 3·5). CKD resulted in 35·8 million (95% UI 33·7 to 38·0) DALYs in 2017, with diabetic nephropathy accounting for almost a third of DALYs. Most of the burden of CKD was concentrated in the three lowest quintiles of Socio-demographic Index (SDI). In several regions, particularly Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the burden of CKD was much higher than expected for the level of development, whereas the disease burden in western, eastern, and central sub-Saharan Africa, east Asia, south Asia, central and eastern Europe, Australasia, and western Europe was lower than expected. 1·4 million (95% UI 1·2 to 1·6) cardiovascular disease-related deaths and 25·3 million (22·2 to 28·9) cardiovascular disease DALYs were attributable to impaired kidney function. Interpretation Kidney disease has a major effect on global health, both as a direct cause of global morbidity and mortality and as an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. CKD is largely preventable and treatable and deserves greater attention in global health policy decision making, particularly in locations with low and middle SDI

AVICENNA’S CANON OF MEDICINE. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND ETHICS

Avicenna was one of the most important Islamic physicians and philosophers. He wrote over 100 treaties of medicine, some of them containing only a few pages. His major medical work, entitled The Canon of Medicine, was finished in 1025, and included five volumes. The beginning of the Volume 2 of the Canon started with a series of general preconditions that the testing new medicines should fulfil, detailed in the chapter entitled On knowledge of the potency of drugs through experimentation. These recommendations will be analysed in this article in correlation with current principles of research ethics and methodology. Canonul Medicinei de Avicenna. Metodologia şi etica cercetării. Avicenna a fost unul dintre cei mai importanți medici și filosofi din Islam. El a scris peste 100 de tratate de medicină, unele dintre ele conținând doar câteva pagini. Lucrarea sa majoră, intitulată Canonul Medicinii, a fost încheiată în anul 1025 și a inclus cinci volume. Cel de-al doilea volum al Canonului începe cu o serie de condiții generale pe care testarea de noi medicamente ar trebui să le îndeplinească, pe care le-a detaliat în capitolul intitulat Despre cunoașterea potenței medicamentelor prin experimentare. Aceste recomandări sunt analizate în prezentul articol prin corelare cu actualele principii de etică a cercetării și de metodologie.  Cuvinte-cheie: Avicenna, etica cercetării, metodologia cercetării

A proposal for a CT driven classification of left colon acute diverticulitis

Computed tomography (CT) imaging is the most appropriate diagnostic tool to confirm suspected left colonic diverticulitis. However, the utility of CT imaging goes beyond accurate diagnosis of diverticulitis; the grade of severity on CT imaging may drive treatment planning of patients presenting with acute diverticulitis. The appropriate management of left colon acute diverticulitis remains still debated because of the vast spectrum of clinical presentations and different approaches to treatment proposed. The authors present a new simple classification system based on both CT scan results driving decisions making management of acute diverticulitis that may be universally accepted for day to day practice