7 research outputs found
Hepatitis C Virus Life Cycle and Lipid Metabolism
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infects over 150 million people worldwide. In most cases HCV infection becomes chronic, causing liver disease ranging from fibrosis to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV affects the cholesterol homeostasis and at the molecular level, every step of the virus life cycle is intimately connected to lipid metabolism. In this review, we present an update on the lipids and apolipoproteins that are involved in the HCV infectious cycle steps: entry, replication and assembly. Moreover, the result of the assembly process is a lipoviroparticle, which represents a peculiarity of hepatitis C virion. This review illustrates an example of an intricate virus-host interaction governed by lipid metabolism
THE BALNEOCLIMATIC RESORT STÂNA DE VALE - PAST, PRESENT, PERSPECTIVES
Stâna de Vale balneoclimatic resort, located in the Apuseni Mountains, is very little
valorised. The special natural setting, with the picturesque landscapes, the tourist trails of
various difficulty degrees, the oligomineral waters, the numerous waterfalls, the fresh air
intensely ionized, without pollutants and allergens, generated by the deciduous and coniferous
forests, the exciting-soliciting bioclimate etc. recommend Stâna de Vale as a resort having a
remarkable touristic potential, but very little harnessed and this is why it is necessary to
identify solutions for its tourist valorisation. This paper highlights the periods of development
and of decline of this resort which used to be emblematic for the Apuseni Mountains and for
Bihor County and in the end, it suggests some simple solutions to revitalize the resort
Characterization of defect structures in nanoscaled W-doped TiO2 tested as supercapacitor electrode materials
In this work, Tungsten(W)-doped TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized using the sol–gel method and were used as electrode materials in supercapacitor applications. The structural and morphological properties of the prepared samples were analyzed by means of XRD, STEM, TEM, and XPS. The analysis of the defect centers was carried out using EPR spectroscopy. The electrochemical analysis of the assembled supercapacitor was done using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic cycling with potential limitation technique, potentiostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and voltage-holding experiments. All the presented samples showed paramagnetic defects in the EPR analysis, while 0.5% W-doped TiO 2 showed a maximum signal intensity. The supercapacitor performance from the synthesized electrode material showed highly encouraging results. The equivalent series resistance (Rs) value for all the designs showed values under “1 Ω ,” which reflects high conductivity. As the maximum EPR intensity comes from TiO 2 doped with 0.5% W, the supercapacitor performance of this sample was tested with a newly designed five-electrode system. This design showed superior performance compared to any other used designs with a specific capacitance of 25.5 F g- 1, with an energy density of 14.16 Wh kg- 1 at 302 kW kg- 1
The influenza season 2016/17 in Bucharest, Romania – surveillance data and clinical characteristics of patients with influenza-like illness admitted to a tertiary infectious diseases hospital
ABSTRACT Background: Influenza continues to drive seasonal morbidity, particularly in settings with low vaccine coverage. Objectives: To describe the influenza cases and viral circulation among hospitalized patients. Methods: A prospective study based on active surveillance of inpatients with influenza-like illness from a tertiary hospital in Bucharest, Romania, in the season 2016/17. Results: A total of 446 patients were tested, with a balanced gender distribution. Overall, 192 (43%) patients tested positive for influenza, with the highest positivity rate in the age groups 3–13 years and >65 years. Peak activity occurred between weeks 1 and 16/2017, with biphasic distribution: A viruses were replaced by B viruses from week 9/2017; B viruses predominated (66.1%). Among the 133 (69.3%) subtyped samples, all influenza A were subtype H3 (n = 57) and all influenza B were B/Victoria (n = 76). Patients who tested positive for influenza presented fewer comorbidities (p = 0.012), except for the elderly, in whom influenza was more common in patients with comorbidities (p = 0.050). Disease evolution was generally favorable under antiviral treatment. The length of hospital stay was slightly longer in patients with influenza-like illness who tested patients negative for influenza (p = 0.031). Conclusions: Distinctive co-circulation of A/H3 and B/Victoria in Bucharest, Romania in the 2016/17 influenza season was found. While the A/H3 subtype was predominant throughout Europe that season, B/Victoria appears to have circulated specifically in Romania and the Eastern European region, predominantly affecting preschoolers and school children