COLLABORATIVE AND SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN A VIRTUAL CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT: A POTENTIAL SOLUTION FOR OUR YEARS?

In the current society, where the information flow has a big impact on the learner, and the learning methods differ from student to student, it is important to understand a virtual campus and its benefits. Nobody can doubt the impact of the new technologies on the educational system. In this new reality, universities must learn to work and collaborate with other universities or groups of interest in order to prepare learners to meet the requirements of the 21st century.  The solution can be a virtual campus that offers powerful tools, access to content and services, personal learning environment, enabling the student to acquire information and learn new skills. This article offers on overview of a virtual campus and the prototype of learner that is suitable for it. The accent falls on two of the skills that a learner must have: self directed learning and of course collaborative learning. The first concept refers to the learner’s capabilities to be responsible of his decisions regarding the learning process and to take the initiative while the second one is based on the fact that a virtual campus is built on collaborative processes that engage stakeholders to interact and learn from each other

Results concerning Tanymecus dilaticollis control in a commercial farm from the South-East of Romania, in the conditions of the year 2020

The maize leaf weevil (Tanymecus dilaticollis Gyllenhal, 1834) represent one of the most destructive pests of maize crops in Romania, especially in the south and south-east of the country. Every year was attacked more than 1 million hectares cultivated with maize. This pest is very dangerous when maize is in early vegetation stages, from plant emergence until four leaves (BBCH 10-BBCH 14). After the ban of the seeds treatment with neonicotinoids in the Europe Union, no alternatives for seed treatment to control this pest remain available in our country. In this article, it has assessed both, seeds treatment with neonicotinoids and possible alternatives for controlling of the maize leaf weevil in conditions of the commercial farm located in the south-east of Romania. Seeds treatment with imidacloprid (600 g/l), cyantraniliprole (625 g/l) active ingredients, maize foliar treatment with acetamiprid (20 %), lambda-cyhalothrin (50 g/l) active ingredients, granules application at maize sowing, with chlorpyrifos (5 %), lambda-cyhalothrin (4 g/kg) active ingredients or two granules application, at maize sowing and after plants emergence with cypermethrin (0.8 %) active ingredients were assessed. The efficacy of the applied insecticides was determined by evaluating weevils attack intensity at the maize plants, at BBCH 14 stage, using a scale from 1 (plant not attacked) to 9 (plant destroyed). In the spring of 2020, weather conditions from the experimental site, during assessments period were unfavorable for weevils activity at the soil surface. Even if the pest density from the experimental location was high (10-15 insects/m2 ) however weevils attack at maize plants was low. At variant with seeds treated with imidacloprid active ingredient, maize attack intensity at maize plant was 3.86, at untreated variant attack intensity was 4.47 while at rest of the experimental variants, attack intensity ranged between 4.29 and 4.46. It has registered significant statistical differences between weevils attack at maize plants from variant with seeds treated with imidacloprid active ingredient and the rest of the variants from this assessment (p<0.05). In the weather conditions of the year 2020, from the experimental location from the south-east of Romania, there weren’t registered significant statistical differences between seeds treatment with cyantraniliprole active ingredient, maize foliar treatment with acetamiprid, lambda-cyhalothrin active ingredients, granules application with chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin active ingredients, and untreated variant (p<0.05)

Preliminary results concerning maize leaf weevil (Tanymecus dilaticollis Gyll) control, in commercial farm conditions, from South-East of the Romania

Preliminary results concerning maize leaf weevil (Tanymecus dilaticollis Gyll) control, in commercial farm conditions, from South-East of the Romani

NIST RANDOMNESS TESTS (IN)DEPENDENCE

In this paper we focus on three open questions regarding NIST SP 800-22 randomness test: the probability of false acceptance, the number of minimum sample size to achieve a given probability error and tests independence. We shall point out statistical testing assumptions, source of errors, sample constructions and a computational method for determining the probability of false acceptance and estimating the correlation between the statistical tests

Quality of Education in Romania. Case Study – School Results

Education is an important area of training the individual’s personality for a better individual life, contributes to the well-being of society by developing a set of skills that can be applied throughout life, can trigger the emergence of innovative ideas that benefit society as a whole. Lack of education creates problems such as domestic violence, poor health and especially low living standards. That is why without a good education, a better society cannot be formed. The quality of education is given by all the characteristics of the education system. One of the indicators that can highlight the quality of education is represented by the students’ school results. Therefore, the emphasis is on students’ results and the added value of the school. „Education is increasingly becoming a public service, a provider of quality, which is evaluated and self-evaluated as an organization, based on standards and whose management must ensure the satisfaction of customer requirements, in terms of efficiency and maximizing added value ( Preda & Diaconescu, 2013, p.5). Quality in the educational environment is a mirror of performance in knowledge-based educational institutions that tend to be compatible with education systems around the world. And lack of education is a root cause of poverty

Monitoring Techniques for Inorganic and Organic Pollutants in Soils Around an Integrated Iron and Steel Plant

In this paper the analytical techniques of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Gas Chromatography with Electron Capture Detection (GC-ECD) and coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) are used in order to assess the level of industrial and agricultural pollution of soils. The soil samples were collected from Galati County, near an industrial plant and near cultivated areas. In this study, it is investigated the way in which the anthropic activities influence the quality of the environment, due to the contribution of inorganic and organic elements enrichments

The Distinct Effects of Palmitic and Oleic Acid on Pancreatic Beta Cell Function: The Elucidation of Associated Mechanisms and Effector Molecules

In this study, we aimed to identify the mechanisms underlying the different effects of palmitic acid and oleic acid on human pancreatic beta cell function. To address this problem, the oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation, apoptosis and their mediator molecules have been investigated in the insulin releasing beta cells exposed to palmitic and/or oleic acid. Herein, we have demonstrated that in cultured 1.1B4 beta cells oleic acid promotes neutral lipid accumulation and insulin secretion, whereas palmitic acid is poorly incorporated into triglyceride and it does not stimulate insulin secretion from human pancreatic islets at physiologically glucose concentrations. In addition, palmitic acid caused: (1) oxidative stress through a mechanism involving increases in ROS production and MMP-2 protein expression/gelatinolytic activity associated with down-regulation of SOD2 protein; (2) endoplasmic reticulum stress by up-regulation of chaperone BiP protein and unfolded protein response (UPR) transcription factors (eIF2α, ATF6, XBP1u proteins) and by PTP-1B down-regulation in both mRNA and protein levels; (3) inflammation through enhanced synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines (IL6, IL8 proteins); and (4) apoptosis by enforced proteic expression of CHOP multifunctional transcription factor. Oleic acid alone had opposite effects due to its different capacity of controlling these metabolic pathways, in particular by reduction of the ROS levels and MMP-2 activity, down-regulation of BiP, eIF2α, ATF6, XBP1u, CHOP, IL6, IL8 and by SOD2 and PTP-1B overexpression. The supplementation of saturated palmitic acid with the monounsaturated oleic acid reversed the negative effects of palmitic acid alone regulating insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells through ROS, MMP-2, ATF6, XBP1u, IL8 reduction and SOD2, PTP-1B activation. Our findings have shown the protective action of oleic acid against palmitic acid on beta cell lipotoxicity through promotion of triglyceride accumulation and insulin secretion and regulation of some effector molecules involved in oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation and apoptosis