The Religious Profile of Development Regions

The fact that in Romania brought to experts' attention new research themes and challenges, not to mention the need for specific perspectives for the sustainable development of such regions. We carried out a secondary analysis of a field investigation. Our analysis provided suggestions regarding the outline of certain common features or interregional and religious discrepancies

The role of lifestyle change in health promotion

We are experiencing a period where we are faced with rising healthcare costs, as well as an increased disease impact on the entire population of the country. Although the slogan “prevention is cheaper than cure” may seem old-fashioned, however, it is more true than ever. It is necessary to offer health education and also to promote health care in Romania, in accordance with the international standards, as adopted by the European Union.Health Promotion is the art and science of helping people change their lifestyle in order to achieve a state of optimal health, restoring the harmony at all levels of human existence.Promoting a lifestyle which given certain conditions maximizes health, welfare and human fulfilment represents a goal that does not belong exclusively to the health sector; all fields of activity, all those sectors that define the life of an individual or a community are essential parts of achieving a healthy lifestyle.Modern men adopt a lifestyle where sedentary life, overeating, smoking, erratic working hours and alcohol use are common behaviours. Therefore, they become vulnerable to a new class of diseases of multi-factorial aetiology where the lifestyle plays a prominent role.Although the lifestyle may be complex, it is still under personal control and lead by the ability to choose extensively, which can be of benefit to the person's life and health. Choices regarding health involve more than objective information.Health education should be an ongoing concern for health professionals and health educators, psychologists, sociologists, family, for those who through effective collaboration contribute to ensuring physical and mental health in the community, in the increasingly demanding conditions of the modern life, which raise difficult issues regarding human adaptability.

Recurrent vulvar carcinoma: complex surgical treatment via perineal excision and reconstruction with musculocutaneous flap

Vulvar cancer is a malignant disease having a low frequency and with well-established surgical and oncological treatments based on the stage of the disease. The most important therapeutic problem encountered is represented by cases of perineal local regional recurrence, which are common in patients with large primary tumors and can occur even if the margins of the resection had no tumoral invasion. We present a case study of a 64-year-old patient diagnosed one year ago with squamous vulvar carcinoma (G3) for which a vulvectomy was performed after neoadjuvant radiotherapy. The patient later developed local recurrence with invasion of the anal sphincter, creating a delicate problem regarding a surgical approach. The size and the extent of the recurrent tumor required a complex surgical intervention using a mixed surgical team of general surgeons and plastic surgeons. Surgical intervention with a large excision of the recurrent cancer along with amputation of the inferior rectum via perineal route, and creation of a left iliac anus was performed. The perineal defect was covered via a musculocutaneous flap using the gracilis muscle. The immediate post-operative evolution was favorable

Quick Procedure to Evaluate the Oxygen Mass Transfer Resistance in Aerated Laboratory-scale Bioreactors

Oxygen transfer intensity is a major concern whenever conducting enzymatic reactions or bioprocesses, which require air for microbial growth or enzymatic oxidative steps. Agitation in bio-reaction units is directly related to oxygen transport from the gas phase to liquid phase followed by the oxygen uptake by the individual microbial cell or oxygen consumption in enzymatic oxidation reactions. In fact, activity of microorganisms or of the enzyme (oxidase) is monitored by the use of oxygen from supplied air. A limitation in the supplied oxygen, due to mass transport resistance or a consumption rate faster than the transported oxygen rate, may cause a decrease in the cell growing rate or a decrease of the overall enzymatic reaction rate. Consequently, a close control of the available oxygen in the liquid phase is implemented for any type of aerobic bioreactor, the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) being continuously measured by means of DO-meters. As the solubility of oxygen in water is not very high (ca. 9 mg/L at 20 o C), its overall consumption rate is dependent on a large number of factors, the most important being the diffusion coefficient, temperature, gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient K L a , and the rate of microbial/enzymatic reactions. Oxygen transfer from gas phase to the reaction site (cells, enzyme) takes place in several steps. First, oxygen is transferred through the gas-liquid interface, then it is transported through bulk liquid and finally into the microbial cell. To improve the oxygenation rate, sophisticated mixing and air sparger systems are implemented on both laboratory and industrial scale bioreactors. Air under pressure is supplied through a tube end consisting in 'O' rings with very fine holes or orifices. The size of bubbles, which affects the mass transfer process, depends on the holes' size and type of sparger. For very fine and uniform bubbles with effective gas dispersion, a micro-sparger system is used instead of a sparger, consisting in highly porous ceramic material. Air dispersion in liquid phase is not only related to the sparger, but also on the type of impeller and mixing intensity. The appropriate position and type of the impeller can ensure the even distribution of the gas in the reactor. High agitation is favourable to the mixing, but a very high stirring speed may cause shear forces, damaging the cells and leading to a spotty aeration of the liquid. Special chapters are dedicated to mass transfer evaluation in the framework of bioreactor design and operation with various areas of applicability: industrial biosynthesis To optimise the aeration rate, knowing the gas-liquid mass transfer resistance is essential not only for a theoretical process analysis, but also for practical reasons related to bioprocess development. As the experimental observation can indicate only the overall oxygen uptake by the bioprocess, it is highly important to separate the contribution of the physical gas-liquid transport to its consumption in bio-reactions. Such analysis is possible only from separate determinations of the K L a coefficient and of the (bio)reaction rates. Experiments should be conducted in the absence of reaction, or under operating regimes at high aeration rates, making the whole process kinetically controllable. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient K L a is dependent on a large number of factors. This is why its precise evaluation is difficult due to its strong dependence on the liquid phase properties, mixing, gas solubility, operating conditions (temperature), sparger depth, aeration rate, vessel volume and geometry, baffles, liquid surface tension, etc

Electrochemical characterization of PVC-Pt(II) porphyrin-membrane

The maximum water volume fraction absorbed by membrane based on Pt(II)- 5,10,15,20-tetra(4-methoxy-phenyl)-porphyrin (PtTMeOPP) in poly(vinyl)chloride (PVC) matrix applied on iron substrate is 0.3 % and the permeability is 7.6×10−12 m 2 s −1 . After 24 h immersion in the 0.5 M 4-morpholinoethanesulfonic acid (MES) solution of pH = 5.5, the Nyquist representation of impedance data shows diffusion into the membrane of electrolytes from the buffer solution, causing a decrease of the membrane electric resistance, but no delamination was observed for immersion longer than 48 h. Furthermore, the coating resistance is still close to ~16000 ohm.cm−2 after 25 hours. This recommends this membrane as good material in potentiometric sensors design

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction syndrome – a therapeu-tic approach

Background: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is responsible for vital functions like mas-tication, swallowing, and suction reflex and other relational functions, like talking and phonation. The etiology of temporomandibular joint disorders is multifactorial and in-volves subjective and objective clinical symptomatology. (2) Methods: The therapy is complex and encompasses a series of methods that interconnects various medical spe-cialties. Bad habits and parafunction are risk factors that may initiate and exacerbate a temporomandibular joint pathology. This prospective study aimed to show the positive impact of correct multidisciplinary therapy on the complex of TMJ disorders - pain and bad oral behaviors. The therapy methods used in this study were: medical, prosthetic, or-thodontic, surgical, and physiotherapy (PKT). (3) Results: The data obtained showed good results if the oral habits and TMJ disorders are treated correctly and simultaneous-ly. (4) Conclusions: All therapeutical approaches addressed in this study had beneficial effects on the recovery of the temporomandibular joint