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It is widely accepted that thrombophilia in pregnancy greatly increases the risk of venous thromboembolism. Pregnancy complications arise, at least partly, from placental insufficiency. Any change in the functioning of the gestational transient biological system, such as inherited or acquired thrombophilia, might lead to placental insufficiency. In this research we included 64 pregnant women with trombophilia and 70 cases non-trombophilic pregnant women, with or without PMPC, over a two-year period. The purpose of this multicenter case-control study is to analyze the maternal-fetal management options in obstetric thrombophilia, the impact of this pathology on the placental structure and possible correlations with placenta-mediated pregnancy complications. Maternal-fetal management in obstetric thrombophilia means preconceptional or early diagnosis, prevention of pregnancy morbidity, specific therapy as quickly as possible and fetal systematic surveilance to identify the possible occurrence of placenta-mediated pregnancy complications.

The extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) are commonly associated with antipsychotic treatment of schizophrenic patients. Accumulated evidence has shown that pathways of homocysteine and folate metabolism are linked to neurodegeneration and schizophrenia. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the homocysteine, vitamin B12 and folate serum levels in relation to drug-induced EPS in schizophrenic patients. The blood levels of homocysteine, vitamin B12 and folic acid were measured by chemiluminescent and electrochemoluminescence immunoassay methods in 34 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (19 patients with severe EPS and 15 controls without EPS), recruited from Clinical Hospital of Neuropsychiatry Craiova, Romania. A significant association has been observed between EPS and vitamin B12 levels, the patients with severe EPS showed a reduced vitamin B12 levels (p=0.02). No correlation was observed between severe EPS and homocysteine or folate levels (p=0.2, respectively p=0.37). Our study suggests that deficiency of vitamin B12 blood levels is correlated with severe EPS in schizophrenic patients. Further studies included more patients and functional experiments are required to clarify the role of these biomarkers in relation with antipsychotic-induced EPS in schizophrenia.

Microglia are known as the most motile cells in the central nervous system (CNS). It was shown in vivo that they permanently scan their direct microenvironment and react to pathological conditions within minutes. Many studies of brain pathologies use fixed brain tissue to investigate cellular changes. Unfortunately, due to technical reasons, the time span between the induction of the fixation procedure (start of the perfusion) and the finally-fixed tissue lasts several minutes, giving time to microglia to start reacting to the ischemic conditions due to perfusion start. Here, we investigated the microglial changes generated by the fixation itself in TgH(CX3CR1-EGFP) mice with fluorescent labelled microglia using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) of fixed brain tissue as well as two-photon laser scanning microscopy (2P-LSM) during the perfusion of a living animal. We revealed the impact of fixation and buffer parameters on cell morphology. The largest morphological differences compared to physiological in vivo branch arborization were observed when the directly dissected brain was immersed in paraformaldehyde fixation solution overnight, without prior fixative perfusion of the animal. But even perfusion with a fixative, followed by post-fixation leads to small changes in microglial process length and number and could not be prevented when compared to physiological in vivo microglia morphology acquired using in vivo 2P-LSM. Interestingly, perfusion with different buffers either oxygenated artificial cerebrospinal fluid or phosphate buffered saline prior to perfusion-fixation showed minor microglia changes in arborization and/or number of processes. Fixation methods influence microglia morphology. Therefore, to define microglia activation states immunohistochemical stainings or genetic labelling of the cells have to be included in addition to morphological analysis.

Bladder cancer is a real health problem due to its increased incidence, high recurrence rate and the fact that usually it is detected in advanced stages with limited number of diagnostic tools and different therapy response rates to current therapeutic strategies. Because of these issues we must develop screening programs and sensitive diagnostic strategies capable of detecting the disease during its early stages but also for characterizing evolution, prognosis and therapeutic response. Issues of great importance are those related to health quality of life of patients from the moment of diagnosis till the use of existing therapeutic approaches. This paper reviews some facets of life quality in patients diagnosed with bladder cancer stressing upon some proposed questionnaires and some new cell and molecular biology and genomic acquisitions (molecular biomarkers) that may become indicators of prognosis, therapeutic response and life quality but also essential tools in guiding therapeutic strategies.

The paper reports the synthesis and physico-chemical and biological characterization of novel wound dressings based on collagen and essential oil functionalized ZnO nanoparticles intended to improve the treatment of burns and to reduce the risk for developing wound sepsis in patients with burns or chronic wounds. The prepared wound dressings were physico-chemical characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In vitro biocompatibility and cytotoxicity was proved on human fibroblast cells, antimicrobial potential was assessed on Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria models (Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively), while in vivo studies were performed on a rat burn wound experimental model. Functionalized ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) proved to range 15–20 nm in size and contain about 1% orange essential oil (EO), which was utilized as a natural antimicrobial agent. NPs are grain-shapped and have a low tendency to form aggregates. No toxicity was noticed in vitro, as human fibroblasts maintained a normal growth and their membrane integrity in the presence of EO functionalized NPs. The capacity of the prepared wound dressings to act as implantable bioresorbable scaffolds that accelerates wounds healing along with an excellent biocompatibility, lack of cytotoxicity and a good antibacterial activity, make these materials promising and safe candidates for wound dressing, especially in burn patients.

Testosterone exerts an important regulation of cardiovascular function through genomic and nongenomic pathways. It produces several changes in cardiomyocytes, the main actor of cardiomyopathies, which are characterized by pathological remodeling, eventually leading to heart failure. Testosterone is involved in contractility, in the energy metabolism of myocardial cells, apoptosis, and the remodeling process. In myocarditis, testosterone directly promotes the type of inflammation that leads to fibrosis, and influences viremia with virus localization. At the same time, testosterone exerts cardioprotective effects that have been observed in different studies. There is increasing evidence that low endogenous levels of testosterone have a negative impact in some cardiomyopathies and a protective impact in others. This review focuses on the interrelationships between testosterone and cardiomyopathies and heart failure.

This work reports the non-surfactant templated synthesis and characterization of a new tyrosine—silica/antibiotics (TyR-SiO2/ATBs) nanocomposite, as well as both in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity and antimicrobial activity against the microbial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. The in vitro microbiological tests proved that the obtained nanobiostructure significantly enhance the antimicrobial activity of three commonly used antibiotics against S. aureus (i.e. erythromycin (ERI), gentamicin (GEN), and cloxacillin (CLO)) as revealed by the increased diameters of the growth inhibition zones and the decreased minimal inhibitory concentration values, as well as by the inhibitory effect of sub-lethal antibiotic concentrations on the ability of the respective pathogenic strains to adhere and colonize different substrata. These results, correlated with the lack of toxicity against mesenchymal stem cells along with an appropriate in vivo biodistribution highlight the promising therapeutic potential of this carrier that allows a decrease of the required active doses while significantly lessening the harmful side effects of the medication on the host organism.

Thermite welding (TW) is now widely used all over the world to weld, maintenance and modernization railway and tram rails [1]. The main materials from the thermite composition (TC), results from manufacturing scraps, which can be retrieved all over the country. Exothermic welding (EW) which is based on the exothermal reaction between iron oxides (FeO, Fe2O3 and Fe3O4) and aluminium powder, takes place at temperatures up to 3500 °C and during casting rail ends are melted in order to be welded.In was studied the thermal effects of the aluminothermic reduction reactions of the iron oxides, which were dosed in different percentages. The aluminothermic reaction efficiency is given by strictness in the ratio of the TC selection and mainly in the iron oxides types. Their correct dosage makes possible the control the exothermic reaction (ER) effect. Also it is revealed the effect of particle size from thermite powder (TP) on the thermite dynamics reactions. Is also presented a model of optimization and control the thermite kits (TK) for aluminothermic welding (AW). Finally, the TK composition can be calculated from "QUARK1" Diagram, as function of the heat amount necessary for the welding.

The aim of this study was to develop a nanostructured bioactive surface based on zinc oxide, sodium stearate (C18) and usnic acid (UA) exhibiting harmless effects with respect to the human cells, but with a significant antimicrobial effect, limiting the attachment and biofilm formation of food pathogens. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by sol–gel method and functionalized with C18 and UA. The coatings were fabricated by matrix assisted pulsed laser evaporation technique (MAPLE) and further characterized by TEM, SEM, SAED, XRD and IRM. The biological characterization of the prepared coatings consisted in cytotoxicity and antimicrobial assays. The cytotoxicity of ZnO@C18 and ZnO@C18-UA films was evaluated with respect to the human skin fibroblasts (CCD 1070SK cell line) by phase contrast microscopy, MTT assay and nitric oxide (NO) release. The covered surfaces exhibited a decreased cell attachment, effect which was more pronounced in the presence of UA as shown by purple formazan staining of adhered cells. The unattached fibroblasts remained viable after 24 h in the culture media as it was revealed by their morphology analysis and NO level which were similar to uncovered slides. The quantitative microbiological assays results have demonstrated that the bioactive coatings have significantly inhibited the adherence and biofilm formation of Salmonella enterica. The obtained results recommend these materials as efficient approaches in developing anti-adherent coatings for various industrial, medical and food processing applications.

In the past years the technology took a big turn and started to enter almost any common field of interest and activity. Motivated by this, a lot of applications were developed to overcome the time issue, in order to be able to decrease the amount of time involved using traditional work style. In this paper the design and implementation of The School Information Management System (SIMS). The main idea of the system, was to offer support for an improved communication between teachers and parents and to help teachers and headmasters to manage their daily administrative tasks. Complementary, the evaluation of the students and teachers is achievable using the system, and the management of various activities is also possible using specific features of the system. By offering a smart UI, the users are able to resolve various tasks in a time – effective way. The system is structured in a web application and a mobile application, both sharing a common data storage. SIMS was designed as a distributed system and relays on the Java EE – the Enterprise solution offered by Sun, also the mobile application developed in Android was designed and developed with the main purpose to offer access everywhere and every time to stored data of interest for parents from the educational process: student grades and absences . General Terms Distributed Systems, Information System, Web application, Mobile application

Microglia are the first and main form of active immune defense in the nervous system. The immune status of microglia is directly correlated to their morphology. Therefore, microglia morphology is used to distinguish between active and surveilling microglia. For the actual paper, we used confocal laser scanning microscopy (cLSM) and two-photon laser scanning microscopy (2P-LSM), to investigate microglia morphology of 14-16 weeks old male, transgenic mice (n=6). After obtaining, in vivo and fixed tissue, single cells images, we manually tracked individually branch segments of normal microglia. The total number of branches and their overall length were analyzed. Additionally, the number and mean length of each branch order were measured. The overall microglia branching morphology was not different between the two acquisition methods. However, a higher number of fifth branches was observed using cLSM and 2P-LSM, in both fixed and in vivo tissue. Although results from the two methods are mainly comparable, small differences between them should be taken in consideration when formulating an activating∕surveilling conclusion that is purely based on pure microscopic findings. Furthermore, in our opinion, due to their highly dynamic nature, microglia should be carefully labeled as resting or active, taking also into consideration the imaging method used to obtain the data.

First mentioned almost 100 years ago, neuroresearch has linked microglia to the initiation and/or maintenance of most central nervous system pathologies. Since their discovery, we learned that the microglia immune status is often correlated directly to their morphology. However, only recently, have we realized that, in vivo microglia are extremely dynamic cells capable to respond within minutes. Therefore, the name "resting" microglia is replaced slowly with surveilling microglia. Even more recent, it has been shown that microglia change their morphology and/or immune status depending on the way the tissue is obtained, processed and imaged, making labeling microglia, based on their morphology alone, as active or surveying even more difficult. All these observations correlated with a better understanding of cellular and subcellular process that microglia undergo in pathological conditions, could have profound implications on the time window and/or targets used to ensure the best outcome, when treating brain disease.

The study of rare, inherited forms of different diseases resulted in the discovery of gene defects that cause inherited variants of the respective diseases. The defective genes were found to encode major molecular players leading to the neuropathological lesions or factors that characterize these diseases. The exact role of the tau protein in the neurodegenerative process is still under debate. It is very important to understand the normal biological roles of tau and the specific events that induce tau to become neurotoxic. Tau is the major microtubule-associated protein (MAP) of a mature neuron. The other neuronal MAPs are MAP1 and MAP2. These three MAPs perform similar function, promoting assembly and stability of microtubules. Tau protein was isolated as a microtubule-associated factor in the porcine brain. It was isolated as a protein that co-purified with tubulin and had the ability to promote microtubule assembly in vitro. Normal adult human brain tau contains 2-3 moles phosphate÷mole of tau protein. Hyperphosphorylation of tau depress this biological activity of tau. Almost 80 diseases caused by missense mutations and intronic mutations in the tau gene have been found in familial cases of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In Alzheimer's disease (AD), there are intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles composed of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT). In other neurodegenerative diseases, there are similar deposits of tau, in the absence of extracellular deposits (progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, argyrophilic grain disease, etc.). Tau pathology is also often seen in some forms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and prion diseases. In genetic forms of FTD, mutations in tau implicate abnormal tau as the initiation of neurodegeneration. In FTD, there are deposits especially in temporal and frontal lobes, regions that are very important for behavior and executive function. It is critical to understand how tau becomes pathogenic, in order to consider developing any strategies for treatment.