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Methamphetamine (MA) is a synthetic psychoactive drug which is consumed both licitly and illicitly. In some countries it is prescribed for attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, and short-term treatment of obesity. More often though, it is abused for its psychostimulant properties. Unfortunately, the spread and abuse of this synthetic drug have increased globally, being reported as the most widely consumed synthetic psychoactive drug in the world in 2019. Attempting to overcome the shortcomings of the currently used on-site methods for MA detection in suspected cargos, the present study explores the potential of electrochemical identification of MA by means of square wave voltammetry on disposable graphite screen-printed electrodes. Hence, the analytical characterization of the method was evaluated under optimal conditions exhibiting a linear range between 50 mu M and 2.5 mM MA, a LOD of 16.7 mu M, a LOQ of 50.0 mu M and a sensitivity of 5.3 mu A mM-1. Interestingly, two zones in the potential window were identified for the detection of MA, depending on its concentration in solution. Furthermore, the oxidative pathway of MA was elucidated employing liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry to understand the change in the electrochemical profile. Thereafter, the selectivity of the method towards MA in mixtures with other drugs of abuse as well as common adulterants/cutting agents was evaluated. Finally, the described method was employed for the analysis of MA in confiscated samples and compared with forensic methods, displaying its potential as a fast and easy-to-use method for on-site analysis.

Introduction. Minor congenital ocular anomalies (MCOA) are important markers for the detection of certain genetic disorders. Even within the same disease, they can vary in their position, numbers or expression intensity. Early detection and diagnosis of genetic disorders are essential to find them and to interpret them correctly and quickly. Aim. The purpose of this study was to analyse MCOA in genetic diseases, to identify the main types of MCOA as well as to analyze associated genetic disorders. Material and methods. This is a prospective study of 118 cases presenting with genetic disorders that also presented with MCOA. Its duration was from February 2015 to February 2019. Detailed ocular and adnexa examinations were performed. Results. Of 118 patients who were enrolled in this study, 84 (71%) had minor ocular anomalies with or without associated major anomalies. Most common MCOA were identified in the eyelid, iris and retina. Down syndrome was the most frequent syndrome associated with MCOA. Conclusions. Minor congenital ocular abnormalities, even if they are not serious, are often suggestive of certain genetic syndromes. Regardless of the genetic disorders, anatomically, the eyelid is the ocular adnexa that always gives us minor clues of important diagnosis significance.

The future of biomedical sciences resides in nanoscience, simplicity and efficiency. The continuous development of smart materials with controllable nanofeatures represents the major challenge for interconnected domains, such as materials science, biochemistry, biology, physics biomedical and clinical applications. Among them, the use of magnetic nanoparticles in clinical applications became an important cross point for diagnostic, therapy and monitoring due to their versatile features and the fact that they can be modulated as biocompatible. The synthesis and functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles are critical steps for their physicochemical properties, colloidal stability and behavior for both in vitro and in vivo applications.

Introducere. Screening-ul ambliopiei la copiii cu nevoi speciale trebuie să fie realizat cu teste rapide și obiective, cum este testul Bruckner. Ipoteza propusă verificării a fost aceea că testul Bruckner la 4 metri, pentru copiii cu dizabilități, ar putea fi cel puțin la fel de util sau chiar superior celui la 1 metru. Scopul studiului a fost să determine sensibilitatea și specificitatea reflexului Bruckner efectuat la 4 metri comparativ cu cel la 1 metru, pentru detecția ametropiilor și a strabismului la copiii cu dizabilități intelectuale. Material și metodă. Au fost luați în studiu un număr de 34 de copii cu dizabilitate intelectuală. 4 studenți au efectuat testul Bruckner la 1 metru și la 4 metri, apoi expertul oftalmolog a efectuat examinarea oftalmologică completă. Compararea statistică a rezultatelor s-a efectuat folosind testele Fischer și Chi pătrat. Rezultate. Sensibilitatea testului la 1 metru a fost între 0 şi 50%, iar la 4 m a fost de 55,6-72% (p < 0,05). Specificitatea testului la 1 metru a fost de 85,7-100%, iar la 4 m a fost de 81,3-93,8% (p

The screening of amblyopia in children with special should be performed with a rapid and objective examination, such as the Bruckner test. The hypothesis was that the 4 meter Bruckner test performed on special needs children could be at least as useful, if not superior to the 1 meter Bruckner test. The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Bruckner reflex at 1 meter compared to 4 meters for the detection of ametropia and strabismus in intellectual disabled children. Material and method. The study was conducted on thirty-four patients with intellectual disabilities. Four medical students performed the 1 meter Bruckner test and then the 4 meter Bruckner test. After the test, all the patients underwent a full ophthalmological assessment, performed by the expert. The Fischer exact test and Chi square test were used to compare the results. Results. The 1 meter Bruckner test sensitivity was between 0 and 50% and the 4 meter Bruckner test was 55.6%-72% (p < 0.05). The 1 meter Bruckner test specificity was 85.7-100%, while the 4 meter Bruckner test was 81.1-93.8%(p < 0.05). Conclusions. Extending the distance of assessment between the examiner and the patient from 1 meter to 4 meters improves the ametropias detection accuracy

Illicit drugs use and abuse remains an increasing challenge for worldwide authorities and, therefore, it is important to have accurate methods to detect them in seized samples, biological fluids and wastewaters. They are recently classified as the latest group of emerging pollutants as their consumption increased tremendously in recent years. Nanomaterials have gained much attention over the last decade in the development of sensors for a myriad of applications. The applicability of these nanomaterials, functionalized or not, significantly increases and it is therefore highly suitable for use in the detection of illicit drugs. We have assessed the suitability of various nanoplatforms, such as graphene (GPH), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) for the electrochemical detection of illicit drugs. GPH and MWCNTs were chosen as the most suitable platforms and cocaine, 3,4-methylendioxymethamfetamine (MDMA), 3-methylmethcathinone (MMC) and α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (PVP) were tested. Due to the hydrophobicity of the nanomaterials-based platforms which led to low signals, two strategies were followed namely, pretreatment of the electrodes in sulfuric acid by cyclic voltammetry and addition of Tween 20 to the detection buffer. Both strategies led to an increase in the oxidation signal of illicit drugs. Binary mixtures of illicit drugs with common adulterants found in street samples were also investigated. The proposed strategies allowed the sensitive detection of illicit drugs in the presence of most adulterants. The suitability of the proposed sensors for the detection of illicit drugs in spiked wastewaters was finally assessed.

This current review focuses on contributions to amphetamine-type substances (ATS) analysis. This type of synthetic illicit drugs has been increasingly present worldwide reaching 5% of the market on illicit drugs in 2019. The increment of their production in many clandestine laboratories and easy distribution among society are two of the main concerns towards the battle against synthetic drugs. Therefore, the first part of this review details the classification and mechanism of action of ATS in the human body. Second, the pharmacological and toxicological effects of ATS on human health are described to motivate the need of early detection of ATS. Subsequently, the most used laboratory-based and portable methods are presented and critically discussed along the review. Finally, a careful discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of portable techniques employed on the field are addressed as potential tools for on-site ATS detection by law enforcement officers.

Nowadays, the Benford’s Laws is tested in plenty of academic domains as the first check of data reliability. Benford’s Laws non-conformity does not necessarily mean that there is a case of data manipulation. However, such a test can raise the first signal for further prudence in conclusions based on that specific dataset. Romania is considering to have a higher rate for fiscal evasion, and the cash propensity within the hospitality industry is high. In this context, we expect that hospitality industry companies’ fiscal statements to be Benford non-conformant. The dataset consists of more than 574 thousand Romanian companies’ disclosed financial statements for the year 2013. The control variable is the company’s size (from the number of employees point of view). Against our expectations, we find very small discrepancies in the dataset’s empirical distributions compared to Benford’s Laws. This is the case for the first digit, second digit and the first two combined digits.

The most important and well-known glycopeptide antibiotic, vancomycin (VAN), is used for the treatment of severe bacterial infections like methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections and endocarditis caused by enterococci and sepsis. Taking into account the problem of the development of antibiotic resistance as well as its toxicity, both correlated with the VAN concentration (CVAN) in biological samples, there is need for better and more accessible quantification methods for this antibiotic. Considering all of the above, herein, we present a simple electrochemical method for VAN sensing based on a hybrid graphene-gold nanostructure nanocomposite electrode, which allows double detection directly in the oxidation domain and also indirectly, in reduction, using the electro-active gold nanostructures as a probe to monitor the current changing due to the interaction between gold and VAN. The developed method was able to successfully detect VAN in the linear range of 1&ndash, 100 &micro, M with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.29 &micro, M for the direct approach and 0.5 &micro, M for the indirect one. The selectivity of the method was tested in the presence of other antibiotics and drugs. This method was successfully applied for the detection of VAN from human serum samples.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem, one of the latest trends for researchers and practitioners, has the potential to increase our understanding of entrepreneurship. Existing research was conducted mostly in developed countries. The purpose of this paper is to bring to light the particularities of entrepreneurial ecosystems in two important city-regions of Romania, which should result in a better understanding of the specific context of this transitional economy. Starting from the models of entrepreneurial ecosystems proposed in the literature, we added an element specific to most post-communist states: political entrepreneurs, underlying the impact of their presence for the evolution and sustainability of entrepreneurial ecosystems. The research design was a qualitative exploratory study. The study focused on a sample of 21 entrepreneurs from two city-regions in Romania: Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. The interviews were based on open-ended questions prompting the respondents to engage in a storytelling approach to describe their experiences as entrepreneurs in a volatile environment, along with their perceptions. The data were analyzed based on a descriptive phenomenological approach using thematic analysis. The main findings, resulting from the qualitative interview data, are that although entrepreneurship, both in results and mentality, is well-established, seemingly over the &ldquo, point of no return&rdquo, the particular context is still making things rough for entrepreneurial activity. The results suggest a strong need for coherent policies at local and national levels.

The aim of this article is to enrich the vision regarding the connection between entrepreneurship and economic growth, focusing upon an economy in transition to a market economy. The authors of the present paper have developed an empirical model – based on a constant preoccupation to observe the impact of the entrepreneurial phenomenon on the free, emerging market in Romania – model which uses a number of variables which are believed to influence the critical mass of viable business existing in a dynamic environment. The proposed model identifies the factors that need to be activated in the current context to transfer the theoretical importance of SME’s in the truly complex world of an economy that desires to be prosperous. Then, the model was exposed to the test of the objective statistical and mathematical testing, starting from the results obtained from a survey of 536 entrepreneurs. The methodological approach makes use both of regression models, which use the relevant aspects from the survey, turned into quantitative or qualitative variables, and of the analysis of variance, with the aim of explaining the way in which the considered variables have managed to determine the economic growth, as well as of determining their importance and their influence. Finally, several conclusions have been outlined, regarding the economic policy measures that are needed and feasible in order to make the business environment in Romania more predictable and more friendly and, thus, to encourage entrepreneurship.

In this article we study the relationship between microeconomic factors (financial ratios) and SMEs’ insolvencies in Romania using logistic regression model to predict the likelihood of SMEs bankruptcy in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. We conducted a logit econometric model for each size category of SMEs (micro, small and medium). The main finding is that the return on assets (ROA) and total debt ratio (TDR) across the three size categories of SMEs are the statistically significant key indicators for the SMEs insolvencies. The best logistic model is the one for small firms because the number of fair estimations represents 80.6%.

Studies on the structure of economic systems are, most frequently, carried out by the methods of informational statistics. These methods, often accompanied by a broad range of indicators (Shannon entropy, Balassa coefficient, Herfindahl specialty index, Gini coefficient, Theil index, etc.) around which a wide literature has been created over time, have a major disadvantage. Their weakness is related to the imposition of the system condition, which indicates the need to know all of the components of the system (as absolute values or as weights). This restriction is difficult to accomplish in some situations, while in others this knowledge may be irrelevant, especially when there is an interest in structural changes only in some of the components of the economic system (either we refer to the typology of economic activities—NACE, or of territorial units—Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)). This article presents a procedure for characterizing the structure of a system and for comparing its evolution over time, in the case of incomplete information, thus eliminating the restriction existent in the classical methods. The proposed methodological alternative uses a parametric distribution, with sub-unit values for the variable. The application refers to Gross Domestic Product values for five of the 28 European Union countries, with annual values of over 1000 billion Euros (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and United Kingdom) for the years 2003 and 2015. A form of the Wald sequential test is applied to measure changes in the structure of this group of countries, between the years compared. The results of this application validate the proposed method.

Studies on the structure of economic systems are, most frequently, carried out by the methods of informational statistics. These methods, often accompanied by a wide range of indicators (Shannon entropy, Balassa coefficient, Herfindahl specialty index, Gini coefficient, Theil index etc.) around which a wide literature has been created over time, have a major disadvantage. Such weakness is related to the imposition of the system condition, therefore the need to know all the components of the system (as absolute values or as weights). This restriction is difficult to accomplish in some situations, and in others, this knowledge may be irrelevant, especially when there is an interest in structural changes only in some of the components of the economic system (either we refer to the typology of economic activities - NACE or of territorial units – NUTS). This article presents a procedure for characterizing the structure of a system and for comparing its evolution over time, in the case of incomplete information, thus eliminating the restriction existent in the classical methods. The proposed methodological alternative uses a parametric distribution, with subunit values for the variable. The application refers to Gross Domestic Product values for five of the 28 European Union countries, with annual values of over 1,000 billion Euros (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and United Kingdom) for the years 2003 and 2015. A form of the Wald sequential test is applied to measure changes in the structure of this group of countries, between the years compared. The results of this application validate the proposed method.

In strong heterogeneous populations, the use of the average indicator is not appropriate in order to summarize the values, because this involves a relatively homogeneous population and a normal, or approximately normal, distribution around the central value. In the case of some genuine economic processes, there is any possibility to apply even the homogenization process of data, by taking into consideration the string boundaries as outliers’ values, as it can be proceed with a series of measurements. In such heterogeneous populations, the characteristic respect a Cauchy distribution, which is somewhat similar to Gauss-Laplace distribution, however it has more elongated tails and a specific density of the distribution. For these cases it is appropriate as the middle value to be established through the median. The case study, conducted and released in this paper, refers to the financial performance of SMEs. This population is characterized by a strong heterogeneity, so in this case the merger at the level of the population is risky by using the mean, because it generates distorted indicators of the shaped reality. The obtained results in this research might represent a guide for the study of situations in which there are heterogeneous populations, moreover where it is not possible to clean their extreme values.

It seems that ironically, as the complexity of products and electronic methods of protection and control increase, the systems aren’t less vulnerable to errors, especially to human ones. Major events, some with catastrophic consequences, are becoming more common, most likely due to human errors (the sinking of Titanic, the 1965 blackout in United States, an important industrial catastrophe in Bhopal – India, the Chernobyl nuclear accident or the Costa-Concordia sinking). For decades, the methods of reliability assessment and design have focused on technical factors. The present paper aims to identify a statistical model able to capture, more accurately, the overall performance of human errors in the human-machine system.

There is an entire field of literature on reliability models. Building reliability models is most frequently done by starting from the failure rate (or hazard rate). Creating a reliability model starts with the specific type of product behavior over time, so there are model classes for the specifics of different product categories: electronic, mechanical products, mixed systems etc. The aim of this paper was to develop a statistical model which would allow the study of the durability of products, and particularly, in the present case, of electrical switches. The procedure has a broad range of applicability and can be extended to whole categories of products that have components both in motion, and therefore subject to wear, and also that bear additional stress. In our case, an electrical switch involves the shock of the electrical contact, which additionally requires the constituent material. This article started from an indicator similar to entropy (an entropy-like transformation) that was developed according to the stated purpose of the paper. We believe that the appropriate name for the proposed indicator is pseudo-entropic transformation, as we operated with the derivative of g(t), which is basically a probability density. The model developed herein is original and, from a practical point of view, it is convenient for treating and developing analytical and practical applications for classes of products subjected, during use, to a process of wear, degradation, and damage by use.

The process of globalization and of lasting tourism’s development aims at the touristy activities placed under the influence of ecology and of reasonable use of resources. At a nation-wide level it is necessary to apply a rural development p olicy, capable of stimulating the efforts undertaken to bring Romanian villages out of their isolation, to establish regulations allowing for their use, as well as to create institutions functioning for the same purpose, and last but not least, to secure t he existence of funds appropriated for the desired goal. The role of global management is to gather all individual initiatives in order to channel them towards national and international networks, to ensure their accomplishment at easily accessib le standards, both as to how they can be run and for the rural tourist offer.

In Romania 70% of the national production is generated by the economy private sector, which is still relatively at a low value compared to the share registered in the developed countries. The economic crisis has affected the entrepreneurship sector quite to a large extent. The main consequences of that circumstance are: the ratio of new businesses founding decrease, the ratio of business liquidation growth. This process was relatively asynchronous with that of the developed European Union countries, but common in the former planned economy countries and the dominance of state property. Based on some comparable data sets, this paper includes an econometric modeling for the new enterprises founding impact on the dynamic of national production, as measured by GDP. The paper's findings may provide a ground for governmental strategies regarding the private sector development and the private economic initiative.