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Social Protection has the function of effectively helping people in poverty, overcoming this condition, and by performing this function it exerts influence on social inclusion and social justice, as well as on ensuring income security, education and health. Despite significant progress in expanding social protection in many parts of the world, the human right to Social Security is not yet a reality for a large part of the world's population. Thus, only 45% of the global population is actually covered by at least one social benefit, while the remaining 55% - 4 billion people - are left unprotected. At european level, social protection is the core of the social model, all European actions revolve around social values. I chose this theme because I wanted to discover first of all the approach to the concept of social protection and I found that the scope of this concept is quite broad, with the EU fighting, through the objectives set and the strategies chosen, against poverty first of all, social exclusion, against unemployment, early school leaving and for providing high quality medical services.

In this article, the corrosion processes that occur in metallic fixed dental restorations from a group of patients with oral lichen planus are investigated throughout electrochemical characterizations. Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a non-infectious, chronic, autoimmune disorder, of unknown aetiology, which involves the oral mucosa and sometimes, it has a malignant transformation. The presence of oral metals is incriminated as a trigger factor in the pathology of OLP. In order to emphasise this influence, the alloys recovered after the removal of some old metal restorations in OLP patients were analysed. Their composition was determined by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Open circuit potential measurements, Tafel analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were also carried out. The studied alloys were high copper alloys and chromium-nickel base alloys with different electrochemical behaviour. The results suggested a correlation between corrosion process in the oral environment and oral lichen planus pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the influence of the normal force on the surface quality of the friction couple steel - polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) + 10 % polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). There were calculated the average values of the amplitude and functional parameters, as obtained from investigating square areas on the wear tracks, with the help of a proposed methodology, for initial and tested surfaces generated on the blocks and on counterpart ring made of rolling bearing steel, for the following test conditions: three normal forces (F = 1 N, F = 2.5 N and F =5 N), three sliding speeds (v = 0.25 m/s, v = 0.50 m/s and v = 0.75 m/s) and a sliding distance of L = 7500 m. The conclusion of the research study was that the tested normal force range has an insignificant influence on the surface quality for the tested materials and parameters. This friction couple could be recommended for variable conditions (speed and load) in dry regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reports on the formation and respectively shielding of TiO2 nanotubes elaborated in two water-containing organic electrolytes with the addition of NH4F, via potential step anodizing method. The organic compounds used ethylene glycol (EG) and polyethylene glycol (PEG), have significantly different molecular weights and viscosities. As a consequence, the resulting nanotubes layers are unshielded in first electrolyte and shielded in the second and have different diameters and lengths. FT-IR spectra reveal the incorporation of electrolyte anions to the surface of the TiO2nanotubes when employing the most viscous electrolyte. This could be an explanation for different contact angle values, roughness and corrosion resistance in bioloquids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper is a new approach which aims to evaluate the relation between surface aspects (wettability and roughness) of materials based on titanium with native passive TiO2 as untreated samples and TiO2 nanotubes as treated discs respectively, their electrochemical stability in artificial saliva, and fibroblast cell behavior. Ti/TiO2 modified electrodes as nanotubes with 120nm as diameter were obtained using an electrochemical method as anodizing and surface analysis as SEM, AFM and contact angle measurements were performed to obtain topographical features and wettability. The TiO2 nanotube structured oxide films electrochemical growth increases the stability of titanium surfaces. The electrochemical behavior of the Ti/TiO2 nanotube surface was evaluated by corrosion parameters obtained from Tafel plots and electrical parameters for proposed circuits from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were analyzed. The cell results indicated a slight preference in terms of cell survival and adhesion for nanostructure TiO2 with a more hydrophilic character and the electrochemical data revealed that such features are connected with better stability in artificial saliva. The roughness seems to be not conclusive for this case. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a macro FEM isothermal model for simulating the impact of a 9 mm FMJ bullet on a stratified packs in order to restrain the preliminary tests for actual stratified packs made of layers of Twaron LFT SB1plus (Teijin), taking into account the friction between layers and between bullet and layers, in order to obtain the number of layers that arrest the bullet. The layers were considered as an orthotropic material, with maximum equivalent plastic strain of 0.06. The materials are modeled as bilinear isotropic with hardening. The analyzed parameter to validate the model was the number of broken layers. The average value of back face signature for a 12 layer pack was of 19.44 mm recommending it for protection level of II and IIA (NIJ Standard-0101.06-2008).

Composite gels based on collagen and eucalyptus oil were prepared in order to be used in dentistry. The main components such as β-Cymene (32.1%), Eucalyptol (36.59%), Cryptone (4.35%) and Spathulenol (3.82%) of Eucalyptus camadulensis Dehnh. essential oil were determined by GC-MS. The eucalyptus oil dissolved in different concentration of ethanol (4 and 8% v/v) was embedded in collagen gels (0.4 and 0.8% w/w) and cross-linked with tannic acid (0.2 and 0.4% w/w). The stability of gels was depending on collagen concentration, only the gels with 0.8% of collagen being stable. The rheological analysis of composite gels showed that formulation containing a combination of ethanol and tannic acid at the ratio of 8% v/v: 0.4%w/w resulted in the highest consistency index and yield stress. All the 0.8% collagen gels exhibited a suitable pseudoplastic behaviour and could be recommended for an adequate administration in the oral cavity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]