There is myriad evidence that global warming is exerting a profoundly disruptive influence on the lifeways of modern native (Yup'ik) communities living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) delta of ...southwestern Alaska. Yup'ik subsistence is intimately tied to seasonal change and the ability to accurately predict the availability of plant and animal resources. It therefore seems reasonable to suggest that periods of climatic instability such as the Little Ice Age (LIA) may have had a deleterious effect on Yup'ik communities in the past. However, at present there are no palaeotemperature records that document the localised climatic changes of the last millennium in the Y-K Delta region. This lack of data hinders our understanding of the archaeological record from the site of Nunalleq, which is situated at the heart of the delta and was occupied during the LIA. To address this oversight, this paper presents the results of a Coleoptera (beetle) based climate reconstruction from a peat profile in the vicinity of Nunalleq to investigate the magnitude of Late Holocene climatic changes. Using the Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) method, we reconstruct mean summer and winter temperatures from the mid-15th to late-19th centuries. The results indicate that the past environments of Nunalleq were characterised by a climate significantly cooler than the present. The earliest definitive evidence for Little Ice Age cooling dates from the late 16th century, when mean summer temperatures were at least 1.2ᵒC below the modern mean. Temperatures appear to have remained lower than modern until the early 19th century. The coolest Nunalleq record – 1.3ᵒC below the modern mean summer temperatures – is centred on AD 1815, after which there is evidence for climatic amelioration. These data present differences with observations from other regions of Alaska and underline the importance of more local palaeoclimate reconstructions, particularly when interrogating the relationships between past climatic and social change.
Microglia--performers of the 21st century Atallah, Nidal; Vasiu, Renata; Boşca, Adina Bianca ...
Romanian journal of morphology and embryology,
2014, Letnik:
55, Številka:
3
Journal Article
At the frontier between immunology and neuroscience, microglia, the enigmatic macrophages of the brain, have generated, in recent years, increasing interest. In response to even minor pathological ...changes in the brain, these extremely versatile glial cells occasionally enter in an over-activating state and produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and free radicals, thereby contributing directly to neuroinflammation and various brain disorders. This review provides an analysis of the latest developments in the microglia field, considering the important new research that illustrate their involvement in brain related diseases.
Objective. The goal was to highlight the importance of a physical therapy intervention in maintaining the functional independence in a patient with multiple sclerosis associated with Lyme disease by ...using proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation techniques and other treatment methods. The effects caused by this disease are inflammation and demyelination, resulting in lesions of the white matter in the central nervous system. This study has observed an injury in the motor and sensory function that had a progressive form toward worsening. The study started by identifying the functional deficit, then by establishing a physical therapy intervention strategy, aiming to improve the patient's state and to maintain the subject's functionality for as long as possible. Research methods. The frequency of the meetings with the subject was 3 sessions per week, 50 minutes each session, over the course of 9 months. The main research methods used were the observation, the exploration and assessment, the experimental method and the graphical representation method. The results were centralized in tables and represented as charts, in order to make it easier to highlight and interpret them. Results. The interpretation of the results recorded during the initial and final evaluations of the subject has highlighted that the use of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation techniques and of other methods, such as massage and stretching, has led to effective results, such as the relaxation of hypertone muscles, the increase of joint mobility, muscle strengthening, correction of bad postures, increase of coordination and balance. Conclusions. It has been observed that by applying constantly the methods and techniques used for these symptoms there was a slowing down of the progress of the disease on a long-term basis. This was obvious after the application of the initial and final tests, which showed a favorable progress in maintaining the analytical and global functionality. Key Words: multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, facilitation.
This paper presents the consequences of long exposure to ozone in order to draw attention to this matter as far as the brain and liver are concerned. The material used was represented by two batches ...of 10 rats each that were daily exposed to ozone for 10 minutes at 0.5 ppm O3. From the first group blood was collected after two weeks to determine the indicators of oxidative stress and samples of brain and liver were drawn for histological studies. Tissue changes were highlighted using Hematoxylin-Eosin and argentic impregnation. In addition, the brain and liver samples taken from study subjects were turned into homogeneous preparations in order to determine the intensity of oxidative stress occurred in these organs compared with the witness group. The second batch was exposed for a further two weeks, after which the same sampling techniques and determining methods as for the first group were applied. The results show a correlation between the values of malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH), obtained both in blood and in the homogeneous preparations, and the microscopic changes that implicate a pathological state. Therefore, cerebral edema was discovered in the brain hemispheres and the cerebellum indicating necrotic signs accompanied by a reduction in the molecular layer and Purkinje cells with pale core. The liver presented hepatocellular necrosis, extended from the port area to the centrolobular vein.
Cystic echinococcosis is a neglected zoonotic infection that is distributed worldwide and prioritised by WHO for control efforts. The burden of human cystic echinococcosis is poorly understood in ...most endemic regions, including eastern Europe. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of abdominal cystic echinococcosis in rural areas of Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey.
We did a cross-sectional ultrasound-based survey that recruited volunteers from 50 villages in rural areas of Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. These villages were in provinces with annual hospital incidence of cystic echinococcosis within the mid-range for the respective countries. All people who attended a session were allowed to participate if they agreed to be screened. Abdominal ultrasound screening sessions were hosted in public community structures such as community halls, primary health-care centres, schools, and mosques. Lesions were classified using an adapted WHO classification. We reported the prevalence of abdominal cystic echinococcosis adjusted by sex and age through direct standardisation, using the country's rural population as a reference.
From July 1, 2014, to Aug 3, 2015, 24 693 individuals presented to screening sessions and 24 687 underwent ultrasound screening. We excluded a further six indivduals due to missing data, leaving 24 681 people in our analysis. Abdominal cystic echinococcosis was detected in 31 of 8602 people screened in Bulgaria, 35 of 7461 screened in Romania, and 53 of 8618 screened in Turkey. The age and sex adjusted prevalence of abdominal cystic echinococcosis was 0·41% (95% CI 0·29–0·58) in Bulgaria, 0·41% (0·26–0·65) in Romania, and 0·59% (0·19–1·85) in Turkey. Active cysts were found in people of all ages, including children, and in all investigated provinces.
Our results provide population-based estimates of the prevalence of abdominal cystic echinococcosis. These findings should be useful to support the planning of cost-effective interventions, supporting the WHO roadmap for cystic echinococcosis control.
European Union Seventh Framework Programme.
Acute pancreatitis is an acute inflammatory process of the pancreas, which can remain localized at the level of the gland or can extend to the peripancreatic and retroperitoneal tissues. The use and ...interpretation of paraclinical examinations at the onset can predict the form of evolution of acute pancreatitis (mild or severe). Depending on the evolution, these data are useful in determining the type of surgical intervention that might be necessary based on severity. We present a retrospective study consisting of 118 patients diagnosed and hospitalized with acute pancreatitis during 2016-2020 in the Surgery I section of the Sibiu County Emergency Clinical Hospital. Several parameters were taken into account at hospitalization such as age, sex, the environment of origin, etiology of pancreatitis, biochemical parameters with their repetition at 24, 72 hours, and at discharge, and clinical signs at hospitalization. surgeries performed depending on the severity of pancreatitis specifying their complications. Keywords: acute pancreatitis, clinical, biochemical, parameters, surgery, complications
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to estimate the electrical field induced in the spinal cord and nearby area during lumbar magnetic stimulation.Design methodology approach - The spinal cord is ...modelled as a continuous cylinder, while the vertebral column is also represented by a concentric interrupted cylinder. The coil used for magnetic stimulation is a figure of eight, whose centre is placed above T12-L1 vertebras. The electrical field is induced and its derivative is computed using the finite difference method.Findings - Preliminary results suggest that magnetic stimulation may be able to induce a sufficiently intense electric field inside the spinal cord, leading to the direct activation of spinal nerve roots.Practical implications - If the spinal cord can be stimulated directly by magnetic stimulation, this technique can facilitate functional motor activities, including standing and stepping in paralyzed people, in a non-invasive way.Originality value - The authors revealed the fact that functional magnetic stimulation can be applied to the spinal cord, and should be further investigated as an alternative to invasive techniques such as electrical stimulation.
This work is part of the European Horizon 2020 project, RE-COGNITION, under the GA. No. 815301/2019, in which Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is involved. The paper deals with the formulation of ...the demonstration scenarios to prove the economic, environmental and social benefits of renewable energy sources integration in different buildings for six pilot's sites. The scenarios will take into account technical opportunities, means, and methods for incorporating renewable energy resources and available technologies into building designs and operations that need to be used successfully to offset building electrical and thermal energy loads.
The paper investigates hybrid energy systems that could be applied in case of a swimming pool complex in order to reduce exploitation costs and increase renewable energy usage. The presented approach ...starts with the assessment of the chosen building at the level of energy consumption, and utility costs, along with two proposed system configurations: one proposed by the RE-COGNITION innovation project, and one proposed by the authors based on the market solutions. The mentioned cases represent two hybrid energy systems using conventional sources, renewable energy, and highly efficient cogeneration units. The two proposed system configurations are simulated using the HOMER Pro program which allows a wide analysis along with techno-economic indicators of the different scenarios. Results and comparisons are presented to highlight the feasibility of the two proposed cases.
The main ambition of the RE-COGNITION Horizon 2020 project (https://re-cognition-project.eu/), in which Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is involved, is to develop a future and technology-proof ...integration solution aiming to maximize the utilization of the energy that is locally produced by building-level Renewable Energy Sources (RES) technologies, and the reduction of implicit and explicitly induced costs. In the frame of the project, a RES Integration Platform is developed, which incorporate existing, as well as newly developed RES and storage components, along with peripheral electrical and thermal load equipment (HVACs, chillers, ICT devices, conventional load equipment etc.). The RES Integration Platform aims to optimize the building energy flows, regardless of type and conditions. Several pilots with different building environments and climate zones, all around Europe, will be selected to test the RE-COGNITION framework components. This will sufficiently fulfil the validation purposes of the developed technologies and comply with the end-user needs. In this paper, we present the general description of the Romanian pilot site, as well as the energy consumption indicators measured in the last 3 years prior to the project's start. An analysis of the local context which provides the technical/socio/economic constraints that the project should handle is also presented.
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