An important cellular event associated with reduced structural and functional recovery after stroke in aged animals is the early formation of a scar in the infarcted region that impairs neural ...recovery and repair. Despite the detrimental impact of infarct scar formation, the brain regions and cell types that supply the components of the scar are not well characterized. We hypothesized that premature cerebral scar formation in aged animals is associated with an altered cellular response to cerebral ischemia. Focal cerebral ischemia was produced by reversible occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery in 3 month- and 20 month-old male Sprague Dawley rats. After 3, 7, 14, and 28 days, brain tissue was subjected to real-time reverse-transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) and immunostaining for 1) a cellular proliferation marker (BrdU); 2) a neuroepithelial marker (nestin); 3) an astrocytic marker (glial fibrillary acidic protein GFAP); 4) a neuronal marker, doublecortin; and 5) a basal lamina marker (laminin), and analyzed using 3D-reconstruction of confocal images. In this model the infarct was localized primarily in the parietal cortex. By RT-PCR there was a robust increase in nestin mRNA transcripts shortly after stroke, and this increase was particularly intense in aged rats. Accordantly, we found in aged rats a rapid delimitation of the infarct area by nestin-positive cells and an early incorporation of these cells into the glial scar. The capillaries of the corpus callosum were the major source of proliferating, nestin-positive cells, many of which were also immunoreactive for doublecortin, although a smaller population of nestin cells were associated with the ventricular walls. Despite the proliferation of nestin cells, they did not make a significant contribution to neurogenesis in the infarcted cortex, possibly because the corpus callosum impedes the migration of subventricular zone-derived nestin-positive cells into the lesioned area. We conclude that: (i) the aged brain has the capability to mount a cytoproliferative response to injury, but the timing of the cellular and genetic reaction to cerebral insult is accelerated in aged animals; (ii) the proliferating cells contribute to the formation of the glial scar, but few of the cells appear to become neurons; and (iii) the vasculature plays a hitherto unrecognized role as a source of proliferating cells after stroke. Because capillary-derived cells help to form the glial scar, elucidating the molecular basis of this phenomenon and its acceleration in the aging brain could yield novel approaches to enhancing neurorestoration in the elderly.
Marketing is an essential domain for tourism, being recently more and more theoretically approached and conceptualized by research papers (e specially in the Anglo-Saxon literature). An economic term ...by excellence, marketing is as well ad opted by geographic literature and by the geography of tourism, one of the major specializati ons of Romanian faculties of geography as numerous students opt for it. Consequently there is a great need for geography students and geographers to study tourism oriented concepts even if mainly coming from other domains such as economy, social sciences, etc. and to elaborate appropriate studies without getting far from their topic of interest. In this respect the develo pment of methods and instruments of research and study is a necessity already underlined by bibliogr aphic references in the domain. They represented th e departure point of this paper which enlarges the deb ate upon a tourism destination marketing study work paper developed as an operational working instrument for geography students.
Lucrarea prezintă experimentările privind tratarea blănurilor de ovine cu plasmă la presiune joasă În atmosferă de hexafluoropropan şi Îmbunatăţirea proprietăţilor de hidrofilie ale cheratinei şi ...colagenului. Pre-tratarea pieilor de ovine cu plasmă la presiune joasă permite obţinerea blănurilor cu capacitate Îmbunătăţită de absorbţie a apei, vopsire În culori mai vii şi obţinerea unui grad de moliciune mai mare. Rezultatele sugerează posibilitatea reducerii consumului de materiale pentru denaturarea, vopsirea sau ungerea cheratinei, cu efecte de mediu semnificative. Identificarea unei cantităţi mai mici de sulf În stratul superficial de lână confirmă efectul de denaturare datorită tratamentului cu plasmă la presiune joasă. Prezenţa atmosferei de hexafluoropropan În mediu de tratare nu a modificat proprietăţile hidrofile ale blănurilor de ovine, denaturarea prin oxidare a lânii a constituit cel mai important efect pentru Îmbunătăţirea capacităţii de absorbţie a apei.
The common pool resources are a very actual topic a pproached by both scientists and practitioners preoccupied nowadays of gradually incr easing environmental problems. Protected areas in Romania and ...especially in Romanian Carpath ians of national and natural park type (IUCN II and V) represent areas of particular interes t in the light of the common pool resources theory imposing conservation laws on areas meeting a n increased pressure from human communities around them. The important socio-econom ic and ownership changes that Romania met in the last decades changed its previous state unique ownership into a multiple stakeholder ownership. At the same time vulnerable human communi ties located in fragile mountain areas and depending to a high extent on natural resources met an increased stress when exploiting natural resources at the border of protected areas. Consequently sharing the common pool of resources in the buffer zone of protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians represents a very actual and important topic to be treated in the pre sent study.
Industrial activities are part of the urban environment and oftenly they are considered to be determinants for urbanisation. The process of industrialisation in Câmpulung Depression, started since ...the beginning of the XX century and reached its climax during the communist period, amplifying the role of Câmpulung city in its territorial relations as a convergence center for human and material flows and at the same time as a difusion center for information flows. During the totalitarian period car maufacturing became the core of economic development in Câmpulung city. Considered by some researchers the main qualitative leap and an expression of human genius, the industrialisation remains the main modelling element for geographic space. This process imposed important functional changes and being at the same time a main trigger for social instability during the transition towards the market economy. After december 1989 car industry prooved to be very important as the social and economic decline or success in this area depended on its evolution. Unfortunately the company ARO S.A. in Câmpulung, manufacturing off-road cars, suffered a continuous decline due to an inappropriate management unadapted to the needs and requirements of the market. In a similar way economic activities in the rural areas had a dynamic evolution imposed by the changes occured in the political system. The passage at first from a capitalist system to a socialist one and the return to the market economy determined each time an organisatoric restructuration and generated radical changes in economic activities. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Spa tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism which continuously evolved in time as the leisure industry paradigm and the consumers' behavior changed. Similar to other countries in Central and ...Eastern Europe, spa tourism is an old phenomenon in Romania which expanded to the dimensions of a well defined tourism industry during the mass tourism period which also corresponded to the communism epoch. Although severely affected by the major political and socio-economic changes which occurred after the Revolution in 1989, this industry coexists with new emergent forms of tourism, orienting itself towards new dimensions embraced by the contemporary leisure consumerism (e.g. medical tourism, cosmetic treatments). Lying on considerable balneal and climate resources and displaying an important communist heritage both in physical terms (large and massive tourism structures) and in virtual and psychological terms (social supportive ticket granting system), Romanian spa tourism faces various challenges in the attempt to adapt in a new tourism era.