Suchergebnisse

Air is necessary for human survival and the preservation of the environment. The scientific community is concerned about the ongoing rapid expansion of the population, which uses resources faster, and thus the accumulation of an enormous amount of waste will gradually worsen the air quality. The change in the pollutants released in the atmosphere became more complex throughout human history, and they were released in huge quantities. The sources of air pollution vary greatly – from burning fuel, the household, agricultural or mining activities to natural disasters or significant industrial accidents. New techniques that monitor the air composition are being developed to ensure air quality control. The population exposed to these harmful compounds is predisposed to various health concerns, including skin, cardiovascular, brain, blood, and lung illnesses. The substances also contribute to global warming, acid rains and ozone depletion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was noticed that reducing human activities causing pollution leads to improved air quality, which shows that long-term solutions can also be found. This paper aims to offer an overview of the air pollution problems persisting around the globe and present the current state, causes and evolution of air pollution. Some of the solutions we propose in this article include energy-saving, public transportation and material recycling. We also emphasize the need to develop new technologies to control the air quality and implement a sustainable approach.

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is an immune system used by bacteria to defend themselves from different types of pathogens. It was discovered that this immune system can modify itself in specific regions called spacers due to previous interaction with foreign genetic material from phages and plasmids. Through our research, we have identified in different bacterial isolates CRISPR arrays belonging to the subtypes I-E (present in 42 samples) and I-F (present in 9 samples). The number of spacers in CRISPR arrays was also estimated based on the array length as a possible connection with the systems activity. Our results yielded arrays as small as 200 bp and as large as 1400 bp.

"As habitat loss poses challenge to conservation, it is becoming increasingly important to address questions about the extent to which connectivity between habitat patches is changing, and how this affects the local population of different species in these patches. The objective of our research was to monitor ponds and the pond-breeding amphibian species in a protected area. Therefore, we conducted day and night surveys, and compare the data collected in 2022 with the results of the latest available survey (2019), to simulate the patch occupancy of amphibian species over a 25-year timeframe. We found that combining the species occupancy data collected from both day and night surveys lead to higher patch occupancy values and higher number of registered individuals, compared to data collected only during daytime. The number of ponds decreased from 2019 to 2022, and further habitat loss could result in the disappearance of the local population if the area continues to dry out. Climate and landscape change could be major contributors to habitat loss in the future, therefore, in order to ensure the persistence of these local populations, we recommend the development of climate and habitat scenarios, and the planning of conservation measures based on these scenarios. Keywords: amphibian conservation, Transylvanian Plain, SPOM"

Malocclusion is a condition characterized by diverse phenotypic expression patterns, with a complex underlying genetic background. COL1a1 is one of the genes that has been previously associated with malocclusion, with one particular SNP, rs2249492 (C>G, C>T), having been linked with an increased risk of skeletal class II malocclusion. In this paper, making use of DNA sequencing and cephalometric measurements, we present preliminary data regarding the association between the rs2249492 SNP and the risk of malocclusion in the Romanian population, illustrated as continuous, rather than categorical phenotypes. The results show a tendency towards a Class II pattern determined by mandibular retrognathism, rather than maxillary prognathism among the individuals possessing the mutant allele. Subsequent studies on larger sample sizes should include statistical analysis focused on associations between the rs2249492 allele and continuous phenotypic variation inside, but not restricted to Class II malocclusion, in order to acquire a more detailed picture of the interaction between the polymorphism and this complex condition

"The Evolution of Cluj Fortress from Extramuros Area and the Imprint of the Geosite in the Geographical Landscape of Cluj-Napoca City. Cluj Fortress was built by the military garrison of the Habsburg Empire to have a defensive role in tragic periods. The site of its location was chosen possibly due to morphology, the presence of landforms developed on sandstones and conglomerates which led provided conditions for living and development in that place. The evolution of the area from extramuros to intramuros was shaped by the living necessities that the military garrison had to satisfy. By entering the area beyond the walls, "the world down there", they had access to the means of satisfying their needs, to the necessary substance and energy exchange. The emergence of miserable households, mere holes in the slope, was possible due to the geological structure. They had a negative impact on the geographical landscape, due to the negative look of the slope, but also because of the precarious living conditions of the inhabitants of that area. The development of communities including disfavoured people determined miserable living conditions, while they tried to survive in different manners. By means of the used methodology, the paper highlights the evolution of Cluj Fortress since ancient times until today, and to emphasize the importance of the Fortress site from a scientific and anthropogenic point of view, by means of the geomorphosite inventory list. Keywords: evolution, Fortress, extramuros / intramuros, sandstones and conglomerates, geosite, geographical landscape, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. "

The aim of the present paper was to analyze the measurements of the Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra) eggs in order to evaluate if the local conditions, presented here, differ in some way from older data found in references dating to 1955 in Romania. The data were collected from the Eurasian Coot nests identified (N=8) at Câmpenești fishponds, located in North-Western Romania, in May 2018. The clutch size was 7.5 ±1.6, ranging from 5 to 10 eggs. The mean egg length was 50.81 mm, and the mean egg breadth was 34.5 mm with higher variability in case of the first measurement. The mean egg volume was 31.3 cm3 which is much smaller than reported in the Romanian references (36.13 cm3). Regarding intra-clutch variance, we found that some clutches manifest a higher length, breadth and volume variance than others which can be a result of the intraspecific nest parasitism or environmental variances. The results brought some extensions of egg length and egg breadth limits and also may reflect a decrease in egg size over time.