Synthesis of novel chitosan resin derivatized with serine diacetic acid moiety and its application to on-line collection/concentration of trace elements and their determination using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

A novel chelating resin functionalized with serine diacetic acid moiety was synthesized by using chitosan as base material, and applied to the collection/concentration of trace elements in environmental water samples, followed by the determination using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES). The synthesized resin, crosslinked chitosan serine diacetic acid (CCTS-SDA), showed good adsorption behavior toward trace amounts of Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, V, Ga, Sc, In, and Th in a wide pH range. Additionally, rare earth elements also can be retained on the resin at neutral pH region. The adsorbed elements can be easily eluted with 1 mol L-1 of nitric acid, and their recoveries were found to be 90-100%. The CCTS-SDA was packed in a mini-column, which was then installed in a cornputer-controlled auto-pretreatment system (Auto-Pret System) for on-line trace elements collection and determination with ICP-AES. Experimental parameters which related to the improvement of sensitivity and reproducibility were optimized. The limits of detection (LOD) for 13 elements were found to be in sub-ppb level. The proposed method with CCTS-SDA resin was successfully applied to the determination of trace elements in river water samples. The method was validated by determining a certified reference material of river water, SLRS-4

Chelating Sorbents in Inorganic Chemical Analysis

This review is concerned with the preparation, characterization and the applications of new chelating sorbents in the separation, concentration and determination of trace metals from different complex samples

Démocratie et corruption: Sur la société postcommuniste

The purpose of this article is to show that the crisis of democracy in post-communist countries is an aspect of the more general crisis of society, being connected to the difficulties of modernization. Starting from the example of Romania, without making a case study, I show that corruption constitutes a set of unfavorable conditions for the rule of law, and that the source is the destruction of civil society by totalitarianism. Nevertheless, a retrospective look at the modern history of the region reveals that the destructive effect of totalitarianism is imbued with some specific cultural traits. It turns out that corruption (abuse of entrusted power) had destroyed democracy long before the establishment of communism. This possibly proves that corruption is a problem of social mentality, being linked to other unfavorable conditions, which are part of a long history of political domination.Le but de cet article est de montrer que la crise de la démocratie dans les pays postcommunistes est un aspect de la crise plus générale de la société, étant liée aux difficultés de la modernisation. En partant de l’exemple de la Roumanie, sans faire une étude de cas, je montre que la corruption constitue un ensemble de conditions défavorables pour l’Etat de droit, et que la source en est la destruction de la société civile par le totalitarisme. Néanmoins, un regard rétrospectif sur l’histoire moderne de la région révèle que l’effet destructeur du totalitarisme est imprégné de quelques traits culturels spécifiques. Il s’avère que la corruption (abus de pouvoir confié) avait détruit la démocratie bien avant l’instauration du communisme. Cela prouve éventuellement que la corruption constitue un problème de mentalité sociale, étant liée à d'autres conditions défavorables, qui relèvent d'une longue histoire de domination politique

The Part of the Whole: Analysis of the Relationship between the European Cultural Model, the „Sentiment of Being”, and the Structures of Language

In this paper I attempt to sketch out a critique of Constantin Noica’s notion of cultural model. In his writings on this topic, the Romanian philosopher articulates an atemporal typology of culture which is based on five types of relationship between rule and exception, or between the One and the Many. In this semantic context I set out to show that the five relations between the One and the Many are in fact ways of conceiving the relationship between man and being, and, furthermore, that in times past, culture (or the relationship between man and being) was structured by religion. Noica approaches this issue from a modern perspective, according to which religion is one of the many domains of culture, the coherence and structure of which was derived from an abstract scheme. This kind of approach cannot yield the expected result. Thus, according to Noica, the ancient monotheistic culture, for instance, was structured by the fundamental fact that the „exception confirms the rule.” Against this interpretation, I attempt to show that Noica’s scheme of cultural explanation has little if any value unless it is applied to a culture which is endowed with the sentiment that it has an exceptional destiny. More specifically, monotheistic religion in the ancient world is the exception to a broader rule. The practitioners of monotheistic religion highlight their difference and exceptional condition, which is precisely that which makes it possible for the exception to confirm the rule. This proves that the types of relations that establish between the One and the Many are meaningless in the absence of their material conditioning. On the other hand, Noica tries to articulate a new cultural morphology from the standpoint of grammatical morphology. His attempt yields a typology of European culture based on the idea that each of the familiar historical periods (the Medieval Age, The Renaissance, the Baroque, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and late modernity) introduces the „reign” of a certain morphological category. My strategy is to compare Noica’s discontinuities with those of Foucault in order to argue that the former undertakes an archaeological investigation of European culture. At the same time, however, Noica aims to extend the range of this method. However, I came to believe that Noica’s understanding of culture, which is based on the categorial structure of language in its relationship to being, is essentially logocentric and Eurocentric. Noica wishes to prove the possibility of cultural morphology in general, but his starting points are, first, the morphology of Indo-European languages and, second, an Aristotelian conception of grammar. On this basis one can infer that „universality,” according to Noica, would have to be defined in terms of the answer to the Cratylic question whether barbarians have access to the thinking of being. The same, highly questionable type of philosophical reflection is revealed by Noica’s The Romanian Sentiment of Being. Noica wants to show that „our” universal is of the general kind, but forgets to ask if the generic universal is indeed „ours”

Refractive therapy: history and perspectives

Department of Ophthalmology, Nicolae Testemitsanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaBackground: Myopia has been labeled as one of the most commonly encountered ocular disorders and its prevalence is increasing worldwide. The percentage of myopia varies from country to country starting from 25% in the United States to 90% in Asian countries. This has caused a massive concern, which raised great interest in methods of treatment and prevention of myopia, one of which is orthokeratology. Over more than two decades, orthokeratology had no widespread acceptance, partly because of the scientific community argued that the use of hard PolyMethylMethAcrylate lenses increase the risk of central cornea impairment. Optometry and Ophthalmology did not accept the method as from lack of clinical evidence that orthokeratology does not interfere with the structure and function of the cornea. The fact that only orthokeratology was able to evolve, demonstrate and monitor corneal topographic changes, limited the number of cases for the purpose of scientific study. But the advent of corneal topography allowed a more scientific approach to this procedure. Conclusions: The mechanism of refractive therapy to halt the progression of myopia is based on the formation of a bifocal optical zone that transforms the hyperopic defocus into a weak myopic one. According to statistics significant risk of developing microbial keratitis when wearing rigid gas-permeable lens is 4 times lower than in the case of soft lenses and 20 times smaller than soft lenses for extended wear. Patients who have undergo neorthokeratological correction presented neither at near nor at distance vision impairment, had no diurnal fluctuations of visual acuity or habitual activity limitation, which shows a positive impact of therapy on quality of life

Réflexions sur la traduction

Cet article développe une réflexion sur la traduction philosophique, en prenant comme objet d’analyse la traduction en roumain – par l’auteur – de la Philosophie politique d’Eric Weil. Cette analyse poursuit un double objectif. D’une part, elle montre de quelle façon le langage de Weil remplit la condition de l’étrangeté du discours philosophique dont parlent les traductologues. La philosophie de Weil se situe d’entrée de jeu – et de manière plus décisive que d’autres philosophies – dans un champ interlinguistique, ce qui pose des pro­blèmes spécifiques à la traduction. D’autre part, l’analyse montre quels sont les types de difficultés que l’on rencontre lorsqu’on transpose la philosophie de Weil dans la langue rou­maine. Ces difficultés sont liées à la proximité linguistique (il y a un risque de simplification), à l’état (encore) précaire du vocabulaire philosophique et à l’absence de certains mots (ce qui impose l’usage malheureux de descriptions).Este artigo propõe uma reflexão sobre a tradução filosófica ao levar a cabo uma análise da tradução em romeno – da responsabilidade do próprio autor do artigo – da Filosofia Política de Eric Weil. Essa análise tem um objectivo duplo. Por um lado, mostra de que forma a linguagem de Weil obedece à condição de estranheza do discurso filosófico referida pelos Teóricos da tradução. Logo à partida – e de forma mais decisiva do que noutras filosofias – a filosofia de Weil situa-se num campo interlinguístico, o que coloca problemas especí­ficos à sua tradução. Por outro lado, esta análise mostra quais são os tipos de dificuldades que se encontram quando se verte a filosofia de Weil na língua romena. Essas dificuldades prendem-se quer com a proximidade linguística entre o romeno e o francês (corre-se o risco de simplificação), quer com o estado (ainda) precário do vocabulário filosófico, quer com a ausência de algumas palavras (o que impõe a infeliz necessidade de recorrer a descrições)

The efficiency of refractive therapy in stopping low and medium degree myopia progression

Department of Ophthalmology, Nicolae Testemitsanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Chisinau, the Republic of MoldovaBackground: Myopia is one of the most common eye conditions. Myopia progression can lead to significant changes of the eyeballs resulting in irreversible loss of sight. Complicated Myopia is one of the main causes of invalidation as a result of ocular pathologies. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and optimize the treatment and prevention of acquired uncomplicated myopia progression by applying refractive therapy. Material and methods: The study included 80 patients (160 eyes) aged 7 to 19 years (mean 15.6 ± 4.1 years) with myopia of low and medium grade. All eyes were randomly divided into 2 groups of 80 each depending on the treatment, which in turn were divided depending on the degree of myopia and age. Patients of the main group applied refractive therapy, the control group - optical correction. Results: The modification of keratometry and pachimetry indices by decreasing the thickness and refractive power in the central and peripheral area of the cornea determines a bifocal optical zone, which allows a good view at close and far distances. This phenomenon creates optimal conditions for optimum vision, facilitates accommodation, normalizes the activity of the accommodation apparatus, thus slowing myopia progression. Refractive therapy showed a superior effect compared with optical correction by achieving a higher clinical effect, halting the progression of acquired uncomplicated myopia and increasing the quality of life. Conclusions: The mechanism of refractive therapy of stopping the progression of myopia is based on the formation of a bifocal optical zone that transforms the hyperopic defocus into a weak myopic one. The refractive therapy stops the progression of acquired uncomplicated myopia by limiting the growth of the eye’s anteroposteror axis. It was demonstrated that the selected efficacy depends on the degree of myopia and patient’s age

Application of chitosan functionalized with 3,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid moiety for on-line preconcentration and determination of trace elements in water samples

Chitosan resin functionalized with 3,4-dihydroxy benzoic acid (CCTS-DHBA resin) was used as a packing material for flow injection (FI) on-line mini-column preconcentration in combination with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) for the determination of trace elements such as silver, bismuth, copper, gallium, indium, molybdenum, nickel, uranium, and vanadium in environmental waters. A 5-mL aliquot of sample (pH 5.5) was introduced to the minicolumn for the adsorption/preconcentration of the metal ions, and the collected analytes on the mini-column were eluted with 2 M HNO3, and the eluates was subsequently transported via direct injection to the nebulizer of ICP-AES for quantification. The parameters affecting on the sensitivity, such as sample pH, sample flow rate, eluent concentration, and eluent flow rate, were carefully examined. Alkali and alkaline earth metal ions commonly existing in river water and seawater did not affect the analysis of metals. Under the optimum conditions, the method allowed the determination of metal ions with detection limits of 0.08 ng mL(-1) (Ag), 0.9 ng mL(-1) (Bi), 0.07 ng mL(-1) (Cu), 0.9 ng mL(-1) (Ga), 0.9 ng mL(-1) (In), 0.08 ng mL(-1) (Mo), 0.09 ng mL(-1) (Ni), 0.9 ng mL(-1) (U), and 0.08 ng mL(-1) (V). By using 5 mL of sample solution, the enrichment factor and collection efficiency were 8-12 fold and 96-102%, respectively, whereas the sample throughput was 7 samples/hour. The method was validated by determining metal ions in certified reference material of river water (SLRS-4) and nearshore seawater (CASS-4), and its applicability was further demonstrated to river water and seawater samples.</p

Scleral lenses in the management of different diseases (case studies)

Scleral lenses are large-diameter rigid gas permeable lenses. They can range from 14 mm to over 20 mm in diameter. Scleral lenses functionally replace the irregular cornea with a perfectly smooth optical surface to correct vision problems caused by keratoconus and other corneal irregularities. Aim: of the study is to demonstrate the benefit of the scleral lenses in the management of different diseases (case studies), based on the results provided by the subjective & objective findings and corneal topography where was possible. Method: The authors present clinical cases of 7 patients, aged between 25-59 years old, who came to the Medical Center "Oculus Prim" with different complaints as: gradual decrease of the visual acuity (VA) or other eye problems. In some cases at the corneal topography were detected different complex deformation of the cornea. Within the center were chosen chosen the suitable scleral lenses. Result: Several types of corneal abnormality as keratoconus, pellucid corneal degeneration, severe astigmatism, condition after CrossLinking, corneal dystrophy were managed successfully with modern scleral lenses. The main indication was optical correction of an irregular corneal surface. Satisfactory clinical performance meant that all the patients could continue to wear their scleral lenses. Conclusion: Scleral contact lens represents a promising alternative in contact lens treatment for corneal problems considered to be difficult to fit with more traditional rigid lenses