Romanian Academy

About: Romanian Academy is a archive organization based out in Bucharest, Romania. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Nonlinear system. The organization has 3662 authors who have published 10491 publications receiving 146447 citations. The organization is also known as: Academia Română & Societatea Literară Română.

Towards FAIR nanosafety data

Abstract: Nanotechnology is a key enabling technology with billions of euros in global investment from public funding, which include large collaborative projects that have investigated environmental and health safety aspects of nanomaterials, but the reuse of accumulated data is clearly lagging behind. Here we summarize challenges and provide recommendations for the efficient reuse of nanosafety data, in line with the recently established FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) guiding principles. We describe the FAIR-aligned Nanosafety Data Interface, with an aggregated findability, accessibility and interoperability across physicochemical, bio–nano interaction, human toxicity, omics, ecotoxicological and exposure data. Overall, we illustrate a much-needed path towards standards for the optimized use of existing data, which avoids duplication of efforts, and provides a multitude of options to promote safe and sustainable nanotechnology. The proposal of a FAIR-aligned Nanosafety Data Interface can advance findability, accessibility and interoperability across physicochemical, bio–nano interaction, human toxicity, omics, ecotoxicological and exposure data.

Comparative Analysis of the Composition and Active Property Evaluation of Certain Essential Oils to Assess their Potential Applications in Active Food Packaging

Abstract: The antifungal, antibacterial, and antioxidant activity of four commercial essential oils (EOs) (thyme, clove, rosemary, and tea tree) from Romanian production were studied in order to assess them as bioactive compounds for active food packaging applications. The chemical composition of the oils was determined with the Folin–Ciocâlteu method and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry and flame ionization detectors, and it was found that they respect the AFNOR/ISO standard limits. The EOs were tested against three food spoilage fungi—Fusarium graminearum, Penicillium corylophilum, and Aspergillus brasiliensis—and three potential pathogenic food bacteria—Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes—using the disc diffusion method. It was found that the EOs of thyme, clove, and tea tree can be used as antimicrobial agents against the tested fungi and bacteria, thyme having the highest inhibitory effect. Concerning antioxidant activity determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2’-azino-bis 3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) methods, it has been established that the clove oil exhibits the highest activity because of its high phenolic content. Promising results were obtained by their incorporation into chitosan emulsions and films, which show potential for food packaging. Therefore, these essential oils could be suitable alternatives to chemical additives, satisfying the consumer demand for naturally preserved food products ensuring its safety.

Rapid microfluidic immunoassays of cancer biomarker proteins using disposable inkjet-printed gold nanoparticle arrays.

Abstract: Conventional protein detection methods such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) often take many hours to complete and usually only apply to one protein at a time. More rapid, multiplexed methods are needed for point-of-care (POC) and surgical applications in future personalized cancer diagnostics and therapy. This paper describes a low-cost inkjet-printed gold nanoparticle (AuNP) sensor chip integrated into a simple microfluidic immunoarray to achieve detection of two cancer biomarker proteins in 5 μL samples in 8 min. Magnetic beads of 1 μm diameter derivatized with ∼300 000 enzyme labels and thousands of antibodies were used to capture the biomarker proteins from samples. The beads with captured proteins are then injected into the microfluidic system and captured by antibodies on nanostructured sensor elements to provide high sensitivity and ultralow detection limits (DL). For assay times of 45 mins, DLs were 78 fg mL−1 for interleukin-6 (IL-6) and 19 fg mL−1 for interleukin-8 (IL-8). Decreasing assay time to 8 min provided clinically relevant DLs of 5 pg mL−1. Accuracy was demonstrated by determining IL-6 and IL-8 in conditioned media from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells and comparing results to those from standard single-protein ELISAs. Results suggest that this device can be employed for rapid detection of a wide range of disease-related proteins in clinical applications.

Berezin-Toeplitz quantization on Kaehler manifolds

Abstract: We study the Berezin-Toeplitz quantization on Kaehler manifolds. We explain first how to compute various associated asymptotic expansions, then we compute explicitly the first terms of the expansion of the kernel of the Berezin-Toeplitz operators, and of the composition of two Berezin-Toeplitz operators. As application we estimate the norm of Donaldson's Q-operator.

The h-spacing distribution between Farey points

Abstract: Let I = [α, β] be a subinterval of [0, 1]. For each positive integer Q , we denote by [Fscr ] I ( Q ) the set of Farey fractions of order Q from I , that is and order increasingly its elements γ j = a j / q j as α [les ] γ 1 2 < … < γ N I ( Q ) [les ] β. The number of elements of [Fscr ] I ( Q ) is We simply let [Fscr ]( Q ) = [Fscr ] [0,1] ( Q ), N ( Q ) = N [0,1] ( Q ). Farey sequences have been studied for a long time, mainly because of their role in problems related to diophantine approximation. There is also a connection with the Riemann zeta function which has motivated their study. Farey sequences seem to be distributed as uniformly as possible along [0, 1]; a way to prove it is to show that for all e > 0, as Q → ∞. Yet this is a very strong statement, as Franel and Landau [ 3 , 4 ] have shown that (1·3) is equivalent to the Riemann Hypothesis. Our object here is to investigate the distribution of spacings between Farey points in subintervals of [0, 1]. Various results related to this problem have been obtained by [ 2 , 3 , 5–8 , 10–13 ].