Introduction: Organizations currently emphasize green marketing strategies by implementing marketing practices, aiming to design, produce, promote and sell green products. Thus, both consumers and producers have turned their attention to the category of environmental friendly products, taking into account that the concept of green marketing is now being given greater importance. Responsible organizations have begun to adapt their strategies in production, promotion and interaction activities with consumers or potential consumers of organic products in the context we are going through, when environmental protection becomes an imperative. Analysis of the sustainable behavior of Generation Z is a determining factor from the perspective of the task that this generation will naturally take on, in terms of environmental responsibility.Methods: The research aims to determine the profile of the Generation Z consumer, in order to adapt the strategic actions of the government or organizations to direct and educate as objectively and efficiently as possible towards adopting the principles of ecological, sustainable and responsible consumption. Based on the data collected through a survey, we analyzed the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers studying at Romanian universities where there are specializations in this field. The research is quantitative, using structural equation modelling with partial least squares (PLSSEM) to test the hypotheses regarding the relationship between the determining factors and the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers.Results and Discussion: The results show that there is a positive relationship between both the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers and the satisfaction it conveys to them, as well as their environmental protection activities. However, there is no relationship between the sustainable behavior of Generation Z consumers and the green marketing practices of the organizations, environmental issues and their identification with the environmentally responsible consumer.

Surgical treatment of upper cervical spine tumors, whether they are vertebral, epidural, subdural or intramedullary, raises technical and decisional difficulties regarding the approach of the region as well as in maintaining its stability. The authors performed a retrospective study on C1, C2 spinal tumor pathology, managed surgically in the Spinal Surgery Department of Bagdasar Arseni Clinical Hospital, between January 2007 and December 2011. We included in the study 44 patients, operated for C1, C2 cervical spine tumors, 23 men and 21 women with ages between 13 and 71 years. The pathology included 24 C1-C2 vertebral tumors, 11 subdural tumors, 2 epidural tumors and 7 intramedullary tumors. Presenting symptoms were cervical pain, occipital neuralgia, medullary compression syndrome, and/or cranio-spinal junction instability. The purpose of surgery was to establish a histopathologic diagnosis and to decompress the neural elements by attempting a total tumor removal as well as to stabilize the cranio - cervical junction in order to improve the patient's quality of life. The approach was chosen based on tumor location, prognosis and the need for fixation. For 6 patients an anterior approach was used, for 31 pacients we used a posterior approach and 7 patients required a combined anterior and posterior approach. Neurological improvement was observed in 17 patients, with a mean increase of 8 points on ASIA scale, 7 patients worsened immediately postoperatively with a mean decrease of 10 points on ASIA scale, (2 patients died), and 20 patients without neurological deficits preoperatively remained unchanged. In all cases where the craniospinal junction instability was the cause of occipito-cervical pain we noted the disappearence of pain after surgery. The development of new surgical techniques and fixation systems paved the way to a successful treatment for these difficult tumors, some of them considered inoperable in the past.

European Union (EU) policy encourages the development of a blue economy (BE) by unlocking the full economic potential of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers and other water resources, especially in member countries in which it represents a low contribution to the national economy (under 1%). However, climate change represents a main barrier to fully realizing a BE. Enabling conditions that will support the sustainable development of a BE and increase its climate resiliency must be promoted. Romania has high potential to contribute to the development of the EU BE due to its geographic characteristics, namely the presence of the Danube Delta–Black Sea macrosystem, which is part of the Romanian Lower Danube Euroregion (RLDE). Aquatic living resources represent a sector which can significantly contribute to the growth of the BE in the RLDE, a situation which imposes restrictions for both halting biodiversity loss and maintaining the proper conditions to maximize the benefits of the existing macrosystem. It is known that climate change causes water quality problems, accentuates water level fluctuations and loss of biodiversity and induces the destruction of habitats, which eventually leads to fish stock depletion. This paper aims to develop an analytical framework based on multiple linear predictive and forecast models that offers cost-efficient tools for the monitoring and control of water quality, fish stock dynamics and biodiversity in order to strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of the BE of the RLDE in the context of climate change. The following water-dependent variables were considered: total nitrogen (TN); total phosphorus (TP); dissolved oxygen (DO); pH; water temperature (wt); and water level, all of which were measured based on a series of 26 physicochemical indicators associated with 4 sampling areas within the RLDE (Brăila, Galați, Tulcea and Sulina counties). Predictive models based on fish species catches associated with the Galati County Danube River Basin segment and the "Danube Delta” Biosphere Reserve Administration territory were included in the analytical framework to establish an efficient tool for monitoring fish stock dynamics and structures as well as identify methods of controlling fish biodiversity in the RLDE to enhance the sustainable development and resilience of the already-existing BE and its expansion (blue growth) in the context of aquatic environment climate variation. The study area reflects the integrated approach of the emerging BE, focused on the ocean, seas, lakes and rivers according to the United Nations Agenda. The results emphasized the vulnerability of the RLDE to climate change, a situation revealed by the water level, air temperature and water quality parameter trend lines and forecast models. Considering the sampling design applied within the RLDE, it can be stated that the Tulcea county Danube sector was less affected by climate change compared with the Galați county sector as confirmed by water TN and TP forecast analysis, which revealed higher increasing trends in Galați compared with Tulcea. The fish stock biodiversity was proven to be affected by global warming within the RLDE, since peaceful species had a higher upward trend compared with predatory species. Water level and air temperature forecasting analysis proved to be an important tool for climate change monitoring in the study area. The resulting analytical framework confirmed that time series methods could be used together with machine learning prediction methods to highlight their synergetic abilities for monitoring and predicting the impact of climate change on the marine living resources of the BE sector within the RLDE. The forecasting models developed in the present study were meant to be used as methods of revealing future information, making it possible for decision makers to adopt proper management solutions to prevent or limit the negative impacts of climate change on the BE. Through the identified independent variables, prediction models offer a solution for managing the dependent variables and the possibility of performing less cost-demanding aquatic environment monitoring activities.

In the context of new geopolitical tensions due to the current armed conflicts, safety in terms of navigation has been threatened due to the large number of sea mines placed, in particular, within the sea conflict areas. Additionally, since a large number of mines have recently been reported to have drifted into the territories of the Black Sea countries such as Romania, Bulgaria Georgia and Turkey, which have intense commercial and tourism activities in their coastal areas, the safety of those economic activities is threatened by possible accidents that may occur due to the above-mentioned situation. The use of deep learning in a military operation is widespread, especially for combating drones and other killer robots. Therefore, the present research addresses the detection of floating and underwater sea mines using images recorded from cameras (taken from drones, submarines, ships and boats). Due to the low number of sea mine images, the current research used both an augmentation technique and synthetic image generation (by overlapping images with different types of mines over water backgrounds), and two datasets were built (for floating mines and for underwater mines). Three deep learning models, respectively, YOLOv5, SSD and EfficientDet (YOLOv5 and SSD for floating mines and YOLOv5 and EfficientDet for underwater mines), were trained and compared. In the context of using three algorithm models, YOLO, SSD and EfficientDet, the new generated system revealed high accuracy in object recognition, namely the detection of floating and anchored mines. Moreover, tests carried out on portable computing equipment, such as Raspberry Pi, illustrated the possibility of including such an application for real-time scenarios, with the time of 2 s per frame being improved if devices use high-performance cameras.

Tongue localization of squamous cell carcinomas is one of the most common sites of intraoral carcinomas, representing nearly 40% of these. The most frequent localization of the tumor is on the posterior lateral border and the ventral surface of the tongue. Recent papers have mentioned an ascendant trend in the incidence of tongue carcinoma in young adults. Early detection of the tongue carcinoma is mandatory because the prognosis of the patient depends on the early diagnostic. The aim of the paper is to analyze the use of lugol iodine solution staining in early diagnostic of tongue carcinoma. The authors propose a protocol for using lugol iodine solution in the screening of tongue carcinoma.