Introduction. Over the last few years, lower limb amputations have represented a prevalent worldwide burden in the evolution of diabetic patients, but at what extent this burden affects the Roma population compared to Caucasians in Romania still needs further comprehension.Aim. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of lower extremities amputations in a Roma population, compared to a Caucasian population, in the presence of diabetes mellitus (DM), as well as to identify the risk factors associated.Materials and methods. We included 536 patients, of whom 257 Roma subjects and 279 Romanian Caucasians, with the following socio-demographic status: the Roma group included 123 women (48.1%) and 134 men (51.9%), aged between 18 and 86 years, while the Caucasian group registered 107 women (47.9%) and 172 men (61.6%), aged between 18 and 89 years.Results. Analyzing the whole group, the prevalence of amputations was 5% (n=27). A greater proportion of amputations was found in Romanian Caucasians (n=21, 7.5%), where there were 17 men (9.9%) and 4 women (3.7%) affected, compared to the Roma population (n=6, 2.3%), where all amputations occurred in men. Noticeably, this complication is more predominantly afflicting men.Conclusions. Non-traumatic lower extremity amputation remains a challenge today in the care of diabetic patients. In our study, higher rates of amputations were observed in Romanian Caucasians, in comparison with the Roma population. Apart from this, this condition was accompanied by many cardiovascular risk factors.
The properties of newly synthesized Cu2O/CuO-decorated TiO2/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites (NC) were analyzed aiming to obtain insight into their photocatalytic behavior and their various applications, including water remediation, self-cleaning surfaces, antibacterial materials, and electrochemical sensors. The physico-chemical methods of research were photoluminescence (PL), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). The solid samples evidenced an EPR signal that can be attributed to the oxygen-vacancy defects and copper ions in correlation with PL results. Free radicals generated before and after UV-Vis irradiation of powders and aqueous dispersions of Cu2O/CuO-decorated TiO2/GO nanocomposites were studied by EPR spectroscopy using two spin traps, DMPO (5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide) and CPH (1-hydroxy-3-carboxy-2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolidine), to highlight the formation of hydroxyl and superoxide reactive oxygen species, respectively. The electrochemical characterization of the NC modified carbon-paste electrodes (CPE) was carried out by CV and DPV. As such, modified carbon-paste electrodes were prepared by mixing carbon paste with copper oxides-decorated TiO2/GO nanocomposites. We have shown that GO reduces the recombination process in TiO2 by immediate electron transfer from excited TiO2 to GO sheets. The results suggest that differences in the PL, respectively, EPR data and electrochemical behavior, are due to the different copper oxides and GO content, presenting new perspectives of materials functionalization.
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