The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening in the absence of a national screening program using the resources provided by the Romanian healthcare system. Study participants were recruited from adult patients (over 18 years old) registered with a general practitioner from an urban area over a period of 3 years (October 2019 to September 2022). Patients were recruited when they came for a consult at their family physician’s office. The study excluded patients with a medical history of colorectal cancer. Written consent was obtained from the patients who agreed to participate. Patients who agreed to participate were recommended to undergo a fecal occult blood test (FOBT). For those with a positive FOBT result, a colonoscopy was recommended. The study identified a need and willingness of patients to participate in CRC screening when they were informed about it, especially when it involved a noninvasive test such as FOB. We did not anticipate the refusal to perform FOBT in the public healthcare system because the recommendation was made by a GP. We identified a deficit of specialists that can perform colonoscopies in the public healthcare system, insufficient health education, and a lack of dedicated pathways for screening.

This study aims to assess the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on a population enrolled in a pilot colorectal screening program started by a family doctor in Romania. This observational retrospective study was spread over 43 months, respectively, from October 2019 to April 2023, and included 169 patients. The primary objective was to compare the pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods to observe significant changes. The secondary objective was to study the correlation between vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 and participation in the study, especially in the age range class of interest—50–74 years. These data are important because Romanian Healthcare policymakers can use them to estimate the participation rate in a future national colorectal cancer screening and how to adjust and facilitate their communications with the targeted population. The rise of COVID-19 significantly negatively impacted the number of patients adhering to the pilot colorectal cancer screening and the number of test results during the pandemic period. However, in the post-pandemic period, the number of patients who joined the study, and the number of fecal occult blood tests was greater than expected (128.74%). We observed that screening participation was associated with vaccination (78.11% of patients had a complete COVID-19 vaccine scheme).

In the last years the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed several programs that support the creation of small satellites, called CubeSats, by different universities from within the member states. Because of their limited size, those satellites can pack, at most, very small attitude control devices which can generate only some limited torque. It is thus important for the designers to be able to estimate the effects of environmental torques on the attitude of their satellites in order to either correctly select the best suitable attitude control equipment or to harvest the effects of external torques in their favor. This paper presents a software package that can estimate the effect of the environmental torques on the attitude of a CubeSat in Earth's orbit.

Apache Kafka is a distributed event streaming platform used by thousands of companies worldwide for online data exchange. The system accepts any type of data, and this means that it can be used for varied types of applications. This paper presents an application that allows the user to send or receive different messages via Apache Kafka, either immediately or based on a schedule, using a Javascript-like language for programming.

This study aims to develop a scoring method that can be used by primary care physicians from remote areas or resource-limited settings to estimate the need for fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) as a first step in colorectal cancer screening. This method relies on several modifiable risk factors that can influence a positive FOBT, an indication of the presence of colorectal polyps, or even colorectal cancer. The scoring method considers, besides the age and gender of the patient, the body mass index (BMI), smoking status, and the diagnoses of diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes), dyslipidemia, and hypertension. It does not need any paraclinical exams, which is an advantage when access or material resources are limited. The retrospective study was spread over forty-three months, respectively, from October 2019 to April 2023, and included 112 patients. The score that we designed is a numerical value between 0 and 7. The values between 0 and 3 represent a smaller risk of a positive FOBT (9.68%), values 4 and 5 represent a medium risk (14.75%), while values 6 and 7 represent a greater risk (40%). Using this score, a physician can determine if a patient has a greater risk and recommend it to prioritize taking a FOB test.

Background/Objectives: Romania faces a shortage of family physicians, particularly in rural areas. Undergraduate Family Medicine rotations may influence students’ perceptions before residency selection, but the contribution of rural versus urban training settings remains insufficiently documented. This study examined differences between post-rotation perceptions and students’ recalled pre-rotation perceptions, and explored whether these differences varied according to placement setting. Methods: This single-centre study used a single-administration retrospective pretest–posttest observational design. After completing the mandatory one-month Family Medicine rotation, 141 sixth-year medical students completed a questionnaire containing recalled pre-rotation and post-rotation ratings on 12 five-point Likert items. Paired comparisons used Wilcoxon signed-rank tests; multiple-testing corrections were applied within the defined item families. A baseline-adjusted model with robust standard errors examined rural placement. Results: The composite score increased from 3.62 ± 0.84 to 4.10 ± 0.74 (mean change 0.483; W = 602.5; Z = −7.990; p < 0.001; r = 0.673). All 12 paired item comparisons remained significant after Bonferroni correction. No rural–urban item comparison remained significant after correction. In the adjusted model, rural placement was not associated with a statistically significant difference in the post-rotation score (β = 0.197, 95% CI −0.002 to 0.397; p = 0.053). Among the 86 rurally exposed students, the mean willingness to practice rurally was 2.87/5. The apparent association with career intention was not retained when excluding the overlapping career-likelihood item (11-item composite: H = 6.695, p = 0.153). Conclusions: Students reported more favourable perceptions after the rotation than they recalled having before it, but their willingness to practice rurally remained limited. The uncontrolled, retrospective design does not permit causal attribution, and the data do not establish a rural-placement advantage or subsequent specialty choice.