Severe meconium aspiration sy ndrome (MAS) in newborns is often treated by exogenous surfac tant. Because its efficacy is reduced by meconium-induced inflammation, glucocorticoid budesonide was added into surfac tant preparation Curosurf to enhance efficacy of the surfactant therapy in experimental model of MAS. Oxygen-ventilated rabbits were intratracheally given meconium (25 mg/ml, 4 ml/kg) to induce respiratory failure. Thirty minutes later, animals were treated by intratracheal budesonide (0.25 mg/kg) ; or surfactant lung lavage (10 ml/kg, 5 mg phospholipids/ml) repeated twice, followed by undiluted Curosurf (100 mg phospholipids/kg) ; or by the above mentioned surfactant treatment with the last surfactant dose fortified with budesonide (0.25 mg/kg) ; or were untreated. Animals were ventilated for additional 5 hours and respiratory parameters were measured regularly. After sacrificing animals, wet-dry lung weight ratio was evaluated and plasma levels of interleukins (IL)-1beta, -6, -8, and TNF-alpha were measured by ELISA method. Efficacy of the given therapies to enhance lung functions and to diminish lung edema formation and in flammation increased from budesonide-only and surf actant-only therapy to surfactant+budesonide therapy. Combined therapy improved gas exchange from 30 min of administration, and showed a longer- lasting effect than surfactant-only therapy. In conclusions, budesonide additionally improv ed the effects of exogenous surfactant in experimental MAS., P. Mikolka ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Soil erosion decreases soil fertility of the uplands and causes siltation of lakes and reservoirs; the lakes and reservoirs in tropical monsoonal African highlands are especially affected by sedimentation. Efforts in reducing loads by designing management practices are hampered by lack of quantitative data on the relationship of erosion in the watersheds and sediment accumulation on flood plains, lakes and reservoirs. The objective of this study is to develop a prototype quantitative method for estimating sediment budget for tropical monsoon lakes with limited observational data. Four watersheds in the Lake Tana basin were selected for this study. The Parameter Efficient Distributed (PED) model that has shown to perform well in the Ethiopian highlands is used to overcome the data limitations and recreate the missing sediment fluxes. PED model parameters are calibrated using daily discharge data and the occasionally collected sediment concentration when establishing the sediment rating curves for the major rivers. The calibrated model parameters are then used to predict the sediment budget for the 1994–2009 period. Sediment retained in the lake is determined from two bathymetric surveys taken 20 years apart whereas the sediment leaving the lake is calculated based on measured discharge and observed sediment concentrations. Results show that annually on average 34 t/ha/year of sediment is removed from the gauged part of the Lake Tana watersheds. Depending on the up-scaling method from the gauged to the ungauged part, 21 to 32 t/ha/year (equivalent to 24–38 Mt/year) is transported from the upland watersheds of which 46% to 65% is retained in the flood plains and 93% to 96% is trapped on the flood plains and in the lake. Thus, only 4–7% of all sediment produced in the watersheds leaves the Lake Tana Basin.
Researchers at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) near Geneva have started to seriously discuss the need for a new large accelerator for future generations of particle physicists. The most likely scenario seems to be a collider built in the Geneva area with a circumference of 80 or 100 km in which protons would collide (as is the case of the existing Large Hadron Collider at CERN). Other options are also being considered, such as the electron-positron collider which would precede the proton machine or electron-proton collider. The main scientific motivation is to find signals of new physics (i.e. those not predicted by the Standard Model of elementary particles) and/or to measure properties of the recently discovered Higgs boson with much higher precision than that foreseen to be achieved by the end of LHC in about 20 years. A sufficiently fast development of various technologies is the key to this new powerful accelerator. For the proton machine, the main components are magnets with high magnetic field that are expected to be built based on high-temperature superconducting materials, while the lepton machine needs a new generation of accelerating cavities with a high gradient of electric field, high power transfer efficiency and high reliability., Marek Taševský., and Obsahuje seznam literatury