This comparative study of various surface treatments of commercially available implant materials is intended as guidance for orientation among particular surface treatment methods in term of the cell reaction of normal human osteoblasts and blood coagulation. The influence of physicochemical surface parameters such as roughness, surface free energy and wettability on the response of human osteoblasts in the immediate vicinity of implants and on the blood co agulation was studied. The osteoblast proliferation was monitored and the expression of tissue mediators (TNF-α , IL-8, MMP-1, bone alkaline phosphatase, VCAM-1, TGF-β ) was evaluated after the cell cultivation onto a wide range of commercially available materials (titanium and Ti6Al4V alloy with various surface treatments, CrCoMo alloy, zirconium oxide ceramics, polyethylene and carbon/carbon composite). The formation of a blood clot was investigated on the samples immersed in a freshly drawn whole rabbit blood using scanning electron microscope. The surfaces with an increased osteoblast proliferation exhibited particularly higher surface roughness (here Ra > 3.5 μm) followed by a high polar part of the surface free energy whereas the effect of wettability played a minor role. The surface roughness was also the main factor regulating the blood coagulation. The blood clot formation analys is showed a rapid coag ulum formation on the rough titanium-based surfaces. The titanium with an etching treatment was considered as th e most suitable candidate for healing into the bone tissue due to high osteoblast proliferation, the highest production of osteogenesis markers and low production of inflammatory cytokines and due to the most intensive blood clot formation., D. Kubies ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) are used in the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG). We investigated the effects of AChEIs on peripheral nicotinic receptors (nAChR), which play a crucial role in the treatment of MG symptoms. The positive modulation of those receptors by AChE inhibitors could have an added value to the anti-AChE activity and might be useful in the therapy of MG. Furthermore, to estimate the potential drawbacks of the compounds, cytotoxicity has been assessed on various cell lines. The whole-cell mode of the patch-clamp method was employed. The experiments were performed on medulloblastoma/rhabdomyosarcoma cell line TE671 expressing human embryonic muscle-like receptor with subunits α2βγδ. The effect of the compounds on cell viability was measured by standard MTT assay (Sigma Aldrich) on ACHN (renal cell adenocarcinoma), HeLa (immortal cell line derived from a cervical carcinoma), HEPG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma) and BJ (skin fibroblasts) cell lines. No positive modulation by the tested AChE inhibitors was observed. Moreover, the compounds exhibited antagonistic activity on the peripheral nAChR. Standard drugs used in MG treatment were shown to be less potent inhibitors of muscle-type nAChR than the newly synthesized compounds. The new compounds showed very little effect on cell viability, and toxicities were comparable to standards. Newly synthesized AChEIs inhibited peripheral nAChR. Furthermore, the inhibition was higher than that of standards used for the treatment of MG. They could be used for the study of nAChR function, thanks to their high antagonizing potency and fast recovery of receptor activity after their removal. However, since no positive modulation was observed, the new compounds do not seem to be promising candidates for MG treatment, even though their cytotoxic effect was relatively low., V. Sepsova, J. Krusek, J. Zdarova Karasova, F. Zemek, K. Musilek, K. Kuca, O. Soukup., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Fully exposed, senescing leaves of Cornus sanguinea and Parthenocissus quinquefolia display during autumn considerable variation in both anthocyanin and chlorophyll (Chl) concentrations. They were used in this study to test the hypothesis that anthocyanins may have a photoprotective function against photosystem II (PSII) photoinhibitory damage. The hypothesis could not be confirmed with field sampled leaves since maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) of PSII was negatively correlated to anthocyanin concentration and the possible effects of anthocyanins were also confounded by a decrease in Fv/Fm with Chl loss. However, after short-term laboratory photoinhibitory trials, the percent decrease of Fv/Fm was independent of Chl concentration. In this case, a slight alleviation of PSII damage with increasing anthocyanins was observed in P. quinquefolia, while a similar trend in C. sanguinea was not statistically significant. It is inferred that the assumed photoprotection, if addressed to PSII, may be of limited advantage and only under adverse environmental conditions. and Y. Manetas, C. Buschmann.
Phylogeny of seven groups of metazoan parasitic groups is reviewed, based on both morphological and molecular data. The Myxozoa (=Malacosporea + Myxosporea) are most probably related to the egg-parasitic cnidarian Polypodium (Hydrozoa?: Polypodiozoa); the other phylogenetic hypotheses are discussed and the possible non-monophyly of the Cnidaria (with the Polypodiozoa-Myxozoa clade closest to the Triploblastica) is suggested. The Mesozoa is a monophyletic group, possibly closely related to the (monophyletic) Acoelomorpha; whether the Acoelomorpha and Mesozoa represent the basalmost triploblast clade(s) or a derived platyhelminth subclade may depend on rooting the tree of the Triploblastica. Position of the monophyletic Neodermata (=Trematoda + Cercomeromorpha) within the rhabditophoran flatworms is discussed, with two major alternative hypotheses about the neodermatan sister-group relationships (viz., the "neoophoran" and "revertospermatan"). The Myzostomida are not annelids but belong among the Platyzoa, possibly to the clade of animals with anterior sperm flagella (=Prosomastigozoa). The Acanthocephala represent derived syndermates ("rotifers"), possibly related to Seison (the name Pararotatoria comb. n. is proposed for Seisonida + Acanthocephala). The crustacean origin of the Pentastomida based on spermatological and molecular evidence (Pentastomida + Branchiura = Ichthyostraca) is confronted with palaeontological views favouring the pre-arthropod derivation of the pentastomids. Phylogenetic position of the nematodes within the Ecdysozoa and evolution of nematode parasitism are discussed, and the lack of relevant information about the enigmatic ectoproctan parasite Buddenbrockia is emphasised.
Under certain conditions the isolated reaction centre (RC) of photosystem 2 (PS 2) ís highly vulnerahle to photoinduced damage. With no added secondary electron acceptors or donors tíďs damage is due to singlet oxygen generated by the P680 triplet. This triplet is formed by recombination of the radical pair PóSO+Pheo' and Ihe photoinduced damage only occurs under aerobic conditions. When an electron acceptor is present, the degradation of pigments and the Dl and D2 proteins is due to formation of P680+ and secondary oxidation processes. Under the latter but not the former condition, characteristic pattems of degradation firagments of the Dl and D2 proteins are observed. In particular 24 and 17 kDa breakdown firagments of Dl are obtained while the D2 protein yields firagments having molecular masses of 29 and 21 kDa. Experiments involving the use of antibodies, radiophosphate and speciííc proteolytic digestion indicate that all four firagments contain the C-terminal portions of their mature proteins. These findings indicate that the proteolytic cleavage sites are positioned on the lumenal side of the membrane, particularly in the region spanning transmembrane helices I and II. Related studies on the 24 lď)a Dl protein fragment generated in vivo using Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by photoinhibitory treatment give the same conclusion for this firagment. Such a conclusion seems to contrast with the previous suggestion that the initial cleavage of Dl protein associated with its degradatíon and tumover occurs on the outer side of membrane in the region spanning transmembrane helices IV and V.
This paper reflects on the different faces of asset-based welfare from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective. It shows that asset-based welfare can be perceived as a lever for welfare state restructuring but also as an instrument for poverty eradication. In most countries, asset-based welfare policies focus on stimulating home-ownership. The general idea is that by becoming a homeowner, households build up equity that can be released for care and pension purposes in old age. However, there are signs that such policies increase inequality between homeowners (depending on the location of the dwelling and/or the period in which it was bought), but particularly so between homeowners and tenants. We therefore contend that home-ownership based welfare policies need a clear and fundamental specification of the role of the government: how to deal with housing market risks and how to prevent politically unacceptable levels of inequality and exclusion?
River runoff and sediment transport are two related random hydrologic variables. The traditional statistical analysis method usually requires those two variables to be linearly correlated, and also have an identical marginal distribution. Therefore, it is difficult to know exactly the characteristics of the runoff and sediment in reality. For this reason, copulas are applied to construct the joint probability distribution of runoff and sediment in this article. The risk of synchronous-asynchronous encounter probability of annual rich-poor runoff and sediment is also studied. At last, the characteristics of annual runoff and sediment with multi-time scales in its joint probability distribution space are simulated by empirical mode decomposition method. The results show that the copula function can simulate the joint probability distribution of runoff and sediment of Huaxia hydrological station in Weihe River well, and that such joint probability distribution has very complex change characteristics at time scales.
This paper develops an account of judge-dependence, conceived of as a generalization of the better known notion of response-dependence. It then solves a number of problems for the view that aesthetic judgements are judge-dependent in this sense. Finally, a parallel case for the judge-dependence of moral judgement is assessed.