The aim of our study was to investigate adrenocortical function in the context of disease activity and inflammatory status in premenopausal RA females. Adrenal glucocorticoid and androgen responses to the 1 μg ACTH 1-24 test were investigated in 23 premenopausal RA and in 15 age- and BMI-matched healthy females. Twelve RA patients were on low-dose prednisone (<8.5 mg/day). Patients with DAS28>3.2 had lower (p<0.05) total plasma cortisol, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and androstenedione responses in the ACTH test compared to healthy controls. Patients with DAS28>3.2 had lower (p<0.05) dehydroepiandrosterone response in the ACTH test compared to patients with DAS28≤3.2. C-reactive protein (CRP), DAS28, and interleukin (IL)-6 negatively correlated with androstenedione response to ACTH 1-24. Responses of all measured adrenal steroids were lower (p<0.05) in patients on low-dose glucocorticoids compared to healthy controls. RA patients not treated with glucocorticoids had lower total cortisol response (p=0.038) but did not differ in free plasma cortisol in the ACTH test. The results indicate an association of increased disease activity with a decrease in adrenal androgen production in RA and normal cortisol bioavailability in patients not treated with glucocorticoids., R. Imrich, M. Vlcek, J. Kerlik, M. Vogeser, F. Kirchhoff, A. Penesova, Z. Radikova, J. Lukac, J. Rovensky., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Winter season temperatures are becoming warmer. However, the transformation of the ice regime on the Vistula River in Toruń has also been affected by river engineering. In particular, the construction and operation of the Włocławek Dam had a significant impact on ice processes. The article presents the results of an analysis determining the contribution of natural and anthropogenic factors to the duration of ice phenomena and ice cover on the Vistula River in the city of Toruń. Compared to the end of the nineteenth century, there has been a reduction in the duration of ice phenomena from 88 to 53 days and of ice cover from 40 to 7 days (in the period of 1882-2011). The article compares the duration of ice cover and winter temperature in three different periods: before the completion of river engineering works (1882-1907); for the controlled river (1908-1969), and for the controlled river with the Włocławek Dam upstream of Toruń (1970-2011). The results showed a significant role of these anthropogenic factors in the changes of the ice cover duration on the Vistula River in Toruń.
The objective of this work is the chemometric quantification of minerals in rocks. A chemometric method was developed for the determination of chlorite, muscovite, albite and quartz in claystones and clay shales using infrared spectroscopy. Bromide pellets and diffuse reflectance were used to measure the infrared spectra; principa l component analysis and partial least-squares regression were used as chemometric methods. Spectral regions (4000-3000 cm-1 and 1300-400 cm-1) containing important spectral information were chosen by principal compone nt analysis. The calibration models were created by a partial least-squares regression. The mean relative error and relative standard deviation were calculated for the assessment of accuracy and reproducibility. The value of the mean relative error was about 10 % for most of the calibration models. The value of the relative standard deviation ranged from 1.1 to 3.0 % for most calibration models based on diffuse reflectance spectra and from 4.0 to 9.2 % for most calibration models based on spectra obtained with bromide pellets., Michal Ritz, Lenka Vaculíková, Eva Plevová, Dalibor Matýsek and Jiří Mališ., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Paper deals with sediments settled in the Elbe reservoir Les Království (King´s Forest) between 1914 and 2005. This reservoir is laid on upper Elbe closing the mountain watershed of Krkonoše (Giant Mountains) with the source of the river. To this profile, watershed can be taken as mountain and foothill area. The sediments, before approximately 1950, were non-polluted by heavy metals and specific organic matter because of the undisturbed natural environment. After that time, the conditions of sedimentation became worse. With the industrial boom and ploughing of the grazing land away there, the amount of sediments settled in the reservoir increased much times and high pollution appeared. To this point, the badly treated sewage waters and washing outs of the soil with pesticides and herbicides from the new high-sloped cropland contributed for many years. With this, the amount of sediments increased up to 21 % of the total volume of the reservoir, i.e., approximately, to 2 mil. m3 . It was decided in 1984 that the sediments have to be removed from reservoir. Up to this time, the quality of sediments was followed in the surface layers only and this quality was applied to all layers of sediments. Thus the wrong idea appeared that all sediments are polluted. On the contrary, the authors suppose that the old layers are not polluted and, in the case of cleaning of the reservoir, these need not be stored in a protected dump. Differentiating the sediments to polluted and non-polluted would bring a considerable increase in economy of cleaning. Thus the authors looked for a method to distinguish the sediment components one another. Among others, the method of the radar search of sediments appeared to be promising enough to describe the sediment layers from the actual bottom down to the original bedrock. To this aim, a new radar antenna working in two regimes was applied. In shallow parts of the reservoir, it was towed in cross profiles on water surface while in the deep ones it was moved along the bottom escorted by a diver. Using this, we were able to distinguish 5 components of sediment (i.e. the non-consolidated and cohesive sediment, the sandy loam, sandy silt and the gravel), to fix their positions and to estimate, in accordance to their apparent grain distribution, if they could be polluted or not. Moreover the mathematical method just presented here was worked out to compute volumes of different sediment components directly from radar signals. This method enables to compute the sediment volumes in relatively straight parts of the valley and the meandering ones., Thus the authors have presented a method enabling the estimate of component volumes on one side and to fix their positions to take samples for quality analyses on the other side., and Příspěvek se zabývá sedimenty usazenými v labské nádrži Les Království v období od r. 1914 do současnosti. Nádrž byla vybudovaná na horním Labi a prakticky uzavírá horskou a podhorskou část povodí, v němž je i pramen Labe. Sedimenty usazené v nádrži řekněme do r. 1950 nevykazují znečistění ani těžkými kovy, ani specifickými organickými látkami. Potom se však podmínky sedimentace zhoršily. S tehdejší extensivní industrializací a rozšířením rostlinné výroby i na svažité pozemky dřívějších luk a pastvin došlo k masivnímu zvýšení množství sedimentů přinesených do nádrže a podstatně se zhoršila jejich kvalita díky špatně čištěným odpadním vodám a intenzivnímu užívání chemie s pesticidy a herbicidy na nových velmi svažitých polích. Do r. 1984 stoupl pak objem sedimentů na cca 21 % objemu nádrže, tj. na téměř 2 mil. m3 . Až donedávna se uskutečňovaly kvalitativní analýzy pouze v povrchových vrstvách sedimentů a tak vznikl chybný názor, že celý objem sedimentů je silně znečistěný. Naproti tomu autoři předpokládají, že sedimenty usazené před r. 1950 nejsou znečistěné a nemusí být uloženy na zajištěné skládky. Rozlišení sedimentů na znečištěné a neznečištěné povede k velkým úsporám při čistění nádrže. K tomu cíli autoři hledali vhodnou metodu. Byla zvolena geofyzikální metoda radarového průzkumu dna, která může rozlišit jednotlivé složky sedimentů od jejich současné úrovně až po skalní podklad. K tomu byla použita radarová anténa pracující ve dvou režimech, a to tažením po hladině v malých hloubkách nádrže a tažením po dně za doprovodu potápěče ve větších hloubkách. Touto metodou jsme rozlišili 5 složek sedimentů (tj. nezpevněný sediment, kohesivní sediment, písčité hlíny, písčité bahno a štěrk), zjistili polohu vrstev a následně podle jejich granulometrie mohli odhadnout, jestli mohou obsahovat význačné znečištění. Tyto výsledky byly porovnány se všemi dosažitelnými kvalitativními analýzami a s jejich využitím jsme mohli rozlišit, které vrstvy je při čistění nádrže nutno uložit na zajištěnou skládku a které je možno využít jako výplňový materiál při zemních pracích. Tímto rozlišením je možno ušetřit značné náklady při čistění nádrže.
It is the objective of this thesis to take into account thermal balance of circulating fluidised bed combustors (CFBC), aiming at efficiency assessment, as regards standards, CSN 07 0302, and DIN 1942. It points to differences between calculations along these two different standards, concerning the solution of problems like different comparative temperatures, to which the calculation of physical losses is related to, varying calculation of mean thermal capacity, or problem of electrical motors input. This article is based on the project GA 617 50 11 solving - "Combine combustion of coal and biomass in fluid boilers"., Zdeněk Kadlec, Bohumir Čech and Jan Matoušek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
EU Emission Trading Scheme, which is applied in EU Member States to decrease CO 2 emissions, requires accurate, reliable, comparable and transparent methodology for monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions. Existing Monitoring and Reporting Guidelines provides operators only with general and undetailed instructions. This paper should provide the plant operators with guidance for a better understanding, interpretation and mastering of the methods of monitoring and reporting CO2 emissions for the purposes of emission trading. This paper is focused on experimental determination of emission and oxidation factors of solid fuels and on calculation of emission factors of gaseous fuels from their composition., Pavel Fott, František Kolář and Dušan Vácha., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Increased homocysteine levels in serum are typical features of neurodegenerative brain diseases including hydrocephalus. The most frequent therapeutic approach consists of the insertion of a shunt, connecting the brain ventricles to an alternative drainage site. To decide whether the patient should undergo this, the lumbar drainage test is usually carried out to distinguish patients who can benefit from the shunt insertion. In searching for other potential biochemical markers for shunt indication we determined homocysteine levels in CSF during the lumbar drainage test. Homocysteine in CSF was measured during the 5-day lumbar drainage test in 27 patients with normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) and in 25 patients with excluded hydrocephalus. A novelized gas chromatography method with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) was developed and evaluated. During the first two days of lumbar drainage, the levels of CSF homocysteine in NPH patients were significantly higher compared to the controls, while on the fifth day, the homocysteine levels in patients with hydrocephalus reached the level of controls. Determination of CSF homocysteine in patients with confirmed or suspected hydrocephalus may serve as an independent marker for deciding on their further treatment strategy., L. Sosvorová, J. Bešťák, M. Bičíková, M. Mohapl, M. Hill, J. Kubárová, R. Hampl., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The process of sedimentation and subsequent gravity compression of kaolin and water suspensions was investigated experimentally. 45 batch tests were carried out and the time dependence of the height of the suspension column was measured. The one-dimensional equations of Darcian mechanics of two-phase porous media are applied to formulate the studied process mathematically. A very natural assumption makes it possible to find a solution of the forward problem for a starting period of the process. Analysis of the theoretical function and the experimental data gives hydraulic conductivity as a function of the suspension concentration. The obtained results are presented and discussed.
The mathematical model and algorithms for calculating the position of GLONASS satellites by means of their broadcast ephemeris is presented in the paper. The algorithms are based on the generalized problem of two fixed centers. One of the advantages of the analytical solution obtained from the generalized problem of two fixed centers is the fact that it embraces perturbations of all orders, from the second and also part ly from the third zonal harmonics (Aksenov, 1969). GLONASS broadcast ephemeris - provided every 30 minutes - contain satellite position and velocities in the Earth fixed coordinate system PZ-90.02 (ICD, 2008), and acceleration due to luni-solar attraction. The GLONASS Interface Control Document recommends that a fourth order Runge-Kutta integration algorithm shall be applied. In the Department of Geomatics (AGH UST) a computer program has been established for fitting position and velocity of GLONASS satellites using their broadcast ephemeris. Intermediate GLONASS satellite orbits are calculated consider ing also the second and third zonal harmonics in the gravitational potential of the Earth. In this paper results of the analytical integration of the equation of the motion of the GLONASS satellites compared to the numerical solution are provided., Władysław Góral and Bogdan Skorupa., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
Chemical Quantitative Phase Analysis (CQPA) suggested originally for magmatic rocks (Klika et al., 1986) now is tested for the quantitative mineral determination of coal. This method is based on the optimization procedure. For the evaluation of mineral contents, 5 coal samples were selected and the following analytical data were determined: a) chemical analyses (XRF, titrimetric and gravimetric analytical methods), b) qualitative mineral composition (the X-ray powder diffraction, SEM-EDX and image analyses), c) crystallochemical formulae of minerals. The calculated percentages of minerals obtained by CQPA were compared with calculated percentages of minerals obtained by Raask´s method. Simple statistical evaluation showed that calculation of minerals by CQPA program delivers considerable improvement of results., Michal Ritz and Zdeněk Klika., and Obsahuje bibliografii