Recently an expert consensus document advised to standardize user procedures and a new cut-off value for carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity in daily practice. Our aim was to observe aortic pulse wave velocity (PWVao) and augmentation index (AIXao) in two high cardiovascular risk groups: patients with verified coronary artery disease (CAD) or with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We also aimed to determine the cut-off values for PWVao, AIXao in CAD and T2DM patients using oscillometric device (Arteriograph). We investigated 186 CAD and 152 T2DM patients. PWVao and AIXao increased significantly in the CAD group compared to the age-, gender-, blood pressure-, and heart rate-matched control group (10.2±2.3 vs. 9.3±1.5 m/s; p<0.001 and 34.9±14.6 vs. 31.9±12.8 %; p<0.05, respectively). When compared to the apparently healthy control subjects, T2DM patients had significantly elevated PWVao (9.7±1.7 vs. 9.3±1.5 m/s; p<0.05, respectively), however the AIXao did not differ significantly. The ROC-curves of CAD and healthy control subjects explored cut-off values of 10.2 m/s for PWVao and 33.23 % for AIXao. Our data provide supporting evidence about impaired arterial stiffness parameters in CAD and T2DM. Our findings encourage the implementation of arterial stiffness measurements by oscillometric method in daily clinical routine., Z. Lenkey, M. Illyés, R. Böcskei, R. Husznai, Z. Sárszegi, Z. Meiszterics, F. T. Molnár, G. Hild, S. Szabados, A Cziráki, B. Gaszner., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Finite volume methods for solving hyperbolic systems on unstructured meshes are known for a long time. There are two basic formulations of the method: cell centered and vertex centered. For the cell centered method, the (finite) volumes used to satisfy
the integral form of the equation are the mesh elements itself. For the vertex centered approach, the finite volumes are elements of the mesh dual to the computational mesh. We present comparison of both formulations. The method is first evaluated on a scalar advection equation. Knowing the analytical solution of the problem,
convergence studies are performed. More complex test cases involve the 3D transonic flow past an Олега M6 airfoil. Discussion includes influence of the reconstruction and limiters on the solution. The results of the parallel implementation for a Linux PC cluster both with explicit and implicit time integration method are presented. and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Measurements of CO2 and H2O fluxes were carried out using two different techniques-eddy-covariance (EC) and open system gas exchange chamber (OC)-during two-years' period (2003-2004) at three different grassland sites. OC measurements were made during fourteen measurement campaigns. We found good agreement between the OC and EC CO2 flux values (n = 63, r 2 = 0.5323, OC FCO2 = -0.6408+0.9508 EC FCO2). The OC FH2O values were consistently lower than those measured by the EC technique, probably caused by the air stream difference inside and outside the chamber. Adjusting flow rate within the chamber to the natural conditions would be necessary in future OC measurements. In comparison with EC, the OC proved to be a good tool for gas exchange measurements in grassland ecosystems. and J. Balogh ... [et al.].
Autoimmune endocrinopathies can be divided according to the presence of organ specific autoantibodies and according to the clinical manifestations into isolated autoimmune endocrinopathies, autoimmune polyglandular syndromes (APS) and polyglandular activation of autoimmunity (PAA). Many factors take part in the development of the autoimmune disease: predominantly a genetic predisposition, environmental etiologic causes and dysregulation in the microenvironment of the target organ. Until now it is not completely clear, if manifestations of the clinical disease depend primarily upon external factors and the degree of regulation mechanism disorder (e.g. in Th1/Th2 regulation) or upon the different genetic predisposition. In this work we compared the levels of Th1 and Th2 lymphocyte cytokines in peripheral blood in three groups of patients: group A of 30 patients with autoimmune thyroiditis, group B of 25 patients with PAA, and group C of 10 patients with APS type II. From group of Th1 cytokines IL-2 and IFN-Ύ were detected, whereas from group of Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 were determined by ELISA kit. We did not find any differences in the concentrations of IL-2, IFN-Ύ, IL-4 and IL-10 among the groups of patients with autoimmune endocrinopathies., P. Hrdá, I. Šterzl, P. Matucha., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Paper presents comparison of the daily reference crop (grass vegetation cover) potential evapotranspiration results calculated by the two modifications of the Penman-Monteith type equation. The first modification was published in FAO recommendation (Allen at al., 1998), PM-FAO, the second is modification according to Budagovskiy (1964) and Novák (1995), PM-BN. Both are used in soil water simulation models HYDRUS-1D and GLOBAL. Calculations were performed for frost-free seasons of the years 2000-2009, using the meteorological station Gabčíkovo (South Slovakia) meteorological data and canopy characteristics. The results indicate significant differences in daily and seasonal potential evapotranspiration. Reasons for those differences are discussed; they should be in different net radiation and aerodynamic resistance estimation methods.
Landslide susceptibility assessment is essential for development activities and disaster management in the mountainous regions to identify the landslide-prone areas. The present study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy of data driven quantitative models of landslide susceptibility assessment using geospatial tools in Jhelum valley of the Himalayas. This area suffers from extreme rainfall events due to the local climate and has experienced significant and widespread landslide events in recent years. Four probabilistic data-driven models are employed for this purpose, which includes the weight of evidence (WOE), information value method (IVM), frequency ratio (FR), and certainty factor (CF). These assessed models are based on integrating landslide contributing factors and a ground truthing-based landslide inventory of 437 landslides. The landslide susceptibility maps were presented by categorizing the study area into very low to very high susceptibility zone by Jenks natural breaks method. The performance of models was evaluated by a sensitivity analysis using Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) method. The ROCvalidated results of success rate curves for WOE, IVM, FR and CF were 80 %, 78 %, 77 %, and 76 % respectively. The prediction rate curve of WOE, IVM, FR, and CF was 78 %, 77 %, 75 %, and 78 % respectively. The results showed the reasonable efficiency of applied models for landslide susceptibility assessment in the study area and applicable to regions with similar geomorphological conditions. Conclusively, the comparison of applied models revealed the promising results of used approaches., Salman Farooq and Mian Sohail Akram., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The seedlings of wheat were treated by salt-stress (SS, molar ratio of NaCl: Na2SO4 = 1:1) and alkali-stress (AS, molar ratio of NaHCO3: Na2CO3 = 1:1). Relative growth rate (RGR), leaf area, and water content decreased with increasing salinity, and the extents of the reduction under AS were greater than those under SS. The contents of photosynthetic pigments did not decrease under SS, but increased at low salinity. On the contrary, the contents of photosynthetic pigments decreased sharply under AS with increasing salinity. Under SS, the changes of net photosynthetic rate (PN), stomatal conductance (gs), and transpiration rate (E) were similar and all varied in a single-peak curve with increasing salinity, and they were lower than those of control only at salinity over 150 mM. Under AS, PN, gs, and E decreased sharply with rising salinity. The decrease of gs might cause the obvious decreases of E and intercellular CO2 concentration, and the increase of water use efficiency under both stresses. The Na+ content and Na+/K+ ratio in shoot increased and the K+ content in shoot decreased under both stresses, and the changing extents under AS were greater than those under SS. Thus SS and AS are two distinctive stresses with different characters; the destructive effects of AS on the growth and photosynthesis of wheat are more severe than those under SS. High pH is the key feature of the AS that is different from SS. The buffer capacity is essentially the measure of high pH action on plant. The deposition of mineral elements and the intracellular unbalance of Na+ and K+ caused by the high pH at AS might be the reason of the decrease of PN and gs and of the destruction of photosynthetic pigments. and C. W. Yang ... [et al.].
P-wave velocity anisotropy of rocks is often investigated by laboratory methods. The extrapolation of the laboratory results to larger rock units requires comparison with direct field measurements. Physical properties of deep-originated rocks were performed on mantle-derived peridotite from the Ivrea zone (N orthwestern Italy). These rock s were exhumed by tectonic processes during collision orogeny up to the Earth’s surface. The direct surface seismic measurements of elastic waves velocity were realized by means of shallow seismic refraction method on the outcrop of peridotite. The measuring base was about 10 m long. Laboratory seismic anisotropy measurement was realized on rock samples from the same outcrop. The geographically oriented spherical samples with diameter 50 mm were radiated by elastic waves in 132 directions under confining stress from atmospheric level up to 200 MPa. Laboratory and field values of the anisotropy of seismic wave ve locities were compared and different scales of measurements were evaluated. The field measuremen ts used frequency about 1 kHz whereas the laboratory measur ement used 700 kHz radiation. Field measurements proved relatively high value of anisotropy P-wave propagation - 25%, while laboratory experiments only 1.5%. This difference is caused by different reason of anisotropy. Laboratory samples contain only microcraks, which represents nearly continuum with rega rd to ultrasound wave length (11 mm). Rock massif, however, contains beside mickrocraks also cracks with comparable size of applied seismic wave length (10 m)., Jan Vilhelm, Vladimír Rudajev, Roman Živor, Tomáš Lokajíček and Zdeněk Pros., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The effects of potassium (K) deficiency on chlorophyll (Chl) content, photosynthetic gas exchange, and photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry during the seedling stage were investigated in two soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivars, low-K sensitive Tiefeng31 and low-K tolerant Shennong6. The cultivars were grown hydroponically in K-sufficient (KS) and K-deficient (KD) solutions. Photosynthetic gas exchange and Chl content in Tiefeng31 were severely affected by the low K condition, but were almost unaffected in Shennong6. This difference is in accordance with the PSII photochemistry in the plants, indicating that the photosynthetic apparatus of Shennong6 is more tolerant to low-K stress than that of Tiefeng31. and X.-T. Li ... [et al.].
This paper discusses the quality of slant wet delays (SWD) computed from GPS measurements. The SWDs are generally used as input data for GPS tomography, which allows the three-dimensional reconstruction of water vapour distribution in the atmosphere. The research presented is based on a comparison of slant wet delays acquired by different strategies based on double-differenced Global Positioning System (GPS) data. The GPS-derived SWDs were compared with those directly measured by a water vapour radiometer (W VR). The best results from the applied G PS strategies were achieved by a simple mapping of GPS-derived zenith total delays into SWD without adding horizontal gradients or post-fit residuals., Michal Kačmařík, Jan Douša and Jan Zapletal., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy