Samples of bottom ash and fly ash coming from the combustion of lignite with the addition of limestone, from the cocombustion of lignite and wood residue with limestone and from co-combustion of lignite, wood residue, biological sludges from the waste water treatment plant and municipal waste as well with the addition of limestone were examined. Scanning electron microscopy with X-ray microanalyser were used for study of morphology and chemical composition of ash particles. The results were compared with average composition of bottom ashes, fly ashes and input materials found by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and with phase composition found by X-ray diffraction method. There were proved no significant differences in the character and the structure of individual samples coming from various regimes of combustion., Vladimír Tomášek, Ondřej Šustai, Jana Seidlerová, Zdeněk Klika, Martin Stach, Zdeněk Weiss and Václav Roubíček., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Osteosarcoma (OS), a severe malignant bone tumour, usually occurs in adolescents and children and has a poor prognosis. Asiatic acid (AA), an active component isolated from Centella asiatica (L.) Urb., exhibits appreciable anti-oxidant and anti-tumour activities. So far, the effects and underlying mechanisms of AA against OS have not been clarified. Here, we explored the anti-tumour effects of AA against human OS and the involved mechanism mediating its actions. To evaluate effects of AA on the cell proliferation of human OS cells, cell viability and colony formation assays were performed. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate apoptosis in OS cells exposed to AA and mitochondrial membrane potential. Western blotting and RT-PCR were applied to determine expression of the relevant proteins and their mRNA levels. Our explorations showed that AA inhibits proliferation of human OS cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, and induces apoptosis of OS cells by the intrinsic (mitochondrial) pathway. Importantly, we found that inhibition of the AA-induced phosphorylation of JAK2/STAT3 signalling molecules and the decrease in MCL-1 contributed to the anti-tumour efficacy of AA. Collectively, our results suggest that AA could evoke mitochondrial- induced apoptosis in human OS cells by suppression of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway and MCL-1 expression. These results strongly demonstrate that AA could be a potential anti-tumour agent for OS treatment.
The acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) of pancreatic cancer affects the physiological function of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs), which in turn promotes cancer progression. Acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) is responsible for acidosis-related physiopathological processes. In this study, we investigated the effect of acid exposure on the activation and autophagy of PSCs, and the role of ASIC1a in these events. The results showed that acidic medium upregulated the expression of ASIC1a, induced PSCs activation and autophagy, which can be suppressed by inhibiting ASIC1a using PcTx1 or ASIC1a knockdown, suggesting that ASIC1a involves these two processes. In addition, the acidinduced activation of PSCs was impaired after the application of autophagy inhibitor alone or in combination with ASIC1a siRNA, meaning a connection between autophagy and activation. Collectively, our study provides evidence for the involvement of ASIC1a in the acid-caused PSCs activation, which may be associated with autophagy induction.
In this paper I have introduced one case of modification of articulation at the word-boundary, i. e. the assimilation, which regularly takes place in Dutch, but is impeded in Czech. In Dutch the assimilation of [s] in front of [j] is the result of coarticulation, applied in order to reduce the articulatory effort. It is, however, not an isolated phenomenon, but it is connected with the not clearly defined phonological and phonetic opposition of [s] and [š]. In Czech, despite the presumption that the coarticulation of the [s] in front of [j] also is possible, it is not audible for the speakers as modification, and - most importantly - it does not yield assimilation of the former to the latter, i. e. the realization of [š]. In our opinion the constraints are complex, in the first place we should point to the distinctive role of the /s/ and /š/ in the whole system. The perceptual segmentation in Czech, moreover, is ruled by the distribution of word-stress at the initial syllable of the word (after a pause); this brings about the hyperarticulation of the syllable, so that no need is felt to reduce the articulation. Because of the typological difference between Czech and Dutch, as respectively inflective and not-inflective languages, the phonetic phenomena at the word-end can be very significant and should be examined further.
Metformin is the first line therapy of type 2 diabetics, but continued reduction of their life expectancy warrants further investigation into alternative treatment strategies. This study reports on the combinational use of metformin with aspalathin, a C-glucosyl dihydrochalcone with known glucose lowering and antioxidant properties, as an effective hypoglycemic therapy in a type 2 diabetic (db/db) mouse model. When tested as a monotherapy, a low dose of aspalathin (13 mg/kg) showed no effect, while a high dose (130 mg/kg) has already displayed a better potential than metformin in protecting against diabetes associated symptoms in db/db mice. Thus, it remains of interest to determine whether this dihydrochalcone can improve the efficacy of metformin. The results showed that this combination therapy was more effective than the use of metformin as a monotherapy in ameliorating diabetes associated symptoms, including abnormal raised fasting plasma glucose levels, impaired glucose tolerance, as well as excessively increased body weights and fat content. The treated mice also had reduced food and water consumption when compared to untreated controls, with a pronounced effect evident in the last week of treatment. Therefore, this study supports further investigations into the ameliorative effect of combination therapy of metformin and aspalathin against diabetes associated symptoms., P. V. Dludla, K. B. Gabuza, C. J. F. Muller, E. Joubert, J. Louw, R. Johnson., and Obsahuje bibliografii