Assessment of the possibility to obtain constructive vibration interference from blasting

Roboty strzałowe są przedsięwzięciami powszechnie stosowanymi w górnictwie, szczególnie przy drążeniu wyrobisk, urabianiu złoża oraz jako profilaktyka zagrożenia sejsmicznego i tąpaniami. Zwykle praktyczna ich realizacja obejmuje celowy rozkład otworów strzałowych oraz sekwencję czasową ich odpalania. Treścią artykułu jest próba określenia warunków i możliwości takiej koordynacji prowadzenia robót strzałowych w warunkach podziemnego górnictwa rud miedzi, aby uzyskać w wybranym obszarze górotworu efekt konstruktywnej interferencji drgań wywoływanych strzelaniami. Efekt ten powinien poprawić skuteczność strzelań, szczególnie przy próbach prowokowania występowania silnych wstrząsów sejsmicznych. Artykuł przedstawia teoretyczne założenia uzyskiwania efektu interferencji, wyniki prób jego modelowania oraz wstępne rezultaty praktycznych eksperymentów przeprowadzonych w jednej z kopalń rud miedzi.Blasting is a commonly used method in underground mining, particularly in driving underground galleries, deposit extraction and prevention from seismic and rockburst hazard. In practice, blasting consist in appropriate arrangement of the geometry of blast holes and time sequence of individual blast holes. This paper presents the possibility of electronic time synchronization of individual blast holes in order to obtain constructive interference of the generated seismic waves in copper underground mine in Poland. This synchronization should improve blasting effectiveness for inducing strong seismic events in the mine. Some theoretical aspects of longitudinal seismic wave interference are introduced and measurement results of interference effect of seismic waves generated by blasting in one of the copper mine in Poland are presented

Wybrane metody dezintegracji struktury skał dla zwalczania zagrożeń górniczych

Natural hazards are inseparable element of underground mining, particularly of coal mining process. They are combated on a regular basis by many measures and effectiveness of these measures determines work safety in mines. Attempts to improve the effectiveness, presented in the paper is based on interferencje of seismic waves generated by blasting in a selected area of the rock mass and on modification of blasting technology. Preliminary results of detonating classical and new type of explosives in specific temperature and pressure conditions are analyzed. Theoretical and practical consideration of obtaining an interferencje effect of seismic waves is discussed. A device for making systems of starting notches and a construction of a chamber to test explosives are presented.Nieodłącznym elementem podziemnego górnictwa, szczególnie węglowego, są zagrożenia naturalne. Ich zwalczanie jest codzienną praktyką, a jego skuteczność decydująco wpływa na bezpieczeństwo pracy. Przedstawione w artykule próby poprawy tej skuteczności obejmują badania efektu nakładania się w wybranym obszarze górotworu drgań generowanych robotami strzałowymi oraz informacje o próbach modyfikacji strzelniczych technik szczelinowania skał, a także wstępne wyniki badania charakterystyk eksplozji klasycznych i nowych materiałów wybuchowych w nietypowych warunkach temperatur i ciśnienia. Omówiono między innymi teoretyczne i praktyczne warunki uzyskiwania efektu interferencji drgań oraz przedstawiono urządzenie do wykonywania systemów tzw. szczelin zarodnikowych i konstrukcję komory będącej elementem stanowiska do badania MW

Natural hazards in underground coal mining in Poland against the background of the selected European countries and countries of the world

Podziemne górnictwo węgla jest branżą szczególną z punktu widzenia problemów bezpieczeństwa. Warunki geologiczne, występowanie zagrożeń naturalnych oraz specyficzne dla tej branży warunki pracy są powodem wielu wypadków i zdarzeń, które w konsekwencji prowadzić mogą również do poważnych katastrof. W artykule przedstawiono wybrane statystyki dotyczące wpływu zagrożeń naturalnych na bezpieczeństwo pracy w kopalniach węgla kamiennego Polski, Chin, USA i Czech. Analiza stanu bezpieczeństwa w podziemnym górnictwie węgla została odniesiona do produkcji węgla w wybranych krajach. Przedmiotem analizy były głównie wypadki śmiertelne spowodowane zagrożeniami naturalnymi. Wskazano na główne problemy w zakresie skutecznej profilaktyki w zwalczaniu zagrożeń naturalnych.Underground coal mining is a specific branch of industry from the point of view of safety problems. Geological conditions, occurrence of natural hazards and specific working conditions are the causes of many accidents which may result in serious disasters. This paper presents the selected statistics concerning the influence of natural hazards on work safety in hard coal mines in Poland, China, the Czech Republic and the USA. The analysis of safety in underground coal mines was referred to the production of coal in the selected countries. This analysis was conducted for fatalities caused by natural hazards. Essential problems connected with effective prevention against natural hazards were indicated

Gene expression levels of the insulin-like growth factor family in patients with AMD before and after ranibizumab intravitreal injections

Barbara Strzalka-Mrozik,1 Malgorzata Kimsa-Furdzik,2 Adam Kabiesz,3 Katarzyna Michalska-Malecka,3,4 Malgorzata Nita,5 Urszula Mazurek1 1Department of Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy with the Division of Laboratory Medicine in Sosnowiec, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 2Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 3University Center for Ophthalmology and Oncology, Independent Public Clinical Hospital, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 4Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine in Katowice, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 5Domestic and Specialized Medicine Centre “Dilmed”, Katowice, Poland Purpose: The present study focused on the assessment of the mRNA levels of the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family in patients with the exudative form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) before and after ranibizumab intravitreal injections.Patients and methods: An analysis of the expression profile of the IGF family of genes in patients with AMD was carried out using the oligonucleotide microarray and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) methods.Results: In the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from AMD group receiving ranibizumab compared to the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from AMD group before ranibizumab treatment using oligonucleotide microarray technique, six statistically significant differentially expressed transcripts related to the IGF family were detected (unpaired t-test, p<0.05, fold change >1.5). Moreover, analysis using the real-time RT-qPCR technique revealed statistically significant differences in the IGF2 and IGF2R mRNA levels (Mann–Whitney U test, p<0.05) between the two groups that were studied. Statistical analyses of both oligonucleotide microarray and real-time RT-qPCR results demonstrated a significant decreased expression only for IGF2 mRNA.Conclusion: Our results revealed a changed expression of IGF2 mRNA after ranibizumab treatment. Keywords: age-related macular degeneration, IGF family, ranibizumab, mRN

Effects of intravitreal ranibizumab on the untreated eye and systemic gene expression profile in age-related macular degeneration

Katarzyna Michalska-Małecka,1,2 Adam Kabiesz,2 Malgorzata W Kimsa,3 Barbara Strzałka-Mrozik,3 Maria Formińska-Kapuścik,2,4 Malgorzata Nita,5 Urszula Mazurek31Clinical Department of Ophthalmology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 2University Center for Ophthalmology and Oncology, Independent Public Clinical Hospital, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 3Department of Molecular Biology, School of Pharmacy with the Division of Laboratory Medicine in Sosnowiec, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 4Clinical Department of Children Ophthalmology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 5Domestic and Specialized Medicine Centre “Dilmed”, Katowice, PolandAbstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the systemic effects of intravitreal ranibizumab (Lucentis) treatment in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The impact of intravitreal ranibizumab injections on central retinal thickness (CRT) of treated and contralateral untreated eyes, and differences in gene expression patterns in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells were analyzed. The study included 29 patients aged 50 years old and over with diagnosed neovascular AMD. The treatment was defined as 0.5 mg of ranibizumab injected intravitreally in the form of one injection every month during the period of 3 months. CRT was measured by optical coherence tomography. The gene expression profile was assigned using oligonucleotide microarrays of Affymetrix HG-U133A. Studies have shown that there was a change of CRT between treated and untreated eyes, and there were differences in CRT at baseline and after 1, 2, and 3 months of ranibizumab treatment. Three months after intravitreal injection, mean CRT was reduced in the treated eyes from 331.97±123.62 to 254.31±58.75 µm, while mean CRT in the untreated fellow eyes reduced from 251.07±40.29 to 235.45±36.21 µm at the same time. Furthermore, the research has shown that among all transcripts, 3,097 expresses change after the ranibizumab treatment in relation to controls. Among these transcripts, 1,339 were up-regulated, whereas 1,758 were down-regulated. Our results show the potential systemic effects of anti-VEGF therapy for AMD. Moreover, our study indicated different gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells before and after intravitreal ranibizumab treatment. Keywords: ranibizumab, contralateral eye, central retinal thickness, oligonucleotide microarrayCorrigendum for this paper has been published.&nbsp

Analytics over Multi-sensor Time Series Data - A Case-Study on Prediction of Mining Hazards

Mining of high-dimensional time series data that represent readings of multiple sensors is a challenging task. We focus on several important aspects of analytics over such data. We describe a methodology for extracting informative features from multidimensional data streams, as well as algorithms for finding compact representations of such data, in order to facilitate the construction of prediction models. We pay special attention to designing new approaches to dimensionality reduction and interchangeability of features that such representations comprise of. We validate our algorithms on data sets obtained from coal mines and we demonstrate how their results can be applied for a construction of a decision support system. We show that such system is efficient and that its outcomes can be easily interpreted by subject matter experts.</p

Patients with Crohn's disease have longer post-operative in-hospital stay than patients with colon cancer but no difference in complications' rate

BACKGROUNDRight hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection are used to treat benign conditions like Crohn's disease (CD) and malignant ones like colon cancer (CC).AIMTo investigate differences in pre- and peri-operative factors and their impact on post-operative outcome in patients with CC and CD.METHODSThis is a sub-group analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology's prospective, multi-centre snapshot audit. Adult patients with CC and CD undergoing right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection were included. Primary outcome measure was 30-d post-operative complications. Secondary outcome measures were post-operative length of stay (LOS) at and readmission.RESULTSThree hundred and seventy-five patients with CD and 2,515 patients with CC were included. Patients with CD were younger (median = 37 years for CD and 71 years for CC (P &lt; 0.01), had lower American Society of Anesthesiology score (ASA) grade (P &lt; 0.01) and less comorbidity (P &lt; 0.01), but were more likely to be current smokers (P &lt; 0.01). Patients with CD were more frequently operated on by colorectal surgeons (P &lt; 0.01) and frequently underwent ileocecal resection (P &lt; 0.01) with higher rate of de-functioning/primary stoma construction (P &lt; 0.01). Thirty-day post-operative mortality occurred exclusively in the CC group (66/2515, 2.3%). In multivariate analyses, the risk of post-operative complications was similar in the two groups (OR 0.80, 95%CI: 0.54-1.17; P = 0.25). Patients with CD had a significantly longer LOS (Geometric mean 0.87, 95%CI: 0.79-0.95; P &lt; 0.01). There was no difference in re-admission rates. The audit did not collect data on post-operative enhanced recovery protocols that are implemented in the different participating centers.CONCLUSIONPatients with CD were younger, with lower ASA grade, less comorbidity, operated on by experienced surgeons and underwent less radical resection but had a longer LOS than patients with CC although complication's rate was not different between the two groups

Safety of primary anastomosis following emergency left sided colorectal resection: an international, multi-centre prospective audit.

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: group, T. E. S. o. C. c. (2018). "Safety of primary anastomosis following emergency left sided colorectal resection: an international, multi-centre prospective audit." Colorectal Disease 20(S6): 47-57., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/codi.1437. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived VersionsINTRODUCTION: Some evidence suggests that primary anastomosis following left sided colorectal resection in the emergency setting may be safe in selected patients, and confer favourable outcomes to permanent enterostomy. The aim of this study was to compare the major postoperative complication rate in patients undergoing end stoma vs primary anastomosis following emergency left sided colorectal resection. METHODS: A pre-planned analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology 2017 audit. Adult patients (> 16 years) who underwent emergency (unplanned, within 24 h of hospital admission) left sided colonic or rectal resection were included. The primary endpoint was the 30-day major complication rate (Clavien-Dindo grade 3 to 5). RESULTS: From 591 patients, 455 (77%) received an end stoma, 103 a primary anastomosis (17%) and 33 primary anastomosis with defunctioning stoma (6%). In multivariable models, anastomosis was associated with a similar major complication rate to end stoma (adjusted odds ratio for end stoma 1.52, 95%CI 0.83-2.79, P = 0.173). Although a defunctioning stoma was not associated with reduced anastomotic leak (12% defunctioned [4/33] vs 13% not defunctioned [13/97], adjusted odds ratio 2.19, 95%CI 0.43-11.02, P = 0.343), it was associated with less severe complications (75% [3/4] with defunctioning stoma, 86.7% anastomosis only [13/15]), a lower mortality rate (0% [0/4] vs 20% [3/15]), and fewer reoperations (50% [2/4] vs 73% [11/15]) when a leak did occur. CONCLUSIONS: Primary anastomosis in selected patients appears safe after left sided emergency colorectal resection. A defunctioning stoma might mitigate against risk of subsequent complications