Genetic and Biochemical Factors Related to the Risk and Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis

Sclerosis multiplex (multiple sclerosis, MS) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The immune regulatory defects lead to the process of inflammation and neurodegenerationthat results in the deterioration of neurological functions. It is still unclear as to why MS is so devastating and rapidly progressive in one patient and less so in another. It is known that the etiopathogenesis of MS is very complex, and many factors can be involved in the risk and character of the disease and its progression. In this chapter, we discuss the general molecular and cellular mechanisms of action of genetic and biochemical factors that are related to immune system regulation and thus can be connected to the individually varying risk and disability progression of MS. We found that gene variants of the gene polymorphism rs6897932 in interleukin 7 receptor α chain gene rs10735810 in vitamin D receptor gene and HLA-DR and HLA-DQ genes as well as the serum level of vitamin D are associated with MS risk or disability progression in Central European Slovak population

Increasing Incidence of Geomyces destructans Fungus in Bats from the Czech Republic and Slovakia

BACKGROUND: White-nose syndrome is a disease of hibernating insectivorous bats associated with the fungus Geomyces destructans. It first appeared in North America in 2006, where over a million bats died since then. In Europe, G. destructans was first identified in France in 2009. Its distribution, infection dynamics, and effects on hibernating bats in Europe are largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We screened hibernacula in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the presence of the fungus during the winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. In winter 2009/2010, we found infected bats in 76 out of 98 surveyed sites, in which the majority had been previously negative. A photographic record of over 6000 hibernating bats, taken since 1994, revealed bats with fungal growths since 1995; however, the incidence of such bats increased in Myotis myotis from 2% in 2007 to 14% by 2010. Microscopic, cultivation and molecular genetic evaluations confirmed the identity of the recently sampled fungus as G. destructans, and demonstrated its continuous distribution in the studied area. At the end of the hibernation season we recorded pathologic changes in the skin of the affected bats, from which the fungus was isolated. We registered no mass mortality caused by the fungus, and the recorded population decline in the last two years of the most affected species, M. myotis, is within the population trend prediction interval. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: G. destructans was found to be widespread in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with an epizootic incidence in bats during the most recent years. Further development of the situation urgently requires a detailed pan-European monitoring scheme

Optimizing Robot-to-Human Object Handovers using Vision-based Affordance Information

Robotic handovers of objects to humans require selecting appropriate grasp poses and orientations to enable efficient subsequent use. We present two methods to compute suitable handover orientations based solely on object affordances rather than object categories or predefined object-specific rules. The first uses human demonstration data to learn average handover orientations per object directly from affordances. The second is a rule-based method that orients graspable affordances towards the receiver. We integrated both approaches into a robotic system performing task-oriented grasping and handovers based on affordance segmentation. A user study indicates the rule-based method produces equally comfortable and natural handover orientations compared to learning from demonstration, while being simpler to implement. Further experiments demonstrate the robot’s ability to successfully hand over objects with proper orientations. This is the first prototype deriving handover orientations solely from affordances treated as pixel wise semantic segmentation, providing a practical approach without per-object datasets

Changes in retention characteristics of 9historical artificial water reservoirs near BanskáŠtiavnica, Slovakia

The article is focused on the evaluation of accumulationvolume changes in 9 water reservoirs nearBanská Štiavnica (Slovakia) by comparing historical mapsand using modern bathymetric surveying technologies.The mining region of Banská Štiavnica has been inscribedinto the UNESCO List of the World and Cultural Heritagein 1993. Accumulation and transfer of sediments dependmainly on changes of land cover in the watersheds thatlead to the loss of retention capacity and reduction oflife span of reservoirs. The results of a comparison oftwo 3D models, one created from historic documentationand the other created from data of field surveying haveshown overall reduction in the volume of water totalling446484m3, i.e. 16.70%from past to current time. Causes ofsedimentation were searched in watersheds changes overtime. These were identified by comparison of historicalaerial imagery (1949) with existing aerial photographs