The Blocking on the Cathepsin B and Fibronectin Accumulation in Kidney Glomeruli of Diabetic Rats

Hyperglycemia results in the activation of tissue angiotensin II. Angiotensin II stimulates the synthesis of ECM proteins and causes a decrease activity of proteolytic enzymes. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of multilevel blocking of the RAAS, cathepsin B activity, and fibronectin accumulation in the glomerular in the rats diabetes model. Sixty male Wistar rats were initially included. Diabetes was induced by intravenous administration of streptozotocin. The animals were randomized to six groups of ten rats in group. Rats in the four groups were treated with inhibitors of the RAAS: enalapril (EN), losartan (LOS), enalapril plus losartan (EN + LOS), and spironolactone (SPIR); another group received dihydralazine (DIH) and the diabetic rats (DM) did not receive any drug. After six weeks, we evaluated blood pressure, 24 h urine collection, and blood for biochemical parameters and kidneys. In this study, fluorometric, ELISA, and immunohistochemical methods were used. Administration of EN + LOS increased activity of cathepsin B in homogenates of glomeruli compared to DM. Losartan treatment resulted in reduction of the ratio kidney weight/body weight compared to untreated diabetic rats. SPIR resulted in the increase activity of cathepsin B in the homogenate of glomeruli. The values of cathepsin B in the plasma of rats in all studied groups were similar and showed no tendency

Determining Ionospheric Drift and Anisotropy of Irregularities from LOFAR Core Measurements: Testing Hypotheses behind Estimation

We try to assess the validity of assumptions taken when deriving drift velocity. We give simple formulas for characteristics of the spatiotemporal correlation function of the observed diffraction pattern for the frozen flow and the more general Briggs model. Using Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Cassiopeia intensity observation, we compare the experimental velocity scaling factor with a theoretical one to show that both models do not follow observations. We also give a qualitative comparison of our drift velocity estimates with SuperDARN convection maps. The article is essentially an extended version of the conference paper: “Determining ionospheric drift and anisotropy of irregularities from LOFAR core measurements”, Signal Processing Symposium 2021 (SPSympo 2021)

Determining Ionospheric Drift and Anisotropy of Irregularities from LOFAR Core Measurements: Testing Hypotheses behind Estimation

We try to assess the validity of assumptions taken when deriving drift velocity. We give simple formulas for characteristics of the spatiotemporal correlation function of the observed diffraction pattern for the frozen flow and the more general Briggs model. Using Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Cassiopeia intensity observation, we compare the experimental velocity scaling factor with a theoretical one to show that both models do not follow observations. We also give a qualitative comparison of our drift velocity estimates with SuperDARN convection maps. The article is essentially an extended version of the conference paper: “Determining ionospheric drift and anisotropy of irregularities from LOFAR core measurements”, Signal Processing Symposium 2021 (SPSympo 2021)

VOEvent for Solar and Planetary Sciences

International audienc

Evaluating the relationship between strong geomagnetic storms and electric grid failures in Poland using the geoelectric field as a GIC proxy

We study intense geomagnetic storms (Dst < −100nT) during the first half of the solar cycle 24. This type of storm appeared only a few times, mostly associated with southwardly directed heliospheric magnetic field Bz. Using various methods such as self-organizing maps, statistical and superposed epoch analysis, we show that during and right after intense geomagnetic storms, there is growth in the number of transmission line failures. We also examine the temporal changes in the number of failures during 2010-2014 and find that the growing linear tendency of electrical grid failure occurrence is possibly connected with solar activity. We compare these results with the geoelectric field calculated for the region of Poland using a 1-D layered conductivity Earth model

On the problem of entity matching and its application in automated settlement of receivables

This paper covers automated settlement of receivables in non-governmental organizations. We tackle the problem with entity matching techniques. We consider setup, where base algorithm is used for preliminary ranking of matches, then we apply several novel methods to increase matching quality of base algorithm: score post processing, cascade model and chain model. The methods presented here contribute to automated settlement of receivables, entity matching and multilabel classification in open-world scenario. We evaluate our approach on real world operational data which come from company providing settlement of receivables as a service: proposed methods boost recall from 78% (base model) to >90% at precision 99%.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Monitoring, tracking and forecasting ionospheric perturbations using GNSS techniques

The paper reviews the current state of GNSS-based detection, monitoring and forecasting of ionospheric perturbations in Europe in relation to the COST action ES0803 ‘‘Developing Space Weather Products and Services in Europe’’. Space weather research and related ionospheric studies require broad international collaboration in sharing databases, developing analysis software and models and providing services. Reviewed is the European GNSS data basis including ionospheric services providing derived data products such as the Total Electron Content (TEC) and radio scintillation indices. Fundamental ionospheric perturbation phenomena covering quite different scales in time and space are discussed in the light of recent achievements in GNSS-based ionospheric monitoring. Thus, large-scale perturbation processes characterized by moving ionization fronts, wave-like travelling ionospheric disturbances and finally small-scale irregularities causing radio scintillations are considered. Whereas ground and space-based GNSS monitoring techniques are well developed, forecasting of ionospheric perturbations needs much more work to become attractive for users who might be interested in condensed information on the perturbation degree of the ionosphere by robust indices. Finally, we have briefly presented a few samples illustrating the space weather impact on GNSS applications thus encouraging the scientific community to enhance space weather research in upcoming years.Peer Reviewe

COST 296 scientific results designed for operational use

&lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;The main objective of the COST 296 Action «Mitigation of Ionospheric Effects on Radio Systems» is the establishment/&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;improvement of ionospheric services by coordinating the development of specific algorithms, models,&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;and tools capable of operating in a near-real-time mode.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;Key elements of these activities are contributions related to monitoring, modelling, and imaging of customer-relevant&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;ionospheric quantities. COST stimulates, coordinates, and supports Europe’s goals of development and&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;global cooperation by providing high quality information and knowledge of ionospheric and plasmaspheric conditions&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;enabling high quality and reliable operation of radio systems.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;It also provides a platform for sharing such tools as algorithms or models, and for the joint development of advanced&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;technologies. It takes advantage of many national and European service initiatives, for example DIAS&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;(http://dias.space.noa.gr), SWACI (http://w3swaci.dlr.de), ESWUA (http://www.eswua.ingv.it/ingv), RWC-Warsaw&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;(http://www.cbk.waw.pl/rwc), the COST Prompt Ionospheric Database http://www.wdc.rl.ac.uk/cgibin/&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;digisondes/cost_database.pl, http://www.izmiran.ru/services, and others.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;Existing national capabilities are taken into account to develop synergies and avoid duplication. The enhancement&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;of environment monitoring networks and associated instrumentation yields mutual advantages for European&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;and regional services specialized for local user needs.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;It structurally increases the integration of limited-area services, and generates a platform employing the same&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;approach to each task differing mostly in input and output data. In doing so it also provides a complementary&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;description of the environmental state within issued information, as well as providing a platform for interaction&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;among local end users, who define what kind of information they need, for system providers, who finalize the&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;tools necessary to obtain required information, and for local service providers, who do the actual processing of&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;data, tailoring it to specific users’ needs. Such an initiative creates a unique opportunity for small national services&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;to consolidate their product design so that is no longer limited to their own activity, but can serve the wider&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;European services.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;The development and improvement of techniques for mitigating ionospheric effects on radio systems by the&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;COST 296 Action prepared those services that implemented the new design techniques for the newly announced&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Times;"&gt;EU and ESA policy-Space Situation Awareness (SSA). COST 296 developments applied to nowcasting and forecasting services are an essential input to the Operational SSA Ionosphere.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt