Growth And The Growth Hormone-Insulin Like Growth Factor 1 Axis In Children With Chronic Inflammation:Current Evidence, Gaps In Knowledge And Future Directions

Growth failure is frequently encountered in children with chronic inflammatory conditions like juvenile idiopathic arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and cystic fibrosis. Delayed puberty and attenuated pubertal growth spurt is often seen during adolescence. The underlying inflammatory state mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, prolonged use of glucocorticoid and suboptimal nutrition contribute to growth failure and pubertal abnormalities. These factors can impair growth by their effects on the growth hormone-insulin like growth factor axis and also directly at the level of the growth plate via alterations in chondrogenesis and local growth factor signaling. Recent studies on the impact of cytokines and glucocorticoid on the growth plate studies further advanced our understanding of growth failure in chronic disease and provided a biological rationale of growth promotion. Targeting cytokines using biologic therapy may lead to improvement of growth in some of these children but approximately one third continue to grow slowly. There is increasing evidence that the use of relatively high dose recombinant human growth hormone may lead to partial catch up growth in chronic inflammatory conditions, although long term follow-up data is currently limited. In this review, we comprehensively review the growth abnormalities in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and cystic fibrosis, systemic abnormalities of the growth hormone-insulin like growth factor axis and growth plate perturbations. We also systematically reviewed all the current published studies of recombinant human growth hormone in these conditions and discuss the role of recombinant human insulin like growth factor-1

Proposal of design and experimental research of dynamics of chaotic double pendulum

W artykule opisano istotę działania chaotycznego wahadła dwuczłonowego, przedstawiono jego model matematyczny oraz wyniki numeryczne otrzymane na podstawie tego modelu. Do celów badawczych wykonano stanowisko pozwalające na obserwację i rejestrację oscylacji chaotycznych. Stanowisko pozwala na badanie oscylacji chaotycznych dla szerokiego zakresu parametrów początkowych: kątów wychylenia obu ramion oraz zmiennego obciążenia masowego na końcach każdego z ramion. Metoda pomiaru polega na wykorzystaniu metod analizy obrazu, tj. identyfikacji kolorów markerów, umiejscowionych na końcach ramion wahadła, a następnie wyznaczenia trajektorii ruchu poszczególnych punktów pomiarowych. Przedstawiono sposób przeprowadzenia badań oraz przykładowe wyniki.The paper describes the operation principle of the chaotic double pendulum, the mathematical model and numerical results obtained based on this model were presented. For the research purposes the test rig was developed, which allows for the monitoring and registration of chaotic oscillations. The test rig allows for monitoring of chaotic oscillations in the wide range of initial parameters: angles of deviation of both pendulum arms and variable mass loading at the ends of each arm. The method of measurements is based on using of the methods of image processing, i.e. identification of colors of the markers placed at the ends of pendulum arms and then the determination of the motion trajectories of particular measurement points. The experimental process as well as exemplary results was described