Warunki siedliskowe terenów poprzemysłowych a biologia traw: Calamagrostis epigejos i Phragmites australis w aspekcie ich wykorzystania w rekultywacji

The term “brownfields” refers in general to post-industrial sites characterized by unique, unparalleled physical and chemical properties that determine the occurrence of atypical plant communities and the mechanisms of their co-occurrence. As a result of the degradation of soils, there is a reduction in the occurrence or complete lack of vegetation and the appearance of anomalies in the growth and development of the resident plants. Numerous observations and studies have suggested the existence of a mosaic of microhabitats on the dumping ground of industrial wastes. The mosaicism of post-industrial areas allows them to be colonized by plant species with an extremely diverse spectrum of habitat requirements. All anthropogenic sites of post-industrial origin are characterized by a mineral substrate, poor in nutrients, and difficult living conditions for plants caused by low humidity. Nevertheless, vegetation can spontaneously enter the non-reclaimed post-industrial areas and, over time, creates permanent communities. Grasses have small habitat requirements compared to other plant groups. The ability to propagate, in combination with numerous morphological, anatomical, cytological and physiological adaptations gives the grass unparalleled colonization skills over other plants. The presence of grass species in degraded habitats protects against erosion, improves the quality of atmospheric air, initiates the soil-forming processes and creates living conditions for fauna. The sand reed (Calamagrostis epigejos) and common reed (.Phragmites australis) are two of the grass species dominating in the vegetation patches spontaneously arising on postindustrial wastelands. The participation of these two species in all the stages of spontaneous succession proves their ability to colonize particularly disadvantageous habitats. The aim of the present study was to compare individuals of both clonal grass species from post-industrial sites and anthropogenic areas not post-industrial as control, in reference to: - differences in floristic and functional composition of accompanying species, - differences in height and biomass of individuals, - differences in physiological parameters of individuals (chlorophyll content, intensity of photosynthesis or stress). The hypothesis of the research was to verify if different environments could affect in a different way the individual performances in the two grass species considered, implying possible divergences in the morphological plasticity. Post coal mining spoil heaps and zinc-lead mining dumps were chosen as typologies of post-industrial sites for sampling. The results of the observations carried out indicated that the greatest richness of co-occurring species was detected, for both studied species, on coal mining heaps. The height and biomass of the individuals of Calamagrostis epigejos and the biomass of individuals of Phragmites australis were lower on zinc-lead dumps compared to the results from coal dumps and control sites. In case of Phragmites australis, the highest values of height were found in the control areas. The biology of two grass species was influenced by both environmental conditions and factors at biocenotic level (species and functional composition). The content of chlorophyll, malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H202), and the measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence showed a different physiological response of the studied grass species between post-industrial sites and control areas (anthropogenic non-industrial). For both species, negative changes in photosynthesis at the level of photosystem II (PSII) were observed in plants growing on post-industrial sites. On the basis of the OJIP charts and leaf models, describing the efficiency of photosynthesis and energy flow, a common tendency was observed for both species. At the end of the growing season (August, September), the parameters analyzed in the sand reed and common reed indicated an improved photosynthetic efficiency and better condition of plants

An application of the plant functional group concept to restoration practice on coal mine spoil heaps

The history of coal mining in South Poland has left a legacy of many spoil heaps across the landscape. These have presented the opportunity to study their colonisation and spontaneous successional sequences over a long time period. We use the plant functional group (PFG) approach to characterize and compare species diversity on spoil heaps of different ages by utilising the ecological characteristics (PFG categories) of the species recorded during the course of spontaneous vegetation development. By changing species frequency into functional group frequency it was possible to find the significant differences in the functional composition of the studied vegetation and to analyze the dataset using non‐parametric statistics. There was a small increase in the number of species over time, while the frequency of geophytes, nanophanerophytes and megaphanerophytes increased significantly. A significant increase was also recorded for the frequency of competitors, stress‐tolerators and stress‐tolerant competitors and for native species. We found that the significant differences in species composition measured as PFG diversity occurred between the youngest and the oldest age classes. The PFG approach provided valuable insights into the nature of the species composition of the developing vegetation on hard‐coal mine spoil heaps. We suggest that it could be usefully applied in restoration practice in the future by facilitating the natural colonization of native species adapted to local conditions and thus retaining the local gene pool in these areas

Comprehensive imaging of stroke – Looking for the gold standard

Background and purpose Stroke is the third cause of death worldwide. In recent decade there has been a marked progress in treatment and prevention of stroke, which was possible largely due to modern neuroimaging techniques. Early radiological confirmation of the diagnosis allows for introduction of fibrinolytic therapy and evaluation of ischaemic penumbra. Material and methods We have analysed clinical and imaging data of 92 patients with early stages of stroke. The sensitivity, specificity and possible influence on the choice of treatment were assessed for different neuroimaging techniques, including diffusion weighted and perfusion imaging in patients with hyperacute and acute stroke. Results A non-contrast computed tomography (CT) allowed for the detection of early ischaemic changes with an overall sensitivity of 38% and 42% in patients in hyperacute phase. In a perfusion CT study the perfusion abnormalities in the area corresponding to the clinical symptoms were present in 79% of patients. The sensitivity of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) alone was 95% and in conjunction with perfusion MR reached 100%. Conclusions Our study proves that advanced neuroimaging modalities allow for a substantial increase of sensitivity when detecting changes in patients with acute ischaemic strokes and confirming the clinical diagnosis. We believe that MR in combination with DWI should be the imaging methods of choice in diagnosing acute stroke patients. Perfusion adds significant diagnostic value to structural techniques, particularly in clinically ambiguous cases. In cases with a clear clinical picture the data provided by a non-contrast CT study is sufficient for therapeutic decision making

Changes in species composition of meadow vegetation patches dominated by Calamagrostis epigejos in response to mowing and biomass removal : [poster]

In recent decades, a lot of species-rich meadows becameabandoned. The long-term lack of frequent mowing caused changes in species composition and habitat conditions of meadow habitats. It is often observed that the abandoned meadow habitats become dominated by Calamagrostis epigejos (Fragment tekstu)

Plant species diversity associated with invasive Reynoutria taxa in riparian vegetation : [streszczenie]

Invasive plant species influence the resident species, communities and ecosystems in many ways. They may reduce species richness and abundance of native biota and decrease their local species diversity, although individual habitats vary considerably in their susceptibility to invasion. Riparian habitats are especially valuable ecological communities with high species richness and are identified as habitats with value for nature conservation. These particular habitats, together with other waterside habitats, are the most endangered and most easily invaded by alien invasive plants. In many riparian habitats, the Reynoutria taxa individuals are common invaders (Fragment tekstu)

Mycorrhizal status of Molinia caerulea on heavy metal contaminated and non-contaminated sites in Upper Silesia : [streszczenie]

Wastes connected with zinc and lead industry are extremely harsh substratums for plant growth. They contain high levels of heavy metals, lack organic matter and are characterized by low porosity resulting in unfavourable air-water conditions (Fragment tekstu)

CEA-negative glioblastoma and melanoma cells are sensitive to cytosine deaminase/5-fluorocytosine therapy directed by the carcinoembryonic antigen promoter.

Recent studies have suggested that carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-promoter sequences are active only in CEA-positive cells, filing in the criteria for tumor specific targeting of suicide genes. However, the present study on gene therapy of colon cancer and cell-specificity of CEA promoter, provide evidence that CEA-positive and CEA-negative cells transfected with E. coli cytosine deaminase (CD) gene under the control of CEA promotor sequence are sensitive to enzyme/pro-drug therapy with 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC). Individual clones derived from the CEA-negative cell lines: melanoma Hs294T and glioblastoma T98G after transfection with CD differed profoundly in their sensitivity to 5-FC. The IC50 values for several clones of the CEA-negative cells were almost the same as for CEA-positive colon cancer cells. Such 5-FC-sensitive clones derived from the population of CEA-negative cells, present even in small number, because of the very effective bystender effect of this enzyme/pro-drug system can cause severe problems during therapy by efficiently killing surrounding normal cells. Safety is the major issue in gene therapy. Our data suggest that the safety of gene-directed enzyme pro-drug therapy (GDEPT) with CEA promoter driven expression of therapeutic genes is not so obvious as it has originally been claimed

Stan cech somatycznych i sprawność ogólna uczniów w wieku 17 lat z centrum kształcenia zawodowego i ustawicznego w Więcborku = Somatic features state and general performance of pupils aged 17 years with centre of vocational training and learning in Wiecbo

Szary Mateusz, Napierała Marek, Pezala Małgorzata, Zukow Walery, Cieśłicka Mirosława, Muszkieta Radosław, Iermakov Sergii, Bartik Pavol, Eksterowicz Jerzy, Stępniak Robert, Karaskova Vlastimila. Stan cech somatycznych i sprawność ogólna uczniów w wieku 17 lat z centrum kształcenia zawodowego i ustawicznego w Więcborku = Somatic features state and general performance of pupils aged 17 years with centre of vocational training and learning in Wiecbork. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2015;5(5):300-311. ISSN 2391-8306. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17787 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/2015%3B5%285%29%3A300-311 https://pbn.nauka.gov.pl/works/560812 http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17787 Formerly Journal of Health Sciences. ISSN 1429-9623 / 2300-665X. Archives 2011 – 2014 http://journal.rsw.edu.pl/index.php/JHS/issue/archive   Deklaracja. Specyfika i zawartość merytoryczna czasopisma nie ulega zmianie. Zgodnie z informacją MNiSW z dnia 2 czerwca 2014 r., że w roku 2014 nie będzie przeprowadzana ocena czasopism naukowych; czasopismo o zmienionym tytule otrzymuje tyle samo punktów co na wykazie czasopism naukowych z dnia 31 grudnia 2014 r. The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland parametric evaluation. Part B item 1089. (31.12.2014). © The Author (s) 2015; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland and Radom University in Radom, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 15.02.2015. Revised 27.04.2015. Accepted: 08.05.2015.   STAN CECH SOMATYCZNYCH I SPRAWNOŚĆ OGÓLNA UCZNIÓW W WIEKU 17 LAT Z CENTRUM KSZTAŁCENIA ZAWODOWEGO I USTAWICZNEGO W WIĘCBORKU   SOMATIC FEATURES STATE AND GENERAL PERFORMANCE OF PUPILS AGED 17 YEARS WITH CENTRE OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND LEARNING IN WIECBORK   Mateusz Szary1, Marek Napierała2, Małgorzata Pezala2, Walery Zukow2, Mirosława Cieśłicka2, Radosław Muszkieta2, Sergii Iermakov2, Pavol Bartik2, Jerzy Eksterowicz2, Robert Stępniak2, Vlastimila Karaskova2  1Wyższa Szkoła Gospodarki w Bydgoszczy 2Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy   Key words: physique, overall efficiency students.   Słowa kluczowe: budowa ciała, sprawność ogólna uczniów.   Abstract The aim of the study was to evaluate somatic and motor skills, pupils from the first Centre for Continuing Education and Training in Wiecbork. The study included 29 girls and 29 boys. The measurements were carried out in the spring of 2014. Assessment of somatic was determined based on height and weight. All research results are presented by means of tables and figures. To assess the level of selected motor skills benefited from the International Physical Fitness Test. Conclusions: 1. Among the surveyed boys and girls prevails leptosomatic type. 2. Respondents both boys and girls disappear overall fitness peers from regional and national studies.   Streszczenie Celem badań była ocena cech somatycznych oraz zdolności motorycznej uczniów z klas pierwszych Centrum Kształcenia Ustawicznego i Zawodowego w Więcborku. Badaniem objęto 29 dziewcząt i 29 chłopców. Pomiary przeprowadzono wiosną 2014 roku. Ocena stanu somatycznego została określona na podstawie wysokości i masy ciała. Wszystkie wyniki badań zostały przedstawione za pomocą tabel i rycin. Do oceny poziomu wybranych zdolności motorycznych skorzystano z Międzynarodowego Testu Sprawności Fizycznej. Wnioski: • Wśród badanych chłopców i dziewcząt przeważa typ leptosomatyczny. • Badani zarówno chłopcy jak i dziewczęta ustępują w sprawności ogólnej rówieśnikom z badań regionalnych i ogólnopolskich