New Insight into the Antifibrotic Effects of Praziquantel on Mice in Infection with Schistosoma japonicum

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease infecting more than 200 million people in the world. Although chemotherapy targeting on killing schistosomes is one of the main strategies in the disease control, there are few effective ways of dealing with liver fibrosis caused by the parasite infection in the chronic and advanced stages of schistosomiasis. For this reason, new strategies and prospective drugs, which exert antifibrotic effects, are urgently required.-induced liver fibrosis was inhibited by PZQ treatment for 30 days. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of praziquantel on mouse primary hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). It is indicated that mRNA expressions of Col1α1, Col3α1, α-SMA, TGF-β, MMP9 and TIMP1 of HSCs were all inhibited after praziquantel anti-parasite treatments.The significant amelioration of hepatic fibrosis by praziquantel treatment validates it as a promising drug of anti-fibrosis and offers potential of a new chemotherapy for hepatic fibrosis resulting from schistosomiasis

Conservation of pollinators in traditional agricultural landscapes – New challenges in Transylvania (Romania) posed by EU accession and recommendations for future research

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES)

Pal osadzony w miękkiej skale z wpływem pełzania – podejście niezawodnościowe bazujące na sieciach falkowo-neuronowych

In the present study the numerical model of the pile embedded in marl described by a time dependent model, based on laboratory tests, is proposed. The solutions complement the state of knowledge of the monopile loaded by horizontal force in its head with respect to its random variability values in time function. The investigated reliability problem is defined by the union of failure events defined by the excessive horizontal maximal displacement of the pile head in each periods of loads. Abaqus has been used for modeling of the presented task with a two layered viscoplastic model for marl. The mechanical parameters for both parts of model: plastic and rheological were calibrated based on the creep laboratory test results. The important aspect of the problem is reliability analysis of a monopile in complex environment under random sequences of loads which help understanding the role of viscosity in nature of rock basis constructions. Due to the lack of analytical solutions the computations were done by the method of response surface in conjunction with wavelet neural network as a method recommended for time sequences process and description of nonlinear phenomenon.W niniejszym studium zaprezentowany jest problem pojedynczego pala osadzonego w miękkiej skale, zastosowano wiskoplastyczny model materiału bazujący na wynikach badań laboratoryjnych zespołu z Uniwersytetu Montenegro. Rozwiązanie uzupełnia stan wiedzy dla pali obciążonych poziomą siłą w głowicy zmienną w sposób losowy w czasie. Badany problem niezawodności został określony przez sumę zdarzeń – awarii – zdefiniowanych jako przekroczenie maksymalnie dopuszczalnego poziomego przemieszczenia głowicy pala niezależnie w wszystkich stanach obciążenia. Zastosowano program metody elementów skończonych, ABAQUS, do budowy trójwymiarowego modelu z dwuwarstwowym wiskoplastycznym modelem dla margla. Parametry mechaniczne modelu zarówno w części plastycznej i reologicznej zostały skalibrowane na podstawie wyników badań laboratoryjnych wykonanych na przestrzeni ostatnich czterech lat na próbkach z jednorodnego złoża margla w Montenegro. Ważnym aspektem problemu jest analiza niezawodności pojedynczego pala dla złożonego mechanicznie środowiska w ramach sekwencji losowych obciążeń. Przedstawione zadanie pozwala dostrzec istotę lepkiej części modelu. Ze względu na brak rozwiązań analitycznych oraz długotrwałość procesu obliczeniowego obliczenia niezawodnościowe przeprowadzono metodą powierzchni odpowiedzi bazując na sieciach falkowo-neuronowych. Sieć poprzez nadanie jej struktury rejestru została dostosowana do opisu procesu o nieliniowym charakterze zjawiska i dla obciążeń zmiennych w czasie

The framing of social class distinctions through family food and eating practices

The definitive version can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ Copyright 2011 The Authors, the Sociological Review 2011 and The Editorial Board of The Sociological ReviewDrawing on two qualitative studies which looked at diet, weight and health from a social class perspective, we use Bourdieu's theory of habitus to help explain the different food and eating practices undertaken by families with young teenagers. Whilst the families displayed considerable reflexivity when making decisions about what to eat on a daily basis, the analysis highlighted that everyday behaviours are still bounded by distinctions of taste, according to social position. The paper includes an examination of the relationships between different forms of capital and whether form or functionality is prioritised within families. We show the importance of temporal frameworks when interpreting classed food and eating practicesPeer reviewe