Extracting usual service prices from public contracts

[EN] The paper describes a project of automatic selection, scraping, and full-text analysis of contracts in the area of IT and Information Systems. The purpose of the project was to extract manday prices and build the list of usual manday prices for particular roles that are stated in the contracts. The list aims to provide a foundation for sizing of new IT solutions before the public tender for an association of major state institutions of the Czech Republic. The result of the research is the list of usual prices for the specified roles, including blended rate, based on median and interval between quartiles, all with demonstrable links to origin contracts. The discussion states additional social factors to be considered when interpreting and using the resulting list, like the subjective influence of validators, tendency for generalization, or defensive attitude of affected vendors.Bruckner, T.; Vencovský, F. (2020). Extracting usual service prices from public contracts. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 259-267. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2020.2020.11645OCS25926

MRI IN EVALUATION OF INFLAMMATORY MYOPATHY

Background: MRI of skeletal muscles has been widely used to assess several types of myopathies, including inherited and acquired muscle diseases. Objectives: To describe current possibilities in use of MRI in diagnostics and assessment of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs). Methods: T2 weighted images with fat suppression (T2W/FS) or short tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequence with long time to echo (TE) and T1 weighted images were used to evaluate inflammatory changes (STIR) and muscle atrophy or fat substitution (T1). Simple scoring system was used for correlative studies with histopathological changes. New and more elaborate system for scoring of MR scans was developed and used to evaluate longitudinal images during the therapeutic study. Results: Muscle biopsy guided by positive MRI finding contains significantly more inflammatory cells than the biopsy taken from MRI identified non-affected sites. However, even in parts of muscles, which look unaffected on MR scan, important numbers of the inflammatory cells can be found. It is mainly the signal intensity in MR scan, which is associated with disease activity in the acute presentation of IIMs. Longitudinal follow-up of patients with IIMs showed significant reduction of signal intensity in number of muscles when using new detailed scoring method. Conclusions: Muscle MRI is a useful method to guide the biopsy site in IIMs. Scoring system that uses semiquantitative assessment of individual muscles is sensitive for evaluation of improvement during the treatment. No universal scoring method has been validated and accepted so far for evaluation of inflammation and atrophic changes during IIMs. Developmnet of standard recommendations for muscle MRI assessment in IIMs is very much needed. References: 1. Tomasová Studýnková J, et al. Rheumatology (Oxford) 2007,46:1174–79. 2. Kubínová K, et al. Curr Opin Rheumatol 2017;29:623–31. 3. Kubínová K, et al. Clin Exp Rheumatol 2018;36 Suppl 114(5):74–81

Light pollution from outdoor lighting systems

Bakalářská práce se zabývá problematikou rušivého světla venkovních osvětlovacích soustav. Úvodní kapitoly jsou věnovány základům světelné techniky, vlastnostem světelných zdrojů a veřejného osvětlení. V teoretické části práce jsou následně uvedeny doporučení a požadavky technických norem na omezení rušivého světla a možnosti jeho vyhodnocení. Praktická část bakalářské práce se zabývá vyhodnocením světla směřujícího do horního poloprostoru reálné osvětlovací soustavy. Dále je vypracován návrh osvětlovací soustavy téhož objektu využívající moderní typ svítidla. Závěrečná část práce se věnuje porovnání obou soustav.The Bachelor thesis deals with the issue of obtrusive light from outdoor lighting installations. The introductory chapters are devoted to the basics of lighting technology, the characteristics of light sources and public lighting. In the theoretical part there are also recommendations and requirements of technical standards for limiting obtrusive light and possibilities of its evaluation. The practical part of the thesis deals with evaluation of the upward light ratio of the real lighting installation. In this chapter is also designed a lighting installation of the same object using a modern type of luminaire. The final part focuses on comparison of both systems

The metastasis-associated protein S100A4 promotes the inflammatory response of mononuclear cells via the TLR4 signalling pathway in rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives. S100A4 has been implicated in cancer and several inflammatory diseases, including RA. The aim of the present study was to determine whether S100A4 can stimulate proinflammatory cytokine production in mononuclear cells. Methods. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from patients with RA were stimulated with S100A4, S100A8, S100A9 and S100A12. The production of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α was measured by ELISA. Receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signalling were examined. For signalling pathway blocking studies, inhibitors of myeloid differentiation primary response gene 88 (MyD88), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) and the mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinases p38, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) were used. MAP kinase activation was evaluated by western blotting. Results. Stimulation of PBMCs with S100A4 significantly up-regulated IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α production compared with unstimulated cells (P < 0.001). Importantly, the production of these cytokines was markedly enhanced in response to S100A4 compared with S100A8 and S100A12; however, it was less pronounced compared with S100A9. Furthermore, enhanced production of proinflammatory cytokines in S100A4-stimulated PMBCs was at least partly mediated via TLR4, but not RAGEs, and by activation of the transcription factor NF-κB and the MAP kinases p38 and ERK1/2. Conclusion. This is the first study to demonstrate that S100A4 can induce an inflammatory response mediated by TLR4 and by the activation of NF-κB and the kinases p38 and ERK1/2 in mononuclear cells from patients with RA. Therefore S100A4 may be a potential therapeutic target for immune-mediated disease

Long-Term Efficacy and Safety in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Continuing on SB4 or Switching From Reference Etanercept to SB4

Objectives: SB4 (Benepali, Brenzys) is a biosimilar of reference etanercept (ETN). In a randomised, double-blind, 52-week study, SB4 demonstrated comparable efficacy and safety to ETN in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The open-label extension period evaluated long-term efficacy, safety and immunogenicity when continuing SB4 versus switching from ETN to SB4. Methods: In the randomised, double-blind phase, patients received weekly subcutaneous administration of 50 mg SB4 or ETN with background methotrexate for up to 52 weeks. Patients in the Czech Republic and Poland who completed the 52-week visit were enrolled in the open-label extension period and received SB4 for 48 additional weeks. Efficacy, safety and immunogenicity were assessed up to week 100. Results: Of 245 patients entering the extension period, 126 continued to receive SB4 (SB4/SB4) and 119 switched to SB4 (ETN/SB4). American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response rates were sustained and comparable between SB4/SB4 and ETN/SB4 with ACR20 response rates at week 100 of 77.9% and 79.1%, respectively. Other efficacy results, including radiographic progression, were also comparable between the groups. After week 52, rates of treatment-emergent adverse events were 47.6% (SB4/SB4) and 48.7% (ETN/SB4); one patient/group developed non-neutralising antidrug antibodies. No cases of active tuberculosis or injection-site reactions were reported during the extension period. One patient (SB4/SB4) died of hepatic cancer. Conclusions: SB4 was effective and well tolerated over 2 years in patients with RA. Efficacy, safety and immunogenicity were comparable between the SB4/SB4 and ETN/SB4 groups, showing no risk associated with switching patients from ETN to SB4