A vonalas és lepelerózió arányának vizsgálata vízgyűjtő léptékben

A talajerózió hatása a termőföldek mennyiségi és minőségi romlására közismert. Az elhordott, majd máshol lerakott talaj káros hatásairól valamivel kevesebb szó esik, pedig e folyamatok szintén jelentős problémákat okozhatnak. A szántóföldön eltemetik a növényeket, betakarják az utakat, feltöltik a csatornákat, tavakat, csökkentik a sankolóterek kapacitását, sőt közvetlen veszélyt jelentenek lakóépületekre, esetenként egész falvakra. Jellemzően a felszínen elmozduló talaj nem tesz meg nagy távolságot, jelentős része néhány 100m-en belül lerakódik. Bizonyos esetekben azonban a hordalék nagy távolságot képes megtenni és a pusztuló felszíntől távol halmozódik fel. Ahhoz, hogy a hordalék ellen hatékonyan tudjunk védekezni, szükséges az elhordott talaj eredeti helyzetének megállapítása. Egy durva csoportosítás szerint egy talajszelvényt két fő részre bonthatunk: a felső, kb. 20cm-es rétegre és az alatta fekvő, a talajművelés által szinte alig bolygatott részre. E felső réteg kiváló nyomjelzője a Cs-137 izotóp, mely kizárólag a közelmúlt légköri kihullásából származik és a talajhoz jól kötődik. A felületi rétegerózió, a csepperózió és a vonalas erózió egyes fajtái kizárólag csak a felszíni néhány cm-es réteget pusztítják. Egyedül az árkos erózió és a szuffózió erodálja a talajok mélyebb rétegeit is. A vízgyűjtő kifolyásánál felhalmozódó altalaj ez utóbbi két eróziós forma jelenlétére, minőségére és arányára utal. A Tetves-patak vízgyűjtő területe a Balaton D-i részvízgyűjtőjéhez tartozik. A völgyben hosszabb ideje folynak részletes talajeróziós mérések és kutatások. E területen vizsgáltuk a felhalmozódási térszíneken felgyűlt szedimentet. A sankoló nagymennyiségű hordalékot tartott vissza, feltöltődése szakaszosan, különböző szemcseösszetételű rétegekkel zajlott. A hordalék a sankolóban szétterülve nem osztályozódott a távolság függvényében. A minimális növényi keverés és átrétegződés ellenére a Cs-137 izotóp aktivitása vízszintesen és függőlegesen is nagy szórást mutatott a sankolótérben. A Cs-137-es módszer segítségével kimutattuk, hogy a sankolóban lerakott talaj nem csak a felületi rétegerózió hatására lepusztult feltalaj, hanem jelentős mennyiségű altalaj, illetve homokos lösz is. A vízgyűjtőn tehát jelentős a szerepe a vonalas eróziónak

Acoustic emission and DSC investigations of anomalous stress-stain curves and burst like shape recovery of Ni49Fe18Ga27Co6 shape memory single crystals

Simultaneous acoustic emission, AE, and DSC measurements under compression along [110]A direction were carried out on Ni49Fe18Ga27Co6 shape memory single crystals. The compression resulted in anomalous stressstrain loops with stress drops/jumps on it, reflecting a sudden formation/dissolution of a more stable (detwinned) martensite structural modification than the thermally induced (twinned) one. The final detwinned martensite, obtained below a certain temperature, was stable even after downloading: during heating it showed a burst-like recovery at about 35K higher transformation temperature than that of the thermally induced one, with an audible click. It was obtained that the number of acoustic events showed strong asymmetry: e.g. for stress induced transformations the number of hits for uploading was larger. Simultaneous measurements of stress-time curves and AE versus time revealed that in the nucleation/dissolution processes in both (up and down) directions, as an intermediate step, the twinned martensite was first formed and resulted in additional AE events. This was interpreted by the easy as well as difficult nucleation of the twinned and detwinned martensites, respectively. The stress drops on the uploading stress-strain curve were attributed to subsequent nucleation of the detwinned martensite from the twinned modification and were followed by a sharp decrease of the AE activity. This indicated that the formation of detwinned martensite is a sudden, fast process and can take place without significant elastic energy storage. This was also in agreement with the fact that during burst like thermal recovery the width of the transition was very small (Af ≅ As). Similarly, during downloading the stress jumps were interpreted as sudden dissolutions of the detwinned phase by retwinning and at all stress jumps there were local maxima on the AE activity curve

Correction to the Clausius-Mosotti equation: the dielectric constant of nonpolar fluids from Monte Carlo simulations

We examine the dielectric constant of nonpolar fluids by direct Monte Carlo simulations on the basis of the polarizable hard sphere (PHS) model, where the spheres carry molecular polarizabilities. Point dipoles are induced in the spheres partly by an external electric field and partly by other molecules. It has been known that the Clausius–Mosotti equation needs a correction due to mutual polarization between molecules. We reproduce the qualitative behavior found in experiments: the correction increases with increasing density, reaches a maximum, and decreases at high densities. We show that the classic theory of Kirkwood and Yvon is quantitatively correct for the PHS model. © 2009 American Institute of Physic

Enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) is a reliable immunohistochemical marker to differentiate malignant and benign hepatic tumors

BACKGROUND: The immunohistochemical demonstration of Enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) proved to be a useful marker in several tumor types. It has been described to distinguish reliably hepatocellular carcinomas from liver adenomas and other benign hepatocellular lesions. However, no other types of malignant liver tumors were studied so far. METHODS: To evaluate the diagnostic value of this protein in hepatic tumors we have investigated the presence of EZH2 by immunohistochemistry in hepatocellular carcinomas and other common hepatic tumors.EZH2 expression was examined in 44 hepatocellular carcinomas, 23 cholangiocarcinomas, 31 hepatoblastomas, 16 other childhood tumor types (rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, Wilms' tumor and rhabdoid tumor), 17 metastatic liver tumors 24 hepatocellular adenomas, 15 high grade dysplastic nodules, 3 biliary cystadenomas, 3 biliary hamartomas and 3 Caroli's diseases. RESULTS: Most of the malignant liver tumors were positive for EZH2, but neither of the adenomas, cirrhotic/dysplastic nodules, reactive and hamartomatous biliary ductules stained positively. CONCLUSIONS: Our immunostainings confirm that EZH2 is a sensitive marker of hepatocellular carcinoma, but its specificity is very low, since almost all the investigated malignant liver tumors were positive regardless of their histogenesis. Based on these results EZH2 is a sensitive marker of malignancy in hepatic tumors. In routine surgical pathology EZH2 could be most helpful to diagnose cholangiocarcinomas, because as far as we know this is the first marker to distinguish transformed and reactive biliary structures. Although hepatoblastomas also express EZH2, the diagnostic significance of this observation seems to be quite limited whereas, the structurally similar, other blastic childhood tumors are also positive. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1173195902735693

The effect of indomethacin, myeloperoxidase, and certain steroid hormones on bactericidal activity: an ex vivo and in vivo experimental study.

BACKGROUND: The role of myeloperoxidase (MPO) is essential in the killing of phagocytosed bacteria. Certain steroid hormones increase MPO plasma concentration. Our aim was to test the effect of MPO, its inhibitor indomethacin, and certain steroid hormones on bactericidal activity. METHODS: Human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) were incubated with opsonised Escherichia coli and either MPO, indomethacin, estradiol, or hydrocortisone. Intracellular killing capacity was evaluated with UV microscopy after treatment with fluorescent dye. Next, an in vivo experiment was performed with nine groups of rats: in the first phase of the study indomethacin treatment and Pasteurella multocida infection (Ii), indomethacin treatment without infection (I0), untreated control with infection (Mi) and untreated control without infection (M0); in the second phase of the study rats with infection and testosterone treatment (NT), castration, infection and testosterone treatment (CT), castration, infection and estradiol treatment (CE), non-castrated infected control (N0), and castrated infected control (C0). After treatment bacteria were reisolated from the liver and heart blood on agar plates, and laboratory parameters were analyzed. For the comparison of laboratory results ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis test and LSD post hoc test was used. RESULTS: Indomethacin did not have a remarkable effect on the bacterial killing of PMNs, while the other compounds increased bacterial killing to various degrees. In the animal model indomethacin and infection caused a poor clinical state, a great number of reisolated bacteria, elevated white blood cell (WBC) count, decreased C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum albumin levels. Testosterone treatment resulted in less bacterial colony numbers in group NT, but not in group CT compared to respective controls (N0, C0). Estradiol treatment (CE) decreased colony numbers compared to control (C0). Hormone administration resulted in lower WBC counts, and in group CE, a decreased CRP. CONCLUSIONS: MPO, estradiol, and hydrocortisone improve bacterial killing activity of PMNs. Indomethacin treatment and castration weaken immune responses and clinical state of infected rats, while testosterone and estradiol have a beneficial effect

Microthrombotic renal involvement in an SLE patient with concomitant catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome: the beneficial effect of rituximab treatment

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