Geotouristic values of the city an example from Pruszków, SW Masovia, Poland

In the urbanized area of Pruszków there are objects of geological and geomorphological heritage, i.e. objects of inanimate nature. They include glacier-originated relief and deposits: Pliocene clays, till, Scandinavian boulders and water. Their considerable differentiation proves geodiversity of this city, lying in south-western Mazovia. Some of them have potential to become geotouristic attractions of this region. Unfortunately, the city authorities, and consequently the city residents are not aware of the value of these assets. The lack of dissemination of knowledge about the less known natural resources causes that they remain unused in the sustainable development of the municipality and the city, as well as in shaping the image of the city.W artykule przedstawiono dziedzictwo geologiczne małego mazowieckiego miasta, które stanowi potencjał rozwoju geoturystyki miejskiej. Od zaangażowania lokalnych władz samorządowych w zagospodarowanie elementów przyrody nieożywionej do pełnienia funkcji turystycznych z zachowaniem zasad ochrony przyrody zależy możliwość czerpania korzyści ekonomicznych z rozwijającej się zrównoważonej geoturystyki

Potential values of urban geotourism development in a small Polish town (Pruszków, Central Mazovia, Poland)

The paper presents abiotic resources which are located in a small town in central Poland. They remain unknown to authorities and inhabitants. For the first time they are illustrated in a scientific paper. The objects of local geological heritage point to geodiversity of this district town in the south-western Mazovia. When the geodiversity is interpreted in a simple, an understandable way, it may become attractive for tourists. We show how abiotic resources located within an urban area can be used to support urban geotourism development. The scientific, educational and aesthetic values of these resources may create the town image in accordance with the principles of environmental protection

Petrographic analyses and indicator erratics of gravels of the Odra lobe

Fennoscandinavian er rat ics found in the gla cial de pos its till and in the glaciofluvial sed i ments within the main limit of the Odra gla cier lobe (NW Po land and NE Ger many), have been ex am ined in two frac tions: of 4–10 mm and 20–60 mm. The most nu mer ous in the frac tion of 4–10 mm are: crys tal line rocks (Cr; 35–40%) orig i nat ing in the Pro terozoic Bal tic Shield as well as Lower Palaeozoic lime stones (LPL; 35–40%) – from the sed i men tary sheet cov er ing the Pro tero zoic Bal tic Shield in the area of cen tral Bal tic Sea. Per cent age of sand stones (S) amounts to 10–15%. The remain ing rock types (sev eral per cent each) are: Palaeozoic shales (PS), the out crops of which are lo cal ized in Scania (Sk¯ne) and on Born holm, Cre ta ceous lime stones (CL) and flintstones (F) orig i nat ing from the west ern part of the south ern Bal tic Sea as well as quartz (Q), milk quartz (MQ) and iso lated grains of De vo nian dolomites (DD). From the anal y sis of in di ca tor er rat ics, which was car ried out in the 20–60 mm frac tion, it ap pears that mainly the out -crops lo cal ized in Sm¯land (e.g. red and grey Växjö gran ites, P¯skallavik por phy ries or Tessini and Kalmarsund sand - stones) as well as in Scania (Höör and Hardeberga sand stones) and Re gion Blekinge–Born holm (e.g. Karlshamn and Halen gran ites as well as NexÝ and Bavnodde sand stones) had been sub jected to the gla cial pluck ing. The o ret i cal boul der cen tres (TBC, Ger man: TGZ das Theoretische Geschiebezentrum, Lüttig 1958), which were cal cu lated for 23 sam ples, are lo cal ized mostly in a small area in Sm¯land, be tween 15°E–16°E and 56.5°N–58.5°N. Apart from in di ca - tor er rat ics the sta tis ti cal ones are nu mer ous, that are first of all grey and red Lower Palaeozoic lime stones with their out crops lo cal ized at the bot tom of the cen tral Bal tic Sea. Tak ing into ac count the TBC val ues of in di ca tor er rat ics as well as high per cent age of sta tis ti cal er rat ics it can be pro nounced that the sec tion of cen tral and west ern Bal tic Sea as well as the one of south-east ern Swe den had been sub jected to the heavi est gla cial pluck ing by that part of the Pleis to - cene ice-sheet which reached the stud ied area dur ing the Pom er a nian Phase

Potential values of urban geotourism development in a small Polish town (Pruszków, Central Mazovia, Poland)

The paper presents abiotic resources which are located in a small town in central Poland. They remain unknown to authorities and inhabitants. For the first time they are illustrated in a scientific paper. The objects of local geological heritage point to geodiversity of this district town in the south-western Mazovia. When the geodiversity is interpreted in a simple, an understandable way, it may become attractive for tourists. We show how abiotic resources located within an urban area can be used to support urban geotourism development. The scientific, educational and aesthetic values of these resources may create the town image in accordance with the principles of environmental protection

Erratic boulders from the Przedbórz Region as objects important for Quaternary geology and geoheritage

The Przedbórz region in the Przedborska Upland (central Poland) is characterized by an above-average presence of erratic boulders. They have never been the subject of separate studies before. The aim of this article is to indicate their large population in central Poland and to characterize the traces of the impact of various morphogenetic processes on their current size and shape. The authors indicate the Scandinavian source areas of some of the studied erratic boulders. The article also highlights the scientific, educational, social and aesthetic function of erratic boulders, which should be used when planning the sustainable development of the region. In peripheral tourist areas, geotourism is an effective tool for economic growth. The erratic boulders discussed in the article, which are unique objects of natural heritage, have great potential to revive this branch of nature tourism

Low-dose ciclosporin therapy of erythrodermic psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic, recurrent inflammatory skin disease which affects around 2% of the population and is characterized by erythematous and scaly macules and papules of greatly varying degree of involvement. Ciclosporin (Cs) is a therapeutic agent rarely used in the treatment of erythrodermic psoriasis as a monotherapy [1]

The effect of oxidative stress on nucleotide-excision repair in colon tissue of newborn piglets.

Nucleotide-excision repair (NER) is important for the maintenance of genomic integrity and to prevent the onset of carcinogenesis. Oxidative stress was previously found to inhibit NER in vitro, and dietary antioxidants could thus protect DNA not only by reducing levels of oxidative DNA damage, but also by protecting NER against oxidative stress-induced inhibition. To obtain further insight in the relation between oxidative stress and NER activity in vivo, oxidative stress was induced in newborn piglets by means of intra-muscular injection of iron (200mg) at day 3 after birth. Indeed, injection of iron significantly increased several markers of oxidative stress, such as 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) levels in colon DNA and urinary excretion of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoGua). In parallel, the influence of maternal supplementation with an antioxidant-enriched diet was investigated in their offspring. Supplementation resulted in reduced iron concentrations in the colon (P=0.004) at day 7 and a 40% reduction of 8-oxodG in colon DNA (P=0.044) at day 14 after birth. NER capacity in animals that did not receive antioxidants was significantly reduced to 32% at day 7 compared with the initial NER capacity on day 1 after birth. This reduction in NER capacity was less pronounced in antioxidant-supplemented piglets (69%). Overall, these data indicate that NER can be reduced by oxidative stress in vivo, which can be compensated for by antioxidant supplementation

Benefits and Risks of Iron Supplementation in Anemic Neonatal Pigs

Iron deficiency is a common health problem. The most severe consequence of this disorder is iron deficiency anemia (IDA), which is considered the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Newborn piglets are an ideal model to explore the multifaceted etiology of IDA in mammals, as IDA is the most prevalent deficiency disorder throughout the early postnatal period in this species and frequently develops into a critical illness. Here, we report the very low expression of duodenal iron transporters in pigs during the first days of life. We postulate that this low expression level is why the iron demands of the piglet body are not met by iron absorption during this period. Interestingly, we found that a low level of duodenal divalent metal transporter 1 and ferroportin, two iron transporters located on the apical and basolateral membrane of duodenal absorptive enterocytes, respectively, correlates with abnormally high expression of hepcidin, despite the poor hepatic and overall iron status of these animals. Parenteral iron supplementation by a unique intramuscular administration of large amounts of iron dextran is current practice for the treatment of IDA in piglets. However, the potential toxicity of such supplemental iron implies the necessity for caution when applying this treatment. Here we demonstrate that a modified strategy for iron supplementation of newborn piglets with iron dextran improves the piglets’ hematological status, attenuates the induction of hepcidin expression, and minimizes the toxicity of the administered iron