After the wars came to an end following Yugoslavia's dissolution, the Western Balkans (WB) embarked upon a path of transition and reform which for various political, security, economic and other ...reasons is still continuing today. Based on a broader analysis of the security framework in the region, this paper identifies the main transformative processes and analyses their elements and implications, which constitute the complex security in the WB. We assess the situation at the level of individual countries and extrapolate the findings for the whole region and Europe. With a view to evaluating the region's dynamics and underlying issues that correlate with and mutually impact on each other, we divide the transformation period into three processes: stabilisation with state-building, democratisation with institution-building, and Euro-Atlantic integration. Western Balkans security has been becoming ever more complex in the past 25 years due to these unfinished processes together with unresolved past issues arising from inter-related and mutually reinforcing political, socio-economic and ethno-national elements. Moreover, new-old security challenges have emerged that are further complicating the state of security. Instead of making progress with the democratic transition and the integration path, the various elements' interaction seems to place the region at risk of destabilisation and stalled progress coupled with the fact that not all requirements for stability have so far been met. The analysis concludes that the security framework is becoming increasingly complex and aggravated, in turn affecting the whole region's functioning and development and thus the entire Continent's stability and prosperity.
Background and Purpose: Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one of the most invasive tree species in Slovenia. Since its invasion into forests is expected, we must raise public awareness and ...prepare guidelines for forest management in the presence of invasive species. The aim of the research was to predict the potential distribution of tree of heaven, to detect the most endangered forest communities and to discover what characteristics of forest stands make them susceptible.Materials and methods: From databases, literature sources and field observations, we collected all localities in which tree of heaven appears. We assigned these localities geological, geomorphological, soil and climatic data. We then built an ecological model and prepared a map of potential distribution. Based on the modelled future distribution of tree of heaven, we randomly selected and sampled 50 plots in the area in which invasion is expected and beyond this area. We analyzed their morphological and ecological strategies, ecological condition, origin and social behavior spectrum.Results: We found that it has the largest invasive potential in western Slovenia. The model showed that the most susceptible forest communities appear in warm areas with pronounced climatic seasonality. Many differences occur in floristics and plant traits of forest communities in extreme positions, in terms of susceptibility to invasion, but in transitional areas, these differences are not so obvious, only a higher pH of soil and absence of species characteristic of acidophilus communities are an indicator of vulnerability.Conclusion: Susceptibility to invasion by tree of heaven is mainly influenced by macro-climatic conditions; in the transitional zone, communities thriving on shallow, carbonate bedrock are more vulnerable.
We report an exceptionally fast grassland recovery process from a karst plateau in SW Slovenia. Vegetation of old fields with different ages was sampled using a chronosequence of fields abandoned 1, ...3, 6, 9, 13, 15 and 100 years ago. We prepared dendrogram dividing the data set into 9 clusters that were further analyzed: diagnostic species, ecological conditions and life forms were evaluated. The initial stage of succession was characterized by segetal weeds and indicated high levels of soil nutrients. The second stage was dominated by dense patches of perennial forbs (most of them ruderal species) preferring also high levels of soil nutrients. The third stage was dominated by caespitose hemicryptophyte grasses, many of them of sub-Mediterranean origin. The first two stages took 13 years and both could be considered as early successional stages developing on nutrient rich soils. These stages were switched to late successional stage characterized by seminatural grassland species. The quick succession can probably be attributed to the rich species pool of natural grassland flora, the small size and annual mowing of abandoned agricultural fields and the close proximity of seed sources.
Based on macroecological data, we test the hypothesis whether European tree species of temperate and boreal distribution maintain their water and nutrient supply in the more arid southern margin of ...their distribution range by shifting to more fertile soils with higher water storage than in their humid core distribution range (cf. soil compensatory effects). To answer this question, we gathered a large dataset with more than 200,000 plots that we related to summer aridity (SA), derived from WorldClim data, as well as soil available water capacity (AWC) and soil nutrient status, derived from the European soil database. The soil compensatory effects on tree species distribution were tested through generalized additive models. The hypothesis of soil compensatory effects on tree species distribution under limiting aridity was supported in terms of statistical significance and plausibility. Compared to a bioclimatic baseline model, inclusion of soil variables systematically improved the models’ goodness of fit. However, the relevance measured as the gain in predictive performance was small, with largest improvements for
P. sylvestris
,
Q. petraea
and
A. alba
. All studied species, except
P. sylvestris,
preferred high AWC under high SA. For
F. sylvatica
,
P. abies
and
Q. petraea
, the compensatory effect of soil AWC under high SA was even more pronounced on acidic soils. Soil compensatory effects might have decisive implications for tree species redistribution and forest management strategies under anthropogenic climate change. Therefore, soil compensatory effects deserve more intensive investigation, ideally, in studies combining different spatial scales to reduce the uncertainty associated with the precision of soil information.
Human recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEpo) that is used for the treatment of the chemotherapy-induced anaemia in cancer patients was shown to cause detrimental effects on the course of disease due to ...increased adverse events inflicting patient's survival, potentially related to rHuEpo-induced cancer progression. In this study, we elucidate the effect of rHuEpo administration on breast cancer cell proliferation and gene expression after cisplatin (cDDP) induced cytotoxicity.
Two breast carcinoma models, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, were used differing in oestrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors and p53 status. Cells were cultured with or without rHuEpo for 24 h or 9 weeks and their growth characteristics after cDDP treatment were assessed together with expression of genes involved in the p53-signaling pathway.
Short-term exposure of breast cancer cells to rHuEpo lowers their proliferation and reduces cDDP cytotoxic potency. In contrast, long-term exposure of MCF-7 cells to rHuEpo increases proliferation and predisposes MCF-7 cells to cDDP cytotoxicity, but has no effect on MDA-MB-231 cells. MDA-MB-231 cells show altered level of ERK phosphorylation, indicating involvement of MAPK signalling pathway. Gene expression analysis of p53-dependent genes and bcl-2 gene family members confirmed differences between long and short-term rHuEpo effects, indicating the most prominent changes in BCL2 and BAD expression.
Proliferation and survival characteristics of MCF-7 cells are reversely modulated by the length of the rHuEpo exposure. On the other hand, MDA-MB-231 cells are almost irresponsive to long-term rHuEpo, supposedly due to the mutated p53 and ER(+)/PR(-) status. The p53 and ER/PR status may predict tumour response on rHuEpo and cDDP treatment.
High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) are the main etiological factor of cervical cancer. Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN 3) is the latest pre-invasive stage of cervical cancer, with ...an approximately 20% progression rate to invasive cervical carcinoma.
To establish the pre-vaccination distribution of HPV genotypes in Slovenian women with CIN 3 lesions, in order to assess the potential benefit of prophylactic HPV vaccination in Slovenia, and to provide baseline data for monitoring the potential replacement of HPV genotypes under selective pressure of HPV vaccines.
A total of 261 cervical swabs collected from women with histologically confirmed CIN 3 lesions were analyzed using four genotyping methods: the Abbott RealTime High Risk HPV Assay, the Innogenetics INNO-LiPA HPV Genotyping Extra Test, and the in-house PGMY09/11, and CPI/CPIIg polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. Of 261 samples, 253 (96.9%) were HPV positive. The most common HPV genotype in CIN 3 lesions in the Slovenian samples was HPV-16 (59.0%), followed by HPV-31 (7.5%), HPV-33 (7.1%), HPV-58 (5.0%), and HPV-51 (4.0%). The presence of more than one HPV genotype was detected in 49/253 (19.4%) samples. Together, HPV-16 and HPV- 18 accounted for 67.4% of CIN 3 lesions in this Slovenian population.
The high proportion of CIN 3 lesions caused by HPV-16 and HPV-18 should further support the recent decision to include the prophylactic vaccination against HPV in the national vaccination program in Slovenia.
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