Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are characterized by (i) opposing biological mechanisms, (ii) an inverse correlation between their incidences, and (iii) oxidative stress being a common ...denominator of both diseases. Increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cancer cells from oncogenic signaling and/or metabolic disturbances leads to upregulation of cellular antioxidant capacity to maintain ROS levels below a toxic threshold. Combining drugs that induce high levels of ROS with compounds that suppress cellular antioxidant capacity by depleting antioxidant systems glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and thioredoxin (TRX) and/or targeting glucose metabolism represents a potential anticancer strategy. In AD, free metals and/or Aβ:metal complexes may cause damage to biomolecules in the brain (via Fenton reaction), including DNA. Metal chelation, based on the application of selective metal chelators or metal delivery, may induce neuroprotective signaling and represents a promising therapeutic strategy. This review examines therapeutic strategies based on the modulation of oxidative stress in cancer and AD.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by the formation, aggregation and accumulation of amyloid beta, perturbed metal (copper, iron and zinc) ...homeostasis, metal-induced oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, aberrant activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and other pathologies. The aim of this review is to discuss the current therapies based on the “combination-drugs-multitargets” strategy to target multiple pathologies to block the progression of pathogenesis of AD. In addition to cholinergic and amyloid targets, a significant effort is focused on targeting the metal-induced oxidative stress component of the disease. The main focus of research is based on modifications of existing drugs with specific biological activity. Tacrine was the first AChE inhibitor to be introduced into clinical practice and has been frequently used for the design of multitarget-directed ligands. A number of hybrid compounds containing tacrine and structural moieties derived from natural sources such as flavonoids quercetin, rutin, coumarin, gallamine, resveratrol, scutellarin, anisidine, hesperetin, (−)-epicatechin and other molecules (melatonin, trolox) have also been applied to function as multitarget-directed ligands. Most of these hybrids are potent inhibitors of AChE and butyrylcholinesterase and also of amyloid-beta aggregation. In addition, the antioxidant functionality, represented by coumarins, melatonin and other antioxidant molecules reduces the level of oxidative stress via ROS-scavenging mechanisms, as well as via chelation of redox-active Cu and Fe, thus suppressing the formation of ROS via the Fenton reaction. Various medicinal plants are under investigation for their ability to ameliorate symptoms of AD. The therapeutic potency of huperzine A and B, ginseng, curcumin and other compounds is manifested predominantly by the inhibitory action toward AChE, antioxidant or radical-scavenging and redox metal-chelating activity, inhibition of amyloid-beta aggregation and tau-protein hyperphosphorylation and antiinflammatory activity. Flavonoids not only function as antioxidants and metal-chelating agents, but also interact with protein kinase and lipid kinase signaling pathways, and others involving mitogen-activated protein kinase, NF-kappaB and tyrosine kinase. Among the most promising group of substances with potential activity against AD are the flavonoids, including myricetin, morin, rutin, quercetin, fisetin, kaempferol, apigenin and glycitein, which have been shown, in vitro, to possess antiamyloidogenic and fibril-destabilization activity, as well as being able to act as metal chelators and to suppressing oxidative stress. In terms of the clinical use of multifunctional hybrids, herbal drugs or flavonoids against AD, some remaining challenges are to establish the ideal dose to develop effective formulations to preserve bioavailability and to determine the stage when they should be administered. If the onset of the disease could be delayed by a decade, the number of AD victims would be significantly reduced.
Abstract Introduction: The current development of the world economy defined as the Fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is rather determined by a larger social change caused by the ...interconnection of the physical, virtual, and social worlds. It affects the market of products, production factors, sectors, services, education, research, social systems, the labour market, the education, and specialization, including the legal framework, and the use of digital technologies for production and education purposes. Purpose: The aim of the literature review will be the description and analysis of Industry 4.0, which are digitization and the application of digital technologies, associated with new emerging jobs in the circular economy, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, development, sales of products and services and the focus on human resources, as Industry 4.0 requires new standards regarding Education 4.0. Methods: The study, analysis, evaluation and comparison of selected scientific papers and research reviews of international organizations (European Union, OECD, etc.) related to Industry 4.0 and Education 4.0 resulted in the need for a significant transformation of education and labour markets, because of newly emerging professions demanding new profiles of graduates. Conclusions: Calls for changes in the educational structure and new qualifications will be formulated regarding the Slovak economy by 2030. A successful transition to Industry 4.0 paradigm requires the linkage between industrial policy and educational, scientific, technical and innovation policies.
The private School of Economics and Management of Public Administration in Bratislava educates experts for public administration in Slovakia through bachelor and master study programs. The high ...percentage of graduates employed in governing bodies and municipalities proves the high quality of theoretical and practical level of education. The scientific and pedagogical personnel and particulary the ingenious and comprehensive education quality control system has its share in achieving distinct results. The authors of this article present a well-established system of education quality. They analyze and evaluate the system of quality measuring and evaluating using internal tools and procedures. The article pays special attention to the external form of quality measurement and evaluation through independent international institution Trendence. Criteria and areas of evaluation are assessed throughout the university, Slovakia, and Europe, which is presented by more than 1,000 higher education institutions.
Medicinal plants are a significant source of biological active and health protective compounds. Post-harvest treatments can affect, in different ways, the content and biological activity of such ...compounds. One of the most common post-harvesting methods is drying. In this study, we investigated the effect of drying method on the content of natural pigments (chlorophylls, carotenoids and anthocyanins) and on the antioxidant capacity of two traditionally used herbs, the
Melissa officinalis
(lemon balm) and the
Urtica dioica
(stinging nettle) both of them landraces collected from plants grown in Nitra region, West of Slovakia. The freeze-dried samples of both herbs exhibited the highest content of chlorophyll
a
(7.55 ± 0.13 mg/g dry mass for lemon balm and 9.41 ± 0.17 mg/g dry mass for stinging nettle), chlorophyll
b
(3.12 ± 0.28 mg/g dry mass for lemon balm and 3.34 ± 0.24 mg/g dry mass for stinging nettle) and carotenoids (2.11 ± 0.24 mg/g dry mass for lemon balm and 2.62 ± 0.06 mg/g dry mass for stinging nettle). The content of chlorophylls and carotenoids correlated with the DPPH antioxidant (radical scavenging) capacity. Higher antioxidant capacity of the lemon balm extracts compared to nettle samples was attributed to the higher content of polyphenol compounds anthocyanins. Despite the higher cost, the freeze drying (lyophilisation) was recommended as the most suitable drying method, mainly for reasons of preserving maximum pigment content and antioxidant capacity.
This contribution deals with a financial analysis and financial resources of the European Union in a selected company. For food industry, it is now very much topical, for the sake of market stability ...and competitiveness, to use the available Euro-funds to the maximum possible extent in 2014-2020 1. Regarding the new priorities of the European Union, new conditions of the international market and the new competition, it is essential for companies in each sector to know their financial structure. It is the financial situation that provides an over-all characteristic of the company, which enables to correctly select resources to finance needs, and to allocate the obtained resources to particular items of the property. Optimization of the financial structure in food industry companies should bring a new view of a rational composition of company's equity and liabilities. For the company, the financial analysis is currently an important measure, as it has been applying for a non-returnable financial assistance from the Rural Development Programme of the Slovak Republic for 2014-2020. One part of the application requires proving the satisfaction of the economic viability criteria, and financial analysis is the tool which can either confirm or rebut this viability. Keywords: Food industry; Financial analysis; Management; European Union; Invention; Business results.
SAFETY MANAGEMENT OF COMPLEX FACILITIES Prochazkova, Dana; Prochazka, Jan; Rusko, Miroslav ...
Annals of DAAAM & proceedings,
01/2020
Journal Article, Book Chapter
Peer reviewed
Open access
The safe community is now at time of globalisation very dependent on a safety level of complex facilities ensuring the territory by basic service necessary for human live, e.g. the electric energy on ...which there are dependent supplies of good quality drinking water, utility water, information distribution etc. Series of events from recent years connected with complex facilities failures showed their high importance. The complex facility represents multistage mutually overlapping systems, the type of which is a system of systems. The paper presents the model for complex facilities safety management based on the combination of principles: All-Hazard-Approach and Defence-In-Depth. It shows the way how to manage the safety of individual complex facility systems and the whole complex facility in time. Keywords: Complex facility; Provision of territory services; Security; Safety; Model for complex facility safety management.
The Urban guided transport management cyber security is very important for human security and economic development of the Praha capital. The Urban guided transport management system (UGTMS) as ...subway, transports from several hundreds of thousands to million passengers per day. Intensity and irreplaceability of transport make from these subways the critical infrastructures of cities, regions or countries. Modern transport critical infrastructures contain in addition to physical and social parts also cyber control systems and they are marked as cyber physical systems (CPS). The CPSs are characterized by safety-critical nature, complexity, connectivity, and open technology. The CPS complexity, openness and dynamics form a large attack surface that may lead to failures and irreparable damage. Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) can meet the high system security requirements. The MILS is a high-assurance security architecture based on the concepts of separation and controlled information flow. The article discusses the possibilities of using the MILS platform in the data communication subsystem, which connects the individual UGTMS subsystems (Wayside subsystem, On-board subsystem and operation control subsystem). The communication system should guarantee transmission parameters and do not affect security level of the respective subsystems, accordingly. Keywords: Human security; Transport; Management; Cyber physical systems; Critical infrastructures.
The drinking water supply network is important part of critical infrastructure of each country. Therefore, protection of drinking water supply network is under special interest. The drinking water ...supply network has three variants of network topology: a) branch, b) loop and c) combined. The paper describes the impacts of drinking water supply in Central Bohemia region if the failure is caused by two different origins, i.e. by the disruption of distribution network and contamination with toxic substance in one of drinking water source. The Ishikawa diagram shows sources of the drinking water supply failures. By special form of "What, If' method, they are shown the impacts of disruption of distribution network for drinking water supply and the impacts of contamination of source by toxic substance. Keywords: Drinking water supply; Failure of supply; Distribution network disruption; Contamination.
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