If humans began systematically burning after they arrived, this would diminish the effects of fire as lighting

more fires increases their frequency but lowers their intensity, since fuel loads are not increased. Flannery (1994:230) suggested that the extinction of large herbivores preceded large scale burning in Australia and the subsequent increase in fuel loads from unconsumed vegetation set the stage for the “fire-loving plant” communities that dominate the continent today. A similar process may have played out much later in Madagascar. Burney et al. (2003) used methods similar to Gill et al. (2009) to demonstrate that this website increases in fire frequency postdate megafaunal decline Bleomycin price and vegetation change, and are the direct result of human impacts on megafauna communities. Human-assisted extinctions of large herbivores in Madagascar, North America, and Australia, may all have resulted in dramatic shifts in plant communities and fire regimes, setting off a cascade of ecological changes that contributed to higher extinction rates. With the advent of agriculture, especially intensive agricultural

production, anthropogenic effects increasingly took precedence over natural climate change as the driving forces behind plant and animal extinctions (Smith and Zeder, 2013). Around much of the world, humans experienced a cultural and economic transformation from small-scale hunter–gatherers to larger and more complex agricultural communities. By the Early Holocene, domestication of plants and animals was underway in several regions including Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and parts of the Americas. Domesticates quickly spread from these centers or were invented independently with local wild plants and

ADP ribosylation factor animals in other parts of the world (see Smith and Zeder, 2013). With domestication and agriculture, there was a fundamental shift in the relationship between humans and their environments (Redman, 1999, Smith and Zeder, 2013 and Zeder et al., 2006). Sedentary communities, human population growth, the translocation of plants and animals, the appearance and spread of new diseases, and habitat alterations all triggered an accelerating wave of extinctions around the world. Ecosystems were transformed as human subsistence economies shifted from smaller scale to more intensified generalized hunting and foraging and to the specialized and intensive agricultural production of one or a small number of commercial products. In many cases, native flora and fauna were seen as weeds or pests that inhibited the production of agricultural products. In tropical and temperate zones worldwide, humans began clearing large expanses of natural vegetation to make room for agricultural fields and grazing pastures.

4–1.5 with a mean value close to 0.9; data not shown). Fallout patterns of 110mAg:137Cs ratio in soils of Fukushima Prefecture provided a way to delineate three distinctive zones (Fig. 3, Table 1; i.e., ‘eastern’, ‘southern’ and ‘western’ zones). A Kruskal–Wallis H-test was conducted and it confirmed that these three zones were characterized by significantly different values of 110mAg:137Cs ratio (P < 0.001; α = 0.05). The differences in fallout patterns between 110mAg and 137Cs were most

likely due to the fact that those radionuclides were released during different explosions affecting reactors containing different fuel assemblages (Schwantes et al., 2012). Furthermore, even though the overall chronology of the reactor explosions could be reconstructed selleck chemicals (e.g., Le Petit et al., 2012), the subsequent radionuclide deposits are still imperfectly understood. To our knowledge, selleck screening library studies that modelled radionuclide deposits across Fukushima Prefecture dealt with 131I and/or 137Cs exclusively (e.g., Morino et al., 2013), and never with 110mAg. The single main operational difference between the FDNPP damaged reactors is that mixed-oxide (MOX) containing plutonium fuel that generates 110mAg as a fission product was only used in reactor 3 (Le Petit et al., 2012),

which may explain this different radionuclide deposition pattern. In the coastal study area, the area covered by both ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ zones was unfortunately only large enough in the Nitta River catchment to be subsequently used to track the dispersion of contaminated Forskolin molecular weight sediment based on values of this ratio measured in soils as well as in river sediment (the area covered by the ‘western’ zone

was too small in the Mano River catchment, and no soil sample was collected by MEXT in the ‘western’ part of the Ota River catchment; Fig. 4). Descriptive statistics of 110mAg:137Cs values in the single Nitta catchment confirmed that the spatial variability of this ratio provided significantly different signatures in both ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ areas in this catchment (Table 2). In order to use this ratio to track sediment pathways, both radionuclides should exhibit a similar behaviour in soils and sediment. A wide range of investigations dealt with 137Cs behaviour in soils, but a much lower number of studies addressed the behaviour of 110mAg in soils and sediment. However, according to our literature review, 137Cs and 110mAg are characterized by similar solid/liquid partition coefficient (Kd) values (9.0 × 101 to 4.4 × 103) in both soils and sediment (IAEA, 1994, IPSN, 1994, Garnier-Laplace et al., 1997 and Roussel-Debet and Colle, 2005). Furthermore, it was demonstrated that 110mAg is not mobile in soils (Alloway, 1995) and that it tends to concentrate in the few first centimetres of the soil uppermost surface, as it was reported for 137Cs in Fukushima region (Kato et al., 2012, Handl et al., 2000 and Shang and Leung, 2003).

Wei et al. (2000) even found that the highest runoff ratio and erosion rates occurred not in wet years, but in dry years in the loess region, which is ascribed to the high fluctuations and variabilities of temporal rainfall in semi-arid climates (Hogarth et al., 2004 and Nearing et al., 2005). Therefore, runoff and soil loss must be further examined on a storm event basis. The following are the supplementary data to this article. The event runoff and soil loss from SSP and LSP were listed in Supplementary Table 3. The average event runoff per unit area was 11.1, 11.5, 11.8, 12.2, 12.4, and 12.9 mm

on SSP, in comparison of 6.2, 4.9, 6.8, 5.8, 5.4, 5.0 mm on LSP at 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25° and 30°, respectively. The higher runoff per event on SSP than on LSP was partly ascribed to the greater average event rainfall amount (33.7 mm) selleck kinase inhibitor RG7204 concentration over the SSP monitoring period than that (25.3 mm) over the LSP monitoring period. Correspondingly, the mean event runoff coefficient was higher on SSP than on LSP at all the slope angles, with 33.1, 34, 35, 36.4, 36.9, 38.2% on SSP, comparing 24.6, 19.2,26.6,22.8,21.5, 19.8% on

LSP at 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25°, 30°, respectively. This was partly because the proportion of rainfall lost to the initial infiltration and ponding prior to runoff initiation was inversely related to the event rainfall amount. The following are the supplementary data to this article. At 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25° and 30°, the mean event soil loss was 423.5, 503.3, 850, 1010.2, 1305.9, and 1815.9 g/m2 on SSP, in comparison of 464.1, 421.8, 550.4, 683.5, 647.6 and 1150.1 g/m2 on LSP. Event soil loss per unit area was higher on SSP than LSP at all the slope angles except 5°. However, the soil loss: runoff ratio was higher on LSP than on ifenprodil SSP, with 38.2, 43.8, 72.0, 82.8, 105.3, 140.8 on SSP, in comparison of 74.8, 86.1, 80.9, 117.8, 119.9, and 230 on LSP at 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°, 25° and 30°, respectively. This again suggests that the concentrated water

runoff on long slopes had greater erosive power and transport capacity than the runoff originating from short slopes. Both runoff and soil loss were greatly varied and skewed among storm events, and soil loss had overall greater variations than runoff on both SSP and LSP (Supplementary Table 3). To relate rainfall to event runoff and soil loss, we chose event rainfall amount and storm recurrence interval as rainfall indices and correlated each of them with soil loss and runoff separately using power, linear, polynomial, and exponential functions. It was found that recurrence interval was better than event rainfall amount as a rainfall index (Supplementary Table 4). Zhu et al. (1997) indicated that only rainfall amount with an intensity of over 0.2 mm per minute during a storm is effective in runoff generation.

For instance, because of untreated pulp mill discharges in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were embayments on the west coast of North America where nothing lived, dead fish washed up daily, and there was no need to remove barnacles from the bottom of boats – there were no barnacles (Dexter et al., 1985). But nowadays municipal and industrial

effluent discharges, at least in North America and other developed countries, do not result in “dead areas”. The concern is for potential chronic rather than acute effects, and concerns are sometimes based on perceptions http://www.selleckchem.com/products/bgj398-nvp-bgj398.html rather than facts. Treatment is expensive in monetary terms (and, as noted above, can also be expensive in environmental terms). There are cases where treatment is necessary, but there are also cases where treatment may not be necessary and the monies used for treatment could be put to better use to improve human health (e.g., applying those monies to the health care system) and the environment (e.g., attempting to deal with arguably our greatest-ever environmental challenge: global warming). The third response is a variation on the second, invoking the Precautionary Principle (PP). Unfortunately the PP is too often misunderstood

or misrepresented; it is too often invoked to further human political or activist agendas, with Wnt inhibitor no understanding of its original meaning. The PP was originally developed in the 1970s as a concept within environmental science in Germany, a general rule of public policy-making

(EEA 2001). Specifically, the original and, I believe, most relevant PP stated that where there are potentially serious or irreversible threats to human health or the environment (or both) there is a need to reduce potential risks before there is strong proof of harm, taking account of the likely costs and benefits of action and inaction. Two subsequent different and, I believe, deficient definitions of the PP bear mention (for more details on these and other definitions, see EEA (2001) and SNIFFER (2005)). The United Nations Environment Program 1992 Rio Declaration 15 definition of Branched chain aminotransferase the PP failed to mention the cost-benefits of action and inaction: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation”. The Wingspread Declaration (named after the Wingspread Conference Center, Racine, WI, USA) of January 1998, with 32 authors, focused on endocrine disrupting chemicals and stated: “Where an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” This definition omitted not only the cost-benefits of action and inaction but also the important term ‘serious or irreversible damage’. A threat of harm may or may not materialize (i.e.

Development of a loop capable of exerting a continuous compressive force may reduce bleeding risk. Tumor removal by the RLUB technique was confirmed on EUS in 12 patients with follow-up. Two patients with focal thickening of the muscularis propria underwent FNA sampling and had no residual tumor

cells. Long-term follow-up is needed to determine whether the RLUB technique is truly curative.21 In conclusion, this pilot study establishes proof-of-concept of a novel platform for full-thickness treatment of stromal tumors by ligation. Limitations encountered included technical challenges and delayed bleeding that require further development work. http://www.selleckchem.com/products/PTC124.html “
“Endoscopic transluminal treatment of pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs) is an effective alternative to surgical treatment.1 and 2 After endosonography-guided puncture, drainage, irrigation, or direct endoscopic necrosectomy (DEN) may be performed, depending on the PFC status.3 The success rate, mortality, and length of hospital stay associated with Trichostatin A this minimally invasive treatment are superior to those for conventional surgical treatment,4 and 5 thereby resulting in improved mortality of severe pancreatitis.4 and 6 A new, fully covered, self-expandable, metal stent (FCSEMS) for pancreatic

fluid collections (PFCs) is short enough to perform direct endoscopic necrosectomy, and it has a wide flare to prevent migration. Pancreatic pseudocyst usually is treated by using drainage and/or irrigation. A plastic stent used for drainage is susceptible to obstruction and migration, leading Non-specific serine/threonine protein kinase to a recurrence of symptoms. In the treatment of walled-off pancreatic necrosis (WOPN),

DEN is often used for the removal of the solid necrotic component.7 However, several sessions of DEN may be required. Multiple plastic stents are used to drain pancreatic fluid and to maintain an adequate tract size. Peritonitis caused by leakage between the enteric and cystic walls may occur. To overcome these problems, a fully covered, self-expandable, metal stent (FCSEMS) has been used instead of multiple plastic stents.8, 9 and 10 However, most reports involve a biliary or esophageal stent. Few reports concerning a specialized FCSEMS for gastrocystostomy are available.11 and 12 Between December 2011 and July 2012, 9 patients underwent endoscopic treatment for PFC with the use of the new FCSEMS. All the procedures were carried out on an inpatient basis. The stent was inserted by two skilled endoscopists (H.I. and H.K.) in two hospitals. After the treatment, the patients were followed-up in 4 hospitals under consultation with the operator. All patients provided written, informed consent, and the study was approved by our institute’s review board.

The 1H-indazole was found to be the dominant tautomer in the gaseous state and in aqueous solution, and this result is not reversed in the excited state by a solvent effect [1] and [7]. X-ray diffraction studies of N-unsubstituted indazoles confirm the general preference for 1H-tautomers in the solid state [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29] and [30]. 1H-Indazoles have benzenoid properties (are aromatic in nature), while 2-substituted 2H-indazoles have ortho-quinoid character [31] and [32]. 3H-Indazoles lack

heteroaromatic character and are very rare [33]. There is some evidence regarding the influence of the tautomeric equilibrium in indazoles on the different biological properties [34], [35], [36], [37] and [38]. However, the effect of tautomer identity on the antiproliferative activity, biological mechanisms involved, and other physico-chemical properties, which can have an impact on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behaviors Selleck KU-57788 in the case of metal complexes with indazole remains unexplored. Herein we report on the one-pot synthesis of two complexes, (H2ind)[OsIVCl5(2H-ind)] (1) and (H2ind)[OsIVCl5(1H-ind)] [39] (2). Stabilization of the

2H-form of Vorinostat purchase indazole and binding to osmium(IV) via nitrogen atom N1 was found in 1. This is only the second example of indazole coordination via N1 to a transition metal ion [40]. In addition, we studied the stability of both isomers in aqueous solution and compared their antiproliferative activity in vitro in three human cancer cell lines CH1 (ovarian carcinoma), SW480 (colon carcinoma) and A549 (non-small Ureohydrolase cell lung cancer) and in vivo in a Hep3B SCID mouse xeno-transplantation model in order to establish whether tautomer identity in 1 and 2 has any effect on biological properties.

The antiproliferative activity of (H2ind)[OsIVCl5(2H-ind)] (1) was found to be superior to that of (H2ind)[OsIVCl5(1H-ind)] (2) in one of three human cancer cell lines applied but inferior in the in vivo xeno-transplantation model. The starting compounds [(DMSO)2H]2[OsCl6] [41] and [42] and (H2ind)2[OsCl6] [43] were synthesized as previously reported in the literature. OsO4 (99.8%) and N2H4·2HCl were purchased from Johnson Matthey and Fluka, correspondingly, while 1H-indazole was from Aldrich. All these chemicals were used without further purification. (H2ind)[OsCl5(2H-Hind)] (1) and (H2ind)[OsCl5(1H-Hind)] (2) were prepared under argon atmosphere using standard Schlenk techniques ( Chart 2). A suspension of (H2ind)2[OsCl6] (100 mg, 0.16 mmol) in ethanol (2 ml) was heated in a Schlenk tube at 100 °C (oil bath) for 2 h. After cooling to room temperature the violet precipitate of 1 was filtered off, recrystallized from water/acetone (1:1), and dried in vacuo. Yield of 1: 27 mg, 27%. By reducing the volume of the filtrate to one half a brown solid of 2 was formed. This was filtered off, washed with cold ethanol (2 ml) and dried in vacuo.

A 2-sided P value of less than .05 was considered as statistically significant. All analyses were performed by SAS (SAS Institute, Inc, Cary, NC). In the development cohort (mean age, 66.7; SD, 7.76), 5% (n = 90) were frail and 42% (n = 712) were prefrail. All but a few of the candidate predictor variables were significantly associated with prefrailty-frailty (Table 1). All variables (except

ADL disability, IADL disability, hospitalization, and falls) were entered in a stepwise backward selection prediction model of frailty (Table 2). A total of 13 significant variables were derived in the final selection model. They were older age, having ERK inhibitor no education, heart failure, obstructive respiratory disorders (asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]), stroke, depressive symptoms, hearing impairment, visual impairment, chronic airflow obstruction (FEV1/FVC<0.70), chronic kidney failure (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] <60 mL/min/1.73 m2), low hemoglobin, high click here nutritional risk, and increased WCCs. Table 2 shows the β coefficients and ORs for prefrailty-frailty derived from this model and the risk scores assigned to each risk factor. Risk scores assigned to each

of these risk factors were summated, and in the validation cohort, the summary risk score (FRI) was related to the prevalence of prefrailty and frailty (Table 3). Increasing summed scores of FRI were clearly related to increasing prevalence of prefrailty and frailty (Figure 1). In multinomial regression models analyzing FRI as a continuous variable, the risk of frailty increased by an estimated 80% per unit of FRI Epothilone B (EPO906, Patupilone) score, and 23% per unit of FRI score (Table 4). The ability of the FRI to predict frailty (CHS Frailty score ≥3) is shown in the ROC curve (Figure 2), with area under the ROC of 0.890. In longitudinal analyses, FRI scores at baseline were significantly associated with IADL-ADL dependency, hospitalization, lowest quintile of SF12-PCS scores, and combined adverse health outcomes at follow-up, controlling for age, gender, housing status, smoking, multicomorbidity, and baseline IADL-ADL

dependency status (or hospitalization in past year, SF12-PCS as appropriate) (Table 5). This was also observed in the sample that excluded participants who had the adverse health outcomes at baseline. The area under the ROC curve for FRI prediction of IADL-ADL dependency was 0.715, relatively greater than the areas under the curve (AUCs) for the CHS Frailty scale and a comparable FRAIL scale (Table 6; Figure 3). Similarly greater AUC values for FRI versus CHS Frailty scale and FRAIL scale were observed for hospitalization and SF12-PCS outcomes. The exploration of determinants of frailty are important for identifying modifiable risk factors, profiling clinical risk indicators, and targeting population subgroups for early intervention among people identified to be at risk of becoming frail.

Figure options Download full-size image Download high-quality image (358 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Fig. 53. EMR in the setting of submucosal fibrosis. Resection is this setting is exceedingly difficult this website and risky. (A) The lesion did not lift adequately despite a large amount of injection medium. (B) The lesion could not be captured by a snare. (C) The cuts

were small. (D) The underlying fibrosis was exposed. Figure options Download full-size image Download high-quality image (737 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Fig. 54. A lesion should be examined closely to facilitate assessment of its amenability to curative endoscopic resection. On closer inspection, this sessile lesion was considered to have features suspicious for invasive malignancy; that is, the center of the lesion is depressed and the surface is amorphous with loss of mucosal detail. Hence, decisions pertaining to endoscopic versus surgical resection were deferred pending biopsy results. Biopsies should be targeted to the most concerning area of the lesion, as shown here (arrow), which confirmed Epigenetic inhibitor research buy invasive cancer. Surgical resection demonstrated a T1, N0 lesion. (Images courtesy of Professor Shinji Tanaka, Hiroshima University.) Figure options Download full-size image Download

high-quality image (181 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Fig. 55. Random biopsy is still indicated when a large number of pseudopolyps are present. The presence of a large number of postinflammatory polyps may complicate surveillance colonoscopy with chromoendoscopy and targeted biopsy.

It is difficult to examine the pseudopolyps and the underlying mucosa when the lumen is filled with the polyps. In such cases, random biopsies selleck are indicated to maximize dysplasia detection.15 Figure options Download full-size image Download high-quality image (170 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Fig. 56. Dysplasia in the setting of large pseudopolyps. In addition to random biopsy, chromoendoscopy was used in this case. Note the appearance of a superficial elevated lesion (white arrows), which on biopsy proved to be HGD, surrounding the polypoid lesion (double black arrows). Figure options Download full-size image Download high-quality image (324 K) Download as PowerPoint slide Fig. 57. Examination of a stricture can be difficult because of poor lighting within it, which occurred because of the narrowed lumen. A 79-year-old patient with long-standing ulcerative colitis presented for reevaluation of a stricture in the sigmoid colon. The patient was diagnosed to have the stricture 6 years earlier, but he declined surgery. Over the years, he underwent multiple colonoscopies with biopsies that did not show malignancy (A). The appearance of a cancer within the stricture was finally seen when the stricture was well illuminated (arrows, B). The lumen was kept distended using water infusion. On close-up, the lesion appeared neoplastic (C).

Subject-specific

voxels of interest were defined by identifying all animal and tool picture selective voxels (p = 0.05, uncorrected) within each sphere for each individual. Finally, the BOLD-response to animal and tool words were extracted from these voxels and compared across age. Higher BOLD-related confounds in Y-27632 in vivo children can compromise the results of age-comparisons. As described in the previous section, harmful effects of motion artefacts were minimised by applying strict run exclusion criteria for overall motion, and by capturing signal changes resulting from small sudden movements in regressors of non-interest. To exclude the possibility that despite these procedures, age-differences in picture-like responses to printed

words could still be driven by larger BOLD-related confounds in children, we tested if age differences across all subjects persisted when the same comparisons were performed across sub-groups of adults and children matched on the following two noise indices: Because sudden movements can leave residual noise in the BOLD-signal after registration, scan-to-scan motion is a good indicator of motion-related variance in the signal after standard correction procedures are applied. The mean Euclidian translational movement distance ΔD from one volume to the next was calculated in millimetres and the mean absolute scan-to-scan rotational motion Δθ was calculated in Urease radians: ΔD=∑TR=1N-1(XN+1+XN)2+(YN+1+YN)2+(ZN+1+ZN)2N-1 Δθ=∑TR=1N-1abs(pitchN+1+pitchN)+abs(rollN+1+rollN)+abs(yawN+1+yawN)N-1 This reflects residual variance in the data unaccounted for R428 clinical trial after fitting

the full General Linear Model with regressors of interest and nuisance regressors. It is an inclusive measure of BOLD-related noise and goodness of model fit. For animal and tool picture category-selective voxels in each spherical region of interest, residual variance of the GLM was extracted from the subject/scan.feat/stats/sigma-squaredes.nii images in FSL that were first resampled to standard space and averaged across all scans. Using the formula reported in (Golarai et al., 2007), we then computed mean percentage of residual noise in the signal of each ROI: %Res=100×1Nvox∑i=1NvoxSigmasquareds(i)MeanAmp Mean Amp is the average BOLD signal across all scans within the relevant voxels of interest, extracted from the mean_func.nii.gz image in the second-level subject/allscans.gfeat folder in FSL. Finally, resulting %Res values were averaged across all ROIs to obtain one total value per subject. In the Appendix B, Table 1, these indices of noise in the data are reported for all age groups, and for two subgroups of 9 adults and 9 children matched on these BOLD-related confounds. Control analyses with these matched sub-groups are reported in the final section of Section 3.

The most frequent complications include acute and chronic forms of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS). The placental anastomoses which occur in TTTS are responsible for blood transfusion from the potential ‘donor’ to the so called ‘recipient’. Selleck Target Selective Inhibitor Library These hemodynamic disturbances between the

blood circulation systems of both fetuses lead to the development of various irregularities. Consequently, the development of arterial hypertension occurs in the ‘recipient’ and hypotonia, hypovolemia and thrombosis are often observed in the ‘donor’. As a result of this, the growth of the ‘recipient’ is sped up and the development of the ‘donor’ is delayed. Discrepancies in fetal growth occur, resulting from a significant increase in the mass of the ‘recipient’ and from ‘donor’ growth limitations. These discrepancies in fetal growth are characterised by differences in body mass and stomach circumferences [3, 4]. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact

of monochorionocity on the duration of pregnancy, perinatal mortality, and the developmental state of twins as determined by the Apgar score and by values of somatic features. This study included a group of 2526 twins of both sexes (including 536 monochorional and 1990 dichorional twins) born at the Clinic of Perinatology and Gynaecology of the Medical University of Poznan between 2003 and 2009. All the procedures were approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the Medical University in Forskolin nmr Poznan. The material was characterised in terms of morphological development by the following six somatic features: body mass, total length, crown and rump length, shoulder width, head circumference, and chest circumference. The definitions of features and the methods of their measurement were in compliance with the measuring technique proposed by Martin [5]. The overall condition of the newborns was evaluated Immune system on the basis of the Apgar score. The initial Apgar score used in our studies was determined at the first minute of life, while the final one was determined at the tenth minute of

life. Additionally, histopathological examinations involving the placenta evaluated the degree of morphological-functional disturbances. The studied material was analysed statistically by means of basic statistical characteristics. To ascertain if the studied somatic features were variable in context of the analysed factors, and to possibly determine their significance, variance analysis testing was applied for the repeated measurements. The Pearson χ2 statistics used in the analysis indicated the presence of a dependency between the frequency of premature births and deaths and the number of chorions in the placentas of twins. Calculations were performed using the Statistica 8 (StatSoft®, Poland) package, with statistical significance defined as p≤0.05.