In the Upper Silesian Coal Basin (Poland), numerous former workings have been left unprotected after the liquidation of mines in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The workings have been located at low depths. The paper presents the results of strength tests of wood samples acquired from linings in former workings, and the obtained results have been compared to the results achieved in tests of samples of wood intended to be used in a reconstruction of a historic gallery. The tests consisted in determining the bending strength of wood in compliance with the applicable Polish standard. The results showed that the wood from historic mines was characterised by high variability of bending strength – usually much lower than that of the wood intended for construction. Too low bending strength of timber may result in caving in shallow excavation and lead to sinkhole creation on the surface.

Objective: The goal of this contribution is to present and familiarize the medical community with the method for the assessment of trace and essentials elements in prostate tissue sections. Materials and methods: X-ray fl uorescence based technique (namely Synchrotron Induced X-ray Emission (SRIXE)) is described in terms of methodology, sample preparation and the evaluation of the recorded results (spectral data sets). Materials for the samples were collected from the patients underwent radical prostatectomy due to Adenocarcinoma prostatae. Specimens were freeze-dried, cut by microtome (to the thickness of 15 μm), one slice was placed on Mylar foil (for SRIXE measurements) and adjacent one on microscopic glass (for histopathological assessment). Results: Results presented here show the usability of SRIXE method for the evaluation of concentration of trace and essential elements in prostate tissue sections with the spatial resolution better than 15 microns. Discussion: Histopathological analysis of samples, which is only focused on morphological features, is unable to reveal information about changes in biochemical signature of tissues aff ected by the illness. SRIXE is a powerful and promising technique to analyse even very low concentrations of selected elements at the cellular level without any labelling or separating procedures. Obtained results may be correlated with classic histopathological assessment allowing for drawing conclusions on the changes in certain elements concentrations with the progression of disease. Moreover, mentioned in this work analysis, can be performed for any type of biological tissues.