I n t r o d u c t i o n: Fecal calprotectin (FC) rises significantly in intestinal inflammation accompanied by neutrophil activation — such as Clostridium diffi cile infection (CDI). The aim of the study was to evaluate the benefi t of FC testing in assessing the severity of CDI.

Ma t e r i a l s a n d M e t h o d s: The study group included 76 patients with CDI hospitalized in the Jagiellonian University Hospital in Krakow from July 2017 till January 2018. FC levels were measured using an EIA (Enzyme Immunoassay). Demographic, clinical information and blood tests were recorded using standardized data collection forms. The selection of patients into non-severe and severe groups was carried out in accordance with the ESCMID criteria (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) and some modifications to those criteria were proposed.

R e s u l t s: The studied population included 76 patients (39 men and 37 women) with CDI aged from 24 to 98 years (mean: 72). Median calprotectin level was 739 (Q25–Q75: 612–799 μg/g), characteristic of patients with colitis. A statistically signifi cant diff erence in FC concentration in patients with severe vs non-severe CDI was observed (severe — 770 vs non-severe — 659 μg/g, p = 0.009). FC directly correlated with platelets level; however, no correlation between FC level and the blood parameters prognostic for CDI (leukocyte, neutrophil count, albumin, creatinine levels) was found.

C o n c l u s i o n: FC level is an indication of ongoing intestinal inflammation in CDI patients. FC level significantly correlated with CDI severity, which demonstrates that FC could serve as a predictive marker for assessing CDI severity.

In a deregulated electricity market, it is important to dispatch the generation in an economical manner and to ensure security under different operating conditions. In this study evolutionary computation based solution for optimal power flow is attempted. Social welfare optimization is taken as the objective function, which includes generation cost, transmission cost and consumer benefit function. Transmission cost is calculated using Bialek’s power flow tracing method. Severity index is applied as a constraint to measure the security. The objective function is calculated for pre and post contingency periods. Real power generations, real power loads and transformer tap settings are selected as control variables. Different bilateral and multilateral conditions are considered for analysis. A Human Group Optimization algorithm is used to find the solution of the problem. The IEEE 30 bus system is taken as a test system.

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of severe plastic deformation (SPD) by extrusion combined with reversible torsion (KoBo) method on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-5Cu and Al-25Cu alloys. The extrusion combined with reversible torsion was carried out using reduction coefficient of λ = 30 and λ = 98. In this work, the microstructure was characterized by light microscopy (LM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Compression test and tensile test were performed for deformed alloys. The binary Al-5Cu and Al-25Cu alloys consist of the face cantered cubic (FCC) α phase in the form of dendrites and tetragonal (C16) θ-Al2Cu intermetallic phase observed in interdentritic regions. The increase of Cu content leads to increase of interdentritic regions. The microstructure of the alloys is refined after applying KoB deformation with λ = 30 and λ = 98. Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of Al-5Cu alloy after KoBo deformation with λ = 30 and λ = 98 reached about 200 MPa. UTS for samples of Al-25Cu with λ = 30 and λ = 98 increased compared to Al-5Cu alloy and exceed 320 MPa and 270 MPa respectively. All samples showed increase of plasticity with increase of reduction coefficient. Independently of reduction coefficient, the compressive strain of Al-5Cu alloys is about 60%. The Al-25Cu alloy with λ = 98 showed the value of compressive strain exceed 60%, although for this same alloy but with λ = 30, the compressive strain is only 35%.

Microstructure and texture of the CuCr0.6 alloy processed by rolling with cyclic movement of rolls (RCMR) at room temperature were investigated. The RCMR processing was applied for the samples in different initial conditions in the solid solution followed by quenching into iced water at 1000oC for 3 h and in aging treatment conditions performed at 500oC for 2 h and at 700oC for 24 h. Application of the solution and aging processes prior to RCMR deformation results in the partial dissolution of Cr particles into the Cu matrix and precipitation of the second phase particles. RCMR processing with value of the total effective strain (εft) of 5 was introduced to the material. It was found that the RCMR method is effective in texture weakening. The obtained results revealed that there is a large similarity in texture orientations after RCMR processing independently of heat treatment conditions. Cyclic character of deformation leads to an incomplete transition of LAB to HAB.

Two strength-age hardening aluminum-lithium alloys: Al-2.3wt%Li and Al-2.2wt%Li-0.1wt%Zr in two different heat treatment conditions: solution state (S) and additionally in aging state (A) were severely plastically deformed by rolling with cyclic movement of rolls (RCMR) method to produce ultrafine – grained structure. Two thermo-mechanical treatments were used: (S+A+RCMR) and (S+RCMR+A+RCMR). To investigate the combined effect of plastic deformation and heat treatment, tensile tests were performed. Microstructural observations were undertaken using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), and scanning transmission electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with electron backscattering diffraction detector (EBSD). Based on the obtained results, it can be deduced that maximum mechanical properties as: yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) could be achieved when the microstructure of alloys is in (S+A+RCMR) state. For samples in (S+RCMR+A+RCMR) state, ductility is higher than for (S+A+RCMR) state. The microstructural results shows that the favourable conditions for decreasing grain size of alloys is (S+A+RCMR) state. Additionally, in this state is much greater dislocation density than for (S+RCMR+A+RCMR) state. The microstructure of alloys in (S+RCMR+A+RCMR) state is characterized by grains/subgrains with higher average diameter and with higher misorientation angles compared with (S+A+RCMR) state.

Range-gated-imaging system, which can be used to eliminate backscatter in strong scattering environments, is based on two high speed technologies. It uses high power, ultra-short pulse laser as the light source. And it opens the optical gate of an ICCD camera with a micro-channel-plate image intensifier in a very short time while the laser pulses reflected by the object is coming back to the ICCD camera. Using this range-gated-imaging technology, the effect of scattered light can be reduced and a clear image is obtained.

In this paper, the test results of the range-gated-imaging system under dense aerosol environments, which simulates environments in the reactor containment building when the severe accident of the nuclear power plant occurred, are described. To evaluate the observation performance of the range-gated-imaging system under such dense fog environment, we made a test facility. Fog particles are sprayed into the test facility until fog concentration is reached to the postulated concentration level of the severe accident of the nuclear power plant. At such dense fog concentration conditions, we compared and evaluated the observation performances of the range-gated-imaging system and the CCD camera.