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Private businesses are often entrusted with public contracts, wherein public money is allocated to a private company. This process raises concerns about transparency, even in the most developed democracies. But are there any regularities guiding this process? Do all private companies benefit equally from the state budgets? Here, we tackle these questions focusing on the case of Slovenia, which keeps excellent records of this kind of public spending. We examine a dataset detailing every transfer of public money to the private sector from January 2003 to May 2020. During this time, Slovenia has conducted business with no less than 248 989 private companies. We find that the cumulative distribution of money received per company can be reasonably well explained by a power-law or lognormal fit. We also show evidence for the first-mover advantage, and determine that companies receive new funding in a way that is roughly linear over time. These results indicate that, despite all human factors involved, Slovenian public spending is at least to some extent regulated by emergent self-organizing principles., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Filipendula vulgaris Moench (dropwort) is used in traditional medicine for relieving various inflammation-related diseases. In the present study, the phytochemical profile of F. vulgaris aerial part (FVA) and root (FVR) methanolic extracts was evaluated by LC-DAD-HRMS analysis. Furthermore, their in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory effects, as well as their potential cytotoxicity, were assessed. Results showed that the extracts mainly contain phenolics like flavonoids, hydrolyzable tannins, procyanidins, and phenolic acid derivatives, including gaultherin. No in vitro cytotoxicity was found at the highest concentration (50 μg/mL). FVA extract (50 μg/mL) significantly inhibited cyclooxygenase-1 and -2 (COX-1 and COX-2) activities in vitro (>50% inhibition), and FVR extract considerably inhibited COX-2 activity (52.5 ± 2.7%) without affecting COX-2 gene expression in LPS-stimulated THP-1 cells. The extracts demonstrated prominent in vivo anti-inflammatory potential upon oral administration in rats. Especially FVA extract at 100 and 200 mg/kg significantly inhibited carrageenan-induced edema formation. From these results, it can be concluded that F. vulgaris extracts possess interesting anti-inflammatory properties., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of our study was to examine the potential ameliorating effect of the methanolic extract of Satureja hortensis L. (summer savory) aerial parts against cisplatin-induced oxidative damage in renal, hepatic, and testicular tissues. S. hortensis methanol extract at the doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg of body weight were orally administered to Wistar rats once daily for 10 days. Toxicity was induced by intraperitoneal injection of a single dose of cisplatin (7.5 mg/kg of body weight) on the 5th day of the experiment. Applied treatment with S. hortensis extract restored tissue morphology, ameliorated levels of serum parameters for liver, renal and testes function, tissue oxidative stress parameters, and increased Bcl-2/Bax ratio as an indicator of apoptosis in experimental animals caused by application of cisplatin. UHPLC/DAD/HESI-MS/MS analysis revealed that S. hortensis extract was rich in phenolic compounds with rosmarinic acid (24.9 mg/g) as the main compound, followed by caffeic acid (1.28 mg/g) and naringenin (1.06 mg/g). Our findings suggest that S. hortensis may be a valuable source of dietary and pharmacologically important phenolic compounds, especially rosmarinic acid, in pharmaceutical and functional food formulations in order to maintain normal health conditions or as a remedy in various diseases caused by oxidative damage., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In a last few decades, anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) abuse has become serious health concern especially among adolescents. AASs abuse has been reported to be involved in pathogenesis of various mood disorders, including depression. In order to evaluate the effects of chronic (6 weeks) testosterone enanthate (TE) treatment in supraphysiological dose and exercise on depression-like behavior in rats, 32 male rats were divided into four groups: control (C), testosterone enanthate (T, 20 mg/kg/w, s.c.), exercise (E, swimming for 1 h/day), and combined group-testosterone enanthate plus exercise (T + E). TE produced prodepressant effect in tail suspension test (TST) parameters compared to the control and exercise groups, while exercise induced the opposite effect. Simultaneous TE administration along with exercise attenuated the antidepressant effect of exercise reversing the parameters of TST to the control values. Oxidative stress markers in rat hippocampus were significantly altered following applied protocols. TE administration increased index of lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and decreased superoxide dismutase activity (SOD), while exercise induced the opposite effect, with no change in glutathione (GSH) levels. Our results indicate that TE chronic treatment resulted in clear depressive-like behavior, even abolishing beneficial antidepressant effects of exercise in TST that was accompanied with increased oxidative damage in rat hippocampus. The antidepressant effect of exercise correlated with the improvement of redox status in hippocampal tissue. Behavioral parameters obtained in TST significantly correlated with the levels of oxidative stress markers.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria (L.) Maxim, Rosaceae) has been traditionally used in most European countries for the treatment of inflammatory diseases due to its antipyretic, analgesic, astringent, and anti-rheumatic properties. However, there is little scientific evidence on F. ulmaria anti-inflammatory effects regarding its impact on cyclooxygenases enzymatic activity and in vivo assessment of anti-inflammatory potential. This study aims to reveal the anti-inflammatory activity of methanolic extracts from the aerial parts (FUA) and roots (FUR) of F. ulmaria, both in in vitro and in vivo conditions., Materials and Methods: The characteristic phenolic compounds in F. ulmaria extracts were monitored via high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). The in vitro anti-inflammatory activity of F. ulmaria extracts was evaluated using cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzyme assays, and an assay for determining COX-2 gene expression. The in vivo anti-inflammatory effect of F. ulmaria extracts was determined in two doses (100 and 200 mg/kg b.w.) with hot plate test and carrageenan-induced paw edema test in rats. Inflammation was also evaluated by histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis., Results: FUA extract showed the presence of rutoside, spiraeoside, and isoquercitrin. Both F. ulmaria extracts at a concentration of 50μg/mL were able to inhibit COX-1 and -2 enzyme activities, whereby FUA extract (62.84% and 46.43% inhibition, respectively) was double as effective as the root extract (32.11% and 20.20%, respectively). Extracts hardly inhibited the level of COX-2 gene expression in THP-1 cells at a concentration of 25μg/mL (10.19% inhibition by FUA and 8.54% by FUR). In the hot plate test, both extracts in two doses (100 and 200mg/kg b.w.), exhibited an increase in latency time when compared with the control group (p<0.05). In the carrageenan-induced acute inflammation test, FUA at doses of 100 and 200mg/kg b.w., and FUR at 200mg/kg, were able to significantly reduce the mean maximal swelling of rat paw until 6h of treatment. Indomethacin, FUA, and FUR extracts significantly decreased inflammation score and this effect was more pronounced after 24h, compared to the control group (p<0.05)., Conclusions: The observed results of in vitro and, for the first time, in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of meadowsweet extracts, provide support of the traditional use of this plant in the treatment of different inflammatory conditions. Further investigation of the anti-inflammatory compounds could reveal the mechanism of anti-inflammatory action of these extracts., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)