Karst Plateau

The Karst Plateau or the Karst region (Italian: Carso; Slovene: Kras), also simply known as the Karst, is a limestone plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy.

It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills surrounding the valley, the westernmost part of the Brkini Hills, northern Istria, and the Gulf of Trieste. The western edge of the plateau also marks the traditional ethnic border between Italians and Slovenes. The region gave its name to the karst topography. For this reason, it is also referred to as the Classical Karst.

Geographical position

The plateau rises quite steeply above the neighboring landscape, except for its northeastern side, where the steepness is less pronounced. The plateau gradually descends from the southeast to the southwest. On average it lies 334 m above sea level. Its western edge, known as the Karst Rim (Slovene: Kraški rob), is a continuation of the Učka mountain range in eastern Istria, and rises to the east and southeast of Trieste, ending in steep cliffs between Aurisina and Duino. Many interesting geological phenomena occur along the Karst Rim, including the picturesque Rosandra Valley (also known as Glinščica).

Kras (disambiguation)

Kras is a limestone borderline plateau region in southwestern Slovenia.

Kras may refer to:

KRAS

GTPase KRas also known as V-Ki-ras2 Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog and KRAS, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KRAS gene.

The protein product of the normal KRAS gene performs an essential function in normal tissue signaling, and the mutation of a KRAS gene is an essential step in the development of many cancers. Like other members of the ras subfamily, the KRAS protein is a GTPase and is an early player in many signal transduction pathways. KRAS is usually tethered to cell membranes because of the presence of an isoprene group on its C-terminus. There are two protein products of the KRAS gene in mammalian cells that result from the use of alternative exon 4 (exon 4A and 4B respectively): K-Ras4A and K-Ras4B, these proteins have different structure in their C-terminal region and utilise different mechanisms to localize to cellular membranes including plasma membrane.

Function

KRAS acts as a molecular on/off switch. Once it is turned on, it recruits and activates proteins necessary for the propagation of growth factor and other receptors' signal such as c-Raf and PI 3-kinase. KRAS upregulates the GLUT1 glucose transporter, thereby contributing to the Warburg effect in cancer cells. KRAS binds to GTP in the active state and possesses an intrinsic enzymatic activity which cleaves the terminal phosphate of the nucleotide converting it to GDP. Upon conversion of GTP to GDP, KRAS is turned off. The rate of conversion is usually slow but can be sped up dramatically by an accessory protein of the GTPase-activating protein (GAP) class, for example RasGAP. In turn KRAS can bind to proteins of the Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor (GEF) class, for example SOS1, which forces the release of bound nucleotide (GDP). Subsequently, KRAS binds GTP present in the cytosol and the GEF is released from ras-GTP.

Kraš

Kraš (Croatian pronunciation: [krâʃ]) is a Croatian food company based in Zagreb, specializing in confectionery products. In 2012, Kraš was, after Podravka, the second largest Croatian exporter of food.

History

The company traces its origins from two factories from the early 20th century - "Union", founded in 1911, the oldest surviving chocolate manufacturer in southeastern Europe - and "Bizjak", founded in 1923, which manufactured toast, cookies and wafers. These two companies, as well as a number of smaller confectionery manufacturers from Zagreb, merged in 1950 and took the name Kraš, in honour of Josip Kraš, a union leader and prominent Croatian communist who was killed in WWII.

The company was state-owned during SFR Yugoslavia, and privatized in 1992 into a private shareholding company with capital estimated at 135,769,000 DM. In the aftermath of Yugoslav breakup, Kraš lost two thirds of its market.

In 1997 Kraš received the ISO 9001 certificate.

Products

The company's best known products include its line of milk chocolates now named Dorina; nougat dessert Bajadera; the candies KiKi, Bronhi, 505 sa crtom; biscuits Petit-Beurre, Napolitanke, and Domaćica; instant chocolate powder Kraš Express and the small chocolate Životinjsko Carstvo (themed animal kingdom).