Proteinase activity in the midgut of the pentatomid stinkbug Podisus maculiventris was investigated. The optimal pH for adult and nymph proteolysis was pH 6.0 and pH 6.5, respectively. Proteinase activity was characterised using a range of diagnostic inhibitors. Activity of both adult and nymphal gut extracts, detected by the hydrolysis of Z-Phe-Arg-pNA, was inhibited to <20% of control levels by several inhibitors (e.g. E-64 and chicken egg white cystatin) associated with the inhibition of cysteine proteinases. The less specific inhibitor leupeptin reduced proteolytic activity to around 1.0% of the control values. In-gel analysis of the enzymes revealed that proteolytic activity was due to at least four proteinases, of ca. 30, 36, 50 and 110 kDa, which were all susceptible to E-64 inhibition. Salivary gland extracts gave maximal activity at pH 8.0 when tested for general proteolytic activity using fluorescent BODIPY-FL casein substrate, and showed moderate levels of inhibition when incubated with inhibitors of serine-, cysteine-, aspartic- and metallo-proteinases. Leupeptin and PMSF gave the highest levels of inhibition of salivary proteolytic activity, at ca. 50%, whilst the plant-derived inhibitors SKTI, CpTI and OC-1 did not inhibit proteolysis.
To investigate the relationship between food habits and digestive tract morphology, the lengths of gastrointestinal tracts of six species of rodents with different food habits were compared. The results showed that the strict herbivores, Microtus brandti, had the largest large intestine and ceacum, and the tracts of the other five granivorous/omnivorous species (Spermophilus daurica, Phodopus robovskii, Cricetulus barabensis, Cricetulus triton, Meriones unguiculatus) varied to different extents depending on the proportions of seed, vegetative and animal foods in their diets. Small intestine lengths did not reflect diet fiber content for these six rodent species and stomach lengths in granivorous/omnivorous rodents were not larger than herbivores. Our results suggest that the hind gut is more important for herbivorous than for granivorous/omnivorous rodents and could be a relative reliable indicator for food habits, however, small intestine is not a good indicator for food habits. This study also showed that there is no direct relationship between life history traits and gut morphology in these six rodent species, although more life history traits should be considered.
Permo-Carboniferous and Cretaceous sediments cover the main tectonostratigraphic units of the crystalline basement in NE Bohemia. Within the activities of “Research Centre for Advanced remedial Technologies and Processes” the Czech Geological Survey revises the boreholes and geophysical investigations in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin and adjacent areas. One part of the research is a compilation of pre-Cretaceous relief of the basement including the crystalline basement and Permo-Carboniferous relief. The digital elevation model uses all boreholes from the Czech Geological Survey-Geofond database, previous geophysical interpretation and the recent surface of the individual geological units defined from detailed geological mapping. The final model reflects well the evolution and recent position of several tectonic blocks and subsequent reprocessing of the information about basement rocks enables compilation of the ´solid´ geological map., Zuzana Skácelová, Bedřich Mlčoch and Zuzana Tasáryová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The aim of the course is to introduce digital humanities and to describe various aspects of digital content processing.
The course consists of 10 lessons with video material and a PowerPoint presentation with the same content.
Every lesson contains a practical session – either a Jupyter Notebook to work in Python or a text file with a short description of the task. Most of the practical tasks consist of running the programme and analyse the results.
Although the course does not focus on programming, the code can be reused easily in individual projects.
Some experience in running Python code is desirable but not required.
Correlation of boreholes and geophysical data provides the framework for 3D modelling of the crystalline basement and the Permo-Carboniferous volcano-sedimentary strata in the Mnichovo Hradiště Basin. The knowledge of depth of the individual interfaces acquired from boreholes database and interpretation of the seismic profiles enabled construction of 3D models. The Stráž crystalline block has bounded the Mnichovo Hradiště Basin on the north, its elongation is in NNW-SSE direction and maximal depth has reached near Sobotka. Its second deepest part known as Mcely or Sukorady sub-basin has been detected southeast of Mladá Boleslav. The negative gravity anomaly in the Mimoň- Český Dub- Turnov- Mnichovo Hradiště area indicated presence of „light“ granitic rocks in the crystalline complex. Moreover, the highest volume of rhyolite ignimbrites with a thickness of up to 180 m is concentrated in Permo-Carboniferous volcano-sedimentary strata in this negative gravity anomaly area, which can be related to a rather deep Late Paleozoic volcanic source (up to a depth of about 10 km)., Zuzana Skácelová, Bedřich Mlčoch and Zuzana Tasáryová., and Obsahuje bibliografii