Physical training (PT) is beneficial in cardiovascular diseases associated with NO deficiency such as coronary disease, hypertension, etc. However, it is not known whether PT can also prevent pathological conditions associated with excess NO and fall of blood pressure (BP) such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The aim was to compare the effect of AMI on BP and functional state of the endothelium in rats trained by swimming and in untrained animals. After AMI, BP fell from 110±2 to 74±4 mm Hg (p<0.05), the endothelium-dependent relaxation increased from 37±4 to 66±6 % (p<0.05) and the extent of contraction suppression by the endothelium was significantly greater than in the controls. PT itself increased the endothelium-dependent relaxation of rat aorta but left BP unaffected. PT limited the AMI-induced fall of BP to 87±3 mm Hg, the endothelium- dependent relaxation to 53±4 % and prevented the hyporesponsiveness of the aorta to norepinephrine. We suggest that the protective effect of PT is related to inhibition of inducible NO synthase by a negative feedback mechanism.
Lake Biwa consists of a large, deep north basin and a small, shallow south basin, and the body weights of bluegill Lepomis macrochirus in the north basin tend to exceed those in the south basin. To elucidate the cause of this phenomenon, the physical characteristics of the fish in the two basins were compared. The fish in the north basin had larger gonads and stomachs than did the fish in the south basin, but the contributions of these organs to the body weight were very small. The body weights of the fish in the north basin still exceeded those in the south basin after the subtraction of the weights of the gonad and stomach. Bluegill in the north basin had deeper
bodies than those in the south basin. The heavier body tissues of bluegill in the north basin appear to be an adaptive response to the colder environment. Given the flourishing of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides
in the littoral zone in the north basin, the deeper bodies of bluegill there may contribute to their increased survival rate by reducing their vulnerability to predation by largemouth bass.
The paper is designed as a set of reflections of a rather general nature. It describes the presence of Vietnamese in the Czech Republic during the last twenty years. The text captures changes describable only in trends. These are gradual transformations of local communities into modern Central European diaspora or a transnational community. For Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, the impulse to solve their economic situation dominates in terms of objective causes as well as the subjective reasoning of individual participants of the transfer. Business activities played a major role in the development of the community life of Vietnamese. These were either uncontrolled (unofficial) street sales of goods, variously organized retail or sales in wholesale markets. Phases of Vietnamese entrepreneurship in the Czech environment: 1.
Uncontrolled street stall selling (1990-1992) following previous business activities from the 1980s, 2. forming of urban and border zone markets (1992-1995), 3. so-called golden times of markets (1995-1998), 4. gradual decline in stall sales in markets and shift of Vietnamese business into stores (1998–today). A significant difference of Vietnamese existence is the fact that it does not seek a new identity when it moves to another country. A Vietnamese businessman is more strongly enclosed in his own cultural habits; after moving he prefers financial profit not only for himself but also for his family back in Vietnam. The dominant form containing
classic purchasing and sales of cheap goods is slowly
disappearing, the interest in making money is transforming and the tendency to establish new associations is apparent.
The aim of the following text was to intermediate the personal reflection of migrants of preponderantly Czech origin who were in the years 1991-1993 resettled from the former Soviet Union to the Czech Republic. Better to say, the article focuses on one specific group of these displaced persons who came in the year 1993 and have lived since then in the locality Kopidlno. The main aim of the text is to reflect the way how the refugees themselves at present assess the motivation for their leaving of the land of their forefathers, how they evaluate their adaptation and integration with respect to the locality in which they live, how did they cope with the „resettlement shock“ and how did they succeed in the „competition“ with the majority society, for example at work. The final part of the text presents the differences in assessment of the return migration process and in evaluation of the locality between the first and second generation of the return migrants. The text was based on repeated guided interviews and observations realized in the locality of Kopidlno during the years 2008-2010.
In central Europe Adalia bipunctata (L.) occurs in two main colour morphs (typical, melanic), and A. decempunctata (L.) occurs in 3 morphs (spotted, chequered, dark). Temporal variation in the relative frequency of morphs was recorded in populations of the Czech Republic where geographic variation in morph frequency is low. Seasonal trends were investigated in samples collected by a light-trap run daily from March to November for 14 years. In A. bipunctata the melanic form was more abundant in autumn than in spring but the difference was not significant. In A. decempunctata morph proportions did not change seasonally. Samples were also collected by sweepnet from stands of many plant species. In both Adalia species the morph proportions did not differ significantly among collections made on different plants. Long-term changes in morph proportions were analysed by pooling annual samples over all host plants. In A. bipunctata, sampled in 15 years between 1971-2004, there was no significant change in proportion of typical (90.1%) and melanic (9.9%) forms. In A. decempunctata, sampled in 12 years between 1976-2004, the proportions of "spotted" (mean over the years 29.4%), "chequered" (42.2%) and "dark" (21.3%) morphs varied between years. There was a trend toward an increasing proportion of the spotted form in the 2000s compared to the 1970s and 1980s.
Genetic differentiation is a consequence of the combination of drift and restriction in gene flow between populations due to barriers to dispersal, or selection against individuals resulting from inter-population matings. In phytophagous insects, local adaptation to different kinds of host plants can sometimes lead to reproductive isolation and thus to genetic structuring, or even to speciation. Acanthoscelides obtectus Say is a bean bruchid specialized on beans of the Phaseolus vulgaris group, attacking both wild and domesticated forms of P. vulgaris and P. coccineus. This study reveals that the genetic structure of populations of this bruchid is explained mainly by their geographical location and is not related to a particular kind (wild or domesticated) of bean. In contrast, the species of bean might have led, to some extent, to genetic structuring in these bruchids, although our sampling is too limited to address such process unambiguously. If confirmed, it would corroborate preliminary results found for the parasitoid species that attack Acanthoscelides species, which might show a genetic structure depending on the species of host plant.
The purpose of this review is to analyze the involvement of protein kinases in the cardioprotective mechanism induced by chronic hypoxia. It has been reported that chronic intermittent hypoxia contributes to increased expression of the following kinases in the myocardium: PKCδ, PKCα, p-PKCε, p-PKCα, AMPK, p-AMPK, CaMKII, p-ERK1/2, p-Akt, PI3-kinase, p-p38, HK-1, and HK-2; whereas, chronic normobaric hypoxia promotes increased expression of the following kinases in the myocardium: PKCε, PKCβII, PKCη, CaMKII, p-ERK1/2, p-Akt, p-p38, HK-1, and HK-2. However, CNH does not promote enhanced expression of the AMPK and JNK kinases. Adaptation to hypoxia enhances HK-2 association with mitochondria and causes translocation of PKCδ, PKCβII, and PKCη to the mitochondria. It has been shown that PKCδ, PKCε, ERK1/2, and MEK1/2 are involved in the cardioprotective effect of chronic hypoxia. The role of other kinases in the cardioprotective effect of adaptation to hypoxia requires further research.
At present, chlorophyll meters are widely used for a quick and nondestructive estimate of chlorophyll (Chl) contents in plant leaves. Chl meters allow to estimate the Chl content in relative units - the Chl index (CI). However, using such meters, one can face a problem of converting CI into absolute values of the pigment content and comparing data acquired with different devices and for different plant species. Many Chl meters (SPAD-502, CL-01, CCM-200) demonstrated a high degree of correlation between the CI and the absolute pigment content. A number of formulas have been deduced for different plant species to convert the CI into the absolute value of the photosynthetic pigment content. However, such data have not been yet acquired for the atLEAF+ Chl meter. The purpose of the present study was to assess the applicability of the atLEAF+ Chl meter for estimating the Chl content. A significant species-specific exponential relationships between the atLEAF value (corresponding to CI) and extractable Chl a, Chl b, Chl (a+b) for Calamus dioicus and Cleistanthus sp. were shown. The correlations between the atLEAF values and the content of Chl a, Chl b, and Chl (a+b) per unit of leaf area was stronger than that per unit of dry leaf mass. The atLEAF value- Chl b correlation was weaker than that of atLEAF value-Chl a and atLEAF value-Chl (a+b) correlations. The influence of light conditions (Chl a/b ratio) on the atLEAF value has been also shown. The obtained results indicated that the atLEAF+ Chl meter is a cheap and convenient tool for a quick nondestructive estimate of the Chl content, if properly calibrated, and can be used for this purpose along with other Chl meters., E. V. Novichonok, A. O. Novichonok, J. A. Kurbatova, E. F. Markovskaya., and Obsahuje seznam literatury