The fine structure of the oviduct, oviduct-uterine junction and uterus of the nematode Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) is described. Columnar-type epithelioid cells with numerous microvilli at the apical membrane border the oviduct lumen. Many electron dense secretory products are present in these cells. The cells lining the oviduct-uterine junction have no microvilli. They are coated with an electron-dense layer and contain numerous membrane-bound dense material containing bodies. Externally, the cells are surrounded by a basal lamina and muscle cells. The epithelial cells lining the greater part of the paired uteri appear to be rather flat. The oocytes inside the oviduct are covered with a dense thick plasma membrane and contain lipid droplets, dense granules and glycogen. The morphology of the oocytes before the fertilization inside the oviduct-uterine junction resembles that of the oocyte in the oviduct. After the fertilization the egg shell formation takes place. The egg shell of T.canis is composed of four layers: uterine, vitelline, middle chitinous and inner layer. The differences between the fine structure of the egg shell of T. canis and other related nematodes are discussed.
A trace amount of chlorophyll (Chl) a was found in addition to protochlorophyllide (PChlide) a and protochlorophylls (PChls) a in acetone extracts of etiolated cucumber cotyledons by HPLC. There was, however, no chlorophyllide (Chlide) a, which was present in extracts from illuminated cotyledons. After 10 min exposure of cotyledons to light, all PChlide a was photoreduced to Chlide a. Hence, the whole pool of PChlide seems to be photoactive. The "photoinactive" spectral form PChl(ide) F633 was identified as a mixture of monovinyl-PChls a esterified by different alcohols.
This article deals with the constitutional developments and legal policy in Central Europe since 1989 and focuses on a temporal analysis of and the difference between the demos and ethnos concepts of the nation in the political and legal systems. Drawing on several social theories of time, identity and the codification of social traditions, the author claims that the difference between the civic and the ethnic concepts of the nation does not relate just to the conflict between the liberal-democratic aspirations and ethno-nationalistic myths of authoritarian politicians. The concepts rather represent two distinct traditions, manipulated by political officials and codified in the constitutional processes. The political manipulation of the past and the process of selecting from among different traditions are manifest at the level of constitutional symbolism and in the specific government programmes that have arisen in post-communist Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic. In the concluding part the author presents an analysis of the relationship between the abstract and symbolic language of constitutional documents and the concrete, ethnically determined legal policies in Central European countries.
The specific feature of the tramping is the fact that, in špite of its 80-year-tradition and a reál mass character, it has always verged on becoming illegal. This is a consequence of the very substance of the activity - a free camping outdoors, outside the parcels or objects sanctioned for this purpose by competent statě authorities or private owners. The intensity of the restrictive measures of the administrativě machinery towards tramping is unsteady - sometimes the activity has been tolerated, sometimes sujfered in silence, but also occasionally or systematically persecuted. This occurred during all regimes - at the times of the first Czechoslovak Republic, during Nazi occupation, during the „ building of the socialism “ times, but also nowadays. The motives that drove the oppression of the tramp movement for part of the statě organs of course differed considerably. Between the wars the tramp movement has been restricted by the police, who applied especially the so called „ Kubát ’s law forbidding the camping and outdoor activities of the single youths of the opposite sex. During the occupation times the tramps háve been persecuted by the security organs of the protectorate police and by the German Gestapo, who suspected them of being involved in the resistance movement and helping the partyzans. In the socialist era the tramps had to liide from the foresters, police forces and their wardens stationed in the villages, who resented the existence of the relatively informal tramp movement outside the oficial structures, their free movement over the country as well as their traditional sympathies toward the heroes of the American West, showed by their clothing and other atributes. In the last tenyears, the tramps are being accused of breaking the nátuře protection laws and they are persecuted especially by the representatives of the State conservation department.
Chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence temperature cinve (FTC) of primary leaves of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), cultivated imder a low irradiance, was studied at low actinic radiation excitation (436 nm, 2 W m'^) under a heating regime consisting of a linear increase of temperature (0.083 °C s’*), followed by a period of constant temperature. After prompt cooling of the sample to 77 K, Chl fluorescence spectra at defined points of the temperature regime were measured. Two distinct temperature and kinetic regions expressed by two discemible temperature maxima were observed for ťhis type of the FTC. Two triggering temperatures of successive irreversible changes are postulated at 45-48 “C and 53-55 °C temperature intervals, respectively; they may correlate with the heat inactivation of photosystem 2 and with changes of the chloroplast and cytoplasmic membrane integrity.
The article aims to introduce and explore the concept of „transculturation". Unlike the affiliated concept of „acculturation", capitalized widely in anthropology, sociology and other branches of social Sciences, the concept of transculturation had until recently commanded little attention outside the limited area of Latin American studies. The concept, originally formulated in the 1940s by Cuban sociologist Fernando Ortiz, accentuates the mutual character of cultural interaction, the active participation of „subordinate" groups in the process, as well as the unique character of the resulting cultural formation. That is,
the processes of enforced cultural exchange (for example, through colonial expansion) are preceived as not only destructive, but also Creative. While the concept of transculturation had commonly been applied within the frame of American or African history and anthropology, the present article proposes the advantages and possibilities of its use in the study of (Central) European millieu - be it in the study of German-Jewish-Czech interaction in the nineteenth century, or in the study of Protestant-Catholic cultural exchange after the year 1620.
The European hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus Linnaeus, 1758, is a common host of Ixodes ricinus L. and I. hexago-nus Leach, vectors of the Lyme disease spirochaete, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu iato. To investigate whether hedgehogs are reservoirs for li- burgdorferi, hedgehogs were captured in a suburban area suitable for both tick species and in an urban area where /. ricinus is absent. The infection status of the hedgehogs was determined by xenodiagnosis using I. ricinus and I. hexagonus larvae. /. hexagonus and/or I. ricinus were found on all hedgehogs (n = 8) from the suburban area. In contrast, only I. hexagonus was infesting animals (n = 5) from the urban area. A total of 12/13 hedgehogs harboured B. burgdorferi infected ticks. Xeno-diagnostic I. ricinus and I. hexagonus larvae that fed on hedgehogs became infected. The results clearly show that European hedgehogs are reservoir hosts of the Lyme disease spirochetes. DNA of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto, В. garinii and В. afzelii was detected in culture from ear biopsy and needle aspiration material and characterized by using a genospecies-specific PCR assay. One hedgehog presented a mixed infection of the skin with fi. burgdorferi sensu stricto and fi. garinii. This study also identifies an enzootic transmission cycle in an urban area involving E europaeus and /. hexagonus. The close association of /. hexagonus with the burrows of its hosts mean that the risks of contact between /. hexagonus and humans may be low.