This study deals with a short but little researched episode in the life of Henry of Isernia, an Italian master of ars dictaminis, who came to the court of King Ottokar II of Bohemia in the early 1270s. Henry’s letter collection contains nine letters relating to his temporary stay at the Premonstratensian monastery in Strahov. These letters are impressive, but hardly interpretable, historical sources, and are also the only ones describing the circumstances of the election of a new Abbot of Strahov that probably took place in 1274. The reliability and credibility of Henry’s sometimes exaggerated and emotionally charged narratives were assessed by comparing their historical and biographical content with existing documents and memorial sources, such as monastery necrologies and annals.
The formulas are derived for calculation of the third-order aberration coefficients for a thick spherical lens in air with a given value of its focal length and for an object at infinity. Equations were described for the re-calculation of aberration coefficients for different values of focal length and also entrance pupil and object positions. and V článku jsou odvozeny vztahy pro výpočet aberačních koeficientů třetího řádu pro tlustou čočku ve vzduchu a pro danou ohniskovou vzdálenost a pro předmět v nekonečnu. Dále jsou uvedeny rovnice pro přepočet aberačních koeficientů pro libovolnou hodnotu ohniskové vzdálenost, polohu vstupní pupily a polohu předmětu.
Gynogenetic diploids were produced from the eggs of natural tetraploid loach Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Pisces: Cobitidae) without any manipulation for chromosome duplication. When eggs of a four-year-old diploid gynogenetic individual were fertilized with spermatozoa of specimens from normal diploid and natural tetraploid lines, viable diploid and triploid progeny were produced, respectively. Thus, egg nucleus of the diploid gynogen is haploid. In the gonads of diploid progeny, diploid (2n = 50) and tetraploid (4n = 100) mitotic metaphases were observed. The majority of oocytes (76%) showed regular 25 bivalents as in normal diploids, but the other 16% showed a few univalents. The remaining 8% exhibited about 50 bivalents, suggesting chromosome duplication by premeiotic endomitosis. In the testes, a few spermatocytes (6%) showed normal 25 bivalents, but 86% contained various number of univalents and the remaining 8% contained about 50 bivalents. No peaks of spermatozoa were identified in the testis by flow cytometry. In the triploid progeny, triploid (3n = 75) and hexaploid (6n = 150) mitotic metaphases were observed in both ovaries and testes. Most meiotic figures (about 90%) contained approximately 25 bivalents and 25 univalents in both sexes; the rest contained approximately 75 or more bivalents. Spermatozoa were not identified in the testis by flow cytometry. Thus, the diploid males between the diploid gynogens and common diploid, and both sexes of triploids between the diploid gynogens and tetraploid, show aberrant meioses such as frequent formation of univalents, but the diploid females seem to be less affected.
Extracellular single unit activity in the intralaminar thalamic nuclei (ncl. centralis lateralis, CL, n = 77 and ncl. parafascicularis, Pf, n = 163) and in the pretectal area (Pt, n = 75) was examined following chronic electrolytic lesions of the nucleus reticularis thalami (nRT) in ketamine-anaesthetized rats after single electrical stimuli to the ventrobasal complex (VB). Extensive alterations of either the ongoing ("spontaneous") activity or the pattern of VB evoked responses were observed. Four major changes were observed in the activity of these intralaminar or pretectal neurones: 1) many neurones were silent, two times more frequently than in a parallel study with control intact rats; 2) the firing pattern of all the other neurones was in the form of tonic (stationary-like) discharge, without burst discharges as previously described in intact animals. They were ranked into classes according to their spontaneous discharge: class I, silent (no resting discharge) 12 %, class II (1-15 Hz), 54 % and class III (> 16 Hz), 34 %. Class III neurones were never found in intact rats; 3) electrical stimulation of the VB evoked a short latency orthodromic excitatory response in these neurones but this response was not followed by any slowing or depression of the spontaneous activity in more than 40 % of recorded cells. When it occurred, this pause was shorter than that always observed in intact rats by more than 35 % and longer in 7 % of the responsive cells. All these changes were correlated with the extent of damage to the ipsilateral nRT; 4) VB stimulation evoked prolonged excitatory responses lasting more than 150 ms in 13 % of the responsive cells, and nRT stimulation led to a short latency response followed by a pause of activity. These findings suggest that the nRT is involved in sensory integration and modulation.