Climate features that influence life cycles, notably severity, seasonality, unpredictability and variability, are summarized for different polar zones. The zones differ widely in these factors and how they are combined. For example, seasonality is markedly reduced by oceanic influences in the Subantarctic. Information about the life cycles of Arctic and Antarctic arthropods is reviewed to assess the relative contributions of flexibility and programming to life cycles in polar regions. A wide range of life cycles occurs in polar arthropods and, when whole life cycles are considered, fixed or programmed elements are well represented, in contrast to some recent opinions that emphasize the prevalence of flexible or opportunistic responses. Programmed responses ale especially common for controlling the appearance of stages that are sensitive to adverse conditions, such as the reproductive adult. The relative contribution of flexibility and programming to different life cycles is correlated with taxonomic affinity (which establishes the general lifecycle framework for a species), and with climatic zone, the habitats of immature and adult stages, and food., Hugh V. Danks, and Lit
The second half of the 18th century marked an extraordinary flowering of music, especially church music in the Czech lands. Monastic churches, in particular, were characterised by a high level of music production performed by choral scholars whose liturgical music was conducted by chosen monks. Some members of religious orders also composed. These were for example M. J. Haberhauer (1746-1799), a member of the Benedictine order situated in Rajhrad near Brno and P. J. Marek (1748-1806) who belonged to the Augustinian monastery in Brno. Both of them got a musical education as choral scholars and remained musically active also after entering orders. Eventually these two authors both performed as chorregents in the 70’s and early 80’s of the 18th century and they collected sacred and secular pieces of music of their more famous and popular contemporaries (C. Ditters, F. X. Brixi, Haydn, etc.). Apart from a few exceptions they were only composing liturgical works. Haberhauer bequeathed 90 compositions, most of whom composed of Mass for choir and solo accompanied with instrumental ensemble as well as vespers and motets. Marek, however, composed only 21 church compositions and most of them consist of Marian antiphons and litanies of Loreto. These were necessary at the Augustinians, given the honor rendered to the picture of Virgin Mary placed in their church. The two monasteries ran a mutual cooperation which can be proved by Haberhauer music collection preserved at Augustinians in Brno. Haberhauer work can be also found in the collections of other Moravian churches and also at Prague Benedictine order. While Marek’s compositions were exclusively connected to the Augustinian monastery in Brno. Their pieces of music are purely purposeful showing features of a musical classicism. Lives and works of both composers are now the subject of research of the author and of Pavel Žůrek from the Ins, Irena Veselá., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
In view of the extremely high metabolic rates involved, insect flight offers a fascinating model system for studying metabolism during exercise, including its regulation by metabolic neurohormones. In our laboratory the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, well-known for its long-distance flights, is used as an internationally recognized model insect. The insect is mass-reared under controlled conditions; its size permits convenient handling in vivo and in vitro, while flight activity can be easily evoked. In addition, research on this pest insect may be of economical importance.
A survey of the energy metabolism during locust flight is presented in Fig. 1. Flight activity stimulates the neurosecretory adipokinetic cells in the glandular lobes of the corpus cardiacum, a neuroendocrine gland connected with the insect brain, to release peptide neurohormones, the adipokinetic hormones (AKHs). The target for these hormones is the fat body. Via signal transduction processes, the action of the hormones ultimately results in the mobilization of both carbohydrate and lipid reserves as fuels for flight. Carbohydrate (trehalose) is mobilized from glycogen reserves, implying hormonal activation of the key enzyme, fat body glycogen phosphorylase, by phosphorylation. Similarly, on the lipid side, sn-1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG) is mobilized from stored triacylglycerol (TAG), by hormonal activation of the fat body TAG lipase. The carbohydrate and lipid substrates are transported in the hemolymph to the contracting flight muscles. Carbohydrate provides most of the energy for the initial period of flight, whereas at a later stage, lipid substrate in the blood is increased and gradually takes over. The transport of DAG requires specific lipoprotein carriers (lipophorins) which differ in several respects from the lipoproteins in mammals, and act as a lipid shuttle.
This review is focused on three interrelated topics, covering recent data on the biosynthesis and release of the AKHs, their signal transduction mechanisms in the fat body cells, and the changes in the lipophorin system induced by the AKHs during flight., Dick J. Van Der Horst, Wil J.A. Van Marrewijk, Henk G.B. Vullings, Jacques H.B. Diederen, and Lit
The monophyly of the subgenus Leptempis Collin of the genus Empis L. is established on the basis of a male hypopygial character, and the possibility of a close relationship between the subgenera Leptempis Collin, Planempis Frey and Kritempis Collin is discussed. Seven new species belonging to Empis (Leptempis) rustica-group are described from France, Germany, Greece and Spain: E. (L.) abdominalis sp. n., E. (L.) lamellata sp. n., E. (L.) multispina sp. n., E. (L.) pandellei sp. n., E. (L.) lamellimmanis sp. n., E. (L.) sinuosa sp. n. and E. (L.) trunca sp. n. A key to the E. (L.) rustica-group is presented., Christophe Daugeron, and Lit
Myotropic neuropeptides were isolated from the retrocerebral complex of the stick insect, Carausius morosus, by using three HPLC steps. Bioactivity during purification was measured by heterologous bioassays monitoring the contractions of the hyperneural muscle and hindgut of the American cockroach. Additionally, fractions not active in these bioassays were tested in a homologous bioassay evoking contractions of the hindgut of C. morosus. Peptide sequence analysis and mass spectrometry yielded the following structures: Pro-Phe-Cys-Asn-Ala-Phe-Thr-Gly-Cys-NH2 (CCAP), pGlu-Thr-Phe-Gln-Tyr-Ser-His-Gly-Trp-Thr-Asn-NH2 (His7-corazonin) and Asp-Glu-Gly-Gly-Thr-Gln-Tyr-Thr-Pro-Arg-Leu-NH2 (Cam-PK-1). These neuropeptides are the first myotropins isolated from C. morosus. The most bioactive compound in the homologous bioassay, the C. morosus-hindgut assay, was CCAP., Reinhard Predel, Roland Kellner, Gerd Gäde, and Lit
The study is based on an analysis of content and themes of the correspondence of the wellknown Enlightenment Era "provincial intellectual", a bank clerk from Čáslav Jan Ferdinand Opiz (1741-1812), with a country priest from the highlands on the border of Bohemia and Moravia, Karel Killar (1745-1806). Their correspondence - in most part hitherto unstudied - is deposited in the National Museum in Prague. It consists of more than 300 letters, written over a long period of 16 years (1793-1806), and it is fascinating for several reasons: it is conducted in French, which represents one of the very rare testimonies of a good knowledge of French in some members of other classes than the nobility in the 18th and 19th centuries; in this case, the use of French can be read as an implicit adherence to (French) Enlightenment, and perhaps even to the principles of the French Revolution. And it is the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars around which the entire correspondence revolves. Thanks to this we may not only form a deeper and more nuanced insight into Opitz, a wellknown sympathizer of the French Revolution, but also into the lesser known figure of Killar, a man of universal education and an Enlightenment era priest of Josephine stamp, who tried to integrate both the Enlightenment and the French Revolution within his firm Christian (Catholic) worldview., Daniela Tinková., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This essay aims to describe hitherto unknown notes of aesthetics lectures given by August Gottlieb Meißner (1753-1807) at Prague University. It compares these notes (made by a certain Wagner, and deposited in the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus) with notes deposited in Czech libraries, and seeks to determine their place chronologically amongst notes made by others attending Meißner’s lectures over the years. The most important difference in content between the earlier known notes and Wagner’s is Meißner’s negative attitude towards the Schlegel brothers. This attitude slightly alters our existing notion of his views on the relationship between literature and morality. Taken alone, the collections of notes in Czech libraries had led one to conclude that this Prague ordinarius was an ardent libertine, who dared, even at a conservative Austrian university, to push for the autonomy of art, including a thorough split between art and morality, regarding not only works of art, but also, to a certain extent, the artists themselves. By contrast, the Vienna MS as a matter of priority restricts this split to art, and limits it to the higher, moral aims of the artist as citizen. His approach to questions of morality and to the Schlegel brothers demonstrates that while Meißner considered himself part of the liberally enlightened current of contemporaneous literature, which made moving the emotions the central aim of art, he was no longer an adherent of upandcoming Romanticism with its extreme conviction about unlimited authorial liberty, which stemmed from the philosophical Idealism of the times. This attitude to the Schlegel brothers also suggests that Wagner attended Meißner’s lectures in aesthetics and rhetoric in the winter of 1800/1., Tomáš Hlobil., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The study examines the life of a Tuscan nobleman Luigi Angiolini. He was a writer, traveller and diplomat. He was active in the period of the Habsburg reforms, the French Revolution, Napoleonic rule and the restoration in Italy. His travelogue about England and Scotland (Lettere sopra l’Inghilterra, Scozia e Olanda) reflects his education and background which was strongly influenced by Tuscan Enlightenment. During the subsequent Napoleonic rule in Italy, he turned his attention to diplomacy in the services of Napoleon Bonaparte and grand duke Ferdinand III in Paris. The article shows how Angiolini was marked by ideas and trends of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century during his chequered life and how the breakthrough period formed him., Oldřiška Prokopová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This study aims to present the problems of the perspective of Catholic theology and Catholic historiography on the Enlightenment. In its first part it attempts to find an answer to the question: is the Church History rather theological or historical discipline? Then it shows some specifics of the Catholic perspective in the Church History discipline before and after the 2nd Vatican Council. In its second part it shows reflection of the problems of Enlightenment in the Catholic theology. In the next part this study dwells on discussion about understanding of Enlightenment in history since 1908 till now. In its last part shows reflection of theological and historical research in the Bohemian area before and after the 2nd Vatican Council., Rudolf Svoboda., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
First stadium juveniles of P. angustus were reared under controlled seasonal conditions to maturity, reproduction and death. Individuals born in any one breeding season either had a 1-year or a 2-year life cycle (cohort-splitting). The life cycle was annual for individuals born in the first part of the breeding season (May-August), but became biennial for those born later (August-October). Two phenomena were involved: (1) Only individuals reaching the penultimate stadium (stadium VII) before a critical period at the end of spring could become adult in the breeding season following that of their birth. After this time, stadium VII individuals entered into aestivation and only became adult in the second autumn after their birth. (2) Females becoming adult in autumn entered reproductive dormancy and only laid eggs in the following spring. Overall, individuals born at the start of the breeding season easily reached stadium VII before the critical period and were able to breed at I year, whereas individuals born at the end of the breeding season reached stadium VII after the critical period, then had two consecutive periods of dormancy and only bred at 2 years age. Individuals from the same nest born in the middle of the breeding season (August) could have either annual or biennial life cycles, depending on whether they reached stadium VII before or during aestivation. The environmental factors capable of triggering aestivation in subadults and reproductive dormancy in autumn-maturing females are discussed., Jean-Francois David, Marie-Louise Celerier, Jean-Jacques Geoffroy, and Lit