The paper describes the general form of an ordinary differential equation of an order $n+1$ $(n\ge 1)$ which allows a nontrivial global transformation consisting of the change of the independent variable and of a nonvanishing factor. A result given by J. Aczél is generalized. A functional equation of the form \[ f\biggl (s, w_{00}v_0, \ldots , \sum _{j=0}^n w_{n j}v_j\biggr )=\sum _{j=0}^n w_{n+1 j}v_j + w_{n+1 n+1}f(x,v, v_1, \ldots , v_n), \] where $w_{n+1 0}=h(s, x, x_1, u, u_1, \ldots , u_n)$, $ w_{n+1 1}=g(s, x, x_1, \ldots , x_n, u, u_1, \ldots , u_n)$ and $w_{i j}=a_{i j}(x_1, \ldots , x_{i-j+1}, u, u_1, \ldots , u_{i-j})$ for the given functions $a_{i j}$ is solved on $\mathbb R$, $ u\ne 0.$.
We suggest a nonparametric version of the probability weighted empirical characteristic function (PWECF) introduced by Meintanis {et al.} \cite{meiswaall2014} and use this PWECF in order to estimate the parameters of arbitrary transformations to symmetry. The almost sure consistency of the resulting estimators is shown. Finite-sample results for i.i.d. data are presented and are subsequently extended to the regression setting. A real data illustration is also included.
To reveal and evaluate the mechanism of transforming rainfall into runoff in the region, where the subsurface flow plays a dominant role in the runoff formation, a continuous hydrological and climatic data monitoring has been set-up in the experimental catchment Uhlířská (the Jizera Mountains, CR). The soil profile (Dystric Cambisol), formed on the weathered granite bedrock, is shallow and highly heterogeneous. Beside a standard catchment data observation a hillslope transect was instrumented to control the flow dynamics in the soil profile. From three soil horizons, the subsurface outflow is recorded in the subsurface trench. Adjacent to the trench the soil water suction is scanned by triplets of automatic tensiometers. Within the soil profile the unsaturated regime prevails, nevertheless the soil keeps almost saturated. Nearly simultaneous reaction of suction on a rainfall in all soil horizons implies a rapid vertical flow. Local preferential flow paths are conducting infiltrating water at significantly variable rates when saturation is reached. Groundwater table, soil moisture and subsurface runoff measured at the hillslope transect and the total outflow from the catchment, are correlated. The outflow from the catchment is dominantly controlled by soil moisture however the mechanism of its generation is not yet fully understood. and V oblasti s dominantním podpovrchovým odtokem bylo započato s kontinuálním hydrologickým a klimatickým monitoringem s cílem popsat a vyhodnotit transformaci srážky na odtok. Experimentální povodí Uhlířská se nachází v severní části České republiky v Jizerských horách. Půdní profil, klasifikovaný jako dystrická kambizem na zvětralém žulovém podloží, je mělký a velmi heterogenní. Svahový transekt byl vystrojen pro sledování dynamiky podpovrchového odtoku. Ve třech půdních horizontech je monitorován odtok a půdní sací tlak. V půdním profilu převládá nenasycený stav, ačkoliv je půdní vlhkost dlouhodobě blízko nasycení. Rychlé vertikální proudění je indikováno téměř současnou odezvou půdního sacího tlaku na srážku ve všech půdních horizontech. Po dosažení nasycení infiltrující voda protéká preferenčními cestami s výrazně odlišnými lokálními rychlostmi. Závislost hladiny podzemní vody, půdní vlhkosti, podpovrchového odtoku ve svahovém transektu na odtoku z povodí je významná. Odtok vody z povodí, které leží na zvětralém žulovém podloží, je dominantně určován půdní vlhkostí. Přes tato zjištění není mechanismus tvorby odtoku zatím jednoznačně popsatelný.
Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR/NIH strain) harbor a deletion variant in the Cd36 fatty acid transporter and display defective fatty acid metabolism, insulin resistance and hypertension. Transgenic rescue of Cd36 in SHR ameliorates insulin resistance and improves dyslipidemia. However, the role of Cd36 in blood pressure regulation remains controversial due to inconsistent blood pressure effects that were observed with transgenic expression of Cd36 on the SHR background. In the current studies, we developed two new SHR transgenic lines, which express wild type Cd36 under the control of the universal Ef-1 promoter, and examined the effects of transgenic expression of wild type Cd36 on selected metabolic and cardiovascular phenotypes. Transgenic expression of Cd36 in the new lines was associated with significantly decreased serum fatty acids, amelioration of insulin resistance and glucose intolerance but failed to induce any consistent changes in blood pressure as measured by radiotelemetry. The current findings confirm the genetic association of defective Cd36 with disordered insulin action and fatty acid metabolism in the SHR/NIH strain and suggest that Cd36 is linked to other gene(s) on rat chromosome 4 that regulate blood pressure., M. Pravenec, V. Landa, V. Zídek, A. Musilová, L. Kazdová, N. Qi, J. Wang, E. St.Lezin, T. W. Kurtz., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Lecithin:retinol acyltransferase (LRAT) is the major enzyme responsible for retinol esterification in the mammalian body. LRAT exhibits specific activity in the cells with active retinol metabolism where it converts retinols into retinyl esters, which represents the major storage form of retinol. Besides hepatic stellate cells in the liver, LRAT appears to have a key physiologic role in several other tissues. In this study, we generated a transgenic reporter mouse expressing green fluorescence protein (EGFP) under the control of region containing -1166 bps from promoter upstream from the putative transcriptional start site and 262 bps downstream of this start. Transgenic reporter mice exhibited specific expression in eyes and testes. In eyes, expression of EGFP-reporter is found in lens and lens epithelium and fibers from embryo to adulthood. In testes, LRAT-EGFP reporter is expressed both in Sertoli and in spermatocytes marking initiation of spermatogenesis in prepubertal mice. Our data show that the examined LRAT regulatory region is sufficient to achieve strong and selective expression in the eye and testes but not in liver and other organs., D. Prukova, Z. Ileninova, B. Antosova, P. Kasparek, M. Gregor, R. Sedlacek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
RNA gel hybridization showed that the expression of monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) in the wild type (WT) tomato was decreased firstly and then increased under salt- and polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced osmotic stress, and the maximum level was observed after treatment for 12 h. WT, sense transgenic and antisense transgenic tomato plants were used to analyze the antioxidative ability to cope with osmotic stresses. After salt stress, the fresh mass (FM) and height of sense transgenic lines were greater than those of antisense lines and WT plants. Under salt and PEG treatments, sense transgenic plants showed a lower level of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), a higher net photosynthetic rate (PN), and the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) compared with WT and antisense transgenic plants. Moreover, sense lines maintained higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity than WT and antisense plants under salt- and PEG-induced osmotic stress. These results indicate that chloroplastic MDHAR plays an important role in alleviating photoinhibition of PSII by elevating ascorbate (AsA) level under salt- and PEG-induced osmotic stress., F. Li ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The aim of the paper is to present transient calculations of an elastohydrodynamically lubricated (EHL) point contact. The paper focuses on the description of the numerical algorithm used to model non-smooth contacts with surface feature on one of the contacting bodies. Results of film thickness and pressure distributions of a selected surface feaure are presented. Simulations were performed and compared for two different rheology approaches (Newtonian, resp. non-Newtonian). and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Cadmium is a heavy metal causing toxicity especially in kidney
cells. The toxicity is linked also with enhanced oxidative stress
leading to cell death. On the other hand, our recent experiments
have shown that an increase of total intracellular dehydrogenases
activity can also occur in kidney cells before declining until cell
death. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate
this transient enhancement in cell viability after cadmium
treatment. The human kidney HK-2 cell line was treated with
CdCl2 at concentrations 0-200 µM for 2-24 h and intracellular
dehydrogenase activity was tested. In addition, we measured
reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, glutathione levels,
mitochondrial membrane potential, and C-Jun-N-terminal kinase
(JNK) activation. We found that significantly increased
dehydrogenase activity could occur in cells treated with 25, 100,
and 200 µM CdCl2. Moreover, the results showed an increase in
ROS production linked with JNK activation following the
enhancement of dehydrogenase activity. Other tests detected
no relationship with the increased in intracellular dehydrogenase
activity. Hence, the transient increase in dehydrogenase activity
in HK-2 cells preceded the enhancement of ROS production and
our finding provides new evidence in cadmium kidney toxicity.
This paper presents a new technique for fingerprint image matching in biometric security applications, based on the hybrid of Neural Network and Delaunay Triangulation methodology. The Delaunay triangulation of the minutiae set is transformed to a set of points in the discretized space using duality. This translation results in a sampling method be acquiring which the system tolerates displacement and noise of the input image. Finally, Transiently Chaotic Associative Network (TCAN) is used to learn the obtained pattern. Experimental results show a significant improvement in the False Rejection Rate over both the traditional Delaunay Triangulation based approach and direct Neural Network application.
Central pattern generators (CPGs) play an important role in controlling rhythmic movements in vivo. Increased insight into mechanisms of CPGs can be obtained by perturbing neuron activities so as to study a range of behaviors. By applying this method, a series of simulations were performed to research different transition modes between firing patterns in a pacemaker neuron model of stomatogastric ganglion (STG). Firstly, with the perturbation of parameters in model, such as external stimulus, parameters in compartments and connection between compartments, different firing patterns and bifurcation of inter-spike intervals (ISIs) were obtained to exhibit the impact of single parameter on the transions between spiking and bursting. Moreover, perturbing two parameters gCa, Iext simultaneously induced the continuous variation of the bifurcation mode, which implied the crucial role of calcium channel in regulating the rhythm generation. Finally, a two-dimensional parameter space (gCa, Iext) was constructed by spike-counting method to capture the distribution of the firing patterns and different transition mode between them in a comprehensive aspect. In this parameter space, three basic transition modes were concluded: bifurcation ring, period-doubling mode and period-adding mode.