The natural prey of the jumping spider Menemerus taeniatus (L. Koch, 1867) was studied on the Absheron Peninsula, Azerbaijan. The percentage of specimens of M. taeniatus found feeding was low (10.7%). This investigation showed that M. taeniatus is a polyphagous predator feeding on a wide range of arthropods, including representatives of eight arthropod orders. The primary food of M. taeniatus was Diptera and Lepidoptera, which collectively made up about two thirds of total prey. The length of prey killed by M. taeniatus ranged between 1.10 and 13.00 mm (mean 6.14 mm), which is between 15.2 and 216.7% (mean 90.3%) of the length of their captors. Most frequently taken prey (50%) were medium-sized arthropods varying between 50-100% of the spiders' body length.
The aim of the paper is to present the results of measurements of 40K, 208Tl, 212Pb, 214Pb, 214Bi and 228Ac activity concentrations of selected rocks co llected from the contact zone of the Karkonosze massif with the Szklarska Poręba schist-belt. Activity concentrations were obtained using a gamma-ray spectrometry system. Determined activity concentrations of 40K and nuclides from 238U and 232Th series in measured samples were compared with average activity concentrations of these radionuclides in the continental crust and in the soil and with data concerning investigated area available in the selected literature. In all rock samples very high activity concentrations associated with decay of 232Th and 238U series were observed. These values twice exceed the average activity concentrations refer to continental crust and are distinctly higher than activity concentrations measured in typical rocks of the Izera block., Aleksandra Bieda and Grzegorz Lizurek., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
The paper describes the results of Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) study of Sambia peninsula. The idea of this work was to verify the hypothesis whether any terrain surface deformation that occur in Sambia area, could be interpreted as related to tectonic processes. Moreover, if any movements are detected what is their relationship to the 21 September 2004 earthquake? To answer these questions SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data from European satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2 acquired from 1992 to 2001 were processed with interferometric techniques to archive independent data about terrain surface deformation. The obtained results - 4 sets of PS (Persistent Scatterers) points with calculated movement velocities (mm/yr) according to linear model were compared with published results of terrestrial measurements. The analysis of PS results confirms the occurrence of terrain deformations of tectonic origin of few mm/yr. The distribution of deformation velocities suggest its relationship to the recent activity occurring along two E-W trending seismoactive sub-zones located along Pregola river valley and possibly in the northern coast of Sambia Peninsula., Zbigniew Perski and Marek Mróz., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The geometry of the distal anastomosis of a femoropopliteal bypass influences local hemodynamics and formation of intimal hyperplasia. We hypothesized that the distal anastomosis of an above-knee femoropopliteal bypass undergoes remodeling that results in displacement of the original course of the popliteal artery and change in the anastomosis angle. We identified 43 CT angiography examination with proximal femoropopliteal bypass and either a preserved contralateral popliteal artery or previous CTA before construction of the bypass for comparison. In these examinations, we measured the displacement distance and angle at the level of the distal anastomosis and compared these measurements with clinical and imaging data. The displacement distance was 8.8±4.9 mm (P<0.0001) and the displacement angle was -1° (IQR=44°). The angle between the inflow and outflow artery was 153±16° (P<0.0001). There was a negative association between the displacement angle and the angle between the bypass and the outflow artery (r=-0.318, P=0.037). Patients with reversed venous grafts had a greater displacement of the anastomosis (14.7±3.0 mm) than patients with prosthetic grafts (8.0±4.5 mm, P=0.0011). We conclude that construction of a distal anastomosis of proximal femoropopliteal bypass results in displacement of the original course of the popliteal artery towards the bypass and this effect is more pronounced in reversed venous grafts.
Genome size has been suggested as one of the traits associated with invasiveness of plant species. To provide a quantitative insight into the role of this trait, we estimated nuclearDNAcontent in 93 alien species naturalized in the Czech Republic, belonging to 32 families, by using flow cytometry, and compared it with the values reported for non-invading congeneric and confamilial species from the Plant DNA C-values database. Species naturalized in the Czech Republic have significantly smaller genomes than their congeners not known to be naturalized or invasive in any part of the world. This trend is supported at the family level: alien species naturalized in the Czech flora have on average a smaller genome than is the mean value for non-invading confamilials. Moreover, naturalized and non-invading species clearly differed in the frequency of five genome size categories; this difference was mainly due to very small genomes prevailing and intermediate to very large genomes underrepresented in the former group. Our results provide the first quantitative support for association of genome size with invasiveness, based on a large set of alien species across a number of plant families. However, there was no difference in the genome size of invasive species compared to naturalized but non-invasive. This suggests that small genome size provides alien plants with an advantage already at the stage of naturalization and need not be necessarily associated with the final stage of the process, i.e. invasion.