The article deals with reduplication in Tamil. It arranges various types of reduplication into five groups, according to one formal criterion – what is reduplicated. Then it focuses on phonetic reduplication, i.e. partial reduplication where the second word (the reduplicate) copies the phonetic structure of the base word to produce a rhyming pair. It classifies the examples of phonetic reduplication into several subgroups. The first large group contains pairs of fully lexical words, which have been put together because they sound similar and produce a rhyming pair. Here, phonetic reduplication accompanies semantic reduplication. The second large group contains pairs of words in which the second word is a bound word and has no meaning by itself. The eminent example in this category is in relation to echo words. These pairs usually have some emotive connotation and speakers use them to express their attitude towards something. Here, phonetic reduplication can be considered the main formative principle. At the end, the author proposes that phonetic reduplication might have played a role n the formation of numerous onomatopoetic words.
Of 31 species of coprophagous beetles from the following families: Aphodiidae, Geotrupidae, Scarabaeidae, individuals of 25 species carried deutonymphs of Uropoda orbicularis (Müller, 1776). The mite's preferences for attaching to specific parts of an insect's body were determined by examining 4,318 specimens of beetles from the following families: Aphodiidae, Geotrupidae, Scarabaeidae, Hydrophilidae and Histeridae. We recorded 14,507 cases of phoresy (5,822 deutonymphs and 8,685 of pedicels without mites) on 2,056 insects. Elytra and the third pair of legs were the areas most frequently occupied by the mites. The mite's preferences for attaching to specific parts of an insect body are reported for the first time.
A survey of soil fauna in Poland revealed 30 cases of centipedes carrying mites of the sub-order Uropodina. The 155 phoretic deutonymphs collected belonged to two species of Uropodina - Oodinychus ovalis (C.L. Koch, 1839) and Uroobovella pulchella (Berlese, 1904). These mites displayed a high degree of selectivity in their choice of carrier. The only species of centipede transporting mites was Lithobius forficatus (Linnaeus, 1758), despite the presence of 30 other species in the same habitats. It is possible that the large size and relatively fast speed of movement of this centipede make it a very good mite carrier. The majority of the mites were located on the sides of the centipedes, on segments near the anterior end. The high selectivity in the choice of carrier as well as the point of attachment suggests adaptation by the mites for phoresy by L. forficatus.
Phorids parasitizing Coccinella septempunctata, the seven spot ladybird, attend host prepupae and parasitize them at the point of ecdysis to the pupal stage. In this system, oviposition rates would be maximized through the choice of older pre-pupal hosts in preference to young ones. Field study revealed that old pre-pupal hosts were indeed more likely to be attended by phorids than young pre-pupae. We tested the hypothesis that this was due to a preference by simultaneously offering phorids an old and a young prepupal host in a choice test. The results suggest that phorids do indeed distinguish between host prepupae on the basis of age, choosing the older prepupa.
Phosphene is the experience of light without natural visual stimulation. It can be induced by electrical stimulation of the retina, optic nerve or cortex. Induction of phosphenes can be potentially used in assistive devices for the blind. Analysis of phosphene might be beneficial for practical reasons such as adjustment of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) frequency and intensity to eliminate phosphene perception (e.g., tACS studies using verum tACS group and sham group) or, on the contrary, to maximize perception of phosphenes in order to be more able to study their dynamics. In this study, subjective reports of 50 healthy subjects exposed to different intensities of retinal tACS at 4 different frequencies (6, 10, 20 and 40 Hz) were analyzed. The effectiveness of different tACS frequencies in inducing phosphenes was at least 92 %. Subject reported 41 different phosphene types; the most common were light flashes and light circles. Changing the intensity of stimulation often induced a change in phosphene attributes. Up to nine phosphene attributes changed when the tACS intensity was changed. Significant positive correlation was observed between number of a different phosphene types and tACS frequency. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that tACS is effective in eliciting phosphenes whose type and attributes change depending on the frequency and intensity of tACS. The presented results open new questions for future research.
We evaluated the effect of glucagon on cardiac automaticity as well as the possible role of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDE) in regulating this effect. Concentration response curves for glucagon in the absence and in th e presence of the non-selective PDE inhibitor IBMX were performed in the isolated right ventricle of the rat. We found that glucagon produces only a minor increase of ventricular automa ticity (11.0±4.1, n=5) when compared to the full agonist of β-adrenoceptor isoproterenol (182.2±25.3, n=7). However, IBMX enhances the maximal efficacy of glucagon on cardiac automaticity (11.0±4.1, in the absence and 45.3±3.2 in the presence of IBMX, n=5, P<0.05). These results indicate that PDE blunts proarrhythmic effects of glucagon in rat myocardium., C. Gonzalez-Muñoz, J. Hernández., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Phosphorylation of phospholemman (PLM) on ser68 has been proposed to at least partially mediate cyclic AMP (cAMP) mediated relaxation of arterial smooth muscle. We evaluated the time course of the phosphorylation of phospholemman (PLM) on ser68, myosin regulatory light chains (MRLC) on ser19, and heat shock protein 20 (HSP20) on ser16 during a transient forskolin-induced relaxation of histamine-stimulated swine carotid artery. We also evaluated the dose response for forskolin- and nitroglycerin-induced relaxation in phenylephrine-stimulated PLM-/- and PLM+/+ mice. The time course for changes in ser19 MRLC dephosphorylation and ser16 HSP20 phosphorylation was appropriate to explain the forskolin-induced relaxation and the recontraction observed upon washout of forskolin. However, the time course for changes in ser68 PLM phosphorylation was too slow to explain forskolin-induced changes in force. There was no difference in the phenylephrine contractile dose response or in forskolin-induced relaxation dose response observed in PLM-/- and PLM+/+ aortae. In aortae precontracted with phenylephrine, nitroglycerin induced a slightly, but significantly greater relaxation in PLM-/- compared to PLM+/+ aortae. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ser19 MRLC dephosphorylation and ser16 HSP20 phosphorylation are involved in forskolin-induced relaxation. Our data sugge st that PLM phosphorylation is not significantly involved in forskolin-induced arterial relaxation., M. K. Meeks, S. Han, A, L. Tucker, C. M. Rembold., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
A pressure overload was induced in 2-day-old male rats by abdominal aortic constriction, and the phospholipid composition of the left ventricle (LV) and the right ventricle (RV) were determined. Sixty days after the surgery, body weights was lower and LV weight were higher in aorta-constricted (AC) rats in comparison with sham- operated animals. Increased ventricular/body weight ratios indicated a significant degree of hypertrophy of LV and smaller hypertrophy of RV. The concentrations of total phospholipids (PL), choline phosphoglycerides (PC), ethanolamine phosphoglycerides (PE), diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) were decreased in both ventricles of AC rats. The concentrations of sphingomyelin (SM) and plasmalogen PE (PLPE) increased in LV only. The changes in phospholipid composition in the developing pressure-overloaded myocardium may contribute to altered membrane functions connected with heart hypertrophy.
Samples of myocardial tissue were obtained during cardiac surgery from children operated for different types of normoxemic and hypoxemic congenital heart diseases. The phospholipid composition was analyzed by thin layer chromatography. The concentration of total phospholipids (PL), phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) was found lower in atrial tissue of both normoxemic and hypoxemic groups in comparison with the ventricles. When comparing the difference between hypoxemic and normoxemic defects, hypoxemia was found to increase the concentration of total PL, PE and phosphatidylserine in ventricles and total PL and PE in the atria. The increased level of particular phospholipid species may represent adaptive mechanisms to hypoxemia in children with congenital heart diseases.
The effects of chronic diazepam treatment (10 mg/kg/day for 180 days) on the fractional distribution and fatty acid composition of heart phospholipids were studied in male Wistar rats. It was found that diazepam treatment increased the content of phosphatidylcholine and cardiolipin in the heart and slightly increased its phosphatidylcholine fraction. There were no significant changes in fatty acid composition after diazepam treatment in heart phospholipids, with the exception of significant decrease of 20:3n-6 and 20:5n-3 fatty acids. Our findings suggest that diazepam, probably through peripheral benzodiazepine binding sites, altered the content of heart cardiolipin and caused changes in the flux of oxidative phosphorylation in the heart.