In this paper, play behaviour of goitered gazelles is considered for the first time. Young gazelles demonstrated play activity most often, followed by adult males and sub-adults, then adult females. Locomotor play (running, jumping) was the most frequently observed play behaviour, while social play (fighting, sexual play) was noted considerably less often and mostly with males. Adult gazelles played mainly in May and gazelle young in June, and primarily in the evenings (19:00-20:00). Most acts of play lasted from several seconds to a half-minute. Young gazelles played often during their suckling period or, at least in the presence of their mothers. Adult females frequently became involved in their young’s play, while males played during grazing or butting. In describing goitered gazelle play patterns, we tested five hypotheses: practice-exercise, surplus energy, locomotor play ontogeny, different play types for specific stages of aging, and the social function of play. Our data for playful behaviour of goitered gazelles supported four of the five hypotheses, but contradicted the fourth listed above, which states, at least for Cuvier’s gazelles, that locomotor play appears and disappears earlier than social play. The cause of this difference in results may lie in the different conditions under which groups were observed or the different extent of the studies.
This contribution provides a brief but comprehensive overview of various types and key properties of plasmas. A definition of the plasma state is given and numerous phenomena occurring in plasmas are reviewed., Petr Kulhánek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Plectanocotyle major sp. n. (Monogenea: Polyopisthocotylea: Plectanocotylidae) is described from Chelidonichthys obscurus (Bloch et Schneider, 1801) collected from the Mediterranean coasts (Tunisia and France). The new species is compared to Plectanocotyle gurnardi collected on Chelidonichthys gurnardus and the only other valid species in the genus Plectanocotyle. The new species differs from P. gurnardi by the clamp size (137 µm vs 64 µm for clamp length and 110 µm vs 60 µm for clamp width, respectively) and the length of the male copulatory organ (107 µm vs 144 µm, respectively). Species of the Plectanocotylidae seem to be characterized by an oioxenic specificity.
Although statins exert non-lipid cardioprotective effects, their influence on cell death is not fully elucidated. For this purpose, we investigated whether simvastatin treatment (S, 10 mg/kg, 5 days) is capable of mitigating ischemia/reperfusion-induced (IR) apoptosis in the isolated rat hearts, which was examined using immunoblotting analysis. In addition, the content of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and its active form, phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3-Thr705), was analyzed. Simvastatin induced neither variations in the plasma lipid levels nor alterations in the baseline content of analysed proteins with the exception of upregulation of cytochrome C. Furthermore, simvastatin significantly increased the baseline levels of pSTAT3 in contrast to the control group. In the IR hearts, simvastatin reduced the expression of Bax and non-cleaved caspase-3. In these hearts, phosphorylation of STAT3 did not differ in comparison to the non-treated IR group, however total STAT3 content was slightly increased. The improved recovery of left ventricular developed pressure co-existed with the increased Bcl- 2/Bax ratio. In conclusion, pleiotropic action of statins may ameliorate viability of cardiomyocytes by favouring the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and downregulating the proapoptotic markers; however STAT3 does not seem to be a dominant regulator of this anti-apoptotic action of simvastatin., T. Rajtík, ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury