Pharmacokinetics of leptin in mammals has received limited attention and only one study has examined more than two time points and this was in ob/ob mice. This study is the first to observe the distribution of leptin over a time course in female mice. A physiologic dose (12 ng) of radiolabelled leptin was injected in adult female mice via the lateral tail vein and tissues were dissected out and measured for radioactivity over a time course up to two hours. Major targets for administered leptin included the liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract and the skin while the lungs had high concentrations of administered leptin per gram of tissue. Leptin was also found to enter the lumen of the digestive tract intact from the plasma. Very little of the dose (<1 %) was recovered from the brain at any time. Consequently we confirm that the brain is not a major target for leptin from the periphery, although it may be very sensitive to leptin that does get to the hypothalamus. Several of the major targets (GI tract, skin and lungs) for leptin form the interface for the body with the environment, and given the ability of leptin to modulate immune function, this may represent a priming effect for tissues to respond to damage and infection., R. A. Hart, R. C. Dobos, L. L. Agnew, R. L. Tellam, J. R. McFarlane., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The article strives to contribute to the debate on the concept of corporate social responsibility by focusing on the under-researched area of the effects of firms’ grants on local and regional development from the perspective of local governments and inhabitants. This concept is typically studied from the corporate perspective. While normally ignored, the spatial dimension plays a substantial role in firms’ grant allocation decisions. The article tries to fill the gap by studying the case of spatial distribution of financial grants of the ČEZ Corporation to communities in the vicinity of the Dukovany nuclear plant, which is located at the peripheral border of the regions of Vysočina and South Moravia. The considerable amounts of money
sent to local budgets are intended to compensate communities near the nuclear plant for the risks related to its existence.
The first aim of the article is to present the spatial distribution of selected ČEZ grants to communities near the Dukovany plant and to compare them with the mean revenues of local budgets in 2003–2012. The second aim is to present in more detail selected ČEZ grants to communities near the Dukovany plant in 2003–2012 and the ways they were earmarked. The data was drawn from publicly available databases on local budgets, annual reports of the ČEZ Foundation, which distributes a large part of ČEZ grants, and interviews with members of local governments and the ČEZ Foundation on additional grants allocated on a contract basis to communities in the immediate vicinity of the power plant.
Although mean per capita local revenue exhibits a relatively even distribution (except for above-average revenues in the five-kilometre Emergency Planning Zone), ČEZ Foundation grants were distributed unevenly, with communities further away from the power plant receiving considerably lower financial support. The municipalities of Rouchovany and Dukovany where the power plant is located obtained the most money, especially after 2003 when an expansion of its medium-term nuclear waste facility was underway. The distribution became more-or-less even in the final years of the period studied. The local governments earmarked a significant majority of the grants for infrastructure improvements. The grants played
a substantial role in the budgets of local communities that exist in the peripheral region marked by considerable economic difficulties. They allowed the local governments to fund projects that would have been fully beyond the scope of their budgets, thus importantly contributing to improving their image, local facilities, and local people’s quality of life. ČEZ Corporation’s activities have been a significant help for the region and some communities have reached such level of facilities that exceeds regional standard. The region’s peripheral nature, which was one of the reasons for building the power plant, has been changing due to the plant owner’s grants, helping the territory somewhat escape traditional definitions of periphery. ČEZ Corporation’s grants have gradually become an important part of the revenues of local governments and an important impetus for their development. The long-term and systematic effects of the extensive and more-or-less stable grants may have influenced the region’s development much more than any other development programme. Along with the growing pressure for corporate social responsibility, the study of this topic can help us understand not only the developmental effects of CSR but also CSR as a relatively new mechanism of regional development in general.
The Moravian Painted Ware Culture settlement in Slavíkovice “Ostánce“ represents one of the most elaborately excavated sites in the peripheral area of western Moravia. The microregion is situated in the foothills of the Czech-Moravian Highlands at a relatively high altitude. More than forty MPW Culture sites have been recorded, mostly corresponding to its younger phase. The current study presents the results of recent surface surveys as well as minor detective and rescue probing. Apart from the large number of finds, a radiocarbon date has assisted in placing the site within the absolute chronology framework of the Moravian MPW Culture (Kuča et al. 2012). A detailed analysis of the archaeological findings allowed comparisons to other similarly dated sites in the area of interest and with the other peripheral regions in south-western Moravia (Bartík 2014a, 22, fig. 6). An attempt at reconstructing the paleoclimate forms an integral part of this study., Jaroslav Bartík, Milan Vokáč, Martin Kuča, Alžběta Čerevková, Lubomír Prokeš, Miriam Nývltová Fišáková., and Obsahuje seznam literatury