Na rozdíl od Antarktidy neexistuje speciální právní režim týkající se Arktidy. Arktida je specifická
oblast okolo severního pólu, na jedné straně se jedná v podstatě o moře, na druhé straně je to do značné
míry zamrzlé moře, což právě vyvolává možné otázky o specifikách režimu této oblasti. Přičemž se dá konstatovat,
že lze na Severní ledový oceán aplikovat Úmluvu OSN o mořském právu z roku 1982.Na základě
této úpravy vznáší státy nároky na kontinentální šelf za hranicemi 200 námořních mil, které by jim
umožnily výhradní čerpání zdrojů v oblasti jejich kontinentálního šelfu. Ukazuje se, že právní úprava
kontinentálního šelfu obsažená v Úmluvě OSN o mořském právu vyvolává řadu otázek, které v ní nejsou
jednoznačně upraveny. Na arktickou oblast se nevztahují jen normy mezinárodního mořského práva.
Vedle těchto pravidel existují rovněž důležitá pravidla v oblasti mezinárodní ochrany životního prostředí.
Nutnost řešit různé otázky spojené s Arktidou vedla v roce 1996 k založení Arktické rady. Jednou z hlavních
otázek do budoucnosti je, do jaké míry arktické, ale i další státy, které mají zájem o oblast Arktidy,
budou chtít chránit její životní prostředí, nebo zda převáží zájem na využívání jejího zejména nerostného
bohatství. and Unlike in the case of the Antarctic, there are no special legal regulations for the Arctic.Being
a polar region located at the northern most part of the Earth, the Arctic is a mostly frozen sea area
which makes the issue of its legal regime specific. Since the 1989 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
involves an international legal framework, it can be applied to the Arctic Ocean as well.On the basis
of the Convention, particular states stake claims for the continental shelf beyond the limits of 200
nautical miles, which would allow them an exclusive exploitation of the resources within the shelf
territory. It has become apparent that the legal regulation of the continental shelf contained in the
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea raises some questions that are not satisfactorily addressed.
The Arctic region is regulated not only by the rules of the international sea law, important international
environmental law regulations being also applicable. The necessity to tackle certain problems
pertaining to the Arctic led to the foundation of the Arctic Council in 1996. A key future issue will be
whether the Arctic and other countries that are becoming involved in the region engage in protecting
its environment at the expense of the exploitation of its resources, mineral ones in particular.
Pracovník Fakulty technologické Univerzity Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně prof. Ing. Martin Zatloukal, Ph.D., DSc., obhájil disertaci Aplikovaná reologie pro polymery: Od charakterizace k modelování a tokovým nestabilitám a získal vědecký titul „doktor chemických věd“. Prof. Zatloukal přispěl k rozvoji aplikované reologie polymerních tavenin, navrhl a aplikoval inovativní experimentální metodiky umožňující pochopení vlivu tahového toku a tlaku na tokové chování polymerních tavenin, vyvinul nové konstituční rovnice pro polymerní taveniny, které poskytují možnost rozlišit topologii polymerů, a vytvořil nový přístup pro modelování nestabilit volného povrchu polymerních tavenin v oblasti silně nelineární viskoelasticity. and Martin Zatloukal.
Oxidative stress plays an important role in pressure overloadinduced
cardiac remodeling. The purpose of this study was to determine whether apocynin, a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase inhibitor, attenuates pressure overload-induced cardiac remodeling in rats. After abdominal aorta constriction, the surviving rats were randomly divided into four groups: sham group, abdominal aorta constriction group, apocynin group, captopril group. Left ventricular pathological changes were studied using Masson’s trichrome staining. Metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) levels in the left ventricle were analyzed by western blot and gelatin zymography. Oxidative stress and apoptotic index were also examined in cardiomyocytes using dihydroethidium and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL), respectively. Our results showed that abdominal aorta constriction significantly caused excess collagen deposition and cardiac insult. Treatment with apocynin significantly inhibited deposition of collagen and reduced the level of MMP-2. Furthermore, apocynin also decreased the NADPH oxidase activity, reactive oxygen species production and cardiomyocyte apoptotic index. Interestingly, apocynin only inhibited NADPH oxidase activity without affecting its expression or the level of angiotension II in the left ventricle. In conclusion, apocynin reduced collagen deposition, oxidative stress, and inhibited apoptosis, ultimately ameliorating cardiac remodeling by mechanisms that are independent of the renin-angiotensin system.
The topic of this article is “apocalypticism,” that is, a catastrophic vision of modern civilization with no prospect of a turnaround in one’s inner world, as it appears in the works of four Czech Roman Catholic thinkers, who were émigrés after the Communist takeover of 1948. While in his native land, the historian and columnist Karel Schwarzenberg (1911–1986) wrote in a starkly apocalyptic, anticivilization spirit, in the tradition of Léon Bloy and Josef Florian. In exile, however, his apocalypticism became milder, and was projected more into his experience of the liturgy (the fleetingness of time). The apocalypticism of the historian, Christian sociologist, publicist, writer, and politician Bohdan Chudoba (1909–1982), and the Germanist, political philosopher, and translator Rio Preisner (1925–2007) was, by contrast, intensifi ed while émigrés. Independently of each other, they created great bodies of work (Preisner was published, but Chudoba’s writing has remained largely in manuscript), in which they tried to present a total vision of history, which was, from their perspective, necessarily doomed. Similarly, they perceive the attempt to modernize the Church after the Second Vatican Council as part of this catastrophic process, because the Church, in their opinion, was conforming to negative tendencies in the world. The Germanist and theologian Vladimír Neuwirth (1921–1998) wrote Apokalyptický deník (Apocalyptic Diary), which is not “apocalyptic” in the usual sense of the word. Rather, it is “consoling” – the apocalypse is an ever-present dimension of human existence and the world, and one must be able to live with it and accept it. It follows from the comparisons in this article that the apocalypticism of Schwarzenberg and Neuwirth, both of whom worked with Czech émigré clergymen and their associates who mostly agreed with the changes after the Second Vatican Council, tended to diminish, whereas Chudoba and Preisner, who parted on bad terms with those clergymen and their associates, became entrenched in their position as “lone critics on the margin of a (rotten) Church.” It seems that work with Church institutions to some extent protected émigré writers from extreme apocalyptic tendencies. (The émigré novelist Jan Čep is a similar example.) According to the author, however, there is a fundamental differences between the two lone, “real” apocalyptics: whereas Chudoba ended up in Spain in true isolation, without having any hope towards the end of his life that his ideas would find a wider audience, Preisner, in America, lived to see the day when a and vision of the world very close to his own would move from the margins back to the forefront of public discourse in the opinions of the American Neo-Conservatives of the early twenty-first century.
High plasma triglyceride (TG) level is a major independent risk factor of coronary heart disease. A newly identified Apolipoprotein A5 (Apoa5) gene has been shown to play an important role in determining plasma TG concentrations in humans and mice. Prague hereditary hypertriglyceridemic (HTG) rats are a useful model of human hypertriglyceridemia and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Thus, the variation of Apoa5 gene and its expression were studied in this strain under normal conditions and after chronic fructose loading. Lewis and Wistar rats served as normotriglyceridemic controls. Plasma TG were significantly higher in HTG rats in comparison with both control strains. Sequence analysis of the rat Apoa5 gene revealed the existence of two introns. However, screening of the coding regions and intron-exon boundaries of Apoa5 gene did not indicate any mutation of this gene in HTG rats in comparison with Lewis and Wistar ones. Under the basal conditions the expression of Apoa5 was lower in all age groups of HTG rats compared to Wistar animals. Furthermore, during chronic fructose loading there were no significant changes of Apoa5 expression in HTG rats, although plasma TG levels rose 3-4 times within first two days of fructose loading and were increased during the whole period of fructose treatment. In conclusion, Apoa5 does not seem to be a genetic determinant of hypertriglyceridemia in HTG rats. The absence of significant changes in Apoa5 gene expression during chronic fructose-induced TG elevation excludes its major role in mechanisms compensating severe hypertriglyceridemia.
High plasma levels of triglycerides (TG) are an independent risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease, with about 50 % of the final levels being determined genetically. Apolipoprotein A5 ( APOA5 ) is the last discovered member of the apolipoprotein APOA1/C3/A4 gene cluster, found by comparative sequencing analysis. The importance of APOA5 gene for determination of plasma triglyceride levels has been suggested after development of transgenic and knock-out mice (transgenic mice displayed significantly reduced TG, whereas knock-out mice had high TG). In Czech population, alleles C-1131 and Trp19 are associated with elevated levels of plasma TG and higher risk of myocardial infarction development. These alleles also play some role in nutrigenetics and actigenetics of lifestyle interventions leading to the plasma cholesterol changes as well as in the pharmacogenetics of statin treatment. On the contrary, APOA5 mutations detected in Czech population did not show strict effect on plasma TG levels. Val153 → Met variant exhibit the sex-specific effect of HDL-cholesterol levels. The suggested roles of APOA5 variants in determination of the plasma remnant particles, plasma concentrations of C-reactive protein or some anthropometrical parameters were excluded., J. A. Hubáček ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The important role of APOAV gene variants in determination of plasma triglyceride levels has been shown in many population studies. Recently, an influence of APOAV T-1131>C polymorphism on C-reactive protein (CRP) in young Korean males has been reported. We have therefore analyzed a putative association between T-1131>C, Ser19>Trp and Val153>Met APOAV variants (PCR and restriction analysis) and CRP concentrations in 1119 Caucasian males, aged between 28 and 67 years (49.2±10.8 years). The frequency of C allele carriers was lower in Caucasians than in Koreans (15.5 % vs. 46.2 %). CRP levels did not differ between T/T homozygotes (n=946, 1.61±2.05 mg/l) and carriers of the C allele (n=173, 1.67±1.95 mg/l). Thus, in contrast to Korean males, T-1131>C APOAV variant has no effect on plasma concentrations of CRP in a large group of Caucasian males. Other APOAV variants (Ser19>Trp and Val153>Met) did not also influence plasma concentrations of CRP. APOAV variants are unlikely to be an important genetic determinant of plasma CRP concentrations in Caucasian males.