The objective of this study was to determine if primers, probes, and pHCl, a plasmid containing a 2.3 kilobasc insert of genomic DNA from Cryptosporidium parvum, would be useful for the detection of Cryptosporidium wrairi DNA using the polymerase chain reaction. C. wrairi DNA was prepared from oocysts recovered from guinea pigs and C. parvum DNA was prepared from the Iowa strain of C. parvum. Two 26-(bp) primers were used to amplify a 452-base pair bp target sequence within the cloned DNA. Similarly-sized PCR products were obtained with the pHCl plasmid DNA, C. parvum DNA, and C. wrairi DNA. However, a 20-base pair probe did not detect C. wrairi DNA. Sequencing of C. wrairi DNA homologous with the 452-bp segment of C. parvum DNA showed 18 bp changes including bp changes in the segment homologous with the probe. A new probe based on homologous sequences was useful for detection of both species of Cryptosporidia. The sequences of the homologous 452-bp segment from the Iowa strain of C. parvum and that segment of C. parvum DNA from the pHC I plasmid were very similar. Nine base pairs identical in the homologous bp segment of the Iowa strain of C. parvum, C. wrairi and the pHCl plasmid differed from those previously reported. Previously reported primers and a newly designed probe proved to be useful for detecting C. wrairi DNA.
The chlorophyll fluorescence Fo, excited by polsed ultra-weak blue radiatíon, and thermoluminescence (TL) were recorded in ďie same sample. Temperature-dependent variations of the fluorescence yield influenced ťhe TL emission.
In a qualitative study of single people conducted in 2003 one particular finding stood out: a significant number of the interviewees (economically independent and without a partner) revealed their involvement in various other forms of regular or even long-term relationships. In an analysis of in-depth interviews conducted in 2003-2005 the following categories of alternative relationships were identified as typical for the social context of contemporary Czech society: 'relationships with married lovers', 'weekend marriages', 'long-distance relationships', 'one-night stands', 'open relationships', 'lover in case of need', and 'relationships to prove oneself'. The existence of relationships that are not longterm or reproduction-oriented is not a result of any deliberate strategy but is rather a consequence of the complex changes in mentality and behaviour that occurred in the 1990s. These shifts, for example, relating to professional commitment and career satisfaction, tend to be understood as the explicit result of labour-market pressures on individual actors, but research has shown that, even at the level of individual actors, alternative approaches to partner relationships and reproduction are much more the result of people adopting and internalising post-1989 cultural templates.
The rock architecture that forms part of the folk architecture has up to now been only inadequately studied. The present study is based primarily on the field researches that have been realized ince the 1950s by the Ethnological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (up to the year 1999, Institute for Ethnography and Folklore Studes of the Czech Academy of Sciences), researches that cannot be thought of without mentioning the name of Emanuel Baláš. The author of the present study himself realized the researches in the second half of the 1990s. The study aims to present, in historical perspective, the special type of primarily provisional dwellings that were being hollowed out primarily in the sandstone rocks. Beside the living quarters, the attention is dedicated also to other types–for example, to the out-buildings (such as barns, cellars) and technical buildings (water mills, blacksmith shops, drying-rooms) that are found in greatest number in the regions of Mělník, Mladá Boleslav, Děčín, Česká Lípa and Semily. According to the datation, the majority of the rock dwellings had been excavated since the second half of the eighteenth century and especially during the whole nineteenth century. But it is beyond doubt that such objects had existed also before, probably already in the Middle Ages, when they had especially the function of temporary refuges. The making of a rock dwelling was in the majority of the cases conditioned by the social status of the „builders“ that belonged among the poor classes. This was especially the case of the local agriculture workers (for example in the region of Mělník) and also of the seasonal workers from Slovakia that were coming especially after the founding of Czechoslovakia. There are many diferences in the disposition, extent and arrangement of the rock dwellings, even though from the point of view of typology this dwelling stems from the three-part chamber house. The incomplete character of the rock dwelling that often was reduced to a hall with a room was caused on the one hand by the economic situation o f the owners, but primarily by the natural conditions (the shape and size of the sandstone massive). The process of the rapid extinguishment of the rock dwellings started after the year 1945 when many of their inhabitants moved out during the settlement of the frontier regions. Minor part of the objects has up to now been used as barns or cellars.