Nedávno se třem skupinám ve Spojených státech podařilo zpomalit světelný puls na neuvěřitelných několik metrů za vteřinu a posléze jej dokonce na okamžik zastavit. Pokusy byly prováděny ve třech různých prostředích: v Boseově-Einsteinově kondenzátu sodíkových atomů, v parách atomů rubidia a v krystalu křemičitanu yttritého, dopovaném praseodymem. K zastavování světla se využívá jevu elektromagneticky indukované průhlednosti, kdy za určitých rezonančních podmínek jeden, tzv. kontrolní laserový puls vytváří společně s druhým zkušebním pulsem průhledné prostředí s obrovskou disperzí indexu lomu. Ta je pak vlastní příčinou radikálního snížení grupové rychlosti zkušebního světelného pulsu, který s koherentními kvantovými stavy atomů vytváří "propletený" stav, tzv. tmavý polariton, šířící se beze ztrát prostředím. Rychlost tmavého polaritonu je možné ovládat kontrolním pulsem. Polariton lze zastavit, přičemž je celý zkušební puls převeden do koherentních kvantových stavů atomů a posléze je možné zkušební puls v původní podobě obnovit. V tomto přehledu jsou odvozeny rovnice, které tyto jevy popisují, jednotlivé pokusy jsou podrobně diskutovány a jsou zmíněna možná využití zastavování světla., Vladimír Dvořák., and Obsahuje bibliografie
Metabolic syndrome is a prevalent, complex condition. The search for genetic determinants of the syndrome is currently undergoing a paradigm enhancement by adding systems genetics approaches to association studies. We summarize the current evidence on relations between an emergent new candidate, zinc finger and BTB domain containing 16 (ZBTB16) transcription factor and the major components constituting the metabolic syndrome. Information stemming from studies on experimental models with altered Zbtb16 expression clearly shows its effect on adipogenesis, cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis, lipid levels and insulin sensitivity. Based on current evidence, we provide a network view of relations between ZBTB16 and hallmarks of metabolic syndrome in order to elucidate the potential functional links involving the ZBTB16 node. Many of the identified genes interconnecting ZBTB16 with all or most metabolic syndrome components are linked to immune function, inflammation or oxidative stress. In summary, ZBTB16 represents a promising pleiotropic candidate node for metabolic syndrome., O. Šeda, L. Šedová, J. Včelák, M. Vaňková, F. Liška, B. Bendlová., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The data derived from rat models and the preliminary results of human studies provide strong indices of involvement of common ZBTB16 variants in a range of cardiovascular and metabolic traits. This cross-sectional study in the Caucasian cohort of 1517 Czech adults aimed to verify the hypothesis that ZBTB16 gene variation directly affects obesity and serum lipid levels. Genotyping of nine polymorphisms of the ZBTB16 gene (rs11214863, rs593731, rs763857, rs2846027, rs681200, rs686989, rs661223, rs675044, rs567057) was performed. A multivariate bidirectional regression with the reduction of dimensionality (O2PLS model) revealed relationships between basal lipid levels and anthropometric parameters and some minor ZBTB16 alleles. In men, the predictors - age and presence of minor ZBTB16 alleles of rs686989, rs661223, rs675044, rs567057 - were associated with significantly higher body mass index, waist to hip ratio, body adiposity index, waist and abdominal circumferences, higher total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol and explained 20 % of variability of these variables. In women, the predictors - age and presence of the rs686989 minor T allele - were also associated with increased anthropometric parameters and total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol but the obtained O2PLS model explained only 7.8 % of the variability of the explained variables. Our study confirmed that the selected gene variants of the transcription factor ZBTB16 influence the obesity-related parameters and lipid levels. This effect was more pronounced in men., B. Bendlová, M. Vaňková, M. Hill, G. Vacínová, P. Lukášová, D. Vejražková, L. Šedová, O. Šeda, J. Včelák., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The trans-border area of the Sudetes between Žďarky and Pstrążna has attracted Prussian/German, Austrian, Czech and Polish geologists since the middle of the 19th century. The history of mapping of this area reflects the scientific development of geological centres in Berlin, Vienna, Prague and Wrocław. This paper presents a description of the oldest geological maps of Lower Silesia in the context of changing knowledge on the Carboniferous and Cretaceous stratigraphy and on the tectonics of the region. On the basis of DEM and field studies the author presents his own geological map of the area of the Pstrążna Elevation together with a description of the local structural geology. A regional structural model is suggested, that explains all the local elevations as having developed in response to a dextral strike-slip activity of the Žďarky-Jakubowice Fault during late Tertiary to Recent times, at an eastern extension of the Poříčí-Hronov Fault Zone., Jurand Wojewoda., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The presented essay was originally published as ''Il samizdat tra dialogo e monologo: Le attività editoriali di Zdeněk Mlynář e la scelta degli interlocutori'' in the Italian online journal eSamizdat: Rivista di culture dei paesi slavi (2010-11, pp. 261-80). This double issue is based on papers given at the conference ''Samizdat between Memory and Utopia: Independent Culture in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century,'' which was held at Padua University in late May and early June 2011, and is freely accessible on the periodical website (http://www.esamizdat.it/rivista/2010-2011/index.htm). For its publication in Soudobé dějiny, the author has considerably expanded his essay, particularly after doing research in the Mlynář Papers deposited in the National Archive, Prague. The author concentrates mainly on the research and publishing activities of the politician and political scientist Zdeněk Mlynář (1930-1997) while he was in exile, which he puts into a detailed chronology of his career as a public fi gure. He asks and seeks to answer the general question whether the milieu of samizdat and independent publishing, which developed in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s, did or did not leave deep traces also in the structures of the various political activities of those who criticised the state-sanctioned arts and sciences of ''normalisation'' Czechoslovakia. The author points out that Mlynář has today been largely ousted from Czech historical memory, even though he was amongst the leading opponents of the regime after its collapse, and tried to regain a place in Czechoslovak politics. The author recalls Mlynář’s becoming a member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, his law studies in Moscow in the fi rst half of the 1950s, where he formed a lasting friendship with his fellow-student Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), and last but not least Mlynář as an expert researching the prospects of the socialist political system in the 1960s. He then concentrates on Mlynář’s work during the Prague Spring of 1968, when he became a member of the reformist leadership of the CommunistParty on the side of Alexander Dubček (1921-1992). After the August intervention by the armies of fi ve Warsaw Pact states, Mlynář gradually became disillusioned with the possibilities of continuing reform, and he resigned from the Party leadership. In the early 1970s, he found employment in the Department of Entomology of the National Museum, Prague, and avoided political life completely. Nevertheless, he gradually started to take part in debates with other reformists expelled from the Party about the possibilities of infl uencing developments in Czechoslovakia with the help of left-wing parties in Western Europe. The author discusses Mlynář’s analyses of the situation at the time, the development of his views, and his integration into the nascent dissident movement, which appeared after the founding of Charter 77. A few months later, in June 1977 to be precise, Mlynář emigrated to Austria as a consequence of a smear campaign against the Chartists. The author focuses on Mlynář’s close work amongst Czech exiles, particularly with the increasingly diverse Listy group, which was established by Jiří Pelikán (1923-1999). The group in question was centred on the exile periodical of the same title, which was published in Rome and formed the core of Czechoslovak socialist opposition in exile. In addition, the author focuses on the efforts of Mlynář and his colleagues to win support among Western left-wing circles, particularly in relation to the Italian Communists and Socialists and later the West German Social Democrats. He also takes into account Mlynář’s political essays, which met with a considerable response amongst the public of Western Europe, and the clear shift in opinion from the initial model of a political system with Communist Party hegemony to political pluralism. In this context, the author then gives a comprehensive account of two large research and publishing projects coordinated by Mlynář. The fi rst project, from 1979 to 1982, was entitled ''Experiences of the Prague Spring of 1968''; its participants were almost exclusively Czech sociologists, historians, economists, jurists, and other specialists in exile. The project resulted in almost 30 mimeographed volumes in three language versions (mostly Italian, French, and English), which were distributed by several hundred carefully selected left-wing individuals and institutions in the West, and it culminated in a congress held in Paris. According to the author, this little known project represents one of the most profound and essentially never-published refl ections on the origins, development, and failure of the Prague Spring. The second project, entitled ''Crises in Soviet-type Systems,'' ran from 1982 to the late 1980s, and presented the perspectives of authors from a wider range of central European countries. It resulted in 16 works by Czech, Polish, Hungarian, and East German authors, published by the leading Czech exile publishing house, Index, as small paperback editions in English, French, and indeed German. The number of its subscribers grew to about 2,000. Part of the project was presenting papers at conferences and other international forums. Both of the projects in question, according to the author, demonstrate Mlynář and his colleagues’ persistent orientation to exclusive circles of the political Left in the West, whom, in their efforts to change things in Czechoslovakia, they preferred to the dissidents still in Czechoslovakia.
Minor intelligentsia, significantly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the policy and practice of the church before 1848, included the bishopric priests. The authors show not only their gradual formation, but on concrete examples they prove their mutual relationships, influences and individual activities. The fates of butcher’s, miller’s, farmer’s or weaver’s boys show, on the one hand, the social and professional variety of these representatives of future small town and village elites, on the other hand they point out to important relationships between centres such as Prague or Vienna and the periphery which, in the early nineteenth century, included Budweis and other cities not just in the South of Bohemia., Miroslav Novotný a Tomáš Veber., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy