Agrimonia eupatoria L. is an herb of the Rosaceae family, widely used in traditional (folk) medicine for its beneficial effects. Its water extracts (infusions and decoctions) are used in the treatment of airway and urinary system diseases, digestive tract diseases, and chronic wounds. Phytochemical analyses of Agrimonia eupatoria L. identified a variety of bioactive compounds including tannins, flavonoids, phenolic acids, triterpenoids and volatile oils possessing antioxidant, immunomodulatory and antimicrobial activities. The authors review the available literature sources examining and discussing the therapeutic and pharmacological effects of Agrimonia eupatoria L. at the molecular level in vitro and in vivo.
Prolonged agonist stimulation results in specific transfer of activated Gα subunits of Gqα/G11α family from particulate membrane fraction to soluble (cytosol) cell fraction isolated as 250 000 x g supernatant. In this study, we have used 2D electrophoresis for more defined resolution of Gα subunits of Gqα/G11α family and followed the time course of solubilization effect. The small signal of soluble G proteins was already detected in control, hormone-unexposed cells. Hormone stimulation resulted in a slow but continuous increase of both intensity and number of immunoreactive signals/spots of these G proteins (10, 30, 60, 120 and 240 min). At longer times of agonist exposure (>2 hours), a marked increase of Gqα/G11α proteins was detected. The maximal level of soluble Gqα/G11α proteins was reached after 16 hours of continuous agonist exposure. At this time interval, eight individual immunoreactive signals of Gqα/G1 α proteins could be resolved. The relative proportion among these spots was 15:42:10:11:7:7:2:5. Solubilization of this class of Gα proteins was thus observed after prolonged agonist stimulation only, induced by ultra high concentration of hormone and in cells expressing a large number of GPCRs. Our data therefore rather indicate tight/persisting binding of Gqα/G11α proteins to the membrane., D. Durchánková, J. Novotný, P. Svoboda., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Red wine polyphenols have been reported to possess beneficial properties for preventing cardiovascular diseases but their neuroprotective effects during chronic L-NAME treatment have not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to analyze a time course of Provinols
TM effects on brain NO synthase activity and oxidative damage in L-NAME-induced hypertension. Male Wistar rats, 12 weeks old, were divided into six groups: control groups, groups treated with N G-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 40 mg/kg/day) for 4 or 7 weeks and groups receiving ProvinolsTM (40 mg/kg/day) plus L-NAME for 4 or 7 weeks. At the end of the treatment, marker of membrane oxidative damage – conjugated dienes (CD) in the brain and NO synthase activity in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and brainstem were determined. L-NAME treatment for 4 or 7 weeks led to the increase in blood pressure, elevation of CD concentration and decrease of NO synthase activity in the brain parts investigated. ProvinolsTM partially prevented blood pressure rise and elevation of CD concentration. Comparing to the L-NAME treated group, ProvinolsTM increased NO synthase activity after 4 weeks of treatment. However, the prolonged ProvinolsTM treatment for 7 weeks had no effect on NO synthase activity decreased by L-NAME treatment. In conclusion, ProvinolsTM partially prevents L-NAME induced hypertension via
the different mechanisms depending on the duration of treatment. Prevention of oxidative damage in the brain with modulating effect on NO synthase activity is suggested.
The article deals with the topic of socialist social policy as a special feature and an extremely important instrument of legitimating power and of guardianship. Drawing on his extensive archival research, the author compares the starting points of the social-policy measures of the Czechoslovak and the East German CP leaderships from 1970 to 1989. He discusses the fundamental systemic prerequisites and ambitions of social policy, points out the limits of economic policy, and outlines the individual stages in the development of social policy in the two countries in the period under scrutiny. The focal point of the article is a systematic comparison of the development of pension plans, to which the political establishment in each country paid considerable attention. Providing social security to their senior citizenswas a serious problem for both regimes right up to late 1989, and the implemented measures were only partly successful in dealing with it. The article identifi es the pitfalls of retirement insurance, and takes into account the standard of living of pensioners in both countries. From his research, he concludes that old-age pensions were the Achilles’ heel of East German Socialism. The unanticipated circumstances of senior citizens, the tangible decline in their standard of living, the considerable employment of people of a post-productive age, and the continuous violation of the publicly declared principle of merit are, however, among the problems the Czechoslovak regime also struggled with throughout the years of reinstating hardline Communism in the post-1969 policy of ''normalisation''.
The subject of this study is the issue of sickness, death and dying as approached in the first textbooks of pastoral theology. In the Catholic confessional environment of late 18th century Central Europe, pastoral theology was a new discipline that was about to be introduced into university curricula. The aim of this article is to outline and describe the concept of sickness and death with which the first textbooks of the new discipline worked in formulating new content and forms of spiritual care for the sick and dying. These, presented as binding on future spiritual administrators, defined itself against the older tradition and drew inspiration from Jansenist-Enlightenment approaches and thought. We mainly analyse two or three textbooks that were widely used in the Czech environment. They relied on the prescribed and most successful textbook of the Viennese pastoralist Franz Giftschütz, translated into Czech by the Olomouc teacher Václav Stach, and on the Czech scripts of Aegidius (Jiljí) Chládek, a Premonstratensian of Strahov Monastery and Prague university professor. The changes in the content and forms of Catholic preparation for death and of the concepts of illness and death must be understood in the context of the reforms that affected the field of spiritual education at this time, the new view of the person of the Catholic clergyman, and also the changes in religious and moral sentiments and the promotion and dissemination of medical knowledge and concepts also in the non-medical strata of society.
Chemické vizualizace a modely jsou zvláštními druhy médií myšlení. Tato studie zkoumá několik historických případových studií – archív obrazů z muzeí, specializovaných sbírek a populárně-vědeckých časopisů – emergentních praktik materiálního modelování coby teoretické hry, jež se staly základem molekulární biologie a strukturní chemie. Sleduji dědictví nástrojů vizualizace počínaje Archibaldem Scottem Cooperem a Friedrichem Kekulé na konci 19. století, jejich vyústění do materiálních manipulativů Van’t Hoffa a užití jeho skládaných papírových "hraček“ Linusem Paulingem i jejich následné pronikání do populární obraznosti díky modelu DNA Jamese Watsona a Francise Cricka. Sleduji dále jejich vliv na současné praktiky modelování a zdůrazňuji, že materiální modely, jež tradičně stály za hranicemi deduktivní, pozitivistické vědy, jsou nyní v těchto oblastech chemie akceptovány jako způsob vědeckého uvažování., Chemical visualizations and models are special kinds of media for thinking. In this paper, I examine several historical case studies-an archive of images from museums, special collections, and popular magazines- as examples of emergent practices of physical modeling as theoretical play which became the basis for molecular biology and structural chemistry. I trace a legacy of visualization tools that starts with Archibald Scott Cooper and Friedrich Kekulé in the late 1800s, crystallizes as material manipulatives in Van’t Hoff and his folded paper “toys”, is legitimized in the California lab of Linus Pauling, and is glorified in the popular imaginary with James Watson and Francis Crick’s model of DNA. My tracing then follows several threads into contemporary modeling practices. I ultimately argue that modeling play, originally outside of the boundary of deductive, positivist science, is now an accepted mode of reasoning in these related chemical fields., and Kate McKinney Maddalena.
The social-psychological Hindi play Narmedh (1970), written by Girirāj Kiśor, has as its main character a woman wnose husband and sons break with tradition in regard to marriage. Because of her own experiences. she wisches to maintain her family but at the same time she feels guilty about those efforts, and tries to commit suicide. Besides its content, the play is interesting because it is a tragedy, a genre that is more common in European than in Indian literature. The article analyses the techniques of the play and their contribution to the effect of tragedy, and uses especially the method of dialogue anylysis. In the interprearion argued here, the play suggests that after 1947 the old norms ruling personal relationships have been abandoned in favor of an attitude of self-interest or in some cases idealism, without new ones immediately replacing them. The effect is that these relationships may be ruled by indifference, which harms and to some extent immobilizes those who are sensitive.