Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) is caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and affects millions of people worldwide. Developing an effective CHB therapy requires using in vivo screening methods, such as mouse models reflecting CHB based on hydrodynamic delivery of plasmid vectors containing a replication-competent HBV genome. However, long-term expression of HBV proteins is accompanied by production of progeny virions, thereby requiring a Biosafety Level (BSL) 3 animal facility. In the present study, we introduced a point mutation in the START codon of the HBV polymerase to develop a mouse model reflecting chronic hepatitis B infection without formation of viral progeny. We induced the mouse model by hydrodynamic injection of adeno-associated virus plasmid vector (pAAV) and minicircle plasmid (pMC) constructs into C57Bl/6 and C3H/HeN mouse strains, monitoring HBV antigens and antibodies in blood by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and analyzing liver expression of HBV core antigen by immunohistology. Persisting expression of viral antigens over 140 days (study endpoint) was observed only in the C3H/HeN mouse strain when using pAAV/1.2HBV-A and pMC/1.0HBV-D with pre-C and pre-S recombination sites. In addition, pAAV/1.2HBV-A in C3H/HeN sustained HBV core antigen positivity up to the study endpoint in C3H/HeN mice. Moreover, introducing the point mutation in the START codon of polymerase effectively prevented the formation of viral progeny. Our study establishes an accessible and affordable experimental paradigm for developing a robust mouse model reflecting CHB suitable for preclinical testing of anti-HBV therapeutics in a BSL2 animal facility.
Congenital toxoplasmosis is reportable disease in Europe. To prevent it antibody serological tests were introduced in several European countries as a part of screening programmes. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) avidity index testing is one of these tests for diagnosing acute infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) in pregnant women. However, a low or moderate IgG avidity index can give inconclusive results for predicting woman's status. From June 2012 until the end of 2014, 17,990 women were included in the national screening program to prevent congenital toxoplasmosis. One hundred and twenty-six women were consecutively included in the study because they had low or moderate IgG avidity. Every woman with possible acute toxoplasmosis was followed up every month till delivery. Fifty-eight of 126 (46%) women got infected in months before current pregnancy, 39 women (31%) were infected early in pregnancy. Twenty-nine pregnant women of 126 (23%) got infected in the second/third trimester of pregnancy. New cut off for IgG avidity index was 0.11. With this cut off, we were able to exclude T. gondii acute infection in the first trimester with very good diagnostic accuracy (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.95, 95% confidence Interval (CI) 0.91-0.99, sensitivity 0.95, specificity 0.86). If an IgG avidity index above 0.11 is measured in a woman's serum and she is in the first trimester of pregnancy, then a odds ratio (OR) for acute infection with T. gondii is below 1 (OR 0.11, 95% CI 0.05-0.25, P < 0.0001). If we measure IgG avidity index that is ≥ 0.11 in the first trimester of pregnancy, we can exclude infection with T. gondii with good diagnostic accuracy in our cohort of women. With a new cut off we could reduce number of invasive procedures such as amniocentesis and put less pregnant women in distress.
Cílem této pilotní kvalitativní studie bylo podniknout sondu do toho, jak poradenští psychologové vnímají koncept sociálně podmíněného mentálního postižení (dále jen SPMP) – jejich povědomí o tomto konceptu, postoj k němu, diagnostická praxe, potenciální podpůrné intervence. Data byla získávána prostřednictvím polostrukturovaného rozhovoru od 10 respondentů (praxe Me = 6 let), z 9 pedagogicko-psychologických poraden (5 krajů ČR). Získaná data byla analyzována na principu tematické analýzy s prvky zakotvené teorie, skrz techniku otevřeného kódování. Z analýzy vyplynulo, že žádný z respondentů pojem explicitně neužívá, avšak implicitně je v jejich praxi přítomný. Daný koncept by dle nich mohl sloužit jako inspirace k širšímu přemýšlení o etiologii „podezřele“ nízkých hodnot v testech intelektu a o intelektovém potenciálu dítěte. Diagnostiku intelektových a adaptivních schopností v praxi respondenti staví nejčastěji pouze na standardizovaných testech intelektu, testy a škály pro adaptivní chování, sociální a rodinné prostředí, zejména pro nedostatek personálních a časových kapacit, nepoužívají. Diferenciální diagnostiku SPMP od mentálního postižení vnímají respondenti jako složitou, polovina respondentů vidí jako vhodnou cestu dynamickou diagnostiku. Na návaznou podporu a intervenci se respondenti kvůli omezeným kapacitám zaměřují velmi okrajově. Z rozhovorů také vyplynulo několik potenciálních námětů pro praxi – potřeba tvorby jasně vymezené a všeobecně přijímané definice SPMP, větší komplexnosti a hloubky diagnostiky, prohloubení spolupráce s rodinou dítěte ze sociálně znevýhodněného prostředí a dalšími návaznými institucemi. and The aim of this pilot qualitative research was to take an insight into how counseling psychologists perceive the concept of socially conditioned intellectual disability (further only SCID). Specifically, to find out if they are aware of this concept, their attitude towards it, diagnostic practice, and potential supportive interventions. Data were obtained through a semistructured interview of 10 respondents (Median experience = 6 years), from 9 Children´s educational care centres (5 regions of the Czech Republic). The obtained data were analyzed by thematic analysis with the elements of the grounded theory using the technique of open coding. The analysis showed that none of the respondents explicitly use the term SCID, however, the term is implicitly present in their practice. According to the respondents, the concept could serve as an inspiration for a broader reflection on the etiology of "suspiciously low" scores in intellectual tests and the intellectual potential of the child. In practice, the respondents most often determine the conclusion about the level of intellectual and adaptive abilities based only on standardized tests of intellect. The respondents do not use tests and scales for adaptive behaviour, social and family environment – mainly due to a lack of staff and time capacity. The respondents perceive the differential diagnosis of SCID from intellectual disability as complicated. Half of the respondents see dynamic assessment as a promising approach to differentiate between SCID and intellectual disability. The respondents provide follow-up support and interventions to children who may fit the SCID concept very marginally due to limited capacity. The interviews also provided several potential suggestions for practice – the need to create a clear and generally accepted definition of SCID, conduct an assessment in greater depth and complexity, and intensify cooperation with the family of a child from a socially disadvantaged background and other related institutions.
The diet composition and prey selection of grey wolves (Canis lupus) inhabiting the Roztocze and Solska Forest (south-east Poland) was studied based on an analysis of scats collected in 2001-2002 (n = 84) and 2017-2020 (n = 302). In both periods, wolves preyed mainly on wild ungulates (96.5-96.7% of consumed biomass). Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) was the most critical wolf prey accounting for 57.8% of consumed biomass in 2001-2002 and 49.2% and 2017-2020, but wolves positively select only wild boar (Jacob's selectivity index D = 0.213 in 2001-2002 and 0.710 in 2017-2020) and fallow deer (D = 0.588 only in 2017-2020). The largest species – moose Alces alces and red deer Cervus elaphus – were consumed less than expected from their share in the ungulate community. Predation on medium-sized wild mammals and domestic animals was low, 0.8-2.2% and 1.1-2.7% of the biomass consumed, respectively. The breadth of the wolf diet was very narrow and identical in both study periods (B = 1.07), while the similarity of diet composition was high (α = 0.999). This study indicated the stability of the wolf diet over two decades and the importance of wild boar as a food source for this carnivore.
To understand growth limitations of photosynthetic microorganisms, and to investigate whether batch growth or certain photosynthesis-related parameters predict a turbidostat (continuous growth at constant biomass concentration) growth rate, five green algal species were grown in a photobioreactor in batch and turbidostat conditions and their susceptibilities to photoinhibition of photosystem II as well as several photosynthetic parameters were measured. Growth rates during batch and turbidostat modes varied independently of each other; thus, a growth rate measured in a batch cannot be used to determine the continuous growth rate. Greatly different photoinhibition susceptibilities in tested algae suggest that different amounts of energy were invested in repair. However, photoinhibition tolerance did not necessarily lead to a fast growth rate at a moderate light intensity. Nevertheless, we report an inverse relationship between photoinhibition tolerance and minimum saturating irradiance, suggesting that fast electron transfer capacity of PSII comes with the price of reduced photoinhibition tolerance.
Management of foreign-currency household debt in Romania in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 had the effect of deepening pre-2008 class disparities and treated debtor categories differently according to their income. In this article we contribute to the debate on subaltern financialisation by showing how post-crisis credit and housing policies contributed to the fact that today different debtor groups (i.e. by type of credit but also by time of lending) find themselves at opposing ends of the political spectrum based on different class alliances, with those who benefited from the crisis-management polices positioning themselves against those who were the ‘losers’ under these same policies.
Ligula intestinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) is a tapeworm parasite with a worldwide distribution that uses a wide variety of fish species as its second intermediate host. In the present study, we investigated the prevalence and population genetic structure of plerocercoids of L. intestinalis in five common cyprinoid species, roach Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus), freshwater bream Abramis brama (Linnaeus), white bream Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus), bleak Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus), and rudd Scardinius erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus), collected in six water bodies of the Czech Republic (Milada, Most, Medard, Jordán, Římov and Lipno). Of the six study sites, the highest frequency of parasitism was recorded in Lake Medard (15%). The overall prevalence rate among the species was as follows: roach > rudd ≥ freshwater bream > bleak > white bream. Two mitochondrial genes (cytb and COI) were used to compare the population genetic structure of parasite populations using selected samples from the five fish species. The results of the phylogenetic analysis indicated that all populations of L. intestinalis were placed in Clade A, previously identified as the most common in Europe. At a finer scale, haplotype network and PCoA analyses indicated the possible emergence of host specificity of several mtDNA haplotypes to the freshwater bream. Moreover, pairwise Fixation indices (FST) revealed a significant genetic structure between the parasite population in freshwater bream and other host species. Parasite populations in roach not only showed the highest rate of prevalence but also depicted a maximum number of shared haplotypes with populations from bleak and rudd. Our results suggest that recent ecological differentiation might have influenced tapeworm populations at a fine evolutionary scale. Thus, the differences in prevalence between fish host species in different lakes might be influenced not only by the parasite's ecology, but also by its genetic diversity.
We analysed and compared the structure and parameters of the songflight calls of expansive Pipistrellus kuhlii and Pipistrellus lepidus, that recently colonized Central Europe from the south and east, respectively. Bat calls were recorded mainly in urban areas of Central Europe and the Balkans, including a narrow zone of these species' recent parapatric or sympatric occurrence (around the Carpathians and the eastern part of the Pannonian Basin). The newly described songflight calls of P. lepidus consist of more elements (median 6), are longer (mean 56.4 ms) and of a higher frequency of maximum energy (mean 25.7 kHz) than those of P. kuhlii (median 3, mean 41.0 ms and mean 14.0 kHz, respectively). This finding provides new evidence that P. lepidus represents a different species, in accordance with results from previous genetic and morphological studies. Reported differences in songflight calls permit the acoustic discrimination of P. kuhlii and P. lepidus, which is not possible based on overlapping parameters of their echolocation calls. Our findings enable distributional and ecological studies of these two species, based on acoustic methods, in the context of their rapid European expansion and the local co-occurrence.
This paper deals with medical examination of employeeʼs ability to work. Although from a legislative-technical point of view, this regulation is considered to be successful, in practice it causes major problems in the area of assessment care, which is evidenced in particular by case law. Referencing to practice, we can state that the idea of the occupational health services provider as professional assistant of the employer in providing for the protection of employees' occupational health has not taken hold at all. Employers justifiably ask why they should pay for a medical report giving them no legal certainty. and Ač je úprava posuzování způsobilosti k výkonu práce z legislativně-technického hlediska považována ministerstvem zdravotnictví za zdařilou, v praxi působí velké problémy právě v oblasti posudkové péče, což dokládají zkušenosti a v menším rozsahu též judikatura. S odkazem na praxi lze konstatovat, že se vůbec neujala představa poskytovatele pracovnělékařských služeb jako odborné pomoci zaměstnavateli při zajištění ochrany zdraví zaměstnanců při práci. Zaměstnavatelé se oprávněně ptají, proč mají platit za lékařský posudek, který jim nedává žádnou právní jistotu. Zaměstnavatelé naopak chtějí platit za služby, které jim dávají solidní podklad pro další postup vůči zaměstnanci.
Z analyzovaných předpisů je patrné, že problematika posuzování zdravotního stavu a lékařských posudků zůstává však v některých aspektech dosud mezerovitá, a to jak z hlediska povahy lékařského posudku, tak z hlediska akceptace nedostatku pracovních kapacit poskytovatelů pracovnělékařských služeb.
The paper deals with the determination of the discharge coefficient, effective head and newly the limit head in the Kindsvater-Shen formula for the determination of a relatively small discharge of clear water using a thin-plate weir with a triangular notch. The determination of the discharge coefficient, effective head and limit head is based on extensive experimental research and is verified by previous measurements by other authors. The experimental research was characterised by a large range of notch angles (from 5.25° to 91.17°), weir heights (from 0.00 m to 0.20 m), and water temperatures (from 15 °C to 45 °C), as well as a focus on relatively small heads (from 0.02 m to 0.18 m), which is where the strengths of the Kindsvater-Shen formula stand out. The experimental research supplemented existing knowledge about the overflow occurring with small heads and small weir notch angles. The newly determined dependencies in the Kindsvater-Shen formula extended its applicability to weirs with small notch angles and newly enabled the determination of the limit head, which restricts its applicability in the determination of small discharges.