Tsetse flies are well-known vectors of trypanosomes pathogenic for humans and livestock. For these strictly blood-feeding viviparous flies, the host blood should be the only source of nutrients and liquids, as well as any exogenous microorganisms colonising their intestine. Here we describe the unexpected finding of several monoxenous trypanosomatids in their gut. In a total of 564 individually examined Glossina (Austenia) tabaniformis (Westwood) (436 specimens) and Glossina (Nemorhina) fuscipes fuscipes (Newstead) (128 specimens) captured in the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas, Central African Republic, 24 (4.3%) individuals were infected with monoxenous trypanosomatids belonging to the genera Crithidia Léger, 1902; Kentomonas Votýpka, Yurchenko, Kostygov et Lukeš, 2014; Novymonas Kostygov et Yurchenko, 2020; Obscuromonas Votýpka et Lukeš, 2021; and Wallacemonas Kostygov et Yurchenko, 2014. Moreover, additional 20 (3.5%) inspected tsetse flies harboured free-living bodonids affiliated with the genera Dimastigella Sandon, 1928; Neobodo Vickerman, 2004; Parabodo Skuja, 1939; and Rhynchomonas Klebs, 1892. In the context of the recently described feeding behaviour of these dipterans, we propose that they become infected while taking sugar meals and water, providing indirect evidence that blood is not their only source of food and liquids.
This paper describes the post-disaster reconstruction in the Tohoku region after the 2011 earthquake. Nine years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami occurred, and many efforts have been made since to rebuild the devastated territories. Some Japanese architects and urban planners have seen the recovery as a window of opportunity to aim for more resilient cities. Nevertheless, building disaster-resilient communities remains a challenging task. This short paper presents the initiatives made to improve refugees’ social conditions in disaster-relief housing, using the case study of Iwanuma’s relocation project. Concluding remarks suggest that many efforts have been made to improve the social aspect of disaster-relief housing in Japan, for example through the development of community spaces or the pursuit of friendlier dwellings.
An application of different mulch materials may lead to changes in soil properties. Our previous study, focused on the impact of various mulches during the 4-year period, showed that the change in some properties can be very rapid (e.g., soil pH), but in other cases such as hydraulic properties, the changes can be gradual. To find out, whether the extension of the mulching period will further affect the studied soil properties, the experiment continued for another 2 years. Differences between values of organic carbon content (Cox), soil physical quality (Sinf), gravitational water (GW) and readily available water (RAW) of soils not covered by any mulch and under various mulches (bark chips; wood chips; wheat straw; Agrotex EKO+ decomposable matting; polypropylene fabric covered bark chips; crushed stone) were much larger than those observed in our previous study. On the other hand, the opposite trend was observed for the water stable aggregates (WSA) index or soil pH. Differences between additionally measured hydraulic conductivities at the pressure head of −2 cm and repellency index (RI) were mostly insignificant. Results indicated that organic mulches can either positively (e.g., increase WSA index and Cox, and decrease GW) or negatively (e.g., decrease Sinf and RAW, and increase RI) affect soil properties.
Objectives. The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of a Czech adapta-tion of the Humor Structure Appreciation Scale (HSAS) which measures appreciation of two structural dimensions of humor: incongruity-resolution (INC-RES), and nonsense (NON). Differences in humor structure appreciation were investigated between a Czech and a Mac-edonian sample, and measurement invariance was tested.Participants and setting. Two online studies were conducted. After a back-translation of the scale, the first proposal of the Czech version of the HSAS was given to 145 participants from the Czech Republic. In the second study, the HSAS-CZ was completed by a Czech sample of 346 subjects. A measure of the need for closure was also completed to assess construct valid-ity. The Macedonian sample comprised of 562 subjects filled in only the original version of the HSAS.Results. Principal component analysis showed that the sum of variance explained by the two dimensions was 60.8%, and the factor loadings were satisfactory. The second study confirmed the factor structure of the scale. The results of the Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the two-factor model had acceptable fit (RMSEA = .053 [.034, .072], CFI = .986, TLI = .981). The standardized factor loadings were high for INC-RES (λ = .62 to .79), as well as for NON humor (λ = .57 to 80). Initial construct validity was obtained. The HSAS-CZ scales were theoretically related to the need for closure. The jokes were found funnier by the Macedonian sample in comparison to the Czech by one third to one half standard deviation. Finally, strict measurement invariance model comparing the Czech and Macedonian versions of the test showed an acceptable fit. However, significant differences were found in factor loadings as well as in residual variances.Limitations. The main limitation of the study is the use of convenience samples. and Cíle. Cílem studie bylo posoudit psychometric-ké vlastnosti české adaptace Škály hodnocení struktury humoru (HSAS), která měří ocenění dvou strukturálních dimenzí humoru: inkon-gruence-vyřešení (INC-RES) a nesmyslnost (NON). Hodnocení struktury humoru bylo srov-náváno mezi českým a makedonským vzorkem a dále byla testována invariance měření.Účastníci a prostředí. Byly realizovány dvě on-line studie. První návrh české verze HSAS-CZ vytvořený s pomocí zpětného překladu byl ad-ministrován 145 účastníkům z České republiky. Ve druhé studii vyplnilo HSAS-CZ 346 subjektů z ČR spolu se Škálou potřeby kognitivního uza-vření k posouzení konstruktové validity. A dále 562 respondentů z Makedonie, kterým byla ad-ministrována pouze původní verze HSAS.Výsledky. Analýza hlavních komponent nalez-la dvoufaktorové řešení, které vysvětlovalo 60,8 % rozptylu položkových skórů a posky-tovalo uspokojivé faktorové zátěže. Druhá studie tuto faktorovou strukturu potvrdila. Výsledky konfirmační faktorové analýzy uká-zaly, že dvoufaktorový model má přijatelnou shodu s daty (RMSEA = 0,053 [0,034, 0,072], CFI = 0,986, TLI = 0,981). Standardizované faktorové zátěže byly vysoké pro dimenzi INC-RES (λ = 0,62 až 0,79) i pro NON humor (λ = 0,57 až 0,80). Přítomnost konstruktové va-Přítomnost konstruktové va-lidity naznačuje fakt, že škály HSAS-CZ byly teoreticky spojeny s potřebou kognitivního uza-vření. Vtipy byly shledány vtipnějšími u make-donského vzorku ve srovnání s českým o třetinu až polovinu směrodatné odchylky. Při analýze národnostních skupin byla nalezena přijatelná shoda u modelu striktní invariance měření, při srovnání s modely s méně restrikcemi je nicmé-ně rozdíl v nábojích i reziduálních rozptylech statisticky významný.Omezení. Hlavním omezením studie je použití nepravděpodobnostních metod sběru dat.
To investigate the effect of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) on myocardial injury in sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction (SIMD), male C57BL/6 mice were intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (10 mg/kg, i.p.) to induce cardiac dysfunction without or with the H2S donor sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) (50 µmol/kg, i.p.) administration 3 h after LPS injection. Six hours after the LPS injection, echocardiography, cardiac hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, myocardial damage and inflammatory biomarkers and Western blot results were analyzed. In mice, the administration of LPS decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by 30 % along with lowered H2S levels (35 % reduction). It was observed that cardiac troponin I (cTnI), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels were all increased (by 0.22-fold, 2000-fold and 0.66-fold respectively). HE staining revealed structural damage and inflammatory cell infiltration in the myocardial tissue after LPS administration. Moreover, after 6 h of LPS treatment, toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) expressions were up-regulated 2.7-fold and 1.6-fold respectively. When compared to the septic mice, NaHS enhanced ventricular function (by 0.19-fold), decreased cTnI, TNF-α, and IL-1β levels (by 11 %, 33 %, and 16 % respectively) and downregulated TLR4 and NLRP3 expressions (by 64 % and 31 % respectively). Furthermore, NaHS did not further improve cardiac function and inflammation in TLR4-/- mice or mice in which NLRP3 activation was inhibited by MCC950, after LPS injection. In conclusion, these findings imply that decreased endogenous H2S promotes the progression of SIMD, whereas exogenous H2S alleviates SIMD by inhibiting inflammation via the TLR4-NLRP3 pathway suppression.
The aim of the present study was to explore whether hydrogen sulfide (H2S) protects against ischemic heart failure (HF) by inhibiting the necroptosis pathway. Mice were randomized into Sham, myocardial infarction (MI), MI + propargylglycine (PAG) and MI + sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) group, respectively. The MI model was induced by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. PAG was intraperitoneally administered at a dose of 50 mg/kg/day for 4 weeks, and NaHS at a dose of 4mg/kg/day for the same period. At 4 weeks after MI, the following were observed: A significant decrease in the cardiac function, as evidenced by a decline in ejection fraction (EF) and fractional shortening (FS), an increase in plasma myocardial injury markers, such as creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and cardiac troponin I (cTNI), an increase in myocardial collagen content in the heart tissues, and a decrease of H2S level in plasma and heart tissues. Furthermore, the expression levels of necroptosis-related markers such as receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIP1), RIP3 and mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL) were upregulated after MI. NaHS treatment increased H2S levels in plasma and heart tissues, preserving the cardiac function by increasing EF and FS, decreasing plasma CK-MB and cTNI and reducing collagen content. Additionally, NaHS treatment significantly downregulated the RIP1/RIP3/MLKL pathway. While, PAG treatment aggravated cardiac function by activated the RIP1/RIP3/MLKL pathway. Overall, the present study concluded that H2S protected against ischemic HF by inhibiting RIP1/RIP3/MLKL-mediated necroptosis which could be a potential target treatment for ischemic HF.
The paper introduces the Special Section on the Hydrology of the Carpathians in this issue. It is the result of an initiative of the Department of Land and Water Resources Management of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management of the TU Vienna and the Institute of Geomatics and Civil Engineering of the University of Sopron to allow young hydrologists in the Carpathian Basin (and from outside) to present their research and re-network on the emerging topics of the hydrology of the Carpathians at the HydroCarpath Conferences since 2012.
Soil water repellency (SWR) reduces the rates of wetting in dry soils and is known to interfere with water movement into as well as within the soils. The objective of this study was to investigate the hydrophysical characteristics of three water-repellent tropical exotic plantation forest soils in wet and dry seasons. The study sites were Eucalyptus grandis (EG), Pinus caribaea (PC), and Casuarina equisetifolia (CE) plantation forest soils located in the up-country intermediate zone (EG and PC), and low-country dry zone (CE). Field experiments were conducted to measure the infiltration rate, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity (k), water sorptivity (SW). Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure the potential SWR and water entry value (hwe). All three soils showed higher SWR in the dry season, where CE soils showed the highest. The EG soils showed the highest SWR in the wet season. Although SWR in all soils decreased with increasing depth in the wet season, only CE soils showed a significant decrease in SWR with soil depth in the dry season. Compared with the wet season, the k (–1 cm) was lower and hwe was higher in the dry season. However, SW did not show a significant difference between wet and dry seasons. Initial infiltration rate and k (–1 cm) showed a negative correlation with contact angle in all three soils. Soils showed positive linear correlations between k (–1 cm) and SW, and negative linear correlations between SW and hwe showing that surface water absorption is related to both subsurface unsaturated water flow and surface water entry pressure. It was clear that the water entry into soils and the subsurface water flow were hindered by the SWR. High water entry values in the dry season predict high potentials for intensified surface runoff and topsoil erosion. Future research will be required on the interactions between soil biology and soil properties such as pore structure that would influence water flow into and within soils.