The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR) established a new public research institution, the Institute of Biotechnology AS CR, v. v. i. The primary ambition of this new institute is to develop cutting-edge basic and oriented research on topics opening for diagnostic and therapeutic applicatons in human medicine. In particular, the institute was established to serve as a nucleation center of BIOCEV, the joined Biotech & Biomed Research Center of the Academy of Sciences with Charles University, to be built at Vestec near Prague by the year 2012 with the support of the European Regional Development Funds in frame of the Operational Program R&D for Innovation., Peter Šebo, -red-., and Tři otázky pro ředitele připravila -red-
V tomto článku je nastíněn základní úvod do problematiky biotransformace a jejich možných negativních důsledků. V textu jsou popsány tři fáze biotransformace a u každé z nich případ, se kterým se čtenář ve svém životě může setkat. Dále je zde jednoduchým způsobem vysvětlena nomenklatura biotransformačních enzymů a transportérů a článek tak celkově poskytuje základní povědomí o komplexnosti biotransformace., This article outlines a basic introduction to the topic of biotransformation and its possible negative consequences. The text describes three phases of biotransformation and each is presented in an example which the reader may encounter in everyday life. Furthermore, in a simple way, the nomenclature of biotransformation enzymes and transporters is explained and thus the paper provides a basic understanding of the complexity of biotransformation., and Ondřej Ženata.
In the past decades, it has become clear that superoxide radical (O2 .-) can be generated from photosystem II (PSII) during photosynthesis. Depending on the extent of its accumulation, O2 .- plays an important role in plant physiology and pathology. The photoinhibition/repair cycle is a typical process in PSII which is mainly responsible for the survival of plants under the photoinihibition condition. It is therefore of significant importance to determine O2 .- production in this cycle, and then explore how O2 .- is controlled by PSII within a normal physiological level. With this in mind, we herein investigate the variation of the O2 .- levels in PSII under Mn-depleted and photoactivated conditions mimicking the photoinhibition/repair cycle in vitro. The effect of intrinsic SOD-like component on the O2 .- levels was also studied. Results show that PSII has the ability to regulate the O2 .- levels in these two processes by simultaneously modulating the O2 .- generation activity and intrinsic SOD-like activity. This finding could shed new lights on the photoprotective property of PSII against O2 .- and other reactive oxygen species. and Y. G. Song ... [et al.].
To determine the role of postinspiratory inspiratory activity of the diaphragm in the biphasic ventilatory response to hypoxia in unanesthetized rats, we examined diaphragmatic activity at its peak (DI), at the end of expiration (DE), and ventilation in adult unanesthetized rats during poikilocapnic hypoxia (10 % O2) sustained for 20 min. Hypoxia induced an initial increase in ventilation followed by a consistent decline. Tidal volume (VT), frequency of breathing (fR), DI and DE at first increased, then VT and DE decreased, while fR and DI remained enhanced. Phasic activation of the diaphragm (DI - DE) increased significantly at 10, 15 and 20 min of hypoxia. These results indicate that 1) the ventilatory response of unanesthetized rats to sustained hypoxia has a typical biphasic character and 2) the increased end-expiratory activity of the diaphragm limits its phasic inspiratory activation, but this increase cannot explain the secondary decline in tidal volume and ventilation., H. Maxová, M. Vízek., and Obsahuje bibliografii
A total of 22 specimens of whiting Merlangius merlangus (L.) (Teleostei, Gadidae) from the northern Øresund, Denmark were examined for Myxosporea. Zschokkella hildae Auerbach, 1910 (Myxidiidae), Gadimyxa sp. (Parvicapsulidae) and a species of Bipteria occurred in the renal tubules of 9%, 18% and 68% whiting, respectively. Immature spores of the Bipteria species are very similar to spores of Myxoproteus formosus Kovaleva et Gaevskaya, 1979 originally described from the urinary system of whiting from the Celtic Sea. We therefore consider Bipteria sp. from whiting in Denmark conspecific with M. formosus and propose Bipteria formosa (Kovaleva et Gaevskaya, 1979) comb. n. The spore of Bipteria formosa is described in detail and compared with other Bipteria spp. The phylogenetic position of B. formosa, based on partial 18S rDNA sequences, is closest to Leptotheca fugu Tun, Yokoyama, Ogawa et Wakabayashi, 2000 and the Sphaerosporidae.
In 2005, we dissected 102 wildfowl from the Czech Republic and 73 wildfowl from Poland including representatives of Anseriformes, Gruiformes and Gaviiformes. Schistosome infection was found in a total of 21 (29%) and 23 (23%) birds from Poland and the Czech Republic, respectively. All infected birds belonged to the order Anseriformes. The prevalences of nasal and visceral species were, respectively, 22% and 16% in Poland and 6% and 19% in the Czech Republic. Four species of schistosomes were found: Bilharziella polonica Kowalewski, 1895, Trichobilharzia regenti Horák, Kolářová et Dvořák, 1998, T. szidati Neuhaus, 1952, and an undetermined schistosome from the intestinal wall of Anas penelope L. The finding of T. szidati represents the first record of the parasite from natural final host since the species description.
The present paper introduces a group of transformations on the collection of all bivariate copulas. This group contains an involution which is particularly useful since it provides (1) a criterion under which a given symmetric copula can be transformed into an asymmetric one and (2) a condition under which for a given copula the value of every measure of concordance is equal to zero. The group also contains a subgroup which is of particular interest since its four elements preserve symmetry, the order between two copulas and the value of every measure of concordance.