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Crop yields are reduced by 70-80% due to a water stress situation specifically during the reproductive stage and are not able to fulfil the needs of food requirement in developed and developing countries of the world. Earlier work was mainly focused on the use of morphological or physiological and molecular aspects for improved stress tolerance. Efforts are being made to overcome this problem with the help of today's sophisticated and advanced technology through genomics, proteomics and metabolomics. The presented model summarizes our work in the last five years to mine anatomical parameters as a novel approach to further improving introgression or exploitation of stress adaptive traits. We have focused on some key anatomical traits playing a substantial role in water stress tolerance. This new conceptual model encompasses increased palisade mesophyll height, higher leaf strength index (LSI), higher number of conducting tissues with increased diameter in leaf, stem and root and controlled transpiration rate due to a lower number of stomata per unit leaf area along with the increased guard cell size. Different plants viz. Lycopersicon esculentum, Capsicum annuum, and Calotropis gigantea were screened by developing polyploids to validate this model approach. Genotypes of Vitis vinifera and Solanum melongena were also screened. Wild relatives like Lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme and Solanum khasianum were evaluated for comparison. These observations were further correlated with various stress adaptation traits like yield under stress, in vitro screening, chlorophyll content, transpiration heating and cooling, molecular markers etc. A new scoring method is proposed which will be helpful to screen a large set of germplasms on a preliminary basis to discriminate genotypes for drought tolerance. There is an urgent need to study the genetics of these stress adaptive traits using high throughput molecular markers to make them more useful for a higher magnitude of genetic gain.

Fifteen sweet cherry cultivars and three rootstocks were evaluated within three years in two experimental orchards established in the same location in the autumn 2004. In one of them drip irrigation was applied in the periods of insufficient rainfall, i.e. from mid-April to mid-August. This irrigation distinctly increased the vigour of trees that was jointly expressed by trunk-cross-section area, total length of shoots and canopy volume. An increase of tree vigour was the greatest in trees on Mazzard, medium on P-HL-C and the lowest on Gisela 5 rootstocks. The trees on P-HL-C that grew without irrigation similarly as the trees on Gisela 5 grew significantly more vigorously when irrigation was applied. Considerable differences in the response to irrigation were also found among cultivars; it increased the vigour of Halka, Sylvana, Aranka and Burlat more distinctly, whereas the least response to irrigation was recorded in the Horka, Jacinta and Justyna cultivars. The vigour of Regina, Tim and Vanda cultivars grown on P-HL-C rootstock was more extensively increased by irrigation than if they grew on Gisela 5. Flower and fruit sets of irrigated trees were with a few exceptions significantly lower than those of trees without irrigation. Tamara, Sandra and Regina were the most vigorous cultivars in this study, whereas Tim and Skeena had the weakest tree growth. Practical aspects of these findings are briefly discussed.

Soil and water salinization are affecting an increasing number of countries in the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, and cause sensible reductions of agricultural land extension and of crop yields. Consociation with halophytic plants is a promising but not yet widely investigated strategy of salt stress reduction in crops. In this experiment, tomato plants were cultivated in saline conditions, alone and in consociation with three different halophytic species (Portulaca oleracea L.; Salsola soda L.; Atriplex hortensis L.). The salinity was brought either by the soil or by the irrigation water. Consociation with P. oleracea gave the best results in terms of increase of tomato growth and yields, while S. soda caused excessive nutritional competition against tomato due to its fast growth, undoing the positive effects of saline ions uptake. A. hortensis gave intermediate results. Salinity of water resulted in causing more severe stress on the plants, and consequently highlighted more the benefical effect of salt uptake performed by the halophytes on the main crop; salinity of soil on the contrary appeared to be less decisive, probably due to the leaching effect of the irrigation water.

Three hundred and thirty-one (331) horses out of 371 cases (i.e. 351 individuals discharged from the clinic) were followed up in order to evaluate long-term survival rate and complications after colic surgery. Twenty horses were subjected to surgery twice during the period of this study. Out of the sample of 331 patients, 302 animals (91.2%) survived at least 11 months after the operation. Twenty-nine horses (8.8%) died or had to be euthanized. Colic episode was considered to be the cause of death in 23 (79.3%) out of 29 patients. Seven colic patients had to be reoperated. The remaining six patients died of a cause unrelated to the gastrointestinal disease. Seven out of 302 long-term surviving patients needed the second operation within the first 11 months after the first surgery. Colic episode was reoperated in another 15 patients after 12 months to 4 years after the first operation. Conservative treatment was necessary in another 10 long-term surviving horses. In eight long-term surviving horses and in one patient that did not survive 11 months, incision hernias were identified as the postoperative complication. Twenty-one horses out of 331 were subjected to relaparotomy during their first hospitalization. Eighteen out of these (85.7%) survived 11 months after the surgery; the remaining three were euthanized within six months due to colic.

The study analyses the growth of beech seedling fine roots and their development in the first five years. The research plots were established in 1997-2003 in community forests of Starý Plzenec (Western Bohemia, Czech Republic). The data are based on annual reviews of beech samplings extracted from surveyed plots. The whole root volume as well as the fine root volume is significantly (on a 95% significance level) growing during the first years after outplanting and there is not any disruption of growth immediately after outplanting.

The main aim of the article is to understand the influence of factors biasing purchase decisions connected with measurement of consumers' involvement. Consumption expenditures are purposefully subdivided according to the classification made by the Statistical Office of the European Communities. The performed survey showed that the most important factors biasing purchases of all commodity groups are products' characteristics and the perceived quality. Together with these goes the factor price, nevertheless for example for the commodity group health price did not appear in the scale of the perceived importance at all. Factor necessity of need proved to be significant for decision making about the purchase of all commodities with the exception of alcoholic drinks and tobacco and recreation. Former experience compared to that is not crucial for clothing and footwear and housing equipment and contents. For alcoholic drinks and tobacco, there has notably approved also the factor brand. These analyses enable disclosure of rules of consumer decision making and thereby definition which factors for individual commodities should be targeted by the help of the marketing doyens or where the gradual changes should be achieved.

White wines of Debina cultivar were made from musts clarified by flotation using nitrogen as foaming agent. Flotation using air as the foaming agent (must hyperoxidation), without SO₂ addition, was also applied. Turbidity and suspended solids were lower in must clarified by flotation using nitrogen than in that clarified by sedimentation (control). Flotation with hyperoxidation led to a reduction of must phenolics. All experimental wines exhibited similar gross compositions (alcohol, reducing sugars, total acidity, and volatile acidity). Wines made from musts clarified by flotation using nitrogen had similar total phenolic content, browning capacity, and organoleptic quality as the control wines. Wines made from musts clarified by flotation using air had lower total phenolic contents and browning capacity than were those in control wines. These wines were of well acceptable quality but exhibited a slightly oxidised aftertaste. The results indicate that flotation using nitrogen can be effective in the production of typical Debina wine, while flotation using air may be useful in that of table wine without SO₂ addition. Orange juice was clarified by flotation using nitrogen or air as the foaming agent. Orange juice clarified by flotation using nitrogen as the foaming agent exhibited lower turbidity and a similar pulp content to that clarified by centrifugal separator (control). It had an acceptable taste and aroma. Juice clarified by flotation using air as the foaming agent, along with pectolytic enzyme treatment, exhibited much lower turbidity and pulp content compared to control. The clear juice had an acceptable taste but no aroma. The fermented clear juice was averagely rated, exhibiting a pleasant aroma and only a slightly bitter taste. The results indicate that flotation using nitrogen can be effective in the production of natural orange juice, while flotation using air may be useful in the production of orange drink.

Urbanization has drastically changed soil properties, and an assessment of these changes is essential for soil management and soil health. The activities of urease, acid phosphatase, invertase and catalase, soil organic matter, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and clay (< 0.01 mm) content of urban soils under two land-uses in the central built-up area of the Shenzhen city were investigated, and multivariate analysis was used to study the relationship between soil enzymes and soil physical-chemical properties. The results showed that invertase activity in roadside soil was significantly higher than that in urban park soil, whereas catalase activity was significantly higher in urban park soil. Soil organic matter had significant positive correlation with activities of invertase, urease and acid phosphatase but not with catalase. Soil pH had a significant negative direct effect on urease and acid phosphatase activity, but the effect was counteracted by positive indirect effect of soil organic matter. Soil EC had a positive direct effect on activities of catalase and there was a significant correlation between soil EC and soil catalase activities. Soil organic matter, soil pH and EC were the major factors influencing activities of soil enzymes.

Milk urea concentration (MUC) is a suitable indicator of the health and nutrition state of dairy cows. MUC is in relation to their reproduction performance, longevity and technological milk indicators. The interpretation correctness of results depends on their reliability. There are a lot of principles of MUC analyses. Their results can be affected by a number of interferential factors. Disproportions were noticed in practice. Therefore the sources of variation in results are studied. The goal of this study was to investigate relationships between different methods of MUC determination with the use of standard samples of native milk with an artificial urea addition. After evaluation I (n = 7) the results of methods BI-1 and BI-2 (photometrical ones with diacetylmonoxime) were disqualified because of poor recovery (R), poor correlation (C) with other methods, higher random error (RER) and highest systematic error (SE). Evaluation II is more effective with stricter discrimination limits. Cs of all methods mutually (0.977 up to 0.998; P < 0.001) confirmed the methods as effective with the exception of BI-2 with poor Cs (0.713 up to 0.774), poor R (16.0 up to 69.0%) and high RER ±5.292 mg/100 ml. R of better methods was 44.0 up to 96.7%. The BI-1 method had good Cs (0.986 up to 0.994; P < 0.001), higher SE -7.546 mg/100 ml and poorer R (48.5 up to 75.3%). BI-1 method was a case of mistaken performance. BI method could be improved by the use of more samples in calibration. FT-MIR method (infra-analysis) has good addition R 69.5 up to 95.0% and Cs 0.981 up to 0.994 (P < 0.001). EH method (photometrical one with Ehrlich's agent) has good R 59.0 up to 96.7%, higher SE 4.755 (I) and 2.556 (II) mg/100 ml and close Cs 0.977 up to 0.994 (P < 0.001). UR method (ureolytical difference-conductometric) showed the best combination of results about R, C, SE and RER. MUC measurement was almost independent of fat in milk (r = 0.16 for UR and 0.01 for FT-MIR; P > 0.05) and MUC of both the methods did not increase significantly with lactose increase ((r= 0.16 and 0.27; P > 0.05), which increased logically ((r = -0.88; P < 0.001) during the fat concentration increase. The relationship of MUC results between UR and FT-MIR was significant (validation (r = 0.96; P < 0.001) at average difference -0.93 ± 1.663 mg/100 ml. It is possible to see the result reliability as good after calibration performance of FT-MIR according to results of UR. It is not necessary to see the effects of fat, protein and lactose on MUC methods as substantial. FT-MIR method for MUC has good result reliability at the use of native milk samples, incidentally with urea additions. It is suitable to calibrate the FT-MIR method according to specific determination of MUC (UR). However, the most important for elimination of disproportions is the calibration method with concrete audited R, though nonspecific.

Lucerne (Medicago sativa L. var. Palava), harvested at four successive dates over a 30-day period, was evaluated for chemical composition (dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extract, crude fibre, nitrogen-free extract, neutral detergent fibre, acid detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin), amino acid contents and intestinal digestibility in dairy cows. Dry matter (r = 0.78), organic matter (r = 0.95), crude fibre (r = 0.91), neutral detergent fibre (r = 0.94), acid detergent fibre (r = 0.79) and acid detergent lignin (r = 0.48) presented positive linear correlation coefficients (r) with growth stage, whereas crude protein (r = -0.96), ether extract (r = -0.86) and nitrogen-free extract (r = -0.70) showed negative relationships. Total essential amino acid content decreased (r = -0.94) from 84.1 to 55.3 g/kg of dry matter with maturity, with r-values higher than -0.90 obtained between growth stage and contents of lysine, methionine, threonine and valine. With the exception of tyrosine (r = -0.68), r-values between growth stage and individual non-essential amino acids were all higher than -0.90. Total amino acid (r = -0.98) and nitrogen (r = -0.99) contents presented comparable tendencies with successive sampling times. Whereas no definite trends were detected for the amino acid composition of rumen incubated (16 hours) lucerne samples, the intestinal digestibility of total essential (r = -0.78), total non-essential (r = -0.58) and total (r = -0.69) amino acids as well as nitrogen (r = -0.99) decreased with growth. However, due to a small sample size (n = 4), most linear relationships between constituents and growth stage were insignificant. It can be concluded that, although limited in the sample size, this report presents information on the decrease in amino acid contents and intestinal amino acid digestibility as growth proceeds in lucerne (var. Palava) produced in the Czech Republic, which could be utilized in the feeding of ruminants.

The aim of the study was to verify under experimental conditions the hypothesis that a reliable protection of piglets against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (App) infection can be obtained by colostrum-derived antibodies and/or a low-dose infection from sows naturally infected with App. Twenty-eight piglets were allocated into four groups. Piglets of groups 1A and 1B were the progeny of App-seronegative sows, piglets of groups 2A and 2B originated from App-seropositive sows. At the age of 4 weeks, piglets in groups 1A and 2A were exposed to a low infection dose with the pathogenic strain of App serotype 9 (4 × 10⁴ CFU/ml). At the age of 8 weeks, all four groups of piglets were exposed to the App serotype 9 challenge (2.5 × 10⁷ CFU/ml). We compared the differences in clinical, radiological, pathological changes and cytological findings in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage samples between groups with different levels of antigen-specific immunity after challenge. Piglets that obtained colostrum-derived antibodies and experienced a low-dose App infection were best protected against App challenge. More apparent clinical and pathological changes were observed in groups protected with either only colostrum-derived antibodies or active immunity induced by a preceding low-dose infection. However, none of the types of protection prevented developing of the disease and characteristic changes in the lungs. Cell counts changes in blood and lavage gave evidence of only bacterial infection in progress; however, between-group differences were not marked. Antibodies (IgG, IgA) present in the respiratory tract at the time of challenge played a major role in protection against App infection.

Malachite green has been used as an effective compound to control external fungal and protozoan infections of fish since 1933 but it has never been registered as a veterinary drug for use in food fish because of its potential carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and teratogenicity in mammals. The present paper reviews negative side-effects of malachite green including its accumulation and persistence in fish that have been treated and describes other alternative substances for the treatment of fish and fish eggs.

Artificial regeneration of autochthonous target tree species plays an important role in the process of conversion of forest stands. The European beech is one of the most suitable and most frequently used tree species in this process. Modern technologies of intensive methods of the cultivation of the European beech seedlings provide, among others, a possibility to increase the proportion of this tree species in reforestation more quickly. It is however necessary to test at what types of sites this planting material can be used. The health status and growth of intensively grown beech seedlings in the first years after planting were studied on 2 research plots. Proper intensive fertilisation of the beech seedlings affected positively both the initial height and growth. Even the slow-release fertiliser did not negatively influence the beech after planting. The health status of the beech is excellent after 4 years, the average height of plants with different fertilisation treatments having become equal. It is to conclude from the hitherto obtained results that a slow-release fertiliser in the substrate has a positive effect on the plant growth, and that different fertilisation variants did not cause any serious root deformations of the beech planting stock samples taken 4 years after planting. The impacts of prior nursery fertilisation upon the beech planted under the conditions of extreme sites are further investigated.

The article presents the evaluation of multifunctionality of Czech agriculture and its individual farm categories in the period of 2003-2005. It compares the situation before and after the EU accession. The assessment is based on the set of indicators for the three elementary axes of multifunctionality: economic efficiency, relations to environment and relations to rural development. Applying the presented method of multi-criterion evaluation and during the period of 2003-2005 on average, the highest level of multifunctionality is found in the category of farms of physical persons with 101-300 ha (score 174) and the lowest level in the category of collective farms - cooperatives and joint stock companies (score about 115). However, compared with the pre-accession period, the collective farms show the highest growth of the score (by 17%) after the EU accession.

The objective of this paper is to show the mediation between citizens and political power by political parties in Czech rural areas. The position of political parties in rural municipalities is demonstrated in two perspectives. The top-down perspective is based on the distribution of several tens of thousands mandates in local municipal councils between political parties. The opposite perspective provides the bottom-up point of view - from the level of the individual municipalities, their party systems and party organisational structures. The analysis of the municipal election results reveals clearly that the role of political parties in local politics depends namely on the size of the given municipality. In this sense, the Czech Republic represents a very interesting example as it is characterised by a dense and heavily fragmented population settlement with a large number of small rural municipalities. In rural municipalities, we encounter incomplete party spectra and the absence of political parties in the smallest municipalities. Besides, the lists of candidates in rural municipalities reveal the weakness of the local party organisations that cannot avoid cooperating with the independent candidates. The small distance between the citizen and the elected body in a rural community significantly determines the forms of the local politics; the ideological and party mediation is superfluous, in fact, it is often seen as something harmful which divides the rural community.

Formerly arable luvic chernozem set aside for ten years (1997-2006) with different herbaceous cover (grass, legumes and their mixtures) and agronomical practices (mulching and cut/harvesting) was studied. The experimental plot was maintained as black, spontaneous and controlled fallows from 1997 until July 2003 (BD period). In July 2003 the plots were desiccated by glyphosate herbicide and were run as a black fallow until August 2004 (AD). The last period (AG) was characterized by monoculture of Italian ryegrass cut/harvested twice a year until October 2006. The experimental soils were characterized with 18 parameters. Mulched plots in all periods (BD, AD and AG) were evaluated as highly microbial active plots. The black fallow (BD) permanently maintained by glyphosate herbicide was the lowest in biological parameters. The desiccation caused a highly significant increase (P < 0.01) of nitrates in topsoil, but in following period (AG) their significant decrease was detected. Desiccation enhanced carbon immobilization into microbial cells especially on mulched and cut/harvested sites (BD, AD). Due to mulching accumulation of soil organic matter highly significantly increased (P < 0.01). This induced a highly significant (P < 0.01) increase in the basal respiration (AD, AG) as the soil organic matter accumulated in the period BD was intensively mineralized.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the growth rate and selected carcass and meat quality parameters in bulls fed a high-grain diet and to compare the results with those obtained in bulls fed a diet based on preserved roughage. The trial included 18 Czech-Pied bulls fed a diet with a high proportion of concentrated feed and 18 Czech-Pied bulls fed a diet based on maize silage, used as a control group. The trial was launched after the weaning of calves. During the fattening period, live weight and average daily weight gain were monitored. The bulls were slaughtered at the live weight of 550-600 kg, the mean age at slaughter was 473 days for the high-grain diet group and 474 days for the control group. The carcasses were classified to SEUROP quality grades, and carcass gain and dressing percentage were calculated. Samples of m. longissimus pars thoracis were taken from five bulls in each group to examine selected meat quality parameters. In the period from weaning to slaughter the high-grain diet bulls and the control bulls achieved the average daily weight gain of 1.29 kg and 1.21 kg, respectively. Differences between the groups were not significant. The high-grain diet group showed higher average carcass weight and higher carcass weight gain, differences between the groups were not significant, either. As to meat quality parameters under study, a significant difference was found only in meat lightness (L*), with the mean value in the high-grain diet group being significantly (P ≤ 0.01) lower than in the control group. The other meat quality parameters did not show any significant differences between the groups. In this study, the high-grain diet gave similar performance as the maize silage-based diet in fattening bulls. The high-grain diet group and control group showed comparable average daily weight gain and selected carcass and meat quality parameters.

Northeastern part of Anatolia is a gene center of grapevine and a wide diversity of Fox grapes grow here. Viticulture and some grapevines in the Black Sea Region (in the north of Turkey) are on the verge of extinction; several types and varieties grown in this region have never been described and did not survive till present. For the past 10 years vineyards and grapevines in the Black Sea Region have been studied. In the present study, eighteen grapevines of foxy taste grown in the Artvin and Rize provinces were described. An ampelographic description of young shoot, mature shoot, young leaf, mature leaf, berry, bunch and seed were carried out using the OIV (Office International de la Vigne et du Vin) list for grapevine cultivars and Vitis species. However, several other parameters of the cultivars were measured for evaluation.

In the present study and research work, land suitability evaluation (qualitative classification) was made for the Bilverdy research station of the Islamic Azad University in East Azarbaijan for wheat, barley, alfalfa, maize and safflower. The Simple Limitation Method (SLM), the Limitation Method regarding Number and Intensity (LMNI) and the Parametric Methods (PM) such as the square-root and the Storie methods were used. The landscape, climate and soil and characteristics that influence suitability of the land for particular crops have been combined according to the adopted methodology. Economic factors were excluded and moderate level of management was assumed. The results of different methods show that the most important limiting factors are climate, pH, organic matter (OM), gravel, salinity and sodicity, taken either alone or in combination. For safflower, the cation exchange capacity (CEC) can be added to these factors. Evaluation by the SLM and LMNI methods result in similar suitability classes, which confirms previous findings by other researchers for the same crops. However, in many cases the use of parametric methods, especially the square-root method, turned to be more realistic in distinguishing separate suitability classes. This study not only compares different methods and their results but also evaluates the suitability of the study area for particular crops. According to the square-root method, the area can be recommended as marginally suitable for cultivation of wheat, barley, alfalfa and safflower and is expected to yield about 40-65% of optimal production.

Two cases of botulism in horses are described in the article. In the first case two horses died, one survived and recovered after four weeks. Botulotoxin type B was detected using a mouse bioassay in the gastrointestinal content of both dead horses; Clostridium botulinum bacteria were cultivated from one of them. In the second case two horses were affected. One of them was euthanized because of persistent recumbency, the second one recovered after six weeks. Detection of botulotoxin in the serum of the dead horse using the mouse bioassay was not successful.

This study was designed to evaluate basic tree characteristics of Quercus dalechampii Ten. and Quercus polycarpa Schur and to find out differences between them. Total height, height of crown base and diameter at breast height were measured before tree felling. Cut stems were visually checked for heart rot on their basal parts. Diameters were measured on each stem in 1 meter long sections from the base to the point of life crown setting. Average values for both species were compared by t-test. The total height was proved to be statistically different; the height of crown base and diameter at breast height were quite similar for both species. Q. dalechampii Ten. was proved to be of larger stem diameter from the tree foot to the 3^rd height meter; the diameter of Q. polycarpa Schur was superior from that height upwards. However, the most significant interspecies difference was found in a number of stems affected by wood-rot fungi as Q. polycarpa Schur turned out to be less resistant than Q. dalechampii Ten.

The aims of this study are to determine the cooperation of milk producers and to analyze the milk marketing structure in Menemen-Izmir, West Turkey. According to the results of this study, 70% of the producers are the shareholders of the cooperatives, 49.2% of the producers are members of the National Chamber of Agriculture. In this study, 47.20% of total milk production in the farms is marketing to street sellers, 36.11% is marketing to small scale milk processing plants, 10.1% is marketing directly to consumer and 6.6% is marketing to dairy factories. Also, feed prices in the market are 5% higher than the prices of cooperatives. The main problems related to organization and marketing together are the lack of knowledge in production, low milk prices and the high cost of production.

This scientific paper shows the results formulated in the author's research focused on strategic decision-making of the company management in a new entrepreneurial environment resulting from changes caused by integration processes, the development of information technologies and globalisation factors. The goal of this paper is to publish the changes in behaviour of the management of the selected entrepreneurial entities resulting from new factors of changes affecting the entrepreneurial environment. This is reflected in the process of strategic decision-making of entrepreneurial entities in the necessity to use new methods of decision-making of the company management as a reaction to factors of the external as well as the internal environment. Rapid changes in particular in the external environment require the company management to select new approaches and methods of decision-making and to have a well conceived algorithm enabling a flexible response to customer wishes using the findings of knowledge management.

Effects of microspore culture treatment with antimitotic agents colchicine, trifluralin and oryzalin on the frequency of embryo formation, embryo development, plant regeneration and diploidization rate in three F₁ hybrids of winter rapeseed cultivars were compared. The ploidy level analysis of 1709 flowering microspore-derived plants showed that in vitro applications of all antimitotic drugs increased the rate of doubled haploid (DH) plants significantly. The mean rate of DH plants from the trifluralin treatment was 85.7%, from colchicine 74.1% and 66.5% in the case of oryzalin, while only 42.3% in the untreated control variant whereas in vivo additional application of colchicine at the plantlet stage did not significantly increase the mean rate of DH plants (55.6%). Although there were no significant differences in diploidization efficiency between the in vitro applications of particular antimitotic agents, trifluralin showed to be the most suitable because of its positive effect on embryo development and conversion into whole plants. In addition, the diploidization rate was sufficient and stable in all genotypes tested. The results indicate that the trifluralin treatment of microspore cultures could provide efficient chromosome doubling for the production of doubled haploid lines from winter oilseed rape breeding materials.

The effects of different concentrations of copper (0-800 μmol) on growth, protein contents, peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) in Jatropha curcas L. seedlings were assessed by means of pot experiments. Results suggested that increased copper concentrations lead to decreased shoot elongation and seedling biomass. Protein content in the leaves and roots reached their highest levels at the copper concentrations of 400 μmol, while the highest protein content in the stem was observed at 800 μmol copper. POD activity in leaves and stems was unaffected at low copper concentrations, but showed a considerable variation at high copper concentrations. In roots, the highest POD activity was observed at 200 μmol copper. Under copper stress, SOD activity in leaves increased concomitantly with increasing copper up to 400 μmol, and SOD activity in stems and roots showed a slight increase. Catalase activity significantly elevated in leaves and roots but showed no significant changes in stems of the seedlings exposed to copper. A gradual increase of PAL activity in leaves and roots at the copper concentration of 400 and 200 μmol was observed, while PAL activity remained unchanged in stems.

The influence of growth regulators on in vitro bulblet formation from ex vitro roots was studied in asiatic and oriental hybrids of Lilium The root segments (3-4 mm) isolated from the middle zone of 2-3 cm ex vitro root were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium containing 1 or 1.5 mg/dm³ naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and/or benzyladenine (BA). Bulblets were not produced in the presence of NAA and BA alone. A significant increase in the per cent explants producing bulblets was observed with 1.5 mg/dm³ NAA and 1 mg/dm³ BA. Maximum number of bulblets and average fresh weight per bulblet was observed with 2 mg/dm³ NAA and 1.5 mg/dm³ BA after 90 days of culture. No differences were found among cultivars in bulblet regeneration of explant or bulblet number although more weighty bulblets occurred in cv. Apeldoorn. About 82% bulblet survival was recorded in coco peat after 30 days of transfer to pots.

The purpose of the pilot project Senotín (1993-2000) was to prove the methods of revitalization of sub-mountain headwater area (0.38 km²) in the Novobystřická Vysočina Highland (610-725 m a. s. l.) in the Czech Republic. This area was tile-drained and ploughed in 1985. Seven underground clay shields newly constructed in 1995 stopped the function of the tile drainage. Four balks prevented the surface and subsurface runoff. These adaptations improved water retention capacity of the whole catchment, which is demonstrated using an example of runoff formation in the revitalized area. A typical storm rain (total 15 mm, duration 5.6 h, max. intensity 4 mm/20 min) and the consequent runoff was analysed, including the role of the soil in the runoff retardation and water retention. The runoff started in two hours since the rain beginning. The retention reached 98% of the rain total. The runoff lasted for 85 h. The concave-upward shape of the falling hydrograph limb indicates that the maximum retention capacity of the studied catchment is high.

Migration to herbage of Cyathostominae from experimentally deposited fresh or incubated faecal samples containing a known number of cyathostome L3 was studied in the Czech Republicfor up to 1 year. It was found out that most larvae remained quite close to the faecal samples. Of all larvae recovered from herbage 89.18% were collected within 10 cm of the faeces. Temporal variation in the presence of Cyathostominae larvae on vegeta­tion may account for poor recovery of Cyathostominae L3 in the field. A few infective larvae (0.05?2.74% of the larvae placed on the plot) were found as far as 30 cm from the faeces after 1 or 2 weeks. The number of larvae was significantly higher in June, with maximum recoveries of 4.97% (P < 0.05). Time of day was also significantly related to the number of L3 recovered, larval recovery was greater in the morning than at noontime, the highest number of L3 was observed at 8 am. Moisture and temperature were the most important weather factors associated with lateral larval migrations. There was a closer relation between the larval yields and monthly rainfall (r = 0.47) than between the larval recoveries and weekly rainfall (r = 0.23, r = 0.24). A significant amount of migration occurred during dew. An insignificant amount of migration occurred during dry weather.

This paper presents an overview of methods for detection and identification of the pathogenic bacterium Francisella tularensis such as cultivation tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction, immunosensor, microarray, mass spectrometry, and chromatography. Included references are chosen according to their practical importance or perspectives for the future.