Fulltext search in archive

The genus Allium (Family: Alliaceae) is the most important among the bulbous vegetable crops. characterization of Alliums based on phenotypic traits is influenced by the environment and leads to biased diversity estimates. Recognizing the potential of DNA markers in plant breeding, researchers have adopted the molecular markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS), quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and characterization of different quality traits in Alliums. This review presents details about the use of DNA markers in Alliums for cultivar identification, diversity studies, SSR development, colour improvement, total soluble solids (TSS), cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and efforts of DNA sequencing. As there are no such reports to describe the above work under a single heading, we decided to mine literature for those who are working in onion, garlic, chives and leek improvement to generate new insights in the subject.

To investigate the environmental advantages of using grass-clover binary mixtures over pure stands as winter cover crops, a serial of five field experiments (each designed as randomized complete blocks with four replicates) was carried out in eastern Slovenia. Trifolium incarnatum L. and Lolium multiflorum Lam. were sown in late summer as pure stands and binary mixtures. Pooled data calculated from all the experiments revealed that the soil mineral N in spring and accumulation of N by plants decreased with decreasing proportion of T. incarnatum in the binary mixtures, while the C:N ratio of cover crop organic matter increased. C accumulation was the highest when the seeding ratio of the binary mixture of T. incarnatum and L. multiflorum was 50:50. In the C and N environmentally sustainable management efficiency coefficients, three important traits of winter cover crops for environmental pro-tection were given equal importance (low soil mineral N content in spring, high C accumulation in plants, and high N accumulation in plants). The coefficient was higher for binary mixtures of T. incarnatum and L. multiflorum than for pure stands of these crops, proving the complex environmental advantages of binary mixtures over pure stands.

Caciottina massaggiata di Amaseno, a typical dairy product of the Lazio Region prepared from buffalo milk, was analysed for moisture, fat, protein, pH, and acidity content at different storage (0, 3, 6, and 9 months after production). Cheeses were also evaluated for various sensory attributes (taste, flavour, texture, and overall acceptability) during storage. We evaluated the flavour profile and acceptability of Caciottina cheeses of varying maturity using a descriptive analysis. Descriptive sensory profiles of selected cheeses were determined using a trained panel (n = 12) and an established cheese flavour sensory language. In quantitative descriptive analysis a trained panel rated the cheeses for colour, odour, taste and texture. In the affective tests the panellists evaluated the samples for overall quality. The results proved that months of production had significant effects on the sensory quality of the cheeses.

Three dogs were evaluated due to the presence of unilateral adrenal gland masses with or without clinical signs. Case 1 showed a unilateral non-functional adrenocortical adenoma, discovered accidentally while Case 2 presented a unilateral cortisol-secreting adrenocortical adenoma; a pheochromocytoma was accidentally discovered in Case 3. The adrenalectomy was the treatment of choice in all cases. The development of diagnostic imaging techniques, mainly ultrasonography, and its application to routine abdominal examinations, have allowed the detection of adrenal gland masses more frequently. However, there is no pattern of echogenicity or architecture which would help in the differentiation in a functional tumour from a non-functional tumour, a pheochromocytoma, a metastatic lesion to the adrenal or a granuloma. A complete description of history, clinical signs, laboratory analysis and imaging studies is included. Moreover, a revision of the different types of adrenal gland tumours, with their clinical presentation, a standardised diagnosis protocol and options for treatment are discussed.

The ribosomal protein SA (RPSA), also known as 37-kDa laminin receptor precursor/67-kDa laminin receptor (LRP/LR), has been identified as a multifunctional protein, playing an important role in multiple pathologies like cancer and prion diseases. Since RPSA is involved in the binding and internalization of the prion protein, mutations in the ovine RPSA gene, influencing the RPSA-PrP^C/PrP^Sc binding, can potentially play a part in the resistance to prion diseases. Our goal was to further characterize the complex RPSA gene family and to detect structural mutations which can play a role in this disease. In a prior study, 11 ovine pseudogenes were detected experimentally. As the whole genome shotgun ovine genome became accessible, an in silico genome-wide screening was performed and 37 new pseudogenes (36 processed and one semi-processed pseudogene) were detected, bringing the total to 48 ovine RPSA pseudogenes. Additionally, the complete bovine genome was screened in silico and 56 pseudogenes were identified. Once these sequences were known, it was possible to analyze the presence of mutations in the coding sequence and exon-flanking regions of the ovine functional full-length RPSA gene without the interference of pseudogenic sequences. Nineteen mutations were found: one in the 5' UTR, a silent one in the coding region, and seventeen in the exon-flanking regions, including an interesting mutation in the SNORA62 gene, localized in intron 4 of RPSA, leading to potential ribosomal defects. Structural mutations of the RPSA gene can be ruled out to play a role in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies but regulatory mutations still can have an effect on these diseases.

As a part of International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effect on Forests (ICP Forests), defoliation of forest stands has been assessed in the Czech Republic since 1986. Defoliation is one of the principal parameters reflecting the health of forest stands that is assessed on monitoring plots within this programme. Monitoring plots are distributed evenly according to woodiness of the area in a regular schematic network all over the Czech Republic. Even though there has been a long-term reduction of air pollution in most European countries, forest ecosystems reflect these changes with some delay. In the Czech Republic the trend of total defoliation of coniferous and deciduous forest stands has been increasing very moderately in the last 10 years. This trend appears to be partially analogous with some neighbouring countries. Compared to the whole of Europe the trend of defoliation of broadleaves is very similar, but differences have occurred in conifers in the last 10 years. There are significant differences in defoliation levels among the particular countries; in this comparison the Czech Republic is classified as one of the worst. Differences in these levels are very evident especially among the neighbouring countries. To partly eliminate these differences, regular international calibration courses are organized.

A field study was conducted to ascertain the effect of three zinc (Zn) levels: 0, 20 kg ZnSO₄/ha and 20 kg ZnSO₄/ha + foliar spray of 0.5% ZnSO₄, on wheat grain Zn content and factors contributing to or hindering in its bioavailability. Increasing Zn levels were established as serviceable in improving the nutritional status of genotypes. Soil application + foliar spray proved to be paramount for all the traits leading to an 80% increase in grain Zn content, 61.3% in methionine content and a decrease of 23.2% in phytic acid as an average of all genotypes and both years. The genotype UP 2382 was found more suited to Zn fertilization in allocating Zn and maintaining a lower phytate to Zn molar ratio.

Information provided in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) portal database of the European Commission on "crustaceans and products thereof" for Bangladesh during 2000-2012 was investigated to analyse the trends of occurrences. A total of 159 (10.56%) notifications (alert - 40; border rejection - 47; information - 72) were recorded for Bangladesh against a worldwide 1505 notifications. During the period 120 (20.27%) notifications were identified for residue of veterinary medicinal products against 592 notifications recorded in the portal. Forty-eight consignments were re-despatched to Bangladesh while 11 consignments were destroyed at the European border as a consequence of the notifications by the European countries.

The aim of this study was to provide the first account of fish and macroinvertebrate communities in a heavily degraded river basin in the Czech Republic. Fish and macrozoobenthos were surveyed at 18 sites in the Bílina River and 11 sites in tributary streams during June-July 2007. Fish were sampled by electrofishing and macrozoobenthos were collected by kick-sampling using a sweep net. The composition of macroinvertebrate assemblages in headwater and reference sites in the upper Bílina River indicated clean water with saprobic index (SI) 1.31-1.43 followed by a transitional stretch downstream the Kyjická reservoir (SI 2.05-2.32) and dramatic decline of water quality to SI 3.18 in the river stretch downstream of industrial and municipal pollution at Litvínov-Záluží. Despite several minor pollution sources on the subsequent downstream river stretch until its mouth into the Elbe River, the water quality indicators fluctuated in the range of lower betamesosaprobity (SI 2.06-2.58). Species richness and biodiversity indices followed a similar pattern as river saprobity. Twenty-three fish species were documented in the Bílina River basin. Chub (Leuciscus cephalus), gudgeon (Gobio gobio) and roach (Rutilus rutilus) were the most frequent species at the Bílina sites. Chub was the most numerous fish in the tributaries. Fish species richness in the longitudinal profile did not increase downstream in the Bílina mainstem, most likely because the presence of reservoirs and water pollution interrupted the river continuum pattern. Qualitative data on fish assemblages corresponded to the course of environmental stress. A sustainable fish community was documented only in the lowermost site in Ústí nad Labem near the confluence with the Elbe River. The Bílina River tributaries constitute potential refuges for fish in this basin.

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is the most important crop in the group of leafy vegetables. It is characterized by considerable morphological and genetic variation. The crop comprises seven main groups of cultivars (including oilseed lettuce) differing phenotypically; they are usually described as morphotypes. Lettuce breeding is primarilly focused on various morphological features and resistance against diseases and pests. The accurate description of lettuce germplasm provides basic information useful for lettuce breeders. The construction of a lettuce descriptor list has been stimulated by the international genebank community. This list consists of 55 descriptors with 15 elucidated by figures. It provides a tool for detailed characterization of and discrimination within the intraspecific variation of L. sativa, verification of old varieties, and identification of putative duplicates and gaps in germplasm collections. These descriptors, along with descriptors of wild Lactuca species, provide an efficient analytical tool for studying the complex morphological variability of this genus and relationships among the species.

The author analyzes the changes in the tree species composition of Dentario glandulosae-Fagetum Klika 1927 em. Mat. 1964 in the mountain stands of Bieszczady National Park in 1993-2003. The analysis takes into account the changes over a ten-year period in the number and volume structure of each tree species in each stand layer: young natural regeneration, undergrowth, and mature stand. Additionally, after comparing the results with the natural Carpathian forests' structure, the adaptation level of the present tree species composition to the current climate and soil conditions, as well as probable directions of future changes have been assessed. A ten-year period is too short to find significant changes in stand species structure but it is possible to see some trends: beech share in stands is increasing and fir is decreasing.

The delimitation of less-favoured areas (LFA) on the territorial and the farm level in the EU member states varies in many ways. The Commission emphasizes the unification of criteria on the territorial level. But the EU countries use very different criteria for the eligibility area definition and for the eligibility on farm level. This makes the comparison very difficult. The CR belongs to the countries with a lower level of differentiation of payments rates. The eligibility area is restricted to the grassland in the CR and degresivity of payments is not applied. In particular, collective farms as the owners' association play an important social role in the country of the Czech Republic and some other countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. It would be necessary to find such differentiation of payment system that would reflect these specific conditions. The holdings with different size and different form of farming as well as the effect of other subsidies to holdings should be taken into account. The support potential within the axis III of the Rural Development Program would be necessary strengthen to elimination of the adverse impact due to further lay-off of the employees in agriculture

Enterococci are bacteria commonly found in humans. However, these bacteria can cause severe infections in susceptible individuals. The strains of Enterococcus faecium have demonstrated an increasing resistance to antibiotics, which is considered an important virulence factor. The contribution of E. faecium to the infection-related illnesses has recently increased, which involves most of the isolated Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) strains. Enterococci are common contaminants of human milk processed in milk banks, and the consumption of contaminated milk can cause severe infection-related complications if the control mechanisms fail to detect the contamination. Extensive data are available on the growth curves of E. faecium in broth at pH values between 6 and 7, at temperatures of 5°C to 20°C, and for water activity values a_w of 0.97 to 0.997. These growth curves were replaced with non-linear Gompertz curves for microorganism growth, the parameters of which were correlated with the temperature and pH values. A mathematical relationship to water activity could not be established since only two water activity levels have been experimentally tested and the resulting model would be highly inaccurate. The issue of water activity was resolved by the development of two separate models, one for each of the water activity values. The models correspond very well with the experimental growth curve data from which they were developed. The model for the water activity level of 0.997 was used to predict the growth of E. faecium in cow and human milks (these two fluids have practically identical water activity), and the prediction was compared to the experimental data. A good agreement between the predicted and experimental data was achieved for cow milk. With human milk, the model usually predicted a more rapid growth rate than that seen experimentally. The model was thus on the conservative side in all cases. The inhibitory agents naturally present in human milk might be responsible for the slower growth rates.

Taking into account the enzyme inactivation and substrate inhibition, the bioreaction mechanism and kinetics characteristic of egg white protein (EWP) enzymatic hydrolysis by pepsin were investigated. A logarithmic equation h = (1/b) ln (1 + abt) indicating the relationship between the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and time was established. For EWP-pepsin system, the reaction mechanism could be deduced from a series of experimental results at different temperatures, pH values, substrate concentrations, and enzyme concentrations. The reaction kinetics and thermodynamic constants (K_S = 3916.5 g/l, k₂ = 17 202.86 min^-1, k_d = 21 962.03, E_a = 56.89 kJ/mol, E_d = 51.99 kJ/mol) were responsible for the empirical equations. The results of nonlinear regression of the proposed kinetic model agreed with the experimental data, i.e. the average relative error was less than 5%. As a conclusion, the kinetic equations can be used to fit the enzymatic hydrolysis process of egg white protein and to optimise the operating parameters of bioactive peptides preparation for the bioreactor design.

In two-year field experiments, nitrogen (N) in the form of urea (0, 120 and 240 kg N/ha) was applied to grain maize (Zea mays L.) hybrid KWS 2376. The two-year mean content of total grain N at harvest was 1.54%. The highest N dose reduced most of the 17 amino acids (AA) analysed in the grain compared with the other treatments. Possible reasons for this could be an adverse effect on the tricarboxylic acid cycle or deficiency of carbon skeletons for the assimilation of NH₄⁺ into amides and amino acids. The content of the limiting amino acid lysine was not influenced by N fertilisation, with a mean two-year content of 2.02 mg/g DM. Taking into account the differences in fertilisation, the effect of the year was seen in the maximal accumulation of amino acids serine, proline, methionine, threonine, arginine and lysine. Increasing rates of nitrogen reduced the accumulation of asparagine and glycine, and, on the contrary, increased the accumulation of tyrosine. Nitrogen rates have a significant effect on the maximal accumulation of valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, histidine, cysteine and alanine and appeared as early as after the first increased rate of nitrogen (120 kg N/ha).

This paper upgrades generic and partial information from parasitological research for farm-specific decision support, using two methods from managerial sciences: partial budgeting and frontier analysis. The analysis focuses on strategic deworming in pig finishing and assesses both effects on economic performance and nutrient efficiency. The application of partial budgeting and frontier analysis is based on a production-theoretical system analysis which is necessary to integrate parasitological research results to assess aggregate economic and environmental impacts. Results show that both statistically significant and insignificant parasitological research results have to be taken into account. Partial budgeting and frontier analysis appear to be complementary methods: partial budgeting yields more discriminatory and communicative results, while frontier methods provide additional diagnostics through exploring optimization possibilities and economic-environmental trade-offs. Strategic deworming results in a win-win effect on economic and environmental performances. Gross margin increases with 3 to 12 € per average present finisher per year, depending on the cyclic pig price conditions. The impact on the nutrient balance ranges from +0.2 to -0.5 kg nitrogen per average present finisher per year. The observed efficiency improvements are mainly technical and further economic and environmental optimizations can be achieved through input re-allocation. A user-friendly spreadsheet is provided to translate the generic experimental information to farm-specific conditions.

The main objective of this research is to offer a model for determining the most proper location for investment in sugar industry. This model classifies the possible options for investment, taking into account several variables. The orientation of this research is an applied orientation and its objective is an explorative one. Therefore, no hypothesis is proposed to prove it. The required data for determining the parameters of the model is extracted from statistical yearbooks of the Iran Ministry of Agriculture during 1996 to 2006. According to the results obtained from this research, if new investments in sugar industry are carried out based on the offered classifications and pattern, the profitability will definitely increase.

In the Czech Republic, deterministic flow forecasts with the lead time of 48 hours, calculated by rainfall-runoff models for basins of a size of several hundreds to thousands square kilometers, are nowadays a common part of the operational hydrological service. The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI) issues daily the discharge forecast for more than one hundred river profiles. However, the causal rainfall is a random process more than a deterministic one, therefore the deterministic discharge forecast based on one precipitation prediction is a significant simplification of the reality. Since important decisions must be done during the floods, it is necessary to take into account the indeterminity of the input meteorological data and to express the uncertainty of the resulting discharge forecast. In the paper, a solution of this problem is proposed. The time series of the input precipitation prediction data have been generated repeatedly (by the Monte Carlo method) and, subsequently, the set of discharge forecasts based on the repeated hydrological model simulations has been obtained and statistically evaluated. The resulting output can be, for example, the range of predicted peak discharges, the peak discharge exceeding curve or the outflow volume exceeding curve. The properties of the proposed generator have been tested with acceptable results on several flood events which occurred over the last years in the upper part of the Dyje catchment (Podhradí closing profile). The rainfall-runoff model HYDROG, which has been in operation in CHMI since 2003, was used for hydrological simulation.

Agriculture ensures the physical existence of the population and it creates a fund of basic foodstuffs. In addition, it produces non-food commodities as well as being a region forming and political element. It fulfils the function of an internal political stabilising factor and it is a requirement for an overall, balanced, development. The article puts into context: global agriculture; agricultural production within the expanded EU, which is developing under the conditions of the integrated Common Agricultural Policy. It also draws attention to the current trends characteristic of agriculture within the EU. Emphasis is also put on how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is perceived, as well as its consequences for the agrarian production and the position of the EU in the international trade of agricultural products.

Adapting forests to climate change involves silvicultural measures such as use of a range of species and the fostering of mixed stands. We tested these in a Sitka spruce forest in southern Scotland, employing the Ecological Site Classification to match suitability of 24 species to six climatic and edaphic variables under values of accumulated temperature and moisture deficit projected for a medium emissions scenario for the present century. Both median and 90^th percentile values were contrasted. In the first case there was a small change in species suitability with Sitka spruce, noble fir, downy birch, sycamore and aspen being the most suitable species. When the 90^th percentile values were employed, the suitability of Sitka spruce and similar conifers had declined by the 2050's due to soil moisture deficits. The actual performance of a range of species in a long-term experiment on a similar, warmer site showed several productive conifers including Sitka spruce that maintained reasonable growth when planted in mixture. Mixed plots were developing into pure stands of the most productive species. Species diversification was the most practical adaptation measure for this forest and should concentrate on areas of the greatest risk like south-facing slopes with free-draining soils.

The risk rate of sugar beet growing was analyzed by using the algorithm for modelling and generating the random numbers based on the conditions determined in advance and the statistical distribution of sugar beets yield, the total costs, earnings and gross profit. On the bases of results of the analysis of economic risks of sugar beet production in years 1995-2009, it follows that the sugar beet growing in all regions is highly risky in the Czech Republic. The subsidy SAPS and TOP-UP per 1 hectare of sugar beet have a positive impact on its economics though not sufficient enough. In practice, it means that it is highly probable that the break-even point will not be achieved and thereby it is highly probable that the fixed costs are not covered and the update of machines is significantly limited. This happens mainly in the marginal regions. If the agricultural companies count on the separate sugar payment, the sugar beet growing is in all regions of the Czech Republic with acceptable risk.

Sulfonamides are widely used in treatment of animals and humans but pose a risk as environmental pollutants. An analysis of 1588 publications focused on sulfonamides is presented here. The review deals with environmental pollution with sulfonamides, described in papers indexed in the database Web of Science from 1938 to 2011. More in depth details are presented regarding publication activity during the last ten years in which 1255 papers have been published by authors from 1100 institutions. Papers, published during the last three years and mainly in 2011, are listed in comprehensive tables, sorted according to five criteria: reviews, contaminated niches, risk of contamination, sulfonamide transformation and methods of analysis. Key words and shortened abstracts direct the reader to the topics of interest. Hyperlinks to full papers, published in open access journals, are another aid in knowledge dissemination. This design of the review article allows easy navigation through vast amounts of information. Finally, a case report illustrates experiences from the author's laboratory with sulfamethazine determination in pig slurry by ELISA. The reported results highlight the need for updating the legal directives for environmental protection.

Recent information campaigns of media and the ongoing substantive discussions of experts have been more and more devoted to the climate change issue and its impacts that could affect our future and threaten the sustainable and balanced development of the planet Earth. However, the categorical apparatus as presented at the above mentioned events is not always used correctly and the same is true about the objective interpretation of the very nature of the processes. Also the explanations of realistic options of governance to mitigate and streamline the effects associated with climate variability in order to achieve the least possible damage of global environment are not always given appropriately. Because of a lack of specific statistical data on climate variability, which are usually at the sole disposal of professional climate scientists, and owing to the attention the public pays to these phenomena only at times of climatic anomalies (floods, extreme heat and drought, etc.), the issue is still on the edge of a broader awareness of people and academic research. This paper is in essence an overview of scientific works, which aims to contribute to the understanding of the issue of climate change by the means of summarizing the main approaches and use of categories, defining their substance and especially clarifying the phenomena in relation to possibilities of global governance.

An increasing number of works on the rural-environmental connection can be found at present. However, their overview and classification are needed - this is the guiding idea of this paper. We distinguish three approaches to the rural-environmental connection and label them scientific approach, environmentalist approach, and development approach. In the paper, theories of environmental concern (post-materialism, paradigm shift, and ecological modernisation) are discussed at first and then a classification of works is proposed.

Many chemical changes in beer aroma occur during storage (aging), and monitoring these changes could give guidelines to the brewers how to manage and control the brewing process to obtain the final product with a high stability in flavour after packaging. In this regard, our laboratory aimed at a research into the application of an electronic nose in order to get the fingerprint of the change of non alcoholic beer aroma during aging. Th discriminatory power of the sensor array of this system was evaluated. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) techniques were used for this purpose. The results obtained can direct us to performing other parts of our project. Considering the discriminatory power of the sensor array used, we can develop the application of a specific electronic nose system by picking up the most effective sensors or ignoring the redundant sensors.

The paper deals with the issue of mapping the age composition of stand groups using hyperspectral imagery acquired by the AISA Eagle VNIR sensor in the Bílý Kříž locality in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids Mts. An object-oriented approach was employed through segmentation and subsequent classification by means of Nearest Neighbour (NN) algorithm in the environment of eCognition Developer 8 and artificial neural network (ANN) classification provided by ENVI 4.7 software. Because of the dominant occurrence of Norway spruce (Picea abies [L.] Karst.) monocultures in the studied locality the work focuses primarily on the distinguishability of two selected age classes of Norway spruce (10-20 years and 70-80 years). It studies possibilities of a more detailed age estimation of stand groups aged from 10 to 80 years based on the classification into the boundary classes, which shows similarity to dithering based on random algorithm. Comparison with the outline map of the Forest Management Plan shows a correlation (r² = 0.83) between the spectral characteristics of Norway spruce stands and their age composition.

The efficiency of border rows to prevent the adventitious presence of GM maize in non-GM maize plots was evaluated as well as the effect of the MON 810 maize of the yield and self-protection against the European corn borer. The GM maize MON 810 event was drilled at 3 locations over the Slovakia and the grain samples were collected from the neighbouring conventional maize fields. The data obtained by Real-Time PCR indicate that coexistence between GM and conventional maize is feasible and the isolation distance of 200 m (respectively 100 border rows of conventional maize) separates GM maize from the conventional one more than sufficiently. The effective isolation distance is 3-4 times greater than the actually needed. The MON 810 revealed also the highest yield and the best self-protection against European corn borer in both growing seasons with different climatic conditions.

Studies were undertaken to investigate the composition, structure and diversity of four different types of North Mongolian montane forest near the southern border of the taiga. These forest types, classified as willow-poplar, larch-birch, spruce-fir and Siberian-pine forests, were found to be significantly different with respect to the elevational gradient. In the study area, two fire regimes could be distinguished at lower and drier elevations, frequent surface fires resulted in less diverse forests comprising coniferous species, which in their adult form were found to be fire-resistant, burn-colonizing and light-demanding deciduous tree species. In contrast, the forests colonizing the moist, higher elevations and shaded slopes had a higher diversity of tree species with greater basal area, higher proportion of deadwood, and more regenerating trees; here the coniferous shade trees experienced infrequent but destructive treetop fires. Overall, our results showed that the four forest types differed in composition according to the tree species, diameter and height classes.

This study was undertaken in order to test whether the development of nodule density over the vegetation period is different in lucerne stands grown for 1, 2 or 3 years continuously. For rapidly assessing nodule density in the field, a modified profile wall method was applied. Nodules were counted on a vertical profile wall, after spraying away a 2 cm layer of soil. For validating this method nodule density was determined on roots washed from monolith samples. Field data indicate that there is a shift of nodulation towards deeper soil layers with increasing maturity of lucerne stands. In 1-year lucerne nodulation was limited virtually to the top 15 cm of soil. In the 15-30 cm soil layer and in the subsoil (30-80 cm), nodule density increased with the cropping duration (1 year < 2 years < 3 years). Temporal decreases in nodule density during the vegetation period associated with dry spells were more pronounced for 2-years as compared with 3-years lucerne.

This paper describes the partial results of an echocardiographic study in sixty outbreed Wistar rats. Animals of parity sex ratio were chosen for the experiment. The animals were grown up during the observation period (the minimum weight was 220 g; the maximum weight was 909 g) and were then sequentially anaesthetised (2-2.5% of isoflurane, 3 l/min O₂). The second, fourth and fifth examinations were performed under anaesthesia maintained by intramuscular injections with diazepam (2 mg/kg), xylazine (5 mg/kg) and ketamine (35 mg/kg). Transthoracal examination was done using the SonoSite Titan echo system (SonoSite Ltd.) with a microconvex transducer C11 (8-5 MHz). M-mode (according to the leading-edge method of American Society of Echocardiography) echocardiography data were acquired at the papillary muscle: systolic and diastolic interventricular septum (IVSs, d) and left vetricular posterior wall (LVPWs, d) thickness, systolic and diastolic left ventricular dimension (LVDs, d), aorta (Ao) and left atrium (LA) dimensions. According to standard formulas, the following parameters were obtained: ejection fraction (EF), cardiac output (CO), stroke volume (SV), left ventricle end systolic volume (LVESV), left ventricle end diastolic volume (LVEDV), interventricular septum fractional thickening (IVSFT), left ventricular dimension fraction shortening (LVDFS), and left ventricle posterior wall fraction thickening (LVPWFS). In our study we performed 300 examinations both in male and female Wistar rats of various body weights and calculated regression equations to predict expected normal echocardiographic parameters for rats with arbitrary weights. The rats were examined by an echo scan. The first and third examinations were performed during mono-anaesthesia induced by inhalation of isoflurane. Correlations, with one exception (LVDs), were very close, which means that the results of the calculations based on regression equations are very reliable.