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Purpose In this study, the authors investigated whether errors with subject–verb agreement in monolingual Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) are influenced by verb phonology. In addition, the productive and receptive abilities of Dutch acquiring children with SLI regarding agreement inflection were compared. Method An SLI group (6–8 years old), an age-matched group with typical development, and a language-matched, younger, typically developing (TD) group participated in the study. Using an elicitation task, the authors tested use of third person singular inflection after verbs that ended in obstruents (plosive, fricative) or nonobstruents (sonorant). The authors used a self-paced listening task to test sensitivity to subject–verb agreement violations. Results Omission was more frequent after obstruents than nonobstruents; the younger TD group used inflection less often after plosives than fricatives, unlike the SLI group. The SLI group did not detect subject–verb agreement violations if the ungrammatical structure contained a frequent error (omission), but if the ungrammatical structure contained an infrequent error (substitution), subject–verb agreement violations were noticed. Conclusions The use of agreement inflection by children with TD or SLI is affected by verb phonology. Differential effects in the 2 groups are consistent with a delayed development in Dutch SLI. Parallels between productive and receptive abilities point to weak lexical agreement inflection representations in Dutch SLI.

In this study the concentrations of metals were investigated in Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. eh Steud. 1841 and sediment samples from the bed of the River Tisza in Serbia. Al, As, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr and Zn levels were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry. The sediment samples contained elevated concentrations of cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel and zinc. The increased concentration of these metals had no significant effect on wildlife of the river Tisza as the determined concentrations of the metals tested in the comon reed do not exceed the threshold of phytotoxicity. The research proved a strong positive correlation between the concentrations of metals in the sediment and all common reed organs (rhizome, stem and leave). Accumulated metals in the common reed are not distributed evenly, but there are target organs for bioaccumulation. Concentrations in belowground organs were usually higher than aboveground organs, and the general decreasing trend of element content was rhizome gt leaves gt stems.

Two main questions in programs introgressing exotic maize germplasm into temperate materials are the choice of available exotic sources to work with, and the proportion of exotic germplasm that should be incorporated into adapted germplasm. The objectives of this study were to compare effects of the different proportions of tropical maize germplasm (via inbred NC298) in hybrids male parent, on grain yield, grain moisture content, cultivars stability performance and genotype-by- environment interaction. Using direct crosses and backcrosses (between NC298, Mo17 and NS796 male lines) five male groups were formed containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of tropical germplasm, respectively (or one half in their corresponding hybrids). Each male parent group was tested with three female inbred-testers that belong to the Reid yellow dent heterotic group. The level of significance between mean values of hybrids containing the different proportion of NC298 line in male parent was estimated by F value using Repeated- Measure Design (RMD). Individual genotype stability over environments for grain yield was determined by regression coefficient (b(i)) and R-2 regression value. Genotype-by-environment interaction for grain yield and grain moisture content was estimated by AMMI (Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction) method. Individual genotypic stability did not restrict the choice of desirable genotypes between and/or within groups containing different proportion of tropical germplasm, and no association between genotype stability and the proportion of tropical germplasm could be defined. The NC298 tropical germplasm inbred line of maize, could be incorporated into temperate breeding material comprising 25% of the foundation population proportion, for both grain yield and grain moisture content.

© 2017 Charles University. All rights reserved. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMPs) play a complex role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. We compared (1) the histopathological findings in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) and aortoiliac occlusive disease (AOD); (2) the expression of MMP-2/MMP-9 and TIMP-1/TIMP-2 in aortic layers, inflammatory cells and smooth muscle cells (SMCs), aiming to identify the common underlying pathogenic mechanisms of the disease development. Samples were obtained from 30 patients with AAA and 30 with AOD. Aortic histology and immunohistochemistry were performed to evaluate inflammatory changes and MMP and TIMP expression. Thrombosis and ulceration were more frequent in AOD than in AAA. The MMP-9 expression was elevated in all aortic layers of AAA patients and in media/adventitia of AOD patients, mainly followed by lower expression of its inhibitor TIMP-1. Higher MMP-9 expression was also found in SMCs and macrophages of both AAA and AOD specimens, while higher TIMP-1/TIMP-2 were predominantly observed in the lymphocytes and macrophages of the aneurysm. These results showed that both conditions exhibited increased MMP-9 expression; however, the MMP expression pattern differed to some degree between the aneurysms and occlusive disease. The variations in molecular mechanisms underlying dilatative/stenosing disease warrant further investigation.