From Regional to National Clouds: TV Coverage in the Czech Republic

Media, and particularly TV media, have a great impact on the general public. In recent years, spatial patterns of information and the relevance of intangible geographies have become increasingly important. Gatekeeping plays a critical role in the selection of information that is transformed into media. Therefore, gatekeeping, through national media, also co-forms the generation of mental maps. In this paper, correspondence analysis (a statistical method) combined with cloud lines (a new visual analytics technique) is used to analyze how individual major regional events in one of the post-communist countries, the Czech Republic, penetrate into the media on a national scale. Although national news should minimize distortions about regions, this assumption has not been verified by our research. Impressions presented by the media of selected regions that were markedly influenced by one or several events in those regions demonstrate that gatekeepers, especially news reporters, functioned as a filter by selecting only a few specific, and in many cases, unusual events for dissemination.     

Genome-wide CRISPR Screens Reveal Host Factors Critical for SARS-CoV-2 Infection

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Models to study the pathogenesis of thyroid autoimmunity.

In vitro and in vivo models to study the pathogenesis of thyroid autoimmunity are reviewed. Animal models with experimentally induced or spontaneously developed autoimmune thyroid disease as well as transplantation models have been used extensively in these studies, but also the use of thyroid cell cultures from both humans and animals has contributed to the present state of knowledge. Cytokines may play a role in the pathogenic mechanism in thyroid autoimmunity. The major in vitro and in vivo effects of for example interleukin-1, tumour necrosis factor and gamma-interferon on differentiated thyroid cell functions are inhibitory. The advantage of using cell cultures has been the possibility of studying an influence on thyrocytes from a single agent individually, such as cytokines, hormones or growth factors. The disadvantage is that an organism is under the influence of a multitude of factors that can only be investigated in vivo in intact organisms. Both types of models have therefore been important in the understanding of thyroid autoimmunity.     

Correction to: Herding mechanisms to maintain the cohesion of a harem group: two interaction phases during herding

Journal of Ethology - The article Herding mechanisms to maintain the cohesion of a harem group.     

The osmotic behaviour of frogs eggs and young tadpoles

Summary Determinations of total osmotic concentration on eggs ofRana temporaria by the vapour pressure method and of chloride by theWigglesworth ultra micro-technique show a rapid fall during the first few hours, from 120 to 95 mM total concentration and, until the blastopore closes, a further slight fall to about 80 mM. Thereafter the total concentration rises rapidly, while the chloride concentration remains unaltered or (later) rises very gradually.The eggs swell considerably at first and then more gradually and the changes in concentration until the budding of the gills are due at least in the main to osmotic uptake of water.The permeability, as determined both by rate of swelling and in special experiments with heavy waterbecomes greatly reduced by fertilization.The initial permeability is calculated to correspond to a minute Number of 140 days, while later it is reduced to about 5 1/2 years.When the gills begin to develop permeability for water again increases and the weight rises by osmotic inflow of water. The kidneys become functional and an active uptake of salt (probably located in the gills) prevents a reduction of the osmotic concentration.The fluid in the chorionic cavity is very slightly hypertonic to the surrounding water.The degree of swelling of the egg mucus depends upon the salt concentration in the surrounding water. The swelling is enormous in distilled water and seems to be specifically inhibited by calcium.