Pineacea is the largest family of conifers that includes 51 species of Abies which is the second largest genus after Pinus. There are six native taxa in Turkey belonging to this genus. Four of these taxa (Abies cilicica subsp. isaurica, Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornm&uuml / lleriana, Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani, Abies x olcayana) are endemic and considered as low risk (LR) species according to the IUCN criteria. To determine the phylogenetic relationship in Abies spp. in Turkey, 18 populations of different taxa were collected from their natural distribution areas in Turkey. The matK gene regions of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) were studied comparatively to reveal the genetic relationship among Turkish fir species. The available sequences from the NCBI database for the matK region of the other Abies species in the world were also investigated v comparatively with the sequences from Turkish firs. With the matK sequence data, a phylogenetic tree was constructed for the fir species and the molecular diversity parameters such as conserved and variable sites, nucleotide diversity, and evolutionary divergence were estimated using the MEGA software. The results indicated that there are no variable sites among Turkish firs with regard to matK regions of cpDNA. It appears that the matK region of cpDNA for Turkish firs is highly conserved. Since sequence data for all matK regions were not available from the NCBI data base, the phylogentic analysis with the sequence data of matK were comparatively analyzed in all firs including Turkish firs. According to matK1 region, the results showed that there were three major clades. One of the clades included all Turkish fir taxa and one species from European firs, A.numidica / however, A.holopylla, A.firma, A.veitchii, A.sachalinensis, A.nephrolepis, A.lasiocarpa, A.koreana, A.homolephis, A.fraseri, A.fargesii, A.sibirica and A.fabri formed in another clade. In addition to this, A.mariesii, A.hidalgensis, A.bracteata, A.alba formed in different major clade. According to matK1 region the results showed that Turkish firs and European firs are closer to each other. Furthermore, based on matK2 region, the results indicated that Turkish firs formed a monophyletic group.The other fir species, with respect to matK2 regions, formed different clades from Turkish firs. The results based on matK region suggest that all Turkish firs may have evolved from single ancestral fir species and the matK gene region appears to be highly conserved region in fir species.

Placental vessels and the umbilical circulatory network function to carry oxygen and nutrients to the fetus. It is at this level that placental lesions such as villitis, obliterative vasculopathy, and thrombotic vasculopathy have been observed in association with fetal inflammatory response syndrome (FIRS) and cerebral palsy. We used human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) as a model to study the regulation of inflammation and thrombosis in fetal vessels by microbial products. In this thesis we measured interleukin-8 (IL-8) and tissue factor (TF) expression by HUVECs treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), poly (I:C) (PIC), and peptidoglycan (PG). Our results show a profound induction of IL-8 by PIC, a TLR-3 ligand. We also show a moderate induction of tissue factor expression in PIC-treated HUVECs. These results show that HUVECs are exquisitely sensitive to PIC and suggests an important role for viral infection in umbilical vessel inflammation. We additionally treated HUVECs with dexamethasone (DEX), an anti-inflammatory steroid, and melatonin (MT), a pineal gland product with immunomodulatory and anti-oxidant properties. DEX reduced the level of both IL-8 and TF expression in PIC-treated cells. MT, however, further enhanced IL-8 expression in PIC-treated cells. Our results indicate a potential role for glucocorticoid therapy in reducing placental vessel inflammation and thrombosis. Thus, intervention with GC in pregnancies with FIRS may reduce the severity of placental lesions associated with cerebral palsy.

Typescript (photocopy).

In Dunnet Landing, Jewett creates a feminine world that is characterized by its depth and its moral and emotional significance. There is a foundation in the real world of human feeling, and while there is much grief and sorrow in this community, there are also possibilities for happiness. The connection to death and loss is what gives much in this feminine world meaning. Grief is only a part of the journey. Out of death and sorrow come strength and a restoration to wholeness. Mrs. Todd has learned this and she passes her knowledge down to the narrator. The narrator’s journey is a return to a simpler, older way of life. It is a return to the mother, but it is also a return to self, an inversion of a trip to the frontier. The narrator’s connection to Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Blackett helps her to reconnect with and restore herself.

Although Willa Cather's My Antonia and Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs have been highly regarded by numerous literary critics, neither text conforms to conventional expectations for narrative content or structure. Episodic in construction, the novels lack such traditional narrative ingredients as conflict, action, drama, and romance. Furthermore, explicit connections between episodes and stories related within the narratives are not drawn for the reader. Formalist and structuralist critics have approached the problem of structure in Cather and Jewett's works by employing conventional literary tools of analysis, by "unearthing" the narrative elements that we as readers and critics have come to expect: identifiable structure, a plot complete with conflict and resolution, and characters that develop. Likewise, many feminist critics have sought to uncover in Cather and Jewett's work the ideal elements for a woman's text such as the employment of a feminine method of writing. Unfortunately, both approaches utilize interpretive templates that would pin down meaning and thus "solve" the texts' seeming peculiarities. Instead of prescribing structure according to accepted conventions or ideals, this study attempts to describe the narrative construction of My Antonia and The Country of the Pointed Firs. I argue that these texts are not structures in a traditional linear fashion, but rather are "conversations" among a variety of "readers" -the narrator, other characters, and the actual readers of the text - who attempt to construct an understanding of the world around them, or the meaning of the overall story. The chapters in this thesis explore this dialogue present in Cather and Jewett's work; the various participating, as well as their proposed constructions. Both Cather and Jewett, through their innovative narrative techniques, dramatize the human need to make sense of life, our capacity to create meaning, and at the same time the fallibility of such constructions. By employing a form which resists conventional strategies of explanation, Cather and Jewett encourage an interpretative approach that favors cumulative readings, a certain responsiveness, and an allowance for indeterminacy.

Tyrimai atlikti 2008 m. LŽŪU medelyne įvertinant pirmamečių kriaušaičių, skiepytų į Pyrus pyraster Burgsd. ir Cydonia oblonga Mill. poskiepius, augimo dinamiką ir biometrinius rodiklius. Tirtos pirmamečių kriaušaičių veislės Suvenirs, Kafedralna, Kleboninė, Concorde ir Mramornaja, skiepytos į sėklinį Pyrus pyraster poskiepį ir veislė Kafedralna, skiepyta į Cydonia oblonga poskiepį. Analizuojant bandymą buvo atsižvelgiama į pagrindinius biometrinius skiepų rodiklius: aukštį, kamienėlių skersmenį, skiepų lapų masę ir lapų paviršiaus plotą. Tyrimais nustatyta, kad aukščiausi medeliai užaugo Suvenirs ir Kafedralna veislės, skiepytos į sėklinį Pyrus pyraster poskiepį. Storiausi kamienėliai buvo ΄Mramornaja΄, ΄Kleboninės΄ ir ΄Kafedralna΄ skiepytos į sėklinį Pyrus pyraster poskiepį. Mažiausi ir ploniausi - Kafedralna veislės skiepytos į Cydonia oblonga poskiepį. Intensyvus tirtų kriaušių veislių augimo tarpsnis tęsėsi nuo gegužės mėn. 30 d. iki rugpjūčio mėn. 20 d., o kamienėlių storėjimo – nuo gegužės mėn. 30 d. iki rugsėjo mėn. 10 d. Didžiausią lapų paviršiaus plotą išaugino ΄Mramornaja΄ skiepyta į Pyrus pyraster poskiepį ir veislės Kafedralna skiepyta į Cydonia oblonga poskiepį. Didžiausia lapų masė tarp kriaušaičių, skiepytų į Pyrus pyraster poskiepį, nustatyta Mramornaja ir Kafedralna veislių. / The experiment took place in 2008 in the Lithuania’s University of Agriculture evaluating the dynamic growth of first – year pear – trees on Pyrus pyraster Burgsd. and vegetatyve on Cydonia oblonga Mill. rootstock. The research grafted cv. 'Suvenirs', 'Kafedralna', 'Kleboninė', 'Concorde‘ and 'Mramornaja', grafted on Pyrus pyraster rootstock and 'Kafedralna' on Cydonia oblonga rootstock. While analyzing the attention experiment was paid to their biometrical parameters of grafts highness, stem thickness, leaves’ mass, their surface area. The research showed, that the highest pear - trees were raised from ΄Suvenirs΄ and 'Kafedralna' on Pyrus pyraster rootstock. The thickesst stems were ΄Mramornaja΄,΄Kleboninė΄ and 'Kafedralna' on Pyrus pyraster rootstock. The smallest and the slimmest stems - 'Kafedralna' on Cydonia oblonga rootstock. The most intensive period of investigation of growth continued from May 30 till August 20 th, and the period of stem thickness - from May 30 till September 10 th. The largest surface area of leaves grown ΄Mramornaja΄ on Pyrus pyraster rootstock and 'Kafedralna' on Cydonia oblonga rootstock. The largest leaves’ mass were ΄Mramornaja΄and 'Kafedralna', inoculation into Pyrus pyraster rootstock.

In my paper I would like to focus on comparing of two groups of siblings in a different sibling positiron and their presisposition for the choice of the occupation and point out the qualities that an individual carries from the childhood and which can influence the choice of their future occupation. I want to make out and compare the changes in this theory in the course of a decade. According to the statistics I have assumed that the firs-bor will choose still occupations demanding accuracy, high conce thein perfectionism and thein will to achieve success. On the contrary, the youngest ones are supposed to be free thinkers and chaose flexible and independent occupations. Both the hypothes have proved true. For collection the date this thesis I use questionnaire. It was filled up with randon representatives with different age. I made a research by comparing the representatives of the oldest and the youngest siblings and partially also middle ones.

The thesis maps the change in the territorial structure of Czechoslovak foreign trade in 1945-1953. The aim of the study is verification of the hypothesis that allows for direct foreign trade policy constraints on political events. In other words, as the gradual political integration of Czechoslovakia into the Soviet bloc touched territorial structure of foreign trade. The text examines the changing trend in foreign trade, which has been shown by growth of the share of the USSR at the expense of the capitalist states, and addresses the question of whether and how much the Soviet Union could replace the liberal market economy. The work contributes to the knowledge of the functioning of the post-war period with foreign exchange trading and describes the influence of foreign trade by the disproportionately greater economic and political entity.