Psychological stress causes adaptive changes in the nervous system directed toward maintaining homoeostasis. These biochemical and structural mechanisms regulate animal behavior, and their malfunction may result in various forms of affective disorders. Here we found that the lipocalin-2 (Lcn2) gene, encoding a secreted protein of unknown neuronal function, was up-regulated in mouse hippocampus following psychological stress. Addition of lipocalin-2 to cultured hippocampal neurons reduced dendritic spine actin's mobility, caused retraction of mushroom spines, and inhibited spine maturation. These effects were further enhanced by inactivating iron-binding residues of Lcn-2, suggesting that they were facilitated by the iron-free form of Lcn-2. Concurrently, disruption of the Lcn2 gene in mice promoted stress-induced increase in spine density and caused an increase in the proportion of mushroom spines. The above changes correlated with higher excitability of CA1 principal neurons and with elevated stress-induced anxiety in Lcn-2 −/− mice.Our study demonstrates that lipocalin-2 promotes stress-induced changes in spine morphology and function to regulate neuronal excitability and anxiety.restraint stress | limbic system | remodeling S tress triggers a variety of adaptive cellular processes that help to maintain nervous system homeostasis and to shape the adequate behavioral response of an animal (1). The nature and extent of these region-specific alterations depends on the duration and severity of the traumatic experience (1-4). Failure to adjust biochemical and structural properties of neurons in stresssensitive brain regions often results in affective disorders that can be as diverse as their underlying causes.Despite considerable effort (1-5), the mechanisms of structural and functional neuronal plasticity underlying the stress response are not well understood. It is known that multiple stress-related pathways affect dendritic structure and spine motility, density, shape, and receptor composition within the spine (6, 7). These changes in dendritic spine morphology and function affecting synaptic and local circuit organization may compose a cellular substrate for altered emotional responses (1-3).Identifying the roles of different pathways involved in stressinduced plasticity is fundamental for our understanding of how diverse mechanisms may result in similar neuronal phenotypes to culminate in a common behavioral outcome-the development of anxiety disorders. In this respect, glucocorticoids and glucocorticoid-regulated genes are instrumental in modulating stress-related neuronal machinery, central nervous system physiology, and animal behavior (8). However, neuronal functions of numerous glucocorticoid-regulated genes are still unclear. Lipocalin-2, a member of the family of over 20 small secreted proteins serving diverse cellular roles (9), caught our attention because it is upregulated by glucocorticoids (10) and has been implicated in tissue restructuring, organ involution, and cellular invasiveness in other sys...
This article examines the rise of the ‘project class’ in Central and Eastern Europe, linking it to the emerging rural development agenda, driven principally by the demands of EU accession. The emphasis on ‘projects’ in rural development, the demand for local expertise and the mobilisation of social capital are, it is argued, contributing to a restructuring of local power and the emergence of a new ‘project class’. Drawing upon fieldwork in Hungary and the Czech Republic, this article considers the phenomenon and its potential impact within rural social formations.
This article looks at the evidence given in the 'cognitive approach to rural sustainable development: the dynamics of expert and lay knowledge' research project of changing rural power relations in the context of sustainability and knowledge use in Europe. It explores what kinds of knowledge contribute to sustainable development in rural development projects and how they are created or empowered, according to the interest and capacity of the different actors involved. The article examines how actors interpret and negotiate the requirement of sustainability. It discusses how the idea and practice of sustainable development can build on local knowledge as a resource for generating activity and for commoditising local goods and service, looking at the potentials of sustainability projects for future rural development, the types of knowledge used in projects and their social sources, dynamics and social availability. It reviews the proliferating project form of management that locks actors into power relations connected to their capacity for knowledge use and discusses the pressure of urban demands on rural sustainability in the context of local autonomy. These issues are elaborated through a study of the interconnection of knowledge and power and the role of the actors in the creating and using knowledge. On the level of public policy, the authors identify the knowledge-power complex as an important factor of decision-making in rural policy and develop a critique of rural policy for its inadequate attention to the interconnection between knowledge, power and interest.
This article analyses the rise of a new social formation, the project class which represents a recent complex societal and political change. It is argued that project proliferation along with reforms of the administrative structures, changes in the nature of developmental policies and the increasing importance of cultural and cognitive elements of territorial development are the driving forces behind the emergence of a new class. This article analyses the mediatory position of the new social class in the redistribution of public and particularly private development funds, and in the transfer of materials, ideas, knowledge and power. Special attention is given to the intellectual capital that provides legitimacy for the project class and to the flexible social and economic positioning by which the members of the new class create, use and consume intellectual and material products of the information society in order to be competitive on the markets of the projectbased economy. The article apprehends the relationship between the emergence of the project class and the transformation of the local power structure. Finally, it demonstrates the challenges related to new forms of knowledge use associated with the emergence of the new social class.
495The contemporary rural development is influenced by the change of paradigm alternating exogenous approach by the model of integrated endogenous rural development (Jehle 1998;Lowe 2000;Ray 2000). However, it does not mean the complete replacement of one model by another. These models are rather complementary, although in the theory they are presented as semantic oppositions. It is because the theory works with their ideal types to demonstrate the nature of each of them as juxtaposing one to another. Nevertheless, neither in theory, nor even more in practice there is an antagonist relation between them. To confirm these statements, it is easy to look at the discourse presented in official documents related to rural or regional development. For instance, the Strategy of Regional Development of the Czech Republic for 2007-2013 uses the words contextually and semantically reflecting the integrated endogenous model of development (words like endogenous or internal) 7 times, and the words contextually and semantically echoing exogenous model of development (words like exogenous, external) only twice. It is obvious that this strategy considers both models in their duality as being opposite in their ideal meaning and at the same time as complementary in their practical uses. However, the numbers also suggest that a higher emphasis is given to the endogenous approach. Similarly, when analyzing the National Strategic Plan of Rural Development of the Czech Republic, the words related contextually and semantically to the integrated endogenous model of development are presented eleven times and the words related to exogenous model of development are used only twice. These numbers also show that thereThe impacts of local endogenous initiatives on the public (the case of the Tradice Bílých Karpat) Dopady místních endogenních iniciativ na veřejnost (případ Tradice Bílých Karpat) M. LOŠŤÁK, E. KUČEROVÁ Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech RepublicAbstract: The paper addresses the initiative Tradice Bílých Karpat. It is the example of innovative use of local resources through joining together organic farmers and environmentalists. Content analysis (research technique used in combination with case study) proved to be an efficient tool when evaluating the impacts of this initiative for the public. The results documenting the impacts of this initiative for the public are rather of regional nature. They address only some activities of the Tradice Bílých Karpat, mostly those concentrated around processing of local apples. The paper also outlines the possible reasons for the existing image of this initiative presented in mass media and presenting it for the public.Key words: Tradice Bílých Karpat, content analysis, impacts on public Abstrakt: Článek se zaměřuje na iniciativu Tradice Bílých Karpat. Ta je příkladem inovativního využívání místních zdrojů prostřednictvím propojení ekologických zemědělců a ochránců životního prostředí. Obsahová analýza, jako použitá metoda výzkumu v kombinaci s případovou studií, dokumentovala...
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