A ring-width chronology for fir Abies alba Mill. in southern Moravia (Czech Republic), compiled from historical wood and living trees, was used for the dendroclimatological reconstruction of March-July precipitation for the period 1376-1996. Based on a response function model, the precipitation series explains 38% of tree-ring width variability. In the years with thinner tree-rings, drier spring and summer seasons prevailed, whereas years with wider tree-rings indicate wetter conditions. The highest precipitation in the reconstructed series was found in the 1670s, 1710s and 1980s; the lowest in the 1380s, 1700s and, particularly, in the 1970s. Reconstruction after the 1950s is less reliable due to a weaker relationship between precipitation and fir growth. The 18th century was the driest and the 19th century the wettest in the last 600 yr. The comparison of the reconstructed March-July precipitation of southern Moravia with the Brno series (instrumental period) and with the Prague-Klementinum series (compiled from the quantitative interpretation of documentary evidence and instrumental measurements) shows a high degree of agreement, reflecting the similarities between these series over the instrumental period. During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries the 2 proxy data sources -documentaries and tree-rings -are in satisfactory agreement with respect to those years with extremely thin or wide rings. KEY WORDS: Fir ring-width chronology · Precipitation reconstruction · Extreme tree-rings · Documentary evidence · Southern MoraviaResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Clim Res 20: 223-239, 2002 the width of the tree-rings (see e.g. Richter & Eckstein 1990, Till & Guiot 1990, Serre-Bachet et al. 1992, Hughes et al. 1994, Stahle & Cleaveland 1994, Villalba et al. 1998, Cook et al. 1999, Briffa 2000, Stahle et al. 2000. In some cases the numbers of precipitation days have also been interpreted (Woodhouse & Meko 1997). Tree-ring chronologies from North America and Europe have also been used for the reconstruction of the North Atlantic Oscillation (Cook et al. 1998). In the construction of long tree-ring chronologies, dendrochronologists must work with unusually long-lived trees or they must extend the records obtained from living trees by piecing together or overlapping records from sources of ancient wood, such as archaeological, historical or naturally preserved (subfossil) remnants (Briffa 2000).In the Czech Republic dendroclimatological reconstructions have so far been paid only little attention, largely because of the absence of a suitable tree-ring series. Currently only the relationship between climatic characteristics and the radial growth of trees has been analysed (such as Sander 1991, Sander et al. 1995. The first dendroclimatological reconstruction for this area focussed on the temperature of the summer half-year for the period 1804-1989 on the basis of the chronology of maximal late-wood density of the spruce Picea abies (L.) Karst. from the region of the G...

Present-day agriculture faces multiple challenges, including ongoing climate change that is at many locations combined with soil degradation. The deterioration of soil properties through unsustainable agricultural practices and changing climate could lead to a fall in productivity beyond the point of no return with devastating effects on ecosystem services in large areas. Identifying areas with the highest hazard levels should therefore be a top priority. The key hazards for agricultural land in the Czech Republic considered in this study include the occurrence of water stress in the topsoil layer during both the first and second half of the growing season, the proportion of fast-drying soils, the risk of sheet and ephemeral gully erosion and the risk of local floods originating primarily from agricultural land. The results clearly marked regions where primary attention should be given to reduce the level of the hazards and/or to increase cropping capacity. These regions were found to be concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern lowland areas. Typical areas with the highest hazard levels were identified: regions with low precipitation and a high proportion of soils with a degraded or naturally occurring low water-holding capacity, and those with steeper than average slopes and terrain configurations in relatively large catchment areas that have urbanized countryside landscapes located at their lower elevations. Despite some limitations, the methods presented in this paper can be applied generally as the first step in developing strategies for efficient reduction of hazard levels.

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BackgroundChylothorax is a rare condition which can be associated with malignant lymphoproliferative disorders (LPDs). We retrospectively analyzed the results of the conservative treatment of 10 patients with persistent non-traumatic malignant chylothorax.ResultsConservative treatment lead to a decline of chylothorax after mean of 66 days and consisted of the treatment of the underlying disease and of simultaneous long-term supportive care (drainage of the thoracic cavity, dietary measures and nutrition management). In most cases (80%), chylothorax disappeared only after a successful therapeutic response of the underlying disease. Low-dose radiotherapy had very good effects in two patients.ConclusionConservative treatment of malignant chylothorax can be considered a suitable method. Based on our results, successful treatment of the lymphoproliferative disorder seems to be a very important factor for the disappearance of chylothorax.

The HD-9 trial showed that eight cycles of BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone, procarbazine)-escalated led to significant improvements in response rate, progression-free survival and overall survival over COPP/ABVD (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisone, procarbazine/doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) therapy. This monocentric retrospective study was performed to evaluate 10 years of experience with four cycles of BEACOPP-escalated and four cycles of BEACOPP-baseline outside of clinical trials. The outcomes were assessed in 78 patients with newly diagnosed advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma. A complete response after chemotherapy ± radiotherapy was achieved in 75 patients (96%). At the median follow-up of 74 months, the actuarial 5- and 10-year freedom from treatment failure (FFTF) rates were 91% and 89%, and actuarial 5- and 10-year overall survival rates for the entire group were 93% and 90%, respectively. These results suggest that the combination of escalated and baseline BEACOPP chemotherapy is feasible in routine practice with good efficacy and acceptable toxicity.

Background: Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's lymphoma (NLPHL) is a rare subtype of Hodgkin's lymphoma showing strong CD20 expression. The role of rituximab in treating NLPHL still needs clarification. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the outcome of 23 patients with NLPHL treated with rituximab alone or in combination with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy as part of their first- or second-line treatment. Results: The median follow-up of the whole group was 67 months, and all patients remained alive. Twenty-two patients achieved complete remission after rituximab-based therapy, and one of them relapsed 32 months after treatment. One patient treated with rituximab alone achieved partial remission and progressed 22 months after treatment. Conclusion: The prognosis of NLPHL is excellent.Rituximab combined with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy appears to prevent disease progression/relapse.

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Concentrated surface run-off caused by torrential rain leads to the transport of sediments from soil erosion processes within catchment areas of critical points, which represents a basic component of flood risks. Clear identification of such critical points offers a basis for a suitable new strategy of threat mitigation, via both organizational and structural measures in catchment areas. Critical points are determined in places where generated paths of concentrated surface run-off cross given boundaries of built-up areas. The threshold values for the catchment area of a critical point were derived on the basis of hydrological calculations, field research, and the evaluation of hundreds of specific manifestations of damage in built-up areas for particular critical profiles. The characteristics were determined as follows: contributing area between 0.3 and 10 km2, average slope more than 3.5%, and percentage of arable land more than 40%. Indicator F was determined for the distribution of the territory of the Czech Republic according to the risk of flooding. Knowledge of the existence of critical points enables the implementation of preventive measures, the evaluation of flood risk associated with the transport of sediment due to erosion processes, and the improvement of management measures in respective catchment areas, even before an event occurs. The proposed procedure outputs shall be reflected in spatial planning documentation, land consolidation, and catchment area management plans. Incorporation of critical points into open-access public web-maps can help with assessing the semi-quantitative expression of risk to built-up areas arising from the threat of local flooding.