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Jiří Weil (1900–1959), the Czech writer of Jewish origin, is known primarily for his works of fiction dealing with the experience of the Shoah, both in the form of short stories and his celebrated novels Život s hvězdou (Life with a Star, 1949) and Na střeše je Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn is on the Roof, 1960), as well as the text collage Žalozpěv za 77 297 obětí (Lamentation for 77 297 Victims, 1958). However, the fact that Weil presented the theme of Jewishness also from a different perspective is often overlooked — for example in the novel Harfeník (The Harpist, 1958) and in the unpublished texts ‘Perrotina, mašina chlebozlodějská’ (Perrotine, the Bread-Stealing Machine) and ‘Tiskařská romance’ (A Printer’s Romance), in which he linked the theme of Jewishness to that of the beginnings of the labour movement in the Czech lands in the 19th century. Although Weil’s post-war literary output is characterised by his focus on themes of Jewishness and the Shoah, we also find Jewish figures represented in his pre-war novel writing. Last but not least, it is necessary also to recall his texts of a non-fiction character, in which he dealt with Jewish themes in the course of his employment at the State Jewish Museum. The focal point of this contribution therefore resides in the presentation of Weil’s lesser-known texts, dealing with the theme of Jewishness other than through the prism of the Shoah, and in his uncovering of a complex of Jewish identities in his pre-war novel Moskvahranice (Moscow-Border, 1937).

The author deals with the history of the founding myth of Czech Slavs from its oldest recording to the end of the Middle Ages. The legend of the origin of Czechs lived on in three phases of the Middle Ages. Stage one was captured by Cosmas of Prague († 1125) in the oldest nation-state chronicle. Another milestone was the founding legend in the Old Czech Chronicle recorded by so-called Dalimil from the early second decade of the 14th century. The founding myth changed fundamentally in two official chronicles which were written under the authority of Charles IV (1346-1378), the “Bohemian Chronicle” by Giovanni de’ Marignolli of Florence and the other “Bohemian Chronicle” by Přibík Pulkava of Radenín.

This is an overview of the first instances of the realization of personality in Bohemia, which appear in historical literature from the 12th century and lead to the essay on medieval autobiographies. Although in the Middle Ages autobiographies were rare both in Bohemia as well as in other countries within the Latin cultural circle we are able to identify three significant autobiographies from different social environments, of different literary type and with different functions within two centuries of the late medieval period: First, the autobiography of Charles IV. This was the autobiography of a monarch written as a reflection of a Prince aimed at the author’s heirs to provide an image of the upbringing and behaviour of an exemplary monarch. The second text of this type is the autobiographical letter of former Archbishop of Prague, Jan of Jenštejn, in which the author used his own destiny to explain his political failure. At the very end of the medieval period, Christoph of Tyn, a minor nobleman who gained social success in the Emperor’s army and in diplomatic services, wrote an autobiography, where he wanted to show his descendants and future heirs how to increase the family estates legally, through honest endeavour so that they would not be ashamed of their heritage and doubt its respectable provenace. All of the authors mentioned had their own particular reasons for writing an autobiography. Naturally, all of these autobiographies are subjective, the narration is tailored to its purpose – political goals, justification of one’s failure, “substantiation” for and expression of pride in legally gained property.

MicroRNAs represent small non-coding RNAs that play important role in regulating gene expression under various biotic and abiotic stresses as well as in different developmental stages of plants. They are involved in wide variety of biological and metabolic pathways of plants. The research was focused on the potential of selected miRNA-based molecular markers (miR156 and miR168) to map the polymorphism level of flax genome in the selected developmental stages (flower bud - flowering – boll development) as a reflection of the activity of specific miRNAs in these flax organs and tissues. The miRNA polymorphism was evaluated on 8 flax genotypes by miRNA-based molecular marker assays and data were supported by the morphology measurements on buds, flowers, petals and developing bolls. Extent of PCR amplification of miRNA fragments ranged from 40 bp to 200 bp (miR168a-F/miR-R primer pair) or 35 bp to 120 bp (miR156b-F/miR-R primer pair), respectively. MiRNA-based primers amplified in total 196, respectively 158 miRNA loci. Based on the results can be concluded that the representation of miR168 loci have increased according to developmental stages ascending (stage of bud, flower and boll). In overall miRNA156b loci profile in all three analyzed developmental stages is possible to observe the increase of miRNA loci amplification almost in all genotypes. Taking into account the genetic background of genotypes, based on the peak analysis profile of amplified miRNA loci, implemented by GeneTools software, was possible to identified unique loci in linseed and intermediate genotypes in individual developmental stages. Have been found out that only the genotype Bolley Golden differ from other genotypes in both analysis (molecular and morphological) if the variability of miR168 loci number in the flower bud growing stage was compared to the variability in trait petals colour in bud.

Possibilities of edible insect use in Western countries is now increasingly debated issue. Insects in Asian, African, American and South Central American cultures are mainly nutritional components. In Europe and other developed countries, however, insect is used in different ways, and this issue is viewed from a different angle. Insects are mainly used as feed for animals, in the organic waste recycling systems, in human and veterinary medicine, material production (such as silk) etc. This review summarizes up-to-date knowledge about using edible insects in human, veterinary medicine and agriculture, especially from the viewpoint of the biological and chemical content of active substances and the possibilities of further use in these areas.

The aim of this work was to verify usefulness of image analyses software to determine genotype differences on quantitative linseed traits (Linum usitatissimum L.). Also the goal was to propose new quantitative characters of seeds suitable for determination infra-specific differences. The study was realized on seeds of 6 linseed genotypes from two harvested years – 2010 (5 genotypes), 2012 (5 genotypes). The 7 quantitative traits measured on whole seeds and 3 quantitative traits measured on longitudinal seed section were chosen. Seed samples were randomly selected from genetically and physically purified seeds. The experimental data were obtained by the software for image analysis with module for automatic measurement, from detailed digital images. The methodology for measuring parameters in micropyle region of flax seeds was proposed. According to results of descriptive statistics was found out that the smallest seeds had genotype Oural and the biggest seeds had genotypes Flanders and Recital. The three newly proposed characters from micropyle region of seed had shown higher variability than the traits measured on the whole seeds. Coefficient of variation had mostly values more than 10 %. The One-Way ANOVA confirmed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between all analysed samples in chosen quantitative traits. The results of the post hoc means comparison revealed that genotype Recital received the highest values of means and significantly differentiated from means of genotype Oural in the traits measured on whole seeds in both harvested years. Also there was found out that the Pearson correlation coefficient was mostly around r = 0.50 (p < 0.001), except two cases among traits - Area - Feret ratio and Diameter – Feret ratio. The correlations between parameters of micropyle seed region were found very weak (r < 0.50; p < 0.001).

The presented study deals with the issue of basic school teachers’ attitudestowards selected behavioral and cognitive characteristics of intellectually gifted lear-ners with dyslexia and the issue of identifying and educating these learners. Researchis being conducted at the time as a Greek-Czech intercultural study. However, in thepresented contribution only Czech research data are analyzed and interpreted. In theresearch, we used Attitudes Toward Giftedness/Learning disability – Dyslexia Scale byGreek authors Gari, Panagiota, Nikolopoulou (2006). This method was administeredto 158 teachers from all over the Czech Republic. Based on statistical analysis, thepresented empirical examination reached some important conclusions. It became clearthat Czech teachers are good at identifying characteristics related to manifestations ofa “gifted learner” and a “learner with a learning disability”. Moreover, they are able toidentify also the so-called duality in learning abilities, i.e. the simultaneousness of abi-lity and handicap in the learning process manifested in a particular cognitive domain.However, they identify this duality especially within Czech language. The most proble-matic appears to be the accepting of the existence of this typical characteristic of thegiven population of learners in other academic subjects, for example in mathematics.It is here in particular where teachers tend to expect nothing but exceptional perfor-mance, without a possibility of partial failure (they derive it from giftedness). It seemsthat due to the refusal of the existence of duality in learning ability intervening in allacademic subjects, it can lead to a wrong identification of this minority group of thegifted. Nevertheless, this fact must be confirmed in further empiric research.