The education at the theatre of Juozas Miltinis

The remarkable Lithuanian theatre director and reformer Juozas Miltinis (1907-1994) during almost forty years (1940-1979) was been the head and leader of the Panevėžys State Drama Theatre, which was founded in Lithuania at the end of 1940. Juozas Miltinis has learned acting at Independent Republic of Lithuania, two seasons (1931-1933) was rather successfully playing at the Šiauliai State Theatre, where was subtued owing to dogmas of obsolete realism. In 1933 the restless young actor Miltinis leaved Lithuania and went to Paris. An the capital of France he entered into theatre's school „Atelje“. There his teacher was well known in Europe French director Charles Dullin. Studies were very fruitful. Before II World War Miltinis has returned in Kaunas with his own theatre's idea. It must be realize as national intellectual and conseptional new forms theatre, based on earnest repertoire of XX century – plays of W. Shakespeare, H. Ibsen, A. Chekhov, A. Strindberg, L. Pirandello, B. Shaw, - once and for all decided Miltinis. Miltinis realized his idea at Panevėžys States Drama Theatre with his pupils – young actors and actresses. A few of them became famous Lithuanian actors: Donatas Banionis, Bronius Babkauskas, Stasys Petronaitis, Algimantas Masiulis have played many wonderful roles as in theatre, both in Lithuania and foreign films. Miltinis has worked out an original system of artistic education. There are organical and consistent combinations of classical and free educations' philosophical principles. The most important of them are: a) the wide enlightenment of actors and spectators well grounded on the selected classical and modern literature and dramatic works. This directions were embodied at Miltinis' historical performances A. Chekhov's „Ivanov“ (1960), W. Shakespeare's „Macbeth“ (1961), H. Ibsen's „Gedda Gabler“ (1972), A. Strindberg's „The Dance of Death“ (1973), which finely reflected social existential experience of the time, liberated public consciousness. Originality of theatrical language was also perceived as a possibility of choice for tragic hero. b) the successive creation of new type's actor, who „must at once be philosopher and acrobat“. Miltinis formed every artistic individuality as a highly cultivaited person, who is able to explore his role psychologically and to play it as discovery of acting, as miracle of frankness. c) the development of artists' and public's free way of thinking, what helps to understand political and social appearances of life, considerable part of artist at society. An that work are used up minds and thoughts of Schiller, Goethe, Tolstoj, Freud, Stanislavskij, Meierchold, Lithuanian philosophers, critics, actors and, of course, Lithuanian theatre's legend – himself master Juozas Miltinis.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Effects of age, sex, myostatin and muscle regeneration on contraction-induced primary damage of skeletal muscle

Elevated plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity is often used as a marker of muscle injury in myopathies, cardiomyopathies and encephalopathies (Brancaccio et al., 2007). Muscle exercise can also trigger an efflux of various molecules, including CK, from skeletal muscles (Reihmane et al., 2013). Muscle CK efflux occurs after various types of exercise, but is particularly large after eccentric contractions (Newham et al., 1986). Eccentric contractions can induce disruption of myofibrils and thus cause a prolonged impairment in muscle force generating capacity (McHugh 2003). The reasons for CK efflux from skeletal muscles are controversial since muscle exercise might promote an increase in permeability of muscle fibres, which is not necessarily associated with damage to muscle fibres (Yu et al. 2013). It is believed that inflammatory cell infiltration of skeletal muscles can also promote secondary muscle damage after exercise and thus contribute to muscle CK efflux after exercise (McHugh 2003; Tidball 2011). It is important to examine effects of primary muscle damage during exercise and secondary damage after exercise separately to clarify the mechanisms of repeated bout effect. Reduction in primary muscle damage would reflect increased resistance of muscle structures to disruption during exercise while modulation of the inflammatory responses would determine the secondary damage. Indeed, it is unclear if the increase in plasma CK activity after exercise is due to the primary or secondary muscle damage. There is often no or only a minor increase in plasma CK activity immediately after exercise and plasma CK peaks 1–3 days after the exercise coinciding with the peak in muscle soreness (Armstrong 1984; Fredsted et al. 2008). Isolated skeletal muscles in vitro are well suited for studying primary muscle damage since measurements of muscle CK efflux can be performed immediately after exercise with limited contribution of the secondary muscle damage. Sex and age might affect susceptibility to muscle damage and loss of muscle proteins after exercise (Amelink et al., 1990; Lynch et al., 2008). However, the findings from the human studies are conflicting. When compared to women, men showed higher plasma CK activity after marathon running (Rogers et al., 1985), but the opposite was true for 50 maximal eccentric arm flexions (Miles et al., 1994). Since skeletal muscles of male rats were more susceptible to muscle damage as compared with female rats (Amelink et al., 1990), we hypothesised that susceptibility of mouse muscles also depend on sex of animals, with males being less resistant to contraction-induced primary muscle damage. It appears that susceptibility to exercise-induced muscle damage increases from the preadolescent age to adulthood (Chen et al., 2014). However, children show greater impairment in muscle voluntary activation and this could affect the comparison of muscle damage indicators in children and adult after exercise (Streckis et al. 2007). Most of the mouse studies of muscle damage focused on the very old animals (Brooks et al., 2001; Lynch et al., 2008). Old age is associated with impairments in motor coordination, reduced levels of physical activity and significant loss of muscle mass (Brooks et al., 2001; Wolfe et al., 2006). It is unclear if muscle susceptibility to damage changes from young age to adulthood when animals reach high levels of muscle strength. Since age causes muscle fiber shift towards slow type (Lexell et al., 1988), and these fibers are more sensitive to damage (Chapman et al., 2013), we hypothesised that muscles of older mice will be more vulnerable to primary damage as compared with muscles of young mice. Various hormones and growth factors can affect functional properties and susceptibility to damage of the skeletal muscles (Amelink et al. 1990). There has been a considerable interest in effects of myostatin (Smith and Lin 2013). Myostatin knockout is associated with a significant increase in muscle mass due to muscle fiber hypertrophy and hyperplasia (McPherron et al. 1997). Myostatin blockade can improve muscle function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Bogdanovich et al. 2002), and has been proposed as a promising treatment strategy against muscle wasting in chronic diseases (Grossmann et al. 2014). However, myostatin dysfunction has also been associated with a low specific force of skeletal muscles (Amthor et al. 2007; Matsakas et al. 2010). Interestingly, endurance training can lead to normalization of specific muscle force in myostatin null mice (Matsakas et al. 2012). Food restriction was also associated with an increase in specific muscle force of these mice (Matsakas et al. 2013). Both endurance training and food restriction caused a reduction in muscle mass, which might improve intramuscular force transmission. Furthermore, myostatin dysfunction is also associated with a shift in muscle fiber composition towards faster contracting fiber types (Amthor et al. 2007). Type 2 muscle fibers characterized by a faster contraction time and are more sensitive to exercise-induced muscle damage than slow contracting type 1 fibers (Macaluso et al. 2012; Chapman et al. 2013). Thus, myostatin inhibition may increase the susceptibility of skeletal muscles to damage (Mendias et al. 2006). We hypothesised that myostatin dysfunction would increase susceptibility to primary muscle damage. Muscle incubation with damaging agents leads to injury and subsequent regeneration of rat skeletal muscles (Jackson et al. 1987). In another study, the regenerated extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle of rats showed reduced ultrastructural damage compared with the control muscle when examined 3 days after plyometric exercise (Devor and Faulkner 1999). It is, however, unclear if this apparent resistance to muscle damage was caused by modulation of primary or secondary mechanisms of muscle damage. We hypothesised that regenerated muscles would become more resilient to contraction-induced primary muscle damage. The aim of the study To investigate how muscle CK efflux in response to contraction-induced primary damage is dependent on age, sex, myostatin dysfunction, and muscle regeneration. Research objectives: 1. To assess the effect of passive stretches, concentric contractions, and eccentric contractions on CK release from mouse soleus muscle in vitro. 2. To compare CK release from mouse soleus after eccentric contractions between males and females, and young vs. adults. 3. To compare CK released from soleus and EDL muscles after eccentric contractions between mice with functional and dysfunctional myostatin. 4. To assess the effect of regeneration of mouse soleus muscle on CK release after eccentric contractions in vitro. Originality of the research Better understanding of the mechanisms of muscle damage is important in sports practice and could also be useful in treating muscular dystrophies. The mechanism of muscle damage is complicated and poorly understood phenomenon. Most of the scientists explore muscle damage as a whole without attention to its components. Because of this it is possible to find many research publications with contradictory results. In this research, we used isolated mouse skeletal muscles to measure released CK activity shortly after exercise. This type of experiments avoids the effect of secondary damage, which peaks few days after exercise, and allows exploring primary muscle damage per se. This type of muscle damage appears immediately after exercise and represents the resistance of muscle structure to mechanic stress. For the first time we will measure CK release from the isolated muscle to assess the effect of sex, age, myostatin and muscle regeneration on exercise-induced damage of mouse skeletal muscle. Assessment of myostatin effect on skeletal muscle damage has a potentially great clinical implication, since myostatin inhibition may help treating muscular dystrophies (Bogdanovich et al., 2002, 2005). CONCLUSIONS By using activity of creatine kinase released from isolated mouse muscle as an indicator of primary muscle damage in all our experiments, we made the following conclusions: 1. Eccentric contractions induce the largest mice primary damage of soleus muscle when compared with passive stretches or isometric contractions. 2. Primary damage of soleus muscle after eccentric contractions is smaller in females compared with males, and smaller in female adult mice compared with female young mice. 3. Myostatin dysfunction increases susceptibility of eccentric contractions induced primary damage of soleus, but not EDL muscle. 4. Regenerated muscle is much more resistant to eccentric contractions induced primary damage

α-actinin-3 deficiency and maximum running speed workouts influence to running speed, power and strength variation

Running speed is one of the most important physical properties. It has various forms. Speed training does not decrease muscle contraction and relaxation speed. It is well known, that strength training decrease running speed results. That’s why we think that maybe the most important problem in sport science is how to increase strength without maximum muscle contraction and relaxation speed decrease. Also it is important to know how people with different genotypes can increase running speed. There are only few articles about ACTN3 R577X polymorphism. A common nonsense mutation (R577X) in the ACTN3, resulting in a premature stop codon and lack of detectable protein in homozygous individuals for the ACTN3 null allele (XX genotype), has been demonstrated in the general human population with 16 % prevalence in Caucasians. Sprint athletes have lower 577XX genotype frequency endurance athletes. That’s why we analyze running speed workouts influence to more strength required physical properties between RR and XX groups. The aim of the study - to investigate running speed increment influence to more strength required physical properties and compare results between RR (with α-actinin-3) and XX (without α-actinin-3) groups. The object of the study - running speed change and this change influence to more strength required physical properties between RR (with α-actinin-3) and XX (without α-actinin-3) groups. Study tasks: 1. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary running speed physical property in both groups. 2. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary standing jump physical property in both groups. 3. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary more strength required physical properties in both groups. 4. To compare RR and XX groups results on knee extension and knee flexion after maximum speed workouts. 5. To compare RR and XX groups results on knee extension and knee flexion before maximum speed workouts. Hypothesizes: 1. Maximum running speed workouts will increase running speed. 2. Maximum speed workouts will increase more strength required physical properties. 3. XX group perform lower strength and running speed results. Conclusions. Maximum speed workouts increased both ACTN3 genotype groups (RR and XX) maximum running speed and didn’t change standing jump results in both groups. After maximum speed workouts RR and XX groups decreased results on knee extension and flexion in 30 °/s speed. Before maximum speed workouts we found difference between RR and XX groups in 120 °/s and 210 °/s speed on knee flexion. After maximum speed workouts we didn’t find difference between RR and XX groups in all speeds (30 °/s, 60 °/s, 120 °/s, 210 °/s) on knee extension and flexion

α-actinin-3 deficiency and maximum running speed workouts influence to running speed, power and strength variation

Running speed is one of the most important physical properties. It has various forms. Speed training does not decrease muscle contraction and relaxation speed. It is well known, that strength training decrease running speed results. That’s why we think that maybe the most important problem in sport science is how to increase strength without maximum muscle contraction and relaxation speed decrease. Also it is important to know how people with different genotypes can increase running speed. There are only few articles about ACTN3 R577X polymorphism. A common nonsense mutation (R577X) in the ACTN3, resulting in a premature stop codon and lack of detectable protein in homozygous individuals for the ACTN3 null allele (XX genotype), has been demonstrated in the general human population with 16 % prevalence in Caucasians. Sprint athletes have lower 577XX genotype frequency endurance athletes. That’s why we analyze running speed workouts influence to more strength required physical properties between RR and XX groups. The aim of the study - to investigate running speed increment influence to more strength required physical properties and compare results between RR (with α-actinin-3) and XX (without α-actinin-3) groups. The object of the study - running speed change and this change influence to more strength required physical properties between RR (with α-actinin-3) and XX (without α-actinin-3) groups. Study tasks: 1. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary running speed physical property in both groups. 2. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary standing jump physical property in both groups. 3. To investigate how after maximum speed workouts vary more strength required physical properties in both groups. 4. To compare RR and XX groups results on knee extension and knee flexion after maximum speed workouts. 5. To compare RR and XX groups results on knee extension and knee flexion before maximum speed workouts. Hypothesizes: 1. Maximum running speed workouts will increase running speed. 2. Maximum speed workouts will increase more strength required physical properties. 3. XX group perform lower strength and running speed results. Conclusions. Maximum speed workouts increased both ACTN3 genotype groups (RR and XX) maximum running speed and didn’t change standing jump results in both groups. After maximum speed workouts RR and XX groups decreased results on knee extension and flexion in 30 °/s speed. Before maximum speed workouts we found difference between RR and XX groups in 120 °/s and 210 °/s speed on knee flexion. After maximum speed workouts we didn’t find difference between RR and XX groups in all speeds (30 °/s, 60 °/s, 120 °/s, 210 °/s) on knee extension and flexion

Investigation of Plastic Behavior of Alloyed Steel Deformed during Martensitic Transformation

We present the investigation of permanent strain of steel specimen occurred when metallurgical transformations take place even under small stress applied externally lower than the yield stress of material. Three alloyed steel grades were investigated: THG2000 (Uddeholm, Sweden), 40Kh13 and 95Kh18 (GOST, Russia). All steel grades differ in carbon content and amount of alloying elements and behave differently when transformation occurs. This intensively increased plasticity of steel specimen was observed during bending test when bending stress was just 100 MPa and was less than 10% of yield strength of the steel. The steel specimens were heated to 900–1050°C temperature and then bent during air quenching. Plastic deflections were observed though all cooling process that involved martensitic transformation as well. Different effect of compression and tensile stresses on microstructure evolution during martensitic transformation was determined by X-ray analysis as both types of stresses were formed in bent specimens.Исследованы пластические деформации, возникающие в стальных образцах вследствие микроструктурных трансформаций при воздействии внешних нагрузок, уровень которых может не достигать предела текучести материала. Рассматривались три легированные стали THG200 (производитель Уддехольм, Швеция), 40Х13 и 95Х18 (Россия) с разными легирующими элементами и процентным содержанием углерода, а также поведением при микроструктурных трансформациях. При генерировании изгибных напряжений порядка 100 МПа, не превышающих 10% предела текучести сталей, наблюдается возникновение пластических зон в стальных образцах, которые подвергались предварительному нагреву до 900 1050°С и последующему изгибу при закалке на воздухе. Пластические деформации возникали при реализации всех режимов охлаждения, которые сопровождались мартенситным превращением. С помощью рентгенографических исследований было выявлено разное влияние растягивающих и сжимающих изгибных напряжений на микроструктурные изменения при мартенситных превращениях.Досліджено пластичні деформації, що виникають у стальних зразках внаслідок мікроструктурних трансформацій при дії зовнішніх навантажень, рівень яких може не досягати границі плинності матеріалу. Розглядалися три леговані сталі ТHG200 (виробник Уддехольм, Швеція), 40Х13 та 95Х18 (Росія) з різними легованими елементами і процентним вмістом вуглецю та поведінкою при мікроструктурних трансформаціях. При генеруванні згинальних напружень порядку 100 МПа, що не перевищу є 10% границі плинності сталей, має місце виникнення пластичних зон у стальних зразках, які піддавали попередньому нагріванню до 900 1050°С і наступному згину при загартуванні на повітрі. Пластичні деформації виникали за реалізації всіх режимів охолодження, які супроводжувалися мартенситним перетворенням. За допомогою рентгенографічних досліджень виявлено різний вплив розтяжних і стискальних згинних напружень на мікроструктурні зміни при мартенситних перетвореннях

Long-term transcriptional gene silencing by RNA viruses

Long-term transcriptional gene silencing has been hampered by delivery issues. A potential solution is the application of RNA viruses that generate small RNAs without any DNA intermediate. Long-term therapy for various diseases is expected after a single administrationBiologijos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Investigation on abrasive wear of hard layers

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Removal of ammonium ion from aqueous solutions by using unmodified and H2O2-modified zeolitic waste

Article number: 352In the petroleum industry during a catalytic cracking process, the used zeolitic catalyst becomes waste. This article investigated the sorption capacities of ammonium ions from aqueous solutions onto the previously mentioned zeolitic waste by batch experiments. Three types of zeolitic waste were used: unmodifed zeolitic waste with two diferent particle size distributions and H2O2-modifed zeolitic waste. Several techniques, including X-ray difraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) multilayer adsorption theory measurements, and X-ray fuorescence analysis (XRF) were used to demonstrate experimentally that the zeolitic waste could be used as a sorbent for the water decontamination of NH4 + ions. The morphology of zeolitic waste investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed particles with a spherical shape. The nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms showed an isotherm mixture of types I (pure microporous) and IV (mesoporous). This suggested that the investigated zeolitic materials were mesoporous (4.84nm) and microporous (0.852nm), as well as containing slit/cylindric pores, according to a quench solid density functional theory (QSDFT) adsorption branch model. Zeolitic waste from the oil industry showed good NH4 + sorption properties (removal efciency of 72%), thus becoming a potential adsorbent to be used in the treatment of contaminated aqueous efuents polluted with ammonium ions. Simultaneous waste and water decontamination can be achieved, providing a new tool and enhanced capabilities for environmental remediationKauno technologijos universitetasLietuvos energetikos institutasVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Agricultural Corps Nutrition with Potassium in Sandy and Silty Loamy Cambisolsn of Lithuania

Vytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij

Properties of supercapacitors fabricated by plasma technologies

Fizikos katedraKauno technologijos universitetasLietuvos energetikos institutasVytauto Didžiojo universiteta