The Framing of Sacred Space offers the first topical study of canopies as essential spatial and symbolic units in Byzantine-rite churches. Centrally planned columnar structures—typically comprising four columns and a roof—canopies had a critical role in the modular and additive processes of church design, from actual church furnishings in the shape of a canopy, to the church’s structural core defined by four columns and a dome. As architectonic objects of basic structural and design integrity, canopies integrate an archetypical image of architecture and provide means for an innovative understanding of the materialization of the idea of the Byzantine church and its multifocal spatial presence. The book considers both the material and conceptual framing of sacred space and explains how the canopy bridges the physical and transcendental realms. As a crucial element of church design in the Byzantine world, a world that gradually abandoned the basilica as a typical building of Roman imperial secular architecture, the canopy carried tectonic and theological meanings and, through vaulted, canopied bays and recognizable Byzantine domed churches, established organic architectural, symbolic, and sacred ties between the Old and New Covenants. In such an overarching context, the canopy becomes an architectural parti, a vital concept and dynamic design principle that carries the essence of the Byzantine church. The Framing of Sacred Space highlights significant factors in understanding canopies through specific architectural settings and the Byzantine concepts of space, thus also contributing to larger debates about the creation of sacred space and related architectural “taxonomy.”

Two lines of Picea omorika (Panc.) Purkyn? were compared with respect to germination percentage as well as specific activity and isoenzyme pattern of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and peroxidase (POD) during germination. Line A had a higher germination percentage and higher enzyme activities in dry seeds and seedlings compared to line C. Peroxidase activity was not detected in dry seeds, but measured up to 10 U/g and 28 U/g on the 7th day of germination in lines C and A, respectively. The most abundant POD basic isoform in seedlings of both lines (pI 8.2) was not found previously in needles of adult Serbian spruce trees of the same lines. .

For the short-day plant Chenopodium rubrum, a 14 h/10 h photoperiod is inductive for flowering, while continuous light (CL) is noninductive. Plants of one group were grown continuously under an inductive photoperiod, while in the other group flowering induction was delayed by 17 days of CL in order to separate on the time scale different developmental phases in plants of the same age. Regardless of the photoperiodic conditions the plants were exposed to, seed maturation occurred in 10 weeks. Activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) were determined in different phases of development (vegetative growth, flowering, seed development, and maturation). The activities of antioxidative enzymes depended on both the phase of development and the photoperiod. In plants grown continuously under an inductive photoperiod, high CAT and POD activities were detected at the time of flowering and decreased during seed development and maturation. In plants in which flowering induction was delayed by 17 days of CL, the activities of POD and SOD were lowest in the vegetative phase of development and attained maximum values in the phase of seed maturation. In both groups of plants, the highest CAT activity was measured at the time of flowering.

Picea omorika (Panc) Purkyn? (Serbian spruce) is a Balkan endemic coniferous species. We studied soluble peroxidase, catalase, polyphenol oxidase, and superoxide-dismutase activity in the needles of five omorika lines grown in a generative seed orchard. The peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase isoenzyme patterns were also investigated. Activity of the studied enzymes varied among different lines. The highest activity of peroxidase, catalase and polyphenol oxidase was found in the A3 ("borealis") and B5 ("semidichotomous") lines. Four acidic and two basic peroxidase isoenzymes and one polyphenol oxidase isoenzyme were detected. There was no variation in either the peroxidase or the polyphenol oxidase isoenzyme pattern among the different lines.

Total antioxidant activity (TAA) represents the combined ability of diverse antioxidants present in a sample of plant material to scavenge free radicals. Chenopodium rubrum L. sel. 184 is a qualitatively short-day plant; as an early-flowering species, it is a suitable object for studying ontogenesis in vitro. We investigated the effect of GA3 (5 mg/l) on TAA during C. rubrum ontogenesis under two different inductive photoperiodic regimes in vitro. Total antioxidant activ?ity does not change in different phases of C. rubrum ontogenesis under the same photoperiodic treatment. Exposure to continuous irradiation caused an increase of TAA in both C. rubrum plants and collected matured seeds. Gibberellic acid stimulated stem elongation, but did not affect leaf development or the number of matured seeds per plant, regardless of photoperiodic treatment; it induced a decrease of TAA in C. rubrum plants regardless of photoperiodic treatment or the phase of development, while it had no effect on TAA of matured seeds.