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Helminth-host interactions on hormonal level
Lukesová, Hedvika ; Mikeš, Libor (advisor) ; Horák, Petr (referee)
Interactions between helminths and their hosts at the hormonal level result from their biochemical coevolution. Host hormones play an important role in the life of many helminths, and helminths are able to exploit them in some cases. For example, by expressing their own analogous hormone receptors that bind host hormones. Alternatively, by influencing the levels of host hormones, as certain hormonal environments may be (dis)advantageous for the helminths. This is the case, for example, of male mice infected with Taenia crassiceps, which undergo feminization as a result of infection. Some helminths can produce their own specific factors that influence host physiology, behaviour or appearance and may be analogs (orthologs) of host hormones. An example is the plerocercoid growth factor produced by Diphyllobothrium mansonoides, which behaves very much like a growth hormone in the host, although it differs in its primary structure. Some hormonal interactions can affect both helminth reproduction and the reproduction of their hosts. Examples of host-specific hormones that have been shown to be produced by helminths include, e.g., the ecdysteroid hormones - ecdysone and ecdysterone. A full understanding of the hormonal interactions between helminths and their hosts may lead us to find new treatments for...
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Effect of dysbiosis on proportion of particular neutrophil subsets and their functional capacities
Sklenářová, Lydie ; Hrdý, Jiří (advisor) ; Dobeš, Jan (referee)
The gut microbiota is crucial for maintaining physiological balance and influences metabolic processes, immune responses, and intestinal barrier function. Dysbiosis, or the imbalance of microbial composition, is associated with a range of health complications, including chronic inflammatory conditions such as non-specific intestinal inflammations. Inflammatory processes associated with dysbiosis and changes in microbial metabolites can directly affect the activation of neutrophils, impacting the pathogenesis of various diseases. Probiotics, defined as live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host, offer the potential for positive modulation of these inflammatory conditions The aim of this thesis was to explore how experimentally induced intestinal dysbiosis affects the heterogeneity of neutrophils in the bone marrow. Dysbiosis was induced by administering antibiotics to mice, which were subsequently treated with the probiotic strain Escherichia coli O83:K24:H31 (EcO83). Neutrophil phenotypes were assessed using flow cytometry based on the expression of surface markers CD11b, Ly6G, CD62L, and CXCR2. Meanwhile, gene expression related to their antimicrobial functions and the inflammatory environment was analyzed by quantitative PCR. The results...
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Legal context and implications: analysis of blockchain regulation in selected jurisdictions
Bőhm, Erik ; Kučera, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Lederer, Vít (referee)
1 Legal context and implications: analysis of blockchain regulation in selected jurisdictions Abstract Blockchain technology has become a transformative force, offering transparency, security and efficiency across industries. However, its rapid growth brings regulatory challenges. This paper examines blockchain regulation, focusing on the European Union (EU) framework and comparative analysis with selected jurisdictions around the world. At the outset, the thesis seeks to clarify the basic concepts of blockchain and its regulatory implications. It tries to introduce the issues and frame the most important terms in a non- technical way. The thesis then examines EU legislation, including contemporary and forthcoming secondary regulations such as the Markets in Cryptoassets Regulation (MiCAR), and explores their objectives, challenges and implications for innovation and market participants. In addition, the paper conducts a comparative analysis of blockchain regulation in various jurisdictions, including the United States, the Cayman Islands and Singapore. By comparing regulatory regimes, it identifies trends, best practices, and ultimately a plethora of differences. It offers insight into regulatory preferences and implications for stakeholders, with an emphasis on business corporations and entrepreneurs in...
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Ability of plants to adapt to anthropogenic pollution
Vachek, Tadeáš ; Münzbergová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Dostál, Petr (referee)
Due to global climate change and human interventions, the environment is changing rapidly. This brings many stress factors that organisms must adapt to. One of the adaptive mechanisms currently widely discussed is rapid evolution, i.e., hereditary change based on natural selection occurring at an ecologically relevant pace. This work deals with the synthesis of knowledge about rapid evolution, the methodology of its research, and its role in the adaptive processes of plants to anthropogenic pollution, focusing on heavy metals in soil and artificial light at night. The collected studies indicate that heavy metals exert strong selective pressure that can lead to the separation of a tolerant population from the original within a few generations. However, the significance of artificial light at night as a selective factor for plant evolution has not yet been studied. Although individual studies deal with adaptive evolution in phototactic insects in response to artificial light at night, extensive research has not been conducted here either. From the general examination of the effects of artificial light at night on organisms (especially animals), both direct and indirect impacts on their functioning are evident, many of which have not yet been described in detail. Thus, the direct and indirect impacts...
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Racism in Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other
Drobiszová, Jolanta ; Chalupský, Petr (advisor) ; Topolovská, Tereza (referee)
Bernardine Evaristo's book Girl, Woman, Other follows stories of twelve mainly British women throughout the 20th and the 21st centuries. This diploma thesis explores Evaristo's portrayal of British racism in this novel, its various forms and influence on identity and life experience. The first part provides a theoretical background, which presents on the notion of race, racism and its different types, postcolonial concepts of otherness, liminality and hybridity, novel's historical context, and Bernardine Evaristo and her approach to Girl, Woman, Other. The second part analyses the particular instances of race oppression. It explores the identity struggles of Black British citizens caused by feeling of non-belonging, pressure of society, clash of cultures, internalization of racism, and African heritage. Next it deals with interpersonal racism reflected in racially biased stereotyping and prejudiced comments. The analysis further addresses the complexity of oppression and privilege and discusses how racism intersects with sexism and classism. Last it looks into institutional racism, such as lack of anti-discriminatory laws in post-World War II Britain, inequality in education, abuse of power by police, and typecasting of Black actors in theatre. KEY WORDS racism, Girl, Woman, Other, postcolonialism,...
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The testing of familiar relationship in the identification genetics
Bobková, Alena ; Vaněk, Daniel (advisor) ; Zemanová, Zuzana (referee)
This bachelor's thesis analyses kinship testing in identification genetics, which is a discipline enabling the genetic identification of individuals and the determination of genetic relatedness between them. This thesis covers a wide range of applications from forensic analysis through genealogical studies to biodiversity conservation. This field has been rapidly growing and gaining on importance since the 1980s, when the foundations of DNA fingerprinting were laid based on the discovery of hypervariable minisatellite regions in the genome. This thesis aims to provide an overview of methods and techniques that are used for genetic identification and kinship testing. The thesis discusses genetic markers such as STRs or SNPs, which are the basis for genetic profiling, are discussed. In addition statistical methods for evaluating genetic match and methodologies for determining the probability of kinship are also discussed. Finally, practical applications of identification genetics are presented, including its use in forensic science or in case of solving genealogical questions. The potential and future development of the technologies and their impact on society is discussed at the end of the thesis. Thus, the thesis contributes to a better understanding of the importance and opportunities of...
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Food composition and feeding selectivity of zooplankton
Lis, Jonáš ; Škaloud, Pavel (advisor) ; Čablová, Radka (referee)
Zooplankton are an important link in the food web between phytoplankton and higher tro- phic levels, and understanding their feeding preferences is the key to unraveling the functions and dynamics of aquatic ecosystems. Current knowledge of zooplankton food composition is limited, consisting mainly of laboratory experiments that have revealed different hunting strategies and selection of prey based on size and nutritional value. Recently, publications have emerged that, through the use of DNA metabarcoding, provide a completely new and comprehensive insight into the diversity of zooplankton diet composition, especially copepods, cladocerans and rotifers. These methods reveal that the feeding niches of copepods and cladocerans are distinct and do not overlap. In general, both groups are said to prefer mainly diatoms as their food, when available. The food niches of rotifers are so diverse that no clear trend can be established for the entire phylum. Cyanobacteria appear to be the main source of energy for zooplankton and are proba- bly consumed by metazooplankton largely as secondary prey when consuming ciliates and other heterotrophic prey. Furthermore, differences in feeding niches between species are known and can be partly explained by their vertical distribution, and different levels of feeding...
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Nuns as caretakers? A look into nuns's activities in selected hospitals of the Czechoslovak Republic between 1948 and 1960
Štrofová, Kateřina ; Stehlík, Michal (advisor) ; Michela, Miroslav (referee)
(in english) The subject of this thesis are three female monastic communities and their activities in selected hospitals of socialist Czechoslovakia between the years 1948-1960. The aim is to examine the overall policy of the communist authorities towards sisters in the specific environment of hospitals and the stance of local authorities, i.e. the everyday practise in healthcare. Emphasis is placed on the nuns themselves, their professional relationships with doctors and civil nurses and their actions on the local level. The thesis also analyses church practise in hospitals, interventions of the state-appointed church secretaries and partly even their oversight of activity of the Catholic church in individual districts. Last but not least, large effort was expanded to reconstruct the sisters' own perception of post-1948 persecutions and interventions in medical care, not just in relation to the strategies, which they have chosen to cope with the adverse conditions within their communities, but also their mostly disapproving attitudes towards the interventions of the communist regime against their presence in hospitals.
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Employment experiences among people with schizophrenia
Nykl, Matěj ; Zábrodská, Kateřina (advisor) ; Šípová, Ivana (referee)
This master's thesis deals with the issue of work experiences and employment of individuals with schizophrenia. Research indicates that engagement in work activities can have a positive impact on the course of the illness, but employment is significantly more challenging for individuals with schizophrenia compared to the general population. Although most individuals with schizophrenia are interested in being employed, only a small proportion of them succeed in the long term. In the Czech context, this is a relatively unexplored issue, therefore there is a lack of knowledge about how people with schizophrenia experience their employment and what difficulties they face. The aim of this master's thesis is to further explore the work experiences of individuals with schizophrenia and to determine what specific factors they perceive as supportive or limiting for their involvement in paid employment. The theoretical part of the thesis is divided into two main chapters, with the first one focusing on schizophrenia itself including its symptoms, prognosis, diagnosis, and the impacts of stigma. The subject of the second chapter is the possibilities of employment for individuals with schizophrenia, particularly the benefits associated with work, support mechanisms for this group, and their needs. The...
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Mesocestoides spp. - the spectrum of species, hosts, and life cycle modes
Zavadil, Ondřej ; Horák, Petr (advisor) ; Skála, Vladimír (referee)
Tapeworms of the genus Mesocestoides, which belong to the order Cyclophyllidea, are parasites of carnivorous vertebrates. Their larvalstages of tetrathyridiaare found in a wide range of tetrapod intermediate hosts. Within the genus, there is an anomalous species Mesocestoides corti, whose tetrathyridia reproduce in hosts by asexual longitudinal division. There is no mention of the possibility of such reproduction in other species. Thus, the laboratory strain of M. corti is widely used as a model organism that is well maintained under in vivo and in vitro conditions due to its asexual reproduction. Four other species are known to occur in the genus and are described by both morphological and molecular data. The remaining known species are named only on the basis of morphology. Adults are characterised by their rare morphology. This includes the ventromedian position of the genital atrium, the paired vitelline glands, and in gravid proglotids, developed paruterine organ, which contains eggs with oncospheres. The life cycle has not been yet explained, but it is assumed that the putative cycle involves three hosts. An alternative hypothesis considers the possibility of a two-host life cycle.
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