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Morphological and behavioural changes during menstrual cycle in catarrhine primates
Molnárová, Kristýna ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Másílková, Michaela (referee)
Females of Old World monkeys and apes (Catarrhini) exhibit a menstrual cycle, during which changes in skin colouration and/or sexual swellings can be observed in some species, located mainly in the anogenital region and around the ischial callosities, but also on the chest, abdomen or face. These morphological changes can be compared with changing hormone levels and also the way males respond to them, which is reflected in the degree of visual attractiveness. The odour of females may also be attractive to males, and with changes in the odour over the cycle, males could assess the reproductive status of females based on olfactory inspection. Males may also assess female readiness to mate through behavioural changes, which include various proceptive displays such as different gestures, facial expressions, vocalizations and the presentation of morphological changes, among others. The aim of this thesis is to summarize and critically review the available literature dealing with morphological and behavioural changes during the menstrual cycle in females of Old World monkeys and apes. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the possible function of these cyclical changes, such as those related to male competition, increased paternal care and reduced risk of infanticide. Furthermore, hypotheses...
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The Effect of Cultural and Natural Heritage on Tourism Attractiveness in Slovakia
Kling, Alexander ; Šťastná, Lenka (advisor) ; Kantová, Klára (referee)
The Effect of Cultural and Natural Heritage on Tourism Attractiveness in Slovakia Abstract This thesis questions a traditional understanding of cultural and natural heritage as two of the main determinants of tourism attractiveness. The motivation to write it was that in Slovakia, there are multiple locations with plentiful natural and cultural monuments, but since some of them are popu- lar tourist destinations, the others are relatively unknown from the tourism perspective. Based on the review of the existing academic literature, the au- thor understands the concept of attractiveness as a phenomenon composed of the attributes of a certain attraction or location and tourists' perception of the destinations. Therefore, the models connect both aspects of the tourism system - supply and demand for tourism. The dependent variable repre- senting demand is the number of visitors in accommodation establishments per district in 2018 or this value per capita. The main independent vari- ables are the number of national cultural monuments and national natural monuments and reserves, the variables typical for a tourism product. De- spite the estimates of their effects seem to be clearly positive and significant, especially for nature, before including additional explanatory variables and their logarithmic...
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Attractors in the complex dynamics of turbulent convection
Kašný, Jakub ; Nechvátal, Luděk (referee) ; Macek, Michal (advisor)
This Bachelor's thesis deals with an application of the HAVOK (Hankel Alternative View of Koopman) numerical method, which seeks attractors and predicts intermittent phenomena in dynamical systems, to data from Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC), which are measured at Brno Institute of Scientific Instruments in the group of Cryogenics and Superconductivity. This thesis discusses the theory on which the HAVOK is built and further deepens it compared to the article [2]. Furthermore, it enlightens some issues as the best selection of the embedding dimension r, which we selected based on the quality of regression that HAVOK creates, or the use of the Koopman operator and Taken's embedding theorem, that weren't explicitly explained in the article [2]. We discovered three different methods to compute HAVOK regressions based on and using the codes attached to the article. In the thesis, we inspect the matrices of ordinary differential equations, their behaviour when the initial values are changed and their stability for the different regression models and embedding dimensions. The solution with different initial conditions is plotted so that the attractivity can be seen. Part of the thesis contains description of RBC, its equations of motion and characteristic dimensionless numbers that describe the convection. Moreover, the thesis describes how the data are obtained and processed normally and how are processed in new ways based on the HAVOK method.
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Association between human body odour and health status
Schwambergová, Dagmar ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Vinkler, Michal (referee)
The subject of this thesis is to evaluate a link between changes in body odor and health status in humans. The main aim was to create a theoretical overview of the available studies concerning humans, which are compared with studies conducted on mammals. Alteration of body odor due to the ongoing disease may negatively influence not only the odor attractiveness of a potential partner, but also may cause changes in behavioral response to a chemical stimulus for other members of the species. One may assume formation of perceptual adaptations exhibiting sensitivity to markers of health status in both sexes. Recognition of ill individuals may be crucial during social interactions, to prevent transmission of pathogens, but in mate choice the health status may also serve as an important indicator of resistance to infection, which can affect the viability of the offsprings. The main contribution of this thesis is to summarize the knowledge and insights into the area related to changes in body odor, depending on the health status. Keywords body odor, health, sexual selection, attractiveness, olfactory perception
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Cross-cultural perception of attractiveness and its correlates: the role of visual modalities
Fiala, Vojtěch ; Kleisner, Karel (advisor) ; Třebický, Vít (referee)
This work reviews the literature on the topic of intercultural perception of human attractiveness with special focus on recent videostimuli-using research. The first section introduces several basic perspectives on ecological-evolutionary view of attractiveness. The next section deals with intercultural differences in attractiveness perception dicussing possible explanations of these differences. The third chapter focuses on faces of people of cross-culture origin and usage of composite stimuli and artificially manipulated stimuli in inter-cultural research. The fourth chapter examines the usage of videostimuli in attractiveness research. I also add information about intercultural usage of videostimuli as far as these are available. Finally, I discuss a possible source of result ambiguity and highlight the potential use of videostimuli in intercultural research of attractiveness perception. Keywords Attractiveness, intercultural perception, videostimuli, cross-culture origin, composite images, averageness, masculinity, feminity
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Changes in preferences for heterozygosity in MHC genes across the menstrual cycle
Ptáčková, Kateřina ; Havlíček, Jan (advisor) ; Janotová, Kateřina (referee)
5 Abstract Products of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays key role in immune system of vertebrates. Prior studies on different vertebrate species show, that heterozygosity in MHC genes is linked to more efficient immune system and preferred in mate choice. Results of human studies are ambivalent, which can be due to the effect of some modulating factors like reproductive status. Therefore, our aim was to test heterozygosity related preferences in faces, odor and voice across menstrual cycle. Our sample consisted of 51 men and 52 women, from which 23 used hormonal contraception and 29 had natural cycle. They were genotyped in -A, -B and -DR alleles. All odor stimuli, face photos and voice records were rated on seven-point scale in both follicular and luteal phase. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for the analysis. Changes in ratings across the menstrual cycle and heterozygosity were most discernible on voice ratings. Voices of homozygous males were rated more attractive than voices of heterozygous males especially in follicular phase. Similar shift to higher ratings in follicular phase was manifested in ratings of homozygous male faces, but the difference between homozygous males and heterozygous males was not significant. Women with natural cycle also rated voices higher in their follicular phase...
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Comparison of attractiveness of educational models vs. real mounted zoological specimens for secondary chool pupils
Šibravová, Jitka ; Mourek, Jan (advisor) ; Janštová, Vanda (referee)
This thesis deals with the preference of pupils at secondary schools (gymnasia) for different types of teaching aids in zoology education. The main objective was to determine whether the pupils rate educational models as more attractive than the real zoological preserved specimens and whether their preferences are related to their susceptibility to potentially phobic stimuli, realism of the object or whether preferences differ between the sexes. Selected models included entire animals as well as animal organs. The research was conducted at selected secondary schools (gymnasia) in Prague and Jablonec nad Nisou using a questionnaire and a preference test. Secondary school pupils and their biology teachers participated in this research. The realistic design of each object was assessed by researchers and students from the Faculty of Science Charles University using a scale questionnaire. The results showed that students rated the real zoological preserved specimens as more attractive compared to teaching models, with no dependence on whether the objects were entire or anatomical. Effect of gender on overall preference has not been showed; however, the boys had a tendency to evaluate generally unpopular organisms more positively than girls. No influence of susceptibility to potentially phobic stimuli,...
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Perceiving of hierarchical rank and mate preference in humans
Chmelíková, Kateřina ; Jozífková, Eva (advisor) ; Blažek, Vladimír (referee)
Distinguished ways are used to measure hierarchical rank between partners in surveys. Aim of this thesis was to study preference for partner of particular hierarchical rank towards respondent 1) according to rating of photographs, 2) according to respondent's ideas about his/her future partnership organization, 3) according to respondent's natural tendency to lead or to yield, and to compare these ways of preference assessment. Questionnaires from 95 female university students aged to 25 years inc. were processed. Respondents, who claimed they will submit their partner or they will take turns in subordination with their partner half and half, were more submissive in ordinary life than respondents, who claimed they will be equal to their partner. Expected connection between idea about future partnership organization or submissiveness in ordinary life and choice of photograph depicting figurant with particular signs of nonverbal dominance was not found. Nevertheless, differences in choices of photographs were found between females using hormonal contraceptives and females not using any hormonal contraceptives. Key words: mate-choice, dominance, submissiveness, attractiveness.
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