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Nanofibres as part of respiratory protective devices, but also as a potential source of nano and microplastics to the environment
Klouda, Karel ; Bátrlová, Kateřina ; Roupcová, Petra
Increased production of nanofibers (nanotextiles) is causing a global pandemic for their application in protective equipment such as respirators, face shields, nanocoatings, nano knitwear. In essence, the materials from which these protective devices are made are a combination of non-woven fabrics and nanofibers deposited on textiles. The question is to what extent these products will affect the occurrence of nano and microplastics in the environment. This paper focuses on the acquisition and identification of sources of plastic nanoparticles (nanofibers) that are released into the environment. The following possible sources are compared: during the preparation of nanofibres by electrostatic softening; during the processing of nanofibre textiles into products such as respirators, nano-muffs; during mechanical stresses on nanofibre textiles, friction, abrasion; when used respirators, muffs are thrown on the soil grass, in puddles, in water, etc.
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"We drag the cart of capitalism on and on": Ethnography of factory production
Virtová, Tereza ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Abu Ghosh, Yasar (referee)
This thesis presents the main results of a five-month ethnographic research project in a global factory in the Czech Republic. It is focused on three topics. Due to a number of ethical dilemmas that accompanied the research, the first part examines ethics in anthropology, both the instruments of the institutionalization of professional ethics and "ethics in practice". As a strategy for dealing with ethical dilemmas the thesis aims at a reflexive approach, as proposed by Guillemin and Gillam (2004) not only to ensure rigor in research methodology, but also as a form of "morally adequate research work". The second research focus is the production line. The line makes sense - that is, produces stuff - only when people and machines interconnect. Symmetrical analysis juxtaposes humans and machines and explores the dynamics of agency as it shifts the borders between people and machines and the characteristics that each takes from the other. The last part of the thesis presents the factory as an actor in the labor market. Through the analysis of economic and organizational factors as well as workers" stories and interpretations and regional authorities" accounts, the final part tries to explain the perception of the factory as a stable and relatively solid employer. Keywords: global factory, ethics,...
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Guardians of the Public Interest: Frame Delimiting of watchdog Activism in the Context of Social scientific Discourse and in the Perspective of its Representatives
Beránková, Petra Alexandra ; Frič, Pavol (advisor) ; Kotlas, Petr (referee)
The work deals with the phenomenon of so called watchdog organizations. The increasing number and influence of these organizations indicates a creation of new social movement. The authoress defines them as a type of public benefit nongovernmental organizations focused on the controlling of the public sphere or advocating and asserting a "public interest" in relation to the democratization of society. The authoress target is to understand this type of action, so she asks herself the question: Which frameworks are used by watchdog activists for the interpretation of their acting? At first there is briefly presented the concept of watchdog in the context of wider reflections of contemporary society, mainly in the context of reflexive modernity, monitory and participatory democracy and information society. Secondly there is introduced Goffman's framework analysis and the related conceptualization of framework of social movements by Benford and Snow. The authoress highlights a definition of frames as the principles of selection, emphasis and presentation about what happens, and what matters. In the next part of this work, there are presented the methodology and results of the qualitative research based on semi-structured interviews with watchdog activists. The research is settled in the area of...
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Psychosocial intervention for women with perinatal loss
Borůvková, Klára ; Hoskovcová, Simona (advisor) ; Šivicová, Gabriela (referee)
This dissertation is focused on mapping the needs and development of experiencing the prenatal loss integration process in mothers, whose child died during the second or the third pregnancy trimester or suffered stillbirth. The goal of this dissertation is to suggest optimal intervention, which would prevent the progress of complications in terms of psychological disorders (PTSD, PAS). The theoretical part describes prenatal loss from the aspect of incidence and etiology and the loss of a close relative in general. It also focuses on the specifics of prenatal loss, the topic of crisis and its experience, phases of crisis, definition of the term "psychosocial intervention" and demarcation of its existing forms. This part also offers several perspectives and attitudes to the topic of grief as a process of hard life experience integration. It also describes several phases and problems connected with their fulfillment. The empirical part focuses on surveying the experiences and needs of women, who have suffered with prenatal loss. It also follows the approaches and circumstances, means of support, which helped women to cope with such an experience. It also tries to identify such aspects, which hindered this acceptation or made it more complicated. Research inquiry involves 13 depth interviews, which...
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Anticancer immunity in animal models and experimental immunotherapy with glycodendrimers specific for the lectin-like receptor NKR-P1
Vannucci, Luca Ernesto ; Fišerová, Anna (advisor) ; Bubeník, Jan (referee) ; Apte, Ron Nathan (referee)
5 SUMMARY Anticancer immunity is a complex network in which innate immunity play an critical role. The immune system can control the onset of tumors by recognizing the changed phenotype of the transformed cells as a non-self phenotype. The active control against cells not presenting self characters is defined by the paradigm of immune surveillance. In recent years, various studies have shown that the immune response against transformed cells start as a localized acute inflammatory response. The cooperation of natural-killer cells (NK) and phagocytes attracted by so-called "danger signals" (pro-inflammatory molecules and chemo-attractants delivered by stressed cells) can lead to total ablation of the harmful cell clone. If the intervention is not completely efficient, immunoediting of the tumor can follow with stimulation of chronic inflammatory responses, mainly mediated by macrophages. The systemic immunity attempt to terminate the uncontrolled inflammation stimulates the intervention of regulatory T lymphocytes and the shift from an antitumor cytotoxic Th1 response to a Th2 inhibitory response. This regulatory mechanism paradoxically assists the tumor development. All the described events needs the interplay and cooperation of both tumor cells and host cells and stromal elements, that altogether form the...
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Palaeoecology of selected localities of the Whetstone Horizon
Libertín, Milan ; Kvaček, Jiří (advisor) ; Teodoridis, Vasilis (referee) ; Cleal, Christopher J. (referee)
Palaeoecology of selected localities of the Whetstone Horizon In frames of the present thesis taphonomical and paleoecological processed were described in selected localities of whetstone horizon. Fossil plant assemblage known from the locality Štilec represents plant community buried in situ by volcanic ash after volcanic explosion (Pennsylvanian, Bolsov). Plant community exhibits relatively low diversity assemblage of herbaceous and subarborescent plants. This unique taphocoenose was interpreted as pioneer assemblage growing in partly drained lake. In the locality Ovčín the peat bog of Lower Radnice Seam was buried during the same volcanic eruption by volcanic ash. Up to now 5 excavations were recovered of the area of seats over 150 m 2 on two sites which are approximately 40 m distant from each other. In this area 27 morphotaxa of fossil plant was recorded. They represent 20 whole plants. Fossil plant remains represent fossil plant assemblage dominated by lycopod plants of planar (rheotrophic) swamp situated in narrow palaeovalley with active fluvial system. Second part of the thesis is focused on systematic descriptions of fossil plant taxa from localities of the Whetstone horizon. A monotypic genus Huttonia and species Huttonia spicata from Class Sphenopsids was emended. Further there were described...
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Effect of Amino Acids Derivatives And Ceramides on Skin Barrier Function
Janůšová, Barbora ; Vávrová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Balgavý, Pavol (referee) ; Rabišková, Miloslava (referee)
Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of inorganic and organic chemistry Candidate: Mgr. Barbora Janůšová Supervisor: doc. PharmDr. Kateřina Vávrová, Ph.D. Title of Doctoral Thesis: Effect of amino acids derivatives and ceramides on skin barrier function The main goal of my thesis was to contribute to the understanding of behavior of the ceramides and skin barrier function modulators based on amino acids derivatives, as well as to elucidate the relationship between their structure and activity. Transdermal permeation enhancers are compounds that temporarily decrease skin barrier properties to promote drug flux. In the first part of my thesis, enhancers with amino acids (proline, sarcosine, alanine, β-alanine, and glycine) attached to hydrophobic chain(s) via a biodegradable ester link were investigated. The double-chain lipid-like substances displayed no enhancing effect, whereas single-chain substances significantly increased skin permeability. The most active enhancer - proline derivative L-Pro2 reached enhancement ratios of up to 40 at 1% concentration, which is higher than that of the well-established and standard enhancers Azone, DDAIP, DDAK, and Transkarbam 12. No stereoselectivity was observed. L-Pro2 acted synergistically with propylene glycol and...
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Panels of steroid receptor reporter cell lines for compound profiling and development of selective ligands for estrogen receptor alpha and beta
Sedlák, David ; Bartůněk, Petr (advisor) ; Anzenbacher, Pavel (referee) ; Kasal, Alexander (referee)
of the Ph.D. thesis Steroid hormone receptors represent a major target in the drug discovery. As ligand inducible transcription factors, their activity can be modulated by small lipophilic molecules. The first part of this work describes a preparation of two panels of potent, selective and robust luciferase reporter cell lines on the unified cellular background in U2OS osteosarcoma cell line. This system consists of two panels of stable luciferase reporter cell lines for estrogen receptor α (ERα), estrogen receptor β (ERβ), androgen receptor (AR), glucocorticoid receptor (GR), mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and progesterone receptor (PR). The first panel of reporter cell lines relies on the expression of the chimeric steroid receptors created by the replacement of the N-terminal part of the steroid receptor molecule by Gal4 DNA binding domain (Gal4 DBD) binding to 9 copies of Gal4 upstream activation sequences (Gal4 UAS) in the promoter of the pGL4 luciferase reporter vector. In the second panel of reporter cell lines the activation of either synthetic promoter containing multiple hormone response elements or viral promoter derived from MMTV LTR is mediated by full- length exogenously expressed steroid receptors. We have extensively validated both panels using 28 well established ligands, carefully...
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Lagomorpha (Mammalia) of the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe: a revision of selected taxa
Čermák, Stanislav ; Horáček, Ivan (advisor) ; Sabol, Martin (referee) ; Benda, Petr (referee)
1 Lagomorpha (Mammalia) pliocénu a pleistocénu Evropy: revize vybraných taxonů Stanislav Čermák Předkládaná dizertační (uznaná jako rigorózní) práce se zabývá vybranými taxony fosilních zajícovců (starobylá konzervativní skupina býložravých savců) úseku spodního pliocénu až spodního pleistocénu (ruscin - bihar) Evropy. Technikami podrobné morfometrické analýzy (42 metrických, 14 nemetrických znaků) byl zpracován fosilní materiál (většinou nový nepublikovaný) dentálních a kraniálních pozůstatků rodů Psedobellatona, Ochotonoma, Ochotona a Hypolagus (N = 639) celkem z 38 lokalit území Česka, Slovenska, Maďarska a Ukrajiny reprezentující stratigrafický úsek spodní ruscin až svrchní bihar (MN 14 - Q2). Daná práce podává: (1) Ochotonidae - detailní revizi dosud komplexně nestudovaných taxonů pišťuch "skupiny Ochotona" spodního pliocénu (ruscin) východní a jihovýchodní Evropy (tj. taxonů Ochotona antiqua, Pseudobellatona, a Ochotonoma); v kontextu Česka a Slovenska revizi nálezů rodu Ochotona z pleistocénních (MN 17 - Q1) lokalit daného území, která podstatnou měrou rozšiřuje znalosti o těchto pišťuchách založené dosud na relativně nepočetných nálezech z lokalit Francie, Německa, Polska a Maďarska; (2) Leporidae - komplexní revizi rodu Hypolagus - stěžejního a dominantního rodu čeledi Leporidae pliocénu a...
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