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Genus Apodemus (Mammalia: Rodentia) in the Quaternary fossil record of Central Europe.
Knitlová, Markéta ; Horáček, Ivan (advisor) ; Macholán, Miloš (referee) ; Čermák, Stanislav (referee)
Wood mice of the genus Apodemus rank among the most common extant mammals throughout Europe. A history of its species and their distributional ranges is to be looked upon as a serious topic relevant also for general concepts on current setting of European biotic diversity. Nevertheless, despite several phylogeographic studies on that subject and a rich fossil record of the genus, many details of that issue remains only very poorly comprehended. This state is essentially caused by enormous complications with phenotype discrimination of individual species, their extensive variation and broad between-species overlaps in all phenotype traits. The present project was intended to establish the techniques enabling reliable species identification applicable to fragmentary fossil materials and to use them for retrieving information on range dynamics and phylogenetic history of individual species during the Quaternary past. It begun with detailed morphometric analyses of extant populations, using the characters available in fossils, and with establishing a concept of alternative parataxonomic classification covering the complete phenotype span of the genus. The respective techniques were applied onto an extensive set of well-dated records from the Late Pleistocene-Holocene sedimentary series from diverse...
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Computational methods for finding cryptographic functions
Kroutil, Jaroslav ; Göloglu, Faruk (advisor) ; Růžička, Pavel (referee)
Recent studies have demonstrated several methods on different approaches to classi- fication of vectorial Boolean functions up to certain equivalence relation and to finding new quadratic Almost Perfect Nonlinear (APN) functions. In this work we explore these classification methods of vectorial Boolean functions, in particular those that minimise the search space up to EA-equivalence or linear-equivalence. We also investigate various strategies for finding quadratic APN functions. These methods are rooted in various aspects of algebraic theory. We explore the mathematical theory in more detail, and provide a guide to practical application of the theory. We also provide implementations of these methods and illustrate them in the context of the presented theory. 1
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Behaviour and ecology of leopard geckos (Eublepharis macularius)
Jančúchová Lásková, Jitka ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Moravec, Jiří (referee) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
During evolution, the natural selection favours individuals with the best survival strategy and the highest reproductive success. From the evolutionary point of view, hybridization plays an important role in the process of speciation. Avoiding predators by choosing the most appropriate antipredator strategy increases the animal's chances of survival as well. Studying fitness consequences of hybridization and predation in Eublepharis macularius (Eublepharidae) was the main objective of this theses. Compared to other vertebrate groups, the reliable records on hybridization and its effect on the hybrid's fitness (fertility, survival) in lizards are scarce, despite their ability to hybridize between genetically distant species. These effects were examined in two species of eyelid geckos (E. macularius and E. angramainyu). We aimed to discover whether they were willing to hybridize with a heterospecific species and how the fitness of the hybrids would be affected. Similarly, were studied more genetically related forms of E. macularius species complex, the potential precopulatory barriers, and fitness cost of this hybridization. Analysis of published data has shown that the lizards hybridize between very phylogenetically distant species and are even "more successful" than birds or turtles. Surprisingly,...
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Resilience in children of alcoholic families with an emphasis on relational resilience
Švecová, Jana ; Hoskovcová, Simona (advisor) ; Niederlová, Markéta (referee)
The subject of this thesis is resilience of children from alcoholic families, with an emphasis on relational resilience. The theoretical part deals with systemic view of the family, alcoholism as a family illness and difficulties of children, resp. adolescents from such families. The subsequent chapter studies the theme of resilience, protective factors with regard to social ties, and proceeds with relational resilience, applied in the empirical part. The final part of the thesis is dedicated to health in the context of subjectively perceived life satisfaction. The empirical part, based on qualitative research, consists of methods: documents analysis, work with timeline, family map, semi-structured interview, SEIQoL questionnaire. The sample consists of adolescents from alcoholic families, attending a therapeutic program, selected by CAST questionnaire. The obtained data are analyzed for occurrence of relational resilience within each respondent, composed into case studies. Results of the study show that all respondents reported incidence of all items of relational resilience. The first and most frequently mentioned person in relation to the items was female therapist of the program; the most common community is the therapeutic group. We did not find any gender differences in the items incidence....
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Ecology of the Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus in fishpond habitats
Musilová, Zuzana ; Musil, Petr (advisor) ; Procházka, Petr (referee) ; Krištín, Anton (referee)
10 SUMMARY Musilová, Z. & Musil, P. Nest site selection in the Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus in fishpond habitats. submitted Nest site selection was analysed using variation in timing of breeding, nesting success and age of females in the Reed Bunting in fishpond habitats in mosaic Central European landscape. An example of habitat generalist using variable types of littoral vegetation is the Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus, which occupies a wide scale of wetlands habitats (Blümel 1989, Cramp & Perrins 1994, Glutz von Blotzheim & Bauer 1997, Báldi & Kisbenedek 1999). Nevertheless, habitats generalists are supposed to be capable of not only occupying a wider range of habitats, but also exploring a wider range of resources (Brown 1984) including nest sites. We predicted that individuals with higher fitness are able to occupy optimal nest sites (Benett & Owens 2005). Survival and probability of recruitment are usually higher for early-hatched fledglings than for those hatched later (Lack 1968, Perrins 1970, Benett & Owens 2005). Reproductive success of older birds is generally higher than of the young ones (Curio 1983, Geslin et al. 2004). We can identify individual fitness using the following parameters: timing of breeding, nesting success and age of individuals. We evaluate habitat preference and...
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Study of new acetylcholinesterase modulators
Račáková, Veronika ; Opletalová, Veronika (advisor) ; Pohanka, Miroslav (referee)
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Control Candidate: Mgr. Veronika Račáková Consultant: Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Veronika Opletalová, Ph.D. Title of Thesis: Study of new acetylcholinesterase modulators. Organophosphorus compounds are chemically organophosphates or organophosphonates. They have been widely used as a pesticides but because of their high toxicity and relatively cheap and easy synthesis they can be easily misused as chemical weapons - nerve paralytic compounds. Toxic effect of these compounds is based on irreversible inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). In case of intoxication by these compounds anticholinergic drugs (atropin) and reactivators of AChE are usually used as antidots. The effect of the reactivators is based on splitting the complex enzyme-inhibitor. Pralidoxim, trimedoxim, obidoxim and asoxim (HI-6) are still the most often used reactivators all over the world. They are the compounds which contain oxime group and one or two quarternary nitrogens in their molecule, what ensures that their affinity to AChE will be strong enough. Screening and synthesis of new more effective broad-spectrum reactivators of AChE with lower side effects is still very actual and discussed theme. Strategy...
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Study of chemical communication in the house mouse: a proteomic approach
Janotová, Kateřina ; Stopka, Pavel (advisor) ; Piálek, Jaroslav (referee) ; Vošlajerová, Barbora (referee)
Chemical communication of the house mouse is similarly as in other mammals, substantially complex and influence every social ineraction between individuals. Important part of mouse chemical signalling system is Major Urinary Protein complex (MUP). These proteins are known as pheromone-carriers that prolong longevity of the pheromones by retarding their evaporation from the scent mark. Their other role in chemical communication is direct signalling which is mediated by VNO. MUP have been shown to trigger both behavioural and physiological effects in recipient. Proteins belonging to the same family (lipocalins) as MUPs, have been found in other, mainly rodent, species. Although the information about these urinary lipocalins are, with exception of mouse, very limited, it is likely that their roles relies in chemical communication. The Ph.D. thesis is related to the urinary proteins in the house mouse and Mastomys coucha. Thesis contains four chapters represented by three published and one submitted manuscript. One aim of the thesis is to provide information about these proteins in the subspecies Mus musculus musculus which is widespread in the Czech Republic and which is much less studied when compared to Mus musculus domesticus. The part of Ph.D thesis is a review publication which summarizes recent...
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In silico studies of cholinesterases interactions with their modulators and design of new compounds of this type
Binder, Jiří ; Opletalová, Veronika (advisor) ; Farsa, Oldřich (referee) ; Vinšová, Jarmila (referee)
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmaceutical analysis Candidate: Mgr. Jiří Binder Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Veronika Opletalová, Ph.D. Title of Doctoral Thesis: In silico studies of cholinesterases interactions with their modulators and design of new compounds of this type Computer modeling is an important tool of contemporary scientific research. It allows to study the structure, conformation, dynamics and mutual interaction of nonbinding interactions of a biological system. The main objective is to find the best energy conformations by minimizing the energy of the system. On the base of these calculated values, one can predict the loss of activity for certain analogous compounds, thus reducing the number of materials that would be needed to subsequently synthesize. A molecular modeling contributes to describe the interactions of ligands with larger systems and improves the orientation in millions of active substances that could be used as potential drug. It becomes an important part of the pharmaceutical industry. The aim of this study was to verify the selected methodology of computer prediction of protein-ligand complexes, to obtain a description of the basic interactions of the modulators of cholinesterase...
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Bottleneck identification for constraint relaxation in resource-constrained project scheduling
Nedbálek, Lukáš ; Švancara, Jiří (advisor) ; Bulín, Jakub (referee)
In modern manufacturing systems, production planners create schedules by iteratively obtaining proposed schedules and adjusting input parameters to satisfy multiple, often competing, optimization goals. The goal of this thesis is to address the problem of reduc- ing the tardiness of a particular manufacturing order in an obtained schedule, which is a practical problem commonly arising in production scheduling. We do this by identifying bottlenecks in the schedule and proposing relaxations to constraints related to the iden- tified bottlenecks. We develop two methods for this purpose, both utilizing constraint programming. The first baseline method adapts existing approaches from the literature and proposes general relaxations. The second method identifies potential improvements in relaxed versions of the problem and proposes relaxations targeting the specific man- ufacturing order. Numerical experiments show that the baseline method achieves great improvements for small costs. while the second method is more reliable in achieving improvements across various problem instances.
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Anglický název práce: Possibilities for solving behavioral and learning disorders in primary school
Brych, Denis ; Komárková, Tereza (advisor) ; Sedláčková, Daniela (referee)
Červený vrch primary school in Prague 6. It addresses the factors that influence the work of these children and the methods that can be used in practice. In the theoretical part of the thesis, it contains a definition of the terms behavioural and learning disorders, their causes, possibilities of re education including selected methods for working with these pupils. In the practical part of the thesis the focu aged from eight to twelve years. Interviews with children, parents, assistants and teachers were used in the research. In addition, the actual work with the pupils involved in the research. These met observation, interviews, working with pupils in the classroom, trying out the techniques described in the theoretical section and collaborative assessment. All in collaboration with teaching assistants and teachers. Their work in class, learning outcomes and behaviour during breaks were assessed. The main aim of the work was to find out the factors that influence the life of children with behavioural and learning disorders in primary school, or to try in practice different techniques for working with them. There is no doubt that there are many factors that affect the work and life of a child with behavioural or learning difficulties in a school environment. From the research conducted at the previously...
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