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Modelling, parameter estimation, optimisation and control of transport and reaction processes in bioreactors.
ŠTUMBAUER, Václav
With the significant potential of microalgae as a major biofuel source of the future, a considerable scientific attention is attracted towards the field of biotechnology and bioprocess engineering. Nevertheless the current photobioreactor (PBR) design methods are still too empirical. With this work I would like to promote the idea of designing a production system, such as a PBR, completely \emph{in silico}, thus allowing for the in silico optimization and optimal control determination. The thesis deals with the PBR modeling and simulation. It addresses two crucial issues in the current state-of-the-art PBR modeling. The first issue relevant to the deficiency of the currently available models - the incorrect or insufficient treatment of either the transport process modeling, the reaction modeling or the coupling between these two models. A correct treatment of both the transport and the reaction phenomena is proposed in the thesis - in the form of a unified modeling framework consisting of three interconnected parts - (i) the state system, (ii) the fluid-dynamic model and (iii) optimal control determination. The proposed model structure allows prediction of the PBR performance with respect to the modelled PBR size, geometry, operating conditions or a particular microalgae strain. The proposed unified modeling approach is applied to the case of the Couette-Taylor photobioreactor (CTBR) where it is used for the optimal control solution. The PBR represents a complex multiscale problem and especially in the case of the production scale systems, the associated computational costs are paramount. This is the second crucial issue addressed in the thesis. With respect to the computational complexity, the fluid dynamics simulation is the most costly part of the PBR simulation. To model the fluid flow with the classical CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) methods inside a production scale PBR leads to an enormous grid size. This usually requires a parallel implementation of the solver but in the parallelization of the classical methods lies another relevant issue - that of the amount of data the individual nodes must interchange with each other. The thesis addresses the performance relevant issues by proposing and evaluation alternative approaches to the fluid flow simulation. These approaches are more suitable to the parallel implementation than the classical methods because of their rather local character in comparison to the classical methods - namely the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for fluid flow, which is the primary focus of the thesis in this regard and alternatively also the discrete random walk based method (DRW). As the outcome of the thesis I have developed and validated a new Lagrangian general modeling approach to the transport and reaction processes in PBR - a framework based on the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the model of the Photosynthetic Factory (PSF) that models correctly the transport and reaction processes and their coupling. Further I have implemented a software prototype based on the proposed modeling approach and validated this prototype on the case of the Coutte-Taylor PBR. I have also demonstrated that the modeling approach has a significant potential from the computational costs point of view by implementing and validating the software prototype on the parallel architecture of CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). The current parallel implementation is approximately 20 times faster than the unparallized one and decreases thus significantly the iteration cycle of the PBR design process.
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Dietary supplements and iodine supplementation for children 11-12 years in the Czech Republic
HALÁSZOVÁ, Monika
Bachelor Thesis called "Dietary supplements and iodine supplementation for children 11-12 years in the Czech Republic" deal with the intake of dietary supplements containing iodine and intake of other significant dietary sources of iodine in relationship to saturation with iodine in the monitored group of 300 children aged 11-12 years . The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. Theoretical part deal with established issues in light of current situation and uses the knowledge of specialized literature in these areas: iodine and his dietary sources, influence of deficient or excessive intake of iodine on thyroid gland and its function, and also the solution to iodine deficit in Czech Republic. The thesis also deals with dietary supplements and nutrition of school-aged children. Practical part is focused on quantitative research. This research was done on selected group of children who had low level of ioduria (iodine in urine) according to State health institution. Statistical file included 300 children of both gender in age from 11 to 12 who live in Czech Republic. The reason why children of this age were chosen is because of importance of optimal intake of iodine in period of physical and sexual evolution. The children were divided into two groups. One group had ioduria up to 300ug/l and the second group had ioduria over 300u/l. Data were collected through questionnaire. Because of age of respondents, the questionnaire was filled in presence of at least parent. The questionnaire should have also served to parents as information about iodine importance for their children. The individual evaluation of ioduria and questionnaire was given to parents upon their request. Collected data were evaluated in Microsoft Excel. In practical part, two main goals and two research questions are set. Their task is to determine the rate of usage of dietary supplements with iodine and to find out what significant sources of iodine the children with ioduria over 300u/l take in. The milk and milk products, salt with iodine, salted delicacies, sea products and dietary supplements with iodine were observed as probable main sources of iodine intake. The first goal was to find out the amount of iodine intake from dietary supplements for previously mentioned group of children. The second goal was to find out if the dietary supplements with iodine (or any other combination of food rich on iodine) are used by observed individuals with ioduria over 300u/l. The results of research show if the respondent's level of ioduria is affected by in taking the dietary supplements or food with significantly higher content of iodine. My own research proved relatively frequent (but irregular) intake of dietary supplements with iodine by whole examined population. On the other hand, usage of dietary supplements with iodine is probably not correlated with usage of table salt without iodine or with thyroid gland illness by individual respondent or in his family. The milk and milk products and table salt with iodine proved to be the main source of iodine. According to research, children with excessive ioduria consume sources of iodine as frequent as other children. Deeper insight into results shows that reason for excessive saturation with iodine is combination of intake of dietary supplements as well as other significant food sources of iodine, especially milk and its products. By several respondents, the higher level of ioduria can be caused by higher consummation of sea products or by usage of dietary supplements with iodine in last two days. The need for better awareness about suitable rate of iodine dietary supplements intake as well as medical importance for lowering the amount of (iodine) table salt in food was discovered by research. The optimal supply of iodine by higher percent of observed population could be also achieved by optimizing the content of iodine in milk.
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Giuseppe Verdi: "Don Carlos" - opera complex scenographic project
Heřmánková, Lucie ; DAVID, Milan (advisor) ; TEMPÍR, Nikola (referee)
This bachelor’s thesis aims to find complex scenographic solution of Don Carlos opera composed by Italian author Giuseppe Verdi. Apart from my own creative solution I also present theoretical chapters of authors biography, relation to his work and I compare several Don Carlos productions by Josef Jelínek who designed six unique costume variations.
During process of making the set design I came up with lots of topics to think about. I chose freedom as main topic by studying past productions, libretto and musical part. This topic is one of the key elements of the creative solution and therefore I defined it further in part of this thesis. I am also looking for artistic ways that would be the most suitable and adequate for the opera, musical-dramatic genre, in which music could be more important than libretto. I am trying to find connections to contemporary society and keep the story up to date.
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Fluidized-bed Combustion of Dry Stabilized Sewage Sludge in Oxy-fuel Mode
Moško, Jaroslav ; Pohořelý, Michael ; Durda, Tomáš ; Zach, Boleslav ; Šyc, Michal ; Svoboda, Karel
Sewage sludge is an inevitable waste stream from wastewater treatment and its disposal is complicated due to specific characteristics of its composition. Sewage sludge combustion/incineration is the only suitable way for disposal of large volumes of sewage sludge containing POPs and some heavy metals. Sewage sludge combustion reduces the volume of such waste and causes destruction of organic contaminants. Oxy-fuel combustion is a technology for simplifying CO2 sequestration from the flue gas by using nearly pure oxygen instead of air for the combustion. In order to control the combustion temperature, part of the flue gas is recycled to combustion chamber. The paper brings information about investigation of the effects of combustion temperature and concentration of oxygen in inlet combustion media on the emissions of NOx, N2O and SO2 in FB combustion of sewage sludge. The experimental results have shown that an increase in combustion temperature leads to an increase in NOx and to a decrease in N2O emissions in the temperature range 750–930 °C. The lowest SO2 emissions were measured in the temperature interval from 800 to 820 °C in all experiments with different oxygen concentration in inlet gas. It was found that when the oxygen concentration in inlet gas increased, the emissions of SO2 increased while emissions of NOx slightly decreased.
Fulltext: content.csg -  PDF
Plný tet: SKMBT_C22016112214480 - PDF
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Fish passes and their role in landscape and ecosystem management
Míka, Martin ; Horký, Pavel (advisor) ; Kuříková, Pavlína (referee)
Fishways are devices intended to restore fish migration through the transverse obstacles in fragmented flows. Basic types of fish passages can be divided into technical and close to nature. Technical as cellular or crevice between the close to nature can include, for example, a bypass channel or boulder ramps. Close to nature fishways are suitable not only for Migration wider range of species and the size of fish, but they are preferable as landscape elements in urban landscapes. Can be recommended to be close to nature when crossing streams fragmented preferred, although not necessarily their use, for example, due to space constraints at a particular location possible.
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Nutritional analysis and optimization of breeding of selected species of edible insects under conditions of the Czech Republic with regard to human health
Adámková, Anna ; Kouřimská, Lenka (advisor)
All over the world, the edible insects are considered a highly nutritious food with high protein and fat content. However, the nutritional value of insect is not constant. It can be affected by species, developmental stage, rearing technology or nutrition.
Therefore, this thesis was aimed at obtaining the selected nutritional value of edible insects. Analyses were focused on the determination of the crude protein content, fat content, fatty acid profile and sterols in selected species of edible insects, which can be commonly reared in the Czech Republic. At the same time we also analysed samples of insects reared on the island of Sumatra to evaluate the influence of the climate on the nutritional value. The main aim of the thesis was the determination of optimal breeding conditions, developmental stages and feed rations for obtaining good production of insects with nutritional properties suitable for human nutrition. The analyses showed a high nutritional value of selected insect species, but also confirmed the significant differences in the content of individual nutrients between different species depending on the climate conditions and developmental stage. Comparing the fat and crude protein content in edible insects and other conventional sources of meat it has been found, that the examined insect is similar to beef concerning the fat and crude protein content. The results obtained are the basis for determining the appropriate rearing conditions and developmental stages for obtaining insect with the desired nutritional properties for human nutrition.
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Visual preferences for wind turbines
Běťáková, Vendula ; Sklenička, Petr (advisor) ; Janečková, Kristina (referee)
This dissertation is a selection of three papers focused on visual preference of wind turbines. Visual impact presents the connectivity of the articles, whereas each one deals with the topic from different perspective. First paper "Wind turbines location: How many and how far?" analyses in detail the characteristics of wind turbines themselves, i.e. their number and distance from observer or vantage point in relation to landscape quality. Second paper "How education orientation affects attitudes toward wind energy and wind farms: implications for the planning process" concentrates on respondents´ characteristics, in particular educational orientation, general attitude, occurrence of WTs in respondents´ vicinity and willingness to live close to WTs. Whereas first two papers use same assessment method to analyse differences of WTs perception from different point of view, the third paper "Futuristic Wind Power Systems Suitable as Artistic Sculptures" presents review of WTs appearance in general and proposals of possible future look as an alternative to traditional wind turbines.
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Freezing technology of bull sperm in relation to its survivability and fertilization ability
Doležalová, Martina ; Stádník, Luděk (advisor) ; Jiří, Jiří (referee)
The aim of optimalization the insemination doses production is to provide the highest fertilization ability of spermatozoa during the demanding proces of processing fresh semen and its subsequent cryopreservation. Temperature changes causes spermatozoa damage during the cooling and freezing. Spermatozoa is exposed to cold shock and many others limiting factors, which leads to cell death and therefore to decline of fertilization ability of thawed insemination doses. For increasing spermatozoa resistance, exactly the plasma membrane resistance against cold shock was fraction of egg yolk LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) at various concentrations into the comercially produced diluents added. It is believed that LDL acts possitively to plasma membrane and helps to maintain the fertilization ability of spermatozoa after thawing. Following step in the proces of insemination doses production is slow cooling of diluted semen and equilibration, when the straws are store at cooling box for 30 minutes to 240 hours. This period is necessary to penetrate of certain diluent components into the spermatazoa also maintain the balance between their intracellular and extracellular concentration. Also important is subsequent freezing temperature gradient of insemination doses. The most suitable freezing method is based on computer controlled temperature decline in freezing chamber which allows the precise control of ice crystals formation that could tear and kill the cell.
During 2012 to 2016 was repeatedly collected semen from the group of breeding bulls (n = 27, Holstein and Czech Fleckvieh breed) at AI centre. Semen which fulfill the standard entrance conditions in first step was evenly into several parts divided. For dilution the three types of comercially diluents AndroMed, Bioxcell and Triladyl with and without LDL addition were used. Into the diluents AndroMed and Bioxcell the concentration of LDL 4 %, 6 % and 8% into the dilent Triladyl 6 %, 8 % and 10 % was added. Diluted semen was filled into the glass capillares with volume 0,1 ml and temperature +4 °C. Subsequently the sample was placed to cold bath (0°C) for 10 minutes. Then the volume of capillare with physiological solution (37 °C) was mixed and for next 120 minutes was incubate. The effect of cold shock to proportion of live spermatozoa was evaluated by using Eosin and Nigrosine staining technique during heat test of spermatozoa survivability after spermatozoa heating and after 120 minutes of incubation.
The more suitable semen diluents which provide the higher spermatozoa resistance against cold shock were AndroMed and Bioxcell. Together the possitive effect of LDL addition into the diluents to lower decrease of proportion of live spermatozoa during heat test was found (P<0.05). The most suitable LDL concentration which had a favorable influence at spermatozoa resistance against cold shock was 6 % in diluent Bioxcell. Values of the proportion of live sperm were higher at the beginning of the heat test (+1.31% to + 3.2%) and after 120 minute incubation (+5.82% to +8.41%) compared to other diluents with and without addition of LDL.
In the next step the process of equilibration was optimized, is an important part of insemination doses production. The effect of the length of equilibration for subsequent fertilization ability of spermatozoa was evaluated using spermatozoa motility based of CASA and proportion of live spermatozoa after thawing and during heat survival test lasting 120 minutes (37 ° C). Suitable semen was diluted by comercially used diluent AndroMed based on soya lecithin, filled into the straws (0.25 ml), cooled and equilibrated in cooling box for 30, 120 and 240 minutes and freezed in programmable freezing box applying four types of freezing curves differing in temperature rate decline. There was used standard and by producer recommended 3. phase freezing curve, then 2. phase freezing curve, and 3. phase freezing curve with slower as well as rapid decline of temperature rate in freezing chamber, compared with standard freezing curve. The highest spermatozoa motility was found using 240 minutes of equilibration by +2.72% and +4.58% compared to other lengths of equilibration (P <0.05 to 0.01). The highest proportion of live spermatozoa was found using 120 minutes of equilibration (+6.87 % and +8.68 %). The highest average spermatozoa motility during heat test after thawing was achieved by using 2. phase freezing curve (from +2.97% to +10.37%, P <0.05), also in the proportion of live spermatozoa (from + 4.37% to +8.82%, P <0.01). When evaluating interaction between the length of equilibration and freezing curve (standard 3. phase and 2 . phase freezing curve), the highest average spermatozoa motility and proportion of live spermatozoa using 240 minutes of equilibration by both freezing curves was reached, there was no statistically significant differences. As well as, in all evaluated parts of this study the individual differences between ejaculate of bulls and within semen from one bull (P <0.05) as secondary effect were found.
To maintain good fertilization ability of semen during cryopreservation is necessary to increase the spermatozoa resistance against cold shock using addition of correct concentration of LDL into the commercially used diluents AndroMed and Bioxcell. Subsequently the fertilization ability of insemination dose is influenced by cooling, the length of equilibration and freezing. The length of equilibration 120 minutes and more as well as gentle way of freezing according to freezing curve, which ensures a gradual decrease of temperature in freezing chamber provided the higher average spermatozoa motility and proportion of live spermatozoa.
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Influence of meadow management on the migration behavior of selected species of butterflies
Bubová, Terezie ; Langrová, Iva (advisor) ; Farkač, Jan (referee)
Migrations are the key process and one of the basic biological features, which allow survival of endangered species in fragmented landscape. In the last decades, agriculture intensification, industry and urbanization caused that number of natural butterfly habitats has significantly decreased. The localities originally suitable for butterflies are currnetly converted to farmland or building plots. This PhD thesis aimed to find a compromise solution of meadow management, which should allow a commercial use and concurrently do not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered or threatened species. The main idea of this study was in the intentional emigration causing in the middle of flight period, which should lead into resettlement of the population to another (potentially more suitable) locality. Possibility of aimed manipulation with butterfly emigrations would be considered as a major breakthrough in their protection.
The investigated species Phengaris nausithous (Bergsträsser, 1779) and Phengaris teleius (Bergsträsser, 1779) are both considered to be flagship species for protection of European butterflies at open meadows. This study is based on research, which was carried out in 2013-2015 at 17 patch in localities Dolní Labe, Czech Republic. In above mentioned years, one selected meadow was mowed in the middle of flight season and the emigrations were then monitored using mark-release-recapture method. Results of population and migration characteristics were calculated in MARK 8.1 software. Subsequently, the effect of mowing on emigration (comparison of emigrations from the meadow before and after mowing) was evaluated using Statistica 13.
The hypotheses of this study were based on the assumption, that the loss of resources after well-timed mowing should increase the activity of adult butterflies. During the monitoring, number of emigrations was increased only in flight season 2015. Unfortunately, the statistical evaluation did not show significant effect of mowing on migrations. On the other hand, the hypothesis dealing with colonization of nearest meadows was confirmed.
Effect of intentional emigration caused by management interventions was unfortunately not proved. However, we found out, that even though the population at one mowed meadow decreased clearly, the metapopulation size at the locality remained more or less stable.
At investigated (mowed) meadow, there was observed a sharp decline of P. nausithous abundance. On the other hand, P. teleius population was only slightly reduced. It is therefore conceivable, that P. teleius are not as susceptible to innapropriate term of mowing. The results obtained in our research conclusively displayed no possible positive effect of mowing in the middle of flight season and a necessity of suitable management maintenance at localities inhabited by Phengaris butterflies.
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The use of biomass ash
Ochecová, Pavla ; Tlustoš, Pavel (advisor) ; Radim, Radim (referee)
One of the most frequently used sources of renewable energy is biomass, mainly wood biomass. Incineration is the most common technology utilizing the energy from biomass to produce heat. A byproduct of these technologies is ash, whose composition depends on the feedstock composition and the incineration technologies. Due to the high content of valuable nutrients in ash, one of the suitable option for ash utilization seems to be application into agricultural or forestry land. Therefore, it is necessary to test response of soils and plants and look for the most suitable combination of soil additive (biomass ash), and plants. Experimental part of PhD thesis was divided into the incubation experiment and the vegetation pot experiments. The incubation experiment: The efficiency of ash addition at two application rates was tested for nutrients enrichment in different soils within period of 56 days. The vegetation pot experiments: The two plants Triticum aestivum L: (three-year experiment) and Lolium perenne L. (one-year experiment) were planted in the 5L pots. Soils were treated with ash or ash combinated by superphoshate and flue gas desulfurization gypsum. For both plants, we evaluated the plant growth, biomass production and content of macro, micro and toxic elements in the biomass and in the soils.
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