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Arctic tundra dendrochronology
Lehejček, Jiří ; Svoboda, Miroslav (advisor) ; Monika, Monika (referee)
Historically unprecedented environmental change in the Arctic ecosystems is often given into the context of its past and possible future development. In the region where instrumental meteorological observations are scarce archives need to be investigated in order to address this issues. The comprehensive synthesis one of the archives: long-live circumpolar evergreen Juniperus communis L. shrub is presented here. 20 individuals from southwest Greenland were investigated at the cell anatomy level to understand the ecology of the species and unhide its potential for environmental and climate reconstructions. The findings are as follows:
i) Stop of exponential cross-sectional conduit-lumen widening with increasing age is in contrast with conduit-lumen nature of trees. This indicates that shrubs do not need to saturate their water and nutrient demands via traits of classical hydraulic conductivity law but rather developed different mechanisms. Extreme weather conditions result in prostrate growth form. However, different weather factors probably influence shrub growth differently: While snow and wind act mechanically (a), temperature influences the form of growth physiologically (b). a) So long as the young shrub stem has high resilience to bend back to an upright position after snow melt and so long as it can withstand the wind during the vegetation season it most likely grows upright and the conduit-lumens widen. b) Temperature, resp. freeze-thaw events are responsible for the shrubs preference of safety (finite size of conduit-lumens) over hydraulic efficiency, thus not allowing for more primary growth. All of these (and other) factors are apparently working together and the transition of vertical to more horizontal growth is gradual. As a consequence, the conduit-lumen sizes may not have to be further increased (due to ecophysiological restrictions possibly also must not) because water is no longer transported against gravity.
ii) Observed age/growth trend has to be taken into consideration for further employment of the wood anatomical parameter in paleoenvironmental studies. That is, shrub cell parameters can only be used for this purposes if correctly detrended. This allows for more accurate as well as longer reconstructions because youth trend was often neglected in reconstructions based on shrub annual-rings.
iii) The south-western Greenland Ice-Sheet (GrIS) melt rates reconstruction is presented for the whole 20th century. This part of GrIS is considered as the most active. According to the presented reconstruction current GrIS melt rates are not uncommon for the last century being comparable to first decades of 20th century. This finding is particularly important contribution to the debate on Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Too high fresh water inputs into the Northern Atlantic from GrIS melting may slow down or even stop the AMOC which would result in more continental climate in Europe. Presented results indicate that this threshold lies higher than observed current melt rates of GrIS.
Fascinating Juniperus comunnis species has shown to be able to address many ecological as well as environmental open questions and due to its longevity and abundant distribution has a great potential to become an important player in the Arctic research.
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Information content in vocalization of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus): individual distinction and recognition of predators
Baklová, Aneta ; Baranyiová, Eva (advisor) ; František, František (referee)
Guinea pigs represent domesticated precocious rodents which became common pets. From the first day after birth they are fully vocal. This thesis was devoted
to the vocalization of pups. The aim of the thesis was to 1) determine the age when the vocal individuality in whistle sound is demonstrable; 2) test possible ultrasonic signals emitted by young guinea pigs; 3) study the antipredator reactions and alarm calls to aerial (bird of prey) and terrestrial (dog) predators and human (control test).
A total of 16 guinea pig pups were tested for vocal individuality, 28 pups
for ultrasonic vocalization and 27 adolescents for predator recognition. When testing vocal ontogeny during the first 9 days after birth, I observed changes in temporal, frequency and parameter of intensity . When I test vocal individuality by cross-validated discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on ten acoustic parameters, calls were classified to correct animals with following success: day 1 = 71.9%, day 3 = 58.8%, day 5 = 53.10%, day 7 = 50.60% and day 9 = 63.10%. The highest frequency in whistle was 30.03 kHz. In predator discrimination reactions as freezing, fleeing and vigilance were observed. In the presence of dog, guinea pigs reacted for the longest time and most frequently by freezing. When confronted with a bird of prey, I observed for a longest time and most often fleeing and then freezing. When exposed to a human, guinea pigs showed mostly vigilance. Almost no vocalization was observed except for two events
of alarm calls - drrr as in the presence of dog and chirrup as reaction to bird of prey.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the presented results: 1) vocal individuality of guinea pigs is demonstrable immediately after birth and the rate
of individually different vocal parameters changes with age; 2) guinea pigs are able
to produce sound up to 30 kHz, i.e. within the ultrasound range, but signals of high frequencies are not crucial for their communication; 3) guinea pigs discriminate between terrestrial and aerial predators, but they emit alarm calls rather rarely.
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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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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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Corrosion behavior of plasma coatings CuAl10 and CuAl50 on magnesium alloy AZ 91
Kubatík, Tomáš František ; Stoulil, J. ; Stehlíková, K. ; Slepička, P. ; Janata, Marek
The most common magnesium alloy AZ 91 is widely used as a structural material, but its use is limited at higher temperatures and high humidity. Plasma spraying is a technology that allows to prepare protective metallic and non-metallic coatings on a wide variety of substrates including magnesium and its alloys. In this study, CuAl10 and CuAl50 were plasma sprayed on magnesium alloy AZ 91 with the aim to study corrosion resistance of the plasma sprayed coatings. The corrosion resistance of layers was evaluated by the method of electrochemical potentiodynamic measurement as well as long-term corrosion tests in a condensation chamber with 0.5 mol\nNaCl at the temperature of 35 °C for 1344 hours. Layers with 1, 2, 5 passes and passes of CuAl10 with the thickness ranging from 75 to 716 mm and CuAl50 with the thickness ranging from 64 to 566 mm were prepared. The increased corrosion velocity was observed in the case of thin layers of 2 and 5 passes due to the development of a galvanic corrosion couple. The CuAl10 layer prepared with ten passes has an outstanding corrosion resistance.
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Possibilities in monitoring of laser welding process
Horník, Petr ; Mrňa, Libor
With increasing demands on the quality of the welds, it is usual to apply automated machine welding with monitoring of the welding process. The resulting quality of the weld is largely affected by the behavior of keyhole. However, its direct observation during the welding process is practically impossible and it is necessary to use indirect methods. At ISI we develop optical methods of monitoring the process based on analysis of radiation of laser-induced plasma using Fourier and autocorrelation analysis. Observation of keyhole inlet opening is partially possible through a coaxial camera mounted on the welding head and the subsequent image processing. A high-speed rear camera to understand the dynamics of the plasma plume. Through optical spectroscopy of the plume, we can study the excitation of elements in a material. Shielding gas flow can be visualized using schlieren method.
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Multimedia Data Processing in Heterogeneous Distributed Environment
Kajan, Rudolf ; Ferko,, Andrej (referee) ; Míkovec, Zdeněk (referee) ; Herout, Adam (advisor)
Pervasive computing sa zameriava odstránenie zložitostí pri interakcii s výpočtovou technikou a zvýšenie efektivity pri jej každodennom používaní. Ale i po viac ako 15 rokoch od sformulovania hlavných cieľov Pervasive computingu existujú aspekty interakcie ktoré stále nie sú súčasťou užívateľskej skúsenosti s dnešnou technológiou. Bezproblémová integrácia s prostredím vedúca k technologickej neviditeľnosti, alebo interakcia naprieč rôznymi zariadeniami predstavujú stále veľkú výzvu. Hlavným cieľom tejto práce je prispieť k tomu, aby sa ciele Pervasive computingu priblížili k realizovaniu tým, že predstavíme spôsob intuitívneho zdieľania informácií medzi osobným a verejne umiestneným zariadením. Predstavili sme tri interakčné techniky, ktoré podporujú intuitívnu výmenu obsahu medzi osobným zariadením a zdieľaným displejom. Tieto techniky sú založené na prenose videa, rozšírenej realite a analýze pohľadových dát. Okrem interakčných techník sme tiež predstavili mechanizmus pre získavanie, prenos a rekonštrukciu aplikačného stavu na cieľovom zariadení.
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Environmental Friendly Accommodation in a Particular Area
RODĚJOVÁ, Věra
Theme of thesis is environmentally friendly accommodation in Trebon and surroundings. The main objective is to identify friendly approaches in the accommodation offers in the friendly area and assess the significance of friendly approaches in the strategy of companies, which offer accommodation. From the survey, in which respondents' interest was investigated in environmentally friendly accommodation, was created demand analysis and based on Internet resources and unstructured interviews analysis of the supply of accommodation. From the observed results were determined proposals and measures for improvement.
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Event marketing
NOVOTNÁ, Michaela
The goal of the thesis is to suggest changes for the upcoming period, based on the analysis of the chosen event. The thesis is divided into two parts, a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part deals with the problem of individual tools of marketing communication mix first. Their main objective, their advantages and disadvantages are always mentioned. The following chapter of the theoretical part is already focused at the thesis topic, the event marketing. This part summarizes the basic definitions, the typology of event marketing and the newest trends. The practical part deals with cocolate festival analysis. First, the festival is introduced and then the analysis of festival perception is carried out through a questionnaire survey, and an analysis of information obtained through participant observation. Suggestions that are based on these analyses, are worked out leading to a possible improvement of this festival.
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