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Sorption and Stabilization of Metals/Mettalloids by Innovative Synthesized Sorbent Amochar.
Ouředníček, P. ; Trakal, L. ; Komárek, M. ; Pohořelý, Michael
Remediation of contaminated soil which is based on stabilization and immobilization of potential\nhazardous substance by sorption materials has been studied intensively nowadays. Biochar – activated organic carbon belongs to this group of stabilizing agents which can adsorb wide range of contaminants, including metals/metalloids. Surface area of the biochars is quite large in general and functional groups (e.g. COO–) can form chelates or alkaline elements on the surface, which is represented by cation exchange capacity. Altogether with the high pH values (7.00 – 10.00), biochars are quite effective sorbents and can adsorb metals/metalloids from the solution (ground water), especially in acidic soils (in the environments affected by intensive mining activities). Sorption\neffectiveness can be increased (especially for As (V) or Cr (VI) sorption) by modification of biochar by various types of secondary oxides. Innovative sorbent AMOchar (AMO + biochar) has been synthesized currently. The product was prepared by adding of biochar to the reaction solution during amorphous manganese oxide (AMO) synthesis. The AMOchar was formed mainly by Mn-oxalates which had coated surface of the pristine biochar. AMOchar composite was able to remove significantly higher amounts of various metal(loid)s from the solution despite the rather high pH of the material. Sorption effectiveness was high not only in case of Pb (II) sorption (almost 99%), and Cd(II) (51.2%), but also a very high amount of As(V), 91.4%. Additionally, both AMOchar composite was able to reduce Mn leaching. This can avoid potential post-contamination caused by the dissolution of less stable Mn-oxalates as observed in the pure AMO.
Fulltext: content.csg -  PDF
Plný tet: SKMBT_22316111113040 - PDF
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Plasma spraying from liquids: plasma liquid interaction and coating build up
Tesař, Tomáš ; Mušálek, Radek ; Medřický, Jan ; Lukáč, František
Plasma spraying from liquid feedstocks is a rapidly developing field of thermal spraying since the coatings prepared from liquids exhibit some unique features, such as high hardness, thermal shock resistance or low thermal and electric conductivity. The key factor influencing the final coating character and properties is the input material which may be in the form of a suspension or a solution. Parameters of the selected suspension (solids concentration, viscosity, surface tension, chemical composition, etc.) or solution (concentration, etc.) determine its interaction with the plasma jet which strongly influences the coating buildup. This proceeding introduces the problematics of the interaction between the liquid feedstock material with the plasma jet and presents the way of evaluation of the coating buildup.
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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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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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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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Cooperation of high schools with external contractors in preparing school educational programs
Tulach, David ; Lačev, Alek (advisor) ; Hochel, Matej (referee)
This thesis, Cooperation of high schools with external contractors in preparing school educational programs, deals with the question whether it would be possible and beneficial for high schools to cooperate with companies on the preparation or modification of their educational programs, with the goal of improving the quality of education. After initial contributions from experts who provided negative replies to this question, the view was focused on the root of the issue - what are the historical pillars of public schools and pedagogy, what does science say about learning and teaching, how pedagogy reacts to the crisis of science. After comparing literal sources and results from interview with the experts, in combination with a trace and activity analysis, a theory was established that public education is reaching a point of crisis, has not changed in its essence since its beginning and that the best solution might be the establishment of alternative educational institutions.
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Predicting asp and pikeperch recruitment in a riverine redervoir.
BLABOLIL, Petr
Recruitment of two species, asp (Leuciscus aspius) and pikeperch (Sander lucioperca), in a riverine reservoir was studied using a novel statistical approach. Both species are piscivorous and are stocked into reservoirs for biomanipulative purposes to reduce planktivore species. Long-term data series were used, but the number of potential predictors was high. Therefore, a novel informative statistical approach based on dimension reduction methods was applied. Quality of outputs was driven by sampling methods. Main factors affecting asp recruitment were zooplankton abundance, predator density and temperature. In terms of pikeperch fry measured with seine and trawls, the number of predators was the only important factor. Gillnets underestimate small fish and the data were unsuitable for statistical modelling.
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Single particle analysis of size-segregated aerosol in Prague city center
Marvanová, S. ; Skoupý, Radim ; Kulich, P. ; Bendl, J. ; Hovorka, J. ; Machala, M.
Particulate matter (PM) is omnipresent pollutant in the ambient air known to cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (WHO 2004). Recently, outdoor air pollution and particulate matter in outdoor air pollution were classified as carcinogenic to humans, Group 1 (IARC 2015). Especially, ambient PM of aerodynamic diameter < 100 nm, ultrafine particles, appears to be of great importance due to its high specific surface area and high number concentration (Hughes et al. 1998). Ultrafine particles also easily enter and are being transferred in organisms, and interact with cells and subcellular components (Oberdorster et al. 2005). As the evidence of ultrafine PM significance increased, size-fractionated PMs sampled by various cascade impactors have been employed into the toxicological studies on cell cultures or isolated cells, using the organic extracts of size-fractionated PMs (Topinka et al. 2013, Topinka et al. 2015) or directly the size-fractionated particles (Becker et al. 2003, Ramgolam et al. 2009, Reibman et al. 2002, Loxham et al. 2013, Jalava et al. 2006, Thomson et al. 2015, Jalava et al. 2015). The aim of this study was to evaluate shape and composition of size-segregated aerosol particles, sampled by high volume cascade impactor, using electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
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Diamond coated AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors - effect of deposition process on gate electrode
Vanko, G. ; Ižák, Tibor ; Babchenko, O. ; Kromka, Alexander
We studied the influence of the diamond deposition on the degradation of Schottky gate electrodes (i.e. Ir or IrO2) and on the electrical characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In present study, the diamond films were selectively deposited on the AlGaN/GaN circular HEMT by focused (ellispoidal cavity reactor) and linear antenna (surface wave) microwave plasma at different temperatures from 400°C to 1100°C. The preliminary results on electrical measurements on the diamond-coated c-HEMTs showed degraded electrical properties comparing to c-HEMTs before deposition process, which was attributed to degradation of the Ir gate electrodes even at temperatures as low as 400°C. On the other hand, metal oxide gate electrode layer (IrO2) can withstand diamond CVD process even at high temperatures (~900°C) which make it suitable for fabrication of all-in-diamond c-HEMT devices for high-power applications.
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(100) substrate processing optimization for fabrication of smooth boron doped epitaxial diamond layer by PE CVD
Mortet, Vincent ; Fekete, Ladislav ; Ashcheulov, Petr ; Taylor, Andrew ; Hubík, Pavel ; Trémouilles, D. ; Bedel-Pereira, E.
Boron doped diamond layers were grown in an SEKI AX5010 microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition system. Effect of surface preparation, i.e. polishing and O2/H2 plasma etching on epitaxial growth on type Ib (100) HPHT synthetic diamonds were investigated. Using optimized substrate preparation, smooth (RRMS ~ 1 nm) boron doped diamond layers with metallic conduction and free of un-epitaxial crystallites were grown with a relatively high growth rate of 3.7 μm/h. Diamond were characterized by optical microscopy, optical profilometry, atomic force microscopy and Hall effect.
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