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Non-invasive methods for sex and steroid homones determination in gibbons of the genus Nomascus
Bolechová, Petra ; Bartoš, Luděk (advisor) ; Pavel, Pavel (referee)
The gibbon primates of the family Nomascus are classified as critically endangered species, and, to date, basic understanding and information about their biology is missing. With regard to the status of these animals in the wild and captive populations in zoos, being familiar with their reproduction, may improve captive breeding programs. Data collection in this study was to be carried out by the practical use of non-invasive methods (polymerase chain reaction for DNA extraction and enzyme immunoassays), using faecal samples for analysis. The first method, polymerase chain reaction, was used for sex determination in juveniles, because of their coat colour and visual similarity of secondary sex characteristic in both sexes; it is not possible to determinate sex without handling the animal. Another main purpose of this study is to try and answer the hypothesis regarding the ovarian cycle of females, factors influencing their hormone concentration and also the onset of sexual maturity in females and the timing of their fur colour change. Hypotheses were checked by monitoring the concentration of progesterone and oestrogen faecal metabolites and by evaluation of the composition of breeding groups of gibbons with the ZOO influence. During a four year period (from 2010 till 2014), there were a total of 51 animals analysed from 16 different zoos with a faecal sample count totalling 1618 samples. The results confirmed the use of noninvasive methods for sex determination, and thus ensuring the maximum welfare standards. Endocrinological analysis confirmed the hypothesis of the influence of the environment (ZOO) to the hormone concentrations and female´s pregnancy effect in conjunction with her age on the final results of the male - father hormone concentrations. The initial information in this study is the confirmation of the onset of ovarian cycle in young females without connection to their fur colour change and a significant factor of a mother´s impact and her territoriality. This study is the first to present a long term monitoring of ovarian cycles in females and hormone concentrations of other individuals, both male and female, and from various age groups. The results allow us to understand the possible impact of zoo environments on the reproductive status of these gibbons and contribute to the general improvement of breeding management.
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Time lapse tomography of fracture progress in silicate-based composite subjected to the loading a combination with acoustic emission scanning
Kumpová, Ivana ; Kytýř, Daniel ; Fíla, Tomáš ; Veselý, V. ; Trčka, T. ; Vopálenský, Michal ; Vavřík, Daniel
The initiation and propagation of a fracture in quasi-brittle materials (such as silicatebased composite) is an increasingly discussed topic for which various methods of research have been developed/applied. As the quasi-brittle silicate-based composite compounds are very non-homogenous, the mechanism of the crack initiation and propagation can be very different even for samples with the\nidentical geometry. One possible approach to study the fracture mechanism in quasi-brittle materials is to use several different experimental techniques in a single experiment and perform detail analysis to identify generally valid fracture process phenomena. In this work, a simultaneous monitoring of fracture\nprocess zone formation and propagation by three different methods is presented and discussed. A three point bending test was performed on a notched silicate composite specimen. During the loading process, a highly accurate force displacement dependence was recorded accompanied with X-ray radiography,\nX-ray computed tomogra-phy and acoustic emission scanning.
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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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Sharing Local Information for Faster Scanning-Window Object Detection
Hradiš, Michal ; Kälviäinen, Heikki (referee) ; Matas, Jiří (referee) ; Zemčík, Pavel (advisor)
Cílem této dizertační prace je vylepšit existující detektory objektů pomocí sdílení informace a výpočtů mezi blízkými pozicemi v obraze. Navrhuje dvě metody, které jsou založené na Waldově sekvenčním testu poměrem pravděpodobností a algoritmu WaldBoost. První z nich, Early non-Maxima Suppression , přesunuje rozhodování o potlačení nemaximálních pozic ze závěrečné fáze do fáze vyhodnocování detektoru, čímž zamezuje zbytečným výpočtům detektoru v nemaximálních pozicích. Metoda neighborhood suppression doplňuje existující detektory o schopnost zavrhnout okolní pozice v obraze. Navržené metody je možné aplikovat na širokou škálu detektorů. Vyhodnocení obou metod dokazují jejich výrazně vyšší efektivitu v porovnání s detektory, které vyhodnocují jednotlivé pozice obrazu zvlášť. Dizertace navíc prezentuje výsledky rozsáhlých experimentů, jejichž cílem bylo vyhodnotit vlastnosti běžných obrazových příznaků v několika detekčních úlohách a situacích.
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Srovnání citlivosti 17 ekotoxikologických bioestů pro detekci cyanotoxinů
Maršálek, Blahoslav ; Bláha, L.
Detection potential of some bioassays used for cyanotoxin detection seems to be promising, but the real comparison of results and the sensitivity to cyanotoxins is imposible, because different authors use different cyanobacterial sample with uncomparable toxin composition, different methods for sample preparation, different design of bioassay, media, etc. A critical comparison of alternative bioassays for cyanotoxins detection, which is important for water management is up to date still missing. The aim of the present study was to compare the sensitivity of 17 bioassays for cyanotoxins detection (with respect to the content of hepatotoxic microcystins )using the same cyanobacterial biomass, and the same sample preparation . Additional aims of this study was as follow: i) can the fractionation of cyanobacterial biomass improve the sensitivity and decrease the variability of bioassays? , ii) which bioassay can more precisely dicrimine the presence of microcystins - is there any dose-response relationships? Cyanobacterial biomass was fractionated by SPE-C18 columns. Crude aqueous extracts, "non-toxic" pigment fraction without microcystins and "toxic" fractions (concentrated microcystins) were compared. This fractionation allowed to determine if the toxicity is due to microcystins, or some other not monitored metabolites present in the complex crude extract.
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The Pump with a Diffuser with Stochastic Blades (Runner and Diffuser)
Dobšáková, Lenka ; Melichar, Jan (referee) ; Veselý, Jindřich (referee) ; Haluza, Miloslav (advisor)
This doctoral thesis studies the non-uniform blade cascade for centrifugal pumps. Influence of non-uniform blade cascade is investigated on the impeller and diffuser. A non-uniform blading impeller of pumps in this doctoral thesis was examined in terms of influence on efficiency characteristic. The idea of using non-uniform blading is to obtain a flat efficiency characteristic. Then the centrifugal pump could be used on larger scale of power with achieving a sufficiently high efficiency. The work is based on experimental measurements and numerical simulations of non-uniform hydraulic pump components. Non-uniform impeller and the diffuser were newly designed for this research. A new measuring track of small submersible pumps was needed to design and build for measurements. Different pump combinations with conventional hydraulics on one working point and hydraulics with non-uniform were measured. All measurements were evaluated and characteristics of efficiency, head and power were obtained for each measured combination. Some of pump combinations (which were measured in experiment) were numerically simulated by program Ansys Fluent. Data needed to evaluate the characteristic of efficiency and specific energy were collected from each numerical simulation. A theoretical consideration concerns the influence of non-uniform blade cascade applied on diffuser. The suggestion how to decrease hydraulic losses in canals was done. The theoretical consideration how to make a flat efficiency characteristic was made.
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Do Consumers Really Follow a Rule of Thumb? Three Thousand Estimates from 130 Studies Say “Probably Not”
Havránek, Tomáš ; Sokolova, Anna
We show that three factors combine to explain the mean excess sensitivity reported in studies estimating consumption Euler equations: the use of macro data, publication bias, and liquidity constraints. When micro data are used, publication bias is corrected for, and the households under examination do not face liquidity constraints, the literature implies no evidence for the excess sensitivity of consumption to income. Hence little remains for pure rule-of-thumb behavior. The results hold when we control for 45 additional variables reflecting the methods employed by researchers and use Bayesian model averaging to account for model uncertainty. The estimates of excess sensitivity are also systematically affected by the order of approximation of the Euler equation, the treatment of non-separability between consumption and leisure, and the choice of proxy for consumption.
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Vývoj metodologické a technologické platformy pro neinvazivní odhad fenolických látek v listech a bobulích
ŠEBELA, David
Plant optical signals can serve as important source of information about biochemical and physiological processes in plants. These signals are influenced by compounds synthesized by plants during primary or secondary metabolism and thus, can also serve as their qualitative and quantitative indicators. Light reaching plant surface (leaf or fruit) can undergo three main pathways- it can be (i) reflected, (ii) absorbed or it can (iii) transmit through plant material. The probability of these three processes depends on particular wavelength of incident irradiation and on the morphological characteristics of plant tissues themselves. As such, plant contains various spectrum of photosynthetic pigments and fluorescent compounds which can either reflect, absorb or pass incident irradiation through at specific wavelengths. Biophysical techniques working with these optical properties of plant pigments and/or other compounds have become universal and common tool in basic and applied research. To quote some example, chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, UV induced fluorescence or spectroscopic techniques are on the top of interest thanks to its non-invasive nature, allowing maintain the integrity of measured cells or the whole plant constituents. The main aim of this thesis is to provide a comprehensive study on the possibility of non-invasive monitoring of phenolic compounds in the leaves and fruits.
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The contributions of the sections (NACE-CZ) to the creation of gross value added
BEDNÁŘOVÁ, Monika
The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the contributions of the sections (NACE-CZ) to the creation of gross value added. The first part of this thesis described the theoretical concepts relating to national economic gross value added. Analytical processes were used for the calculations, which may be used only if we are dealing with an additive link between individual factors. The sections' contributions to the creation of national eco-nomic gross value added were evaluated in the practical part, on the basis of the proc-esses set forth in the methodology. In the given time horizon, contributions by institu-tional sectors and groups of sections classified according to the level of technology showed a certain dependency on the actual economic cycle. Although the strongest in-stitutional sector is non-financial enterprises, they were the ones most affected during the crisis period, together with government institutions. On the contrary, the financial institution sector showed a strong position during the crisis period. In terms of the grouping of the sections according to the level of technology, the greatest contribution to national economic gross value added is by groups B1 and B2. The influence of the economic cycle was noted in all the groups but, according to the results, group C did not react quite as sensitively as the other groups.
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Injuries of children at home
POCHYLÁ, Petra
The theoretical part of this thesis is oriented at an actual issue of accidents involving children in home environment, their prevention and a correct provision of first aid by a non-professional at these types of selected accidents. The practical part of this thesis was led by a qualitative form of research, a method of a semicontrolled interview. The interview given was led by chosen caring people, who gave first aid to children with a home environment injury. The whole process of the interview was recorded at a digital record book and then rewritten to a text form, with the approval of the respondents. The respondents were chosen on the basis of a survey. The final information from the interviews were analyzed and subsequently summarized into results. Six respondents were registered into the research part. Six basic questions were given to the respondents. The questions were chosen to find out information about an injured child, an injury character, a procedure of caring person while giving first aid, or other professional care and permanent effects. While preparing the research part, I was expecting that most of the respondents would manage to give first aid, however, according to the results, half of the parents didn't know how to deal with giving first aid. Non- professional first aid, provided at the right time and done correctly, is one of the basic and essential steps to reverse the injured person back into the normal quality of life. This is why, all people should be able to give first aid without special equipment and tools. The aim of my thesis was to monitor the process of the caring person while giving first aid for selected accidents involving children in home environment. I gave myself one fundamental research question: What was the process of the caring person while giving first aid for accidents involving children in home environment? At the final evaluation and comparison of my results, I achieved the results, in most examined facts, which are presented in other different studies dealing with similar issues- children's injuries and giving first aid for accidents involving children.
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