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Intraday Dynamics of Euro Area Sovereign Credit Risk Contagion
Komárek, Luboš ; Ters, Kristyna ; Urban, Jörg
We examine the role of the CDS and bond markets during and before the recent euro area sovereign debt crisis as transmission channels for credit risk contagion between sovereign entities. We analyse an intraday dataset for GIIPS countries as well as Germany, France and central European countries. Our findings suggest that, prior to the crisis, the CDS and bond markets were similarly important in the transmission of financial shock contagion, but that the importance of the bond market waned during the crisis. We find flight-to-safety effects during the crisis in the German bond market that are not present in the pre-crisis sample. Our estimated sovereign risk contagion was greater during the crisis, with an average timeline of one to two hours in GIIPS countries. By using an exogenous macroeconomic news shock, we can show that, during the crisis period, increased credit risk was not related to economic fundamentals. Further, we find that central European countries were not affected by sovereign credit risk contagion, independent of their debt level and currency.
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From Radioart to Musical Theatre
Jiřička, Lukáš ; KLÍMA, Miloslav (advisor) ; NOVOTNÝ, Pavel (referee)
This dissertation From Radioart to Musical Theatre aims at showing connections between seemingly different fields ? mainly sound-drama radioart, which in German is called Hörspiel, and musical theatre. In my dissertation, I try to define the characteristics as well as structural principles of text, space, sound, voice, acting, music and body in these transdisciplinary forms and genres, which have never retained any kind of purity in the traditional sense.In the analytical and introductory historical part of my dissertation, various seemingly different areas were introduced and discussed. These areas were musical or sound theatre in its general as well as specific form and its interrelation with sound installations, performance, radioart in form of Hörspiel, musical composition and sound art. In the following chapters, I used examples of several pivotal personalities from the German speaking area skilled in musical composition as well as directing and dramatics to present for instance the influence of musical structure on composition and other performing activities or the relationship of dramatic or literary model to its scenographic adaptation. The whole issue of relationships of disparate art forms is being showed on the examples of several artists ? directing composers who create these links thanks to their activity in various fields, as they intertwine musical and performing worlds on the level of structure, motifs and dramatics. The creators of such heterogeneous artworks using the strategy of the so-called negative dramatics are inherently split personalities - Heiner Goebbels, Helmut Oehring, Olga Neuwirth and Andreas Ammer. Goebbels as well as Oehring, Neuwirth and Ammer are able to make use of their experience with musical composition and/or work for the radio in the creation of musical performances in the way that they let particular composition techniques and staging be freely influenced by the knowledge of other media. Besides the above mentioned group of artists, I mention also other significant authors from the 20th and 21st century, who dealt with radioart, musical composition, collage and montage, performance and musical theatre - Bertolt Brecht, Dziga Vertov, Emil František Burian, Walter Ruttmann, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dieter Schnebel, Georg Katzer, Friedrich Schenker, FM Einheit či Laurie Anderson and Georges Aperghis. Without the influence of the last fifty year-history of radioart, musical theatre would certainly not be such an important form of alternative theatre and performing art as such. Especially nowadays, when thanks to the emancipation and stressing of sound at the expense of acting a new stage language is being created within musical theatre, and the form itself transforms into yet little analysed field of the so-called postspectacular or mechanical theatre without actors.
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Coping strategies in children´s fear and pain in relation to nursing care
PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Zuzana
For the nurse, taking care of hospitalized children is important not only pediatric nursing knowledge, personal and social preconditions, but also the theoretical and practical competency of methods and techniques, which are used for identification and effective influencing of pain and fear. The aim of this thesis was to identify the main sources of fear of the hospitalized preschool and young school age children and to find out the effective methods and principles of the cooperation with children, alternatively with their accompanying parents in order to moderate the fear of the small patient. Then the thesis tried to chart the nursing diagnostic and evaluation procedure of the pain and get the most used nursing methods of non-pharmacological pain relief. To obtain the necessary data, the qualitative research was used with a semi-structured interview as a research instrument. The first research group consisted of 12 nurses, the second group consisted of 12 children ´s patients of preschool and young school age. The majority of the asked nurses thinks, that children´s patients are afraid especially of non-familiar environment, then of the awaited pain and of the solitude without parents. However, the most patients said, that they were afraid especially of pain, then of non-familiar environment, restriction of their needs, hostile attitude of the medical staff and of the other neighbouring patients. They were also frightened of the death and of the darkness. Most reported nurses mean, that the most effective solution of the children ´s fear is the friendly attitude of the medics. They also mentioned the fact of taking the focus off the fear and the presence of the parents is also beneficial. The nurses ´ answers were in conformity with patients opinion in two fields - friendly attitude of the medics and taking the focus off the fear. Then the children mentioned abiding of their specifics in connection to falling asleep and the demand of beying treated by the same sister or by few same sisters. All respondents also talked about the benefit of parents presence. Regarding the principles of the cooperation, nurses answered the importance of united medical procedures, especially the proper way of information transfer. Then the respondents nurses mentioned the psychical and emotional support for children and their accompaniments, the atmosphere of confidence and the value of well done education. Also the need of calm, silence and privacy was stated. Unlike nurses, children and their parents regarding to principles of the cooperation prefer the psychical and emotional support, then the importance of enough information was mentioned. The fourth research question bears on the methods used for children pain monitoring. The nurses said, that the intentional interview with the patients or with the parents was used as a main technique, that was stated by patients as well. Research question number five said: What are the most used nursing methods of non-pharmacological pain relief at children? Most responded nurses mentioned the distraction of children attention from the painful incentive, then the importance of physical methods, relief position and purposeful preparation for the unpleasant intervention. Nurses also named the helpful contribution of the parents, relaxing exercises and the method of imagination. Regarding the pain treatment, it was noted, that all patients prefered the analgesic therapy. Then they quoted the distraction of their attention from the painful incentive, the friendly attitude of the medics, using the ice compress and the relief position. In the pain acute phase, children required mostly calm, comfort and privacy. All children also considered the presence of parents as very helpful. The theoretical and empirical part of the thesis are suitable for being studied by nurses taking care of children and it can be helpful for nursing quality improvement at children ´s wards in hospitals.
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Nursing care management of patients after intrapleural chemical pleurodesis
KIESEWETTEROVÁ, Renáta
The pleurodesis is a treatment method for patients suffered from the symptomatic malignant pleural effusion. The goal of the pleurodesis is to close a pleural area by connection of visceral and parietal pleura in order to reduce or terminate production of pleural effusion. The sterile talc powder is the world's most used agens within a practice. After a parental analgesic is the powder (as a sllury) either applicated into a pleural cavity through the chest drainage or surgically dispersed over the treated (via abrasion, decortication) pleural space during the thoracoscopy/thoracotomy. This diploma thesis focuses on the treatment technique of bedside talc-pleurodesis through the chest drainage. The nurse has an irreplaceable role in the whole process from a preparation of patient to assistance by intrapreural application, to care of patient after the operation or serves as a physical support during potential complications. The aim of the presented work is to detect priorities in nursing care and find out whether patients need increased care after intrapleural therapy. The qualitative research method was chosen for the analysis where semi-structural interview with open questions were used. We created case reports analysed with the adaptive model of Callista Roy as well. The research sample contained patients chosen with respect to specialization of researched problem. We set two basic focal stimuli according to the analysis of respondents´ reactions. These stimuli serve as a basis for determination of priority parts of the nursing care by patients after bedside pleurodesis. We defined the need to be without pain and the need to ensure safety and certainty as a central focus of the nursing care. Among secondary fields of nursing care were identified sleep disturbances and limited mobility, which leads to reduction of self-care in getting dress, hygiene as well as in defection and miction. We found out within the second goal identical intensity of the nursing care before and after bedside talc-pleurodesis. This statement is based on comparison of interventions before and after aplication analysed via adaptive model by Roy. Nevertheless, causes of interventions were modified to a certain extent. The main goal of diploma thesis was to map requirements for high-quality nursing care related to bedside talc-pleurodesis via chest drainage. The work should extend theoretical basis not only for nurses in clinical practice.
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Card of Cryptosporidium infections by humans and animals
BLÁHOVEC, Ondřej
The representatives of the Cryptosporidium genus are one of the causes of gastrointestinal tract diseases in humans and animals. In animals the host may even be a respiratory apparatus. The disease is called cryptosproridiosis. In majority of cases this infection can bypass without any major problems, but in immunosuppressed individuals it can cause serious health problems. Cryptosporidium has a monoxenous development cycle, which basically means that the entire development takes place in a single host. Exogenous stage is represented by oocysts, which are in case of a gastrointestinal disease excreted in faeces. In case of a respiratory disease the oocysts make they way out via respiratory and nasal secretions. This leads to contamination of the environment or water. In general, it is expected that Cryptosporidium isolates, which are present in one class of vertebrates, are not infectious to a non-specific host from other classes. It is also expected that cryptosporidia have low host specificity. But this does not exclude that some kinds have gradually extended its specificity to more species. It is also apparent that cryptosporidium infections are common in animals that inhabit the external environment, so even a human can be endangered by this zoonosis, although the incidence in the Czech Republic is low. The reason for the low numbers may as well be that parasitological examination is not performed very often, so the estimated prevalence in the population is probably much higher. Therefore to reveal the originator of this disease it would be appropriate to perform a parasitological examination in persons who are in contact with animals, this way the cryptosporidium infection would be excluded or proven.
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Nové postupy biomonitoringu cizorodých látek ve vodním prostředí
ČERVENÝ, Daniel
Within the presented work, several approaches of biomonitoring were studied. A well-established method for human health risk assessment was applied to evaluate the quality of fish from open waters in the Czech Republic. As this work is targeted on sport fishermen, who frequently consume their own catches, besides the publication in scientific journal, a brochure with results of this study was distributed via the Czech Fishing Union. Health risks for consumers related to the consumption of wild fish were found strongly species and locality dependent. As there is no risks related with the consumption of carp (Cyprinus carpio) at all investigated sites, frequent consumption of predatory fish should be avoided at some fishing grounds. The use of passive samplers has become more and more attractive in the last two decades. As these devices are able to mimic the biological uptake of chemicals, their potential for replacing fish as bioindicators in routine biomonitoring programmes is evident. In our study, the comparison between analysis of fish tissues and POCIS extracts from selected sampling sites confirms this idea about interchangeability of these indicators in the case of PFASs as target pollutants. Moreover, no metabolic transformation of contaminants present in water take place in passive samplers contrary to living organisms, thus these reflect the actual contamination at the locality more precisely. The use of passive samplers completely fulfils the internationally accepted principles of Replacement, Reduction, Refinement (the three R´s). Another promising approach using YOY fish as bioindicators was evaluated within the present study. Multispecies samples of YOY fish homogenate was found as a better indicator for wide range of pollutants than muscle tissue of adult fish within one species from the same locality. As all inner organs and tissues are presented in analysed samples, more target pollutants in higher concentrations are detected compared to the muscle of adults. Besides the higher sensitivity in pollutants detection and quantification, practical and economic benefits are of concern in the case of the YOY fish approach. The YOY fish approach also particularly fulfil the three R´s strategy, as sampling of this age group of fish has a smaller impact on the environment than the sampling of adults. In case of mercury, that was found as a limiting contaminant for the consumption of fish from open waters in the Czech Republic, a nonlethal method of finclips sampling can be used for the monitoring of this compound in aquatic environments. Besides the monitoring, our optimised method for the estimation of muscle tissue concentrations could be used for human health risk assessment as well. The difference between real muscle concentrations and concentrations estimated using our method differs less than 10% in most of the investigated localities. Benthic organisms are an important part of the food web in aquatic environments, but insufficient information about its contamination is available. In another study included in this thesis, first evidence about bioaccumulation of certain pharmaceuticals in benthic organisms was described. Although, pharmaceuticals are generally considered to be not accumulative in organisms, our study proved that certain pharmaceuticals have bioaccumulation potential. From this finding, it is evident that not only the concentrations of pharmaceutical dissolved in water but also the diet represents an important exposure pathway of contamination by these compounds for organisms (fish) inhabiting aquatic environments.
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Iniciace pohybu byčíku, signalizace a regulace pohyblivosti spermií ryb: fyzikální a biochemické řízení
PROKOPCHUK, Galina
The current study attempted to shed light on the regulatory processes and response arrangements of fish spermatozoa during the course of maturation and motility initiation. The first intent of this study was to improve the understanding of the mechanism underlying the acquisition of potential for sperm motility in sturgeon. Up to present work, the physiological process underlying sperm maturation in this species has not been described at all. Our results showed that sperm maturation in sturgeon occurs outside the testes because of dilution of sperm by urine and involves the participation of high molecular weight substances as well as calcium ions present in seminal fluid and/or urine. The second aim of the present study was to investigate the coping mechanisms in fish spermatozoa with osmotic and ionic activating mode, as well as in spermatozoa of euryhaline fishes, to various environmental conditions. We showed that alteration of environmental osmolality might affect the fish sperm in different ways, depending on fish species and modes of spermatozoa motility activation either osmotic or ionic mode. In response to osmotic stress caused by hypotonicity, carp spermatozoa regulated the flow of water across their cell membrane and increased their cytoplasmic volume during their short motility period. In contrast, no indications of sperm volume changes were observed neither in sterlet nor in brook trout spermatozoa, both of which having an ionic mode of motility activation. We also examined the mechanism by which sperm motility triggering in euryhaline fishes can adapt to a broad range of environmental salinity. Our results demonstrated that spermatozoa of euryhaline tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron heudelotii, reared in fresh-, sea- or hypersaline water can be activated in hypotonic, isotonic or hypertonic conditions of swimming milieu, provided Ca2+ ions are present at various levels. It was established that the higher the fish rearing salinity or the more hypertonic ambient media at spermatozoa activation, the higher extracellular concentration of Ca2+ ions is required. The results obtained in the present study allow suggesting that osmolality is not the main factor inhibiting sperm motility inside the testis in the S. melanotheron heudelotii. A third aim of this study was investigation of the regulation of motility initiation process and description of flagellar beating initiation in chondrostean spermatozoa. We detected that K+ inhibition of sperm motility in sturgeon can be by-passed due to the pre-exposure of sperm cells to a high osmolality shock prior to its transfer to K+-rich swimming media. Thus, we hypothesized that sturgeon spermatozoa may be activated by use of an unexpected signaling pathway, independent from regular ionic stimulation. The successive activation steps in sturgeon spermatozoa were investigated by high-speed video microscopy, using specific experimental situation, where sperm motility initiation was delayed in time up to several seconds. At motility initiation, the first couple of bends formed at the basal region begins to propagate towards the flagellar tip, but gradually fades when reaching the mid-flagellum. This behavior repeats several times until a stage where the amplitudes of bends gradually reach similar value, what eventually leads to sperm progressive displacement. The total period needed for the flagellum to switch from immobility with rigid shape to full activity with regular propagating bends ranges from 0.4 to 1.2 seconds. In conclusion, the results of the current study bring valuable pieces of information into the general understanding of the processes of maturation of fish spermatozoa, their adaptability to different physical and biochemical circumstances, the extra- and intra-cellular signaling as well as the regulatory mechanisms of motility activation in fish spermatozoa.
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Ability of dogs to discriminate human odor exposed to chemical detergent
Čajágiová, Martina ; Vyplelová, Petra (advisor) ; Jaroslav, Jaroslav (referee)
In the recherche part of our thesis we familiarize ourselves with the human odor, theories of its origin, definition, anatomy of human skin and odors, composition of individual human odors and with odor secretion. We also look closer on the topics of odor absorbent and its use in the world, the transmission of odors to odor sensors and securing of scents. This section of our thesis discusses the resistance and survival abilities of odor, scent identification method and its history, organic acids, and defines the application of laundry detergents and ultrasonic washers. Aim of our thesis was to verify the relevance of the use of chemical detergents in the purification process when working with scents. We tried to verify the ability of detergents to degrade the human scent on odor absorbents to such an extent, that specially trained dogs would not be able to identify it. Our experiment was following a precise determination methodology. In the first phase samples were collected from the hands of targeted persons to a scent carrier - a metal cylinder (extirpate odour), by one researcher. In the second phase samples were collected from the body to a textile carrier, by another researcher. The metal scent carriers were processed. Some of them were left as they were (control sample) and some were exposed to chemical detergents with and without usage of an ultrasonic washer.
In the experiment where we tried to identify the odour samples, six bitches of German shepherd were used. They were specially trained for odour identification. Each dog was let three times to identify the target scent exposed to a detergent and three times to identify the target scent not exposed to a detergent. Target smell was randomly deposited between other samples and its position was changed, so that the handler did not know its position and thus was unable to affect the work of his dog. The indicator of positive identification was a sign the dogs were taught - to sit or lay in front of a sample.
Any dog was unable to identify the scent which was exposed to chemical detergent and all dogs identify the scent unexposed to a chemical detergent. Our experiment has shown that the use of chemical detergents in the purification process when working with scents is relevant to the degradation of individual human scent.
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Scattering of Sun Radiation on Microparticles in a Closed Environment of Water Bath
Jelínek, Marek ; Pecen, Josef (advisor) ; Zeman, Josef (referee)
This thesis deals with an alternative technology used to illuminate spaces without access to daylight. Technology uses primarily scattering and also reflection and refraction of sunlight in the optical environment of the PET bottles with water and microparticles. The base of technology consists of a plastic bottle filled with water with microparticles and positioned so that it vertically penetrates the roof interior. The effect of scattering of sunlight in the bottle is amplified by using a suitable material of the microparticles.
Review of literature deals with areas that the technology is primarily designed for and the current state of expansion. The principle of technology and factors affecting its efficiency are explained.
The aim of the experiment was limited testing and selection of suitable material of microparticles and their concentration for the possibility of practical use within the technology described. Several measurements were performed of the intensity ratio of incident and scattered light using selected materials of microparticles of various concentrations. Based on the obtained values and their comparison a solution containing 0.5 g of limestone into 1.5 l of water was selected as the most suitable optical environment for the solution.
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The Benefits of Green Spaces
Těťálová, Zuzana ; Souček, Josef (advisor) ; Marek, Marek (referee)
This diploma thesis with the theme of The benefits of green spaces deals with the benefits of green space and their value.
The main part of the thesis is a literary review summarizing the theme of the benefits of green space and the methods of their evaluation. The first part of the review focuses mainly on the identification of the functions of green spaces in an urban environment and a closer look at their effects, utility and functioning. In this section the effects of the phenomena that occur in urban environments and which are suppressed thanks to green spaces are also analyzed. The second part of the review is devoted to the importance of evaluating green spaces and their benefits and further to methodologies, which are discussed in detail.
The following section analyzes the evaluation methodologies and their positive and critical points are identified. This section also divides the methodologies according to their relevance in the Czech environment, which is specific and the methodologies developed in the Anglo-Saxon context cannot be applied without modification. This chapter also compares data sources needed to develop a methodology for evaluating the benefits of green spaces.
In the fifth chapter of the thesis, a methodology for calculating the economic value of the benefits of green spaces in the city is created, based on the knowledge gained in the literature review. The methodology combines methods from various sources and adjusts them to the Czech context. It also examines the data sources needed in order to set up the whole balance sheet.
The sixth part deals with the discussion, in which is the summary of the data, which arise from the assembled methodology and compares them with the literature and the application of similar methodologies in other territories.
The conclusion summarizes the information obtained in the research and suggests other possibilities of their future use.
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