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Gender aspects of embodiment in contemporary Czech art
Štefková, Zuzana ; Konečný, Lubomír (advisor) ; Lahoda, Vojtěch (referee) ; Pachmanová, Martina (referee)
This thesis analyzes key issues related to the various fornls of representation of gendcr aspects af enlbod iment in eonten~porary Czech visual art Based on case studies a.nd using thc !llethodology oť ferninisln, post strueturalism,\ and psychoanalysis~ this thesis discusses how development of Czech society after 1989 retlects itself in the work of selected Czech and Slovak artists. After providing a theoretical and philosophical introduction into the topie, I discuss the exhibitions that have dealt with the issue of ernbodil11ent in the Czech context Detailed analysis 1S devoted to the different manifestations af hetero- and homosexual desire. Two separate chapters focus on the ways in which pornographic visuality inspires eontetnporary Czech art and on the relation between eroticls1n and power respectively. Next chapter discusses the gender specific sources of bodily' abject. The following text analyzes various representations of femaie bodies (stereotypical roles, motherhood, specifica11y enlbodied subjectivlty, visuality of women's )ifestyle tllagazines, and the impact of beauty lnyth) as well as the various aspects of male embodiment (visual reinterpretation of masculinity, the role af penis in the construction of tnale's subjectivity, and the deconstruction af maje genius). Finally~ tne thesis...
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Exploring Brain Network Connectivity through Hemodynamic Modeling
Havlíček, Martin ; Hluštík, Petr (referee) ; Šmídl,, Václav (referee) ; Jan, Jiří (advisor)
Zobrazení funkční magnetickou rezonancí (fMRI) využívající "blood-oxygen-level-dependent" efekt jako indikátor lokální aktivity je velmi užitečnou technikou k identifikaci oblastí mozku, které jsou aktivní během percepce, kognice, akce, ale také během klidového stavu. V poslední době také roste zájem o studium konektivity mezi těmito oblastmi, zejména v klidovém stavu. Tato práce předkládá nový a originální přístup k problému nepřímého vztahu mezi měřenou hemodynamickou odezvou a její příčinou, tj. neuronálním signálem. Zmíněný nepřímý vztah komplikuje odhad efektivní konektivity (kauzálního ovlivnění) mezi různými oblastmi mozku z dat fMRI. Novost prezentovaného přístupu spočívá v použití (zobecněné nelineární) techniky slepé dekonvoluce, což dovoluje odhad endogenních neuronálních signálů (tj. vstupů systému) z naměřených hemodynamických odezev (tj. výstupů systému). To znamená, že metoda umožňuje "data-driven" hodnocení efektivní konektivity na neuronální úrovni i v případě, že jsou měřeny pouze zašumělé hemodynamické odezvy. Řešení tohoto obtížného dekonvolučního (inverzního) problému je dosaženo za použití techniky nelineárního rekurzivního Bayesovského odhadu, který poskytuje společný odhad neznámých stavů a parametrů modelu. Práce je rozdělena do tří hlavních částí. První část navrhuje metodu k řešení výše uvedeného problému. Metoda využívá odmocninové formy nelineárního kubaturního Kalmanova filtru a kubaturního Rauch-Tung-Striebelova vyhlazovače, ovšem rozšířených pro účely řešení tzv. problému společného odhadu, který je definován jako simultánní odhad stavů a parametrů sekvenčním přístupem. Metoda je navržena především pro spojitě-diskrétní systémy a dosahuje přesného a stabilního řešení diskretizace modelu kombinací nelineárního (kubaturního) filtru s metodou lokální linearizace. Tato inverzní metoda je navíc doplněna adaptivním odhadem statistiky šumu měření a šumů procesu (tj. šumů neznámých stavů a parametrů). První část práce je zaměřena na inverzi modelu pouze jednoho časového průběhu; tj. na odhad neuronální aktivity z fMRI signálu. Druhá část generalizuje navrhovaný přístup a aplikuje jej na více časových průběhů za účelem umožnění odhadu parametrů propojení neuronálního modelu interakce; tj. odhadu efektivní konektivity. Tato metoda představuje inovační stochastické pojetí dynamického kauzálního modelování, což ji činí odlišnou od dříve představených přístupů. Druhá část se rovněž zabývá metodami Bayesovského výběru modelu a navrhuje techniku pro detekci irelevantních parametrů propojení za účelem dosažení zlepšeného odhadu parametrů. Konečně třetí část se věnuje ověření navrhovaného přístupu s využitím jak simulovaných tak empirických fMRI dat, a je významných důkazem o velmi uspokojivých výsledcích navrhovaného přístupu.
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Impact of the architectural concept on the energy consumption of heating of the energy-saving residential buildings
Křeček, David ; Hudec, Mojmír (referee) ; Vaverka, Jiří (referee) ; Ing.arch.Lorant Krajcsovics,PhD. (referee) ; Chybík, Josef (advisor)
Human efforts to increase their comfort rise in density of population in congested city areas, rapid growth of traffic and electric smog created due to constantly transforming communication technologies all resulted in an increase of stress in the immediate human environment. All of this, along with frequent reports about changes in global climate, gradually contributes to an alteration of thinking of the whole society, which is forced to face the consequences of economic damages caused by climatic changes. If we want to tenably assert adequate economic and social living conditions, we have to approach the natural environment in a more profound way. In accordance with the trend of substantional development for the purpose of enhancement of the quality of the living environment in the field of building industry, it is logical to concentrate on buildings, which are conceptually focused on saving of the energy. That is on energy-efficient houses. Pathway to sustainable building is not based on discovering one or several multipurpose technological solutions, but on usage of new designing principles, new materials and methods of processing them as well as new techniques of construction. For an effective creation of a building concept it is essential to have that kind of device which quickly responds to changes performed on a design, enables an easier work on variants and produces the most accurate results. Consistent application of energy optimizing methods is necessary particularly for designs of energy saving houses. Beginning efficient building design is the most “abstract factor of concept linked with very uncertain inputs,” because a lot of parameters in that moment is still unknown. Many mutually connected factors are invoked during designing passive house e.g. trajectory of the sun and the shielding effect of the surroundings, the aspect of sunlight and interior lighting, power quality construction, etc. Currently, the architect has no choice, he can use only well-known precepts, such as large windows are facing the South not the North. Unfortunately this "empirical formula" for the design of a real passive house is not enough. And yet the first draft of the house is most affected by not only its shape, form, but user´s comfortable, cost, feasibility and future energy behavior of buildings and related operating costs of the house too. It is obvious that this stage should not be underestimated, because “minor variation of the initial inputs greatly influence the outcomes.” With this reasoning, the work focuses on early stage design decision, i.e. the architectural concept of a passive house (an idea, vision). Therefore the aim of this work is to simplify the issue into understandable form, i.e. the creation of relatively simple and illustrative sketches, which generalize the issue satisfactorily, show the individual parameters (glazing, shading, shape, size, etc.) and change need of heat for heating passive house. The results of the work will be useful when the architect picks up the pencil and starts to think about his future house. At this point, he will have on hand sketches, which give him an idea and streamline his further design. Therefore the main goal is to create new outcomes and identify energy behaviour of buildings with a computational tool. This research works with virtual idealized mathematical model in the software PHPP 2007 CZ and uses "phenomenon" of parametric equations and sensitivity analysis.
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Interactive Interface for Robot Remote Control
Lokaj, Tomáš ; Beran, Vítězslav (referee) ; Španěl, Michal (advisor)
This work deals with the interactive interface for remote controlled robots and examines some of the existing visualization and simulation tools and robotic platforms. It also designs and implements interactive elements suitable for representation of detected objects, such as bounding box or billboard, and proposes interactive elements to eliminate some of the problems associated with remote control of the robot, such as bad perception of distances and the orientation in the environment. The interactive interface is implemented in the Robot Operating System using offered means for visualization, communication and operations management. Graphics primitives are represented by Interactive Markers that, in addition to the visualization, offers also possibilities of interaction. With these markers, a simple tool for controlling the movement of the robot is designed.
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Look and visage as a value and actor's strategy
Buriánková, Jitka ; Vinopal, Jiří (advisor) ; Hamplová, Dana (referee)
The theme of this thesis lies on the border of sociology of values, body, health and lifestyle. The main goal is to explore and explain in detail some ideas about the importance of the visage and of the body care in modern society in the perspective of strategies of individual participants or groups. The thesis is formally divided into two main parts. The first one is mostly theoretically focused - it introduces the dilemma of the examined phenomenon initially by gradually defining basic concepts, terms and categories and then thorough description of the historical aspects of the development their real social representation, then it presents the attitudes to the main subject also in terms of purely sociological aspects and finally shows the social phenomenon from the perspective of cultural value system. There is a description of the new research "Aktér 2009"carried out by STEM in the second part of my thesis. This research includes batteries about the lifestyle. The research part follows the line of empirical bases that deal with selected problems of sociology of body, its perceptions and individual care of the body (e.g. issues of diets, eating habits, fitness and wellness etc.). Whereas the methodology is based on a quantitative approach and its technical apparatus is represented by batteries of...
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How people buy on Internet
Procházková, Pavla ; Jeřábek, Hynek (advisor) ; Tuček, Milan (referee)
CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Institute of Sociological Studies Pavla Procházková How people buy on internet Abstract of the Diploma Thesis This thesis describes the basic principles of human behavior in shopping on the Internet. The aim was to tell whether shopping on the Internet is rational. The work deals with theories of rationality and bounded rationality theories from the perspective of sociological, economic and psychological approaches. All theories agree that the man is rational, selects the most efficient option of possible behavior. Whether the benefits gained are economic, social or psychological. From this broad perspective, it is clear that people in most cases their actions are rational, because even the deepest emotions have some rational basis, however, that over the centuries They lost its effectiveness. Perhaps it may be irrational today due to too rapid growth of technology, information overload (information is becoming more and more widely available, but their understanding is worse, a man must decide which of them to follow). Internet for shopping feature brings greater rationality in their instruments. It also restricts such perceptions, which reduces the rationality of choice. The conclusion is that people act rationally on the Internet, buying in order to...
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Landscape of the South Bohemian Borderland: Land Use Development and the Landscape Heritage Comparison (Case Study of Selected Cadastral Units in the Novohradsko Region)
Ryant, Filip ; Chromý, Pavel (advisor) ; Rašín, Robin (referee)
The general aim of this thesis is to estimate nature of the man - landscape relationship in selected parts of the Novohradsko region. In the process of working on this thesis, many aspects, which could influence this connection, were considered. One of them was the forced transfer of German population from Czechoslovakia to Germany and Austria after World War II. Different extent of this process was the key to selection of the studied cadastral units. These cadasters were examined from the point of landscape changes and various landscape heritage comparison. The reason for this study was the complexity of the man - landscape relationship and the different aspects which can determine the nature of it. The results were confronted with the local people's perception by interviews. The thesis is structured into several parts. One of the crucial is the theoretical chapter, which presents the various attitudes to landscape, mainly those which emphasize land use discipline, landscape heritage, landscape memory and territorial identity. All these phenomenons appear in the other parts of the thesis. At first, the land use analysis in the South-Bohemian Borderland is made, then selected cadasters are examined in this way as well. An overview of the most important landscape heritage in those units follows....
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Essays on Social Interactions and Policy Evaluation
Pertold, Filip ; Jurajda, Štěpán (advisor) ; Buonanno, Paolo (referee) ; Martins, Pedro S. (referee)
In the first part, I explore the start of daily smoking, which is often after the re-sorting of students between elementary and secondary education. I employ a novel identification strategy based on this re-sorting, in order to estimate peer effects in youth smoking. The reflection problem is addressed by peers' pre-secondary-school smoking, which is not influenced by the current interaction. The self-selection is minimized by one's own presecondary school behavior and the pre-existing smoking prevalence among older schoolmates. The empirical findings from the Czech Republic, where the prevalence of youth smoking has recently reached high levels, suggest that male youth smoking is affected by classmates, while female smoking is not. In the second part, I estimate the effect of opposite-gender peer drinking on individual risky sexual behavior among Czech youth. The identification strategy relies on two main controls for individual and group-specific unobservables. First, younger schoolmates' sexual behavior is a control for school-specific attitudes toward sexual behavior. Second, predetermined individual pre-secondary-school alcohol consumption is used to control for selfselection into schools of individuals with specific attitudes toward alcohol. As opposed to Waddell (2010), I find that female drinking...
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Cognitive functions of birds based on abstract visual stimuli
Štorchová, Zuzana ; Landová, Eva (advisor) ; Němec, Pavel (referee)
Spatial orientation of pigeons on a small scale was intensivelly studied in experiments using various types of arenas or mazes. In these experiments pigeons usually searched for food hidden in the goal area and they based their orientation on available landmarks. The development of new technologies allowed to test spatial cognition of pigeons also in virtual tasks, based exclusively on a schematic representation of an arena or maze on a touch screen. In experiments of this type pigeon marks the goal by pecking and it is rewarded by food from a feeder, located near the monitor. Study presented in this diploma thesis was based on combination of both types of spatial tasks. The information crucial for locating the goal was presented to pigeons on a computer screen in form of graphic stimuli, whereas the goal itself was formed by one of the 4 holes in corners of a transparent rectangular desk, standing in front of the monitor. Experiment with similar design was not yet published in the study of spatial cognition of pigeons. Two types of abstract graphic stimuli were tested. The first stimuli provided a spatial information about the location of a goal and had a form of small rectangular frame with a white spot in one of its corners. The frame represented the space of the response desk and the white spot...
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The causes of school immaturity
Zemanová, Markéta ; Linková, Marie (referee) ; Kropáčková, Jana (advisor)
The thesis deals with the most frequent causes of school immaturity and their aspects. The theoretical part characterises and defines concepts linked with school maturity as the auditory and visual perception, kinetics, communication and mathematical imagination and the adherent problematics of the preschool period. It also focuses on the legislation pertaining the admission of the child to grammar school. The practical part analysis individual methods detecting the school immaturity. On the basis of analysing the childern work and summarisation of its results it is verifying the objectivity of the created test and also investigates the most frequent causes of school immaturity. On the basis of observation and dialogues it traces the social immaturity. The conclusion summarises findings from the individual methods and partial conclusions of the chapters.
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