National Repository of Grey Literature 79 records found  1 - 10nextend  jump to record: Search took 0.00 seconds. 
Human preferences to primate species and their consequences
Zelenková, Michaela ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
One of the most important traits of an individual is the appearance. Though mankind desires to unlock the "beauty code" for centuries, it is very difficult to do so. A lot of papers focuses on the characterization of appearance and preferences towards it. It is now obvious that instead of using just one factor to describe the nature of "beauty", we need to comprehend a lot of factors that put together the puzzle pieces of an attractive individual. Nowadays, a widely accepted fact is that symmetry makes facial and other body features attractive. Other important factors are averageness or so-called baby schema with distinct young features. Similar rules apply for evaluation of preferences towards other, non-human species, especially primates. The most attractive primates have facial features that resemble humans or that are round with big, distinctive eyes (baby-schema). Thus, for humans, the most attractive primates are the ones that are similar to us and that are large in body size, while the unattractive ones have an appearance distinctive to humans. Moreover, humans distinguish two main primate faces: nice and friendly, baby-like faces, and aggressive, dangerous faces.
Aesthetic and emotional evaluation of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) and its implications
Končická, Anna ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Animals play a significant role in human societies. As significant psychological stimuli, they evoke not only positive but also negative emotions. Human efforts on animal conservation are directly linked to the way in which those animals are aesthetically percieved. This master's thesis is focused on the aesthetic and emotional evaluation of butterflies and moths, using a method of ranking visual stimuli and scoring on a point scale. The aim of this thesis is both to compare various methods of beauty evaluation among a group Lepidoptera and to analyze the influence of butterflies' position on presented stimuli on the resulting beauty evaluations. Furthermore, this thesis focuses on negative emotions (disgust) evoked by butterflies and moths. Last but not least, the influence of morphological and color characteristics of butterflies and moths on beauty evaluations is analyzed. The characteristics and attitudes of respondents are also analyzed as a possible influential factor of the evaluation. It was found that all investigated testing methods could be used to evaluate the beauty of butterflies and moths and that they produced similar results. It was also found that wing positions of butterflies and moths have a particularly notable effect on their beauty evaluations, especially for certain species....
Repeatability in the behavioural analyses
Vobrubová, Barbora ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
This thesis is focused on the repeatability of behaviour, a suitable tool for quantification of personality, which is defined as consistent inter-individual differences. It contains five studies, which view repeatability and personality from different angles. In the first study, I focus on the description of the history of personality studies, the most often mammalian species used in these studies, and I present a metaanalysis of the published works. The highest repeatability was found in activity, the lowest in aggressivity and exploratory behaviour. The following two studies concern the expressions of personality in exploratory behaviour of the black rat (Rattus rattus). The first one analyses habituation in the course of repeated testing, and found the most prominent habituation in head-dipping (looking in the holes) in the hole board test. This study also demonstrates the differences between different approaches to estimating repeatability, when the inclusion of systematic effect of habituation increased the repeatability estimates. The subsequent study measured the levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCM), their diurnal cycle and the association with exploratory behaviour. fGCM showed themselves to be an interindividually variable characteristic, which is well repeatable, despite the...
Evolution of brain complexity and processing capacity in birds: Cracking the problem using isotropic fractionator technique
Kocourek, Martin ; Němec, Pavel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Kratochvíl, Lukáš (referee)
The most fundamental principle of comparative sciences has always been and still is the search for similarities and differences. Maybe that is why people are fascinated by the cognitive abilities of birds like corvids and parrots and their similarities to those of humans. For a long time, the prevailing explanation for the unique abilities of these species was their high relative brain size. However, the brain's processing capacity is not based on its size but on its internal architecture and the number of neurons and synapses. Today, we already have data on the numbers of neurons for hundreds of mammalian, avian, and reptilian species, obtained with the isotropic fractionator. In this thesis, I analyse cellular scaling rules for brains of birds and compare them between avian clades. Bird brains are characterized by large numbers of neurons and high neuron densities, which are comparable to those of mammals in gallinaceous birds (Galliformes) and in passerine birds (Passeriformes) and parrots (Psittaciformes) even exceed those observed in primates. The distribution of neurons is also different. In songbirds and parrots, the majority of neurons are typically located in the telencephalon, specifically in the pallium. The latest data suggest that this is a common feature of core land birds...
Reproductive isolation barriers in the hybrid zone of the house mouse (Mus musculus)
Albrechtová, Jana ; Piálek, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Reifová, Radka (referee)
Reproductive isolation occurring at the gamete level is called gametic isolation and almost always prevents gene flow between unrelated species and (to some extent) between closely related species or subspecies. The hybrid zone of the house mouse (HMHZ), which was formed by contact and interbreeding of two subspecies, the Western European house mouse (M. m. domesticus) and the Eastern European house mouse (M. m. musculus) provides a usefull model for the study of speciation processes involving gametic isolation. The probability of sperm competition within the female reproductive tract is high in the house mouse because high levels of sexual promiscuity (in 20˗40 % of all reproductive cycles) have been observed in this species. Thus, the reproductive isolation at gametic level may be determined both by the phenotypic characteristics of sperm (the ability to outcompete heterospecific sperm in the process of sperm- sperm competition) and by the preference of the sperm of conspecific males in the female reproductive tract (cryptic female choice). In my Ph.D. thesis I tested the degree of affinity of male and female gametes reciprocally between the both subspecies of M. musculus and the phylogenetically more distant species M. spretus, which is characterized by a higher degree of promiscuity. Although a...
Phylogenetic relationships and evolution of the genus Acomys (Rodentia: Muridae)
Palupčíková, Klára ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Mazoch, Vladimír (referee)
The geographical distribution and phylogeny of the spiny mice of the genus Acomys Geoffroy I., 1838 remains a controversial and open topic. This doctoral thesis deals with the intraspecific structure and geographical distribution of the genus Acomys from the northern, eastern, central and southern parts of Africa, the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Crete, the Turkish coast, the Arabian and Sinai Peninsula and Iran, using molecular analyzes. Molecular analyzes were based on both the mitochondrial gene sequences of the D-loop genes (publication I.) and cytochrome b, as well as the nuclear sequences of the Intraretinal Binding Protein gene (IRBP) (publication IV) and recombinant activation gene 1 (RAG1) (publication II.). Furthermore, the data were subjected to phylogenetic analyzes using the Maximum Probability, Bayesian, Maximum Parsimony, and Minimum Evolution analysis. The results of mentioned analyses confirmed that the Afro-Mediterranean Acomys cahirinus and Asian Acomys dimidiatus are clearly separated. The large similarity between the haplotypes of continental Africa and the northern Mediterranean (A. cahirinus sensu stricto) supports the hypothesis that the ancestors of A. nesiotes, A. cilicicus and A. minous are very likely to spread as commensal populations, thereby challenging their...
Preferences and characteristics of movement in a horizontal and vertical dimension in the black rat (Rattus rattus)
Skalíková, Hana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
The black rat (Rattus rattus) has been one of the most widespread and economically important rodent pests for centuries. Yet, it is a neglected species in research, so we still do not know much about its ecology and behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the exploratory behavior of the black rat in a three-dimensional environment. The results of this thesis showed that the black rat, when presented with a choice between vertical and horizontal space, prefers to stay in vertical space at one of the upper height levels. We are thus inclined to think of the rat as a semi-arboreal species with a strong willingness to climb. Also, four exploratory strategies were identified in this work, some of which can be compared to fast and slow exploratory strategies. This work also proposed and tested an experimental design that is suitable for testing the exploration of a vertically active species such as the black rat. Keywords: the black rat, three-dimensional environment, preferences, exploration, exploratory strategies
Factors affecting behaviour of avian predators to hoverflies (Syrphidae) and their models (Aculeata)
Truhlářová, Marie ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Batesian mimicry is an antipredator strategy used by harmless species to mimic dangerous models by their appearance. The so-called imperfect mimics are a phenomenon within Batesian mimicry. It would be expected that Batesian mimics are selected to resemble the model as perfectly as possible. However, in some species the resemblance is very poor. The aim of this study was to test reaction of predators towards a textbook example of Batesian mimics with imperfect mimicry, i.e., hoverflies (Syrphidae) and to verify some of the hypotheses describing imperfect mimicry. We conducted two experiments in which the model predators were great tits (Parus major). The topic of the first experiment was the effect of diversity of models on categorization and generalization of hoverflies. Birds were divided into two groups, with the first group receiving high diversity of models (10 species of Hymenoptera) and second group receiving low diversity of models (2 species of Hymenoptera). There were two parts of this experiment. Categorization training when great tits learn to discriminate between two categories of prey, palatable and unpalatable and generalization test, when great tits generalized their experience from categorization training to novel prey. Palatable prey was represented by non-mimetic flies (Diptera),...
Evaluation of Business Performance Through Financial Analysis Tools
Sedláček, Filip ; Toman,, Petr (referee) ; Ptáček, Roman (advisor)
This bachelor’s thesis focusses on the evaluation of business performance using tools of financial analysis during the period 2016 – 2020. The theoretical part describes individual indicators and methods that are explained and subsequently used in this work. The second part of the thesis discreetly presents analysed company to which mentioned above indicators from the theoretical part are applied. The last part of this thesis presents the overall evaluation of the results of financial analysis including the author’s suggestions to improve financial situation of the company.

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4 SEDLÁČEK, František
3 Sedláček, Filip
4 Sedláček, František
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