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Coarse-grained particles conveying along a pipe bed
Vlasák, Pavel ; Chára, Zdeněk ; Konfršt, Jiří ; Kysela, Bohuš
The paper describes the results of a flow visualisation of model coarse-grained fully stratified particle-water mixtures. Investigation was focussed on study of the particle behaviour and carrier liquid and conveyed particles local velocities. Glass balls and washed graded pebble gravel of mean diameter of 6 mm were conveyed by water in a horizontal smooth pipe loop with a transparent pipe viewing section of inner diameter 40 mm. Particle movement along the pipe invert and particulate stationary bed, created by two layers of spherical particles of the same size as the conveyed particles, was studied. The effect of stationary bed on local velocity values of the carrier liquid and conveyed particles were determined. It was conducted that the maximum liquid velocity is significantly shifted from pipe centre to a higher position in the flow pattern with stationary bed.
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NUMERICAL ESTIMATION OF MICRO-CRACK PATHS IN POLYMER PARTICULATE COMPOSITE
Majer, Z. ; Náhlík, Luboš
Determination of composite mechanical behavior is one of important part during the composite tailoring. The aim of the present work was to estimate a micro-crack behavior in a polymer particulate composite. The composite was investigated by means of the finite element method -using ANSYS software. A two-dimensional three-phase finite element model was developed to analyze the crack growth behavior. The assumptions of the linear elastic fracture mechanics were considered and the Maximum Tangential Stress (MTS) criterion was used to predict the direction of the crack propagation. The effect of the elastic modulus of the interphase on the micro-crack propagation was investigated. The properties of matrix and particles were taken from experiment. It was shown that the interphase properties influence the stress intensity factor KI as well as the micro-crack paths. The results of this paper can contribute to a better understanding of the micro-crack propagation in particulate composites with respect to the interphase.
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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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Microbiota of the digestive tract of bees and related insect and the influencing facftors
Hroncová, Zuzana ; Havlík, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Kalous, Lukáš (referee)
This thesis consists of six research chapters, out of which, five have already been published in research journals, 1 is in the process of submission and the last chapter presents original unpublished confidential data in the process of manuscript preparation.
The research presented in this thesis concerns the complex mechanisms of bees and wasps immune system focused on microbiota as component of immunity. As shown in the introduction, highly social and managed species of bees like honey bees and bumble bees, play key roles in natural and agricultural ecosystems worldwide. Recent losses of bees have been attributed to pesticide exposure, poor nutrition, increased parasite loads and habitat degradation. Over the past several years, governments, beekeepers, and the general public worldwide have become concerned by increased losses of honey bee colonies, calling for more research on how to keep colonies healthy. Our main aim was to explore the complex mechanisms of bees and related species gut bacterial populations, their links to insect immunity and investigate the opportunities for an intervention. Part of our aim was to characterise the bumble bee and wasp gut microbiota using 16S RNA sequencing in a search for potentially novel bacterial species.
We have tried to explain how microbiome interacts with the host and showed that major members of these communities appear to benefit the host. The simple gut communities of social bees present ideal model systems to investigate the underlying evolutionary and genetic processes of such interactions. Information based on our results may help in the design of proper probiotic supplementation strategies with respect to physiological conditions in the honey bee gut.
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Total contents and speciation of arsenic and selenium in plants growing in soils with different physico-chemical properties
Tremlová, Jana ; Száková, Jiřina (advisor) ; Vymazal, Jan (referee)
This dissertation thesis deals with uptake, accumulation and transformation of arsenic and selenium in plants growing on soils with different chemico-physical soil properties. The contents of arsenic were investigated in 99 wild plant species, coming from 27 different families and 6 different vegetables growing in arsenic contaminated soils. The results suggest that there are species-specific mechanisms which protects certain plants from the excessive uptake of arsenic from the soil. On the other hand, there are plants using a strategy of accumulation, which theoretically may increase the risk of arsenic entry into the food chain, whether through grazing cattle and wildlife or through consumption of vegetables growing on arsenic contaminated soils. The most prevalent arsenic compounds are AsV and AsIII. Other arsenic compounds occure as minor species. An important finding was detection of arsenobetaine in Plantago lanceolata L. and Carex praecox Schreb ..
The contents of selenium were examined in 73 species of wild plants, coming from 29 different families. The results suggest that naturally low levels of selenium in the soil of selected locations along with a low capability of selenium uptake via collected plant species lead to the low content of selenium in plant biomass which may contribute to selenium deficient throughout the food chain. Foliar application of selenate on wild plant communities and on some types of vegetables in our case Brassica oleracea var. italica can have a positive impact on increasing the selenium content in the aboveground biomass of these plants and by extension, increase the selenium content in the human diet. Dominant selenium compounds in the aboveground biomass of the analyzed plants were SeVI and selenomethionine, with variable proportion of other commonly occurring organic selenium compounds, which is mainly affected by plant species.
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Noise, Transport and Structural Properties of High Energy Radiation Detectors Based on CdTe
Šik, Ondřej ; Lazar, Josef (referee) ; Navrátil, Vladislav (referee) ; Grmela, Lubomír (advisor)
Poptávka ze strany vesmírného výzkumu, zdravotnictví a bezpečnostního průmyslu způsobila v posledních letech zvýšený zájem o vývoj materiálů pro detekci a zobrazování vysokoenergetického záření. CdTe a jeho slitina CdZnTe. jsou polovodiče umožnují detekci záření o energiích v rozsahu 10 keV až 500 keV. Šířka zakázaného pásma u CdTe / CdZnTe je 1.46 -1.6 eV, což umožňuje produkci krystalů o vysoké rezistivitě (10^10-10^11 cm), která je dostačující pro použití CdTe / CdZnTe při pokojové teplotě. V mé práci byly zkoumány detektory CdTe/CdZnTe v různých stádiích jejich poruchovosti. Byly použity velmi kvalitní spektroskopické detektory, materiál s nižší rezistivitou a výraznou polarizací, detektory s asymetrií elektrických parametrů kontaktů a teplotně degenerované vzorky. Z výsledků analýzy nízkofrekvenčního šumu je patrný obecný závěr, že zvýšená koncentrace defektů způsobí změnu povahy původně monotónního spektra typu 1/f na spektrum s výrazným vlivem generačně-rekombinačních procesů. Další výrazná vlastnost degenerovaných detektorů a detektorů nižší kvality je nárůst spektrální hustoty šumu typu 1/f se vzrůstajícím napájecím napětí se směrnicí výrazně vyšší než 2. Strukturální a chemické analýzy poukázaly, že teplotní generace detektorů způsobuje difuzi kovu použitého při kontaktování a stopových prvků hlouběji do objemu krystalu. Část mé práce je věnována modifikaci povrchu svazkem argonových iontů a jejímu vlivu na chemické složení a morfologii povrchu.
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Formal Systems Based on Automata and Grammars
Čermák, Martin ; Rybička, Jiří (referee) ; Šaloun, Petr (referee) ; Meduna, Alexandr (advisor)
Tyto teze navazují na studium gramatických a automatových systémů. Na začátku, práce pojednává o regulárně řízených CD gramatických systémech využívající frázově strukturované gramatiky jako komponenty. Do systémů jsou zavedena tři nová omezení na derivacích a je studován jejich vliv na vyjadřovací sílu těchto systémů. Poté, tato práce definuje dva automatové protějšky ke kanonickým multi-generatiním nonterminálem a pravi\-dlově synchronizovyným gramatickým systemům, generujících vektory řetězců, a ukazuje, že všechny tyto vyšetřované systemy si jsou vzájemně ekvivalentní. Dále táto práce tyto systémy zobecňuje a zakládá fundamentalní hierarchii n-jazyků (množin n-tic řetězců). V~souvislosti se zavedenými systémy tyto teze zavádí automatově-gramatický převodník založený na konečném automatu a bezkontextové gramatice. Tento převodník je pak studovaný a použitý jako nástroj přímého překladu. V~poslední části jsou v této práci zavedené automatové systémy jádrem pársovací metody založené na stromově řízených gramatikách s n omezenými cestami.
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