Nanoparticles of transition metals oxides with application potential

Tato práce se zabývá nejvíce používanými metodami přípravy a fyzikálními vlastnostmi nanočástic přechodných kovů. Fyzikální vlastnosti nanočástic mohou být kontrolovány pomocí velikosti a tvaru částic. Na velikost částic mají vliv podmínky přípravy. Zabývali jsme se především sol-gelovou metodou, ko-precipitací a mikroemulzí a provedli jsme shrnutí fyzikálních vlastností ZrO2, TiO2, CoFe2O4, které jsou důležitým aspektem pro jejich možné budoucí využití. Vzorky nanočástic kobaltových ferritů zapoudřených v SiO2 matrici, které byly připraveny pomocí modifikované sol-gelové metody, byly charakterizovány pomocí rentgenové difrakce a ICP-OES. Byla určena velikost částic, která byla porovnána s finální žíhací teplotou.We present summary of the most used preparation methods and physical properties of transition metal-based nanoparticles. The physical properties of the nanoparticles can be controlled by particle shape and size that can be affected by conditions of preparation. We mainly described the sol-gel method, co-precipitation and microemulsions method. We summarized physical properties of ZrO2, TiO2 and CoFe2O4 with respect to their possible application. A series of the cobalt ferrite nanoparticles embedded in silica matrix, obtained by modified sol-gel route, was characterized using X-ray diffraction and ICP-OES. We determined the particle diameter and compared them to the final annealing temperature.Ústav aplikované matematiky a fyzikyDokončená práce s úspěšnou obhajobo

Kindergarten

Předmětem diplomové práce je novostavba mateřské školy v městě Brně. Jedná se o dvoupodlažní nepodsklepenou budovu s plochou střechou. Objekt je založen na základových pásech. Mateřská škola je tvořena třemi odděleními s kapacitou pro dvacet dětí. Součástí budovy je kuchyně, kde se budou připravovat teplé pokrmy. Na pozemku je navrženo parkoviště se sedmi parkovacími místy. Práce obsahuje projektovou dokumentaci pro provádění stavby a specializaci.The subject of this master´s thesis is lately erected building of kindergarten. It is a two-storied building, without cellar and with flat roof. Object is based on the strips foundation. This kindergarten is formed by three departments with capacity fot twenty children. The part of this building is the kitchen, where cooks can prepare hot meals. On this piece of land there is situated the parking with seven parking spaces. The master´s thesis includes a project documentation and specialisation.

Czech Republic : Socio-economic aspects of migration

Since the early 1990s, when the Czech Republic has transformed into the main immigration destination among the V4 countries, can be identified several periods and milestones, which not only influenced the patterns of the international migration, but also the formation of the Czech migration policy. The aim of the chapter is to summarise and discuss recent developments in migration trends on general level, the demographic and socio-economic situation and migration governance in the period of 1989-2018. The chapter finds, that the trends characterising the current Czech migration policy, in contrast to high demand for labour force, is an increased effort to manage migration through stricter and more selective access to opportunities for foreigners. The restrictive trends in migration policies have been accompanied by explicit attempts to securitise migration in both, bureaucratic and political fields. This trend got most flagrant during the so-called migration crisis of 2015. Despite heated political debates, irregular migration flows affected the Czech Republic rather marginally, as the country was not a destination, but primarily a transit area for migrants and asylum seekers heading to Western and Northern Europe.Od počátku 90. let, kdy se Česká republika transformovala na hlavní imigrační cíl mezi zeměmi V4, lze identifikovat několik období a milníků, které ovlivnily nejen vzorce mezinárodní migrace, ale také formování české migrační politiky. Cílem této kapitoly je shrnout a diskutovat nejnovější vývoj migračních trendů na obecné úrovni, demografickou a sociálně-ekonomickou situaci a správu migrace v období 1989–2018. Kapitola shledává, že trendy charakterizující současnou českou migrační politiku, na rozdíl od vysoké poptávky po pracovní síle, jsou zvýšeným úsilím o řízení migrace prostřednictvím přísnějšího a selektivnějšího přístupu k příležitostem pro cizince. Omezující trendy v migrační politice byly doprovázeny výslovnými pokusy o sekuritizaci migrace v byrokratické i politické oblasti. Tento trend byl nejviditelnější během tzv. migrační krize roku 2015. I přes vyhrocené politické debaty se neregulérní migrace ČR dotýkala spíše okrajově, země nebyla cílovou destinací, ale spíše tranzitním prostorem migrantů a žadatelů o azyl ze severní Afriky a Blízkého východu, směřujících západní a severní Evropy

Corporate social responsibility in commercial banking - A case study from the Czech Republic

The concept of corporate social responsibility is not new in the banking sector, but nowadays, it becomes highly topical since the crisis has significantly highlighted the need for integration of moral principles in the banking business. Knowledge of business practice indicates the fact that the acceptance of moral principles in business is not integrated into management decisions of companies. It also cannot be accepted that self-regulatory instruments of companies such as CSR will be effective. The existing experience with the implementation of CSR and ethical principles in the banking sector leads to the opinion that the social responsibility of banks and ethics in banking sector are perceived as an appropriate marketing tool for public communication and are not integrated into policies of individual commercial banks. Experience with the crisis demonstrated that there is a lack of moral principles of managers’ decisions. The aim of this article is to introduce theoretical aspects of CSR in commercial banking and measure the level of CSR in selected Czech commercial banks. In the article, the CSR index was calculated for Česká spořitelna, Československá obchodní banka, Komerční banka and GE Money Bank. Results of our research confirmed that the CSR index of selected Czech commercial banks achieves only an average level. There is a significant lack of transparent information in the context of CSR areas.[IGA/FaME/2013/010

To Intervene or Not to Intervene? Positions of the Member States Towards the Article 18 of the European Border and Coast Guard Proposal

The paper is focused on how the “migration crisis” starting in 2015 in Europe have reshaped the attitude to the European level of border protection. The basic question is how different are the competences of European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG) from the previous FRONTEX and what was the role sovereignty played in it. The paper has a character of a qualitative study where the authors compare the proposal for EBCG, mainly its Article 18 establishing the “right to intervene” in the proposal, with the final version of the document and analyzes the position of the Member states based on their posititions within the Council to the parts of the proposal that were most connected to sovereignty. The analysis is based on data collection from officials from various member states that were part of the negotiations. Apart from this “hidden agenda” the authors also analyze public statements by high-ranking government officials that often commented on the proposal

Dynamic competition between large-scale functional networks differentiates fear conditioning and extinction in humans.

The high evolutionary value of learning when to respond to threats or when to inhibit previously learned associations after changing threat contingencies is reflected in dedicated networks in the animal and human brain. Recent evidence further suggests that adaptive learning may be dependent on the dynamic interaction of meta-stable functional brain networks. However, it is still unclear which functional brain networks compete with each other to facilitate associative learning and how changes in threat contingencies affect this competition. The aim of this study was to assess the dynamic competition between large-scale networks related to associative learning in the human brain by combining a repeated differential conditioning and extinction paradigm with independent component analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data. The results (i) identify three task-related networks involved in initial and sustained conditioning as well as extinction, and demonstrate that (ii) the two main networks that underlie sustained conditioning and extinction are anti-correlated with each other and (iii) the dynamic competition between these two networks is modulated in response to changes in associative contingencies. These findings provide novel evidence for the view that dynamic competition between large-scale functional networks differentiates fear conditioning from extinction learning in the healthy brain and suggest that dysfunctional network dynamics might contribute to learning-related neuropsychiatric disorders

Towards Establishing Age-Related Cortical Plasticity on the Basis of Somatosensation.

Age-related somatosensory processing appears to remain intact where tasks engage centrally- as opposed to peripherally-mediated mechanisms. This distinction suggests that insight into alterations in neural plasticity could be derived via metrics of vibrotactile performance. Such an approach could be used to support the early detection of global changes in brain health but current evidence is limited. Knowledge of the precise conditions in which older adults are expected to sustain somatosensory performance is largely unknown. For this purpose, the study aimed to characterize age-related performance on tactile detection and discrimination-based tests. Accordingly, a group of young and older adult participants took part in simple reaction time and amplitude discrimination tasks. Participants' ability to distinguish between stimuli on the basis of amplitude was assessed with and without dual-site adaptation, which has been proposed to refine cortical responses and improve behavioral performance. The results show that while older adults exhibited significantly prolonged (p < .001, d = 1.116) and more variable (p = .022, d = 0.578) information processing speed compared to young adults, they were able to achieve similar scores in baseline discrimination (p = .179, d = 0.336). We also report, for the first time, that older adults displayed similar performance improvements to young adults, under conditions of dual-site adaptation (p = .948, d = 0.016). The findings support the argument that centrally-mediated mechanisms remain intact in the ageing population. Accordingly, dual-site adaptation data provide compelling new evidence of somatosensation in ageing that will contribute towards the development of an assessment tool to ascertain pre-clinical, age-related changes in the status of cortical function

The personal experience of Specific Learning Difficulties

Disertační práce "Osobní zážitek specifických poruch učení" se věnuje specifické problematice osobního zážitku charakteristických primárních a sekundárních projevů specifických poruch učení (SPU). Práce je koncipována jako teoreticko empirická. Teoretická část práce v sedmi kapitolách prostřednictvím literární rešerše zpracovává témata: sociální reality, jazyka, učení, učebního potenciálu, specifických poruch učení roli žáka - učitele a školy. Devátá kapitola slouží jako přemostění teoretické empirické části práce a reflektuje aktuální výzkumy a projekty. V empirické části práce je prezentován kvalitativní výzkum zkoumající problém osobního zážitku specifických poruch učení. Hlavním cílem výzkumu je zprostředkovat popsat autentický zážitek projevů specifických poruch učení vedoucí k rozvoji porozumění eciálním vzdělávacím potřebám žáků se SPU. Základní výzkumná otázka zní, jaký je efekt osobního zážitku SPU na účastníky semináře. Výzkumné šetření bylo rozděleno do devíti fází: návrh obsahové náplně a formy semináře osobního zážitku SPU; designování semináře; akreditace semináře; ohnisková skupina; distribuce semináře; realizace semináře; vyhodnocení semináře; shrnutí výzkumných zjištění a návrh možností dalšího zpracování rozvoje tématu osobního zážitku SPU. Fáze ohniskové skupiny a realizace semináře...The dissertation "Personal Experience of Specific Learning Disabilities" is devoted to the specific issue of the personal experience of the characteristic primary and secondary manifestations of specific learning disabilities (SLD). The dissertation is conceived as a theoretical-empirical one. The theoretical part of the thesis in seven chapters through a literature search elaborates the folowing topics of: social reality, language, learning, learning potential, specific learning disabilities and the role of the student-teacher and the school. Chapter nine serves as a bridge between the theoretical and empirical part of the thesis and reflects on current research and projects. The empirical part of the thesis presents qualitative research exploring the issue of personal experience of specific learning disabilities. The main aim of the research is to convey and describe an authentic experience of the manifestations of specific learning disabilities leading to the development of an understanding of the special educational needs of pupils with SLD. The primary research question asks what is the effect of the personal experience of SLD on seminar participants. The research inquiry was divided into nine phases: designing the content and format of the personal experience of SLD seminar; designing the...Katedra pedagogikyDepartment of EducationFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Neural correlates of dynamic emotion perception in schizophrenia and the influence of prior expectations.

Impaired emotion perception is a well-established and stable deficit in schizophrenia; however, there is limited knowledge about the underlying aberrant cognitive and brain processes that result in emotion perception deficits. Recent influential work has shown that perceptual deficits in schizophrenia may result from aberrant precision in prior expectations, associated with disrupted activity in frontal regions. In the present study, we investigated the perception of dynamic, multisensory emotion, the influence of prior expectations and the underlying aberrant brain processes in schizophrenia. During a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan, participants completed the Dynamic Emotion Perception task, which induces prior expectations with emotion instruction cues. We delineated neural responses and functional connectivity in whole-brain large-scale networks underlying emotion perception. Compared to healthy individuals, schizophrenia patients had lower accuracy specifically for emotions that were congruent with prior expectations. At the neural level, schizophrenia patients had less engagement of right inferior frontal and parietal regions, as well as right amygdala dysconnectivity during discrimination of emotions congruent with prior expectations. The results indicate that individuals with schizophrenia may have aberrant prior expectations about emotional expressions, associated with under-activity in inferior frontoparietal regions and right amygdala dysconnectivity, which results in impaired perception of emotion