Economical and Technical Parameters Analysis at Vehicle Fleet Recovery

Import 02/12/2011Bakalářská práce řeší návrh na obnovu osmi vybraných nákladních automobilů, které jsou součástí vozidlového parku firmy Nuget. Přitom se vychází z analýzy ekonomických a technických parametrů těchto vozidel. Je zpracována stručná charakteristika firmy a také přehled vozidel s uvedením základních údajů. Dále je graficky zobrazeno stáří vozidel, stav najetých kilometrů na tachometrech v roce 2010 a průměrné náklady údržby a oprav v letech 2006 – 2010. Je proveden výpočet optimální doby životnosti stávajících automobilů. Potom stanoveno, která vozidla vyřadíme. Uskutečněn je i výběr konkrétního nového vozidla. Jsou popsány způsoby možného financování jeho pořízení. V závěru práce jsem provedl technické a ekonomické zhodnocení návrhu.This bachalor’s thesis deals with a proposal for vehicle recovery at company Nuget. It is based on analysis of economic and technical parameters of the vehicles. There is a brief company description prepared as well as a list of vehicles with their basic data. Age of vehicles is also graphically shown with their total mileage on the clock in 2010 and average cost of maintenance and repairs in years 2006-2010. Further, optimal lifespan of present cars was calculated and consequently it was decided which cars should be discarded. There was made a selection of a new specific car with a description of potential financing. In conclusion, technical and economical assessment of the proposal was carried out.342 - Institut dopravyvelmi dobř

30 years of hydroprocessing at UCT Prague: The transition from petroleum feedstocks to bio-oils from HTL and pyrolysis

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Abandoning grassland management negatively influences plant but not bird or insect biodiversity in Europe

Grasslands are globally distributed and naturally occurring; however, in Europe, most grasslands are anthropogenically created or altered by livestock grazing or mowing. Low-intensity use and management have led to species-rich communities in European grasslands. The intensification of crop production and livestock farming with stabling throughout the year has led to an abandonment of grasslands that are no longer economically profitable. In this study, we looked at the influence of grassland abandonment on biodiversity. We hypothesized that abandonment of grasslands decreases the overall biodiversity, but has different effects depending on the focal taxonomic group (i.e., vascular plants, insects, or birds). We also hypothesized that the type of management before abandonment, the type of grassland, and the time after abandonment would influence grassland biodiversity. We conducted a Web of Science search, with pre-defined terms, to find articles that compared biodiversity of managed and abandoned grasslands in Europe. We screened the articles and included 39 studies in a subsequent meta-analysis. We found that overall biodiversity was reduced after abandonment; however, the biodiversity reduction in the grasslands differed among taxonomic groups. Plant species diversity was significantly lower after abandonment (plant summary effect size: −0.25 [−0.34; −0.16]), whereas the diversity of insects and birds showed no significant trend, but a visual trend toward an increase. None of the other environmental variables (type of management, type of grassland, or the time after abandonment) had a significant influence on the biodiversity of the grasslands. We conclude that maintaining grassland management is crucial to support biodiversity conservation in European grasslands

Climatic Risk and Distribution Atlas of European Bumblebees

Bumble bees represent one of the most important groups of pollinators. In addition to their ecological and economic relevance, they are also a highly charismatic group which can help to increase the interest of people in realizing, enjoying and conserving natural systems. However, like most animals, bum- ble bees are sensitive to climate. In this atlas, maps depicting potential risks of climate change for bumble bees are shown together with informative summary statistics, ecological back- ground information and a picture of each European species. Thanks to the EU FP7 project STEP, the authors gathered over one million bumblebee records from all over Europe. Based on these data, they modelled the current climatic niche for almost all European species (56 species) and projected future climatically suitable conditions using three climate change scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100. While under a moderate change scenario only 3 species are projected to be at the verge of extinction by 2100, 14 species are at high risk under an intermediate change scenario. Under a most severe change scenario as many as 25 species are projected to lose almost all of their climatically suitable area, while a total of 53 species (77% of the 69 European species) would lose the main part of their suitable area. Climatic risks for bumblebees can be extremely high, depending on the future development of human society, and the corresponding effects on the climate. Strong mitigation strategies are needed to preserve this important species group and to ensure the sustainable provision of pollination services, to which they considerably contribute

Nutritional upgrading for omnivorous carpenter ants by the endosymbiont Blochmannia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Carpenter ants (genus <it>Camponotus</it>) are considered to be omnivores. Nonetheless, the genome sequence of <it>Blochmannia floridanus</it>, the obligate intracellular endosymbiont of <it>Camponotus floridanus</it>, suggests a function in nutritional upgrading of host resources by the bacterium. Thus, the strongly reduced genome of the endosymbiont retains genes for all subunits of a functional urease, as well as those for biosynthetic pathways for all but one (arginine) of the amino acids essential to the host.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nutritional upgrading by <it>Blochmannia </it>was tested in 90-day feeding experiments with brood-raising in worker-groups on chemically defined diets with and without essential amino acids and treated or not with antibiotics. Control groups were fed with cockroaches, honey water and Bhatkar agar. Worker-groups were provided with brood collected from the queenright mother-colonies (45 eggs and 45 first instar larvae each). Brood production did not differ significantly between groups of symbiotic workers on diets with and without essential amino acids. However, aposymbiotic worker groups raised significantly less brood on a diet lacking essential amino acids. Reduced brood production by aposymbiotic workers was compensated when those groups were provided with essential amino acids in their diet. Decrease of endosymbionts due to treatment with antibiotic was monitored by qRT-PCR and FISH after the 90-day experimental period. Urease function was confirmed by feeding experiments using ¹⁵N-labelled urea. GC-MS analysis of ¹⁵N-enrichment of free amino acids in workers revealed significant labelling of the non-essential amino acids alanine, glycine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid, as well as of the essential amino acids methionine and phenylalanine.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results show that endosymbiotic <it>Blochmannia </it>nutritionally upgrade the diet of <it>C. floridanus </it>hosts to provide essential amino acids, and that it may also play a role in nitrogen recycling via its functional urease. <it>Blochmannia </it>may confer a significant fitness advantage via nutritional upgrading by enhancing competitive ability of <it>Camponotus </it>with other ant species lacking such an endosymbiont. Domestication of the endosymbiont may have facilitated the evolutionary success of the genus <it>Camponotus</it>.</p