Adjustable Intragastric Balloons: A 12-Month Pilot Trial in Endoscopic Weight Loss Management

Intragastric balloons are associated with (1) early period intolerance, (2) diminished effect within 3–4 months, and (3) bowel obstruction risk mandating removal at 6 months. The introduction of an adjustable balloon could improve comfort and offer greater efficacy. A migration prevention function, safely enabling prolonged implantation, could improve efficacy and weight maintenance post-extraction. The first implantations of an adjustable balloon with an attached migration prevention anchor are reported. The primary endpoint was the absence of bowel perforation, obstruction, or hemorrhage. Eighteen patients with mean BMI of 37.3 were implanted with the Spatz Adjustable Balloon system (ABS) for 12 months. Balloon volumes were adjusted for intolerance or weight loss plateau. Mean weight loss at 24 weeks was 15.6 kg with 26.4% EWL (percent of excess weight loss) and 24.4 kg with 48.8% EWL at 52 weeks. Sixteen adjustments were successfully performed. Six downward adjustments alleviated intolerance, yielding additional mean weight loss of 4.6 kg. Ten upward adjustments for weight loss plateau yielded a mean additional weight loss of 7 kg. Seven balloons were removed prematurely. Complications necessitating early removal included valve malfunction (1), gastritis (1), Mallory–Weiss tear (1), NSAID (2× dose/2 weeks) perforating ulcer (1), and balloon deflation (1). Two incidents of catheter shear from the chain: one passed uneventfully and one caused an esophageal laceration without perforation during extraction. The Spatz ABS has been successfully implanted in 18 patients. (1) Upward adjustments yielded additional weight loss. (2) Downward adjustments alleviated intolerance, with continued weight loss. (3) Preliminary 1-year implantation results are encouraging

Legislative process after accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union

Cílem této diplomové práce je vymezení a systematické pojednání jak o legislativním procesu právními předpisy regulovaném, tak i o legislativním procesu na úrovni vlády, který je formalizován jen zčásti. Fenomén legislativního procesu zásadním způsobem ovlivňuje právní i společenské prostředí v České republice. První a druhá kapitola je zaměřena na teoretické vymezení legislativního procesu a pojednání o průběhu legislativního procesu na úrovni Parlamentu. Pozornost je věnována jak nedostatkům, které právní úprava a praxe vykazuje, tak i změnám, které přinesla novela jednacího řádu Poslanecké sněmovny z roku 2015. Podrobněji je pojednáno i o Sbírce zákonů a její zamýšlené elektronizaci. Třetí kapitola se věnuje postavení vlády v legislativním procesu. Vláda je nejvýznamnějším iniciátorem tvorby právních předpisů, k čemuž má k dispozici rozsáhlý odborný aparát jednotlivých ministerstev, které legislativní návrhy fakticky tvoří. V souvislosti se vstupem České republiky do Evropské unie se vláda musí zabývat otázkou slučitelnosti českého práva s právem Evropské unie, přičemž úroveň slučitelnosti se odvíjí zejména od kvality práce ministerstev. S tímto tématem je rovněž spojeno plánování legislativních prací. Poslední, čtvrtá kapitola je zaměřena na připomínkové řízení, které probíhá na úrovni ministerstev a...The aim of this master thesis is to deal with and systematically describe the legislative process which is regulated by law and also the legislative process at the level of the government which has not been formalized completely. The phenomenon of legislative process significantly influences the legal and social environment in the Czech Republic. The first and the second chapter is focused on theoretical definition of the legislative process and deals with the legislative process at the level of the Parliament. Special attention is paid to the lacks of legal regulation and practice, such as to changes implemented by the amendment of the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies from 2015. It is also dealt with the Collection of Laws and its intended electronization. The third chapter is related to the position of the government within the legislative process. The government is the most important initiator of lawmaking, as it has the expert workers of ministries which create the legal drafts at its' disposal. Due to the accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union, the government must deal with the topic of compatibility of the Czech and EU law. The level of compatibility depends especially on the quality work of individual ministries. Planning of legislation works is also connected to this...Department of Constitutional LawKatedra ústavního právaPrávnická fakultaFaculty of La

Territorial Disputes of the 21st Century in the Context of Resources Security

Mgr. Daniel Machytka, Ph.D. Abstract This thesis focuses on the comparison of four selected territorial disputes and on the analysis of their related realities with an emphasis on the strategic importance of these disputed areas. The chosen topics were the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan over the Kuril Islands, the dispute between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland Islands, and then two multilateral territorial disputes over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. This work presents these researched disputes not only from their historical point of view but also with regard to valid international regulations, especially with regard to the rules based on the regulation of the law of the sea, which was adopted in 1982 by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Last but not least, the development of such disputes was studied as close as possible to the present time, when the main time period of the presented research was the period from the beginning of the 21st century. The studied territorial disputes were first analyzed separately and then compared together in order to discover mutual macro-causal connections and key similarities. The biggest similarity is the potential for conflict, which is evident from the actions that national states use to dominate their area of..

Perceived influence of the media on the attitude of parents towards compulsory vaccination

Compulsory vaccination is one of the fundamental pillars of public health protection that has helped eradicate many previously lethal and widespread diseases from our geographical area. Although the vaccination rates remain high in the Czech Republic, the number of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children is growing. Reasons for this restraint are various. This thesis looks at the issue from the perspective of social constructivism. By implementing in-depth interviews, it tries to contribute to understanding how parents perceive the influence of the media on their decisions on the issue of compulsory vaccination. Other theoretical starting points are the media construction of reality, the theory of representation or biopower, and biopolitics in Michel Foucault's conception. A significant part of the theory also describes the current period, which is characterized by terms such as post-truth or post-factual era, and addresses which role plays new media such as social networks and the internet in the growing mistrust in expert knowledge and institutions. The analytical part is devoted to the analysis of collected data in the grounded theory approach. The identified categories then describe how parents evaluate the role of the media in the debate on compulsory vaccination, how they evaluate..

Energy security of European union: options to enhance it with an accent on renewable energy sources

Tato práce se zaměřuj na energetickou bezpečnost Evropské unie a na možnosti jejího posílení prostřednictvím série úzce specifikovaných nástrojů. Cílem práce bylo nalézt, prověřit a následně navrhnout konkrétní možnosti posílení energetické bezpečnosti, které by splňovaly stanová kritéria. Významným bodem práce je i rozhodovací mechanismus a tvorba konkrétní metodiky pro přijetí relevantních opatření a návrhů. Pro řádnou identifikaci a jejich následnou artikulaci byl vytvořeno model posílení energetické bezpečnosti. Představený model pracuje s premisou, že energetická bezpečnost nastává vážně míněným tlakem na implementaci konceptů energetické účinnosti, výstavbou energetických systémů, které závisejí na místně dostupných obnovitelných a nevyčerpatelných palivových zdrojích a dále tlakem na decentralizaci i tlakem na rozvoj lokální samovýroby energií. Pro dosažení těchto požadavků i cílových modelových dopadů jsou veškerá vstupující data, ale i veškeré vystupující návrhy modelovány optikou jádra modelu. Jádro modelu se opírá o sérii kritérií a pravidel. Konkrétní navržené možnosti posílení energetické bezpečnosti splňují kritéria, mezi která patři množina pravidel fungování evropské energetické politiky i množina cílů evropských klimatickou-energetických a energeticko-bezpečnostních strategií EU. Navržené možnosti tedy odpovídají pravidlům evropského energetického práva a svým působením sledují cíle evropské klimaticko-energetické strategie. Klíčovým středobodem práce byla evropská energetická politika a její fungování v rámci vnitřních integračních mechanismů i v rámci vnějšího působení globálních energetických trendů.This doctoral thesis focuses on Energy security of European Union with and accent on use of renewable energy sources as an energy security instrument. Main goal of this thesis was to identify, verify and then postulate options that could enhance current state of energy security of European Union. Main instrument of this activity is a theoretical model which introduces three specific options. First option is about off-grid and partially on-grid system used for home and autonomy energy production. Second option is a synergic link of infrastructure for off-shore wind farms with a marine energy. Third option is a maximization of energy efficiency, energy savings and energy storage concepts. Energy efficiency was identified as hierarchical condition mandatory for every single introduced options. All introduced options were verified against European energy law, against principles of energy security and against economical and security criteria. Final and most important criteria for plausibility of such options is embodied in European energy policy and current energy and climate strategies