Stochastic resonance in a suspension of magnetic dipoles under shear flow

We show that a magnetic dipole in a shear flow under the action of an oscillating magnetic field displays stochastic resonance in the linear response regime. To this end, we compute the classical quantifiers of stochastic resonance, i.e. the signal to noise ratio, the escape time distribution, and the mean first passage time. We also discuss limitations and role of the linear response theory in its applications to the theory of stochastic resonance.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, approved for publication in PR

Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy Changes the Treatment Concept in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea

The present study evaluated whether drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) helps identify the site of obstruction in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). A total of 51 consecutive patients with polysomnography-confirmed OSA were enrolled in this prospective study. The presumed site of obstruction was determined according to history, otorhinolaryngologic examination, and polysomnography and a therapeutic plan designed before DISE. In 11 patients with severe OSA and/or previously failed continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, DISE with simultaneous CPAP was performed. Multilevel collapse was noted in 49 patients (96.1%). The most frequent multilevel collapse was palatal, oropharyngeal, and tongue base collapse ( = 17, 33.3%), followed by palatal and oropharyngeal collapse ( = 12, 23.5%). Pathology of the larynx (epiglottis) was observed in 16 patients (31.4%). The laryngeal obstruction as a reason for intolerance of CPAP was observed in 3/11 (27.3%) patients. After DISE, the surgical plan was changed in 31 patients (60.8%). The results indicate that DISE helps identify the site of obstruction in the upper airways in patients with OSA more accurately and that the larynx plays an important role in OSA

Epiglottopexy is a treatment of choice for obstructive sleep apnea caused by a collapsing epiglottis

Drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) reveals epiglottic collapse to be a frequent cause of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and intolerance of positive airway pressure (PAP). These patients require different management. This prospective study aimed to compare transoral laser epiglottopexy outcomes in patients with OSA caused by epiglottic collapse with the patients' previous PAP outcomes. Fifteen consecutive adult patients with OSA and epiglottic collapse during DISE were included; ten were analyzed. Before inclusion, PAP was indicated and ineffective in six patients, one of whom underwent unsuccessful uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. PAP was performed during DISE in all patients before epiglottopexy and was uniformly ineffective. ENT control was performed at 1 week and 1 month, and control limited polygraphy to 6 months after surgery. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) were significantly improved (p < 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively) in all patients after epiglottopexy. Surgery was successful in 9/10 patients; the remaining patient had a significantly decreased AHI and could finally tolerate PAP. Transoral laser epiglottopexy is used to treat OSA in patients with epiglottic collapse. Unlike other methods, it significantly reduces both AHI and ESS and should be considered for these patients. An active search for OSA patients with epiglottic collapse is recommended to prevent treatment failure.Web of Science129art. no. 137

Sleep endoscopy with positive airway pressure: A method for better compliance and individualized treatment of patients with obstructive sleep apnea

In this study, we aimed to observe the effects of positive airway pressure (PAP) on individual levels of obstruction during drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) of the upper airways (UA), to evaluate at which pressures the obstruction disappeared or worsened, and to identify cases in which PAP was ineffective. This prospective study was conducted from June 2018 to June 2022. PAP testing was performed during DISE in patients with moderate and severe OSA. The pressure was gradually increased over the range from 6.0 to 18.0 hPa. Our findings were evaluated using the VOTE classification. The examination was performed in 56 patients, with a median apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 26.4. Complete obstruction of the soft palate was observed in 51/56 patients (91%), oropharyngeal obstruction in 15/56 patients (27%), tongue base obstruction in 23/56 patients (41%), and epiglottic collapse in 16/56 patients (29%). PAP was most effective in cases of complete oropharyngeal obstruction, and least effective in cases of epiglottic collapse, where it was ineffective in 11/16 patients. DISE with PAP is a simple diagnostic method that can be helpful for identifying anatomic and dynamic reasons for PAP intolerance. The main indication is ineffective PAP treatment.Web of Science1212art. no. 210

Backtranslation feedback improves user confidence in MT, not quality

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by ACL in Proceedings of the 2021 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (NAACL 21). in June 2021. The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Translating text into a language unknown to the text’s author, dubbed outbound translation, is a modern need for which the user experience has significant room for improvement, beyond the basic machine translation facility. We demonstrate this by showing three ways in which user confidence in the outbound translation, as well as its overall final quality, can be affected: backward translation, quality estimation (with alignment) and source paraphrasing. In this paper, we describe an experiment on outbound translation from English to Czech and Estonian. We examine the effects of each proposed feedback module and further focus on how the quality of machine translation systems influence these findings and the user perception of success. We show that backward translation feedback has a mixed effect on the whole process: it increases user confidence in the produced translation, but not the objective quality

Měkkýši Hostýnských vrchů

This study deals with the molluscan fauna of the Hostýnské vrchy Hills (Central Moravia, Czech Republic). The main goal was to make a systematic inventory of the molluscan fauna in this area. Snails were collected in September 2010 by hand picking and litter sampling at selected sites. Final database was pooled with earlier published and unpublished data. In total, 85 terrestrial and 20 freshwater mollusc species were recorded at 56 study sites across the area during 2000–2010. Terrestrial snails Monachoides incarnatus, Punctum pygmaeum, Vitrina pellucida, and freshwater molluscs Pisidium casertanum, and Radix labiata were the most frequently recorded species. The land snails Daudebardia brevipes, Eucobresia nivalis, Vitrea transsylvanica, and Chondrula tridens are notable species from the local viewpoint. The clausilid Vestia ranojevici moravica, an endemic subspecies that colonized some regions of Moravia during the Holocene climatic optimum, is an iconic mollusc species in the area, deserving high conservation priority

XXIV. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách

Title in English: 24th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences: Conference proceedings. The conference proceedings consists of papers presented at the 24rd International Colloquium on Regional Sciences that was organized by Department of Regional Economics and Administration FEA MU. It contains 79 articles arranged by topic. The individual articles deal with e.g. socioeconomic disparities among regions, regional policy, territory attractiveness, tourism or regional public administration

e-mail: e-mail On Fuzzy Type Theory

Fuzzy logic has been successfully developed including its predicate version especially thanks to P. Hájek and several other authors — see [10,13,26,25]. One of the main arguments in favour of it consists in its ability to provide a working model of some manifestations of the vagueness phenomenon. The latter is encountered in all kinds of human reasoning and is a distinguished feature of the semantics of natural language. The fact that fuzzy logic touched the vagueness phenomenon led to a large number of its successful applications. Quite often, they rely on a simple model of the meaning of some words of natural language. From linguistic point of view, however, these applications are more or less naive. Moreover, since fuzzy logic has been developed only up to first order, these applications are rather limited. If we want to apply fuzzy logic more deeply in linguistic semantics, higher order formulas have to be employed. This need comes out also in connection with the task to develop a semantic web. In the accepted linguistic theory, an important role is played by intensiona