COMPARISON OF RESEARCH ENGAGEMENT OF PHD STUDENTS AT VARIOUS STUDY PROGRAMS AT CULS PRAGUE: AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY

In an attempt to improve the quality of doctoral studies and the satisfaction of PhD students at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS Prague) the authors disseminated online questionnaire among all PhD students in May and June 2014. The questionnaire covered areas related to doctoral study, PhD supervisors, doctoral scholarship, research publications, and last but not least, to satisfaction with the doctoral study. In this article responses related to research, such as allocation of time to doctoral studies, allocation of time to research, involvement in research projects and satisfaction with research outputs. The authors provide comparison of all above mentioned domains according to faculties as well as form of doctoral studies at CULS Prague

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES E-LEARNING EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

The paper deals with ESP e-learning experimental research conducted in the lessons of Business English in winter term of academic year 2012/13. Students were provided with the online study material developed within the grant of the Higher Institution Development Fund of the Czech Republic 2011, no. F5-1836. Online study support for Business English is a 14 module course in the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) which is used for study purposes on the B1 level of the Common European Framework of References for Languages

ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ RESULTS IN DISTANCE- STUDIES CENTRES

The present paper focuses on study results of the students of distance-studies centres carried by the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Czech University of Life Science Prague. The centres are situated in areas with generally low concentration of universities and therefore, the possibility of university education is relatively small. We observed the students who entered the study field Public Administration and Regional Development in the academic year 2009/10 during the first three semesters of their study. We selected five different courses studied at the centres and we subjected them to statistical analyses. Our obtained findings show differences in burdensomeness among the selected courses, among students of different age and gender and, last but not least, among individual centres. This information can be useful both for students and studies centre management

GENETIC DIVERSITY IN CZECH HAFLINGER HORSES

The Haflinger as a small moutain horse breed originated from the South Tyrol district as a cross of Alpen Mountain breeds with Araber. This breed was expanding to Czech Republic during the last 25 years. The aim of this study was to analyse genetic diversity within the population using microsatellite markers. A total of 95 alleles have been detected. The highest frequency 88.18% showed allele 101 (HTG 6). The heterosigosity varied from 0.25 (HTG 6) to 0.84 (VHL 20), genetic diversity reached 0.6–0.8. The heterozygosity of the whole population studied is FIS= -0.013. The average effective number of allele per locus was 2.93 with standard deviation 1.54, with minimal and maximal level 1.30 and 7.83, respectively. Average polymorphism information content per locus was 0.608 with standard derivation 0.146, with minimal and maximal level 0.208 and 0.824, respectively. The results showed that breeding program of Czech Haflinger is optimal, including optimized mating strategies. The diversity of the population Czech Haflinger, based on a small number of microsatellites, seems to be sufficient

QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS OF COAT COLOR IN OLD KLADRUBER BLACK HORSES

Base economic characteristics (total revenues, total costs, profit and profitability ratio) of the Slovak Pinzgau breed were calculated in this study. Under the actual production and economic conditions of the breed, production system is operated with loss (-457 € per cow and per year) and with negative profitability ratio (-20%). Optimisation of the production parameters on the level defined in the breed standard (5,200 kg milk per cow and year, 92% for conception rate of cows, 404 days of calving interval and 550 g in daily gain of reared heifers) and improved udder health traits (clinical mastitis incidence and somatic cells score) was of positive impact on the total revenues (+34%), on the effective utilisation of costs (+105%) and balanced profit of dairy systems. Next to the positive profitability of the system, higher quality and security of dairy milk products should be mentioned there. Moreover, direct subsidies as an important factor of positive economic result of dairy cattle systems has to be pointed as well. Subsidies should be provided to compensate the real biological limitation of the local breed farmed in marginal areas. However, improvement of the production parameters of the Slovak Pinzgau breed is recommended with the same attention to reach the economic sustainability of dairy production system. To reach economic sustainability of the breed from practical point of view, the farmer activity should be aimed especially to the enhanced herd management

GWAS in practical cattle breeding in Czech Republic, single step method, genetic progress

Development of genetic evaluation of animals is permanent process. It was going from estimated breeding value (EBV) calculated by CC-test, across a BLUP – animal model and RR-TDM, to the genomic enhanced breeding value (GEBV) using genetic markers. Methods of genetic evaluation become a part of marketing strategies of insemination companies. Therefore all countries and association of breeders seek to be compatible with others. Now we are in a period of massive global implementation of genomic evaluation, which combines traditional BLUP with huge quantity of genetic SNP markers. Multi-step procedures are now usual in practice, which work with deregressed proofs. Development of methods attained to the single-step procedure (ssGBLUP) which overcomes some difficulties of previous methods, improves reliabilities of evaluation and compares all animals, genotyped and ungenotyped, in entire nation-wide population. Genomic evaluation influence above all young genotyped animals. In Czech Republic single-step procedure is routinely used for national evaluation of milk, linear type traits, reproduction and longevity. GEBVs are accompanied by genomic reliabilities. Genetic trends over last 20 years are in some traits different for genomic evaluation compared to traditional BLUP evaluation, although input data and genetic parameters (heritability) are the same and genotyped animals were only small proportion from entire evaluated population. Differences in genetic trends increase mainly in new batches of animals. Reason of it could be in the changed variability of breeding values and “genomic correction” of relationship between animals, which is expanded from genotyped animals to others individuals in a population. Keywords: genomic breeding value, single-step, genomic relationship, genetic trend, SNP ReferencesBauer, J. et al. (2014) Approximation of the reliability of single-step genomic breeding values for dairy cattle in the Czech Republic. Anim. Sci. Papers and Reports, 32, pp. 301-306.Bauer, J., Přibyl, J. and Vostrý, L. (2015) Contribution of domestic production records and Interbull EBV on approximate reliabilities of single-step genomic breeding values in dairy cattle. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 60, 263-267.Candrák, J., Kadlečík O. and Schaeffer L.R. (1997) The use of test-day model for Slovak cattle populations. In: Proc. 48th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production, Vienna, Austria, August 25–28.Christensen,  O.F. and Lund, M.S. (2010) Genomic prediction when some animals are not genotyped. Genet.Sel.Evol. 42, pp. 2.Fisher, R.A. (1918) The correlation between relatives in the supposition of Mendelianinheritance. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb. 52, pp. 399-433.            Fragomeni, B.O. et al. (2015) Hot topic: Use of genomic recursions in single-step genomic best linear unbiased predictor (BLUP) with a large number of genotypes. J. Dairy Sci., 98, pp. 4090-4094.Gao, H. et al. (2012) Comparison on genomic predictions using three GBLUP methods and two single step blending methods in the Nordic Holstein population. Genet. Sel.Evol. 44, pp. 8.Legarra A., Aguilar I. and Misztal, I. (2009) A relationship matrix including full pedigree and genomic information. J. Dairy Sci., 92, pp. 4656-4663.Masuda, Y. et al. (2016) Implementation of genomic recursions in single-step genomic best linear unbiased predictor for US Holsteins with a large number of genotyped animals. J. Dairy Sci., 99, pp. 1968-1974.Mendel, G.J. (1866) Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden. Verh. Naturforsch. Ver. Brünn 4, pp. 3–47 (1901, J. R. Hortic. Soc. 26, pp. 1–32).Meuwissen, T.H.E., Hayes, B.J. and Goddard, M.E. (2001) Prediction of total genetic value using genome-wide dense marker maps. Genetics, 157, pp. 1819–1829.Misztal, I., Legarra A. and Aguilar, I. (2009) Computing procedures for genetic evaluation including phenotypic, full pedigree, and genomic information. J. Dairy Sci., 92, pp. 4648–4655.Misztal, I. et al. (2013) Methods to approximate reliabilities in single-step genomic evaluation. J. Dairy Sci., 96, pp. 647-654.Pešek, P., Přibyl, J. and Vostrý, L. (2015) Genetic variances of SNP loci for milk yield in dairy cattle. J. Appl. Genet., 56, pp. 339-347.Přibyl, J. et al. (2014) Domestic and Interbull information in the single step genomic evaluation of Holstein milk production.  Czech J. Anim. Sci., 59, pp. 409-415.Přibyl, J. et al. (2015) Domestic estimated breeding values and genomic enhanced breeding values of bulls in comparison with their foreign genomic enhanced breeding values. Animal, 9, pp. 1635-1642.VanRaden, P.M. (2008) Efficient methods to compute genomic predictions. J. Dairy Sci., 91, pp. 4414–4423.VanRaden, P.M. et al. (2011) Genomic evaluations with many more genotypes. Genet. Sel.Evol. 43, pp. 10.Wright, S. (1921) Systems of mating. Genetics. 6, pp. 111-178.Zavadilová, L. et al. (2014) Single-step genomic evaluation for linear type traits of Holstein cows in Czech Republic. Anim. Sci. Papers and Reports vol. 32, pp. 201-208.

Population genetic analysis of Old Kladruber horse

The Old Kladruber horse, along with the Lipizzaner horse, Andalusian horse and Lusitano horse, is of the original Italo-Spanish type. The Old Kladruber horse is kept in two colour varieties (grey and black). Because the population is closed, there is a concern about the loss of genetic variation. The genetic diversity and population structure were analysed in the Old Kladruber horse breed based on the pedigree information of animals that were registered in the Studbook to identify factors that may have affected the genetic variability of the breed. Pedigree records collected from 1729 to 2013 contained information on 7971 animals that were used in the analyses. The pedigree depth was up to 33 generations, with an average of 15.1 complete generations. The effective number of founders and ancestors contributing to the current genetic pool was 92.69 and 17.16, respectively. The average values of the inbreeding coefficient were as follows: 13% (with a maximum value of 29%) for the reference population (individuals that can currently take part in reproduction, n=612), 11% for the grey variety (with a maximum value of 25%) and 15% for the black variety (with a maximum value of 29%). The proportion of inbred animals was high (99%). The average rate of inbreeding in the reference population was 1%: 0.8% for the grey variety and 1.1% for the black variety, and the respective estimates of the effective population sizes were 52 for the reference population, 62 for the grey variety and 45 for the black variety. The estimated percentage of genetic diversity lost due to non-random mating within subpopulations and the reference population was 1.0, 1.0 and 1.2%, respectively. The total loss of genetic diversity in the reference population, in the grey variety and in the black variety was 11%, 13% and 17%, respectively

Modelling dependence indicators of labor market using advanced statistical methods

Aim this paper is an analysis of disparities in the labor market in the Czech Republic. It is based on qualitative indicators. Unemployment is today increasingly perceived as a negative factor that affects the labor market and economy of the state. Due to the nature of the data, categorical data analysis and logistic regression was selected to reveal opportunities to change the role of unemployed persons to employed ones on the labor market. Cluster analysis on categorical data was used for division of regions into similar groups based on parameters affecting the market status of mentioned person in the labor market. Statistical calculations were performed in SPSS statistical software, version 18. The data from the Labor Force Survey was used for evaluation. Specifically, the fourth quarter of 2009, differentiated according to the NUTS 3 (regions of the Czech Republic). These factors were evaluated: age group, highest completed education, disability, participation in informal education, registration in employment office and family status. Based on the analysis we can conclude that the labor market in the CR is considerably regionally, educationally and physically structured. The workforce of individual does not always have the same weight for an employer. More likely to become unemployed, are people with lower education, disabled people and people who are divorced or widowed. Contrariwise, higher chances to be to employed have people who are registered in employment office and are further self-educating people

Lifelong Education at the Faculty of Economics and Management at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague

Lifelong learning is not an aim but a means for continuous and permanent development and successful advancement of each individual. Not only does it bring competitive advantage at the labour market, but it also helps to solve problems and provides new knowledge and contacts. Thanks to lifelong learning any individual has an opportunity to get educated at various stages of his life in accordance with his own interests and needs and his value at the labour market is increasing. Lifelong learning differs from school education by a variety of means, methods and motivation. The paper describes and analyses one of the main stages of lifelong learning, which is the adult education at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (CULS). The main aim of this paper is to provide basic information on the lifelong education at the faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. Selected statistical methods of quantitative research were used in order to analyse the above-mentioned issues. The data were obtained from a questionnaire survey and analysed using the one-dimensional as well as multidimensional statistical methods. The basis for the analysis itself were the data about students in the courses of lifelong education in the combined form of studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM) of CULS in Prague between the years 2004 – 2012

THE STUDENTS´ EVALUATION OF THE E-SUPPORT IN THE REGULAR FORM OF STUDY

The assessment of the e-learning courses as supportive tools for blended learning environments is important for making the courses more useful and effective. A questionnaire survey based on a multiple criteria model (HELAM) was developed and applied to 536 students in the regular form of study. The evaluated courses were based on the LMS Moodle system. The statistical analysis showed generally high satisfaction of the users with the courses. Some problems were found in the communication between the students and the teachers. The most important negative influence can have the low motivation of students who are ready to work at the minimal extent, only to pass the exam. Subsequent test dealt with differences in answers of students from different branch of study, different year, men and women. No gender differences were found. The most remarkable differences in the e-learning courses evaluation were found for the groups of students from the second and third year