Internet of Things in Practice

Prerequisite of working with microcontrollers is understanding the basic principles of their communication with the environment and possible ways of their programming. The ESP8266 microcontroller is one of the most popular chips used in Internet of things applications. Wemos D1 mini is one of development platforms behind the ESP8266,which allows direct communication with the PC via a USB port and has plenty of input and output peripherals to build simple IoT devices. The ArduinoIde development environment is used for programming. The thermostatic switch is made as a result of this tutorial

ESP32-CAM – LET’S BUILD A LITTLE EYE

Microcontroller ESP32 can be obtained as a development board with 2Mpixel camera OV2640 together. The trademark of such module is ESP32-cam. Tutorial shows the abbility of the module to take the static pictures and video stream, communications skills and saving the data to the SD card. The USB-serial convertor CP2102 is used as an interface for the communication with PC

Dynamika vyplavování pesticidních látek v povodí Čechtického potoka

Nejzajímavější výsledky však poskytují zachycené hydrologické události, kdy se koncentrace oproti kontinuálnímu sledování zvýší (nebo naopak sníží) řádově, a to během desítek minut. Dynamika vyplavování živin a speciálních organických látek během srážko-odtokových událostí se ukazuje být natolik významná, že bez detailního vzorkovacího schématu můžeme koncentrace a následné odnosy látek pouze odhadovat.Využití automatických vzorkovačů se stává běžnou součástí detailního bilančního monitoringu koncentrací a odnosů látek. Průměrné výsledky běžného monitoringu bodových vzorků jsou oproti reálnému stavu často podhodnocené [1, 2]. Povodí Čechtického potoka odvodňuje jedno z nejvíce zemědělsky obhospodařovaných území v celém povodí vodárenské nádrže Švihov na Želivce. Od roku 2012 zde státní podnik Povodí Vltavy provozuje vzorkovací stanici. Pesticidní látky a jejich metabolity jsou analyzovány buď ve slévaných 14denních vzorcích, nebo jsou na základě průtoku (v případě srážko-odtokových událostí) odebrány i dvoudenní slévané a bodové vzorky. Postupným zdokonalováním vzorkovacího systému bylo nejvíce hydrologic- kých událostí zachyceno v roce 2015 a 2016. Z hlediska hydrologických podmínek a výskytu pesticidních látek byl rok 2016 oproti předchozímu roku zajímavější, publikovaná data tedy pochází převážně z roku 2016. Výsledky z kontinuálního měření ukázaly nárůsty koncentrací a odnosů mateřských pesticidních látek na jaře a jejich metabolitů v průběhu léta. Celková látková bilance námi sledovaných pesticidů a jejich metabolitů byla 3,88 kg (4-11/2016, Q prům = 63,5 l∙s -1 ). Z dlouhodobého hlediska se mění i skladba používaných pesticidů, patrné je to na příkladu terbuthylazinu (pěstování kukuřice). V povodí se nyní více vysky- tují jeho metabolity a byl pravděpodobně nahrazen jinými účinnými látkami (isoxafl utole, cyprosulfamide a thiencarbazon-methyl). Při snaze detekovat nové účinné látky mají laboratoře oproti zemědělským aplikacím výrazné zpoždění. Proto je třeba neustálý vývoj analýz a sledování nových trendů.101

Pesticides in Small Agricultural Catchments in the Czech Republic

Generally, pesticides are the products containing at least one chemical substance which should protect plant or plant products against pests/diseases. Among them, the most important ones are herbicides, followed by insecticides and fungicides. As a result of intensive agriculture techniques, large amounts of pesticides are applied on agricultural soil. They remain and degrade in soil, but they can enter water bodies and negatively affect water quality and the aquatic ecosystem. The article deals with the level of pesticide load in soil, bottom sediment and surface water in chosen agriculture catchments in the Czech Republic. Results revealed that the main general problem is glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA, although their application has been constrained for several years. Furthermore, the difference in contents of chosen parent pesticide substances and their metabolites in soils and waters were pointed out

Pesticides in Small Agricultural Catchments in the Czech Republic

Generally, pesticides are the products containing at least one chemical substance which should protect plant or plant products against pests/diseases. Among them, the most important ones are herbicides, followed by insecticides and fungicides. As a result of intensive agriculture techniques, large amounts of pesticides are applied on agricultural soil. They remain and degrade in soil, but they can enter water bodies and negatively affect water quality and the aquatic ecosystem. The article deals with the level of pesticide load in soil, bottom sediment and surface water in chosen agriculture catchments in the Czech Republic. Results revealed that the main general problem is glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA, although their application has been constrained for several years. Furthermore, the difference in contents of chosen parent pesticide substances and their metabolites in soils and waters was pointed out

Protection provided by vaccination, booster doses and previous infection against covid-19 infection, hospitalisation or death over time in Czechia.

Studies demonstrating the waning of post-vaccination and post-infection immunity against covid-19 generally analyzed a limited range of vaccines or subsets of populations. Using Czech national health data from the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic till November 20, 2021 we estimated the risks of reinfection, breakthrough infection, hospitalization and death by a Cox regression adjusted for sex, age, vaccine type and vaccination status. Vaccine effectiveness against infection declined from 87% at 0-2 months after the second dose to 53% at 7-8 months for BNT162b2 vaccine, from 90% at 0-2 months to 65% at 7-8 months for mRNA-1273, and from 83% at 0-2 months to 55% at 5-6 months for the ChAdOx1-S. Effectiveness against hospitalization and deaths declined by about 15% and 10%, respectively, during the first 6-8 months. Boosters (third dose) returned the protection to the levels observed shortly after dose 2. In unvaccinated, previously infected individuals the protection against infection declined from 97% after 2 months to 72% at 18 months. Our results confirm the waning of vaccination-induced immunity against infection and a smaller decline in the protection against hospitalization and death. Boosting restores the original vaccine effectiveness. Post-infection immunity also decreases over time

On the contact tracing for COVID-19: A simulation study

Background:: Contact tracing is one of the most effective non-pharmaceutical interventions in the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses a multi-agent model to investigate the impact of four types of contact tracing strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Methods:: In order to analyse individual contact tracing in a reasonably realistic setup, we construct an agent-based model of a small municipality with about 60.000 inhabitants (nodes) and about 2.8 million social contacts (edges) in 30 different layers. Those layers reflect demographic, geographic, sociological and other patterns of the TTWA (Travel-to-work-area) Hodonín in Czechia. Various data sources such as census, land register, transport data or data reflecting the shopping behaviour, were employed to meet this purpose. On this multi-graph structure we run a modified SEIR model of the COVID-19 dynamics. The parameters of the model are calibrated on data from the outbreak in the Czech Republic in the period March to June 2020. The simplest type of contact tracing follows just the family, the second tracing version tracks the family and all the work contacts, the third type finds all contacts with the family, work contacts and friends (leisure activities). The last one is a complete (digital) tracing capable of recalling any and all contacts.We evaluate the performance of these contact tracing strategies in four different environments. First, we consider an environment without any contact restrictions (benchmark); second with strict contact restriction (replicating the stringent non-pharmaceutical interventions employed in Czechia in the spring 2020); third environment, where the measures were substantially relaxed, and, finally an environment with weak contact restrictions and superspreader events (replicating the situation in Czechia in the summer 2020). Findings:: There are four main findings in our paper. 1. In general, local closures are more effective than any type of tracing. 2. In an environment with strict contact restrictions there are only small differences among the four contact tracing strategies. 3. In an environment with relaxed contact restrictions the effectiveness of the tracing strategies differs substantially. 4. In the presence of superspreader events only complete contact tracing can stop the epidemic. Interpretation:: In situations, where many other non-pharmaceutical interventions are in place, the specific extent of contact tracing may not have a large influence on their effectiveness. In a more relaxed setting with few contact restrictions and larger events the effectiveness of contact tracing depends heavily on their extent

Delays, Masks, the Elderly, and Schools: First Covid-19 Wave in the Czech Republic

Running across the globe for nearly 2 years, the Covid-19 pandemic keeps demonstrating its strength. Despite a lot of understanding, uncertainty regarding the efficiency of interventions still persists. We developed an age-structured epidemic model parameterized with epidemiological and sociological data for the first Covid-19 wave in the Czech Republic and found that (1) starting the spring 2020 lockdown 4 days earlier might prevent half of the confirmed cases by the end of lockdown period, (2) personal protective measures such as face masks appear more effective than just a realized reduction in social contacts, (3) the strategy of sheltering just the elderly is not at all effective, and (4) leaving schools open is a risky strategy. Despite vaccination programs, evidence-based choice and timing of non-pharmaceutical interventions remains an effective weapon against the Covid-19 pandemic