• Restricted close
• Repository of the Czech Academy of ... close

Phage therapy could offer a safe and effective alternative to antibiotic treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus that have emerged as a significant threat in hospital and community environment and is attracting growing interest among clinicians. The legislation process of approving the phage therapeutics by pharmaceutical authorities requires rapid analytical techniques for assessment of phage activity. Here, we present a three-step method for on-line monitoring the phage effect on bacterial cells dynamically adhered from microliter volumes of high conductivity matrix onto the inner surface of fused silica capillary with a part etched with supercritical water. Phage K1/420 particles of the Kayvirus genus generated by propagation on the host S. aureus cells together with the uninfected cells were concentrated, separated and detected using capillary electrophoretic methods. The phage interactions with selected S. aureus strains exhibiting differences in phage susceptibility were compared. The method allowed determination of the phage burst size and time of phage latent period in analyzed strains. Apart from enumeration of bacteriophages by the plaque assays, the proposed method is suitable for phage activity testing.

This paper summarizes the status of the COMPASS tokamak, its comprehensive diagnostic equipment and plasma scenarios as a baseline for the future studies. The former COMPASS-D tokamak was in operation at UKAEA Culham, UK in 1992-2002. Later, the device was transferred to the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IPP AS CR), where it was installed during 2006-2011. Since 2012 the device has been in a full operation with Type-I and Type-III ELMy H-modes as a base scenario. This enables together with the ITER-like plasma shape and flexible NBI heating system (two injectors enabling co- or balanced injection) to perform ITER relevant studies in different parameter range to the other tokamaks (ASDEX-Upgrade, DIII-D, JET) and to contribute to the ITER scallings. In addition to the description of the device, current status and the main diagnostic equipment, the paper focuses on the characterization of the Ohmic as well as NBI-assisted H-modes. Moreover, Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) are categorized based on their frequency dependence on power density flowing across separatrix. The filamentary structure of ELMs is studied and the parallel heat flux in individual filaments is measured by probes on the outer mid-plane and in the divertor. The measurements are supported by observation of ELM and inter-ELM filaments by an ultra-fast camera. International audience

In this article, factors concerning reintegration and resocialization of offenders into society are summarized. The article defines socialization and resocialization and further concentrates on studies, which define different clasifications of risk and protective factors of reintegration. In the end, the article concentrates on different concepts pertaining to reintegration and resocialization.

The paper presents a case study in an industrially important application domain the optimization of catalytic materials. Though evolutionary algorithms are the by far most frequent approach to optimization tasks in that domain, they are challenged by mixing continuous and discrete variables, and especially by a large number of constraints. The paper describes the various kinds of encountered constraints, and explains constraint handling in GENACAT, one of evolutionary optimization systems developed specifically for catalyst optimization. In particular, it is shown that the interplay between cardinality constraints and linear equality and inequality constraints allows GENACAT to efficienlty determine the set of feasible solutions, and to split the original optimization task into a sequence of discrete and continuous optimization. Finally, the genetic operations employed in the discrete optimization are sketched, among which crossover is based on an assumption about the importance of the choice of sets of continuous variables in the cardinality constraints.

In the present article the author points out the fact that no mention of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission to Moravia, generally considered one of the most important Byzantine ecclesiastical missions ever sent abroad, appears in the known Byzantine sources. He explains this omission from the perspective of political interests of Byzantium from which this mission was a failure. Another reason may have been the introduction of the Slavonic vernacular into liturgy, which was not an application of the allegedly common Byzantine missionary practice but a novel initiative of Constantine-Cyril. The author also focuses on the paradox that this revolutionary innovations, which became a target of fierce attacks of Frankish missionaries and provoked a strong opposition from the Latin clergy in Italy was, though temporarily, approvedy by two Roman popes. The latest paradox of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission was that its cultural legacy, while ignored and even disregarded in Byzantium and later abandoned in the country to which the Thessalonian brothers had been sent, proved one of the most effective means of spreading the Byzantine civilization and spirituality among the south and east Slavonic nations.

The synchronization of large systems is important for recording of dynamic actions and data acquisition of physical quantities over a wide geographical area. The chapter deals with synchronization of distributed measurement systems, especially synchronization using PTP (Precise Time Protocol, IEEE 1588). A practical case study presents a Master Clock module synchronized by GPS receiver. This module works as a high quality time base for PTP based system.

A systematic analysis of vegetation successions following disturbance can outline general invasion patterns and contribute to the management of disturbed and natural ecosystems. Here the participation of alien plant species, with special regard to neophytes, was compared in 20 types of successional series in the Czech Republic, central Europe, to detect possible trends and factors supporting their occurrence. Based on 3473 samples of spontaneously established vegetation, we used linear mixed models and multivariate analyses to assess how alien species were influenced by successional age, average annual temperature and precipitation, altitude, geological substrate, and surrounding land-cover. Out of 1035 plant taxa recorded, 839 were natives, 129 archaeophytes and 67 neophytes. The primary or secondary status of series may influence the participation of neophytes but was not determinative. The most invaded successional series were those in deforested landscapes at lower altitudes. Altitude plus climate, substrate and degree of urbanisation shaped the general vegetation pattern and occurrence of aliens. Neophytes were additionally benefited by density of roads and railways and extent of arable land in the surrounding landscape, confirming that these land uses are relevant invasion pathways and should be targeted in prevention strategies. Alien participation is low and mostly declines in later stages, with few neophytes becoming locally dominant over time. This supports spontaneous succession as a suitable restoration option and places the focus on an early detection of potentially problematic species. These findings may contribute to guiding decisions in landscape restoration and the management of disturbed sites under central European conditions.

Metalearning is becoming an increasingly important methodology for extracting knowledge from a database of available training datasets to a new (independent) dataset. While the concept of metalearning is becoming popular in statistical learning and readily available also for the analysis of economic datasets, not much attention has been paid to its limitations and disadvantages. To the best of our knowledge, the current paper represents the first illustration of metalearning sensitivity to data contamination by noise or outliers. For this purpose, we use various linear regression estimators (including highly robust ones) over a set of 24 datasets with economic background and perform a metalearning study over them as well as over the same datasets after an artificial contamination. The results reveal the whole process to remain rather sensitive to data contamination and some of the standard classifiers turn out to yield unreliable results. Nevertheless, using a robust classification method does not bring a desirable improvement. Thus, we conclude that the task of robustification of the whole metalearning methodology is more complex and deserves a systematic future research.

Nowadays is placed great emphasis on miniaturization and reduction of weight in many industrial sectors. Application of abrasive water jet to produce thin-walled components hide big potential for future applications, due to small lateral force and absence of heat-affected zone. The presented article is focused on the possibility of creating thin-walled ribs using an abrasive water jet. An experimental procedure was selected to produce the thinnest possible rib in aluminum alloy AW 6060. Ribs were created by two passes of the AWJ with changing of the pitch between two passes. Due to minimal lateral force in the process as possible to create a rib with an average width of 0.4 mm with a height, more than 8 mm. Metallography analysis was performed for a closer look on the subsurface layers of the created rib and root of the rib. Results have the potential to extend knowledge in the field of abrasive water jet machining of thin-walled components.