Our aim was to determine biogeographical patterns in the food habits of golden jackals by first reviewing their dietary patterns at the continental scale and then analysing associations between the food items in their diets and geographical, regional productivity and land-use variables, using multivariate analyses. Our findings indicated that jackals generally consume small mammals as a staple food but shift to consume plant materials or the carcasses of larger mammals when food resources are scarce owing to changes in the regional climate and productivity, as well as anthropogenic habitat modifications. Disruption of natural food resources (specifically small mammals) due to anthropogenic landscape modifications provokes dietary shifts in golden jackals, potentially increasing their reliance on anthropogenic resources. Consequently, conservation of their habitat in combination with waste management to decrease the accessibility to anthropogenic resources is required to resolve human-jackal conflicts.
The main role of research in medicine is to provide relevant knowledge which, after successful translation to clinical practice, improves the quality of healthcare. The sex bias which is still present in the majority of research disciplines prefers male subjects despite legislation changes in the US grant agencies and European research programme Horizon 2020. Male subjects (cells, animals) still dominate in preclinical research and it has detrimental consequences for women’s health and the quality of science. Opposite bias exists for data obtained mainly in animal models utilizing female subjects (e.g. research in multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis) with skewed outcomes for men affected by these diseases. Either way, scientists are producing results which compromise half of the population. Assumptions that females as cohorts are more variable and another assumption that the oestrous cycle should be tracked in case the females are enrolled in preclinical studies were proven wrong. Variability of male versus female cohorts are comparable and do not only stem from hormonal levels. The widespread prevalence of sex differences in human diseases ultimately requires detailed experiments performed on both sexes, unless the studies are specifically addressing reproduction or sex-related behaviors.
Recent studies have shown that the presence of ice cover leads to an intensified local scour pattern in the vicinity of bridge piers. To investigate the local scour pattern in the vicinity of bridge pier under ice-covered flow condition comparing to that under open channel flow condition, it is essential to examine flow field around bridge piers under different flow conditions. In order to do so, after creation of smooth and rough ice covers, three-dimensional timeaveraged velocity components around four pairs of bridge piers were measured using an Acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV). The ADV measured velocity profiles describe the difference between the velocity distributions in the vicinity of bridge piers under different covered conditions. Experimental results show that the vertical velocity distribution which represents the strength of downfall velocity is the greatest under rough covered condition which leads to a greater scour depth. Besides, results show that the turbulent intensity increases with pier size regardless of flow cover, which implies that larger scour depth occurs around piers with larger diameter.
Test verbální fluence je často využívanou zkouškou nejen v pedagogicko psychologické praxi. Předložená metodická studie obsahuje základní psychometrické ukazatele, zejména odhady reliabilit, a hlavně pak normy pro počty slov vyjmenovaných za jednu minutu začínajících na hlásky N, K a P (a celkem) na vzorku 411 dětí ve věku 5–12 let. and The Verbal Fluency Test is the common task not only in the school psychological services. This methodological study provides the main psychometrical parameters of the test, particularly the reliability estimates, and norms for the number of words named within one minute beginning on the sounds N, K and P (and total) on the sample of 411 pupils aged 5–12 years.
The decision-making autonomy is an essential precondition for the performance of health services, both on the part of the provider and the patient. The specialist determines what treatment and related procedures he will propose to the patient. Based on proper instruction and informed consent, the patient either accepts or rejects. Both the provider and the specific healthcare professional often conflict between their legal obligations, the ethics of the profession and the requirements for medical procedure lege artis. The crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic has brought entirely new issues that affect the very foundations of the autonomy of the medical profession and the autonomy of the Abstract: patient. The protection of the profession's independence and the respect for patients' right to self-determination form legal fundaments of health law within the rule of law. The paper deals with public law aspects of limiting the autonomy of both parties during a pandemic. The article examines how the requirements of healthcare crisis management constrain both health care providers and patients. The lack of human, financial and material resources limits healthcare providers. and Autonomie rozhodování je základním předpokladem výkonu zdravotních služeb, jak na straně poskytovatele, tak na straně pacienta. Odborník určuje, jaké léčebné a související postupy budou pacientovi navrženy. Pacient, na základě řádného poučení a informovaného souhlasu, tyto návrhy buď přijme, nebo odmítne. Poskytovatel i konkrétní zdravotnický pracovník se často dostávají do konfliktu mezi svými právními povinnostmi, etikou výkonu povolání a požadavky na lékařský postup lege artis. Krize, způsobená pandemií SARS-CoV-2 (covid-19) přinesla a přináší zcela nové otázky, které se dotýkají samotných základů autonomie lékařského povolání i autonomie pacienta. Z pohledu práva jsou ochrana nezávislosti při výkonu povolání a respekt k právu pacienta na sebeurčení základním institutem zdravotnického práva v rámci právního státu. Příspěvek se zabývá veřejnoprávními aspekty omezení autonomie obou stran v době pandemie, kdy poskytovatelé zdravotních služeb i pacienti jsou omezeni požadavky krizového řízení zdravotnictví. Poskytovatelé jsou limitováni nedostatkem lidských, finančních i materiálních zdrojů při poskytnutí zdravotní péče. Z uvedených důvodů je také svoboda rozhodování příjemce služby výrazně omezena. Příspěvek vychází z multidisciplinárního pojetí zdravotnického práva a zohledňuje rovněž manažerskou problematiku pandemie.
Leaf-specific Farquhar-von Caemmerer-Berry (FvCB) model was fitted to characterize the vertical profile of photosynthetic CO2 response within rice canopy. Leaf-position-specific and canopy average FvCB models were fitted to study a suitable leaf representing photosynthetic parameters at the canopy scale. The results showed that leaf photosynthesis was limited by Rubisco activity or ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate regeneration under field conditions. The maximum rate of carboxylation, maximum rate of electron transport, rate of triose phosphates utilization, and light respiration rate in the FvCB model reached the highest values for the top second leaf and then decreased, while the mesophyll diffusion conductance kept decreased in downward leaves. The integrated photosynthetic CO2-response curves for the top fourth and fifth leaves were appropriate for estimating parameters in the FvCB model at the canopy scale.
Intense collisional transport of bimodal sediment mixture in open-channel turbulent flow with water as carrying liquid is studied. The study focusses on steep inclined flows transporting solids of spherical shape and differing in either size or mass. A process of vertical sorting (segregation) of the two different solids fractions during the transport is analyzed and modelled. A segregation model is presented which is based on the kinetic theory of granular flows and builds on the Larcher-Jenkins segregation model for dry bimodal mixtures. Main modifications of the original model are the carrying medium (water instead of air) and a presence of a non-uniform distribution of sediment across the flow depth. Testing of the modified model reveals that the model is applicable to flow inclination slopes from 20 to 30 degrees approximately, making it appropriate for debris flow conditions. Changing the slope outside the specified range leads to numerical instability of the solution. A use of the bimodal mixture model is restricted to the grain size ratio 1.4 and no restriction is found for the grain mass ratio in a realistic range applicable to natural conditions. The model reveals trends in the vertical sorting under variable conditions showing that the sorting is more intense if flow is steeper and/or the difference in size or mass is bigger between the two sediment fractions in a bimodal mixture.
Schizophrenia has a debilitating impact on patient,s cognitive functioning and everyday activities. As a part of the treatment, schizophrenia patients attend sessions of cognitive remediation to restore impaired cognitive abilities. To combine cognitive and real life training, this study presents a virtual task to use in cognitive rehabilitation and assessment. Virtual Supermarket Shopping Task (VSST) simulates a shopping activity, in which participants have to memorize and collect items from a virtual supermarket. The aim of this study is to establish its validity for use in clinical practice.Sample and setting. Twenty patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia and twenty healthy controls were tested. Each participant complet-ed the task and a battery of standard neuropsy-chological tests.Statistical analyses. Groups’ results were com-pared by Student’s t-tests., Validity of VSST was examined using correlations with standard neu-ropsychological measures. Several VSST met-rics, such as trial difficulty, distances and times, and the effect the extraneous variables have on VSST measures were investigated using analyses of variance and mixed effect models. The analyses demonstrate that patients perform worse in VSST than healthy controls and their performance corresponds to their mnemonic abilities measured by standard neuropsy-chological tests. VSST performance relates to the level of executive functioning only in patients. There was no effect of gaming experience on VSST performance. While potential gender effect has to be addressed in future studies, age seems to play a role in the additional VSST measures (trial time and distance).Study limitations. Subjects were tested only once and therefore long term benefits of using VSST in rehabilitation could not be investigated. Only schizophrenia patients were included in the sample, which reduces generalizability of results to other psychiatric and neurologic conditions., Schizofrenie je onemocnění výrazně omezující kognitivní schopnosti člověka a jeho každodenní fungování. Pacienti se schizofrenií v rámci léčby podstupují kognitivní remediaci za účelem zlepšení svých kognitivních schop-ností. Virtuální úloha určená ke kognitivní re-habilitaci a vyšetření kognitivních funkcí byla vytvořena s cílem propojení kognitivního tréninku s tréninkem v reálných životních pod-mínkách. Úloha nákupu ve virtuálním supermarketu (ÚNVS) simuluje proces nákupu, při kterém si jedinec musí zapamatovat a posbírat produkty ve virtuálním supermarketu. Cílem této studie je stanovit validitu úlohy pro její využití v klinické praxi. Soubor a procedura. V rámci studie bylo otestováno dvacet pacientů trpících chronickou schizo-frenií a dvacet zdravých dobrovolníků. Každý respondent absolvoval úlohu společně s baterií standardních neuropsychologických testů.Statistická analýza. Výsledky skupin byly porovnány pomocí t-testu. Validita ÚNVS byla stanovena na základě Pearsonovy korelace se standardními neuropsychologickými testy. Pomocí lineární regrese a lineárních smíšených modelů byly podrobně prozkoumány jednotlivé proměnné, jako je obtížnost úlohy, ušlá vzdálenost či čas. Ověřen byl i vliv vnějších proměnných na výsledky v testu., and Analýza prokázala, že výkon SZ pacientů v ÚNVS je horší oproti výkonu zdravých dobrovolníků a tento výkon odpovídá úrovni jejich paměťových schopností zachycené standardními neuropsychologickými testy. Pouze ve skupině SZ pacientů byl zjištěn vztah mezi výkonem v ÚNVS a exekutivními funkcemi. Ana-lýza neodhalila žádný efekt zkušenosti s hraním počítačových her na výkon v ÚNVS. Zatímco efekt pohlaví musí být ověřen v následujících studiích, výsledky studie naznačují, že věk respondenta může mít vliv na vybrané proměnné ÚNVS (ušlá vzdálenost a čas řešení úlohy).Omezení studie. Participanti absolvovali úlohu pouze jednou, a proto nemohl být ověřen dlouhodobý přínos ÚNVS v rehabilitaci. Výzkumný soubor byl tvořen pouze pacienty se schizofrenií, což omezuje možnost zobecnění výsledků na jiná psychiatrická a neurologická onemocnění.
Based on the fact that tremors display some distinct 3D spatial
characteristics, we decided to visualize tremor planes in 3D
space. We obtained 3-axial linear accelerometer signals of hand
tremors from 58 patients with Parkinson´s disease (PD), 37 with
isolated resting tremor (iRT), 75 with essential tremor (ET), and
44 healthy volunteers with physiological tremor (Ph). For each
group analysis was done with subsequent spatial 3D regression
of the input data i.e. along the x, y and z axes; the projected
vector lengths in the individual (vertical transversal XY, vertical
longitudinal XZ and horizontal YZ) reference frame planes and
their angles. Most meaningful and statistically significant
differences were found in the analyses of the 3D vector lengths.
The tremor of the PD and the iRT group was oriented mainly in
the horizontal YZ plane. The tremors of the patients with ET and
Ph were oriented approximately in the midway between the all
three referential planes with less tilt toward the vertical
longitudinal XZ plane.