This thesis describes the basic principles of radio frequency identification, basic characteristics of patch antennas, the possibility of their feeding and design of planar antenna series. Are discussed, impedance matching options. The selected antenna arrays were realised, measuring their parameters was down and measured parameters was compared with simulation results.

The master’s thesis is focused on creating a company’s computer network and a plan of its implementation. The plan is based on an analysis of the new company building in which the network is supposed to be implemented and consequently specifies specific procedures and elements that will be used during the process of implementation. The thesis includes technical documentation , cost calculation and work plan necessary for the realization of the network.

The aim of this thesis is to design and rectena that would be able to integrate into a cloth thanks to use of textile substrate. The first part deals with the possibilities of using various communication channels and services for maximizing the useable power. Attention is focused mainly on the use of textile materials for implementing microstrip circuits. It is made valorization of all the typical characteristics and problems using different fabrics as a microwave substrate and the possibilities of realization of conductive structures of microwave patch antenna and microstrip circuits. At the second part are identified parameters and constraints used for the design of the overall device with a rectifying antenna, which will be after the verification of the function in real implementation used for the final concept using textile structures. The design is verified by simulations by CST Microwave Studio and Microwave Designer. The initial design is being gradually extended by other concepts, the use of other materials and technologies. Several design are made, their properties evaluated and the best ones are then compared based on real measurements.

Neurosteroids are an important group of substances that affect communication between neurons. They act as allosteric modulators of membrane receptors for neurotransmitters. One of the most important systems influenced by neurosteroids are NMDA receptors; however, a binding site(s) for their inhibition by steroids have not been found yet. This work is focused on the synthesis of fluorescently labeled photoaffinity probe, which may help explain the structure and location of binding site(s) and simplify the development of new neuroprotectives. A structural analogue of the endogenous neurosteroid, (20S)-20-Azido-5β-pregnan- 3α-yl N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-4-yl)-L-glutamyl 1-ester (8), was prepared. The structure of compound 8 includes photolabile azido group, as well as covalently bounded fluorescent NBD group. In addition, a photoaffinity probe with a modified steroid skeleton - pyridinium 17aα-azido-17α-methyl-17a-homo-5β-androstan-3α-yl 3-sulfate (29) - was synthesized. The ability of compound 8 and 29 to inhibit activated NMDA receptor has been verified for recombinant NR1-1a/NR2B receptors expressed in HEK293 cells using a patch-clamp technique. Additionally, the IC50 values of compounds 8 and 29 have been calculated. (In Czech) Key words: neuroactive steroid, NMDA receptor, photoffinity...

Ischemic injury leeds to sequence of pathophysiological events, which are accompanied by a release of growth factors and morphogens that significantly affect cell proliferation, migration and also their differentiation. Following ischemia, besides enhanced neurogenesis and gliogenesis in subventricular zone of the lateral ventricles and gyrus dentatus of the hippocampus, neurogenesis/gliogenesis also occurs in non-neurogenic regions, such as cortex or striatum. Recently, the attention was turned to a new glial cell type, termed polydendrocytes or NG2 glia. Under physiological conditions, these cells are able to divide and differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes due to they have often been equated with oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Based on recent reports, polydendrocytes are also able to generate protoplasmic astrocytes (Zhu et al., 2008) and neurons in vitro (Belachew et al., 2003), however their ability to differentiate into astrocytes or neurons under physiological or pathological conditions is still highly debated. Therefore, we have investigated the effect of different growth factors and morphogens, specifically brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and a morphogen sonic hedgehog (Shh), on...

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are a subtype of receptors for major excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate in the central nervous system. Their activity is regulated by variety of allosteric modulators, including endogenous neurosteroids and their synthetic analogues. NMDAreceptor dysfunction is implicated in various forms of neurodegeneration and inhibitory neurosteroids have unique therapeutic potential to act as neuroprotective agens. The aim of this work is to investigate relationship between structure and function of neurosteroids with modifications in the D-ring region, using whole-cell patch clamp recording at recombinant GluN1/GluN2B receptors. In this work, we characterised inhibition effect of 19 neurosteroid analogues on NMDA receptor activity and found several of them to be potent NMDA receptor inhibitors. According to our results, there is a linear relationship of IC50 and lipophilicity of a neurosteroid compound, suggesting the plasma membrane plays an important role in neurosteroid access to NMDA receptor. Indeed, using capacitance recording configuration in combination with amphipathic molecule gamma-cyclodextrin, we were able to separate the kinetic of neurosteroid membrane binding from receptor binding. Moreover, these experiments showed that neurosteroid accumulation in the...

Kainate receptors belong to the family of glutamate receptors, which include NMDA, AMPA and δ receptors. Glutamate receptors are widely found in the brain and therefore they are very dynamically investigated, especially from view of pharmacology, because there is great potential for finding new and more specific modulators which could be used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this work was to extend the knowledge about the influence of neurosteroids on homomeric kainate receptors (GluK1, GluK2, GluK3) in which is the study of modulation by neurosteroids still at the beginning. We have investigated interactions of homomeric kainate receptors with selected neurosteroids (pregnenolone sulfate, pregnanolone sulfate, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate) by using patch clamp method in the configuration of whole-cell recording and also by using microfluorometry. We have found out that the biggest modulating effect on homomeric kainate receptors is caused by pregnenolone sulfate, which inhibits glutamate responses of these receptors. Keywords kainate receptor, glutamate, neurosteroids, steroids, patch-clamp technique

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Sepsis has deleterious effects on cardiac function including reduced contractility. We have shown previously that lipopolysaccharides (LPS) directly affect HL-1 cardiac myocytes by inhibiting Ca2+ regulation and by impairing pacemaker "funny" current, If. We now explore further cellular mechanisms whereby LPS inhibits excitability in HL-1 cells. LPS (1 jxg/ml) derived from Salmonella enteritidis decreased rate of firing of spontaneous action potentials in HL-1 cells, and it increased their pacemaker potential durations and decreased their rates of depolarization, all measured by whole cell current clamp. LPS also increased action potential durations and decreased their amplitude in cells paced at 1 Hz with 0.1 nA, and 20 min were necessary for maximal effect. LPS decreased the amplitude of a rapidly inactivating inward current attributed to Na+ and of an outward current attributed to K+; both were measured by whole cell voltage clamp. The K+ currents displayed a resurgent outward tail current, which is characteristic of the rapid delayed-rectifier K+ current, Ikr. LPS accordingly reduced outward currents measured with pipette Cs+ substituted for K+ to isolate Ikr. E-4031 (1 (xM) markedly inhibited Ikr in HL-1 cells and also increased action potential duration; however, the direct effects of E-4031 occurred minutes faster than the slow effects of LPS. We conclude that LPS increases action potential duration in HL-1 mouse cardiomyocytes by inhibition of Ikr and decreases their rate of firing by inhibition of Ina. This protracted time course points toward an intermediary metabolic event, which either decreases available mouse ether-a-go-go (mERG) and Na+ channels or potentiates their inactivation.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has been implicated in sepsis-mediated heart failure and chronic cardiac myopathies. We determined that LPS directly and reversibly affects cardiac myocyte function by altering regulation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) in immortalized cardiomyocytes, HL-1 cells. [Ca2+]i oscillated (<0.4 Hz), displaying slow and transient components. LPS (1 μg/ml), derived either from Escherichia coli or from Salmonella enteritidis, reversibly abolished Ca2+ oscillations and decreased basal [Ca 2+]i by 30-40 nM. HL-1 cells expressed Toll-like receptors, i.e., TLR-2 and TLR-4. Thus, we differentiated effects of LPS on [Ca2+]i and Ca2+ oscillations by addition of utlrapure LPS, a TLR-4 ligand. Ultrapure LPS had no effect on basal [Ca 2+]i, but it reduced the rate of Ca2+ oscillations. Interestingly, Pam3CSK4, a TLR-2 ligand, affected neither Ca 2+ parameter, and the effect of ultrapure LPS and Pam3CSK4 combined was similar to that of utlrapure LPS alone. Thus, unpurified LPS directly inhibits HL-1 calcium metabolism via TLR-4 and non-TLR-4-dependent mechanisms. Since others have shown that endotoxin impairs the hyperpolarization-activated, nonselective cationic pacemaker current (If), which is expressed in HL-1 cells, we utilized whole cell voltage-clamp techniques to demonstrate that LPS (1 μg/ml) reduced If in HL-1 cells. This inhibition was marginal at physiologic membrane potentials and significant at very negative potentials (P < 0.05 at -140, -150, and -160 mV). So, we also evaluated effects of LPS on tail currents of fully activated If. LPS reduced the slope conductance of the tail currents from 498 ± 140 pS/pF to 223 ± 65 pS/pF (P < 0.05) without affecting reversal potential of -11 mV. Ultrapure LPS had similar effect on If, whereas Pam3CSK4 had no effect on If. We conclude that LPS inhibits activation of I f, enhances its deactivation, and impairs regulation of [Ca 2+]i in HL-1 cardiomyocytes via TLR-4 and other mechanisms.