The thesis deals with the transformation and the new proposal of the functional use of the area Za Lužánkami in the cadastral area Ponava of the Královo Pole district in Brno. The area is defined by the streets Sportovní, Drobného a Tř. Generála Píky. The aim of the thesis is the urban design of the sports and multifunctional complex in Brno for Lužánky and demonstrate the viability and sustainability of the sports complex in the 21st century and the proposal of the contemporary structure of the municipal sports and multifunctional complex including related functions and public space.

The theme of the work is revitalisation of the Brno rivers, specifically the river Svitava. The main idea of the work is the understanding the river as a city-building element, as a place of potential that every city should fully utilize. People like to spend their free time at the water and such a space should satisfy their needs. The river flows smoothly throught the city, and people should be able to move freely around it. In the ideal case, it should be a green path across urban area. The solved territory is situated in the Brno-Zábrdovice district, which hasn´t ideal reputation. Its image is shaped by, among others, industrial areas which are quite often derelict. My task was to correctly distribute one of these sites, which is located near the Zábrdovice Monastery. The solved territory is currently a non-coherent and inconsistent structure that does not support the image of the site. The river is completely supressed at this point and the movement around it is very limited. In my design I tried to create a place that would offer a lot of activities through the day. I have modified the functions I have in the territory and supported by my proposal to form a working entity together. In such a territory will meet people, who work or live here, who are using the services or come to sport or spend their free time in the pleasant environment of Svitava river.

The diploma thesis is focused on an architectonic study of cycling stadium in Brno Komárov that shall substitute the current velodrome at Brno´s fair ground that does not conform to current Olympic standards and that shall provide new and better conditions not only for the club Favorit Brno base but also for other enthusiastic sportsmen of track cycling. The study regards also the future adding of another sport, of athletics as Brno has not enough of covered training areas. That is why I add the cycling with this sport in my diploma thesis so that the building can offer its maximum not only to top sportsmen but also occasional sport enthusiasts and to enrich its surroundings to its maximum. The building design uses combination of concrete, steel and glass. Large glass façade is shielded with a great roof overlap that shall provide a natural shielding in summer period. The diploma thesis was preceded with a specialised atelier TG02 that was focused on the development of adjacent surfaces, on the BMX track that should closely cooperate with the new cycling stadium. The specified territory in Komárov Brno presents a great sport potential that shall be developed in the future.

Estimation of cooling station safety Diploma thesis, institute of metrology and quality assurance and testing, Brno University of Technology. The diploma thesis deals with safety evaluation of cooling plant at a pool stadium, which uses amonia as a coolant. The work includes particular calculation (quantitative risk estimation) of cooling the plant with amonia. For cooling at the pool stadium no salt water, only amonia is used, so it is direct cooling. The safety of population, animals and enviroment is considered. Part of this thesis is also the estimation of the chemical exposure index (CEI) and simulation of breakdown effects with ALOHA model (Areal Locations of Hazardous Atmospheres). At the end FMEA method is used, the method cause – effect.

Disertační práce Porovnávání středoevropských jazyků: za horizont strukturních rysů a lexikálních přejímek se soustředí na zhodnocení a přehodnocení přístupu k výzkumu jazyků střední Evropy. Hlavním cílem předkládané práce je (1) podat přehled dosavadních poznatků o porovnávání středoevropských jazyků, (2) na jeho základě naznačit možné nové směřování němu přispět. Druhá kapitola práce se věnuje areálové lingvistice, jakožto disciplíně zaměřené na výzkum podobnosti a konvergence geograficky blízkých jazyků, a zejména jejímu ústřednímu pojmu . Představuje okolnosti jeho vzniku, jeho různé definice a jeho kritické (pře)hodnocení pracích současných areálových lingvistů. Třetí kapitola sumarizuje výzkum středoevropských jazyků: různé koncepce středoevropského (popř. dunajského) jazykového svazu vzájemné vlivy lexika a frazeologie těchto jazyků a popisy situací jazykového kontaktu v areálu. Tento přehled ukázal, že hlavními doménami porovnávání jazyků areálu dosud byly strukturní rysy a lexikální přejímky a kalky. Novější vývoj lingvistiky, jak je naznačeno ve čtvrté kapitole, však operuje rovněž s jazykovými jednotkami, které překlenují a relativizují -lexikon. Nabízí se tedy, aby se rovněž komparativní výzkum středoevropských jazyků soustředil na tyto jevy zahrnutelné pod pojem idiomatičnosti. Pátá kapitola...

Within the frame work of the International Water Research Alliance Saxony (IWAS), project “Middle East” a complex integrated water management system is developed and tested in the project region of Middle East (Oman and Saudi-Arabia). Hence, new solutions for a sustainable management of the scarce water resources in (semi-) arid regions are explored within IWAS in the sultanate of Oman on which this study work is carried out. Rainfall runoff models are established to estimate the “water yield” of the catchments in the project region. Modeling is a very important tool that enables hydrologists to make more comprehensive use of rainfall time series. Rainfall-runoff modeling is also useful for water resources assessment as these models can generate a long representative time series of stream flow volumes from which water supply schemes can be designed (D.A. Hughes, 1995). Therefore, this study project mainly focuses on the following main tasks such as data analysis, data processing and statistical evaluation; Model selection and model setup; Model adaptation test and verification. As part of the common modeling protocol, sensitivity analysis of a Rainfall-Runoff Modeling Toolbox (RRMT) is carried out in this study with the aim to identify sensitive model parameters. RRMT has been developed in order to produce parsimonious, lumped model structures with a high level of parameter identifiability. Such identifiability is crucial if relationships between the model parameters representing the system and catchment characteristics are to be established. RRMT is a modular framework that allows its user to implement different model structures to find a suitable balance between model performance and parameter identifiability. The study is carried out in the upper catchment part of Wadi Ma’wil (gauge near to Afi’), Batinah Region of the Sultanate of Oman. Arid and semi-arid zones are characterized by rainfall which is highly variable in space, time, quantity and duration (Noy-Meir, 1973). The Sultanate of Oman is characterized by hyper-arid (<100 mm rainfall), through the arid (100–250 mm rainfall) and semi-arid (250–500 mm rainfall) environments that are experienced in different parts of the country. Furthermore, arid areas have distinctive hydrological features substantially different from those of humid areas. The high temporal and spatial distribution of the rainfall, flash floods, absence of base flow, sparsity of plant cover, high transmission losses, high amounts of evaporation and evapotranspiration and the general climatologies are examples of such differences.:Acknowledgments i Abstract ii List of Figures and Photos v List of Tables and Plots v 1. Description of Study Area 1 1.1 General characteristics of arid regions 1 1.2 Study area (Batinah Region and Ma’awil catchment of gauge ‘Afi’) 2 1.2.1 Overview of Study area 2 1.2.2 Wadi Ma’awil and Gauge near to Afi’ 3 2. Data Processing and Evaluation 6 2.1 Rainfall data 6 2.1.1 Monthly and Annual Mean Rainfall Analyses 6 2.1.2 Estimation of Missing Precipitation Data 6 2.1.3 Annual and monthly average rainfall 6 2.2 Runoff data 9 2.2.1Rainfall-Runoff events – Processing and Analysis 9 2.2.2 Wadi Ma’awil Runoff Analysis 9 2.3 Areal Precipitation 11 2.3.1 Area 11 2.3.2 Summary of Calculated Results of Mean Annual Areal Precipitation 12 2.4 Evapotranspiration 13 2.4.1 Evaporation and Potential Evapotranspiration 13 2.4.2 Calculation of Evapotranspiration by FAO Penman-Monteith Equation 13 2.4.3 Sample Calculation for Daily ET using FAO Penman-Monteith Equation 14 2.4.4 Comparisons of Evapotranspiration Calculation Results 16 3. Rainfall-Runoff Modeling 16 3.1 Modeling approach – selection of modules 16 3.1.1 Basic Principle 16 3.1.2 Classification of models 16 3.1.3 Modeling Process 17 3.2 Rainfall-Runoff Modeling Toolbox 19 3.2.1 Introduction 19 3.2.2 Data Needs and Model Structure 20 3.3 Provision of input data 20 3.4 Calibration and Validation 20 3.4.1 Model Calibration and Validation 21 3.5 Sensitivity Analysis 22 3.6 Discussions of Results 23 3.6.1 Optimization Modules 23 3.6.2 Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA) Modules 24 3.6.3 Routing (R) Modules 25 3.6.4 The objective functions 26 3.6.5 Visualization Modules Results 27 3.7 Conclusions and Recommendations 35 3.7.1 Conclusions 35 3.7.2 Limitations and Recommendations 35 References 37 Appendix 38 Appendix A: Daily extraterrestrial radiation (Ra) for different latitudes for the 15th day of the month 38 Appendix B: Mean daylight hours (N) for different latitudes for the 15th of the month 38 Annexes 39 Annex - A: Mean Rainfall for the Gauge Afi’ from 1995 – 2005 39 Annex A-1: Annual Mean Rainfall for Gauge Afi’ for the time period 1995-2005 39 Annex A-2: Monthly Mean Rainfall for Gauge Afi’ for the time period 1995-2005 39 Annex A-3: Monthly Mean Rainfall for each Rain Gauge within the Wadi Ma’awil Catchment area for the time period 1995-2005 40 Annex - B: Rainfall - Runoff events for the Gauge Afi’ 41 Annex B-1: Annual Rainfall Vs Runoff events for the Gauge Afi’ from 1995 – 2005 42 Annex B-2: Monthly Rainfall Vs Runoff events for the Gauge Afi’ from 1995 – 2005 44 Annex B-3: Daily Rainfall Vs Runoff events for the Gauge Afi’ sample graphs with the time period from 1995to 2005 46

<p>My thesis revolves around neuronal circuit dynamics in health and disease. The first part of the thesis characterized cross-regional synchrony within the visual cortical network following visual perceptual experience in healthy mice. This work for the first time described inter-areal 4-8 Hz superficial layer LFP synchrony across mouse visual cortical regions persisting beyond visual stimulation time window, and revealed that the synchrony was expressed specifically between V1 and the higher-order visual area (HVA) with functional preference matching the entrained spatial frequency (SF) and temporal frequency (TF) content, in mice. The discovery of visual familiarity induced inter-areal 4-8 Hz synchrony extends the previous discovery of the 4-8 Hz oscillation in V1 after visual experience from our lab (Kissinger et al., 2018; Kissinger et al., 2020; Gao et al., 2021), and provided the first pivotal evidence supporting the role of 4-8 Hz oscillation in mediating cross-regional communication. Such 4-8 Hz visual cortical network synchrony has been mostly reported in primate studies in contexts of visual attention and working memory (Liebe et al., 2012; Spyropoulos et al., 2018), while our study extended the visual cortical network synchrony research scope to mouse models and in a new context of visual familiarity. The work is a key step for starting cortical network studies in mice, and for starting predictive coding theory study in the context of oscillations in mouse cortical network in the future. Additionally, unit spiking was more strongly modulated by 4-8 Hz oscillations in V1 and HVAs after visual experience. The visually-locked responsive units in V1 and HVAs exihibted either increased or decreased inter-areal spiking synchrony, while most post-stimulus responsive units in V1 and HVA exhibited higher spiking synchrony. </p> <p>The other parts of my dissertation looked at V1 activity in disease and following a novel CNS therapy. One project looked at recovery of visually evoked response in mouse V1 after ischemia through NeuroD1 mediated astrocyte-to-neuron conversion, where we characterized the formation of cortical laminated structure from the converted neurons, longitudinal recovery of visually evoked responses of unit populations in V1, and units’ selective responses to orientations. Another project looked at altered visual cortical activity in an Auxilin knockout mouse model, which demonstrated overall reduced visually evoked responses, less selective responses to orientations, impaired visual adaptive responses and mismatch responses, as well as slower visual experience induced oscillations. These projects utilized the high-density silicon probe recording technique to 1) characterize visual cortical function recovery following a therapy, which provided evidence for its high efficacy for recovering physiological functions, and to 2) phenotype visual cortical functional impairments in a mouse disease model, which provided more basic understanding in visual cortical physiology of Auxilin related disease.</p> <p>In sum, my dissertation work took advantage of the high-density silicon probe recording technique to probe neuronal circuits in health and disease. The discovery of visual experience induced inter-areal 4-8 Hz synchrony paves the way for studying 4-8 Hz activity in relation to stream-dependent visual processing and predictive coding in health and disease.</p>

The diploma thesis was preceded with the specification of specialised atelier TG02 of which the purpose was to prepare an urbanistic study of sport area Hněvkovského territory that is found in the municipal district Brno - Komárov. The urbanistic design was aimed to create an important territory for sport professional as well as relax activities. The specification included also the design of current BMX area and creation of background for sportsmen as well as visitors. The diploma thesis that deals with the building of cycling stadium in form of a study links to this theme. The stadium is situated in the North-East part of the areas, near Hněvkovského road. The design regards sufficient scattering surfaces around the building, simple orientation in the building´s surroundings as well as in the building itself is emphasised. Its glass façade is an important expression element of the building as well as the video mapping systems proposed for projection and lighting of this façade. The attractiveness of the whole area is underlined with parking areas, refreshment point of current cycling track and new area of sport activities (dirt park, ball games).

Microcalorimetric measurements and contact angle measurements were conducted to study the surface chemistry of powdered minerals. The contact angle measurements were conducted on both flat and powdered talc samples, and the results were used to determine the surface free energy components using Van Oss-Chaudhury-Good (OCG) equation. It was found that the surface hydrophobicity of talc increases with decreasing particle size. At the same time, both the Lifshitz-van der Waals (gSLW) and the Lewis acid-base (gSAB) components (and, hence, the total surface free energy (gS)) decrease with decreasing particle size. The increase in the surface hydrophobicity and the decrease in surface free energy (gS) can be attributed to preferential breakage of the mineral along the basal plane, resulting in the exposure of more basal plane surfaces to the aqueous phase. Heats of immersion measurements were conducted using a flow microcalorimeter on a number of powdered talc samples. The results were then used to calculate the contact angles using a rigorous thermodynamic relation. The measured heat of immersion values in water and calculated contact angles showed that the surface hydrophobicity of talc samples increase with decreasing particle size, which agrees with the direct contact angle measurements. A relationship between advancing water contact angle qa, and the heat of immersion (-DHi) and surface free energies was established. It was found that the value of -DHi decrease as qa increases. The microcalorimetric and direct contact angle measurements showed that acid-base interactions play a crucial role in the interaction between talc and liquid. Using the Van Oss-Chaudhury-Good's surface free energy components model, various talc powders were characterized in terms of their acidic and basic properties. It was found that the magnitude of the Lewis electron donor, gS-, and the Lewis electron acceptor, gS+, components of surface free energy is directly related to the particle size. The gS- of talc surface increased with decreasing particle size, while the gS+ slightly decreased. It was also found that the Lewis electron-donor component on talc surface is much higher than the Lewis electron-acceptor component, suggesting that the basal surface of talc is basic. The heats of adsorption of butanol on various talc samples from n-heptane solution were also determined using a flow microcalorimeter. The heats of adsorption values were used to estimate % hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity and the areal ratios of the various talc samples. In addition, contact angle and heat of butanol adsorption measurements were conducted on a run-of-mine talc sample that has been ground to two different particle size fractions, i.e., d50=12.5 mm and d50=3.0 mm, respectively. The results were used to estimate the surface free energy components at the basal and edge surfaces of talc. It was found that the total surface free energy (gS) at the basal plane surface of talc is much lower than the total surface free energy at the edge surface. The results suggest also that the basal surface of talc is monopolar basic, while the edge surface is monopolar acidic. The results explain why the basicity of talc surface increases with decreasing particle size as shown in the contact angle and microcalorimetric measurements. Furthermore, the effects of the surface free energies of solids during separation from each other by flotation and selective flocculation were studied. In the present work, a kaolin clay sample from east Georgia was used for the beneficiation tests. First, the crude kaolin was subjected to flotation and selective flocculation experiments to remove discoloring impurities (i.e., anatase (TiO2) and iron oxides) and produce high-brightness clay with GE brightness higher than 90%. The results showed that a clay product with +90% brightness could be obtained with recoveries (or yields) higher than 80% using selective flocculation technique. It was also found that a proper control of surface hydrophobicity of anatase is crucially important for a successful flotation and selective flocculation process. Heats of immersion, heats of adsorption and contact angle measurements were conducted on pure anatase surface to determine the changes in the surface free energies as a function of the surfactant dosage (e.g. hydroxamate) used for the surface treatment. The results showed that the magnitude of the contact angle and, hence, the surface free energy and its components on anatase surface varies significantly with the amount of surfactant used for the surface treatment. / Ph. D.

In Louisiana, the beds of natural lakes are owned by the state. The locations of property boundary lines separating state property from private lands have usually been set by determining the levels of natural monuments known as ordinary high water marks. The term is confusing and subjective, leading to controversy in reference to its determination. Catahoula Lake in central Louisiana was chosen as a study site because of its large size, its 20-foot variation in water levels, and its low-relief perimeter. Geology, geomorphology, hydrology, archaeology, vegetation, dendrochronology and dendrohydrology of the ancient cypress fringe, nineteenth century land survey records, historical records, and time-series statistics were applied to determine the elevation range of ordinary high water. Research suggests that the level of the ordinary high water natural monument used universally in Louisiana to define lake boundaries is not the correct natural monument. This research suggests that, for example, the natural monument that defines the Catahoula Lake boundary is not a vertical monument, but rather an areal monument that was originally recognized by nineteenth century U.S. government surveyors and embedded in the evidence extracted from their original field notes. The solution coincides with the boundaries of regional land patents and offers a consistent solution to determining the boundaries of thousands of acres of disputed lands. The procedure is applicable to other lake and swamp boundaries in Louisiana and other states.