Táto diplomová práca sa zaoberá štúdiom alfa-Fe2O3(012) vystaveného vodnému prostrediu. Súčasný stav poznania ohľadom oxidov železa s pozornosťou vkladanou do popisu alfa-Fe2O3 a jeho (012) povrchu je stručne zhrnutá. Experimentálná časť tejto práce začína s popisom unikátného zariadenia na depozíciu kvapalnej vody na povrchy monokryštalických vzoriek compatibilného s podmienkami ultra vysokého vákuua. Jednotlivé konštrukčné časti a detaily sú diskutované. Navrhnutý systém bol testovaný na vzorkách striebornej fólie a monokryštálu Fe3O4 s povrchovom v rovine [100]. Chemické zloženie a morfológia povrchu po experimente s kvapalnou vodou je diskutovaná. Navrhnuté zariadenie bolo použité na štúdium interakcie vody so známymi (1x1) a (2x1) povrchovými alfa-Fe2O3(012). Experimentálne dáta ukazujú, že voda sa viaže na obe reconštrukcie disociatívne s určitým množstvom molekulárnej vody naviazanej na adsorbované hydroxydi. (1x1) sa zdá javý stabilná po expozícii rôznym tlakom vodnej pary, zatial čo (2x1) vykazuje zmenu na (1x1) pri expozíciach vyšším tlakom vodnej pary alebo po niekolo minútovej expozíci electrónovému zväzku. Ďalej sú v tejto práci prezentované prvé výsledky z štúdie prechodu (1x1) rekonštrukcie na (2x1) pomocou mikroskpie nízkoenergiových elektrónov. Výsledky ukazujú, že táto premena na nižších teplotách je inciovaná na hranách atomárnych vrstiev a defektov na povrchu, ktorá potom postupuje smerom k stredu atomárnych terás. Meranie na vyšších teplotách vykazuje postupnú premenu povrchu naznačúju viaceru nukleačných centrech z ktorých sa (2x1) povrch širi ďalej.

The aim of my diploma thesis are methods which are able to describe durability aspects of glued wooden joints. The main objective are methods which primarily includes hygrothermal stress acting in the glued joint of wooden adherend and determine the service life of the specific glued joint by modelling based on Arrhenius relation and the other methods. Other part of this work is aimed to shear tests of the samples exposed to different thermal and humidity conditions and for individual sets of exposures determining the glue penetration depth into the wooden adherend by EPI fluorescent analysis. These analytic methods are used for quality check of the glued joints, which are mostly based on strength, chemical or structural parameters of the tested sample.

The master's thesis deals with biometric systems, especially these based on human recognition by finger veins. It describes some development principles of the new biometric system. It proposes some new approaches to the comparison of finger vein patterns and their fast identification in sizable databases. Verification is based on templates comparison by similarity and distance measures with proposed alignment approaches. The proposed method of identification is based on the combination of clustering and genetic algorithm. The second option is using the indexing tree structure and searching by range query.

Exploring surfaces is an essential ability for humans, allowing them to interact with a large variety of objects within their environment. This ability to explore surfaces is also of a major interest in the development of a new generation of humanoid robots, which requires the development of more efficient artificial tactile sensing techniques. The details perceived by statically touching different surfaces of objects not only improve robotic hand performance in force-controlled grasping tasks but also enables the feeling of vibrations on touched surfaces. This thesis presents an extensive experimental study of object surface exploration using biologically-Inspired tactile-enabled robotic fingers. A new multi-modal tactile sensor, embedded in both versions of the robotic fingertips (similar to the human distal phalanx) is capable of measuring the heart rate with a mean absolute error of 1.47 bpm through static explorations of the human skin. A two-phalanx articulated robotic finger with a new miniaturized tactile sensor embedded into the fingertip was developed in order to detect and classify surface textures. This classification is performed by the dynamic exploration of touched object surfaces. Two types of movements were studied: one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) movements. The machine learning techniques - Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Random Forest, Extra Trees, and k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) - were tested in order to find the most efficient one for the classification of the recovered textured surfaces. A 95% precision was achieved when using the Extra Trees technique for the classification of the 1D recovered texture patterns. Experimental results confirmed that the 2D textured surface exploration using a hemispheric tactile-enabled finger was superior to the 1D exploration. Three exploratory velocities were used for the 2D exploration: 30 mm/s, 35 mm/s, and 40 mm/s. The best classification accuracy of the 2D recovered texture patterns was 99.1% and 99.3%, using the SVM classifier, for the two lower exploratory velocities (30 mm/s and 35mm/s), respectively. For the 40 mm/s velocity, the Extra Trees classifier provided a classification accuracy of 99.4%. The results of the experimental research presented in this thesis could be suitable candidates for future development.

Many double-stranded DNA viruses use a packaging motor during maturation to recognize and transport genetic material into the capsid. In terminase motors, the TerS complex recognizes DNA, while the TerL motor packages the DNA into the capsid shell. Although there are several models for DNA recognition and translocation, how the motor components assemble and power DNA translocation is unknown. Using the thermophilic P74-26 bacteriophage model system, we discover that TerL uses a trans-activated ATP hydrolysis mechanism. Additionally, we identify critical residues for TerL ATP hydrolysis and DNA binding. With a combination of x-ray crystallography, SAXS, and molecular docking, we build a structural model for TerL pentamer assembly. Apo and ATP analog-bound TerL ATPase domain crystal structures show ligand-dependent conformational changes, which we propose power DNA translocation. Together, we assimilate these findings to build models for both motor assembly and DNA translocation. Additionally, with the P76-26 system, we identify the TerS protein as gp83. I find that P74-26 TerS is a nonameric ring that stimulates TerL ATPase activity while inhibiting TerL nuclease activity. Using cryoEM, I solve 3.8 Å and 4.8 Å resolution symmetric and asymmetric reconstructions of the TerS ring. I observe in P74-26 TerS, the conserved C-terminal beta-barrel is absent, and instead the region is flexible or unstructured. Furthermore, the helix-turn-helix motifs of P74-26 TerS are positioned differently than those of known TerS structures, suggesting P74-26 uses an alternative mechanism to recognize DNA.

This document deals with presentation of nowadays software and hardware methods used for fingerprint recognition with focus on liveness testing and thereafter it deals with description of my solution. In order to describe results obtained from study of technical literature, we discuss important terminology of biometric systems at first and further main principles of fingerprint sensors used in practice are shown. From overviewed methods of liveness detection we underline one method based on  perspiration (researched by BioSAL laboratory) and one spectroscopic method researched by Lumidigm Corporation. The study of liveness testing methods inspired me to creation of new type fingerprint sensor which has built-in livennes testing method based on two characteristic properties of living human tisue. In order to test this sensor, we discuss nowadays sensor deception method. It follows from their analysis, that newly designed sensor should be theoretically resistant to each of them.

This Doctoral thesis is focused on research of usability hardwood that is not used in structural engineering nowadays. Analysis of known hardwood properties and its verification by experiment was made. Mathematic analysis using the PROMETHEE method was used for most suitable hardwood species selection in the Central Europe conditions. The most suitable hardwood – beech – was subjected for further tests: finger-joint load bearing capacity experiment and beech homogenous and hybrid glulam experiment. The test results are compared with the values from professional literature.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation describes structure-function studies of CXXC finger protein 1 (Cfp1), encoded by the CXXC1 gene, in order to determine the functional significance of Cfp1 protein domains and properties. Cfp1 is an important regulator of chromatin structure and is essential for mammalian development. Murine embryonic stem (ES) cells lacking Cfp1 (CXXC1-/-) are viable but demonstrate a variety of defects, including hypersensitivity to DNA damaging agents, reduced plating efficiency and growth, decreased global and gene-specific cytosine methylation, failure to achieve in vitro differentiation, aberrant histone methylation, and subnuclear mis-localization of Setd1A, the catalytic component of a histone H3K4 methyltransferase complex, and tri-methylated histone H3K4 (H3K4me3) with regions of heterochromatin. Expression of wild-type Cfp1 in CXXC1-/- ES cells rescues the observed defects, thereby providing a convenient method to assess structure-function relationships of Cfp1. Cfp1 cDNA expression constructs were stably transfected into CXXC1-/- ES cells to evaluate the ability of various Cfp1 fragments and mutations to rescue the CXXC1-/- ES cell phenotype. These experiments revealed that expression of either the amino half of Cfp1 (amino acids 1-367) or the carboxyl half of Cfp1 (amino acids 361-656) is sufficient to rescue the hypersensitivity to DNA damaging agents, plating efficiency, cytosine and histone methylation, and differentiation defects. These results reveal that Cfp1 contains redundant functional domains for appropriate regulation of cytosine methylation, histone methylation, and in vitro differentiation. Additional studies revealed that a point mutation (C169A) that abolishes DNA-binding activity of Cfp1 ablates the rescue activity of the 1-367 fragment, and a point mutation (C375A) that abolishes the interaction of Cfp1 with the Setd1A and Setd1B histone H3K4 methyltransferase complexes ablates the rescue activity of the 361-656 Cfp1 fragment. In addition, introduction of both point mutations (C169A and C375A) ablates the rescue activity of the full-length Cfp1 protein. These results indicate that retention of either DNA-binding or Setd1 association of Cfp1 is required to rescue hypersensitivity to DNA damaging agents, plating efficiency, cytosine and histone methylation, and in vitro differentiation. In contrast, confocal immunofluorescence analysis revealed that full-length Cfp1 is required to restrict Setd1A and histone H3K4me3 to euchromatic regions.

3D user interface technologies have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is still unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. A systematic study of these technologies in game environments is required to understand how game play is affected and how we can optimize the usage in order to achieve better game play experience. This dissertation seeks to improve the gaming experience by exploring several 3DUI technologies. In this work, we focused on stereoscopic 3D viewing (to improve viewing experience) coupled with motion based control, head tracking (to make games more engaging), and faster gesture based menu selection (to reduce cognitive burden associated with menu interaction while playing). We first studied each of these technologies in isolation to understand their benefits for games. We present the results of our experiments to evaluate benefits of stereoscopic 3D (when coupled with motion based control) and head tracking in games. We discuss the reasons behind these findings and provide recommendations for game designers who want to make use of these technologies to enhance gaming experiences. We also present the results of our experiments with finger-based menu selection techniques with an aim to find out the fastest technique. Based on these findings, we custom designed an air-combat game prototype which simultaneously uses stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and finger-count shortcuts to prove that these technologies could be useful for games if the game is designed with these technologies in mind. Additionally, to enhance depth discrimination and minimize visual discomfort, the game dynamically optimizes stereoscopic 3D parameters (convergence and separation) based on the user's look direction. We conducted a within subjects experiment where we examined performance data and self-reported data on users perception of the game. Our results indicate that participants performed significantly better when all the 3DUI technologies (stereoscopic 3D, head-tracking and finger-count gestures) were available simultaneously with head tracking as a dominant factor. We explore the individual contribution of each of these technologies to the overall gaming experience and discuss the reasons behind our findings. Our experiments indicate that 3D user interface technologies could make gaming experience better if used effectively. The games must be designed to make use of the 3D user interface technologies available in order to provide a better gaming experience to the user. We explored a few technologies as part of this work and obtained some design guidelines for future game designers. We hope that our work will serve as the framework for the future explorations of making games better using 3D user interface technologies.

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