Procura aprender o significado psicologico possuido pelo animal de estimacao no cotidiano das pessoas, atraves do exame de relatos de donos e nao-donos de animais. Realiza entrevistas com adultos de ambos os sexos, dos quais 13 convivem com animais de estimacao, 6 nao possuem nem pretendem a posse e 3 pretendem adquirir um animal no futuro. Inclui, tambem, no estudo, dados oriundos de observacoes da experimentadora em sua clinica veterinaria e de relatos espontaneos ouvidos em situacoes diversas. Apos a gravacao e transcricao literal das entrevistas seleciona e analisa as modalidades e razoes de obtencao de um animal; cuidados dispensados no seu tratamento e sobrevivencia; as maneiras como se efetua a comunicacao entre o dono e seu animal; as formas de rompimento do vinculo entre dono e animal de estimacao e as funcoes que o animal exerce junto ao ser humano.Verifica que a presenca de um animal de estimacao pode trazer beneficios psico-sociais ao dono, derivados nao do animal no sentido biologico, mas de um animal imaginario e que desempenha funcoes e papel de acordo com as necessidades de cada ser. Enfatiza a importancia do conhecimento dos aspectos psicologicos do relacionamento ser hunamo-animal para o profissional psicologo e para o veterinário / The experience related by a number of persons regarding their relationship with pet animals formed the background material from which the attempt was made to extract the psychological significance of such pets in everyday life. The underlying data were obtained from interviews with 13 adults who owned pets and 9 adult non-pet-owners, 3 of which intended to acquire a pet animal. All interwiews were tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim. Further data - when deemed necessary for completeness and back-up purposes - were obtained from veterinary medical records. After pinpointing and eliminating as irrelevancies certain fortuitious nos-recurring elements, conclusions could clearly be drawn on the following: motivation for acquiring a pet; forms of such an acquisition; routines and patterns of caring for, and ways to communicate with the animal; vicissitudes for both owner and pet; and finally, options to continue, discountinue or temporarily interrupt the relationship

This diploma thesis on the topic Home Pet contains art approaches that lead students to a sensitive and conscious behaviour towards animals. The theoretical part presents imaging of an animal in the history of art and possibilities of involvement of the animal themes to Framework Education Programme and School Education Programme for Elementary Art Schools. The thesis also focuses on the relationship between children and animals and the healing power of animals. Further, the thesis discusses the project method of teaching, which was chosen for the given topic at Elementary Art School. The practical part of the thesis was realized in the preparatory year and the first year of Elementary Art Schools in Dačice and Jemnice and reflects the course of my own lesson on the topic Home Pet.

Procura aprender o significado psicologico possuido pelo animal de estimacao no cotidiano das pessoas, atraves do exame de relatos de donos e nao-donos de animais. Realiza entrevistas com adultos de ambos os sexos, dos quais 13 convivem com animais de estimacao, 6 nao possuem nem pretendem a posse e 3 pretendem adquirir um animal no futuro. Inclui, tambem, no estudo, dados oriundos de observacoes da experimentadora em sua clinica veterinaria e de relatos espontaneos ouvidos em situacoes diversas. Apos a gravacao e transcricao literal das entrevistas seleciona e analisa as modalidades e razoes de obtencao de um animal; cuidados dispensados no seu tratamento e sobrevivencia; as maneiras como se efetua a comunicacao entre o dono e seu animal; as formas de rompimento do vinculo entre dono e animal de estimacao e as funcoes que o animal exerce junto ao ser humano.Verifica que a presenca de um animal de estimacao pode trazer beneficios psico-sociais ao dono, derivados nao do animal no sentido biologico, mas de um animal imaginario e que desempenha funcoes e papel de acordo com as necessidades de cada ser. Enfatiza a importancia do conhecimento dos aspectos psicologicos do relacionamento ser hunamo-animal para o profissional psicologo e para o veterinário / The experience related by a number of persons regarding their relationship with pet animals formed the background material from which the attempt was made to extract the psychological significance of such pets in everyday life. The underlying data were obtained from interviews with 13 adults who owned pets and 9 adult non-pet-owners, 3 of which intended to acquire a pet animal. All interwiews were tape-recorded and subsequently transcribed verbatim. Further data - when deemed necessary for completeness and back-up purposes - were obtained from veterinary medical records. After pinpointing and eliminating as irrelevancies certain fortuitious nos-recurring elements, conclusions could clearly be drawn on the following: motivation for acquiring a pet; forms of such an acquisition; routines and patterns of caring for, and ways to communicate with the animal; vicissitudes for both owner and pet; and finally, options to continue, discountinue or temporarily interrupt the relationship

In translational medicine, complementary functional and morphological imaging techniques are used extensively to observe physiological processes in vivo and to assess structural changes as a result of disease progression. The combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) provides excellent soft tissue contrast from MRI with exceptional sensitivity and specificity from PET. This thesis explores the use of sequentially acquired PET and MR images to improve the quantification of small animal PET data. The primary focus was to improve image-based estimates of the arterial input function (AIF), which defines the amount of PET tracer within blood plasma over time. The AIF is required to produce physiological parameters quantifying key processes such as metabolism or perfusion from dynamic PET images. The gold standard for AIF measurement, however, requires serial blood sampling over the course of a PET scan, which is invasive in rat studies but prohibitive in mice due to small total blood volumes. To address this issue, the geometric transfer matrix (GTM) and recovery coefficient (RC) techniques were applied using anatomical MR images to enable the extraction of partial volume corrected image based AIFs from mouse PET images. A non-invasive AIF extraction method was also developed for rats, beginning with the optimization of an automated voxel selection algorithm to assist in extracting MR contrast agent signal time courses from dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI data. This procedure was then combined with dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI to track a combined injection of Gadolinium-based contrast agent and PET tracer through the rat brain. By comparison with gold standard tracer blood sample data, it was found that normalized MRI-based AIFs could be successfully converted into PET tracer AIFs in the first pass phase when fitted with gamma variate functions. Finally, a MR image segmentation method used to provide PET attenuation correction in mice was validated using the Cambridge split magnet PET/MR scanner?s transmission scanning capabilities. This work recommends that contributions from MR hardware in the PET field of view must be accounted forto gain accurate estimates of tracer uptake and standard uptake values (SUVs). This thesis concludes that small animal MR data taken in the same imaging session can provide non-invasive methods to improve PET image quantification, giving added value to combined PET/MR studies over those conducted using PET alone.