Diploma thesis entitled "Application of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods into Marketing Strategy of Print Medias" discusses employment of output research data accumulated on eye-tracking, in-depth interviewing and CAWI method of research. These research outcomes are further analyzed and implemented in the development process of the EURO Business Weekly strategy in the Czech publishing market. The final evaluation is based on a mutual comparison of results which were recorded by the EURO Business Weekly in the years 2005 and 2006.

Die zweite Sektion begann am 4. Oktober mit einem einführenden Vortrag von Klaus Mauersberger über die Entwicklung, die Bewahrung und die Spezifik der Sammlungen der TU Dresden. Mauersberger, langjähriger Mitarbeiter am Zentrum für Geschichte der Technikwissenschaften und seit 1993 Leiter der Kustodie der TU Dresden, gab einen Überblick über die Anfänge, die Aufgaben sowie den Umfang und die Diversität der Dresdner Universitätssammlungen. (...)

Bibliographic record PROKOP, Daniel. (2012). Election polls in the Czech Republic: Methodological Optimization. Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institut of Sociological Studies. Thesis academic consultant: Mgr. Jindřich Krejčí, Ph.D. Abstract The thesis focuses on the election-polls and prediction of election results in the Czech Republic. Using data of research company MEDIAN s.r.o. from face-to-face (CAPI) and telephone interviewing (CATI) in election year 2010 it examines possibilities of methodological optimizations which could lead to reducing systematic bias and discrepancies of pre-election polls the election results. In particular, it discusses these methodological solutions: mix-mode data collection (combination of CATI and CAPI), data weighting focused on specific factors correlated with voting behavior, including preferences of undecided voters, prediction of the respondents' participation in elections, election-polls results time-series smoothing. Based on these analyses the thesis tries to articulate general findings which could be fruitful in discussion about Czech election-polls and their methodology in general. In the thesis, basic and advanced statistic methods (CART, exponential smoothing, etc.) are being used to achieve given research goals. Keywords: election...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Intrinsically disordered proteins are proteins characterized by lack of stable tertiary structures under physiological conditions. Evidence shows that disordered proteins are not only highly involved in protein interactions, but also have the capability to associate with more than one partner. Short disordered protein fragments, called “molecular recognition features” (MoRFs), were hypothesized to facilitate the binding diversity of highly-connected proteins termed “hubs”. MoRFs often couple folding with binding while forming interaction complexes. Two protein disorder mechanisms were proposed to facilitate multiple partner binding and enable hub proteins to bind to multiple partners: 1. One region of disorder could bind to many different partners (one-to-many binding), so the hub protein itself uses disorder for multiple partner binding; and 2. Many different regions of disorder could bind to a single partner (many-to-one binding), so the hub protein is structured but binds to many disordered partners via interaction with disorder. Thousands of MoRF-partner protein complexes were collected from Protein Data Bank in this study, including 321 one-to-many binding examples and 514 many-to-one binding examples. The conformational flexibility of MoRFs was observed at atomic resolution to help the MoRFs to adapt themselves to various binding surfaces of partners or to enable different MoRFs with non-identical sequences to associate with one specific binding pocket. Strikingly, in one-to-many binding, post-translational modification, alternative splicing and partner topology were revealed to play key roles for partner selection of these fuzzy complexes. On the other hand, three distinct binding profiles were identified in the collected many-to-one dataset: similar, intersecting and independent. For the similar binding profile, the distinct MoRFs interact with almost identical binding sites on the same partner. The MoRFs can also interact with a partially the same but partially different binding site, giving the intersecting binding profile. Finally, the MoRFs can interact with completely different binding sites, thus giving the independent binding profile. In conclusion, we suggest that protein disorder with post-translational modifications and alternative splicing are all working together to rewire the protein interaction networks.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Carbon nanomaterials are widely produced and used in industry, medicine and scientific research. To examine the impact of exposure to nanoparticles on human health, the human airway epithelial cell line, Calu-3, was used to evaluate changes in the cellular proteome that could account for alterations in cellular function of airway epithelia after 24 h exposure to 10 μg/mL and 100 ng/mL of two common carbon nanoparticles, singleand multi-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT, MWCNT). After exposure to the nanoparticles, label-free quantitative mass spectrometry (LFQMS) was used to study differential protein expression. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) was used to conduct a bioinformatics analysis of proteins identified by LFQMS. Interestingly, after exposure to a high concentration (10 μg/mL; 0.4 μg/cm2) of MWCNT or SWCNT, only 8 and 13 proteins, respectively, exhibited changes in abundance. In contrast, the abundance of hundreds of proteins was altered in response to a low concentration (100 ng/mL; 4 ng/cm2) of either CNT. Of the 281 and 282 proteins that were significantly altered in response to MWCNT or SWCNT, respectively, 231 proteins were the same. Bioinformatic analyses found that the proteins common to both kinds of nanotubes are associated with the cellular functions of cell death and survival, cell-to-cell signaling and interaction, cellular assembly and organization, cellular growth and proliferation, infectious disease, molecular transport and protein synthesis. The decrease in expression of the majority proteins suggests a general stress response to protect cells. The STRING database was used to analyze the various functional protein networks. Interestingly, some proteins like cadherin 1 (CDH1), signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1), junction plakoglobin (JUP), and apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD (PYCARD), appear in several functional categories and tend to be in the center of the networks. This central positioning suggests they may play important roles in multiple cellular functions and activities that are altered in response to carbon nanotube exposure. To examine the effect of nanotubes on the plasma membrane, we investigated the interaction of short purified MWCNT with model lipid membranes using a planar bilayer workstation. Bilayer lipid membranes were synthesized using neutral 1, 2-diphytanoylsn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPhPC) in 1 M KCl. The ion channel model protein, Gramicidin A (gA), was incorporated into the bilayers and used to measure the effect of MWCNT on ion transport. The opening and closing of ion channels, amplitude of current, and open probability and lifetime of ion channels were measured and analyzed by Clampfit. The presence of an intermediate concentration of MWCNT (2 μg/ml) could be related to a statistically significant decrease of the open probability and lifetime of gA channels. The proteomic studies revealed changes in response to CNT exposure. An analysis of the changes using multiple databases revealed alterations in pathways, which were consistent with the physiological changes that were observed in cultured cells exposed to very low concentrations of CNT. The physiological changes included the break down of the barrier function and the inhibition of the mucocillary clearance, both of which could increase the risk of CNT’s toxicity to human health. The biophysical studies indicate MWCNTs have an effect on single channel kinetics of Gramicidin A model cation channel. These changes are consistent with the inhibitory effect of nanoparticles on hormone stimulated transepithelial ion flux, but additional experiments will be necessary to substantiate this correlation.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A foreign concept to most twenty-first century individuals, a saddletree provides support and acts as the framework to saddles, giving saddlers a base on which to add cushioning, stretch leather, and create beautiful or functional saddles. Saddletree factories were an integral part of Madison, Indiana’s late nineteenth-century economy. As one of the Ohio River town’s leading industries, saddletree shops employed approximately 125 men during 1879, Madison’s peak saddletree production year, and made Madison a national center of saddletree production. However, the industry faded into oblivion as the beginning of the twentieth century, leaving the men drawn to these shops in the 1870s and 1880s to find new opportunities. While past historians contributed to the fields of industrial and economic history by studying large industries engaged in mass production in major urban areas, Madison’s saddletree workers represent a view of nineteenth-century specialized production. This thesis examines the saddletree industry’s place in Madison during the late nineteenth century and the lives of saddletree workers during and after the industry’s peak. My findings, based off extensive digital research and tools utilized in earlier social mobility studies, create a nuanced view of Madison’s relationship to the saddletree industry, saddletree makers, and what the industry’s collapse meant to saddletree factory employees.