(in English): The theme of this thesis is a strategic plan for the University Library at The Technical University of Liberec for years 2012-2015. The first two parts give a detailed analysis of the present condition of the Library containing all the accessible statistical data and the research outcome of the users needs. Based on the collected data in the following text targets are set which when reached should increase the prestige of the Library and thereby the University. The next chapters outline the specific steps to reach the set targets. A part deals with changing the processes of Acquisitions and Cataloguing. Futhermore additional features as reference services, web sites, accessing Electronic theses, dissertations and organization. Potentially some new things should be considered such as an institutional Repository, a discovery system, expansion of RFID technology (Radio Frequency Identification), a selfcheck, providing e-books and other new electronic developments. The conclusion is devoted to the meaning of the strategical plan for the University Library at TUL.

Introduction Multimodal pain therapy (MPT) has been established accounting for biopsychosocial consideration in diagnostic and therapy. MPT seems to be effective, but comparability of studies is limited due to diversity of study designs and outcome measurements. The presented study aims to develop a core outcome set consisting of a minimum of outcome measures deemed necessary for medical and therapeutic decision-making, which must be measured in all clinical trials and non-randomised intervention studies.

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) represents a clonal non-Langerhans histiocytosis, which manifests under an extensive variety of clinical symptoms. This creates a challenge for the physician, who is required to recognize and diagnose the disease in the early stages. Despite this considerable challenge, in the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in ECD diagnoses, in most part due to an increasing awareness of this rare disorder. Involvement of the axial skeleton is exclusively uncommon with no official recommendations for the treatment of the bone lesions. Here, we present a case report of a young male patient with isolated lesions of the spine, ribs, and pelvis, who was successfully treated with a combination therapy of alfa-interferon and zoledronic acid.

RNA processing events that take place on the transcribed pre-mRNA include capping, splicing, editing, 3′ processing, and polyadenylation. Most of these processes occur co-transcriptionally while the RNA polymerase II (Pol II) enzyme is engaged in transcriptional elongation. How Pol II elongation rates are influenced by splicing is not well understood. We generated a family of inducible gene constructs containing increasing numbers of introns and exons, which were stably integrated in human cells to serve as actively transcribing gene loci. By monitoring the association of the transcription and splicing machineries on these genes in vivo, we showed that only U1 snRNP localized to the intronless gene, consistent with a splicing-independent role for U1 snRNP in transcription. In contrast, all snRNPs accumulated on intron-containing genes, and increasing the number of introns increased the amount of spliceosome components recruited. This indicates that nascent RNA can assemble multiple spliceosomes simultaneously. Kinetic measurements of Pol II elongation in vivo, Pol II ChIP, as well as use of Spliceostatin and Meayamycin splicing inhibitors showed that polymerase elongation rates were uncoupled from ongoing splicing. This study shows that transcription elongation kinetics proceed independently of splicing at the model genes studied here. Surprisingly, retention of polyadenylated mRNA was detected at the transcription site after transcription termination. This suggests that the polymerase is released from chromatin prior to the completion of splicing, and the pre-mRNA is post-transcriptionally processed while still tethered to chromatin near the gene end.

The following essay discusses Herman Melville’s “I and My Chimney” (1856) as a text that engages architecture and writing as interrelated systems of signification. Fueled by a variety of historical developments, domestic architecture emerges as a powerful purveyor of meaning in the antebellum decades. Architecture, in this cultural context, is construed in analogy to writing (and, to some extent, vice versa), as creating houses-as-texts that tell stories about their inhabitants in terms of their individual, familial, and national identities. Thus conceived, domestic architecture is characteristically enlisted in the articulation and stabilization of hegemonic narratives of, e. g., gender and nationhood. Melville’s text invokes this cultural convention to cast the signifying function that architecture and writing perform as being vulnerable and in crisis. This crisis is narrated by an idiosyncratic narrator for whom the semiotic instability documented by his narrative resonates with the social and cultural vulnerability that he experiences—his authority as master of his house and family is challenged in the course of the tale, along with the structural integrity of his chimney with which he wants to symbolically reinforce his authority. I argue that this crisis of signification performs double work in the text. On the one hand, it serves to articulate the anxiety of mid-nineteenth-century cultural elites about what they perceive as a cultural decline. On the other hand, allegedly dysfunctional signification unfolds a critical potential, bringing to light things which ‘functional’ signification had worked to conceal and thereby unlocking hermetic narratives of self, family, and nation.

Background: Behavioral disturbances following chemotherapy with cisplatin are rare. Here, we report a patient with temporary loss of moral behavior in the setting of cisplatin-based chemotherapy for treatment of tonsillar cancer. Case presentation: A 66-year-old Caucasian male with no psychiatric or violent history was started on chemotherapy with cisplatin for treatment of tonsillar cancer. During the following weeks, the patient developed profound personality changes involving volatile emotions and impulsive aggression with verbal and physical assaults on others. Admitted to the hospital, the patient lacked any awareness that his behavior was wrong. Chemotherapy was discontinued and the patient was prescribed risperidone. Aside from mild cognitive impairment, comprehensive neuropsychological, neuroradiological and lab testing were unremarkable. Three weeks following cessation of chemotherapy, the patient had recovered to his original mental state and he was completely aware of his wrongdoing and social misconduct. Conclusion: Since neurotoxic effects of chemotherapeutics on the brain are not yet sufficiently elucidated, our case emphasizes that early signs of behavioral abnormalities in patients receiving chemotherapy should trigger comprehensive psychiatric evaluation and ongoing monitoring of the patients’ mental state.

This thesis explores the system of architectural education in the Middle East Technical University Department of Architecture between 1956 and 1980. The formation and the transformation of the system of architectural education in the school are investigated with references to the evolution of the social, political, economic and architectural context of Turkey in the period and the systems of architectural education applied in the country. The education in the Department of Architecture not only formed its system according to the Bauhaus program as applied in the postwar American context, but also transformed it with changing architectural theory and the design methodology. Both the school&#039 / s system of architectural education and the institutional identity established by the school provided significant contributions to the institutionalization of architectural education in Turkey. Besides, in the following decades, the school&#039 / s system of education became basic model for other institutions in the country in re-structuring their systems. In this respect, by focusing on the M.E.T.U. Department of Architecture&#039 / s system of architectural education, this study aims to be a history of the Middle East Technical University and the social, political, economic and architectural context of the period as well.

Housing projects assigned in architecture design studio are considered as an exercise having several pedagogical objectives which constitute a suitable ground of maturation for students after completing their first and second year design studio. The aim of the research is to make an overview of the way housing design projects are conducted in the third year architectural design studio at the Middle East Technical University Department of Architecture, focusing on the last five years in particular. But in the first place, the background of housing assignments is reviewed in order to understand how teaching methods and problem definitions have evolved in the past. The objectives and the learning outcomes expected from these studio exercises, the approaches and tendencies that determine the way the project exercises are examined and lastly the teaching methods, strategies and tools are studied depending on the written and visual documents related to the studio works and interviews with the studio critics.

Background: The clinical outcome of hip resurfacing (HR) as a demanding surgical technique associated with a substantial learning curve depends on the position of the femoral component. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of the level of surgical experience on computer-assisted imageless navigation concerning precision of femoral component positioning, notching, and oversizing rate, as well as operative time. Methods: Three surgeons with different levels of experience in both HR and computer-assisted surgery (CAS) prepared the femoral heads of 54 synthetic femurs using the Durom TM Hip Resurfacing (Zimmer, Warsaw, IN, USA) system. Each surgeon prepared a total of 18 proximal femurs using the Navitrack® system (ORTHOsoft Inc., Montreal, Canada) or the conventional free-hand Durom TM K-wire positioning jig. The differences between planned and postoperative stem shaft angle (SSA) and anteversion angle in standardized x-rays were measured and the operative time, not including the time for calibrating the CAS-system, was documented. Notching was evaluated by the three surgeons in a randomized manner. Oversizing was determined by the difference of the preoperative determined cap and the cap size advised by the CAS-system. Results: CAS significantly reduced the overall mean deviation between planned and postoperative SSA in comparison with the conventional procedure (mean ± SD, 1 ± 1.7° vs. 7.4 ± 4.4°, P <0.01) regardless of the surgeon’s level of experience. The incidence of either varus or valgus SSA deviations exceeding 5° were 1/27 for CAS and 15/27 for the conventional method, respectively (P<0.001), corresponding to a reduction by 97%. Using CAS, the rate of notching was reduced by 100%. Conclusions: The accuracy of femoral HR component orientation is significantly increased by use of CAS regardless of the surgeon’s level of experience in our preclinical study. Thus, imageless computer-assisted navigation can be a valuable tool to improve implant positioning in HR for surgeons at any stage of their learning curve.

The role of competition in tree communities is increasingly well understood, while little is known about the patterns and mechanisms of the interplay between above- and belowground competition in tree communities. This knowledge, however, is crucial for a better understanding of community dynamics and developing adaptive near-natural management strategies. We assessed neighbourhood interactions in an unmanaged old-growth European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forest by quantifying variation in the intensity of above- (shading) and belowground competition (crowding) among dominant and co-dominant canopy beech trees during tree maturation. Shading had on average a much larger impact on radial growth than crowding and the sensitivity to changes in competitive conditions was lowest for crowding effects. We found that each mode of competition reduced the effect of the other. Increasing crowding reduced the negative effect of shading, and at high levels of shading, crowding actually had a facilitative effect and increased growth. Our study demonstrates that complementarity in above- and belowground processes enable F. sylvatica to alter resource acquisition strategies, thus optimising tree radial growth. As a result, competition seemed to become less important in stands with a high growing stock and tree communities with a long continuity of anthropogenic undisturbed population dynamics. We suggest that growth rates do not exclusively depend on the density of potential competitors at the intraspecific level, but on the conspecific aggregation of large-diameter trees and their functional role for regulating biotic filtering processes. This finding highlights the potential importance of the rarely examined relationship between the spatial aggregation pattern of large-diameter trees and the outcome of neighbourhood interactions, which may be central to community dynamics and the related forest ecosystem services.