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Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,...

The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche was significantly influenced by the theory of evolution, though his interest was almost solely in relation to the human psyche. However, while many topics of his philosophy are similar to current topics of discussion in science, reflection on these thoughts is rare. The aim of this dissertation is to present Nietzsche's pivotal thoughts about the nature, function and evolution of human consciousness, with subsequent reflection on these thoughts and on their embedding in the broader context of current scientific discussion. From the standpoint of Nietzsche's philosophy, the main themes of this work are the conception of consciousness as "social instinct"; the critique of conception of consciousness as human essence and related topics; and, from the standpoint of current science, the question of the mechanism of the evolution of the human consciousness. The conclusion deals with cognitive archaeology and its attempt to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the human mind. The appendix is about Nietzsche's relation to Darwinism.

Increase of computational power and development of new methods in artificial intelligence allow these days many real-world problems to be solved automatically by a~computer program without human interaction. This includes automatized design of walking robots in a~physical virtual environment that can eventually result in construction of real robots. This work compares two different approaches to evolve virtual robotic organisms: artificial ontogeny, where the organism first grows using an~artificial ontogenetic process, and more direct methods. Furthermore, it proposes a~novel approach to evolve virtual robotic organisms: Hypercube-based artificial ontogeny that is combination of artificial ontogeny and Hypercube-based neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (HyperNEAT). Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Artificial neural networks learned by evolutionary algorithms are commonly used to control the robots. Neural networks can be encoded either directly as a list of weights or indirectly as a weight generator. Unlike direct coding indirect encoding allows to encode a large network using a short genetic code. HyperNEAT is a neuroevolutionary algorithm, which encodes the neural network indirectly, through another (producing) network, which computes synaptic weights. A different algorithm called HyperGP is an alternative to HyperNEAT. In HyperGP, the producing network is replaced by an arithmetic expression, which is being evolved using a genetic programming (GP). We have designed enhancements for HyperGP, using techniques that are either known in a different context of GP or completely new. Algorithm and enhancements have been implemented and experimentally tested on a task of controlling virtual walking robot. The results were compared with HyperNEAT and with the original HyperGP. We have shown that most of the proposed enhancements are effective and, on the given task, HyperGP is better than HyperNEAT. GP thus can successfully replace NEAT in hyper-encoding scheme and improve its efficiency. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The evolutionary relationships in Xenopus genus are intensively studied for its interspecific variability and high conservation in evolution. These characteristics possess an opportunity for comparative studying of polyploidization phenomenom on interchromosomal level and an occasion to identify the genome-forming mechanisms with cytogenetic methods. XME chromosomes (X. mellotropicalis, 2n=40) were identified via p-/q- arm length ratio in a comparison with morphometric analysis of X. epitropicalis (2n=40) chromosomes. Whole chromosome painting probes were prepared from X. tropicalis (2n=20) microdissected chromosomes and they were applied to XME metaphase spreads via optimalized Zoo-FISH. 10 chromosomal quartets were detected and one balanced non-reciprocal translocation between chromosomes XME 2 and XME 9 which must have occured in a diploid ancestor. Thus, we disprove the theory of Silurana subgenus origin via only one polyploidizatin event. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

In my thesis I focused on the comparison of teeth in mammals and man. I compared from the viewpoint of the composition of the glass and then also from the various types of teeth transformations within demands for food and, from the viewpoint of appearance of the individual teeth, and from the perspective transformations of individual teeth. There is also focus on access issues in a single series of textbooks of natural history and biology. Where we created a simple analysis contained in the table. Next, I created a proposal of project teaching on the subject of comparison teeth of mammals and man, that serves as a guide for other teachers.

The PhD thesis deals mainly with the coloration (and also scalation) of selected reptile species and explores evolutionary or ecological contexts indicated by these traits. The main topics can be roughly divided into two groups: 'antipredation signals' and 'effects of parthenogenesis'. The dominant method used in most studies is visual modelling. The work consists of the following case studies. 1) Blue-tongue skinks use their conspicuous blue tongues to threaten potential predators. We found that the tongue has a relatively high UV reflectance, a typical feature of intraspecific communication in lizards. Using visual models, we investigated how the blue tongue is perceived by the conspecifics and predators (birds of prey). In both visual models, the UV-blue tongue appears more conspicuous against the natural background than a pink tongue. In addition, in the conspecifics model, its hue partially overlaps with hues of UV-blue spots, which are sexually selected traits in various species of lizards. Thus, the UV-blue tongue seems to contribute to the effectiveness of the deimatic display and its possible role in intraspecific communication cannot be ruled out either. 2) We detected UV reflectance in non-pigmented areas of the skin in the Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). These form white patches...

Marek K u č e r a Bioanthropology: A Transdisciplinary Project of Gregory Bateson ABSTRACT The dissertation thesis deals with the work of Anglo-American anthropologist and cybernetician Gregory Bateson. It follows Danish biologist Jesper Hoffmeyer in seeing it as an example of a bioanthropological approach, the approach being defined as a position that sees mind as a particular example of nature that is in a deep sense itself minded. Besides the necessary biographical section the thesis consists of two major parts. The first one consists in exposition of Bateson's anthropological and psychiatric concepts, the second one represents an evaluation and interpretation of Bateson's final synthesis at the highest level of abstraction: the notion of equivalence of biological and epistemological realms of explanation. The major aim of the thesis is to present Bateson's work as a way of integration of humanities and social sciences with biological science that represents an alternative to sociobiological and other neo-darwinian approaches. KEY WORDS: Bateson, bioanthropology, evolution, mind

The aim of presented work is to provide characteristics of the karyotypes of scorpions of the genus Euscorpius. Genus Euscorpius is a typical representative of scorpions in Europe. Its occurrence is wide throughout Europe. Until now, 18 species of this genus have been described. In this work six species were karyologically analyzed and one species was shown to possess only basic diploid number of chromosomes: E. carpathicus - 2n=90, E. concinnus - 2n=88, E. hadzii - 2n=68, E. sicanus - 2n=66, E. tergestinus - 2n=60, E. naupliensis - 2n=60, E. italicus - 2n=36. Description of the karyotypes revealed that all species studied exhibit achiasmatic meiosis; no presence of sex chromosomes was detected. The basic hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships and karyotype evolution of the genus Euscorpius was outlined. High interspecies variability in chromosome total count was found and by analysis of the 16S rRNA gene the taxonomic status of the species was confirmed. Hence, it seems that cytogenetic methods can contribute to the understanding of species diversity and differentiation of possible cryptic species within the genus Euscorpius.