Expanding urbanization, climate change, and population growth contribute to increased transmission and spread of arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), many of which cause severe disease in humans. Pathogenic arboviruses include dengue, Zika, tick-borne encephalitis, and sindbis viruses, which together threaten more than half the global population. Thus, there is a constant need for safe, specific, and sensitive molecular tests to identify early-stage infections for accurate diagnosis and molecular epidemiological data for disease prevention and control. The study tested the biosafety of using FTA™ cards when working with pathogenic arboviruses by conducting an infectivity assay using sindbis virus. Conditions for RNA extraction and storage of arboviruses on FTA were analyzed by measuring viral RNA (vRNA) stability using a SYBR-Green, Pan-Flavi RT-qPCR method composed of degenerate primers able to detect a variety of flaviviruses. Data from a Pan-Flavi RT-qPCR study comprising of 222 clinical blood and serum samples collected from a 2018 dengue virus outbreak in Hanoi (Vietnam) was analyzed to establish applicability of FTA for molecular epidemiology and diagnosis. Results showed that sindbis virus infectivity was inhibited by FTA-adsorption. FTA-adsorbed arboviruses were extracted with the highest yield using Trizol extraction and were preserved at storage at 4-20ºC for up to 30 days. The results showed that clinical blood samples acquired higher yields of vRNA for molecular testing than serum samples and that it may be possible to perform sequencing for genomic analysis. The study suggests that FTA cards may facilitate the storage and transportation of adsorbed arboviruses for downstream molecular epidemiological and diagnostic tests.

This work deals with creation of an exact mathematical model of a traction drive with low-voltage induction machine (28 V) which is fed from accumulators. This model was developed in MATLAB – Simulink and consists of induction machine model, inverter model and load model. Vector Control was added to models connected together. This complex model allows considering many effects into simulations. These effects are commonly neglected, although they have significant influence on drive behaviour, especially by using low-voltage machine. It is impact of magnetic circuit saturation, impact of temperature and skin effect on winding resistance, impact of inverter nonlinearities such as on-state voltage drops on switching elements, dead times and transistors switching times. The attention was paid to determination of losses in drive parts. The correctness of the model was verified at laboratory workplace established for this purpose. The laboratory drive can be controlled by a microprocessor or by using MATLAB and dSPACE application. The influence of compensations of inverter nonlinearities and DC-link voltage ripple on higher harmonics of inverter output currents was analyzed. Furthermore, the control, which decreased resistive losses, was solved.

In-line heat treatment is a part of technological process uses a phase and structure changes to obtain required mechanical properties. Heat treatment of rolled products offers a reduction of steel making costs and a creation of new steel products. For example the TRIP steel is a part of modern steels which is used in the automobile industry for higher safety of passengers. The heat treatment is often described in the literature. But the authors are often focused on the method how to get the required structure and mechanical properties for different metallic materials. Nevertheless just few articles are focused on the technical observing of temperature regimes and which parameter is necessary to consider during designing the cooling section. Eight parameters were tested by the experimental way to examine their influence on the cooling intensity. They were: gravity (orientation of the cooled surface), coolant pressure, amount of coolant spraying on the surface (the flow rate), rolling velocity, nozzle configuration, kind of nozzles (full cone or flat fan nozzle), coolant temperature and the surface quality (surface roughness and scales). All these parameters have an influence the heat transfer coefficient. Based on knowledge gained in this work was created the cooling section, which comply with the required cooling temperature regimes.

KurHigh mobility two-dimensional electron gas in CdTe quantum wells: High magnetic field studies Experimental studies of two-dimensional electron gases confined in CdTe and CdMnTe quantum wells are presented. The data analysis is supported by numerical calcula- tions of the band structure of confined states, using the local density and envelope func- tion approximations. Four by four, k.p calculations have been performed to justify the parabolic approximation of valence bands. Samples were characterized by Raman scatter- ing spectroscopy and far infrared cyclotron resonance absorption measurements. Low-field magneto-transport shows the dominant contribution of the semi-classical Drude conduc- tivity and three orders of magnitude weaker contributions of weak localization, electron- electron interaction and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. The contribution of electron- electron interactions is explained within a semi-classical model of circling electrons. The shape of Landau levels, broadening, transport and quantum lifetimes and dominant long- range scattering mechanism have been determined. High-field magneto-transport displays fractional quantum Hall states at Landau levels N = 0 and N = 1. The ground states 5/3 and 4/3 have been determined to be fully spin polarized, in agreement with the approach of composite...

The aim of the thesis is to examine both Husserl's and Kant's transcendentalism in a way that would avoid the tendency to put the main accent on Husserl, which is an approach common to almost all literature dealing with this topic so far. Since it is for the most part Husserl's own critique of Kant that inspires such ongoing underestimation of Kant in comparison to Husserl, this work focuss on the question of the legitimacy of this critique. The core of the thesis is an original interpretation of Kant's transcendental philosophy which, instead of taking for granted the phenomenological point of view, attempts to describe Kant's philosophical enterprise from its own perspective and in its own right. In its second part, the thesis provides a brief description of how Husserl, starting initially from the position of descriptive psychology, arrives at a transcendental dimension. When so put side by side, it becomes evident that the two transcendental positions are in fact very different. Husserl's critique of Kant then appears as unjustified, even though quite understandable as an attempt to draw back from certain immature motives of his own philosophy.

1 Abstract The dissertation Theoretical tools for categorization and functional explanations of relations in language is focused on linguistic categorization from the perspective of empirical gram- matical research. The primary aim is to present the theoretical and practical potential for the investigation of grammatical categories, stressing functional explanations of why cer- tain language structures are the way they are. The text is divided into two parts. (i) The first two chapters are devoted to the theoretical and methodological foundations of empirical linguistic research (including issues of metalanguage, language comparison, discreteness and gradience). Particular emphasis is placed on functional-evolutionary approaches, which describe grammar in interconnection with language use, and more specifically on func- tional explanations by means of frequency. (ii) In the following three chapters, the potential of corpus-based research is demonstrated in accordance with the principles adopted in (i). It is applied to the linguistic categories of possession and adjective comparison in Czech. Possession in Czech is described with regard to hypotheses based on statistical tendencies in language use. The main results of the research revealed the relationship between frequency of use and the animacy hierarchy,...

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) causes viral encephalitis in new born and young adults that is prevalent in different parts of India and other parts of South East Asia with an estimated 6000 deaths per year. JEV is a single stranded RNA virus that belongs to the Flavivirusgenus of the family Flaviviridae. It is a neurotropic virus which infects the central nervous system (CNS). The virus follows a zoonotic life-cycle involving mosquitoes and vertebrates, chiefly pigs and ardeid birds, as amplifying hosts. Humans are dead end hosts. After entry into the host following a mosquito bite, JEV infection leads to acute peripheral leukocytosis in the brain and damage to Blood Brain Barrier (BBB). The exact role of the endothelial cells during CNS infection is still unclear. However, disruption of this endothelial barrier has been shown to be an important step in entry of the virus into the brain. Humoral and cell mediated immune responses during JEV infection have been intensively investigated. Previous studies from our lab have shown the activation of cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs) upon JEV infection. MHC molecules play pivotal role in eliciting both adaptive (T-cells) and innate (NK cells) immune response against viral invasion. Many viruses such as HIV, MCMV, HCMV, AdV and EBV have been found to decrease MHC expression upon infection. On the contrary, flaviviruses like West Nile Virus (WNV) have been found to increase MHC-I and MHC-II expression. More recently, data from our lab has shown that JEV infection can lead to upregulation of mouse non-classical MHC class Ib molecules like Qb1, Qa1 and T-10 along with classical MHC molecules. Non-classical MHC molecules are important components of the innate and adaptive immune systems. Non-classical MHC molecules differ from their classical MHC class I counterparts by their limited polymorphism, restricted tissue distribution and lower levels of cell surface expression. Human classical MHC class I molecules are HLA-A, -B and –C while non-classical MHC Class Ib molecules are HLA-E, -G and –F. HLA-E, the human homologue of the mouse non-classical MHC molecule, Qa-1b has been shown to be the ligand for the inhibitory NK, NKG2A/CD94 and may bridge innate and adaptive immune responses. In this thesis, we have studied the expression of human classical class I molecules HLA-A, -B, -C and the non-classical HLA molecule, HLA-E in immortalized human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC), human endothelial like cell line ECV304 (ECV), human glioblastoma cell line U87MG and human foreskin fibroblast cells (HFF). We observed an upregulation of classical HLA molecules and HLA-E mRNA in endothelial and fibroblast cells upon JEV infection. This mRNA increase also resulted in upregulation of cell surface classical HLA molecules and HLA-E in HFF cells but not in both the human endothelial cell lines, ECV and HBMECs. Release of soluble classical HLA molecules upon cytokine treatment has been a long known phenomenon. Recently HLA-E has also been shown to be released as a 37 kDa protein from endothelial cells upon cytokine treatments. Our study suggests that JEV mediated upregulation of classical HLA and HLA-E upregulation leads to release of both Classical HLA molecules and HLA-E as soluble forms in the human endothelial cell lines, ECV and HBMEC. This shedding of sHLA-E from human endothelial cells was found to be mediated by matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) proteolytic activity. MMP-9, a protease implicated in release of sHLA molecules was also found to be upregulated upon JEV infection only in endothelial cell lines but not in HFF cells. Our study provides evidence that the JEV mediated solubilisation of HLA-E could be mediated by MMP-9. Further, we have tried to understand the role of the MAPK pathway and NF-κB pathway in the process of HLA-E solubilisation by using specific inhibitors of these pathways during JEV infection of ECV cells. Our data suggests that release of sHLA-E is dependent on p38 and JNK pathways while ERK 1/2 and NF-κB pathway only had a minor role to play in this process. Treatment of endothelial cells with TNF-α, IL-1β and IFN-γ is known to result in release of sHLA-E. In addition to TNF-α and IFNtreatment, we observed that activating agents like poly (I:C), LPS and PMA also resulted in the shedding of sHLA-E from ECV as well as U87MG but not from HFF cells. Treatment of endothelial cells with IFN-β, a type-I interferon also led to release of sHLA-E. IFN-γ, a type II interferon and TNF-α are known to show additive increase in solubilisation of HLA-E. We studied the interaction between type I interferon, IFN-β and TNF-α with regard to shedding of sHLA- E. Both IFNand TNF, when present together caused an additive increase in the shedding of sHLA-E. These two cytokines were also found to potentiate the HLA-E and MMP-9 mRNA expression. Hence, our data suggest that these two cytokines could be working conjunctly to release HLA-E, when these two cytokines are present together as in the case of virus infection of endothelial cells. HLA-E is known to be a ligand for NKG2A/CD94 inhibitory receptors present on NK and a subset of T cells. Previous reports have suggested that NKG2A/CD94 mediated signaling events could inhibit ERK 1/2 phosphorylation leading to inhibition of NK cell activation. IL-2 mediated ERK 1/2 phosphorylation is known to play a very important role in maintenance and activation of NK cells. We studied the effects of sHLA-E that was released, either by JEV infection or IFN-γ treatment on IL-2 mediated ERK 1/2 phosphorylation in two NK cell lines, Nishi and NKL. The soluble HLA-E that was released upon JEV infection was functionally active since it inhibited IL-2 and PMA induced phosphorylation of ERK 1/2 in NKL and Nishi cells. Virus infected or IFN-γ treated ECV cell culture supernatants containing sHLA-E was also found to partially inhibit IL-2 mediated induction of CD25 molecules on NKL cells. CD25 is a component of the high affinity IL-2 receptor and hence could play an important role in proliferation and activation of NK cells. sHLA-E was also found to inhibit IL-2 induced [3H]-thymidine incorporation suggesting that, similar to cell surface expressed HLA-E, sHLA-E could also inhibit the proliferation and activation of NK cells. In summary, we found that establishment of JEV infection and production of cytokines like IFN-β, TNF-α, IL-6 along with MMP-9 in human endothelial cells. These cytokines may also indirectly lead to the reported damage and leukocyte infiltration across infected and uninfected vicinal endothelial cells. The increased surface expression of HLA-E in fibroblast and release of sHLA and sHLA-E molecules from endothelial cells may have an important immunoregulatory role. HLA-E is an inhibitory ligand for NKG2A/CD94 positive CD8+ T and NK cells. Hence our finding that sHLA-E can inhibit NK cell proliferation suggests an immune evasive strategy by JEV.

This master's thesis focuses on the utilization of an artificially created weak magnetic field for navigation in 3D space. The theoretical part of this work deals with the general properties of the magnetic field and with its description. The next section of the theoretical part contains an overview of measuring principles for magnetic field measurements. Based on various types of measuring principles, the thesis elaborates on commercially available miniature sensors for magnetic field measurement with a measuring range up to 10 mT. The work focuses mainly on the magnetoresistive principle and fluxgate sensors. Furthermore, the theoretical part contains descriptions of methods for modeling the magnetic field of simple permanent magnets and various magnet assemblies. Lastly, the theoretical part involves a patent search of devices used for locating magnets that are installed in an intramedullary nail, which is used in intramedullary stabilization used on fractures of human bones. By locating the magnet in the nail, it is possible to precisely determine the position of the mounting holes. The practical part of the thesis deals with the analysis of magnetic field behavior in the vicinity of various magnetic assemblies, which were modeled in COMSOL Multiphysics using the finite element method. The models were created with the aim of analysing the behaviour of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the magnets and at the same time to find possible analytical functions that could be used to determine the position of the magnet in space relative to the probe. The result of this work is an analysis of various assemblies, which contains graphs of different dependencies and prescription of polynomial functions that approximate these dependencies. Another part of the thesis is the design of a probe that serves to locate the magnetic target. The work describes two possible methods of localization. For the differential method, a user interface in LabVIEW was created. The probe based on this method is fully capable of locating the magnet in the 2D plane. The state space search method is described only in theory.

This thesis is about wind shear and its influence on aviation. There is wide theoretical description of wind shear and itâs implemented into aviation practice. There are also methods of observation, forecasting and reporting, for both pilots and meteorologist described. In this thesis, pilots can find useful recommendations for dealing with wind shear during the flight. Every reader can also read about famous aviation accidents and look at models of weather that caused those accidents. At the end of thesis there are analyses of a rawiosonde measurements related to wind shear reports. This whole thesis is focused on increasing awareness of wind shear in aviation from angle of view of both pilots and aviation meteorologist.

The task of the thesis was studding of tantalum capacitors with solid electrolytes properties. Ta – Ta2O5 – MnO2 capacitor by its construction represents MIS structure, where tantalum anode has metal conductivity and MnO2 cathode is semiconductor. Isolation layer consists of tantalum pentoxide Ta2O5 with relative permitivity r = 27. Dielectric thickness is typically in range from 30 to 150nm. The capacitor charge is not only stored and accumulated on electrodes but also in localised states (oxide vacancies) in isolation layer. The capacitor connected in normal mode represents MIS structure polarized in reveres direction when the applied voltage higher potential barrier between semiconductor - MnO2 cathode and isolation of Ta2O5. The transport of charge carriers via isolation layer is determined by Poole-Frenkel mechanisms and tunnelling. Poole-Frenkel mechanism of charge transport is dominant in low intensity of electric field. Tunnelling determines current at higher electric field intensity. During low intensity of electric field ohmic component is also presented which is determined by volume of resistance of impurities in isolation layer due to donor states of oxygen vacancies. Based on the modelling of measured VA characteristics is possible to estimate determine dielectric thickness of Ta2O5 and determine share of Poole-Frenkelov and tunnel current and charge transportation. The thesis is described charge transport and charge concentration on tantalum capacitor in low frequency area and analysis of capacitor behaviour at frequency band. The first impulse for the thesis was an effort to create equivalent circuit diagram of tantalum capacitor in respect of its physical and electrical behaviour. There is an opportunity to study and determine electric charge transport and its accumulation based on the equivalent circuit diagram structure. There is also a chance to define and trace potential barriers and charge distribution in the capacitor structure based on an measurement and carried out experiments. This methodology and analysis consists of electrical characteristic determination to create physical model of the capacitor describing it function, properties and behaviour.