This Master’s thesis deals with the issue of lead-acid batteries, which are used in hybrid electric vehicles. The lead-acid batteries works in mode PSoC. In this mode occurs to degradation mechanisms at negative electrodes. These degradation mechanisms reduce the battery life. The practical part of Master’s thesis describes the production and a compilation of experimental cells and experimental part examines the characteristics of lead-acid batteries with the pressure to the electrode system.

In this work, an in-depth analysis of crystalline characteristics has been performed for a unique set of strictly monodisperse poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) oligomers. The molecules have different sets of end groups with various degrees of bulkiness and hydrogen bonding potential, affecting their aptitude to pack in ordered crystal structures. The oligomers also have different numbers of repeating units (n = 2-64), affecting the degree to which end groups influence overall molecular characteristics. The presence of bulky end groups leads to an innate confinement effect on crystallisation which in turn makes it possible to utilize the set of PCL oligomers to study confined space crystallisation. Confined space crystallisation is explored as a route to gain further understanding about the early metastable phases in crystal formation.   The monodisperse nature of the samples made it possible to collect very precise small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering data (SAXS and WAXS) as well as calorimetric data. Computer modeling studies were performed to support experimental findings. It was shown that end groups strongly affected crystallisation features for the shorter oligomers (n ≤ 8) but to a lesser extend for the longer oligomers (n ≥ 16). The presence of a bulky end group at one end of an oligomer could inhibit the formation of hydrogen bonds on the other end. Short oligomers (n = 8) with OH-end groups exhibited novel packing characteristics. At one isothermal crystallisation temperature the molecules exhibited not only lamellar ordering but also an additional, likely rectangular or slanted, ordering. The sample was packed in a unique structure with molecular chains lying parallel but not aligned head to head with each other. At a higher crystallisation temperature the molecules packed in a double layered structure and at an even higher temperature in a typical non-folded but tilted single-molecular layer pattern.   Unit cell determination was performed for a short oligomer with two bulky end groups, showing the existence of a tetragonal unit cell with different dimensions than the orthorhombic unit cells previously reported for linear PCL without end groups. To gain greater insight into the earliest stages of molecular packing, in situ WAXS measurements were performed using a synchrotron radiation beam and measuring data each 12 s whilst very slowly going from melt to isothermal crystallisation. It was shown that the crystal unit cell was distorted during the first minutes of slow crystallisation, which might either represent a metastable phase or else a highly distorted orthorhombic phase. / QC 20101105

This thesis focuses on the initial validation of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in its Czech version. It is a self-report method that measures symptoms accompanying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The theoretical part of the thesis describes the development of the diagnosis of PTSD over time and its current criteria. It also presents a list of diagnostic tools for measuring PTSD, including the PCL-5 and its psychometric properties. The research part of the thesis describes the process of data collection and processing, the results of the hypotheses and discussion. The research sample consisted of 444 respondents (370 women; 74 men) with a mean age of 32,6 years (SD = 10,6). The mean PCL-5 score was 29,3 (SD = 19,9). When comparing the scores of women (M = 30,2; SD = 20) and men (M = 24,7; SD = 18,8), a statistically significant difference was observed (p = 0,029). When comparing respondents who were psychiatric patients (PP; M = 39,5; SD = 20) and those who were not (M = 21,7; SD = 16,6), a significant difference (p < 0,001) was also observed. In case of comparison of respondents by gender who were not PP, no statistically significant difference was confirmed. Cronbach's alpha for the whole questionnaire came out high: 0,955 (for clusters ranging from 0,831-0,908), which is consistent...

Psychopathy and serial murder are 2 of society's most devastating and least understood tribulations. Even less is comprehended with regards to the differences in the way these ills are expressed between the genders. In this study, psychopathic personality traits are considered in a sample comparison of male and female serial murderers. Traits are measured using questions derived from Hare's Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R, 1991). A content analysis was performed to score the components for each subject, using known and accepted biographical and personal interview materials. Findings showed a distinct difference between the sexes, with females scoring lower than their male counterparts, indicating that factor structure of the PCL-R may need to be restructured in regards to females. Implications for public policy including the way female psychopathy is viewed and diagnosed are reviewed.

The field of aggressive language detection is developing quickly in Natural Language Processing. However, most of the work being done in this field is centered around explicitly aggressive language, whereas work exploring forms of implicitly aggressive language is much less prolific thus far. Further, there are many subcategories that are encompassed within the greater category of implicitly aggressive language, for example, condescending and patronizing language. This thesis focuses on the relatively new field of patronizing and condescending language (PCL) detection, specifically on expanding away from in-domain tasks that focus on either news or social media texts. Cross-domain patronizing and condescending language detection is as of today not a widely explored sub-field of Natural Language Processing. In this project, the aim to answer three main research questions: the first is to what extent do models trained to detect patronizing and condescending language in one domain, in this case social media texts and news publications, generalize to other domains. Secondly, we aim to make advances toward a baseline for balanced PCL datasets and compare performance across label distribution ratios. Thirdly, we aim to address the impact of a common feature in patronizing and condescending language datasets--the significant imbalance between negative and positive labels in the binary classification task. To this end, we aim to address the question of to what extent does the proportion between labels have an impact on the in-domain PCL classification task.  We find that the best performing model for the in-domain classification task is the Gradient Boosting classifier trained on an imbalanced dataset harvested from Reddit, which included both the post and the reply, with a ratio of 1:2 between positive and negative labels. In the cross-domain task, we find that the best performing model is an SVM trained on the balanced news dataset and evaluated on the balanced Reddit post and reply dataset. In the latter study, we show that it is possible to achieve competitive results using classical machine models on a nuanced, context-dependent binary classification task.

Mindfulness används ofta i samband med behandling för depressioner och ångest för att lindra stress hos patienter. Det finns dock inte någon entydig forskning om mindfulness förbättrar måendet för patienter med PTSD. Här har en systematisk genomgång samt metaanalys genomförts för att avgöra om mindfulnessbaserade interventioner har någon inverkan på att lindra symtomen för PTSD. Systematiska sökningar har genomförts i olika databaser som PubMed, Medline, CINAHL och APA för att hitta relevanta randomiserade kontrollerade studier, som är publicerade under de senaste sju åren. Två författare genomförde litteratursökningen oberoende av varandra, samlade in data samt utförde den statistiska analysen. Metaanalysen omfattade 5 studier med 317 deltagare. Samtliga studier använde sig av PCL-5 som mätvärde för PTSD. Behandlingstiden varierade mellan fyra ochåtta veckor. Metaanalysen redovisar före- och eftermätningar av mindfulnessbehandlingarutan att ta med uppföljande mätningar. Resultaten visade att mindfulnessbaserade interventioner hade måttlig effekt (Cohens d = 0.63, 95 % CI: 0.42 – 0.82) gällande att lindra PTSD-symptom jämfört med behandling som vanligt (TAU), ”present-centered group therapy” och väntelista. Enligt den forskning vi sett kan mindfulnessbaserade interventioner vara till nytta för patienter som diagnostiserats med PTSD. Vår metaanalys visar att mindfulness kan vara ett effektivt sätt att minska PTSD-symptom och ge en ökad livskvalitet. Behandlingslängd, antal sessioner och PTSD-graden verkar ha mindre effekt än interventionens innehåll.  Nyckelord: metaanalys, mindfulness, PTSD, PCL, vuxna / Mindfulness is often used in conjunction with treatment for depression and anxiety to relieve stress in patients. However, there is no clear research on whether mindfulness improves the well-being of patients with PTSD. A systematic review and meta-analysis has been conducted to determine whether mindfulness-based interventions have any effect on alleviating the symptoms of PTSD. Systematic searches were conducted in various databases such as PubMed, Medline, CINAHL and APA to find relevant randomized controlled trials, which are published in the last seven years. Two authors independently conducted the literature search, collected the data and performed the statistical analysis. The meta-analysis included 5 studies with 317 participants. All studies use the PCL-5 as a measure of PTSD. The treatment time varied between four to eight weeks. The meta-analysis reports pre- and post-measurements of mindfulness treatments without including follow-up measurements. Results showed that mindfulness-based interventions had moderate effect ((Cohens d = 0.63, 95 % CI: 0.42 – 0.82) in alleviating PTSD symptoms compared to treatment as usual (TAU), present-centered group therapy and waiting list. According to the research we have seen, mindfulness-based interventions can be beneficial for patients diagnosed with PTSD. Our meta-analysis shows that mindfulness can be an effective way to reduce PTSD symptoms and provide an increased quality of life. Duration of treatment, number of sessions and the degree of PTSD appear to have less effect than the content of the intervention. Keywords: meta-analysis, mindfulness, PTSD, adults

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Today, drugs are an integral part of healthy human life, with new drug entities being introduced every year in clinic. The advancement of drug development brings complexity and variation, in terms of both physical and chemical properties. Some of these physicochemical characteristics are many times suboptimal, eventually requiring robust delivery systems that can precisely deliver the drugs to the desired tissues. Although many materials have been studied for the generation of drug delivery systems, there is always a need for biomaterials with better properties that can translate into superior delivery systems. In this context, new drug delivery systems that are interface-engineered at materials level for better stability and delivery efficiency in vitro and in vivo are introduced in this dissertation. In the first part of the dissertation, novel oil/water interface-engineered amphiphilic block copolymer micelles that were previously introduced by our lab were assessed for their stability in the presence of various esterase enzymes present in serum and on blood vessel walls, normally encountered by drug delivery systems on route to the targeted tissues. I also assessed the vulnerability of the polymeric micelles in presence of enzymes typically present either inside the tumor cells or secreted in the tumor microenvironment. I revealed the selective stability of empty- and docetaxel-loaded polymeric micelles to enzymatic degradation en route/in tumors and I have correlated this selective stability with polymer structure and interfacial engineering mentioned above. The unique delivery capabilities of interfacial-engineered polymeric micelles were tested in vivo using a mouse model of triple negative breast cancer. We proved that our novel engineered triblock copolymer-based drug delivery systems are superior to similar delivery systems made out of standard diblock copolymer micelles and also to the clinically used Taxotere® formulation towards cancer cell killing and tumor treatment, without displaying any significant toxicity in experimental animals. The second part of the dissertation focuses on the development and assessment of a pyridinium-based pseudo-gemini surfactant that combined the high nucleic acid packaging capacity of pyridinium lipids with the high transfection efficiency of gemini surfactants while displaying a reduced associated cytotoxic effect. I have analyzed the temperature treatment on compaction of nucleic acids into lipoplexes and I have established a high temperature annealing method for this purpose. This novel formulation technique allowed a substantial reduction of the amount of amphiphiles required to compact a specific amount of nucleic acids. This in turn also reduced the cytotoxic effect associated with the use of pyridinium amphiphiles. The effect of inclusion of colipids to lipoplex compaction, the robustness and the transfection efficiency of the lipid/nucleic acid lipoplex systems were assessed in detail, and correlations between formulation composition and biological activity were established. I was also able to show for the first time that pyridinium pseudo-gemini surfactants were able to compact different types of nucleic acids, including pDNA, mRNA and siRNA at lower charge ratios than standard, state-of-the art formulations used for this purposes. I also showed that irrespective to the nucleic acid compacted within the lipoplexes, the novel amphiphiles can efficiently deliver the cargo into the targeted cells even in the presence of very high concentration of serum, a premise for future use of these amphiphiles and formulations in vivo. / Pharmaceutical Sciences

Poly (&#949;-caprolactone) block poly (ethylene glycol) (PCL-b-PEG) is typical amphiphilic block copolymer that self assembles into micelles in water where the hydrolytically stable hydrophilic PEG segment forms the exterior corona and the core contains the hydrophobic degradable PCL block. Micelles from PCL-b-PEG block copolymers are among the top candidates for application as transport and delivery systems. The efficiency for micellar transported therapeutics to reach the desired site is currently limited by processes that prematurely degrade the micelle and this issue is stimulating increased effort in evaluating how micelles respond to the conditions encountered in the digestive and circulatory systems. Drug loaded micelles introduced into the blood and digestive systems encounter a wide range of conditions, enzymes and other substances that can promote micelle precipitation, degradation and premature release of therapeutics. Furthermore, PEG-b-PCL diblock copolymer micelle stability in aqueous suspension, low drug loading content and burst drug releasing are also the critical issues in drug delivery system. One central objective for this research is to identify and utilize polymer structural features that influence the hydrolytic stability of micelles toward acid, base and enzyme catalyzed hydrolysis of the polyester cores. The strategy of by preparing a set of triblock copolymers (PEG-b-PBO-b-PCL) formed by inserting a short hydrophobic non-hydrolyzable PBO segment between the PEG and PCL blocks as an approach to increase the barrier for water to reach the sensitive interface ester at the surface of the PCL core and thus increase the micelle stability at acidic aqueous medium. However, the triblock micelle doesn't significantly reduce the rate of lipase enzyme catalyzed degradation of micelle from PCL-b-PEG-OMe. Another objective for this research is to prepare PCL-b-PEG diblock copolymer micelles that have high stability in aqueous suspensions, high drug loading content and selective reactions with lipase enzymes. The working hypothesis is that the micelles with charged groups at the terminus of PEG corona will increase the micelle dispersion stability and stabilize micelles with much larger hydrophobic cores through intermicelle electrostatic repulsions. When the micelle corona and lipase enzyme have the same charge there will be an increased barrier to reaction. The comparison of micelle dispersion stabilities micelles from HO-PCL-b-PEG-CH2CH=CH, [PCL-b-PEG-RCO2]- Na+ and [PCL-b-PEG-RSO3]-Na+ demonstrates that the micelles with ionic coronas have significantly higher suspension stability. Kinetic of lipase catalyzed degradation of micelles with corona charges shows that lipases selective reaction with corona charged micelles which could be used as design feature to selectivity for therapeutic transport and release. Modification hydrophilic-hydrophobic interface and corona charges of PCL-b-PEG diblock copolymer micelle are successful chemical strategies to increase micelle stability and control acid and lipase enzymes catalytic degradation. / Chemistry

The structural evolution of micromolded poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and its miscible blends with noncrystallizable poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) at the nanoscale was investigated as a function of deformation ratio and blend composition using in situ synchrotron smallangle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and scanning SAXS techniques. It was found that the deformation mechanism of the oriented samples shows a general scheme for the process of tensile deformation: crystal block slips within the lamellae occur at small deformations followed by a stressinduced fragmentation and recrystallization process along the drawing direction at a critical strain where the average thickness of the crystalline lamellae remains essentially constant during stretching. The value of the critical strain depends on the amount of the amorphous component incorporated in the blends, which could be traced back to the lower modulus of the entangled amorphous phase and, therefore, the reduced network stress acting on the crystallites upon addition of PVME. When stretching beyond the critical strain the slippage of the fibrils (stacks of newly formed lamellae) past each other takes place resulting in a relaxation of stretched interlamellar amorphous chains. Because of deformation-induced introduction of the amorphous PVME into the interfibrillar regions in the highly oriented blends, the interactions between fibrils becomes stronger upon further deformation and thus impeding sliding of the fibrils to some extent leading finally to less contraction of the interlamellar amorphous layers compared to the pure PCL / National Natural Science Foundation of China (21204088 and 21134006). This work is within the framework of the RCUK/EPSRC Science Bridges China project of UK−China Advanced Materials Research Institute (AMRI).