Title: The influence of optoeletronic gunsight on shooting accuracy and precision Objectives: The primary aim of this diploma thesis is to statistically appraise the influence of optoelectronic gunsight on shootihg accuracy and precision. The sighting device was mounted on Heckler & Koch MP5 machine gun during both static and dynamic shooting practices. Methods: Shooting targets evaluation was based on the numerical method of detecting the mean point of impact. Statistical data processing was based on the method of comparison of means. To determine statistical significance we used dispersion analysis by means od ANOVA program. Results: We ascertained that the employment of optoelectronic gunsight has a statisticaly significant effect on static shootig accuracy. From a shooting precision point of view, there was great statistical significance of the employment of optoelectronic gunsight during dynamic shooting practices, namely on the vertical "y" - axis. Keywords: gunsight, shooting, assault rifle, target, laser

This Masterâs thesis deals with evaluation of quality of Brno Combo combination rifle shotgun rifled barrelâs firing mechanism. It contains a proposal of criteria for evaluation of quality of firearm firing mechanisms. It further focuses on using measurement of primer deformation as a means of assessing the quality of a firing mechanism. Based on measurements made using a Focus Variation microscope, various geometrical parameters of fired and failed primers were analysed. The measurement results were processed using ANOVA and regression analysis. Based on output of these analyses, practical recommendations and further research proposals were formulated.

Title: Selection criteria for sport shooters Objectives: The aim of the work will be discovering of the fact, if criteria such as vital capacity of the lungs and apnoea can affect the shooting of air pistol and then mark these criteria as suitable for the selection of talented people. Methods: In this work was used analysis of documents and other professional publications with the possibility of selecting sports talents in sport shooting. Two laboratory measurements were demonstrated, to determine the vital capacity of the lungs by using a personal spirometer and measurement of apnea. At the same time, the probands height and weight were measured. Subsequently, an experiment was proven, in place of probands fired 15 shots from an air pistol according to ISSF rules. Results: The results of the work brought the fact that the vital capacity of the lungs together with apnea do not have a significant effect on the shooting itself in the shooting discipline "air riffle 10m" and is therefore not suitable for use in the eventual selection of individuals for sport shooting. Keywords: selection, sport, shooter, rifle, pistol

With the advent of the rifled musket onto Civil War battlefields, the ability of a soldier on the defense to kill his attacking enemy rose dramatically. The former standard weapon had been the smoothbore musket. Such smoothbores had a maximum effective range of seventy-five meters. The new standard weapon, the rifled musket, had an effective range of 300 meters. Defenders, armed with this new weapon, could put attacking enemy soldiers under killing fire at a far greater range that ever before possible. Using the rifled muskets, defenders exacted punishing tolls before attackers closed within bayonet range for the close combat that furnished the cornerstone of contemporary tactical planning. As they made their tactical plans, commanders in the American Civil War seemed to ignore this deadly technological innovation, and Lee, Bragg, Burnside, Hood, Pope, and Jackson make a list of the worst offenders. They continued frontal assaults, assaults that brought their men directly under fire from the rifled musket. Bloody Civil War battles offer a litany of failed assaults: Manassas, Shiloh, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. Where frontal assaults succeeded, the costs in soldiers’ lives were staggering. As casualties mounted astronomically, Civil War commanders must have realized that something was wrong on the battlefield. Yet, these commanders, with one important exception, rarely varied their battlefield tactics. Only one commander gave evidence of understanding the deadly message of the rifled musket, and the failure of Civil War tactics to silence or mute that message, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. This thesis examines that understanding and provides Sherman’s rationale for changing contemporary battlefield maneuvers. Sherman came to the conclusion that the tactics of the day could not defeat a defense armed with rifled muskets, so he changed the battlefield rules. In doing so, he defeated a determined and aggressive foe, inflicted more casualties on his enemy than his forces sustained, split the Deep South asunder, and hastened the end of the Civil War. / Master of Arts

Today, the strength of the National Rifle Association (NRA) is understood by the general public and many scholars to be dependent on the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the right of individuals to own firearms. This dissertation challenges that understanding by focusing on three organizations, the NRA, the National Guard and the National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice (NBPRP). While each organization appears in today's world to be distinct and independent, this dissertation reveals how they garnered strength from a symbiotic relationship. The NRA was founded in 1871, originally as a marksmanship organization. The National Guard, which grew from the nation's militia, was formally established in the early twentieth century. The NBPRP was a small organization that was established in 1903 within the War Department at the encouragement of the NRA. Following passage in 1903 of legislation bringing state militia units under federal control, the newly formed National Guard became dependent on the NRA, which in turn leveraged that dependence to create a nationwide grassroots organization. The NBPRP was headed by the Assistant Secretary of War until 1916 when the position of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship was created, to be held by a U.S. Army or U.S. Marine Corps officer. The NRA acted as the surrogate of the NBPRB outside of the halls of government. At the same time, the NBRPB provided the NRA with a voice within those same halls that aided in the development of federal policy and budget positions related to firearms acquisition, competition, and training. The purpose of this dissertation is to reveal how the NRA was able to employ these two organizations to develop an exceptionally powerful grassroots organization that today is recognized as one of the most powerful special interest groups in America. Understanding how this powerful organization grew offers one perspective of how the bureaucracy that has been developed to support America's federal system of government is uniquely susceptible to special interest influence.

A disfunção renal é uma complicação comum associada a desfechos clínicos negativos em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. Na prática clínica, a medida de creatinina sérica continua sendo o marcador mais usado e aceito para monitoramento da função renal, embora haja várias limitações relacionadas ao seu uso. A cistatina C é uma proteína de baixo peso molecular que apresenta características ideais para um marcador da taxa de filtração glomerular. Neste estudo, nossos objetivos foram descrever e analisar o perfil epidemiológico dos pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes com lesão renal aguda (LRA); classificar a gravidade da LRA segundo o critério RIFLEp, verificar sua praticabilidade; e avaliar a utilidade da cistatina C sérica em detectar comprometimento da taxa de filtração glomerular e sua associação com a creatinina sérica nos 2 primeiros dias de internação na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Pediátrica (UTIP). Para a estimativa da taxa de filtração glomerular, foi medido o clearance de creatinina. No estudo epidemiológico, foram analisados 174 pacientes internados na UTIP. LRA foi diagnosticada em 45% dos pacientes. Idade menor ou igual a 12 meses, escore PRISM maior ou igual a 6, hipotensão arterial, sepse, tempo de circulação extracorpórea maior do que 120 minutos, pressão intra-abdominal maior ou igual a 8 mmHg e subnutrição proteico-calórica foram fatores de risco associados à LRA. A presença de LRA foi associada a piores desfechos clínicos como maior tempo de internação na UTIP e maior tempo de uso de ventilação mecânica. Na alta da UTIP, 41% dos pacientes com LRA mantinham função renal alterada. No estudo da cistatina C, foram envolvidos 122 pacientes. Observamos que, no grupo de pacientes com LRA (41,8%) segundo o critério RIFLEp, as medidas de cistatina C foram significativamente mais altas tanto no momento da admissão na UTIP quanto de 24 a 36 h após. O desempenho da cistatina C como biomarcador na análise da curva ROC (AUC=0,77) e dos valores de eficiência diagnóstica foi melhor do que o da creatinina sérica (AUC=0,65) em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. Concluímos que o critério RIFLEp mostrou-se importante na detecção precoce de LRA em pacientes de risco e que a cistatina C é melhor marcador do que a creatinina sérica para detectar LRA em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. / Kidney disfunction is a common complication associated with poor clinical outcomes in critically ill pediatric patients. In the clinical setting, serum creatinine is still the most widely used and accepted biomarker for the assessment of renal function; however, it carries a number of limitations. Cystatin C is a low molecular weight protein that has ideal features for measuring the glomerular filtration rate. The present study aims to describe and analyze the epidemiological profile of critically ill pediatric patients with acute kidney injury (AKI); to classify the severity of AKI according to the pRIFLE criteria; to assess its feasibility; and to evaluate the utility of serum cystatin C in determining the deterioration of glomerular filtration rate and its association with serum creatinine in the first two days following PICU admission. In order to estimate glomerular filtration rate, creatinine clearance was used. The epidemiological study assessed 174 patients admitted to PICU; 45% of these were diagnosed with AKI. Age equal or lower than 12 months, PRISM score equal or higher than 6, hypotension, sepsis, cardiopulmonary bypass time longer than 120 minutes, intra-abdominal pressure equal or higher than 8 mmHg and protein-energy malnutrition were risk factors for AKI. AKI was associated with poorer clinical outcomes, such as PICU inpatient time and prolonged mechanical ventilation. When discharged from PICU, 41% of patients with AKI still had altered renal function status. In the cystatin C study, 122 patients were enrolled. The AKI patients\' subgroup (41.8%), according to pRIFLE, showed significantly higher cystatin C levels, both at the time of PICU admission as well as 24 to 36 hours afterwards. Cystatin C performance as a biomarker in ROC curve analysis (AUC=0,77) and its diagnostic efficiency values were better than serum creatinine (AUC=0,65) in critically ill pediatric patients. We conclude that the pRIFLE criteria is definetely important for the early diagnosis of AKI in risk patients and that cystatin C is a more reliable biomarker than serum creatinine to detect AKI in critically ill pediatric patients.

A disfunção renal é uma complicação comum associada a desfechos clínicos negativos em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. Na prática clínica, a medida de creatinina sérica continua sendo o marcador mais usado e aceito para monitoramento da função renal, embora haja várias limitações relacionadas ao seu uso. A cistatina C é uma proteína de baixo peso molecular que apresenta características ideais para um marcador da taxa de filtração glomerular. Neste estudo, nossos objetivos foram descrever e analisar o perfil epidemiológico dos pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes com lesão renal aguda (LRA); classificar a gravidade da LRA segundo o critério RIFLEp, verificar sua praticabilidade; e avaliar a utilidade da cistatina C sérica em detectar comprometimento da taxa de filtração glomerular e sua associação com a creatinina sérica nos 2 primeiros dias de internação na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva Pediátrica (UTIP). Para a estimativa da taxa de filtração glomerular, foi medido o clearance de creatinina. No estudo epidemiológico, foram analisados 174 pacientes internados na UTIP. LRA foi diagnosticada em 45% dos pacientes. Idade menor ou igual a 12 meses, escore PRISM maior ou igual a 6, hipotensão arterial, sepse, tempo de circulação extracorpórea maior do que 120 minutos, pressão intra-abdominal maior ou igual a 8 mmHg e subnutrição proteico-calórica foram fatores de risco associados à LRA. A presença de LRA foi associada a piores desfechos clínicos como maior tempo de internação na UTIP e maior tempo de uso de ventilação mecânica. Na alta da UTIP, 41% dos pacientes com LRA mantinham função renal alterada. No estudo da cistatina C, foram envolvidos 122 pacientes. Observamos que, no grupo de pacientes com LRA (41,8%) segundo o critério RIFLEp, as medidas de cistatina C foram significativamente mais altas tanto no momento da admissão na UTIP quanto de 24 a 36 h após. O desempenho da cistatina C como biomarcador na análise da curva ROC (AUC=0,77) e dos valores de eficiência diagnóstica foi melhor do que o da creatinina sérica (AUC=0,65) em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. Concluímos que o critério RIFLEp mostrou-se importante na detecção precoce de LRA em pacientes de risco e que a cistatina C é melhor marcador do que a creatinina sérica para detectar LRA em pacientes pediátricos gravemente doentes. / Kidney disfunction is a common complication associated with poor clinical outcomes in critically ill pediatric patients. In the clinical setting, serum creatinine is still the most widely used and accepted biomarker for the assessment of renal function; however, it carries a number of limitations. Cystatin C is a low molecular weight protein that has ideal features for measuring the glomerular filtration rate. The present study aims to describe and analyze the epidemiological profile of critically ill pediatric patients with acute kidney injury (AKI); to classify the severity of AKI according to the pRIFLE criteria; to assess its feasibility; and to evaluate the utility of serum cystatin C in determining the deterioration of glomerular filtration rate and its association with serum creatinine in the first two days following PICU admission. In order to estimate glomerular filtration rate, creatinine clearance was used. The epidemiological study assessed 174 patients admitted to PICU; 45% of these were diagnosed with AKI. Age equal or lower than 12 months, PRISM score equal or higher than 6, hypotension, sepsis, cardiopulmonary bypass time longer than 120 minutes, intra-abdominal pressure equal or higher than 8 mmHg and protein-energy malnutrition were risk factors for AKI. AKI was associated with poorer clinical outcomes, such as PICU inpatient time and prolonged mechanical ventilation. When discharged from PICU, 41% of patients with AKI still had altered renal function status. In the cystatin C study, 122 patients were enrolled. The AKI patients\' subgroup (41.8%), according to pRIFLE, showed significantly higher cystatin C levels, both at the time of PICU admission as well as 24 to 36 hours afterwards. Cystatin C performance as a biomarker in ROC curve analysis (AUC=0,77) and its diagnostic efficiency values were better than serum creatinine (AUC=0,65) in critically ill pediatric patients. We conclude that the pRIFLE criteria is definetely important for the early diagnosis of AKI in risk patients and that cystatin C is a more reliable biomarker than serum creatinine to detect AKI in critically ill pediatric patients.

Title: Targets used at the first modern Olympic Games and in the period of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries. Aim of Thesis: The aim of this thesis is to describe the development in individual targets in the period of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries. The climax should feature the discovery and description of target evaluation at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. Method: The thesis subject is an analysis of shooting evaluation in a defined period. The methods used for this analysis are data secondary analysis, induction and abduction. Results: Based on the above mentioned methods there were totally five targets of five concentric circles discovered. These targets could have been used for rifle disciplines at the first modern Olympic Games. The values of individual targets were as follows: 1st (10, 21, 33, 46, 60), 2nd (11, 23, 36, 50, 65), 3rd (12, 25, 39, 54, 70), 4th (13, 27, 42, 58, 75), 5th (14, 29, 45, 62, 80). Keywords: shooting sport, pistol disciplines, rifle disciplines

Title: Effect shooting position of accurate sports shooting of air rifle lying position. Objectives: The aim of this empirical - theoretical work is to find out what is the effect of shooting position lying down on shooting from an air rifle. Methods: In this work was used a method of analysis, testing, observation, and method comparison. The method of analysis was applied in the analysis of sport shooting and the shooting position. The method compared in section comparison between the own the shooter's position and deliberately adjusted position. Tables, charts and statistical calculations were performed using functions in Microsoft Excel. Results: The result of the work is that the change in the supine position does not have a significant effect on the accuracy and on the result of the shooting. After the change of position occurred for all shooters to the deterioration of the shooting the result of which are statistically insignificant. Keywords: shooting, air rifle, shooting position, target.

Six elite wheelchair shooters undertook a simulated competition of 2 hr duration under three different conditions: 1. 24-26 °C and 40% humidity (C), 2. 36 °C and 60% humidity (H), and 3. the H condition whilst using simple head, neck and torso cooling devices (HC). The trials were undertaken at the same time on consecutive days in a counter-balanced, randomised order. Two shooters were removed from the H trial at t=75 and t=105 min, respectively, due to tympanic temperature elevations above 39 °C, but were able to complete the full 2 hr of competition during the C and HC conditions. Heart rates were significantly elevated for the group during the H condition compared to C and HC (106 ± ll, 80 ± 10, 90 ± 7 beats.min-' respectively at t=90 min, p<0.05) as were perceptions of thermal discomfort (6.4 ± 0.7, 3.5 ± 0.4, 4.8 ± 1.0 respectively at t=90 min, p<0.05). These responses were at least partially alleviated by the use of the simple, yet practical, cooling devices. Practically, this may improve performance in shooting competitions as it allows more time to fire a shot between heart beats, and enables shooters to concentrate more easily on the task required of them. Responses to heat exposure were more pronounced in athletes with a higher level of disability (CS versus T4 versus cerebral palsy), and those who wore heavy leather shooting jackets (rifle versus pistol shooters). Although further research is recommended, it would appear that the rules governing shooting attire and prolonging exposure to heat should be reconsidered for events in which wheelchair athletes compete.