Pacing, a common form of stereotypy in captive animals, poses challenges for animal welfare and conservation initiatives. The current study used a comprehensive measurement system to investigate the impact of introducing a food-related activity on the daily patterns of multiple behaviors, including stereotypic pacing, in two zoo-housed cougars. The results showed that, while the intervention did not mitigate pacing overall, it did cause a shift in the cougars' routines. This demonstrated the significant influence of keeper behavior on the animals. Furthermore, the differing effects on each cougar's behaviors underscored the necessity for individualized interventions tailored to the specific needs of animals.

Children with autism often experience substantial delays in the development of play behavior. Interventions to teach play skills are often complicated by challenging behavior and stereotypy. Previous research has demonstrated a potential relationship between stereotypy, challenging behavior and play in children with autism. However, few research-based methods for addressing stereotypy and challenging during play interventions are available to practitioners. The purpose of this study was to reduce stereotypy and challenging behavior during a play intervention for five children with autism by adding an abolishing operation component to a common research-based procedure for teaching play skills. The abolishing effect is one of several possible effects of MOs. An abolishing operation is any stimuli or series of events that reduces the value of a particular reinforcer. If an individual has unrestricted access to a particular reinforcer for an extended period of time that stimuli may eventually lose its reinforcing value. Incorporation of the abolishing operation concept into play interventions may allow practitioners to effectively reduce the reinforcing value of stereotypy prior to beginning a play intervention. If the reinforcing value of stereotypy is reduced, then the child may engage in less stereotypy and less challenging behavior when stereotypy is interrupted. By reducing these interfering behaviors, it was hypothesized that a research-based play intervention would be more effective and efficient. The effects of two conditions were compared. In one condition (abolishing operation condition) the child is allowed to engage in stereotypy freely prior to the implementation of an intervention targeting play skills. In the second condition the same play intervention was implemented without the prior free play period. The levels of functional play, symbolic play, stereotypy, and challenging behavior were compared across these two conditions. Results show decreased levels of stereotypy and challenging behavior and increased levels of functional play in the abolishing operation condition. Symbolic play did not occur following either condition. / text

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques have led to major breakthroughs in the characterization of the chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) genome with discovery of recurrent mutations of potential prognostic and/or predictive relevance. However, before NGS can be introduced into clinical practice, the precision of the techniques needs to be studied in better detail. Furthermore, much remains unknown about the genetic mechanisms leading to aggressive disease and resistance to treatment. Hence, in Paper I, the technical performance of a targeted deep sequencing panel including 9 genes was evaluated in 188 CLL patients. We were able to validate 143/155 (92%) selected mutations through Sanger sequencing and 77/82 mutations were concordant in a second targeted sequencing run, indicating that the technique can be introduced in clinical practice. In Paper II we screened 18 NF-κB pathway genes in 315 CLL patients through targeted deep sequencing which revealed a recurrent 4 base-pair deletion in the NFKBIE gene. Screening of NFKBIE in 377 additional cases identified the mutation in ~6% of all CLL patients. We demonstrate that the lesion lead to aberrant NF-κB signaling through impaired interaction with p65 and is associated with unfavorable clinical outcome. In Paper III we sought to delineate the genetic lesions that leads to relapse after fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab treatment. Through whole-exome sequencing of pre-treatment and relapse samples from 41 cases we found evidence of frequent selection of subclones harboring driver mutations and subsequent clonal evolution following treatment. We also detected mutations in the ribosomal protein RPS15 in 8 cases (19.5%) and characterization of the mutations through functional assays point to impaired p53 regulation in cells with mutated RPS15. Paper IV aimed at characterizing 70 patients assigned to three major subsets (#1, #2, and #4) through whole-genome sequencing. Besides recurrent exonic driver mutations, we report non-coding regions significantly enriched for mutations in subset #1 and #2 that may facilitate future molecular studies. Collectively, this thesis supports the potential of targeted sequencing for mutational screening of CLL in clinical practice, provides novel insight into the pathobiology of aggressive CLL, and demonstrates the clinical outcome and cellular effects of NFKBIE and RPS15 mutations.

Thesis title: Moral crime and prevention The thesis deals with the issue of moral crime and prevention. It focuses on the existing regulation of these crimes contained in Act No 40/2009 Coll., the Criminal Code, as amended. Furthermore, in this work the current regulation is compared with the previous one, namely the Criminal Code No 140/1961 Coll. The main aim of the thesis is to provide a basic and comprehensive insight into the field of moral crimes, focusing on the characteristics of the changes in the last ten years. Another aim is to outline the stereotypes and myths that have been and are tied to the crime of rape and their analysis. The thesis deals with morality and crime in general in the first chapters. It also focuses on moral crime and its possible causes. This general basis is necessary to understand the rest of the work. The thesis mentions national and foreign sources dealing with moral crime. The most important provisions are highlighted for some international documents, and the work also contains an analysis of the Istanbul Convention which is to be ratified by the Czech Government in the near future. The most extensive part of the thesis deals with both criminological aspects of moral crime and detailed regulation of individual facts of the case of moral offenses. In comparing...

Previous study of drilling predation on the bivalve Chione during the late Neogene of Florida suggested that prey-size selectivity of predators was disrupted by species turnover and morphological change within the prey genus. More recent experimental work, however, showed that at least some of these changes can be attributed to the confounding effects of facies shifts between naticid-dominated, muricid-dominated, and mixed predator assemblages. As muricids have the most abundant and continuous fossil record and are most responsible for predation on the Chione bivalve in modern benthic ecosystems of Florida, we use new criteria to isolate the muricid component of the Chione drillhole record and analyze the history of this type of predator independently. Our analysis, based on drilled Chione from four Plio-Pleistocene formations in Florida, does not support the previous scenario of disruption at the end of the Pliocene followed by predator recovery. Rather, selected prey size has steadily increased since the middle Pliocene, although the stereotypy of prey-size selection behaviors has decreased. In order to explain this trend, I performed a series of statistical analyses to explore factors most likely to have influenced muricid prey-size stereotypy. The timing of Species turnover within the prey lineage or change in prey phenotype does not correlate with the timing of changes in prey-size stereotypy and, therefore, cannot explain the observed changes in muricid behavior. Presence of secondary predators may also influence predator-prey interactions, because predators forage sub-optimally to ensure greater safety in the presence of enemies. Results indicate that secondary predation pressure decreased at the Caloosahatchee-Bermont boundary without any evident change in muricid prey-size stereotypy and hence refute the hypothesis that secondary predation induced sub-optimal foraging. A third factor tested is prey density, which plays a major role in predator-prey interactions in other systems by thwarting a predator's ability to single out the preferred individual prey. Increased Chione prey density correlates with and provides support for increased confusion among the muricid predators and hence driving the increased sub-optimal behavior reflected by the increased variability in prey-size selection. This is the first time prey density effect has been considered and its importance here over all other factors suggests that it may be a critical factor in short- and long-term predator behavior trends in fossil record.

Antigens play a critical role in the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) by binding to and stimulating leukemic precursor cells at some point during CLL ontogeny. Nevertheless, much remains unknown and further studies are necessary before an accurate model of antigen-drive can be ascertained. In this context, intraclonal diversification (ID) analysis of immunoglobulin (IG) genes could shed light on whether antigen involvement is restricted to the malignant transformation phase or if the triggering antigen(s) continuously stimulates the CLL clone. Hence, in Paper I we conducted a large-scale analysis of 71 CLL cases and revealed that 28/71 cases carried intraclonally diversified IGHV-IGHD-IGHJ genes. Although most cases showed no or low levels of ID, intense ID was evident within all subset #4 (IGHV4-34/IGKV2-30) cases. Subsequent analysis, in Paper II, of the clonotypic light chains revealed that the outstanding exception again related to subset #4. In such cases, the expressed IGKV2-30 gene was affected by targeted ID, analogous to their partner IGHV4-34 gene. Whilst these results convincingly argued for the role of antigen(s) in the development and evolution of CLL subset #4, this analysis was limited to depicting what was occurring at a single time-point and could not provide insight into the temporal dynamics of the CLL clones. Thus, in Paper III we conducted a longitudinal study of 8 subset #4 cases which enabled us to establish a hierarchical pattern of subclonal evolution. The observed ‘stepwise’ accumulation of mutations strongly supports a role for antigen selection in the pathogenesis of CLL subset #4. In Paper IV we reported a subset of IgG-switched CLL patients with coexisting trisomies of 12 and 19, and propose that the emergence of trisomy 18 in such cases represents a clonal evolution event suggestive of selection due to a clonal advantage. Paper V focused on the IGHV3-21 gene, an adverse prognostic factor in CLL. Since ~60% of IGHV3-21-expressing cases carry stereotyped B cell receptors, recognition of a common antigenic epitope, perhaps of pathogenic significance, is envisaged. Therefore, we investigated IGHV3-21 gene frequency within a Swedish population-based cohort and assessed the impact of stereotypy on clinical outcome. Taken collectively, this thesis provides molecular and genetic evidence for the role of antigen in CLL pathogenesis by convincingly demonstrating that clonal evolution, at least for certain subsets of CLL, is functionally driven rather than a consequence of clonal expansion promoted by nonspecific stimuli.

Diploma thesis gender differences in economic and social role in the country deals with the differences between men and women's status in the household, gender segregation disciplines, division of roles in the household, and points to the fact that men and women are constantly ascribed certain roles, which make evaluation and occupation of vz the employability in the labor market. The work is divided into theoretical part, which explains the basic concepts of gender issues and a practical part, where based on the survey were verified basic objectives and hypotheses.

The theoretical part of the Thesis deals with models and patterns that can be found in every culture. It mentions different dividing of culture, perspectives of culture, from what it is being made, what can has influence on it, how it is being developed, what are the differences between cultures, why and what are the specifics of cultural interaction. The practical part consists of company characteristic, where the research had been accomplished, and of the respondent analysis. The research was made through a questionnaire survey. The data were assessed by statistical method, which confirmed or declined the hypotheses. The result was discussed in the summary.

Secondary victimization of victims of sexual crimes by law enforcement authorities Abstract Although victims of crime received more attention in recent years than ever before, there are lots of myths about them in our society. These myths distort the view not only of the victims themselves, but of moral crimes in general and subsequently they have influence as to how victims are treated. A victim who reports a sexually motivated crime has to face stressful and confusing criminal proceedings. During the proceedings victims are usually forced to testify repeatedly, meet the perpetrator, respond to hurtful questions about their past, their relationship with the perpetrator and justify their behaviour during primary victimization. All of these uncomfortable experiences are the causes of secondary victimization by law enforcement authorities. The main aim of this thesis was to analyze criminal proceedings from the perspective of victims and focus on dangerous situations during which law enforcement authorities can cause secondary victimization to them. The author wanted to clarify the danger of secondary victimizations and dispel the myths and stereotypes which have influence on how we treat the victims and cause secondary victimization. As a source for analysis of criminal proceedings was not only the...

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