26 research outputs found
The Problem of Time from the Perspective of the Social Sciences
No full textThis article presents a critical review of ideas about time in modern societies & especially in the social sciences. Man in modern society perceives, reflects, & registers time in a series of contexts, whether this involves questions of thought, the physical body, nature, or society. Current studies that address the question of time in many cases do so through a comparison of archaic temporal awareness & modern temporal awareness, & attempt to describe when & how this historical shift came about. According to O. Rammstedt four distinct historical types of understanding time can be distinguished: (1) occasional awareness of time based on a distinction made between 'now' & 'not-now'; (2) cyclical awareness of time; (3) linear awareness of time with a closed future, & (4) linear awareness of time with an open future. In contemporary social sciences four main theoretical perspectives can be observed. The first one assumes that the basic principles of order are or should be considered as unchanging. These principles express themselves as invariants. In the 20th century we can find them in structural linguistics, & in social sciences with a structuralist orientation. The second approach resembles the previous one in that it also considers the existence of unchanging principles of order. However, it differs through the assumption that these principles reveal themselves in time. The third approach can be considered de facto a sort of special degree of the second, ie, closed historical concept. Unlike the teleological character of the latter, however, it considers human intervention as a necessary condition for the achievement of a future aim. The fourth concept is founded on the idea that the basic principles of order can be revealed only in time. Unlike the second, however, it does not consider the main organizing principles to be unchanging, but rather concludes that in each contemporary period they are open to change. This fourth approach, which can be described as 'temporalized sociology' & which is expressed in works of such authors as G. H. Mead, A. Schutz, N. Elias, N. Luhmann, or A. Giddens, stresses a relatively open future, emergence, novelty, & the concept of discontinuity. In the opinion of the author of this study another concept should be added to our understanding of time: ie, 'irreversibility.' It is a feature of those systems that are far from being balanced & in which, in order to be able to predict future states, it is not enough to know the laws & the initial conditions
Multi-Criteria-Based Optimization Model for Sustainable Mobility and Transport
No full textThis paper deals with problems of freight transport sustainability from the perspective of four key factors: greenhouse gas production, fossil fuel dependence, congestion, and accident rates. It is based on the results of the FreightVision project, in which the author participated as a researcher and member of the design team. The aim was to develop a set of 35 recommendations to serve as a tool for European Union decision-making in transport policy matters at the highest level. The developed measures were prioritized, and a list of individual recommendations was drawn up according to their potentials. Then, the set of measures was processed using multi-criteria analysis tools, and these results were compared with the original list using comparative analysis to identify differences between the two approaches. The contribution of this work is the development of a methodology for evaluating the traffic measures according to their priorities and, at the same time, the verification of the empirical results thus obtained with the results that were the output of the mathematical processing. This work fills a research gap in a similar problem area by working with specific measures systematically developed for the purposes of analysis; these results are used to formulate recommendations for the European Commission whose policy decisions should lead to an increased level of freight transport sustainability
Two de novo UBR1 variants in trans as a cause of Johanson-Blizzard syndrome
No full textAims/Background. Johanson-Blizzard syndrome (JBS) is a rare autosomal recessive disease caused by pathogenic variants in the UBR1 gene. JBS is usually suspected based on characteristic anomalies, but only genetic testing provides a definitive diagnosis. Since most variants are inherited from the parents, we aimed to identify the causal variants in a Czech proband with clinically suspected JBS and perform segregation analysis. Methods. A proband with clinically suspected JBS underwent clinical exome sequencing (CES). Sanger sequencing was used for the validation, characterization, and segregation of variants in the family. The variants were also characterized using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and in silico analysis. Results. Using CES in the proband, we identified two novel causal variants in the UBR1 gene, c.3482A>C and c.3509+6T>C. Although the variants were found in trans, neither was detected in the parents. Sanger sequencing of the cDNA revealed that the novel variant c.3509+6T>C caused activation of the non-canonical GC donor splice site. The inclusion of 70 bp of the intronic sequence generated a frameshift and a premature termination codon leading to nonsense-mediated decay, as detected by qPCR. In silico protein structural analysis showed that the novel missense variant c.3482A>C in the zinc-stabilized domain RING-H2 altered a highly conserved zinc-coordinating histidine by proline. Conclusion. To the best of our knowledge, we report the first molecular confirmation of JBS in the Czech Republic and the first identification of two de novo causal variants in two alleles. Our findings also expand the spectrum of pathogenic variants in the UBR1 gene
Десятилетний юбилей исторической социологии в Праге: новое перспективное направление в чешской социологии
No full textAbout ten years ago, a new theoretical branch appeared in Czech sociology historical sociology. The first step and prerequisite for its development was publication of the impressive collective monograph Historical Sociology: Theory of Long-Term Development (edited by J. Subrt) including works of famous Czech social scientists (P. Machonin, M. Petrusek, J. Musil, M. Hroch and others). The concept of historical sociology curriculum appeared in 2007, its form gradually developed in the discussions of J. Subrt, J.P. Amason (La Trobe University), M. Havelka (Charles University) and W. Spohn (University of Wroclaw). In 2008, its accreditation documents were prepared under the guidance of J. Subrt, and it was included in the academic year 2009/2010 schedule. At the same time, at the Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University the Department of Historical Sociology was founded. Until now, there are Master's and PhD programs in Historical Sociology in Czech in the form of regular daily and combined (distance) studies. In the academic year 2012/2013, a doctoral studies program was also opened, and both programs Master's and PhD's started in English. The article considers the decade-long development of historical sociology in the Czech Republic focusing on the research and study programs at the Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University. The author explains how historical sociology is defined and developing in the Czech Republic, emphasizing its research traditions and current interests. The article pays particular attention to the topics and representatives of historical sociology mentioning the importance of its publications both monographs and the journal established in 2009. To conclude, the author summarizes the results of the current stage of the development of Czech historical sociology, its challenges and risks, hopes and perspectives. Ten years is usually a very short period for any science but for Czech historical sociology they became a period of significant results.Около десяти лет назад в чешской социологии оформилось новое дисциплинарное направление - историческая социология. Первым шагом и предпосылкой для ее становления стала публикация внушительной коллективной монографии «Историческая социология: Теория долгосрочного развития» (под редакцией И. Шубрта), состоявшей из статей известных чешских ученых (П. Махонина, М. Петрусека и др.). Концепция учебного плана новой дисциплины оформилась в 2007 году в дискуссиях И. Шубрта, Дж.П. Арнасона, М. Гавелки и В. Шпона. В 2008 году под руководством И. Шубрта были подготовлены аккредитационные документы новой программы на 2009-2010 академический год. В то же время была создана кафедра исторической социологии на факультете гуманитарных наук Карлова университета, где и сегодня существуют магистерские и аспирантские программы по исторической социологии на чешском языке в очном и дистанционно-очном формате. В 2012-2013 академическом году была открыта докторантура по исторической социологии, а магистерские и аспирантские программы начали читаться на английском языке. В статье представлено развитие исторической социологии в Чехии за последние десять лет, акцент сделан на исследовательской и учебной программах факультета гуманитарных наук Карлова университета. Автор показывает, как историческая социология воспринимается и развивается в Чехии, подчеркивая ее исследовательские традиции и нынешние интересы. Особое внимание в статье уделено представителям и тематике историко-социологических исследований, подчеркивается многочисленность и значимость ее публикаций - как монографий, так и созданного в 2009 году журнала «Historická sociologie» («Историческая социология»). В заключение суммированы результаты развития чешской исторической социологии, ее проблемы и риски, надежды и перспективы. Десять лет - совсем небольшой срок для развития науки, но чешской исторической социологии они дали значительные результаты
Trendy rizeni hmotnych toku v distribucnich retezcich.
No full textThis thesis describes in detail the difficulty in choosing an appropriate distribution strategy, which must respect the trends of modern business and as well as the influence of internationalization, globalization and differentiation of the markets. The change in final customers' purchasing behaviour is another important influence. The factors mentioned above require changes in management systems, changes which include all partners who are involved in the process of meeting customers' expectations and predicting changes in those expectations, business activities included. Because of author's job orientation, the main target of this work is to analyze and compare the theoretical aspects recommended in structuralization of distribution systems; to describe in detail the distribution channels currently in use; to classify the factors and theory influencing the choice of a appropriate distribution strategy; to compare the theoretical approach with practical experience and to propose a distribution strategy for a company oriented towards sales of fast-moving consumer goods with an extensive distribution system. Closely tied to the theoretical chapters are two practical applications: the creation of a new distribution system and the application of a differentiated distribution strategy. The practical part of this dissertation and its conclusions highlight the importance of taking into consideration the variety of distribution channels and the contemporary economic situation. The author has not used real values for financial information as the company, Coty, feels some information to be part of its trade secrets. All financial information linked to Czech and Slovak crowns appearing in the text, charts and tables of this work are adjusted by applying a coefficient recommended by the company. The coefficient is a constant. The use of this constant allows us to follow the logic of the calculations without using the real values.Available from STL Prague, CZ / NTK - National Technical LibrarySIGLECZCzech Republi
gt; T p.(Arg832Leu) in exon 7 of the androgen receptor gene: genetic, clinical and ethical aspects
No full textORIGINAL ARTICLE: Recurrent Pregnancy Loss and Frequency of Eight Antiphospholipid Antibodies and Genetic Thrombophilic Factors in Czech Women
No full textThe translocation t(2;11)(p21;q23) without MLL gene rearrangement—a possible marker of good prognosis in myelodysplastic syndrome patients
No full textData accompanying: "Snow persistence lowers and delays peak NDVI, the vegetation index that underpins Arctic greening analyses"
No full textThis dataset contains multispectral orthomosaics generated from repeat drone imagery captured during a single growing season at one Arctic and one sub-Arctic tundra site. The orthomosaics are used to calculate the persistence of fine scale snow cover in: Hoad et al. (in press) - Snow persistence lowers and delays peak NDVI, the vegetation index that underpins Arctic greening analyses All code to analyse and visualise this data can be found in the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/calumhoad/snowpersistence Data summary: This dataset contains an orthomosaic for each date where a drone survey was conducted at three tundra plots: Blæsedalen (BL), Kluane Low (KL) and Kluane High (KH). The Blæsedalen data were captured using the integrated sensor aboard a DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral and the Kluane data were captured using a SAL Engineering MAIA-S2 sensor. For more information on methdology, please refer to our Environmental Research Letters article and supplementary materials. The imagery for each plot is listed below: Blæsedalen (BL): 2023-07-02 2023-07-12 2023-07-18 2023-07-26 Kluane Low (KL): 2022-06-29 2022-07-05 2022-07-18 2022-08-01 2022-08-14 Kluane High (KH): 2022-07-09 2022-07-19 2022-07-29 2022-08-04 2022-08-13 To replicate analyses from the manuscript: Clone the GitHub repository before downloading this data, then place the contents of each subfolder from the dataset into the following folders of the GitHub repo: For Blæsedalen files: data/uav/orthomosaics/m3m/5cm For Kluane Low files: data/uav/orthomosaics/maia/kluane-low/5cm For Kluane High files: data/uav/orthomosaics/maia/kluane-high/5cm Cite as: Hoad, C., Myers-Smith, I.H., Kerby, J.T., Colesie, C. and Assmann, J.J., (in press). Snow persistence lowers and delays peak NDVI, the vegetation index that underpins Arctic greening analyses. Abstract (from manuscript): Satellite imagery is critical for understanding land-surface change in the rapidly warming Arctic. Since the 1980s, studies have found positive trends in the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from satellite imagery over the Arctic—commonly referred to as ‘Arctic greening’ and assumed to represent increased vegetation productivity. However, greening analyses use satellite imagery with pixel sizes ranging from tens to hundreds of metres and do not account for the integration of abiotic phenomena such as snow within vegetation indices. Here, we use high-resolution drone data from one Arctic and one sub-Arctic site to show that fine-scale snow persistence within satellite pixels is associated with both reduced magnitude and delayed timing of annual peak NDVI, the base metric of Arctic greening analyses. We found higher snow persistence within Sentinel-2 pixels is associated with a lower magnitude and later peak NDVI, with a mean difference in NDVI of 0.1 and seven days between high and low snow persistence pixels. These effects were stronger in NASA HLSS30 data, representative of Landsat data commonly used in greening analyses. Our findings indicate that unaccounted changes in fine-scale snow persistence may contribute to Arctic spectral greening and browning trends through either biotic responses of vegetation to snow cover or abiotic integration of snow within the estimated peak NDVI. In order to improve our understanding of Arctic land-surface change, studies should integrate very-high-resolution data to estimate the dynamics of late-season snow within coarser satellite pixels. Acknowledgements (from manuscript): We would like to thank everyone who helped with field data collection in the Canadian Yukon during 2022 and in Greenland during 2023, including Joseph Everest, Erica Zaja, Jiri Subrt, Sian Williams and Mariana García Criado. For help with drones and sensors, particular thanks go to Tom Wade at the University of Edinburgh Airborne Research and Innovation facility, and Alex Merrington, Jack Gillespie, Craig Atkins and Robbie Ramsay at the NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility. Additional thanks to Alan Hobbs, Colin Kay and Graham Mitchell from the NERC Geophysical Equipment Facility. We thank Tim Gyger for support and consultation on our statistical methods, Gwenn Flowers for the time taken to provide climate data for Kluane and Kirsten Schmidt-Pedersen for sharing her extensive knowledge of the people, plants and animals of Qeqertarsuaq, Greenland. Funding for this research was provided by NERC through a SENSE CDT studentship (NE/T00939X/1), the NERC Tundra Time project (NE/W006448/1), a 2023 UK-Greenland Arctic Bursary, a NERC Geophysical Equipment Facility loan (1152), and a NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility loan (891.0111). Additional funding was provided by a Scottish Alliance for GeoScience, Environment and Society (SAGES) small grant scheme award to Calum Hoad. We thank Kluane First Nation and Champagne and Aishihik First Nations for their permission to work on their lands. We gratefully acknowledge the people of Kalaallit Nunaat in general, and of Qeqertarsuaq in particular, for being able to conduct this research on their land. We thank Outpost Research Station and Arctic Station for logistical support. The authors acknowledge constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers, which greatly improved the manuscript. Author contributions (from manuscript): Calum G. Hoad: Conceptualisation (lead); Data curation (lead); Formal analysis (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Investigation (lead); Methodology (lead); Project administration (lead); Resources (lead); Software (equal); Visualisation (lead); Writing – original draft (lead); Writing – review and editing (lead). Isla H. Myers-Smith: Conceptualisation (supporting); Formal analysis (supporting); Funding acquisition (equal); Methodology (supporting); Resources (supporting); Supervision (lead); Visualisation (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal). Jeff T. Kerby: Conceptualisation (supporting); Methodology (supporting); Supervision (equal); Visualisation (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal). Claudia Colesie: Conceptualisation (supporting); Funding acquisition (supporting); Supervision (equal); Project administration (supporting); Resources (supporting); Visualisation (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal). Jakob J. Assmann: Conceptualisation (supporting); Data curation (supporting); Formal analysis (equal); Investigation (supporting); Methodology (supporting); Supervision (lead); Software (equal); Visualisation (supporting); Writing – original draft (supporting); Writing – review and editing (equal).Hoad, C. G., Myers-Smith, I., Kerby, J., Colesie, C., & Assmann, J. J. (2025). Data accompanying: "Snow persistence lowers and delays peak NDVI, the vegetation index that underpins Arctic greening analyses" [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1481020
