Czech Academy of Sciences, Library

Heme biosynthesis represents one of the most essential metabolic pathways in living organisms, providing the precursors for cytochrome prosthetic groups, photosynthetic pigments, and vitamin B(12). Using genomic data, we have compared the heme pathway in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana and the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae to those of green algae and higher plants, as well as to those of heterotrophic eukaryotes (fungi, apicomplexans, and animals). Phylogenetic analyses showed the mosaic character of this pathway in photosynthetic eukaryotes. Although most of the algal and plant enzymes showed the expected plastid (cyanobacterial) origin, at least one of them (porphobilinogen deaminase) appears to have a mitochondrial (alpha-proteobacterial) origin. Another enzyme, glutamyl-tRNA synthase, obviously originated in the eukaryotic nucleus. Because all the plastid-targeted sequences consistently form a well-supported cluster, this suggests that genes were either transferred from the primary endosymbiont (cyanobacteria) to the primary host nucleus shortly after the primary endosymbiotic event or replaced with genes from other sources at an equally early time, i.e., before the formation of three primary plastid lineages. The one striking exception to this pattern is ferrochelatase, the enzyme catalyzing the first committed step to heme and bilin pigments. In this case, two red algal sequences do not cluster either with the other plastid sequences or with cyanobacterial sequences and appear to have a proteobacterial origin like that of the apicomplexan parasites Plasmodium and Toxoplasma. Although the heterokonts also acquired their plastid via secondary endosymbiosis from a red alga, the diatom has a typical plastid-cyanobacterial ferrochelatase. We have not found any remnants of the plastidlike heme pathway in the nonphotosynthetic heterokonts Phytophthora ramorum and Phytophthora sojae.

This bibiliography (completing the previous one, JILEK 1981a) contains about 130 references dealing with statistical tolerance regions. References are classified according to the type of probability distribution concerned and according to some other criteria as well

This article examines the development of class voting in the Czech Republic, 1992- 2010. While many Western countries have been experiencing declining or stable associations between class and electoral choice, we hypothesize that the trend in class voting should be quite different in the Czech Republic, and by extension, in other post-communist countries. We theorize that if a country is undergoing a process of re-stratification - the process in which class-based cleavages and identities regain significance in a new market economy after a long period of their de-stratification by communist egalitarian policies - such a country should also experience increases in class voting in the new market environment. Using standard loglinear and logistic regression approaches, our analysis confirms that class voting has indeed increased in the Czech Republic, particularly from 1998-2010. That increase is large both in the gross effect of class as well as its effect net of the role of other demographic variables. The Czech Republic is therefore relatively unique among countries examined in the international literature on class voting in having increasing associations across several electoral periods.

A new species of the genus Scutellinia (Cooke) Lamb.based on a collection from New Zealand made by the author is described under the name Scutellinia totaranuiensis spec.nov.The new species 1s compared to Scutellinia geneospora (Berk.)O. Kuntze and to Scutellinia phymatodeus S. C. Kaushal & R. Kaushal for the similarly apiculate ascospores of the former and similar tuberculate ascospore ornamentation of the latter.The examination of the type material of these taxa has confirmed mutually different characteristics.Relations to several other species of the genus are also discussed.Another 6 species of Scutellinia are reported from New Zealand for the first time.

This paper introduces current activities of WebArchiv, a Web archiving project of the National Library in Prague. It also presents an analysis of the archive of Czech Web resources built by the project team. Through this analysis, we suggest several Web-harvesting strategies that would help to reduce costs associated with maintaining large amounts of data.

The aim of this study is to explain why turnout in Czech general elections exhibited considerable variation between 1996 and 2010. Using valence theory this article explores the differential turnout in terms of the expected benefits of voting for a party on the basis of valence and policy considerations. This individual-level analysis of electoral participation employs four post-election surveys and uses an alternative operationalisation of the expected benefits of voting, which makes it possible to conduct cross-national and cross-time comparisons. The results presented in the article demonstrate that change in voter turnout across general elections stems from the change in the expected benefits from voting aggregated at the level of the electorate. One key implication of this research is that attempts to facilitate increased electoral participation through institutional reform are unlikely to be successful. This is because turnout is primarily determined by voter motivation. Increased turnout depends critically on ensuring a level of party choice that gives voters an incentive to go the polls.

Abstract In recent years, the value of public library services has tended to be evaluated using the contingent valuation method. This is able to reveal readers’ hidden preferences. However, it appears that the total value of a public library as expressed by one number leads to a methodological bias related to the difficulty of assessing the value of one standard book loan. Moreover, this approach does not reflect the needs of public libraries’ management. Therefore, this study focuses on a detailed investigation of the most important public library service, book loans. For this purpose, we have employed statistical models to identify the significant determinants of willingness to pay (WTP) for book loans and WTP for purchasing books, respectively. The results suggest that loan services have the greatest perceived value for students, people who are economically active. Management who are interested in increasing the success of their institution across society must also know the perceived value of individual books so that they can adjust their library's acquisition policy. It was found that novels had the highest perceived value, followed by educational literature in the fields of economics and education as well as information science. This entirely new analytical method of measuring WTP for public services raises many new implications that could change the strategies of individual libraries – as well as the public policy strategies of donors and library ownership.

Healthcare reform is of much debate in this country especially in the current economic climate. This review is based on research from many different scholarly groups. The call for reform is directly derived from skyrocketing healthcare costs. The United States spend about 50% more on healthcare than any other nation. Studies have estimated that the cost of defensive medicine is around $100-180 billion each year. Defensive medicine not only is costly to the healthcare system, but this practice overburdens the system with excessive testing and procedures taking available resources away from patients who might actually need it. The vast majority of the research reviewed has shown that defensive medicine is a widespread and costly problem. To avoid malpractice, the physicians need to simply follow standards of care needed for each individual patient. Tort reform is also in much debate in this country. Many studies have been conducted on this topic with mixed results. The call for tort reform includes but is not limited to: Gaps on noneconomic damages, punitive damages, shorter statutes of limitations, expert witness qualifications, attorney fee caps, patient compensation funds, and no-fault programs. The majority of the research indicates that tort reform in the form of limiting malpractice payments significantly reduces the frequency and severity of malpractice claims. It also lowers malpractice insurance premiums. States like Texas and Mississippi that have some sort of tort reform have recognized malpractice insurance rate cuts as high as 17% after tort reform.

Background. Patients on chronic anticoagulation face a higher risk of peptic ulcer bleeding. In this setting, the risk-benefit equation of anticoagulation resumption remains undefined. Aims. To compare the risk of thrombosis and death between patients that resumed and did not resume anticoagulation after an index episode of peptic ulcer bleeding. The secondary objective was to compare time to re-bleeding between the groups. Methods. Retrospective cohort study of adult patients that suffered an index episode of peptic ulcer bleeding while on chronic anticoagulation. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they resumed or not anticoagulation and were followed-up for one year. A multivariable, propensity score-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model was used to adjust for confounding. Adjusted survival curves were constructed. Results. 70 patients were included in the analysis; 64.3% were men. Median age at the time of PUB was 79 years (interquartile range (IQR): 72-83). Forty patients (57.1%) resumed anticoagulation after a median time of 15 days (IQR 5.25-41.75). Restarting anticoagulation was associated with a lower risk of thrombosis or death (hazard ratio [HR] 0.14; 95%CI 0.05-0.43) and did not increase the risk of recurrent bleeding significantly (HR 1.42; 95% CI 0.10-19.8). Conclusions. Resuming anticoagulation appears to reduce the hazard of thrombosis and death without increasing the risk of recurrent bleeding significantly.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Fartlek training on recreational football players resting heart rate and maximum oxygen consumption. The study focused on two physical variables: resting pulse rate and maximum oxygen consumption. To determine whether There was a big difference between the means of the pre- and post-test scores of the two groups during the twelve weeks of Fartlek training programs, the "t" test was used to analyse all of the data that was collected during the training program.Objective:a.    Assess Maximum Oxygen Consumption after Fartlek trainingb.    To Measure Resting Pulse Rate after Fartlek trainingMethod: One hundred individuals, ages 18 to 30, were chosen from Karad to serve as participants in order to fulfill the study's primary goal. Two groups—the interventional group and the conventional group—were formed from the chosen subjects. Fifty students were chosen as subjects from each group. The experimental group participates in specific Fartlek training activities for a period of twelve weeks, which was deemed to be sufficient to show any changes. Apart from their usual warm-up and training, the control group received no additional programming instruction.Result: The study focused on two physical variables: resting pulse rate and maximum oxygen consumption. To determine whether There was a big difference between the means of the pre- and post-test scores of the two groups during the twelve weeks of Fartlek training programs, the "t" test was used to analyse all of the data that was collected during the training program.Conclusion: The study used statistical analysis to compare the control and experimental groups of recreational football players.Key Findings:●    VO2 max increased considerably in the experimental group.●    The experimental group experienced a considerable decrease in resting pulse rate.

This study examines the diversion of funds in M&A deals, using over 7,500 deals from core European countries for the period from 1997 to 2013, sourced from the Zephyr database. Theoretical predictions suggest that in M&A deals acquiring companies may use the target's assets as collateral to raise funds which is then diverted within the internal capital markets. Our results do not indicate an increase in leverage burdens of target firms. While we do not find evidence that assets are used as collateral to raise financing, our results point to indirect clues that funds are diverted away from the target company after the acquisition.

This essay is about the disappearance of postmodernism from the debates on the nature of science, conditions of knowledge, targets of higher education, and prospects of interdisciplinarity. It is argued that postmodern declarations of the end of ideological battles, together with the critiques of universalising concepts related to science, knowledge, and education, have been recaptured in 'new' vocabularies promoted by neoliberal approaches. While postmodernism dismissed many of the meanings previously attached to knowledge and education, it also opened up space to expand on them in terms of their exchange value. The essay shows how neoliberal approaches attacked this space and developed a systematic conception that links knowledge and education to the rationality of the market. The 'new' vocabulary clearly expresses universalising claims, as this is evident in the usage of such concepts as the knowledge revolution, the knowledge economy, public relevance, social impact, or excellence. This essay concludes with a discussion of how these tendencies are affecting sociology and its disciplinary identity in terms of both its educational and its research activities. In general, it is claimed that the regressive effects of the neoliberal regime of knowledge on sociology cannot be avoided, as the overall academic, institutional, and material context now being constructed by the 'new' knowledge ideology does not overlap with the intellectual claims on which sociology was founded. The essay also discusses the possible dissipation of sociology within applied social studies and the changing relation of sociology and its publics.

Studie si klade za cl zmapovat kontrarozvdn aktivity orgn Lidovho komisaritu vnitra SSSR (Nacionalnyj komissariat vnutrennych dl – NKVD) vi Generlnmu konzultu eskoslovensk republiky vKyjev, kter existoval vdob od ervna 1936 do dubna 1938. Autoi k tomu primrn vyuvaj nedvno odtajnnch dokument zukrajinskch bezpenostnch archiv a diplomatickch zprv generlnho konzula Rudolfa Brabce (1884–1955). Nejprve nastiuj dvj historii diplomatickch zastoupen eskoslovenska na sovtsk Ukrajin a upozoruj, e jejich fungovn mlo pro nov vznikl stt zvltn vznam zejmna kvli existenci zdej poetn esk meniny. Obnoven diplomatick poboky na Ukrajin po tm deseti letech nsledovalo po navzn oficilnch diplomatickch styk eskoslovenska se Sovtskm svazem vroce 1934 a po oteven jeho vyslanectv vMoskv. eskoslovensk diplomacie tento krok povaovala za svj spch, zhy vak pilo vystzlivn. Jak autoi dokldaj, prakticky ihned se eskoslovensk konzult stal objektem zjmu sovtskch bezpenostnch sloek a po nkolika mscch pak (podobn jako ostatn zastupitelsk ady na Ukrajin) tak stednm hromosvodem slcch obav tehdejho stalinskho reimu zcizho ohroen. Jet ped zahjenm „Velkho teroru“ byl konzult vystaven dmyslnm akcm ukrajinskch orgn NKVD ve snaze kontrolovat a postupn ochromit jeho innost, co nakonec vrazn pisplo kjeho uzaven. Autoi ukazuj na zetelnou souvislost mezi opatenmi namenmi vi kyjevskmu konzultu a represemi proti esk minorit na Ukrajin, kter si na konci tictch i zatkem tyictch let vydaly adu nevinnch obt.

This study presents the until now unknown Lower Austrian book collection from the end of the 16th century, which is, indeed, unique in many aspects. It was carried off to Sweden as part of literary war booty from Bohemia and Moravia towards the end of the Thirty Years' War. The aim of this study is to fill in one of the gaps in our knowledge of Central European aristocratic libraries in the Early Modern Age. After all, Beck's Library was one of the little known aristocratic libraries of a progressive, intellectual archetype. The Library, in its irreplaceably poignant personal character, reflected some elements of Hironymus Beck's life and his world outlook, difficult to ascertain otherwise and uncaptured from other primary sources. Therefore, the author strives to decipher until now unknown intellectual horizons of its creator and to classify the Beck book collection within the context of other contemporary aristocratic libraries in the Austrian Lands.

This study identifies systemic break points in a factor pricing model for firms traded on European stock markets around the financial crisis. The aim is to shed light on the systemic risk transfer in explaining average stock returns in the fragmented European exchanges. Our analysis takes advantage of recent development in econometrics and employs models which enable "automatic" detection of factor model break points. We find that Western European exchanges are more closely integrated with American financial markets than Northern European stock exchanges and those in the United Kingdom. However, all exchanges were eventually affected by the systemic shock. The results of this study provide insight into immunisation strategies for portfolios created from European stocks.

Kralicekův Quicktest patří k nejoblíbenějším bonitním modelům v kvalifikačních pracích. Článek porovnává původní konstrukci tohoto modelu s jeho popisem ve 14 českých učebnicích s cílem napomoci uživatelům finanční analýzy k jeho správné aplikaci, protože k naplnění některých vstupních položek, jako např. peněžních toků, přistupují čeští autoři velmi odlišně. Současně je posuzováno rozšíření tohoto modelu ve světě a zjišťovány ohlasy ve vědecké literatuře v databázích Web of Science a Scopus. Konečně byl zjišťován výskyt Kralicekova modelu v kvalifikačních pracích na Fakultě financí a účetnictví Vysoké školy ekonomické v Praze v době od 1. 1. 2007 do 17. 10. 2018.

At the beginning of 1999, the new Framework 5 research program of the European Union was launched. Ten formerly socialist European countries have been admitted as associated participants. On this occasion, Robert Koenig published an article (News Focus, 1 Jan. p. [22][1]) discussing the level and current problems of science in those countries. We would like to point out some problems with the treatment of the data on citation statistics and offer a few additional comments on the subject. Having analyzed in detail the data provided by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), we conclude that the table on citation impacts in Koenig's article is based on an option that allows the user to extract the citation impact for a 5-year period, 1993 to 1997. This particular choice seems unfair, specifically for the Czech and Slovak republics. Czechoslovakia split into two states, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, at the beginning of 1993. ISI provides independent statistics for the Czech and Slovak republics only from 1994 on. The split of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia occurred earlier. Therefore, the new states formed on these territories have had separate representations in the ISI database since 1993. Consequently, only the 4-year citation impact for the Czech and Slovak Republic was compared with the 5-year impact for the other countries in the table. We recalculated the citation impacts for all the countries listed in the table for the 4-year period 1994 to 1997 to make them directly comparable with the data available for the Czech and Slovak republics. After this recalculation, the Czech Republic becomes 22nd and the Slovak Republic 27th out of 33 European countries, instead of 29th and 33rd, as stated in Koenig's article. It may be useful to recall that the typical citation half-time of the journals followed by ISI is 4 to 10 years or even more. Therefore, the citation impact from a recent period may not be the most suitable measure of scientific output. Perhaps more interesting is the secular evolution of the citation impact for Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. The acceleration, starting around 1991, that is, after the fall of the communist system, is notable. This acceleration started at the same time that the political barriers preventing free contacts of Czechoslovak scientists and their Western colleagues were removed, a promising indication for the future. No doubt the community of Czech scientists cannot be satisfied with their current citation impact. Even among ex-socialist countries, the Czech Republic falls behind Hungary, Estonia, and Poland. A more detailed study will be needed to find out how much this can directly be ascribed to a lower quality of Czech publications in comparison with those from other countries. Many of us still remember too well that especially in the period after the Soviet invasion in 1968, Czechoslovakia became one of the most isolated socialist countries. Many Czech and Slovak scientists who had been working abroad, often with remarkable success, were forced to sever contacts with science in their home country. The situation was better in Poland and Hungary. Polish and Hungarian scientists who decided to live abroad, even without the permission of their Soviet-controlled governments, did not lose the links to their home institutions. There were also other barriers that should be considered in a comprehensive study of the subject. Yet, we prefer to see positive signs of future development. For example, in 1991, Czechoslovak astronomers decided to be the first community from all the ex-socialist countries to join their national journal, Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of Czechoslovakia, with the largest European astronomical journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics. This change was followed by an increase in the number of their accepted and published papers. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.283.5398.22

Volume: 28

This paper examines payout characteristics of firms in a cultural and political alliance of four Central European nations, the Visegrad Group. The sample consists of more than 100,000 firm-year observations from 2001 to 2015. Our results indicate that smoothing behaviour diminishes among firms with majority ownership and that the total payout characteristics behave according to existing theories on passive ownership behaviour and agency costs.

Abstract Chitosan nanofibers, renowned for their unique properties, hold great promise for filtration, wound healing, and other biomedical applications. However, their instability in aqueous environments remains a major limitation, restricting practical implementation. This study introduces a scalable, non-toxic, UV-induced photocrosslinking method that overcomes this challenge while ensuring compatibility with continuous industrial production. To enable rapid photocrosslinking, chitosan was chemically modified with methacrylate groups using glycidyl methacrylate, facilitating efficient crosslinking upon UV exposure. Electrospinning a blend of methacrylated chitosan and poly(ethylene oxide), followed by photocrosslinking, produced nanofibers with significantly enhanced water stability, while maintaining biocompatibility with mammalian cells. Unlike conventional crosslinking techniques that rely on toxic reagents or prolonged thermal treatments, this approach eliminates hazardous chemicals and supports high-throughput, roll-to-roll manufacturing. Furthermore, we investigated the incorporation of gelatin, demonstrating its influence on nanofiber integrity and cell adhesion, which is crucial for biomedical applications. By integrating photocrosslinking into a streamlined industrial workflow developed with our industrial partner, this study removes a key scalability barrier in nanofiber production and offers a viable route to mass production of stable chitosan nanofibers.