University Of Prague Research Articles

Českost a světovost moderního umění v Čechách (1848–1948)

The texts contained in this special issue of Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Philosophica et Historica / Studia Historiae Artium were presented as papers at a conference entitled Czechness and Internationalism of Modern Art in Bohemia (1848–1948), held on 24 May 2022 at the Institute of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. The theme of the conference was chosen in respect of the research interests of Professor Petr Wittlich, a long-time pedagogue and researcher at the Institute, who celebrated a significant jubilee on 23 May 2022. Colleagues, pupils and friends of the professor, who during their professional careers have also dealt with the issue of national, transnational and international identity of modern art in the Czech lands, were invited to participate in the conference. They focused both on local disciplinary practice and retrospective assessment of the phenomenon of nationality within modernity, modernism and the avant-garde, and also explored historical debates on this topic, projected into specific works, art projects and institutional programmes.

Научная рецензия на академическое издание: Актуальные проблемы грамматики и лексики славянских языков: сб. научных статей / отв. ред. О. А. Остапчук. М.: МАКС Пресс, 2024. 260 с.

The articles in this collection are based on presentations by Russian and foreign researchers at an international scientific conference dedicated to the memory of Professor Emeritus of Lomonosov Moscow State University and Doctor Honoris Causa of Charles University in Prague, the founder of the Russian school of Czech studies and long-time head of the Department of Slavic Philology A. G. Shirokova. The articles in the collection correspond to A. G. Shirokova’s multifaceted scientific interests: Czech and Slavic studies in synchronic and diachronic aspects, as well as comparative studies both within individual Slavic languages and in the case of comparing a particular Slavic language with a non-Slavic one.

Czech Republic: Political Developments and Data in 2023

AbstractThe 2023 Czech presidential elections, characterized by high turnout and the victory of retired General Petr Pavel in a run‐off against former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, marked a significant shift in the country's political landscape. These elections were marked by intense debates on candidates’ backgrounds and foreign policy orientations, highlighting voters’ preference for pro‐Western ideals. Meanwhile, the Cabinet of Petr Fiala witnessed four ministerial changes affecting the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry for European Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Several important legislative changes occurred in 2023. Notably, the pension amendment incited robust debate and opposition activity. Furthermore, the government's consolidation package, aimed at economic stabilization and public budget reduction, sparked protests, reflecting broader societal concerns over funding and labor conditions in schools and hospitals. The year ended with national mourning following a tragic mass shooting at Charles University in Prague.

Віктор Даниленко, Олександр Даниленко, Олександр Добржанський.Степан Смаль-Стоцький. «Заслужений перед усієї Україною». – Київ:Парламентське видавництво, 2023, 336 с.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the monograph of the famous modern Ukrainian historians V. Danylenka, O. Dobrzhansky and O. Danylenka, which highlights the life and activities of academician Stepan Yosypovych Smal-Stotsky, a well-known Ukrainian cultural and socio-political figure, teacher, Slavic scholar, who made a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian history, literary studies, and journalism. Professor of Chernivtsi and Ukrainian Free University in Prague. Honorary member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv. Member of the Bukovyna Diet and the Austrian Parliament. In 1918, he became one of the first academicians of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Ambassador of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Czechoslovakia. Founder and first president of the Ukrainian Mohyla-Mazepin Academy of Sciences. The author of school textbooks on his native language, as well as scientific research on I. Franko, Yu. Fedkovich, I. Kotlyarevskyi, T. Shevchenko, and others. He left extensive correspondence and memories rich in information for scientists.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SHIROKOVA READINGS(LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY, NOVEMBER 27-28, 2023)

The review of reports presented at the international conference 1st Shirokova Readings, held on November 27-28, 2023 on the basis of the Faculty of Philology of Lomonosov Moscow State University, dedicated to the memory of the founder of the Soviet school of Bohemistics, Honorary Doctor of Charles University in Prague and Honored Professor of Moscow State University A.G. Shirokova, is presented. The conference was attended by more than 50 researchers from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Saratov, Perm, Penza, Chelyabinsk, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Minsk, Baku, Brno, Budapest, Belgrade, Skopje.

A Conversation With Marc Hallin

SummaryMarc Hallin was born in Ghent, Belgium, on 23 April 1949. He holds a Licence en Sciences mathématiques (1971), a Licence en Sciences actuarielles (1972), and a Doctorat en Sciences (1976) from the Université libre de Bruxelles. He then rose through the professorial ranks at the same institution, being successively Premier Assistant (1977–1978), Chargé de Cours associé (1978–1984), Chargé de Cours (1984–1988), Professeur ordinaire (1988–2009), and Professeur ordinaire émérite upon retirement in 2009. Throughout his career, he supervised 25 PhD students and held invited positions at many institutions of high standing in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA (most notably Princeton). A renown expert in time series analysis, econometrics, and non‐parametric inference, Marc is the author or coauthor of over 250 research papers, for which he received numerous awards, including the Medal of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague (2006), a Humboldt Forschungspreis from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2012), the Pierre‐Simon de Laplace Award of the Société française de Statistique (2022), and the Gottfried E. Noether Distinguished Scholar Award of the American Statistical Association (2022). He gave several distinguished lecture series, including the 2017 Hermann Otto Hirschfeld Lecture Series at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and the 2018 Mahalanobis Memorial Lecture at the Indian Statistical Institute. Over the years, he co‐edited a dozen books and proceedings, and served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Time Series Analysis (1994–2009), the Journal of Econometrics (2013–2019), the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics (2018–), and the Theory and Methods Section of the Journal of the American Statistical Association (2005–). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1990) and the American Statistical Association (1997), as well as a member of the Classe des Sciences of the Royal Academy of Belgium (1999). Marc has been a member of the International Statistical Institute since 1985 and was (co‐) Editor‐in‐Chief of the International Statistical Review from 2010 to 2015.

DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBOTIC FABRICATION SYSTEM FOR CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

Our team at Klokner Institute under Czech Technical University in Prague is working in a joint effort with Technical University of Liberec and Klokner on a comprehensive 3D printing system for cementitious materials, including specially optimized robotic arm. The goal of this system is to decrease the environmental impact of construction industry by reducing the volume of materials and time required, as well as reducing need for human labor. 3D printing also makes possible to build complex functional shapes, that would be too complicated or prohibitively expensive to manufacture using standard industry methods. Combining expertise of these two institutions lead to development of a robust system, that seamlessly integrates in-house developed mechanics and print material. One of key areas of our research is also testing mechanical properties of printed parts which is essential to safely integrate this construction method in real-world use in the future.

Německý univerzitní patolog v přemetech mimořádné doby. K biografii Franze X. Lucksche (1872–1952)

The pathologist Franz Xaver Lucksch (1872–1952) seems to have been in many ways a rather distinctive personality within the academic landscape of German medicine and medical research in Bohemia. As a member of the generation that grew up during the belle époque, he witnessed all the dramatic turnovers of Central Europe in the twentieth century. A man of considerable scientific ambitions, he became assistant professor (1904) and extraordinary professor (1914) at the Institute of Pathology (Institut für Pathologie) of the German Medical Faculty in Prague under Professor Hans Chiari (1851–1916). Having researched pellagra endemics in Romania in 1910, he returned there in the late 1930s thanks to the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. To the best of our knowledge, he published 48 academic contributions in his lifetime, infectious diseases (including tuberculosis) being the most frequent subject. Lucksch fought in the First World War, ending his military service as a lieutenant colonel of the Austro-Hungarian imperial army. Although he at first considered a professional military career in Austria even after 1918, he eventually returned from Vienna to Prague in 1919. There, he continued his medical work and research as a first assistant, which was the position he held for many years. In public life, he was active in spreading awareness of public health issues – probably in reaction to the autopsies he was carrying out. He emphasised the importance of nutrition and prevention of tuberculosis, a disease highly prevalent in Czechoslovakia at the time. But above all, he focused on physical training (Leibesübungen). In 1929–36, he headed the University Physical Training Centre (Hochschulzentrale für Leibesübungen) at the German University in Prague and the German Educational Course for Physical Training of Teachers. Aside from that, he was also a member of the German Association of Gymnasts. This is how Lucksch became acquainted and rather unfortunately politically involved with Konrad Henlein (1898–1945) and his Nazi movement among the Sudeten Germans of Czechoslovakia. At first, he was an active member but shortly after the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939, he found himself in a rather awkward position when the political movement he had previously endorsed started making problems for his Jewish wife and two children. His son, Franz Lucksch Jr. (1916–1966), became also a physician and made a notable scientific career after 1945. In 1936, Lucksch was appointed interim director of the Institute of Pathology. In the spring of 1939, he retired. As an emeritus, he had two part-time jobs: aside from publishing, he still did some teaching and research at the Institute during the academic year, and, in the remaining period, he worked as a pathologist at the Provincial Institute for the Mentally Ill (Landesanstalt für Geisteskranke) in Kosmonosy (Kosmanos), 65km from Prague. At this institution he performed autopsies of patients who died mainly due to extremely bad conditions. After the war, Lucksch was allowed to stay in Prague, but under rather difficult conditions, including financial issues. In connection with the prosecution of Nazi ‘euthanasia’ crimes in the 1960s, a suspicion emerged that he may have conduced tuberculosis experiments on psychiatric patients. Given the particular circumstances, however, this was highly improbable, neither has anything of that kind been proved in connection with Lucksch.

History of Crystal Structure Solutions at the Department of Solid State Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague

The history of X-ray crystal structure solutions at the Department of Solid State Chemistry, UCT Prague, is described. The history is presented in three chapters: The beginnings and time of Professor Jan Kašpar (1945–1973), The history in the years 1974–1989, The history in the years 1990 to the present.

Analysis of the Relationship between Psychiatric and Addiction-Related Disorders in Patients of an Outpatient Addiction Treatment Clinic for Children and Adolescents.

Dual diagnosis is used in addiction medicine to refer to the co-occurrence of an addiction-related disorder and another psychiatric disorder in the same individual. Adolescence is a key period for the development of both mental disorders and addictions. The aim of this study is to describe the relationships between psychiatric and addiction-related disorders in patients of the Outpatient Addiction Treatment Clinic for Children and Adolescents at the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague in 2015-2022. Data were retrospectively analyzed from the hospital's medical system, which collects basic diagnostic data on patients. Descriptive statistics and cluster analysis were performed to identify relationships between psychiatric and addiction-related disorders. Of the 450 patients, 153 patients (34%) met the criteria for dual diagnosis. The most common addiction-related disorders were mental and behavioural disorders due to the use of cannabinoids (35%) and internet gaming disorder (35%). The most common psychiatric diagnoses were behavioural and emotional disorders with usual onset in childhood and adolescence (64%), with a lower prevalence in girls than in boys. These findings may be important for the diagnosis and treatment of risky behaviours and addictions in children and adolescents.

The Importance of Soft Skills in the Context of Contemporary Economic Relations and International Student Mobility

Graduates' labour market success increasingly relies on soft skills, best developed through international study experiences. With the changing economic landscape post-COVID-19, adapting to various cultures and environments is valued by employers. This is crucial for university internationalization. The study focuses on how skills from international mobility align with EU labour market needs, particularly for Prague University of Economics and Business's International Relations students. Research included surveys and interviews with employers, yielding recommendations for the Czech educational system and underscoring international mobility's importance for student skills.

Problems with reinforced concrete industrial floors with regard to subsoil swelling

Most of the problems associated with open cracks in reinforced concrete industrial floors do not arise from technological indiscipline in the execution or exceeding the permitted floor load, but from the geotechnical profile beneath the floor. In the presence of swelling soil in the subsoil, the floors can then be shifted upwards by centimeters and create open cracks. This article describes regression relationships for the prediction of swelling pressure and deformation of reinforced concrete industrial floors based on indirect measurements. These relationships were obtained by evaluating a large database of measurements carried out by the company GeoTec-GS and the Czech Technical University in Prague using neural networks, multiple correlation, regression analysis, and sensitivity analysis. The article also presents the actual classification of the risk of surface damage of reinforced concrete floors due to swelling of the subsoil and an example of its application is given.

Scholars and Literati at the University of Prague (1348–1800)

This note is a summary description of the set of scholars and literati who taught at the University of Prague from its inception in 1348 to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (1800).

P1130 Predictors of Remission within One Year of Advanced Therapy in Paediatric Patients with Ulcerative Colitis – analysis from Czech national registry of biologic treatment (CREdIT)

Abstract Background Data on the outcomes of advanced therapy in paediatric patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and their predictors are scarce. We aim to assess the association between remission at one year of treatment and pre-specified predictors, including types of advanced therapy. Methods Using the Czech national prospective registry of biologic and innovative therapy of IBD (CREdIT), we identified 207 courses of treatment among paediatric UC patients. Disease remission was defined as Paediatric Ulcerative Colitis Index below 10 points. In this preliminary analysis, we employed mixed-effects regression models to attempt to identify an association between pre-specified predictors (duration of disease, first-line treatment, baseline age, baseline PUCAI, extension, ever severe, indication, baseline immunomodulator, drug) and remission at one year of the treatment. A patient, biologic center, and a time period were added as random effects into the models. Results Among 132 observations (60 female, 46%) in 108 patients, 85 were with infliximab (64%), 22 with adalimumab (17%), 20 with vedolizumab (15%), 4 with ustekinumab (3%) and 1 with tofacitinib. Most of the observations were from the first line of the biologic treatment (first: 95, 72%, second: 27, 21%, third: 7, 5.3%) and with concomitant immunosuppressive therapy at the beginning of the treatment course (97, 74%). Irrespective of treatment line, remission at 1 year was achieved in 53% (45/85) of infliximab, 36% (8/22) of adalimumab, 60% of vedolizumab and 50% of ustekinumab (2/4) treatment courses. However, we did not find a difference between the individual preparations in either the unadjusted mixed model or multiple mixed regression model. Of the pre-specified predictors, only longer duration of disease to the start of the therapy course was weakly associated with a lower remission rate in the treatment year when adjusted for treatment line (OR 1.16, 95%CI 1.00-1.34). In a sub-analysis of first-line advanced therapy only, 53% (44/83) of infliximab courses and 55% (6/11) of adalimumab courses achieved clinical remission at 1 year. Using a regression mixed model, we did not find any difference between treatment outcomes with these agents. Conclusion Based on data from real paediatric clinical practice, only half of patients with UC achieve clinical remission within a year of initiation of advanced therapy. This shows how important is to expand the drug armamentarium also in the paediatric population. Our study shows that time to initiation of advanced therapy may be an important factor even in patients with UC. Support The Grant Agency of Charles University in Prague (227023) and the Ministry of Health, Czech Republic, for the conceptual development of the research organisations (00064203).

European Journal of Geography (Year 2023): Reviewer Appreciation & Publication Recap

European Journal of Geography (Year 2023): Reviewer Appreciation & Publication Recap

Republikán a volnomyšlenkář? Složitý život Leopolda Heyrovského mezi státem, rodinou a společností

The article deals with the characterization of Leopold Heyrovský (1852–1924), professor of Roman law at the Law Faculty of the Charles University in Prague, as a “republican” and “freethinker”, as preserved by the memories of his descendants. Using the memories of his daughter Klára Heyrovská and of his colleague Jan Krčmář, the author focuses on religion, political and social ideas and the paternal role of Leopold Heyrovský. On the basis of partial sources, he is trying to reconstruct the political, religious, and social habitus of the hitherto less researched Prague university professor. It turns out that the characterization of Heyrovský as a republican and freethinker basically corresponds to reality, but with the caveat that Heyrovský was well aware of the risks that such opinions would bring him, and therefore expressed them only very carefully. His religious situation – he remained formally Catholic but did not participate in any religious ceremonies – was complicated not only by his position as a university professor, but also by his marriage to a fervent Catholic wife who raised their children in this faith. Nevertheless, he tried to pass on his free-spirited and patriotic views to his children, to whom he devoted a lot of time as a committed father.

Students training on virtual medical linear accelerator

At the Czech Technical University in Prague, we have installed virtual software environment simulating a radiotherapy treatment room with a medical linear accelerator (software VERT and VERT Physics by Vertual Ltd., United Kingdom). It is possible to simulate patient treatment and physics QA (quality assurance) measurements in virtual reality. This is beneficial for our students and teachers because there is no radiation present while doing the exercises and it is accessible at any time, unlike medical linear accelerators at hospitals. For our department, we have chosen the TrueBeam model by Varian Medical Systems, USA. The linear accelerator can be operated by the user in the same way as at the hospital, including the hardware pendant. There is a selection of patient treatment plans, CT images and RT structures, all of which can be visualised inside the treatment room, also during beam on, simulating the situation inside the patient while irradiating the tumour. Any DICOM files, even from another manufacturer’s linac (linear accelerator) or treatment planning system, can be imported into VERT. Apart from this, there is also an imaging interface and cone-beam CT interface showing options for patient setup. Another part of the software is a physics module with various phantoms and detectors for dosimetry as well as geometry tests. For example, a large water tank can be used for relative dosimetry of photon beams (percent depth doses and profiles), a smaller water phantom can be used for reference dosimetry or chamber cross calibration according to the TRS 398 (1) or IPEM (2) protocol. The results of measurements are based on look-up tables coming from real beam data, so dependence on the depth of measurement, field size, temperature and pressure and other parameters can be demonstrated. Moreover, it is possible to introduce many types of errors into the linac, such as jaw position, laser, or collimator miscalibration, and show how these errors propagate to patient irradiation and how they can be detected by QA tools. This paper is a short report on how this system has been used at our university and how it might be used in modern learning, pointing out its advantages and drawbacks. At the 16th Workshop on European Collaboration in Higher Education on Radiological and Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Protection (CHERNE) it was proposed that this virtual system could be used for an international student training course on medical physics in radiotherapy within the CHERNE network. This course might contain theoretical lectures with demonstrations on the virtual linac, practical exercises on the virtual linac and visits to hospitals (a photon radiotherapy centre, the Thomayer University Hospital in particular, and a proton therapy centre).

The Fifteenth Meeting of the Southeast-European Association for Ancient Philosophy, “Difficulties concerning the soulˮ, Plotinus, Enn. IV.3.1 – IV.4.5.

The piece sketches in brief the history of the Southeast-European Association for Ancient Philosophy, established in Delphi in 2002. It became respected academic community and unites scholars from the region regularly, usually once a year, for several days. Already fifteen such seminars have happened, dedicated to the close reading of (a section of) a writing, belonging to some of the most influential ancient thinkers. The topics of the previous fourteen seminars are mentioned in the text and special attention is paid to the seminar held recently in the Faculty of Philosophy in the Charles University in Prague (19– 22 September 2023). It was entitled Difficulties concerning the soul and was devoted to the Enneads of Plotinus, IV.3.1 – IV.4.5.

Investigation of Buddhist and Bon votive statues at the Very low power reactor VR-1

The nuclear analytical techniques are excellent tools for the investigation in various research disciplines, i.e. cultural heritage preservation, archaeology or anthropology. Most of these radioanalytical techniques require sufficient sources of radiation. So far, neutron imaging has mostly been used at high-power neutron sources, i.e. high-power research reactors. On the other hand, small nuclear research reactors can provide more options for investigations in multidisciplinary research. Since the development of the NIFFLER neutron imaging facility in 2020, neutron imaging has been one of the nuclear analytical methods used at the very low-power research reactor VR-1 of the Czech Technical University in Prague. This paper deals with the investigation of the internal structures of Buddhist and Bon votive statues from Central Asia at the Training reactor VR-1. The experimental investigation was conducted to explore the possibilities of using neutron imaging for cultural heritage research at very low-power research reactors such as the VR-1 reactor. The results of these unique experiments clearly showed the potential of the VR-1 reactor or possibly other very low-power research reactors in neutron imaging for multidisciplinary research, which can provide important data for anthropologists, archaeologists or experts in cultural heritage preservation.

In-Situ Spectroscopic Investigation of 3-D Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Fuel Cell Reactions in Half-Cell Setups

Significant work has already been done in understanding proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) over the past decades. In-situ visualization of the fuel-cell reactions has developed considerably and has also helped in understanding the challenges which still exist in various steps of electrochemical processing. Gas diffusion electrode half-cells have been widely promoted for fundamental catalysis research and when coupled with techniques like X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) can be used for in-situ/operando studies of the reaction mechanisms in fuel cell reactions. This is particularly important to address the challenges in low temperature PEMFCs (eg. degradation of catalyst during durability tests) as well as high temperature PEMFCs (eg. poisoning of the Pt catalyst and low oxygen solubility in phosphoric acid).In this presentation, an effort will be made to illuminate the catalytic characteristics during oxygen reduction reaction using in-situ XAS. The co-adsorption of H3PO3 and CO on platinum catalysts will be investigated using the Δµ XANES technique by following the signatures of different species adsorbed on the catalyst surface, and the Efix technique which follows the variation of signal intensity at a fixed energy near to the white line to follow the changes in Pt oxidation. During CO removal through cyclic voltammetry in the presence of 800 µM H3PO3 (as shown in the figure provided) it is possible to see a clear change in signal intensity around the potential of 250 mVAg/AgCl, which was associated with the oxidation of H3PO3 to H3PO4, since CO oxidation takes place at higher potentials (above 600 mVAg/AgCl). It is also interesting to note that when oxidizing H3PO3 to H3PO4, the platinum surface significantly reduced. With these experiments, it can be concluded that the Efix technique has a great potential to better understand what happens to Pt during the oxidation of H3PO3, as well as to identify more clearly the oxidation potential of this species, which is not easy to do based on the electrochemical data alone. Considering that this species is one of the main species responsible for the poisoning of the Pt catalyst during the operation of fuel cells, it is extremely important to understand the life cycle of this compound so that the operating conditions can be adapted to maximize the performance of the catalyst and develop new catalysts more resistant to poisoning by phosphorous species for HT-PEMFCs.Acknowledgements:Prof. Matthias Arenz from University of Bern, Martin Prokopand Tomàs Bystrom from University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Michael Haumann, Freie Universität Berlin are gratefully thanked for their collaboration. German Research Foundation DFG Project ID RO 2454/19-1, the Bavarian Gender Equality Grant 2019-2021 (for Women in Academia), Petra III DESY (Hamburg, Germany), a member of the Helmholtz Association HGF, P65 beamline (I-20211432) and KMC-3 beamline BESSY (Berlin,Germany). Figure 1