Biology & Ecology (e-books)

E-book

Ľubomír Šnajder a kol.

The publication is dedicated to teachers and future teachers of informatics, mathematics and science subjects. The publication presents activities that move students from the role of passive users of digital technologies to that of curious researchers, creative creators and critical thinkers. In the first chapter, we introduce educational strategies and practices to actively engage students in learning. In the second chapter, we briefly describe selected digital technologies that can be an aid to exploring the world around us and creating useful products. In the third chapter, we provide specific ideas for STEAM exploration and projects in which students search answers to real-world questions and solutions to real-world problems. Subject didacticians, experts from different fields and teachers worked closely together to develop ideas for the methodologies.

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E-book

Juraj Ševc - Anna Alexovič Matiašová

Among students of single-discipline and interdisciplinary biology studies at faculties with a natural science focus, there often arises a problem in defining the scope of the curriculum when studying the subject of Human Anatomy. The presented study material aims to help students of non-medical scientific fields navigate the extensive anatomical terminology and to limit the amount of required anatomical terms to an optimum, so that alongside mastering Latin nomenclature, students still have sufficient capacity to memorize additional knowledge in the areas of systemic, comparative, developmental, and functional anatomy.

Emphasis on organizing individual anatomical terms into logical units simultaneously supports a hierarchical view of the architecture of the human body. Despite its seemingly self-serving nature, anatomical terminology thus becomes the framework upon which students build knowledge from more or less related scientific disciplines studying the human body and the processes occurring within it throughout their further studies. At the same time, alongside this ambition that goes beyond the scope of the anatomy discipline, the Anatomical Terms follow a long tradition of anatomical handbooks while respecting the valid Latin and Slovak anatomical nomenclature.

This script represents a practical supplement to university textbooks of Anatomy or Neuroanatomy and especially to anatomical atlases, but it certainly does not aim to replace them. Here you will find all the necessary terms gathered in one place, which you can always have at hand on your phone, e-reader, or laptop. The emphasis on organizing individual anatomical terms into logical units supports a hierarchical view of the architecture of the human body, and the inclusion of a brief introduction to each system is intended to encourage you to seek further, more detailed information about the structure and function of the given organ system.

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E-book

Lucia Bakošová (ed.)

Proceedings from the XVII Annual Student Symposium on International and European Law held on October 27, 2023.

The presented proceedings from the student symposium are part of a long-standing tradition of student symposia organized by the Institute of International Law and European Law of the Faculty of Law at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. This seventeenth edition of the symposium, entitled "The Environmental Dimension of International Territorial Regimes," took place on October 27, 2023.

The symposium was thematically dedicated to the current and dynamically developing issue of the environmental dimension of international territorial regimes.

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E-book

Alena Gessert

Caves have always been very specific places throughout history. In some cultures, they served as sites for sacrifices or remembrance, while in others, they were seen as places where one could cross to the "other side of life." People used caves for shelter, as places to leave messages, to wait out bad weather, and in some cases, even lived in them. During wars in our region, entire families or villages would hide from enemies in caves, or they would use them to conceal weapons.

Today, in most countries, caves are destinations for tourists who want to experience something new and unknown: darkness, high humidity, and the fascinating beauty of underground formations. They are also sought after by cavers who long to explore caves, enter worlds where no human has set foot before, find evidence of previous habitation, or conduct research that continually advances our knowledge.

In the publication you are holding, we present both traditional and less conventional topics about the formation of karst and caves, selected ecological aspects, maps and their creation, significant caves of the world, and the life of people in such areas. We also offer an overview of important karst locations that are definitely worth learning more about or visiting in person. This publication is intended for readers among pupils, students, teachers, and the general public, and we believe it will draw you into this mysterious world.

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E-book

Peter Fedoročko (ed.)

From June 13 to June 16, 2023, the 9th annual Spring School for Doctoral Students at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice will take place in Stará Lesná. The scientific program of the spring school will comprise 3 plenary lectures by leading scientific experts and 1 workshop.

Doctoral students will present their research papers in two sections: 24 doctoral students of Faculty of Public Administration, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Arts, and 24 doctoral students of Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Science. The scientific programme of the spring school will also include a panel discussion with the management of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

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E-book

Marián Kireš  (ed.)

Proceedings of Abstracts from the Student Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

The Student Scientific Conference (SSC) represents the culmination of long-term and intensive work on a selected topic, collaboration with a supervisor, or a broader team at the workplace. In practice, however, it often marks the beginning of scientific research, focusing on a chosen subject, field, or close cooperation with a future supervisor of a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral thesis.

This year, the Student Scientific Conference took place on April 19, 2023, featuring 14 sections, a programming competition, and the IHRA contest. Bachelor’s and master’s students presented 101 contributions. Additionally, 8 high school students participated non-competitively, presenting their SOČ projects; 14 students took part in the programming competition, and 3 students competed in the IHRA contest.

We believe that the proceedings of abstracts and related documents serve not only as an archive but also as a dignified presentation of scientific activities at our faculty for the wider public.

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E-book

Lenka Mártonfiová (ed.)

The Index Seminum 2023 of the Botanical Garden of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University contains a list of 291 seed samples offered for the international exchange among botanical gardens on the world.

It includes seeds collected from the wild plants in natural localities of Slovakia with a detailed description of the localities with coordinates and date of collection (92 samples) and seeds of plants grown in the Botanical Garden (25 samples) and seeds from Exposition of the Tatra Mountain Nature of the State Forests of Tatra National Park, Tatranská Lomnica (69 samples) as well as 105 seed samples from Hrádocké Arboretum of the Secondary Forestry School of Jozef Dekret Matejovie in Liptovský Hrádok.

The index includes a desiderata table that can be used when ordering seeds..

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E-book

Juraj Ševc - Filip Mochnacký

Students studying biology as the single-subject or as a part of two-subject programs on various faculties of sciences are often encountered with the problem, how to limit the topics in the subject Human anatomy. This List of anatomical terms is aiming to help the non-medical students to get acquainted with the extensive anatomical nomenclature and to optimize the number of anatomical terms, which should be memorized, to preserve the sufficient capacity of the students for another knowledge of the field of systemic, comparative, developmental and functional anatomy. The emphasis on the arrangement of individual anatomical terms into the logical units supports the hierarchical view on the architecture of the human body.

Despite the common opinion, anatomical nomenclature represents a framework, which is during the further study gradually enveloped with the knowledge of more or less related disciplines concerning with the human body and its biological processes. Moreover, besides this ambition, which exceeds the area of the human anatomy, this List of anatomical terms continues the long tradition with respect to the valid Latin and Slovak anatomical terminology.

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E-book

Peter Fedoročko (ed.)

Proceedings of the 7th Annual Doctoral Spring School 2020

From November 10 to November 11, 2020, the 7th annual Spring School for Doctoral Students at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice will take place in Košice in a modified mode in the on-line space. The scientific program of the spring school will comprise 2 plenary lectures by leading scientific experts of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Doctoral students will present their research papers in two sections: 24 doctoral students of Faculty of Public Administration, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Arts, and 22 doctoral students of Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Science.

The scientific programme of the spring school will also include a panel discussion with the management of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

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E-book

Lenka Mártonfiová - Pavol Mártonfi (eds.)

The Catalogue of Plant Collections contains a list of 4136 species, subspecies and cultivars of plants growing wild or grown in the Botanical Garden of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia). Among them 652 plant species endangered according to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) are grown in the botanical garden as well as 39 autochtonous plant species are protected by Slovak law.

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E-book

Lenka Mártonfiová - Martin Suvák - Pavol Mártonfi (eds.)

Conference 70 Years of the Botanical Garden of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University. Slovakia, Košice 3. – 4. September 2020

The book of abstracts from the conference with international participation includes 38 abstracts from a total of 76 authors from various botanical institutions from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

It presents an overview of knowledge and experience from the history and the present of botanical research and nature conservation. In addition to botany and nature conservation, the abstracts also cover the field of plant physiology, production of secondary metabolites, environmental studies, management of protected areas, bioinformatics and other topical research problems. The main paper is dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the UPJŠ Botanical Garden, its history and the present and was prepared by the director of the UPJŠ Botanical Garden. It is completed by the papers from the staff of this botanical garden devoted to the current state of research and educational activities in the botanical garden.

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E-book

Erik Sedlák - Rastislav Varhač -  Patrik Danko - Helena Paulíková - Dušan Podhradský

The presented scripts were created in an effort to update and especially clarify the tasks that are solved in the basic practical exercises in biochemistry students of the 2nd and 3rd year of the bachelor's degree in chemistry, biology and their combinations with other disciplines. Most of the tasks come from the original scripts "Podhradský, Mihalovová: Praktické cvičenia z biochémie, Košice 1989".

Some of them have been modified to a greater or lesser extent and adapted to current conditions in the laboratory. New tasks were also added, such as those dedicated to nucleic acids. The scripts are thematically divided into six separate units, each of which consists of several tasks. The names of the units correspond to the nature of the biomacromolecules, which form their central theme. Theoretical introductions at the beginning of the unit are newly constructed and their main goal is to provide a brief overview of the basic biochemical methods used in the study of biomacromolecules.

These scripts are intentionally only available in electronic form. The reason is the effort to continuously update and modernize individual tasks according to the changing possibilities of our laboratory. We hope that the scripts will fulfill their role and that students will have sufficient theoretical knowledge and practical skills in the field of basic biochemical methods after completing these laboratory exercises.

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E-book

Iveta Cimboláková - Henrieta Pavolová

University textbooks focus on selected basic knowledge about the environment. They are centered on summarizing and cross-sectional characteristics, serving as a foundation for deepening knowledge within lectures or seminars on the given topic.

The textbooks are intended for first-year students of the "Sports and Recreation" study program at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, as well as for anyone interested in expanding their environmental knowledge. In the prepared educational texts, "Environmental Risks, Their Impact, and Consequences on Population Health," we address topics such as environmental risks, their influence, and possible consequences on population health, which undoubtedly belong to environmental issues and care.

The list of literature in the textbooks provides more detailed information for those with a deeper interest in environmental issues.

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E-book

Andrej Mock

The structure of the animal body is extremely varied. Each species has its distinctive morphological features, which bears as a testimony to long-term development and belonging to the developmental lineage. At the same time, the body has been tested for a long time by natural conditions, resulting in unique adaptations to the environment and life strategy. Despite this admirable variety - which includes both recent and fossil animals and which we have far from mapped – a comparison of body parts brings knowledge we can generalize: the main building principles, and boundaries within which phenotypic diversity is realized.

Comparative animal morphology today uses the latest methodological material and knowledge from other disciplines, from genetics, molecular biology and experimental embryology, through progressive imaging methods (e.g. electron microscopy, computer micro-tomography) and the possibilities of subsequent software processing of image material (measurement, staining, etc.) to the view of physics, chemistry, statics and geometry on the structures (to nanostructures) of the living body. Detailed knowledge of historical and contemporary conditions on Earth is an important interpretative context in the study of animal morphology. Surprisingly, the knowledge accumulated after centuries of research is now rapidly supplemented by new knowledge, and often the traditional knowledge is subsequently reinterpreted. Finally, and no less important, in studying animal (and human) morphology, we learn surprising knowledge about ourselves.

The author of the presented textbook had the ambition in a simplified form to introduce the reader, especially the student of biological studies, into a dynamic and fascinating scientific discipline, as the current comparative animal morphology is.

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E-book

Gabriel Žoldák

The textbook is intended as background material for university students and for education in science, biotechnology, and medicine. During the textbook conception, the emphasis was on recent trends and development in the understanding of the physicochemical properties of immunoglobulins.

The textbook is divided into ten chapters and 294 pages dealing with the following topics: Immune system and immunoglobulins, General properties of immunoglobulins, Chemical and proteolytic cleavage of immunoglobulins, Structure of immunoglobulins I, Structure of immunoglobulins II, Detection of immunoglobulins, Post-purification and purification immunoglobulin modifications, Immunoglobulin stability and aggregation, Therapeutic immunoglobulins. In addition to the summary of the established knowledge about the properties of immunoglobulins, the textbook also contains new information collected from recent scientific publications.

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E-book

Terézia Kisková - Stanislav Matéffy - Františka Horváthová

The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the most commonly used experimental animals. It serves as a model organism for analyzing numerous biological processes and pathological mechanisms, such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders (e.g., lipid metabolism, diabetes mellitus), neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., stroke, epilepsy, or Alzheimer's disease), neurobehavioral research, autoimmune diseases (e.g., arthritis), cancer, and renal diseases. It offers many unique advantages for modeling human diseases, testing drugs and natural substances, and studying responses to environmental factors. The size of the laboratory rat, compared to the mouse, creates ideal conditions for physiological manipulations. Additionally, rats are used in clinical toxicology to test chemical substances (Hedrich, 2000).

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E-book

Katarína Cechlárová (ed.)

This year, the Student Scientific Conference was held on April 24, 2019, across 17 sections in disciplines such as biology and ecology, chemistry, physics, geography, mathematics, informatics, and their didactics. Bachelor’s and master’s students presented a total of 124 contributions. The most successful participants advanced to national or traditional Czech-Slovak student scientific showcases in fields like physics, chemistry, mathematics, informatics, and mathematics didactics.

In addition to faculty students, 10 high school students participated outside the competition. They were invited based on their achievements in subject-specific Olympiads or because they were already engaged with the faculty under the guidance of dedicated teachers in laboratory work as part of their preparation for future studies. The day also featured a programming competition with 23 participants, an IHRA contest involving 16 teams of high school students and 15 teams from elementary schools, and a new Puzzle section where 72 high school students from the region competed.

The abstracts from the Student Scientific Conference demonstrate that our faculty's students not only absorb theoretical knowledge delivered in lectures but also actively engage in solving partial scientific problems that align with research objectives at the institutes of PF UPJŠ. This collection serves as both a record of scientific activity at the faculty and a dignified presentation for the broader public.

Prof. RNDr. Katarína Cechlárová, DrSc.

Vice-Dean for Education

Doc. RNDr. Gabriel Semanišin, PhD.

Dean of the Faculty

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E-book

Marcel Uhrin - David Jandzik - Andrej Čerňanský - Michal Rindoš - Blanka Lehotská - Stanislav Danko - Ján Kautman - Peter Mikulíček - Peter Urban - Daniel Jablonski

Bibliographies provide basic scientific information, illustrate quality and intensity of research in a particular topic, area, or time, and thus help build a cultural-historical perspective of society’s appreciation of knowledge and education. Here we provide a bibliography of herpetological research in the region of Slovakia between the years 1791 and 2017. We collected 2,183 references authored by 1,453 different authors and covering all species of amphibians (18) and reptiles (13) occurring in Slovakia and, in addition, amphibian and reptile taxa occurring in 94 other countries.

Most of the contributions were published in popular magazines and non-indexed journals, while only about 12% of all references represent scientific articles from journals indexed in relevant scientific databases. The extensiveness of study on amphibians and reptiles has varied among different periods within the selected time frame. However, an obvious intensification in the field of herpetology can be observed, especially during the second half of the 20th century. While there have only been few professionals specialized in herpetology, an important role in promoting the research and conservation of amphibians and reptiles in Slovakia has been played by non-governmental organizations and hobbyists. The most frequent type of herpetological data in the referenced literature comes from faunistic research, followed by conservation and general information on herpetofauna, with the majority of published articles in indexed journals coming from the fields of palaeontology, phylogeography, and population genetics.

The presented bibliography is the first step towards building a solid base for future systematic herpetological research in the country and Central Europe.

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