Biology & Ecology

Ján Kleban a kolektív

Predkladaný pracovný zošit na praktické cvičenia z cytológie je určený poslucháčom 1. ročníka bakalárskeho štúdia biológie a 1. ročníka bakalárskeho medziodborového štúdia v kombinácii s biológiou na Prírodovedeckej fakulte Univerzity Pavla Jozefa Šafárika v Košiciach. Slúži ako návod, ktorý má študentom uľahčiť prácu a umožniť rýchlejšiu orientáciu v zadanej úlohe. Úprava pracovného zošita do formy protokolov umožňuje študentom zakresliť vlastné pozorovanie a tým stimuluje študentov k presnejšiemu a trvalejšiemu zapamätaniu si precvičovanej úlohy a zároveň umožňuje spätnú kontrolu pedagógom. Počas cvičení sa študenti postupne oboznámia so základnými pojmami optiky, s aplikáciami využívajúcimi mikroskopickú techniku, ale aj so základnými rozdielmi medzi štruktúrou rastlinnej a živočíšnej bunky a ich organelami.

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Vladimír Zeleňák(ed.)

The proceedings contain abstracts of contributions from participants of the Student Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, which took place on April 22, 2015.

The Student Scientific Conference (SSC) enjoys long-term popularity among the faculty's students and teachers, and we are pleased that this was no different this year, with 128 contributions submitted to the SSC.

The contributions were organized into 19 sections, additionally complemented by an open programming competition and the final of the IHRA contest. For many students, presenting at the SSC is one of the first opportunities to gain experience in presenting their results before a professional audience. Considering the number of submitted contributions, along with the members of the expert juries from the faculty's teaching staff and the audience who came to support their classmates' presentations, the SSC is an event where a large part of the student and academic community of the faculty meets at one place and time. Many abstracts presented in this proceedings were developed as part of students' work on partial tasks that are components of research projects at the departments of the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University.

The abstracts represent, in a way, an overview of research topics at the individual workplaces of the faculty. The SSC proceedings thus serve as a useful tool that students and faculty teachers can use to present the faculty externally to partners, employers, and potential collaborators. Partners from practice have shown interest in cooperating in organizing the SSC for a long time. Since 2005, the association of IT companies has awarded a Prize for the Most Original Work and a Prize for the Work with the Best Prospects for Practical Application.

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Miroslav Repčák - Martin Bačkor - Peter Paľove-Balang - Silvia Gajdošová

The establishment of the Plant Physiology Laboratory at the Department of Botany, Faculty of Arts, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice in 1969 was associated with the name of Ing. Štefan Kocúrik, CSc. (1923–2006), who also prepared the first "Instructions for Exercises in Plant Physiology" (Košice 1972, 1976).

Since 1980, the manual by Associate Professor RNDr. Karol Erdelský, CSc., and Ing. Fridrich Frič, DrSc., titled "Practicum and Analytical Methods in Plant Physiology" (Bratislava 1980) has been used. With the increase in the number of students, it became relevant in 1991 to publish the "Instructions for Exercises in Plant Physiology" again to improve preparation and the efficient organization of practical work. Associate Professor RNDr. A. Košturiak, CSc., contributed significantly to the expansion of the introductory part of the instructions with his valuable advice, for which the authors are grateful. For the fourth edition, some tasks were updated and modernized, taking into account the possibilities of the renovated laboratory. The selection of tasks was adapted to the current scope of exercises for individual plant physiology subjects within the bachelor's and master's study programs in biology and ecology. These subjects include: Plant Physiology, Plant Metabolism, Mineral Nutrition of Plants, Plant Growth and Development, and Plant Ecology. Some tasks are also suitable for high school experiments.

The choice of topics was influenced by the research focus of our workplace on secondary metabolism, ecophysiology, and medicinal plants. The instructions generally adhere to the SI unit system, occasionally including other commonly used units.

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Norbert Kopčo - Frederick Gallun - Beáta Tomoriová - Ľuboš Hládek(eds.)

Cognitive neuroscience is a fast developing scientific field which aims at uncovering the neural basis of human perception and cognition. To achieve this goal, cognitive neuroscience uses a variety of tools and approaches ranging from non-invasive brain imaging to psychophysics and neural modeling. Mastering such tools requires skills and knowledge from multiple scientific domains, including neurophysiology, cognitive psychology, and several computational fields.

Access on request via email: kogneuro (@) gmail.com

http://pcl.upjs.sk/workshopcd 

https://sites.google.com/site/kogneuro/

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Tatiana Kimáková a kol.

Ethics, as the science of the proper realization of human potential in various areas of life, also extends into the environment. For understanding the ethical aspects in this field, a thorough knowledge of the individual components of the environment, as well as their impact not only on humans but on all living nature, is very important. Therefore, questions concerning the influence of the environment are increasingly at the forefront of interest from an ethical perspective, also in connection with existing legal norms.

The modern process of civilization is characterized by rapid development of science and technology. However, this development, while raising the standard of living on one hand, also brings negative side effects on the other. The result is the disruption of ecological, biological, and natural life conditions, especially in the areas of industrial centers. The development of individual branches of industry leads to the production of liquid, gaseous, and solid wastes, the emergence of harmful risk factors threatening various components of living nature, including humans. There may be increased bioaccumulation of hazardous chemical elements in organisms, which, through their effects, represent a potential risk also in terms of carcinogenesis and mutagenesis.

For this reason, an important role of society is to create conditions to prevent the release of emissions and to reduce their concentration to the lowest possible, socially and biologically acceptable level. The assessment of the biological effects of harmful substances is based on experimental and epidemiological studies. Knowledge of concentration and duration of exposure is crucial for applying dose-effect relationships and for determining the highest permissible concentrations of pollutants. The health of the population, as a universal value and a primary human right, represents a fundamental economic resource not only for the individual, but also for society as a whole.

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Dušan Barabas - Alena Labunová

These study materials aim to provide basic information about biogeographical issues from a geographical perspective, i.e., a perspective focused primarily on the aspect of spatial differentiation of the biosphere. The basis for the division of the biosphere is its historical development, during which individual taxa and communities were formed.

The historical development of the biosphere did not occur under stable, constant conditions, but rather in ever-changing conditions caused by the position of our planet within the solar system, the position of the Earth's axis relative to the ecliptic, and also the position of the solar system within the galaxy. All changes in the Earth's position, together with the movement of continents (drift) and climate changes, created the prerequisites for the spatial expansion of the biosphere. The historical development of the biosphere, various perspectives, the hierarchical level of differentiation, and the causes of differentiation are incorporated in this study material, whose aim is to outline the basic principles of this division.

The goal is also to highlight certain differences in the understanding of terminology, as well as to point out some fundamental relationships operating within the landscape system in the broadest sense of the word. The section devoted to the ecological principles of the functioning and formation of the landscape system, according to MIČIAN and ZATKALÍK (1984), outlines the issues of understanding the terms ecosystem and geosystem. For this reason, the presented text includes chapters that attempt to explain the understanding and approach to some basic concepts.

These study materials are intended for students of single-subject, interdisciplinary, and supplementary studies as basic teaching material. By expanding the knowledge from this study material with further information, which is elaborated in more detail in the literature listed in the bibliography of this text, graduates will gain a comprehensive view of biogeographical issues.

Authors

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Božena Velebná

The following material has been created during the two years of teaching English for Chemists at the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University and is therefore designed to meet the needs of this course. The main motivation was the lack of appropriate materials, especially as the groups generally comprise students with a very diverse level of English. This diversity therefore became the main criterion determining both the form and the content of this text.

In the ten units that provide material for a one semester course, the emphasis is put on teaching the students vocabulary and terminology, which is introduced via authentic texts, depending on the topic of each unit. Students are encouraged to learn the meaning of new words in context. Grammar is included too, with the aim of demonstrating and explaining grammatical rules by means of examples taken directly from the texts. For the more advanced students, grammatical exercises in this material can serve for revision while the beginners might need more supplementary materials.

I hope that this material, the preparation of which has been a challenging as well as enjoyable experience will be useful for future teachers and the students of this course.

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Tatiana Kimáková

Táto vedecká monografia je komplexnou vedeckou prácou zameranou na prítomnosť a pôsobenie ortuti v životnom prostredí, ale aj na rizikové faktory zdravia, ktoré sú s ňou spojené. Monografia predstavuje charakteristiku ortuti v multidisciplinárnom zábere, prezentuje využitie v priemysle a v zdravotníctve, popisuje negatívne vplyvy ortuti v životnom prostredí, na zdravotný stav obyvateľstva. Zároveň prináša návrhy a odporúčania pre rizikové skupiny ľudí. Súčasťou monografie je komplexný výskum koncentrácie ortuti vo vzorkách komodít domácej i zahraničnej produkcie a vo vzorkách rastlín pomocou atómového absorpčného spektrometra AMA 254. Vedecká monografia je vhodná pre vedeckú komunitu, študentov medicínskych, veterinárnych, prírodovedných a poľnohospodárskych odborov ako aj pre študentov verejného zdravotníctva všetkých troch stupňov vysokoškolského štúdia. Monografia je učená aj pre všetkých záujemcov z radov informovanej verejnosti.

Autorka

 Helena Mičková a kol. 

Peter Fedoročko a kol. 

Vysokoškolský učebný text Prírodovedeckej fakulty UPJŠ.

Igor Hudec - Ľubomír Kováč 

The study course provides the basic knowledge on the fundamental parameters, relationships and processes in ecological sciences. Brief content: ecological factors and relations to environment (air, water, soil); influence of ecological factors upon organisms (morphological adaptations, behavioural responses); populations and communities (external and internal parameters of populations, population dynamics); ecosystems (impact assessment) and biomes (basic features and human impact); cycles (hydrologic, gaseous, sedimentation) of basic elements on Earth.  

Authors

 Mária Kožurková - Martin Putala 

Cieľom tejto knihy je spracovať názvoslovné zásady a pravidlá, podľa ktorých sa tvoria slovenské názvy biochemických zlúčenín. Táto monografia je po dlhšom čase prvým pokusom o spracovanie tohto problému, a preto dúfame, že bude pomôckou a prínosom nielen pre študentov a učiteľov ale aj vedeckých pracovníkov. Poslúži aj študentom stredných škôl, ktorí majú záujem o biochémiu a molekulovú biológiu. Kniha obsahuje najnovšie názvoslovie, zásady a pravidlá pri tvorbe názvov biochemických zlúčenín. Kniha plne aplikuje odporúčania spoločnej komisie Medzinárodnej únie pre teoretickú a aplikovanú chémiu (IUPAC) a Medzinárodnej únie pre biochémiu a molekulárnu biológiu (IUBMB) so zahrnutím aktuálnych úprav názvoslovia, stereochémie a grafického znázornenia štruktúr podľa IUPAC. 

Autori

 Ľubomír Panigaj - Peter Ľuptáčik 

(Náčrt systému a fylogenézy)

Učebný text je primárne určený pre študentov jednoodborového štúdia biológie a všeobecnej ekológie, ako aj odborom učiteľského štúdia v rôznych kombináciách s biológiou. Venuje sa v nich opisu jednotlivých skupín živočíchov, ich morfológiu a anatómiu ilustruje na obrazových materiáloch. K jednotlivým morfologickým a anatomickým štruktúram sa v texte nevyjadrujeme podrobnejšie, nakoľko text nadväzuje na predmet Porovnávacia morfológia živočíchov, kde na úrovni organológie boli tieto najvýznamnejšie štruktúry v rámci prednášok a cvičení detailne vysvetlené a opísané. Rozsah učebného textu nie je veľký, podávame v ňom základné minimum poznatkov, čo je podmienené jednak rozsahom predmetu, ktorý je len jednosemestrový, jednak tým, že ďalšie, špecializované predmety rozširujú spektrum poznatkov napr. na úrovni entomológie, hydrobiológie alebo pôdnej biológie. V zavere niektorých kapitol formulujeme niekoľko cvičných otázok, ktoré si študenti môžu na základe predchádzajúceho textu zodpovedať, s podobnými otázkami sa totiž môžu stretnúť na skúške alebo na štátniciach.

Autori