Automation of Laboratory Experiments in LabVIEW environment

E-book

Gregor Bánó

Photonics is an application-oriented discipline at the interface of optics, opto-electronics and quantum optics. It includes classical optics extended by the description of physical phenomena and optical devices that rely on quantum (photon) nature of light.
The main objective of the Photonics course is to provide a comprehensive overview of essential optical and photonic phenomena routinely applied in experimental scientific research while working with various light sources (e.g. in the field of biophotonics). The first chapters are devoted to the description of light at different levels. The logical order of subsections in this part corresponds to the structure of the textbook: B. E. A. Saleh, M. C. Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics. The following chapters contain a description of laser operation and an overview of selected optical instruments and their applications.
The body text is complemented by practical notes on the use of theoretical knowledge during daily work in the laboratory. The course of Photonics requires a basic knowledge of mathematics, electromagnetism and optics, and thus it is recommended to students who previously passed through the courses of the Bachelor's program in Physics.

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E-book

Zuzana Kudličková(ed.)

Proceedings of Abstracts from the Scientific Conference with International Participation Organized on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, held on June 8–10, 2016 in Košice.

The Department of Organic Chemistry was established on February 1, 1966. From its inception, the department’s development prospects have been linked to high-quality scientific research focused on the synthesis of isothiocyanates and the products of their nucleophilic additions. In addition, studies were conducted on the use of cycloaddition, cyclocondensation, and photocyclization reactions of heterocumulenes in the synthesis of heterocycles.

Currently, research at the Department of Organic Chemistry is concentrated on stereoselective syntheses of iminosugars and γ-lactam-β-lactone antibiotics, total synthesis of natural compounds and their analogues possessing a sphingoid structure, research into the synthesis of indole alkaloids from the phytoalexin group, and the synthesis of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors based on acridine and coumarin derivatives.

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E-book

Zuzana Vargová - Miroslav Almáši (eds.)

Proceedings of Abstracts from the 3rd Conference Advances in Inorganic Chemistry (Levoča, June 17–21, 2018)

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E-book

Mária Ganajová

The current teaching of chemistry has its specific problems. On one hand, due to the shift of the focus of chemistry curriculum towards theoretical content, the difficulty of chemistry material has increased, and in connection with this, students' interest in chemistry has decreased.

The lack of student interest in chemistry is mostly supported by the opinion that it is precisely chemistry that significantly contributes to the deterioration of environmental quality. On the other hand, we live in an era where we encounter chemical products practically everywhere. It is necessary to learn the basics of chemistry as well as possible, which makes the question of increasing interest in chemistry education and improving its effectiveness very relevant. State educational programs have been introduced into Slovak schools as a foundation for the creation of school educational programs. These emphasize not only acquiring a certain amount of knowledge but also the development and enhancement of key and specific competencies of students, preparing them for lifelong learning and their application in life.

Therefore, increasing attention is being paid to one of the fundamental didactic tools for raising student activity in teaching, and thus improving the effectiveness of chemistry education – learning tasks. From both theory and practice of chemistry teaching, we know that learning tasks, questions, examples, exercises, etc., are among the important components of every teaching lesson. Learning tasks are applied in all phases of teaching – in the motivational phase, the phase of acquiring knowledge, the phase of consolidating knowledge, and the phase of checking the acquired knowledge. It is therefore clear that every teacher will sooner or later find themselves in a situation where they will have to select learning tasks from textbooks, workbooks, collections of problems and examples, or create them themselves.

This scientific monograph is intended for educational specialists and chemistry teachers, aiming to familiarize them with examples of various types and forms of learning tasks and the basics of their creation in chemistry. It can also be helpful for them in preparing certification works focused on test creation and their statistical evaluation.

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E-book

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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E-book

Adriana Zeleňáková

One of the fundamental characteristics of the magnetic state of ferromagnetic materials is the existence of a domain structure. The university textbook "MAGNETIC DOMAINS: SPECIAL PHYSICAL PRACTICE 1" is intended primarily for students of the Master's programme in Physics of Condensed Matter FKLm and for the PhD programme in Progressive Materials PMd within the profile subject Special Practice 1 at the Institute of Physical Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.  The textbook is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the basics of domain theory, including the history of domain observation and the specification of different types of energies in ferromagnetic body. The second chapter presents the relationship between domain structure and magnetisation processes in ferromagnetic materials The third chapter describes the different types of domain-wall interactions with the defect. The fourth chapter illustrates examples of domain structure in selected ferromagnetic body such as grain oriented and non-grain oriented electrical steels, amorphous and nanocrystalline ribbons. The fifth chapter summarises an overview of the different experimental methods used to visualise the domain structure and their advantages or disadvantages with respect to the structure of ferromagnetic materials. The last two chapters, the sixth and the seventh, are devoted to specific experimental tasks for observing the domain structure of a selected polycrystalline sample using the optical microscope Bitter powder method and the MFM (magnetic force microscopy) method. During the preparation of this undergraduate text, its individual parts were developed using the foreign language literature listed in the recommended references.

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E-book

Katarína Kimáková

The textbook is intended for university students who are preparing for the profession of biology teacher. The structure of the book is similar to an encyclopedia, with one page devoted to each content item, but the topics of the chapters and subchapters follow each other.

The explanatory text on the page illustrates the diagram and there are notes and links to other sources of information. For better orientation, the content of the textbook is divided into 8 sections, which cover several chapters. It follows the general didactics, which it connects with the teaching of biological content. The book provides a basic orientation in the approaches to learning this subject, and also explains the relationship between biology as a science and the didactics of biology. It deals with teaching standards and curricula, advises on how to master biological concepts and understanding, how to communicate with students in biology classes, when and why are effective visual and practical methods. It acquaints the reader with the issue of setting goals for biological education in the cognitive, psychomotor and affective areas in relation to formative and summative assessment.

Hopeful as well as experienced teachers will find in this publication not only a look into the history of teaching biology, but also a look into the future. Current trends in biology teaching, the connection of teaching with digital technologies, the virtual learning environment and interactive simulations and models belong to science lessons today.

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E-publication

Beáta Valkay ed.
Ivana Slepáková-Lenka Maliničová a kol.

The publication EFFUSE – Educational Materials for the Public was developed within the EFFUSE project and focuses on current environmental issues of river landscapes. It emphasizes the importance of water as an irreplaceable resource and the need to protect it. Special attention is given to bioindicators – organisms whose presence or absence reflects the state of the environment. Monitoring bioindicators makes it possible to detect ecosystem changes before serious damage occurs. The publication highlights that biodiversity is essential for ecosystem stability and health. As such, it serves as a valuable educational resource for the public, raising environmental awareness and encouraging active involvement in nature conservation.

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E-publication

Michal Goga-Marko S. Sabovljević-Martin Bačkor-Dajana Kecsey-Deepti Routray

A comprehensive guide that introduces you to the fascinating diversity and systematics of lower plants. These practical lessons are designed to provide hands-on training, allowing students to engage directly with the interesting study of Cryptogams by observation, analysis, and identification and experimentation. Beginning with the overall idea of cryptogam in a field trip near by the vicinity of Botanical garden then followed by the basics of microscopy in, will help to gain essential skills in understanding the components and proper usage of a microscope, a fundamental tool in botanical studies.

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E-book

Jozef Kováčik

These "Exercise Manuals" present a concise overview of commonly used methodologies as well as progressive techniques, such as the use of liquid chromatography and fluorescence microscopy. Individual tasks were selected based on the research focus of the Department of Botany at the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, particularly in the context of "stress physiology."

Some tasks can also be utilized within the subject "Plant Ecology." Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is typically used as a model plant for individual tasks due to its long-standing history of research at the Department of Botany and its ease of cultivation under laboratory conditions. The chapters also briefly discuss the significance of monitored parameters, principles of their determination, and metabolism (formation or degradation), aiming to indicate their mutual context.

This approach highlights that determining an individual parameter cannot provide a general explanation for the overall causes and impacts of observed changes; however, it can serve as a basis for testing hypotheses at the level of other parameters.

For deeper study of specific issues, there is an abundance of high-quality international monographs and review articles available.

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E-book

Erik Čižmár

The textbook "Special Practicum II" is dedicated to describing experimental methods used for studying the magnetic properties of solid materials, especially low-dimensional and molecular magnets. It subsequently contains instructions for the practical exercise "Special Practicum II," during which master's and doctoral students use state-of-the-art commercial equipment-an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer and a SQUID magnetometer.

The introductory chapter briefly describes the origin of magnetism in solids, the role of the crystal field, and magnetic interactions in explaining their magnetic properties. This is followed by an explanation of the principles of EPR, the operation of the EPR spectrometer, and the optimization of its parameters for the specific practical exercise.

The next part of the textbook is devoted to an overview of the behavior of magnetic quantities with changes in magnetic field or temperature in various types of magnets. The textbook concludes with a description of the operating principle of the SQUID magnetometer and an example of its use in a practical exercise measuring the magnetic moment.

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E-book

Karel Saksl

Solving crystal structures is the royal discipline of X-ray crystallography. Its primary task, with the exception of defects, is to describe the atomic structure of the motif that, by its repetition, fills the volume of the entire crystal or crystalline phase. This task is nowadays more or less routine for single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which can locate hundreds to thousands of non-hydrogen atoms in large unit cells. However, in real practice, we often have material available only in powder form instead of single crystals. Solving the atomic structure from its X-ray diffraction data is non-trivial, mainly because the three-dimensional diffraction space of a single crystal is reduced to one dimension by measuring a large number of randomly oriented microcrystals (crystallites). Therefore, the solution itself requires, in addition to proper measurement methodology, the selection of suitable tools, procedures, and strategies that, through optimization, will lead to the solution and refinement of the given crystalline phase. The current limit of this method is approximately 100 non-hydrogen atoms in the asymmetric part of the unit cell, which, however, is sufficient for most inorganic materials.

The goal of these educational texts is to provide students in the second and third levels of university studies with specific guidance on solving crystal structures from powder X-ray diffraction data. These scripts build upon my first monograph and require practical knowledge of its content. Similar to my previous monograph, I offer solved examples without a deep theoretical introduction, demonstrating procedures and strategies leading to the correct solution of crystalline phases using the freely available GSAS-II program. The examples are arranged from simpler to more complex, and the reader will find many useful pieces of information in the literature references as well as in the comments below the line. Part of these scripts are data intended for your individual practice of the described procedures. 

Karel Sakls

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E-book

Ondrej Hutník (ed.)

Book of abstract

Uncertainty Modeling 2024 (UM 2024) is organized by Pavol Jozef ˇSaf´arik University in Koˇsice. It is a continuation of the series of colloquia held in Rzesz´ow under the name International Symposium on Fuzzy Sets (ISFS) and in Bratislava under the name Uncertainty Modeling.

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E-book

Monika Balogová - Viktória Vargová - Kristián Gulyás - Natália Pipová - Dalibor Uhrovič -Marcel Uhrin

A peer-reviewed publication dealing with the biology and ecology of the European green toad, bringing new findings through scientific research on the roosting ecology, spatial activity and dispersal of this protected species in urban environments. The subject matter of this publication is highly topical, as amphibians represent the most threatened vertebrate group in the world. This work is suitable not only for university students interested in batrachology, amphibian ecology, and vertebrate zoology, but also for conservation workers, municipalities, and specialists directly involved in the reconstruction of urban areas with green toads. Last but not least, this publication is suitable for enthusiasts with an interest in nature and its conservation.

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E-book

Adela Kravčáková - Stanislav Vokál - Janka Vrláková 

The presented “General Physics IV, Part 1: Atomic Physics” is intended as a basic study material for lectures from General Physics IV in the second year of bachelor-level study of physics and interdisciplinary study in combination with physics at the Faculty of Science, P. J. Šafárik University in Košice. The content covers the first part of the given course of physics, devoted to atomic physics.

The aim of the course is to obtain basic information about the structure of the atom and the electron shell of the atom.

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E-book

Gabriel Semanišin - Emil Hutňan - Jana Oleničová

The proceedings contain contributions from participants of the UNIFOS 2014 conference, University Information Systems in Košice, which took place from October 27 to 29, 2014.

ICT centers are important element that provide functioning and development hardware and software infrastructure at Slovak Universities. There are more differences between them in real position, management, personal sources and financing. ICT centers provide a wide range of services to large number of university users and they implement the policy of information security recently.

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