Ecology of Soil Animals

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

Stela Csachová - Ján Kaňuk - Alena Gessert - Ladislav Novotný - Štefan Gábor - Jozef Šupinský

This book addressed the inquiry-based learning and teaching with the support of geospatial technologies. Today, geospatial technologies are influencing geography teaching learning, particularly in secondary education. Theoretical framework gives the reader the insight to inquiry-based learning, with special focus on inquiry in geography. The one-by-one step of inquiry is analysed in detail. The major part of the book presents the eleven models of geography lessons, representing the subject content of physical, human and regional geographies, various levels of inquiry and use of different geospatial technologies. The readers are acquainted with the use of geographic information system (particularly Google Earth and ArcGIS online), web portals, webGIS, open data, mobile applications and new forms of 3D cartographic visualisation (virtual reality, 3D print, dynamic 3D map) in teaching geography. The lesson models were tested with the students to be geography teachers in school year 2021/2022. This books serves as resource mainly for undergraduate teacher students and in-service geography teachers.

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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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E-book

Adriana Zeleňáková - Jozef Bednarčík

Peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Scientific Conference NANOVIR

The main objective of the scientific conference NANOVIR was the presentation of scientific results obtained during the implementation of the NANOVIR project – Nanoparticles for solving diagnostic and therapeutic problems with COVID-19, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund within the Operational Programme Integrated Infrastructure 2014 – 2020, ITMS: 313011AUW7.

The project was carried out from January 1, 2021, to June 30, 2023, and was supported with a sum of EUR 1,916,004.79. Three co-investigating organizations participated in the project: Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice as the main investigator, the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy in Košice as partner no. 1, and the Institute of Experimental Physics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences as partner no. 2.

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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-book

Jozef Bednarčík (ed.)

The SFEL school is continuation of the Winter Schools of Synchrotron radiation held in 2011, 2013, 2014 and SFEL 2017, 2018 and 2019. All schools of the series were held here, in Liptovský Ján, where our conference venue offers conditions for friendly and creative atmosphere.

The aim of the SFEL 2022 school is to facilitate the growth of a new Slovak research community with high expertise in the area of high-efficiency RTG laser, synchrotron and neutron sources. The SFEL school is designed for efficient transfer of the rapidly developing know-howin these areas to young generation – researchers and university students. The next aim of the SFEL2022 is strengthening of personal connections between the local Slovak research community and actually forming scientific teams of XFEL users, scientific teams of synchrotron or neutron sources users, respectively.

Slovak research community thus can take advantage of the fact that Slovakia is a shareholder of the European XFEL GmbH company in Hamburg, but also makes more efficient use of other closely related scientific facilities, including ILL and ESRF in Grenoble and DESY in Hamburg.

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E-book

Milan Žukovič

This textbook is intended for master's degree students and is a follow-up to the Computational Physics I course studied at the bachelor's level. The content of the textbook Computational Physics II focuses on stochastic methods of solving physical problems, mainly on Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of many-particle systems.

The focus on this computationally intensive approach is motivated by the gradual increase in the computing capacities of ordinary computers as well as the introduction of high-performance computing clusters. This has led to significant progress in the development of new simulation techniques, thanks to which MC simulations have found application in various areas of research and application practice. Considering the main research focus of the department, this text is particularly devoted to the presentation of basic and more advanced MC simulation techniques applied to a simple Ising spin model in order to investigate its magnetic, thermodynamic and critical properties.

The next part is devoted to MC simulations of random processes. It focuses on the simplest but also the most basic random walk process and demonstrates its applications in financial analysis and the solution of a quantum system described by the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The last part is dedicated to the basics of molecular dynamics, applied to simulating the classical movement of atoms in a given force field. By mastering the problems addressed in this course, students will obtain a potential tool for working out of their diploma theses, or a methodology useful for their further scientific and research practice in the field of investigating of complex systems.

The lectured topic is subsequently exercised in the form of preparing projects implemented in the freely distributable software Octave, which is easy on the user's programming skills and which students have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with in the previous study.

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E-book

Zuzana Orságová Králová (ed.)

The scientific book of abstracts is a summary of the contributions of teachers, scientists and other conference participants, which contain the original results of their scientific and research activities. Their work will be the subject of the next domestic conference „New Trends in Chemistry, Research and Education at Faculty of Science of P. J. Šafárik University in Košice 2020“. The conference is a space for dialogue between scientific academics on the one hand and professional staff and students on the other.

The contributions published in this volume can be divided according to content into the field of analytical, inorganic, physical, organic chemistry, biochemistry and didactics of chemistry. All contributions are interesting and can be used in further creative scientific and research work, in the process of education and in practical work.

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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/

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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 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

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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Danica Studenovská - Tomáš Madaras 

Táto publikácia je určená pre študentov nematematických odborov na Prírodovedeckej fakulte UPJŠ v Košiciach. Jej obsahom je látka preberaná v prvom semestri v rámci predmetu Matematika I..

Publikácia nadväzuje na učivo stredných škôl a nevyžaduje žiadne predbežné špeciálne znalosti. Môže slúžiť ako základ na ďalšie samostatné štúdium a môže byť užitočná aj pre iných záujemcov o matematiku a jej aplikácie.

Vyriešené príklady v jednotlivých kapitolách majú pomôcť čitateľovi pri zvládnutí štúdia. Tomu napomáhajú aj ilustratívne obrázky.

Autori

E-book

Ivana Sotáková-Martin Vavra-Mária Ganajová

This textbook has been designed for the master students of chemistry teaching (combined) at the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice as a source of model school experiments in general and inorganic chemistry. It will be used for teaching the Special Practice of School Experiments I compulsory course. It consists of instructions for experiments related to the selected topics in general and inorganic chemistry as well as the didactic and technical aspects of their performance. Each experiment includes an explanation of the principle, specification of the tools and chemicals needed, working procedure, and the respective apparatus assembly scheme. At the end of each experiment, the observation and explanation necessary for the correct interpretation of the results of the chemical experiment performed are provided. To follow the requirements for the digital transformation of education, selected computer-aided experiments and visualiser projections have been included as well. The next part is focused on the work with the monitoring suitcase, which can be used for making simple field experiments related to environmental topics. The final part is dedicated to attractive experiments that complement the topics in inorganic chemistry and can be used to motivate students. All experiment instructions are in line with the requirements specified by the state educational programmes for primary and grammar schools. This book allows teachers to select appropriate demonstrative experiments or experiments for laboratory classes performed by students themselves. The videos of selected experiments are also available as part of the interactive periodical table of elements operated by the Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

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E-book

Andrea Morovská Turoňová - Renáta Oriňaková - František Kaľavský 

The university textbooks "Practical Exercises in Physical Chemistry" are intended as teaching literature for students of the 2nd year of the Chemistry study program and the 3rd year of the interdisciplinary study program at the Faculty of Science of the Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

The three chapters summarize the basic knowledge of thermodynamics, electrochemistry and kinetics, the next chapter deals with the measurement of some other physico-chemical quantities. The tasks developed on the basis of cooperation with the Criminalistics and Expertise Institute of the Police in Košice, which also participates in the innovation of practical teaching, are also very attractive and interesting for students. Thematic units are updated and supplemented by new knowledge, principles as well as detailed working procedures using new instrumentation.

The aim of laboratory exercises in physical chemistry is to illustrate and confirm the physicochemical laws and correlations that apply to the quantitative description of chemical phenomena. Students will learn to use instruments and equipment that occur in physico-chemical laboratories, they will learn the principles of accurate and correct quantitative measurement of physical quantities, important from a chemical point of view. They can also develop professional and scientific communication skills, and we want to support their creative approach to making measurement protocols.

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