New Trends in Chemistry, Research and Education 2020

E-book

Jana Shepa (ed.)

The book of abstracts from the second year of the international conference Spring electrochemical meeting is composed of contributions from the participants of this student conference.

The conference consisted of one invited lecture and ten competing student lectures. The message of this meeting is to create a dialogue between students of electrochemistry and the mutual exchange of knowledge. All contributions are professionally processed and inspiring.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Renáta Oriňaková

We have prepared a publication that focuses on the personalities of professors. These personalities represent entire scientific teams, participated in the creation of new study programs, and had a significant impact on the formation of the faculty. Factually, we tried to capture the basic data in a uniform structure. We are building on a similar publication from ten years ago, which greatly helped us, especially with professors who worked at the faculty many years ago and whose memories are gradually fading. The ambition of the publication is to contribute to the preservation of basic information that is closely related to the history of the faculty.

doc. RNDr. Roman Soták, PhD. Dean of the Faculty of Science, UPJŠ in Košice

Download e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Mária Ganajová - Jozef Hanč - Ivana Sotáková - Petra Letošníková (eds.)

The International Conference on Research in Didactics of the Science – DidSci+ 2022, continues in the educational legacy of the successful series of the previous DidSci conferences held from 2004 in Krakow, Prague, Brno, or Trnava. The DidSci+ conferences present a platform for enduring international cooperation, focusing on the frontiers and current challenges in science education research. This special edition of DidSci conferences, celebrating its 10th anniversary, was held in Košice, at the Faculty of Science of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, from June 26 to 29, 2022. The careful double-blind review process has led to two major publications offering a comprehensive look at the latest advances in STEM and science subjects education. The first volume of selected papers is published as the IOP Conference Series proceedings, Vol. 3037 with open access at https://iopscience.iop.org/issue/1742-6596/3037/1, and is primarily devoted to STEM education, assessment, evaluation, feedback strategies, and teacher development. The second volume of selected papers, published by ŠafárikPress, focuses more on curriculum development, educational innovation, and digital technologies, primarily in chemistry and biology. Both publications are intended for a wide audience, including in-service and pre-service teachers of science subjects, university students in scientific disciplines, researchers in science education, professionals in pedagogical and methodological centers, curriculum developers, and textbook authors.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

Adriana Zeleňáková

Magnetic nanoparticles are extremely interesting magnetic objects that still hide much that is undiscovered, both because of their physical properties and because of their diverse applications. Iron nanoparticles, or iron oxides, are used in medical diagnostics for magnetic resonance imaging, in the treatment of hyperthermia, and an important application is the use of magnetic particles for targeted drug delivery.

The textbook "Magnetic Nanoparticles: Nanomagnetism, Preparation and Advanced Applications" is intended primarily for students of the Master's programme in Physics and students of related disciplines at universities and faculties with a physical, chemical, metallurgical and biophysical focus. The motivation for writing this textbook was to develop study material that would contribute to improving the quality of teaching in the profile subject Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology at the Institute of Physical, Faculty of Sciences, UPJŠ, in the Master's programme Condensed Matter Physics, as well as in the profile subject in the PhD programme Advanced Materials.

The university textbook is divided into eight chapters. The first and second chapters are devoted to basic information about magnetism, the origin of nanomagnetism in nanoparticles and surface phenomena. The third and fourth chapters are devoted to nanomagnetism in nanoparticle systems. The fifth chapter describes in detail individual protocols for investigating the phenomenon of superparamagnetism and the phenomenon of superspin glass using the SQUID device. The sixth chapter describes individual procedures for the preparation of magnetic nanoparticles and the seventh chapter describes individual experimental techniques for the study of magnetic nanoparticles. The final eighth chapter describes the applications of nanoparticles in biomedicine.

During the writing of this textbook, the chapters were prepared using the foreign-language specialist literature listed in the recommended reading list.

Download the e-book for free

E-book

Valéria Skřivánková - Martina Hančová

The publication is focused on discrete random processes, primarily on Markov chains, which have wide application in the field of economics and finance.

The textbook is divided into five chapters, the first of which serves as an introduction to random processes and provides definition, properties and classification of random processes in general. The second chapter discusses Markov chains with discrete time, including valuation of transitions between states and their optimal management. The third chapter focuses on special Markov chains with continuous time and emphasizes construction and solution to the system of Kolmogorov differential equations, which describe the dynamics of the process development. The last two chapters illustrate applications of Markov chains using examples of queuing system modeling and renewal theory.

Besides the explanation of basic terms, definitions and theorems with proofs, this textbook also provides number of solved examples to illustrate the discussed theory. Problem assignments are placed at the end of each chapter, so that readers can test their understanding of the content as they progress through the book. Solutions to all the problems and the list of references are provided at the end of the publication.

This textbook is primarily intented for students majoring in Economics and Financial Mathematics at the Faculty of Science of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, and it covers content of the course “Random Proceses 1“ thought there. It might however serve also students from other schools in similar progams or professionals interested in this topic.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Tomáš Samuely

Today, scanning probe microscopes are standard tools in materials science, physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Thousands of these microscopes are in operation worldwide and are at least as common and popular as scanning electron microscopes.

Despite the vast number of newer scanning probe microscopy techniques, classical STM remains a significant and irreplaceable method, widely used, for example, in solid-state research. In this text, we will focus on both traditional and innovative STM techniques that are available and utilized in the laboratories of the Center for Low Temperature Physics in Košice.

Download e-book for free (pdf)

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

Marcel Uhrin - Petr Benda -  Peter Kaňuch

Bats represent a unique group of mammals, characterised by different life strategies. They are the only mammals capable of active flight, which, combined with their almost exclusively nocturnal activity, has led to the evolution of specific adaptations. One of the most striking is echolocation, which enables them to orientate themselves perfectly in their surroundings in the dark. Bats are mainly native to the tropics, but have also colonised areas outside the tropics, which, has led to a complex phenological cycle with active phases and interruptions during hibernation, especially in temperate zones. In this diverse and species-rich group (almost 1,500 known species), there is a wide range of social organisation as well as feeding and roosting strategies. The textbook "Fundamentals of Chiropterology" brings the current state of knowledge about these extraordinary animals in eleven chapters and two appendices for the first time in the Slovak language.

E-book

Andrea Morovská Turoňová

The discovery of radioactivity at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries stimulated the rapid development of nuclear sciences. At the interface between nuclear physics and chemistry, disciplines such as radiochemistry, radiation chemistry and nuclear chemistry were formed.

The aim of the Nuclear Chemistry course which is taught at the PF UPJŠ is to provide basic knowledge, with an emphasis on the general value of the subject. It is important to make available the basics of various methods, techniques and their specifics in the application of nuclear phenomena in chemistry and related fields. Emphasis is also placed on the use of correct terminology, knowledge of the context of relationships and basic principles, supplemented by illustrative concrete cases.

The choice of material is rather difficult, but we count on additional monographs and textbooks to fill in the gaps of these teaching texts.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

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.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Daniela Kladeková

Working with this study text requires adequate knowledge of physical chemistry, physics, and biology, as navigating the presented material becomes challenging without this foundation. A solid grasp of mathematics is essential and aids in understanding colloidal chemistry problems. The textbook, structured into individual chapters, first addresses optical and molecular-kinetic properties after classifying and characterizing disperse systems.

This university-level textbook is primarily intended for students in chemical and ecological disciplines at the Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. It does not aim to exhaustively cover every detail of the subject, as comprehensive treatments are already available in specialized monographs on colloid and macromolecular chemistry, as well as in foundational physical chemistry textbooks.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

Jana Šandrejová - Andrea Gajdošová (eds.)

The scientific book of abstracts from the conference „Novel Trends in Chemistry, Research and Education 2024“ is a summary of the contributions of conference participants, which contain the original results of their scientific and research activities. The contributions published in this volume are divided according to content into the fields of analytical, inorganic, organic, physical chemistry, biochemistry and didactics of chemistry.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-publication

Jozef Strečka-Katarína Karľová

The proceedings include the programme and abstracts of the workshop Magnetic Cooling and Frustrated Magnetism, held in Košice on October 27–29, 2025. The event is organized with the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Faculty of Science of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, and the Slovak Research and Development Agency. The workshop focuses on current challenges in quantum physics, particularly frustrated magnetism and magnetic cooling. Participants will present original research results that may significantly contribute to the development of future quantum technologies.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Vasyl Cherlinka - Michal Gallay - Yuryi Dmytruk

The textbook is a practical guide to predictive mapping of soil types and properties in R. It bridges digital soil mapping theory with hands-on practice, covering the full workflow from data acquisition and preprocessing to validation and uncertainty quantification. Early chapters introduce the tidyverse ecosystem and the sf and terra packages for spatial data handling. Subsequent parts address modelling of categorical variables (soil types/WRB) and continuous variables (soil organic carbon) using Random Forest, Cubist, and Quantile Regression Forests. Step-by-step code examples show training/testing, feature selection, accuracy metrics, and model interpretation. Reproducibility and cartographic best practice are emphasised. A Slovakia case study demonstrates real-world application while outlining limits and generalisability. The book targets bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD students in geography, geoinformatics, environmental and agricultural sciences, as well as practitioners. Written in English, it fits international courses and mobility programmes.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Soňa Király (ed.)

The book of abstracts from International Meeting on Advanced Materials, IMAM 2025, is composed of contributions from participants of this conference. The conference consisted of 16 lectures by mentioned conference participants. The conference is focused on advanced materials and its application in various research areas. All contributions are professionally processed and inspiring.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)

E-book

Ivana Šišoláková - Radka Gorejová - Jana Shepa - Renáta Oriňaková

The university textbook "Advanced Electrochemical Methods" is a teaching aid intended for master's or doctoral students studying electrochemical subjects at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

These textbooks follow and further develop textbooks focused on the basic electrochemical methods currently used in modern research. The presented teaching texts are processed in sixteen clear chapters, where they provide a theoretical principle and derivation of electrochemical processes and mechanisms in individual methods. Teaching texts also consist of practical laboratory exercises, in which students can try out the real application of the studied electrochemical methods.

The practical tasks are focused primarily on the demonstration of research that is carried out at our workplace. Students will be able to try, for example, electrochemical modification of the electrode surface, preparation of electrochemical sensors for the determination of analytes, preparation and characterization of a dye-sensitized solar cell or electrochemical evolution of hydrogen.

Download the e-book for free (pdf)