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The paper deals with the musical work of Ludevít Procházka (1837-1888). It contains both quantitative analyses (e.g. numbers of compositions in individual forms and genres), as well as detailed description of Procházka’s works and their reception, based on the contemporary press. It also focuses on the creative periods of the artist’s life and the factors that influenced his work. It also explores the specific poets whose texts Procházka most often chose to set to music. The work also contains music samples and special attention is paid to the composer’s key compositions (e.g. Procházek’s song Kovářská for singing with piano accompaniment or the composer’s quatrain Naše probuzení). The paper concludes with an assessment of Procházka’s contribution as a composer to the Czech lands and the relevance of his work today [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of an object, non-superimposable on its mirror image, constitutes the phenomenon of chirality. This phenomenon is often treated as a curiosity without broader practical consequences. This paper aims to show the significant implications of chirality for chemistry and biology. Chirality is inherent to all living organisms and is essential for their function. For instance, biomolecules are composed of chiral building blocks (amino acids, monosaccharides), which are chiral and occur predominantly with one sense of handedness (homochirality of life). The explanation of the evolution of the homochirality of life therefore helps answer one of the important questions connected with the origin of life.. The paper concludes with a section devoted to current Czech stereochemical terminology. An experimental procedure describing the isolation of carvone enantiomers from natural sources is also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The upper airway naturally warms and humidifies inspired air. For patients with artificial airways, this function is assumed by respiratory care devices, utilizing passive (HME, Heat and Moisture Exchangers) or active humidification. Despite no observed differences in clinical outcomes between these methods in randomised trials with critically ill patients, each has its particular benefits. HME, being technically simpler, is favoured in patients without respiratory pathologies, who are expected to be on only short-term mechanical ventilation (< 4 days). For other ventilated patients, active humidification might be more appropriate, especially when HME’s efficacy is limited due to high inspiratory flow, patient hypothermia, contamination risk, or in patients sensitive to increased dead space, such as in ARDS. This paper explores the physiological principles, experimental findings, and clinical data regarding respiratory humidification in intensive care. It also highlights the disparity in recommendations on the frequency of filter changes. Manufacturers’ guidelines often do not consider the risks associated with frequent circuit disconnection, and there is a noticeable absence of experimental data on this topic. This paper seeks to offer a holistic understanding of respiratory humidification in intensive care, coupled with actionable recommendations for clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bronchial asthma, a chronic pulmonary disease, has a major impact on the patient‘s daily life. Medication adherence and correct inhalation technique are essential to achieve the goals of therapy. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of published literature evaluating the effect of pharmacist-led interventions on medication adherence or inhalation technique in adult patients with bronchial asthma. A total of 23 studies were identified by a literature search of PubMed and Scopus databases. The analysis of the selected studies suggested that pharmacist-led intervention in any form had a positive impact on both above mentioned oberved phenomena and clinical outcomes of bronchial asthma therapy and can significantly contribute to improvement of patients´ quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma in childhood is likely to be a causal factor in psychotic disorders, and trauma in adulthood negatively contributes to the course of these disorders. However, the detection of trauma in clinical practice is inadequate. Our paper builds on the 2014 systematic review by Látalová, Kamarádová and Praško and focuses on data on specific types of victimization in patients with psychotic disorders. In the first part, we present data on victimization in patients with psychotic disorders. Prevalence of victimization in patients with psychosis varies from 30.4 to 74.1%. This range is wide. In our opinion, the main reasons for this are (I) inaccuracies in the definition of victimization, (II) heterogeneity of the cohorts studied, and (III) reporting of victimization over different time periods. A quarter of patients (weighted mean 24.8%) with psychotic disorder were victims of violent victimization during the 12 months. One-fifth and one-sixth of patients with psychosis experienced physical and sexual victimization in childhood (21.2% and 16.4%, respectively). Between 15% and 20% of patients suffered from comorbid PTSD. However, these comorbidities are not diagnosed in Czech clinical practice. Diagnosis of comorbidity of psychotic disorders, victimization and its consequences is an important task that path the way to improve the prognosis of psychotic illness. Unfortunately, the treatment of PTSD as a comorbidity of psychosis is not established in the Czech Republic and its effectiveness has not been investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, teleological thinking in Renaissance anatomy is presented by the example of the Wittenberg anatomist Johannes Jessenius (1566-1621), who performed the first public dissection in Prague in 1600 and published a description of it in Wittenberg in 1601. Jessenius, a graduate of the University of Padua, is also concerned with teleology, which he uses both to justify anatomical practice and to incorporate it into his own interpretation of anatomical acts. In my article, I focus primarily on the dedication and introduction to Jessenius's Prague Anatomy, where teleological thinking is most clearly manifested. I present the teleology in Jessenius in two stages with reference to the passage in the dedication to the Prague Anatomy. In keeping with contemporary practice, Jessenius interprets the Delphic oracle “Know Thyself” as a call to anatomical knowledge of the human body. At the same time the self-knowledge is the knowledge of God in the sense of the connection between cognitio sui and cognitio Dei. The knowledge of the principle of purposefulness thus seems to be the culmination of all anatomical study. In terms of teleology, Jessenius focuses on the points in which the human being differs from other creatures: mind, hand, upright figure. Special attention is paid in my paper to the anatomy of the hand, in which Jessenius follows specifically Andreas Vesalius, who adopts a teleological understanding of the hand from Aristotle and Galen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most woody plants belonging to the order Pinales have needles. Their anatomy has adapted to external conditions – mainly the deficit of water during winter. In cross section, the needles are different in shape, but the leaf anatomy of coniferous species is quite similar. However, there are inter-species differences in arrangement of hypodermis, in the type of mesophyll, in the number and arrangement of resin ducts, and in the number of vascular bundles. Needles are a suitable material for Biology lectures. Their advantage is their availability every season of the year. This paper offers some options for the observation of needle anatomy, recognition of species differences, and the use of an anatomical identification key. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the spatial layout of adult intensive care units (ICUs) that were built in the Czech Republic in 2023 under the REACT 98 call. A comparative evaluation was performed to compare the design features of these units with the latest recommendations of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine from 2011. The investigation focuses on key parameters such as spatial layout, bed capacity, area dedicated around the patient’s bed, access to natural light, availability of toilet facilities for the patient, family areas. The study concludes that most of the evaluated projects do not fulfil the proposed recommendations in the parameters studied and cannot be seen as examples of ideal practice or models of architectural evolution. For the future, it is important that the evolution of ICU layout responds to current medical knowledge, respects the recommendations, and helps in achieving an optimal ICU environment, which is crucial for improving patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]