News from UP

Scientists from Palacký University’s CATRIN, the University of West Bohemia, and VSB-TUO have developed an innovative sensor capable of accurately measuring temperatures between 10 and 90 degrees Celsius. This cutting-edge sensor, utilizing a novel graphene derivative, stands out for its high precision, reliability, and resistance to humidity. Its applications are vast, ranging from industrial production and storage areas requiring remote temperature monitoring to integration into protective clothing.

“We developed the new material using fluorographene chemistry by removing fluorine atoms and attaching benzylamine to the available reactive sites. This proved to be a crucial step in creating the temperature sensor. This technology allowed us to significantly minimize the adverse effects of humidity, typically the most challenging issue for such devices,” explained Petr Jakubec from CATRIN, a co-author of the study published in the prestigious journal Advanced Electronic Materials.

According to the authors, the new sensor offers significant advantages over traditional sensors, primarily due to its high accuracy. “It exhibits temperature resistivity that is twice as high as that of conventional platinum thermometers. A common issue with temperature sensors is their varying responses to changes in relative humidity. As a result, they often need to be wrapped in an insulating layer, which reduces their response rate. Our material, however, is stable and insensitive to humidity, allowing it to function in direct contact with the environment. This means it can measure temperature more accurately and quickly, better meeting the needs of modern industry,” stated the team leader Michal Otyepka from CATRIN and IT4Innovations VSB-TUO.

The sensor can be produced using inexpensive and rapid printing technologies, making it cost-effective to manufacture and easily scalable. This efficiency positions it as an ideal choice for widespread use in commercial applications.

Temperature monitoring and regulation are essential in various environments, including industrial, residential, and storage settings. Consequently, the demand for affordable, efficient, and durable temperature sensors is on the rise.

Martin Procházka, Rector of Palacký University Olomouc, will lead the European university network Aurora as of the new academic year. He was elected its president by the Aurora General Council during the Aurora Spring Biannual 2024, which is currently underway in Naples, Italy. More than 170 representatives from 19 participating institutions are attending the meeting to discuss the development of international education, stakeholder engagement, and technology transfer.

The four-day meeting where members of the Aurora European university network are meeting together right now is called Aurora Spring Biannual 2024. Palacký University Olomouc joined the network as an associate member in 2020 and became a full member of the Aurora Network global university consortium in May 2022. After another term of intensive cooperation, UP Rector Martin Procházka was nominated for the position of President-Elect at the beginning of this year.

In yesterday’s election, he received full support from the members of the Aurora General Council, and thus will replace the current president, University of Iceland Rector Jón Atli Benediktsson, in September. During the ceremony, Rector Procházka presented him with a vase made of Bohemian glass to thank him for his service. “Jón Atli, this gift is not only a token of our friendship, but also a symbol of your excellent work for Aurora. Bohemian crystal, renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship, shines with the combination of tradition and innovation that we strive for at Aurora and reflects our commitment to excellence in education and research,” said Procházka.

In his acceptance speech, he emphasised that in his role as President, he wants to give the universities and all members of the community space for expression and the opportunity to shape the future of both Aurora and European higher education together. "My mission is to build bridges – between cultures, institutions, and even the whole of the world. Our commitment is to grow together within this connection, to develop Aurora, and to expand our ambitions with other global partners."

A key element of Aurora are students. One of its executive bodies is the Student Council, whose president is Hanuš Patera who studies psychology at the UP Faculty of Arts. “The students’ enthusiasm and their ideas are a great inspiration to us all. As President, I will aim to continue working to create a student-oriented and inclusive environment,” underlined Procházka.

The Aurora Spring Biannual 2024 was commenced Monday evening with a welcome reception in the historic premises of the University of Naples Federico II, which celebrates 800 years of its existence this year. In addition to the election of a new president, Tuesday’s programme included a roundtable discussion on the development of joint international study programmes, and lectures on participatory democracy and citizen science. UP Vice-Rector for Strategy and Regional Affairs Michal Malacka was a guest speaker at the Stakeholder Engagement and Social Entrepreneurship in European Alliances roundtable.

In addition to the handover of the presidency, another festive moment of yesterday’s programme was the signing of the Aurora Sustainable Development Plan, which was designed thanks to the work of the Sustainable Campus team led by Palacký University.

The programme of today and tomorrow will be dedicated to a plenary session led by students. This will be followed by breakout sessions of the vice-rectors, executive committees, and individual working groups. These will focus on education, science, and research, as well as other shared themes such as IT development, health and wellbeing, sustainability, and communication. In addition to the members of the Aurora Student Council, there are other student ambassadors at each university who will be able to get to know each other during a special workshop.

Three Czech maps developed by experts from the Departments of Geoinformatics, Geography, and Development & Environmental Studies of the UP Faculty of Science have been awarded “runner-up” status in the international competition Best Map Award 2023. The prizes are awarded annually by the prestigious Journal of Maps published by Taylor and Francis.

The highest runner-up position for Czech maps was given to the map Quality of Life Indices: How Robust Are the Results Considering Different Aggregation Techniques? by Karel Macků and Radek Barvíř from the Department of Geoinformatics.

“Despite long-term research, there are no unified opinions on which specific indicators to use in assessing quality of life and how to aggregate them into indices. In our article, we focus on the latter issue. Based on a literature review, we compiled a set of indicators that could describe how well people live in a particular place. We investigated whether we would obtain significantly different results if we simply changed the mathematical procedure to construct a synthetic quality of life index from these indicators. Individual approaches to the calculation confirm the partial similarity of the results. However, it is the remaining dissimilarity that points to the fact that by combining different methods, authors of similar papers always reveal more interesting details about the processed data that would remain hidden using one simple approach. Maps have been used to present the results, thanks to which the reader can quickly, simply, and correctly perceive the differences between the individual methods,” said Macků.

The maps Geoparticipation in the Czech Municipalities: Index Based Quantitative Approach and Astronomically Determined Localities, the Core Part of Ptolemy’s Geography were also shortlisted for the Best Map Award 2023. The first is the work of the collective of Jaroslav Burian, Radek Barvíř, Daniel Pavlačka and Vít Pászto from the Department of Geoinformatics, and Jiří Pánek and Jiří Chovaneček from the Department of Development and Environmental Studies. The second was created by Aleš Létal from the Department of Geography and Jan Martínek from the Transport Research Centre.

The Best Map Award has been awarded since 2008 and entries are judged on both academic content and cartographic quality. The winning entry for 2023 was the Geological Map of South America in Google Earth, which unified geological maps across individual countries and published them online in a freely accessible format.

A new unique method that allows scientists to monitor the behaviour of nanoparticles in an environment simulating natural conditions has been developed by scientists from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the UP Faculty of Science. Experts have been focussing on the movement and interactions of nanoparticles in solutions that mimic natural conditions in organisms or the environment. Their approach will help shed light on the fate of nanoparticles in, for example, the human body or wastewater, about which there are still many unknowns. The results of the Olomouc scientists’ work have been published in the renowned journal of the American Chemical Society, Analytical Chemistry.

“We focused on developing a method that would allow us to monitor nanoparticles in the environment of other nanoparticles, even in solutions or complex mixtures that correspond to the situation in living organisms or the environment. Such a method may not only lead to a better understanding of the behaviour of nanoparticles, for example inside cells or in wastewater, but may also lead to a more detailed recognition of their mutual interaction and other possible effects arising between the nanoparticles themselves,” said one of the authors of the study, Jan Petr from the Department of Analytical Chemistry.

The method developed by the Olomouc scientists enables, among other things, a closer study of the circulation of nanoparticles in the environment. The nanoparticles used in the study enter wastewater and subsequently rivers, seas and oceans. “Here, they meet other nanoparticles and can interact with each other, which can ultimately multiply their negative properties, such as toxicity. Until now, it has not been possible to study these effects in detail, but thanks to our method we can now observe and describe them in detail. We believe that our method can help to prevent these undesirable effects in the future,” said Petr.

The scientists used a unique combination of capillary electrophoresis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (CE-ICP-MS) for their work. “We developed and constructed the interface to connect the two devices at our workplace about five years ago. It represents an advanced analytical technique with enormous potential. Capillary electrophoresis is an efficient separation tool and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry serves as a highly sensitive detector for the determination of trace element concentrations, or even of organic substances containing a suitable element in their structure,” described Tomáš Pluháček, one of its authors and winner of the J.M. Marci Spectroscopic Society award.

To observe the behaviour of the nanoparticles, the scientists used Taylor dispersion analysis, a mathematical procedure for analysing experimentally obtained data, which, under certain conditions, makes it possible to accurately determine the diffusion coefficient and thus the hydrodynamic size of nanoparticles. “The use of this instrumentation technique also allows us to obtain information on the elemental or isotopic composition of nanoparticles, which can be used, for example, to monitor the fate of isotopically labelled nanoparticles,” added co-author Daniel Baron from the Department of Analytical Chemistry.

The Department of Asian Studies at the Palacký University Faculty of Arts has launched the Myanmar Studies Center. The Center was established thanks to the support of the prestigious European Union framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe. The Center will offer, among other things, public lectures and academic courses on various topics related to the region.

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (also known as Burma), one of the countries of Southeast Asia, is the main research and educational interest of the new Myanmar Studies Center (MSC@UP, Třída Svobody 26), established in order to support interdisciplinary research and education in the field, and is unique in the context of both the Czech Republic and Central Europe.

“So far, this region has not received much professional attention. We are committed to filling this gap by supporting interdisciplinary research and education focused on Myanmar. We will offer diverse perspectives and approaches to stimulate a deeper understanding of this vibrant nation. At the same time, we want to spread awareness about Myanmar’s rich cultural heritage, the dynamics of its social development, and its political environment,” said Kristina Kironská, its director.

The Myanmar Studies Center’s activities will include public lectures and academic courses in which experts and students will address topics such as human rights in Asia and politics in the Indo-Pacific region. Its website, www.msc.upol.cz, will feature blog posts by students from Myanmar who will be coming to Olomouc for a semester-long stay under the Erasmus+ programme.

“In June, there will also be a summer school for PhD students and advanced master students on Navigating Geostrategic Dynamics in the IndoPacific: Focus on Southeast Asia and Myanmar. This will be followed by the Interdisciplinary Conference on Myanmar 2024 with the theme Myanmar’s International Role: More Than a Buffer State, which is expected to bring to Olomouc distinguished experts from all over the world,” added Kironská.

The establishment of the Myanmar Studies Center was made possible thanks to the support of Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, awarded to the EUVIP project “The EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific Region” (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03-01). More about the EUVIP project can be found here. 

Experts from five Czech universities and one private company have joined forces to develop a system for monitoring and evaluating selected risk factors of physical workload in the context of Industry 4.0. The project supported by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in the Trend programme also involved the Palacký University Faculty of Physical Culture (UP FPC), which extended the spectrum of target groups of the new technology to athletes, and even to administrative professions.

The result of the applied research is the development of a new technology and equipment for the evaluation of local muscle load during work operations by means of electromyography, including software, which is more user-friendly than the solutions used to date. Physical load is one of the risk factors considered in the categorisation of work from the perspective of public health protection.

“We’ve managed to develop a device that is lighter in terms of weight, has a higher scanning frequency and, among other things, uses Bluetooth technology so that the employee can move around during the measurement and the data is wirelessly transmitted to a mobile phone or tablet, where the evaluator can immediately see the feedback,” explained the main investigator for the UP FPC, David Prycl from the BALUO Application Centre. He added that the proposed solutions are already protected as a utility model and a patent application has been filed.

In addition to Prycl, Amr Zaatar from the Department of Physiotherapy and Michal Vorlíček from the Institute of Active Lifestyle were also involved in the project, and devices from the digital innovation hub DIGI2Health associated with the UP Science and Technology Park were used in the testing.

With regard to the orientation of the UP Faculty of Physical Culture, the Olomouc experts also looked for the possibility of using the new technology with athletes as a potential additional target group. “The use in sports is possible for monitoring and comparing data from maximum stress tests and training. We tested the new device, the sensors of which can be placed on virtually any muscle, in cooperation with the climbing team which comes to our centre regularly,” said Prycl.

The third target group selected by Olomouc researchers was administrative staff. The conclusion of this study included in the project, however, was to recommend a longer-term intervention. “We monitored local muscle load and number of strokes while typing on a computer in three positions – uncorrected sitting, sitting corrected by a physiotherapist, and corrected standing. We also measured the tested persons for as much as five minutes, having in mind possible future commercialisation, but did not find that the load had any effect on the measured position in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, there was higher muscle activity during corrected sitting compared to uncorrected sitting, because during correction we are already concentrating and spending energy to maintain the position. However, it would be interesting to see if longer intervention and repeated measurements would confirm our initial hypotheses,” summarised Prycl.

The device for monitoring and evaluating local muscle load was developed as part of a three-year project, whose principal investigator was the Icontio company, which focuses on advanced solutions in Industry 4.0 and telemedicine. In addition to UP, the applied research and development also involved the Czech Technical University in Prague, Tomas Bata University, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, and the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. The project was funded by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in the Trend programme aimed at supporting industrial research and development of new products, production technologies, and services.