Showing papers by "Matej Bel University published in 2006"

Market-based health care reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: lessons after ten years of change:

Abstract: After 1989, all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries implemented large- scale health care reforms. The changes differ among CEE countries, depending very much on the specific conditions present at the start of and during the processes. However, there are some common issues — most notably, the introduction of several market-based instruments, including introducing health insurance financing systems to replace general taxation-based models, privatiza- tion and the introduction of private payments and co-payments. Much was expected as the outcome of the changes. However, recent evidence indicates that many expectations from the 'marketization' of health care were not fulfilled. Such failures confirm that the transformation processes in CEE countries cannot be based just on the simple transfer of western good practice. The success of the implementation of new approaches has been a function of the effective combi- nation of western and local expertise and the respecting of the specific local environment. One must be able to predict (as much as possible) the impact of new mechanisms in specific transitional conditions. The inability to do this has come at great cost to the citizens of the region.

Chirality Groups of Maps and Hypermaps

Abstract: Although the phenomenon of chirality appears in many investigations of maps and hypermaps no detailed study of chirality seems to have been carried out. Chirality of maps and hypermaps is not merely a binary invariant but can be quantified by two new invariants -- the chirality group and the chirality index, the latter being the size of the chirality group. A detailed investigation of the chirality groups of maps and hypermaps will be the main objective of this paper. The most extreme type of chirality arises when the chirality group coincides with the monodromy group. Such hypermaps are called totally chiral. Examples of them are constructed by considering appropriate ``asymmetric'' pairs of generators for some non-abelian simple groups. We also show that every finite abelian group is the chirality group of some hypermap, whereas many non-abelian groups, including symmetric and dihedral groups, cannot arise as chirality groups.

Structure of chironomid assemblages along environmental and geographical gradients in the Bohemian Forest lakes (Central Europe): An exploratory analysis

Abstract: Eight glacial lakes of the Bohemian Forest (Czech Republic and Germany) were characterised by the distribution of chironomids collected as pupal exuviae Twenty-eight taxa were identified, including some faunistically interesting species of the region Two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) was used to classify lakes according to their taxonomic composition Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and multiple regression were used to relate the chironomid assemblages to two sets of explanatory variables: (i) local environmental variables, and (ii) broad-scale spatial variables The TWINSPAN classified the lakes into four groups, whereas presence/absence of three taxa was indicative for this classification The CCA of assemblage composition on environmental variables showed that chironomids respond significantly to altitude and alkalinity The ordination of composition data on geographical variables revealed strong longitudinal gradient in chironomid distributions Altitude and alkalinity accounted for 362% of the total variation, while the geographic gradient explained 205% As revealed by the variation partitioning procedure, the significant effect of these variables was, in large part, independent of each other Overall taxonomic richness appeared to be governed by altitude only Causal ecological and historical factors underlying these results are discussed This paper may provide a basis for hypothesis testing in future research of the Bohemian Forest lakes

Representation of IF-probability on MV-algebras

Abstract: A probability theory on IF-events has been constructed by Grzegorzewski and Mrowka in [2] and axiomatically characterized by B. Riecan in [6]. More general situation was studied by B. Riecan in [5]. He introduced the IF-probability, which is decomposed onto two probabilities on Lukasiewicz tribe. The aim of this paper is to define the IF-probability and IF-observable on MV-algebras. We show that some known results of [7] can be applied also for these IF-events.

A Note on Invariant Observables

Abstract: The ergodic theory and particularly the individual ergodic theorem were studied in many structures Recently the individual ergodic theorem has been proved for MV-algebras of fuzzy sets (Riecan, 2000; Riecan and Neubrunn, 1997) and even in general MV-algebras (Jureckova, 2000) The notion of almost everywhere equality of observables was introduced by B Riecan and M Jureckova in Riecan and Jureckova (2005) They proved that the limit of Cesaro means is an invariant observable for P-observables In this paper show that the assumption of P-observable can be omitted

First records of chironomids (Diptera, Chironomidae) from Slovakia

Abstract: Faculty of Sciences, Matej Bel University, Tajovskeho 40, SK–97401 Banska Bystrica, Slovakia; e-mail: peter@blatna.cuni.cz Department of Biology and General Ecology, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Technical University in Zvolen, SK–96053 Zvolen, Slovakia Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, SK–84506 Bratislava, Slovakia; e-mail: ladislav.hamerlik@savba.sk Water Research Institute, Nabr. arm. gen. L. Svobodu 5, SK–81249 Bratislava, Slovakia; e-mail: matushaviar@hotmail.com

Long-term variation in an occurrence of Rhabditis orbitalis parasitic larvae (Nematoda, Rhabditidae) in the eyes of montane rodents

Abstract: During a long-term survey (1999–2005) of parasitic larvae of nidicolous nematode Rhabditis orbitalis Sudhaus et Schulte, 1986 in the West Tatra Mts, the nematodes were detected in the eye orbits of snow voles Chionomys nivalis in 1999, 2004 and 2005. In the last year, R. orbitalis was detected also in another vole species Clethrionomys glareolus and Microtus tatricus both in previously studied site and in the Low Tatra Mts, however, it has never appeared at other rodent species. For the first time, an irregular occurrence of the R. orbitalis parasitic larvae has been ascertained in natural conditions of the Slovak mountains. The eye nematodes occurred only during autumn or cold and rather wet summer months, when density of the preferred host Ch. nivalis was relatively low. A hypothesis has been put forward that an occasional appearance of parasitic eye larvae in the life cycle of bacteriophagous R. orbitalis represents a strategy for surviving periods of a scarcity of bacterial food, which could be influenced by a combination of weather conditions, density of host rodents and seasonal abundance of R. orbitalis in rodent nests.

On the probability theory on the Atanassov sets

Abstract: We present an axiomatic approach to the probability theory on IF-sets = intuitionistic fuzzy sets = Atanassov sets (K. Atanassov, 1999). Starting with two constructive definitions (T. Gerstenkorn, et.al., 2005) we consider a theory including not only the special cases but also the general form of the probabilities on IF-sets. Moreover an embedding of the theory to the probability theory on MV-algebras is given

Outer measure on F-sets

Abstract: In this paper we study an outer measure on F-sets with values in a complete Abelian i-group First we introduce a G-valued measure on F-sets Then we define attributes of an outer measure and we find an expression of this outer measure

On the probability theory on the Atanassov sets

Abstract: We present an axiomatic approach to the probability theory on IF-sets = intuitionistic fuzzy sets = Atanassov sets (Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets: Theory and Applications. Physica, New York, 1999). Starting with two constructive definitions (Issues in Intelligent Systems: Paradigms, EXIT, Warszawa 2005, pp. 63–58; Soft Methods in Probability, Statistics and Data Analysis, Physica, New York 2002, pp. 105–115) we consider a theory including not only the special cases but also the general form of the probabilities on IF-sets. Moreover an embedding of the theory to the probability theory on MV-algebras is given. This fact enables to use the well developed probability theory on MV-algebras for constructing probability theory on IF-events.

Generalized Fuzzy Cardinalities of IF Sets

Abstract: The axiomatic theory of fuzzy cardinalities of finite intuitionistic fuzzy sets, as a straightforward generalization of the axiomatic cardinality theory of finite fuzzy sets (cf. [2]), can be found in [10]. There the cardinality is defined as a mapping CI : FF L∗(X) −→ FCF LI (N), where FCF LI (N) denotes the set of all general convex interval-valued fuzzy number (icgnn), i.e., the finite convex interval-valued fuzzy sets on N. The aim of our contribution is to extend this axiomatic theory using the t-sums based on generalized t-norms (t-norms on a lattice LI , the underlying lattice of interval-valued fuzzy sets) and to study the properties of such cardinalities.