Martin Nekola

RTS2 — Remote Telescope System, 2nd Version

BART is a small remote controlled robotic CCD telescope, devoted to rapid observation of prompt gamma ray burst transients. During its operation since early 2001, it had three prompt observations with world‐competitive response time. The constraints to object magnitude were estimated and published in GCN circulars. Telescope is located in Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov. This poster describes its new control system, named RTS2, which has been in service since February 2003.

BART: The Czech Autonomous Observatory

The High Energy Astrophysics group of the stellar department of the Astronomical Institute in Ondřejov operates two small aperture robotic telescopes called BART and D50. Both telescopes are capable of making automatic followup observation of gamma-ray burst optical counterparts. This paper deals with the smaller telescope BART.

Regulating New Psychoactive Substances in the Czech Republic: Policy Analysis under Urgency

Abstract The criminal prohibition of psychoactive substances is challenged every day as new designer substances emerge on globalized markets in a regulatory void. In a case study of a recent regulatory amendment in the Czech Republic, the article reconstructs the formulation of recommendations by an advisory committee working at the boundary between science and practical policy making. A uniform legal status was applied to both high-risk and low-risk substances. The article demonstrates how expert efforts to produce evidence-based policy advice were constrained by an externally induced sense of urgency, avoidance of controversy, internal disunity about drug policy orientation, limited evidence, and the institutional momentum of traditional drug control. The logic of evidence was relativized by the tactical preference for consensus.

Job change in later life: A process of marginalization?

ABSTRACT Adopting a longitudinal approach, this article examines downward occupational mobility (DOM) later in working life and its effects on job satisfaction and perceptions of working conditions of older workers in Europe. The main aim was to test whether the risk that workers will be negatively impacted and marginalized in the labor market due to demotion into lower quality jobs is offset by benefits. Based on an ordinal logistic regression of merged Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing datasets, the study found a positive significant impact of DOM on overall job satisfaction. Moreover, DOM was associated with a statistically significant reduction in workload pressure, although it did increase physical work demand. This article adds to the literature on marginalization of workers with indications that the lower income and status associated with DOM at older ages may have offsetting benefits.

GRB 060117 : Reverse + forward shock solution

We present a discovery and observation of an extraordinarily bright prompt optical emission of the GRB 060117 obtained by a wide-field camera atop the robotic telescope FRAM of the Pierre Auger Observatory from 2 to 10 minutes after the GRB. We found rapid average temporal flux decay of alpha = -1.7 +/- 0.1 and a peak brightness R = 10.1 mag. We interpret the shape of the lightcurve as a transition between reverse and forward shock emission.