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Tailoring of structure of plasma polymers
Krtouš, Zdeněk ; Kousal, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The thesis was targeted on the preparation of thin film plasma polymers with Plasma assisted vapour thermal deposition technique. As a characterised precursor was chosen the poly lactic acid because of its interesting biodegradable properties. The set of samples prepared with varying plasma power was obtained. It was found that the PLA structure is still preserved after repolymerisation, moreover, new carbon rich compound was formed. The strong changes of behaviour of samples in water were observed around plasma power of 30 W. The sample prepared in weaker plasma had properties of hydrogel. The samples prepared above 30 W of plasma power were solid and did not dissolve in water.
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What makes children feel good about their work: experimental investigation.
Janšta, Lubomír ; Matoušek, Jindřich (advisor) ; Zeynalova, Olesia (referee)
This bachelor thesis analyses how perceived meaning influences child performance, mood and enjoyment when performing work-related tasks. In laboratory settings, I manipulated the level of perceived meaning that was given for completion of an easy repetitive assignment by three different treatments. In the "Recognized" condition, each completed task was awarded with verbal recognition. The experimenter in the "Ignored" condition did not care about completed work. In the "Shredded" condition, the finished task was left not only unchecked, but it was destroyed immediately after submission. I observed a strong positive relationship between how "nice" experimenter behaved and how many tasks children finished. The same held for how good children felt. In general, even small acknowledgment mattered more than the demotivating procedure, but there were some gender-specific differences. Specifically, recognition played an important role for boys. On the contrary, destroying of completed tasks had a major negative effect on girls. These aspects significantly impacted both, performance as well as mood. Keywords Perceived meaning, Meaningful work, Futile work, Experimental investigation, Children
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Public Procurement Procedures and Their Effects: Evidence from the EU
Čep, Jiří ; Palanský, Miroslav (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The goal of this thesis is to analyze the effect the choice of procurement procedure has on the price of public procurement. We achieve this by investigating the dataset on public procurement data in the EU by the Digiwhist project. In the presented model, we explain the variation in the difference of final and estimated price of procurement as a function of procurement procedure used and a set of auction characteristics such as the number of bidders, contract complexity, type of supply and others. The results show that the open procedure is generally superior to its alternatives in terms of monetary savings. We also demonstrate that in the open procedure, the largest part of the cost reduction comes from the competition effect caused by the number of bidders present, whereas other procedures are not as sensitive to changes in the number of bidders. We find that the average number of bidders is significantly lower than the optimal number would be. 1
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Wage Discrimination in US Sports: Comparative Analysis
Ivantsev, Dmitrii ; Janhuba, Radek (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The issue of salary discrimination in the US sport has been a controversional topic, largely dscussed in the context of racial discrimination in American society. Numerous papers written in this field in the previous years investigated each of the US Major Leagues separately. This thesis provides a comparative analysis of wage discrimination in the Nationall Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and National Football League. The data on players' contracts for all leagues were collected based on 2015-2018 unrestricted free agents' signings with a different sample of players for each specific year. We created five unique datasets for the comparative analysis, including one NBA, two NFL and two MLB related samples, where the MLB datasets represent batting and pitching players, while the NFL samples refer to the players on the offensive and defensive positions. For the estimation of players' productivity, we considered the average performance statistics in three years prior to the first contract year. By adding dummy variables reflecting players' race into the regressions and applying the Ordinary Least Squares method we could compare the size of the wage premium paid to the representatives of the specific race. The results of our regressions do not provide sufficient evidence of salary...
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The Truth Behind the Lies: The Experiment
Harutyunyan, Mikayel ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The Truth Behind The Lies: The Experiment. Abstract The following thesis presents an economic experiment exploring the patterns of cheating behaviors among secondary school students. The students filled in the Big Five and the Dark Triad personality inventories, for which they were rewarded. The payoff in sweets was determined by a die roll. Since the outcomes of the die throw were known only to the subjects, they could decide whether to report the real outcome of the die roll or deceive. Subsequent analysis showed that a certain fraction of participants cheated, but some of them claimed a non-maximal payoff. We also find the appeal to honesty ineffective in reducing the cheating rate. Additionally, we find positive correlation between narcissism, extraversion and cheating, while openness to experience, neuroticism and Morality, a facet of agreeableness, covary negatively with dishonesty. Individuals with poor academic ability cheat less, while subjects who perform better at the Cognitive Reflection Test appear to deceive more. Furthermore, indicators of "unstable" family environment (divorced or unemployed parents) are positively associated with cheating, whilst the effect of a more affluent family background is equivocal. Ultimately, females seem to forgo the opportunity of cheating to a full extent and...
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Modification of nanoparticles by means of tubular sputtering system
Kretková, Tereza ; Hanuš, Jan (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The aim of this work is to prepare heterogeneous nanoparticles which means nanoparticles composed of more than one material. Our approach lies in in-flight modification of primary nanoparticles in the tubular sputtering system. Our tubular system contains copper target and we deposit copper onto the flying primary nanoparticles by magnetron sputtering. The main advantage of this approach is independence of fabrication of primary nanoparticles and their subsequent modification. At first we optimized fabrication of nanoparticles by the gas aggregation source on behalf of the next modification. We also characterized conditions in the tubular sputtering system. We found process in the tubular system to be very complex and sensitive to the changes of the operational parameters. There is a strong interaction between flying nanoparticles and the discharge in the tubular system. Due to this interaction the nanoparticles are trapped in the plasma and the deposition rate is pulsing. The result of this work is modification of nickel and silver nanoparticles, preparation of heterogeneous nanoparticles Ni/Cu and Ag/Cu. These heterogeneous nanoparticles vary in composition, shape and size according to the conditions in the tubular system. We also successfully prepared Janus nanoparticles which are interesting for their...
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Impact of pardon in 2013 on the crime rate in Czech Republic
Besedová, Monika ; Korbel, Václav (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
This thesis studies the impact of Václav Klaus's 2013 pardon on crime in the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on examining a one-time exogenous shock in data on crime and incarceration from 2010 to 2015. The main instruments of the analysis are the elasticity of crime with respect to imprisonment and the incapacitation effect, which is determined in both static and dynamic ways. This helps inspect a progress of relationship between crime and incarceration rate in a longer period after declaration of the pardon. The incapacitation effect, which is the number of criminal offences not committed in one year due to one person being incarcerated, was lower immediately after the pardon, but it sharply increased in the course of six months after the pardon. Nevertheless, it started to decrease afterwards. The hypothesis about increase of crime was confirmed as well. Especially the number of thefts, burglaries and violent crimes rose in the period after the pardon. The pardon caused an increase in crime. In the view of this fact more people are incarcerated in Czech prisons and the incarceration and crime rate started to return to the level before the pardon in a few months. 1
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Player Skill Rating for Games with Random Matchmaking
Hubík, Jan ; Červinka, Michal (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
Traditional skill ratings are not suitable for new types of games. We developed a general skill rating framework for games which do not discriminate players based on their skill. This class of games is widely present in the world. We use Bayesian statistics to convert aggregate data about the player's performance to a percentile rank describing his skill. The system is applicable to both single-player and multiplayer games with binary and non-binary endings. The rating formulas do not contain any arbitrary constants. We have tested the system in simulations and on real game data, and we outline its possible applications.
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Price of Location: The Private versus Commercial Accommodation in Selected European Cities
Houfková, Barbora ; Kocourek, David (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
This thesis investigates the relationship between the location and the price of short-term accommodation in context of European metropolitan cities. We em- ploy the econometric OLS regression with log-level functional form to estimate the influence of main determinants on the price of the accommodation. We compare hotels and apartments in determined cities. We find out that there is a negative relationship between the distance from the city centre and the price of the accommodation. Our model determines the exact rate of drop in prices due to increasing proximity from the city centre. Furthermore, we find distance from the metro station and presence of Wi-Fi in the rooms as insignificant fac- tors for our sample. Finally, we explore that people's perception of the metro station is stable with changing proximity from the city centre. In conclusion, we provide suggestions for further research based on our analyses. Keywords short-term accommodation, tourism economics, hedonic pricing model, OLS regression, location, European cities Author's e-mail houfkova.bara@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail kocourek.david@email.cz
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