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The Belt and Road - Is China moving towards the centre of international trade? Assessment of impact on Balkans and Central Europe using network and gravity analysis
Reinštein, Jakub ; Semerák, Vilém (advisor) ; Komárek, Luboš (referee)
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a potentially world-changing Chinese economic and geopolitical strategy. In this thesis Gravity Model of Trade (GMT) and Network analysis are employed to assess the relative position of China in the International Trade Network (ITN), the overall impact of BRI, and its effect on countries in Central Eastern Europe and Western Balkans grouped in 17+1 mechanism. The results from Network analysis indicate that since the 1990s China is gradually moving towards the center of ITN. Subnetwork of BRI countries also exhibits higher cohesion and resilience to external shocks than ITN. GMT identified BRI as a significant and positive factor influencing exports, however in case of 17+1 mechanism countries the results are not robust. GMT was also successfully experimentally augmented with Network analysis variables demonstrating its possible enhancements and showing the path for further research. JEL Classification C23, C51, E27, F14 Keywords Gravity Model of Trade, Network Analysis, Belt and Road Initiative, 17+1 Mechanism Title The Belt and Road - Is China moving towards the center of international trade? Assessment of impact on Balkans and Central Europe using network and gravity analysis
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Makrofyta v rybnících s různým typem rybářského hospodaření
FRANCOVÁ, Kateřina
Artificial fishponds have been an integral part of the European landscape for centuries. In addition to fish production, they provide important ecosystem services and habitats for biota, including macrophytes. The processes influencing macrophyte assemblages in fishponds are poorly understood and thus they were in the focus of this research. The opening study introduces thesis with a review of available information of historical development of fishponds and relation between fish farm management practices and fishpond macrophyte assemblages. Relevant socio-economic factors and possible effects of climate change are also explored. Comparison with similar wetland habitats shows that fishponds represent valuable systems harbouring many macrophyte species and a range of their rare and threatened taxa. The following study focuses on seasonal and inter-annual differences in vegetation in open water zones of nursery and main fishponds. The results show significant effect of the fishpond use type on macrophyte assemblages with strong decrease in macrophyte species numbers and abundance with increasing fish stock pressure. Stands of aquatic macrophytes commonly more developed in the nursery ponds in the spring of the first year of the production cycle, but variability could be found between ponds for example due to lower water level. While the results showed distinctions in water chemistry, sediment thickness, and adjoining land use, only transparency exerted a significant effect on macrophyte assemblages. Differences in other measured parameters were probably too small to be reflected in macrophyte species composition. Additionally, most macrophytes in our dataset show a broad ecological range. The last part of thesis reports analyses of plant species of reed bed and exposed bottom zones in the same selection of fishponds. As observed in the study of the open water zone, the highest species numbers and abundance were observed in the nursery ponds. The plants of reed beds were mostly affected by the width of the zone and shore slope. Lower slope in most fishponds often allowed development of the dense stands of Phragmites australis, which are highly competitive. They affect light and nutrient availability, produce a high amount of litter and so limit occurrence of other species. This as well as a position in the upper part of littoral, where they might not be affected by fish or water level disturbances so often, led to similarities in reed bed zones between fishpond types. In contrast more open reed bed stands with species such as Typha angustifolia and exposed bottoms allowed development of more species. The plants of exposed bottoms were affected by fishpond use type and adjoining land use type. The reason is lower fish stock pressure and more regular summer and/or winter drainage. Some fishponds or their parts did not have reed beds and exposed bottoms were then directly connected and influenced by surrounding landscape, e.g. ruderal and grassland species such as Barbarea vulgaris and Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia regularly occurred there. Application of fish farming practices is important not only as it is a part of the national heritage, but also to avoid pond terrestrialization. However, modification of farming techniques to best suit individual pond conditions and to adapt to climate change is recommended. Reducing fish stock density when relevant and limiting nutrient input from manuring and supplemental fish feeding may aid recovery of fishpond ecosystems including macrophyte species assemblages.
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Vulnerable benthic water bug species \kur{Aphelocheirus aestivalis }(Fabricius, 1794) (Heteroptera: Aphelocheiridae): distribution and habitat preference in the Czech-Austrian border area of the Lužnice river basin
BAUER, Martin
The occurence, ditribution, habitat preference of benthic water bug Aphelocheirus aestivalis, and structure of macroinvertebrate benthic communities were studied in the upper Lužnice River basin. A. aestivalis is distributed only in a lower part of the upper Lužnice river basin. It inhabites stony biotopes of Dračice river (= Reissbach in the Austrian side), Lužnice river downstream from Suchdol nad Lužnicí, Old part of Lužnice river, Nová řeka river, and Nežárka river. This species occurs only in the rocky and sandy bottom where current speds and dissolved oxygen are both high in the investigated area. Prefered microhabitats are represented by sand and coarse gravel, that overline the larger boulders, rocks, dead woods or rootlets of trees growing in banks and sandy places with submerged plants. Though the Lužnice river has numerous sites of character of prefered habitats and microhabitats also upstream from Suchdol nad Lužnicí, any specimens of A. aestivalis were never found upstream from this small city and in the Koštěnický potok brook (mouth of this right side tributary into Lužnice river is located dovnstream from Suchdol nad Lužnicí). The macroinvertebrate benthic communities in the sites with occurence of A. aestivalis include larvae of following species of water insects: Cloeön dipterum, Baetis vernus, Ephemera danica, Ephemerella ignita, Heptagenia sulphurea (Ephemeroptera); Isoperla cf. rivulorum, Leuctra cf. albida (Plecoptera); Hydropsyche pellucida or incognita, H. angustipennis, Limnephilus sp., Molanna angustata, Polycentropus flavomaculatus, Potamophylax sp. (Trichoptera). Dominant and most abundant insects were Hydropsyche larvae. It is possible to suppose that the larvae of Baetis, Ephemerella (Ephemeroptera) and Hydropsyche (Trichoptera) larvae are prefered prey of A. aestivalis in the investigated area. The Lužnice river is characteristic by often floods including the destructive ones. Chemical parameters of water change espec
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Grants as a foreign policy instrument to promote democratic values in Central Europe: The case of EEA and Norway Grants
Harvik-Wright, Eira Cornelia ; Young, Mitchell (advisor) ; Benáček, Vladimír (referee)
This thesis looks at how a nation outside the EU, but inside EFTA, reacts to the illiberal changes and democratic backlashes in Poland and Hungary. To do so, it has looked at how particularly Norway positions itself in response to the said developments. The work undergone in this paper aims at contributing to the very scarcely covered topic of EEA and Norway Grants, which until this day continues to receive very little attention academically. The paper's research question is "How does Norway, through the EEA and Norway Grants, attempt to promote liberal democratic values in Central Europe?" To find evidence of how Norway aims at promoting liberal democratic values abroad, case studies on the EEA and Norway Grants in Poland and Hungary have been conducted. These two were chosen for several reasons but mainly summarised due to being objects of harsh critique both by the EU and by EFTA. Data and information were largely collected through a qualitative literature review of official reports and articles, and through talks with respective advisors. This thesis finds that Norway is attempting to promote liberal democratic values in Central Europe and that negotiations and signed agreements between Norway and Poland and Hungary serve more as an effective foreign policy tool to promote the liberal...
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Double monasteries of Poor Clares and Friars Minor in the area of Central Europe in 13th century. Typology of architecture, foundation of royal princesses and contemporary context on the examples of monasteries, especially in Prague and Wroclaw.
Zelenková, Gabriela ; Kolářová Takácsová, Kornélia (advisor) ; Jarošová, Markéta (referee)
Double monasteries of Poor Clares and Friars Minor in the area of Central Europe in 13th century. Typology of architecture, foundation of royal princesses and contemporary context on the examples of monasteries, especially in Prague and Wroclaw. The topic of my bachelor thesis is a comparison of the typology of architecture of double monasteries of Poor Clares and Friars minor. The specifics of the Convent of the Sisters of the Poor Clares had to adapt to the strict order and liturgical regulations of the order, which was reflected in building architecture according to a certain pattern, manifested in the form of monastic churches including emporium, cloister and common areas, separated from contact with the outside world. However, this did not prevent the increasing of the education of the sisters and the maintenance of ties between the individual monasteries. Friars minor provided spiritual guidance for the sisters. Franciscans originated in the 13th century as an order that responds to the development of medieval cities and the wide social layers of inhabitants, which is reflected in the location of monasteries near rivers and walls (hospital function, water availability). In the Central European region, in response to the new ecclesiastical order, the then desire to return to following the...
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Quality of democracy and the role of Constitutional Courts in Central Europe
Weishauplová, Barbora ; Guasti, Petra (advisor) ; Jüptner, Petr (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the study of the role of the Constitutional Court in Poland and the Czech Republic and their impact on the state of democracy, especially during the COVID- 19 pandemic. In the case study of both countries, three thematic areas are analyzed: the institutional setting of the constitutional judiciary, the process of appointing judges and the independent activities of the CC, which are created on the basis of current research and academic literature. The analyzes are mainly based on political developments, the constitutional entrenchment and the reaction of the US to government procedures that have had an impact on the deterioration of the quality of democracy. The two case studies are then compared to answer the question; what role the they played during the pandemic. The analysis itself shows that the role of the CC during the pandemic was crucial in both countries, although their position in the examined areas differed considerably. This finding is based mainly on the intensity of influencing the following political events, which was caused by the functioning of the CC. The difference lies in the relationship of the CC to the pandemic. In the Czech Republic, his approach was found to be active, as he revised protective measures to balance public health and democracy,...
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Central European Nostalgia and its role in creating the collective identity of Central Europe
Strejčková, Barbora ; Žíla, Ondřej (advisor) ; Vykoukal, Jiří (referee)
This thesis analyses the phenomenon of Central European nostalgia through essays by Milan Kundera and Yuri Andrukhovych. It examines the ways in which the nostalgic imaginations of the Central European space contribute to the creation of the collective identity of Central Europe. The first part of the thesis outlines the historical context of thinking about Central Europe, which is then used in the analysis of the examined texts. The second part deals with the method of the analysis and the theoretical background, the theory of nostalgia. It maps the academic debate concerning both nostalgia in general and Central European nostalgia in particular. In the following analytical part of the work, the method of critical discursive analysis is used to examine for what purposes and in what ways the authors in their essays relate nostalgically to Central Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and how they construct Central European space through this narrative. The thesis argues that although the nostalgia of Kundera and Andrukhovych differs in its manifestations, both authors set their homeland in Central Europe through their nostalgia. In continuity with historical thinking, they anchor them in Europe itself. Nostalgia in the examined texts acts as a counter-discourse, a resistance to...
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Distribution and pattern morphology of pseudomorphs of thermal-conctraction-cracks features in Austria
Dufek, Jaroslav ; Křížek, Marek (advisor) ; Margold, Martin (referee)
During the cold Pleistocene episodes, the territory of Austria was at the forefront of nearby Alpine glaciation. The unglaciated area of Austria was part of the Central European periglacial zone, in which permafrost developed. The distribution of Upper Pleistocene permafrost, its character, but also its time classification in the western part of the Pannonian Basin is still unclear. It is also because ideas about the characteristics of Upper Pleistocene permafrost in this area have so far been based mainly on indirect biological or lithological records such as pollen grains, malacofauna snails, or loess-paleosol sequences. Until now, the evidence of direct geo-indicators of paleo-permafrost has been relatively limited, with unique relict frost-wedges, cryoturbations, or sporadic remains of thermokarst lakes depressions and pingos. The results present a new database of relict frost-wedges in Austria, which was created based on published literary sources, but mainly based on aerial imaginary available on Google Earth Pro. The results significantly expand (by hundreds of localities) the existing knowledge about the occurrence of relict frost-wedges, which have so far been located in Austria purely on the basis of excavated profiles and soil probes. The found polygons of frost-wedge pseudomorphs are an...
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Medieval building offerings from the archaeological perspective
Dančová, Viktorie ; Profantová, Naděžda (advisor) ; Vařeka, Pavel (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with intentional deposits, a material evidence of customs connected with the foundation and construction of medieval buildings. The general principles of building offering recognition in the archaeological contexts were formulated on the basis of archaeological, written and ethnographical sources. Difficulties with their interpretation and terminology were discussed pursuant to the current discourse in European archaeology. Individual archaeological findings in the area of today's Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia from 6th to 16th century are presented and evaluated. Their list is also contained in the catalogue, which is put to this thesis. Keywords early middle ages; high middle ages; Bohemia; Moravia; central Europe; building offering; foundation offering; house offering; sacrifice
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