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Use of Interest Rate Models for Interest Rate Risk Management in the Czech Financial Market Environment
Cíchová Králová, Dana ; Arlt, Josef (advisor) ; Cipra, Tomáš (referee) ; Witzany, Jiří (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to interest rate risk modeling in the Czech financial market environment in various situations. Three distinct periods are analyzed. These periods, which are the period before the global financial crisis, period during the financial crisis and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and calming subsequent debt crisis in the eurozone, are characterized by different evaluation of liquidity and credit risk, different relationship between financial variables and market participants and different degree of market regulations. Within this goal, an application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment is crucial. Use of the BGM model for the purpose of predicting a dynamics of a yield curve is not very common. This is firstly due to the fact that primary use of this model is a valuation of interest rate derivatives while ensuring the absence of arbitrage and secondly its application is relatively difficult. Nevertheless, I apply the BGM model to obtain predictions of the probability distributions of interest rates in the Czech and eurozone market environment, because its complexity, direct modeling of a yield curve based on market rates and especially a possibility of parameter estimation based on current swaptions volatilities quotations may lead to a significant improvement of predictions. This improvement was also confirmed in this thesis. Use of swaptions volatilities market quotations is especially useful in the period of unprecedented mone- tary easing and increased number of central banks and other regulators interventions into financial markets that occur after the financial crisis, because it reflects current market expectations which also include future interventions. As a consequence of underdevelopment of the Czech financial market there are no market quotations of Czech koruna denominated swaptions volatilities. I suggest their approximations based on quotations of euro denominated swaptions volatilities and also using volatilities of koruna and euro forward rates. Use of this approach ensures that predictions of the Czech yield curve dynamics contain current market expectations. To my knowledge, any other author has not presented similar application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment. In this thesis I further predict a Czech and Euro area money market yield curve dynamics using the CIR and the GP models as representatives of various types of interest rates models to compare these predictions with BGM predictions. I suggest a comprehensive system of three criteria, based on comparison of predicti- ons with reality, to describe a predictive power of selected models and an appropria- teness of their use in the Czech market environment during different situations in the market. This analysis shows that predictions of the Czech money market yield curve dynamics based on the BGM model demonstrate high predictive power and the best 8 quality in comparison with other models. GP model also produces relatively good qua- lity predictions. Conversely, predictions based on the CIR model as a representative of short rate model family completely failed when describing reality. In a situation when the economy allows negative rates and there is simultaneously a significant likelihood of their implementation, I recommend to obtain predictions of Czech money market yield curve dynamics using GP model which allows existence of negative interest rates. This analysis also contains a statistical test for validating the predictive power of each model and information on other tests. Berkowitz test rejects a hypothesis of accurate predictions for each model. However, this fact is common in real data testing even when using relatively good model. This fact is especially caused by difficult fulfilment of test conditions in real world. To my knowledge, such an analysis of the predictive power of selected interest rate models moreover in the Czech financial market environment has not been published yet. The last goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to obtaining pre- dictions of Czech government bonds risk premium dynamics. I define this risk premium as a difference between government bond yields and fixed rate of CZK IRS with the same length. I apply the GP model to describe the dynamics of this indicator of the Czech Republic credit risk. In order to obtain a time series of the risk premium which are necessary for estimation of GP model parameters I firstly estimate yield curves of Czech government bonds using Svensson model for each trading day since 2005. Resulting si- mulations of risk premium show that the GP model predicts the real development of risk premiums of all maturities relatively well. Hence, the proposed approach is suitable for modeling of Czech Republic credit risk based on the use of information extracted from financial markets. I have not registered proposed approach to risk premium modeling moreover in the Czech financial market environment in other publications.
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Analysis of Financing Research and Development in the Czech Republic
Vacek, Jan ; Hnilica, Jiří (advisor) ; Sieber, Patrik (referee)
The topic of this bachelor Thesis is an Analysis of Financing Research and Development in the Czech Republic. Research and Development (R&D) plays an important role in improving the competitive ability of the Czech Republic, for it constitutes a source for increasing productivity, economic growth and employment. The results of R&D lead to creation of new products and services, which in return increases the quality of life of the Czech citizens. This bachelor thesis focuses on analysis of financing R&D in the Czech Republic. The objective is to find out who finances R&D in the Czech Republic, where do these funds go to, and what they are used on. This thesis also focuses on R&D employees and R&D departments in which they work. The bachelor thesis is concluded by comparison between the R&D data for Czech Republic and other countries form the Europian Union.
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Strategy of Corporate Social Responsibility in Hilton Worlwide company and its application in local conditions
Švábová, Kateřina ; Mokrejšová, Veronika (advisor) ; Filipová, Alena (referee)
This bachelor thesis focuses on strategy of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in company Hilton Worldwide. The bachelor thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part deals with concept of corporate social responsibility, with the philosophy of CSR, its history and the present. This part also defines key words related to corporate social responsibility like CSR, stakeholders, corporate philanthropy, sustainable development, business ethics and corporate citizenship. It also focuses on the important role of communication in general and also in CSR. The practical part introduces the concept and strategy of CSR in the company Hilton Worldwide. This part also presents hotels Hilton Prague and Hilton Prague Old Town and their activities within the CSR. SWOT analysis as strategy tool was used to evaluate the concept and communication of CSR in both hotels. The final results of analyses showed problems in internal and external communication. Based on results of SWOT analysis are suggested solutions and recommendations that should improve understanding and perception of CSR concept in both hotels, improve internal communication for employees, and use all modern communication tools and channels for communicating information about CSR activities. These measures will lead to increased loyalty and strengthening the company's competitiveness.
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Motivation and evaluation of empolyees
Sinkulová, Anna ; Legnerová, Kateřina (advisor) ; Šmíd, David (referee)
My bachelor thesis is focused on motivation and assessment of employees in the company. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of team building and benefits on employees' motivation. Literature based theoretical part of my thesis describes and investigates the real meaning and purpose of motivation and basic motivational concepts. Furthermore, I outlined the basics behind employee benefits, team building and also stated the current given trends in these areas. The practical part is focused on benefit and workplace research and their impact on the general motivation to work and the relations between the employees of the Czechoslovak Commercial Bank (ČSOB). In order to collect the best results, I used the method of questionnaires. Respondents were asked to answer questions considering their satisfaction with the system of employee benefits and the importance of teamwork. Based on the survey results I propose certain changes that should lead to motivation improvement and better job performance.
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Improving logistics operations in the warehouse of Stroj Servis Plus
Feklistov, Maxim ; Vinš, Marek (advisor) ; Mervart, Michal (referee)
This bachelor thesis is focusing on the logistic operations in the warehouse of a particular organization. The objective of the thesis is to analyze logistics operations in the warehouse of Stroj Servis Plus and propose certain measures, based on selected methods, which might lead to improvement in the efficiency of the current logistics operations. This bachelor thesis is divided into two parts. In first part, theoretical part, is describing the basic theoretical concepts and principles, connected with the main field of the interest. The second part, practical part, begins with the introduction of the company Stroj Servis Plus and analyzing of the logistics operations in the warehouse. Based on the facts, discovered in the intercompany documents, own practice in the firm and theoretical knowledge propose solutions that would eliminate any disadvantages and improve logistics operations in warehouse of the selected company.
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Analysis of the marketing activities in nonprofit organization INEX-SDA
Müllerová, Michaela ; Procházková, Markéta (advisor) ; Polcar, Jakub (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to analyze marketing activities of nonprofit organization INEX-SDA and make recommendations relating to the marketing mix which would increase awareness of this foundation and also increase voluntary help from the public. The thesis is divided into two parts. First part deals with theoretical definition of marketing and its specifics related to the nonprofit sector. The theoretical part is followed by a practical part in which organization INEX-SDA and the individual elements of the marketing mix are specified. In this part there was also done marketing research. With the analysis of marketing activities information is obtained which together with the theoretical knowledge leads to recommendations relating to the marketing activities of this non-profit organization. The thesis ends with an overall summary.
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Výběr a implementace open source nástroje pro řízení portfolia projektů
Marek, Jan ; Chlapek, Dušan (advisor) ; Kučera, Jan (referee)
Methods and ways of implementation of changes and innovations in companies through project management are in today's society very well established. There exists methodologies, techniques and tools for the management of individual projects. However in a role of project manager, I very often faced the fact that companies are performing the project portfolio management in very intuitive way. This in itself leads to failed and prematurely terminated projects, initiation of the wrong projects or realisation of correct projects, but at the wrong time. Very often I have also recognized, that there is lack of awareness of fact, that there are also Open Source applications that can help with the organization's portfolio. This thesis deals with the definition of requirements, search and selection of proper OSS application and subsequent implementation. In the first part of this thesis I prepare a theoretical framework about PPM, and on that basis then identify and verify a set of requirements for selection of right OSS PPM application. The next section of thesis describes searching for suitable applications from a variety of sources, assessment against the requirements and the final selection. In the last part the implementation project is drafted, which aims to serve other colleagues in project management as one of the possible implementation paths. The outputs are then continuously confronted with experts in matter of projects and project management in the field of IT in order to maximize symbiosis between theory and real life experiences. Virtually every project management methodology defines the collection of already-proven techniques, best practices or lessons learned from the previous similar implementations. The main contribution of this thesis I see in fact that it contains not only the design of the project implementation, but also describes a logical path, what leads to the result. Therefore this thesis could be used as a base or discussed best practice, when a project of implementation of PPM application in place.
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Specifics of prenatal care for women from certain minorities in the gynecological clinic.
NOVÁKOVÁ, Markéta
Due to the fact that from the 1990s there has been a noticeable increase in the number of foreigners residing in the Czech Republic, it is necessary to respect their cultural specifics in health care. Many foreigners in our country have a long-term or permanent residence and have families here. Increasing emphasis is given to care for pregnant women. In the pregnancy period, the woman experiences significant physical and mental changes. The main aspect of caring for a pregnant woman is the continuous monitoring of the health and proper development of the foetus. For midwives to be able to provide quality care for patients from different cultures, they must be culturally competent and empathetic enough to handle the specifics of working with these pregnant women. Many complications in nursing care are caused by a communication barrier that arises between the medical staff and the patients, even if they are of the same nationality and speak the same native language. The risk of communication problems increases in the case of women from minorities. The objectives of this thesis are: Objective 1: Determine how women from selected minorities view the prenatal care in the country. Objective 2: Map the knowledge that midwives have of the specifics of care in individual cultures. The following research questions were determined: 1) How do women from selected minorities perceive the prenatal care in the Czech Republic? 2) To what extent is the culture of the client respected during care? The practical part was elaborated based on qualitative research. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Respondents were asked the same questions, but these were elaborated on during the interviews, which led to the subsequent categorization of interviews. A total of 20 basic questions were compiled. The research sample consisted of six pregnant women and four midwives. The criterion for selection of the pregnant women was Vietnamese or Ukrainian nationality. The criterion for choosing midwives was that they had to be employed at gynaecological and obstetric clinics. From interviews with midwives clear that they strive to respect the wishes of all patients, both those related to their culture and environment from which they came, as well as those related to their character and personality. However, the research also shows that there are also slight doubts that could lead to misunderstandings, and these are solely due to lack of information. Therefore, the output of this work should be the organization of a seminar or a contribution within a conference, which would provide healthcare professionals with basic information and experience in the care of patients from selected minorities in Czech health care facilities. The topic of this seminar could be: "The specifics of caring for selected minorities in Czech health care." The first part of the research sample consisted of pregnant women who have different experiences with care in their home country. In their testimonies they mention minor shortcomings, but are satisfied with the care provided in the Czech Republic and some of them expressed that they are certain that this level of care could not be provided to them in their home country.
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Modelling, parameter estimation, optimisation and control of transport and reaction processes in bioreactors.
ŠTUMBAUER, Václav
With the significant potential of microalgae as a major biofuel source of the future, a considerable scientific attention is attracted towards the field of biotechnology and bioprocess engineering. Nevertheless the current photobioreactor (PBR) design methods are still too empirical. With this work I would like to promote the idea of designing a production system, such as a PBR, completely \emph{in silico}, thus allowing for the in silico optimization and optimal control determination. The thesis deals with the PBR modeling and simulation. It addresses two crucial issues in the current state-of-the-art PBR modeling. The first issue relevant to the deficiency of the currently available models - the incorrect or insufficient treatment of either the transport process modeling, the reaction modeling or the coupling between these two models. A correct treatment of both the transport and the reaction phenomena is proposed in the thesis - in the form of a unified modeling framework consisting of three interconnected parts - (i) the state system, (ii) the fluid-dynamic model and (iii) optimal control determination. The proposed model structure allows prediction of the PBR performance with respect to the modelled PBR size, geometry, operating conditions or a particular microalgae strain. The proposed unified modeling approach is applied to the case of the Couette-Taylor photobioreactor (CTBR) where it is used for the optimal control solution. The PBR represents a complex multiscale problem and especially in the case of the production scale systems, the associated computational costs are paramount. This is the second crucial issue addressed in the thesis. With respect to the computational complexity, the fluid dynamics simulation is the most costly part of the PBR simulation. To model the fluid flow with the classical CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) methods inside a production scale PBR leads to an enormous grid size. This usually requires a parallel implementation of the solver but in the parallelization of the classical methods lies another relevant issue - that of the amount of data the individual nodes must interchange with each other. The thesis addresses the performance relevant issues by proposing and evaluation alternative approaches to the fluid flow simulation. These approaches are more suitable to the parallel implementation than the classical methods because of their rather local character in comparison to the classical methods - namely the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for fluid flow, which is the primary focus of the thesis in this regard and alternatively also the discrete random walk based method (DRW). As the outcome of the thesis I have developed and validated a new Lagrangian general modeling approach to the transport and reaction processes in PBR - a framework based on the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the model of the Photosynthetic Factory (PSF) that models correctly the transport and reaction processes and their coupling. Further I have implemented a software prototype based on the proposed modeling approach and validated this prototype on the case of the Coutte-Taylor PBR. I have also demonstrated that the modeling approach has a significant potential from the computational costs point of view by implementing and validating the software prototype on the parallel architecture of CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture). The current parallel implementation is approximately 20 times faster than the unparallized one and decreases thus significantly the iteration cycle of the PBR design process.
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Miřenka Čechová
Janečková, Kateřina ; PETIŠKOVÁ, Ladislava (advisor) ; SOPROVÁ, Jana (referee)
Monographic work focuses on artistic creation Miřenka Čechová, one of the
the leading personalities of our contemporary stagecraft. Her personal and
artistic development started when she began studying dance and continued to
mimic and physical theater. Material presents her contribution to
contemporary Czech scene physical theater and refers to her international
success. Work observes her role like co-founder of physical theaters Theatro
Pantomissimo and Spitfire Company and to presents the work of these
physical theaters and reveals the working and teaching methods in the
preparation of copyright performances.
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