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Russian soft power under Putin: The case of Cyprus
Varnava Tsiappas, Georgios ; Romancov, Michael (advisor) ; Doboš, Bohumil (referee)
This thesis explores Russian soft power in Cyprus and how Russia uses specific techniques and strategies to exert this influence. Divided into eight sections, including a literature review on soft power, key concepts, theoretical framework, research methodology, historical overview and analysis of soft power tools employed by Russia; it reveals that Russia implements diverse methods such as media coverage, religious tactics cultural interventions or economic incentives in order to shape Cyprus' perceptions. Furthermore, the study demonstrates through exploration of domestic politics and societal attitudes towards Russian culture or values that their approach is indeed effective. This thesis, due to its uniqueness, contributes significantly to the academic literature regarding Russian soft power in the Eastern Mediterranean and specifically in Cyprus.
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Phylogeography of Rousettus aegyptiacus in the Mediterranean region
Dundarova, Cheliana ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Janko, Karel (referee)
The genus Rousettus has distributional pattern unique among fruitbats comprising both Asia and Africa and reaching northern distributional limits of the family in Persia, Arabia and Mediterranean basin. This could be ascribed to the ability of echolocation, consequent cave dwelling, and presumably other site-specific adaptations, which enabled dispersal independent of forest block and surviving in Mediterranean type of climate. Using fastly evolving mitochondrial marker, we aimed to assess genetic variability, its geographic distribution and demography of northern populations of the Egyptian fruitbat (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Mitochondrial network indicates deep genetic divergence between disjunct Mediterranean and eastern African parts of the range. Basal position of Sinaic and Jordanian haplotypes within northern clade indicate important role of these regions in colonization of eastern Mediterranean. Generally, the northern haplogroup is moderately diversified with partial geographic localization of particular haplotypes. Significant isolation by distance pattern suggests relatively pronounced site fidelity of particular colonies, at least in terms of maternal gene flow. Landscape genetics analyses indicate discontinuities in distribution of mitochondrial genetic variability, in some cases correlating with...
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Feeding ecology of bats in the eastern Mediterranean
Žďárská, Lenka ; Andreas, Michal (advisor) ; Gajdošík, Martin (referee)
This work gives an overview of the composition of the diet of bats in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, discusses the structure of bat communities in different bioregions of the area in terms of hunting strategies and resource partitioning and last but not least, how echolocation and morphological characteristics of bats affect the composition of the diet. Although some samples were relatively small therefore it is necessary to look soberly at their informative value, and thus their importance is undeniable. The study in some cases provides completely the first information regarding the composition of diet in several species. Asellia arabica mainly catches Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae), Triaenops persicus hunts Lepidoptera, but Heteroptera, Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae) and Orthoptera too, while Triaenops parvus is a specialist in hunting Lepidoptera. Rhinopoma muscatellum hunts mainly Formicoidea, followed by Coleoptera (Melolonthinae) and Heteroptera, Rhinopoma hadramauticum hunts Formicoidea. Lepidoptera of different size, Heteroptera and Coleoptera are the prey of Chaerephon nigeriae. Pipistrellus hanaki has a wide niche breadth as other species of the genus Pipistrellus. In this study Brachycera, Auchenorrhyncha and Coleoptera primarily occurred in its diet. Not yet described species of...
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Feeding ecology of bats in the eastern Mediterranean
Žďárská, Lenka ; Andreas, Michal (advisor) ; Gajdošík, Martin (referee)
This work gives an overview of the composition of the diet of bats in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, discusses the structure of bat communities in different bioregions of the area in terms of hunting strategies and resource partitioning and last but not least, how echolocation and morphological characteristics of bats affect the composition of the diet. Although some samples were relatively small therefore it is necessary to look soberly at their informative value, and thus their importance is undeniable. The study in some cases provides completely the first information regarding the composition of diet in several species. Asellia arabica mainly catches Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae), Triaenops persicus hunts Lepidoptera, but Heteroptera, Coleoptera (Scarabaeidae) and Orthoptera too, while Triaenops parvus is a specialist in hunting Lepidoptera. Rhinopoma muscatellum hunts mainly Formicoidea, followed by Coleoptera (Melolonthinae) and Heteroptera, Rhinopoma hadramauticum hunts Formicoidea. Lepidoptera of different size, Heteroptera and Coleoptera are the prey of Chaerephon nigeriae. Pipistrellus hanaki has a wide niche breadth as other species of the genus Pipistrellus. In this study Brachycera, Auchenorrhyncha and Coleoptera primarily occurred in its diet. Not yet described species of...
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The Role of Greece anf Turkey in the U.S. Strategy of Containment, 1945-1953
Koura, Jan ; Kovář, Martin (advisor) ; Horčička, Václav (referee) ; Tajovský, Ladislav (referee)
Among the states, the history of which was affected by the Cold War can undoubtedly be ranked both Greece and Turkey. Their geostrategic singularity, accentuated by the outcomes of the World War II, caused that the "struggle" between the United States and the Soviet Union for influence in those countries had considerably contributed to a shift in the course of U.S. foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and to adopting an entirely new strategic concept which was to be called as the "strategy of containment". A number of quality books have already been dealing with the general characteristics of this strategy; however, historians have not turned enough attention - which is rather surprising - to its implementation in particular countries and territories. Therefore, an analysis of particular impacts of the strategy of containment on Greece and Turkey, as well as an evaluation of how successfully this approach of the United States towards both the countries worked, have become primary aims of my dissertation. The U.S. strategy of containment, which can be regarded as an example of the so called "grand strategy", had become a key factor of the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. The process of its coming into existence was complicated and cannot be marked off by one document or an event; its...
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Speciation of the genus Lethrus (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae) of the eastern mediterranean
Drožová, Dana ; Janšta, Petr (advisor) ; Bezděk, Aleš (referee)
Earth-boring dung beetles of the genus Lethrus Scopoli, 1777 belong to the family Geotrupidae, classified into three subfamilies (Geotrupinae, Lethrinae a Taurocerastinae). The description of about 120 species, divided into nine subgenera, is based on morphology and geographic distribution. Shape of mandibles, ventral mandible processes, pronotum and structure of external male genitalia are used as diagnostic morphological characters for taxa. The richest species diversity is known from Central Asia. The distribution area reaches, in the east, up to Mongolia and China, and in the west, up to Southeast Europe. All species are robust, relatively large flightless beetles with low dispersial ability. They feed on parts of fresh plants instead of feces like other dung beetles. Master thesis is focused on the species distributed in the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Europe. This area is inhabited only by nominotypical subgenus Lethrus. The main goal of thesis is to clear up phylogenetic relationships between species of subgenus and speciation events using molecular genetic methods. We have examined 91 samples of the genus Lethrus using two mitochondrial genes - cytochrome b (382 bp, 80 sequences), cytochrome oxidase I (815 bp, 87 sequences) and nuclear gene 28S rDNA (D2-D5) (1100 bp, 11 sequences)....
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Phylogeography of Rousettus aegyptiacus in the Mediterranean region
Dundarova, Cheliana ; Hulva, Pavel (advisor) ; Janko, Karel (referee)
The genus Rousettus has distributional pattern unique among fruitbats comprising both Asia and Africa and reaching northern distributional limits of the family in Persia, Arabia and Mediterranean basin. This could be ascribed to the ability of echolocation, consequent cave dwelling, and presumably other site-specific adaptations, which enabled dispersal independent of forest block and surviving in Mediterranean type of climate. Using fastly evolving mitochondrial marker, we aimed to assess genetic variability, its geographic distribution and demography of northern populations of the Egyptian fruitbat (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Mitochondrial network indicates deep genetic divergence between disjunct Mediterranean and eastern African parts of the range. Basal position of Sinaic and Jordanian haplotypes within northern clade indicate important role of these regions in colonization of eastern Mediterranean. Generally, the northern haplogroup is moderately diversified with partial geographic localization of particular haplotypes. Significant isolation by distance pattern suggests relatively pronounced site fidelity of particular colonies, at least in terms of maternal gene flow. Landscape genetics analyses indicate discontinuities in distribution of mitochondrial genetic variability, in some cases correlating with...
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