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Differences and similarities on the approaches of buyers from X and Y generations regarding sustainable procurement
Lacour, Maxime ; Štěrbová, Ludmila (advisor) ; Geniaux, Isabelle (referee)
Responsible procurement has become a real challenge for companies following the current trends of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and more and more ethic-oriented customers. Differing from the concept of green procurement this concept of responsible procurement supports the willingness of companies to have ethic and sustainable supplies. The usual criteria in procurement such as price performances innovation terms and time of payment have increasingly been coupled with more ethic-oriented ones. These criteria related to ethics combine both social and environmental responsibilities of suppliers and stakeholders such as energetic savings and the possession of a particular certification. Currently many call for tenders set ecological requirements for suppliers or subcontractors even in non-strategic procurement activities. The goal of this thesis is about comparing this approach to responsible procurement between buyers from the X and Y generation: do they share the same ideas and priorities concerning responsible procurement? For both of these generations are the advantages and drawbacks of responsible procurement similar?
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Analysis of the decision-making factors in freight forwarder selection process
Šrámková, Eva ; Novák, Radek (advisor) ; Cempírek, Václav (referee) ; Průša, Bohumil (referee)
The thesis analyses the factors of customer decision-making process by choosing a freight forwarder in the Czech Republic market. While applying factors by other relevant research studies dealing with the decision-making process of customers in non-European countries, the research examines factors characteristic for the Czech customers. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews as research methods are applied. Within the research, a new service quality instrument TARRQUAL was developed. The TARRQUAL was proved on a survey including 250 customers of freight forwarder Kühne+Nagel Czech Republic. As service quality measurement, TARRQUAL is supposed to be applied particularly in logistics business field. The project aims at providing input for empirical research in the field of service quality in container shipping, which is lacking in the Central and East European countries.
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Speculation on oil markets and its impact on commodity's price
Melcher, Ota ; Taušer, Josef (advisor) ; Baláž, Peter (referee) ; Müller, Štěpán (referee)
This study aims to analyse the precrisis period on the oil markets with a primary objective of assessing the role of speculation in the commodity's price development and its volatility. First it depicts the rapidly increasing speculative activity on the futures market together with the parallel oil price surge. The speculation is initially proxied by non-commercial traders' positions and subsequently quantified by Working's T-index. The paper then uses speculative traders' positions and both spot and futures prices to test for Granger causality within the framework of VAR models. For the sake of consistency it also evaluates causal links between speculation and inventories level. Further the study investigates the speculation impact on volatility of oil prices by employing various approaches in volatility quantification including GARCH models. Contrary to expectations we find that the speculatio's impact on both prices and their volatility is rather insignificant. In the last chapter we therefore seek for an explanation of the oil price developments by examining the market fundamentals. The interaction of supply and demand finally gives substantial evidence for understanding the price developments in the precrisis period.
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Differences between men and women in the Czech labour market
Stroukal, Dominik ; Kadeřábková, Božena (advisor) ; Pavelka, Tomáš (referee) ; Němec, Otakar (referee)
This thesis consists of five articles that apply current world research on labor economics at the Czech Republic and confirms the significant differences between men and women in this market. It shows that gender has a significant influence on the preference on the labor market and, consequently, on employment and health. First, the thesis shows that preferences are relevant determinant of career and then we study the difference in preference of salary for men and women. Subsequently it shows that gender plays a significant role in explaining the relationship between homeownership, and unemployment, as well as unemployment and health. The first chapter was able to demonstrate that the preference for a career has a positive influence on the choice of career. The influence of higher education on prioritizing career proved to be positive and significant. Probability of a career choice is reduced by the presence of children, however, is not dependent on their number, which is contrary to the theory of preferences. The second chapter shows that Czech women prefer more non-monetary rewards than men. It has also been shown that people with university education are same in the preferences of non-monetary rewards regardless of the gender of the respondents, however, compared to the world's research, the Czech higher education increases this preference. It turned out that women prefer risk less than men. The third chapter demonstrates that although the housing market undermines labor mobility and employment in the Czech Republic at the regional level, therefore, that in regions with a higher rate of home ownership is higher unemployment, at the individual level, the owners of housing are unemployed are less likely. The estimates are significantly different for men and women. Men living in owner-occupied housing have a higher likelihood of employment than women. At regional level, however, this thesis shows that the high rate of home ownership increases unemployment for both men and women, in the long run only to women. The fourth chapter showed that men transition to homeownership reduces the likelihood of unemployment next year. For women, this relationship has proved to be insignificant. In addition, as insignificant showed the opposite relationship, the transition from unemployment to the newly acquired home ownership. The last chapter shows that the change in the working status to unemployment will increase in the future probability of worse health. Influence in less than two years, however, proved to be significant. An important conclusion is that men have a significantly stronger relationship between health and unemployment than women.
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STRAIN ENGINEERING OF THE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF 2D MATERIALS
del Corro, Elena ; Peňa-Alvarez, M. ; Morales-García, A. ; Bouša, Milan ; Řáhová, Jaroslava ; Kavan, Ladislav ; Kalbáč, Martin ; Frank, Otakar
The research on graphene has attracted much attention since its first successful preparation in 2004. It possesses many unique properties, such as an extreme stiffness and strength, high electron mobility, ballistic transport even at room temperature, superior thermal conductivity and many others. The affection for graphene was followed swiftly by a keen interest in other two dimensional materials like transition metal dichalcogenides. As has been predicted and in part proven experimentally, the electronic properties of these materials can be modified by various means. The most common ones include covalent or non-covalent chemistry, electrochemical, gate or atomic doping, or quantum confinement. None of these methods has proven universal enough in terms of the devices' characteristics or scalability. However, another approach is known mechanical strain/stress, but experiments in that direction are scarce, in spite of their high promises.\nThe primary challenge consists in the understanding of the mechanical properties of 2D materials and in the ability to quantify the lattice deformation. Several techniques can be then used to apply strain to the specimens and thus to induce changes in their electronic structure. We will review their basic concepts and some of the examples so far documented experimentally and/or theoretically.
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HYDROGEN ABSORPTION IN A-Co30Fe55B15
Čermák, Jiří ; Král, Lubomír ; Roupcová, Pavla
Hydrogen solved in amorphous alloys (AAs) influences their magnetic characteristics. AAs are also perspective\nas additives that can improve hydrogen storage kinetic in certain types of ball-milled hydrogen storage\nmaterials (HSMs). Therefore, knowledge of hydrogen solubility and hydrogen sorption kinetics in AAs are of a\ngreat importance for aimed design both AAs with optimal magnetic parameters and HSMs with desired sorption\ncharacteristics. In the present paper, amorphous alloy Co30Fe55B15 (an example of the type a-TM1xTM2y Bz ;\nTM - transition metal) was investigated. Hydrogen concentration c H was measured by Sieverts method in\ntemperature interval from T = 150 °C to T = 350 °C under hydrogen pressure p up to 6 MPa. It was found that\nc H was an increasing function of p and its maximum value was typically 0.5 wt.% H2 at 350 °C and 6 MPa.\nHowever, when the alloy was preliminary hydrogen charged (PHC), the pressure dependence of total c Htot in\nthe first absorption cycle(s) is non-monotonous in dependence on PHC conditions. For the sake of comparison,\nthe same absorption characteristics were measured also in Mg2Ni intermetallic that is a common constituent\nin Mg-based HSMs. Comparing Co30Fe55B15 and Mg2Ni, it was concluded that Co30Fe55B15 shows lower\nhydrogen solubility, but much better absorption kinetics.
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Parallel single-cell analysis of active caspase-3/7 in apoptotic and non-apoptotic cells
Ledvina, Vojtěch ; Klepárník, Karel
Caspases are proteases that play key role in the process of apoptosis, the programmed\ncell death. Among them, caspase-3 and -7 are main executioner caspases that cleave\nmany vital proteins during apoptosis and after their widespread activation, the process\ncannot be reversed. To analyze caspase-3/7 activation within single cells, a miniaturized\ndevice for parallel analysis of eight samples was developed. The assay is based on the\nmodified luciferin-firefly luciferase bioluminescence (BL) system. Individual\nsuspended cells were collected and transferred into detection microvials using a\nmicromanipulator. The bioluminescence was detected using a photon counting head\nwith cooled photcathode. The LOD suitable for detection of active caspase-3/7 in both\napoptotic and non-apoptotic cells was reached.
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Intuition in creative process of animation movie
Nováčková, Jana Kristýna ; DĚCKÁ, Eliška (advisor) ; ČIHAŘOVÁ, Libuše (referee)
This work deals with the relation of emotions to contemporary experimental animation. It engages in the emotional experience of a viewer to non-narrative film storytelling and its means of expression.
At the same time, it examines what the creative processes and attitudes of filmmakers towards emotions in experimental animation are. Analysis of the questionnaires also reveals whether the creator counts on the viewer's specific interpretation of the film.
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