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Impact of low oil and natural gas prices on the economy of Qatar since 2014
Šamánek, Ondřej ; Stuchlíková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Hasík, Gabriel (referee)
The bachelor thesis examines the impact of the oil and gas prices slump, which befell the world in 2014, on the economy of Qatar. The main objective of the thesis is to evaluate if and to what extend the price collapse influenced the relevant economic indicators and behaviour of the state and companies active in the affected field. The selected objective is examined using the method of data comparison, namely before and after the price slump, and with the help of the case study, in which the qatari company operating in the oil and gas is examined. From the conducted analysis it is possible to conclude that Qatar was directly influenced by the oil and gas prices collapse: its GDP slumped, fiscal deficit increased. The analysed company also experienced troubles caused by low prices: one year after the price slump, total amount of assigned tenders to company decreased substantially and historically high number of tenders was cancelled. Conclusions deriving from the thesis might be applied to other oil and gas export economies in the Persian Gulf, for fundamental traits of such economies are shared with the economy of Qatar.
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Freezing technology of bull sperm in relation to its survivability and fertilization ability
Doležalová, Martina ; Stádník, Luděk (advisor) ; Jiří, Jiří (referee)
The aim of optimalization the insemination doses production is to provide the highest fertilization ability of spermatozoa during the demanding proces of processing fresh semen and its subsequent cryopreservation. Temperature changes causes spermatozoa damage during the cooling and freezing. Spermatozoa is exposed to cold shock and many others limiting factors, which leads to cell death and therefore to decline of fertilization ability of thawed insemination doses. For increasing spermatozoa resistance, exactly the plasma membrane resistance against cold shock was fraction of egg yolk LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) at various concentrations into the comercially produced diluents added. It is believed that LDL acts possitively to plasma membrane and helps to maintain the fertilization ability of spermatozoa after thawing. Following step in the proces of insemination doses production is slow cooling of diluted semen and equilibration, when the straws are store at cooling box for 30 minutes to 240 hours. This period is necessary to penetrate of certain diluent components into the spermatazoa also maintain the balance between their intracellular and extracellular concentration. Also important is subsequent freezing temperature gradient of insemination doses. The most suitable freezing method is based on computer controlled temperature decline in freezing chamber which allows the precise control of ice crystals formation that could tear and kill the cell.
During 2012 to 2016 was repeatedly collected semen from the group of breeding bulls (n = 27, Holstein and Czech Fleckvieh breed) at AI centre. Semen which fulfill the standard entrance conditions in first step was evenly into several parts divided. For dilution the three types of comercially diluents AndroMed, Bioxcell and Triladyl with and without LDL addition were used. Into the diluents AndroMed and Bioxcell the concentration of LDL 4 %, 6 % and 8% into the dilent Triladyl 6 %, 8 % and 10 % was added. Diluted semen was filled into the glass capillares with volume 0,1 ml and temperature +4 °C. Subsequently the sample was placed to cold bath (0°C) for 10 minutes. Then the volume of capillare with physiological solution (37 °C) was mixed and for next 120 minutes was incubate. The effect of cold shock to proportion of live spermatozoa was evaluated by using Eosin and Nigrosine staining technique during heat test of spermatozoa survivability after spermatozoa heating and after 120 minutes of incubation.
The more suitable semen diluents which provide the higher spermatozoa resistance against cold shock were AndroMed and Bioxcell. Together the possitive effect of LDL addition into the diluents to lower decrease of proportion of live spermatozoa during heat test was found (P<0.05). The most suitable LDL concentration which had a favorable influence at spermatozoa resistance against cold shock was 6 % in diluent Bioxcell. Values of the proportion of live sperm were higher at the beginning of the heat test (+1.31% to + 3.2%) and after 120 minute incubation (+5.82% to +8.41%) compared to other diluents with and without addition of LDL.
In the next step the process of equilibration was optimized, is an important part of insemination doses production. The effect of the length of equilibration for subsequent fertilization ability of spermatozoa was evaluated using spermatozoa motility based of CASA and proportion of live spermatozoa after thawing and during heat survival test lasting 120 minutes (37 ° C). Suitable semen was diluted by comercially used diluent AndroMed based on soya lecithin, filled into the straws (0.25 ml), cooled and equilibrated in cooling box for 30, 120 and 240 minutes and freezed in programmable freezing box applying four types of freezing curves differing in temperature rate decline. There was used standard and by producer recommended 3. phase freezing curve, then 2. phase freezing curve, and 3. phase freezing curve with slower as well as rapid decline of temperature rate in freezing chamber, compared with standard freezing curve. The highest spermatozoa motility was found using 240 minutes of equilibration by +2.72% and +4.58% compared to other lengths of equilibration (P <0.05 to 0.01). The highest proportion of live spermatozoa was found using 120 minutes of equilibration (+6.87 % and +8.68 %). The highest average spermatozoa motility during heat test after thawing was achieved by using 2. phase freezing curve (from +2.97% to +10.37%, P <0.05), also in the proportion of live spermatozoa (from + 4.37% to +8.82%, P <0.01). When evaluating interaction between the length of equilibration and freezing curve (standard 3. phase and 2 . phase freezing curve), the highest average spermatozoa motility and proportion of live spermatozoa using 240 minutes of equilibration by both freezing curves was reached, there was no statistically significant differences. As well as, in all evaluated parts of this study the individual differences between ejaculate of bulls and within semen from one bull (P <0.05) as secondary effect were found.
To maintain good fertilization ability of semen during cryopreservation is necessary to increase the spermatozoa resistance against cold shock using addition of correct concentration of LDL into the commercially used diluents AndroMed and Bioxcell. Subsequently the fertilization ability of insemination dose is influenced by cooling, the length of equilibration and freezing. The length of equilibration 120 minutes and more as well as gentle way of freezing according to freezing curve, which ensures a gradual decrease of temperature in freezing chamber provided the higher average spermatozoa motility and proportion of live spermatozoa.
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Total contents and speciation of arsenic and selenium in plants growing in soils with different physico-chemical properties
Tremlová, Jana ; Száková, Jiřina (advisor) ; Vymazal, Jan (referee)
This dissertation thesis deals with uptake, accumulation and transformation of arsenic and selenium in plants growing on soils with different chemico-physical soil properties. The contents of arsenic were investigated in 99 wild plant species, coming from 27 different families and 6 different vegetables growing in arsenic contaminated soils. The results suggest that there are species-specific mechanisms which protects certain plants from the excessive uptake of arsenic from the soil. On the other hand, there are plants using a strategy of accumulation, which theoretically may increase the risk of arsenic entry into the food chain, whether through grazing cattle and wildlife or through consumption of vegetables growing on arsenic contaminated soils. The most prevalent arsenic compounds are AsV and AsIII. Other arsenic compounds occure as minor species. An important finding was detection of arsenobetaine in Plantago lanceolata L. and Carex praecox Schreb ..
The contents of selenium were examined in 73 species of wild plants, coming from 29 different families. The results suggest that naturally low levels of selenium in the soil of selected locations along with a low capability of selenium uptake via collected plant species lead to the low content of selenium in plant biomass which may contribute to selenium deficient throughout the food chain. Foliar application of selenate on wild plant communities and on some types of vegetables in our case Brassica oleracea var. italica can have a positive impact on increasing the selenium content in the aboveground biomass of these plants and by extension, increase the selenium content in the human diet. Dominant selenium compounds in the aboveground biomass of the analyzed plants were SeVI and selenomethionine, with variable proportion of other commonly occurring organic selenium compounds, which is mainly affected by plant species.
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Optimization of network flow monitoring
Žádník, Martin ; Lhotka,, Ladislav (referee) ; Matoušek, Radomil (referee) ; Sekanina, Lukáš (advisor)
The thesis deals with optimization of network flow monitoring. Flow-based network traffic processing, that is, processing packets based on some state information associated to the flows which the packets belong to, is a key enabler for a variety of network services and applications. The number of simultaneous flows increases with the growing number of new services and applications. It has become a challenge to keep a state per each flow in a network device processing high speed traffic. A flow table, a structure with flow states, must be stored in a memory hierarchy. The memory closest to the processing is known as a flow cache. Flow cache management plays an important role in terms of its effective utilization, which affects the performance of the whole system. This thesis focuses on an automated design of cache replacement policy optimized to a deployment on particular networks. A genetic algorithm is proposed to automate this process. The genetic algorithm generates and evaluates evolved replacement policies by a simulation on obtained traffic traces. The proposed algorithm is evaluated by designing replacement policies for two variations of the cache management problem. The first variation is an evolution of the replacement policy with an overall low number of state evictions from the flow cache. The second variation represents an evolution of the replacement policy with a low number of evictions belonging to large flows only. Optimized replacement policies for both variations are found while experimenting with various encoding of the replacement policy and genetic operators. The newly evolved replacement policies achieve better results than other tested policies. The evolved replacement policy lowers the overall amount of evictions by ten percent in comparison with the best compared policy. The evolved replacement policy focusing on large flows lowers the amount of their evictions two times. Moreover, no eviction occurs for most of the large flows (over 90%). The evolved replacement policy offers better resilience against flooding the flow cache with large amount of short flows which are typical side effects of scanning or distributed denial of service activities. An extension of the replacement policy is also proposed. The extension complements the replacement policy with an additional information extracted from packet headers. The results show further decrease in the number of evictions when the extension is used.
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Consumption of fiber in old age
ŠÁLEK, Jan
The theme of this bachelor thesis is the Consumption of fiber in the old age (seniors). Formerly, the dietary fiber was considered unnecessarily burdensome for human organism. Later, it was found that it has a relatively large impact on human health, especially by serving as a prebiotic for symbiotic bacteria inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract. There is still prevailing opinion that roughage divides into a soluble and insoluble, despite that some types of fiber cannot be definitely classified and placed into any of these groups because they have characteristics of both of them. The daily recommended dose is 30 g. The qualitative research was used for elaboration of the practical part. The first goal was to find out how much fiber seniors consume. The second aim was to compare the consumption of fiber among elderly people living alone and the elderly living in retirement homes built for them. The research group, at the first research question, consists of 20 seniors from the Southern Region aged over 65 years. The research group, at the second research question, consists of five retirement homes from the whole Czech Republic. All respondents were given a record sheet for one week, and instructions on how to fill it. Acquired menus were subsequently re-calculated through the program "Nutriservis Professional". The results show higher consumption of fiber than the average in the Czech Republic, but there is still almost a half missing to get the recommended daily dose. There was observed BMI and its impact on the consumption of fiber. No significant effect was found, because overweight had all interviewees except one respondent. The financial limit is visible for evaluated diet of homes for the elderly, therefore, there are no whole grain products, vegetables and almost no fruit. Despite these limitations, the average consumption of fiber is almost equal to elderly people living alone. In conclusion, there is a proposition how to, despite the low funds, increase the intake of roughage, and avoid or, at least, reduce the problems associated with its low consumption. Recommendations for respondents are individual and given under each evaluation.
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Card of Cryptosporidium infections by humans and animals
BLÁHOVEC, Ondřej
The representatives of the Cryptosporidium genus are one of the causes of gastrointestinal tract diseases in humans and animals. In animals the host may even be a respiratory apparatus. The disease is called cryptosproridiosis. In majority of cases this infection can bypass without any major problems, but in immunosuppressed individuals it can cause serious health problems. Cryptosporidium has a monoxenous development cycle, which basically means that the entire development takes place in a single host. Exogenous stage is represented by oocysts, which are in case of a gastrointestinal disease excreted in faeces. In case of a respiratory disease the oocysts make they way out via respiratory and nasal secretions. This leads to contamination of the environment or water. In general, it is expected that Cryptosporidium isolates, which are present in one class of vertebrates, are not infectious to a non-specific host from other classes. It is also expected that cryptosporidia have low host specificity. But this does not exclude that some kinds have gradually extended its specificity to more species. It is also apparent that cryptosporidium infections are common in animals that inhabit the external environment, so even a human can be endangered by this zoonosis, although the incidence in the Czech Republic is low. The reason for the low numbers may as well be that parasitological examination is not performed very often, so the estimated prevalence in the population is probably much higher. Therefore to reveal the originator of this disease it would be appropriate to perform a parasitological examination in persons who are in contact with animals, this way the cryptosporidium infection would be excluded or proven.
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How to prevent the proliferation of Legionella pneumophylis in hot water in the hospital Czech Krumlov
TUREK, Jan
This diploma thesis deals with microbiological quality of hot water in a hospital in Cesky Krumlov as well as hot water piping condition with respect to Legionella. It also deals with arrangements for improving the quality of hot water in this hospital. The subject and target of this thesis are the findings of the mentioned parameters based on own observations, technical documentation and analysis of warm water performed by an accredited laboratory. The hospital in Cesky Krumlov, the construction of which began in 1909, was built in 1911 as the 'Nemocnice Císaře Františka Josefa I.' As the time went by, new buildings were built up. The hospital was renamed to 'Všeobecná veřejná nemocnice' in 1942. In the following years the hospital expanded until the current condition. Water quality and presence of Legionella is a world-wide issue, which we must fight against. The thesis is divided into two parts. First, theoretical part, which includes both general and specific knowledge about Legionella, its health risks, the environment in which it occurs, possibilities of eliminating, suitability of the material for hot water pipes, gained in professional literature and a part of the Czech legislation dealing with public health protection, the law 'No. 258/2004 Coll.' in actual version and quality of drinking water and hot water. In the second, empirical part, I focus on the situation of the hospital in Cesky Krumlov from 2009 till 2015, concerning newly built boiler room and the whole distribution system of hot water regarding Legionella. Particularly I focused on materials used for ecologisation of the gas boiler room and materials used for hot water pipes and actual state of water distribution in individual buildings of this health care facility. I mentioned the analysis of the water samples performed by an accredited laboratory with corresponding technical documentation, which concerns the water distribution system, provided by the medical facility. I used secondary data analysis to evaluate these documents. Regarding the results from 2009 to 2015 the microbiological quality of warm water doesn't meet the limits defined in the Attachment No. 3 of the above mentioned law Order 252/2004 Coll. Limit value for colony forming units of Legionella is set to maximum of 100 CFU. In most of the samples this limit was exceeded by series of units up to hundred thousands of units. The last results in 2015 prove improvement of the unfavorable situation. In that year the analysis was tested three times. First in February, where the CFU units were 'only' in hundreds, with the top value of 550 CFU in the Postacute Care ward. Second analysis was performed in June that same year. Results were acceptable. The highest value was 64 CFU. Last analysis in the hospital was performed in December. Increased concentration of Legionella was again in the Surgery building. There were established of 1400 colony forming units. There were 300 CFU in the Postacute Care ward and the limit value of 100 CFU was in the ward of Internal medicine. The answers to research questions 'How to prevent reproduction of Legionella peumophylis in the water distribution system of the hospital in Cesky Krumlov?' and 'How to ensure a sufficient amount of quality hot water in the medical facility?' are included at the end of the stated recommendations. A risk factor causing the fast reproduction of Legionella is the old water distribution system in most of the buildings and low water temperature of water leaving the boiler, which is 55°C. All mentioned results and evaluations are included in this thesis as well as attached pictures, which show the environment and situation within the Health Care Institutions.
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Use of Festuca arundinacea for decorative lawns
Doskočil, Jan ; Svobodová, Miluše (advisor) ; Hrevušová, Zuzana (referee)
Use of Festuca arundinacea for decorative lawns
Summary
Festuca arundinacea is briefly bentgrass with broader and coarser leaves. Hardly perennial grass, native to Europe, is well known for its high resistance of dry weather, low intensity of maintenance and resistance of high use. These qualities gains thanks to its well-developed and deep root system, which is capable to gain water and nutrients from deeper parts of soil. Its use is in places with high use, like a race-course, edges of roads or vineyards alleyway. Today, in time of global warming, its usage becomes more important for park purposes and low-input turfs, where is its higher resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses, mainly against drought, utilized. Festuca arundinacea complement well with Poa pratensis in turf.
Goal of this work was to evaluate turfs with Festuca arundinacea and chosen grass species under different mowing frequency. According to hypothesis frequency shouldn´t affect turf coverage. Coverage should be same with different mixture composition with Festuca arundinacea.
The experiment was performed on experimental land of Czech university of Life Sciences Prague, Suchdol in 2015. Mixtures of Festuca arundinacea with Festuca rubra, Poa pratensis and Lolium perenne were seeded together with monocultures of these species in 2012. Mixture composition was 50/50 except mixture of Fesruca arundinacea and Poa pratensis, where the mixture was 75/25. There were conducted 63 plots, in 3 repetitions and in 3 different frequencies of mowing (by 14, 30 and 45 days). Each plot was 6 m2 big. The results were evaluated by analysis of variance ANOVA (P is smaller than 0.05) in program Statgraphics, version XV.
Influence of mixture composition to level of growth was significant. The highest level of growth has monoculture of Festuca arundinacea (10,6 cm). The lowest level of growth has monoculture of Lolium perenne (5,4 cm). Monoculture of Festuca arundinacea had the highest intensity of grow (0,07 cm/day) at 14-day frequency of moving. Lolium perenne has the lowest intensity of grow (0,02 cm/day). At 30-day frequency of mowing mixture of Festuca arundinacea with Poa pratensis has the highest intensity of grow (0,24 cm/day). The lowest intensity of grow has Lolium perenne (0,01 cm/day). The highest intensity of grow was at 45-day mowing frequency. The highest intensity of grow has mixture of Festuca arundinacea with Festuca rubra (0,75 cm/day). The lowest intensity of grow has monoculture of Lolium perenne (0,06 cm/day). Influence of mixture composition to coverage was statistically significant. The highest coverage has mixture of Festuca arundinace with Festuca rubra (81,3 %). The lowest coverage has monoculture of Lolium perenne (58,6%). Influence of frequency to level of growth was statistically significant. The highest level of growth has 45-day frequency of mowing (6 cm) and the lowest level of growth has 14-day frequency of mowing (3,8 cm). Influence of frequency to coverage was statistically significant. The highest coverage 14-day frequency of moving (76,5 %) and the lowest has 45-day frequency of growing (66,7 %).
The knowledge gained will be used for further compilation grass mixtures for park lawns. It turned out that it is better to prefer seeding mixtures with Festuca arundinacea than monocultures. To achieve high coverage and optimal intensity of growth with Festuca arundinacea was recommended to follow 30-day frequency of mowing.
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Factors affecting postmortem changes in pork meat
Seilerová, Michaela ; Čítek, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Lebedová, Nicole (referee)
The thesis focused on the summary of the quality of pork. The main indicators of the quality of pork and of meat generally together with a chemical composition and the external and internal factors dealing with the quality of meat are described in the thesis. The various histological structure, the variable chemical content, technological features are found in meat. The structure and composition depends on a way of living, the function of the parts of an animal body, on lots of intravital factors (a kind of an animal, breed, male or female, age, the way of nutrition, the state of health). Meat is a valuable source of nutrients and essential acids for a man. The human organism is not able to synthesize the essential acids itself. Lipids are the important part of meat, their main function is storing energy. They are found as a reserve tissue in the subcutaneus parts of animals or among muscular fibre. The amount of carbohydrates contained in meat is not important, meat is low in carbohydrates. They are only important for meat maturation. Meat is high in minerals and vitamins. It is necesary for a man and should be a part of our diet. The important factor for a meat quality is described as a formation of muscular fibres. There are the thin fibres in the meat of a high quality and the thick and fat fibres in the meat of a low quality. The meat quality depends on a number and charactes of animal fibres. The meat of a high quality is for example loin - it is the meat with fine fibres. The next factor which has influence on a meat quality is course of post mortem changes.We can differentiate four stages in these processes: prae rigor, rigor mortis, aging of the meat and deep autolysis. Post mortem aiging processes can deviate from teh standard from variety of reasons and as concequences we can see quality deviation of the meat for example PSE, DFD, RSE, Hampshire efect and cold shortening.Also the breed has the influance on the quality of the meat namely sensitivity to stress,growth characteristic and parameters of slaughter value, other internal factors are age and sex. External factors which has the influance on the quality of the meat are transport of the animals to the slaughterhouse, attitude of the employees during chasing after the animals, the rest before slaughter, stunning itself,bleeding thereafter and cooling down after slaughtery.
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The marketing strategy of the business entity
Vlasák, Matouš ; Vokáčová, Lucie (advisor) ; Michal, Michal (referee)
The thesis focuses on the marketing strategy of commercial division Žirafa Stavebniny, which is a part of the construction company MAO a.s. Žirafa Stavebniny deals with sales of building materials, renting of construction machines and with a haulage.
The aim of the thesis is to design appropriate marketing strategies for retail sale that would result in achieving the objectives set by business divisions.
The theoretical part studies the concepts and the issues of strategic marketing planning and analyses that are needed to create a marketing strategy. The writing of this part was preceded by the studying of professional literature in order to compose a bibliographic search by means of description and comparison.
The theoretical part is followed by a chapter that describes basic information about the company MAO a.s. and its business division Žirafa Stavebniny. The external environment is evaluated through a PEST analysis, which is the analysis of competition in the industry, and market analysis.
The internal environment of the business division was analyzed by means of the financial analysis, the marketing mix analysis and the analysis of competitiveness. Thanks to the analyses, several opportunities and threats to the Žirafa have been revealed. What is considered as the most significant opportunities for the Žirafa are the low mortgage rate, the departure of a major competitor Raab Karcher from the market and last but not least the new owner of retail chain Baumax. Conversely, the most imminent threats are the unfavourable development of the construction industry and building production, the action of the Žirafa in a perfect competitive market, the withdrawal of the main competitor Raab Karcher from the market and the new owner of retail chain Baumax. The analyses also helped to find the strong and the weak points of the Žirafa. One of the most important strong points is an access to customer service quality. Furthermore, other plus points are the reputation, a long-term activity on the market and good relations with suppliers. However, there are considerable weaknesses that are worth mentioning, such as an inadequate use of communication media, poor sales and communication skills of employees, low-level websites and a weak retail environment.
By means of the SWOT matrix, there were generated different marketing strategies that are used to achieve the objectives of the Žirafa. In particular, it is a strategy to streamline marketing communication, a strategy focused on a quality of service, a strategy that deals with broadening of the assortment and a strategy which would improve the professionalism of the employees. Consequently, a draft action program for the marketing year of 2015/2016 is conceived on the basis of the results of analyses and the created marketing strategies.
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