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The Founders of Post-Keynesianism and the Concept of Reswitching
Kraffer, Robin ; Potužák, Pavel (advisor) ; Chytilová, Helena (referee)
The thesis deals with the evolution of thoughts of Joan Robinson's, Nicholas Kaldor's, Piero Sraffa's and Luigi Pasinetti's with regards to the issue of reswitching. Discussing Robinson, Kaldor, and Sraffa, it addresses the importance of the discussion on imperfect competition and Keynes's theory for developing their opinions within the capital theory. This issue was challenged in the 50s by Robinson who asked how capital can be measured. She discovered an option of reswitching to a more capital-using technique during a wage increase, but she did not focus on it very much. The thesis also seeks the importance of Sraffa's solution to the invariant standard of value for developing the debate on reswitching the technologies in the 60s, which was joined by both Pasinetti and Robinson. However, Robinson refused again in the 70s to deem the reswitching important within the critique of the neoclassical theory, and thus joined Kaldor who had voiced similar thoughts. At the end of the thesis, the question of Robinson underestimating the importance of reswitching, as pronounced by Pasinetti, is answered - she underestimated it in the 50s, whereas it is impossible to give a clear answer when it comes to the 70s, despite the differences found among Post-Keynesians and Neo-Ricardians.
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Changes to rights to claim foster care benefits since year 2013
ZEMANOVÁ, Hana
Foster care is a form of social care in the Czech Republic. A fostered children and foster parents receive from state a foster care benefits. Up until 2012 these benefits were set by Act No. 117/1995 Coll., on State Social Support. In 2012, Amendment No. 401/2012 Coll., transferred foster care benefits to Act No. 359/1999 Coll., for Social-Legal Protection of Children. With this change in law, there was also a change in the conditions of entitlement to claim foster care benefits and the establishment of efforts to professionalize foster care. The aim of my work is to analyse and compare the legislation of changes to foster care benefits from the perspective of the State Social Support Law and the Law of Social-Legal Protection of Children. I have tried to confirm or invalidate the hypotheses using quantitative research, this forms the empirical part of my work. Hypotheses were focusing on comparing the situation before and after the changes of Law for Social-Legal Protection of Children. As a technique I chose to study documents and using these documents I have provided secondary analysis. I have worked with the statistics of the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, the Labor Offices and the Regional Offices. The results of my findings have shown that more foster parents should be able to claim foster care benefits. Passing the bill on professional foster care has increased the interest in providing foster care, this must be seen as positive outcome. My research could be used as study material for other students of social science or for people who work in the area of social-legal protection of children. It could also be used as feedback for ministerial officials to sea the real situation since the changes in foster care law.
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Clustering and regression analysis of micro panel data
Sobíšek, Lukáš ; Pecáková, Iva (advisor) ; Komárek, Arnošt (referee) ; Brabec, Marek (referee)
The main purpose of panel studies is to analyze changes in values of studied variables over time. In micro panel research, a large number of elements are periodically observed within the relatively short time period of just a few years. Moreover, the number of repeated measurements is small. This dissertation deals with contemporary approaches to the regression and the clustering analysis of micro panel data. One of the approaches to the micro panel analysis is to use multivariate statistical models originally designed for crosssectional data and modify them in order to take into account the within-subject correlation. The thesis summarizes available tools for the regression analysis of micro panel data. The known and currently used linear mixed effects models for a normally distributed dependent variable are recapitulated. Besides that, new approaches for analysis of a response variable with other than normal distribution are presented. These approaches include the generalized marginal linear model, the generalized linear mixed effects model and the Bayesian modelling approach. In addition to describing the aforementioned models, the paper also includes a brief overview of their implementation in the R software. The difficulty with the regression models adjusted for micro panel data is the ambiguity of their parameters estimation. This thesis proposes a way to improve the estimations through the cluster analysis. For this reason, the thesis also contains a description of methods of the cluster analysis of micro panel data. Because supply of the methods is limited, the main goal of this paper is to devise its own two-step approach for clustering micro panel data. In the first step, the panel data are transformed into a static form using a set of proposed characteristics of dynamics. These characteristics represent different features of time course of the observed variables. In the second step, the elements are clustered by conventional spatial clustering techniques (agglomerative clustering and the C-means partitioning). The clustering is based on a dissimilarity matrix of the values of clustering variables calculated in the first step. Another goal of this paper is to find out whether the suggested procedure leads to an improvement in quality of the regression models for this type of data. By means of a simulation study, the procedure drafted herein is compared to the procedure applied in the kml package of the R software, as well as to the clustering characteristics proposed by Urso (2004). The simulation study demonstrated better results of the proposed combination of clustering variables as compared to the other combinations currently used. A corresponding script written in the R-language represents another benefit of this paper. It is available on the attached CD and it can be used for analyses of readers own micro panel data.
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Possible applications of Asian medicinal methods on the spa tourism and wellness market in the Czech Republic.
Jedličková, Lenka ; Valentová, Jana (advisor) ; Machová, Božena (referee)
This thesis deals with the possible application Asian curative methods on the market of spa tourism and wellness in the Czech Republic. The thesis is divided into five chapters, theoretical and practical. The aim of this work is to define Indian culture in the area of treatment and relaxation in the context of historical development and measure of use in the domestic tourism. Partial aims of this thesis are analysis of utilization Indian therapeutical technique and facilities dedicate these procedures in the Czech Republic. The introductory chapter is devoted to definitions tourism and health tourism. The second chapter is focused on spa tourism and the third chapter is devoted to wellness and quality of life. The fourth chapter is oriented on India, ayurveda and typical methods of usage ayurvedic massage. In the last chapter is description of situation in the Czech Republic, centres concentrated on ayurveda are mentioned and there is also questionnaire construction and in conclusion there are some proposed attractive products.
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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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A Comparison of Preconditioning Methods for Saddle Point Problems with an Application to Porous Media Flow Problems
Axelsson, Owe ; Blaheta, Radim ; Hasal, Martin
The paper overviews and compares some block preconditioners for the solution of saddle point systems, especially systems arising from the Brinkman model of porous media flow. The considered preconditioners involve different Schur complements as inverse free Schur complement in HSS (Hermitian - Skew Hermitian Splitting preconditioner), Schur complement to the velocity matrix and finally Schur complement to a regularization block in the augmented matrix preconditioner. The inverses appearing in most of the considered Schur complements are approximated by simple sparse approximation techniques as element-by-element and Frobenius norm minimization approaches. A special interest is devoted to problems involving various Darcy, Stokes and Brinkman flow regions, the efficiency of preconditioners in this case is demonstrated by some numerical experiments.
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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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Effect of snowpack on runoff generation during rain on snow event.
Juras, Roman ; Máca, Petr (advisor) ; Ladislav , Ladislav (referee)
During a winter season, when snow covers the watershed, the frequency of rain-on-snow (ROS) events is still raising. ROS can cause severe natural hazards like floods or wet avalanches. Prediction of ROS effects is linked to better understanding of snowpack runoff dynamics and its composition. Deploying rainfall simulation together with hydrological tracers was tested as a convenient tool for this purpose. Overall 18 sprinkling experiments were conducted on snow featuring different initial conditions in mountainous regions over middle and western Europe.
Dye tracer brilliant blue (FCF) was used for flow regime determination, because it enables to visualise preferential paths and layers interface. Snowpack runoff composition was assessed by hydrograph separation method, which provided appropriate results with acceptable uncertainty. It was not possible to use concurrently these two techniques because of technical reasons, however it would extend our gained knowledge. Snowmelt water amount in the snowpack runoff was estimated by energy balance (EB) equation, which is very efficient but quality inputs demanding. This was also the reason, why EB was deployed within only single experiment.
Timing of snowpack runoff onset decrease mainly with the rain intensity. Initial snowpack properties like bulk density or wetness are less important for time of runoff generation compared to the rain intensity. On the other het when same rain intensity was applied, non-ripe snowpack featuring less bulk density created runoff faster than the ripe snowpack featuring higher bulk density. Snowpack runoff magnitude mainly depends on the snowpack initial saturation. Ripe snowpack with higher saturation enabled to generate higher cumulative runoff where contributed by max 50 %. In contrary, rainwater travelled through the non-ripe snowpack relatively fast and contributed runoff by approx. 80 %.
Runoff prediction was tested by deploying Richards equation included in SNOWPACK model. The model was modified using a dual-domain approach to better simulate snowpack runoff under preferential flow conditions. Presented approach demonstrated an improvement in all simulated aspects compared to the more traditional method when only matrix flow is considered.
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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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