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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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The civil elites at the local level
Koutná, Gabriela ; Müller, Karel (advisor) ; Fleissner, Kamil (referee)
The main objective of this thesis is the identification and understanding of the mechanisms of recruiting local political elites and their role in the process of democratization of local politics, and in the process of strengthening local civil society on concrete example selected municipality. The case study concerns with the municipality Semily, which was chosen to work as a community with exemplary transparent and open manner of governance. In 2006 there was a significant change in political representation when recruiting new political elites was a top down process led by a particular person according to predetermined priorities.
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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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Networks of Actors of Regional Development in Local Action Group Pošumaví
Petříková, Lenka ; Perlín, Radim (advisor) ; Maříková, Pavlína (referee)
The thesis deals with actors'network problems of regional development in the Local Action Group Pošumaví (LAG). The aim is to assess the functioning of networks within the Local Action Group Pošumaví focusing on the existence of networks, their activity and permeability and the way and intensity of involvement of the regional development actors in those networks. In the context of the institutional framework conditions of the local action groups a questionnaire survey together with guided interviews with actors LAG were analyzed. The results show that in the current programming period, the Local Action Group Pošumaví formed the network, but the cooperation is not very intensive. On the other hand, part of the actors of the regional development want to be more involved in LAG in the future, which can lead to extending and deepening of the existing cooperation.
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Documentation of the nature reserve Miletinska bazantnice (Czech Republic)
Stejskalová, Klára ; Skalický, Milan (advisor) ; Martinková, Jaroslava (referee)
The aim of this study is to document the floristic species diversity through research in the natural reserve Miletinska bazantnice. Documentation was carried out on the territory concerned during the growing season of 2015. There was a determination of vascular species. The research was mainly focused on endangered and protected species.
The whole area is part of sites of European importance under the Habitats Directive Natura 2000 Miletinska bazantnice was declared a nature reserve in 1954 with an area of 75, 43 hectares and is part of a small-scale specially protected area. Typical features of the area are remnants of natural Podzvicinsko geobiocenosis and therefore the reason for its protection.
Further it describes the history, characteristics of the territory and the natural conditions that are typical for the locality. These include soil science, climate, hydrological, geomorphological, geological and phytogeographical. On the territory of the nature reserve are recorded two memorial trees. It´s oaks (Quercus robur) called Zizkovy duby.
At present territories were found in protected and endangered species and classified under the Red and black list of vascular plants of the Czech Republic (Grulich, 2012) and Decree of the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic no. 395/1992 Coll. Into the category of rare taxa that require additional attention include species such as Carex otrubae, Cerastium lucorum, Daphne mezereum, Galium boreale, Listera ovata and Primula veris. The only species Platanthera bifolia is ranked in the category of endangered under both the Red and black list of vascular plants in the Czech Republic and under Decree.
In the field survey, attention was also paid to invasive species, sorted by Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (Pyšek et al., 2012) and categorized archeophytes (Arctium tomentosum, Cirsium arvense, Convolvulus arvensis, Chelidonium majus)
and neophytes (Arrhenatherum elatius, Impatiens parviflora) and described their risks (Mlíkovský and Stýblo, 2006)
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Political aspects of local goverment. Elections and electoral behavior of citizens in the town of Nový Bydžov
Bieliková, Eva ; Kopřiva, Radek (advisor) ; Lenka, Lenka (referee)
The thesis addresses the issue of elections and electoral behavior of citizens in the town of Nový Bydžov. It is focused on assessment of factors that influence voting behavior of citizens in the town of Nový Bydžov. It describes the evolution of electoral behavior from 1994 to 2014 and verification of the applicability of the theory of electoral behavior for explanation of the electoral decision-making of the electorate in Nový Bydžov. The theoretical part addresses (describes) theoretical definition of areas that relate to the topic of the thesis. The practical part is a case study of Nový Bydžov. Subject of study is the town of Nový Bydžov, objects of study are the voters participating in the elections to the council of this city. To achieve the set goals (objectives) is recovered content of documents study (written records), a questionnaire survey, comparative methods and synthesis.
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Influence of meadow management on the migration behavior of selected species of butterflies
Bubová, Terezie ; Langrová, Iva (advisor) ; Farkač, Jan (referee)
Migrations are the key process and one of the basic biological features, which allow survival of endangered species in fragmented landscape. In the last decades, agriculture intensification, industry and urbanization caused that number of natural butterfly habitats has significantly decreased. The localities originally suitable for butterflies are currnetly converted to farmland or building plots. This PhD thesis aimed to find a compromise solution of meadow management, which should allow a commercial use and concurrently do not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered or threatened species. The main idea of this study was in the intentional emigration causing in the middle of flight period, which should lead into resettlement of the population to another (potentially more suitable) locality. Possibility of aimed manipulation with butterfly emigrations would be considered as a major breakthrough in their protection.
The investigated species Phengaris nausithous (Bergsträsser, 1779) and Phengaris teleius (Bergsträsser, 1779) are both considered to be flagship species for protection of European butterflies at open meadows. This study is based on research, which was carried out in 2013-2015 at 17 patch in localities Dolní Labe, Czech Republic. In above mentioned years, one selected meadow was mowed in the middle of flight season and the emigrations were then monitored using mark-release-recapture method. Results of population and migration characteristics were calculated in MARK 8.1 software. Subsequently, the effect of mowing on emigration (comparison of emigrations from the meadow before and after mowing) was evaluated using Statistica 13.
The hypotheses of this study were based on the assumption, that the loss of resources after well-timed mowing should increase the activity of adult butterflies. During the monitoring, number of emigrations was increased only in flight season 2015. Unfortunately, the statistical evaluation did not show significant effect of mowing on migrations. On the other hand, the hypothesis dealing with colonization of nearest meadows was confirmed.
Effect of intentional emigration caused by management interventions was unfortunately not proved. However, we found out, that even though the population at one mowed meadow decreased clearly, the metapopulation size at the locality remained more or less stable.
At investigated (mowed) meadow, there was observed a sharp decline of P. nausithous abundance. On the other hand, P. teleius population was only slightly reduced. It is therefore conceivable, that P. teleius are not as susceptible to innapropriate term of mowing. The results obtained in our research conclusively displayed no possible positive effect of mowing in the middle of flight season and a necessity of suitable management maintenance at localities inhabited by Phengaris butterflies.
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Demography and Dispersal Ability of a Threatened Saproxylic Beetle: A Mark- Recapture Study of the Rosalia Longicorn (Rosalia alpina)
DRAG, Lukáš
This thesis focuses on demography and mobility of an endangered and strictly protected icon of European saproxylic biodiversity, the Rosalia longicorn beetle (Rosalia alpina). Using the mark-recapture method we estimated the size of the population, adult longevity, and dispersal ability of the Rosalia longicorn on three hills in the Ralska Upland, Czech Republic. Furthermore, we assessed the distribution pattern of another 15 populations inhabiting small patches of old beech forest in this area. Factors affecting local survival and the species conservation are discussed.
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