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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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The Problems of Acceptability of Competence of a Specialist Nurse (ARIC) to Male Urethral Catheterization
SOUKUPOVÁ, Pavla
The passing of the act on non-physician medical professions and the decree on activities of healthcare workers has brought numerous changes that are also linked to changes of nurse competences. Aim 1: To find out whether nurses with ARIC specialization perform male urethral catheterization. Aim 2: To find out whether nurses with ARIC specialization are interested in improvement of their knowledge of male urethral catheterization. Aim 3: To find out whether nurses with ARIC specialization have sufficient practical skills in male urethral catheterization. Aim 1: To find out what opinion physicians have on male urethral catheterization performed by a nurse specialized in ARIC. Aim 2: To find out whether physicians let nurses specialized in ARIC perform male urethral catheterization. The research part of the thesis was based on quantitative and qualitative research. The research results will be provided to head nurses in the hospital where the research was performed. The results might be useful for preparation of a specialization course focused on male urethral catheterization not only for nurses specialized in ARIC, but also for nurses that are interested in performing the procedure in the future, particularly as it is known that no such a course exists in the South Bohemia. The results might also be used as an input to further research.
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Comparison of Diffusion Coefficients in Initial Stages of Mutual Diffusion in Layered Structures Carbon/Ferrite and Carbon/Austenite for Chosen Alloys
Čermák, Jiří ; Král, Lubomír
Coefficients of mutual carbon diffusion were measured at initial stages of diffusion for surface thin layer of carbon/ferrite and carbon surface layer/austenite. The aim of the study was to compare the diffusion characteristics obtained at the present strongly non-equilibrium case with those known for carbon mutual diffusion in cases where the carbon concentration does not exceed the solubility limit in the respective substrate. The second goal was to judge, whether the carbon diffusivity is determined by the structure of the substrate matrix (BCC or FCC). As examples of ferrite substrate, pure Fe and chromium steel P91 were chosen, as an example of austenite substrate, AISI316 was taken. It was obtained that – similar to nearequilibrium case – the carbon diffusion measured close to interface C/austenite is significantly lower compared to carbon diffusion near the C/ferrite. Values of carbon diffusion coefficients in cases C/Fe and C/P91 are close one to another. All carbon diffusion coefficients are much lower than those, reported for near-equilibrium conditions; they approach values measured in carbides.
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The role of acetylation in the RNA recognition motif of SRSF5 protein
Icha, Jaroslav ; Staněk, David (advisor) ; Šenigl, Filip (referee)
Acetylation is emerging as an important posttranslational modification, which is found in thousands of proteins in eukaryotes, as well as prokaryotes. Global proteomic studies implicated acetylation in regulation of various processes like metabolism, gene expression, cell cycle or aging to name a few. In this work I set out to investigate the role of acetylation of a splicing regulatory protein SRSF5 by creating mutations in its acetylation site. I tested the hypothesis that acetylation influences SRSF5 interaction with RNA. I expressed acetylation-mimicking (Q) or non-acetylable (R) mutant of SRSF5 in HeLa cells and measured their interaction with RNA by RNA immunoprecipitation or in vitro by fluorescence anisotropy. Both approaches agreed that mutants interact with RNA less than the wild type protein and Q mutant bound RNA weaker than R mutant. I did not detect further difference in localization or dynamics among the proteins in vivo, which suggests that difference caused by weakened interaction of mutants with RNA was outweighed by other factors influencing SRSF5 behaviour, probably protein-protein interactions. I also found out that mutant SRSF5 proteins do not have a dominant effect on splicing of fibronectin alternative EDB exon. The data obtained give an indirect evidence for the hypothesis that...
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Alcohol addiction among the patients of the Psychiatric Clinic Červený Dvůr
PRAVEČKOVÁ, Michaela
My Bachelor's Thesis focuses on persons addicted to alcohol who are staying in Červený Dvůr Mental Hospital. The goal of the thesis was to find out the most frequent causes of addiction to alcohol in the Červený Dvůr clients and the impact of excessive alcohol consumption on their private life. In addition, the thesis tries to find out how the clients learned about Červený Dvůr Mental Hospital, what the reason for the consent with treatment was and what motivated the clients to undergo the treatment for addiction. The research was based on a qualitative method. The data were acquired using the method of semi-structured interviews and the sample consisted of 8 communication partners. The selection was intentional. For the data analysis, was used the method of patterns collection. The main research question dealt with the issue whether the clients in Červený Dvůr Mental Hospital are aware of the negative effect of alcohol. A partial research question was to find the answer to the question in which situations the clients became aware of the negative effect of alcohol. In addition, what were the main causes of excessive consumption of alcohol in the clients and what is their motivation to undergo the treatment for addiction. Nearly all respondents were aware of the negative effect of alcohol, specifically in relation to their family troubles. The most common consequence of alcoholism was divorce. The clients became aware of the negative influence of alcohol in the case of loss of friends or job. The most frequently occurring cause of addiction in these clients was an unidentifiable craving for a change, which they themselves are not able to explain. At the same time, for more than a half of the respondents the main motivation to undergo the treatment was their wish to live "properly" as they had lived before their addiction developed. These people wish to find the sense of their lives and their vision is that they will be able to function in everyday life as the others are. Another finding resulting from the research was that in the case of all respondents somebody from among their family members was addicted to alcohol as well. More specific results are provided in the practical part of the thesis. The Bachelor's Thesis could be beneficial for both non-specialists and specialists. It could be motivating for people who are addicted to alcohol and are afraid of seeking assistance. The thesis may be used for instructional purposes or for the creation of programmes aimed at better awareness and prevention in the area of addiction to alcohol.
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Neural Networks Between Integer and Rational Weights
Šíma, Jiří
The analysis of the computational power of neural networks with the weight parameters between integer and rational numbers is refined. We study an intermediate model of binary-state neural networks with integer weights, corresponding to finite automata, which is extended with an extra analog unit with rational weights, as already two additional analog units allow for Turing universality. We characterize the languages that are accepted by this model in terms of so-called cut languages which are combined in a certain way by usual string operations. We employ this characterization for proving that the languages accepted by neural networks with an analog unit are context-sensitive and we present an explicit example of such non-context-free languages. In addition, we formulate a sufficient condition when these networks accept only regular languages in terms of quasi-periodicity of parameters derived from their weights.
Fulltext: content.csg -  PDF
Plný tet: v1237-16 - PDF
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