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Family environment of drug addicts
LUKÁŠOVÁ, Adéla
We live in a postmodern era, where the original concept of the family loses its original meaning and where there is a breaking of traditional family values. You can also talk about the so - called crisis of the family and the associated emergence of socially pathological phenomena. This term began to apply in the Czech Republic during the nineties. It is a transformation that brings the absence of traditional family symbols, which are two - parent family, the primary representation of the family in the social spectrum or preference of spending time with the family by its individual members. Family of a contemporary postmodern society is then characterized by a very high divorce rate and the associated absence of one parent (mostly fathers), by a decline in the number of children, by increasing parental age or by favoring career at the expense of the family. This work is divided into two parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the topic of a family as a social phenomenon, the typology of family, the parenting style, the risk factors in the family and then with the drugs themselves, the current situation in the Czech drug scene, the drug addiction, the drug treatment in relation to the family therapy. Special attention is paid to education styles and risk factors in the family and their potential impact on the emergence of socio - pathological phenomena. The aim of the practical part of this thesis is to analyze the opinions of experts on the drug addiction in relation to the drug environment. The operational objective is to find the fact to what extent is a specialist able to influence the family environment of a drug addict. To collect the data there was used a method of questioning through the depth semi - structured interview. This was based on asking open - ended and semi - closed questions to a selected group of respondents. The purpose of data collection was to create a deeper monitoring and detection of basic facts about the issue. The basic research group was created by professionals who deal with the target group of drug addicts. Through the analysis of the results of the research were developed answers to the research questions and summarized as follows: 1. The experts perceive that the family environment affects drug addiction, specifically through genetic predispositions, personal abilities, peers and problematic communication in the family; in addition there is a high importance of the parenting role and of the relations in the family, is a key factor, but only one of the factors that influence the development of drug addiction. 2. The experts have the ability to influence the family environment of a drug addicts through individual, group, family or partner therapy; parental and social work, mediation of family relationships, cooperation, art - therapy or by using relaxation techniques. The survey showed that there is not only one risk factor from the family environment that would predispose the emergence of addiction to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. This phenomenon does not occur even in the context of the emergence and development of other socio-pathological behavior. The analysis of the collected data showed that the formation of addiction is determined by a complex action of several factors that stem from various fields of life. We speak here about a bio - psycho - socio - spiritual emergence of addiction. The above mentioned also applies in relation to family educational styles. It is impossible to say that certain educational styles are more or less predetermining the emergence of an addiction than the others.
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Analysis of the EU regulations in the field of Information and Telecommunication technologies and their effect on the single market
Hart, Ludvík ; Procházka, Pavel (advisor) ; Strejček, Ivo (referee)
The bachelor thesis describes the EU regulations in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the Digital agenda for Europe strategy. These regulations are then tested for their influence on the European single market. The major question answered here is whether the EU regulations in field of ICT have a positive impact on the EUs single market. Answer to this question helps us evaluate the ongoing Digital agenda strategy. The impact of the regulations is analysed by induction of the following indicators, international trade, ratio of population buying online, DESI index and NRI index. With this method it is possible to tackle the wide range of fields the Digital agenda covers. I conclude this work with the statement, that European ICT regulations do have a positive impact on the single market, although are problematic due to the slow legislative process and low efficiency in addressing the regulated issue.
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The Effects of the New Deal on the social status of Afro-Americans in selected sectors of the US economy
Schwammenhöfer, Tomáš ; Tajovský, Ladislav (advisor) ; Johnson, Zdenka (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the effects of the New Deal legislation on Afro-Americans in the 1930s. Specifically, the thesis analytically focuses on the influence of various politician of this program on their social environment within the US economy. For the ease of understanding of whole issue is needed to know the situation of Afro-Americans in the previous decade as well as in the Great Depression. That is the content of the first two chapters. Subsequently there is the outline of the situation leading to the election of F. D. Roosevelt, US President. The last and as well the most important chapter of the whole thesis is devoted to analysis of individual programs and their impact on Afro-Americans. It concludes that the New Deal had both positive and negative influence on this minority, depending on the economic sector and the relevant administration. New Deal generally meant a huge progress in their economic and political affairs.
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Empirical analysis of Okun’s law in Iceland
Zajíček, Zdeněk ; Slaný, Martin (advisor) ; Chytilová, Helena (referee)
This thesis deals with empirical analysis of Okuns law in Iceland. Okuns hypothesis of negative relationship between real GDP and the rate of unemployment is being tested on two models, difference and gap, using OLS estimation. Also there are two filtration methods used (Hodrick-Prescott and Baxter-King) for gap model estimation. The results of all models showed weak relationship of variables, but proved the hypothesis. In the following part, the same procedure is being used on Finlands data, to get comparison of coefficients. Results for Finland showed weaker bond of variables than in Iceland, but the Okuns hypothesis still holds. Last part is focused on finding the sensitivity of rate of unemployment to changes in added value of each economical sector in Iceland using the production approach model. This model gave inconclusive results due to insufficient data available.
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The impact of the economic cycle to finance the defense of the Czech republic in years 2004-2014
Heres, Ondřej ; Chmelová, Pavla (advisor) ; Strejček, Ivo (referee)
This bachelor work examines the impact of economic performance on financing the defense sector in the Czech Republic in the years 2004-2014. The main questions are whether this influence is clear and the extent to which is essential for funding this sector. The work also provides a basic overview about development and structure of the Ministry of Defence budget in these years. The theoretical part contains theories of business cycle and public sector and briefly introduces the basic institutions that are tasked to provide a defense. The analytic part analyzes the expenditures and revenues of the Ministry of Defence and assesses their mutual influence and simultaneously the influence of GDP on these indicators. To compare with previous findings, the GPD growth rate and the growth rate of defense expenditures in selected countries of NATO are analyzed in brief in the last chapter. While findings based on data from the Ministry of Defence have rather anticyclical development of defense expenditures, in selected countries of NATO, the development is more procyclical. It highlights the very ambiguous impact of the economic cycle on expenditures in the defense sector.
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On possible approaches to detecting robotic activity of botnets
Prajer, Richard ; Palovský, Radomír (advisor) ; Pavlíček, Luboš (referee)
This thesis explores possible approaches to detecting robotic activity of botnets on network. Initially, the detection based on full packet analysis in consideration of DNS, HTTP and IRC communication, is described. However, this detection is found inapplicable for technical and ethical reasons. Then it focuses on the analysis based on network flow metadata, compiling them to be processable in machine learning. It creates detection models using different machine learning methods, to compare them with each other. Bayes net method is found to be acceptable for detecting robotic activity of botnets. The Bayesian model is only able to identify the botnet that already executes the commands sent by its C&C server. "Sleeping" botnets are not reliably detectable by this model.
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Řízení IS/ICT se zaměřením na sourcing služeb informačního systému
Šebesta, Michal ; Voříšek, Jiří (advisor) ; Havlíček, Zdeněk (referee) ; Příklenk, Oldřich (referee) ; Král, Jaroslav (referee)
Research on outsourcing has been around for several decades, while recent evolution in the information systems discipline towards ICT service commoditization significantly changes the context of decision-making. Services that are available on-demand via the Internet allow organizations implementing functions they demand in a fraction of time. This trend represents a chance for organizations seeking to use advanced ICT services without a need of major investments. Problem is the current lack of guidelines and tools for managing ICT services and their outsourcing. Given the trends on the ICT service market, it is expected that much of the IT management in the future will encompass the ICT services and utilize service-level structures. Methods currently available are either too broad or encompass only small part of the whole problem. Ad-hoc or unsound decisions in this area might cause major complications in terms of quality, usability, integration, and consequently influence total cost of organizational IT. Organizations need to either revise existing models or propose and implement completely new models to manage their IS/ICT. This thesis deals with the management of IS/ICT with focus on the ICT services outsourcing. It discusses available sourcing models in the literature and links them to the various interconnected areas. Based on these areas, it presents an integrated view on IT outsourcing strategies. Most importantly the thesis proposes an original concept for decision-making about outsourcing of ICT services named the SOURCER framework. This approach utilizes the presented outsourcing strategies, and introduces a complex methodology and decision-making criteria that will assist organizations with selection of ICT services in order to maintain and manage a most suitable ICT service portfolio. The decision-making is based on four essential viewpoints: function, costs, time, and quality. These viewpoints are discussed, individually analyzed, and serve as a basis for further research. The whole framework is developed and validated according to Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). Individual components are evaluated using a survey among a group of selected IT managers. Proof of concept is then established by a case study on framework use in a real organization. This case study covers strategy specification, business--IT alignment, specifying service architecture and its interconnections, outsourcing, and management of the ICT service portfolio.
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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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Míry podobnosti pro nominální data v hierarchickém shlukování
Šulc, Zdeněk ; Řezanková, Hana (advisor) ; Šimůnek, Milan (referee) ; Žambochová, Marta (referee)
This dissertation thesis deals with similarity measures for nominal data in hierarchical clustering, which can cope with variables with more than two categories, and which aspire to replace the simple matching approach standardly used in this area. These similarity measures take into account additional characteristics of a dataset, such as frequency distribution of categories or number of categories of a given variable. The thesis recognizes three main aims. The first one is an examination and clustering performance evaluation of selected similarity measures for nominal data in hierarchical clustering of objects and variables. To achieve this goal, four experiments dealing both with the object and variable clustering were performed. They examine the clustering quality of the examined similarity measures for nominal data in comparison with the commonly used similarity measures using a binary transformation, and moreover, with several alternative methods for nominal data clustering. The comparison and evaluation are performed on real and generated datasets. Outputs of these experiments lead to knowledge, which similarity measures can generally be used, which ones perform well in a particular situation, and which ones are not recommended to use for an object or variable clustering. The second aim is to propose a theory-based similarity measure, evaluate its properties, and compare it with the other examined similarity measures. Based on this aim, two novel similarity measures, Variable Entropy and Variable Mutability are proposed; especially, the former one performs very well in datasets with a lower number of variables. The third aim of this thesis is to provide a convenient software implementation based on the examined similarity measures for nominal data, which covers the whole clustering process from a computation of a proximity matrix to evaluation of resulting clusters. This goal was also achieved by creating the nomclust package for the software R, which covers this issue, and which is freely available.
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Use of Interest Rate Models for Interest Rate Risk Management in the Czech Financial Market Environment
Cíchová Králová, Dana ; Arlt, Josef (advisor) ; Cipra, Tomáš (referee) ; Witzany, Jiří (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to interest rate risk modeling in the Czech financial market environment in various situations. Three distinct periods are analyzed. These periods, which are the period before the global financial crisis, period during the financial crisis and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and calming subsequent debt crisis in the eurozone, are characterized by different evaluation of liquidity and credit risk, different relationship between financial variables and market participants and different degree of market regulations. Within this goal, an application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment is crucial. Use of the BGM model for the purpose of predicting a dynamics of a yield curve is not very common. This is firstly due to the fact that primary use of this model is a valuation of interest rate derivatives while ensuring the absence of arbitrage and secondly its application is relatively difficult. Nevertheless, I apply the BGM model to obtain predictions of the probability distributions of interest rates in the Czech and eurozone market environment, because its complexity, direct modeling of a yield curve based on market rates and especially a possibility of parameter estimation based on current swaptions volatilities quotations may lead to a significant improvement of predictions. This improvement was also confirmed in this thesis. Use of swaptions volatilities market quotations is especially useful in the period of unprecedented mone- tary easing and increased number of central banks and other regulators interventions into financial markets that occur after the financial crisis, because it reflects current market expectations which also include future interventions. As a consequence of underdevelopment of the Czech financial market there are no market quotations of Czech koruna denominated swaptions volatilities. I suggest their approximations based on quotations of euro denominated swaptions volatilities and also using volatilities of koruna and euro forward rates. Use of this approach ensures that predictions of the Czech yield curve dynamics contain current market expectations. To my knowledge, any other author has not presented similar application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment. In this thesis I further predict a Czech and Euro area money market yield curve dynamics using the CIR and the GP models as representatives of various types of interest rates models to compare these predictions with BGM predictions. I suggest a comprehensive system of three criteria, based on comparison of predicti- ons with reality, to describe a predictive power of selected models and an appropria- teness of their use in the Czech market environment during different situations in the market. This analysis shows that predictions of the Czech money market yield curve dynamics based on the BGM model demonstrate high predictive power and the best 8 quality in comparison with other models. GP model also produces relatively good qua- lity predictions. Conversely, predictions based on the CIR model as a representative of short rate model family completely failed when describing reality. In a situation when the economy allows negative rates and there is simultaneously a significant likelihood of their implementation, I recommend to obtain predictions of Czech money market yield curve dynamics using GP model which allows existence of negative interest rates. This analysis also contains a statistical test for validating the predictive power of each model and information on other tests. Berkowitz test rejects a hypothesis of accurate predictions for each model. However, this fact is common in real data testing even when using relatively good model. This fact is especially caused by difficult fulfilment of test conditions in real world. To my knowledge, such an analysis of the predictive power of selected interest rate models moreover in the Czech financial market environment has not been published yet. The last goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to obtaining pre- dictions of Czech government bonds risk premium dynamics. I define this risk premium as a difference between government bond yields and fixed rate of CZK IRS with the same length. I apply the GP model to describe the dynamics of this indicator of the Czech Republic credit risk. In order to obtain a time series of the risk premium which are necessary for estimation of GP model parameters I firstly estimate yield curves of Czech government bonds using Svensson model for each trading day since 2005. Resulting si- mulations of risk premium show that the GP model predicts the real development of risk premiums of all maturities relatively well. Hence, the proposed approach is suitable for modeling of Czech Republic credit risk based on the use of information extracted from financial markets. I have not registered proposed approach to risk premium modeling moreover in the Czech financial market environment in other publications.
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