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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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Determination of content substances for selected species and varieties of roses.
Slavíková, Eva ; Sus, Josef (advisor) ; Súkeníková, Tereza (referee)
This bachelor's work is focused on comparing the most significant content substance, vitamin C, in fruits of chosen rose kinds species and varieties. Herbal products are often seen by people as products of "second choice", when failure of allopathic treatment occurs, which is focused especially on suppressing symptoms of illness, but it ignores health of the human body as whole. That's why are herbal products often alternative for therapy of chronic diseases. The base of this work is extensive literary research and results of laboratory measurings. Literary part of this work includes description of botanical classification of rose plants. There is stated basic characteristic of individual rose species and their morphological features. In following chapters is composed overview of effective substances in rose fruits and their effect on human health. In practical part of this work are included results of laboratory tests for determining ascorbic acid content for chosen samples of rose species and it also includes results of weighing and measuring of fruit samples of chosen rose species. There are also stated chosen rose species and shortly their origin and description, in the beginning of practical part. For practical part were chosen samples of species. Results of practical part are compiled into statistic tables and graphs and it confirms high content of ascorbic acid in rose fruits. This content is in range of cca 300 - 900 mg.100 g-1. Due to growing interest in alternative treatment options and "clean" natural product, it can be assumed, that many plants of Rosaceae family will keep its place in treatment practice. Those plants will be used not only for treatment of acute and chronic diseases, but also for cosmetic products production, thanks to its large effects and process options.
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Crystallographic study of the iron-regulated outer membrane lipoprotein (FrpD) from Neisseria meningitidis
SVIRIDOVA, Ekaterina
Neisseria meningitidis (N. meningitidis) is a Gram-negative commensal bacterium colonizing nasopharynx of about 10 % of healthy individuals, which can cause invasive diseases, such sepsis and meningitis, upon occasional penetration into bloodstream. Pathogenesis of N. meningitidis appears to be directly related to conditions of limited iron availability. Under these conditions two proteins of unknown function: FrpC and FrpD, are synthesized. FrpD is a highly conserved lipoprotein of N. meningitidis anchored to the bacterial outer membrane. It is known that FrpD tightly binds the FrpC protein, which belongs to the Repeat-in-Toxin (RTX) protein family and may act as bacterial exotoxin. However, the mechanism of FrpD-FrpC interaction and the exact function of this complex are unknown due to the absence of structural information on these proteins. Therefore, we set out to determine the structure of FrpD and provide insights into its interaction mechanism with FrpC and structure-functional relationships of these two proteins. We determined the first crystal and solution structures of the FrpD protein. We found that atomic structures of FrpD reveal a novel protein fold. We uncovered the structure-function relationships underlying the mechanism of interaction between the FrpD and FrpC proteins and tested the putative function of the FrpD-FrpC1-414 complex in vitro. Finally, we proposed the putative function of the FrpD-FrpC1-414 complex as a new minor adhesin of N. meningitidis, which mediates the bacterial adhesion to the host epithelial cells and facilitate the colonization. Our work constitutes the first step in clarifying the molecular basis of the FrpD-FrpC interaction and sets the base for further investigation of the role of FrpD and FrpC in the virulence mechanism of N. meningitidis.
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Estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) in testicular cells and sperm
Dostálová, Pavla ; Žatecká, Eva ; Děd, Lukáš ; Dorosh, Andriy ; Postlerová, Pavla ; Jonáková, Věra ; Dvořáková-Hortová, Kateřina ; Pěknicová, Jana
Estrogen is a steroid hormone that plays an important role during sperm development in the male and female reproductive tract. Estrogen signalling is a complex process that depends on cell milieu and presence of receptors. Thanks to the steroid nature of estrogens, they can pass through the plasmatic membrane and bind to the intracellular estrogen receptors (ERs). Within the cell, there are several pools of ERs. One of them is localized to the cell nucleus and their activation leads to direct or indirect binding to DNA and ultimately to alternation in gene expression (genomic pathway). Other pools of ERs are associated with plasma membrane or are located in cytosol. Activation of membrane associated ERs leads to rapid non-genomic responses. Nowadays, two classical estrogen receptors are known – ERα and ERβ. Since ERβ is a predominant variant in testes, we focused our study on expression of ERβ variants in murine testes and sperm. We detected two variants of ERβ at mRNA level in both, testes and sperm. These variants differ in 54 nucleotids within the ligand binding domain and this variability results in different affinity to estrogen. We analyzed individual testicular cell types (spermatogonia, spermatocytes, spermatids, Sertoli cells) by RT-qPCR. Our results suggest that both ERβ variants are coexpressed in the same cell type and may therefore interact together. This may have consequences in mediating of estrogen signalling. Moreover, ERβ is expressed more in the later stages of spermatogenesis suggesting the role of ERβ in these stages or alternatively in spermatozoa alone. At the protein level, we detected ERβ in nuclear, membrane and cytosolic fraction prepared from testicular tissue suggesting the involvement of both, genomic and non-genomic, pathways of estrogen signaling in testes. In sperm, anti-ERβ antibodies localized ERβ in acrosome region and tail which is in accordance with the known role of estrogen on capacitation, acrosome reaction and motility.
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The reflection of František Bakule's work in a relation to a current special educational practice
BALÍKOVÁ, Tereza
František Bakule was a significant Czech teacher during the first half of the 20th century. He was known as the first director of the "Jedlicka Institute in Prague" as well as the founder of so-called "Bakule´s Institute" as well as one of the few representatives of the "Czech alternative approach towards education" which is very well recognized all around the world. His legacy and teachings, however, are currently not being developed on the systematic level and neither they are being put into practise by Czech professional mainstream educational community. We also need to mention that is not used by even the stream of special education, in contrast to many foreign alternative pedagogical trends, which are gaining popularity and are generally applied with success. The aim of this thesis is therefore to analyse the work of Frantisek Bakule through the prism of contemporary school educational environment with emphasis on the education of students with disabilities. The first chapter is devoted to outlining the life journey of Frantisek Bakule, particularly focusing on the major milestones that influenced the formation of his personality, his ideas, inspiration and motivation which was reflected in his teachings and then in his very own coherent concept of education. To be specific, we are introduced to his family background and a significant part is then devoted to description of Frantisek´s experience as a teacher, including stages of operating in Jedlicka´s Institute and in his own "Bakule´s institute". The second part is then focused solely on Bakule´s specific educational concept. First, the core principles of the concept are defined. Later parts then talk about Bakule´s original curriculum and a his proposal of an ideal classroom environment. The text also contains a detailed description of how Bakule approached several subjects, which were at the core of his teaching concept, namely "Work activities", "Music education" and "Arts". Original teaching practices are analysed by using current teaching methodology and terminology. Due to the identified aim and goals of the thesis, the third chapter analyses the current concept of education of the above, according to Bakule´s core areas and principles. The text is designed specifically to be subsequently reflecting the work of Frantisek Bakule from the perspective of today's teaching methods, namely the methods of special education. The idea is to define common points and possible differences and uncover hidden inspirational potential, which is then the main content of the fourth and final chapter. Based on the analysis and all its subsequent reflections, the final chapter tells us that although Bakule´s educational goals don´t differ too significantly from the current concept embedded in the relevant framework of educational programs, to achieve such goals we are currently using very different techniques and methods in comparison to Bakule´s ways. Even though Bakule himself tested and verified all of his concepts in practice, which can be very simply described as "do not teach students about life and work, but through life and work", and these concepts also have been proven correct by various subsequent results of psychological researches, the current system still doesn´t draw from them too much. From all the above it is quite obvious that the legacy of life´s work of Frantisek Bakule is currently not utilized nor it is being appreciated by our professional pedagogical community. On the other hand, we need to note that it may also be due to the level of fragmentation in which his concept and materials were preserved to the present days.
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Stress situations and nursing personnel
MAREŠOVÁ, Lucie
This thesis deals with the stressful situations in the profession of the nursing staff. The occupation of the nurse belongs to the most demanding ones. In this occupation, the nurse is permanently affected by many stressors of different types. She faces death, the suffering, dying and incurably ill people very often. She is there in times of pain, agony and suffering. Personal encounters with these difficult situations require highly professional approach but most of all, they present immense work stress for the nurse. The theory section describes mainly the stressful situations that are the most common and most difficult in the work of the nursing staff. The next part of the theory section describes possible consequences of the stressful situations and methods of managing them including the support by the management. This thesis has two objectives. The first objective was to map the manners used by the nursing personnel to cope with the stressful situations brought by their profession. The second objective was to find out the difference in the coping with the stressful situations between the hospital staff and hospice staff. The research section of this thesis contains the quantitative research done using the technique of an anonymous questionnaire with 20 question prepared by ourselves. The questionnaire was distributed to the nursing staff of all categories in the hospital and hospice care. It was completed by 269 respondents in total. The data was statistically processed using systems Microsoft Excel 2010 and Software R, version 3.0.2 (Chi-squared test, Fisher´s exact test, and Wilcoxon test). We determined four hypotheses. H1: Manners of coping with the stressful situations depend on the qualification of the nursing staff reached; not confirmed. H2: Manners of coping with the stressful situations are influenced by the length of practice of the staff; not confirmed. H3: Manners of coping with the stressful situations differ between the hospital staff and hospice staff; confirmed. H4: The nursing staff views their own mental hygiene as more efficient than the support from the management concerning the coping with the stressful situations; confirmed. The research results show that the nursing staff faces the stressful situations very often. They see as the heaviest stress the care of the suffering and aggressive patient, conflicts with the patient´s family, conflicts at work and workload. The manners of coping with the work burden which proved as the best for them are relax, rest and sleep. There were no differences proved in the manners of coping with the stress among respective members of the nursing team. Nevertheless, the coping with the work burden of the nursing staff in the hospital and hospice care is different. A minimum of the respondents notices any support during the stressful situations from the employer. On the other hand, certain support by the management could be viewed in the form of trainings, supervision or contribution to a "recovery" which are granted to the respondents from the employer according to their answers. However, the respondents would prefer, as the support by the management, the increase in pay or more days off. The respondents view as insufficient the preparation of the graduates for the future stressful situations in their profession, as well. They would recommend mainly various trainings dealing with the stress and its management. A good solution to alleviate the work burden of the nursing staff and quality enhancement of the services provided could be investments into better work conditions, both in terms of sufficient human and material resources and the very organization of the work processes.
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Analysis of biological features of Capsella bursa-pastoris (L.) Med.
Schneebergerová, Tereza ; Hamouz, Pavel (advisor) ; Holec, Josef (referee)
The aim of this bachelor thesis is to determinate selected biological characteristics of shepherd´s-purse, which have impact on the establishment and expansion of its populations in field crops. In particular, development of primary dormancy was studied and the effect of factors that influence the dormancy and germination of seeds was determined.
Shepard´s purse is an annual or biennial herb of the cabbage family, which is classified as winter annual weeds. Primarily infest the winter and spring crops, rapeseeds, potatoes or forages. It appears from lowland to foothills, so biological features of individual population can be very different. The ways of control are shallow tillage or herbicidal treatment.
After harvesting of ripe seed the first experiment was set to define the primary dormancy. Remaining seeds were stored in two different types of environment. Part of seeds was stored in the dry at 20 °C. Others seeds were stratified at 5 °C. Effect of storage conditions on primary dormancy was tested every two weeks. Seeds were germinated for
1 week in grow chamber under the influence of various factors such as different light mode, type of water and type of media for germination.
The results were processed by multiple-factor analysis of variance. Fresh seeds showed a strong primary dormancy at constant temperatures of 10 °C and 20 °C. Treatment with fluctuating temperature (20/10 °C), filter paper, drinking water and stored in dark had the highest germination rate (10.75 %). Seeds stratified at 5 °C had increase in germination in first weeks, but lost it during storage. On the other hand, seeds stored in dry at 20 °C firstly were in dormancy, but they lost it gradually during storage.
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Genetic Diversity of Semi-captive Population of Western Derby Eland (Taurotragus derbianus derbianus) in Senegal and Phylogenetical Relationships between Western Derby Eland (T. d. derbianus) and Eastern Giant Eland (T. d. gigas)
Zemanová, Hana ; Lukešová, Daniela (advisor) ; Jarmila, Jarmila (referee)
Representatives of family Bovidae are subjects of many studies concerning with their phylogeny, phylogeography, time of divergence or genetic diversity. Taxonomy is solved by comparison of morphological characteristics or by genetic approaches, genetic diversity could be solved by pedigree or by genetic analyses too. Tragelaphinae number nine species of two genera, Tragelaphus sp. and Taurotragus sp. The antelopes of the genus Taurotragus (T. derbianus and T. oryx) belong to the largest antelopes of the world. Derby eland (Taurotragus derbianus) has two subspecies, Western Derby eland (T. d. derbianus) and Eastern Giant eland (T. d. gigas), which are distinguished on the basis of morphological characteristics. Western subspecies (T. d. derbianus) is classified as critically endangered. There lives the only population in Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal, which numbers fewer than 200 individuals. For the conservation, the semi-captive breeding programme has been established in 2000. It was created by six founders (one male and five females), which are presumed to be non-related. The population within this programme had 95 living individuals in 2013, living in seven herds in Bandia and Fathala reserves in Senegal. The population is under breeding management, which efforts to minimize kinship of the individuals. Studbook was established for the Western Derby eland (T. d. derbianus) in 2008 and is published annually. It acts about small population with low number of founders and no gene flow, which is threatened by inbreeding and genetic drift. Genetic diversity of the population was evaluated by means of microsatellite markers and the results were compared with the results of pedigree analysis. Pedigree analysis showed the highest genetic diversity in the generation of founders (FOUNDERS). It decreased in the generation of founders' offspring (OFFSPRING 1; born in season 2007/2008), due to the fact, that the only male took part in the reproduction. And it increased again in the generation of offspring of founders' offspring (OFFSPRING 2; born in the season 2009/2010), because more individuals were included into the reproduction. Fifteen individuals and five polymorphic microsatellite loci (from the total number of 13 tested loci) were chosen for the genetic study. The parameters of genetic diversity (HE and HO, Ar and deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and FIS and FST) were evaluated. Not any deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were found out. The results of genetic analysis confirmed the highest genetic diversity in the population of founders (Ar = 2.79; HE = 0.664; HO = 0.750; FIS = --0.154). In both generations of offspring values of allelic richness and observed and expected heterozygosity decreased (Ar = 2.15; HO = 0.580; HE = 0.586 in OFFSPRING 1 and Ar = 2.14; HO = 0.370; HE = 0.480 in OFFSPRING 2). Contrary to the results of pedigree analysis, there was not been observed any improvement in OFFSPRING 2. The resultant values of genetic diversity parameters were quite satisfactory, despite of the low number of founders and mating of related individuals.
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Influence of nematophagous fungi on populations of important phytoparasitic nematodes, family Heteroderidae, in the Czech Republic
Hussain, Manzoor ; Ryšánek, Pavel (advisor) ; Vadlejch, Jaroslav (referee)
We report on studies aimed to evaluate the effects of five nematophagous fungi on population dynamics of northern root knot nematode, Meloidogyne hapla and sugar beet cyst nematode, Heterodera schachtii in laboratory and greenhouse trials. During our biocontrol studies, mainly five fungal species Arthrobotrys oligospora, Dactylella oviparasitica, Clonostachys rosea, Stropharia rugosoannulata, and Lecanicillium muscarium were isolated from eggmasses of nematodes during root and soil samples collected in Czech Republic and tested against Meloidogyne hapla in carrots while Heterodera schachtii in sugar beet, both in-vitro and in-vivo fashions. All fungi exhibited varied type of infection on nematodes but L. muscarium proved to be the most potential bioagent in controlling nematode population enormously. Lecanicillium muscarium not only halted nematode reproduction factor (Pf/Pi) but also escalated plant growth. Plant root systems treated with L. muscarium were observed colonized by fungi while seen under microscope which depicted that fungi provided a protecting shield or body guard against plant parasitic nematodes. Moreover, L. muscarium was further compared with commercially available nematicides and a fertilizer to justify its highly potential for diminishing nematode population. L. muscarium along with nematicides and fertilizer had dramatic effects in reduction of both nematodes (M. hapla, H. schachtii) population in soil but improvement of plant growth was only noticed in case of L. muscarium. The chemical nematicide, Dazomet had some negative effects which appeared in the form of chlorotic spots on leaves which further suggested that there were some the phytotoxic effects.
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