|
Arctic tundra dendrochronology
Lehejček, Jiří ; Svoboda, Miroslav (advisor) ; Monika, Monika (referee)
Historically unprecedented environmental change in the Arctic ecosystems is often given into the context of its past and possible future development. In the region where instrumental meteorological observations are scarce archives need to be investigated in order to address this issues. The comprehensive synthesis one of the archives: long-live circumpolar evergreen Juniperus communis L. shrub is presented here. 20 individuals from southwest Greenland were investigated at the cell anatomy level to understand the ecology of the species and unhide its potential for environmental and climate reconstructions. The findings are as follows:
i) Stop of exponential cross-sectional conduit-lumen widening with increasing age is in contrast with conduit-lumen nature of trees. This indicates that shrubs do not need to saturate their water and nutrient demands via traits of classical hydraulic conductivity law but rather developed different mechanisms. Extreme weather conditions result in prostrate growth form. However, different weather factors probably influence shrub growth differently: While snow and wind act mechanically (a), temperature influences the form of growth physiologically (b). a) So long as the young shrub stem has high resilience to bend back to an upright position after snow melt and so long as it can withstand the wind during the vegetation season it most likely grows upright and the conduit-lumens widen. b) Temperature, resp. freeze-thaw events are responsible for the shrubs preference of safety (finite size of conduit-lumens) over hydraulic efficiency, thus not allowing for more primary growth. All of these (and other) factors are apparently working together and the transition of vertical to more horizontal growth is gradual. As a consequence, the conduit-lumen sizes may not have to be further increased (due to ecophysiological restrictions possibly also must not) because water is no longer transported against gravity.
ii) Observed age/growth trend has to be taken into consideration for further employment of the wood anatomical parameter in paleoenvironmental studies. That is, shrub cell parameters can only be used for this purposes if correctly detrended. This allows for more accurate as well as longer reconstructions because youth trend was often neglected in reconstructions based on shrub annual-rings.
iii) The south-western Greenland Ice-Sheet (GrIS) melt rates reconstruction is presented for the whole 20th century. This part of GrIS is considered as the most active. According to the presented reconstruction current GrIS melt rates are not uncommon for the last century being comparable to first decades of 20th century. This finding is particularly important contribution to the debate on Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). Too high fresh water inputs into the Northern Atlantic from GrIS melting may slow down or even stop the AMOC which would result in more continental climate in Europe. Presented results indicate that this threshold lies higher than observed current melt rates of GrIS.
Fascinating Juniperus comunnis species has shown to be able to address many ecological as well as environmental open questions and due to its longevity and abundant distribution has a great potential to become an important player in the Arctic research.
|
|
Confidence Cycles and Liquidity Hoarding
Audzei, Volha
Market confidence has proved to be an important factor during past crises. However, many existing general equilibrium models do not account for agents’ expectations, market volatility, or overly pessimistic investor forecasts. In this paper, we incorporate a model of the interbank market into a DSGE model, with the interbank market rate and the volume of lending depending on market confidence and the perception of counterparty risk. In our model, a credit crunch occurs if the perception of counterparty risk increases. Our results suggest that changes in market confidence can generate credit crunches and contribute to the depth of recessions. We then conduct an exercise to mimic some central bank policies: targeted and untargeted liquidity provision, and reduction of the policy rate. Our results indicate that policy actions have a limited effect on the supply of credit if they fail to influence agents’ expectations. Interestingly, a policy of a low policy rate worsens recessions due to its negative impact on banks’ revenues. Liquidity provision stimulates credit slightly, but its efficiency is undermined by liquidity hoarding.
Fulltext:  PDF
|
|
Partial Report IV / 2016 - Rating of the deformation stress monitoring the state of the rock mass during mining coal seam 30 (634) within the trial operation of mining method corridor - a pillar in OPJ ČSM - NORTH
Waclawik, Petr ; Ptáček, Jiří ; Kukutsch, Radovan ; Kajzar, Vlastimil ; Koníček, Petr ; Souček, Kamil ; Staš, Lubomír
Monitoring of the deformation stress state of the rock mass is a prerequisite for the verification of unapproved new mining methods hall-pillar and its further application in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian coal basin. This mining method is designed on the basis of experiences and practices that are verified in different natural conditions and depths below the surface and is therefore essential for the verification of conditions for the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Basin based on geotechnical monitoring. The present report is prepared on the basis of a contract no. 942/50/10, where the Institute of Geonics, v.v agrees to make periodic evaluation of monitoring data napěťodeformačního state of the rock mass. In accordance with the aforementioned agreement, the message is processed in the six-month period and continues in the interim report III / 2015 (Waclawik et al. 2015) passed buyers in April this year. Interim results of the geotechnical monitoring, such as the experience gained during the first conquest dobývky V show specifics of natural conditions in trial operation unapproved new mining methods hall-pillar.
Fulltext: content.csg - PDF
Plný tet: UGN_0464907 - PDF
|
|
New Methods for Increasing Efficiency and Speed of Functional Verification
Zachariášová, Marcela ; Dohnal, Jan (referee) ; Steininger, Andreas (referee) ; Kotásek, Zdeněk (advisor)
Při vývoji současných číslicových systémů, např. vestavěných systému a počítačového hardware, je nutné hledat postupy, jak zvýšit jejich spolehlivost. Jednou z možností je zvyšování efektivity a rychlosti verifikačních procesů, které se provádějí v raných fázích návrhu. V této dizertační práci se pozornost věnuje verifikačnímu přístupu s názvem funkční verifikace. Je identifikováno několik výzev a problému týkajících se efektivity a rychlosti funkční verifikace a ty jsou následně řešeny v cílech dizertační práce. První cíl se zaměřuje na redukci simulačního času v průběhu verifikace komplexních systémů. Důvodem je, že simulace inherentně paralelního hardwarového systému trvá velmi dlouho v porovnání s během v skutečném hardware. Je proto navrhnuta optimalizační technika, která umisťuje verifikovaný systém do FPGA akcelerátoru, zatím co část verifikačního prostředí stále běží v simulaci. Tímto přemístěním je možné výrazně zredukovat simulační režii. Druhý cíl se zabývá ručně připravovanými verifikačními prostředími, která představují výrazné omezení ve verifikační produktivitě. Tato režie však není nutná, protože většina verifikačních prostředí má velice podobnou strukturu, jelikož využívají komponenty standardních verifikačních metodik. Tyto komponenty se jen upravují s ohledem na verifikovaný systém. Proto druhá optimalizační technika analyzuje popis systému na vyšší úrovni abstrakce a automatizuje tvorbu verifikačních prostředí tím, že je automaticky generuje z tohoto vysoko-úrovňového popisu. Třetí cíl zkoumá, jak je možné docílit úplnost verifikace pomocí inteligentní automatizace. Úplnost verifikace se typicky měří pomocí různých metrik pokrytí a verifikace je ukončena, když je dosažena právě vysoká úroveň pokrytí. Proto je navržena třetí optimalizační technika, která řídí generování vstupů pro verifikovaný systém tak, aby tyto vstupy aktivovali současně co nejvíc bodů pokrytí a aby byla rychlost konvergence k maximálnímu pokrytí co nejvyšší. Jako hlavní optimalizační prostředek se používá genetický algoritmus, který je přizpůsoben pro funkční verifikaci a jeho parametry jsou vyladěny pro tuto doménu. Běží na pozadí verifikačního procesu, analyzuje dosažené pokrytí a na základě toho dynamicky upravuje omezující podmínky pro generátor vstupů. Tyto podmínky jsou reprezentovány pravděpodobnostmi, které určují výběr vhodných hodnot ze vstupní domény. Čtvrtý cíl diskutuje, zda je možné znovu použít vstupy z funkční verifikace pro účely regresního testování a optimalizovat je tak, aby byla rychlost testování co nejvyšší. Ve funkční verifikaci je totiž běžné, že vstupy jsou značně redundantní, jelikož jsou produkovány generátorem. Pro regresní testy ale tato redundance není potřebná a proto může být eliminována. Zároveň je ale nutné dbát na to, aby úroveň pokrytí dosáhnutá optimalizovanou sadou byla stejná, jako u té původní. Čtvrtá optimalizační technika toto reflektuje a opět používá genetický algoritmus jako optimalizační prostředek. Tentokrát ale není integrován do procesu verifikace, ale je použit až po její ukončení. Velmi rychle odstraňuje redundanci z původní sady vstupů a výsledná doba simulace je tak značně optimalizována.
|
|
Acceleration of Object Detection Using Classifiers
Juránek, Roman ; Kälviäinen, Heikki (referee) ; Sojka, Eduard (referee) ; Zemčík, Pavel (advisor)
Detekce objektů v počítačovém vidění je složítá úloha. Velmi populární a rozšířená metoda pro detekci je využití statistických klasifikátorů a skenovacích oken. Pro učení kalsifikátorů se často používá algoritmus AdaBoost (nebo jeho modifikace), protože dosahuje vysoké úspěšnosti detekce, nízkého počtu chybných detekcí a je vhodný pro detekci v reálném čase. Implementaci detekce objektů je možné provést různými způsoby a lze využít vlastnosti konkrétní architektury, pro urychlení detekce. Pro akceleraci je možné využít grafické procesory, vícejádrové architektury, SIMD instrukce, nebo programovatelný hardware. Tato práce představuje metodu optimalizace, která vylepšuje výkon detekce objektů s ohledem na cenovou funkci zadanou uživatelem. Metoda rozděluje předem natrénovaný klasifikátor do několika různých implementací, tak aby celková cena klasifikace byla minimalizována. Metoda je verifikována na základním experimentu, kdy je klasifikátor rozdělen do předzpracovací jednotku v FPGA a do jednotky ve standardním PC.
|
|
Ratings business accounts
ŠUSTROVÁ, Lucie
The diploma thesis is focused on using methods of multiple criteria decision making, in this case about business accounts. In theoretical part is described the banking systém of Czech republic, then methods of multiple criteria evaluation.The basic aim of this work was to evaluate the order of business accounts in terms of advantageousness, which are offered by banks on the banking market in the Czech republic. The sectional aim of this work is to get known with the problems of optimal choice of business accounts for a certain group of consumers, which in this case are small businesses. Before choosing a new business account it is always necessary to carefully explore banking market and its offers of business accounts. The important part of this thesis is that the certain client has to consider his preferences before we use quantitative methods. In this diploma thesis has also done a survey about the evaluation of business accounts. Then there are compared results of using methods of multiple criteria evaluation of the survey and model client. In conclusion, the results are described in the order of banking products from the best to the worst business account.
|
|
Portfolio diversification
ŠÍP, Martin
The goal of this bachelor thesis is to show how the choice of stocks impacts the portfolio diversification in relation to risk and return. The risk was calculated as standard deviation and historical return rate was considered. The theoretical part explains basic terms related with portfolio diversification, Markowitz model, capital stock and most important factors that lead to the optimal portfolio creation such as return, risk and covariance. The practical part explains in detail, how to create an optimal portfolio. Ten companies from different sectors were randomly chosen for this bachelor thesis. These companies' shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The covariance of these shares is lower than one. The next step was to calculate historical return rate and historical risk of portfolios. The highest value of historical return rate was 2.31 % and the lowest value of historical risk achieved 22.77 %. Subsequently, the efficient frontier was determined. The efficient frontier is the set of optimal portfolios that offers the highest expected return for a defined level of risk or the lowest risk for a given level of expected return. The lowest value of portfolio risk was 2.97 % with a return of 1.38 % and the highest value of portfolio risk was 4.03 % with a return of 2.13 %. The investor chooses the portfolio which maximizes his expected benefit.
|
|
Strategie oplozování u ryb s vnějším oplozením
SIDDIQUE, Mohammad Abdul Momin
Morphological properties, species specific differences, development, and function of egg envelopes are of importance for a better understanding of fertilization strategies as well as for captive reproduction. We reviewed morphology and the developmental stages of egg envelopes, mechanism of polyspermy block, and also the role of micropyle and cortical granules in polyspermy block for acipenserid eggs. The structure of the egg envelope is similar among the acipenserids, comprising an external envelope (thecal cells, basal lamina, and follicular epithelium), a five-layered oocyte envelope (adhesive layer, alveolar layer, epilayer, and zona radiata externa and interna) and a layer of oocyte matrix and cortical granules. The development of acipenserid egg envelope within the ovary comprises five stages, with further changes following fertilization. Moreover, we standardized the terminology used to describe the egg membranes which can minimize the confusions and be helpful for future work on acipenserids eggs as well as for other fish species. The sperm to egg ratio (required to fertilize eggs) and effects of pre-incubation of eggs in freshwater before fertilization were studied to standardized fertilization protocols for sterlet Acipenser ruthenus. Pre-incubation time had no effect on fertilization success at 430,000:1 and 43,000:1 sperm to egg ratios, while it was significant at the 4300:1 and 430:1 ratios. The use of adequate experimental suboptimal sperm to egg ratio revealed a positive effect of pre-incubation time, such that at the 430:1 ratio, 0.5 min pre-incubation increased the fertilization rate than 10 min. Transmission electron microscopy showed that pre-incubation of eggs in water for <10 min did not trigger a cortical reaction, suggesting that a low sperm to egg ratio 0.5 to 1 min pre-incubation of eggs in freshwater prior to fertilization can enhance fertilization rate of sterlet (minimally do not change fertilization). The effects of pre-incubation in seawater and the duration of egg receptivity were determined for fresh and over-ripe sea bass eggs. Our results revealed a significant effect of pre-incubation time for both the fresh (P < 0.01) and over-ripe eggs (P < 0.01). The fresh eggs had a higher fertilization success than over-ripe eggs. Fertilization success of eggs significantly declined for both of these treatments after 3 min of pre-incubation clearly indicated that sea bass eggs are able to be fertilized by sperm for up to 3 min after release into seawater. Effects of pre-incubation of eggs and activation medium on the percentage of eyed embryos for Ide Leuciscus idus were examined. At the eyed-egg stage, pre-incubation time was significant for the freshwater activation medium (P < 0.001), such that the percentage of eyed embryos declined across the pre-incubation time gradient. Activating medium had a significant effect on the percentage of eyed embryos for each pre-incubation time (P < 0.05). More precisely, freshwater produced the lowest percentage of eyed embryos at all pre-incubation times, whereas saline water and Woynarovich solution produced the highest percentage of eyed embryos at 0 s and 30 s before incubation. Examination of sperm traits showed no impact of activating medium on computer assisted sperm analysis parameters. Our results suggested that saline water or Woynarovich solution improve fertilization rate in Ide during fertilization. In conclusion, this thesis provides basic knowledge on gamete biology, role of egg receptivity period, effects of pre-incubation of eggs and different activating medium which can be useful to understand the fertilization strategies of different externally fertilizing fishes as well as standardize their fertilization protocol for captive reproduction.
|
|
Global Economy Outlook - September 2016
Česká národní banka
The September issue of Global Economic Outlook presents the regular monthly overview of recent and expected developments in selected territories, focusing on key economic variables: inflation, GDP growth, leading indicators, interest rates, exchange rates and commodity prices. In this issue, we also focus on the closing of the output gap in OECD countries in the current low-inflation environment. We point out that the output gap is currently closing at near-zero inflation rates rather than at rates close to 2% (corresponding to the generally accepted price stability criterion). The current output gap and inflation outlooks signal a gradual return to the output gap closing at consumer inflation rates of approximately 2%.
Fulltext: PDF; PDF
|
|
The use of (nano)oxides for metal and metalloid stabilization in contaminated soils
Michálková, Zuzana ; Komárek, Michael (advisor) ; Luke, Luke (referee)
The main objective of the thesis was to evaluate the potential of selected Mn and Fe (nano)oxides for the stabilization of metals and metalloids in contaminated soils. The research was focused basically on three materials - commercial nanomaghemite (Fe III), nanomagnetite (Fe II,III) and a synthetic amorphous Mn oxide (AMO). The main aim of the work was to provide a complex view on the chosen stabilizing amendments regarding not just their direct influence on contaminants mobility and stabilization mechanisms, but also their stability and alterations in soil conditions together with influence on soil microorganisms and higher plants. Firstly, adsorption properties of the tested materials towards Cd, Cu, Pb and As were investigated. In this context, the most effective material showed to be the AMO reaching one to two orders of magnitude higher adsorption capacities than Fe III and Fe II,III under given experimental conditions. Interestingly, the rate of As(V) adsorption onto AMO was increasing with increasing pH as a result of high pHzpc of the AMO (8.1) and significant dissolution of this phase at lower pH values. As a next step, the influence of (nano)oxides on metal(loid)s mobility and other physico-chemical soil characteristics after application to contaminated soil was examined. Again, the AMO proved to be the most efficient in reducing mobile pools of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and As. On the other hand, Fe III and Fe II,III addition had generally less significant effects on contaminants mobility. AMO application further resulted in an increase of soil pH connected with AMO dissolution and unwanted decomposition of soil organic matter. When (nano)oxides alterations in soil conditions were observed, MnCO3 coatings were identified on AMO surface while no significant changes were recorded for Fe III and Fe II,III. As the MnCO3 formation was connected with increased AMO stability, AMO particles synthetically covered with MnCO3 coating (denoted as SM AMO) were prepared. Although the SM-AMO had a lower mass loss in soil than pure AMO, the stabilizing efficiency was almost the same for both materials. The differences in surface composition of both materials were decreasing with time as MnCO3 naturally precipitated on the AMO surface in soils while the SM AMO coating was gradually dissolving. When investigating the effect on soil microbiota, AMO efficiently promoted soil microbial activity while no significant changes were observed in the case of Fe III and Fe II,III. The AMO was also able to reduce the uptake of Cd, Pb and Zn by sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), eliminate Zn phytotoxicity symptoms and increase biomass yield. On the other hand, toxic levels of Mn released from the AMO in an acidic soil were found in sunflower tissues. AMO application is thus recommended for contaminated neutral or slightly alkaline pH with a higher cation exchange capacity in order to avoid unwanted release of Mn. Finally, various types of AMO-biochar composite sorbents were recently prepared and field experiment focused on stabilization of Cd, Pb, Zn and As using studied materials is currently under preparation. The combined results from the thesis highlight the importance of a complex experimental approach dealing with all parts of the contaminated soil environment in order to obtain complete information about the efficiency and usefulness of any newly developed stabilizing amendment.
|
guest ::
