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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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The theory of redistribution and its application
Mihalčinová, Hana ; Dlouhý, Martin (advisor) ; Valenčík, Radim (referee) ; Peško, Štefan (referee)
The theory of redistribution systems is a practical extension of a game theory, which deals with a redistribution within a social system of more than two players with di?erent performances and ability to create coalitions. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The ?rst chapter describes the known knowledge of a game theory. The second chapter deals with the theory of redistribution systems. Using an elementary redistribution system and its generalization group behaviour when dividing a payment, achieved by a collective performance, is described. This part introduces the extension of the redistribution system to a compound redistribution system with a fractal structure. Furthermore the theory of discriminatory equilibrium and the theory of commonly acceptable equilibrium are veri?ed using the elementary redistribution system and utility theory. The third chapter deals with an application to the allocation of funds among faculty departments. A game theory approach was used to reduce the game to a non-cooperative game of two players by using the forming of coalitions. Also the theory of redistribution systems was applied when a reduction was used to create a non-cooperative two-player game. This reduced non-cooperative game between two players was converted to a cooperative play of more than two players by changing the rules of the game and allowing a formation of coalitions. In the practical part both of these approaches are compared with real data and a current state.
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Usage of unstructured data in Business Intelligence
Rakhmanova, Malika ; Šperková, Lucie (advisor) ; Karkošková, Soňa (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to identify the main trends that are occurring in the market of Business Intelligence and related to unstructured data, to describe the possibilities for integrating unstructured data, to clarify what the impact on the company have the results that can be obtained using these solutions and how generally incorporate an analysis of unstructured data into BI. Another aim is to show the current situation of processing unstructured data on the example of BI system. The thesis is divided into several parts. First part is describing of the Business Intelligence area and the basic components of Business Intelligence, as well as identifying market trends. Then, there is the next part: separating the data into structured and unstructured. Here is the part about how you can access and analyse unstructured data and what is their place in BI systems. This is the end of a block of unstructured data and the beginning of a description of the enhanced version of BI. Finally, the current market situation and BI tools, which include unstructured data, are introduced. This section provides an overview of how BI tools approach to analyse unstructured data. Existed literature, professional and freely available Internet resources are used for writing the work. The purpose is to serve as a source of information for quickly orienting in the current situation, to serve as a guide to the world of BI solutions and to show potential users what are the options and functionality of these BI solutions.
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A Comparison of Preconditioning Methods for Saddle Point Problems with an Application to Porous Media Flow Problems
Axelsson, Owe ; Blaheta, Radim ; Hasal, Martin
The paper overviews and compares some block preconditioners for the solution of saddle point systems, especially systems arising from the Brinkman model of porous media flow. The considered preconditioners involve different Schur complements as inverse free Schur complement in HSS (Hermitian - Skew Hermitian Splitting preconditioner), Schur complement to the velocity matrix and finally Schur complement to a regularization block in the augmented matrix preconditioner. The inverses appearing in most of the considered Schur complements are approximated by simple sparse approximation techniques as element-by-element and Frobenius norm minimization approaches. A special interest is devoted to problems involving various Darcy, Stokes and Brinkman flow regions, the efficiency of preconditioners in this case is demonstrated by some numerical experiments.
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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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Corporate identity of cultural institutions
Rálek, Jakub ; SULŽENKO, Jiří (advisor) ; SVOBODOVÁ, Doubravka (referee)
This thesis researches relationship between corporate identity and cultural environment. It explains and analyses key subjects such as graphic design, corporate image, corporate culture, corporate communication, corporate product, target group, symbol, brand, vision, mission etc. It is divided into three parts – first part contains definitions, second part contains analysis of two key studies – Na zábradlí Theatre and Josef Kajetán Tyl Theatre and then there’s third part, which merges the previous (theoretical and practical) into one, which should outline process of creating own brand identity. The last part is focused mostly on handling with corporate design. The thesis emphasizes necessity and reason of professional marketing approach to achieve rising brand equity and stable growth of any cultural corporation.
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Design of Experiment for Non-Stationary Processes of Production
Jadrná, Monika ; Macák, Tomáš (advisor)
The doctoral thesis is concerned with the services sector and the area of mass production. Particularly, the optimization of the product portfolio of the travel agency and the optimization of production rounds of ammunition.
The theoretical part deals with the current overview of discussed topic. Further, the terminology and methods of the decision-making process are defined to support decision making. The theoretical basis of research focused on the choice of appropriate input variables in the area of services, and on the choice of a particular material option in the production area and appropriate equipment for the production. The theoretical part forms the basis for the practical part of the thesis.
For the doctoral thesis was chosen an enterprise operating in the defined sector. Product portfolio for the services sector is optimised using Fuzzy logic and Fuzzy sets so that the enterprise can maintain its competitiveness in todays highly ambitious market. Product portfolio for manufacture is optimised for achieving desired properties of the product.
The main aim of the thesis is to propose a new methodological approach for the management of selected business processes in their nonstationary time course. The aim of the practical implementation is to verify the functionality of the proposed methodological approach, both in the area of services and in the field of mass production.
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Time lapse tomography of fracture progress in silicate-based composite subjected to the loading a combination with acoustic emission scanning
Kumpová, Ivana ; Kytýř, Daniel ; Fíla, Tomáš ; Veselý, V. ; Trčka, T. ; Vopálenský, Michal ; Vavřík, Daniel
The initiation and propagation of a fracture in quasi-brittle materials (such as silicatebased composite) is an increasingly discussed topic for which various methods of research have been developed/applied. As the quasi-brittle silicate-based composite compounds are very non-homogenous, the mechanism of the crack initiation and propagation can be very different even for samples with the\nidentical geometry. One possible approach to study the fracture mechanism in quasi-brittle materials is to use several different experimental techniques in a single experiment and perform detail analysis to identify generally valid fracture process phenomena. In this work, a simultaneous monitoring of fracture\nprocess zone formation and propagation by three different methods is presented and discussed. A three point bending test was performed on a notched silicate composite specimen. During the loading process, a highly accurate force displacement dependence was recorded accompanied with X-ray radiography,\nX-ray computed tomogra-phy and acoustic emission scanning.
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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.
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