Search

The Czech Republic has been a promising destination for foreign investors due to its locational advantages and tax-incentive policy. However, the profit-repatriation rate in the country is extremely high, which results in less capital being available for development. This paper studies the differences in profit-repatriation rates among FDI (foreign direct investment) firms in the Czech Republic after the appearance of tax-holiday incentives from 2008 to 2019. The precondition is to find the determinants of the repatriation rate of FDI firms, and the results show that the profit repatriation rate of FDI firms is positively affected by firm size and the liquidity of firms and negatively affected by investment opportunities and leverage. The paper divides FDI firms into several groups and examines the differences in repatriation rates between them before revealing the determinants of these differences. Firstly, there is no difference in profit repatriation between FDI firms with tax incentives and those without tax incentives. Next, we divide the FDI firms with tax incentives into two groups: those who still enjoy the tax incentives and those who no longer enjoy the tax incentives. The FDI firms with tax incentives that are in the tax-incentive period repatriate less than FDI firms with tax incentives that are not in the tax period any longer. The difference stems from the endowment effect, and three determinants that can reduce the repatriation rate of FDI firms that are no longer in the tax period are investment opportunities, leverage, and firm size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents papers of the "Czech-Taiwanese Workshop on the Intermediate- and High-Energy Physics," that was held in Prague, Czech Republic from March 3-5, 2003, organized by Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, National Science Council of Taiwan, Czech Physical Society (Section of the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists) and Physical Society of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The paper discusses operations research (OR) history and achievements in Czechia and Slovakia in 2010–2021 including the most significant OR professional events in the region. The history of Central European Journal of Operations Research from its beginnings to the present is shortly mentioned. The paper presents and analyzes main bibliometric and publishing trends in academic OR research relevant for the region. The final part of this paper contains an introduction to the current issue that contains results of the latest OR research in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special section is devoted to a selection of contributions originally presented at the 1st International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Model Checking (PDMC 2002), which took place in Brno, Czech Republic in September 2002 as a satellite event of the 13th conference on concurrency theory (CONCUR 2002). The growing importance of automated formal verification in industry is driving a growing interest in those aspects that have a direct impact on its applicability to real-world problems. One of the main technical challenges is in devising tools that allow one to handle large state spaces. In the last several years numerous approaches to solving this problem have been developed. Recently there has been increasing interest in parallelizing and distributing verification techniques. Papers that appear in this special section provide an interesting sampling of typical approaches in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing taxation is considered the most obvious tax system inequity. Therefore, this type of taxation should be in line with the benefit principle. This article examines the attitudes of citizens towards residential building taxation in the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the perception of residential building tax burden by taxpayers who own a house or apartment for housing based on primary research. The research was conducted in the Czech Republic using a questionnaire in 2021 and 2022. Differences in the tax burden perception in relation to improvements in quality of life in a municipality and use of compensation by providing financial benefit in favor of resident citizens are investigated in the context of municipality size. It was found that the majority of respondents in all municipality size categories perceived the tax burden as reasonable. Citizens' positive attitudes towards the taxation of their residential buildings were influenced not only by the quality-of-life improvement in the municipality, but also by the transparency of the municipality's financial management. By compensating for the tax on residential buildings through providing a financial benefit, some municipalities reduced the tax burden for their resident citizens and shifted the tax burden, within the limits of the law, to buildings for business and recreation. The most common forms of financial benefits included reducing or eliminating municipal waste fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of qualitative research on academic inbreeding in Czech higher education, the first of its kind. Its focus is on exploring the significance of academic inbreeding, its types, practices, and possible solutions. The research for this paper was done among academic staff at eight institutions of higher education in the Czech Republic. It was conceptually informed by ideas about different types of inbred employees (immobile, mobile, silver-corded, and adherent) and available policy tools. The results show that academic inbreeding has long flown under the radar as an issue. Its impact is perceived ambivalently, as both positive and negative, by academics and experts alike. Generally, its avoidance has not been taken into account in staff recruitment, which has allowed it to become widespread among Czech higher education institutions. The policy tools for combatting academic inbreeding include nodality (open recruitment), reorganization of recruitment procedures, capacity-building (including stays abroad), and hortatory proclamations (paying attention to the issue). Overall, the evidence gathered in the course of research suggests that some progress has been made in limiting academic inbreeding at some workplaces, and that what we would call purely immobile inbred employees are giving way to mobile and "silver-corded" inbred academic staff. Finally, Czech higher education institutions register few cases of pseudo-inbreeding, combining work at the same institution where a PhD was taken with an academically relevant position in a state research institute or the Academy of Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the negative components of international travel is the higher likelihood of emergencies that affect a large number of people (mass negative impact on health), for example the transmission of infectious diseases, as e.g. SARS CoV-2 pandemic. The frequency and sources of mass-casualty incidents are currently changing dynamically, especially with the onset of terrorist attacks and large-scale natural disasters. Health services and emergency medical service (EMS) take part in addressing these emergencies. For this reason, this paper deals with the EMS emergency preparedness in the Czech Republic for an emergency events with a large number of affected people. EMS in the Czech Republic are not provided by the state but by individual regions. EMS in the Czech Republic do not have central management, nor do they use uniform data documentation. The investigation of the current situation has shown that the attitudes of EMS in individual regions of the Czech Republic to the tasks of emergency preparedness for mass casualty incidents are not identical. The current method of evaluating improvements in the quality of EMS emergency preparedness lacks consistency and is not comprehensively supervised. To tackle this, the paper presents an internal audit methodology for assessing the level of emergency preparedness of the emergency medical services. The authors therefore defined the decisive criteria and indicators assessing the quality level of EMS emergency preparedness at major disaster with multiple victim incident. When developing the methodological procedure of the preparedness evaluation, an algorithm was chosen, based on the gradual verification of the evaluation criteria and indicators by an expert group. Some findings and recommendations based on a research carried out in EMS in individual regions of the Czech Republic are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the report on the XVI International Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control that was held at Prague Palace of Congress in Czech Republic from July 4-8, 2005. The congress had more than 2, 200 attendees who presented 2, 454 papers. Some of the papers focuses on the control of moving objects, actual application of the modern theories to the problems of industrial and transportation, and prehistory and evolution of the system theory.

The aim of the paper is to carry out a comparative engineering-geological study of four different waste landfills using the evaluation criteria for the geological subsoil as a natural sealing barrier. The study evaluates 4 localities (Velké Pavlovice, Kvítkovice, Prakšice and Horní Suchá) using three variants (based on two standards) which approach the geological barrier requirements as a combination of impermeability requirements based on a filtration coefficient limit value. and the required geometry represented by investigation depths. The research was carried out in landfills in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The study's motivation is to point at the differences in engineering-geological investigations of waste landfills (as for the requirements for impermeable geological subsoil as a natural sealing barrier) when compared with other engineering structures (where the main goal is to evaluate load-bearing capacity and settlement). The purpose of the geological barrier is to prevent the spread of contamination, and the paper shows this can be approached differently, as shown in two different methodologies investigated herein. The first model (Model 1) assumes there is a 3-m-thick subsoil below the landfill's footing bottom, which manifests impermeability characterized by the filtration coefficient Kf ≤ 1.0 * 10–9 m/s, or a 30-m-thick subsoil of Kf ≤ 1.0 * 10–8 m/s. The second model (Model 2) assumes a 1-m thick, impermeable subsoil massif of Kf ≤ 1.0 * 10–9 m/s. We found that none of the landfills in the four selected localities had an impermeable layer in the required depth (a filtration coefficient Kf from 1.8 * 10–9 to 3.9 * 10–9 m/s), and thus did not comply with the limiting conditions. As a result, an anthropogenic technical barrier had to be installed. An important goal of the study from an environmental point of view was to assess the existence of a suitable geological barrier under the proposed landfills. The most important criterion from this point of view is permeability. An additional technical objective of the project was also the assessment of the possible creation of a technical anthropogenic isolation barrier. In the event that the natural sealing barrier would not be sufficient. This was shown in all solved case studies of engineering geological investigations of waste landfills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a retrospective review of patterns found in cases of homicides by sharp force over a 13-year period at the Department of Forensic Pathology of the Ostrava University Hospital, Czech Republic. The review summarizes all frequently discussed aspects of such cases including the number and localization of injuries, the presence of defensive wounds, the type of the offending weapon, the cause of death, the place of death, victims' and perpetrators' profiles, their relationship, or toxicological findings. Furthermore, special attention was paid to the evaluation of any accompanying blunt force trauma that may be indicative of an escalation of the assault. The set of data was statistically analyzed. Even though most of the results of this review are consistent with available published studies, noteworthy differences have emerged in some aspects such as the sex and age of the victims, the relationship between the number of injuries suffered and the victims' sex, or the severity of alcohol intoxication in victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the major determinants of the structural differences in gender equality for EU countries, using tools from partial order theory on a system of 6 indicators, pertaining to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls". The paper analyzes the gender equality partial orders, among EU countries, for years 2006, 2010 and 2017. Performing a sensitivity analysis, the pay gap indicator was disclosed as the most relevant source of differences across European nations, for each of the three years considered. Subsequently the paper focuses on the temporal evolution of gender equality in three specific countries, i.e., Denmark, Germany and the Czech Republic, studying which elementary dimensions has the strongest impact on its dynamics. Interestingly it turns out that, in different countries, different indicators play the major role (related to women's political representation, for Denmark and Germany, and to care giving, for Czech Republic). These sensitivity analyses are performed using posetic tools, to avoid the possible information loss of an aggregative procedures, involving the computation of composite indicators. This constitutes a major methodological contribution of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to explain and understand contemporary spatial changes within housing estates in Prague with special attention to the role of public and private institutions. We argue that housing estates are undergoing considerable functional heterogenization and becoming integral parts of the city as a consequence of mix of commercial development, specific public policies and activities of local actors. We focus on two crucial aspects of the contemporary development of housing estates within the capital city of Prague: (i) the new functional differentiation of housing estates as a consequence of private activities and commercialization; (ii) the role of master planning and public policies on the level of both the city and self-governed city districts. Activities of commercial and public institutions are perceived as structuration processes enabled and restricted by the constraints of contemporary post-transformational city. Methodologically the paper is based on analyses of the content of planning documents and policies (Metropolitan Plan, Strategic plan of Prague and selected documents of the city districts) and statistical information sources that relate to three levels of spatial detail. A case study of the largest housing estate and a symbol of socialist housing in Czechia—Jižní Město—illustrates the impact of state and municipal policies and commercialization on the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to show whether the systems of mathematics teacher education in two countries whose historical development may seem quite similar (the Czech Republic and Hungary were parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, and they were part of the Eastern European communist block) are also very similar, or whether each country follows its own, unique path. In this paper we build on the general need for more international comparative studies in the area of teacher education. We present a historical review of development of mathematics teacher education in both countries and analyse and compare current teacher education programs, their structure and organization, the demands on mathematics teachers and their qualifications for teaching at various levels. In the paper we pinpoint a number of aspects resulting in differences in the two systems, including historical development and traditions, (de)-centralization, globalization and international cooperation, etc. The comparison based on these aspects shows that the systems in both countries are very different. The analysis described in this paper could become the starting point for further research using the data from international surveys (e.g. PISA). Such research would enable us to make conjectures about the effects of various ways of organizing teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the direct effects of the pandemic are well documented, less is known about the indirect ones, including changes in healthcare provision or human behavior. This paper aims to study the impact of indirect consequences on mortality, focusing on two leading causes (cardiovascular diseases, COVID-19) and places of death in Czechia, during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most severely affected European countries. The analysis was performed using data from the Czech Statistical Office and the Institute of Health Information and Statistics. The study compares annual mortality changes during three time periods: pre-pandemic (2018–2019), pandemic beginning and peaking (2020–2021), and pandemic fading (2022). Pandemic years were covered by the WHO public health emergency of international concern. Abridged life tables were computed, and Pollard's decomposition was used to calculate the contributions of causes and places of death on annual differences in life expectancy. Seasonal decomposition of monthly time series revealed an increase in cardiovascular mortality at home or in social care facilities corresponding to limitations in healthcare. While COVID-19 had a systemic negative effect on life expectancy during the pandemic, the impact of cardiovascular mortality according to place of death changed over time. This study contributes to the evidence base of systemic risks during health crises and emergency response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the abundant scholarship on sociopolitical embeddedness of expertise, its relation to emotions remains understudied. The paper fills this gap by discussing how public framings of expertise work against the inclusion of emotional contexts, affecting what kind of professional knowledge dominates in a public debate. The analysis of the Czech public debate on birth care shows that while midwives embrace emotional contexts of birthing and integrate them as an essential part of their professional expertise, obstetricians see these contexts as troubling their expertise. This professional difference is sustained by the public framing of expertise in the media, favoring obstetricians' expertise over midwives'. The analysis shows that public framing of expertise outweighs evidential work done by midwives and legal advisors and impacts how emotional contexts are understood in the debate. Rather than referring to feelings and personal experience of the body, the "emotional" becomes a discursive label to delegitimize professional opinion. The results raise thus important questions about how the public framing of expertise impacts whether emotional context and experiences of bodily harm are seen as relevant in policy debates and policy regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pairwise comparisons have been a long-standing technique for comparing alternatives/criteria and their role has been pivotal in the development of modern decision-making methods such as the Analytic Hierarchy/Network Process (AHP/ANP), the Best-Worst method (BWM), PROMETHEE and many others. Pairwise comparisons can be performed within several frameworks such as multiplicative, additive and fuzzy representations of preferences, which are particular instances of a more general framework based on Abelian linearly ordered groups. Though multiplicative, additive and fuzzy representations of preferences are widely used in practice, it is unknown whether decision makers are equally precise in the three aforementioned representations when they measure objective data. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to design, carry out and analyse an experiment with over 200 respondents (undergraduate university students) from two countries, Czechia and Italy, to compare precision of the respondents in all three representations. In the experiment, respondents pairwise compared (by approximation) the areas of four geometric figures and then, the imprecision of their assessments was measured by computing the distance with the exact pairwise comparisons. We grouped the respondents in such a way that each participant was allowed to deal with a unique type of representation. The outcomes of the experiment indicate that the multiplicative approach is the most precise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste combustion in residential small-scale combustion units is not legal in the Czech Republic or other European Union countries. The resulting gaseous and particulate pollutants expose inhabitants to smells and toxic compounds and may damage their property and health. This study is designed to define the emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants and determine the influence of municipal waste combustion on emission factors. Different types of solid fuels, municipal wood wastes (window frames, furniture chipboard), and mixtures of solid fuels with municipal wastes (namely, textiles, plastics, PET briquettes comprising a mixture of PET bottles + wood pellets + frying oil, paper, and floor coverings) were combusted in residential combustion units (such as gasification boiler, boiler with down-draft combustion, overfire boiler, and stove). Studies describing such an extensive range of waste samples combusted in different small-scale combustion units have not yet been published. Emission factors (EFs) for products of incomplete combustion (carbon monoxide (CO), organic gaseous compounds (OGC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gaseous and particulate phases) and particulate matter (PM) were within narrow intervals and lowest for standardized wood fuel (dry wood logs only) and 2–4 times higher on average for unsuitable coal samples (coal unsuitable for the particular boiler type used and coal combined with waste), for which values fell within broad intervals. The EFs of pollutants resulting from incomplete combustion (CO, OGC, and 16 PAHtotal) and PM were lowest for standardized wood fuel (dry wood logs only) and almost two or four times higher on average for unsuitable coal fuels (coal unsuitable for the particular boiler type used and coal combined with waste). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A second study of ferriallanite-(Ce) from Nya Bastnäs, Sweden, extends current data by using electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis and brings new insights about its crystal chemistry obtained by Raman spectroscopy. The study presents the first Raman spectra for ferriallanite-(Ce) member of the allanite group (not considering the rather low-quality spectra published in preceding papers). The material does not show significant radiation damage, which is rare as allanite-group minerals often have undergone metamictisation due to significant amounts of incorporated radionuclides (U, Th). Some interior regions show pronounced zoning that correlates with variations in Raman-band positions. In spite of its significant REE content, the material is virtually non-luminescent. New additional data for allanite-(Ce) from Oßling, Germany and Domanínek, Czech Republic are also presented, which were used for comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of the Covid-19 global pandemic, corporate restructuring laws worldwide underwent a stress test as the financial health of companies significantly deteriorated. In response to public demand, legislators in the Czech Republic adopted various bail-out programmes and bail-in measures in order to provide debtors who ran into temporary problems in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic with additional protection against individual creditors to help solve their financial troubles. This paper outlines the various bail-in and bail-out measures that were introduced during the critical phase of the pandemic in 2020–2021 and analyses the extraordinary measures that were adopted in the Czech Republic. After the pandemic, once the temporary emergency measures were lifted, the number of insolvency petitions and proceedings surprisingly decreased in comparison to previous years. This may suggest that financial aid programmes in the Czech Republic may even have been too generous. While public debt in the Czech Republic increased dramatically during the pandemic as a result of the governmental bail-out/financial aid programmes, the 'helicopter money' contributed significantly to accelerating the increase in the country's inflation rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the association between work trajectories and frailty in later life in four ageing contexts (AAI index): Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy and Poland. Data of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is used to create the frailty index and linear regression models are applied to assess the association between frailty condition and work trajectories of 6187 women and men, aged between 50 and 74 years old. The findings underline that women experience worse frailty than men in all countries. Having precarious work trajectories is detrimental to individuals' health everywhere, but it becomes even worse for Danish men and Polish men and women. The ageing context (AAI index) is not associated with health inequalities in older people. We suggest that further research should explore more in detail the mechanisms linking job insecurity to psycho-social risks as possible determinants of frailty, taking into account differences at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical field systems are an essential part of the traditional cultural landscape of societies with primarily agricultural subsistence. They embody many functions and values, as they affect the productional, ecological and hydrological functioning of the landscape, its cultural values, the way people perceive the landscape, and their impact on present-day farming. As an aspect of the historical landscape, field systems are a topic investigated in landscape archaeology, environmental studies, historical geography, landscape ecology, and related disciplines. Historical field systems can form many complex spatial structures, shapes and patterns. This paper focuses on identifying environmental and historical/cultural driving forces during the formation and the historical development of various field pattern types. We worked with 523 settlements established in the medieval to the early modern period (approx. 900–1600 AD) in the present-day Czech Republic. We have determined the proportions of different field pattern types in the examined cadastres and have statistically compared them with a variety of environmental and geographical predictors. Our results indicate a strong influence of environmental predictors (terrain undulation, cadastre size), the impact of specific historical events and associated social changes (e.g. land confiscations by the state in the seventeenth century), and a significant relationship between field pattern types and settlement layout types. Furthermore, we have observed the different adaptations of field pattern types to similar environmental conditions, as well as the impact of social and political factors on the processes of landscape formation. Our paper provides the first detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of traditional field systems on the scale of an entire modern state, and emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary research on cultural landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether a series of changes to capital requirements transmitted to a change to banks' pricing policy. We compile a rich bank-level supervisory dataset covering the banking sector in the Czech Republic over the period 2004–2019. We estimate that the changes to the overall capital requirements did not force banks to alter their pricing policy. The impact on bank interest margins and loan rates is found to lie in a narrow range around zero irrespective of loan category. Our estimates allow us to rule out effects even for less-capitalised banks and small banks. The results obtained contradict estimates from other studies reporting significant transmission of capital regulation to lending rates and interest margins. We therefore engage in a deeper discussion of why this might be the case. Our estimates may be used in the ongoing discussion of the benefits and costs of capital-based regulation in banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sandy-marly siltstones, sandy-silty marlstones, silicified marlstones and marly silicites are the characteristic cyclically deposited sediments in large areas of the Bohemian–Saxonian and Münsterland Cretaceous Basins. In the German-speaking area, these typical sedimentary rocks are called Pläner. In the Czech Republic they are called opuka, in Poland/Lithuania opoka and in France/Wallonia gaize. They can be easily quarried as managable dimensional stones, which can be formatted with little effort and were therefore the preferred material for use as a masonry stone. In the Middle Ages, Pläner was therefore the dominant stone used for exterior architecture. Harder Pläner was used as floor slabs and for paving. In Prague, a local Pläner is exposed with beds reaching a thickness of 1.3 m. This local variety is called the Golden Pläner/zlatá opuka, where it was also used for high-quality sculptural work. The Golden Pläner is therefore a stone with a wide variety of uses. Prague also owes its title as the "Golden City" to this rock. The Golden Pläner is well studied. Its mineral composition, important petrophysical characteristics and weathering behavior have been published in several geoscientific papers. Publications dealing with the other Pläner stones of the Czech Republic, those in Saxony or exposed in the Münsterland are still lacking. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the similarities and differences of the Pläner stones used as a building material from the Cretaceous basins considered here. Four different types of Pläners can be classified based on their primary facies and early diagenetic characteristics, but also the limestones that are called Pläners, which occur within the Pläner sequences and the residuals of these Pläners are considered. The high proportion of very fine-grained constituents requires the combination of several analytical and observational methods such as optical microscopy, microanalysis, powder X-ray diffraction and textural analysis of pore space by mercury porosimetry. To be able to classify the weathering resistance, and thus the possibility of using Pläners as a natural stone, the structural parameters of compressive strength, porosity, water absorption, freeze–thaw resistance and hygric dilatation were also determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrosion processes were studied in epigenic caves of the Moravian Karst (MK). Samples of naturally corroded speleothems and carbonate rocks collected in various MK caves were compared with limestone and calcite standards that were corroded under well-controlled conditions in the laboratory. Two stages of corrosion were distinguished: (1) an early stage of pitting and linear corrosion predisposed by point and line defects in the standards, and (2) an advanced stage characterized by deep corrosion of the entire standard surface. During the second stage, the internal structure of the corroded substrate remained partially preserved, however, if the water was extremely aggressive, the corrosion progressed to depth en-bloc regardless of the structure. In this paper, we (1) proposed a new corrosion mechanism based on the binding of aqueous calcium by clays and tested it experimentally in the cave, (2) characterized conditions that generally favor the formation of aggressive waters (water undersaturated with calcite) into seven categories incorporating them into a conceptual model of the karst vertical profile, and (3) discussed anthropogenic influences on these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will focus on frauds committed against the budget of the European Union. It will consider the role of OLAF (the European Fraud Prevention Office) which is the lead agency in the fight against fraud. It will consider its powers and its capacity to co-ordinate the activities of anti-fraud agencies in twenty seven member states and the constraints which prevent it from operating in a more effective manner. The paper will also consider the role of other transnational bodies such as Eurojust and Europol and will seek to highlight the degree of fragmentation which exists with a multiplicity of actors involved in policing fraud, a fragmented legal approach and the difficulties this presents in policing sophisticated transnational frauds. The effect of EU expansion on this situation will also be examined and the EU anti-fraud efforts of the Czech Republic will be considered in some detail. The paper concludes that the legal system and the institutions are not yet in place to enable such frauds to be adequately policed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with a possibility of foreign language learning (FLL) intervention in older adults as a psychosocial rehabilitation method to improve the quality of life (QoL) in this age segment, i.e. the people who are over 55 years. FLL has been researched as a successful tool to maintain or even enhance cognitive functions in older age along with other intentional activities, such as engagement in any physical activity. FLL cannot dramatically improve memory and cognitive deterioration of older adults, however, it can improve QoL by increasing subjective happiness that is connected to improved wellbeing. The research was conducted in two groups of seniors who are engaged in FLL, specifically in the Czech Republic and Poland. The major premise of the research was based on the positive psychology concept, i.e., the subjective happiness leads to improved levels of QoL. Both groups consisted of about a hundred respondents whose opinions were researched by an online questionnaire. The major focus of this questionnaire was to evaluate the level of subjective happiness and then compare the results obtained from the respondents from these two geographically different regions. The findings clearly showed that those who had engaged in FLL had reached high levels of subjective happiness, therefore, their subjective wellbeing could be improved. These results might be important for psychosocial rehabilitation practices because they can create a framework for further non-pharmacological intervention to maintain healthy aging. FLL can thus be a very efficient tool for any psychosocial rehabilitation in older healthy adults who do not suffer from any cognitive pathological development but who are just experiencing negative side effects of natural aging process. The research into this topic is very scarce, and therefore, this paper could be an inspiration for further and larger-scale research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is guided by the question: How do illicit practices of organized groups contribute to the formation and reproduction of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Czechia? By asking this question we depart from the dominant understanding of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the study of organized crime. Instead of seeing them as "breeding grounds of organized crime", it is explored how regular neighbourhoods can decline as a result of illicit practices carried out by certain organized groups. The context of the paper is the so-called "poverty business", which refers to the renting of overpriced, substandard housing, financed considerably using housing benefits and thus exploiting the housing need of vulnerable social groups, namely Roma. Using the literature on Roma marginalization and illicit housing practices, an analytical framework that consists of the concepts of speculation, exploitation and liquidation is created and applied to two cases of disadvantaged neighbourhoods: "the Hostel" in Brno and "the Neighbourhood" in Litvínov. In conclusion, the adequacy of the organized crime perspective is critically discussed and the need for further research articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel multidimensional typology of free-to-play gamers, based on the theory of consumption values and to test whether these types of gamers differ in their premium content consumer purchasing behavior. The study uses a survey of 839 Czech free-to-play gamers, where the players' values are tested across 27 items. Factor analysis is used to identify 6 different factors (values) influencing the gamers, which are then used as variables in a cluster analysis to identify 5 distinct gamer types. Results show that each identified gamer type differs not only in gaming (length of gameplay) but also in purchasing behavior (current purchase and future purchase intention, average monthly spend). One new gamer type, previously unidentified in the literature, has been identified (the enthusiasts), alongside the development of additional details for three of the more "standard" game types (economic aesthetes, identification seekers and killers). Gamers from the Czech Republic are used in the sample, limiting the generalizability of the study. The research complements existing gamer typologies by developing an empirically supported view of free-to-play gamers that is based on value, which results in the identification of one new gamer type. We also extend consumption values theory by identifying the multi-dimensional impact of value characteristics on purchase behavior in a context of emerging commercial and social importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the effect of implementation of the Antidiscrimination Act 2009 (ADA) in the Czech Republic on a size of the motherhood penalty using the EU SILC data over the years 2006 through 2017. We employ several methods to estimate the impact and to show that ADA leads to a substantial decline in the motherhood penalty. Before the ADA implementation the average motherhood penalty fluctuated between 12% and 17,5%, after the ADA implementation the statistical significance of motherhood penalty disappeared. However, we also find that wage penalties stemming from the lower work experience due to motherhood-related breaks and lower work intensity during the motherhood are still substantial (10,12%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coppicing is a form of forest management in European broadleaved forests. While it is still practised in south-eastern Europe, in central and western Europe it was almost completely replaced by high forest management. Currently, there are increasing efforts to reintroduce coppice management into former coppice woods. However, little comprehensive knowledge is available about the extent and management of coppice reintroduction and the processes governing it. In this paper, we present an overview of localities in the Czech Republic where coppice reintroduction was taking place in 2020. We identified 8 localities and conducted 10 semi-structured interviews with experts involved in their management in order to understand what motivated them to restart coppicing and what obstacles they have had to face. The main motivation of site managers is nature conservation, while the most important obstacles are operational issues, such as bureaucracy, complicated land ownership and legal responsibilities or lack of workforce. Other motivating factors identified in other European countries (production of a renewable energy source and potential for rural employment) have so far played a minor role in the Czech Republic. We conclude that a major challenge for future forest policies will be to utilise the economic experiences of regions with active coppicing to foster the spread of coppice woods in order to combine renewable energy production with biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering quite high levels of pollution in V4 countries, the aim of this paper is to assess if renewable energy consumption reduces CO2 emissions in the period 1996–2022. The time series approach based on autoregressive distributed lag models (ARDL models) for each state in the sample indicated that renewable energy consumption reduced CO2 emissions, while GDP enhanced pollution. Foreign direct investment had no effect on environmental quality. Political stability had no impact on pollution in Poland and Hungary, while it reduced CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic and enhanced them in Slovakia. The results are subject to policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the changing landscape of migration policy work conducted by civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Czech Republic. We focus on how funding opportunities affect CSOs' policy work, long-term planning and everyday practices. Through a qualitative analysis of 15 interviews with representatives of non-governmental organisations and 11 interviews with policy stakeholders, we explored the critical and reflexive strategies adopted by CSOs. A crucial role in developing critical capacity seems to stem from umbrella organisations—organisations whose members are organisations. With respect to CSOs' strong dependency on the state, umbrella organisations might serve as shields protecting individual organisations from direct conflicts with governmental policies and institutions. In the end, we assume that meta-organisations potentially function as important vehicles for the reflexive development and evolution of organisations and decrease transaction costs for the organisation field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric method for efficiency and performance analysis of decision making units. The paper deals with production systems where decision making units are described by their inputs and outputs in several consecutive periods. The paper presents (Park and Park in Eur J Oper Res 193(2):567-580, ) multi-period DEA model that is oriented on the 'best' period of the unit under evaluation only. This aim of this paper is to overcome the disadvantage of this model and formulate new models of this class that allow evaluation the efficiency of decision making units within the whole production chain. The presented efficiency and super-efficiency multi-period DEA models are illustrated on a case study. The study consists in analysis of research and teaching performance of 19 Czech economic faculties in four years period from 2009 until 2012. The model considers two inputs (number of academic employees and labour costs) and two outputs for teaching efficiency (number of students and number of graduated). Research efficiency is expressed using the number of publications in various important categories and the number of so called RIV points that describe the quality of publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the role of R&D and analyse its impact on productivity in the Czech economy in a CDM model. Four CIS waves (2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008) were used in the CDM model. The estimated low innovation input elasticity around 9 % describes the Czechs as poor innovators in the EU. This economy was a developing country until 2006 and we have observed a substantive FDI inflow since 1998. Multinationals have a higher sales share now and are an essential part of the economy. Multinationals engage less in innovation, but innovating MNEs spend more on R&D per employee and appropriate more from their innovated goods. The FDI inflow was a form of innovation wave. Innovation output is an important determinant for boosting productivity among SME's. Public support had positive effect on innovation intensity; however, no additional effect on innovation output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on migrants and migration in the context of the Czech Republic, an ethnically and nationally homogeneous country without significant migration experience. Despite this fact, the issue of migration became very prominent in 2015 and has been an integral part of Czech political and public discourse since then. Although the topic has attracted scholarly interest, but the reflection on migrant images held by citizens has been omitted. To fill this gap, first, we conducted a quantitative computer-assisted content analysis of the main Czech media (2015–2018) to investigate how important the issue of migration was and in what context migrants and migration were discussed in the media. We then conducted a series of focus groups with Czech citizens to answer not only how they perceived migrants and migration in general, but also how they perceived the (quality of) media coverage of this issue. The findings offer insight into patterns of media consumption: Our respondents were well aware that media representation of the topic is exaggerated and does not include all possible points of view. The prevailing perception was that the mostly negative media representation was fixated on the image of a migrant coming from the Middle East, most likely to be a terrorist who is not going to adapt to a "normal" life in the Czech Republic. Indeed, the very term migrant is mainly associated with someone who, according to the mental projections of the respondents, is "different" at first sight, fails to fit in and integrate into the majority society, does not look for work thus becoming dependent on the social system of the host country. In other words, for Czechs, people who come to settle and work are excluded from the socially constructed category of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicriteria decision-making methods are widely spread and used to assist the decision-makers to resolve problems. Many of the methods are simple to deploy (WSA, TOPSIS), which is an advantage and because of the computer boom, there is no problem with calculations. However, more sophisticated methods are evolving. The modelling of preferences is improved (from linear in WSA to Gaussian in PROMETHEE), multilevel decision-making (such as AHP) is extended to modelling of dependencies between individual criteria (ANP). The presented method, two-stage weighted PROMETHEE, combines the advantages of generalized preferential functions in PROMETHEE methods, unambiguous arrangement (PROMETHEE II) and hierarchical approach (AHP). In addition, this paper demonstrates the application of the method to evaluate the order of 14 regions of the Czech Republic in regard to economic indices such as the unemployment rate, economic activity, average age, wages, free working places, income, consumption and investments. Data are taken from the Czech Statistical Office web and include the years 2012–2019. In the first stage, the position of each region is calculated; in the second stage, all years mentioned are considered, including the aspect of the weighted time series. Result visualization is made possible using the Visual PROMETHEE software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Disaggregator tool, developed for the aggregation and disaggregation of spatial data. There exist several types of point data that need to be aggregated for more effective visualization. On the other hand, some statistical datasets are only available for larger areas; the disaggregation procedure can recalculate this data into smaller areas. All disaggregation methods are strongly dependent on auxiliary data, so many disaggregation approaches, including dasymetric mapping, have been discussed in the literature. At the same time, only a few software implementations exist. Their functionality is very limited (Intelligent Dasymetric Mapping Toolbox) or they use only one method (e.g. the areal interpolation method), or their development is no longer supported (QGIS Dasymetric plugin). Disaggregation methods involve a more complex procedure, which makes them harder to automate and program. Due to the lack of ready-to-use softwaresolutions, the Disaggregator tool for ArcGIS Pro was created and published on GitHub as freely available software. It offers several methods for aggregation and disaggregation of spatial data. The tool was tested on several statistical datasets in Czechia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the paper is to identify the message in letters written by Polish and Czech seniors. The letters were subject to qualitative analysis. The method used was the analysis of the inspired texts—letters written by older people to the younger generation, which may become a didactic tool for the younger generations to learn from the biographies of seniors. The result of the analysis is a list of categories reflecting the main aspects dominating in the letters. These categories are: message addressed to a younger generation, important events and people in individual life story, reflection upon the meaning of life and concerns and challenges in the course of life. All the seniors express their affirmation of family, share ethical reflections on their relationships with other people and on passing. Thus, the main message of the letters is a call to cherish family relationships, nurture relations with other people and show respect to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lyme borreliosis (LB), the most prevalent vector-borne disease in Europe, is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato complex species and transmitted by the tick Ixodes ricinus. The Czech Republic is an endemic country for LB. The disease affects the skin, neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiac or ocular tissue, and the most frequent clinical manifestations are erythema migrans and Lyme neuroborreliosis. In 2018, the EU case definition of Lyme neuroborreliosis was published, and neuroborreliosis has become reportable to the European Surveillance System. In this paper, we describe the LB surveillance system and reporting of human cases in the Czech Republic. Epidemiological characteristics of Lyme borreliosis are presented for 2018 and 2019. Gaps in and limitations of the existing national LB surveillance system were identified with regard to the reporting of neuroborreliosis in accordance with the EU case definition. In the Czech Republic, LB surveillance is nationwide, comprehensive, and mandatory. Case based data on all clinical manifestations of incident LB are reported to the electronic Information System of Infectious Diseases (ISIN). In 2018 and 2019, 4724 and 4102 LB cases, i.e., 44.5 and 38.4 cases per 100,000 population, were reported to ISIN, respectively. Overall, 46.3 % of cases were male and 53.7 % were female. The highest morbidity was observed in adults 50–75 and children 5–9 years old. The most affected regions were Vysočina and Olomoucký. Nine districts recorded more than 100 cases per 100,000 population. Erythema migrans appeared in 3173 (67.2 %) and 2756 (67.2 %) patients in 2018 and 2019, respectively. In 2018, 596 (12.6 %) Lyme neuroborreliosis cases were diagnosed only on the basis of clinical manifestations while in 2019, a total of 567 (13.8 %) cases of neuroborreliosis fully meeting the EU case definition were reported. The Czech Republic is an endemic country for LB with some hotspots, similar to some central, northern and north-eastern European countries. To implement the EU neuroborreliosis surveillance in the Czech Republic, ISIN technical update, addition of required variables to it, preparation of legislation update, and training of health professionals were needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social enterprises use a variety of tools to communicate with the public. These tools include, in particular, enterprise websites, online stores integrated into these websites and social media profiles. Nowadays, especially social media is an important corporate communication platform. Because all these tools work with personal data, social enterprises must take into account the new European Union regulation. General Data Protection Regulation – a legal framework of the personal data protection in the European Union is a widely discussed topic at the moment. The aim of this paper is to research the frequency of the communication tools used by social enterprises in the Czech Republic and the influence of General Data Protection Regulation on these instruments. To achieve this aim, two research questions are identified. What is the frequency and combination of using enterprise websites, online stores and social media profiles as main marketing, business and communication tools among Social Enterprises in the Czech Republic. What is the influence of General Data Protection Regulation on these tools in terms of social enterprises? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are generally recognized as important actors in societies, fulfilling diverse sets of roles. Given the nature of their work and the complexity of the fast-changing contexts in which they operate, foresight techniques can potentially be useful in helping them prepare for future disruptions and maximize the positive influence of their work over future developments. The possibilities for and benefits of the application of foresight approaches and techniques are increasingly being discussed in various private and public organizations, especially with the aim to innovate and grow. However, little attention has been given to the question of how NGOs use foresight and whether their work benefits from it. The paper presents results of a survey conducted among Czech and Slovak NGOs active in development cooperation, humanitarian assistance, and environmental protection fields, filling the existing research gap by analyzing their application of foresight processes and the benefits foresight brings to them. The paper concludes that future-oriented processes in Czech and Slovak NGOs are of a rather informal and non-institutionalized nature, given the insufficient knowledge of foresight concepts and limited human capacities of NGOs. Nevertheless, they positively influence their creativity and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main scope of this paper consists in presenting an original contribution for the estimation of measures of monetary and multi-dimensional poverty in a longitudinal context; we also provide empirical on how this could be very useful in explaining the different recovery in three Visegrad Countries from the 2008 crisis. The traditional approach of poverty, defined by the dichotomy (poor, non-poor) is replaced by a defining based on the concept "a matter of degree", which could briefly be defined as the position of an individual in the income distribution, or in any other variable's distribution taken into account in a multidimensional approach. Another original contribution of the paper consists in proposing rules for the intersection and union of fuzzy sets, which we demonstrate to be appropriate for the study of poverty and deprivation, especially when the approach is applied to a time sequence in a longitudinal perspective; in particular, we propose the new 'fuzzy "At-persistent-risk-of-poverty rate", which can be seen as the fuzzy alter ego of the well-known Eurostat Laeken indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that one of the reasons the suppression of scientific dissent during the Covid pandemic has been so severe was because the dominant scientific Covid narrative has been turned into a political myth, i.e. a narrative mobilizing groups in support of key moral values. Taking the example of Covid vaccination, I show the key values with which it became linked in Czechia. Questioning vaccination came to be seen as endangering these values, which made scientific dissent appear as particularly dangerous. I further analyse how this schematic discourse dealt with "free-vax" scientists, who were not against Covid vaccination as such but only against its blanket application. I show that their discreditation was mainly carried out by various fact-checking NGOs or social media influencers, who attempted to delegitimize them not by scientific arguments but rather by associating them with more dubious groups of social actors, or labelling their views as "disinformation". This discrediting strategy was largely successful, but it also had some undesirable social and political backfire effects, in that it pushed some of the free-vaxxers out of the liberal democratic mainstream and forced them to seek alliance with more anti-systemic segments of the population in attempts at political resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to adequately assess energy policies and set clear objectives, a key preliminary step is to know the energy use patterns of the different countries. This paper estimates the evolution of the total energy use over the period 1995–2015 in four European Union (EU) countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, representative of two different energy patterns, the "Southern" one and the "Eastern" one. For doing so, we employ a Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) model. In difference with previous studies, in addition to differentiate between domestic and foreign use we distinguish whether this energy is produced domestically or abroad. The results obtained show a certain convergence in energy intensity across the four countries examined because of the radical transformations experienced by the Czech Republic and Hungary. Nonetheless, energy intensities are still substantially higher in Eastern than in Southern countries which confirms that the first group of countries have still a long road to go, especially regarding the incentives that their industries have to use energy efficiently. Taking our decomposition of total energy use, the reductions in total energy use were mainly caused by a high decrease in the importance of the domestic use of energy produced domestically. At the same time, a growing importance of the role played by the energy produced abroad was observed. These trends confirm the great importance of global value chains and the steady internalization of energy use. This methodology could be further applied to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the complex problems of preparation of pedagogy students to work as teachers in the context of their readiness to use ICT in the didactic process. The complexity of this subject matter has been proved by the current, ongoing, discussion about the direction of the expected transformations of contemporary schools and the prospective teachers education system in the age of prevalent digitization. Considering the complexity of conditions, the main research problem has been formulated as follows: Conditions of what type affect the preparation of prospective teachers to use new media in learning and teaching process?. Thus, the empirical analysis conducted in the paper focuses on the following issues: the style of using new media by students, identification of students' attitudes towards media, subjective (from the students' point of view) assessment of how university level schools are prepared to shape modern media competences among their students and self-evaluation of media and IT competences in the group of prospective teachers. Czech and Polish students, despite being the so called digital natives, do not present homogeneous styles of using new media. They also reveal different attitudes toward applying digital solutions to the didactic process. Factors such as: low evaluation of one's own competences or lack of evaluation in this area, lack of creative approach to the use of new media, lack of education in the area of new applications, lack of skills necessary to handle basic digital tools (e.g. interactive board, e-learning platforms) negatively affect, in most cases, the attitude toward the active use of ICT tools in future didactic work. On the basis of the gathered empirical data and inductive qualitative analysis a typology of students attitudes toward new media was developed. It consists of four categories: techno-optimist, techno-realist, techno-pessimist and techno-ignorant. The whole of analyses has the character of comparative research and involves two neighboring countries of the Visegrad Group: Poland ( N = 466) and Czech Republic ( N = 168). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As ongoing research efforts contribute to elucidating the consequences of climate change as well as adaptation and mitigation options, aligning the current research knowledge with stakeholder opinions and perceptions remains critical for adopting effective climate change policies. This paper utilizes an interactive survey to (1) address the aforementioned gap in studies involving three groups of stakeholders and opinion makers and (2) perform a comparative primary study of the climate change assumptions, risk perceptions, policy preferences, observations, and knowledge of Czech farmers, governmental policy-makers and researchers. This study shows that the stakeholder groups agree that the climate is clearly changing, attribute this change mostly to man-made causes and expect the negative effects to either prevail or be unevenly geographically distributed. The large majority of all three groups consider unmitigated climate change a major threat even by 2050 and agree that preparing in advance is the best sectoral strategy. Importantly, while investment in adaptation measures is considered the most efficient tool for accelerating the implementation of adaptation measures, the CAP and EU rules (as valid in 2016) are believed to hinder such measures. The results of this study have ramifications for the wider region of Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elections define representative democracies but also produce spikes in physical mobility if voters need to travel to polling places. In this paper, we examine whether large-scale, in-person elections propagate the spread of COVID-19. We exploit a natural experiment from the Czech Republic, which biannually renews mandates in one-third of Senate constituencies that rotate according to the 1995 election law. We show that in the second and third weeks after the 2020 elections (held on October 9–10), new COVID-19 infections grew significantly faster in voting compared to non-voting constituencies. A temporarily related peak in hospital admissions and essentially no changes in test positivity rates suggest that the acceleration was not merely due to increased testing. The acceleration did not occur in the population above 65, consistently with strategic risk-avoidance by older voters. Our results have implications for postal voting reforms or postponing of large-scale, in-person (electoral) events during viral outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysed the attitudes of the Czech public to the newly introduced service of sexual assistance to disabled persons. It constitutes the outcome of a discreet study of contributions at discussion forums of the idnes.cz newspaper related to the news concerning the introduction of the assistance (N = 183). The data show a low level of information on the topic, but also of the sexuality of disabled persons in general. Sexual assistants are equated with prostitutes; sexuality of handicapped persons is considered impertinent, or on the contrary, identical to sexuality of healthy persons. The defenders of the assistance point out the basic rights of disabled persons and good experience from abroad. Also, the limits of the service are discussed—the unaffordability and inaccessibility, the risk of the client's falling in love with the assistant, the tax aspect of the matter and the exclusive focus of the service on men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the cost efficiency of 81 general hospitals in the Czech Republic during 2006-2010. We employ the conditional order-m approach to assess how inpatient costs in a hospital translate to inpatient outputs considering its environmental characteristics. The outputs include quantitative indicators such as (i) acute patients adjusted for DRG case-mix index, (ii) nursing patients, and (iii) publications reflecting research activity of a hospital; but also a qualitative indicator (iv) nurses/bed ratio. Nonprofit hospitals, university hospitals, and hospitals with specialized centers are generally less efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]