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Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The coastal zone is a highly complex and highly productive environment in which components are intimately linked and interdependent on each other. Furthermore, human pressure and poaching remains an enormous problem within coastal zones and therefore necessitates an integrated and multidisciplinary development and management effort.

Given growing concerns regarding the chocolate sector's long-term future, ever more private-sector, public-sector and civil-society stakeholders have become involved in initiatives aiming to make cocoa production more 'sustainable'. However, despite the omnipresent term, stakeholders' understandings of associated environmental, commercial and socio-economic priorities diverge: while transforming cocoa into a more attractive livelihood for farmers is paramount for some, others prioritise links to global environmental challenges. A third dimension encompasses commercial concerns related to securing supply, an increasing qualm given projected cocoa shortages and ever-rising concentration in the marketplace. This research argues there are considerable tensions between different stakeholders' commercial, socio-economic and environmental priorities in cocoa sustainability initiatives especially in light of the sector's intensifying challenges. Further tensions emerge between underlying drivers and representations, as public-facing communication continues to emphasise altruism rather than commercial necessity, locating engagements in 'nice-to-have' rather than 'business imperative' territory. Based on documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, this thesis aims to capture how cocoa-sector changes have driven shifts in stakeholder priorities and representations, incorporating voices from across the initiatives ranging from cocoa producers to chocolate consumers. Utilising a modified global production networks lens to represent the full spectrum of stakeholders involved, the research maps three cocoa sustainability initiatives incorporating conservation or carbon measures in terms of power and embeddedness, stakeholder drivers and representations. While identifying tensions, it also argues that acknowledging divergent understandings of the polysemic 'sustainability' concept constitutes an opportunity for a much-needed redressing of power and embeddedness asymmetries to address systemic issues threatening the sector's future. However, the thesis also observes that despite protestations of partnership, few actors are willing to contemplate the systemic changes in favour of more equitable treatment and power distribution which would be required to safeguard the sector's long-term viability. This thesis's contributions include its unprecedented critical exploration of the diverging socio-economic, commercial and environmental drivers which diverse stakeholders associate with cocoa sustainability, the meanings they create towards the public, and the link to underlying power and embeddedness structures. These analytical foci have proved instrumental in unpacking emerging tensions, which are likely to grow more marked as cocoa shortages become more acute and understandings of sustainability continue to diverge.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Kinesiology and Health, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-41).

This diploma thesis deals with reporting of sustainability development and its mode of administration of regular reports. The purpose of the first section is to explain, define and describe theoretical and methodological approaches of corporate social responsibility of companies, how they were developed and what are their elementary principles and characteristics. The second section focuses on the analysis of implementation of corporate social responsibility in a concrete company in three areas – economical, social and environmental. The aim of the thesis is to create report about corporate social responsibility and sustainability development, based on acquired information and evaluated analyses.

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Title: Issues of successful transition of football players from youth categories to seniors category Objectives: The primary aim of this thesis is to bring new looks at the issuess of football maturation and to describe the important factors of psychological development and the important social factors that usually affect the success of the football career, especially during the period of transition to seniors category. Methods: Our basic method was the retrospective analysis of professional career of current football players. According to the questionnaire research, we found some wanted factors related to the discussed period, which have positive effects on the football career. Results: This thesis shows some significant factors, which have positive effects on successful transition of players from youth categories to seniors category. The results of our research, as well as the findings and advices should be helpful for everyone, who participates in upbringing, training and sports career of adolescent football players. Keywords: psychological development, education, social environment, adolescence, talent, training, performance, success

Fish are particularly vulnerable to the exposure of anthropogenic pollutants, with a vast array of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) introduced into the aquatic environment via sewage discharge, waste disposal and land runoff. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are halogenated flame retardants that are used to effectively inhibit the flammability of various materials including plastic products, electrical appliances, construction materials and textiles. BFRs are ubiquitous environmental contaminants and are known to disrupt thyroid hormone (TH) homeostasis in several vertebrate species, including fish. Given the vital role of THs in a wide range of developmental processes and physiological functions, assessing and identifying thyroid disrupting chemicals is crucial for safe guarding the long-term health of humans and wildlife. In fish the molecular mechanisms underlying TH disruption by BFRs and the effects on TH-sensitive tissues during early life stages remains unclear. This has been limited by the lack of fundamental knowledge on the TH system of fish and the difficulties associated with examining transcriptional changes in discrete embryonic-larval tissues. Here I have established the expression profiles of a suite of genes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis of zebrafish (Danio rerio) during embryonic-larval stages and their regulation by the biologically active TH (3, 5, 3′- tri-iodothyronine; T3). Using molecular tools (whole mount is situ hybridisation and RT-PCR), I demonstrate that a number of genes display spatial and temporal expression profiles during embryo/larval development, and their regulation by T3 was tissue- and developmental stage-specific. I subsequently demonstrated that TBBPA and BDE-47, two important BFR compounds, disrupted TH homeostasis at multiple levels of the HPT axis of zebrafish embryo-larvae after short sub-acute exposures. These compounds altered the expression of genes associated with TH conjugation and clearance, thyroid follicle development and TH transport. In addition, we suggest that TH target genes in the brain, liver, pronephric ducts and craniofacial tissues of zebrafish embryo-larvae may be particularly vulnerable to TBBPA and BDE-47 exposure. It has been proposed that environmental pollutants can disrupt TH signalling in wildlife by disrupting the activity of thyroid receptors (TRs), ligand-binding transcription factors, which mediate the genomic actions of THs. The ability of BFRs to disrupt fish TRs has not yet been examined. Here I developed an in vitro reporter gene transcriptional assay for zebrafish thyroid hormone receptors (zfTRα and zfTRβ) in human embryonic kidney cells and investigated their interactions with several BFR compounds. The assays were optimised and validated using the natural TR agonist T3 in cells transiently transfected with two reporter vector constructs, pGL4.24-PAL and pGL4.24-DR4. None of the six brominated flame retardants tested, namely, tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), 2,2′,4,4′-tetra-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47), 2,2′,4,4′,6-penta-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-100), 2,2′,3,4,4′,5′,6-hepta-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-183) and deca-bromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) had an agonistic effect on zfTRα and zfTRβ activity. These results are consistent with our previous finding which suggests that altered TH homeostasis may be a result of increased metabolism and excretion of THs and/or changes in the production of TH by the thyroid follicles. In conclusion, this investigative work aids the understanding of fundamental TH processes in fish, such as gene expression and regulation, and increases our understanding of the mechanisms and potential targets of BFRs in fish.

The diploma thesis is focused on the proposal of strategic development of the transport company DZS. M.K- Trans, s.r.o. operating in Slovakia. The theoretical part defines the basis necessary for understanding the issues of planning the development and growth of the company, including a description of selected analytical methods. The aim of the analytical part, is to identify the key factors affecting the current situation of the company and will serve as a basis for deciding on strategic directions. In the third part is chosen the most suitable development strategy, which will lead to strengthening of the selected company on the market.

The aim of the thesis is to answer following research questions: What are the visions of the future in relation to the environment of the pupils in fifth grade primary school? For this purpose there is submitted conceptual framework that has a foothold in the sociological premises, which optics are viewed by children's imagination. As a major phenomenon, which falls on children's vision, is defined the process of individualization. That translates into a perception of the future, while attention is paid to its impact on gender as well as on understanding of responsibility. The issue of risk perception in the context of contemporary society is described too. The conceptual starting point of insertion includes primarily theoretical works by Z. Bauman, U. Beck, A. Giddens and M. Maniates. The theoretical part also discusses the role of children in society and the concept of sustainable development. Finally, it is submitted that the involvement of children (and their imagination to create the future) can have a positive influence not only for themselves, but for the whole society. The theoretical part concludes with a research that is focused on children's perceptions of the future and individualization abroad and at home. The methodical part includes the methodology that is used, in...