The goal of this thesis is to describe a complex financial plan of a family using all available products on the Czech financial market. The thesis is especially aimed at sources of possible family budget reserves and alternatives of backing life insurances using offers of local insurance companies. First of all you can find simple definition of life time cycle. Based on this cycle I try to describe any differences in needs, which may help to fulfill wishes and priorities that may come up during different life periods. There is a detailed explanation of basics and characteristics of particular components of family financial plan in the following chapters. After these theoretical chapters you can find a comparison of financial products suitable for securing sufficient retirement savings. Following chapters include analysis of risk insurance products with comparison of real existing offers on the Czech insurance market (based on price and specifics of insurance contract conditions).

The thesis describes the chain of causation that leads from the causes of the financial crisis over its consequencies towards the reactions of the Federal Reserve System. After the consequencies of the Crisis have been identified, the author deals in detail with the measures taken -- with their characteristics and the way they function. Afterwards, the author evaluates efficiency of these meausures and describes the role they played in the overall attitude of the Federal Reserve System to handling the Crisis.

This master thesis deals with a number of international processes in terms of geoeconomics. The main goal of this work is to research the position of dollar, ruble and petroleum in geoeconomic processes. At first goes the analysis of the current condition of the United States dollar, the assessment of exposure level of the system to other countries to establish the real role of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Then goes the analysis of the current status of Russian ruble and the Central Bank of Russian Federation. A large part of the work is devoted to petroleum as a basic raw material at present and its relations to U.S. dollar. At the end is the assessment of the U.S. dollar prospects in the 21 century and possible solutions, which will probably help to eliminate the negative consequences in case of using dollar as the dominant financial system in the world.

This thesis deals with monetary policy implemented by the Central bank of the United States the Federal Reserve System (Fed) from the 90s to the present day. The goal of this thesis is to assess the impact of monetary policy of the Fed on the American and the world economy in a given time interval. The first chapter deals with the general theory of functions of the central bank, its structure and history. The rest of the chapters are devoted to the description of the economic situation in the USA in the sub-periods and analyzing the steps and procedures that Fed had undertaken in response to these economic situation. The last chapter deals with the financial crisis of recent years, including possible causes and consequences, focusing on the main measures applied by the Fed in an effort to avoid or at least mitigate the crisis and the current development of the Fed.

Anti-Müllerian hormone appears to play central role in regulation of oocyte recruitment and folliculogenesis. Serum AMH concentration was found to be one of the best predictors of ovarian performance in IVF treatment. Consequently many fertility centres have introduced AMH for the assessment of ovarian reserve and as a tool for formulation of ovarian stimulation strategies in IVF. However published evidence on reliability of AMH assay methods and the role of AMH-tailored individualisation of ovarian stimulation in IVF appear to be weak. Consequently, I decided to conduct a series of studies that directed towards an improvement of the scientific evidence in these areas of research. The studies on performance of Gen II AMH assay revealed the assay suffers from significant instability and provides erroneous results. Consequently, the manufacturer introduced a modification on assay method. In view of the observed issues with Gen II assay, I conducted a critical appraisal of all published research on the previous and current assay methods that reported AMH variability, assay method comparison and sample stability. The literature indicated clinically important variability between AMH measurements in repeated samples, which was reported to be more significant with Gen II assay. The studies on between-assay conversion factors derived conflicting conclusions. Correspondingly, the review of studies on sample stability revealed conflicting reports on the stability of AMH under normal storage and processing conditions, which was reported to be more significant issue in Gen II assay. In view of above findings, we concluded that AMH in serum may exhibit pre-analytical instability, which may vary with assay method. Therefore robust, international standards for the development and validation of AMH assays are required. In the analysis of determinants of ovarian reserve, I evaluated the effect of ethnicity, BMI, endometriosis, causes of infertility and reproductive surgery on AMH, AFC and FSH measurements using data on a large cohort of infertile patients. Using robust multivariable regression analysis in a large cohort of IVF cycles, I established the effect of age, AMH, AFC, diagnosis, attempt, COS protocol changes, gonadotrophin type, USOR operator, regime and initial dose of gonadotrophins on oocyte yield. Then, I examined effect of gonadotrophin dose and regime on total and mature oocyte numbers. The study found that, after adjustment for all above variables, there was no increase in oocyte yield with increasing gonadotrophin dose categories beyond the very lowest doses. This suggests that there may not be significant direct dose-response effect and consequently strict protocols for tailoring the initial dose of gonadotrophins may not necessarily optimize ovarian performance in IVF treatment. In summary, studies described in this thesis have revealed instability of Gen II assay samples and raised awareness of the pitfalls of AMH measurements. These studies have also demonstrated the effect of clinically measurable factors on ovarian reserve and provided data on the effect of AMH, other patient characteristics and treatment interventions on oocyte yield in cycles of IVF. Furthermore, a robust database and statistical models have been developed, which can be used in future studies on ovarian reserve and IVF treatment interventions.

As Annonaceae da Reserva Natural Vale, localizada em Linhares, Espírito Santo, estão distribuídas em 11 gêneros e 28 espécies. São apresentadas chaves de identificação para os gêneros e para as espécies, ilustrações dos caracteres diagnósticos e pranchas fotográficas das espécies. O gênero com maior número de espécies é Annona, com cinco, seguido por Guatteria com quatro. Duguetia, Honschuchia, Oxandra e Xylopia têm três espécies cada e Unonopsis, duas espécies. Anaxagorea, Cymbopetalum, Ephedranthus e Pseudoxandra são representados por apenas uma espécie cada. A identidade das espécies de Guatteria na reserva é controversa. Análise morfológica permitiu incluir espécimes atribuídos a G. tomentosa em G. villosissima. Flores masculinas de Pseudoxandra spiritus-sancti são descritas pela primeira vez, constituindo também o primeiro relato de androdioicia em Pseudoxandra / The Annonaceae from Natural Reserve Vale located in Linhares, Espírito Santo, include 11 genera and 28 species. Key to genera and species, illustrations to diagnostics features and photographic plates are presented. Annona is the most diverse genus, with five species, followed by Guatteria, with four. Duguetia, Honschuchia, Oxandra and Xylopia are represented by three species each, and Unonopsis by two. Anaxagorea, Cymbopetalum, Ephedranthus and Pseudoxandra are represented by only one species each. The identity of Guatteria species is controversial. Morphological analysis allowed to include specimens attributed to G. tomentosa in G. villosissima. Male flowers of Pseudoxandra spiritus-sancti are described for the first time, constituting the first report of androdioicy in Pseudoxandra

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abstract: In this work, the stacked values of battery energy storage systems (BESSs) of various power and energy capacities are evaluated as they provide multiple services such as peak shaving, frequency regulation, and reserve support in an ‘Arizona-based test system’ - a simplified, representative model of Salt River Project’s (SRP) system developed using the resource stack information shared by SRP. This has been achieved by developing a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) based optimization model that captures the operation of BESS in the Arizona-based test system. The model formulation does not include any BESS cost as the objective is to estimate the net savings in total system operation cost after a BESS is deployed in the system. The optimization model has been formulated in such a way that the savings due to the provision of a single service, either peak shaving or frequency regulation or spinning reserve support, by the BESS, can be determined independently. The model also allows calculation of combined savings due to all the services rendered by the BESS. The results of this research suggest that the savings obtained with a BESS providing multiple services are significantly higher than the same capacity BESS delivering a single service in isolation. It is also observed that the marginal contribution of BESS reduces with increasing BESS energy capacity, a result consistent with the law of diminishing returns. Further, small changes in the simulation environment, such as factoring in generator forced outage rates or projection of future solar penetration, can lead to changes as high as 10% in the calculated stacked value. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2020

One policy reaction of the Federal Reserve to the 2008 financial crisis was the extension of currency swap lines to various foreign central banks; this constituted the global transfer of billions of US dollars of wealth and exhibited the role of the US as a global lender of last resorts. Some have attempted to explain the supply of these lines as a function of risk mitigation for domestic US banks with foreign holdings, but no one has yet investigated the social dynamics of this phenomenon. In recognizing that the global demand for emergency liquidity was greater than the Federal Reserve’s supply, this paper investigates how the similarity of foreign central banks affected the selection of which banks would receive liquidity extensions. I calculate similarity scores to the US Federal Reserve for foreign banks which applied for liquidity extensions during the crisis. These scores measure the textual similarity of foreign central bankers’ speeches to those of the Fed, the institutional design similarity to that of the Fed, and the similarity of foreign central banks’ governors’ educational and professional backgrounds to those of the 2008 Federal Open Markets Commission members. I find that the similarity of foreign central banks to the US with regard to these three criteria offers a significantly stronger and statistically more robust answer to the question of what drove this decision process, and offer implications for international regulatory mechanisms to ameliorate this tendency toward social homophily.

The increasing rate of urbanization and the problem of road reserve encroachment mean that there is no space for road expansion and sometimes for maintenance and road furniture, these and other problems have exposed the problem of road reserve encroachment. The main aim of this study was to investigate methods of finding the road reserve encroachment in Maseru Lesotho using aerial photos. The study used single image analysis and multiple image analysis methods. In single image analysis, the study used three methods of image classifications to find objects that are in the road reserve. Under classification, the study used both supervised and unsupervised image classifications. For supervised classification, the study used the direct image classification method where the aim was to look for every object found in the road reserve. For the indirect approach, the study looked for the ground to find objects in the road reserve. For unsupervised image classification, the study assumed that small clusters are encroachment. In multiple images analysis, the study used the 2015 and 2017 images to determine permanent objects found to have encroached road reserves. Here the assumption was that encroachment does not change over time, which means that unchanged objects during the change detection have encroached on the road reserve. The confusion matrix was used to tell the best performing method and the results show that the indirect method, both in Qoaling and Maqalika performed best. All the methods showed that there was an encroachment on a road reserve, and found that permanent objects were; houses, shops, and shopping centers. The study recommended the use of images with higher resolution and more bands, also that images be taken frequently.