Over time, the position of the regions within the European integration process was gaining on significance. The emancipation processes of the 1970s and 1980s set off by advancing decentralization on one hand, and a wave of new regionalism on the other later evolved into a debate about a "Europe of the regions". Although it is obvious that this concept does not have a broad support any more, the regional level was able to seize the opportunity and secure itself a better position in the integration process -- not only as an object and instrument of EU policies, but also as another actor in the decision-making process. The aim of the thesis was to analyze the position of the regions in the European integration process as well as to deal with the topic in a broader theoretical perspective (regionalism, multi-level governance, paradiplomacy). To fulfill this aim the thesis answered following research questions: "What incited the debate about the Europe of the regions and what were the imminent outcomes of the debate?" "Which structures can the regions use to access the European policy level and what influences their efficiency?" and "To what extent are these structures used by Czech regions? Methods used to answer these research questions included analysis of available sources and literature, historical analysis and a survey.

In my master thesis the issue of regional development of the Czech Republic and the Netherlands in relation to the educational structure of their inhabitants has been dealt. The main aim of the paper was determined whether the highest level of education of the economically active population of both countries affects their regional development. I decided to compare the Czech Republic with the Netherlands because both countries are small open economies dependent on export to Germany, members of the European Union. However the Netherlands belongs among the richest countries in the world, has a high standard of living of the population and is characterised for a quality of education system. The relation between regional development and educational structure of inhabitants in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands was examined using the regression linear model. The cohesion regions were chosen as the basic units of comparative analysis in both countries. The regional development were defined according to 5th Cohesion report by 5 macroeconomic indicators. In compliance with output of regression analysis the relation between educational structure of economically active population and macroeconomic indicators, which represented regional development was not entirelly proved.

Thesis titled `Regions and environmental protection` is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to planting regions in the necessary historical context. The second part describes the constitutional anchoring region, and their constitutive elements defining the concept of independent and delegated powers. In the last section, I focus on linking the county institute, and environmental protection. The conclusion is devoted to the role of the county in a separate and delegated powers in selected components of the environment. Counties in the environmental protection acts as a necessary link between the state and municipalities, since they deal with things that goes beyond the possibilities of their own communities, but also below the national importance.

Estudos que abordam o consumo familiar possuem grande importância para o entendimento dos perfis de gastos dos indivíduos brasileiros de diversas regiões e classes econômicas, pois contribuem para compreender os diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento social e econômico nos quais se encontram. Posto isso, o trabalho busca contribuir com esses desenvolvimentos relacionados ao consumo dos indivíduos e famílias na forma de dois ensaios científicos, os quais podem ser lidos individualmente sem perdas de conteúdo entre um e outro. O primeiro capítulo tem como objetivo analisar se os consumidores que vivem em regiões metropolitanas são compensados em seus salários por viver em condições de maiores custos de vida. Devido ao problema de endogeneidade das variáveis de custo e salários, que são determinados simultaneamente no mercado, empregaram-se os métodos dos Momentos Generalizados (GMM) e Mínimos Quadrados em Dois Estágios (2SLS), juntamente com uma estrutura de dados empilhados. Os resultados encontrados indicam que a hipótese de compensação plena é satisfeita estatisticamente apenas para os custos de habitação e saúde, e não para os custos de educação, alimentação e transporte. Já o segundo capítulo tem como objetivo verificar se há diferença entre o impacto da renda masculina e feminina sobre o consumo familiar e, também, analisar o comportamento da família sobre as decisões de consumo. Para alcançar o objetivo, foram estimadas Curvas de Engel na forma linear para doze grupos de consumo e o método de estimação utilizado foi o modelo de Tobit, devido à característica censurada da amostra que continha valores positivos e zero. Neste segundo estudo, verificou-se que o comportamento da família acerca das decisões de consumo difere conforme o grupo de produtos analisado, sendo que as rendas masculinas e femininas são consideradas agrupadas para os grupos de alimentação dentro de casa, roupa de homem, roupa de mulher, gastos escolares, transporte e saúde e não agrupadas para os grupos de alimentação fora, gastos com crianças, cultura e recreação, fumo e álcool, habitação e doações. Para ambos os capítulos a principal base de dados utilizada foi a POF (Pesquisa de Orçamentos Familiares) feita pelo IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) para os anos de 1995-1996, 2002-2003 e 2008-2009. / Studies dealing with household consumption are of great importance for understanding the consumption profiles of Brazilian individuals from different regions and economic classes. Hence, this work, divided in two scientific papers, which can be read independently seeks to contribute with these developments related to the consumption of individuals and families. The first chapter aims to analyze if consumers living in metropolitan areas are compensated for their wages to live in areas of higher living costs. Due to the endogeneity problem of variables cost and wages, which are determined simultaneously in the market, the generalized moment (GMM) and Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) methods were applied. The results indicate that full compensation hypothesis is satisfied only statistically for housing and health costs, and not for education, food and transportation. The second chapter aims to determine if there is any different impact between male and female income on household consumption and, consequently review the family\'s behavior on consumption decisions. To achieve the goal, it was estimated Engel curves in linear fashion for twelve group consumption, and the estimation method used was the Tobit model, due to nature of data, i.e., censored observations. In this second study, it was found that the behavior of the family about the consumption decisions differ according to the group analyzed products, and the male and female incomes are considered grouped for household food, men\'s clothing, women\'s clothing, school fees, transport and health and not grouped for eating out, spending on children, culture and recreation, tobacco and alcohol, housing and donations. For both chapters the main database used was the POF (Household Expenditure Surveys) undertaken by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) for the years 1995-1996, 2002- 2003 and 2008-2009.

Universidade Federal do Cearà / A teoria econÃmica e as evidÃncias empÃricas mostram que o capital humano à decisivo para determinar tanto os rendimentos individuais quanto a renda agregada. Como decorrÃncia, o capital humano à determinante do bem-estar individual. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo foge ao comum ao definir capital humano como um vetor de duas variÃveis tidas a priori como endÃgenas â educaÃÃo formal e estado de saÃde do trabalhador â as quais comporÃo um trinÃmio base na determinaÃÃo dos diferenciais de rendimentos individuais, aqui tomados em termos domiciliar per capita. Para atender as hipÃteses teÃricas montou-se, como base metodolÃgica, um modelo de equaÃÃes simultÃneas envolvendo aquelas trÃs variÃveis endÃgenas, tendo como mÃtodo de escolha para estimaÃÃo os mÃnimos quadrados em trÃs estÃgios. Para a verificaÃÃo empÃrica foram utilizados os microdados da Pesquisa sobre PadrÃo de Vida (PPV) do IBGE, para o perÃodo 1996-1997, comparando-se as regiÃes Nordeste e Sudeste. Das estimaÃÃes, comprovou-se a simultaneidade da hipÃtese teÃrica de endogeneidade envolvendo as duas variÃveis de capital humano e rendimentos. As duas componentes de capital humano contribuem, sobremaneira, para explicar o diferencial de rendimentos dos indivÃduos em favor da regiÃo Sudeste. Os resultados mostram que a condiÃÃo de saÃde dos indivÃduos pode ser explicada em atà 11% pelo seu nÃvel educacional, enquanto que indivÃduos que possuem uma condiÃÃo de saÃde entre regular a excelente chegam a possuir um nÃvel educacional atà 4,32% maior que a mÃdia. Jà os indivÃduos com a renda domiciliar per capita mÃnima tendem a possuir um nÃvel educacional 9,61% a menos que a mÃdia, em situaÃÃo contraria os que possuem o valor mÃximo da renda domiciliar per capita chagam a possuir 54,58% a mais que a mÃdia educacional dos indivÃduos. Outro resultado importante mostra que sob as mesmas condiÃÃes indivÃduos residentes na regiÃo Nordeste tendem a ganhar 28,03% a menos que os residentes na regiÃo Sudeste. Corroborando com a literatura jà existente o estudo trÃs tambÃm resultados inerentes aos atributos individuais que geram discriminaÃÃo no mercado de trabalho, onde se constata que sob as mesmas condiÃÃes: as mulheres tendem a ganhar em torno de 7,81% a menos que os homens e indivÃduos nÃo-brancos chegam a contribuir para a renda do domicÃlio com 9,24% a menos que os brancos.

Diversas políticas regionais não tiveram êxito na redução das desigualdades existentes no Brasil devido à idéia de que é preciso promover o desenvolvimento a qualquer custo numa região atrasada. Vinculado aos aspectos teóricos da Nova Geografia Econômica e, em particular, das economias de aglomeração, esse artigo argumenta que as desigualdades são inerentes até mesmo em regiões desenvolvidas e que o estímulo a essas regiões devem ser incentivados, elevando a produtividade das mesmas. Especificamente, o objetivo dessa tese é mostrar a existência e a localização das desigualdades regionais na região Sul do Brasil e em cada uma das mesorregiões de seus Estados sob uma perspectiva multidimensional, através de 16 variáveis ligadas às áreas de infra-estrutura pública, urbanização, educação, renda, população, identidade local, geografia e finanças públicas (IBGE, 2000) por meio de técnicas de estatística multivariada. Por fim, foram obtidos diversos indicadores que classificaram a região Sul e as mesorregiões de cada um de seus Estados em diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento. Revelou-se que Santa Catarina, sozinha, possui 60% dos municípios mais desenvolvidos da região Sul, seguido pelo Paraná e Rio Grande do Sul, além de que apenas 2 (duas) mesorregiões do Estado de Santa Catarina, 3 (três) do Paraná e 4 (quatro) do Rio Grande do Sul possuem a maioria dos municípios desenvolvidos, dentre outros indicadores que apontam para desigualdades intra e inter-estaduais na região Sul. Tais resultados comprovam que até mesmo regiões consideradas desenvolvidas - mesmo que em termos relativos, se comparada a outras regiões do Brasil - possui diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento, não constituindo-se tal fato em "um mal em si mesmo", mas sim uma conseqüência natural das economias de aglomeração presentes em uma região em detrimento de outra (s). / Several regional policies have not been successful in reducing existing inequalities in Brazil due to the idea that it is necessary to promote development at any cost in a less developed region. Connected to theoretical aspects of the New Economic Geography and, in particular, aspects of economies of agglomeration, this article argues that inequalities are inherent even in developed regions and that these regions must be stimulated, raising thus their productivity. The specific objective of this paper is to show the existence and the localization of the regional inequalities in the South region of Brazil and in each mesoregion of its States. This will be accomplished with a multidimensional perspective, through 16 variables linked to areas of public infra-structure, urbanization, education, income, population, local identity, geography and public finances (IBGE, 2000), by means of techniques of multivariate statistics. Finally, we have obtained several pointers that classified the South region and the mesoregions of each of its States into different levels of development. The research has shown that Santa Catarina alone has 60% of the more developed cities of the South region, followed by Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. Furthermore, just 2 (two) mesoregions from the State of Santa Catarina, 3 (three) from Paraná and 4 (four) from Rio Grande do Sul have the majority of developed cities, among other pointers that indicate intra and interstate inequalities in the South region. Such results prove that even regions considered to be developed even if in relative terms they are compared to other regions in Brazil have different levels of development. This fact does not comprise "an evil in itself", but a natural consequence of the economies of agglomeration present in one region in detriment to others.

Chicken is a major protein source and intensively selected for economically important traits by humans. As such, this generated a huge range of phenotypes that representing a diverse spectrum of genetic variation. Understanding the functional basis of the genetic variants that underlie these traits, however, remains a formidable endeavour particularly for complex traits. Nonetheless, molecular phenotyping of an organism from sequenced data is doable with the advances in bioinformatics analysis and unparalleled surveys of genome wide genetic variants. This provides the opportunity to gain insights into the genome architecture and assists in identifying chromosomal regions underlying selection through a “sequences to consequences” approach. Combining a whole genome re-sequencing (WGS) approach with the knowledge of selection history, this thesis aimed to study the chromosomal regions and genetic variants underlying traits of interest in various selected chicken populations. To achieve this, genetic (quantitative and population genetics), genomic and bioinformatics approaches were employed and integrated to investigate the genome wide selection signatures in a number of different lines of chicken selected for different complex traits. This includes analysing: (i) divergently selected broilers for fatness traits (Chapter 2), (ii) a closed population of layer chickens (Chapter 3), (iii) selection signatures unique to broiler or layer chickens (Chapter 4) and (iv) selection signatures in colony stimulating factor 1 (CSF1) associated with gene expression differences in broiler and layer populations (Chapter 5). Candidate genes and nucleotides underlying potential selection regions were identified, and attempts were made to further elucidate the potential interplay between genes and the biological pathways involved in regulating traits in these selected chicken lines. Incorporating integrative approaches, variants within selection signatures were annotated to provide further evidence of their functional consequences. Overall, non-coding regions were enriched in selection signatures implied that causative variants may have regulatory roles. Capitalising on the millions of genetic variants discovered from WGS, chromosomal regions subject to selection were detected using a number of population genetics statistics. In broiler chicken lines divergently selected for very low-density plasma lipoprotein (VLDL) (Chapter 2), incorporating signatures of selection helped to improve the resolution of previously mapped quantitative traits loci (QTL) intervals. This research demonstrated that the integration of the analysis of selection signatures with functional annotation of genetic variants enabled refinement and characterisation of the QTL for fatness traits. In a closed population of brown leghorn layers (Chapter 3), evidence of selection signatures was found through Tajima’s D analysis. The analysis unravelled selection signatures encoding genes involved in numerous pathways and genes having key roles such as in behaviour, including feather pecking. Combining population differentiation statistic (FST) and Tajima’s D, a number of regions subject to divergent selection between broilers and white egg layers were identified (Chapter 4). Selection signatures were found to harbour mutations involved in cellular and tissue development, including genes having important roles in growth, fatness, egg shell strength and muscle development. These regions and the overlapping genes thereby may be potentially contributing to the different phenotypic variations observed between broilers and layers. In Chapter 5, a revised gene model for colony stimulating factor 1 (CSF1) showing complex pattern of alternate transcripts was predicted from transcriptome analysis of RNA isolated from 21 different tissues. In parallel, selection signatures analysis with the FST statistic, identified selection signatures that differentiate broilers to white egg layers (3 regions) or brown egg layers to white egg layers (4 regions). All these selection signatures were located within non-coding regions, indicating potential divergent selection of CSF1 within regulatory regions. Overall, the results presented in this thesis using the “sequences to consequences” approach, link several genomic regions and genes to phenotypic variation in domesticated chicken lines. The work reported here serves as a foundation for further study to decipher the relationship between “genotype and phenotype” and its functional consequences due to selection.

Lo, Kwok Yuen. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-53). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Scope of the thesis --- p.3 / Chapter 2 --- Lifetime Model --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.4 / Chapter 2.2 --- Weibull Distribution --- p.4 / Chapter 2.3 --- Step-Stress Experiment --- p.5 / Chapter 3 --- Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Model Parameters --- p.9 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter 3.2 --- Maximum Likelihood Estimation --- p.10 / Chapter 3.3 --- Fisher Information Matrix --- p.13 / Chapter 3.4 --- Numerical Methods improving Newton's method. --- p.17 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Initial values --- p.18 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Fisher-Scoring method --- p.19 / Chapter 4 --- Optimal Experimental Design --- p.21 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.21 / Chapter 4.2 --- Optimal Criteria --- p.22 / Chapter 4.3 --- Optimal Stress-changing-time Proportion --- p.23 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Optimal n versus the shape parameter B --- p.24 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- "Optimal n versus the parameters ao, a1" --- p.27 / Chapter 4.3.3 --- Optimal n versus the initial stress level x1 --- p.32 / Chapter 4.3.4 --- Optimal n versus the censoring time t2 --- p.33 / Chapter 4.4 --- Sensitivity Analysis --- p.34 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Effects of the shape parameter B --- p.34 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- "Effects of the parameters ao, al" --- p.37 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion Remarks and Further Research --- p.39 / Chapter A --- Simulation Algorithm for a Weibull Type-I Censored Simple Step-Stress Model --- p.41 / Chapter B --- Expected values of Fisher Information Matrix --- p.42 / Chapter C --- "Derivation of P(A1, A2)" --- p.50 / Bibliography --- p.52

Co-rotating Interaction Regions (CIRs) are a well-known phenomenon in the solar wind, and is a favored culprit for certain cyclical behavior observed in the spectra of some massive stars. A prime example are the discrete absorption components (DACs) seen in the UV wind lines of many O stars. Here we report on modeling for the variable continuum polarization that could arise from the presence of CIR structures. Considerations are limited to optically thin scattering. Using a core-halo approach for winds that are thick to electron scattering, an application to observed variable polarization of WR6 (EZ CMa; HD 50896) is presented.

Possibilities of second home development in neighbourhood of the former Military Region Brdy Abstract This diploma thesis deals with the topic of second homes in the villages in the outskirts of the former Military Region Brdy in the Pilsen region. These villages got back parts of their cadastral area, which were taken away in 1949 when the military area was established. These villages are specifically Borovno, Míšov, Spálené Poříčí, Trokavec, Skořice, Mirošov, Štítov, Strašice, Dobřív and Těně. The aim of the thesis is to define the state and possible future of second home tourism in the area of interest, in connection with the potential which the area gained with the establishment of the Protected Landscape area Brdy on 1st January of 2016. The first part of the thesis contains theoretical input into the issue, attention is focused on second homes and tourism in connection with demilitarization and in relation to nature protection. In the second part the study area is characterized from the socio and physical - geographic point of view, the potential for tourism is also analysed. Next part is focused directly on the second homes in the area and on the results of field survey, which consisted of questioning the users of second homes and of structured interviews with mayors of studied villages. The...