The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyse European policy of economic and social cohesion in the southern states of the European Union. The import of regional policy consists in the strengthening of cohesion through the diminution of existing differences in socioeconomic level between EU member states and theirs regions. Significantly high budget item assigned to the regional policy on the European level affirms its importance. States of the southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece) gained long-standing experience in the implementation of the cohesion policy, therefore they are suitable for the evaluation of the effectiveness. The thesis seeks to deliver potential recommendations for the effectiveness improvement on the national as well as on the European level.

This final thesis deals with comparison of labor taxation in selected countries of the European Union: countries of Visegrad 4 and Germany. One of the essential goals was to find labor taxation for determined income levels and comparison of total labor taxation between selected countries. Next goal was to implement elements of most optimized labor taxation to Czech tax system. The first two chapters represent description of labor taxation: of personal income tax and social contributions in selected countries. Third chapter analyzes labor taxation for determined levels of income for every each country. Fourth chapter deals with the comparison of the labor taxation between selected countries and reflects differences of tax systems. Last fifth chapter analyses implementation of labor taxation elements of other examined country to the Czech tax system.

As cities expand globally, researchers must clarify how human activities and institutions shape biodiversity and conversely, how ecological processes shape human outcomes. Two features of contemporary cities motivate this thesis. First, urban residents, and especially children, are spending less time in nature and consequently, miss out on healthy and formative experiences with biodiversity. Second, residents with the least access to biodiversity tend to be those with the lowest socioeconomic status (SES). Together, these patterns convey a multi-layered environmental injustice: not only might urbanites become increasingly estranged from biodiversity, disinterested from its conservation, and disconnected from its benefits, but these outcomes may be most acute in communities already suffering from inequality in terms of exposure to hazards or limited economic opportunity. The first chapter explores how children’s behaviors and interests change after learning about animal habitats first-hand in an environmental education program. I conducted an evaluation of the ECOS program in Springfield, Massachusetts, in which I surveyed elementary school students about their memories of ECOS and their related environmental behaviors. Students with parents or peers that had participated in ECOS were more likely to repeat or discuss program activities after the program’s end. Findings will aid educators in Springfield and beyond in improving program impacts and sustainability. The second chapter explains under what conditions socioeconomic inequality becomes linked with biodiversity. I conducted a meta-analysis of published research that assessed SES-biodiversity relationships in 34 cities using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. I evaluated the contributions of study design and city-level conditions in shaping SES-biodiversity relationships for various taxonomic groups. The meta-analysis highlighted the contributions of residential and municipal decisions in differentially promoting biodiversity along socioeconomic lines. Further, we identified circumstances in which inequality in biodiversity was ameliorated or negated by urban form, social policy, or collective human preference. Findings will aid researchers and managers in understanding human drivers of biodiversity in their cities and how access to biodiversity may be unequally distributed. In sum, this thesis advances our knowledge about how biodiversity is structured in cities, who gets to experience it, and how such experiences influence our behaviors and interests.

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The thesis concerns with communication of Armenian and Azerbaijani Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Ministries of Defence on Facebook in relation to 2020 Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The official institutional accounts were used to bolster one sided narratives of the conflict, often by emotional appeals and misinformation targeting international and domestic audence. By analyzing FB communication of the named institutions, it aims to identify the key narrative-building tools utilized by state institutions in communication practice and how these tools are used prior to and during wartime. It also aims at comparing the communication practice across the institutions and in between the countries by analyzing Facebook posts of named ministries over period of 100 days using a dataset generated via Crowdtangle.

Scandinavian rock carvings can be described as the special rock art languages that were written by prehistoric humans to express their ideas, beliefs and thoughts. Each piece of figurative motif language might tell a prehistoric story about for instance domestic life, social practice, ritual or cosmology. Among different motifs such as ship, human and animal, the wheel cross has received comparatively less attention. The wheel cross has many different variations, where the motif’s ambiguity and possible changing relations to other motifs as well as its relation to the rock itself and landscape over time, have not been studied in greater detail. To fill this gap, this work is aimed at investigating the multiple expressions and possible meanings of the wheel cross motif over time in South Scandinavian rock carvings. Two case study areas with rich rock carvings, Tanum and Enköping, located in the southwest and southeast of Sweden, respectively, are selected. The rock carving materials where the wheel cross motif is present are processed by chorological and chronological studies. A simple and general method is proposed to reconstruct the prehistoric shoreline of Scandinavia. The chronology of the wheel cross motif is analysed with stylistic and shoreline dating methods. The results of the chronological study are then analysed in a cultural-historical-geographical context using an intercontextual interpretation and comparative analysis method. It is suggested that the various visual expressions of the wheel cross, such as the wheel of a wagon or as the shield covering a human torso, have unique symbolic meanings beyond their practical and physical counterparts. With a cosmological meaning as the sun, and a religious meaning as a god, the wheel cross becomes the symbol of moving, fertility, power and life, which has been integrated into not only the rituals but also the domestic life of South Scandinavian society. Although the wheel cross motif is limited in number, its various forms, relating to other motifs, are argued to reflect how the Bronze Age society of Scandinavia imported and developed ideas, artefacts, stories, etc., from foreign cultures in Continental Europe and the Mediterranean area. Like the spoke physically supporting the cart, the wheel cross acts as the lifeline that closely links the landscape, ritual, artefact, human, and other materialities, to mentally support the South Scandinavian society. / Skandinaviens hällristningar kan på ett sätt beskrivas som ett slags språk, som ristats i berg av förhistoriska människor för att uttrycka till exempel idéer, social praxis, övertygelser och tankar. Varje figurativt motivspråk kan sägas framföra en förhistorisk berättelse om exempelvis det vardagliga livet, ritualer och/eller kosmologier. Bland olika motiv som skepp, människor och djur har det motiv som oftast kallas hjulkors jämförelsevis fått mindre uppmärksamhet. Hjulkorset finns i flera olika utföranden, och just motivets flertydighet i kombination med en studie av motivets relation till andra motiv, själva berghällarna samt plats i landskapet, har inte studerats detaljerat i någon större utsträckning. För att råda bot på denna kunskapsbrist syftar detta arbete till att undersöka motivets flerfaldiga uttryckssätt och möjliga betydelser i södra Skandinavien. För syftet har två fallstudieområden valts i Sverige, vilka bägge har rikligt med hällristningar. Den ena området är Tanum, beläget i sydvästra delen av Sydskandinavien, och Enköping, beläget i dess sydöstra del. Hällristningslokaler där hjulkors förekommer analyseras på flera sätt. En korologisk och kronologisk görs. En enkel och allmängiltig metod utvecklas vidare för att rekonstruera Skandinaviens förhistoriska strandlinjer. Kronologin för hjulkors utförs bland annat utifrån en stilistisk metod och en strandlinjedateringsmetod. Resultaten från den kronologiska studien analyseras sedan i ett kulturhistoriskt-geografiskt sammanhang med användande av en interkontextuell tolkningsmetod och en jämförande analysmetod. Det föreslås att de olika visuella uttryck i vilka hjulkors förekom, såsom exempelvis i form av vagnshjulet, eller i form av en sköld som täcker en mänsklig överkropp eller torso, har unika symboliska betydelser, utöver sina praktiska och fysiska motsvarigheter. Med en kosmologisk betydelse som solen och en religiös betydelse som gud, blir hjulkors-motivet en möjlig synonym för rörelse, fruktbarhet, makt och liv. Som sådan har den inte bara integrerats i ritualerna utan också i det vardagliga livet i de sydskandinaviska samhällena. Även om hjulkorsen är begränsade i antal, kan deras olika former och relation till andra motiv visa aspekter av hur bronsåldersamhället i Skandinavien importerade och utvecklade idéer, artefakter, berättelser och annat från främmande kulturer i Kontinentaleuropa och Medelhavsområdet. Liksom korset i betydelsen ekrar fysiskt stödjer ett vagnshjul fungerar hjulkorset även som en typ av livslinje som kopplade samman en mängd relationella företeelser, som var nödvändiga för det sydskandinaviska samhällets funktion på en mängd nivåer, exempelvis landskapet, ritualerna, artefakterna, människorna och förstås alla dessas samskapande och samverkande materialiteter.

The doctoral thesis deals with comparative analysis of historical examples in the search for national identity in texts of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937) and Roman Dmowski (1864-1939). Both Masaryk and Dmowski belonged to prominent representatives of public and political life in their countries at the end of the 19th and in first decades of the 20th centuries. The question of national identity is a theme often associates with their life and work. Masaryk and Dmowski influenced Czech and Polish politics, political and intellectual thought before 1914. During the First World War, they were leaders of Czechoslovak and Polish politics in West European emigration (Masaryk as the president of the Czechoslovak National Committee, Dmowski as the president of the Polish National Committee). Nevertheless, in the postwar period, their career diverged. Masaryk became president of Czechoslovakia and symbol of the Czechoslovak identity, Dmowski represented rather the opposition against mainstream development in postwar Poland. The first and the second parts of the thesis deal with Masaryk's (first part) and Dmowski's (second part) concept of historical examples in search of national identity in context of their thought and life. Therefore, these parts are organized chronologically and pay attention to...

This thesis investigates approaches to public health in the Czech Republic and compares them to approaches in Norway. The theoretical part outlines key concepts in the field of health, public health, health policy and prevention and explores their diverse interpretation on the level of professional discourse. The empirical part provides a comparative analysis of the development and current state of health systems in both countries, health status of their populations, a general comparison of the approaches to prevention and health policy, as well as an analysis of a concrete example - fight against smoking as a major health risk factor. The aim of the thesis is not only to compare approaches to public health in both countries, but also to understand the complex relationships between the compared cases and the context. Based on this analysis, examples of good practice are identified, and recommendations are formulated which could stimulate further research or serve as a basis for the development of new health policies, prevention programs and campaigns. key words: health, public health, prevention, health policy, health system, health literacy, comparative analysis

This diploma thesis deals with the comparison of education of upper secondary teachers in chosen countries including the Czech Republic. Its objective is to analyse requirements for teachers' training, qualifications and continuing professional development. The thesis primarily looks into the organisation of the education system and governance, legislation and principals of upper secondary teachers' training in chosen countries. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first one specifies the environment of chosen countries using different criteria (the Czech Republic, England and Wales, Finland) and also the teachers' training, qualification and development dilemma in particular countries is detailed in this part. The countries involved are described in general (geographic location, political system, social, cultural and economic situation). The outline of the development and current situation of each society contributes to the understanding of particular systems of education. Chosen countries are characterised by a considerable geographic distance and also by different historical development. The general information is enhanced with legislation and administration and governance specifics. We can assess the causes and consequences of various factors which can influence teachers' education...

Recognizing the challenges small groups have to program a major work, in 2010, Joachim Linckelmann created a chamber ensemble arrangement of Johannes Brahms's "Ein deutsches Requiem." In 1869, J.M. Reiter-Biedermann published Brahms's four-hand piano arrangement of "Ein deutsches Requiem." Brahms's arrangement serves as an excellent comparison to the chamber ensemble version by Linckelmann, since it can be assumed that Brahms chose to highlight and focus on the parts he deemed the most important. This study was a comparative analysis of the two arrangements and was completed in three stages. The first stage documented every significant change in Joachim Linckelmann's recent chamber arrangement. The second stage classified each change as either a reduction, reorganization, or elimination. The final stage of the analysis was to compare the choices made by Linckelmann to those made by Brahms. The results show that Linckelmann's choices for reduction, reorganization, and elimination closely align with those of Brahms. The only differences between the arrangements can be attributed to Linckelmann's focus on retaining the original orchestral timbre and Brahms's focus on providing the original vocal parts.