Background. Stepped care is widely implemented as a means to organise depression treatment. However, it is unclear how this system and the system it was designed to replace – long-term intensive psychotherapy for all – compare. Aim. To further the development and evaluation of stepped care. Specifically, assess the clinical effectiveness of stepped care and prepare for a fully-powered evaluation of stepped care vs. high-intensity psychotherapy alone for depressed adults. Design. A systematic review and mixed methods feasibility study encompassing a pilot randomised controlled trial and semi-structured interviews. Results of the systematic review. Fourteen randomised controlled trials involving 4580 participants were included. Relative to controls, there was significantly greater improvement in depression for adults treated with stepped care (d=0.34 at six months; 95% CI 0.20 to 0.48). The quality of included studies was good and there was little evidence of publication bias. All comparisons were with usual care. Results of the feasibility study. 66 patients were recruited to the pilot trial. The recruitment rate was 2.9% and follow-up data was obtained from 90.9% of participants. A third of stepped care patients stepped up to high-intensity therapy. Patients improved in both groups: the mean reduction in depressive symptoms was 13.4 in the stepped care group and 13.6 in the high-intensity therapy alone group. Recruitment methods were appropriate to patients and therapists but only somewhat appropriate to IAPT staff. Although the stepped care intervention was broadly acceptable to therapists, patient experience varied and some patients who demonstrated a low level of self-efficacy declined any therapy or dropped out of treatment. Conclusions. The effectiveness of stepped care compared with long-term intensive psychological therapy for all has not yet been established. A fully-powered trial of stepped care vs. high-intensity therapy alone is feasible although pilot trial methods and procedures should be modified to improve recruitment and acceptability.

The definition of environmental sustainability has emerged strongly in the past decades. Industrial organizations worldwide have gone through a number of changes to take their social responsibilities and maintain sustainability by, among other things, replacing the conventional energy-based applications by renewable energy-based solutions. A so-called hybrid power system for electrification, consisting of wind turbines and solar panels, was developed by Vertical Wind AB to be installed on rooftops of residential buildings. The present thesis project analyzed the willingness of the large real estate companies in Uppsala region to adopt the new concept for electrification and conducted a market research on the new developed wind turbines, by Vertical Wind AB, in addition to solar- and wind resources in the target locations. It turned out that the willingness of having such a power system for electrification was high but not extremely high as expected and the hybrid power system was perceived as any other product or investment on the market where profitability is the vital decision parameter while the environmental aspect was slightly considered.

Due to the shortage of oil and the current environmental pollution problems, there is a growing need for alternative energy sources. Compressed or liquefied natural gas is shown as a prospective fuel. For LNG, consumption of 100 million Nm3/year is predicted by 2030. This work aims to prepare a pre-feasibility study for the production of LNG in the Czech Republic, which would be able to cover this predicted demand. The economic concept of the chemistry-engineering approach provides comprehensive information about the topic. The results show that the planned plant will unfortunately not be profitable, as compared to the current LNG price imported to European seaports, the price of the produced product in the factory considered would be roughly twice as high.

The thesis creats a Feasibility Study focusing on housing project "Panorama Kyje". Theoretical part describes particular analyses which are used in Feasibility Study and is focused on housing construction. The analyses are made in practical part for project "Panorama Kyje" which Ekospol a.s. is planning to build in Prague. The analyses are focused on economical and technical conditions or environment and also describes the risks of this project.

Tourism has been in previous programming periods, one of the investment priorities in a support from EU funds. For the next programming period 2014-2020 this support has undergone numerous changes. Therefore, it begs a question to look back at a period of more than 10 years since the Czech Republic joined the EU. The EU financial support can be analyzed from different angles. The aim of this thesis is to compare the existing options of using financial support from EU funds for tourism in the Czech Republic. The thesis is divided into four chapters, where three are theoretical and one is practical. In the practical part, a study of the feasibility for a specific project in the current programming period 2014-2020 demonstrates possibilities for using financial support in agrotourism. In the current period agrotourism is almost the only fully supported area from EU funds. The project is developed according to the application rules for a submission of a grant application in the programming period 2014-2020.

The master's thesis deals with the issue of business plan for a start-up company. The theoretical part explains the business plan in terms of its content requirements and its role in business, discusses the principles of creating a business plan and describes its structure. After the initial characterization of business opportunities, the practical part presents mission and vision statements, including company's strategy, introduces readers to results of a strategic analysis and presents a marketing strategy. Based on financial planning the business plan also evaluates economic efficiency and pays attention to potential risks.

The goal of this dissertation is to create instruction, how to proceed at creation of initial analyses in pre-investment phase of informatics investment. There are described for this reason various types of used studies during this phase of service life of this investment in the dissertation. There is created tool in the dissertation, which enables to make feasibility study for organizations, so that it was suitable for informatics investment for concrete environment. Designed procedure is verified by means of the study of practicability of the concrete investment project and its evaluation. Implementation the project proceeding tool designed for concrete bank institution is tested investment intention.

O elevado consumo energético de edificações para o seu condicionamento térmico já é um dos maiores impactos ambientais da construção civil nos países desenvolvidos e, progressivamente, vem se tornando uma preocupação também nos países em desenvolvimento. Uma alternativa renovável relativamente recente, tanto para aquecimento como para resfriamento, são as bombas de calor geotérmicas (ground source heat pumps, GSHPs), que se valem da inércia térmica do solo para reduzir significativamente a demanda energética em relação ao ar. Apesar do seu grande potencial em reduzir o consumo de energia e as emissões de carbono, esta tecnologia ainda é quase inexistente na América Latina, não somente devido à falta de conhecimento ao seu respeito, mas também pela incerteza quanto à sua viabilidade frente a um custo inicial mais elevado. Embora existam muitas pesquisas sobre o funcionamento de GSHPs, grande parte do conhecimento prático quanto ao projeto, desempenho e viabilidade é baseada na experiência dos primeiros países onde a tecnologia começou a se tornar popular, e não pode ser assumida automaticamente como válida em outras situações sem uma avaliação prévia Estudos anteriores apontaram que o retorno econômico de GSHPs tende a ser maior em climas mais frios, enquanto a eficiência tende a ser maior em climas mais amenos, mas com sazonalidade. Por apresentar um bom balanço destas características, o Estado do Rio Grande do Sul apresenta potencial para um desempenho elevado de GSHPs. O objetivo deste trabalho é estimar os níveis de eficiência que esta tecnologia pode atingir em uma cidade de referência no Estado, assim como seu retorno econômico frente a ASHPs (air source heat pumps, ou seja, aparelhos de ar condicionado, ou A/C), seus limitantes e as dificuldades de projeto. Uma edificação unifamiliar residencial em Porto Alegre, projetada especialmente para estudos de sustentabilidade, foi utilizada como caso de estudo para o projeto conceitual completo de um GSHP vertical, um GSHP horizontal e um ASHP. Foram estimadas a demanda de energia e os custos de operação e de implantação para determinadas condições, que foram comparadas em um estudo de viabilidade econômica. Após, os resultados foram extrapolados por uma análise de sensitividade para condições mais genéricas de consumo. Através dos cálculos, observou-se que a tecnologia de GSHPs atingiu o dobro da eficiência dos A/C mais eficientes disponíveis para o caso de estudo. Economicamente, a tecnologia também se mostrou viável, e foram estimados limitantes econômicos a esta viabilidade. Por fim, o processo de projeto desenvolvido pode servir de auxílio a novos projetistas na área. / The high energy consumption in buildings for their thermal conditioning is already one of the greatest environmental impacts of civil construction in developed countries and, progressively, is also becoming a concern in the developing countries. A relatively recent renewable alternative, as much for heating as for cooling, are the ground source heat pumps, GSHPs, which take advantage of the thermal inertia of the ground to significantly decrease the energy demand comparing to air as a source. In spite of their huge potential for decreasing energy comsumption and carbon emissions, this technology is still almost inexistent in Latin America, due not only to lack of awareness, but mainly to uncertainties about their feasibility because of their higher investment cost. Although there are many researches about the characteristics and operation of GSHPs, great part of the practical knowledge as to the design, performance and feasibility is based in the experience from the first countries where the technology spreaded, and cannot be automatically assumed as valid without a previous evaluation. Former studies indicated that the economic profit of GSHPs tends to be higher in colder climates, while the efficiency tends to be higher in milder, but still seasonal climates. For presenting a good balance among these factors, the Rio Grande do Sul State shows potential for a high performance of GSHPs The objective of this work is to estimate the efficiency levels that can be reached by this technology in a reference city in the State, as its financial feedback compared to ASHPs (air source heat pumps, the traditional air conditioners, or A/C), its limitations and the design difficulties. A residential single-family building in Porto Alegre, specifically designed for sustainability studies, was used as case study for the complete conceptual design of a vertical GSHP, a horizontal GSHP and an ASHP. The energy demand and operation and installation costs for specific conditions were estimated and compared in a economic feasibility study. After, the results were extrapolated through a sensitivity analysis for more generic situations of consumption. Through the calculations, it was observed that the technology achieved twice the efficiency of the most efficient A/C available for the case study. Economically, the technology showed itself viable, and economic limitations were also estimated. At last, the developed design process can also serve as aid to new designers in the field.

This masters thesis solves the problem of project management in pre-project phase with emphasis on Feasibility study for developement of RTLS platform in a chosen company. First part of this thesis consists of theoretical informations used for the proposing part. Second part consists of pre-project analysies, on which the project approach strategy is chosen. Third part is dedicated to the Feasibility study itself. It is done with the help of chosen international project management standards.

This master thesis describes a valorisation of investment intention involving an assessment of risks of a new-built business unit. It means an extension of an existing café in Brno for a confectionery production and its distribution. A goal of this thesis is to make a complete study of feasibility and to evaluate ability to realize this project, based on achieved data. Structure of the thesis is adapted on a certain topic and it focuses especially on a marketing research, an estimate of a demand and assessment of risks. Several chapters describing certain parts of the project are a part of the study of feasibility. Whole feasibility study is based on a data drawn from a professional literature, internet resources, intern and extern analysis of a surroundings, the estimation of demand based on a questionnaire survey and own experience in a specialization of business.