First part of this thesis is focusing on history of internet gambling and its shift to the online environment. Other chapter is about psychological aspects which affects the approach to the gambling the most in many different environments with major focus on the online gambling and its characteristic differences. Main goal of this thesis is the evaluation of the present state of the regulation of internet gambling in some of the countries around the world and their comparison with the situation in Czech Republic. One of the outcomes is the summary of recommendations which should be taking into consideration while creating the new gaming act.

Thesis is focused on economic and social impact of the casinos in USA while it is global problem with important economic and political consequences. Main goal of the thesis was to analyze the gambling industry (casinos) in USA from micro-economic view (especially economic and social disadvantages of the casinos with respect to the individuals) and from macro-economic view (especially economic positives with respect to the society) together with social impacts on the citizens. Regarding methods, the thesis used methods of formal logic ( induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis). The thesis has the standard structure -- prologue, core of the thesis conclusion. Theoretical part of the thesis is focused on impacts of the gambling in general, history of the gambling in USA, Indian gaming, actual gambling in USA and legislative framework of the gambling in USA. Analytical part on the other side is focused on positive and negative impact of the commercial casinos and suggested changes in this respect for support of the positive impacts and elimination of the negative ones. Conclusion of the thesis is focused on summary of the most important conclusions of the whole analysis.

Motivated by the recent evidence of investors' preference for stocks with lottery- type payoffs documented on the U.S. stock markets, I investigate preferences for stocks that appear to be like lotteries in Europe. Across 14 markets, lottery- type stocks, characterized by high idiosyncratic skewness, high idiosyncratic volatility and low price, underperform and exhibit a "lottery premium". Fur- thermore, preferences for lottery-type stocks can help to explain the puzzling negative relation between past idiosyncratic volatility and returns, which does not persist after controlling for past extreme positive returns. Examining the relation between national revenues from gambling and "lottery premium" I find that countries featuring higher gambling revenues also exhibit a higher "lottery premium". Overall, the results indicate that lottery preferences might impact investment decisions and stock prices. JEL Classification G11, G12 Keywords gambling, lottery-type stocks, idiosyncratic volatility, maximum returns Author's e-mail p.vokata@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail novakji@fsv.cuni.cz

This thesis deals with the definition of the concept of pathological gambling, diagnosis, prevalence and a description of vulnerable groups. It also discusses the creation, development and various stages of pathological gambling. Theoretical knowledge is enhanced by our own research, carried out a questionnaire, which has pointed out that the profession can be a risk factor for developing an illness / addiction. The research objective is to describe the rate and quality of risk-taking behavior in gambling on sports editor, and identify any related pathological gambling with their selected characteristics. The paper looks at what it looks like gambling and betting on sports editors in terms of rates, forms and circumstances. Whether the people in this group of pathological gambling occurs and, if so, to what extent and with what consequences. They try to answer it then also, what is the relationship between work characteristics and playing sports editor of gambling or betting. How this relationship sports editors perceive themselves and how to understand. Keywords: Pathological gambling, pathological player, gambling, gambling

As repercussões do trabalho na vida e na saúde do Homem há muito vêm sendo objeto de estudo na história da humanidade. No Brasil esta questão necessita ser melhor compreendida, principalmente após as recentes mudanças ocorridas na Constituição, onde observamos uma atenção maior ao capítulo da Saúde e, em especial, à Saúde do Trabalhador. A municipalização da saúde impõe mudanças profundas no lidar com estas questões. A informação fidedigna é pré-requisito básico para a efetivação de ações que visem a prevenção e a promoção de saúde. Para tanto delineamos como objeto de nosso trabalho o estudo da dinâmica da Comunicação do Acidente do Trabalho no município de Ribeirão Preto, no ano de 1996. Elegemos como método investigativo o estudo descritivo transversal da trajetória da notificação do Acidente do Trabalho e de suas repercussões, traçando um paralelo entre este sistema de notificação compulsória e o sistema utilizado pelo Serviço de Vigilância Epidemiológica, também compulsório. Os dados foram obtidos através da análise de documentos e da aplicação de entrevista semi-estruturada com representantes de todos os serviços envolvidos com o Acidente do Trabalho no município. Verificamos que na prática, apesar do preconizado legalmente, as transformações necessárias não foram efetivamente implementadas. O Sistema de Informações em Saúde do Trabalhador apresenta-se incompleto, persistindo um fluxo de Comunicações de Acidentes do Trabalho (CATs) fragmentado, não permitindo o desencadeamento de ações preventivas e de controle dos agravos. Ações conjuntas entre os níveis de atuação possíveis inexistem, não havendo uma interface entre as instituições. Em razão da precariedade das informações e da atual organização destes serviços, fica inviabilizada a execução de estudos epidemiológicos, diferentemente do que ocorre no sistema utilizado pelos Serviços de Vigilância Epidemiológica municípal. Faz-se necessário o enfrentamento desta problemática, de maneira a permitir a transformação do sistema de notificação dos Acidentes do Trabalho em instrumento eficaz à prevenção e à promoção de saúde. / The effect of work in the Man’s life and health has from long been object of studies in the human kind history. In Brazil, this point must be better understood, mainly after the recent changes occurred in the Brazilian Constitution, where we can see a greater attention to the Workman’s Health. The municipalization of the Health Service urges deep changes to deal with these items. The reliability of information is a basic pre-requisite for the rendering of actions the aim the prevention of diseases and the promotion of health. For this purpose, the object of our research is the study of the dynamics of the Communication of the Work Accident, in Ribeirão Preto, in the year of 1996. We chose as a researching method the transversal descriptive study of the process of notification of the work accident and its effects, comparing this type of compulsory notification with the as well compulsory system used by the Epidemiology Vigilance Service. The data was obtained upon the analysis of documents and the application of semi-structured interview with representatives of all the services involved with Work Accident in this town. We could observed that, in fact, despite legally advocated, the necessary changes were not effectively implemented. The Information System of the Workman Health Care shows incomplete, with a fragmented flux of Work Accidents Communications (WACs) what hinders the development of preventive actions, and the control of damages. No joiner proceedings are held between institutions. Due to the precariousness of information and to the present organization of this service, evident is the unfeasibility of the execution of epidemiologic studies, different from what happens in the system used by the Municipal Epidemiology Service. It’s urgent, therefore, to face this problem, in order to transform the system of notification of work accidents into an efficient instrument of health promotion and prevention.

Os processos de dinâmica superficial, como os movimentos de massa são eventos naturais e fazem parte da dinâmica do planeta. Quando ocorrem em áreas ocupadas, podem acarretar consequências econômicas e sociais de significativa dimensão. Esta problemática é verificada no município de Porto Alegre, onde constantemente são registrados movimentos de massa. O objetivo geral desta pesquisa consiste em identificar e mapear as áreas com perigo de movimentos de massa em Porto Alegre. Para tanto, foi realizado o levantamento do histórico de ocorrências de movimentos de massa no período entre 1995 e 2010, o estudo dos materiais superficiais, suscetibilidade e ocupação do solo. Os procedimentos metodológicos foram organizados em 4 etapas: levantamento de dados referentes aos registros de movimentos de massa e de bases cartográficas; organização dos registros e das bases cartográficas; análise e correlação das informações sobre os registros de movimentos de massa e mapas de relevo, geologia e pedologia para a definição do mapa de suscetibilidade a movimentos de massa; síntese das informações para definição do mapa das áreas com perigo de movimentos de massa a partir do cruzamento dos mapas de suscetibilidade e uso do solo. Os resultados indicam que os bairros Cascata, São José, Coronel Aparício Borges e Protásio Alves são os que apresentam maior número de ocorrências de movimentos de massa no período analisado. As áreas definidas como suscetíveis à ocorrência de movimentos de massa estão localizadas na poção central do município junto ao Morro da Polícia e Morro Santa Tereza, na porção sudoeste junto às encostas do Morro das Abertas e Morro Serraria, e na porção leste junto às encostas do Morro Santana e Morro Alto Petrópolis. O mapa de perigo indica a predominância destas áreas na porção central do município. Na porção sul, as áreas urbanas tem menor densidade de ocupação, consequentemente nestes locais as áreas com perigo de movimento de massa são reduzidos. / The dynamic surface processes related to the occurrence of mass movements in urban areas represent economic and social losses. These processes occur at the municipality of Porto Alegre, where mass movement are recorded frequently. The objective of this research was to identify and map areas at hazard of mass movements in the municipality of Porto Alegre. For this, we performed a study of the historical occurrences of mass movement in the period between 1995 and 2010, study of susceptibility, study of surface materials and the use and occupation. The methodological procedures were organized into four steps: data collection records related to mass movement and cartographic bases; organization of records and cartographic; analysis and correlation of information records of mass movement and maps of topography, geology and soil to define the map of susceptibility to mass movement; synthesis of information to define the map of areas at hazard of mass movement from the crossing of the susceptibility maps and land use. The results indicate that the Cascade, San Jose, Colonel Aparício Borges and Protásio Alves neighborhood are the highest number of occurrences of mass movement between 1995 and 2000. The areas identified as susceptible to the occurrence of mass movement are located in the center of the municipality next to the Morro da Polícia and Morro Santa Teresa, near the southwest slopes of the Morro das Abertas e Morro Serraria, and east near the slopes of the Morro Santana and Morro Alto Petrópolis. The hazard map indicates the dominance of these areas in the center of the municipality. In the south of the municipality, urban areas have lower density of occupation, consequently the areas at hazard of mass movement are reduced.

My work focused on the development of improved methodologies for the evaluation of seismic hazard and its related uncertainties, based on the study of active faults systems and dynamic modelling of the seismic cycle. I worked in particular on the probabilistic estimate of a fault's maximum magnitude earthquake and of its return period. Those parameters are indeed crucial to estimate seismic hazard. Seismicity can be viewed as a stochastic process which is constrained by the principle of moment conservation: seismic ruptures must in principle rupture fault portions which had accumulated a deficit of slip, in view of their long term slip rate, during the interseismic period. In Chapter 1, I explain how we implemented those constraints in the evaluation of the probability distribution describing the magnitude and return period of the largest earthquake, propagating the geodetic uncertainties up to the hazard calculation. We applied this methodology to the Parkfield Segment of the San Andreas Fault, where the seismic cycle is particularly well documented. Our study implies potential maximum magnitude between 6.5 and 7.5, with a return period of 140 to 300 years. In Chapter 2, we applied the same methodology to the Cascadia subduction zone, known to have produced a M~9 earthquake in 1700 but where the seismic hazard remains poorly constrained. As part of this study we determined a model of interseismic coupling and of fault slip due to Slow Slip Events using an Independent Component Analysis-based inversion method. Finally, in Chapter 3, I use dynamic modelling to tackle the problem of partial ruptures. Large earthquakes tend to be confined to fault areas locked in the interseismic period but they often rupture them only partially. For example, during the 2015 M7.8 Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, a slip pulse propagating along-strike unzipped the bottom edge of the locked portion of the Main Himalayan Thrust. The lower edge of the rupture produced dominant high-frequency (>1 Hz) radiation of seismic waves. We showed that similar partial ruptures occur spontaneously in a simple dynamic model of earthquake sequences on a planar fault without mechanical, frictional and geometrical heterogeneities.

Lung cancer is the most frequent fatal cancer in the United States. Following the notion in actuarial math analysis, we assume an exponential form for the baseline hazard function and combine Cox proportional hazard regression for the survival study of a group of lung cancer patients. The covariates in the hazard function are estimated by maximum likelihood estimation following the proportional hazards regression analysis. Although the proportional hazards model does not give an explicit baseline hazard function, the baseline hazard function can be estimated by fitting the data with a non-linear least square technique. The survival model is then examined by a neural network simulation. The neural network learns the survival pattern from available hospital data and gives survival prediction for random covariate combinations. The simulation results support the covariate estimation in the survival model.

Contamination of methylmercury (MeHg) in aquatic products has been a wide spread health concern. The objective of this study is to determine total mercury (THg) and MeHg concentrations in different species of aquatic products from major offshore farms in China, and to assess health impacts from consumption. Results showed that the concentrations of THg and MeHg ranged 5.6–328.4 ng/g (wet weight) and 4.3–303.6 ng/g (wet weight) in aquatic products, respectively, and were very variable among species and origin sources. Target hazard quotient (THQ) suggested that MeHg exposure via consumption posed high health risks to children aged 2–7 and higher income families. Residents above the age of 13 and with low income have relatively lower health risk of MeHg exposure. Health impacts on heart attacks and newborns’ IQ from MeHg exposure were evaluated using dose-response relationships. Results showed that mother’s consumption of aquatic products (at 6 ounce per day) may cause a loss of 0.38 IQ points for newborns. For non-pregnant, consumption of aquatic products may cause an increase rate of mortality and morbidity of heart attacks at 10.59 and 78.45 per 100,000 persons, respectively. The negative health impact of consuming seawater fish was higher than freshwater fish.

Liquefaction-induced settlements can cause a large economic toll on a region, from severe infrastructural damage, after an earthquake occurs. The ability to predict, and design for, these settlements is crucial to prevent extensive damage. However, the inherent uncertainty involved in predicting seismic events and hazards makes calculating accurate settlement estimations difficult. Currently there are several seismic hazard analysis methods, however, the performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) method is becoming the most promising. The PBEE framework was presented by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center. The PEER PBEE framework is a more comprehensive seismic analysis than any past seismic hazard analysis methods because it thoroughly incorporates probability theory into all aspects of post-liquefaction settlement estimation. One settlement estimation method, used with two liquefaction triggering methods, is incorporated into the PEER framework to create a new PBEE (i.e., fully-probabilistic) post-liquefaction estimation procedure for the cone penetration test (CPT). A seismic hazard analysis tool, called CPTLiquefY, was created for this study to perform the probabilistic calculations mentioned above. Liquefaction-induced settlement predictions are computed for current design methods and the created fully-probabilistic procedure for 20 CPT files at 10 cities of varying levels of seismicity. A comparison of these results indicate that conventional design methods are adequate for areas of low seismicity and low seismic events, but may significantly under-predict seismic hazard for areas and earthquake events of mid to high seismicity.