Young workers are overrepresented in workplace accidents. The aim of this study was to provide the first research exploration of relatively inexperienced neophyte’s pre-work safety expectations, and their associations with expected risk and expected trust. A model of neophyte safety expectations was developed and tested linking accident exposure and work exposure to safety expectations, expectations of trust (in both co-workers and management) and expectations of risk. Results provided partial support for the model, suggesting that neophytes enter work with inflated safety expectations that do not match the reality of the job, and revealed marked gender differences in safety expectations. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.

Young workers are overrepresented in workplace accidents. The aim of this study was to provide the first research exploration of relatively inexperienced neophyte’s pre-work safety expectations, and their associations with expected risk and expected trust. A model of neophyte safety expectations was developed and tested linking accident exposure and work exposure to safety expectations, expectations of trust (in both co-workers and management) and expectations of risk. Results provided partial support for the model, suggesting that neophytes enter work with inflated safety expectations that do not match the reality of the job, and revealed marked gender differences in safety expectations. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.

Riparian vegetation along the water courses is one of the places that are highly vulnerable to the spread of invasive alien plants. Water corridors allow their easy and rapid spread to new area. The diploma thesis occupies with changes in the distribution of the invasive neophytes in the riparian vegetation of the Berounka river during the years 2015-2018. The objective of this study was to find out how changes in the course of each year will be reflected and whether a certain trend of population development can be traced. In connection with this, the thesis occupies with the possible influence of extremely dry years 2015 and 2018 on the occurrence of invasive neophytes. Field research took place on the banks of the Berounka river from the village of Čilá near Skryje to the confluence of the Berounka and Vltava river in Prague-Lahovice during the summer months in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The riparian vegetation was divided into 500 ± 150 m long segments. There were 90 segments where the occurrence and abundance of 17 invasive neophytes were mapped. In total, occurrence of 14 taxons was registered. The most frequent taxons were Robinia pseudacacia, Impatiens glandulifera and Solidago sp. in the Berounka riverbank vegetation. The highest number of specimen was recorded for invasive neophyte...

Watercourses and especially their riparian vegetation are habitats that are very sensitive to spreading of invasive plant species. Rivers create natural migration routes (corridors) and help propagules to spread quickly and easily. The theoretical part of this thesis is focused on plant invasions and covers also the most recent knowledge in the field of invasion ecology. In the practical part of this thesis the spread of invasive neophytes in the riparian vegetation of the Kamenice river in Northern Bohemia is described. The plant species were examined during the field survey along the entire stream of the Kamenice river. In total, common occurence of 7 invasive taxa were recorded, namely Impatiens parviflora, I. glandulifera, Reynoutria japonica, R. sachalinensis, R. bohemica, Solidago gigantea and S. canadensis. The distribution of observed taxa along the stream as well as on the banks was relatively uneven.

Intraspecific plant-soil feedback is a relationship in which plant affects the composition of the soil and such modified soil affects growth of the same plant species. This relationship and its intensity may be linked with plant dominance and invasiveness. Dominant species can alter the composition of the soil in their favor and thus show positive intraspecific plant-soil feedback. As the invasive species are commonly being dominant in their new environment, it can be expected that intraspecific positive plant-soil feedback could be an important factor allowing the invasive species to achieve their dominant position and become invasive. To test if the existence of positive intraspecific feedback could be a general mechanism underlying plant invasiveness I compared intraspecific plant-soil feedback in a group of invasive and introduced, but non-invasive, plants in the Czech Republic. I did this using a preselected set of 34 species - 17 invasive and 17 non-invasive. For realization of the project I used the method of two-phase experiment. The first phase is called soil conditioning - influencing of soil by the plant. In the second phase the same plant species are planted in conditioned soil from the first phase and in control (unconditioned) soil. Then I compared plant biomass from conditioned and...

Background: Angola suffered a long-lasting military conflict. Therefore, traditional knowledge of plant usage is still an important part of cultural heritage, especially concerning the still very poor health care system in the country. Our study documents for the first time traditional knowledge of plant use of local Bakongo communities in the northern province of Uíge on a large scale with a focus on medicinal plants and puts data in context to different parameters of age, gender and distance to the provincial capital. Methods: Field work was carried out during nine field trips in 13 municipalities between October 2013 and October 2016. In 62 groups, 162 informants were interviewed. Herbarium specimens were taken for later identification. Database was analysed using Relative Frequency of Citations, Cultural Importance Index, and Informant Consensus Factor. Furthermore, significances of influence of age, gender and distance were calculated. Results: Our study presents 2390 use-reports, listing 358 species in 96 plant families, while just three out of 358 mentioned species are endemic to Angola about one-fifth are neophytes. The larger the distance, the higher the number of use citations of medical plants. Although women represent just a fifth of all citations (22%), their contribution to medicinal plants was proportionally even higher (83%) than those of men (74%). Fifty percent of all plants mentioned in the study were just listed by men, 12% just by women. We made some new discoveries, for example. Gardenia ternifolia seems to be promising for treatment of measles, and Annona stenophylla subsp. cuneata has never been ethnobotanically nor phytochemically investigated. Conclusions: While the study area is large, no significant influence of the distance in regard to species composition in traditional healer’s concepts of the respective village was pointed out. Although several plants were just mentioned by women or men, respectively, no significant restriction to gender-specific illnesses in medical plant use could be found. Merely concerning the age of informants, a slight shift could be detected.

Biotopes associated with railway corridor in valley of the river Tichá Orlice (Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic) ABSTRACT Expansion, invasion or decline of plant species caused by environmental changes belong to the most important phenomenons associated with vegetation cover development. In spite of their often initiation by human activities the above mentioned processes continue then spontaneously and uncontrollably. This study is concentrated to the effect of these mechanisms on the biotope structure along the Tichá Orlice River (Eastern Bohemia, Czech Republic) - in its lowland landscape segment of the canyon character where the second axis of the valley (river flow is the first one) is created by railway line more than 150 years of local history. The case study has the general aim: to treat the present and/or future impact of described trends to plant biota and the degree of its influencing. My diploma thesis investigates functional impact and mutual interaction of the two main migration pathways of exotic species - the T.Orlice river and the railway corridor. It presents qualitative and quantitative changes in plant components of local (semi)natural biotopes by mean of interrelationships among selected ecological groups of species (neophytes, expansive species, and ephemeroids). At the same time, this...