Airpower played an important supporting role in the Korean War, and as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur pursued victory in the war and President Harry S Truman's objectives altered throughout the first year of the conflict, tension arose between the two men. One issue in these frictions was the restriction of airpower. Not only MacArthur, but also his admiring subordinate Lieutenant General George E. Stratemeyer commanding the Far East Air Forces, and Fifth Air Force commander Major General Earle E. Partridge opposed the restrictions which had been imposed on airmen from the outset of the conflict. Stratemeyer did so partly because of his loyalty to MacArthur, who wanted latitude in coping with the situation in the field and defeating the Communist enemy. Partridge did so because he thought they endangered his personnel and limited the effectiveness of airpower in the war. These commanders had a fundamentally different opinion from Washington regarding the likelihood of overt Soviet intervention in the war, and because they did not think the Korean War would become a world war, they were more willing than Washington to prosecute the war more aggressively. MacArthur's conflict ended with his removal in April 1951, and Stratemeyer (who suffered a heart attack weeks afterward) continued to advocate for forceful American foreign policy in Asia during his retirement. Partridge eventually earned four stars and long after the war likewise continued to disfavor the restrictions which had been put in place. Between oral history interviews in 1974 and 1978, however, Partridge reconsidered the issue of restrictions. He expressed that the Korean War had been a considerable challenge without a wider war, implying that restrictions had perhaps been important.

The gray partridge (Perdix perdix) is a bird species living in hiding and nesting on the ground in the open landscape. Even though this species uses several well-known anti-predator adaptations and strategies, its nests are often predated. The range of nest predators and the circumstances of predation have not, however, been satisfactorily described yet. This diploma thesis summarizes the results of experiments carried out on artificial nests and is supplemented by the description of nest behaviour of two incubing hens obtained from video shooting their nests. This work also includes the results of video shoots of predators on artificial nests, the most common of them being the marten. The successful survival of nests in all experiments was influenced mainly by hiding the nest in vegetation. However, the presence of feather odour of adult birds increased the risks of predation even for well-hidden nests. Nests placed in grass biotopes survived the best regardless their covering. What mattered most in other biotopes (along the edges of field roads, forests or groves and field biotopes off any lines) was the covering of nests with vegetation. Partridges nesting close to the edge of a forest or a grove are not very safe from predators. The fact that both nesting partridges and nest predators prefer a...

The aim of this work was the construction of set of microsatellites for the Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix). I succeeded in isolation of seven new specific microsatellites. Another microsatellite markers were passed from close relative galliform species (Galliformes). On the whole I gained 18 microsatellite loci which were used for study of population charakteristics of three partridge populations from Stodůlky, Písecko and Milešín. The analysis showed conspicuous structuredness of these populations and surprisingly low values (less then 100) of their effective population sizes. Seven of the microsatellites were chosen for analysis of paternity. Indeed I found the evidence of extrapair paternity in this putatively monogamous bird. Finally I conclude, on the basis of sequenation of mitochondrial control region that our populations belong to the western linage of mitochondrial DNA.

Diploma thesis analyzes the viability of the selected species populations in the Czech Republic. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part contains a stochastic model simulating possible scenarios of the Eurasian lynx population size in the Czech Republic. For this model program Vortex was used. The second part is focused on Time series analysis of the Grey Partridge and the Common Kingfisher population, where data was obtained from the Czech Society for Ornithology. This analysis aims on identification of factors that may affect the viability of the two bird species.

Season Songs is a song cycle for mezzo-soprano (or tenor) and medium sized orchestra (a perfoming version for voice and piano is appended). There are four songs and an orchestral prelude. The poems are by various authors and provide the programmatic elements of the cycle in that each poem is set in a different season of the year and time of day: winter/morning, spring/afternoon, summer/evening, and autumn/night respectively. The title of the prelude sets it just before dawn. The music of the prelude and the last song is closely related both motivically and tonally, thus reinforcing the cyclical nature of the work. The accompanying commentary seeks to explain the compositional processes and aesthetic principles which guided the creation of Season Songs. The music explores nonfunctional tonality, in that means other than traditional tonic-dominant (i.e., V-I) relationships are sought by which to create a sense of forward propelled harmonic motion. This sense of harmonic "trajectory", in conjunction with appropriate rhythmic proportions, is held to be one of the most important factors contributing toward the sense of departure and return, tension and resolution in the music. The main means used toward this end is a four-note source cell which governs much of the harmonic and motivic activity in the work, from the most local level of leading motives of individual songs to the broadest level of key relationships among songs. The harmonic manifestation of the source cell promotes root movement by major thirds and minor seconds on the local as well as broad levels. Sonorities associated with traditional tonality, such as open fifths in the bass and major or minor triads, are common, although the contexts in which they are heard are usually non-traditional. The metric pulse is usually distinctly articulated and readily intelligible, although changes in metre are frequent in most of the songs. The text setting aspires to a directness of expression. The words will be intelligible in performance and the music reflects and magnifies the emotional content of the the text. While there are several levels on which the music can be appreciated, over-obscurity is avoided, as a rule, especially in the composition of the musical surface. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate