abstract: The current practice of municipal stormwater management in the United States has failed to effectively reduce the amount of pollutants discharged into surface waters. Water impairment as a result of polluted stormwater runoff from urbanized areas remains a significant concern despite federally mandated efforts to reduce the impact of these discharges. To begin addressing these shortfalls the Environmental Protection Agency contracted the National Research Council to investigate the extent of the stormwater program and to identify areas that require improvement in order to more effectively implement the program. Their findings indicated widespread, foundational flaws with the stormwater regulatory structure and proposed new permitting guidelines. The purpose of this study was to explore the specific shortcomings of stormwater management in the Maricopa County region and to suggest the establishment of a regional authority. Doing so would require an alternative permitting regime to replace the current approach of population based municipal permitting with a permit that considered the entire urbanized region. The organizational structure, legality concerns and intergovernmental partnerships needed to properly establish such a regional authority were part of this study. The effect of this approach suggested a more effective, efficient and economical model of municipal stormwater management that better addressed certain Integrated Urban Stormwater Management strategies and began to address the program weaknesses identified by the National Research Council. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.Tech Technology 2011

The Öresund Region is a historical cross border region working over the national borders of Sweden and Denmark. The regional administration, the Öresund Committee, is the only political forum that encompasses the whole region and serves its interests collectively. Not only is it cooperating with the national governments but also has a close relationship with the Nordic Council and especially with the European Union. According to a method developed by Liesbet Hooghe, Gary Marks and Arjan H. Schakel, it is possible to retrieve a Regional Authority Index which mirrors the formal authority of a region. The method is evaluated in accordance to the complications of the Öresund Region’s dual nationality and finds that the Öresund Committee has a rather concealed role with greater indirect impact than it is given credit for. However, in terms of formal authority, the Öresund Committee has a weak position and shares no rule with higher political entities, such as the Danish, Swedish and European central administrations.

INTRODUCTION: Since 2006, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended routine vaccination of adolescent girls at ages 11 or 12 years with 3 doses of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Cervical cancer disparities exist for several populations in the United States. The topic is scantly documented in scholarly literature with modest knowledge of the uptake of the HPV vaccine in the Delta region. AIM: To examine the HPV vaccination coverage estimates in the counties and parishes that comprise the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) and compare with other non-DRA counties or parishes and the rest of US. This will provide vaccination coverage estimates for adolescent females in the DRA designated Delta region that will provide public health professionals with data for policy and programmatic decision-making. METHODS: We combined data from multiple survey years (2008-2012) from the National Immunization Survey-Teen (NIS-Teen). We conducted bivariate analyses to describe the distribution across selected socio-demographic characteristics and multivariable logistic regression models to produce adjusted prevalence ratios. RESULTS: Teens in the DRA had lower HPV vaccine initiation and completion rates compared to Non- DRA counties or parishes and the Rest of the US. The 3-dose HPV vaccination series completion rate among those who had initiated HPV vaccination and had 24 weeks between their first dose and the NIS interview date was 60.9% (95% CI: 55.8 – 65.8) among adolescent females in the DRA compared to 66.9 (95% CI: 63.7-70.0) of adolescent females in the Non-DRA counties and 67.6% (95% CI: 66.2-69.0) in the rest of the US. CONCLUSION: The low HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents in the DRA showed that it is important to implement additional strategies to increase HPV vaccination coverage that will prevent cancers associated with HPV in the DELTA Region. Stronger provider recommendations and awareness are important for increasing HPV vaccine uptake.

This thesis describes the position of local government units in the Czech Republic. It focuses mainly on decision regional bodies makers in delegated force and separate force. The theoretical part describes the basic concepts used in the work, decision making in public service and regional development and local government in the European context. The analytical part characterizes different regional bodies. They are evaluated in terms of its scope and powers of decision. There are identified risks that may arise from this organization. The system of organs is presented on the example of Region in the current election period 2008 - 2012.

We meet different kinds of exposures with extraordinary crisis situations in today world. It is both from nature (earthquake, overflooding) and from people themselves ( escape of dangerous chemical substance, fire and so on). Even if we try to prevent these situations, we cannot exclude they will never happen again. In these situations there should be some state apparatus which represents the crisis management, Integrated rescue system- Rescue service, Fire department, and Police of the Czech Republic. Also the public service and another physical subjects concerned with this problems. It is up to all of us not to be reckless and to try to help. Because all of us can help not only as a person but also in some organization which we can use in these situations. There are many different public organization in the Czech Republic which are prepared to help people in crisis situations. But there is a big difference between them, mostly because of their externalization. What is common for all of them is that they are all for helping people. Some of them help people in crisis situations, some help the alcoholics, drug addicts, seniors, children. Each of us think about something different when we say crisis. The person is very various kind, who is adaptable even in very difficult situations. The question is, when he can manage all the problems alone and when all his energy is gone and he looks for help from another subjects, also from the organization. The extraordinary situations have happened in South Bohemia for ages. The effectual and quality help should be all-round and therefore it is necessary the help should be offered in cooperation of all local recources.

Dans la perspective de mettre en œuvre les services qui relèvent de leurs compétences, les collectivités territoriales sont, en principe, libres d’emprunter le mode de gestion de leur choix et, en conséquence, d’opter soit pour une gestion directe soit pour une gestion déléguée. Cependant, désireuses de confier la réalisation de certaines missions à un tiers tout en conservant la maîtrise de leur exercice, les collectivités territoriales envisagent, parfois, de recourir à une entité personnalisée dont elles constituent les membres et que nous proposons d’identifier sous les termes d’« organismes satellites ». Dans ce cas de figure, les collectivités territoriales sont inévitablement amenées à nouer des relations avec ces structures satellites afin que ces dernières disposent des moyens de fonctionner et aient des tâches à accomplir. Ces relations, à la fois organiques, matérielles et fonctionnelles traduisent, d’une part, la participation des collectivités territoriales aux organismes satellites et, d’autre part, l’attribution de missions des premières aux seconds. Or, le cadre juridique dans lequel évoluent les collectivités territoriales tend à s’opposer à l’établissement de ces relations et à compromettre l’apparente faculté pour les collectivités territoriales de recourir à un mode de gestion mixte de leurs services. / In order to apply the services that come under their competences, regional authorities are, in principle, free to take the method of administration of their choice and, consequently, to opt either for a direct administration or a delegated one. However, having the desire to entrust the realization of some projects to a third party while keeping the control, regional authorities sometimes plan to use a legal entity in which they are members and that we suggest to be identified under the words “satellite organization”. In this case, regional authorities have to build relationships with the satellite organizations so as they have tools to work and to get projects. These organic, material and functional relationships show, on the one hand, the participation of regional authorities in the satellite organization and, on the other hand, the awarding of projects to the satellite organization. But the legal framework around regional authorities seems to be opposed to the setting up of these relationships and compromising the apparent faculty for the regional authorities to use a method of mixed administration of their services.

Tourism was realized very rarely a few decades ago. Today it is a significant part of the world's GDP and has become a major economic factor. The Czech Republic is a very attractive country in the heart of Europe with numerous natural, historical and cultural values. The tourist region Vysočina can boast all these qualities, yet one of the least visited region in the Czech Republic. This thesis deals with a detailed analysis of the potential of the tourist region Vysočina to become a competitive tourist destination. The aim of this work is to analyze primary and secondary tourism field and to assess the organizational structure of tourism and promotional activities of tourism operators with an emphasis on planned projects. The author's own research, focused on the general opinion on the issue of tourism in the region and on the evaluation of the tourism offer, is a part of this work as well. The benefit of the thesis lies in the overall recovery of the tourist supply and in making the region more attractive which can contribute to potential subsequent increased and mobilizing demand for tourism in Vysočina.

The thesis looks into the act No. 181/2014 Coll. Cyber Security Act (hereinafter referred to as "CSA") and its impact on obliged entities with focus on the regional authorities of the Czech Republic. The thesis starts with introduction into the issue of the CSA and cybersecurity from the point of view of the state, subsequently it refocuses on the level of regulated organizations. The main pillar and contribution of the thesis is the CSA analysis with the aim to identify impact of the CSA in the obliged entities. Based on this analysis author designed the questionnaire survey of the CSA impact on the regional authorities. The survey relates to information security management system, kinds of burden stemmed from the CSA implementation, willingness to use funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to implement the CSA, a possibility to outsource the cybersecurity and also opinions of the county council staff about the CSA. The survey shows that in spite of a pressure on standardization stemming from legal framework, county councils differs significantly in regard to information security management systems. On the other hand, respondents agreed on positive impact of the CSA on improvement of information and the cyber security although the CSA brings significant financial and organizational load to the organization. The survey also shows that some regional authorities only start to implement cybersecurity currently. The cybersecurity evolves in the researched organization quite dynamically and it would be beneficial to repeat the impact analyses again, after first wave of the CSA implementation will be finished.