We report a new chameleon-like Anolis species from Hispaniola that is ecomorphologically similar to congeners found only on Cuba. Lizards from both clades possess short limbs and a short tail and utilize relatively narrow perches, leading us to recognize a novel example of ecomorphological matching among islands in the well-known Greater Antillean anole radiation. This discovery supports the hypothesis that the assembly of island faunas can be substantially deterministic and highlights the continued potential for basic discovery to reveal new insights in well-studied groups. Restricted to a threatened band of midelevation transitional forest near the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, this new species appears to be highly endangered.

This paper is an analysis of Aristotle’s Politics in its critique of Plato’s Republic in reference to the topics of the ideal state and the role of the family. I focused on books I-III in Aristotle’s Politics to gain a deep understanding on Aristotle’s conception of the state and it’s goals in relation to its citizens as well as his critique on Plato’s ideal state. I also read book V and parts of book III of Plato’s Republic to gain a strong understanding of Plato’s requirements of the ideal state. In exploring the ideal states put forth by Plato and Aristotle, it became clear that the two sources of friction are in the state and the family. The first chapter of this paper discusses the general themes of Aristotle’s Politics such as how the state came to exist and the relationship between the good man and the good citizen. The second chapter offers insight to book V of Plato’s Republic but its majority is a focus on the critique of Plato’s proposed guardian or ruling class. The third and final chapter is an examination of how seriously one should take both Plato and Aristotle in their implications for the state and a tongue-in-cheek analysis of Aristotle’s critique of Plato in relation to the role of philosophy. This paper is concluded by considering the true implications of these philosophers on the role of reason and politics; more specifically considering how much of a role reason can have in promoting the state or the family. In understanding the guidelines of these two ideal states, one is better prepared in discussing the role of the family in modern government and to what extent both the family and the state can thrive together.

The Republic of China (ROC) has faced severe foreign policy challenges since its relocation from mainland China to Taiwan, and it has had to modify its position several times as its environment has changed. Its foreign policy since 1949 has gone through three distinct phases of development. A series of diplomatic adversities befell the ROC following its defeat in the United Nations in 1971, which presented the nation with an unprecedented challenge to its survival. These calamitous events for the ROC presented it with a frightening identity crisis: it was isolated in the international community and had become a "pariah" state. This case study examines and analyzes the various changes in the ROC's foreign policy behavior and attempts to determine what has influenced or induced changes in its foreign policy.

This thesis covers the history of education in Reconstruction Period Texas.

3 Abstract The aim of the thesis is to describe, analyse and discuss the development of spatial population dynamics in the Czech Republic between 1989 and 2007. Demographic structure and migration, the two components of spatial population dynamics, are analysed using two spatial dimensions, the urban-suburban-rural gradient and the core-periphery region distinction, using quantitative analyses, including gravity regression modelling of migration. The analysis primarily focuses on domestic migration as the main vehicle of spatial population dynamics. It discusses the structure, determinants, and temporal evolution of migration and its consequences on the population structure in different spatial categories. The thesis indicates that suburbanisation has recently become the main factor influencing Czech spatial population dynamics. The key factor determining migration destination is the social status of migrants, whereas age has only secondary importance. However, since Czechs are not very mobile, population dispersal is less large-scale than in Western-Europe. This explains why recent domestic migration patterns have had only a small measurable influence on the social or demographic structures of the population across spatial categories. Key words: suburbanisation, domestic migration, gravity modelling,...

The first chapter of the thesis describes the period of the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938). This chapter describes the establishment of the First Republic, a new constitution, social legislation, relations between Czechoslovakia and Austria, the German minority in Czechoslovakia's borderlands and the events preceding World War II. Also mentioned is the issue of Slavic solidarity. The second chapter outlines the nature of Christianity in this period, meaning the establishment new churches and their basic directions, the confessional distribution of the population and the crisis in the church which began during this era. Part of the chapter is devoted to the first president of Czechoslovakia, T. G. Masaryk, and his thoughts, particularly those relating to religious belief. The last chapter will form an analysis of the writers, Jan Čep and Přemysl Pitter: their lives, work and thoughts from this period. The analysis of documents of both these authors aims to capture their response to the religious situation of those years and how they, in turn, influenced religious and political events during the period of the First Republic. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The present work deals with the institutes of a pardon and amnesty and their utilization in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the current domestic legislation and its application by the particular decisions of the presidents of the republic. The author points out the advantages and disadvantages of the current legal regulation. The aim of the work is to provide a summary of the issues and to suggest eventual alterations of the current legislation. The work is, apart from the introduction and the conclusion, composed of five chapters. The first one introduces into the subject of the work and characterises the institute of a pardon and amnesty and their three forms, i.e. a pardon and a mitigation of penalties imposed by the court, a suspension of criminal proceedings and a deletion of a sentence. The second chapter deals with the regulation of the institutes. First, it presents history of this regulation and afterwards it analyses current legal regulations contained in the Constitution of the Czech Republic and others laws. The third chapter concerns just the institutes of a pardon. It focuses primarily on the presidential orders delegating a part of his power to Minister of Justice and also on the proceeding of a grand pardon. At the end of the chapter, there is the utilization rate of the pardon institute...

3 ABSTRACT More than 30 % of agricultural land in Europe also Czech Republic is covered by arable fields. There is no evidence about diversity of some arable fields bounded species groups. In general the diversity of arable land species is less than the wild land species. For increasing species diversity in agricultural land European commission comes up with agri environmental farming schemes in 90's. Till now real effectiveness of the agri environmental schemes is not clear for all species groups. In my thesis I have investigated whether the diversity and community composition of arable bryophytes species is influenced by agri environmental or conventional management on cereal fields. The influence of agri environmental management on arable bryophytes was never investigated in Europe unlike the other species groups like vascular plants, non vertebrates or vertebrates. The thesis stands on dataset provided by Ministry of agriculture for 3 Czech regions (kraj Vyso ina, Pardubický kraj, St edo eský kraj). My own research of arable bryophytes diversity held on 12 fields within 6 localities is the main part of the thesis supplemented by basic soil measurements and climatic characteristics extractions. Main result of the thesis is finding that conventional management has marginally positive effect on arable...

1 Abstract Efficiency is an important concept for performance evaluation of decision- making units. This thesis studies efficiency of public spending and methods of its estimation. Firstly, a wide range of efficiency estimators are defined and compared. For the public spending efficiency analysis the most convenient es- timator is found to be the cost frontier approach of the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The second part of the thesis contains efficiency analysis of public spending in the 14 regions of the Czech Republic in the years 2003-2014. For the analysis current expenditure of regional offices is used as the input. Based on the investigation of regional services output index is formed and employed in the analysis. The estimation is performed using the cost frontier approach of the SFA as the main method. Various other efficiency estimators are then applied to the data in order to study robustness of the results. The thesis further discusses relative ranking of the regions and time evolution of efficiency scores using different assumptions and variety of methods. Lastly, several potential effects on the estimated efficiency are considered and analysed. JEL Classification D24, H41, H72 Keywords efficiency, regions, public expenditure, Czech Republic Author's e-mail verca25.vrana@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail...

8 Abstract Counterurbanisation research, which is a central topic of this thesis, represents an appropriate field where transformations of contemporary societies and their socio- spatial organization can be examined. The dynamics of social and societal changes creates a demand for developing new methods and tools which helps us to understand contemporary change. Counterurbanisation is a multi-faceted concept which has been controversial since its initial use. An introduction of the concept of counterurbanisation in the field of population geography provoked a general debate on new and emerging trends in development of settlement system. Different logics of concentration and deconcentration of human activities has been challenged. Counterurbanisation operationalized as a migration poses a challenge for many standard conceptualizations of migration. The logic of non-economically motivated migration from the centre to the periphery requires a search for alternative explanatory mechanisms. Impact assessment and the impact of counterurbanisation in rural communities are analogous to the classical social science studies evaluating the integration of immigrants from rural areas in the cities. The thesis is composed of two basic sections. The first section presents a broader theoretical and methodological...