Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

The theoretical part of diploma thesis there are contains a general analysis and various approaches to the use of EBITDA. The practical part documents the process which uses EBITDA in the relative valuation of the shares of Telefonica O2 Czech Republic, a. s. and other alternative uses of this indicator on a sample of comparable companies to Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, a. s.

This thesis deals with the promotion of the Czech Republic abroad and in the American market, and focuses primarily on New York. The American public isn't very aware of Czech Republic, in fact still confusing it with Czechoslovakia, also the image of Czech Republic isn't very positive. All of this could be changed with effective promotion. Communication campaigns within the large American competition could be very expensive and therefore difficult to achieve, because of this it would be very important to focus on marketing tools which are budget friendly. The theoretical part of this thesis presents marketing and commercial communication, as well as preparation of communication campaigns and tools toward it. It also specifics on the promotion of tourism. The practical part of this thesis focuses on the current promotion of the Czech Republic abroad and in the American market, and problems the Czech Republic has to deal with, as well as offers possible solutions.

The topic of diploma thesis is the comparison of export promotion policy of Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both countries, as small export-focused economies to a great extent economically dependent on exports, must pay huge attention to export promotion provided by state. The thesis is focused on description and analysis of export promotion policy of Czech Republic and Slovakia and on their comparison. The content of the thesis is divided into five chapters. The fist chapter describes theoretical concept of export promotion policy and its instruments, defines foreign-trade policy and trade policy, liberalism and protectionism, and analyzes the structure and importance of export in Czech Republic and Slovakia. The second chapter is dedicated to short history of support of export in Czechoslovakia in 1945-1990 under the Soviet influence and after the fall of Soviet Union in 1990-1992. The third chapter is focused on detailed description and analysis of export promotion policy in Czech Republic, its development and institutions. The fourth chapter describes Slovakian export promotion policy in the same way. The fifth chapter is addressed to Common Trade Policy of the European Union and its impact on export promotion in Czech Republic and Slovakia, to evaluation of its present state and comparison of export promotion policies of Czech Republic and Slovakia.

I | P a g e Abstract This thesis primarily focuses on the construction of a firm-specific index measuring the quality of corporate governance in the most liquid Czech and Croatian companies. The index is made by following OECD recommendations on construction of composite indicators. It allows comparison of best practices implementation on the overall level, and it also provides with a comprehensive analogy in terms of various governance domains performance. These domains are represented by four sub-indices: Board, Conflict of Interest, Shareholders' Rights, and Transparency and Disclosure. Initial assumption, stating that the Czech companies should have higher overall Corporate Governance Index score than the Croatian companies, is approved. Moreover, the Czech companies have stronger performance in three sub-indices: Board, Conflict of Interest, and Transparency and Disclosure, whereas the Croatian companies have negligible advantage solely with regard to the Shareholders' Rights Sub-index.

The present master thesis deals with non-banking microfinance institutions and examines its abilities and role in the poverty alleviation process. It is more than necessary to pay attention to the rural sector and its development as any successful transition of the economy requires transition of the rural sector as well. In many transition economies people in the rural areas continue to live on the edge of poverty, engaged in subsistence agriculture and remain susceptible to wide range of shocks. In such countries rural population unlike urban one did not benefit to the same extend from transition and need special attention and supporting policy measures. Due to low penetration rate of microfinance institutions into rural areas, lacking or insufficient size of collateral, financial illiteracy many poor but active man face problems to obtaining finance for the development of new income opportunities. In this context the master thesis emphasizes the role of savings and credit associations, which unlike the commercial banks operate mainly in rural sector, have the most significant effect on poverty alleviation. Finally, the author analyses the activity of 3 non-banking microfinance institutions of the Republic of Moldova and uses publicly available data to calculate the outreach, efficiency and...

Taxonomic position of the cephalopod Bactroceras sandbergeri (Barr., 1867) from the Ordovician of the Prague Basin was subjected to wide discussions and disputes in the past. The species was first classified within the genus Bactrites. Later, a separate, monotypic genus Eobactrites was defined. At present, the species is assigned to the genus Bactroceras. It belongs to the family Baltoceratidae, the genera of which are supposed to represent the oldest orthoceridans. The order Orthocerida is one of the most successful and most diversified cephalopod groups of the Paleozoic Era. In this thesis, a revision of Bactroceras sandbergeri has been made after a detailed study of about one hundred specimens. Attention was paid to those features, that are missing in the original species descriptions or that were neglected in the past. Special attention was paid mainly to muscle scars, structure of the siphuncle and morphology of the embryonic shell. The embryonic shell was originally described as Tretoceras parvulum Barrande, 1868. In addition, Orthoceras naufragum Barrande, 1870 was synonymized with the studied species and the species Orthoceras interpolatum Barrande, 1870 was assigned to the genus Bactroceras. Key words: Cephalopoda, Ordovician, Czech Republic, Barrandian area

No início da República, a cidade de Santos transformou-se do ponto de vista administrativo, organizando-se como Intendências, em substituição ao antigo modelo de Câmaras Municipais do período Imperial. O primeiro grupo de Intendentes eleitos em Santos, em 1892, promulgou uma Constituição Municipal (1894). Nesse período houve a criação de diversas instituições educacionais na cidade, que contaram com a participação de diferentes estratos da população santista. O objetivo desta dissertação é identificar, conhecer e analisar as iniciativas educacionais públicas, privadas e particulares promovidas na cidade de Santos, no Estado de São Paulo, no período de 1889 a 1908. Foi realizada pesquisa histórico-documental, com a análise da Constituição Municipal de Santos e especialmente das atas do Conselho de Intendência e da legislação do período, bem como relatórios dos Intendentes Municipais e dos Inspetores Literários, jornais e periódicos, procurando identificar as diferentes iniciativas educacionais defendidas. O recorte temporal privilegiado será de 1889 a 1908, período em que vigorou o sistema de Intendências. Este trabalho está estruturado em três capítulos. No primeiro, tem-se como objetivo identificar as iniciativas de escolarização promovidas por iniciativa particulares, como escolas de organizadas por imigrantes, associações de auxílio mútuo e por instituições confessionais, bem como mapear as estratégias de escolarização no âmbito estadual e municipal na cidade de Santos. No segundo capítulo, procurou-se verificar como foi a implementação da intendência municipal em Santos analisando a Constituição elaborada pelo grupo que estava à frente neste processo. Além disso, tentou-se compreender qual era o projeto educacional que estava sendo projetado. Por fim, no terceiro capítulo, pretendeu-se, a partir da discussão, criação e implementação de dos grupos Escolares Cesário Bastos\" e o Barnabé, demonstrar as disputas, conflitos, tensões, principalmente, entre os dois primeiros grupos, que representam republicanos com divergências. / In the early Republic, Santos city became from the administrative point of view organizing as intendancies, replacing the old model of Municipalities of the Imperial period. The first group of Stewards elected in Santos, in 1892, enacted a Municipal Constitution (1894). During this period there was the creation of various educational institutions in the city, which included the participation of different strata of the population of Santos. The objective of this dissertation is to identify, understand and analyze the public, private and private educational initiatives promoted in the city of Santos, in São Paulo, in the period 1889-1908. Historical and documentary research was conducted by analyzing the Municipal Constitution Santos and especially the minutes of the Board of Stewardship and legislation of the period, as well as reports of the Superintendents and Inspectors Municipal Literary, newspapers and journals, trying to identify the various educational initiatives advocated. The preferred time frame is 1889-1908, a period that lasted intendancies system. This work is structured in three chapters. At first we tried to identify the initiatives promoted by private schooling initiative, as schools organized by immigrants, mutual-aid associations, and religious institutions, as well as map out strategies for education at the state and municipal level, the city of Santos. In the second chapter as it was sought to verify the implementation of municipal stewardship in Santos analyzing constitution drawn up by the group that was ahead in this process. Also, try to understand what was the educational project that was being designed. Finally, the third chapter is intended from the discussion, creation and implementation of the School groups Cesar Bastes and Barnaby demonstrate disputes, conflicts, tensions, especially between the first two groups, representing Republicans with differences.

Terrorism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that encompasses elements of politics, economics, social, and ideology, driving people to commit violent acts and become involved in such activity. As of today, the existence and latent threat of Islamist terrorism still inflict global society with formidable challenges, and one way to overcome such challenges is by leveraging our knowledge on the multi-dimensional, determining factors/elements that lead people to commit terrorist attacks and other radical-related activities. In other words, as our struggle against terrorism is a global endeavour that may last a generation or more, leveraging our knowledge on such multi-dimensional, determining factors/elements will increase our understanding of the underlying causes and patterns that continue to inspire jihadist terrorism. However, it is wrong to equate the religion of Islam with terrorism. Perhaps most importantly, the Islamic tradition is all-encompassing, combining religious and secular life and law. This surely complicates attempts to understand the Islamist ideology and counter-measures to it solely through the lens of traditional Western political science. Therefore, a distinction must be made between the religion of Islam and a set of often-conflicting political ideologies known as Islamism, where many forms of them are non-radical, reformists or gradualists. That is why, Islamist extremists who advocate acts of terrorism may be properly termed Islamist terrorists, who seek to cloth their acts in the trappings of the Islamic religion. In this case, they use their own religious-based arguments to justify their violent acts. This Ph.D. thesis examines the multi-dimensional factors that lead to the existence and latent threat of Islamist terrorism in Indonesia by focusing on the individuals who committed series of deadly terrorist attacks from 2002 – 2009 and some other radical-related activities in Indonesia until 2017. Such factors encompass at least the economic grievances, social grievances, political grievances, radical ideology, social network, state repression (“stick”), and government incentive (“carrot”), all which are the key variables in determining the existence and latent threat of Islamist terrorism. Through a systematic, multi-dimensional analysis using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies (including the social network analysis), this Ph.D. thesis will specifically examine what factors drove people with the association to Jemaah Islamiya (JI) and radical-Islamist movements to commit and become involved in terrorist attacks? and why and how might such factors/elements influence these people to commit terrorist attacks in the future? The combined qualitative, quantitative, and social network analysis in this Ph.D. thesis has proven and confirmed the main hypothesis, where the existence and latent threat of Islamist terrorism in Indonesia are indeed caused by the intertwining interaction of these multi-dimensional factors instead of being otherwise. The ideological-related variables followed by the social network-related ones are proven as the two most significant factors in the pattern of Islamist terrorism in Indonesia. In other words, the set of economic, social, and political grievances will not cause Islamist terrorism in Indonesia to occur if there are no intervening variables: the social network and radical ideology being involved in the equation. Subsequently, the other two moderating variables also play its own role, namely the state repression and the government incentive. According to various examinations of multivariate statistical analysis in this Ph.D. thesis, these two variables on their own will not cause the Islamist terrorism to occur in Indonesia, but when combined with the existence of social network and radical ideology, these two variables are proven as the moderating variables to exacerbate the occurrence of Islamist terrorism in Indonesia. In conclusion, by looking at this current pattern, it could be predicted that Indonesia herself is still likely to become both the producer and battlefield of global-Islamist terrorism in near future. Therefore, the Indonesian national counterterrorism policy and strategy need to be updated and well integrated with the Indonesian national policy and grand strategy to better address the existence and latent threat of Islamist terrorism in the archipelago.

The thesis deals with inventory survey of birds in the area of natural park Čeřínek. This paper examines the various data points from bird census, which took place from March 2017 to November 2017. The aim is to compare my inventory survey with results of Czech Society for Ornithology in Vysočina. Keywords: inventory, bird, species, nature park, dominance, frequency