Western orientation of the interwar Czechoslovak foreign policy was based on a longterm effort to extricate the territory from a German sphere of influence and on the circumstances of its formation in 1918. A generally accepted narration about the friendship of France and Britain resulted in a deep mental shock after the messages about the signing of the Munich Agreement reached Czechoslovakia on the 30th of September 1938. Consequently, Czechoslovakia reoriented itself towards East. The aim of this diploma thesis is to capture this sudden turn through an analysis of the British image in selected Czech journals. Britain is in this regard examined as one of two most important interwar allies of Czechoslovakia. Discoursive analysis is applied to articles appearing in three periodicals, which represent three interwar ideological groups. Namely, the diploma thesis works with Lidove noviny, which were constructing an image influenced by the foreign policy orientation of the Castle, Venkov, which acted as a press agency of the most powerful political party, and Rude pravo, whose editorial line was comparatively noncomformist and thus represents a desirable alternative.

Les pneus sont un organe déterminant dans la tenue de route des véhicules. Cette thèse porte sur la modélisation du contact entre la bande de roulement d'un pneumatique et une route sèche, afin de comprendre les différents phénomènes physiques mis en jeu ainsi que leurs rôles relatifs dans le frottement. La rugosité multi échelle des sols routiers les rendent difficiles à modéliser avec une simulation par élements finis standard. En utilisant l'hypothèse que la gomme de la bande de roulement est très grande devant la taille des rugosités, elle peut être considérée comme un massif semi-infini. Il est alors possible de résoudre efficacement le problème de contact en ne discrétisant que la surface du massif de gomme. Cette résolution est faite à l'aide d'un algorithme de Gradient Conjugué, au cours duquel les calculs matriciels sont effectués par Transformée de Fourier Rapide (FFT). La viscoélasticité de la gomme est prise en compte en régime transitoire. Les interactions à l'interface entre la gomme et le sol sont modélisés par une loi de frottement ainsi que par une énergie d'adhésion. Les résultats montrent le rôle primordial de la viscoélasticité qui, couplée à la rugosité multi-échelle du sol, modifie la surface du contact au cours des différents étapes de mise en glissement d'un pneumatique, faisant ainsi varier le frottement. / Tires are a key component for the handling and safety of personal vehicles. In this thesis a model of the contact between the tire tread and a dry road is described. It aims at understanding the different physical phenomena taking place in such a contact and their relative role in tire friction. Modeling the multiple scales of road roughness is difficult using a standard Finite Element Method. The hypothesis that the rubber of the tire tread is very large compared to the largest scale of surface roughness is made, so that it can be considered as a semi-infinite half-space. This way, the contact problem can be solved by discretizing the rubber surface only. The solver is a specific Conjugate Gradient iterative method, in which the matrix-vector products are performed with Fast Fourier Transforms. Transient viscoelasticity is accounted for with a step-by-step approach. The algorithm is able to model surface interactions such as Coulomb friction and adhesion. Results show the crucial role played by viscoelasticity. Coupled with the road roughness, it changes the contact surface during the different steps of tire sliding, which in turns impacts friction.

The doctoral thesis Gastronomy as a part of life style in the Czech national print media in the period between the wars in Czechoslovak Republic presents the results of eight years long research of food journalism in the Czech press between 1918 and 1938. This period called First Republic is often seen, due the positive sentiment, as a modern, democratic and prosperous state. The reality is a different. This text presents just a little part of picture of life style during First Republic which is gastronomy. That mirrors the economic and social level of the society. This text reflects critically the historical facts. The assumption, that print media pay regularly attention to the gastronomy as an integral part of life is important idea of this research. The content analysis proofs, that food journalism had its own section in the analyzed daily print, although media didn't used this kind of terminology. Five national newspapers (Lidové noviny, Národní politika, České slovo, Právo lidu and Venkov) were issued in the period 1918-1938 and newspapers Rudé právo established 1920 are included in the analysis. The selection of these (media) reflects the whole social-political spectrum of the audience. It could be assumed, that the selected newspapers represent the whole plurality of opinions. The analysis...