The safety case and the lessons learned for the reliability and maintainability case

This paper examine the safety case and the lessons learned for the reliability and maintainability case

Corruption, Social Trust and Transition: the Case of the Czech Republic

The purpose of this paper is to propose research into corruption and social trust and their effect on businesses in transition economies with special reference to the Czech Republic. The literature review discusses the concepts of corruption and social trust and provides an explanation of how these can be used, in the case of the Czech Republic, when investigating the influence of these two phenomena on businesses operating in this environment. The discussion is augmented by a preliminary analysis based on secondary data obtained from Transparency International, the World Values Survey, the World Bank and the Polity IV project. This suggests that the assumptions derived from the literature review are valid. The paper concludes by proposing a methodology for further research

Questionnaire Survey of the Skills of Water Tender Drivers at the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic

The paper summarizes results of the study aimed to evaluate the change of firefightersengineers’ driving skills after attending the one-day training course. The research focused at drivers of firefighting water tenders. These trucks represent the first-response vehicles in case of emergency rides. The water tenders form the majority of firefighting vehicles at units of the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic with the highest mileage per year. They represent the most important fire appliances at each professional fire station. Water tender drivers’ primary task is to transport both firefighters and vehicles safely without any traffic accident to the intervention point. Therefore, the drivers should acquire the best driving skills. The results of the survey shows both a positive impact of the course - driving skills improved after passing the course, and a negative finding - the insufficiently short duration of training rides on the polygon. Drivers’ skills were examined after a certain time from passing the course. This third phase of our survey showed that “avoiding a sudden obstacle when emergency driving” occurred as a most frequent critical situation. This fact relates with the most frequent cause of firefighting trucks’ traffic accidents in last four years, according to the Statistics of traffic accidents

Exploring the trend of Czech FDIs and their effect to institutional environment

This paper is the result of Metropolitan University Prague research project no. 68-02“Territorial Studies, Economics, International Relations” (2019) based on a grant from the Institutional Fund for the Long-term Strategic Development of Research Organisations. The authors would like to thank for useful comments and suggestions professors and participants of the 7th edition of the Conference IFRS Global Rules and Local Use - Beyond the Numbers in Prague 2019 and participants at conference ICABE 2019 in Thessaloniki Greece.Purpose: The goal of this paper is to explore the trend of FDIs in the Czech Republic and its changes in recent years using the gravity model. Apart from traditional variables used in FDI models we also introduce IFRS in national accounting rules. Design/Methodology/Approach: We use open-source data from the World Bank and FDI data from the Czech national bank, to analyse a panel data of bilateral FDI for 19 EU countries over the period 2008–2017 by PPML specification. Findings: We have observed significant effect of positive impact on broader introduction of IFRS in 2010 in terms of country imports and exports. We observed lower significance of IFRS dummy in the gravity model, where dependent variable is the sum of FDI inflow and FDI outflow it is not significant in the models which dependent variables are FDI inward and FDI outward for FDIs. Practical Implications: In general, FDIs increased productivity in the Czech Republic, especially in 1990s. We assess the effect and possible contribution of traditional variables like size, GDP, border and distance to Czech FDIs. Originality/Value: We find that the positive effect of IFRS exists at 10 percent significance for FDIs. Nevertheless we claim that this effect is mixed with other institutional issues, namely institutional isomorphism. Further tests will be needed after the forthcoming change of the Czech accounting act, which is approaching after 2020.peer-reviewe

An Index of Child Well-being in the European Union

While the living conditions of children and young people in the European Union have gained increasing recognition across the EU, the well-being of children is not monitored on the European level. Based on a rights-based, multi-dimensional understanding of child well-being we analyse data already available for the EU 25, using series data as well as comparative surveys of children and young people. We compare the performance of EU Member States on eight clusters with 23 domains and 51 indicators and give a picture of children’s overall well-being in the European Union. The clusters are children’s material situation, housing, health, subjective well-being, education, children’s relationships, civic participation and risk and safety

Complexity stage model of the medical device development based on economic evaluation-MedDee

The development of a new product is essential for the progress and success of any company. The medical device market is very specific, which is challenging. Therefore, this paper assesses an economic model for medical device evaluation using the economic, health, technology regulatory, and present market knowledge to enable the cost-time conception for any applicant. The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive stage model of the medical device development to subsequently describe the financial expenditure of the entire development process. The identification of critical steps was based on the literature review, and analysis, and a comparison of the available medical device development stages and directives. Furthermore, a preliminary assessment of the medical device development steps and procedures on the basis of the interviews was performed. Six interviews were conducted with an average duration of one hour, focusing on areas: relevance and level of detail of the medical device development stages, involvement of economic methods, and applicability of the proposed model. Subsequently, the improvement and modification of the medical device investment process, based on respondents' responses, were conducted. The authors have proposed the complexity model MedDee-Medical Devices Development by Economic Evaluation. This model is comprised of six phases: initiation, concept, design, production, final verification, and market disposition in which the economic methods are incorporated.Web of Science125art. no. 175

Organizational excellence: approaches, models and their use at Czech organizations

Purpose: The paper brings a set of original information related to analysis and description of the current state in the area of excellence models implementation in Czech organisations. It defines these terms, analyses results of special research in Czech organisations and proposes a comprehensive and generic framework how to achieve the organisational excellence. The principal goal of this paper is to present the main possibilities, benefits, limitations and risks related to the practical use of excellence models in Czech organisations. Methodology/Approach: Brainstorming conferences, field research and relevant data analysis, seminars with quality professionals and other managers, comparative literature analysis and interviews were used to reach the principal goal. Findings: The organisational excellence concept is now widely discussed and implemented throughout the world. Unlike, the real situation in most Czech organizations is rather else. Level of knowledge and overall people awareness related to this concept and various excellence models is very low. This finding supports the assumption that is necessary to change company culture towards never-ending excellence effort in Czech organisations by way of systematic knowledge (including best practices) sharing among all levels of organizations staff. Research Limitation/implication: Special research activities focused on analysis and description of current state in area of excellence models implementation, which was performed on a sample of 321 Czech organisations (with more than 20% response rate). Such level of response rate was seriously influenced by the fact that practical use of various excellence models in Czech organisations is rather limited in present days. However, we can suppose the obtained results should be valid or interesting also for another organization, not only in the Czech Republic. Originality/Value of paper: The paper brings an original set of information from special market research as well as the development of a creative and generic framework of the organisational excellence tailored to Czech organisations. Category: Research paperWeb of Science222644

Divide and teach: educational inequality and the Roma

This paper will discuss the decision of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in DH and Others v Czech Republic which found that the practice of sending Roma pupils to special schools in order to provide remedial education undermined the human rights to education and non-discrimination contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights. The case highlights the degree of exclusion that Roma children face in the Czech Republic, yet this entrenched inequality is not unique to the region or to the context of education. The decision also clarifies the interpretation of indirect discrimination under Article 14 of the Convention. The EU Equal Treatment Directive has paved the way for an enlightened approach to the question of indirect discrimination and in particular shifts the burden of proof to the respondent once a prime facie case is established. The Grand Chamber’s decision supports this approach and endorses the use of verifiable statistics in order to demonstrate prime facie discrimination. It also enables a broader enquiry into the societal context behind the facts

A weather forecast model accuracy analysis and ECMWF enhancement proposal by neural network

This paper presents a neural network approach for weather forecast improvement. Predicted parameters, such as air temperature or precipitation, play a crucial role not only in the transportation sector but they also influence people's everyday activities. Numerical weather models require real measured data for the correct forecast run. This data is obtained from automatic weather stations by intelligent sensors. Sensor data collection and its processing is a necessity for finding the optimal weather conditions estimation. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model serves as the main base for medium-range predictions among the European countries. This model is capable of providing forecast up to 10 days with horizontal resolution of 9 km. Although ECMWF is currently the global weather system with the highest horizontal resolution, this resolution is still two times worse than the one offered by limited area (regional) numeric models (e.g., ALADIN that is used in many European and north African countries). They use global forecasting model and sensor-based weather monitoring network as the input parameters (global atmospheric situation at regional model geographic boundaries, description of atmospheric condition in numerical form), and because the analysed area is much smaller (typically one country), computing power allows them to use even higher resolution for key meteorological parameters prediction. However, the forecast data obtained from regional models are available only for a specific country, and end-users cannot find them all in one place. Furthermore, not all members provide open access to these data. Since the ECMWF model is commercial, several web services offer it free of charge. Additionally, because this model delivers forecast prediction for the whole of Europe (and for the whole world, too), this attitude is more user-friendly and attractive for potential customers. Therefore, the proposed novel hybrid method based on machine learning is capable of increasing ECMWF forecast outputs accuracy to the same level as limited area models provide, and it can deliver a more accurate forecast in real-time.Web of Science1923art. no. 514