La cuestión del Centro: Discursos presentes y pasados de la Sinitud

With the rise of China over the recent decades, both economic and geopolitical, pundits have increasingly come to remind us that once upon a time what we now call China was the centre of its world. The implication invariably is that just like the historical China was once a centre of global gravity, its current trajectory may be expected to bring today’s China inexorably back into the centre of the global order from which it only briefly abstained itself for a few recent centuries. When making such conjectures, we assume we safely know what China is and where it is. But what is this “China”, Zhongguo or Zhonghua, the “Middle Kingdom” or “Central Civilisation”, as it is famously called in its native version? It certainly has the claim to centrality in its very name. Yet the name was emphatically not established as a geographic or ethnic label for a territorial state or a nation. Rather, it represented a bold normative claim, a universalist assertion of value. It resembles such lofty epithets as “the Land of the Free”, “the new Rome”, or “Zion” in that it is above all an aspirational title. Historically, the gravitational pull that has constituted what some have called “the Sinosphere” was due to this aspirational universal moral claim more than it was the result of an actual geopolitical hegemony. Until the twentieth century and the arrival on the stage of that brave new invention –the nation– neither territory nor ethnicity really defined “China”. A situated view from the neighbourhood may help to clarify this confusing situation. Well embedded in the broader Sinosphere through a complex history of negotiating its relations to the succession of dynastic empires on the mainland, the Japanese archipelago has long been the locus of discussions about the meaning and purpose of the Chinese claim to represent the “Middle Kingdom”. Indeed, in terms of statehood and asserted or wished cultural identity, “Japan” has defined itself for most of its history by acknowledging, denying, emulating or arrogating that claim to centrality. We can understand much about what “China” has meant by mapping Japanese aspirations to become China.El continuo auge económico y geopolítico de China nos recuerda que lo que actualmente se denomina China fue hace un tiempo el Reino del Centro, el centro del mundo. La implicación de esta afirmación es que al igual que la China histórica fue centro gravitacional global en Asia, su trayectoria actual puede reposicionar a China inexorablemente en el centro del orden mundial. El análisis histórico de Zhongguo o Zhonghua, la “Tierra del Medio” o la “Civilización Central”, y su postulación a convertirse en referencia moral universal, sin contar con la hegemonía geopolítica real sobre la región circundante, puede arrojar luz sobre este tema. La ambición de China se asemejaba a epítetos como “la Tierra de los hombres libres”, “la Nueva Roma” o “Zión”. Históricamente, la fuerza gravitacional que constituyó lo que algunos han denominado la sinoesfera procedía de esta postulación moral universal a la cual aspiraba. Dentro de la sinoesfera, en una compleja historia de negociación de relaciones con las sucesivas dinastías imperiales que gobernaban en el continente, Japón ha sido durante tiempo el punto focal de discusión sobre el significado y objetivo de la postulación china de representar el Reino del Centro. Efectivamente, a lo largo de su historia, Japón se ha definido a sí mismo a través del reconocimiento, la negación, la emulación o la demanda de esa centralidad. Quizás podamos entender mejor lo que China ha significado profundizando en las aspiraciones japonesas de ser China

The Logistic Principles for Fast Flexible Strategy Design of the Company in Crisis Time

The article deals with design of the logistic principles enabling an enterprise to create a strategy flexible in terms of business and marketing and stable and steady in terms of manufacturing. In order to create a strategy model the following principles can be applied: shortening the period of capacity planning combined with flexible planning, SYNCRO – MRP (Material Required Planning) principle, the application of forecasting in capacity planning, creation with partners of one of the cooperation forms such as supply chain, demand chain, lean supply chain, agile supply chain, leagile supply chain, and using the DBR (Drum Buffer Rope), APS (Advanced Planning System) and SCP (Supply Chain Planning) systems. The article describes application of this principle for model design of the flexible strategy for Chemosvit fólie a. s. company, and the results of this application in the crisis time 2009–2011.SYANCRO-MRP, capacity planning, forecasting, supply chain, demand chain

Geoinformatics Study at the Czech Technical University in Prague

At the CTU in Prague, there is a long tradition of master degree courses in geodesy, geodetic surveying and cartography. Taking into account the fast development of information technologies in recent decades, we decided to prepare a new study program that would combine computer science with a background of geodetic and cartographic know-how.  Apart from other sources, our plans were inspired and influenced by the Review of Education Needs, a report prepared by Stig Enemark (Prague 1998), and by our experience from several Virtual Academy workshops.We have decided to call this program „Geoinformatics“ to emphasize the role of computer technologies in collecting, analyzing and exploiting information about our planet.  Within this presentation we will explain the basic ideas behind our new study program and emphasize the features that distinguish it from classical geodetic or cartographic programs. We will mention the connection between our new study program and several geodetic and software projects running at our institute - software development for real-time GPS applications, cooperation with the Astronomical Institute, University of Berne, on the development of so-called Bernese GPS Software, the GNU project Gama for adjustment of geodetic networks, etc.

DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TECHNIQUE FOR ACCURATE WEAR ANALYSIS OF EXPLANTED TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENTS

Wear is a fundamental problem in relation to the life-time of the hip joint implants, especially for the components of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Therefore, the better understanding of the properties and capabilities of UHMWPE related to wear is crucial for the improvement of the implants' behavior. The purpose of this study is to present a new methodology for calculating volumetric wear of retrieved hip prostheses using a combination of novel co-ordinate measuring machine data and Matlab GUI program (Mathworks, Inc.). Method utilizes the unworn portion of the explanted acetabular cup to create or reconstruct the original unworn surface. From these unworn surfaces, it is possible to directly calculate volumetric wear and to graphically map the wear scar, i.e. the penetration of the femoral head into the acetabular cup

Geoinformatics Study at the CTU in Prague

At the CTU in Prague, there is a long tradition of master degree courses in geodesy, geodetic surveying and cartography. Taking into account the fast development of information technologies in recent decades, we decided to prepare a new study program that would combine computer science with a background of geodetic and cartographic know-how. Apart from other sources, our plans were inspired and influenced by the Review of Education Needs, a report prepared by Stig Enemark (Prague 1998), and by our experience from several Virtual Academy workshops.We have decided to call this program “Geoinformatics” to emphasize the role of computer technologies in collecting, analyzing and exploiting information about our planet. Within this presentation we will explain the basic ideas behind our new study program and emphasize the features that distinguish it from classical geodetic or cartographic programs. We will mention the connection between our new study program and several geodetic and software projects running at our institute – software development for real-time GPS applications, cooperation with the Astronomical Institute, University of Berne, on the development of so-called Bernese GPS Software, the GNU project Gama for adjustment of geodetic networks, etc

Evaluation of the Financial Situation of the Company and Proposals for its Improvement

Tato bakalářská práce na téma „Hodnocení finanční situace podniku a návrhy na její zlepšení“ je analýza současného stavu konkrétní společnosti a návrh na zlepšení její finanční situace. V první části jsou definovány cíle a použité metody vedoucí ke zlepšení finanční situace firmy, dále pak je představena společnost PERFO LINEA a.s., a tato část je zakončena analýzou současného stavu firmy. Poslední část se zaměřuje na analýzu daného problému a návrh na postupu řešení.The aim of the Bachelor thesis "Financial Situation assessment of the company and suggestions for its improvement" is to analyze current state of a particular company and submit a proposal for improvement of its financial situation. In the first part of the Bachelor thesis defines the aims and the methods, which can be used to improve the financial situation of the company. Further is presented PERFO LINEA a.s. company and analysis of its current state. The second part of the Bachelor thesis is based on analysis of the problem and a proposal to its solution

The celestial mechanics approach: application to data of the GRACE mission

The celestial mechanics approach (CMA) has its roots in the Bernese GPS software and was extensively used for determining the orbits of high-orbiting satellites. The CMA was extended to determine the orbits of Low Earth Orbiting satellites (LEOs) equipped with GPS receivers and of constellations of LEOs equipped in addition with inter-satellite links. In recent years the CMA was further developed and used for gravity field determination. The CMA was developed by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB). The CMA is presented from the theoretical perspective in (Beutler etal. 2010). The key elements of the CMA are illustrated here using data from 50 days of GPS, K-Band, and accelerometer observations gathered by the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission in 2007. We study in particular the impact of (1) analyzing different observables [Global Positioning System (GPS) observations only, inter-satellite measurements only], (2) analyzing a combination of observations of different types on the level of the normal equation systems (NEQs), (3) using accelerometer data, (4) different orbit parametrizations (short-arc, reduced-dynamic) by imposing different constraints on the stochastic orbit parameters, and (5) using either the inter-satellite ranges or their time derivatives. The so-called GRACE baseline, i.e., the achievable accuracy of the GRACE gravity field for a particular solution strategy, is established for the CM