Business risks and their impact on business future concerning the entrepreneur's experience with business bankruptcy: Case of Czech Republic

The article aims to determine the difference in the perception of selected business risks and their impact on the future of business concerning the entrepreneur's experience with business bankruptcy. The case study involved 73 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with experience of business bankruptcy and 381 SMEs without the experience of business bankruptcy from the Czech Republic (CR). Linear regression models were used to verify statistically significant causal relationships between selected indicators of the most significant business risks and respondents' perceptions of the future of business. The results brought interesting findings. The attitudes of entrepreneurs show that personnel, market, and financial risk are among the three most significant business risks. Experience with business failure is not a significant factor in determining the impact of market indicators on the business's perceived future. The adequacy of sales of services and products has the greatest impact. The experience of the bankruptcy of SMEs is important in financial risk attitudes. According to entrepreneurs who have no experience with bankruptcy, the perception of financial performance has the greatest direct impact on the future of business. Conversely, for entrepreneurs who have experienced bankruptcy, the ability to properly manage financial risk on the company's future has the greatest direct impact. © 2020 LLC CPC Business Perspectives. All rights reserved

HyperLoom possibilities for executing scientific workflows on the cloud

We have developed HyperLoom - a platform for defining and executing scientific workflows in large-scale HPC systems. The computational tasks in such workflows often have non-trivial dependency patterns, unknown execution time and unknown sizes of generated outputs. HyperLoom enables to efficiently execute the workflows respecting task requirements and cluster resources agnostically to the shape or size of the workflow. Although HPC infrastructures provide an unbeatable performance, they may be unavailable or too expensive especially for small to medium workloads. Moreover, for some workloads, due to HPCs not very flexible resource allocation policy, the system energy efficiency may not be optimal at some stages of the execution. In contrast, current public cloud providers such as Amazon, Google or Exoscale allow users a comfortable and elastic way of deploying, scaling and disposing a virtualized cluster of almost any size. In this paper, we describe HyperLoom virtualization and evaluate its performance in a virtualized environment using workflows of various shapes and sizes. Finally, we discuss the Hyperloom potential for its expansion to cloud environments.61140639

Analysis of overhead cost behavior: Case study on decision-making approach

Cost management is one of the most significant issues in company performance and company financial management which any enterprise has to solve as in the periods of declines of sales revenues, as well as during their growth. In this study we designed and tested several regression models that could be suitable for cost behavior prediction and subsequent decision-making based on these predictions. We used multiple linear regression models with a point estimate and with interval estimate of the model parameters. Comparison of regression models of cost behavior and their reliability was carried out due to the quality of the data collected for the case of basic and adjusted data. The overheads were divided into several groups of relevant costs and their dependences were examined on different factors other than only the production volume using the correlation matrix. From the results of the transformed model we believe that asymmetric cost behavior is affected by asymmetric behavior of the chosen factors. As the final one was intended the model representing the change in costs in time shifting about one-month period. This model can be used for examining costs in time shift by a short period (e.g., months) and thus it is possible to provecost asymmetric behavior called “sticky costs”. We used the model adjusted in accordance with Anderson et al. (2003). and we kept the model clearly transformed and assembled so that there remained only those variables that had a statistically significant effect on the dependent variable. The limitations of these models were also defined. Finally, graphical analyses of deviations were performed to find similarities in cost through cost centres and through the examined periods. © Foundation of International Studies, 2017. and CSR, 2017

First derivatives of fuzzy surfaces

The presented research shows how the first derivatives (slope and aspect) can be calculated from a fuzzy surface by the means of fuzzy arithmetic within the geographic information system. The proposed method works with fuzzy numbers of arbitrary shape which helps with more precise specification of input values as well as more exact calculation of results. Three most im- portant methods of partial derivatives calculation based on finite elements approximation of a surface are presented and discussed. The presented approach provides an alternative for uncertainty propagation that is commonly performed by the utilization of statistics and the Monte Carlo method in geographic applications. The example calculation shows the differences between the obtained results calculated with the utilization of fuzzy arithmetic and the Monte Carlo method

Reuse of waste material "waste sludge water" from a concrete plant in cement composites: A case study

This paper presents the results of research dealing with the use of recycled waste sludge water from a concrete plant (CP) as partial or complete replacement of mixing water in cement mixtures. The need to recycle waste sludge water generated as a by-product (waste sludge water) during the production of fresh concrete in the concrete plant results from the environmental and economic problems associated with the operation of the concrete plant. Mixing water was replaced with recycled waste sludge water in the amount of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. In order to determine the effect of partial or complete replacement of mixing water with waste sludge water from the concrete plant in the production of cement composites, laboratory tests of waste sludge water were carried out to determine whether the waste sludge water complies with the requirements for mixing water defined in CSN EN 1008. The tests also determined the properties of fresh cement mortar and hardened cement composites. These were tests of the beginning and end of cement mortar setting, and the strength characteristics (flexural strength, compressive strength). The results of these tests show that it is possible to replace the mixing water by waste sludge water from the concrete plant in the amount of up to 25% without significantly affecting the tested properties, in comparison with the formula containing pure mixing water.Web of Science921art. no. 451

HyperLoom: A platform for defining and executing scientific pipelines in distributed environments

Real-world scientific applications often encompass end-to-end data processing pipelines composed of a large number of interconnected computational tasks of various granularity. We introduce HyperLoom, an open source platform for defining and executing such pipelines in distributed environments and providing a Python interface for defining tasks. HyperLoom is a self-contained system that does not use an external scheduler for the actual execution of the task. We have successfully employed HyperLoom for executing chemogenomics pipelines used in pharmaceutic industry for novel drug discovery.6

The budgeting processes of Czech companies: The role of the ownership structure and foreign capital

Research background: The study investigates the initial phase of budgeting process conducted in corporations. The basic concept correlates with findings in scientific literature that describe budgeting as an inefficient tool, burdened by considerable regulation in the preparation and compilation stages. As a consequence, the majority of academics and practitioners have concluded that producing a budget is merely a formality that minimizes wrinkles on the faces of their initiators, while reaping debatable benefits for managerial control. Purpose of the article: This paper compares data from the literature with the actual budgetary practices of companies operating in the Czech Republic. The attention was paid to the detailed aspects of the budgeting process, factors affecting the time it takes to prepare a budget, and the impact of ownership structure, especially the role of foreign ownership and foreign capital, on the level of decentralization in the budgeting process. Methods: The authors examined these topics through a questionnaire completed by 136 respondents, primarily industrial companies based in the country. The subsequent hypotheses were assessed via application of the Z-test. Findings & Value added: The results presented show that the budgeting practices of the Czech firms are not only influenced by traditional factors (e.g. the size of the company and its given economic sector), but also certain other aspects. Essential facets comprise the ownership structure and the share of foreign capital involved, the latter affecting the extent of autonomy of the business as to the budgetary process. This submitted paper can extend the current theory with new findings on the specific nature of budgeting in post-socialist countries with an open economy and the significant influx of foreign capital. © 2021 Nicolaus Copernicus University. All rights reserved.Czech Science FoundationGrant Agency of the Czech Republic [GA 17-13518S/P403]; Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University in Zlin [IGA/FaME/2020/010]Grantová Agentura České Republiky, GA ČR; Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně: IGA/FaME/2020/01

WOFEX 2021 : 19th annual workshop, Ostrava, 1th September 2021 : proceedings of papers

The workshop WOFEX 2021 (PhD workshop of Faculty of Electrical Engineer-ing and Computer Science) was held on September 1st September 2021 at the VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. The workshop offers an opportunity for students to meet and share their research experiences, to discover commonalities in research and studentship, and to foster a collaborative environment for joint problem solving. PhD students are encouraged to attend in order to ensure a broad, unconfined discussion. In that view, this workshop is intended for students and researchers of this faculty offering opportunities to meet new colleagues.Ostrav

Impact of social environment indicators on students' propensity to do business: Case study from Central European countries

The aim of the article is to identify and quantify the impact of selected social environment indicators on students’ propensity to do business. A survey-based questionnaire was conducted with students in the last year of their economic studies at 25 universities. The database contains 1,352 filled-out questionnaires showing Slovak, Czech and Polish students’ attitudes. A linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the formulated hypotheses. This approach was implemented separately for each country (Czech Republic-CR, Slovakia – SR, and Poland – PL). The results showed several findings. The comparison of social environment indicators’ impact on students’ propensity to do business confirmed common attitudes (significant indicator – support of family environment; not significant indicator – media) of students based on their nationality. The businessperson in a student´s family is the most important social environment indicator according to students’ attitudes for each country. The fact that society generally appreciates business people has a positive impact on Czech and Slovak students´ propensity to do business. Politicians and public perception of entrepreneurs as a social indicator has a negative impact on Czech students´ propensity to do business. The results are important for national and non-profit organizations that help young people to start a business. © Foundation of International Studies, 2021 © CSR, 2021

Design and performance of novel self-cleaning g-C3N4/PMMA/PUR membranes

In the majority of photocatalytic applications, the photocatalyst is dispersed as a suspension of nanoparticles. The suspension provides a higher surface for the photocatalytic reaction in respect to immobilized photocatalysts. However, this implies that recovery of the particles by filtration or centrifugation is needed to collect and regenerate the photocatalyst. This complicates the regeneration process and, at the same time, leads to material loss and potential toxicity. In this work, a new nanofibrous membrane, g-C3N4/PMMA/PUR, was prepared by the fixation of exfoliated g-C3N4 to polyurethane nanofibers using thin layers of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The optimal amount of PMMA was determined by measuring the adsorption and photocatalytic properties of g-C3N4/PMMA/PUR membranes (with a different PMMA content) in an aqueous solution of methylene blue. It was found that the prepared membranes were able to effectively adsorb and decompose methylene blue. On top of that, the membranes evinced a self-cleaning behavior, showing no coloration on their surfaces after contact with methylene blue, unlike in the case of unmodified fabric. After further treatment with H2O2, no decrease in photocatalytic activity was observed, indicating that the prepared membrane can also be easily regenerated. This study promises possibilities for the production of photocatalytic membranes and fabrics for both chemical and biological contaminant control.Web of Science124art. no. 85