Tomas Bata University in Zlín
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Do owner-manager demographics in SMEs matter for corporate social responsibility?
Get PDFResearch background: According to the EU agenda, CSR should be considered an integral element of the current organizational strategy, including SMEs. While the debate continues about the optimal approach for successful CSR adaptation in SME, yet there is a need to shed light on the impact of owner-manager's demographics on CSR practices. Purpose of the article: The paper aims to examine whether owner-manager's demographics (age, gender, education) matter for the implementation of CSR or not. Methods: The study is based on a questionnaire filled in by owner-managers of SMEs operating in Czechia (454) and Slovakia (368). Factor analysis and nonparametric methods are used to test the hypotheses. Findings & value added: This study shows that the relationships between CSR and ownermanager's demographics are not alike between Slovakia and Czechia. Compared to owners, the evidence shows that the Czech managers are more oriented toward the CSR practices, while in Slovakia there is no difference. Such finding can be explained by Hofstede culture difference. In addition, analysis demonstrates that female Slovaks are more oriented to CSR than men, while it is not true in Czechia. Moreover, Czech individuals who graduated in the same field as their business are more oriented to the CSR, whereas in Slovakia this is not. In addition, young and old Slovak entrepreneurs are more oriented to the CSR than those 35-55 years old, manifesting a U-shape type of relationship. The originality of this work is manifested by the fact that it enriches the literature since it is among the first studies to analyze the relationships between ownermanager's demographics and CSR in the SME segment for Czechia and Slovakia.Vedecká Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR a SAV, VEGA: 1/0364/22VEGA project [1/0364/22
Substantial drop of plasticizer migration from polyvinyl chloride catheters using co-extruded thermoplastic polyurethane layers
Get PDFThe flexibility and required softness of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) -one of the most widely used polymeric materials for medical device production- is achieved by the addition of an appropriate amount of plasticizer (up to 40 %) into the polymer matrix. As plasticizers are not chemically bound to PVC they can easily migrate to surrounding media such as saliva, blood, plasma or serum resulting in undesirable toxic effects. Migrations of plasticizers from PVC can be significantly suppressed by embedding plasticized PVC into another -'less harmful'polymer, thus preventing its direct contact with the surrounding media. Co-extruded TPU/PVC/TPU catheters were prepared with various thicknesses of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) layers to evaluate the retarding effect of the protective TPU layer on releasing bis(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate plasticizer (the only one approved by European Pharmacopoeia). A substantial difference was found in the migration of plasticizer from non-coated and coated (three-layer) catheters into a saline solution and acetonitrile which was dependent on the time exposed to the concentration of released plasticizer determined simultaneously by reverse-phase liquid chromatographic technique and weight loss analysis. The results proved that the TPU inner and outer layers represent an efficient protective barrier and significantly reduce amounts of released plasticizer.RP/CPS/2022/001, RP/CPS/2022/003; Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy, MŠMT; Akademie Věd České Republiky, AV ČR: RVO 67985874Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic - DKRVO [RP/CPS/2022/003, RP/CPS/2022/001]; Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic [RVO 67985874
“Why don’t they participate?” Reasons for nonparticipation in adult learning and education from the viewpoint of selfdetermination theory
Get PDFThe study deals with the perceived reasons for nonparticipation in adult learning and education (ALE), drawing on existing research concerning the motivation for lifelong learning, adult attitudes towards education, and the study of dispositional barriers. The aim of the study is to determine the subjective reasons/Motivation of adults not to participate in ALE and what factors influence their nonparticipation. For this purpose, we drew on self-determination theory (SDT). Based on that we have created the research tool ''Motivation to Nonparticipation Scale" (IIMP-S), which measures three factors: extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and amotivation. The empirical research was conducted with a representative sample of adults (N = 943, age: 19 to 81 years) who had not participated in ALE. Contrary to theoretical assumptions of SDT, amotivated adults do not predominate among nonparticipants, with the main subjective reasons for nonparticipation based on intrinsic or extrinsic motivations.Grantová Agentura České Republiky, GA ČRCzech Science Foundation (GACR) through the project Blind Spots of Nonformal Education in the Czech Republic: Non-participants and their Social Worlds [GA_19-00987S
Semi-adaptive decentralized PI control of TITO system with parameters estimates quantization
No full textThe paper presents one method of decentralized control. It combines PI control, pre-identification and quantization of the identified parameters of the system model. Controller parameters were computed using stability boundary locus. Parameters of the controlled system were pre-identified using least squares method from the response for each combination of requested values. Changes of the parameters estimates of the system were realized from the previous ones using three quantized values between them. The method was verified on the system with three inputs and three outputs with interactions realized by P-structure of the model. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The impact of emotionally competent stimuli on language lexis retention
Get PDFThe objective of this study was to determine whether or not positive emotional stimuli enhance the learning of new foreign language vocabulary among learners with different learning styles. The stimuli were presented in English classes to the experimental group for eight weeks. Vocabulary knowledge was tested in the control and experimental groups before and after the intervention. Participants’ learning styles were detected by a validated questionnaire. The findings revealed an increase of vocabulary knowledge among all participants, with nearly double the improvement in the experimental group. The highest vocabulary increase was detected among learners with a musical learning style. © 2022, Slovenska Vzdelavacia Obstaravacia. All rights reserved.Ministerstvo školstva, vedy, výskumu a športu Slovenskej republiky; Kultúrna a Edukacná Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR, KEGA: 002UKF-4/202
Mechanical strain and electric-field modulation of graphene transistors integrated on MEMS cantilevers
Get PDFThis work proposes a structure which allows characterization of graphene monolayers under combined electric field and mechanical strain modulation. Our approach is based on a cantilever integrated into a two-dimensional graphene-based Field effect transistor (FET). This allows us to change graphene properties either separately or together via two methods. The first way involves electric field induced by the gate. The second is induction of mechanical strain caused by external force pushing the cantilever up or down. We fabricated devices using silicon-on-insulator wafer with practically zero value of residual stress and a high-quality dielectric layer which allowed us to precisely characterize structures using both mentioned stimuli. We used the electric field/strain interplay to control resistivity and position of the charge neutrality point often described as the Dirac point of graphene. Furthermore, values of mechanical stress can be obtained during the preparation of thin films, which enables the cantilever to bend after the structure is released. Our device demonstrates a novel method of tuning the physical properties of graphene in silicon and/or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology and is thus promising for tunable physical or chemical sensors. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.Grantová Agentura České Republiky, GA ČR: GJ18-06498Y; Vysoké Učení Technické v Brně, BUT: FEKT-S-20-6206; Central European Institute of Technology, CEITEC: LM2015041Grant Agency of the Czech RepublicGrant Agency of the Czech Republic [GJ18-06498Y]; CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (MEYS CR, 2016 2019) CEITEC Brno University of Technology [LM2015041]; Brno University of Technology [FEKT-S-20-6206
Flow-induced birefringence study of secondary flow in entrance region of rectangular slit channel for long-chain-branched polyethylene melt
Get PDFThis work presents an analysis of the inner boundary of the secondary flow (i.e., corner vortex flow) in the entrance region of a rectangular slit channel for long-chain-branched polyethylene melt evaluated using particle tracking and stress-induced birefringence measurements. Further, the flow-induced birefringence technique was used to investigate the effects of temperature and shear rate on the size of the secondary entry flow. Obtained results and trends were compared with the laser-Doppler velocimetry data taken from the open literature for the same polymer melt and comparable flow conditions. Interestingly, the results of both methods were very similar. This suggests that the stress-induced birefringence measurements may be a useful tool for investigating secondary entry flows of polymer melts.Grant Agency of the Czech RepublicGrant Agency of the Czech Republic [21-09174S
An efficient method for mining sequential patterns with indices
Get PDFIn recent years, mining informative data and discovering hidden information have become increasingly in demand. One of the popular means to achieve this is sequential pattern mining, which is to find informative patterns stored in databases. Its applications cover different areas and many methods have been proposed. Recently, pseudo-IDLists were proposed to improve both runtime and memory usage in the mining process. However, the idea cannot be directly used for sequential pattern mining as it only works on clickstream patterns, a more distinct type of sequential pattern. We propose adaptations and changes to the original idea to introduce SUI (Sequential pattern mining Using Indices). Comparing SUI with two other state-of-the-art algorithms on six test databases, we show that SUI has effective and efficient performance and memory usage. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001Internal Grant Agency of Tomas Bata University, Czech Republic [IGA/CebiaTech/2022/001]; Faculty of Applied Informatics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin (ailab.fai.utb.cz
Recent advances and current trends in brain-computer interface research and their applications
No full textBrain-computer interface (BCI) provides direct communication between the brain and an external device. BCI systems have become a trendy field of research in recent years. These systems can be used in a variety of applications to help both disabled and healthy people. Concerning significant BCI progress, we may assume that these systems are not very far from real-world applications. This review has taken into account current trends in BCI research. In this survey, 100 most cited articles from the WOS database were selected over the last 4 years. This survey is divided into several sectors. These sectors are Medicine, Communication and Control, Entertainment, and Other BCI applications. The application area, recording method, signal acquisition types, and countries of origin have been identified in each article. This survey provides an overview of the BCI articles published from 2016 to 2020 and their current trends and advances in different application areas.Internal Grant Agency [IGA/CebiaTech/2021/005]Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně: IGA/CebiaTech/2021/00
The impact of WOM on the acceptance of mobile banking
Get PDFPurpose: This study is focused on researching the impact of WOM on the acceptance of mobile banking. This research offers insights into factors that affect the implementation of mobile banking applications. Methodology: The research's inclusion was based on relevancy, authenticity, and reliability of information extracted from publication journals, and exclusion was based on non-relevancy and lack of authentic research. For the analyzes, consumer data were collected through a survey, and structural equations modelling, and path analysis were employed to test the research model. Findings: The findings showed that WOM was the critical factor influencing consumer perceptions towards mobile banking. WOM also positively affects other factors impacting mobile banking acceptance, such as Ease of use, Perceived usefulness, Social Norms, Trust, Attitude, and intention. Limitations: The most significant limitation of this study is that it only concentrates on internet users. Non-users are not considered. Value: Many researchers studied the number of effects on mobile banking, but this work's uniqueness is that this paper focuses on WOM impact on mobile banking adoption. Its impact factor is considered the main contribution of this research.Internal Grant Agency of FaME; TBU in Zlin [IGA/FaME/2020/002