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The paper provides some of the interim results of the Fifth Framework PRISMA project dealing with the of impact ICT on government and citizen services in Europe. The analysis and the concept description of long-term strategies for eGovernment and a long-term vision over 10 years for eGovernment are described. Activities performed by the government are analysed from the demand ("front office") and supply ("back office") point of view. Recommendations for long-term strategic decisions are based on three scenarios of the future European development till 2010: (1) "Prosperous and just Europe", (2) "Turbulent world", (3) "Recession and reorientation".

Nowadays, many enterprises face the problem of implementing their enterprise information system in order to keep pace with their competition. It holds generally for all types of enterprises, as e.g. manufacturing, agricultural, trading, financial, transportation, educational, etc. This paper deals with the basic rules for building an information system of the enterprise, particularly of medium or large ones. The attention is focussed at the problems each enterprise must address before starting an IS project. These are mainly the enterprise information policy planning, project feasibility and forms of its management.

The article provides an overview of software applications designed and available for Czech farmers according to two criteria: business function within which the decisions are facilitated, and type of decision-making support the application is built on. The survey shows that most of the applications have a rather narrow focus facilitating only one business function, often only part of it, and that the applications are mostly data-driven, while the vast expertise in the field of agriculture is somewhat neglected.

For choosing the best decision in daily agricultural practice, it is very important to formalize the decision process using systems analysis and mathematical methods. Theory of the decision-making under uncertainty or under risk supposes one criterion. In practice, the best solution is chosen under more decision criteria. Decision problem with m alternatives, n states of nature and k criteria has to be solved in this case. Application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for solution of this problem is described in this paper.

The article deals with the identification and categorisation of economic power of Slovak regions on the base of collecting of unemployment support payment from the employers, employees, and natural persons entrepreneurs into the employment fund. The analysis shows that during the last years, the number of rich regions has decreased and there rises the number of counties which have to be supported by the division of means from the rich counties. The article consequently categorises the development of economically strong and weak counties of Slovakia in the years 1999-2002 and marks the causes of regional polarisation of Slovakia, lying in its economic and structural difficulties. Alongside increasing the regional polarisation in the rate of unemployment, there continues to rise the re-distribution of funds for labour-market policy from the economically stronger regions to the economically weaker regions, which are reliant on socio-spatial solidarity. The course of economic transformation up to date has had significantly different regional impacts and creates unequal chances for people as well as businesses in the afflicted areas.

The objective of the article is to describe the possibilities of the rural development in the Bratislava region. The rural region is represented by 71 municipalities in districts Malacky, Pezinok, Senec and by parts of the city Bratislava - Záhorská Bystrica, Vajnory, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo. The analyses of the rural region are the segments of the Single Programming Document (SPD) for the 2004-2006. It aims to support the areas with the main economic and social problems according the Goal 2. The article deals with the development possibilities in industry, market services, tourism and agriculture. The branch structure, main economic parameters of effectiveness and production, employment, wages are analysed in period 1999-2002. The article contains also the results of SWOT analysis and the short-term activities to supporting rural development.

Measurement of business performance by using the value of a firm represents a modern tool of financial management. The paper deals with this problem and discusses basic methodological approaches to the determination of farm's value, especially by means of methods based on the estimation of future revenues.

The economic evaluation of agricultural enterprises in mountain and sub-mountain areas in South Bohemia results from a financial analysis. Financial ratios enable to identify and measure the state and development of individual economic aspects of these enterprises and their synthesis through solvency model makes financial health possible to be elicited.

Goal of the paper is to identify opportunities and threats following from the European integration process and influencing the agribusiness entities in the accession country - Slovak Republic. These topics have begun one of the current themes connected with the approaching date of the Slovak Republic accession to the European Union. It is related to the fact, that agrarian but mostly food processing markets have their own specificities, appearing with their typical high sensitivity to the outside environment influence and strong enterprise motivation to competition. In the paper, there are also outlined tasks for business management to analyze external environment, to identify the decisive strengths and weaknesses, to overcome difficulties to adopt European standards and to use opportunities in a wider market place.

The paper focuses on identification of the current key movement forces in wine-production industry in the Czech Republic, and its goal is to analyse these key influences, and to identify the most important ones (long term industry growth-rate, technological changes, regulation influences and changes of government policy, and changes of societal priorities and life style). Based on the identified key factors influencing future development and changes in this industry, recommendations for firms are formulated.

The article deals with characteristics of local communities and rural regions. Local communities are defined both according to the standards of population density and the number of inhabitants. In the article, there are treated especially the indicators of population development (balance of migration), economic activities of the inhabitants, unemployment rates, structures of the population according to the sector of national economy and the indicators of education. These indicators have been calculated on the basis of data of the Census 2001, municipal and regional statistics and the Department of Employment data concerning the unemployment rate.

The paper tackles the issue of regional and social development. From a sociological point of view, it focuses on the phenomenon of complementary currency systems. The analysis shows that money, as a social institution, has got certain features, which have an impact on economic behavior of people. Establishing a currency on the local level, which would circulate as a complement of the national currency, brings certain social benefits to local society. Nowadays, there are many complementary currency systems all over the world, including Europe. The paper attempts to answer the question, how they can contribute to the local development.

Diagnostics of business subjects from the field of agriculture and food-processing, which are understood as socio-economic units, serves to determine the health of subjects considering them to be live organisms. These entrepreneurial subjects go through their development stages and their real-time status corresponds with the homeostasis of the business systems and the environment. The resulting diagnosis determined by diagnostic methods has to help to reach the goals, which - based on the activities of the business - lead to generation of an appropriate reaction to the identified status of the diagnosed business. Goal-setting is preceded by determination of the "a posteriori" anamnesis or diagnosis of the business.

Based on extensive literature review, the characteristics of a learning organisation are depicted as a starting point to define a pragmatic tool to assess the level to which an organisation meets the individual characteristics of learning organisation. The tool is designed as a matrix combining eight characteristics of learning organisation with four improvement levels including feedback loop. This tool has been tested in 9 organisations and the examples of information gathered through this exercise are provided and discussed.

The goal of the paper is to identify opportunities following from the use of theory of modern marketing in the business practice in terms to reach competitiveness in the global food market. The paper analyses in details the competitive advantages related to individual marketing tools as well as using some up-to-date marketing tactics with the goal to attract a customer. In addition to the most effective use of marketing tools, we define the role of marketing in the global market space and distinguish the local, regional and global extend of marketing activities.

Of about 100 Lactuca species, there are only 22 represented in world gene bank collections. The description of morphological and other important features of wild lettuce accessions and a correct taxonomic ranging increase their potential successful utilization. A broad study of 22 wild Lactuca species, their morphology, anatomy, karyology, DNA content and isozyme variation, and a search of large number of literature sources (description keys, floras, monographs) provided a base for an elaboration of a descriptor set. This set consists of 88 descriptors and 24 of them are elucidated by figures. It provides a tool for Lactuca species characterization and determination and for a discrimination of an infraspecific variation. Obtained data can be used for description of wild Lactuca genetic resources and also for research purposes.

Differences in reactions to infection and different development of Plum pox virus (PPV) symptoms were observed in leaves and fruits of one hundred sixty-five apricot and seventy-nine peach cultivars and hybrids. A very broad spectrum of reactions from high susceptibility to high resistance and immunity was proved in apricot cultivars and hybrids and the results were published (Polák et al. 1997). A much narrower spectrum of reactions was proved in peach cultivars. Relative concentrations of PPV by ELISA in flowers, intensity of virus symptoms in leaves and fruits of peach cultivars were evaluated. The relative concentration of PPV coat protein (PPV-CP) in flowers was found to be positively correlated with the intensity of leaf and fruit symptoms in most cultivars. On the basis of obtained results cultivars of peaches were divided into four groups and classified as medium resistant, tolerant, medium susceptible and susceptible to PPV. None of the investigated cultivars was immune, highly resistant or resistant to PPV. Eighteen peach cultivars were classified to be medium resistant to PPV. Nine peach cultivars were characterized as tolerant to PPV, with high relative concentration of PPV-CP protein in flowers and mild symptoms in leaves and fruits. Twenty-seven peach cultivars were characterized as medium susceptible to PPV. Twenty-five peach cultivars were rated as susceptible to PPV. It is recommended to grow medium resistant peach cultivars in the areas where PPV is widely distributed.

The presence and distribution of PPV-M strain of Plum pox virus were investigated in selected orchards of apricots and peaches in the Czech Republic. PPV-M was found to be distributed in apricot and peach orchards planted with nursery material imported from abroad. The presence of PPV-M was not proved in orchards planted with trees from local nurseries. The absence of PPV-M in a majority of spontaneous PPV hosts was proved previously. PPV-M strain appears to have been introduced recently.

The occurrence of powdery mildew after heavy spontaneous infections was evaluated on 2,500 apple seedlings of 54 progenies that were derived from crosses made in 1993 and 1994. At the same time, the response to mildew was also assessed on 47 cultivars or selections that were used as parents for the crosses. Scores of the strongest infestation were used for final ranking of every seedling or parent. The highest proportions (33 and 28%) of seedlings with complete resistance to mildew were attained in 2 progenies involving parents transmitting monogenic resistance to the pathogen. A few seedlings with this resistance were also found in other 7 progenies. Seedlings with partial resistance to mildew were distributed in the highest proportions (about 30%) among 7 progenies. In 6 out of these progenies, always one parent was derived from partially resistant selections that were selected in the first generation from the cross Spätblühender Taffetapfel × Court Pendu Plat. A very close relationship was found between mid-scores of parents and mean response to powdery mildew infection in progenies. Seedlings on average were significantly more infested than their parents. Progenies determined to have a columnar growth habit were somewhat less infested than progenies possessing a standard growth pattern only. This study revealed considerable improvement of some donors transmitting partial resistance to powdery mildew.

In the present paper the knowledge of evaluation of the health condition of Castanea sativa (Mill.) in forest stands was summarised. It was found out that the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr damaged the coppices until 60 years. Degree of damage (I_hc) in the evaluated localities ranged from 1.11 to 3.50. Between 1992 and 2001 the biological protection in orchards by the method of hypovirulent converted strains from France was used. This method had not been used in forest stands until then. The efficiency of canker treatment ranged from 38.9% to 64.9%. On the basis of genetic variability of C. parasitica isolates they were classified into 4 vegetative-compatible (v-c) groups.

Possibilities of herbicide applications to the self-heal (Prunella vulgaris L.) growth were tested in 1997-1998. Experiments showed that the application of pre-emergence herbicides in the Prunella vulgaris L. growth was efficient when 3 l/ha ofherbicide with 500 g/lisoproturon as an active ingredient were used. Herbicide applications had no influence on the emergence rate of direct seeding. Among the post-emergence herbicides it is possible to use glyphosate-IPA in 50% concentration by the wick applicator to Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski. The results of these experiments can be used as a basis for testing the herbicide biological efficacy in the framework of minority indications for cultivated medicinal plants. .

Nine identification RAPD markers (Moravcová et al. 2003) were used to distinguish 24 clones and grapevine cultivars. No polymorphism was detected among all the tested clones of Chardonnay, Pinot gris and Zweigeltrebe from Polešovice. Pinot noir, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc and Pinot Meunier were indistinguishable within clones, they also showed the identical RAPD profile within cultivars (except discussed sample No. 26). On the other hand, Auxerrois as a relative to cultivars of Pinot group showed unique patterns and may be classified as a different cultivar. Some irregularities within the cultivars of Pinot family from Oblekovice were also found, several of them gave different results from those expected: Pinot blanc sample 26 has the RAPD profile typical of Chardonnay. A new abnormal RAPD pattern as a marker of typical Chardonnay and Pinot profiles was observed in two cases. While RAPD banding patterns could not distinguish between the known clones, they were useful for distinguishing between phenotypically similar cultivars and for assessing the origins of cultivars thought to have originated as sports.

In the years 1999-2000, I studied damage to transplants in the planting and wildlings in the natural seeding at the locality Zamrlô in the Starohorské vrchy Mts. (750-1,000 m a.s.l., NE exposure, forest type Abieto-Fagetum). Damage to the woody plants by the mammals and birds in the planting was much higher (14%) than in the natural seeding (7%). All woody plant species were also more damaged in the planting (spruce 16%, larch 9%, fir 24%, beech 10%, and sycamore 10%) than in the natural seeding (spruce 7%, larch 6%, fir 10%, beech 7%, and sycamore 9%). There were found 8 mammals that damaged woody plants both in the planting and natural seeding (Apodemus sp., Capreolus capreolus L., Cervus elaphus L., Clethrionomys glareolus SCHREB., Lepus europaeus L., Microtus agrestis L., Microtus arvalis PALL., Sciurus vulgaris L.). Only one bird species was found to damage woody plants in the planting and natural seeding (Tetrao urogallus L.).

Root decay infection and potential relations to Ips typographus L. outbreaks in the Šumava Mts. (Bohemian Forest) were monitored in 3 permanent sample plots. As an originator of root decays honey fungus predominated, in particular cases Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. was also recorded. As for honey fungus species, Armillaria ostoyae (Romagn.) Herink predominated, however, A. cepistipes Velenovský and A. borealis Marxmüller et Korhonen were also determined. Other wood-destroying fungi were also recorded, e.g. Stereum sanguinolentum (ALB. & SCHW.: FR.) FR. and Climacocystis borealis (FR.) KOTL. Although Armillaria foci were localized directly in a forest edge after bark beetle disaster, it is not possible to state definite relationships between Ips typographus L. invasion and root system infection by Armillaria. The found out rate of infection is, with respect to an altitude over 1,100 m, extremely high not corresponding to existing knowledge on the behaviour of Armillaria in the region of Central Europe. The extent of Norway spruce infection by Armillaria ostoyae (Romagn.) Herink can give evidence of the chronic stress load of spruce trees in the area.

Yellowing of Norway spruce is a relatively common problem in many regions of the Czech Republic. At some places, it is also connected with forest decline. This unfavourable phenomenon is initiated by several ecological as well as anthropogenic processes. One of the most important is the imbalance of forest stand nutrition. Particular reasons lead to nutrient deficiency, especially deficiency of magnesium. Solution to this undesirable trend is a profound ecological analysis and cause-oriented treatments. Besides decreasing air pollution impacts, fertilisation with deficient nutrients represents a successful treatment in the forest stand management in affected areas. In the area of interest, application of relatively small amounts of appropriate fertiliser (SILVAMIX Mg) led to considerable improvement in the defoliation dynamics and yellowing progress since the first year after application.

The paper deals with the occurrence, development, natural enemies and harmfulness of a heteroecious aphid Eriosoma (= Schizoneura) ulmi (L.) which showed outbreaks in elm Ulmus glabra Huds. in Moravia in 2002. At main localities under study in Bílovice nad Svitavou and Brno-Jundrov, the aphid damaged about 63% leaves. Larvae of fundatrices hatched from mid-April and their development from hatching to maturity took about 14 days. Mature fundatrices occurred in May and reproduced for a period of 14 days. Their average physiological fecundity amounted to 311 larvae and ecological fecundity 291 larvae. Migrantes alatae occurred in galls from 18 May to 15 June and their physiological fecundity was about 22 larvae. Leaves were damaged even by 3 galls of an average length of 41 and width 11 mm. Sucking affected on average 11 cm², i.e. 27% (in case of the occurrence of 2 or 3 even 100%) leaf area. Natural enemies killed 90% aphids. A bug Anthocoris confusus Reut. killing aphids in 80% galls was the most effective control agent. Its eggs occurred from 25 April to 25 May and nymphs from 3 May to 25 June. Larvae of Syrphidae [mainly Syrphus ribesii (L.)] killed the aphids in 4 and birds in 6% galls. E. ulmi should be considered to be an important occasional pest of orchards and forests.

An analysis was made of the present situation concerning game appreciation in the Czech Republic. A study was conducted into effective laws and regulations related to the valuation of nature. There is no legally binding directive for game appreciation in the Czech Republic at the present time. A questionnaire method (Contingent Valuation Method - CVM) was used to survey the activities of all 87 authorised experts in game management currently registered in the Czech Republic. It was found out that the game is appreciated as property, which contradicts to its legal status (res nullius). The most frequently used methods of game appreciation are a yield (demand) method and a comparative method. It is necessary to establish legal conditions under which the social value of all game species and other wildlife could be determined in order to ensure their survival and to strengthen the tools of their protection. The legislation in force authorises the Ministries of Agriculture and of the Environment of the Czech Republic to issue a relevant decree.

The paper deals with the determination of the rate of damage by deer barking and browsing, the subsequent rot caused by Stereum sanguinolentum and the rate of its progress, elucidates causes of damage and quantifies volume and financial losses in the region of Forest Range Mořkov, Forest District Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. In the most damaged 2^nd age class, decay by Stereum sanguinolentum was recorded in 59% of damaged trees. The progress of rot ranged from 1 to 70 cm/year. The high number of red deer is considered to be the main reason of extensive damage by bark stripping in the Forest Range Mořkov. The actual financial loss caused by depreciation of wood by the rot is greatest in the 5^th age class amounting to CZK 64,320 per ha.

The paper is focused on logistics. The importance of the logistic chain management is emphasized as it becomes a crucial competitive success factor. The total corporate costs and customer service quality are dependent on the structure and communication within this chain. Using a concrete example, several results of the establishment of the logistic approach in the woodworking industry are mentioned in the paper. It has to be emphasized that the application of the logistic principles in the industry has its own specificities arising mainly from the biological character of processes providing and manufacturing the basis resource. A solution of the supply - purchase chain is provided on the basis of an example of the company Dřevovýroba.