Tourism Firms' Strategic Flexibility: The Case of Slovenia

Strategic flexibility provides an approach for tourism destinations to respond more readily to turbulent environments. It is a management method that can assist tourism suppliers to meet the challenges of achieving competitive advantage. The paper also explores the importance that is accorded to the facilitators or drivers of strategic flexibility by Slovenian tourism industry stakeholders along with their performance in actioning these drivers. Importance performance analysis suggests the priority strategic actions to reduce the risk of strategic drift. The paper concludes with an assessment of the implications of these findings for emerging destinations generally. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Experiencing violence among elite athletes in Slovenia: case study of taekwon-do

S pričujočo magistrsko nalogo, v kateri smo obravnavali doživljanje nasilja med vrhunskimi športniki v Sloveniji na primeru borilne veščine taekwon-do, neolimpijske različice ITF, smo želeli opozoriti na vse večji pojav problematike športnega nasilja nasploh ter tudi na treningih borilnih veščin. Razlog temu vidimo v naravnanosti današnje družbe, ki posledično vpliva tudi na športdružba promovira tekmovalnost med ljudmi in zmagovanje (biti najboljši, doseči rekord), zato je tudi trenažni sistem prilagojen pehanju za uspehom. Treningi v vrhunskem športu so tako prvenstveno osredotočeni v dosego zmage ali rekorda, ne glede na ceno, ki jo bo takšna zmaga zahtevala, ne pa na dobrobit športnika, ki žal postaja vse bolj postranskega pomena. V teoretičnem delu naloge smo s pomočjo pregleda domače in tuje literature predstavili teoretične poglede na šport in splošno problematiko nasilja, posebno pozornost pa smo namenili glavni temi pričujočega dela - nasilju v športu ter njegovim pojavnim oblikam. Za boljšo predstavo smo nekatere teoretične poglede avtorjev podkrepili tudi z ugotovitvami empiričnih raziskav. Pri predstavitvi glavne obravnavane problematike smo izhajali iz znanih primerov nasilja v športu, ki se največkrat pojavljajo v športu nasploh, dodali pa smo tudi primere lastnih opazovanj in izkušenj. S pomočjo kvantitativne empirične raziskave smo analizirali dejanski obseg doživetega nasilja med reprezentanti taekwon-doja, pri čemer smo se primarno osredotočili na doživljanje nasilja s strani reprezentančnih trenerjev. S pomočjo izvedene raziskave smo ugotovili, da tekmovalci na reprezentančnih treningih skoraj nikoli niso oziroma so le redkokdaj doživljali nasilje reprezentančnih trenerjev, kljub temu pa podrobnejši rezultati kažejo na prevlado telesnega nasilja nad psihičnim in spolnim nasiljem. Tekmovalci takšno vedenje, ki po definiciji pomeni nasilje nad športniki (bolečine, poškodbe, treningi kljub poškodbi), dojemajo kot sestavni del vrhunskega športnega udejstvovanja. Ob tem pa je zanimiva ugotovitev, da obstajajo razlike v dojemanju nasilja glede na spol in starostizsledki kažejo, da ženske in starejši tekmovalci bolj kritično presojajo različne situacije fizičnega, psihičnega in spolnega nasilja. Dobljeni izsledki raziskave tako prispevajo k večji ozaveščenosti o problematiki pojava nasilja v športa nasploh, predvsem pa v borilni veščini taekwon-do.In present master\u27s thesis, experiencing violence among elite athletes in Slovenia in the case of a martial art called taekwon-do, a non-Olympic version (ITF) has been addressed. This thesis points to an increasingly higher problem of sport violence at training sessions of martial arts and in general. The reason for this can be seen in the attitude of today\u27s society, which affects sports as well. The society promotes competitiveness and winning (being the best, breaking the record), which is why the training system has adapted to pursuing success. Training sessions are thus focused on victory or breaking the record in high-level sports no matter the price of such a victory, instead on the welfare of the athlete, which is losing importance. The theoretical part introduces various views on sport and general violence issues with an overview of Slovenian and foreign literature, concentrating on the main topic of the present thesis, that is violence in sports and its manifestations. For increased understanding, the theoretical views of authors have been supported by findings of empirical research. In introducing the main question of consideration known cases of violence in sports, which emerge in sports most often, have been analysed. Furthermore, personal observation and experience has also been added to the thesis. Quantitative empirical research was used to analyse the actual extent of violence within the taekwon-do national team, whereby the primary focus was put on experiencing violence from national team\u27s coaches. The research helped find out that competitors at national team training sessions did not or have rarely experienced violence from coaches, although more detailed results point to physical violence being more prevalent than psychological and sexual violence. Competitors perceive such behaviour, which is defined as violence towards sportspeople (pain, injury, training sessions despite injury), as a part of high-level sporting activities. In particular, it is interesting to observe the differences in perceiving violence based on age and gender. The results show that women and older competitors are more critical towards different occurrences of physical, psychological and sexual violence. The results of the research thus contribute to greater awareness of the problem of violence in sports in general, and especially in taekwon-do

MARKING THE WEB DOCUMENTS BY KEYWORDS BASED ON THEIR CONTENT

Kadar potrebujemo določene informacije, le-te največkrat iščemo na spletu, kar pa je ob poplavi različnih spletnih strani včasih teţje najti tisto stran, ki bi kar najbolje podala ţelene informacije. Večkrat se namreč zgodi, da spletna stran, ki jo iščemo sicer obstaja, vendar pa je spletni iskalniki ne najdejo. Vidnost spletne strani na spletnih iskalnikih je torej zelo pomembna, zato smo se odločili, da poskušamo izboljšati vidnost spletne strani, namenjene knjigi Programi za logistike. V prvem delu diplomskega dela smo predstavili teoretične osnove spletnih dokumentov, spletnih iskalnikov in optimizacije spletnih strani za iskalnike. Pojasnili smo tudi, zakaj je pomembna pozicija spletne strani na iskalnikih ter zakaj je pomembno označevanje spletnih dokumentov s ključnimi besedami. V drugem delu diplomskega dela smo predstavili prvotno stanje spletne strani, nato pa smo teoretično znanje prenesli v prakso in se lotili prenove strani, na koncu pa smo predstavili še rezultate prenove, ki smo jih pridobili z uporabo različnih programskih orodij.When we need certain information, we often search them online. But there is usually a flood of various websites, so it is a little bit harder to find the one that would contain the desired information. It often happens that a website we are looking for exists, but the search engines are not able to find it because of different reasons. Because the visibility of websites on search engines is very important, we decided to try to improve the visibility of webpage, which is dedicated to book Programi za logistike. In the first part of the thesis, we present the theoretical basis of web documents, search engines and search engine optimization. We also explained why position of website is important and why it is important to mark the web document with keywords. In the second part of the thesis, we presented webpage at the beginning, then we started the renovation by transferring theoretical knowledge into practice. In the end we have presented the results of the renovation, which we have gained by using different software tools

Capacity to act in person in civil litigation

Civilni pravdni postopek je postopek, kjer sta v ospredju stranki, tožnik in toženec. Stranka je tisti, ki zahteva od sodišča pravno varstvo določene vsebine ter tisti, proti kateremu tožnik zahteva pravno varstvo. Za potek postopka zakon zahteva, da ima stranka izpolnjene pogoje za sposobnost biti stranka, pravdno sposobnost in postulacijsko sposobnost. Postulacijska sposobnost je sposobnost dati procesnim dejanjem pravno relevantno obliko. Gre za predpostavko opravljanja procesnih dejanj, ki jo sodišče upošteva po uradni dolžnosti. Če postulacijska sposobnost ni podana, gre za absolutno bistveno kršitev postopka. Zakon o pravdnem postopku v 86. členu določa, da smejo stranke opravljati pravdna dejanja osebno ali po pooblaščencu. V postopkih pred prvostopenjskem sodiščem lahko stranke opravljajo procesna dejanja same ali po pooblaščencu. Uveljavljen je t.i. sistem popolne postulacijske sposobnosti. Če ima stranka pooblaščenca, lahko sodišče v posebnih primerih zahteva od nje, da se sama izjavi o določenih dejstvih, ki jih je potrebno ugotoviti v pravdi. To pomeni, da ima pred sodiščem na prvi stopnji vsaka stranka postulacijsko sposobnost, drugače pa je v postopku z izrednimi pravnimi sredstvi. V postopku z izrednimi pravnimi sredstvi lahko stranka opravlja pravdna dejanja samo po pooblaščencu, ki je odvetnik. Izjemoma lahko opravlja procesna dejanja sama, če ima opravljen pravniški državni izpit ali če ga ima opravljenega njen zakoniti zastopnik. V Sloveniji je tako uveljavljeno obvezno zastopanje po odvetnikih. Takšno ureditev imamo predvsem zaradi javnega interesa, prav tako pa je obvezno zastopanje po odvetnikih v korist strank samih. Pripomore k manjši obremenjenosti sodišč in k hitrejšem reševanjem sporov, hkrati pa pomaga strankam pri uspešnem uveljavljanju njihovih interesov, ker v večini primerov stranke same niso dovolj vešče prava. Vloge sestavljene s strani odvetnikov so preglednejše, procesno gradivo jasneje opredeljeno, kar pripomore k hitrejšim postopkom in boljši kakovosti sojenja. Na takšen način se prepreči tudi, da so vložene očitno neutemeljene tožbe in tako ne obremenjujejo že preobremenjenih sodišč.Civil litigation is a procedure based on two clients: the plaintiff and the defendant. The plaintiff requires from the court legal protection of some content. The defendant is a person against whom the legal protection is required. Each party has to fulfill the conditions for three important capacities: capacity to be a party, capacity to sue and capacaty to act in person. Capacaty to act in person is an ability to give to one\u27s own procedural acts a legally relevant shape in civile proceedings. The court in Slovenia has to check ex officio, if the conditions of being capable to act in person in civil proceedings are fulfilled. The violation of this rules means an absolute violation of the litigation provision. Slovenian Code of Civil Procedure provides in article 86., that the parties are allowed to participate in civil procedure by themselves or by the assigne. In the proceeding at first instance court the parties are allowed to perform in the civil procedure on their own or they can have the assigne. But at the proceedings with the extraordinary remedies they can only be represented by the lawyer. They can also represent themselves if they have successfully passed the bar examination or if their legal representative passed it. So in Slovenia we have a system of obligatory representation by lawyers. We have it mainly because of the state interests, but it is also in the interest of the parties. It helps with the congestion of courts and with faster dispute resolutions. But on the other hand it is also in the interest of parties, so they can more successfully defend their interests, because the parties themselves are not as familiar with legal terms and rules, as the lawyers are. Lawsuits filed by lawyers are more accurate and precise, that helps with faster procedures and better quality of trial

Silver Fir (Abies alba L.) Polyphenolic Extract Shows Beneficial Influence on Chondrogenesis In Vitro under Normal and Inflammatory Conditions

Several plant polyphenols have been shown to reduce osteoarthritis symptoms due to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. We investigated the effects of two different polyphenolic extracts (Belinal, Pycnogenol) and two different polyphenols (resveratrol, quercetin) on the chondrogenic potential of bone-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) from healthy donors and patients with osteoarthritis. Our main aim was to determine whether Belinal, a commercially available polyphenolic extract from silver fir (Abies alba L.) branches, has comparable chondrogenic potential with the other tested extract and the polyphenols under inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions. In our study, Belinal promoted significantly greater chondrogenesis compared to the untreated (p = 0.0289) and resveratrol-treated (p = 0.0468) MSCs from patients with hip osteoarthritis under non-inflammatory conditions. Under inflammatory conditions, chondrogenesis was significantly enhanced for MSCs treated with Belinal compared to the control (p = 0.0483). The other extract and the polyphenols did not show any significant effects on chondrogenesis under non-inflammatory or inflammatory conditions. None of the tested extracts and polyphenols showed significant effects on chondrogenesis in healthy donors, under either non-inflammatory or inflammatory conditions. Our data show that Belinal can boost the chondrogenesis of MSCs derived from patients with osteoarthritis, under both non-inflammatory and inflammatory conditions

Effect of Dietary Polyphenols on Osteoarthritis—Molecular Mechanisms

Osteoarthritis is a common crippling and degenerative disease resulting in irreversible functional changes due to damage of the cartilage and other tissues of the joint. With limited safe and effective pharmaceutical treatments, the demand and use for alternative therapeutic approaches with symptomatic relief for OA patients have increased. Clinical, pre-clinical, and in vitro studies have demonstrated that polyphenols can exert pain-relieving symptoms coupled with increased functional capacity in OA models. This review will highlight studies carried out in the last five years to define the efficacies and underlying mechanisms in polyphenols such as quercetin, resveratrol, curcumin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, rosmarinic acid, genistein, ginger, berries, silver fir, pine bark, and Boswellia. Most of these studies indicate that polyphenols exhibit their beneficial roles through regulating changes at the biochemical and molecular levels, inducing or inhibiting various signaling pathways related to inflammation and oxidative stress. Polyphenols have also been implicated in modulating microRNA at the posttranscriptional level to counteract OA pathogenesis