INVESTMENT PROJECT SELECTION BY APPLYING COPRAS METHOD AND IMPRECISE DATA

Investment projects can have a significant impact on the functioning and development of acompany. Therefore, the selection of one or more investment projects from the set of possible is animportant and difficult task for decision makers. This paper considers the investment projectsselection based on financial analysis criteria and use of imprecise data. In the proposed model, thealternative projects performances are expressed using crisp and interval values, and then the bestproject from the available is selected by using COPRAS and COPRAS-G methods. A numericalexample is given to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach

Electrochemical Characterisation of Sol-Gel Derived SnO2 for Supercapacitor Application

Pseudocapacitive properties of SnO2 and Sb-doped SnO2 were determined in 0.5 mol dm–3 KCl solution. The samples were prepared by sol-gel method and analysed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE SEM). Rietveld refinement of XRPD data showed the changes in unit cell parameters due to the incorporation of Sb3+ into the host SnO2 lattice, while FE SEM pointed out the differences in morphology caused by doping. Specific capacitance values of 3.67 and 6.89 F g–1 were obtained for SnO2 and Sb-doped SnO2, respectively. Reaction mechanism of SnO2 that corresponds to the obtained mass change was proposed. It was shown that redox reactions of SnO2 and Sb-doped SnO2 are dependent on structural changes since different mass change properties were obtained in comparison to the previous reports carried out for other metal oxides. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

An integrated SWOT–extended PIPRECIA model for identifying key determinants of tourism development: The case of Serbia

This paper proposes a new integrated model based on SWOT and extended PIvot Pairwise RElative Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) that offers a systematic approach to strategic planning in tourism. The applicability of the proposed integrated model is demonstrated through a case study defining the main determinants of tourism development in Serbia. The result emphasizes the strategy Improving the organization, management, and enhancement of tourism development as the highest priority for implementation. The model facilitates decision-making in tourism, and its key advantages are its suitability for application in group decision-making and its simplicity

A multiple-criteria approach for the evaluation of comparative indicators of sustainable tourism

In this paper, a multiple-criteria approach has been applied to evaluate and rank types of development indicators of sustainable tourism. Groups of indicators whose comparison was presented through evaluation and prioritization are economy, the satisfaction of tourists, social and cultural elements, as well as environmental ones. The types of indicators discussed in the paper are designed to provide guidelines for measuring the degree of compliance. Using Pivot Pairwise Relatives Criteria Importance Assessment (PIPRECIA) method we have defined the evaluation of the mentioned indicators and their importance. The primary goal of the paper is to demonstrate the practical sides of the Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods in this sort of analysis while highlighting the most crucial sustainable tourism indicators

Wybór projektu ośrodka przy użyciu programowania kompromisowego

Serbia is a landlocked country deprived of the possibility of developing maritime tourism. On the other hand, it has the opportunity to develop the other types of tourism, such as: mountain tourism, spa tourism, rural tourism, etc. Serbia has to improve its tourism infrastructure in order to achieve better quality and meet tourists’ requirements. In that sense, it is necessary to enhance the number of the accommodation facilities that will meet set standards. The selection of the type of the accommodation facility, as well as its location, is a very delicate issue because the right choice influences future operations and revenue. Making a decision without considering the problem from every available aspect could lead to making the wrong decisions. Multiple Criteria Decision Making methods are imposed as the logical approach to solving problems in an effective manner. In this paper, the ranking and selection of the optimal resort project focused on the tourism development of Bačka and is performed using compromise programming.Wybór obiektu noclegowego i jego lokalizacji jest kwestią bardzo delikatną, ponieważ właściwy wybór ma wpływ na przyszłe operacje i przychody. Podjęcie decyzji bez rozważenia każdego możliwego aspektu tego zagadnienia może prowadzić do nieoczekiwanych rezultatów. Stosuje się metodę wielokryterialnego podejmowania decyzji (ang. multiple criteria decision making, MCDM), ponieważ logiczne podejście do skutecznego rozwiązywania problemów jest nieefektywne. W niniejszym artykule proponuje się zastosowanie programowania kompromisowego do wyboru optymalnego projektu ośrodka dla inwestycji. Zastosowanie tej metodologii ukazano na przykładzie czterech projektów resortów w Bačce, zachodniej Wojwodinie, w Serbii. Zostały one wybrane na podstawie sześciu kryteriów, których wagi są określane przy użyciu metody SWARA

Inflammatory cardiovascular risk markers and silent myocardial ischemia in type 2 diabetic patients

Background/Aim. A special feature of coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is that it is often a symptomatic and occurs as a consequence of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy. Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system is associated with elevated values of inflammatory markers such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and interleukin- 6 (IL-6), which accelerate atherosclerosis and the occurrence of cardiovascular complications in patients with T2DM. The aim of the study was to evaluate the importance of determining inflammatory cardiovascular risk markers IL-6 and hs-CRP in screening for the presence of CHD in asymptomatic patients with T2DM. Methods. The study included 169 patients with T2DM without any symptoms and signs of CHD. Ergometric testing proved or ruled out the presence of silent CHD. The levels of hs- CRP and IL-6 were determined by ELISA. Results. IL-6 values were significantly higher in patients with a positive ergometric test (6.83 ± 1.99 pg/mL) compared to patients with a negative ergometric test (3.04 ± 1.39 pg/mL) (p < 0.001). We also found that hs-CRP values in patients with a positive ergometric test were significantly higher compared to patients with a negative ergometric test (6.37 ± 2.25 vs 1.67 ± 1.41 mg/L; p < 0.001). Combinations of IL-6 and hs-CRP with age, HbA1c values, and duration of diabetes, presented through three binary logistic regression models, are significant predictors of silent CHD proven by ergometric testing, ie, with their increase, the probability of a positive ergometric test also increases (p < 0.01). The sensitivity of the associated finding of elevated IL-6 and hs-CRP values in the detection of silent CHD by ergometric testing was 90%, and the specificity was 86%. Conclusion. Hs-CRP and IL-6 are significant predictors of silent CHD, and their determination could be recommended for improving cardiovascular risk stratification in asymptomatic patients with T2DM

The Interface between the Brand of Higher Education and the Influencing Factors

The world is changing faster than ever before. Continuous changes are also affecting the higher education sector. The number of programs on offer is growing, attraction strategies are changing, and the branding and positioning of higher education institutions are gaining significance. The growing influence of social networks on personal choice cannot be ignored. Of the world’s population, 57% uses social networks and spends an average of 2.5 h a day on them. The most popular social network, Facebook, has up to 2.9 billion active users every month. Therefore, the questions arise as to which factors influence one or another consumer choice, how social networks contribute to brand awareness, and what impact brand has on the higher education sector. After systematic and comparative analysis of concepts published in the scientific literature, the analysis of brand, brand promotion concepts, and factors that increase brand awareness is performed. This study seeks to determine whether and to what extent individual factors influencing student motivation and social networking influence the distinctiveness of a higher education institution brand and how factors influencing student motivation and social networking affect the distinctiveness of higher education institutions’ brands in general. The results of this study can help higher education institutions to develop their own plans, strategies, and good practices. Research methods: systematic and comparative analysis of concepts and methods published in the scientific literature, mathematical and statistical methods, statistical processing, and expert survey

A New Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model for Sustainable Supplier Selection Based on a Novel Grey WISP and Grey BWM Methods

Supplier selection is an important task in supply chain management, as suppliers have a vital role in the success of organisations in a supply chain. Sustainability has emerged as a solution to decreasing resources and increasing environmental and social problems in the past few decades. It has been applied to various industrial operations, one of them is supplier selection, to mitigate unwanted effects in the future. Sustainable supplier selection is a complicated multi-criteria decision making problem, including several criteria from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. To deal with subjective judgements of decision makers, fuzzy and grey methods are widely used in multi-criteria decision making, In the case of small, limited, and incomplete data, the grey theory provides satisfactory results, compared to fuzzy methods. Therefore, this study is an integrated method including grey Best-Worst Method (BWM) and grey Weighted Sum-Product (WISP) for choosing the most sustainable supplier for a textile manufacturer, which includes three main criteria and twelve sub-criteria. According to the result of the proposed model, the supplier with the best performance was determined to be the supplier with the SP2 coded. The results of the developed model were shown to the experts, and the accuracy of the results was confirmed. According to the experts, a higher amount of product can be purchased from the supplier with the SP2 code, and a tighter relationship can be worked with this supplier. The contributions of this study are: (1) Develop a new grey MCDM model called Grey WISP. (2) Create a new integrated MCDM model with grey theory, BWM, and WISP methods that can be applied to assess supplier sustainability using this hybrid model. The proposed model can be used not just for selecting sustainable suppliers, but also for any other decision problems that have multiple criteria and alternatives. The findings suggest that the Grey WISP method achieved accurate results

Insulinska rezistencija, sistemska inflamacija i aterogeni faktori rizika kod bolesnika sa koronarnom bolešću i različitim hiperglikemijskim statusom

Uvod. Nedijagnostikovana hiperglikemija je česta kod bolesnika sa koronarnombolešću, koja je vodeći uzrok smrtnosti kod oboljelih od tipa 2 dijabetesa(T2DM). Nedovoljno je poznata povezanost blažih hiperglikemijskih stanja,kao što je predijabetes sa koronarnom bolešću. Cilj ove studije bio je uporeditikardiometabolički profil rizika i koronarne lezije kod bolesnika sa različitimporemećajima tolerancije na glukozu podvrgnutih koronarnoj angiografiji.Metode. Kod 106 bolesnika sa angiografski dijagnostikovanom koronarnombolešću, evaluiran je glikemijski status pomoću testa oralnog opterećenja glukozom(OGTT) na osnovu kojeg su klasifikovani u grupe sa normoglikemijom(NGT), predijabetesom (IGF/IGT) i dijabetesom tipa 2 (T2DM). Kod svih jeurađeno mjerenje tjelesne težine (TT), obima struka (OS), izračunat indekstjelesne mase (BMI), određeni lipidi, indeks insulinske rezistencije HOMA,insulin, hsCRP, albumin u urinu, broj signifikantnih koronarnih lezija (stenoza> 50%).Rezultati. Od 106 ispitanih bolesnika sa koronarnom bolešću 32,1% imaloje novootkriveni T2DM, 35,8% predijabetes i 32,1% normalnu tolerancijuglukoze. Nije bilo razlika između tri grupe koronarnih bolesnika u odnosuna pol, pušački status, tjelesnu masu, prisustvo hipertenzije i hereditet koronarnebolesti. Pacijenti sa T2DM u odnosu na pacijente sa normoglikemijomsu bili stariji (p = 0,036), imali veći obim struka (p = 0,028), BMI (p = 0,045) iHOMA-IR (p = 0,001). Vrijednosti ukupnog holesterola, LDL, HDL i triglicerida,hsCRP, albuminurije se nisu razlikovale između grupa. Nije nađenarazlika u učestalosti jednosudovne, dvosudovne, tro i više sudovne bolesti.Zaključak. Nađena je visoka učestalost dijabetesa i predijabetesa u populacijipacijenata sa stabilnom hroničnom koronarnom bolešću. Nađena je povezanostgojaznosti, naročito centralne, starosti i insulinske rezistencije sa T2DM, štopotvrđuje ulogu ovih faktora u nastanku bolesti

Albuminurija i intima-media kompleks karotidnih arterija kao surogat markeri ateroskleroze kod pacijenata sa tipom 2 dijabetesa

Uvod. Kliničko procjenjivanje aterosklerotskih komplikacija u tipu 2 dijabetesmelitusa (DM) je preusmjereno na otkrivanje subkliničkih oblika aterosklerozeprimjenom neinvazivnih dijagnostičkih metoda. Surogat markeri subkliničkeateroskleroze su intima media kompleks (IMK) karotidnih arterija i albuminurija.Cilj rada je bio da se analizira povezanost prisustva albuminurije idebljine IMK karotidnih arterija sa nijemom ishemijom miokarda kod pacijenatasa tipom 2 DM.Metode. Istraživanje je obuhvatilo 62 ispitanika oboljela od tipa 2 dijabetesabez istorije o prisutnosti kardiovaskularnih bolesti (KVB), starosne dobi 40-70godina. Ispitanicima je urađena ergometrija i na osnovu dobijenih rezultatao prisutnosti ishemijske bolesti srca (IBS) podijeljeni su u dvije grupe. Prvugrupu je sačinjavalo 25 ispitanika kojima je dokazana IBS, a drugu grupu37 ispitanika bez IBS. Ispitanicima je ultrazvučno izmjerena debljina IMKkarotidnih arterija i određen albumin u 24-časovnom urinu, te su dobijenevrijednosti upoređene sa rezultatima ergometrijskog testiranja u obje grupe.Rezultati. Pacijenti sa IBS su bili stariji, sa dužim trajanjem dijabetesa, dislipidemijomi višim vrijednostima HbA1c u odnosu na grupu bez IBS (p<0,05).Utvrđena je statistički značajno veća vrijednost debljine IMK karotidniharterija u grupi ispitanika sa IBS (1,08±0,17 mm) u odnosu na ispitanike bezIBS (0,78±0,17 mm) (p<0,001). U grupi ispitanika sa IBS, albuminurija je bilaprisutna kod 22 ispitanika, dok je kod ispitanika bez IBS, albuminurija bilaprisutna kod 9 ispitanika, što je statistički značajno više u grupi ispitanika saIBS u odnosu na kontrolnu grupu (p<0,001).Zaključak. Pacijenti sa povećanom debljinom IMK karotidnih arterija i prisutnomalbuminurijom imaju veći rizik od nastanka IBS.Ključne riječi: dijabetes melitus, intima media kompleks, albuminurij