The Development of Self Structures and Active Coping

In addition to cope with usual stressful circumstances at work, nowadays, it is important to examine what kind of mental capacities of medical staff are adaptive in respect of a new type of stress – job insecurity. Special focus is put upon self structures as personality determinants and the role they have in coping.. The aim of the study was to determine the role of the self structures in active coping with job insecurity. It was supposed that the increasing integration of self structures leads to increasing use of active coping strategies. Perceived job insecurity was measured by The job insecurity perception scale (Knežević and Majstorović, 2013). The Ego Functioning Questionnaire (Majstorović, Legault and Green-Demers, 2008) was used to evaluate types of ego-functioning; coping were assessed by the Cybernetic coping scale (Edwards and Baglioni, 1993). In order to test the hypothesis the multivariate regression analysis was developed with self-regulation as predictor and active coping strategy as a criterion. A significant model F(3, 306) = 26,73, p < 0,001, was obtained with all the predictors selected as significant. The prediction directions were as expected - Integrated and Ego-investing self were positive predictors (β = 0,35, p < 0,001, and β = 0,16, p < 0,01, respectively), while the impersonal self singled out as a negative predictor (β = –0,13, p < 0,05). The results have shown that the development of self structures is valid predictor for the active coping of medical staff when facing with job insecurity

The role of supplier satisfaction survey in building partnerships

Purpose: The main goal of this paper’s research was to determine the role and justification of surveying supplier satisfaction in building partnerships. Methodology: To collect primary data, qualitative research was used, which was conducted in several phases. The study tested nine key criteria modelled on the work of Vos et al. (2016). The sample of key suppliers was determined from a non-probability sample of experts from eight strategic suppliers who agreed to participate in the research. A qualitative approach was used due to the small sample and the desire to apply a different approach since the authors used a quantitative approach in most of the analysed papers. Results: Research has shown that the key criteria for supplier satisfaction are reliability, communication, and operative excellence of the customer they work with. Conclusion: Any long-term and successful business relationship implies the satisfaction of all parties in the relationship. The concept of supplier satisfaction research is a business practice of a modest number of companies. Despite this, the research participants confirmed that there are solid arguments and interest in introducing this type of research and its continuous implementation. The recommendation is the systematic introduction of supplier relationship management and, as part of that, the introduction of the practice of conducting supplier satisfaction surveys

POLICY INSTRUMENTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL TOURISM IN THE LEAST DEVELOPED AREAS OF SERBIA: THE EXAMPLE OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF MEDVEĐA

The paper analyzes the instruments of rural tourism development policy in the least developed areas of the Republic of Serbia on the example of the Municipality of Medveđa. It is based on the hypothesis that economic policy makers, with new legal solutions, have made it possible for agricultural households engaged in rural tourism to apply for IPARD incentives on an equal basis with other agricultural households. Using the semistructured interview technique, research was conducted on the importance of IPARD incentives for the development of rural tourism in the least developed areas of Serbia on the example of the Municipality of Medveđa as well on the significance of the synergistic effect of the development of rural and spa tourism in this local community

Assessing wheat performance using environmental information

The partial least squares (PLS) regression model was applied to wheat data set with objective to determining the most relevant environmental variables that explained biomass per plant and grain yield genotype x environment interaction (GEI) effects. The data set had 25 wheat genotypes (20 landraces + 5 cultivars) tested for 4 years in two different water regimes: rainfed and drought. Environmental variables such as maximum soil temperature at 5 cm in April and May, soil moisture in the top 75 cm in March, and sun hours per day in May accounted for a sizeable proportion of GEI for biomass per plant. Similar results were obtained for grain yield: maximum soil temperature at 5 cm in April, May and June, and sun hours per day in May were related to the factor that explained the largest portion (&gt;38%) of the GEI. Generally, wheat landraces are able to better exploit environments with higher temperatures and lower water availability during vegetative growth (March-June) than cultivars

Numerical modeling of the edentulous mandible with a complete denture using multiblock method

In this paper, finite element model of edentulous lower jaw (mandible) is generated, as well as the model of support layer and complete denture using various software. The aim of this study was to produce 3D digital mandibular complete denture, mucosa, and supporting bone models using reverse engineering and evaluate effect of mucosa thickness and resiliency on stress distribution of complete denture. In this study we used a model of mandibular complete denture and 5 mm thickness of mucosa (which represent the resiliences soft). The influence of resilient mucous membranes layer thickness is analysed by assigning loads to simulate the force due to chewing on the lower right and left central incisor and lower right and left first molar. Based on the numerical results, we conclude that the maximum stress values were concentrated in cortical bone

Optimized Threshold Implementations: Securing Cryptographic Accelerators for Low-Energy and Low-Latency Applications

Threshold implementations have emerged as one of the most popular masking countermeasures for hardware implementations of cryptographic primitives. In the original version of TI, the number of input shares was dependent on both security order $d$ and algebraic degree of a function $t$, namely $td + 1$. At CRYPTO 2015, a new method was presented yielding to a $d$-th order secure implementation using $d+1$ input shares. In this work, we first provide a construction for $d+1$ TI sharing which achieves the minimal number of output shares for any $n$-input Boolean function of degree $t=n-1$. Furthermore, we present a heuristic for minimizing the number of output shares for higher order $td + 1$ TI. Finally, we demonstrate the applicability of our results on $d+1$ and $td+1$ TI versions, for first- and second-order secure, low-latency and low-energy implementations of the PRINCE block cipher

Usporedba točnosti stupnjevanja diferencijacije raka prostate u uzorcima dobivenim ciljanom i sustavnom biopsijom prostate

All malignancies, including prostate cancer, require accurate diagnosing and staging before making a treatment decision. The introduction of targeted biopsies based on prostate MRI findings has raised prostate biopsy accuracy. Guided biopsies target the tumor itself during the biopsy instead of the most common tumor sites as is the case with a systemic biopsy. Some studies report that targeted biopsies should lower prostate cancer biopsy undergrading and overgrading. To determine the incidence of prostate cancer biopsy undergrading in patients who underwent a classic systemic biopsy compared to patients who underwent a mpMRI cognitive targeted biopsy. We identified the patients from our database who underwent a radical prostatectomy at our institution from January 1st, 2021, to June 30th, 2021.There were 112 patients identified. Patients were stratified into two groups based on the type of biopsy that confirmed prostate cancer. The mpMRI (N=50) group had a mpMRI cognitive guided transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) prostate biopsy performed, and the non-mpMRI group (N=62) received a classic, systemic TRUS biopsy. We compared the biopsy results with the final pathological results, and searched for undergrading or overgrading in the biopsies compared to the final histological reportThe undergrading was found in 17,7 % (N=11) cases in the non-mpMRI group and in 12,0 % (N=6) of cases in the mpMRI group (p=0,02, Mann-Whitney U test). No overgrading was found in our cohort. All cases of undergrading had Grade Group 1 in the biopsy report and Grade Group 2 in the final specimen report. The charasteristics of patients are listed in Table 1. In our cohort, the patients who underwent a mpMRI targeted biopsy had a lower undergrading incidence. During a systemic TRUS biopsy, the urologist targets the areas of the prostate where cancer is most commonly located, which is usually the peripheral zone of the prostate. Since different areas of the tumor have different areas of differentiation, only a low-grade part of the tumor is sometimes biopsied, which results in a sampling error. Once the prostate is removed, the whole tumor is analyzed, so the obtained pathological results related to the removed prostate are far more accurate than the analysis of prostate cores obtained by biopsy.Sve maligne bolesti, uključujući rak prostate, zahtijevaju preciznu dijagnostiku prije odluke o liječenju. Uvođenjem ciljanih biopsija na temelju nalaza MRI prostate povećana je točnost biopsije prostate. Vođene biopsije ciljaju na sam tumor u umjesto na najčešće lokacije tumora u prostati kao što je slučaj sa sistemskom biopsijom. Neke studije pokazuju da bi ciljane biopsije trebale smanjiti podcjenjivanje stupnja diferenciranosti raka prostate u uzorcima dobivenim biopsijom prostate. Odrediti incidenciju podcjenjivanje stupnja diferenciranosti raka prostate kod pacijenata koji su bili podvrgnuti klasičnoj sistemskoj biopsiji u usporedbi s pacijentima koji su bili podvrgnuti mpMRI kognitivnoj ciljanoj biopsiji. Identificirali smo pacijente iz naše baze podataka koji su podvrgnuti radikalnoj prostatektomiji u našoj ustanovi od 1. siječnja 2021. do 30. lipnja 2021. Identificirano je 112 pacijenata. Pacijenti su podijeljeni u dvije skupine na temelju vrste biopsije kojom je potvrđen rak prostate. Skupina mpMRI (N=50) primila je mpMRI kognitivno vođenu transrektalnu ultrazvučnu (TRUS) biopsiju prostate, a skupina non-mpMRI (N=62) primila je klasičnu, sistemsku TRUS biopsiju. Usporedili smo rezultate biopsije s konačnim patološkim nalazima i tražili smo podcjenjivanje stupnja diferenciranosti karcinoma prostate u biopsijama u usporedbi s konačnim histološkim nalazom. Podcjenjivanje stupnja diferenciranosti nađeno je u 17,7 % (N=11) u non-mpMRI skupini i u 12,0 % (N=6) slučajeva u mpMRI skupini (p=0,02, Mann-Whitney U test). U našoj kohorti nije pronađeno precjenjivanje stupnja diferenciranosti. Svi slučajevi podcjenjivanja imali su Gradus grupu 1 na nalazu biopsije prostate i Gradus grupu 2 u konačnom patohistološkom nalazu. U našoj kohorti, pacijenti koji su bili podvrgnuti ciljanoj biopsiji imali su nižu incidenciju podcjenjivanja stupnja diferenciranosti što je posljedica točnijeg uzorkovanja. Tijekom sistemske TRUS biopsije, urolog cilja na područja prostate gdje se rak najčešće nalazi, što je obično periferna zona prostate. Budući da različita područja tumora imaju različita područja diferencijacije, ponekad se bioptira samo dio tumora koji je bolje diferenciran, što rezultira pogreškom uzorkovanja. Nakon što je prostata uklonjena, analizira se cijeli tumor, tako da su rezultirajući patohistolološki rezultati uklonjene prostate daleko točniji od analize uzoraka prostate dobivenih biopsijom

Angiotensin-converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for chronic inflammatory lung diseases

Chronic inflammatory lung diseases are characterized by uncontrolled immune response in the airways as their main pathophysiological manifestation. The lack of specific diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for many pulmonary diseases represents a major challenge for pulmonologists. The majority of the currently approved therapeutic approaches are focused on achieving disease remission, although there is no guarantee of complete recovery. It is known that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), an important counter-regulatory component of the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS), is expressed in the airways. It has been shown that ACE2 plays a role in systemic regulation of the cardiovascular and renal systems, lungs and liver by acting on blood pressure, electrolyte balance control mechanisms and inflammation. Its protective role in the lungs has also been presented, but the exact pathophysiological mechanism of action is still elusive. The aim of this study is to review and discuss recent findings about ACE2, including its potential role in the pathophysiology of chronic inflammatory lung diseases:, i.e., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and pulmonary hypertension. Additionally, in the light of the coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), we will discuss the role of ACE2 in the pathophysiology of this disease, mainly represented by different grades of pulmonary problems. We believe that these insights will open up new perspectives for the future use of ACE2 as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and monitoring of chronic inflammatory lung diseases

Changes in Traditional Activities of Industrial Area toward Sustainable Tourism Development

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential for restructuring industrial areas toward tourism development within local communities, with a special emphasis on the socio-cultural determinants of residents, as well as their attitudes regarding the sustainable development of tourism. The research is also oriented toward the interests of local communities with respect to entrepreneurial activities in the field of tourism within regions relying on traditional industries, in this case, one of the largest open-pit mining surfaces in Europe (near the Serbian town of Lazarevac). The survey was conducted on a sample of 273 respondents. The research results point to the residents’ attitudes regarding the acceptability of tourism development options, as well as their attitudes toward tourism development, with the aim of providing the conditions for a successful transition from a typical heavy industrial setting toward sustainable tourism development