Summary Background: During reproductive life of women, adenosine causes both contraction (with low concentrations) of fallopian tubes and inhibition of their spontaneous motor activity (with high concentrations). Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate effects of natural agonists of adenosine, P2X and P2Y receptors on motility of isolated fallopian tubes taken from postmenopausal women. Materials and Methods: Isolated preparations of isthmus and ampoule were made from fallopian tubes of 21 women in post-menopause, and then tested for reactivity on increasing concentrations of adenosine and P2X/P2Y selective agonists. Results: Adenosine showed concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on spontaneous contraction of both isthmic and ampullary segments of fallopian tubes, while P2X and P2Y agonists (adenosine-5-diphosphate, adenosine-5-triphosphate, uridine-5-diphosphate, and uridine-5-triphosphate) did not influence motility of the isolated preparations. Contractile effect of adenosine was not observed throughout the concentration range used in the experiments. Conclusions: Fallopian tubes of postmenopausal women are unresponsive to P2X and P2Y agonists, unlike those of women in reproductive period. Only an inhibitory effect of adenosine on spontaneous contractions of fallopian tubes is maintained in post-menopause, while a contractile effect is observed in younger women at low concentrations is lost.

One of the basic and strategic goals of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina is a full membership in the European Union. During 1992-1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has passed through one of the most difficult periods in its’ history. The war has completely devastated the economical structure and the aftermaths were visible in the following years. As a new paradigm, the European Union appears. The European Union has helped the Western Balkans countries to overcome national tensions and offered them a new perspective; new regional and european integrations should be a new, historical chance for them. In the light of this, the focus of this paper is the impact of trade liberalization between the European Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the export from Bosnia and Herzegovina to European Union. The above mentioned impact has been observed in the period of eleven years. The total export amount of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2015 was 4,6 billion euros, while the amount of the import was 8,1 billion euros, which makes nearly 60% in favor of import. Traditionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s most important foreign trade partner is the European Union where Bosnia and Herzegovina has a deficit in foreign trade. The portion of export to EU during 2015 was 71,79% while the portion of import was 60,85%. The coverage of import over export was 66,89%. In the period of 2005-2015, most of the products have been placed to markets in Croatia, Germany, Italy, and Serbia, which is not the EU member. The process of trade liberalization in 2015 has resulted in surplus of trade with certain EU countries; Austria, Luxembourg and Estonia while the decrease in trade has been recorded with Germany, Slovenia and Czech Republic. Regarding the export, Bosnia and Herzegovina mailny places products which have labour-intensive character. In the econometrics analysis, extented gravitational models of trade have been placed. Besides the abovementioned, the following econometrical techinques have been used: panel data models (PD), fixed effecs models (RE) and panel corrected standard errors (PCSE). In addition, Hausman test has been applied. According to the analysis that has been carried out, the following has been concluded; InGDPi, InGDPj and InDISTij variables are statistically important on the level of 5% in the period of gradual liberalization. The SSP1 an EK variables are not siginificant.In the other moder, in the period of complete liberalization InGDPi, InGDPj and SSP2 variables have a significant impact on a dependent variable on a level of 5%. InDISTij and EK variables have a significant impact on a level od 5% as well. The above mentioned result confirm the research hypothesis; trade liberalization has a significant impact on the export of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the EU. The basic limit of this research can be a relatively short observation period, caused by the fact that the data of merchandise trade between Bosnia and Herzegovina and EU countries until 2005 are not accessible.

Nastavnici postavljanjem pitanja doprinose procesu učenja stranog jezika i razvoju mišljenja višeg reda kod učenika. Pitanja su značajna za pokretanje interakcije u učionicama stranih jezika. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je dobiti uvid u vrste pitanja koje nastavnici koriste u poučavanju engleskog kao stranog jezika (engl. EFL). Metoda prikupljanja podataka uključivala je promatranje nastave koje se često koristi u istraživanjima u učionicama stranih jezika. Rezultati su pokazali da se u osnovnim i srednjim školama češće postavljaju pitanja nižeg reda od pitanja višeg reda, dok su složenija pitanja i setovi pitanja i odgovora pokazali veću učestalost pitanja višeg reda. Nadalje, složenost odgovora učenika ovisila je o vrsti pitanja koju je nastavnik postavio. Analiza je također pokazala da, usprkos tome što je bilo više pitanja koja su poticala na razmišljanje i samoizražavanje u srednjoj školi nego u osnovnoj školi, veliki broj prikupljenih pitanja nižeg reda ipak pokazuje potrebu za većom upotrebom pitanja višeg reda.

The demographic changes and trends notable in the Balkan countries hit Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. Migration of the population is the result of economic stagnation and living standards far below the EU average. For this reason, the number of the working-age population seeking to move to Western Europe countries is raising. The first aim of the research is to predict the demographic trends expected by the year 2050, using demographic data from the last thirteen years. In addition to this, the aim is to analyze how demographic changes affect higher education and training, labor market efficiency, and innovation. Comparing these variables with population trends, this paper identifies if there is a correlation between them. The research is based on hypothesis that there is a correlation between the country’s competitiveness pillars and demographic trends. The hypotesis is tested using statistical methods. Current demographic trends, along with other factors, have an impact on the weakening of the competitiveness of Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the reasons could be that demographic changes are mainly related to the young and working-age population, as valuable human capital of the country.

Planning and Learning are complementary approaches. Planning relies on deliberative reasoning about the current state and sequence of future reachable states to solve the problem. Learning, on the other hand, is focused on improving system performance based on experience or available data. Learning to improve the performance of planning based on experience in similar, previously solved problems, is ongoing research. One approach is to learn Value function (cost-to-go) which can be used as heuristics for speeding up search-based planning. Existing approaches in this direction use the results of the previous search for learning the heuristics. In this work, we present a search-inspired approach of systematic model exploration for the learning of the value function which does not stop when a plan is available but rather prolongs search such that not only resulting optimal path is used but also extended region around the optimal path. This, in turn, improves both the efficiency and robustness of successive planning. Additionally, the effect of losing admissibility by using ML heuristic is managed by bounding ML with other admissible heuristics.

In the turbulent environment which is characterized by constant market changes and the development of informational technologies, supply chain is becoming the key instrument for competitive advantage. To survive on the market and be competitive, enterprises have to share and distribute knowledge and information. Information sharing affects the fundamental decisions of the supply chain management. Information sharing with partners is a precondition for the exchange of knowledge needed for business. Most important partners for every enterprise are their suppliers and buyers. Suppliers and buyers are key participants of the supply chain from which they get needed information. Relations with suppliers and buyers are an important precondition for the improvement of the operative performance of the enterprise. Sharing information with suppliers and buyers is done in the following way: information delivered to suppliers, information obtained from the supplier, information delivered to buyers and information obtained from buyers. To examine the impact of the supply chain used an empirical study about multi-dimensional relations. The research is focused on information sharing by food industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). A random systematic sample was used to distribute the questionnaire to these companies. Collected data is analysed using the Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the model was tested using the Structural equations model (SEM). The results showed that information sharing impacts the improvement of the organizational performance of companies, and partnerships with supplier and buyer impact on the information sharing. Results of this study showed that information sharing does not have a significant impact on the sub constructors of operative performances of the enterprise because there is no significant connection with flexibility, while for the other constructors there is a significant connection between information sharing and operative performances of the enterprise. Based on these facts, it examined the importance information sharing in the supply chain for the development of partnerships and improvement of performance this companies. The results will help managers on food industry in BiH how to improve quality of the information sharing through partnerships and how to developing operative performances companies. The model gives directions for developing business enterprises in food industry using information sharing within the supply chain. Apart from that, obtained results contributed to the better understanding of the significance of the information sharing in the food supply industry enterprises. Based on what is said, to improve the business of the enterprise, it is needed to share quality information which is possible to get through improving cooperation with key participants in the supply chain.

We conducted a genome-wide association study of blood DNA methylation and smoking, attempted replication of previously discovered associations, and assessed the reversibility of smoking-associated methylation changes. DNA methylation was measured in baseline peripheral blood samples for 5,044 participants in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study. For 1,032 participants, these measures were repeated using blood samples collected at follow-up, a median of 11 years later. A cross-sectional analysis of the association between smoking and DNA methylation and a longitudinal analysis of changes in smoking status and changes in DNA methylation were conducted. We used our cross-sectional analysis to replicate previously reported associations for current (N=3,327) and former (N=172) smoking. A comprehensive smoking index accounting for the bioactivity of smoking and several aspects of smoking history was constructed to assess the reversibility of smoking-induced methylation changes. We identified 4,496 cross-sectional associations at P<10−7, including 3,296 that were novel. We replicated the majority (90%) of previously reported associations for current and former smokers. In our data, we observed for former smokers a substantial degree of return to the methylation levels of never smokers, compared with current smokers (median: 74%, IQR=63-86%). Consistent with this, we found wide-ranging estimates for the half-life parameter of the comprehensive smoking index. Longitudinal analyses identified 368 sites at which methylation changed upon smoking cessation. Our study provides evidence of many novel associations between smoking and DNA methylation at CpGs across the genome, replicates the vast majority of previously reported associations, and indicates wide-ranging reversibility rates for smoking-induced methylation changes.