Energy security and stability has become a major issue over the last few years in the whole world's economic and social development. Despite its high development and evolution of its approach to the issue of energy security, the European Union is also facing the problem of decreasing its role in reducing human impact on the climate. Energy is of essential importance for the development of any country, including Bosnia and Herzegovina. Without adequate policies in the energy sector bussines, industrial and economic progress is not possible either. However, regardless of how energy is important for the development, it is still only a mechanism for achieving an ultimate goal – sustainable economy, clean environment, high living standards, prosperity and population health. According to the official data, Bosnia and Herzegovina produces annually about 13.600 GWh (data from 2010), out of which 7.950 GWh in thermal power plants and 5.650 GWh in hydro power plants. Basic domestic energy sources in Bosnia and Herzegovina include coal and hydropower, while gas and oil are imported. This paper gives an overview of future of the European Union energy policy by 2020, together with the situation and outlooks for Bosnia and Herzegovina renewable energy sources: hydropower, wind power, solar energy, biomass and geothermal energy. The legislation of renewable sources in the Federation of BIH, as well as the European Union's legislative framework, are also presented.

This paper presents the effect of temperature and wind speed on physical characteristics of monocrystalline silicon solar modules, which are placed on the building of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka. Measurements of the solar modules were carried out by UI analyzer for photovoltaic PV-KLA and Mini PV-KLA. Meteorological parameters (temperature, wind speed and intensity of solar radiation) were measured using the automatic meteorological station Davis Vantage Pro-USA. This paper gives the results of comparisons between theoretically obtained energy efficiency and experimentally obtained energy efficiency of the monocrystalline silicon modules in relation to their characteristics.

Recently, a variant of network coding at the physical layer named wireless network coding (WNC) has gained much attention due to it’s simplicity and capacity improvement of a bi-directional link. In this paper, we design and analyze a bi-directional cognitive radio (CR) system with multiple pairs based on WNC while taking into account the imperfect spectrum sensing and interference from/to the CR system. In addition, we design a resource allocation framework consisting of a subcarrier allocation strategy with different priority assignments and optimal power allocation algorithm. We show that the quality of service within the CR system highly depends on a proper design of the spectrum sensing process to minimize the probability of missed detection, while the spectrum efficiency of the CR system increases with the number of pairs within the system to which we assign priorities.

Many nations are currently adopting a variety of directed strategies to launch and support the development of research parks. Science and technology research parks are seen increasingly as a means to create dynamic clusters that accelerate economic growth and international competitiveness. Technology parks represent the place of SME's development and the place of the most direct technological transfer. Research parks encourage greater collaboration among universities, research laboratories, and SMEs, providing a means to help convert new ideas into the innovative technologies for the market. They are recognized to be a tool to create successful new companies, sustain them and attract new ones, especially in the science, technology, and innovation sector. Universities, in turn, benefit by exposure to the business world. What all these parks have in common is that they are, at heart, knowledge partnerships that foster innovation. University research and science parks provide the launch pad that startup companies need when they are "spun out" from a university or company. The current state of development of technology parks in Bosnia and Herzegovina and possibilities of establishment of a new technology park in Sarajevo (Ilidža) region are analyzed in this paper.

BACKGROUND/AIM Impaired endothelial function has been previously documented in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and underlying comorbidities or older patients with idiopathic AF. The aim of this study was to evaluate systemic endothelial function in younger AF patients (less than < 60 years old) with lone AF (that is, without associated cardiopulmonary comorbidities, including arterial hypertension), by comparing brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in lone AF patients with FMD of healthy subjects in sinus rhythm. METHODS Two groups of participants were prospectively enrolled. The first group comprised of 38 AF patients (the mean age 45 +/- 11 years, 68% male) with persistent (> 7 days) lone AF. The second group comprised of 28 healthy controls in sinus rhythm (the mean age 43 +/- 13, 53% male), matched by age, gender and atherosclerotic risk factors. All the participants underwent physical examination, laboratory analysis [including determination of C-reactive protein (CRP)], standard echocardiography and exercise-stress testing. Brachial artery FMD and endothelium independent dilation (NMD) were assessed with a high-resolution ultrasound probe and arterial diameters taken from 5 consecutive cardiac cycles were averaged for each measurement to accommodate to beat-to-beat flow variations in AF. RESULTS There were no differences between the 2 groups regarding age, gender and most clinical, laboratory and echocardiographic characteristics (all p > 0.05), apart from the increased heart rate (p = 0.018), body mass index (p = 0.027), CRP levels (p = 0.007) and left atrial anteroposterior dimension (p < 0.001) in AF patients. FMD of AF patients [median value 5.0%, interquartile range (IQR) 2.87%-7.50%] was significantly lower (p < 0.001) than FMD of healthy controls (median value 8.85%, IQR 5.80%-12.50%), whereas there were no differences in median NMD values (p > 0.05). In the multivariate analysis, the independent FMD determinants in our study population were the presence of AF, smoking and total cholesterol levels (all p < 0.001). In patients with AF, the strongest independent FMD determinant was arrhythmia duration (p < 0.001), followed by smoking (p = 0.013) and total cholesterol levels (p = 0.045). CONCLUSIONS Our findings confirm that sustained AF is associated with systemic endothelial dysfunction even in relatively young patients with no cardiovascular disorders or risk factors. AF is an independent contributor to lower FMD and a prolonged arrhythmia duration may confer the risk for more profound endothelial damage.