Metal injection molding technology is commonly used in production of small and very complex parts. Residual porosity is unavoidable characteristic of P/M parts, affecting their final properties. During injection molding phase powder-binder separation can occur, causing green density variation through cross section of the part. This behaviour is particularly pronounced as complexity of the parts increases. As a consequence, zones with different density and residual porosity can be seen after sintering. In this regard, porosity and hardness distribution of the sintered ring-shaped part is analysed and presented in the paper.

This study aims to improve the understanding of perceived managerial decency by developing an initial set of items for its measurement scale. Based on the social exchange theory and driven by the strong need for instilling more decency and civility in managerial discourse, this study makes a comprehensive overview of the scope and domain of perceived managerial decency and extracts the potential decency dimensions. After conducting a literature review, 50 collected interview responses on typical examples of managerial decency, as perceived by employees, served as a basis for further analysis. Using the content analysis tools, we generated a set of initial items and dimensions of decency. Those were further refined by 21 experts (5 from academia and 16 from the target audience) using the means of qualitative and quantitative assessment. as a result, we define the perceived managerial decency construct and outline its six potential dimensions: (1) respectful interactions, (2) treatment with good manners, (3) employee development, (4) mutual trust, (5) decent feedback, and (6) providing insight into a bigger picture, as well as generate a set of 75 valid items that reflect the decency construct. We further discuss the research implications for theory and practice.

The contemporary business environment, characterized by high levels of dynamism, turbulence, and uncertainty, has forced companies to re-evaluate traditional models of commerce and make a shift towards Internet-based e-commerce models. Since the perception of usefulness determines the firm’s willingness to adopt e-commerce, this study strives to explore the contributing factors among SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A survey of 154 SME managers/owners was conducted, to identify variables that are key drivers of perceived usefulness. The findings revealed that the strategic management benefits, compatibility, and external pressures are the key predictors of perceived usefulness. This study also shows that the perceived usefulness of e-commerce is higher, if companies belonging to the same industry, or the same business network, have already adopted this business model. These findings strengthen the idea of the enterprise bandwagon effect. Compared to the newer and younger firms, the results also indicate that mature firms tend to have higher perceived usefulness of e-commerce.

The aim of this study was to determine the antioxidant capacity of some phytochemicals by using an H2O2 scavenging assay. Betaine, Allantoin and Nicotinamide were put to the test.  Even though hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is not intrinsically reactive, it can be transformed into the extremely reactive and harmful hydroxyl radical (HO), which is then able to interact with nucleotides in deoxyribose nucleic acid and in that way trigger breakage of the strand resulting in carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, etc. Antioxidants aid in the protection of cells from the harmful effects of reactive oxygen species that are known to induce oxidative stress. Excessive production of these reactive oxygen species in the human body is associated with many chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, cancer, etc. The effective way to minimize levels of oxidative stress is the ability to scavenge these reactive oxygen species (ROS). Also, phytochemicals are able to act as antioxidants, and in that way play a vital role in the prevention of disease caused by oxidative stress. The ability of a compound to scavenge H2O2 is a good predictor of its potential antioxidant function. The hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging assay was determined using the Ruch et al., 1989 method, and a UV-VIS spectrophotometer. In conclusion, our samples had marvellous H2O2 scavenging activity and possessed good antioxidant capability, and were compared with the ascorbic acid (vitamin c) as standard natural antioxidant/ as reference antioxidant. The samples were also able to scavenge H2O2 in a concentration-dependent way, according to our results

Bilirubin represent a natural end-product of heme metabolism and is used as as a marker in diagnosis off hepatobiliary diseases. Recent studies demonstrated that serum bilirubin levels are related to the risk of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) development and subsequent complications. The aim of this study was to analyzed serum total bilirubin concentrations and its relationship with biochemical and clinical characteristics in T2D patients. Total of 109 participants were included in this study, 54 controls and 55 diabetic patients, both gender, while ages ranged from 35 to 70 years. Biochemical parameters were analyzed by standard IFCC methods while serum total bilirubin concentrations was determined by the method of Jendrassik/Gróf. All analyses and measurements were provided by using the chemical analyzer VITROS 350. Results showed a significant difference in concentrations of glucose, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol) and bilirubin between T2D patients and controls (p<0.05). Also, significant association was found between bilirubin and glucose concentrations in two investigated populations (p<0.05). It appears that elevated concentration of bilirubin and biochemical characteristics are associated with the progression development of Type 2 diabetes and its related vascular complications. Therefore, total serum bilirubin concentrations could be used as potential T2D biomarker and therefore, as new therapeutic target.

An influential explanation for the persistent political underrepresentation of minorities in elected office is that minority candidates are discriminated against by voters of the dominant ethnic group. We argue, however, for the need to distinguish between two forms of discrimination: ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility. We measure the impact of each by using an extensive data set drawn from Swiss elections, where voters can cast both positive and negative preference votes for candidates. Our results show that immigrant-origin candidates with non-Swiss names incur an electoral disadvantage because they receive more negative preference votes than candidates with typically Swiss names. But we also find that minority candidates face a second disadvantage: voters discriminate in favor of majority candidates by allocating them more positive preference votes. These two forms of electoral discrimination are critically related to a candidate’s party, whereas the impact of the specific outgroup to which a minority candidate belongs is less pronounced than expected.

Background: Two-dimensional volumetric exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) provides an integrated view of left ventricular (LV) preload reserve through end-diastolic volume (EDV) and LV contractile reserve (LVCR) through end-systolic volume (ESV) changes. Purpose: To assess the dependence of cardiac reserve upon LVCR, EDV, and heart rate (HR) during ESE. Methods: We prospectively performed semi-supine bicycle or treadmill ESE in 1344 patients (age 59.8 ± 11.4 years; ejection fraction = 63 ± 8%) referred for known or suspected coronary artery disease. All patients had negative ESE by wall motion criteria. EDV and ESV were measured by biplane Simpson rule with 2-dimensional echocardiography. Cardiac index reserve was identified by peak-rest value. LVCR was the stress-rest ratio of force (systolic blood pressure by cuff sphygmomanometer/ESV, abnormal values ≤2.0). Preload reserve was defined by an increase in EDV. Cardiac index was calculated as stroke volume index * HR (by EKG). HR reserve (stress/rest ratio) <1.85 identified chronotropic incompetence. Results: Of the 1344 patients, 448 were in the lowest tertile of cardiac index reserve with stress. Of them, 303 (67.6%) achieved HR reserve <1.85; 252 (56.3%) had an abnormal LVCR and 341 (76.1%) a reduction of preload reserve, with 446 patients (99.6%) showing ≥1 abnormality. At binary logistic regression analysis, reduced preload reserve (odds ratio [OR]: 5.610; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 4.025 to 7.821), chronotropic incompetence (OR: 3.923, 95% CI: 2.915 to 5.279), and abnormal LVCR (OR: 1.579; 95% CI: 1.105 to 2.259) were independently associated with lowest tertile of cardiac index reserve at peak stress. Conclusions: Heart rate assessment and volumetric echocardiography during ESE identify the heterogeneity of hemodynamic phenotypes of impaired chronotropic, preload or LVCR underlying a reduced cardiac reserve.

The paper covers numerical analysis of an experiment with five T-beams that are loaded to failure. The beams are designed to have the same ultimate bearing capacity with different ratios of prestressed to classic reinforcement. A detailed overview of the experiment is shown with exact section dimensions, as well as exact position and ratio of prestressed to classic steel. As a result of the experiment, force-displacement diagrams for each beam are presented and analyzed. Numerical model of the beams, reinforced in accordance with the experiment, is also shown. Two models for materials are used to analyze the beams: design model to check the design failure force and a new material model with concrete tension to simulate the actual behavior of the beams. All beams are gradually loaded to numerical failure by incrementally increasing the load that simulates press load. At the end, an analysis and comparison between experimental and numerical results is conducted to determine if the numerical model is a good representation of actual beam behavior.

Distribution system state estimation is becoming an increasingly important feature in the modern power grid, but the lack of real measurements makes its implementation particularly difficult. A solution for this problem could be the generation of accurate pseudo measurements. For this purpose, an Artificial Neural Network based reactive power pseudo measurement generating algorithm (PMG-ANN) was created, which was implemented in a distribution system state estimation. After testing, it was concluded that the artificial neural network based pseudo measurement generator has successfully made the distribution network observable and achieved a high accuracy in the examined predictions. However, some points were identified where further improvements could be made.

The concept of network slicing enables operators to provision multiple virtual networks on top of a single (shared) physical infrastructure. Adding elasticity to slicing, i.e., the ability to on-demand provision/release dedicated network resources, improves resource utilization. However, efficiently allocating and scaling slice resources, while maintaining state consistency, is challenging. Especially with P4-programmab1e network devices that process packets at Tbps speeds, controller-driven scaling of network functions would be too time-consuming, and data-plane scaling is needed. In this paper, we address this need, by developing a custom scaling protocol and framework that can consistently, with negligible delay, scale network slices and functions transparently to the slice end-users. We compare, via emulation and experiments on programmable hardware, our approach to state-of-the-art scaling techniques and demonstrate significant slice resource utilization improvements and scaling duration reductions.

Networks often need to concurrently process millions of flows with varying Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements. Doing so by deploying flow-specific rules at network nodes would require significant memory and overhead.In this paper, we take a fundamentally different approach, called P4QoS, by embedding QoS requirements in the packets themselves and leveraging P4-programmable network switches to process the traffic based on them. We illustrate and evaluate our approach with latency as our QoS metric, but our concept can be applied to other metrics as well. Our evaluation, both in software (Mininet) and in hardware (Intel Tofino), shows that P4QoS can satisfy application-specific QoS requirements with negligible memory overhead.