Achieving sustainability in constant development in every area in today’s modern business has become a challenge on the one hand, and an imperative on the other. If the aspect of business excellence achievement is also added to it, the complexity of the system increases significantly, and it is necessary to model a system considering several parameters and satisfying the multi-criteria function. This paper develops a novel integrated model that involves the application of a subjective-objective model in order to achieve business sustainability and excellence. The model consists of fuzzy PIPRECIA (fuzzy pivot pairwise relative criteria importance Assessment) as a subjective method, CRITIC (criteria importance through intercriteria correlation) and I-distance method as objective methods. The goal is to take the advantages of these approaches and allow for more accurate and balanced (symmetric) decision-making through their integration. The integrated subjective-objective model has been applied in a narrow geographical area to consider and evaluate banks as a significant factor in improving the social aspect of sustainability. An additional contribution of the paper is a critical overview of multi-criteria problems in which the levels of the hierarchical structure contain a different (asymmetric) number of elements. A specific example has also been used to prove that only a hierarchical structure with an equal number of lower-level elements provides precise weights of criteria in accordance with the preferences of decision-makers referring to subjective models. The results obtained are verified throughout the calculation of Spearman and Pearson correlation coefficients, and throughout a sensitivity analysis involving a dynamic reverse rank matrix.

ABSTRACT Background Non-medical use of prescription drugs is a major public health concern in the United States. Prescription opioids and sedatives are among the most widely abused drugs and their combined use can be lethal. Increasingly rigid prescribing guidelines may contribute to the changing context of opioid use and increase drug diversion. Objective To examine gender differences in diversion of prescription opioids and sedatives among non-medical prescription opioid and sedative polysubstance users. We hypothesize that men will be more likely than women to engage in incoming diversion. Methods Data from the Prescription Drug Abuse, Misuse, and Dependence Study, a cross-sectional study focused on prescription drug users, were analyzed. Non-medical use was defined as use of a drug that was not prescribed or use in a way other than prescribed. Individuals who reported past 12-month non-medical opioid and sedative use were included; diversion was defined as incoming (obtaining drugs from a source other than a health professional) and outgoing (giving away/selling/trading prescription drugs). Results Among the 198 polysubstance users, 41.4% were female. Men were 2.85 times as likely as women to report incoming diversion (95% CI: 1.21–6.72). Women were more likely to obtain opioids from a healthcare professional; men were more likely to obtain sedatives from a roommate, coworker, or friend. Over half of men and women reported outgoing diversion opioids or sedatives. Conclusion Drug diversion highlights an important point of intervention. Current prevention efforts that target prescribers should be expanded to include users and diversion activities; these interventions should be gender-specific.

With great interest, we have read the article by Backes et al ,1 on the pre-resection accuracy of the real-time optical diagnosis of T1 colorectal cancer (T1CRC) in large non-pedunculated colorectal polyps. In this multicentre, prospective study, the authors developed and validated the OPTICAL model, in which a sensitivity of 78.7% (95% CI: 64.3 to 89.3) for optical diagnosis of T1CRC was obtained. With the implementation of the Dutch bowel cancer screening programme (BCSP) in 2014, a shift has occurred towards the more frequent diagnoses of early AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) stage I cancers.2 Estimating the risk of a T1CRC is crucial to determine the optimal treatment strategy, and to select cases for more elaborative and expensive endoscopic en bloc resection techniques such as endoscopic submucosal dissection, transanal minimally invasive surgery or endoscopic full-thickness resection. Current studies mainly report on the outcomes of advanced imaging by expert centres with dedicated endoscopists,3 4 whereas …

This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive survey that reviews the latest research efforts focused on machine learning (ML) based performance improvement of wireless networks, while considering all layers of the protocol stack: PHY, MAC and network. First, the related work and paper contributions are discussed, followed by providing the necessary background on data-driven approaches and machine learning to help non-machine learning experts understand all discussed techniques. Then, a comprehensive review is presented on works employing ML-based approaches to optimize the wireless communication parameters settings to achieve improved network quality-of-service (QoS) and quality-of-experience (QoE). We first categorize these works into: radio analysis, MAC analysis and network prediction approaches, followed by subcategories within each. Finally, open challenges and broader perspectives are discussed.

Background: Sedentary behavior carries the risk of musculoskeletal problems, especially in the lumbosacral region of the spinal column.  According to modern lifestyle, this has begun to be a public health issue. Objective: To point to the health risks of working at the computer and present an ergonomic analysis of the typical and improved position of workers in front of the computer, thereby reducing the chances of emergence occupational diseases. Results:  Changing the position of the subjects led to a change in lumbar pressure from 2,818 N/m2 to 351 N/m2. Software analysis of the changed position indicates that this position is acceptable, both for the lumosacral region of the spine and for the abdominal muscles. Conclusions:  A change in body position will decrease lumbar moment and the load on the lumbosacral region of the spine. Work chair with lumbar support, the right desk height, setting the appropriate position of the monitor, selecting the optimal keyboard and mouse, dividing the workspace into appropriate zones, as well as changing lifestyle and habits should be part of the management of people who spend most of their working time in a sitting position.

ABSTRACT Plant biostimulants are commercial products based on different chemical substances used to enhance plant growth and productivity. The effects of biostimulants, Megafol and Viva, with different dominant compositions (amino acids and humic acids) on two tomato cultivars (cv. Gravitet F1 and cv. Minaret F1) exposed to conventional and low-input macronutrient nutrition were investigated. Application of both biostimulants positively affected yield at conventional nutrition. In low-input nutrition variant, biostimulant application prevented yield loss only in cv. Minaret F1. Inter-cultivar differences were noticed in fruit characteristics (total phenol content, total flavonoids content and total antioxidative capacity) where application of biostimulants leads to opposite results in the examined cultivars. We considered the possibility of biostimulant usage as an effective nutritional addition for overcoming the problem of excessive fertilisation.

Man is continuously exposed to ionizing radiation because of the presence of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in the environment. Various technological processes of processing and using of materials that contain natural radionuclides generate materials of enhanced natural radioactivity (TENORM). The largest contribution to irradiance with natural sources of ionizing radiation is the exposure of the population to indoor radon. This gas originates from the radioactive decay of 226Ra and 224Ra that are present in the soil under houses and building materials. Depending on the type of building materials, indoor exposure to radon at dwellings and workplaces can be over a thousand times greater than in outdoor space. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, no valid and comprehensive radiological studies on the building materials have been performed that would guarantee for their dosimetric safety use for installation in residential and industrial buildings, highways, as well as their application for other purposes. The quantification of the radon levels that comes from building materials is a necessary and very important part of the global protection of the population from ionizing radiation. This paper presents the first results of a study on the radon activity concentrations in building materials used in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Measurements were performedwith a professional Alpha GUARD system. The mean values of the activity concentration of the exhaled radon of investigated building materials varied from 10 Bqm-3 to 101 Bqm-3, radon exhalation rate values ranged from 77.0 mBqm-2h-1 to 777.7 mBqm-2h-1. Gamma dose rate was in the range 57–112 nSv h−1.

Investigative studies of white matter (WM) brain structures using diffusion MRI (dMRI) tractography frequently require manual WM bundle segmentation, often called “virtual dissection.” Human errors and personal decisions make these manual segmentations hard to reproduce, which have not yet been quantified by the dMRI community. It is our opinion that if the field of dMRI tractography wants to be taken seriously as a widespread clinical tool, it is imperative to harmonize WM bundle segmentations and develop protocols aimed to be used in clinical settings. The EADC‐ADNI Harmonized Hippocampal Protocol achieved such standardization through a series of steps that must be reproduced for every WM bundle. This article is an observation of the problematic. A specific bundle segmentation protocol was used in order to provide a real‐life example, but the contribution of this article is to discuss the need for reproducibility and standardized protocol, as for any measurement tool. This study required the participation of 11 experts and 13 nonexperts in neuroanatomy and “virtual dissection” across various laboratories and hospitals. Intra‐rater agreement (Dice score) was approximately 0.77, while inter‐rater was approximately 0.65. The protocol provided to participants was not necessarily optimal, but its design mimics, in essence, what will be required in future protocols. Reporting tractometry results such as average fractional anisotropy, volume or streamline count of a particular bundle without a sufficient reproducibility score could make the analysis and interpretations more difficult. Coordinated efforts by the diffusion MRI tractography community are needed to quantify and account for reproducibility of WM bundle extraction protocols in this era of open and collaborative science.

The research results referring to frequency have indicated that most of the sports injuries among athletes of both genders occur in basketball and that knee injury is the second most frequent injury during sports activities. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) represents one of the four most important connections for knee stability, and it is frequently prone to injury during sports activities. The aim of this paper was to determine the effects of an exercise program on the prevention of injury to the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee joint among young female basketball players. To collect existing research on the effects of the applications of prevention programs on the prevention of ACL injury in young female basketball players, the following electronic databases were searched: PubMed, SCIndeks, PEDro, J-GATE, DOAJ and Google Scholar. The analyzed studies were published between 2003 and 2018 and the participants were young female basketball players. According to the results of this study, the most frequently used training programs were neuromuscular programs, whose structure includes several types of exercises and which represented a combination of plyometric exercises, core strengthening exercises, exercises to strengthen the muscles of the lower extremities, agility exercises, flexibility exercises, and balance exercises. Finally, the application of the knee injury training program leads to an improvement in motor balance, proprioceptive abilities, balance, flexibility, as well as biomechanical abilities related to injuries of the ACL, leading to an improvement in sports performance among female basketball players.

We consider the second-order rational difference equation xn+1=γ+δxnxn−12,\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ {x_{n+1}=\gamma +\delta \frac{x_{n}}{x^{2}_{n-1}}}, $$\end{document} where γ, δ are positive real numbers and the initial conditions x−1\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$x_{-1}$\end{document} and x0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$x_{0}$\end{document} are positive real numbers. Boundedness along with global attractivity and Neimark–Sacker bifurcation results are established. Furthermore, we give an asymptotic approximation of the invariant curve near the equilibrium point.

AbstractWe consider the second-order rational difference equation xn+1=γ+δxnxn−12,$$ {x_{n+1}=\gamma +\delta \frac{x_{n}}{x^{2}_{n-1}}}, $$ where γ, δ are positive real numbers and the initial conditions x−1$x_{-1}$ and x0$x_{0}$ are positive real numbers. Boundedness along with global attractivity and Neimark–Sacker bifurcation results are established. Furthermore, we give an asymptotic approximation of the invariant curve near the equilibrium point.