Search

Conceptual and relational data models of online transaction processing (OLTP) applications are usually created and maintained following the principle of normalization, which implies avoidance of redundancy. Data retrieval from a disk-based normalized relational database often requires complex and inefficient queries that may cause noticeable performance issues when executed on larger volumes of data. Computer professionals sometimes intentionally trade off the strict normal form to optimize data retrieval queries through error-prone manual tuning and denormalization. We propose a fully automatic optimization approach, based on data redundancy, that relies on a formal cost-benefit model. We prove that finding the optimal level of data redundancy, for given workload statistics, is an NP-Complete optimization problem. A detailed reduction of the problem to binary linear programming is presented in the paper. The proposed optimization approach was evaluated using the TPCE benchmark for OLTP systems. The evaluation has shown that the proposed optimization approach is highly scalable, and that it can be efficiently applied to real-life relational data models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial reports represent the most efficient way to periodically present information on the company's operations to interested parties. The greatest responsibility for the quality of financial statements lies with the company's management and the persons in charge of compiling them. Presenting business results better than they are, the so-called make-up, by owners and managers, has led to many frauds and manipulations in the business of the company which found their expression in false financial reports. The loss of user confidence in the information presented in the financial statements has unforeseeable consequences for financial markets and the economy as a whole. A large number of examples of fraud and manipulation in financial statements indicate the importance of recognizing them and distinguishing them from technical and unintentional errors. In this paper, we strive to present the motives and goals of fraud and manipulation in financial statements, responsibility for the occurrence and shortcomings that led to embezzlement and abuse, and identify opportunities for their prevention and relativization.

Financial The analysis of the bank's financial statements is focused on the assessment of its financial condition and the achieved result, development and further perspective. In addition to the data contained in the financial statements, the analysis also uses data from accounting records and other sources. The very essence of financial analysis is the calculation of relative indicators and their comparison with each other. Banking management, current and potential owners of the bank, investors, depositors, the public and others interested in the bank's performance are sympathetic to the practice of analytical testing of the bank's operations. The results are a guide for formulating business policy and making adequate business decisions for all stakeholders. In this paper, we try to point out the specificity and importance of financial statements in banks, financial analysis as a method of examining business results and determining the performance of banks and the impact of analysis results on business decisions of bank managers.

In conditions of dynamic changes, companies try to preserve their position in various ways and thus ensure their survival on the market. One of the possibilities available to them is quality application of the concept of social responsibility. It can be said that in modern business conditions, trade has a very important role in functioning of any economy because, among other things, it can adequately bridge the discrepancy between greater supply of goods and lack of payment demand. However, regardless of that, one should not ignore the fact that today trade companies are also expected to monitor and adapt to socially responsible requirements. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of social responsibility as well as certain aspects of socially responsible business in trade companies with reference to the largest retail chain in the world. Walmart, as the largest American company engaged in retail sale of goods in the domestic and international markets, has a very developed sense of society and the environment. Management of this company is aware of the fact that economic development can be achieved only if it goes hand in hand with development of the social community.

It can be said that today, given the relevance of the concept of sustainability, sustainable human resource management is a decisive factor in successful functioning of any organizational system. The main goal of this paper is to points to the importance of human resource management in accordance with the concept of sustainable development, starting from the importance of the concept of sustainable development for modern business, as well as from the new place and new role of man in all social processes. In order to achieve the set goal, a survey was conducted in trade companies in the city of Kruševac, the essence of which is to obtain data on whether managers in these companies informed their employees about the importance of the concept of sustainable development, and to what extent a way that does not imply jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

We have recently introduced a composite smeared finite element (CSFE) to model gradient-driven mass transport in biological tissue. The transport from capillary system is smeared in a way to transform 1D transport to a continuum, while the tissue is considered as a continuum. Coupling between the smeared pressure and concentration field is achieved through 1D connectivity elements assigned at each FE node. Here we extend our smeared model to include the lymphatic system. The lymphatic vessels are treated in a way analogous to the capillaries, by introducing the corresponding Darcy and diffusion tensors. Additional connectivity elements are added. In the numerical examples we demonstrate accuracy of the smeared model and the effects of the lymph on the pressure and concentration within the extracellular space, assuming that there is no transport to the cell space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a knowledge-based economy, the sustainable development of each country almost exclusively depends on the quality of human resources. In such conditions, the need for development is becoming increasingly important. As education becomes the most important pillar in the development of human resources, it is essential that it is in accordance with the concept of sustainable development and that it has practical value as well. The quality of education depends on the quality of the teaching staff. The development of teachers in accordance with the new trends which are imposed by a dynamic environment has a major influence not only on the developments of schools but also on increasing the quality of the entire educational system, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the sustainable development of the entire economy. Consequently, a need for continuous learning and improving the necessary skills, in accordance with the demands of the environment is imposed, as we should not neglect the fact that the social development of human resources is an important component of sustainable development.

The global economic crisis, caused by the liberalization and deregulation of the market, the growth of the unemployed and the widening of the gap between a small number of the rich and the vast majority of poor people, transformed the evolutionary form of generating a suitable growth. The global economy is not only a boon of economic crisis, but also a globalization, the need to change the power of the trinity (among other things, growing demands for creativity), technologically driven IT revolutions, which significantly dictate occasional growth not only in the developed world but also in the developing world and underdeveloped countries of the world, a longer period of time is in the phase of deep structural changes. These changes have 1 d.maja@hotmail.rs 2 42 contributed to a significant deepening of the gap between developed and underdeveloped economies in the world.The development of the land of light economic growth is to a great extent measured by the active application of innovative knowledge as well as the accumulation of complexity of technology and ongoing continuous improvement, that is, in the underdeveloped country, the primitive creatures previously told with productivity. Following the example of industrial leadership, a suitable underdeveloped country should put in a quality appropriate growth, characterized by sustainability and self-sustainability. Such a primary growth can not be achieved quickly, but has presented a slow and later process. The aim of this analysis is to illustrate how certain features, such as innovation, intellectual capital and technology, determine the economic growth of countries at a different level of development.

In the paper, the mutuality of the market production of beef, pigmeat, sheep meat and poultry meat and the achieved level of development of agriculture as per Serbia's districts in the period from 2001 to 2016 are analyzed. The ranking of districts in Serbia is done by the I-distance method. Similarities are determined by cluster analysis method, while results are represented by a dendrogram. Belgrade District shows a deficit in the market production of all meats. In the three districts of Vojvodina Region, there is a deficit in sheep meat and in the two districts, there is a deficit in poultry meat. The three districts of Sumadija and Western Serbia Region, there is a deficit in the production of pigmeat and poultry meat. The Region of Southern and Eastern Serbia has a deficit in the production of poultry meat.

In the turbulent business conditions, modern systems of performance measurement is to provide high quality information management in the decision making process. Through key performance indicators to measure achievement of the vision, strategy and objectives of the company. When an organization chooses key performance indicators should take into account that these indicators provide information that will be measurable, reliable, realistic and usable for the implementation of appropriate corrective actions when performance is not compliant with the aim of organization. It is necessary for adequate attention to the improvement of key performance indicators with the aim of adapting and achieving better results in today's turbulent business conditions. There are a number of approaches for the development of key performance indicators, and companies should, in accordance with the business they do, identify approaches that would be most relevant to them. The basic tendency of contemporary organizations is harmonization of key performance indicators with modified business conditions, which is the basis for their improvement.

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system with relevance feedback, which uses the algorithm for feature-vector (FV) dimension reduction, is described. Feature-vector reduction (FVR) exploits the clustering of FV components for a given query. Clustering is based on the comparison of magnitudes of FV components of a query. Instead of all FV components describing color, line directions, and texture, only their representative members describing FV clusters are used for retrieval. In this way, the "curse of dimensionality" is bypassed since redundant components of a query FV are rejected. It was shown that about one tenth of total FV components (i.e., the reduction of 90%) is sufficient for retrieval, without significant degradation of accuracy. Consequently, the retrieving process is accelerated. Moreover, even better balancing between color and line/texture features is obtained. The efficiency of FVR CBIR system was tested over TRECVid 2006 and Corel 60 K datasets.

A needle-free delivery system may lead to improved satisfaction and compliance, as well as reduced anxiety among patients requiring frequent or ongoing injections. This report describes a first-in-man assessment comparing Portal Instruments' innovative needle-free injection system with subcutaneous injections using a 27G needle. Forty healthy volunteer participants each received a total of four injections of 1.0 mL sterile saline solution, two with a standard subcutaneous injection using a 27G needle, and two using the Portal injection system. Perception of pain was measured using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS). Injection site reactions were assessed at 2 min and at 20-30 min after each injection. Follow-up contact was made 24-48 h after the injections. Subject preference regarding injection type was also assessed. VAS pain scores at Portal injection sites met the criteria to be considered non-inferior to the pain reported at 27G needle injection sites (i.e., upper 95% confidence bound less than +5 mm). Based on a mixed effects model, at time 0, accounting for potential confounding variables, the adjusted difference in VAS scores indicated that Portal injections were 6.5 mm lower than the 27G needle injections (95% CI -10.5, -2.5). No clinically important adverse events were noted. Portal injections were preferred by 24 (60%) of the subjects (P = 0.0015). As an early step in the development of this new needle-free delivery system, the current study has shown that a 1.0-mL saline injection can be given with less pain reported than a standard subcutaneous injection using a 27G needle.

Purpose: This prospective pilot study investigated the safety and efficacy of a novel radiolucent intramedullary nail (IMN) made of Carbon-Fibre-Reinforced Polyaryl-Ether-Ether-Ketone (CFR-PEEK) for humeral shaft fracture fixation., Study Design: A prospective, single-arm, four-centre study., Patients and Methods: A total of 46 patients with 46 humeral fractures classified as 12 A-B were treated with a novel CFR-PEEK IMN and followed for 12 months., Results: Most of the patients (65%) were female; the mean age was 65 ± 17 years. The average operating time was 66.75 ± 19.84 minutes and X-ray exposure was 104.11 ± 98.01 seconds. All patients postoperatively reported selflimiting shoulder pain and three patients developed iatrogenic transient radial palsy. Two patients required repositioning of the implant. No implant-related complications were observed. Radiological consolidation was achieved in all 43 patients who completed the 12-month follow-up., Conclusions: The CFR-PEEK IMN is user-friendly and safe. Its bone-matching elastic modulus seems to contribute to its clinical efficacy. This, together with compatibility with modern imaging techniques, can be considered a further evolution of IMN designed to stabilise humeral shaft fractures., (© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dubrovnik is one of the most popular destinations in the world for cruise ships. Several cruise ship passengers and crew members who have suffered different injuries have been treated at our department. This was a retrospective study to analyse injuries that occurred to crew members and passengers on cruise ships that docked in Dubrovnik over a three-year period from December 2010 to December 2013. During this period, a total of 370 patients suffered trauma that needed medical treatment. A total of 119 of these patients required hospitalisation and received medical help based on the nature of the trauma they suffered. The remaining 251 patients were treated at our outpatient clinic. Female patients in this study were exposed to osteoporotic trauma. Male patients presented mostly with injuries sustained during physical activities or because of the nature of their job on board. The leading cause of trauma accidents in the present study was falls on the same level., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Cancer cells metastasize through the bloodstream either as single migratory circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or as multicellular groupings (CTC clusters). Existing technologies for CTC enrichment are designed to isolate single CTCs, and although CTC clusters are detectable in some cases, their true prevalence and significance remain to be determined. Here we developed a microchip technology (the Cluster-Chip) to capture CTC clusters independently of tumor-specific markers from unprocessed blood. CTC clusters are isolated through specialized bifurcating traps under low-shear stress conditions that preserve their integrity, and even two-cell clusters are captured efficiently. Using the Cluster-Chip, we identified CTC clusters in 30-40% of patients with metastatic breast or prostate cancer or with melanoma. RNA sequencing of CTC clusters confirmed their tumor origin and identified tissue-derived macrophages within the clusters. Efficient capture of CTC clusters will enable the detailed characterization of their biological properties and role in metastasis.

The ability to isolate and analyze rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has the potential to further our understanding of cancer metastasis and enhance the care of cancer patients. In this protocol, we describe the procedure for isolating rare CTCs from blood samples by using tumor antigen-independent microfluidic CTC-iChip technology. The CTC-iChip uses deterministic lateral displacement, inertial focusing and magnetophoresis to sort up to 10⁷ cells/s. By using two-stage magnetophoresis and depletion antibodies against leukocytes, we achieve 3.8-log depletion of white blood cells and a 97% yield of rare cells with a sample processing rate of 8 ml of whole blood/h. The CTC-iChip is compatible with standard cytopathological and RNA-based characterization methods. This protocol describes device production, assembly, blood sample preparation, system setup and the CTC isolation process. Sorting 8 ml of blood sample requires 2 h including setup time, and chip production requires 2-5 d.

Neutrophil chemotaxis is critical for defense against infections and its alterations could lead to chronic inflammation and tissue injury. The central role that transient alterations of neutrophil chemotaxis could have on patient outcomes calls for its quantification in the clinic. However, current methods for measuring neutrophil chemotaxis require large volumes of blood and are time consuming. To address the need for rapid and robust assays, we designed a microfluidic device that measures neutrophil chemotaxis directly from a single droplet of blood. We validated the assay by comparing neutrophil chemotaxis from finger prick, venous blood and purified neutrophil samples. We found consistent average velocity of (19 ± 6 μm/min) and directionality (91.1%) between the three sources. We quantified the variability in neutrophil chemotaxis between healthy donors and found no significant changes over time. We also validated the device in the clinic and documented temporary chemotaxis deficiencies after burn injuries.

Pancreatic islet encapsulation within biosynthetic materials has had limited clinical success due to loss of islet function and cell death. As an alternative encapsulation material, a silk-based scaffold was developed to reestablish the islet microenvironment lost during cell isolation. Islets were encapsulated with ECM proteins (laminin and collagen IV) and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), known to have immunomodulatory properties or to enhance islet cell graft survival and function. After a 7 day in vitro encapsulation, islets remained viable and maintained insulin secretion in response to glucose stimulation. Islets encapsulated with collagen IV, or laminin had increased insulin secretion at day 2 and day 7, respectively. A 3.2-fold synergistic improvement in islet insulin secretion was observed when islets were co-encapsulated with MSCs and ECM proteins. Furthermore, encapsulated islets had increased gene expression of functional genes; insulin I, insulin II, glucagon, somatostatin, and PDX-1, and lower expression of the de-differentiation genes cytokeratin 19 and vimentin compared to non-encapsulated cells. This work demonstrates that encapsulation in silk with both MSCs and ECM proteins enhances islet function and with further development may have potential as a suitable platform for islet delivery in vivo., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Medical treatment of subcutaneous bacterial abscesses usually involves systemic high-dose antibiotics and incision-drainage of the wound. Such an approach suffers from two main deficiencies: bacterial resistance to antibiotics and pain associated with multiple incision-drainage-wound packing procedures. Furthermore, the efficacy of high-dose systemic antibiotics is limited because of the inability to penetrate into the abscess. To address these obstacles, we present a treatment relying on laser-induced heating of gold nanoparticles embedded in an injectable silk-protein hydrogel. Although bactericidal nanoparticle systems have been previously employed based on silver and nitric oxide, they have limitations regarding customization and safety. The method we propose is safe and uses biocompatible, highly tunable materials: an injectable silk hydrogel and Au nanoparticles, which are effective absorbers at low laser powers such as those provided by hand held devices. We demonstrate that a single 10-minute laser treatment of a subcutaneous infection in mice preserves the general tissue architecture, while achieving a bactericidal effect - even resulting in complete eradication in some cases. The unique materials platform presented here can provide the basis for an alternative treatment of focal infections.

Silk electrogelation involves the transition of an aqueous silk fibroin solution to a gel state (E-gel) in the presence of an electric current. The process is based on local pH changes as a result of water electrolysis - generating H(+) and OH(-) ions at the (+) and (-) electrodes, respectively. Silk fibroin has a pI=4.2 and when local pH

Regenerated silkworm silk solutions formed metastable, soft-solid-like materials (e-gels) under weak electric fields, displaying interesting mechanical characteristics such as dynamic adhesion and strain stiffening. Raman spectroscopy, in situ electric field dynamic oscillatory rheology and polarized optical microscopy indicated that silk fibroin electrogelation involved intermolecular self-assembly of silk molecules into amorphous, micron-scale, micellar structures and the formation of relatively long lifetime, intermicellar entanglement crosslinks. Overall, the electrogelation process did not require significant intramolecular beta-strand or intermolecular beta-sheet formation, unlike silk hydrogels. The kinetics of e-gel formation could be tuned by changing the field strength and assembly conditions, such as silk concentration and solution pH, while e-gel stiffness was partially reversible by removal of the applied field. Transient adhesion testing indicated that the adhesive characteristics of e-gels could at least partially be attributed to a local increase in proton concentration around the positive electrode due to the applied field and surface effects. A working model of electrogelation was described en route to understanding the origins of the adhesive characteristics., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The mechanical landscape in biological systems can be complex and dynamic, with contrasting sustained and fluctuating loads regularly superposed within the same tissue. How resident cells discriminate between these scenarios to respond accordingly remains largely unknown. Here, we show that a step increase in compressive stress of physiological magnitude shrinks the lateral intercellular space between bronchial epithelial cells, but does so with strikingly slow exponential kinetics (time constant approximately 110 s). We confirm that epidermal growth factor (EGF)-family ligands are constitutively shed into the intercellular space and demonstrate that a step increase in compressive stress enhances EGF receptor (EGFR) phosphorylation with magnitude and onset kinetics closely matching those predicted by constant-rate ligand shedding in a slowly shrinking intercellular geometry. Despite the modest degree and slow nature of EGFR activation evoked by compressive stress, we find that the majority of transcriptomic responses to sustained mechanical loading require ongoing activity of this autocrine loop, indicating a dominant role for mechanotransduction through autocrine EGFR signaling in this context. A slow deformation response to a step increase in loading, accompanied by synchronous increases in ligand concentration and EGFR activation, provides one means for cells to mount a selective and context-appropriate response to a sustained change in mechanical environment.

Capturing and quantifying dynamic changes in three-dimensional cellular geometries on fast time scales is a challenge because of mechanical limitations of imaging systems as well as of the inherent tradeoffs between temporal resolution and image quality. We have combined a custom high-speed two-photon microscopy approach with a novel image segmentation method, the weighted directional adaptive-threshold (WDAT), to quantify the dimensions of intercellular spaces of cells under compressive stress on timescales previously inaccessible. The adaptation of a high-speed two-photon microscope addressed the need to capture events occurring on short timescales, while the WDAT method was developed to address artifacts of standard intensity-based analysis methods when applied to this system. Our novel approach is demonstrated by the enhanced temporal analysis of the three-dimensional cellular and extracellular deformations that accompany compressive loading of airway epithelial cells.

Medieval contracts for medical treatment are, without doubt, evidence of proper and adequate insight into the quality of operations performed centuries ago. Historical archives in Dalmatian cities have preserved a certain number of such contracts. Their contents assist in better understanding our historical heritage. This paper submits contracts, kept in Dubrovnik and Split, for the operation of inguinal hernia. A case depicting a defective palate treated by Amatus Lusitanus, who lived in Dubrovnik from 1555 to 1558, is also presented.