Abstract This paper analyses the inefficiency of social services targeting in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). Using official statistics microdata of the Household Budget Survey 2015, three models of social minimum in FB&H were constructed: extreme and general poverty, and the model with multidimensional poverty aspects. The analysis of features of poor household categories showed that the most vulnerable residents of FB&H are not beneficiaries of permanent financial assistance. The reason for such an inefficient targeting was recognized in the Federal Law on Principles of Social Care, Care for the War-Disabled Civilians and Care for Families with Children that stipulates that only persons and families that (cumulatively): are incapable for work, have insufficient income, and there are no family members who are legally obligated to support them. The results indicated a high inconsistency in the legal criteria for qualification, and also in the amounts of permanent social assistance among cantons. The Proxy Means Test (PMT) Model is offered as one of the possible solutions for the improvement of social services targeting in FB&H. Given the importance of efficiency of targeting in social services, the research results could be useful, for both, vulnerable segments of the society and federal and cantonal ministries of labour and social affairs, in the process of targeting the households qualified for social support programmes.

Background: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global authorities have imposed rules of social distancing that directly influence overall physical activity in populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trends of changes in physical-activity levels (PALs) in adolescents and factors that may be associated with PALs among the studied boys and girls. Methods: Participants in this prospective study comprised 388 adolescents (126 females; mean age: 16.4 ± 1.9 years) from southern Croatia who were tested at a baseline (before the imposed rules of social distancing) and at a follow-up measurement (three weeks after the initiation). Baseline testing included anthropometric variables, variables of fitness status (done at the beginning of the school year), and PALs. At the follow-up, participants were tested on PALs. PALs were evaluated over an online platform using the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents. Results: A significant decrease of PALs was evidenced for the total sample (t-test = 3.46, p < 0.001), which was primarily influenced by a significant decrease of PALs in boys (t-test = 5.15, p < 0.001). The fitness status (jumping capacity, abdominal strength, aerobic endurance, and anaerobic endurance) was systematically positively correlated with PALs at the baseline and follow-up among boys and girls, with the most evident association between aerobic and anaerobic endurance capacities and PALs. Correlations between anthropometric and fitness variables with changes in physical activity (e.g., the difference between baseline and follow-up PALs) were negligible. Conclusions: Differences in PAL changes between genders were probably related to the fact that PALs among boys were mostly related to participation in organized sports. Correlations between baseline fitness status and PALs indicated the importance of overall physical literacy in preserving PALs in challenging circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic observed here.

In this paper, we show our novel teleoperation system that mediates proximity perception at the slave system as tactile information to the user. We have equipped a robot’s end-effector with a capacitive proximity sensor array. Based on the proximity information, tactile feedback is generated for the user via a tactile display. Thus, the user can feel some of an object’s features through his fingers, without the need for establishing contact between the slave system and the object. In our setting, the proximity sensing-based feedback complements the visual feedback provided by a workspace camera and a robot tool camera. Both the sensor array and the tactile display, have a spatial resolution of 4×4. To evaluate the impact, we conducted a user study covering scenarios with visual occlusion and distortion in pre-touch and pre-manipulation phases. The study revealed an improvement in the accuracy of positioning of the end-effector when the visual and the tactile feedback were both provided to the user. The study also showed high acceptance of the new modality by the users.

LS-DYNA is a well-known multiphysics code with both explicit and implicit time stepping capabilities. Implicit simulations rely heavily on sparse matrix computations, in particular direct solvers, and are notoriously much harder to scale than explicit simulations. In this paper, we investigate the scalability challenges of the implicit structural mode of LS- DYNA. In particular, we focus on linear constraint analysis, sparse matrix reordering, symbolic factorization, and numerical factorization. Our problem of choice for this study is a thermomechanical simulation of jet engine models built by Rolls-Royce with up to 200 million degrees of freedom, or equations. The models are used for engine performance analysis and design optimization, in particular optimization of tip clearances in the compressor and turbine sections of the engine. We present results using as many as 131,072 cores on the Blue Waters Cray XE6/XK7 supercomputer at NCSA and the Titan Cray XK7 supercomputer at OLCF. Since the main focus is on general linear algebra problems, this work is of interest for all linear algebra practitioners, not only developers of implicit finite element codes.

This paper presents an analysis of the depolarization effect in off-body channels, based on a previously developed geometry-based channel model for polarized communications with dynamic users. The model considers Line-of-Sight propagation and components reflected from scatterers distributed on cylinders centered around the user. A mobility model for wearable antennas based on Fourier series is employed to take the effects of user’s motion into account. The focus is on scattered signal components, where the impact of a scatter’s position, its material properties, and the influence of user dynamics on signal depolarization are investigated. It is observed that the wearable antenna motion has a strong impact on the channel’s polarization characteristics, particularly for dynamic on-body placements, such as arms and legs. If the antenna motion is neglected, the error in cross-polarization ratio is greater than 23dB compared to a static approach. The antenna rotation during motion is found to be the dominant factor, while the corresponding displacement can be neglected, with the error not exceeding 1dB. This result justifies the channel model simplification proposed in this paper.

The information sharing among vehicles provides intelligent transport applications in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), such as self-driving and traffic awareness. However, due to the openness of the wireless communication (e.g., DSRC), the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information resources are easy to be hacked by illegal access, which threatens the security of the related IoV applications. In this paper, we propose a novel Risk Prediction-Based Access Control model, named RPBAC, which assigns the access rights to a node by predicting the risk level. Considering the impact of limited training datasets on prediction accuracy, we first introduce the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) in our risk prediction module. The GAN increases the items of training sets to train the Neural Network, which is used to predict the risk level of vehicles. In addition, focusing on the problem of pattern collapse and gradient disappearance in the traditional GAN, we develop a combined GAN based on Wasserstein distance, named WCGAN, to improve the convergence time of the training model. The simulation results show that the WCGAN has a faster convergence speed than the traditional GAN, and the datasets generated by WCGAN have a higher similarity with real datasets. Moreover, the Neural Network (NN) trained with the datasets generated by WCGAN and real datasets (NN-WCGAN) performs a faster speed of training, a higher prediction accuracy and a lower false negative rate than the Neural Network trained with the datasets generated by GAN and real datasets (NN-GAN), and the Neural Network trained with the real datasets (NN). Additionally, the RPBAC model can improve the accuracy of access control to a great extent.

Abstract Introduction. Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy involving the urinary system. Recent research tends to emphasize the role of oxidative stress products in the carcinogenesis of bladder cancer. The level of oxidative stress can be measured by assessing the MDA levels. This study aimed to evaluate serum MDA levels in patients with bladder cancer, as well as to determine its potential role as a biomarker in the diagnosis of the disease and progression risk considerations. Methods. The study was designed as a cross-sectional study and included 90 patients, divided into three groups with 30 patients each: Ta, T1and T2–T4 group, based on histopathological findings after transurethral resection of the tumor. The control group included 30 healthy volunteers. MDA level was determined using the spectrophotometric method. Results. Serum MDA level in patients with bladder cancer [0.86 (0.78–1.05) μmol/L] was significantly higher than the serum MDA level in control group [0.70 (0.69–0.72) μmol/L] (p < 0.001). Serum MDA level in Ta group [0.73 (0.70–1.05) μmol/L], T1 group [0.85 (0.80–1.12) μmol/L] and in T2–T4 group [0.91 (0.84–1.04) μmol/L] was significantly higher than the serum MDA level in control group [0.70 (0.69–0.72) μmol/L] (p < 0.01). MDA level in T1 and T2–T4 group was significantly higher than the MDA level in Ta group (p < 0.01). No significant difference was observed in MDA level between T1 and T2–T4 group (p = NS). A statistically significant positive correlation was found between tumor size and serum MDA level in patients with bladder cancer (rho = 0.254 p < 0.01). Conclusions. The results of the present study suggest that MDA serum level might play a significant role as a biomarker in the diagnosis of bladder cancer, as well as in the monitoring of its progression.

Derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) under the influence of various local factors and growth hormones, osteoblasts are one of the leading components of the bone tissue. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol), an active form of vitamin D, plays an important role in retaining calcium and phosphate homeostasis within the body. Since vitamin D is also known to have effects on cell proliferation, our study aimed to investigate the effects of different concentrations of calcitriol on the proliferation of in vitro cultured osteoblast-like cells from the bone marrow of 90-95 days old young adult rats of both sexes. Calcitriol was applied at six (6) different concentrations (nM): 0.1, 1, 10, 20, 40 i 60. Each concentration was tested four times, counting the cells after 24 and 48 hours. After 24 and 48 hours treatment, the most effective dose of calcitriol for cell proliferation was 0.1 nM for both males and females. The greatest reduction in the frequency of OB-like cells from both sexes after treatment of 24 and 48 hours, was a 60 nM calcitriol concentration. Higher proliferative values of osteoblast-like cells were obtained in males compared to those obtained in females. Thus, the results of the current study reveal that calcitriol treatment induces the proliferation of osteoblast-like cells in a dose-dependent manner and this effect shows difference in cells from different genders.

Purpose: Determining the state of the student and his situational-motor skills, and their comparison, enables the teacher to control his work in an immediate manner, and he programmes and implements well planned and additional contents in order to realize the set goals. In order to achieve these functions, it is necessary to determine the current state of the students, as well as the state after the implemented specific contents and programs. The aim of the research was to determine the partial changes (differences) of situationalmotor abilities that were created under the influence of a four-month program of basketball, volleyball and handball in the pupils of the fifth grades of elementary school. Material: The study included N = 106 class V students, aged 10 to 11 years. The sample of respondents was divided into two subgroups, an experimental group (53 students), who conducted physical and health education classes according to the modified plan and program of sports games (basketball, volleyball and handball) for a half-year and control group (53 students) who attended regular classes from physical and health culture according to the current curriculum. 9 variables were used to assess situational-motor abilities. Descriptive statistics and discriminatory analysis were used to determine the changes (differences) in situational-motor skills. Results: The results of the research at the descriptive level showed certain differences between the groups in the final versus the initial measurements on the individual variables of situational motors. Based on the results of the discriminatory analysis, the relative contribution of each of the variables of the situational motor in the final measurement is seen. The SMKVLS (Running the ball with your hand in the slalom) and SMRBLZ (Throwing the ball against the wall for 30 seconds) variables are the biggest contributors, and the smallest SMOGCPM (Aiming the goal over the net from the basic stand) and SMOSD (Lower frontal serve). Conclusions: Physical and health culture in schools has the primary task of influencing positive transformation processes in all dimensions of students by applying appropriate content.

Mechanisation used in forest utilisation has an impact on the occurrence of damage in stand and on forest land. The research in this work had the objective of determining damage on fir trees and other tree species during felling and processing of trees and their skidding using the forest cable-skidder. The research wasconducted in mixed beech and fir forests in the area of FMA “Glamočko”, M.U. “Hrbinje-Kujača”. The following data were gathered on damaged trees: tree type, breast height diameter, economic importance of the tree, amount of damage, location of damage, cause of damage, types of damage. Damage was recorded on a total of 305 trees, 133 trees of silver fir (Abies alba), 130 trees of European beech (Fagus sylvatica), 33 trees of European spruce (Picea abies), 8 trees of rowan/mountain-ash (Sorbusaucuparia) and one tree of sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus). The overall damage intensity was 18.7%, but together with the old damages, the overall number of ‘wounds’ is 496. According to this, when the old damage isalso considered, then the intensity of damage amounts to 30.6%. The largest amount of damage is in the diameter sub-class ranging from 10 to 14.99 cm. According to the cause of damage, the largest amount of damage occurred during the wood extraction phase (217 trees), while during the felling phase, 88 trees or 29% were damaged. Since the wood extraction phase is divided into the winching and skidding phases, the total number of damaged trees during the winching phase amounted to 157 or 52%, while during the skidding phase, the number of damaged trees was 60 or 19%. To reduce damage to the trees during following operations in forest utilisation, it is necessary to perform more frequent training of all employees working on forest utilisation, to increase controls in execution of operations during forest utilisation, modernise machines used during forest exploitation, and in quality manner open compartments with forest road infrastructure.