Traction-and-vibration-therapy (TVT) relieves pain in participants with hip osteoarthritis. Hip TVT is usually performed manually by the physiotherapist. A medical device was developed to perform hip-TVT in order to investigate effects on hip disability, pain intensity, recovery of balance and functional mobility in older adults with hip osteoarthritis and also to reduce physiotherapists' workload and help standardize treatment of hip TVT. In a block-randomized 3-month controlled trial involving 28 older adult participants with symptomatic primary hip osteoarthritis (SPHOA), one group (n= 10) received device-performed TVT, one (n= 10) manual TVT, and one (n= 8) sham/placebo therapy. Hip disability (Harris Hip Score), pain intensity (visual-analog-scale), recovery of balance and gait (Functional Gait Assessment) and functional mobility (Timed-Up-and-Go-test) were assessed at baseline, after 3 weeks without intervention, and after 3-month intervention. The Device TVT and Manual TVT groups exhibited superior outcomes compared to the Placebo group in terms of hip disability (p= 0.005 and p< 0.001, respectively), pain intensity (p= 0.002 and p< 0.001, respectively), and functional mobility (TUG) (p= 0.012 and p= 0.011, respectively). Furthermore, the recovery of balance and gait (FGA) showed a significant improvement in the Device TVT group when compared to the Placebo group (p= 0.043). The effect sizes ranged from 0.17 to 0.51, indicating moderate to large effects. Device-performed-TVT is comparable to manual hip-TVT for reducing pain and improving mobility in older adults with SPHOA, and may be beneficial in terms of reducing physiotherapists' workload and better therapy standardization.

The variability of the decision-making problems in the tourism sector is increasing and, thus, it requires studying several dimensions at the same time. Its complexity is also putting pressure on the use of demanding decision-making methods and algorithms that open a field for further investigation. The main goal of this article is to develop a fuzzy multicriteria model for evaluating the level of the image of the destination based on the dependence between costs, the number of days of stay, and the satisfaction of tourists as well as taking into account the levels of sustainable development of the example regions of the V4 countries. The model is verified and adjusted on the real data of 2343 tourists for the period 2017–2021 for the regions of the V4 countries; an approbation example is given on fragments of the data from 126 experts after a trip in 2020 in the three regions: the Žilina region (Slovakia), the Moravian–Silesian Region (the Czech Republic), and the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (Poland). The article results provide a valuable analytical platform for policy-makers, who have, thus, obtained a tool not only to evaluate the image and current sustainability of a region but also to forecast sustainability development.

Background and Objectives: This study reports a case of a 62-year-old patient experiencing a significant decline in vision over the past three months. The initial best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 20/20 in both eyes diminished to 20/200 in the right eye (RE) and counting fingers (CF) in the left eye (LE) within this timeframe. The patient was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer just one month before the significant vision deterioration. Materials and Methods: A thorough ophthalmologic examination revealed a notable progression of cataracts and the presence of subretinal fluid on the posterior pole, accompanied by choroidal thickening. The right eye exhibited multifocal, orange-pigmented, and elevated choroidal lesions, while the left eye's fundus examination was impeded by dense cataracts. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) revealed bilateral choroidal thickening with overlying folds and subretinal fluid, and ultrasound imaging of the choroidal lesions indicated moderate homogenous internal reflectivity. Results: The patient received a diagnosis of BDUMP (bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation), a paraneoplastic syndrome marked by simultaneous, bilateral, painless vision loss and the rapid onset of bilateral cataracts with serous retinal detachments. Despite cataract extraction, the expected visual recovery was not achieved (RE: CF; LE: 2/200, respectively). Plasmapheresis showed some success in stabilizing vision loss attributed to serous retinal detachments. Conclusions: BDUMP necessitates addressing the underlying malignancy for effective treatment. Left untreated, it can lead to near blindness within a year. The prognosis remains grim, with an average survival time ranging from 12 to 15.7 months from the time of diagnosis. Considering this case report, it is crucial to establish effective management plans and further investigate potential treatment methods and predictive markers centered around BDUMP. Collaboration between healthcare professionals and researchers is crucial in addressing the complexities of BDUMP, as the timely diagnosis and treatment of the disease remains a top priority.

Digitalization is a primary driver of sustainable development. We investigate the impact of digitalization on the carbon footprints of the (national) government sector, households, enterprises, non-governmental organizations, and imported carbon footprints. We use panel data analysis to study the link between digitalization and sustainable economic growth by monitoring digital carbon footprint patterns. Our study results show that digitalization has a positive and statistically significant impact on sustainability development measured by the sustainable development goals (SDG). Furthermore, our results support the hypothesis that advancing total factor productivity, referring to green total factor productivity, is critical for meeting SDGs. Notably, we determine that the ecological footprint across sectors and countries is diverging, or at best, slowly converging at a pace that is not even close to that required to meet the 2030 SDGs. Therefore, policymakers and practitioners must strategically revise sustainability policies to ensure industrial and economic transition and adaptability to climate change and advance economic green growth and sustainable development.

Abstract Recent research has highlighted the adoption of blockchain technology (BCT) and the increasing recognition of its multiple capabilities for users. The main objective of this paper is to delineate different consumer segments based on their BCT beliefs and attitudes. Using a survey method, 934 questionnaires were collected and subjected to hierarchical and K-Means cluster analysis and contingency analysis. The results reveal four identifiable user segments with respect to BCT adoption: Innovators (enthusiastic about BCT), Cautious (careful about BCT), Sceptics (doubtful about BCT), and Suspicious (very distrustful about BCT). These results provide valuable insights into understanding behavioral intentions and serve as a basis for future research.

This paper examines the relationship between "the house slave effect" and tourist outmigration in most European countries. The outline of this study is set up on the analysis of annual data on homeownership and tenant participants in plan to measure the relationship between housing wealth endowment and outbound traveling, with a panel framework that spans the period from 2007 to 2019. In the present empirical case, this paper examines whether or not there is a significant relationship in the sample of 32 countries by using a panel quantile regression method, a panel SGMM, and a panel OLS regression. Estimation outputs reveal that there is a strong negative trade-off between homeownership and outbound tourism for all quantile levels. This evidence along with the auxiliary SGMM and pooled panel estimation assessment strongly confirm that “the house slave effect” negatively affects outbound tourism. What is more, the results show that tenant rates help to boost the international tourism departures or expenditures per capita. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that it provides the pioneering study of the impact of home ownership on outbound travel in European area. The results suggest that a panel quantile regression method (due to data constraints arising from the skewness of international tourism outbound or per capita expenditure data) should be considered when examining the relationship between "the "house slave effect" and outbound tourism in country panel analyses.

In the last three years, there have been changes that contributed to the introduction of modern technology, i.e., tablets, into the teaching process. "Refreshment" was needed to continue. The need for effective, interesting, and motivating teaching has become evident. The use of tablets in class can certainly meet these needs. The goal was to determine the thoughts and attitudes of parents of elementary school children about the use of tablets: do they agree that tablets should replace classic textbooks in classes? Research was conducted on a sample of 1,403 parents of children who attended elementary school. The results show that 49.0% of respondents state that their child often uses a tablet in class. Furthermore, 69.6% of parents fully agree with the statement that the use of modern technology in teaching is good to know. 67.3% strongly disagree with the possibility of replacing classic textbooks with tablets in class. Parents: 42.6% of them think that the tablet does not make it easier for the child to learn, and 34.0% of the research participants could not make up their minds about the set items. 80.4% of parents believe that excessive use of tablets by children is addictive.

This study is interested in modeling the nexus among resource curse, energy transition and sustainable development in 137 economies around the world using multi-variate panel data analysis over the period 1995 to 2018. We employ the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) dynamic panel technique to estimate the long-run and short-run relationships among the variables. In the empirical tests, a variety of panel data estimators are utilized. In addition, Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test is conducted to test the direction of causality. The findings suggest that in the long run, an increase in natural resources significantly contributes to the energy transition, while in the short run, it significantly inhibits it. Thus, natural resources are an effective stimulus for the energy transition, but most economies have not yet reached the turning point and are in a period of resource curse due to the lack of effective ways to achieve this shift. Under the global sample, natural resources have a significant long-run positive impact on sustainable development. Also, Granger causality tests report a two-way causal relationship between the two. This finding enhances the confidence of policymakers in natural resources. Moreover, the positive impact of the energy transition on sustainable development encourages the surveyed economies to increase the adoption of renewable energy. On this basis, some pertinent policy recommendations are proposed.

This paper provides a contrastive analysis of COVID-19-related EU legislative texts with emphasis on term variants. The analysis carried out on a parallel corpus consisting of English and Croatian texts has identified multiple examples of variation of predominately multi-word terms at several levels. These include orthographic and grammatical variants, unit shifts and denominative variants creating different meanings. The findings support other contemporary studies into variation within specialized language, highlighting the importance of studying variation to gain understanding about the dynamics of domain knowledge. By focusing on variation in a parallel corpus, conclusions are drawn about the prevalence of variation in a newer EU official language, as opposed to English as the draft text of EU legislation.

Economic activities’ efficiency represents the level of performance that uses the lowest quantity of inputs to achieve the highest possible amount of output. This paper presents the process of calculating the relative efficiency of separate non-financial activities in an economy using the DEA methodology. The purpose of this paper was to create the DEA model for monitoring the relative efficiency of individual non-financial activities of the economy. The purpose was achieved through the realization of two objectives. The first one included the determination of the relative efficiency of the above-mentioned activities in the period from 2002 to 2020 using the data from non-financial entities in the Republic of Croatia. The second objective consisted of ranking the economic activities according to their relative efficiency. An output variable that measures the efficiency was presented using the return on assets, while the total debt to EBITDA, EBITDA per employee, assets turnover and human capital efficiency were used as input variables. Research results indicate that the DEA methodology could be used as an economic activity’s relative efficiency measurement tool, giving the possibility to rank it according to its relative efficiency using the accounting ratios. Research results show that service sectors’ economic activities were the most efficient ones according to the lower assets engagement and the respective sources of financing that dominate. The highest average relative efficiency in 19 years was scored using wholesale, retail and repair activities as well as information, communication and education. The lowest average relative efficiency was achieved in construction, water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities as well as accommodation and food service activities, which is the consequence of their low level of activity and profitability and high indebtedness in the analyzed period. The relative efficiency scores calculated using the DEA methodology could be used as a benchmark for companies on a micro level, while on the macro level decision-makers can obtain a deeper insight into the relative efficiency of the nonfinancial activities.